Chapter 2 Part 1:
It's been a whole month since I first opened my eyes in this strange new body. There was no doubt now that I had truly been reborn. Small hands, a helpless little body, unable to even turn over without help... Yes, I became a child, a baby, reborn in this world.
I finally realized this when that woman was carrying me, carefully holding me under her head. A reflection flashed in the mirror.
How did it happen? Why did I keep the memories of my previous life? In my world, such things were considered fantasies, stupid inventions. Everyone has imagined themselves as the hero of novels about rebirth at least once, but who seriously believes in such a thing?
Part 2:
I'm in a shelter. The girl who took my "birth" was probably a midwife. My new mother... She died in childbirth. The bitter irony is that this is the second time I've been left without parents.
But if you think about it... I was lucky.
A second chance. A new life. Even if it starts in a filthy orphanage somewhere on the outskirts of an unknown world.
From the first days, I've been trying to figure out where I am.
The teachers spoke a strange language, like a mixture of Japanese and Russian, flavored with Polish sibilants. Nothing familiar.
The names of the countries—Asura, Milis—didn't mean anything to me. Are they names? But who calls people that?
Everyone's clothes are simple and rough, as if they come from a remote village. No hint of technology—no wires, lamps, cars. Even the glass in the windows is cloudy, uneven, as if hand-blown.
The Middle Ages?
Part 3:
Six months later. I've learned to understand fragments of phrases. I started crawling, even though the tutors won't let me out of the nursery.
But you can see enough through the window.
Narrow streets paved with cobblestones. Three-storey stone houses with walls darkened by time. Horse-drawn carts. And people... a lot of people with guns.
Swords on their belts. Daggers in the tops of boots. Even older children carry wooden training blades.
—Hey, Cliff! Get down from there!
The teachers won't let me crawl to the window. A small child may fall off the windowsill...
but I'm not an ordinary child.
I already know that this is a different world, and to survive, you need to become stronger. My plan is to learn the language of this world, understand the politics of this world, make friends, and become stronger. I think that's enough for the first time.
I don't have the luxury of being helpless.
Part 4:
It's been another three months since I realized myself in this strange new world. The days at the orphanage passed slowly, filled with monotonous everyday life, but today something... inexplicable happened.
I was sitting in the corner of the common room, watching the other kids play. One of the kids, a red-haired boy of about three, was trying to climb onto a high wooden chair to get a toy from a shelf. His fingers slipped along the edge of the seat, and the next moment he fell to the floor, hitting his elbow on the stone slabs.
— Ah-ah-ah!
His cry of pain echoed through the room, and he immediately burst into tears, clutching his bruised hand. The teacher, a tall woman with streaks of gray in her dark hair, immediately rushed to him.
"Hush, baby, it's going to pass now," she said softly, kneeling down next to him.
I expected her to just calm him down or, at best, bring him some ointment. But instead of that…
She put her hands on his elbow and started humming strange words.:
— Allow the divine power to give abundant shoots and give everyone who has lost their strength the opportunity to rise again. HEALING—
Her voice sounded melodious, almost like a spell. And the moment she finished, her hands were enveloped in a soft glow—warm, golden, like sunlight filtering through the leaves.
The boy fell silent. His tears dried up instantly. He opened his fingers, gently touching his elbow. The pain was gone.
I froze.
(What... what was that?!)
My thoughts were spinning wildly. Magic? Real, living magic? Did I really end up in a world where she exists?
If so... then it changes a lot.
Part 5:
Three more long months have passed in this shelter. Time passed unbearably slowly, every day was an exact copy of the previous one: meager food (porridge in the morning, chowder in the evening), short walks around the courtyard under the supervision of tutors and endless attempts to somehow entertain themselves in the four walls of the nursery.
The most annoying aspect? I'm being treated like a baby.
The teachers are touched when I try to speak, pat me on the head when I'm curious. I'm 19 years old mentally, damn it! But we have to put up with these humiliating "agu-agu" and "how smart you are."
Other children... they are hopeless for communication. They either cry or babble their first words helplessly. Attempts to start a dialogue end with them pointing fingers in my direction and shouting, "Mom!"
The only source of information is reading aloud from the caregivers. The eldest Martha sometimes reads us a fairy tale about the "Armored Dragon Perugius" before going to bed. Thanks to this, I slowly began to memorize the alphabet of this world. The letters are strange, they resemble a mixture of Latin and runes, but I can already distinguish some words.
Something incredible happened today.
Part 6:
While cleaning the pantry (the teachers sometimes let me "help", or rather, sit in a corner and sort through the rags) I noticed an old book lying under a pile of rags.
I carefully took it out.
The brown leather cover, the worn corners, the faded letters on the title page:
"Fundamentals of Magical Theory"
My heart started pounding so hard that I was afraid its pounding would be heard in the next room.
I clutched the book to my chest, looking around. No one. I hid this book in a secluded place so that no one would see it. I'm going to read it at night by candlelight so no one sees it.
A month has passed. I finally read a book on magical theory. For me, who came from a world where magic simply did not exist, the recordings in it aroused great interest. After reading, I learned a few basic things.
1. Magic can be divided into three categories. "Attack Magic" - attacks the target. "Healing Magic" - heals the target. "Summoning Magic" - summons someone. Three types. It's pretty simple to understand. Even if they perform different functions, according to the manual, magic was originally developed for battles. It was not used for peaceful purposes or, say, hunting.
2. To use magic, you must have mana. Conversely, as long as you have mana, you can use magic. There are two ways to use mana. [Use your own mana contained in the body] [Extract mana from something containing it] Just one of these two options. It's hard to come up with a good example for an analogy. Probably something like a generator for the first and a battery for the second. A long time ago, people only used their own mana to use magic, but as generations passed, magic was analyzed and became more advanced, and the amount of mana needed to use it increased more and more. This was acceptable for people with large mana reserves, but the rest who had a small amount of mana could no longer use magic. So the magicians of the past began to look for ways to get mana from somewhere else to meet the increased demands.
3. There are two ways to activate magic: "Spells" and "Magic Symbols"
It doesn't require an explanation, right? Just use your mouth or draw a magic symbol to trigger the magic. Once upon a time, magical symbols were more relied upon, but now spells have become commonplace. In the past, it took at least a few minutes to cast the simplest spell. Maybe not for too long, but this method was very difficult to use in battles.
4. Magical abilities are mostly determined at the moment of birth.
In the standard game, the number of magic points increases with increasing level, but it doesn't seem to increase in this world. Basically, the usual specialization here is the warrior. Just using such terms makes it feel like everything is completely different here...
while no one is watching, I tried using the simplest spell "Water Ball". To do this, I put down a bucket and cast a spell.
- Send the protection of water to where it is needed, send a crystal clear stream here, a WATER BALL!
It went dark in my eyes and the water ball fell on me. They've noticed me, and I hope they don't realize I've cast a spell.
"Cliff! To go to the bathroom, you first need to take off your pants!
Phew, no one noticed, but my pride as a person has been shaken… I'm 19, damn it!..