Awakening (1)
Dante Aision is a reincarnator—and a bug tamer.
In fact, Dante didn't even have a name yet. He hadn't been born. He was just a baby floating around in his mother's womb. But strangely enough, Dante was conscious of the world.
Where is this…?
The pleasant sensation of drifting in water. It had to be his mother's womb. But what was truly bizarre was that unidentified entities were floating around him.
What the…?
At first, he thought they were just foreign particles. But no. He could clearly sense their presence as they circled around him like they had some purpose.
…What the hell are they?
Dante was baffled. For starters, it was absurd that a fetus playing in its mother's womb even had self-awareness in the first place. And it was equally ridiculous that he was aware of these things swirling around him.
What kind of fantasy world is this?
As suspicion crept in, his thoughts naturally drifted that way. If this was a fantasy world, then none of what he was experiencing was entirely impossible. Some fantastical reason might explain why even a baby had awareness—and why these orbiting entities might be fantastical beings themselves.
Guardian angels? Spirits?
He had no idea what they really were, but… Dante decided to ignore them. He was just a baby drifting in his mother's womb, after all. He had zero mobility. He tried swimming toward them, but they scattered like ghosts whenever he got close.
Okay. Energy wasted. Confirmed.
Dante relaxed and waited for the day he'd finally emerge from the womb. Once he was born, the mysteries of this world would surely unravel.
But one day, an even stranger presence appeared before him.
"Hello! Baby!"
?
Dante panicked. Who the hell was that? He had awareness, but his five senses were extremely faint. He could barely see, had no chance to feel textures. His hearing was naturally poor too… but this bizarre entity's voice was eerily clear. It wasn't transmitted through his senses. It connected directly into his consciousness.
"You can understand us?"
It came through loud and clear. So who are you?
"Sorry! We can't talk long right now!"
…?
"Can we… come in?"
Come in?
"Can we come into you?"
…
It was absurd. Creepy, even. What was this, some urban legend? Was this a fantasy world or a horror story?
With zero information, Dante had no intention of accepting the voice's proposal. He refused.
Get lost.
"Oh… I-I see… Got it. We'll come back later!"
Come back? It wasn't an empty promise. Sure enough, not long after, the voice returned.
"Hello! Baby!"
…
"Can we come into you?"
Dante felt a twinge of irritation as he replied.
No. Explain what's going on first.
The voice stammered in panic.
"S-sorry, baby. We want to explain… but we don't have the intelligence for it."
???
"We have… so much to say. Sorry. We don't know how…"
Dante was dumbfounded. An intelligence problem?! Then how are you even talking to me?
"We're borrowing your intelligence for now… but it's almost at its limit."
The voice continued.
"We're friends of your mom…"
Friends?
"Friends…"
Yeah. Friends. So?
"…Can we come in? Baby?"
Okay, confirmed. You definitely have an intelligence issue.
If he could sigh, it would have been a deep, earth-shaking one. Some fantastical entity was talking to him, but their low intelligence made real conversation impossible… Left with no choice, Dante asked.
You say you're friends of my mom? Then where is she? What is she doing?
The answer was simple and straightforward.
"She's dead."
…?
Dead? Wait, hold on. Aren't I in my mom's womb right now…?
"Yeah."
???
Dante was still in his mother's womb. But his mother was already dead. So… was he living inside a corpse…?
"That's right, baby."
…
"We're out of time."
The voice sounded weaker than before.
"If we come into you, you'll know everything."
Chills ran through him at the voice's words.
"We've been living with your mom."
Dante realized he had no choice. If the voice was telling the truth, his mother was dead—and he was living inside a corpse. His life was about to end. A dead mother meant a dead baby. So he asked.
If I let you in, can I survive?
"Of course. That's what we want."
…
"We want to save you, baby."
…
What a bizarre experience in this fantasy world. Not even born yet, and he was already making some kind of pact with eldritch entities. Dante steeled himself.
Fine. Come on in.
"Really? We can really come in?"
Even if it screwed him over later, it was a hundred times better than screwing him over right now.
"Oh… thank you so much, baby!"
The moment Dante gave permission—something began wriggling up through the umbilical cord. Countless numbers of them. They entered his body, spreading through his veins to every corner.
The one with the strongest presence crossed via the cord. It soon entered his brain.
A moment later—
…
Dante's mind sharpened to an entirely new level. Memories flooded in. Even without opening his eyes, he knew. He knew what kind of world he'd been trapped in.
I almost got fucked.
The voice had been right. He really had been inside a corpse. His mother had died long ago. But her torso and uterus had remained intact. That's how he'd kept growing.
Thanks to the countless swarms of bugs surrounding her corpse.
As the voice had explained, the moment Dante absorbed them, he understood everything.
…
There was a woman.
She was a mage born with the talent of a bug tamer. From childhood, she'd played with insects, communing with countless bugs and learning the ways of their world. The creepy crawlies that made others shriek in disgust were just cute to her eyes.
Those around her couldn't understand.
As she grew into an adult, she naturally realized she was different from "normal" people. She kept swarms of bugs in her home because she loved them. But her family, friends, and villagers condemned her as repulsive.
So she left her hometown. She didn't want to fight with the people she loved.
Instead, she built a home in a remote forest and lived there with her bugs. When she needed money, she used her forest knowledge as a herbalist to earn a living.
In the woods, she was happy.
…Rumors spread of a witch in the secluded forest, but she didn't care. As long as she could be with her bugs—the beings she loved and cherished—that was her happiness.
But change came to her life.
A man appeared in the forest. Young and handsome. She fell for him at first sight. It didn't matter that she was a bug tamer or a mage. Before all that, she was a woman.
Unable to resist her burning impulse, she shyly approached him. The man was startled by the forest witch at first, but soon grew close to her. She was a cute, charming woman.
The man wanted the woman. The woman wanted the man… and soon, she was pregnant.
…
That was the problem.
A black carriage arrived in the forest. A tiara-wearing old noblewoman fixed her with a cold glare.
"…Pardon?"
"What… what are you talking about?!"
The old woman said that if she aborted, she wouldn't pursue the matter. But the father of her child was nowhere to be seen.
"Hah. A lowly thing like you, raising your voice without knowing your place."
Slap!
The old noblewoman was authoritative and cruel. She had no hesitation striking those beneath her. She backhanded the woman across the cheek.
…
After leaving her chilling warning, the old woman departed. The woman immediately packed her things and fled the forest.
"My baby… I won't let them take my baby…!"
It might have been the reckless maternal instinct of a naive first-time mother. But she was sincere. All she could think about was protecting the small, fragile life growing inside her.
…
Not long after, the sound of hunting dogs echoed. The old woman's pursuers.
She unleashed swarms of bugs to attack the pursuers.
Her attacks worked at first. The pursuers panicked at the unfamiliar bug magic of a bug tamer.
But once they calmed down and responded, her magic lost its edge. She'd lived alone in the forest her whole life. Her offensive spells were only enough to scare off passing hunters.
She was a brilliant mage, but she knew nothing of combat.
"Urgh…!"
In the end, she was captured by the pursuers. A sharp dagger flashed. They mercilessly thrust the blade into her throat.
…
She was dying. Her breath was fading.
In her final moments, she spoke to the symbiotic bugs living inside her body.
"Are you… going to die now?"
"…Yeah."
They were the bugs that had entered her body since childhood, when she'd awakened to bug-handling magic.
"I have a favor to ask."
She entrusted her child to the bugs.
"Save my child."
"…"
"Please…"
The final request from a lifelong friend. The symbiotic bugs accepted.
"We'll"
"We'll [protect]"
"We'll [protect your child]"
"We'll [protect your child] [no matter what]"
Blood sprayed like a fountain. Her consciousness faded.
But she smiled faintly.
"Thank you… my dears…"
Hundreds of bugs burst from the woman's brain. Before her head could be fully severed—they wriggled en masse toward her womb.
The pursuers decapitated her completely and stuffed her head into a sack.
Only her headless corpse tumbled through the forest. The pursuers paid it no mind. A headless body would just be beast food anyway.
…
But the bug swarms that received their master's final request didn't leave her corpse for the beasts.
Countless bugs emerged from the forest, legs scurrying.
"Protect the baby—!"
They lifted the witch's corpse and tossed it into a narrow cave.
"We have work to do! Send food, maintain the amniotic fluid, prevent the corpse from rotting!"
The bug tamer's bugs tended to their master's body.
No—the baby in her womb.