Chapter 2: Early Life

Part 1

A year has passed since I was reborn into this new life. When I say reborn, I do mean reborn, I am without a doubt the baby that was screaming when I gained consciousness was me and my dull sense were once again linked with the fact that I was a newborn. That warmth I felt, was my sleeping in the arms of my mother, and the shadows were the other three members of my main family.

With that said, although I’m not sure, the brief period I was awoken before my reincarnation to read the letter from that Bastard seems to have messed up something in my memory wiping stage. Originally I was meant to forget everything that linked to personal opinions and feelings from my previous life, while only keeping hard information and facts. However, although I have forgotten anything and anyone I met in my previous life, I have lingering emotions and opinions to certain subject. For example, I remember that I used to like a certain TV Show or remember how it felt falling off a bicycle, even though those things are feelings and emotions linked with personal experiences. With that said, I can’t remember anything linked with people I used to know, so I know that once I was in love with someone because I have a bitter and lonesome emotion linked to it within me, but I don’t know anything of who I was in love with. Outside of that the reincarnation was successful, I kept all the given information from that Bastard, so all is good in that aspect.

As I said before, I am currently a 1-year-old baby, from the looks of my surroundings I come from a well-off middle or high class family. Not that it matters much to me, but it’s kind of like starting life on the Easy mode. On the other hand, being a baby is not as easy as people say it is. I have a complete and utter dependence on my parents, my mother in particular, I can’t communicate at all and even if I wanted to, I’m still learning the language of this world, I couldn’t even attempt control my bowels for the first 6 months and add insult to injury, my life is still limited to the perimeter of the nursery. From what I am able to make out, until the time that a baby becomes able to stand on his own two feet, he is not ready to see the world outside the nursery.

“Good morning Lucien, how is my little baby today?”

Well despite my complaints, I still find this life luxurious, especially because of my mother, Lara. Despite her looking like a high-class lady, I’ve never once seen or experienced her sending someone else to care for me. She’s the first to greet me in the morning and the last to wish me sweet dreams in the evening. Looks wise, I’d say she looks very beautiful, long, flowing, chestnut-colored hair down to her shoulders and beautiful yellow eyes. She is actually 34 believe it or not, but if asked on the street many would say she’s younger than that and even more, they’d say she’s never given birth once.

When she saw me already awake in the crib, she picked me up, and while holding me she sat down on the nursery’s rocking chair and began giving me the morning bottle. To be honest, this is all very embarrassing, but I’m a baby so I must accept it for now. While she feeds me, she tends to have talks with me, she tells me of where we live, of what our family does, and sometimes stories of her younger years or of this world. The ones about the world are the ones I pay attention to the most, but I still listen to all, mostly to learn the language.

From what I can understand, our family name is the Mercelious and we own a trading company that stretches around the continent but the place it all started and where we live at, is the city of Germas, which is the capital of the country of the same name. I also know that the company, and by extension the family, is well-known for using magic to preserve the products they transfer and sell.

*knock* *knock*

“Mistress Lara, you’re being called by Mrs. Mara in the library.”

“Thank you Claria, tell her I’ll be there in a few minutes”

“Understood ma’am.”

I still have no clue who Mara or Claria are since they never enter the room, but I guess that Claria is a servant or maid for the house and Mara is an outsider, since I only hear her name once or twice a month.

“Bye bye my little Lucien, be good now okay?”

With those words, my mom puts me in the playpen centered in the middle of the nursery and I’m left alone until someone comes again. However, that alone period is barely present, because as soon as Lara leaves the room, another person opens the door and greets me.

“Hi Lucienn, wanna play with meee?”

The owner of that voice is the little girl, or rather my older sister Maura. She’s only 3 years older than me so there is not much a difference between the two of us, and since she’s yet to start an education, she comes into my room daily after mom leaves to play with me. Although, I have some fears towards her because of a small incident a while back; but almost as if reading my mind, she says.

“I-I won’t make you dolly, I bring dolly this time, seeee?”

Exactly that, the first time I was put into the playpen to pass the day rather than in the crib, Maura came in, opened the pen and started treating me like a dress-up doll. Naturally I began crying, she got scolded and ever since then she still comes into the room but always makes it clear she won’t use me like a doll. Well, I’m fine with that, since she opens the pen I can freely go around the room afterwards, spending time with her is a small price to pay in exchange for that freedom to explore if you ask me, and besides I think it’s important to form a good relationship with your siblings.

If asked, I’d say Maura is very similar to mom, and if she looks like her as she gets older, than I predict a lot of guys will turn heads for her. But even if I say that, she’s still a child at this moment. Her hair is less of a chestnut color like mom and more of a reddish brown and combined with her brown eyes, she looks like she will be the aggressive type later on in life, but for now she’s very mellow, despite her being spoiled by father a lot. Not like I can complain in that department since I’m very spoiled by mom, however I feel doting attitude will be nothing but a handful later on when she wants to get married.

“Maura? Are you playing with Lucien again?”

Oh, speak of the devil and he will appear I guess.

With a door opening, a big-gutted man that would fit too well as Santa Claus pops into the room. His name is Jacob Mercelious, and he’s the father of Maura and me.

“Daddyyy!!”

“Ah, there is my little angel!”

After hearing the warm welcome, Jacob ran and lifted Maura up in the air. Without a doubt, there’s clear favoritism between the two of us for his attention, well not like I want it either way and he still shows affection towards me so it’s all good.

“And how is my little Lucien today?”

The man himself is 38-years-old and the way he is built make me say that the only way the marriage between him and mom happened was because of one big reason, he didn’t look like this before they got married. In exchange, however, like his Santa look, Jacob is very cheerful and rare is a time he is without a smile on his face. His hair is of a natural gray, not because of aging mind you, and his eyes green eyes make it clear that in his prime he attracted more women than just mom.

After father and Maura left, mom came back for the afternoon/evening meal, and after spending a prolonged time with me, she put me to sleep for the day. And like that is my uneventful life as a 1-year-old, I can’t wait until I am able to walk so I can see more than just this nursery.

Part 2

“Claria, have you seen Lucien!?”

“Can’t say I have ma’am, but he is probably just walking around the mansion again, you shouldn’t worry about it too much.”

“It’s because it’s Lucien the one walking around the mansion that I am worried! Ever since he got up on his two feet I can’t keep track of him, and when I do find him, he is always in a different place from the last!”

“I understand ma’am, but please relax a bit, even if at different places, young master Lucien tends to frequent 3 places the most around the mansion, if you want to see him, please just check those places first and you’ll most likely find him. If that doesn’t work, try asking young mistress Maura, she always seems to be the first one to find him whenever he runs off.”

“Tha-that’s right, the places he frequents the most…what were those again, I’m sorry I’ve been looking everywhere so I forgot.”

“*sigh* It’s alright ma’am, if you want it easier again just ask young mistress Maura. Otherwise check the library, the back porch or his room.”

“Thank you very much Claria. Please continue with your work.”

“Understood ma’am, I wish you luck finding young master Lucien.”

With the parting words between the master and servant, the mistress of the Mercelious household ran off in search of her 3-year-old son within the mansion. Never suspecting that her faithful maid was already an accomplice to the one she was searching for.

“Is that as you wanted young master?”

“Yeah, that’s fine Claria, but did you have to tell her the fastest ways to find me in the future?”

“Even if I assist you in your quest, I cannot lie to your mother, that action could cost me my job”

“Understood. Then I’ll go walk around the forest for now. Let’s go Maura.”

“Coming Lu!”

As the two siblings left, the working maid just sighed and wondered who the older sibling in that pair was. At first glance it would be the clearly taller and older 7-year-old girl Maura, but if one observed them even for a few minutes, it was clear that the young 4-year-old boy Lucien is the one that acts as the older sibling and even some say that he acts even older than that. Their destination for the day was the forest within the premises of the mansion, what they were doing there, nobody but those two knew for sure.

* * *

After I turned 2, I began to freely move around the mansion and explore every part of it. On the inside, the mansion has various rooms and passageways leading everywhere. In the first floor, you have the dining room, the kitchen, the main bath and the servant rooms, each one is spacious and fun to go through, although I’ve never been to the servant rooms, those are off limits, rules set not by my parents but the servants themselves, in their words, someone of good upbringing like myself should never go into the sleeping quarters of those under them. This is nothing but bullshit in my honest opinion, but I still respect the wishes of privacy of others. There is one more room in the first floor but that one is only available to be entered from the second floor. In the second floor, we have the master bedroom, a guest room, Maura’s room, my room and the nursery, maybe they plan to have another baby who knows.

However, the centerpiece of the mansion is without a doubt the library, the library is only entered from the second floor, but that room takes up both floors to house what could only be described as tons of reading material from everything and anything, magic, history, geography, language and other educational books, information on the various races, and nature. The nature section seems to be mostly limited to the wildlife that live within the region, but some books hold information of animals around the world, but those are for another time. Today, while avoiding the protective eye of mom, I plan to make a field trip to the family forest, this forest was set as a land the Mercelious family protects as a way to give back to the life that once lived in this region, the forest covers twice the land area the main property covers and it’s complete with a forest trail and a lake at the center of it, but for now it’s my personal playground and together with Maura, I want to check out some of the animals from this area. It’s my first time going outside like this so I’m excited.

As for why Maura is following me, I can think of only two reasons, one is a personal barrier, the other reason is her wish. My barrier is my disability in how to write, I can understand, speak and even read in the language used on this world, however since I’ve never been properly taught how to write, it is still a barrier for me, when I asked mom and father to teach me to write, they simply said: ‘Once you turn 5 you’ll get a tutor like Maura so you can learn to read, write, arithmetic and other basics’. I’ll be honest, I don’t like the waiting but since nobody would/could teach me, Maura can’t teach for her life, I decided to give up for now and learn in a year. The reason why Maura follows me it’s one simple in its own way, sibling affection, although mom has set up play dates with families whose daughters are Maura’s age, she simply grows bored of them after 10 minutes and goes searching for me…part of the reason why she’s gotten so good at finding me whenever I go “missing”.

* * *

“Where have you two been!?!?!”

After a 30-minute walk through the forest trail we return to the mansion…only to find a very pissed off Lara…I wonder if this feeling is what people describe as being a frog that’s stared down by a snake.

“Mama, mama, look at all the things Lu and I saw in the forest!”

Maura however, completely oblivious to mom’s temper talks with like if what we were doing was an everyday thing. And it seems to have a good effect in mellowing out the beast that is currently possessing mom.

“W-we saw a woodcrawler and a moonbird!”

“Re-really? Lu-Lucien what are these exactly? And what is that Maura is holding in her hands?”

Under Maura’s happy-go-lucky nature, mom finally cracked and turned to ask what Maura was talking about. Thank you, Maura; but mom, if I may ask, why are you asking the younger child about something the older one is presenting?

“I don’t mind telling you mom, but why don’t you ask Maura what that is?”

“Because I know pretty well Maura wouldn’t do this on her own, and along with the forest, there were various places around the house she used to avoid until you started frequenting those places. So, now what is that and what were you doing in the forest?”

Can’t fault her for that logic I guess.

“While I was in the library I found a book about the animals of the region of Germas, and I wanted to see how many of them lived in the forest. While we were there we saw many things, but the thing that Maura and I kept looking for the most were the birds.”

“Why the birds?”

“Because they are easier to find, prettier to look at, and easier to count”

“Why count them?”

“To see what was common and what was rare in the forest. And the two things Maura was talking about were the birds she found first, the rest on the list, I found them first.”

As I said that, mom picked up the listed papers from Maura’s hand. Looked with both confusion and impression to them and asked a final question.

“Lucien, a final question”

“Yes?”

“Are you sure you’re 4-years-old?”

“Last I checked mother”

This question scared me a bit the first time she asked me when I started talking, thinking that she might have found out something about me, but later I found that she just had a hard time believing I was her son with the way I talked, but secretly she was very happy about it. So now whenever she asks I just give her that answer and she goes on her merry way, just like she’s doing now.

Thus, with the help of Maura, my first trip to the forest was a successful mission and even more than that, the return to the base camp proved to have no casualties thanks to her as well.

End of Chapter 2