Sorcerer Wants to Enjoy Poya Poya

Chapter 1 Heavenly Punishment to the Revenger

(TN : I swear, I really tried to sound less Chuuni)

On that fateful day, a meteorite fell on Earth. If it had been a normal meteorite, there would have been no problem, but it contained particles unknown to the people of Earth, bringing the power to affect the spirit of living beings.

After entering the stratosphere, the meteorite’s trajectory was gradually altered by the atmosphere, and it headed towards a local city in Japan. As the meteor was only a few hundred metres from the surface, a middle-aged man, unaware of the meteor’s presence, was walking towards its point of impact.

“Is this the way to the police station?”

The man was going to the police station to surrender himself. The crime he had committed was murder. Mato Mikio, a 40-year-old math teacher at a high school. He was not an excellent teacher; on the contrary, he was awful at teaching and was not good with children. He also found it very troublesome to talk to his students.

Until six months ago, Mato had a normal happy life. He had a cheerful wife who was a good cook and a lovely daughter, and he loved his family. But six months ago, his wife and daughter were killed right in front of him. They were the victims of a hit-and-run accident.

According to the police investigation, a politician’s son was suspected to be the culprit, so the police stopped any further investigation.

A cunning lawyer was hired by the politician. He brought a witness who testified that the politician’s son had been elsewhere at the time of the accident. The police suspected the witness, who had the title of corporate consultant, but there was not enough evidence to prove that it was a perjury.

Mato happened to find out that one of the detectives in charge of the case was in debt to a financial institution, so he provided him the money in exchange for the information.

He told Mato that the son of the politician seemed suspicious. During their investigation, they found out that the guy had scrapped a brand new car. Moreover, the witness who testified to his alibi was a member of the underworld with whom the politician worked under the records.

Mato asked the police to investigate properly. But it was futile. The police told him that they could not pursue the politician’s son any further unless Mato could destroy his alibi.

(T/N: Destroying the alibi usually means providing the proof that the person who provided the alibi was telling a lie.)

Mato concluded that the politician’s son must be the culprit. So, Mato tricked the politician’s son to get to a deserted place, and with the help of a stun gun, he knocked the culprit out and took him into an abandoned factory.

Mato tied him to a pillar of the factory with a rope and interrogated him. With a little threat, the politician’s son broke the silence. He confessed that he was the one who drove the car. Mato was still going to let him go to the police station and confess his crimes. But after hearing what he said next, Mato changed his mind.

“It’s not my fault. The old lady and the kid jumped in front of the car.”

That was a lie. Mato’s wife and daughter had only started to cross the pedestrian crossing when the light turned green.

At that moment, Mikio Mato lost his cool. He got so enraged that tears started flowing down his eyes and he couldn’t stop himself from punching this douchebag.

“No, stop it … It’s not my fault!”

Every time the man spoke, Mato felt like he was going crazy with rage. He punched the man again and again.

About an hour or so had passed. He was not sure what to make of it. Every time he swung his fist down, he felt intense pain. The bone in his fist had cracked. By the time Mato regained his sanity, the guy had…

He’s dead…

Mato realised that he had killed a person.

“Oh, [email protected] Did I go too far?”

Now, only despair remained in Mato’s life. He lost his family, he took revenge for his family, and now he had no idea what to do in his life. So, he decided to go to the police station and surrender himself.

On his way to the police station, the meteorite fell on his head.

In the next moment, he saw a blinding light. His spirit was knocked out of his body like a daruma doll, and his body exploded.

“Aaaahhhh…..”

The spirit, forcibly separated from the body, instinctively screamed. As there was no physical body, it was a cry of the soul.

The energy from the meteorite’s impact distorted the space around the area of impact and a dimensional barrier was manifested. The spirit that was knocked out of the body broke through the dimensional barrier and was thrown into the Ocean of Chaos, which was filled with higher dimensional energies existing in another dimension.

The “Ocean of Chaos” was a special space-time existence that had existed before the creation of our galaxy, the universe, and before the Big Bang, and it was filled with various energies.

When he realised where he was, he felt like he was in a boiling water pool. He struggled and tried to take in the power that surrounded him.

However, it was only momentarily. Mato’s soul was different from the Ocean of Chaos so it repelled the energy.

At that time, Mato’s spirit took in a lot of high-dimensional energy from the Ocean of Chaos. This energy was then transformed into evolutionary energy. The direction of the evolution was unknown, but eventually it would start to evolve with some kind of stimulus.

The destination where Mato was launched was the world called the “Playground of the Heavenly Gods”. The continent of Zamdoura was located in the northern hemisphere of the world, and Matou had appeared in the Romanus Kingdom in the southern part of the continent.

The kingdom of Romanus was ruled by the royal family of Romanus. However, in reality, it was ruled by a number of powerful families, who had received titles from the royal family according to the size of their territories, wealth, and war potential. The Duke of Octavius in the north and the Duke of Mervis in the east, who had larger territories than the royal family, were the most famous families.

When Mato regained consciousness, the first thing he noticed was that his body had disappeared.

“I… Did I die?”

In a normal world, Mato’s wandering spirit would have disappeared and become one with the Buddha. However, after absorbing the dimensional energy, it now wandered like a floating spirit.

“Oh… Is this my punishment?”

It seems that I can see well even if I become like a floating spirit. It is strange considering that I don’t have eyes.

He saw a small forest around him, with small trees having white flowers.

“Where am I?”

He was drifting, wobbling here and there. He was aware that normally the moment he realised he was dead, he’d be in a panic and would have started screaming in frenzy.

And yet, in the back of his mind, he had a strange confidence that he had managed to live.

As he wandered, he saw a small river. As Mato was looking at it, he saw a big peach floating down the river.

A thought passed through his mind. “Could this be…?”

He approached the peach and tried to carry it ashore. To his surprise, his outstretched hand went inside the big peach and came out of the other side. The hand went through just like that.

Mato had forgotten that he didn’t have a physical body.

“How to… Can I use telekinesis here?”

The hand did not work, so he tried using telekinesis to push the large peach. It really did move a little. It was surprising as he didn’t expect that telekinesis would actually work. In the middle of pushing, he realised that this was not a peach.

It looked like a child’s buttock.

“I swear I could have seen… Momotaro…”

He was not sure if it’s because he didn’t have a physical body, but he didn’t know what to think.

“If it’s not a peach, then it’s just a… It’s not good. I feel like I’m losing my dignity as a human being with every passing second.”

With the help of telekinesis, he carried the child to the shore and laid him down on the grass. He couldn’t do artificial respiration, so he tried to imitate a chest compression. He put his hand on the child’s chest and pushed with telekinesis. After a few pushes, he miscalculated the force and instead hit the child with his whole body.

His soul went inside the child. Of course, there was already someone inside. It was the soul of the original owner of the body. Unfortunately, the child’s soul, which had come into contact with the evolved soul of Mato, got absorbed.

In a strange turn of events, he took over the child’s body.

At that moment, the child’s heart started beating and the body spasmed, spitting out the water.

The moment Mato’s mind synchronized perfectly with the child’s body, he blacked out.

___________________________________

 Someone’s calling him.

“Ricardo… Ricardo, get up.”

When Mato opened his eyes, the sunlight was so bright that he got a head rush. He felt a numbing pain.

“Ugh!”

He moaned and tried to sit.

“Oh, thank God. You’re alive.”

A red-haired boy of about fifteen came into his line of sight.

“You’ve got a big day tomorrow, and yet you slipped…”

His face seems familiar. But… I don’t know any red-haired boy…

“Let’s go home, I’ll piggyback you.”

Mato was not sure why, but the boy carried him upstream. By the way, the naked butt seemed to have been hidden by the red-haired boy.

Mato remembered who the boy was. It was his oldest brother Antonio.

… that … He isn’t my brother…hmm…well, I have taken over the child’s body.

He pulled the information about the original owner of the body from his memory. The boy’s name was Ricardo, and he was from the village Unius. Most of the inhabitants of this remote village did not have a family name. Whenever they went out of the village, if necessary, they would take the name of the village, Unius, as their family name. So it seemed that he was Ricardo Unius.

He was nine years old. He was the third son of a poor family, and from tomorrow onwards he was supposed to go work for a relative who was a sorcerer.

Mato thought that it’s too early to get to work at the age of nine, but it seemed to be a common situation in this world.

Ricardo had two other siblings, a brother and a sister.

Ricardo’s memories also reminded Mato of this world. Politically, it resembled the Warring States period, and the life was similar to that of the European contemporaries. (TN: C. 475–221 BCE)

At first, he thought it was somewhere on Earth, but then he saw some walking trees in Ricardo’s memories. So, this was definitely not Earth. And when he learned that the continent was called Zamdoura, he was convinced.

The land where Ricardo lived was ruled by Viscount Fabius, in a basin surrounded by mountains, far from the sea.

The industry was divided between agriculture and forestry, and it seemed that in the off-season his father earned his daily wages by being a woodcutter.

Mato had been trying to get out of Ricardo’s body for a while now, but he couldn’t.

“I think God gave me a second chance, even though I don’t deserve it….”

At that moment, he was feeling pessimistic.

Mato was curious about the words Antonio was speaking. It was not Japanese, but he could easily understand it. It seemed that he had inherited the knowledge that the original Ricardo had.

Ricardo’s spirit absorbed by Mato had almost disappeared. However, Mato could still feel a faint existence of Ricardo left in him. If he had not been there, the boy would have certainly died, so the end result would not have changed. Still, a strong sense of guilt lingered in Mato’s mind.

“We’re almost home.”

The house was a spacious ramshackle wooden structure, but there was a cool draught. In summer it was cool, but in winter it would have been a bit… colder.

“Welcome home, what happened?”

Julia, his mother, came out of the kitchen and asked. She was a young woman in her mid-thirties, but she looked tired.

She was surprised when Antonio told her that Ricardo had slipped and fallen into the river while fishing, and was worried about Ricardo’s health.

Ricardo (who was actually Mato) said, “I am fine…” then sat down on a chair in the living room at the centre of the house to rest. He had been in a near-death situation for a long time and his body seemed to be getting weaker.

Ricardo’s father Fredrich was also in the house, having finished his weeding work. He was a serious-looking man with a stubble beard.

“Be careful. That would bother Uncle Alexander.”

Uncle Alexander seemed to be the sorcerer that Ricardo would go to work from tomorrow. Surprisingly, magic was real in this world. Mato didn’t know if it really existed because Ricardo himself didn’t have the knowledge of it.

He recalled the magic of a famous movie: a man who wielded a wand and cast spells.

In Ricardo’s father’s family, there was no one with a talent for magic. The Valerius family, the family of his mother, produced a sorcerer named Alexander, so Ricardo might have some magical talent.

Ricardo had to work outside because his father’s farm was barely big enough to support four children. As his younger siblings grew up, their appetite would only increase, and his father would not be able to support them. At that time, their mother’s younger brother, a peddler, came to visit them. The mother talked to him about her family’s financial situation and learnt that Alexander, the eldest brother, was looking for a servant. The parents consulted Uncle Alexander via the peddler uncle and it was decided that Ricardo, the middle child, would work for him, as Uncle Alexander had demanded that the boy should be young but not too young at that.

However, Ricardo was disappointed as he was not an apprentice but a mere servant.

Mato took a look at Ricardo’s family. The family was poor like in that movie. It seemed that they had no choice but to send him out to work to make ends meet. If they had another child, Mathew, their third son, would have to go out to work.

Dinner was porridge with rye bread. He was not sure if it’s really rye bread or not—it looked the same. Ricardo was able to eat it because his body was used to it, but it tasted terrible to Mato who was used to the Japanese cuisine.

From the family’s point of view, Ricardo’s behaviour must have been strange. But they brushed it aside, thinking it was because he had to leave tomorrow.

That night, Ricardo slept in a shabby bed made of straw. In the middle of the night, he heard voices and woke up to hear a woman sobbing.

“I’m sorry Ricardo… I’m sorry I’m not a good enough mother for you.”

Mato did not move and pretended to be asleep.

“I really don’t want to give up my cute little child, but I… I am sorry.”

It was Julia, his mother’s voice. It must have been a difficult decision for parents to let go of their child. The mother’s deep sadness was palpable.

The guilt of having taken over Ricardo’s body took over Mato again. I don’t know what I can do, but I will come back. And I will do my duty to my parents on Ricardo’s behalf. I’ll buy some souvenirs for my brothers and sisters.

Tears were flowing from Ricardo’s eyes. Mato was motivated to do his best for Ricardo’s family. The young Ricardo’s body seemed to repel his pessimistic mood.

The next morning he woke up, he drew water from the well and washed his face. It was a habit that had become ingrained in his body, and even when his mind seemed to be dull, he did it subconsciously.

After a short time, he was picked up. It was his uncle, Julia’s brother who was a peddler.

“Is everything ready?”

Asked the skinny peddler, whose eyes resembled those of his mother. He was all set. Ricardo only packed a few change of clothes which were wrapped in rags.

Ricardo nodded and the uncle told him to say goodbye to his family. He bid a quick farewell to his family and left the house with his uncle.The whole family came to see him off.

He did not notice it yesterday, but the village where they lived was a small village with a population of about 300 people.

It was a small village located in the middle of a mountainous area and the scenery brought sadness in him. Perhaps it was because the real Ricardo was sad to say goodbye to his family.

It took two days by carriage from the village to reach the capital of Derb, where Alexander the Sorcerer lived. But his uncle also traded while travelling, so it took them three days.

The road was maintained by Viscount Fabius, the lord of the city. Maintenance did not mean paving the road, but it referred to hunting the monsters near the road and sowing the seeds of herbs that the monsters dislike.

Thanks to this, the demon beasts didn’t come anywhere around the road. As was the case in villages, herbs that gave off odours that demons dislike were always grown in places where people lived.

The city of Derb was no exception, and herbs with such characteristic odour were grown on the outside of the city wall.

It was the first time Ricardo had seen a large city. There were three gates to the city, and they entered through the west gate. He had to prove his identity to enter, but his uncle was able to vouch for him and so, he was able to enter without any problems.

The architecture of the city was a combination of old Japanese streets and European elements. It was a wooden building with brick chimneys and doors that opened in a double door system.

The house of Alexander the Sorcerer was located near the castle of Derb, where the lord lived. The house was surrounded by a two-metre wall, and the back garden was wooded with oak trees.

He parted from the peddler uncle there.

All alone, Ricardo knocked on the gate of the house. A fat boy of about fifteen appeared from inside. He looked at Ricardo with a disgusted look, as if he was judging him.

“I’m Ricardo, Uncle Alexander’s nephew.”

The boy only snickered and let him in.

“‘My master told me about you. You are the one who will work here as a servant.”

As part of his way of life, Mato made it a point to be polite to everyone, even children. So he treated the boy, who seemed to be a resident here, politely.

“Yes, that’s right.”

“I’m Massimo, an apprentice. You’ll be sleeping in the attic.”

It’s a two-story, triangular-roofed house with a storage room in the attic. There was also a futon in the attic.

“Your job will be to clean the rooms on the ground floor and do a few other chores. Upstairs are the master’s bedroom, his study, and my room, so don’t go in there.”

Massimo, the apprentice, seemed to be a bit of a pompous prick. Ricardo thought that it would be annoying to be treated like this by a kid, but strangely enough, it didn’t arouse any hard feelings.

The young body of a nine-year-old might be affecting his mind.

“Yes… And  what about the meals?”

“When the clock on the ground floor points to the sixth hour in the daytime and ninth hour in the evening time. You can come to the dining room on the ground floor at that time.”

The day in this world was divided into twelve parts, each part being roughly two hours. In the Japanese sense, meals were to be served in the afternoon and around six o’clock in the evening. Breakfast was not served in the house as the master only drank amyl tea.

Alexander, the owner of the house, was very busy and rarely came home from the castle. He taught magic to the Viscount’s eldest son, who was a sorcerer.

Ricardo first met Alexander three days after he started working at his residence, when he returned home after a long time.

He looked to be around fifty years old and was a small, stout man. His face was kind, but his eyes were sharp. His hair was red with a hint of grey. Many people in this country had red hair. Ricardo himself was a redhead.

He was dressed in a light tunic and trousers because he did not want to wear a robe in summer heat. The only difference between him and most people was that he had three belt pouches on his waistband.

“Are you Ricardo?”

“Yes, Master.”

“My sister asked me to hire you, but if you slack off, I’ll beat you to death.”

“I’ll do my best.”

“Do you have any requests?”

Alexander asked, probably because he was his nephew. Ricardo saw an opportunity. He did not want to work as a servant.

“I would like to be able to read and write.”

The sorcerer’s face twitched for the first time. His nephew, who lived in the countryside, had interest in literacy. It was the first time Alexander had seen his nephew properly.

He called his pupil Massimo and ordered him to teach Ricardo to write.

“Oh, Dad, it’s too troublesome.”

Ricardo was surprised by Massimo’s words. Turns out he was Alexander’s child.

“Ricardo is your cousin. You should teach him that.”

“Oh well, I can’t help it.”

“Thank you very much.”

After this, Ricardo learnt that Massimo was Alexander’s child, not the child of his wife but the child of his mistress. When he took Massimo as his apprentice, Alexander’s wife was furious and left him. He had no children with his wife, which might have made her even angrier.

From that day on, Ricardo began to learn how to write. Massimo was not a very good teacher. He taught him the Jorja script, the standard script of the kingdom, in a way that made him sound like he had never done before.

The Jorja script was phonetic, similar to the alphabet. Massimo showed him how to read the letters and spell some basic words, and then gave him a large dictionary to look at and learn from. With this kind of teaching, it would normally be impossible to learn the letters. But for Ricardo, who had the understanding of an adult, it was enough.

In the early hours of the morning, he would draw water from the well, clean the house, and pull weeds from the garden. It was summer, and it was very hard to work in the middle of the boiling heat.

After eating dinner, he bathed in the well.

After refreshing himself, Ricardo started his studies. The wages he received for his work as a servant were little more than pocket money, so he could not buy paper or writing materials. Ricardo found a board in the attic and started practising writing on it with a feather he had found. He had no ink, so he only used water to write on the board repeatedly.

The sun soon went down and he was unable to see the letters in his hand. Luckily, there was an unused sap lamp in the attic, so he took it out and used it.

The lamp was made of hardened sap from a luminous tree. The hardened sap had a special function. In air it absorbed and stored light, and in water it released the stored light.

This was why the sap lamp was designed to hold a lump of sap in a small tank.

After about ten days, he understood how to write and could read simple sentences. Within a month, he had memorised all the words in the dictionary and could read any text with ease.

Ricardo himself was surprised by this, as it was a feat that would have been impossible for the bad teacher, Mato, to achieve. Ricardo was not aware that his mind, which had absorbed higher dimensional energy, had now a higher potential as well as better memory.