Reborn in Chains
“Ugh…”
A weak sound slipped from my lips as the world around me changed in an instant.
“What… is this…”
A tiny frame that looked no older than five. White hair cascading over slender shoulders, and crimson eyes. No matter how I looked at it, this was nothing like the body I had worn and grown used to for decades.
“Is this one of those reincarnation things…?”
The weight of iron chains clanking all over my body made even turning around a struggle. They weren’t light, sure—but they shouldn’t have felt this heavy. The original owner of this body must have been frail even among children her age.
“Ugh… If you’re going to reincarnate me, at least make me the son of some filthy-rich duke. A slave? Seriously? A slave…?”
Whoever had done this to me was clearly a complete bastard. Shouldn’t I be grateful that a dead man got a second chance at life? If it had been a pure, selfless reincarnation, sure—I would’ve been thankful. But the reason I died was because of that bitch.
“Grr! Just you wait! The second I get out of this slave status, you’re dead!”
I shouted it out loud as I gripped the two paperclips I had stolen earlier from the overseer.
“Heh… heheh! Bet you never thought I’d know how to pick a lock, did you? What era do you think this is, still using analog locks? Idiots! I’m getting out of here!”
After two or three tries, I freed the handcuffs and, dreaming of freedom, started working on the rest of the locks. Up to that point, everything was fine. What I had failed to account for was just how badly I had underestimated this body’s weakness.
“Haaah… this… hhk… when did it get this hard…?”
There had to be dozens of chains binding me—and just as many locks to open. Even by a rough estimate, I was looking at a solid hour of nothing but lockpicking. For a five-year-old girl, it was nothing short of hard labor.
Thirty minutes passed with no real progress. Then a man arrived late to collect me, took one look at my collapsed, exhausted form, and immediately started making a scene.
“W-what the hell?! What’s wrong with her?! Hey! Get a doctor—a doctor! Who the hell tied her up like this?! She’s dying!”
“What’s all the fuss about…? U-uwaaah! A c-corpse?!”
“She’s still breathing, so call a doctor already! You want to die too?!”
“M-medical team! Bring the medical team!”
“I-I’m a doctor! What on earth is going—AAAAAAH!”
As the chaos around me spiraled into a complete mess, I stared blankly into space, lost in thought.
Maybe… just maybe… I really had been reborn into an incredibly fragile body.