Reincarnated to the Past 17: Waking Up Different (Patreon)

Reincarnated to the Past
Chapter 17: Waking up Different

-VB-

I was barely aware of the sounds of people rushing into my home, finding me, and then carrying me away. They carried me into the village under the morning sun, but I didn’t feel its heat, only the burning fever wrecking my body. 

They laid me down gently at … I don’t know…

My eyes closed, and I don’t know how long they were closed.

When I was finally conscious enough to open my eyes and actually see the world around me, I saw that I wasn’t at my home but at the medicine woman’s house.

“How are you even alive right now?”

I turned my head weakly to the right where … Ureya? I tried to speak, but my throat was too tight. Too … hoarse. 

God, everything burned.

All I managed was a few weak gasps of pain.

She placed a hand over my forehead and shushed me to sleep.

-VB-

When I woke up again, I was very hungry. 

I pushed myself up and -.

‘Huh,’ I thought as I moved to sit. I pulled my hands out and in front of me so that I can see them. They were certainly thinner - and there was also a lot of grime on my skin - but there was … something great about me. It just felt great to be me. 

My body felt lighter, cleaner, and stronger even though I should be weaker, heavier (subjectively), and dirtier than before I got my new power. 

I rolled both of my shoulders. No pain.

I jumped out of the straw bed and landed on my feet.

Very light.

Deciding that I could look at my powers later, I looked for food instead. As I walked outside of the medicine woman’s house, I began to scratch the greyish and blackish grime off of my skin. Some grime needed only a rub before it fell away but there were others that needed some serious scratching to peel off like a scab.

I stretched all of myself, and I felt great. The sun was great. The heat was great. The light was just shining and precious-.

Clatter.

I stopped and turned around. 

It was the medicine woman.

“Good morning~!” I greeted jovially. Then I noticed that she’d dropped something. I hurried over to help - ss ss ss - but what should have taken me twenty steps and at least eight seconds of walking took me only ten steps and three seconds. When did I move so fast without running?

“Y-You should be dead,” she muttered while looking at me with wide eyes. 

I blinked and looked to meet her eyes. They were … terrified. No, shocked. There wasn’t any fear, only really big shock. I grinned. 

“I’ve never felt better,” I replied as I gathered … wait, were these funeral robes? I raised an eyebrow. “Well, thanks for not burying me sooner, I guess. It would’ve sucked to wake up under all of that dirt!” I laughed.

She gulped. “W-We should tell the tribe. I-I just told them all that y-you -”

Oh. That’s not good.

“Let’s hurry then. I don’t particularly want to be seen as a ghost.”

Despite my words and the situation demanding some degree of hurry, I didn’t push myself or the medicine woman into running. I just woke up and felt hungry, and while I felt great, the medicine woman looked a decade older and strained. 

“So how long have I been asleep?” I asked as I gently nudged her back towards the tribe. She took my nudging and turned around.

“Two weeks.”

I whistled. “That’s some time to be in a coma.”

“We thought your soul had left your body.”

“Oh no no. Coma is just something that happens when the body comes under too much trauma,” I explained. “How long it lasts depends on the medical treatment and the condition that caused it. Some never come out of it while others come out of it earlier than a week.”

“You didn’t respond at all after waking up to Reya on your first day. What happened?”

I paused in talking to consider my answer, though I continued to walk slowly to the tribe’s center with her.

“I can give you the short version or the long version.”

“Short one.”

“I grew stronger.”

She slapped my butt so hard that I yelped.

“A strong man does not grow thinner and make grime like you did!” she screamed at me. 

I caressed my abused ass. Her description of what happened to me sounded familiar. 

“I guess my body used up unnecessary bits of myself to fuel whatever strength I gained, because I feel so great right now!” 

She tried to hit me again but I dodged. She overreached and twisted to a fall. I caught her before she did, though. I’d moved so fast in those three moments that I myself found it to be … shocking. 

“Yup, I feel great~,” I sang a little before helping her back to her feet. 

She grumbled. “You have no right to be that happy after what you put my granddaughter through.”

I frowned. “Ureya? Is she alright?”

“Alright? She’s distraught because you, you dolt.”

“What? Why?”

“Because she is enamored with you.”

“... No way. She never showed interest.”

“It’s new. So go talk to her already.”

“I don’t even know where she is. Also, I thought she wasn’t interested in marriage.”

“Her interests are secondary as it is for everyone but the chief.”

… Harsh truth, that was. 

We arrived at the center of the tribe’s town. It took them no more than a minute to try to swarm me with blessings, platitudes, and more, but the medicine woman beat all of them back with her sharp words. 

She led me into the chief’s longhouse, and I found myself slapped by Ureya.

Tsundere, she was. 

Ow.

-VB-

“So you are well now,” Ghigari said, looking far better than before. 

“I am,” I replied with a smile. “I’m not completely sure what happened but I am actually stronger for it now.”

He hummed as his wife laid down some flatbread between us. 

I waited patiently for Ghigari to take up the first bite before I took a whole flatbread and swallowed it whole. 

Everyone looked at me with wide eyes.

“What?” I asked as I grabbed another bread and swallowed it whole, barely chewing through it. I ate a third and fourth -

Oh God, why the hell was I so hungry?!

“I think we can talk after you eat, Alan. You seem … very hungry.”