It has been three months since I was born in this world. After some great troubles, I can somewhat control my body to some extent. Even though I can’t walk or crawl, I can move my head and eyes to observe my surroundings.
I never realized how boring being a baby is even if it was my third time. After I got taken away by the woman, I was left in the care of some kind of orphanage that looked better that some of them from my previous worlds. The problem is that except for one old woman no one interacts with me. I’ve been here for not so long and I’m already depressed because of all the boredom.
As I firstly suspected I share the room with 14 boys aged between 2 and 9 years. Apparently there is a division based on gender here and the other part of the building is the girls’ dorms. The orphanage has quite a huge garden with trees, bushes beautiful wild flowers. I saw it during my feedings. Nothing special but it allows the youngsters to spend some of their energy outdoor without breaking the peace of the establishment.
The language is still out of reach because the maximum I can hear are some small talks between kids and I can’t even see them. It’s a myth that intelligent people are better at learning languages. Language learning involves a lot of uncertainty. People will encounter new vocabulary daily, and for each grammar rule there will be a dialectic exception or irregular verb. Until native-like fluency is achieved, there will always be some level of ambiguity. I would like to quit out of sheer frustration. Luckily I don’t have the need to understand everything for now. Even if I’m curious to find out what’s wrong with me and why my magic isn’t working.
Yes, about the last one, I’m still working on it. For instance I had a little help from one of the aged people here. It was an old bald man and he was showing some magic tricks to the boys in the room. Sadly he sat with his back to me but it was enough to inspect the mana particles around him. Apparently to being able to use mana in this world you need to firstly absorb the mana, refine it with your body and the release it in form of a spell. It was a popular version of mana manipulation that I discovered during my readings in my first life. Sadly, I wrongly assumed that since physical laws like gravity or Einstein’s theories were the same for each realm, the same principle was applied for magic.
Nothing new here, I already had this idea (it’s not for nothing that I read all the novels in my first life) but when I tried nothing happened. This lead to two possible conclusions. Firstly, I don’t have the capacity to use magic because my body is somehow ‘defect’. It can be quite true, especially if you take in consideration how I was born and the reaction of my mother and every adult in the orphanage. The second possible explanation is that my body is not used to absorb mana, thus I need more practice. Being optimistic (because what else remains?) I started to absorb mana every minute that I was conscious.
I also plan in the future days to reshape my mana absorbing technique to the new variables in the formula (like entry points of mana and the path towards the mana core if I’m correct) so that my body can still process the mana even during my sleep. I got this information from the same old man during the long observations.
It will prove to be a huge bonus if you count the amount of time that a newborn spends sleeping.
One more month passed I was quite proud of myself. I started feeling the mana circulating my body. It is the strangest thing I have ever experienced. Imagine having a lot of ants crawling under your skin and digging tiny little tunnels in your flesh and internal organs. It’s not even painful, but still disturbing. The good part is that after the tunnels (which I called mana veins for practicity) are formed, the mana flows freely without hindering the body.
Another good news is that I readjusted the formation for mana absorption. After some trial tests I found out that I can use only 80% of its efficiency but still the result was more than pleasing. The down part is that it disturbs my sleep. I wake up several times per night due to the vein forming. But then again, I’m a baby, the time spent to fall back asleep doesn’t exceed 30 seconds.
If I had to predict how much time is needed to reach the place in my abdomen, a little lower than my heart, where my core will be located …. At least 2 years were necessary to perform this task. Of course I did this assumption based on the speed of my veins that were formed. I was still unsure if reaching some parts of my body the process would slow down or on the contrary, speed up.
The last part in return was not that pleasing. I finally found (or at least hope) why my mother abandoned me and why everybody is wary when the glance in my direction. Being able to move my limbs more freely now I started to inspect myself. When I moved my hand forward so that I can inspect it I was shocked to see that my skin is not pink/white but instead had a metallic silver color. To be frank it looks cool and quite badass. Also even if I am only 4 months old my nails are harder than steel and sharper than razors. Yes, they were also black. I hope that when the time comes I’ll have normal, ‘standard’ teeth and not some sharp blades instead.
Jokes apart, now I must find out if this is some sort of mutation like albinism or if it’s much worse and it will crap my future social life.
So many things to find out, but I move forward, hoping that with time everything will be clearer and easier. For now, I will concentrate on creating all my veins and adapting my body to mana. On second thought, I’ll take a nap.
Katal Phina’s POV
When Uriyra, one of the city midwifes and my friend, bought the new boy covered with a blanket in the middle of the night to the doors of the orphanage I was surprised. There were no children that required our shelter for already two years since the last war with de demons finished. Still, I got up from bed and pulling something on myself I forced my body to descend to meet her. The body of a 587 years old lady is not meant for such actions during the night.
‘‘Good night Usiya, what pour soul you brought me this time? Since I last checked there were no newborns without parents from the last war a few years ago. I hope no woman died during birth this night’’
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
‘‘Hello Phina and sorry for bumping into you at this hour but this child needs a roof and I couldn’t think of a better place for him than here. Especially with his circumstances.’’ She replied with a sorrowful face while removing the blanket from the baby.
What I saw was a baby elf, no different from others, except for his skin color that was somehow silver, like the armors made from the same material, it gave a metallic light. He was sleeping while holding Usiya’s cloth.
‘’I presume you’ll fill me with details about this young elf before entrusting him in my care.’’ I asked curiously. At my age there is little to no chance to be surprised by something new.
Usiya’s head looked down and I could feel discomfort and a slight hint of fear in her eyes. ‘’To be frank even I know almost nothing in regards of this baby. All the information that this boy’s mother told me is that during the war she was kept prisoner by the demon army. She lost the memories of that time and no one knows if it was caused by magic or by the fact that it was a burden to big for her mind to carry.’’ She finished her line while looking directly into my eyes.
‘‘Anyway, as you can see the child was born 2 years after the war which is strange since the pregnancy for elven race lasts for 36 months. Plus the woman wasn’t engaged in sexual relations since her release from the demon camp.’’
Yes, this was definitely interesting but very very sad for the mother and the child. Growing up with different color will surely be a challenge for the boy, even if our race is quite peaceful, children can be cruel sometimes in their teasing. And who knows if this is his only demon trait.
‘‘So he’s a mixed race. ‘’I finally said after some moments of silence. ‘’It’s common knowledge that such incidents are extremely rare, the chance of getting pregnant from another race individual is one to one million, if not even slimmer for the elven and demon race. Those two races have the weakest birth rate compared with others’’
Usiya gave me a sad tired smile ‘’yes, I know. It’s my field of practice after all. Yet here we are, and the child is proof that chances are not everything.’’ She started caressing the boy’s black hair.
‘’So, could you take care of him for the time being? His mother didn’t really abandon him. It’s just too much for her. She needs time to munch the idea that her son has demon blood in him. Maybe after some time she will come here to pick him up, at least I hope her to come. He’s just been born so a few months or even a year here won’t cause any problem’
Just as she finished talking she gave me the baby and I took him.
‘’Ok, we will take care of him and I really look forward to see him mother coming for him.’’ I said this still looking at the child. Except for his skin there were no other visible demon traits.
‘’Now if you will excuse me, my age doesn’t allow me that much and I start to get tired. Good night Usiya. I expect you to come see the boy. And without another newborn to entrust us will be the best.’’ I said while grinning. ‘’The orphanage will shelter anybody in need, but I’m sure that a child needs his family.’’
‘‘You are certainly right. And I wish I could come to visit him but I must go in Nytathrius.’’ The woman responded with the same sad look on her face.
‘’My daughter’s husband was slain by a beast in the great forest of Serin. She needs my support. Actually I depart tomorrow evening.’’ I could see a small smile. ‘’This boy is my last child in this town and I sure will remember him.’’
She reached her hand and once more caressed the boy’s hair.
‘‘Good night Phina. And sorry for the trouble.’’ She turned and slowly walked bad into the alley.
Ok little boy, the first thing after we’ll feed you is finding some comfing place to sleep.
I directed myself towards the boys’ dorm. The kitchen was free at this hour and I hoped we got some milk left.
I was still looking after the boy even after 4 months. The other personnel are quite afraid and wary of this child.
Surprisingly taking care of him is pretty much easy since he never cries. For the beginning I was afraid that he is deaf, but sometimes before his ‘physical needs’ he tries to call for me using some noises. Maybe this calm is another blood trait inherited from the demons? I have no idea how demon children behave themselves during childhood. Not that he’s the first quite child I raised.
I explained the other stuff about the child’s circumstances. I lied to them that it’s a very rare mutation and it’s nothing to worry. They, on their part let children know that the boy is just like them and the skin color was a blessing from the gods. They fell ashamed for ignoring and even fearing a little boy.
Like this the child will grow up without being teased and feared (not more than any other child). Normal circumstances are important, and since last week other instructors started feeding and taking care of him.
Just like me, they were overwhelmed by the boy’s eyes. Deep black eyes that shone with intelligence. Sometimes I had the impression that this child understands everything I told him.
Of course it was just imagination, every time someone talked with him trying to speak to him the boy was lost in thoughts. Still, no one doubted that his gaze emanated wisdom. I look forward to see the boy grow up.