Heavy. Everything felt ridiculously heavy.
Neo tried to lift his arm, but it felt as though invisible lead weights had been chained to his wrists. He managed to raise his fist a grand total of two inches before his non-existent triceps gave out, sending his grape-sized hand flopping back onto the mattress.
'Seriously?' Neo thought, his brows knitting together in a scowl that likely just looked adorable to anyone watching. 'I knew babies were weak, but this is pathetic.'
It was his second day in this strange world. The raging storm from the night of his birth had vanished, leaving behind a crisp breeze that fluttered the silk curtains of the grand bedroom.
He could hear the soft, rhythmic sweeping of maids cleaning the hallways outside, the distant chirping of unfamiliar birds, and the crackle of a warm hearth to his right. His hearing was surprisingly sharp, but his vision was still blurry around the edges, restricted to whatever crossed his immediate line of sight.
Right now, his biggest enemy wasn't some dark lord or terrifying monster. It was his own body.
Just keeping his eyes open felt like a monumental workout. His adult consciousness was racing, trying to process his surroundings and figure out the mechanics of his reincarnation. But his infant body was throwing a silent temper tantrum, demanding sleep, milk, and absolutely zero mental exertion.
The heavy oak door swung open with a soft groan, carrying the scent of crushed lavender and morning dew into the room.
"Oh, look at him. He's already awake."
A soft voice wrapped around him like a warm blanket. A shadow fell over his crib as a blurry silhouette leaned in. As his eyes adjusted, the features of Duchess Sylvia came into focus. Her white hair cascaded over her shoulder, a few strands tickling Neo's nose.
He wanted to sneeze, but his body hadn't quite figured out how to coordinate that yet. Instead, he just let out a quiet huff.
Sylvia beamed, an exhausted but radiant smile lighting up her face. She reached down, her hands gently sliding under his back and head.
"Come here, my sweet little lord," she cooed, lifting him effortlessly.
Pressed against her chest, Neo could hear the steady, reassuring beat of her heart. It was ridiculously warm and comfortable. But almost instantly, the sheer effort of being moved—the sudden change in elevation and temperature—drained whatever stamina he had left. A heavy lethargy washed over him.
'Are you kidding me?' Neo complained internally, his eyelids drooping. 'I'm exhausted just from being picked up? What kind of cruel joke is this?'
He fought to keep his eyes open to observe his surroundings. He needed information. He needed to know exactly where he was. But the gentle rocking motion of his mother was an absolute cheat code against his infant defenses.
"You are so quiet," Sylvia murmured, carrying him slowly toward the massive window overlooking the estate. "The healers say you are perfectly healthy, but you haven't cried once. You just watch everything." She chuckled softly, pressing a kiss to his forehead. "My perfect little Neo. Neo Draven. The heir to the sky and the earth."
Neo's heart hitched in his chest. His eyes, which had been halfway closed, snapped wide open.
'Wait. What did she just say?'
His brain stalled. He stared up at his mother's smiling face, his mind replaying her words on a rapid loop.
Neo. Neo Draven.
It couldn't just be a coincidence. 'Neo' was a common enough name. But 'Draven'? The Draven Dukedom? The white hair. The deep blue eyes. The mother named Sylvia...
A sharp phantom pain pierced his head as a floodgate of memories burst wide open. Not his personal memories, but memories of a screen. Colorful 2D animation, epic soundtracks, and a story he had binge-watched over a lazy weekend.
'No way... No freaking way,' Neo thought, a cold sweat breaking out on his forehead. 'Shattered Crown?!'
It all clicked. The lavish mansion, the high-tier magic crystals acting as lamps, the sheer wealth dripping from every corner. He wasn't just reborn in some generic fantasy world. He was reborn inside an anime.
Shattered Crown had been a massive hit. It was a classic fantasy series, heavy on action and power-scaling. The world revolved entirely around the male lead—a scrawny countryside boy named Kael. Kael started off with zero talent, bullied by everyone, a literal nobody destined to die in the dirt.
But, as with every modern fantasy trope, Kael had a cheat. A System.
Neo could almost hear the obnoxious synthetic chime from the anime playing in his head.
Kael's System allowed him to level up by completing absurd quests, stealing opportunities, and crossing mortal boundaries that took normal geniuses decades to achieve. Through ridiculous plot armor and the intervention of his System, Kael went from a weakling to a powerhouse. He gathered powerful allies, conquered dungeons, and slowly annihilated anyone who dared stand in his way—the 'villains' of the anime.
The ultimate climax of the story ended with the royal family falling. Desperate for a savior after a cataclysmic war, the world declared Kael the absolute Hero. He ascended the empty throne and established a new dynasty.
It was a fun watch. A great popcorn show.
Unless, of course, you happened to be reborn as Neo Draven.
'I'm the stepping stone,' Neo realized, his stomach dropping.
In the original anime, Neo Draven wasn't the final boss. He wasn't even a major antagonist. He was a third-rate, cliché young master who existed purely to make the male lead look good.
According to the lore, Neo possessed a monstrous amount of magical talent. Born with the world on a silver platter, he became impossibly lazy. He squandered his gifts, relied on his family's terrifying reputation, and became a cruel, spoiled brat. When he crossed paths with Kael early in the story to humiliate the weak countryside boy, Kael used his newly acquired System abilities to slaughter him.
He died pathetically. In the very first arc.
'I get killed by a countryside boy just to show the audience that Kael isn't afraid of authority,' Neo thought, his tiny hands clenching into fists. 'What a garbage fate.'
But his death wasn't the end. His death was the catalyst for the bloodiest arc in the entire anime.
Because the Draven family loved him.
Neo remembered the episodes following the young master's death. The Duke of Draven—his father—went berserk. The strongest Dukedom in the empire turned all its military might toward hunting down Kael. But fate favored the protagonist. Through a string of absurd luck, Kael ended up saving the life of the reigning Emperor, earning the Royal Family's absolute protection.
The result? The Duke declared independence.
The imaginary clash of warfare echoed in Neo's mind. A catastrophic civil war erupted between the Velkrath Empire and the Draven Dukedom. The Duke decimated the Imperial forces, killing key generals and causing irreversible damage to the Empire. But it was a war of attrition. Surrounded on a blood-soaked battlefield and overwhelmed by numbers, the Duke fell.
And it didn't stop there.
Neo looked up at the woman holding him. In the anime, Duchess Sylvia fought fiercely to protect her remaining children. But the trauma of losing her firstborn son, followed by the gruesome death of her husband, broke her mind. Eventually, the Empire breached the estate. They labeled her a traitor and executed her in the capital square. Even Neo's younger siblings—heirs who hadn't even been born yet—were systematically hunted down.
Total destruction. The Draven family name was permanently wiped from history.
All because an arrogant young master picked a fight with the main character.
'No.'
Neo's breathing hitched. The gravity of his situation crashed down on him, suffocating him more than the physical weakness of his infant body.
'No way in hell am I letting that happen.'
He wasn't that arrogant idiot from the anime. He wasn't going to be a stepping stone. He didn't care about the plot, he didn't care about Kael's journey, and he certainly didn't care about changing the destiny of the world. Butterfly effect be damned.
He just wanted to live.
"Shhh, it's alright, my little one," Sylvia whispered, misinterpreting his tense posture. She rocked him again, her movements smooth and filled with unconditional love. "Mother is here. You don't have to be afraid of anything. The Draven name will protect you forever."
The bitter irony of her words stung. The Draven name wouldn't protect them; it was the very thing that would put a target on their backs.
But as the afternoon slowly bled into the evening, Neo's chaotic mind began to quiet down.
Sylvia carried him to a plush armchair near the large window so he could see outside. The evening sun was dipping low over the horizon, casting a golden-orange glow over the manicured gardens of the estate. The light filtered through the glass, warming his cheeks as a soft breeze rattled the windowpanes.
Neo rested his cheek against his mother's chest. The smell of lavender, the warmth of the sun, the soothing rhythm of her heart... it was intoxicating. For the first time since he opened his eyes in this terrifying reality, Neo felt safe. He looked up at Sylvia, watching the sunlight reflect in her eyes. She wasn't the grieving, broken woman from the anime. She was a mother, perfectly content.
'She's not a character on a screen,' Neo realized, a heavy warmth settling deep in his chest. 'She's real. My father is real. This family is real.'
He didn't want to conquer the world. He didn't want a System, a harem, or the Emperor's throne. He just wanted to keep this. This warmth. This quiet evening.
'I'm not going to get entangled in the protagonist's messy journey,' Neo vowed silently, his blue eyes narrowing with a fierce determination completely out of place on a baby's face. 'I'll train. I won't be lazy. I'll become strong enough to protect myself, and I will stay as far away from the original story as humanly possible. I am going to protect this peacefulness. Even if I have to defy the fate of this entire damn world to do it.'
Exhausted by the weight of his own resolutions, Neo's heavy eyelids finally surrendered. Surrounded by the golden light of the setting sun and the steady heartbeat of his mother, the doomed villain of the story drifted off to a peaceful sleep.