Elias Ashcroft died a man who built machines that changed the world—and understood nothing about the people he built them for. Reborn in a rural village with his memories and genius intact, he has one goal and one alone: this time, he'll use his gifts to make his family's life easier. Bamboo water pipes. A heated bathhouse. A purification-stone toilet. For his tired mother, his aching father, his adoring little siblings, these small miracles are enough.
But small miracles don't stay small. The
An Old Soul's New Heart - The Frontier Inventor and the Fallen Elf - Episode 1
He tapped the bamboo tube with his fingertip. Tap, tap, tap.
The sound of water flowing through it echoed at exactly the pitch he'd expected. Good, he murmured softly.
Elias Ashcroft was crouching in the morning light. His silvery-white hair still bore the marks of sleep, but his gray eyes were unnaturally serious for a seven-year-old. There was something wrong about the way they were set in his face. A leather tool belt hung at his waist, fitted with wooden spatulas and small stone fragments.
"...Done."
He whispered it to himself, then stood up.
Before him lay a series of bamboo tubes fitted together. They stretched from the back garden to the kitchen, running along the ground like veins. Embedded at intervals along the pipes were pale blue stones—Mana Water Stones—that generated the force to push the water forward. He'd spent months assembling it, piece by piece.
A voice called from the kitchen.
"Oh my."
There was surprise in that voice. Elias hurried around to the kitchen.
His mother, Lianne Ashcroft, was turning the faucet. Her chestnut hair was tied back simply, and she wore a plain apron. There were faint shadows under her eyes. Working as a pharmacist while raising three children—it was never easy.
Clear water flowed straight from the faucet.
" Water is... coming out on its own?"
His mother stared at the flowing water for a long moment. Then, as if something had occurred to her, she turned back toward Elias.
"Elias. Don't tell me you..."
"Yeah. I made it."
His answer was brief. His mother covered her mouth with her hand. Her eyes were glistening.
"Every day, going back and forth to the well so many times..."
Her voice trembled slightly. Elias simply watched her.
(Ah, I see.)
Something warm spread slowly through his chest. He still wasn't used to this feeling.
In his previous life, he'd never known anything like it.
Back then, he'd built machines that changed the world. His name became known. But had he ever really looked at his family's faces? Did he know what his wife loved? How his children laughed? He'd treated it all like data to be processed in his mind.
(In the end, I never understood any of it.)
He had a vague memory of his family gathered around his deathbed. He thought they'd grieved. But he couldn't remember what his own face had looked like. Because he'd felt nothing.
So this time would be different.
This water system was a first step toward that.
" You were tired from fetching water every morning, weren't you?"
When Elias said this, his mother turned off the water and crouched down. She brought her eyes level with his.
"You're seven years old, aren't you...?"
Her expression was complicated—part bewildered, part proud. Elias offered a dry smile.
" Well, who knows?"
His mother asked nothing more. She simply ruffled his hair, her palm warm against his head.
Was this what they called happiness?
Elias found himself thinking such things absently.
Evening came, and his father returned from work.
Toma Ashcroft ducked his large frame—which carried the scent of timber—through the doorway. He had the rough, calloused hands of a carpenter. His sun-darkened face broke into a rugged smile.
" My back is screaming at me."
With that, he headed toward the bathhouse in the back garden—a small wooden structure Elias had been building gradually over the past year. Inside was a bathtub heated by Mana Water Stones.
After a while, a deep sigh drifted from beyond the steam.
"Haaaahhh..."
The sound carried the relief of complete exhaustion melting away.
" So this is what it means to come back to life."
Peering through the gap in the door, Elias saw his father with his head resting on the edge of the tub, eyes closed. All tension had drained from his body. In this village, even heating water was a struggle. To soak in warm water every day after a hard day's work—it was pure luxury.
Elias watched him for a while.
(This is enough.)
He didn't need anyone's praise. He just wanted his family to have an easier life. That alone was worth spending months on.
After dinner, his sister Lily Ashcroft came flying out of the back toilet.
Her honey-colored hair swayed as she ran toward him, practically vibrating with excitement. Despite being only nine, she threw her arms around him with all her strength.
"Elias, you're a genius!! What is that thing!? The dirt just—whoosh—disappears!!"
She was talking about the toilet fitted with Purification Stones. When the stones came into contact with waste, they reacted instantly and broke it down. Elias smiled wryly.
" It's a Purification Stone. I've been collecting them from the forest for a while."
"I know! But nobody would ever think to use them there!"
Lily's cheeks were flushed as she rattled on. She was always like this. Every time she saw one of Elias's inventions, her face would show a mixture of exasperation and pride.
"My little brother is too amazing. It's a problem."
She clung to his arm tightly. Elias found the weight of her somehow comforting.
In the kitchen, his four-year-old brother Owen Ashcroft was reaching toward the steam rising from the faucet.
"It's warm!"
He giggled softly, repeatedly trying to touch the vapor. The mystery of smoke he couldn't catch seemed to fascinate him endlessly. Elias watched him intently.
(I made this for that smile.)
In his previous life, he'd always missed moments like this. This time would be different.
After dinner, when the family had settled into their own comfortable spaces, a rough knock sounded at the front door.
When his mother answered, standing there was Martha, their neighbor. She stood with her sturdy frame planted firmly, arms crossed.
"So your house is the only one with running water?"
Her voice was low and accusatory. His mother's expression stiffened for a moment.
"Well, yes... I suppose..."
"That's not fair. We still have to go to the well every morning for water."
There was undisguised irritation in Martha's eyes. From his place in the shadows of the entryway, Elias watched.
(So it comes to this.)
He wasn't surprised. It was almost exactly the reaction he'd anticipated. When something remarkable appears from nothing, someone will eventually resent it. It was inevitable.
But seeing his mother's troubled face made something in his chest feel rough.
" ...I'm sorry, Martha. I really am."
There was no reason for his mother to apologize.
Martha grumbled for a while longer, then snorted and left. When the door closed, a delicate silence fell over the house.
"Don't worry about it."
When Elias said this quietly, his mother laughed uncomfortably.
"That's true... but it seems the village is already talking about it."
Those words lodged themselves like a small thorn in his chest.
(If what I made to protect my family makes them uncomfortable, then I've failed.)
Elias fell silent, thinking. The rumors would spread further. They'd reach the village headman's ears, and eventually perhaps even the lord's.
Standing out too much wasn't good.
But he didn't regret making his mother's burden lighter.
Late into the night, after his family had retired to their rooms, Elias lay on his bed. Moonlight streaming through the window painted pale patterns on the ceiling.
As he closed his eyes and organized the day's events in his mind, a mechanical voice suddenly echoed in his head.
'Detection. Southwest direction, approximately two thousand meters altitude. One biological signature falling at high speed.'
It was Aleria's voice.
Elias's body went rigid. The mysterious system that had taken residence in his mind since the ceremony on his fifth birthday. A voice without emotion, perfectly flat.
'Estimated landing point: Eastern edge of Grünhorn Forest. Time to impact: approximately three hours.'
(Biological signature...?)
His heart began to beat faster—quietly, but unmistakably.
Elias bolted upright and rushed to the window, looking outside.
A streak of light traced across the night sky.
Like a shooting star, yet far too slow for that—moving with a trajectory that suggested something with intent, it was drawn toward the forest.
(What is that?)
A meteor wouldn't move so slowly. And the phrase "biological signature" kept catching in his mind.
Aleria would never call something a biological signature unless it was alive.
Which meant—there was something living inside that light.
Elias gripped the window frame, unable to move.
A nameless sensation spread through his chest. Not quite fear, not quite anticipation—something he had no words for.
(What is falling...?)
The light disappeared into the forest's depths.
The night was quiet. The sound of insects was no different than usual. But inside Elias, something had definitely begun to move.
He'd lived until now only to protect this family. He'd built the water system, the bathhouse, accumulated small happinesses.
But what that light signified was something entirely different from such accumulation.
Elias quietly closed the window.
He understood nothing yet. But there was one thing he knew for certain.
The days ahead would be different from those that had come before.
That premonition settled slowly into the depths of his chest.
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