Prologue: A Hunter's Last Wish
In 20XX, I was a hunter. During a raid, I suffered a fatal accident. There was no hope of rescue, no chance of survival.
As death closed in and my mind began to slip away, I prayed to some unknown god. “If there really is a god, please send me back to the past.”
I had awakened late, already in the latter half of my twenties, and lived a pathetic life as a C-class hunter who never even made it into the academy. The bitterness of that wasted existence made it my final wish. If only I could return to my childhood. If I could awaken early, enter the Hunter Academy, and let my talent bloom. If only that were possible, surely I could have lived a completely different life.
But such regrets were pointless now. With that last, futile hope, I finally lost consciousness.
And when I opened my eyes again… it was 1939, in the middle of the Japanese colonial period.