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.
Hearing footsteps I pulled the book to the side and pulled down on the rope turning the bright lamp off just in time as my father opened his room's door with a heavy yawn. He walked over muttering something about being thirsty then headed down the staircase going to the kitchen.
Not knowing how long it would take until he gets back I put the black book on my back and started crawling to my room as quietly as possible balancing the book with my elbows making sure it didn't fall off.
I was only a few steps away from my room's door when I heard my father coming back up the stairs and stared at him wide-eyed as he tiredly carried a glass of water to his room going right past me not noticing his son trying to hide under a book as if I was a turtle closing the door behind him.
Thank god he didn't see me. Scurrying to my room like a scared turtle I closed the door behind me and tossed the book into my crib climbing in after it.
I pulled out a faint orange glowing stone I had hidden under my pillow and got a better look at the black book cover. "Knowledge of worlds fundamentals by Gurick Unglown" that title makes a lot more sense than some philosophy about a goose and sounds just like what I want.
I opened the old worn book immediately being greeted by what looked like hurriedly scribbled notes of an avid researcher with diagrams and pictures that made no sense to me.
There was so much knowledge on just the first two pages that this whole book could take months to read.
Have to start somewhere though and thankfully reading used to be a hobby.
"To know the world you must first understand the principles that govern the natural and unnatural orders. Those orders are known as the ten elemental powers of Hades which all life has the capability of harnessing: Fire, wind, earth, ice, poison, dark, nature, holy, lightning, and water. These orders all control parts of reality when being conjured by a mage allowing for what we call magic to exist and help in the world's daily life creating things of fantasy and nightmares. These orders though are not willless and do have a form of consciousness of their own. Waters consciousness or nature as most prefer calling it is smooth and free-flowing acting as it pleases. Unlike ice mana which many would consider to be similar yet aren't, ice mana wishes to be still, unmoving, to be without action until the mage wills it forwards." Feeling drowsy I hid the orange stone and book under my pillow and waited for tomorrow to continue reading."
The next night I picked up where I left off and turned to the next page to see an ink drawing of a dog with a spiked spine and iron lower jaw and studded tail.
"The creatures of this world we live in are known as beasts. They are born with crystalline hearts which allow them to become powerful beings that can threaten civilization if left alone. Unlike us, they do not have mana circuitry but we do have these crystal hearts as a separate organ attached to our hearts through a separate set of blood veins in our that body spreads from your toes all the way to the top of your scalp which will slowly crystallize inside our body over time while beast's are given their crystalline hearts at birth. There are no noteworthy studies that can show us why they form."
"The very thing that allows us to combat these beasts are called mana circuits. Many have hypothesized it's dependent on one's strength of soul but this is not fact as it's unknown, the only factor that is certain is that they will generally awaken between the ages of 8 and 11. However, it is known that through the inhalation and absorption of mana it is possible to strengthen these veins allowing for increased strength of power. But no child below these ages has the strength of mind in the following methods leaving the theory of premature awakening redundant."
The book's next page then showed a body diagram on where to focus mana during meditation. Could I try it if I modified my martial arts breath? It said a normal child couldn't and I certainly am not. Thinking it was possible I turned over to the next page that had three different breathing methods.
The first was called the Gentry reflex. You would absorb mass amounts of mana at once allowing for enhanced durability of circuits but decreasing mana output for spells and slowed circulation.
The second called brasher driver focused on fast output to create outstanding but draining spells that could threaten to easily rupture the circuits.
The final one was called gusts symphony. It focused on fast circulation to increase the cache of mana that can be stored in the body while slowly increasing the expulsion canals for spells and circuits strength alongside it.
This was by far the best as it was almost an all-rounder but the threat of something called mana poisoning was greater with this one. Mana poisoning was mentioned on the next page
"mana poisoning is the aftereffect of the spiritual energy of mana being exposed to the physical body of mages. This happens due to the mana nature trying to break out of your circuits seeping energy radiation through them harming your inner organs forcing you into a short coma. If not careful it can also lead to the death of the wielder."
Taking note of this I flipped back a page to the gusts symphony method and began meditating as it instructed.
I cleared my mind taking several long deep breaths then quick shallow breaths out. I continued doing this until I could finally see black and reddish-white specs in the air with my mind. I opened my eyes to try and see them in my excitement but they immediately disappeared. "This is a good start."
I continued doing the breathing exercise until I could see them with my mind again. I could feel them charting out paths inside me as I inhaled them like a certain tiny pink glutton.
I allowed the mana to roam freely inside me to see where it was directed to, trying to chart out the mana circuits path and enhance the process speed.
I gave up after two hours of feeling nothing, I assumed it was because it's meant to take a long time to accomplish and not as easy as I initially thought. Though there's also the factor of me being an infant that's smarter than their own good, so that's another probability for why I haven't felt anything from the mana yet.
I kept flipping through the book absorbing more of its profound knowledge. According to the book as well Laegii is the size of two Asia's, roughly 25 kilometers in length, its a lot bigger planet than earth. It also mentioned how Hades was its ancient name. I questioned why they changed their world's name but it's never mentioned.
According to the map on it, the kingdom I was born in was called Bandero, it's a human kingdom that's the furthest north, with Priveth to its East and Searig the largest human kingdom in the south.
There was also knowledge of the other races of this world such as the cliche elves who lived in the furthest south kingdom Elshide and dwarfs in a separate land in the southwest that was separated by the ocean called Dargon as well as a race called animakin which lived in Preirig the furthest east which was half human half animal people, "I see this world is rather creative in crossbreeding."
But what I was most surprised about in this book was the history of the demon race.
According to the book they had their own continent in the middle of the ocean called zelcra but over 1300 years ago it was supposedly caught up in a feud between the gods and inadvertently destroyed along with 5 other gods.
I then flicked the pages of the book over with anticipation.
There used to be 12 gods but when zelcra disappeared the statues of these 5 gods all crumbled at the same time all over laegii which caused mass confusion.
Some of the heavily religious priests in Bandero said this event was a cleansing to erase the evil of the world and ended up starting witch hunts on the demons burning them at the stake and executing them whenever found thinking the gods were angry at them which the book heavily argues against calling the priests idiots saying the priests killed them because the demons had always stood against religion and believed in miracles made by man though they did have some respect for the gods but not a lot.
No country dared to provide aid to the demons stranded in Laegii as they were scared they would induce the god's wrath, even though no Oracle was given to start such a mass killing.
This angered me until I read about the demon protection law placed 700 years ago started by the animakin and then incorporated into all the other kingdoms slowly, it didn't say why it was started but I'm assuming it's because some prince fell in love with a demon. But it also mentioned why most demons stuck to hiding, it was because the horns of a demon store their lifetimes worth of magic and can advance a person's magic circuitry by leaps and bounds if absorbed so most demons stick to pretending to be human in order to protect themselves from harm.
The book had information on the 7 gods as well including the 5 that fell with zelcra but the only one I had any real interest in was Asmodeus.
He was the god of knowledge and held the greatest amount of territory according to the book but the least amount of followers. He's known for suddenly giving people knowledge that will either make them insane or start a revolution in science and medicine.
The other 6 gods were: wino god of salvation, Gardi goddess of hope, shin goddess of justice, Christ god of truth, seraph god of literature, and Fiji goddess of freedom.
The page on the five dead gods was rough and filled with warnings to never speak their name out loud saying it was taboo and if you did you'd be struck by a bolt of lightning from the gods.
They were Sith goddess of fate, Pythagoras god of pain, Raptor god of architecture, Wok god of science, and Fafnir goddess of war
Before I almost continued to the page talking more about the dead gods one evening I had to quickly hide it underneath my pillow as I pretended to sleep whilst my mother peeked in on me.
She picked me up from my wooden crib while I still faked being asleep and took me down the stairs of the house where I could now hear a small group of people talking and laughing, what's going on?
I pretended as if I was just waking up playing with Sarah's blond hair and was able to trick my mother successfully and looked around to see 5 people sitting around a large table with my father, 3 were men while 2 were women.
My mother sat down next to him and introduced me to the small group that had entered our home. "This is our son Cayden, why don't you wave hello to your aunts and uncles Cayde?"
I shyly gave them all a small wave and they looked at me with smiles on their faces until one of them a towering buff figure with a bald head and blue shirt spoke in a mocking tone "oooh you got a smart baby there Allen, you sure he's yours?"
"Of course he is, where else do you think he gets his good looks from Theo?" My father refuted with a gallant look across his face until a woman with orange eyes, a tight green shirt, and navy blue hair replied sardonically.
"His mother most likely, after all, he's got those giant emeralds in his face while you have two turds!" She said this with a hearty chuckle afterward and gestured for me to come towards her which I did as I was intrigued by the spear's design next to her since it was my first time seeing this world's weaponry. It rested next to her and was happily crawling to it as I was waiting for a reason to go and inspect it.
"I think the brat likes you Alfa, a flick of the wrist and he comes crawling towards you. Perhaps you'd make a good child predator?" A lanky man wearing a brown jumper with two ferret-like ears protruding from his head with white hair said this as I had just gotten halfway across the table with my mother just realizing trying to reach for me but failing.
"I heard young kids can sense who a good person is and will willingly approach Gunther. Why don't you see if he'll come to you?" The blonde-haired elf woman wearing a revealing black dress spoke, I had seen other elves on the street from my window but none compared to her looks. If it was my last world she would have been able to marry into a noble family with ease, she was sat next to Alfa and spoke in a calming yet aggravating way that had clearly riled up Gunther.
I had just arrived in front of Alfa, reaching out for the spear I was suddenly pulled away by two large feminine hands, alfa quickly snuggled up to me as I tried to touch her spear restraining me in her comfortable embrace and then sat me down on her lap and stroking me on the head slowly which I found oddly pleasant as I leaned back against her breasts then the blonde-haired elf woman joined as-well.
challenging the elf the ferret-eared man shouted out "Oh yeah! I'll show you who a good person is yuri!" Gunther then tried calling me towards him as if I was some sort of dog which annoyed me so I turned my head away in a loathsome way causing him to gasp out in disbelief until he finally said "this little runt is just a pervert that will go after any woman he sees isn't he!"
He was quickly smacked in the back of the head into the table by the fifth and final member of the strange visitors who looked to be a regular human like Alfa with muddy brown hair and closed eyes pleading for forgiveness. "I'm sorry for Gunthers behavior miss Barbaten could you please let it go now that I've punished him?" His face was full of fright as he looked at my mother.
Not understanding why I looked at my mother full of fear as she exuded a venomous aura full of rage. My mother looked like she was about to snap but the giant Theo was quick to give her a shoulder massage with his big hands which seemed to be helping keep her calm.
We grew fearful waiting in the silence of what was going to happen until finally, she said "it's fine, Denny" we all breathed out in relief thankful her murderous aura was now dissipated.
I laid my head back onto Alfa's chest and looked up at her who nuzzled her and my noses together causing me to blush and look back down. Then Alfa spoke, "so boss what's the plan for the entrati heist?" I questioned what she meant by this as heist was a word used when stealing something but perhaps it meant dungeon diving in this world? There's no way my family is a group of thieves right?
My father responded with a gleeful look "I'm glad you asked Alfa I was just about to explain that." My father who I had assumed was an upright and intelligent, law-abiding person then went on to explain a fully detailed robbery of a bank with no flaws whatsoever in it I could spot. I had been drawn back, my family is part of a thief's crew? I an honorable and dignified royal knight had been reborn into a family of thieves? How did I not realize?
In my daze, they continued to talk about the plan as all the pieces had come together all the things I didn't understand my father doing for the last year made sense.
Yet I also found it quite funny, my last family which was rich and of a famous line of artists was cold and heartless while this family which is average in wealth and made of petty thieves was more loving and heartfelt than them. My feelings for my parents hadn't changed, in fact, I think they've only grown stronger.