Just A Reincarnation Story (Summoning Japan Edition)

Chapter 24: Van Den Bosch

Bewakermaan 4, 380 Imperial Year (Fun. 4, 1615 CC), 16:25

A town in northern Doric Province, Eastern Parpaldia Empire

Several days had passed after New Year's Day. Each nation has its own way of welcoming 1615, from brilliant festivities that light up towns and cities to solemn prayers, the people around the known world all hoped that they are always blessed with fortune as they started the new year. However, for a town located just a few kilometers north of Duro in the eastern Parpaldia Empire, a 'great power' in the Eastern World, the atmosphere was filled with gloom as the snow continued to fall lightly from the heavens above.

Walking through the empty dirt road of the said town was a figure of a young male, possibly in his early twenties, wearing thick but dirty winter clothing all over his body to ward off the cold. After walking some distance, he turned and arrived at a wooden house on the outskirts of the town, knocking on its front door.

The young man waited for a moment before the door opened to reveal a slightly younger girl who greeted him.

"Ah, Ehren, welcome home."

"Yeah... I'm home."

The man called Ehren was ushered by the girl to enter the house. However, the interior of the house was not much warmer than the outside for the young man, who grimaced bitterly as he walked inside. Inside, Ehren was met by the sight of a group of people sitting at a round table, an older woman, a young boy, and a little girl. These people were his family, who despite their glum demeanor, was able to give Ehren a small smile upon his arrival with the girl walking behind him.

"Brother! You're back!"

"Everyone, I'm back," Ehren nodded, "I brought you something to eat, it's not much, but at least it can fill your stomach for the night."

From inside the coat he was wearing, he took out a bundle and placed it on the table. When his younger brother reached for the bundle and opened it, revealing it to be two loaves of cold hard bread. The family soon divided the meager food equally and began eating, thanking the gods that they still have something to eat in this day and age.

Ehren's family is a farming family of six living in the rural areas of eastern Parpaldia, with him as the eldest child, followed by his sister, Irene, who was two years younger, and the second son, Ruud, who was ten years old, and the youngest child, Teresa, who was six. During the normal days, Ehren will help his father tend to the farm, sell the harvested crops to the town, and stock up for the winter.

Usually, Irene will also go to the forest to gather firewood, and sometimes she will go hunting and bring back some skinned rabbit or if she is lucky, a deer. She is a very skilled hunter with a bow and arrow, but when she tried to use his father's matchlock magic musket, she threw off her aim and after that, she never touched it again.

It's not much, but it's honest work. They continue to live their humble pastoral life without any particular grievances.

However, seven months ago, Ehren's father was conscripted into the army and was sent to the invasion of the north. Although Ehren was nineteen years old, he avoided conscription by faking an injury as told by his father, thus leaving him to take care of the family. His father promised to send letters every month, but after the first two months, the letters never came. This was at the same time as the Parpaldian Army's advance was bogged down by the surprisingly fierce resistance of the northern territories.

Thus, Ehren resigned to the fact that his father may be already dead on some barbarian mud somewhere in the north, but he never said it out loud to his mother and siblings.

However, disasters struck one after another. Unexpected storms occurring near the harvest season had caused a widespread crop failure for farmers living in the eastern Parpaldia, the country's largest wheat-producing region, dooming not a small number of people, including Ehren's family.