When I opened my eyes, I can see the blue sky. I’m currently lying on my back. Awake, I look around, all I see is the dense forest and it looks like I was lying inside an open space field.

At first glance, the forest is no different from Japan.

But I know that this place is far from Japan, much less on Earth. Furthermore I know that I am no longer in that world.

This is a different world.

To begin with, after a continuous overtime, I head out of the company. I stroll around Teppen and on my way back home, I found a stray cat walking unsteadily –that’s where all this started.

I was heading toward the station, walking no less than that stray cat and then I saw the cat heading towards the middle of the road, staggering.

A truck came from the other side. There is no sign of it slowing down as it may not have noticed the cat. Tired or whatsoever, the moment I saw it, I began running towards the cat.

As I approach the cat, so did the truck. It’s a pure race against time. Which can reach the cat first, me or the truck? Speaking of speed, of course it is an overwhelming victory for the truck, but in terms of distance, I’m much closer.

However, if I can’t reach it to some extent, it’s a one sided victory for the truck. The gap between me and the cat quickly shorten, my hand grabbed the cat’s body and then I threw it.

Shortly thereafter, Bam–, with that sound, my body fling in the air. In my fading consciousness, I thought that I saw a powerful scene of fire, which was irrelevant.

I don’t know how long it took. Was it immediately after or has it been fairly long time? I suddenly recovered consciousness. Opening my eyes, it’s only a pure white space, I couldn’t see anything, even my own body.

It’s true that my consciousness recognizes something, but I’m quite doubtful if this can be said to be “awake”. It can be said that my consciousness is clear, it can also be considered as faint, I’m in such ambiguous state.

Then there is a “voice” that starts talking to me. Considerably, it’s a voice of a pretty young woman.

『Hey, did you wake up? 』

“If you can call this state as such. Yes, I’m awake.”

I simply answered the truth. This “voice” interaction does not necessarily mean that the sound waves has reached my ear clearly and is “heard”. Similarly, I don’t seem to send air out of my lungs, my vocal cords do not quiver and emit sound waves..

To express this sensation, it may be telepathy. It’s a very distant image of “conversation”, where I can feel that someone is trying to communicate with me, and I am also trying to communicate with that someone thru our minds.

『For now, it seems that there is no defect in your soul. Originally, preservation of soul slightly exceeds the range of my jurisdiction. 』

“Hmmmm... I don’t really understand what you meant to say.”

『Well, in simple terms, you have died in “that world”. Normally, human souls that have died in any world, not just that world, are decomposed and accumulated as new resources. Speaking in terms similar to your job, it’s like freeing up the memory you had reserved. So, I locked that memory so it wouldn’t be released, this is what I meant when I say that it was not under my jurisdiction. 』

“I see, I understand the condition itself. So what should I do from now on?”

I was strangely calm despite the declaration of a very important thing, “You have died”.

『I’m glad, you’ve calm down right? I’m very sorry, but now I’ll be tampering with your perceptions to temporarily dilute the notion of death. If I don’t do that, your soul will still be destroyed –in the analogy I mentioned earlier, the memory you thought was supposed to be removed thru GC, ?releases itself. Then, of course, the data in it will be erased –the concept for you will be, both your body and soul would be erased. 』 (TLYN Note:?GC/Garbage Collector is a programming terminology)

“Hmm. That can be understood calmly now.”

『Un. Thank you. Well then, before you died, you saved a stray cat right? 』

“Ah, that’s not a mistake. I really like cats.”

I’m a little over 40 years old, my outward appearance was said to be a “Perfect Yakuza”, and “I don’t look like a respectable person”, but I do like pretty and cute things, I especially loved cats.

In addition, every day and every night, it’s an exhausting work. My physical strength has dropped by the coming years, along with that, my thinking ability fell below the limit, all of which miraculously meshed (although in the completely wrong direction), I myself think I was the cause all of this.

To get to the bottom of it, one of the reasons would be “Because I like cats”.

『In conclusion, that’s me, I’m a “Watch Dog”. You wouldn’t understand it though. I wonder if you’ve heard the concept of parallel world. 』

“Yes, science fiction and fantasy, I’ve been in contact with such works quite a bit.”

『I see. Our talk would be quicker then. I walk across parallel worlds and see if there is anything that could adversely affect the other worlds. That’s my role. 』

From her voice (maybe not), I can feel that she is a little proud. Well, it’s true that such a role must be played by the best person.

“Heh.., that’s pretty great.”

I complimented her honestly.

『Well even if I say that, from better to worst, it is faster to count from the later though.”

Well, I praised and hurt her.

『But I want you to understand that it is not a role that serves other people. It’s hard to overlook the signs of an impact on the parallel world and reach the stage where you can actually take action. It’s not my part to actually do it but.. Anyway, let’s return to the explanation where you understand my role. 』

Correcting her sitting position (feels like it), she (most probably) continues to speak.

『In the world where you were, I continued to act as a “Watch Dog” in the form of a cat. So to say, you helped me when I messed up and almost died. By the way, here is the gap between the worlds where people like us are free to use. 』

“As the guy who plays the role of watching the world, will you also die if you were hit by the truck?”

I simply asked what I thought. The fact that such an important role is no different from that of a normal creature seems to be a very susceptible system.

『About that, “death” is only for my temporary body in that world, my soul will continue to live. The tentative body takes the form of an ordinary creature in that world, and its physical strength follows that. Otherwise, I could be recorded as a creature with a high physical strength.

So, when my temporary body is dead, it doesn’t affect the world so much. Originally, I made the body so that it would not affect that world, but in your case, even if your body is dead, it causes a little problem.

It is a trade off with the parallel world I was talking about earlier. Do you think there are many parallel worlds with only subtle differences? 』

“Oh, at least in my knowledge, or that’s what I’ve read and played.”

『For example, you thought, “today I’m going to drink before going home”, and as a result, the train was delayed and you got home too late, that kind of world and, “I’m going straight back home”, resulting in you not getting tangled in the train delay branching from the world you live in. 』

“I see.”

『In short, the world is not like that. There are no such minor differences in the world. If you decide to “drink then go home”, that’s the harmony of the world. In this case, if you go home straight and went home early without being caught up in the train delay, you’ll have more or less trouble in the world.

For example, you return early and hear a quarrel between a couple in your neighbourhood and reports it, some people may not be born as a result of the harmony of the family there, and that would cause damage to the world.

As the saying goes, there’s no “IF”in history. It has a different nuance from the original meaning though. 』

It’s an explanation that I don’t understand. I encouraged the rest of the story by keeping silent.

『Oops, I got sidetrack too much. Anyway, the world is like that. As the world does not branch into detailed parts, the “You in a world similar to this one” is only one. There will be no one else.

And you weren’t supposed to die at that point. But because you helped me, this became an irregular for the world and the same for you.

Of course, I as well. Since I am an irregular among the three parties, I will make up for you in this world. To make this world consistent, the fastest way would be to make that you are “miraculously unharmed and did not die”, but then you helped me instead, I could only observed where you died.

Since it became like this, it’s impossible to make it like it never happened. My job is to “monitor and report the status of multiple worlds”, so what I see is reported and recorded in multiple worlds.This is translated by Yume Neiji (yumeineijiworks.wordpress.com)

Then, no matter what the impact on that world, you’re “dying” in that world. 』

I feel that the conversation is getting suspicious.

“Then it sounds like it’s out of hand, but why is it that only my soul was saved in that state?”

『Un, that’s.. In order to place your replacement in this world, I’m going to put you in the other world. 』

“Is it okay to do that? Considering the stories I’ve heard so far, it’s pretty bad ..”

『U-n, how should I say it? Without you in that world, I have to put a substitute or make a replacement of you to keep the balance, but in the same way that no one could be a replacement, there are many worlds where there is room to put you in. Well, I have to choose from the world I am in charge of, so there would be few though. 』

“You mean, do something like “swap existence”?”

『Oh, you have a good understanding. It helps. Well, if you put it together in a very simple way, it will happen. Then the fact that you died in the original world will not change and will continue to exist properly in the next world. That’s why this can be done. 』

“I see. Can I ask a question?”

『Please say it. 』

“What is your reason for doing this?”

『Ah-, Un. That’s also what I’m going to explain from now on. Simply put, due to my mistake, a person who shouldn’t die before me died, that will leave a bad taste in me. Well, it’s a coherence of the world. For now, just think that there is a reason to do that. 』

“Uhhh, If you’ll ask me if I’m satisfied, I’m not convinced. But I don’t have any choice anyway right?”

『Yes. I’ll apologize for that, so I can give you the right to choose the world and some preferential treatment in that world –cheat to put it plainly.

Basically, Cheat does not disturb the balance of the destination world or the balance of the other worlds, so please feel free to say your request. 』

“Is that so..”

I think I just got a second life, so I don’t want to waste too much. The fact that the balance is not lost may not be such an incredible ability.

If that’s the case, why don’t I just feel at ease? I thought so and said the request.

“I like making things, so I hope it’s a world where I can make things and live thru it. So I want you to give me abilities based on that. If you could, I want an ability that could support myself on my own. I talked about it a little a while ago, I really like cats so I want to have a cat if possible. That’s about it.”

『Hmmmm....』

This time the “female voice” seemed to be lost in thought.

『Given the world I will send you to, should the destination be a so-called fantasy world of swords and magic?”

“I doesn’t matter.”

『Then I’ll give you an ability to match your desire. There are various stuff when you say to make things, but what do you look forward to? 』

“I am interested in sword smithing.”

『Then, blacksmith has the highest priority.. For the remaining resources, I’ll give priority to language and production, battle, and so on. There will be self-defense too. It’s not essential in daily life, so should I keep the magic to a minimum? 』

“Ah, that would be fine.”This is translated by Yume Neiji (yumeineijiworks.wordpress.com)

『Next is.. how about age? It’ll be okay no matter how old you want, so please tell me your preferred age. You could choose from the teenager age, there is no problem even at 70 years old though. 』

“Ummm. I don’t really like to be too young..”

However, I would like to live a second life for a long time. Thinking for a long time or a short time I don’t know, the conclusion I made is―