1-Reincarnation

While going home from work, Ferdinand sighed in exhaustion. He was just a son of a poor farmer that had to help in his family's business. When he works, be wakes up before sunrise and goes home before sunset.

In other words Ferdinand is a workaholic guy.

If he slacked off on a single day of work, his family and his little siblings would have less food on the table.

Not just because of his circumstances that he should work, but it's already a habit he developed since he was still a little kid. Stopping at nothing until he thought he accomplished what is needed to do for the day.

However he isn't just a workaholic. He was also a bit of a problem child on his own, which sometimes increased the workload they needed to do for the day. It scaled from doing stupidity harmless pranks, to his parents getting called in the middle of the day to the guidance office, up to nearly causing a forest fire during his rebellious phase. He got used to cleaning up his own mess because of it.

But then an unfortunate incident happened when his father got sick and bedridden. With less hands on labor, Ferdinand had to work twice as much. Also there were additional expenses for medicine and hospital bills that his father needed.

He set aside himself of his troublesome ways and got a little more responsible, his circumstances cornered him to that point.

"I'm home..."

When he got home, after washing himself and eating dinner he goes straight to bed. His body was sore and fatigued from the sudden increase of workload that he pushed it to the limits.

Thankfully though he didn't need to worry about school anymore after he graduated just recently from high school. So this time he only needed to pour himself over his work.

"Oh... this is dangerous..." He muttered in his sleep.

But that was the last words he said in that world before he died from overwork and stress. The physical, mental, and emotional exhaustion killed him.

He died at the age of 18.

-*-*-*-

'So warm.' he came to and realized that he had lost consciousness. To his surprise, he now found himself submerged in liquid that was around the temperature of a heated pool.

'Wait, I'm not breathing!' The realization that he was about to drown sent him into a panic. For some reason, however, he felt incredibly weak and could not move his body as he wanted.

"Shit, I'm going to die at this ra— Uh, hold on. I'm not breathing, but I'm not exactly gasping for breath either. What's happening to me?"

Despite being unable to see or breathe within this warm liquid, Ferdinand felt completely fine. In fact, he even felt peaceful, as if all the mental fatigue that had been accumulating from his high-stress job was melting away. So he simply gave himself up to the tranquility and let time pass.

Ten days later, a jolt of unease suddenly shot through him. It was a very strange sensation, one that he had never experienced before.

"Hold on, is this...? Ugh, I'm being squeezed!"

It was as if his entire body were being crushed. As before, however, he could not muster any strength into his limbs. He could not see, and he could not hear. All he had was his consciousness. And just when the squeezing let up, Kenichi felt himself being dunked into what felt like lukewarm liquid again.

'I can't breathe!'

Although he had been all right with not breathing until now, he all at once felt desperate for air. As he flailed around in distress, he suddenly felt an impact on his behind that was abruptly followed by more in quick succession. He realized that he was being slapped.

'That hurts! What do you think you're doing?!'

"WAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!!!"

And then after death is reincarnation.

-*-*-*-

Six months passed by, and Ferdinand realized a lot of things.

He woke up in a strange land. The language wasn't anything he heard before. And most importantly he was reborn as a baby.

After months of sightseeing and gathering information around the house, he came into conclusion that this family was wealthy. At least much wealthier than his family in his past life.

They had a house of two storeys with several rooms in each. He was doubtful about the complete lack of technology despite the family's income, like he was living a hundred years before the modern times. There wasn't even a lightbulb to light up in the night, only using oil lamps that feels really primitive. Even his family could afford lightbulbs and electricity.

Life as a baby was really inconvenient for him. Ralph gets hungry easily so he had to cry out loud to satiate his hunger, then his mother would come to breastfeed him which is embarrassing. He doesn't have control with his colons either shitting his diapers and had to live through it in a disgusting situation, so he had to cry for help and then the maid would come to clean him up.

It took him only a month though before he could crawl and as young as three months he could already stand and walk in his feet, it shocked the entire family they had to call a doctor in a nearby city.

Ralph was just gazing outside the window observing the clouds and counting strange birds flying in the sky. He could see vast fields of wheat and scattered small settlements from here and there. There is also a clean river where kids and adults took their time after a day's hard work.

A voice suddenly came breaking out Ralph's immersion on watching the outside world.

"Ralph, did you see where Rudi went?" a beautiful woman with blonde hair and blue eyes called him. Apparently, this woman was actually his mother. He judged that she couldn't be older than 18, the age when he died in his previous life.

One thing that had become clear to Ferdinand within this time was that his new name in this world was Ralph. And although he had not had a choice, he had reincarnated as male once again.

"There." Ralph points out in a direction the last he saw Rudeus.

Rudeus was Ralph's twin brother in this life of reincarnation. They got along well, that's what Ralph thought. Rudeus might be a little apprehensive about him, but there's no antagonism between them.

After he pointed out the direction, Ralph thought what is he gonna do from now on. He didn't understand if this was a dream or reality. And if this was indeed a reality, what happened to his past life?

Living in this house with a new family doesn't feel too bad, but he couldn't erase his worries about his father and his family.

'This just feels too real for it to be a dream though.'