The Reincarnator
A warship cuts through the azure sea.
A lone boy stands on its deck.
Memories flood his mind—countless fragments from another life.
He is a reincarnator.
A cloudless blue sky stretches overhead.
The deep indigo waters reflect the sunlight, dazzling the eyes.
A salty breeze caresses his cheek, fluttering the cloak draped over his shoulders.
This is the Earl Sea, the archipelago-studded waters dividing the northern and southern continents.
All around, idyllic islands dot the seascape—a serene vista unique to these isles.
Yet at his feet sprawl burly soldiers, rough and unkempt in their armor.
Dozens of warships carry them, slicing across the waves.
An utterly unreal sight. But to me, it's cruelly, inescapably real.
How the hell did it come to this?
It was over a year after I'd gone independent from the company that day.
A client asked me to embed on one of their project sites for about three months.
I loaded up my car with clothes, work gear, and since I'd be shooting landscape photos as a hobby on site, I crammed in camera equipment and camping stuff too, then hit the highway.
I entered a long tunnel, and after a bit, everything suddenly brightened—then my memories cut out.
Next thing I knew, I was a squalling infant latched onto a beautiful woman's breast, greedily sucking down milk.
Yeah, no surprise there. Bottom line: I'd been reincarnated into another world.
And not just any world—this one blended medieval Europe with a dash of feudal Japan, a bizarre mishmash of East and West.
Civilization was roughly on par with my previous life's Middle Ages,
but this world had something my old one lacked: magic power.
Here, strength is everything—strength is justice. Society revolves around that brutal creed.
The ruling nobility must be upper-class magic users wielding overwhelming power.
Their knights and warriors are mid-tier magic users; those with just a smidge are lower-tier.
No magic? You're a commoner. Magic power dictates class, plain and simple.
It's blatantly patriarchal too, much like similar eras back home.
Basic human rights? Nonexistent. To nobles, powerless peasants are bugs.
Slavery's everyday stuff. A perfectly unequal world.
But hey, silver lining: I lucked out on birth. Heir to a noble house in what's colloquially called the New Kingdom.
Top of the food chain in this hierarchy.
That said, our earl family started as pirates, clawing up over the last two centuries—nouveau riche.
Old-blood nobles sneer at us as "upstart pirate nobles" or "blood-soaked buccaneers." Nobility has its own pecking order.
On the flip side, maybe it's a curse: the world's still knee-deep in bloody wars, even if they've calmed a bit.
No unified nation—just patchwork alliances of powerful nobles.
They brawl within alliances, or across them, ignoring politics entirely.
Nobles' pride, face, and profits fuel endless, no-holds-barred fights. Pure survival of the fittest.
With my past-life memories intact, I couldn't just sit pretty in this mess.
I had to solidify my hard-won status.
From toddlerhood, I adapted fast—noble etiquette, the works. Adults eyed me suspiciously as I devoured lessons.
Past knowledge was my cheat code: I dove into R&D.
Breeding crops with magic, inventing missing industrial goods,
scaling up small-batch production.
A kid, yet I turbocharged industry, beefed up our house's military for all the skirmishes,
bolstered finances, uplifted the populace.
Following "strength is justice," I maxed my upper-class magic from childhood—relentless training.
Now I boast overwhelming reserves.
I pioneered new spells, weaponized and industrialized magic.
Even as a mage, I'm making waves.
All to secure peace in my new life.
No ambitions to conquer or sage-king it—just don't lose this noble perch. Pure calculation.
Fourteen years post-reincarnation. I never wanted the hype,
but oblivious folks rave about me.
Now, as heir to the pirate earl house, my battlefield debut has arrived.
My name here: Victor von Togo.
First real battle, past life or this one.
Reincarnator Victor von Togo.
He steps onto history's grand stage now.
The continent's history turns another page lol