The first thing I saw after being shot was a bright light. I was alone in a hazy, radiant world.
My body felt incredibly heavy, and there was nothing I could do by myself. My entire routine was being swept up in incomprehensible sounds coming from all around me, day after day.
About a month later, I began to understand my situation.
……
I could now see and hear.
In this new world I first became aware of, I had small hands. Tiny hands that I couldn’t even move freely.
“Wah.”
There was no doubt about it—these were a baby’s hands. And as if to confirm that, a baby’s cry came out of my mouth.
Seeing that, I had no choice but to accept the truth.
I was no longer the scientist who had studied spirits.
I had been reborn in a new world.
By the time I turned one, I could understand “words.” No, perhaps it’s more accurate to say I had awakened to them.
During that year, most of my time was spent sleeping. While awake, I listened to conversations and looked at letters all day long.
The person who often spoke to me was a young man with platinum blond hair. His golden eyes contrasted sharply with his hair, and the first thought I had when I saw them was, “They’re beautiful.”
I wasn’t trying to judge the man’s appearance, but the radiant brilliance of his golden eyes was reminiscent of topaz.
Setting aside his looks for now, from the moment I became conscious, he emphasized certain words when speaking to me.
I began to understand the meaning of those words after about a week. It would’ve been foolish not to, with the same situation repeating for days.
The word the man used to refer to himself was “Dad.”
And the word he used for me was my new name, “Yunia.”
The moment I grasped my new name, a question immediately arose in my mind.
“Isn’t this name too feminine?”
As soon as that thought occurred, I checked my current state.
Of course, my suspicion was correct.
The “Yunia” I had been reborn as was a girl.
I was so shocked by the change in my gender that I spent some time staring blankly at the sky.
While academic passion has nothing to do with one’s gender, I couldn’t deny that something felt off.
It’s been three years since I was reincarnated into Yunia’s body.
Now that I had grown a little and become relatively calm, my father, Polton Reynant, often left the TV on and stepped out of the room.
Thanks to Polton’s frequent muttering and the TV being left on, I was able to fully grasp the language and letters.
I also learned his name—Polton Reynant—from reading his business card during that time.
“Hmmm, so things like that happen, huh?”
News, documentaries, current affairs programs, and educational cartoons for children— the TV broadcasted a wide variety of shows every day.
The childish content that I would have never watched in my previous life was now surprisingly useful to me.
Not only did I learn the language, but I also began to understand the general characteristics of this world and how people lived. Thanks to the TV, the world I was learning about became quite fascinating.
This world had an environment very similar to the Earth I once lived on. It had advanced technology like TVs and computers, and the lifestyle was mostly modern. However, unlike Earth, this world had spirits and a Spirit Realm. Spiritists, who had formed contracts with powerful spirits, were often featured on TV, held up as national heroes.
There were also researchers who studied spirits, known as spirit scholars.
To someone like me, who had devoted his entire life to spirit engineering, this world was heaven.
However, for those from Earth, this place would likely seem like hell.
This world was called “Eustonia,” one of the eight worlds that had continuously clashed with Earth, causing erosion between the two realms.
“Interesting.”
But for me, this was an opportunity. The knowledge I accumulated about spirits in my previous life was still valid here.
Eustonia is a world where Spiritists, who form contracts with spirits, are highly valued as military assets. There are even specialized educational institutions designed to train these Spiritists, along with countless research institutes focused on supporting Spiritists and their spirits.
Moreover, in my previous life, I was a leading researcher in spirit engineering, standing at the top of my field on Earth.
In Eustonia, it was highly likely that I could live a well-regarded life, no matter where I ended up.
“What should I do now?”
I mulled over my future while fidgeting with the business card in my hand.
I was still too short to reach the desk, so I had picked up Polton’s card from the floor.
Polton Reynant, Spirit Scholar.
The business card glimmered smoothly under the light.
“Yunia! Are you ready to see Daddy’s lab?”
I thought that as long as I had my passion for spirit engineering, being born in Yunia’s body wouldn’t be much of a problem.
But there was one truth I had overlooked.
The body I had been reincarnated into was extremely fragile and weak.
“Daddy, you’re shaking me. Hold me properly.”
“Oh, s-sorry, sweetheart.”
Yunia Reynant, age five.
I was the small girl being carried by the 32-year-old Polton Reynant, a doctor of ancient spirit studies struggling to balance raising his only daughter and working in his lab.
Unfortunately, I had been born with a body far more frail than I had imagined.
Though I didn’t have any severe illnesses, I was prone to breaking bones, getting hurt easily, and falling seriously ill from even a simple cold, often bedridden for several days.
Typically, a strong, healthy adult male body is best suited to handle the magical waves released by powerful spirits or the strain of multi-spirit contracts.
Thus, Yunia Reynant’s aptitude for becoming a top-tier Spiritist was far from ideal.
But that didn’t mean I had completely given up on my dream of spirit engineering.
Even now, I was pestering Polton, urging him to take me to his lab.
“Are we there yet?”
As I tried to maintain my distance from Polton’s rough beard while balancing myself, we soon arrived at his underground lab. Polton carefully set me down on the floor.
In front of us stood a pair of smooth, gleaming white iron doors.
With a confident expression, Polton opened the doors to the lab and said to me,
“Here it is. This is Daddy’s lab.”
“Woooow…!”
The moment Polton opened the doors, I let out a cheer.
Even though I’d lived long enough to be unaffected by most things, the sight of countless glowing spirit stones all around was enough to shock even me in my past life.
On Earth, a single tiny fragment of a spirit stone would cost millions, and even then, it was nearly impossible to get one. But here, in Eustonia—probably because the place itself was a source of spirit stones—Polton’s lab was filled with a staggering number of them on display.
Seeing my reaction, Polton seemed delighted and ruffled my hair with a satisfied grin.
“Haha! Looks like you like Daddy’s lab, Yunia!”
Polton had hesitated for a long time when I kept pestering him to take me to his lab. I certainly hadn’t expected to find a facility like this hidden away.
Nodding in response to his question, I answered,
“Well, I’m a researcher too.”
“Yes, yes, when Yunia grows up, she’ll become a great spirit scholar like Daddy.”
Hearing that, I involuntarily puffed my cheeks and glared at Polton. He flinched at my stare and took a step back.
At the moment, I was just a five-year-old girl with striking golden eyes, a small figure that didn’t exactly give off an air of authority. Given my appearance, it was no surprise I’d be dismissed even if I told the truth.
But if I started showing something impressive from now on, maybe Polton’s attitude would change.
Looking around, I spotted a stack of papers on the desk.
“What’s this?”
“These are the materials I’ve been researching lately. You can take a look, but be careful not to lose them.”
Surprisingly, Polton handed me his research without much hesitation.
I had a good guess as to why.
He probably wanted to show off his excellent research results to his daughter, even if I couldn’t understand them.
To live up to that expectation, I began flipping through the pages, reading them one by one.
The research was about the creation spirit, Ilerion, and the birth of the primordial spirits.
As expected from Eustonia’s spirit research, the content was quite unique, especially in the field of ancient spirit studies, which didn’t exist on Earth.
The gist of it was that in the beginning, there was a single spirit that created the world, and that spirit was the creation spirit, Ilerion.
After completing the act of creation, Ilerion gradually lost power and eventually vanished. However, traces of this spirit could still be found in the evolution patterns of spirits, folklore passed down among the people, and the magical wavelengths of spirit stones scattered across the world.
As a scholar, I found the hypothesis incredibly fascinating.
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