《They say the Reincarnators messed up the Battle Otome Game》
Who ever heard of Shellycoats? (1)
Who ever heard of Shellycoats? (1)
Shellycoats are considered to be relatively harmless; they may mislead wanderers, particularly those they think are trespassing upon the creature''s territory, but without malice. A common tactic of a shellycoat would be to cry out as if drowning and then laugh at the distracted victim.
The butterflies on the flowers the likes of which she had never seen before were larger than her hands, though whether her hands were simply too small, her race was too short or the butterflies were too large was up to debate. Certainly, the insects were rather large, but then there was the fact that she was still a child. Shellycoats had never been a large race, those of the fairy kind that could neither claim oceans nor forests nor meadows nor even the dark earth or the mountains for themselves.
Thus, the young Shellycoat lady sat at the mouth if the great river and admired the flower fairies'' garden with a smile. Nobody would mind her, after all, she was a Shellycoat. Her home was the border between water and land, so as her kind left little gifts as a thank you for every visit and never destroyed anything or fought anyone the little lady had yet to experience an occasion where anyone would have minded her presence.
Young as her apparent age was, her nanny was never far and thus, the little lady was soon called away to be given a lecture on the mysteries of morning mist and the life of their beloved shells and fish.
The little lady was not as she seemed, though what she had learned in her previous life held no relation to her current one and thus every day was new. A human student working on her thesis, taking courses in math, economy and agriculture along with some biology aiming to optimize her country''s agricultural development in a time of climate change held nothing at all in common with a Shellycoat, a fairy kind she had never even heard about before she woke up in a shell, fully formed if tiny, in a game like world at that.
With a shy smile towards the flowers, she jumped back into the river and swam with her nanny, out to the place where high cliffs met wild ocean as the water calmed before them to allow them safe passage.
Into the caves under the ocean and into the cliffs they went, past rows and rows of shells gently opening and closing just a little bit while schools of fish flitted past. Glowing fish and plants lit their way and the little lady thanked them by sending a bit of her life power and mana their way, pleasing the nanny. As the little Shellycoat got her head rubbed they arrived in yet another part of the cave system, where one of her teachers was already waiting. Her lessons were held only for her as her past life had given her an advantage in intelligence, wisdom and certain skills. But in the eternal life of a Shellycoat this was merely a small advantage, a starting point just a tiny little bit more advanced. But as she would remain a mere child for a thousand years, then become a youngling for the next 9.000 and finally an adult at the age of 10.000 with no other children within 500 years of her own age none of that mattered. What were 25 years to even a slightly older child of her new race? The little lady had been a Shellycoat for 258 years and studied all water and many kinds of magic for just as many years. By this point, her human past was nothing but a distant memory, her percieved maturity the illusion only one of very few years could take seriously. Maturity was wisdom and wisdom came with great age.
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The young Shellycoat gazed at her teacher with eyes full of expectation, but her teacher only smiled at her tiredly before he opened his palms and allowed an image to form, an image of a great wave crashing into open land. The image changed, rising up to a bird''s eye view, revealing a new mass of land in the ocean. Time appeared to pass, green covered the desolate mass of rock, before finally darker green, blue rivers and lakes and finally vast jungles seemed to form.
Confused, the young Shellycoat looked at her teacher.
"The gods have created new land for all to live in peace. To settle there, the leaders of the future have been called to go to a great school built for all races."
"We have no leaders, only wise ones." The little lady''s voice was like little waves meeting the edge of a river where her teacher''s had been like a quiet stream deep under the surface of a great lake. Even their voices could let one guess a Shellycoat''s age.
Gently, the teacher nodded, but his words remained firm. "We were asked to send children and younglings so that the other races may know us from their youth. As we have very few, all will go, though it is only for a few years. The younglings will go for three to ten years while the youngest children of at least 5 years need to stay between thirteen and twenty years. As you are our youngest you will stay with the other races'' offspring from the first year at that school." The image of a vast complex appeared within his hands, showing buildings and rooms that reminded the young Shellycoat of her other life. Classrooms, clubs and sports fields, lakes and mountains, huge trees and houses of all kinds for each race. "Teach them well of what it means to be of our kind, but be open to their ways. It will be an experience many of us were never given."
"And every experience brings a seed of wisdom." The words were spoken gently in her plinking voice. It had been her very first lesson.
Even so, inside of her, there was a voice from the past, wondering idly just what an extravagant otome game''s setting was doing in her world.
A Gathering of Players
Allan the Duende
The game had never been all that interesting, but to be reborn as a minor side character she only remembered because she never managed to keep the guy alive through the one escort quest he gave left her speechless. Yes, she had always been a tomboy with a love for reincarnation stories and otome games, but why did she have to take over the body of a 5 year old, very girly, little boy? Weren''t reincarnators supposed to wake as babies? Or maybe even in the womb? If that had been the case she would have turned herself into a super OP magician by the time she was sent off to the great academy.
But no, she got the tiny one with no special skills. None at all, to be precise. For the maybe fiftieth time during her boring coach ride she checked her stats. They hadn''t changed. She was a maybe one foot tall boy who belonged to some obscure race called Duende she had never heard of, but it appeared to be some kind of fairy thing that bound itself to a place and then tried to keep that place pristine and beautiful. Which absolutely didn''t suit her in any way. And her stats were about what she had expected of that useless side character.
| Name | Allan of the Green Dale | Race | Duende |
| Age | 5 | Social Rank | 3 |
| Stats |
| Intelligence | 116 | Strength | 2 |
| Memory | 27% | Flexibility | 7 |
| Versatility | 31 | Speed | 5 |
| Wisdom | 18 | Vitality | 2 |
| Talents |
| Artistic | 3 | Physical | 6 |
| Mathematic | 2 | Battle | 9 |
| Academic | 6 | Magic | 3 |
The coach rattled on as she stared at the window, sighing heavily. She had okay talent for battle and with a lot of work would become a pretty good fighter, but what was a race that only grew to about three feet good for? Certainly not warriors.
Increasingly frustrated, she started kicking the empty bench opposite her. Not even the boy''s parents had been willing to accompany her on the long way to the new school. Not because they were unfeeling, but because they were literally bound to their home. If she had woken up ten years later she likely would have been slave to some building, unable to ever leave that place. Still, what else was a Duende good for?
Her intelligence, like before, was somewhat above average, as was her academic talent. So either the tiniest, most frail warrior of all time or an average scholar as they called anyone with a bit of proper education in this world.
Her tiny feet kicked harder and the fact that her legs neither reached the floor nor the other bench only increased her frustration. She so wanted to be a super powerful mage, but with this boy''s magical talent there was no hope whatsoever. Her little fist punched the seat she sat on.
Weren''t fairies supposed to be magical powerhouses? Or at least magical?
"It''s not even a good game..." She mumbled unhappily. With the main selling point being an AI that was pointlessly open to any uselessly realistic love relationship with absolutely every character in the whole game and the specialty of the Battle simulations being the absence of super fast healing it was no miracle that it was not a mainstream game. She clearly remembered trying to play with her real appearance and the prince she got pretty easily the first time with her copy of some super mode?''s appearance just looked at her like she was a bug and then the idiotic AI had the prince''s guards lie in wait to keep her away. With her being a boy now she coldn''t even try going a princess route.
Suddenly, that thought stuck with her.
Why had she tried that escort mission about two hundred times in the first place?
Obviously because the boy, tiny as he was, looked hot. And she had always been a bit into boy''s love.
Her tongue ran over her plump little kids'' lips. Maybe she could go the seducer route?
She pulled the status page up again.
| Name | Allan of the Green Dale | Race | Duende |
| Age | 5 | Social Rank | 3 |
| Stats |
| Intelligence | 116 | Strength | 2 |
| Memory | 27% | Flexibility | 7 |
| Versatility | 31 | Speed | 5 |
| Wisdom | 18 | Vitality | 2 |
| Talents |
| Artistic | 3 | Physical | 6 |
| Mathematic | 2 | Battle | 9 |
| Academic | 6 | Magic | 3 |
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
She...He was frail, flexible and pretty...and aside from the lack of strength that didn''t offer any hope for the future his body was flexible and, despite having spent all his five years inddors he had a speed of 5. Quick and flexible, if not battle then...maybe acrobatics? Nah, boring...maybe dancing. She had always loved watching sword dances.
The little boy''s eyes started twinkling. He would become this world''s most amazing sword dancer!
The little boy stopped kicking and hitting the inside of the coach as he sat, deep in thought, not a hint of frustration to be seen in his posture and expression.
A few seconds later he slid to the floor of the coach and started stretching. If he ever wanted to be someone great he had to start as soon as possible and five sounded like a good age to start giving his best.
Sera
Sera pulled her legs up as she sat in the huge entrance hall, too overwhelmed to speak or try to find anyone to tell her where to go. Her large eyes flitted back and forth, trying to find a familiar face but failling. She should have expected as much, but she hadn''t really thought about things much before she arrived. Everything had always been decided for her, be it her last life or her present one. Not that a four year old human girl in the body and with the memories of a five year old Changeling child that had been rejected by the family it had been exchanged into from the beginning could be expected to act. Anyone could see as much, but the little girl sitting in the entrance hall made of white marble, with ceilings fourty feet high and a dome that went even farther up looked so tiny as she sat in a corner of the huge hall by herself that common sense did not matter much.
Outside, the first rays of the rising sun kissed the rare clouds, painting the sky blue and pink and orange while cocks sang their not very pretty song, waking the servants and anyone else who had already arrived in this new city that called itself a school. Only very few of those people were students and the students who had arrived were older, children of retainers preparing everything for the arrival of the offspring of those their parents served.
Sera sat inside the hall, looking down at her dirty feet and at the pristine envelope she had been given. The letter, not-her-parents had told her, explaining that she who had replaced their true child would thus replace their children so far away from them. And advised the staff to keep her during vacations, too. Or at least they had told her that this was what the letter said. Sera herself suspected that it was full of what not-her-father called polite words.
After what seemed to be an eternity loud footsteps echoed through the hall, walking from one end to the other while Sera watched from the corner. Almost she went unnoticed, but then the steps slowed and the young man looked around, his large furry ears turning here and there until the turned towards her. His gaze followed soon after and then he went towards her corner.
Sera watched, the letter held protectively against her chest as the strange male that looked like a ball of fuzzy fur with adorable round ears went towards her. In front of her he bowed down, his foreign visage giving a gentle impression.
"Good Morning, little one. You''re quite early." Chuckling, he took her under her arms and lifted her to her feet. "It must be cold down there on the stone floor. Come with me to the mess hall for breakfast first, all right? And then you''ll tell me what an adorable little girl like you is doing all by herself in the entrance hall."