I was standing in front of my window, watching everything being washed by rain. It has been raining since early in the morning.

 

I pulled a card from my pocket. It contained my personal information.

 

It was a card from the newly established Adventurer’s Guild. I had registered earlier in the morning.

 

The card only has some basic information about me. My name, my age, my race, my height and my weight.

 

I guess it is a good opportunity to introduce myself…

 

My name is Raul. Well… That used to be my name in my former life. My current name is Erlan Aerieth, son of the Count and Countess Aerieth.

 

I used to be from Earth, from South America to be precise. I lost my life there when I was suddenly hit by a truck while I was crossing the street.

 

I was then reborn as Erlan Aerieth, the heir of House Aerieth. I was born in the Great City of Aerelieth. A city founded by my ancestors.

 

“How nostalgic…” I said while listening to the sounds that rain was making.

 

At first, I thought that the place where I was born was very strange… The Great City of Aerelieth, my place of birth, is located on top of a small floating island.

 

Yes, you heard that correctly. There’s countless more islands just like the one where my home city is located.

 

We call this group of islands, the Sky Archipelago.

 

Thanks to my upbringing, I was able to learn a lot about my new world and home.

 

A Queen rules over the whole Archipelago. Her identity is kept as an absolute secret and only a bunch of people have direct contact with her. Even my father, who has a good reputation amongst the nobility, has not met her. Despite not knowing who our ruler is, the laws and her government are fair with the common citizens. There’s still crime and poverty, but most common people can have a comfortable life.

 

I walked towards my favourite couch and took a seat. I then took a sip of my favourite tea.

 

“Lovely.” I said after tasting the tea.

 

I placed the cup on top of a small plate. The small plate used a special spell to keep the tea warm.

 

I forgot to mention this, but this world has both magic and steampunk technology. There’s guns and electricity too, but magic is considered superior. Only a low percentage of the population is able to use magic. Despite that fact, there’s still a lot of useful magical appliances. 

 

The small plate that heats my cup is one of them. It is one of the specialties of our city…

 

Just as I was thinking of the usefulness of these magic tools, there was a knock on the door.

 

“Come in.” I said while looking outside through the window.

 

The door was opened. I turned my head to see who came into the room, only to find out that it was one of the maids of our estate. My personal maid, to be precise.

 

“Young master, I have brought the initial reports, just like you and the master asked for.” She said after elegantly bowing to me.

 

Her name is Katia. She’s an elf, just like me. She has long red blazing hair, charming yellow eyes and pointy ears. She’s always wearing a maid outfit with white stockings. She’s 1.80 meters tall.

 

Katia then approached me with a few documents in hand.

 

I stood up and received the documents from her. I immediately started reading in order to get the information that I wanted.

 

After a full minute or so, I had determined that everything in these documents was bad news...

 

“So there’s no sign of the White Mare, the Rose of the Desert , and the Flowing river…” I said with a dejected tone.

 

Those are the names of the fastest and the most important ships of our territory. Or at least, those used to be their names… Before the Archipelago was taken into the new world, those ships had just sailed on their usual trade journeys…

 

The documents in my hand are reports that no one has spotted those ships...

 

“This loss will heavily affect our economy and our ways of transport… Now that the teleportation circles are no longer working, we will have to start producing new ships if we want to save our economy…” I said while still analyzing the outcomes of this grave loss.

 

While I was thinking of the economic disaster, my forehead was suddenly flicked by Katia...

 

“Owww! Why!?” I started rubbing my forehead…

 

Katia simply smiled warmly at me. She then started patting my head.

 

“Erli, you shouldn’t worry about that! That’s your father’s problem to fix! You should be having fun and preparing for our great adventure! We registered at the Adventurer’s guild today for that single reason, right? You must focus on our adventure! Leave these troublesome matters to the adults!” She said while smiling from ear to ear.

 

“Katia… Stop treating me like a kid!” I said with annoyance.

 

“Well, pouting like that will not help you with that, Erli!” Katia said with an amused expression.

 

Ugh… There’s something extremely unfortunate about my reincarnation… Sigh…

 

You see, my mother and my father are both very tall. My mother is 1,70 meters tall and my father is 2 meters tall.

 

Me…?

 

That’s the unfortunate thing… Thanks to a recessive trait that I inherited from my paternal great grandma who married a dwarf, I, Erlan Aerieth, am 1.43 meters tall… I also weigh less than 50 kilograms and I seem to have a delicate complexion…

 

It is something extremely unfortunate that I was the only one to inherit that trait… All of my younger siblings are taller than me…

 

Sigh…

 

“Erli, don’t look at me with that cute expression!” Katia said with an overly dramatic tone.

 

These particular traits of mine have made my second life really difficult and very enjoyable…

 

I have been bullied because of my height before, the other noble boys were extremely despicable when it came to making fun of my height and complexion…

 

On the other hand, these particular traits have made me extremely popular with noble girls. In their words, I’m extremely “Cute”, so “Adorable” and “Huggable”...

 

So not everything was bad because of that. I met some interesting people and made some good friends out of it.

 

“Katia… You really act extremely overly familiar with your employer…” I said to her with annoyance.

 

“Ah! C’mon! Don’t tell me that you don’t like it!” She then grabbed me and lifted me in the air…

 

Sigh… She’s not wrong… 

 

This has been an usual occurrence for the last twenty years of my life. For the record, I am twenty years old. Katia has been one of my caretakers ever since I was born.

 

That’s the reason why she’s so overly familiar with me, even though I’m the future heir of the family…

 

“So? When are we departing?” She asked with a smile.

 

“Tomorrow morning. I want to wait in order to make sure that no one will follow us. Hopefully, we will discover some new lands tomorrow!” I said with excitement.

 

“Cute!” Katia started rubbing her cheek against my own.

 

Sigh… This is also not a new occurrence… This is something that regularly happens when we are alone…

 

“Let’s have a fun adventure, Erli! Let’s have the time of our lives!” She was even more excited than I was.

 

“Yeah! I can’t wait to see things that no one from the Archipelago has seen before!”

 

To be honest, I was not planning on becoming an adventurer… I was overpowered by a strange feeling and I registered on a whim… I think it was one of the best decisions I have made so far.

 

Katia also had to register as an adventurer in order to come with me. That was my father's order…

 

He would only agree to me becoming an adventurer if Katia came with me…

 

Jeez… He’s also treating me like a kid despite all the things he taught me…

 

I might look like a wimp, but this wimp can defend himself! I am an adult who can properly take care of himself!

 

“Erli, have you packed your underwear yet? No? Then let me do it for you!” Katia quickly placed me on the ground and ran towards my closet.

 

“Stop right there, you pervert! I will use my magic to electrocute you if you touch that closet! This time I mean it, Katia!” I shouted.

 

“I’ll take my chances!” She replied with a happy-go-lucky attitude.

 

“You asked for this! [Thunder]!” A spear made of electricity was shot from my hand.

 

Katia dodged my attack with ease and then looked at me proudly. She then stuck out her tongue.

 

“Hehehe! It looks like you won’t be able to prevent me from touching this closet!” She said smugly.

 

“Come back here! Do not touch that!” I screamed at her.

 

“Nope!” She didn’t listen to me.

 

I continued to shoot magic at her and she simply dodged my attacks skillfully… It didn’t take long for the two of us to get bored of that silly game.

 

We were very excited about our adventure, so we almost ended up talking all night long...