Reincarnated in a Light Novel

Eclair kept in mind how long he had been out of the Academy, it's been two days already and still counting. Supposedly this mission about simply investigating a demon sighting turned into a battle between life and death.

Did Eclair hate it? No, the experience was valuable. The fight against the demon from the previous village didn't feel life-threatening, Eclair felt disappointed. This time it felt real, it felt threatening, and his life was in actual danger.

Yet, that's what he found thrilling. Eclair shook his head, It was eye-opening, he thought. He wasn't a guy who found thrill in battle. 

Anyway, the battle against Wilson gave Eclair clear feedback on his capability: he was weak. The events of the future that Eclair pushed at the back of his mind resurfaced. He knows what will happen and he can't stay still.

He had a dream to fulfil and that can't happen when the entire continent is thrown into chaos. Eclair sighed and made sure that at some point he had to intervene from the original storyline, chaos be damned.

After a while, someone entered the room and checked Eclair, thankfully, there were no alarm wards set up or else Eclair was sure he would've already pointed at the young girl and popped the head off her shoulders.

"You're already awake!"

The young girl seems to be in her early teens by her height, she approached Eclair with a basket of fresh herbs in hand.

"Do you feel okay?"

"Yeah, thanks for patching me up, by the way."

The girl smiled, "No problems, Sorcerer!"

Eclair decided to stay well-rested, he planned to use a rejuvenation technique but that one was not easy to use, he had read in the library, an uncommon technique used in the East of the continent.

Hopefully, enough rest is enough to gather the amount of Omi, he had a few days ahead of him, after all. Besides, the rejuvenation technique is going to be used on his arm.

It broke after getting punched even after behind a tree. So for now, he wouldn't use Omi, he decided to stand up and stretch, "Ah… I hope the last mission won't kill me." Eclair muttered. 

After a day of rest, Eclair could finally move with no pain except for the broken bone on his arm, which was quickly and promptly fixed with a rejuvenation technique. It was heavy in Omi but he couldn't go back to the academy with a broken arm.

Especially when the attack at the entrance ceremony came, he had to finish the academy! He needs that Sorcerer privilege! Anyways, Eclair held a Tupperware containing some porridge and roasted chicken.

He walked back to the same place where he previously lost contact with the child, he waited for a while sighing in disappointment and sadness that after a few hours of waiting the child did not appear.

"Does she think not appearing the whole day made her think I'll leave?"

Eclair was worried, thinking that the child must have starved without him visiting for a whole day, he clasped his head in dismay before sensing something coming closer. He lifted his head up and it was a familiar shark fin.

Eclair couldn't help but smile and let out a relieved sigh.

"Hey, I told you I would come back." Eclair opened the Tupperware, "wanna eat?"

((The rich aroma of porridge drifted through the air, and the child, still in her shark form, approached behind a tree. Her unblinking, fish-like eyes locked onto the Tupperware container in Eclair's hands.

The child remained half-submerged in the ground, her gaze fixed on him. Her stare lingered, unyielding and unreadable, until Eclair tilted his head, then suddenly got struck by a realization

"Ah! Were you worried?" he asked, a warm smile spreading across his face. "I'm fine. It hurt for a bit, but not anymore. Come on, eat up."

Normally, he'd have set traps and alarms all around, ensuring his safety. Yet, he only erected alarms, thinking that traps would harm the child, something within Eclair didn't like the idea of making the child hurt or uncomfortable.

Why? 

Perhaps it was because she had saved his life. Or perhaps it was the thought of a child, alone and vulnerable, wandering the forest despite her monstrous form. 

Or maybe…

Eclair's mind drifted back to his own childhood. He remembered his mother carefully ladling porridge into bowls when he was sick, the comforting meals she made when he felt down, and the joy in her eyes as she cooked for him with a smile.

Yes. Maybe that was it.

He couldn't let a child, no matter what she was, endure the pain of an empty stomach. He still remembered the emaciated figure he had stumbled upon. Her frailty had been a shock, and against all odds, she had shown traces of humanity. Her shocked face, fear against a stranger, trying to flee against danger. How could he attack that?

It would have been easier if she'd acted like a demon, Eclair thought bitterly. Then I wouldn't… worry, I wouldn't care. It would've been easier that way.

The child crept closer, her form shifting as she approached. Now in her human form, she knelt and cradled the Tupperware carefully, sipping from it in small, cautious gulps. The roasted chicken drumstick he tucked in slid and fell. Eclair caught it mid-air without a second thought 

Startled, the child froze and looked at him with alarm.

"It's alright," Eclair reassured her, smiling as he offered the chicken drumstick back to her.

She hesitated before reaching out. In her distraction, she let go of the Tupperware.

Eclair reacted instinctively, lunging to catch it. In his awkward scramble, he let the drumstick slip from his grasp to steady his body while his other arm secured the container.

The child's form shifted again in an instant. She leapt as a shark, snapping up the fallen chicken. Her momentum carried her forward, her powerful bite leaving a perfect circle etched into a nearby tree trunk.

"Wow…" Eclair muttered, setting aside the Tupperware as he examined the circular bitemark on the surface of the tree.

The bite reminded him of a certain animal "cookie-cutter shark." he uttered. Who said lazing around watching random videos on the internet is bad?

Eclair returned his focus to the child who spat out tree bark and chewed only the chicken in her human form before going back to the container with what remaining porridge inside it.

"Do you have a name?" Eclair asked.

This question made the child pause.