I Didn’t Even Want to Live, But God Forced Me to Reincarnate!

We were finally gathered in the Flugel family’s residence for our long holidays. I couldn’t be happier that the timing was so perfect. Thankfully, my parents let me have this vacation.
The younger twins, Frey and Freyja wanted to tag along as well, but thankfully, they dropped the idea and accompanied my parents back at the residence. They would also go to the castle from time to time to play with Leticia… as well as Phoebe.
Now, we were having our strategical meeting in the Flugel family’s residence.
“First point to tackle would be about our disguise,” Ein was the one to lead the discussion, despite being the youngest among us all.
Before I could talk about my disguise, someone else did it for me.
“Lyra can put on a very convincing and safe disguise just fine. But what about the others? Especially you, Kuu-chan!” Iris first glanced at me with relief, but then her gaze turned into that of a concern when she looked at Carbuncle.
“Me? Can I not come like this?” Carbuncle puffed out her chest.
“No!” Iris and I quickly answered in unison.
“Sigh… What a trouble,” Carbuncle’s chest fell.
“I have this power suppressor. Carbuncle can use this,” Ein handed over some accessories to Carbuncle.
“Power suppressor?! Why should I?” Carbuncle raised her eyebrows.
“In case anyone can sense your overwhelming draconic power! It’s dangerous. You can always take it off when needed anyway, right?” Briar said, seemingly anxious.
“Meh. Alright,” Carbuncle shrugged.
“For further disguise, we can just modify your hair color and style it differently,” Valerie said as she caressed Carbuncle’s hair, seemingly thinking about what to do with her long flowy hair.
“Blegh, that’s troublesome,” Carbuncle said.
“Do you want to come or not?!” Dmitria seemed to be losing her patience.
“Fine, fine,” Carbuncle said begrudgingly.
Ein turned to look at Clavis next.
“I can just turn into wolf,” Clavis quickly said.
“Hmm…,” Ein hesitated.
“I can also disguise myself in my human form should it be needed,” Clavis relented.
“Right. I think I have a magical device that can conceal your beastman traits… There you go, use it if needed,” Ein, our magical you-have-it-all person, took out yet another device for Clavis.
“Thanks,” Clavis took the device and looked at it closely to learn all about it.
“What about you, then?” Carbuncle asked in a challenging tone to Ein.
“Me? I have these magical devices and also technological stuff, and some normal stuff that I can use for my disguise. Oh, this, body double device!” Ein started to rummage through his backpack that seemed to contain many, many things that could be used.
“Here’s some magical storage devices for us to use,” Ein quickly added when he noticed our concerned gazes during when he unpacked the items that could be of use to us.
“…Tch, fine,” Carbuncle lost the challenge before she even started.
“Okay, now moving on to the next topic! Our investigation department, report your findings about a secret path that we can use to infiltrate Cielle,” Ein said.
“Psst, if there’s really a path we can use to infiltrate Cielle, wouldn’t that mean they’re in trouble? I mean, anyone can use that for a more malicious reason…,” Harvey whispered.
“Well, most of such paths would have already been discovered and closed, so we were trying to find a new one, undiscovered by anyone just yet,” Ein said.
“It can’t be that easy, can it?” Briar asked.
“Hmm, we never know. There are some untouched areas yet, and our world undergoes changes every day. There’s bound to be a new path, should an old path die. Even a small opening will do. We never know, maybe the luck’s on our side,” Ein said as if it was a trivial matter.
“If not…?” I asked.
“Can’t be helped, we need to discuss it with the older generation, their connection can help. If we can’t do it undercover, we do it right in the light of the day,” Ein said.
“…”
Just then, Clavis raised his hand and asked, “Can I speak now?”
At the same time, Fenrir was also summoned.
“Investigation team, do speak up.”
“I’ve asked the wolves around the area,” Clavis said.
“And I asked the monsters around,” Fenrir said.
“I investigated the waterway with my beloved Brioc,” Valerie said.
“Shula and I also investigated!” Dmitria said.
Meanwhile, Carbuncle yawned.
“…You’re not helping, Kuu-chan?” Iris whispered, wondering since Carbuncle was often not seen at times, and we all thought she went off to investigate on her own.
“Nope, too bothersome. A lot of people have already searched anyway,” Carbuncle said.
“…”
Iris’ face seemed to say, ‘
but she didn’t voice her thought out loud, for she seemed to have an idea.
Then, we discussed our findings together.
“So, in conclusion… There’s a possibility that there’s a path in a cave deep inside the Silent Forest… But when Fenrir checked, there’s nothing there but a still waterway… So, Valerie and Brioc checked and…,” Ein concluded.
“Lo and behold!” Dmitria excitedly said.
“There is indeed some kind of path deep inside the pond in that cave… When we went through it, we arrived in what seemed to be the territory of Cielle,” Valerie said.
“And?” Clavis asked.
“Alright, I indeed checked even further and… yes, it seemed to be connected to a waterway deep inside another cave, coincidentally located deep in a forest similar to Silent Forest… Near Cielle’s capital,” Valerie said with a very serious expression.
“Did you really go all the way to Athlerona, Cielle’s capital? That’s way too far, right? I mean, it’s separated by a wide waterway from us…,” Briar asked in disbelief.
“Oh, trust me, we didn’t even swim that far. I think it’s another magical portal that often emerges in a random place. It has a whirlpool-like mechanism…,” Valerie began describing the portal.
“Eh, you entered a random portal and whirlpool not knowing what you’ll see or experience?” I asked, full of concern.
“Of course not. I sent one of our water monsters to check it out first,” Valerie said.
“Thank goodness,” I nodded in relief.
“Alright, that solved the problem on how we should infiltrate the place. All that’s left to do is to prepare for the mission to be commenced,” Ein said.
Everyone nodded.
“We’re to prepare everything in two days. We will depart on the dawn of the third day. How does that sound?” Ein asked.
“Fine by me. The faster, the better,” I said.
“Anytime is fine,” Carbuncle said.
“Alright,” Clavis nodded.
Then, we began our preparations right away.
“Do you need us to lend some kind of monsters for your ride?” Valerie asked.
“Oh, you should!” Dmitria’s eyes beamed.
“But it would be too bothersome, I mean, we’d need to think of a way to hide them, too…,” I wanted to say yes, but it wasn’t as easy as it might seem.
“Well, actually, there are some monsters that can just lay low in a forest or their natural habitat in Cielle, then they can come when needed,” Valerie said.
“Also! Some monsters can transform into a smaller version, that’s convenient,” Dmitria said.
“Hmm…,” I was troubled over deciding it.
“We can probably bring one just in case. One for waterway, one for the land, and one for the sky,” Ein stated.
“Sure, sure. Let me arrange them for you!” Dmitria excitedly ran while dragging her twin sister with her.
“For the items, let me prepare it hmm,” Ein started doing his own thing, arranging all the items he had prepared for us.
“Uhm… Here’s some of potions that I created. May they be useful for you,” Iris said.
“And here are some weapons that I created as per instructed,” Harvey said.
“Thank you…!”
I was honestly saved that they were here.
As for why Harvey had to make weapons for us… The reason’s simple. All of my and Ein’s high-quality weapons had some kind of identifiers, like family emblem or even gems only nobles could use. We couldn’t have taken it with us.
That’s where Harvey came in handy, as he offered to make a high-quality weapon for each of us, tailored to our preferences.
We stored everything in the magic pouch that Ein had provided.
In the end, as we were reviewing our preparations right at the night before we’d depart…
“What about identities?” Iris asked in concern.
“I’m thinking to infiltrate the royal castle, so I can pose as a new maid there,” I quickly said.
“Won’t you be found out?” Iris asked again.
“Hmm… I can just make a random maid lose their consciousness and pose as them if needed. It’s not like I intend to meet many people there, if possible,” I answered.
“I will gather information outside the castle then,” Ein said.
“I will follow Lyra,” Clavis chimed in.
“No, having a wolf follow you along is a bit…”
“Ah… Then I can be a butler accompanying you—"
“Clavis comes with me,” Ein quickly said, not even waiting for Clavis to finish his words.
“But what about Lyra? Will she be alone?” Clavis seemed reluctant to agree with Ein…
“I have Fenrir with me,” I assured them.
“But still…”
“Then, Kuu-chan, pose as a maid with me,” I dragged Carbuncle into the conversation.
“Yeah, that’s what I’d like to do, too. I love it when the stakes are high. And that way, I can check out the royal castle too,” Carbuncle smugly smiled.
“But…,” Clavis wanted to rebut.
I turned around and said to Clavis, “Clavis, that’s a good idea, actually. Ein isn’t as strong as the rest of us, so he’d need someone to accompany him.”
“Then, Carbuncle and I can swap—”
“No. Do you believe that Kuu-chan and Ein won’t just quarrel if they were left alone for a prolonged time?” I asked.
“…”
Nobody actually had any rebuttal left once I said this, so I consider our preparations as well as divisions of task complete.
“Okay, we will depart tomorrow at dawn. Let’s have an early rest tonight,” I closed the last meeting we had before the real mission.
Though I proposed that we’d rest early tonight, I was too nervous to actually fall asleep quickly.
I tossed and turned around the bed and had Fenrir scold me before I could finally drift off to sleep, though not as well as my other sleeps.
For the first time in my life, I’d be out on a very important mission, where the stake’s high.
But at least I am now not alone…!