Sett was just a 2nd year high schooler when he was ran over by a speeding car while trying to protect a young elementary student, using his own body to push the kid away from danger.
Before all this happened Sett was just staring into emptiness observing the snowflakes since it was in the middle of winter currently when he noticed a speeding car moving past the red light. He first tried to back off to safety but noticed that a young kid didn't notice the approaching car and continued walking oblivious to his surroundings.
"He's going to get hit!" Sett panicked as he immediately ran towards the kid not even a sparing a single second for thought.
Looking at the approaching speeding car, Sett felt death breathing down his neck as he pushed the kid out of the way and almost immediately after pushing the kid away his vision turned upsidedown as he was sent flying through the air as the car swerved and crashed on one of the buildings nearby.
Sett Ragdolled like a broken doll on the road, He was in a world of pain as with each bounce he felt his bones break. His body bounced of the ground multiple times and by the time it stopped his body was already a bloodied mess with bones protruding out from his knees piercing through his skin exposing it, arms bent in a weird fashion, head bleeding profusely as his eyes began to lose focus.
Even in his dying breath Sett turned his head at the direction of the kid he pushed earlier to see if they were fine.
The kid was lying on the ground crying while clutching one of his legs.
"It seems that I didn't fully push the kid away from harm" He thought.
Smiling lightly he added, "Atleast I saved his life."
Sett turned his body to face the sky as his life flashed before his eyes, he had lived almost his entire life as an orphan since his parents died to an accident back when he was still at grade school and although his uncle took him in and treated him fairly and with love. The death of his parents somewhat caused him to mature earlier than his peers as a way to cope with his loss becoming an enigma and outcast in the process.
Although things were tough for Sett he still smiled and pretended to be fine everytime his uncle talks to him and as time passed by Sett slowly got used to the crippling loneliness and depression turning his world dull and grey.
With no motivations or goals, Sett just emersed himself in reading all types of books to find solace. He felt that he had noone to live fo, just living in the present and for the present.
Although depressed and somewhat suicidal, he didn't want to trouble his uncle by killing himself so he persevered and held on waiting for his time to come and so when he saw the car speeding towards the unknowing kid he thought that maybe saving this kid was the reason why God had left him alive all these years.
Staring blankly at the blue sky with snow slowly pilig up on his face he murmured in an almost inaudible voice as his vision started to turn dark.
It hurts...
It's cold...
Is this what death feels like? he murmured in his deathbed.
Death feels so painful... so cold... and so lonely...
I hope that kid lives a long life in my stead.
He'd thought that maybe in death would he finally find peace and solace from his dull and grey life but he never expected it to be this cruel and brutal...
And then suddenly Sett's dying eyes flickered as it reflected sparks of his desire to live and ignited like wildfire.
I-I want to live... I don't want to die..., He thought
But he knew that his burning desire to live isn't enough to save him from death's embrace so instead he prayed to God. "Please give me a second chance at life, I promise that I would live every single day of my life and thoroughly enjoy it so that when my time comes again once more, I would be ready to embrace it and rest without regrets."
After muttering his last prayer to God, Sett's eyes dimmed as the sparks of life within his eyes died and his vision turned dark.
~~~
Meanwhile inside an old ran down cabin slept a young child whose eyes slowly opened revealing his deep black eyes with a shade of blue. The child was sleeping on the floor of the cabin with ropes tied behind his back, his mouth covered by a cloth to prevent him from shouting.
Two days had passed since he was abducted by bandits while he was in the forest gathering herbs and they were currently at an abandoned village where his abductors set camp and rested.
It was already late at night as the boy noticed the sky turning dark and the sunlight being replaced by moonlight through the small broken window in his room. He was left alone at the moment since all of the bandits went out earlier to look for their members that went missing 4 hours ago when they went out for a walk.
But two hours had passed and there were no signs of the bandits returning to the cabin and the kid had just woken up due to the cold wind the gushed through the broken window panel.
"They aren't returning." The muttered.
Realizing that something must've happened to them while searching for their members.
"Great first I get kidnapped and now there's something dangerous lurking around this village, why did those idiot bandits chose an abandoned village in the first place? If a village was abandoned then there must be a reason as to why it got abandoned like due to deadly diseases or even worse because the whole village itself was cursed forcing the residents to flee and change villages." He criticized the group of hooligans as he removed the rope tying his wrist behind his back.
It wasn't hard for him to remove the ropes since it wasn't tied tightly and he only removed the ropes now because he was given an opportunity to because the bandits either ran away, died or was just taking their sweet time getting back here in any case he wasn't gonna wait around and wait for those bastards to come back here.
"I made an oath to God that I would enjoy every single day of my life to the fullest, I'm not gonna wait around and be sold to slave traders." The boy was actually Sett who was reborn in this world after pleading to God to be given a second chance at life.
It had been a decade since he was reborn in this world and he was turning 12 in the upcoming winter. Unlike in his previous life where Sett got to meet his parents, in this life he was raised at an orphanage after his mother died giving birth to him and his father who was a mercenary had passed away even before he was born after dying while on a mission earning money for his pregnant wife and soon to be offspring or atleast it was what he heard from the nuns at the orphanage.
"The sisters must be worried about me." Sett worriedly smiled, while staring at the moon outside his window.
"No time for daydreaming I should try to find something that can help me protect myself and help me survive while traveling since I still have a long way ahead of me on my journey back home." He muttered as he stood up and searched for useful stuff among the things that the bandits had left behind.
Sett searched the bandit's bags and found a couple of things that he found useful which were a knife, booze, flint, lamp, water flask,dried jerkies and finally the bags itself.
"Booze can be used as a disinfectant to prevent a wound from getting infected." He nodded his head after remembering how survival experts in his past life said that you could use alcohol to disinfect your wounds.
"What they hell they only have this much jerky?" He complained as there were only 20 pieces of jerky in total after rummaging through the bandits bags.
Snorting for a second, Sett packed the things he found useful and stuffed them inside the bag except for the knife and 2 jerkies.
"I need clothes but do these bandits even have spare clothes?" Sett questioned himself before proceeding to rummage the bags once more.
Sett was currently wearing a torn shirt and brown pants and he was trying to find an extra set of shirt so that he can wear it over his current shirt to keep himself warm.
"Found one!" He exclaimed, before sniffing it to check if it was wearable or not.
"Hmm it doesn't smell so it should be fine." He thought before stuffing the clothe inside his bag.
Sett was about to stand up and leave the cabin when he saw a dusty book lying on a bookshelf at the corner of the room and without hesitation he grabbed it and stuffed it inside his bag without even reading the title let alone the contents of the book.
"I wonder how those idiots didn't notice this book sitting in the corner like even if they can't read books are really expensive and can be sold at a high price depending on it's contents and state." He was dumbfounded that the bandits didn't see this book lying on the corner at the bookshelf knowing how expensive a single book is.
Soon after stuffing the book inside his bag Sett carefully left the cabin as he slowly and wearily walked through the streets his mind at full allert and his instincts at a "flight or flight" mode because of the unknown potential dangers around him and the group of bandits.
(A/N: yes it is "flight or flight" instead of "fight or flight")
Sett traversed the bricky road under the illumination of the moonlight helping him see where he was going.
"This village really has been abandoned for a long time huh." He muttered as he saw rows or broken houses and broken pavements on the brick road.
While walking silently thought the streets Sett couldn't help but feel that something was wrong like he was missing the bigger picture, like there was something off about this village other than the fact that it was abandoned and was devoid of life... Devoid of life...
"Ah!"
"Damn it the situation more dire than I thought." Sett cursed as he realized something, although this village has been abandoned for years or even decades there was no sign of life anywhere! No plants,no animals roaming around hell there wasn't even crows.
A village devoid of any forms of life can only mean one thing! According to the teachings of Sister Agnes there were multiple reasons as to why people completely abandon villages either the village has ran out of resources or was cursed by heretic worshippers of unknown evil gods And the most obvious sign that a village has been cursed is an obvious lack of living organisms inside the village as all living organisms inside the village will slowly wilt or die due to the curse absorbing all of their essence. There is usually two most common curses used by heretics when cursing a village and it is the Curse of plague and famish or Curse of defilement.
"Since I still haven't encountered any ailments throughout the two days I've stayed in the village it must be the Curse of Defilement." Sett felt goosebumps as the hairs on his arms stood up upon his realization.
"Since the bandits didn't come back after 2 hours it's safe to say they already fled the village so I atleast won't have to worry about encountering the bandits again although I would much rather encounter the bandits than the defiled residents of this village." He murmured, before noticing humanoid figures in the distance walking weirdly.
"Damn this mouth of mine, why did I have to jinx it!" He cursed as gazed at the limping figures coming towards him.
End of Chapter 1 — Reincarnation