001 Prologue ～ Reincarnated Poor Noble

 

I wonder if God exists…

The concern of many philosophers, the obsession of theologians, the object of denial for scientists. Some see him as the sun. Some find his presence in nature.Some see him as the vast ocean. Some believe in the existence of a transcendental being.

And some, see God in people. As an existence loved by God, there was a person overflowing with talent.

A blessed child of God.

To people, he could become the attention of everyone’s awe or become an object of envy. He could be called a genius or become a feared existence.

Existences loved by god can exist in any realm. Be it sports or music or academia.

Even in the confectionary world.

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“So, there is only 30 minutes left. The country representatives are applying the finishing touches to the designs.”

The announcer’s cheerful voice sounded in the venue.

Having specially traveled all the way from Japan to Europe, with a sonorous voice, the announcer commentated about the state of the World Pâtissier Competition.

10 more minutes the end, till the world’s best pâtissier will be decided.

“The Japanese representative is doing his final adjustments. It seems like he has finished”

As the camera panned, the focus was on the men in white clothes. TLN
Despite it being a group of men, there was no stench.
Far from it, a sweet fragrance emanated from them. TLN

In the workshop of the Japanese representative, enshrined was a giant hard candy.
Taller than a man, the object of sweetness emanated a sense of grandeur due to being on the workbench.

Delicate, yet audacious.

Pushing the limit of technical skill, the work of art possessed a beauty to be called the best in the world.
Currently, the Japanese representative is in 2nd place.
The difference between him and the leading representative was small.
And anyone could recognize the magnificence that was this hard candy, would certainly reverse the situation.

However, the artisan’s face is not relaxed yet. It was the face of seriousness.
In this candy workmanship competition, moving from the workshop to the grading place is the most difficult part.
If it is not placed at the grading place, no matter how beautiful the work is, it will not be graded.
If you drop it in the middle of the move, everything that you have worked for will amount to nothing. TLN
In the steps of a child, the move took 5 strides.
Those 5 steps, for the Japanese representative, were the 5 most important steps.

10 steps. No, even if it were 1000 steps, as long as you could traverse it safely, there would be no regrets. TLN

“At the count of 3, lift at your designated positions. Let’s go with due care. ONE! TWO! THREE!”

The candy that was slowly raised at the shout, conveys its weight to the hands that held it. TLN
Other than the immense pressure of the barrel on the hand, there was the pressure, that in just a few moments, they would be the best in the world.
Due to the nervousness, this pressure was further magnified.

Slowly. It was carried with a deliberate slowness.

As if it was a turtle.

It was lowered slowly to the designated spot.
The long battle was finally at an end. Anyone would have thought the same.

“Aah, erasure of the previous life memories was forgotten. Oh well. It is not yet time to die.” [Random Voice]

To the new found voice, the artisan’s started to doubt his ears.

A blurred, difficult to catch, yet distinctly terrible voice remained in his ear, like the sound of bad analogue radio at high volume sounding at the base of your ear.

During such tense times, a large voice would be undoubtedly surprising.
In that instant, the work slipped from his hand.

In that situation, one would feel time to flow slowly. In front of the artisan’s eyes, the huge lump falls.

職人の目の前に倒れこんでくる巨大な塊。砂糖とは言え、大人数人がかりで運ぶ質量物が倒れてくる。TLN

The loud scream which could be heard from afar.

The head of the artisan was struck by the sugared blunt weapon. TLN
He felt something lukewarm flow from his head. In reality, just like that, his head was dyed in red. By the time he registered the blood, he had already smelt the ferrous pang of it. For someone so accustomed to the sweet smell of confectioneries, it was quite an intense smell.

The artisan’s vision grew dark. Inside the revolving lanterns, he thought of his dream.

I wanted to make the world’s best cake…

And so the artisan died. He, who was called the blessed child of god.

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The cries of a baby echo nearby. TLN

“Congratulations, it’s a boy’.[Midwife]

From the midwife, words of congratulations are heard. TLN

In the embrace of the midwife, was the newly born baby.

Held carefully, wrapped in a cloth, he was passed to the mother.

So, it’s a boy. Anies. Well done. [Dad]

From the smiling dad, words of thanks were said to the wife. From the arms of the tired woman, the baby nestled in the cloth cried.

“Aah, he’s cute. He has a lot of your features. Surely he’ll become a pretty-boy” [Mom] TLN

“Yeah, that seems so, but he has your eyes. Aren’t they beautiful?” [Dad]

“Aah, is that so?” [Mom]

The wife made a strange face and reached out to her husband.

“Hmm, this child, isn’t he carefully listening to our conversation?” [Mom]

“No way. It hasn’t even been a minute since he was born, there is no way he would understand words, right?” [Dad]

“Aah, I see. That’s right isn’t it” [Mom]

Such idle chitchat. The couple’s conversation sounded seemingly foreign, thought the baby as he stared at them.

“Dear, what should we name him?” [Mom]

“I’ve already decided.” [Dad]

The father picks up the baby nestling in his mothers embrace and holds him tenderly. They stared at each other.

“You’re name will be ‘Pastry’. Pastry Mil Molten.” [Dad] TLN

 

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TL Notes

Actually, except for that weird pun, I think I did OK on this chapter.

I’m gonna embed TLN as tooltips. The text flows better that way. But seeing as this is my blog I want to add something ‘moi‘ to the reading experience. Tell me if its gets too annoying. Also, its a nice way to obfuscate spoilers.

The author really loves the narrative voice so a lot of it is in the 3rd person but I’ve looked forward a bit and most of the stuff will be in 1st person soon. Therefore, I expect it to get less pretentious and more colloquial.

 

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Credits

Thanks to alyschu for pointing out some grammatical errors. I appreciate it.

Thanks to blake77 for pointing out that ‘stillborn’ refers to dead babies (def.) and correcting my interpretation on the word. Just goes to show that even native English speakers can (and will) make mistakes. >_<‘

Thanks to @Ritsuru (Discord) for proofreading and sending me corrections.
Honestly, did not expect there to be so many errors. I guess that why you need proofreaders for quality work!