Compensation θ ~ I might be late for reincarnation, but since I was born as the talented eldest son of a prestigious noble, I might be on the winning side.

Hey! What’s this?

The three books in my hands had a very bizarre titles.

‘Beast Tamer: Peach Boy and Three Magical Beasts’

‘Bear Cavalry: Gold Time and the Golden Axe’

‘Turtle Knight: Bay Island Visits the Sea Palace’

Suppressing my internal turmoil, I started flipping through the books one by one. It’s a quick read, but the content was generally as expected.

Peach Boy was born from a big peach floating down the river. Gold Time grows up in the Galaga Mountains of the Arshi Kingdom, and Bay Island opens a forbidden box at the end of the story and becomes an old man with a white beard.

Yeah, this is way too blatantly obvious, seriously.

Besides the half-hearted English translation-style names, the titles have also been changed to resemble a modern children’s book. Only people who grew up reading Japanese folktales or translation-based children’s books in Japan could pull off such an arrangement.

Is it possible that it is one of my classmates?

Naturally, yes. However, it bothered me that the first series was published seven years ago.

If they were born without language cheats like me, it would mean a baby who doesn’t know this world language provided the material for the book.

That’s just impossible. So, maybe it’s more natural to think of reincarnators from a different group than us.

But, back then… I was the only one who left behind.

My classmates jumping into the gate one after another, and left me stranded in that dark space. There was a long time gap until I went through a gate.

My sense of time was completely numb, so I don’t really know how much time I wasted in that dark place. There was no hunger or thirst. Whether it was simply because time hadn’t passed or the space suppressed physical desires, I don’t know.

Are my classmate really the same age as me?

I’ve been thinking about that for a while. Because I felt uncomfortable with the cultures that originated from Earth that I sometimes encountered.

For example, Pamir Mart, a descendant of the founder of a Southern cuisine. Replicating modern Japanese food culture, but in this world, the founder was someone from many generations ago.

Is there a time gap between Earth and this world? Or the deviation caused by reincarnation?

But still, the author of this book is too reckless. Too conspicuous.

Publishing books that openly admit to being reincarnators one after another. Is there no sense of danger? or maybe, looking at it from a different perspective, it’s bait to lure in other reincarnators, a trap perhaps?

I continued flipping through the books casually.

The color print illustrations are well done. Is it using woodblock printing for the texture? I’ve never seen letterpress printing, and silk screen printing is probably impossible for this era.

My eyes lingered on one of the illustrations.

The Turtle Knight, Bay Island, riding a big turtle to visit an underwater palace, being warmly welcomed.

When I skimmed through it, I thought it was a beautiful picture, but looking closely, I found something intriguing.

The most eye-catching is the blue fan-shaped waves that resemble Qinghai Waves.

The regularly stacked, alternating ripples should represent the repeated motion of waves hitting the shore.

There are sea creatures playing on that pattern, women in Oriental costumes dancing, and flowers blooming in the background, decorating them.

“This is too deliberate.”

The five petals are dyed in a light pink color, each shaped like a heart.

“Sakura.”

The flower most suitable for evoking Japanese nostalgia. In spring, everyone gathers under the full-bloomed branches.

“In the beautiful coral flowers, 63 red fish, 53 white fish, and 76 rainbow-colored young fish are dancing in a group.

Not to be outdone, 66 shellfish ring a bell, 13 turtles beat drums of various sizes, and 33 shrimp play the harp.”

The accompanying text stands out with a series of numbers. Come to think of it, the summary of  ‘Sword and Flute Hero Moyan Circle’ that I read earlier was like that too.

“Please bring this book to the bedroom.”

“Do you want to take a nap?”

“Yeah. I feel like taking a short break.”

With something on my mind, I moved to the bedroom. I wanted to be alone.

Under the pretext of taking a nap, I obediently changed into pajamas and waited until I couldn’t feel anyone’s presence.

It’s time.

I opened one of the closed curtains for some light.

I opened the book on the writing desk, took out writing tools and paper, and began creating a table relying on vague memories.

“Anddd done. Let’s start with the Turtle Knight.”

I compared the numbers transcribed from the book with my own table.

“63 53 76 66 13 33.”

63 can be converted to ‘ki’ or ‘ne’, if the vertical and horizontal are reversed. 53 is “ke” or “tsu.”

Yeah, yeah! It seems to make sense. This might be a hit.

And when all the numbers are deciphered, it becomes like this.

“Ki Ke N Mi Ba Re” or “Ne Tsu Shi Mi Yo Re.”

I rewrote this to make sense.

“Ki Ke N Mi Ba Re” = “Danger, Beware”

“Ne Tsu Shi Mi Yo Re” = “Heat Stain Twist”

Well, probably the former. The latter is like “Be careful When Ironing,” which would be strange for a cipher.

If, however… “Beware” is the correct answer, and it points to the fact of being a reincarnator.

I have to seriously think about the author of this book. Because it’s strange.