Chapter 2 — The First Village’s Hero is supposed to marry his cute female childhood friend… 2
Just after Ruth returned to the inn, because his mother asked him to help refill their water supply, he headed towards the well to draw up water. After he drew up the water, he saw his face being reflected off from the surface of the water in the well.
There was the face of a sorrowful, yet handsome youth.
(Even though I’ve finally reborn as someone beautiful…)
He had slightly long glossy black hair, glowing like it’s freshly washed[1], a twinkling and refreshing pair of blue eyes, white skin that has yet to know any suntans, modest lips that seem to captivate the most beautiful colors; his height was also the same as Alec, both taller than other kids their age, plus his hands and feet were also smooth and thin like a model. Even his voice was similar to a popular voice actor in his previous life, low but also sweetly seductive.
Surely if he had this form in his previous life, he would be popular enough to make girls fall for him with just a single greeting. The Ruth who had reincarnated had that sort of appearance arranged for him. In his perspective, he honestly thought that settling as an innkeeper's son is a waste.
(But…)
This appearance is a reflection of what Ruth wished for in his previous life-- however, what was waiting for him was a huge miscalculation.
“Ruth, will you be able to carry it!?”
Ruth turned around when a voice called out from behind him and there stood a large man with a rugged body, appearing exactly like Ruth and his father in his previous life; he was looking at Ruth with a worried expression.
“I’m fine, Dad.”
Holding a bucket full of water and even carrying two bundles of wood, Ruth calmly walked forward and the man who had a worried expression-- his father, now dejectedly hung his head.
“What’s wrong, Dad?”
“Even though you have the power and strength….”
“Even though…?”
“Why is your body so thin!”
“It can’t be helped, it’s because I take after mother more.”
No one would think Ruth’s mother has already given birth to two sons because of how youthful and beautiful she is. Also, Ruth looks exactly like his mother when she was young. Because of that, no matter how you look at it, Ruth seems weak and seedy-looking.
(Well, in fact, I’m thankful that she gave birth to someone so beautiful.)
Apologies to his parents in his previous life, but in comparison to the past, Ruth likes this look more. From his former parents, Ruth received a strong sense of justice and a relatively steadfast spirit; because of that, he wanted their forgiveness for keeping quiet about the matter with his appearance.
“Oh, Mr. Brau, good afternoon.”
Just like that, while the two of them were walking, the wife from the bakery next door greeted them as she was hanging up her laundry. Father replied and the baker’s wife blushed. By the way, the baker’s wife is 20 years younger than Ruth’s father. Despite that, when she looked at him, it was like hearts were going to fly out from her eyes.
“It seems that the winds are going to be stronger later today, so please be careful.”
“Yes… thank you very much.”
The baker’s wife, who blushed at Father’s worlds to the point where she seemed lightheaded and dizzy, noticed Ruth’s existence just as she was about to leave and greeted him with “Good day Ruth, work hard for your father today too”. Of course, she looked at him as if he was just merely the neighbor’s son, none of the hot like gaze she had towards his father.
If the baker’s wife simply just had a thing for older men then the current situation would be understandable. But--
“Please accept this, Clark!”
“But, something like that…”
“Please. Take it!”
“But, I have a fiance.”
“T...That’s fine, even so, please take this!”
The girl who said that pushed a gift- like object to the man in front of her and quickly ran away before he could return it.
“Clark is such a sinful man, huh~”
“Father, and even Ruth…”
The man in the shop’s side door-- a perfect model of their father and strapping[2]young man, Clark is Ruth’s older brother by 4 years.
It seems that as Clark thought about how awkward the current situation was, he uncomfortably averted his eyes.
“Father, and Ruth, please don’t tell Sara this. She can get very jealous.”
“I won’t do something like getting in the way of my son’s love life.”
“It’s not like we were going to say anything anyway, big brother… Huh, something fell?”
Clark forcibly shoved the present he received into his bag and from the other end, a large number of letters fell out. Instead of letting his older brother, who was coming back from peddling and holding heavy luggage catch them, Ruth picked it up for him and found that these weren’t just any ordinary letters.
( “To Clark”, “To Mr. Clark”, “To you, Clark” ....)
Seeing his older brother’s name written in that ladylike clean handwriting, Ruth soon realized that these letters were love letters directed to his older brother.
Clark hastily snatched the letters away from Ruth.
“In regards to Sara…again, please…”
“I get it.”
When Ruth sympathetically replied, Clark let out a deep sigh of relief. Even in the village, people clearly knew about the handsome and good-natured Clark and how deeply jealous his fiance, Sara, can get. However, to receive this much love letters just by going across the street once, it can’t be helped that she became the jealous type.
Ruth looked at Clark’s face.
(Haah… Why is it that in this world… this sort of appearance is so popular…)
A bear-like body, rugged looks, arms and legs that are as thick as logs, and a fairly low and deep voice. A nice way to call it is that they’re “wild” but, if they grow out their beards and had a dirty attire, they would immediately look like a bandit.
However, for some reason, his brother is the one who’s competing for the most popular man in the village.
(Despite finally being born as a beautiful type...)
In his previous life, it was the beautiful looking men who were popular. That’s why in Ruth’s previous life, he strongly wished to become beautiful. However, contrary to his previous life, men who look like Ruth in his previous life has become the popular types in this world.
(It really isn’t working out, huh~)
A large build, reliable, and rugged-looking--due to those types of men being popular, it seems that Ruth has been completely excluded as a love interest among the women in the village. If anything because of his “looks like a girl” curse, no matter how he tries to appeal to them with his strength or his proficiency in martial arts, he will end up being frowned upon.
Thanks to that, only a few friends and family know about how much stronger Ruth is in comparison to others his age.
“Don’t make that sort of face, Ruth. I’ll properly help you find a wife.”
“Like I said, Dad, I’ll find my own wife.”
“Good luck Ruth, if worst comes to worst, your big brother will also help you find someone from the sticks[3]…”
“Have I really reached that level of hopelessness?!”
Ruth gave them a dirty look as if they have said the most horrible thing ever. The two brawny men stared at him like they were looking at a pitiful child.
- Here, the word used is 天使の輪, could also mean angel’s halo. So a separate interpretation could be where it’s saying it’s able to shine like an angels halo.
- Here, the literal phrase is “a slight younger looking version of a bear-like man”. Though, it doesn’t really flow that well when put in that sense… so I used “strapping” instead to convey it.
- Basically slang for a place that’s more remote than your ordinary countryside. Honestly I was going to go for “countryside” but I felt like that wasn’t exactly what he’s trying to say especially since they already live in the mountains (I guess the setting right now is already “countryside” enough).
MARY: Hello! Thank you for your patience~ I hope y'all enjoyed this chapter and learning a bit more about Ruth's family! Of course, if you guys see any mistakes or errors then please let me know! ^_^) /