The ashes before Strife

Episode 0 : Merry Band Of Thieves ; 2

It has now been a full year since I entered this new world and am now 1 years old! My parents never talked again about the strange ritual I was put in so I never had a clue what it was even for.

However, right now is by far my happiest moment "come on Cayde! Come to mommy!"

I can walk again baby! I wasn't even this happens when I escaped my family in my last life.

Taking the final steps towards my mother my tiny legs buckled collapsing under my weight and my mother caught me just before I fell over raising me as she squealed excitedly. Her smile brought happiness new to me filling me with life that I was deprived of in my last life.

On another note though, garnering my current progress I should be able to successfully walk all alone within a month. From then on I can start training independently which I'm getting very excited about, although I can't say I hate my father Allen's secret body training sessions we do together swinging twigs about as if they were swords and running about in the park.

"Well done Cayde! Come on! Celebrate with your reflection!" my mother was holding me up next to a mirror as I checked out my new body.

I placed my hand on the mirror getting a closer look at my vibrant dark green eyes and tuff of burgundy red-hair, amazing my mother as she reveled in how cute I was which I definitely have to agree with.

I am a cute ass baby! Future women prepare to get shot down.

I also learned the new writing of this world with some ease as it was similar to the ancient English of my old world mixed in with Russian.

It was a difficult task but I managed to succeed and could now read the bedtime stories alongside my dad with relative ease. "Good night Cayde. Make sure the monster in the closet is well fed~" as my father left I pretended to have fallen asleep. Operation knight thief was a go.

An hour later as I peeked through the open crack in the doorway into the dark corridor I spotted my father's office door was still open. Quietly opening my door with a slight creak i quickly crawled over making sure my parent's bedroom door was shut.

I arrived and pulled open the large door with my tiny hands and it slowly swung open creating an opening for me to enter. Let's go, baby!

Looking about in the darkness I tried to spot something that looked like it could emit light. I saw a dangling rope and pulled on it as hard as I could and the lantern in the center of the room glowed brightly after a loud click.

Thinking I woke up my parents I looked through the doorway to see my parent's door still closed not hearing any footsteps. Thank god. I'm not sure I could use my infantile charms to escape their questions for me if they found me in here.

Looking around the office I noticed it was rather well organized with books on shelves color-coded and several drawers with different labels stacked on top of each other. The only messy thing was the pieces of paper hanging over the ledge of the desk. But I had only one thing I was genuinely interested in.

The bookshelf. It had three rows of books one on the level with me, with the middle just out of my stubby arms reach while the top row was impossible to get to.

I looked across the bottom seeing there was a recurring theme of thievery in the titles. Dad must really be into thief dramas. None of them sounded useful until I got to a black book with a worn-out spine.

I pulled it out with some effort falling onto my back with a quiet thump. Worried I woke up my parents I rolled over and read the worn-out cover "knowledge of goose by Gurick Unglown." I rubbed my eyes to check if I read it right but it didn't change. My ability to comprehend this world's language must be lacking. There is no way that's the real title.