Consciousness returned.
It seemed I was still alive.
I didn’t feel any pain in my stomach—maybe the anesthesia from surgery was still working?
I opened my eyes, and everything was pure white. At first, I thought my vision hadn’t fully returned, but that wasn’t the case. The ceiling, walls, and even the floor were all so white that it distorted my sense of distance.
I was standing on what felt like a floor, though I couldn’t be sure it was actually there. It was as if I were floating, and the sensation was unsettling.
My classmates were standing around me, all looking as confused as I was.
“Welcome, reincarnated ones!”
“Huh?!”
A voice suddenly echoed, and when I turned, three unfamiliar people were standing there.
One was a blonde woman with blue eyes and extraordinary beauty; another was a handsome man with brown hair holding a spear; and the third was a red-haired woman with a gentle smile.
Clearly, these three weren’t human. They each had white wings and angelic halos above their heads—a perfect image of angels.
“You will be summoned as heroes to our world, Forsdaria, which we oversee.”
The blonde woman declared this confidently, and then a counter appeared. The red-haired woman sat down in a chair behind it.
“What the hell are you people? What do you intend to do with us?”
It was Sagami Yuta.
Rich, good-looking, academically gifted, and the ace of the soccer team. God had given him not just two, but four gifts. He was the kind of student who seemed to have everything I didn’t.
“We are the overseers of this world, or you may call us gods. On Fastcloud—what you called Earth—you have died. Hence, you will be reincarnated as heroes and summoned to Forsdaria.”
As the blonde woman fluently explained without faltering, it sank in—I really had died in that bus accident.
And these three, or rather these three deities, seemed to be implying that I’d been chosen to be reincarnated as a hero in a world they governed.
So this was a different world, a reincarnation—but since it was a summoning, would I appear here just as I am now? If I started from infancy, would I be able to live a new life from scratch?
“Since you have died in Fastcloud, you can’t return to your original world. Even if you refuse, reincarnation will proceed. If you hate living in Forsdaria, feel free to end your life. Though with monsters and demons around, something might kill you first.”
The blonde goddess wore a malicious smile.
People like her were all too familiar in Japan—or rather, Fastcloud, the country where I had lived.
My parents were like that, and so were some of my classmates. They looked down on me, attacking me for no reason, inflicting both physical and emotional abuse without a second thought. Such was their kind.
Listening to the blonde goddess, my classmates grew pale.
“Reincarnated to another world… What’s going to happen to us?”
“Do I get to be a hero?!”
“I’ll never see my parents again?”
Murmurs of fear and uncertainty spread among my classmates.
The gods, however, were indifferent to the students’ unease.
“Now, we will grant you divine blessings. Please line up.”
Even as the red-haired goddess instructed us, the classmates were still hesitant, unsure of what to do.
Then, the handsome god shouted for us to get in line.
The force of his command was so intense that some students collapsed in fear.
“Hurry up and line up, or you’ll be sent without blessings.”
At the red-haired goddess’s words, the shocked classmates scrambled to form a line.
I joined the line, but someone shoved me hard, pushing me out of place.
“Get in the back, orphan. This is my spot.”
“…”
The one who pushed me was Ken Ishiba.
He was the ace of the karate club, but his violent personality had caused problems multiple times. His politician father smoothed things over each time, allowing him to stay in school.
I lined up at the very back.
I didn’t take actions that would cause trouble. That’s how I’d survived so far. Repressing my feelings was something I was good at.
