Reborn as Naoya Zenin: I Swear I Came Back for Revenge! [4]

Three days later.

“Hey, where exactly are we going?”

“You will know once we arrive.”

Naoya stared at the maid walking ahead of her—that eyesore sent by old man Naobito to order her around. She wore an apron over a plain kimono, her chin slightly tucked as she walked forward, making eye contact with no one, her steps measured and even.

What right did she have? Naoya was actually following behind this maid who only knew how to act mysterious, step for step, like some unpresentable lackey. In the end, it was all because she had let her guard down for a moment and accepted the condition that old bastard Naobito had offered her.

If her guess was right, the root cause of her cursed technique being completely sealed was most likely on the level of the soul—the divide between soul and flesh had caused her cursed technique and cursed energy to fall out of harmony.

This was never going to be an easy problem to solve. Even the top jujutsu sorcerers in jujutsu society could not give a definitive answer on the boundary between soul and body. She had shut herself away and thought bitterly for days, rummaging through every memory in her mind, and the only lifeline she could grasp was the dust-covered cursed tools in the Zenin Clan’s forbidden storehouse.

In her previous life, Naoya had always disdained relying on the power of cursed tools, and had never paid much attention to the collection in the forbidden storehouse. But now that she thought back carefully, there really did seem to be a few items that had some connection to the rules of soul and flesh.

With her current circumstances, however, there was no way she could so much as touch the threshold of the forbidden storehouse. The Zenin Clan recognized strength and nothing else. Why would they let her enter the forbidden storehouse to search through it and take what she wanted just because she had the title of Naobito’s daughter? With no other path left, she could only hold her nose and place her hopes on Naobito’s casual little “promise.”

Come to think of it—had there been a maid like this in the family in her previous life? Naoya’s memory was a blur. Or rather, in her previous life, he had never once taken notice of the lowly servants who did odd jobs around the estate.

Old scrolls were always full of clichéd stories: a general or daimyo happened to remember the name of some servant, casually asked after their well-being a few times, and when the noble later fell into trouble, that lowborn person who had received such tiny kindnesses back then would risk their life to save him for the sake of a single moment of concern.

It was not that Naoya did not understand the method of winning people over.

But that was the thinking of the weak.

“Hey, what’s your name?”

She spoke up and asked.

“You may call me Rei,” the maid said with her head lowered.

“What a boring name.” Naoya spat into the decorative pond. “How much farther?”

“We have arrived.” Rei stopped beside the waterwheel by the mountain stream. Behind her stood a row of low tiled houses.

The Zenin estate itself was like the domain of a separatist lord from the Sengoku period, having enclosed an entire stretch of mountain forest, with layers upon layers of barriers concealing its perimeter. And this place was already at the very edge of that territory. Far removed from the central area where the clan’s direct line gathered to live, it was so desolate that one would hardly see another soul here.

Just from that row of tiled houses, traces of temporary plaster repairs were visible where the walls had peeled away, and even so, they could not hide the air of decay seeping from the place.

Naoya frowned.

“Hey, so why did you bring me here? You’d better not be messing with me.”

Rei did not answer. She merely raised a hand, pushed open the creaking wooden door, and walked straight in. A moldy smell rushed out at once, and Naoya wrinkled her nose in disgust. After hesitating for an instant, however, she still gritted her teeth and followed.

“Wait—no way.”

The moment she saw the scene inside, Naoya froze where she stood. Against the wall sat an old wooden crib. The outline of its railings struck her eyes first. Before she could even make out what lay in the crib, her heart sank sharply, and an awful premonition rose within her.

Inside the swaddling cloths, two infants not yet a month old lay quietly on the soft bedding, so small and thin they looked like a pair of kittens. Their eyes were closed as they slept.

“Wait! What is this supposed to mean?” Naoya’s voice rose at once.

“Shh—please keep your voice down. Do not wake the children.” Rei pointed at the crib, her tone still calm and unruffled. “This is what you will be doing next.”

“What is?” Naoya’s brows drew even tighter as countless thoughts flashed through her mind. Could Ogi Zenin have completely given up on these twins and decided to find some remote place to deal with them in secret? But no matter how useless they were, they at least had value as a continuation of the Zenin Clan’s bloodline. Was there any need to kill them the moment they were born? Besides, no matter how filthy the work was, there was no reason for it to fall to her.

“They are Ogi-sama’s daughters. The task is to care for them—you are to help me.” Rei pointed at the crib.

“No—what kind of joke is this? What the hell does that have to do with me?” Naoya shouted. The sound instantly woke the infants, and the sisters first stirred in confusion before cries rose from the crib.

“You agreed to Naobito-sama’s terms,” Rei said calmly.

“I agreed to help him do something, yes, but not everything—and what does this have to do with me? Idiot!”

“I believe it does have something to do with you,” Rei said. “Considering your future need to marry for alliance, learning childcare is an essential condition for becoming a good wife and wise mother. This is also for your sake, so you may as well begin early.”

“Absolutely not!”

The words marry for alliance and good wife and wise mother fell into Naoya’s ears, and rage flushed her cheeks red. “That old man actually dared trick me. I’m going to find him right now!”

Naoya stormed out and shoved the door open. Just then, Rei’s voice came from behind her.

“If you refuse to do this, Naobito-sama said you can forget ever receiving his promise in this lifetime.”

“I don’t want it, then! Who cares!”

Her footsteps stopped.

She stood nailed to the spot.

Calm down—calm down. Things are different now. Marriage, childrearing—yes, they’re an insult to me. But if I can’t get my cursed technique back, they might really come true…

Once I get my cursed technique back, every last one of you… You’ll see.

Naoya took a deep breath, forced herself to smile, and turned around.

“Well… I was only joking just now.”

“I am glad you understand.” Rei spoke indifferently. “Now then, since you woke them, please watch over them here for the moment and make sure nothing happens. I will go fetch water and boil it. Please wait here.”

…

Naoya sat on a tall wooden stool, just high enough to reach the edge of the crib.

Rei seemed to have really gone out. She had actually left Naoya alone with these two children. How unwise.

Her eyes lowered. The two children in the crib were wrapped in swaddling cloths, and because they had tired themselves out crying, they had fallen asleep again. To the naked eye, there was no telling them apart. They looked almost exactly the same.

Then—which one was Maki, and which one was Mai?

How could Naoya possibly forget? Putting Mai aside for the moment, both of her previous lives had been ended by Maki.

That heartless monster. The entire Zenin Clan had perished by her hand.

Naoya looked at the sleeping infants, and her vision suddenly blurred. The babies in the swaddling clothes vanished in an instant, replaced by that woman covered in blood, her gaze cold and hard. She stood right in front of Naoya, raised her blade, and brought it down. The freezing edge split her body open in an instant.

Naoya swayed, nearly falling off the stool, and instinctively reached for the bridge of her nose—no. There was no split. Nothing had happened. The terrifying god of slaughter was not before her. There were only two infants, so fragile they looked as if they would shatter with a single pinch.

And yet the vivid phantom pain still lingered in her chest.

“Wait. Doesn’t this mean both of these two’s lives are entirely in my hands?” Naoya murmured.

That was right. Heavenly Tyrant, gravedigger of the Zenin Clan—none of that meant anything now. Regardless of which one was Maki and which one was Mai, all she had to do was reach out and lightly close her hand around those slender, fragile throats. The two lives that would one day stir up towering waves would meet their end at the very beginning.

“Naoya-sama, what are you thinking about?”

A voice suddenly came from the doorway. Naoya snapped back to her senses, every hair on her body standing on end in an instant.

Rei was walking in through the door, carrying a kettle filled with hot water. Naoya’s hand, already extended halfway through the air, instinctively dropped. It landed lightly on the soft, downy hair of one of the infants, pretending to stroke it as she said as though nothing had happened, “I was just thinking… which one is Maki, and which one is Mai? Haha—it really is impossible to tell.”

Naoya hid her awkwardness, but Rei smiled faintly.

“What Maki and Mai? Have you already chosen names for them?”

“That’s true. They really should be given names.”

This is a fan translation of 重生直哉，我真是来复仇的 by 三角麦冬 Rights to the original work belong to the creator. Please support them by exploring their original work or sharing it with others if you can. Thank you for reading and supporting my efforts to bring this story to a wider audience!