Chapter 8: The Afterlife

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I regained consciousness.

It seemed I was still alive.

I didn’t feel any pain in my stomach. Maybe the anesthesia from the surgery was still working?

When I opened my eyes, everything was white. At first, I thought my vision hadn’t returned, but that wasn’t it. The ceiling, the walls, even the floor—everything was white, and it was messing with my sense of depth.

I couldn’t tell if I was standing on a floor or floating. The sensation was unsettling.

Around me, my classmates were standing, all looking as confused as I was.

"Welcome, reincarnators!"

"?!"

A voice suddenly rang out, and when I turned around, I saw three people I had never seen before.

One was an incredibly beautiful woman with blonde hair and blue eyes. Another was a handsome man with brown hair, holding a spear. The last one was a red-haired woman with a gentle smile.

These three were clearly not human. Each had white wings and a glowing halo above their heads. They looked exactly like angels.

"You have been summoned as heroes to our world, Forstadia."

The blonde beauty declared this in a dignified voice, and then a counter appeared. The red-haired woman sat down in a chair.

"What are you planning to do with us?"

It was Yuuta Sagami speaking.

He was rich, handsome, smart, and the ace of the soccer team. God had blessed him with not just two, but four gifts. He was the kind of student who had everything I didn’t.

"We are the overseers of worlds. You could call us gods. You all died in an accident on Fastcloud—what you call Earth. Therefore, you will be reincarnated as heroes in Forstadia."

The blonde angel explained fluently, without missing a beat, and it became clear: I had died in that bus accident after all.

And now, it seemed that the three people in front of us—no, the three deities—had decided to summon us as heroes to the world they governed.

It was a reincarnation to another world, but since it was a summoning, would we be summoned in these same bodies? If we were starting as babies, could we live our lives over again?

"You have died on Fastcloud, so returning to your original world is impossible. Even if you refuse, the reincarnation will proceed. If you don’t want to live in Forstadia, you’re free to kill yourselves. Although, with monsters and demon tribes around, you might get killed before that."

The blonde goddess wore a wicked smile.

I had seen people with that kind of expression in Japan—or rather, in the country where I lived, which the goddess called Fastcloud.

People like my parents, and even some of my classmates here. They were the kind who looked down on me and attacked me for no reason—whether through physical violence or psychological cruelty.

The classmates listening to the blonde goddess’s explanation turned pale.

"Reincarnated into another world? What’s going to happen to us?"

"Am I really going to become a hero!?"

"Will we never see our parents again?"

The murmurs among my classmates grew louder.

The gods didn’t seem to care about their anxiety at all.

"We will now bestow blessings upon you. Please form a line."

Despite the red-haired goddess’s instructions, the class was still in disarray, unsure of what to do.

Suddenly, the handsome god shouted for us to line up.

His sheer intensity caused a few students to collapse in fear.

"Hurry up and line up, or you’ll be sent without a blessing."

Startled by the red-haired goddess’s words, the classmates rushed to form a line.

I also lined up, but then I was roughly shoved aside and pushed out of the line.

"You go to the back of the line, you parentless scum. This is my spot."

"..."

The thug was Ken Ishiba.

He was the ace of the karate club but had a violent temper and had caused several problems in the past. However, because his parents were politicians, those issues were always swept under the rug, allowing him to stay in school.

I quietly moved to the very back of the line.

I didn’t want to cause trouble. I’d always lived that way—crushing my feelings was something I had become good at.