Two months have passed since my rebirth. Now, at least, I can hear and understand the words spoken around me. I find myself in a small house in a village, the location of which is a complete mystery. The one comforting familiarity is the language; it's the same one I spoke in my previous life.
A woman with fiery red hair and a lean, mature face enters the room. She is Alice, the mother of this body. She's a lady of her own kind: warm, kind, and immensely caring. The only current issue is her constant presence, which makes it hard for me to concentrate and learn more about my new world. But I know she'll eventually leave me to my own devices. My golden ticket, so to speak.
Then, another person steps into the room.
"You're awake, my baby boy."
It is my father, Reyand, a man with golden hair and a powerful, high-built body. He scoops me up from my bed, holding me securely in his hands. It's my cue to move, though I have little choice in the matter.
"Alice, dear, what's surprising about our boy is that he literally doesn't cry," he says, a note of amusement in his voice. "The other big one, he always starts up as soon as we leave him alone."
"Yes, dear," Alice agrees. "Even when we close the lamp at night, he starts to cry."
Both of them begin to stare at me. It's genuinely awkward. Do they think I'm weird?
Just as the silence becomes unbearable, a voice interrupts the moment.
"Ooh, Mama, I came home!"
It's Rudra, my older brother. My salvation. Thank you, my golden ticket, I think to myself.
The awkward tension broken, we move toward the dinner table. I can't eat solid food yet—just milk. It's frustrating, but I accept it as a temporary condition.
Tonight, I simply listen as my family share the stories of their day.
My father, Reyand, begins first.
"Today, I went to the mountain forest," he recounts. "The wild boars there—those fearsome creatures with big red eyes, two horns, brown fur, thick legs, long tails, and pointed teeth—were attacking travellers again. I took my two junior knights, and we tracked four boars into the woods."
He pauses, eyes glinting with the memory of the hunt.
"We moved very silently to defeat them, but one of the new knights stepped on a broken branch. The cracking sound made the wild boars furious, and they immediately charged us!"
"What happened after, Dad?!" Rudra shouts, interrupting the flow.
Oh, kid, must you interrupt? I groan internally. I can't even voice a complaint; I'm too young. It's truly difficult to maintain adult maturity trapped inside a child's physical body.
Reyand laughs good-naturedly and continues. "Okay, listen. I immediately jumped and dodged the attack of the first boar. It was too fast, hard even to keep up with, so I quickly used my fire spell—a fireball—and hit the second one."
Everyone, including Alice and Rudra, leans in with shocking expressions.
"That made the second boar berserk, and it accidentally slammed into the third one," Reyand continues. "The two new knights then focused on one boar. I moved again. The first boar was still coming for me, so I used a flame cutter and sliced the boar in half. Then I moved toward the others, used another fireball, and shot it right through the eye of the last charging boar, nearly blinding it."
He takes a deep breath. "I then leaped backward, giving myself space, and finally stabbed its vital neck part, knocking it down. After that, the two knights managed to kill their boar, and the three of us easily finished the last one. That was my day."
"It sounds like a hectic day," Alice says.
"It was," Reyand confirms.
Alice turns her attention to the boys.
"From my part of the story", she says, "it starts with these boys pointing fingers one by one—" She points at Rudra—"and ends with these three."
Rudra, Reyand, and I all look guilty. Alice smiles, removing the stress from the room.
"But I enjoyed the day, nonetheless," she assures us.
Next, it is Rudra's turn. I can predict his story, but we don't interrupt.
"Today, we three—Ribi, Vivian, and I—played a new Knight and Princess game," he begins.
She becomes the princess, and he becomes the knight—obviously a love story, I muse, recalling my prior observation that this little boy has very strong feelings for Ribi, an elf girl.
My thoughts are instantly corrected.
"Vivian became the knight, and I became the fearsome two-horned devil who wanted to capture the princess!" Rudra declares.
Everyone looks genuinely surprised.
He continues, looking a little glum. "But when I told Viv to draw the chit, I became the devil every single time."
Poor boy, I think. Reyand pats Rudra on the back.
"Cheer up," he says warmly.
Rudra's sadness vanishes, replaced by a triumphant smile. "But, Father! I beat Viv in every fight and always took the princess!"
Alice playfully snaps her hand on his head. "Oh boy, you changed the whole story's plot!"
Both Reyand and Alice start laughing.
I realise one thing: for all their power and maturity, they all act a bit like kids sometimes. But this family is happy, which is more than I can say for my previous one. Now, I have the chance to live with them.
A wave of overwhelming sleepiness hits me again. Oh, this baby body. I hate it.
"See, he sleeps now," Alice says.
Rudra moves from his chair, a sad expression returning to his face. "I didn't even tell him the new magic power technique, or my story, or even play my guitar."
"Don't worry, my boy," Reyand says, soothing him. "Tomorrow, you can tell the story and sing the song."
Persuaded, Rudra agrees to wait for tomorrow.