For the first several months of Alex’s life, he enjoyed the undivided mother’s attention and, truth to be told, he actually loved it. Demy was the first mother he had that was not a complete nutjob. In addition she spared no effort in teaching him so it fit well in with Alex’s own plans.

To Alex’s great surprise she didn’t even flinch when he spoke his first words few weeks after being born. In fact, Demy considered it to be completely normal – Alex’s father was Phil, the prodigy of a century, after all. What Alex didn’t know was how his father during the ‘pillow-talks’ with his mother told her stories about the wonderful child they’ll have and how amazing he would become. For some reason Demy seriously took Phil’s tales as a prophecy and was not surprised by Alex’s miraculous development one bit.

Their relationship changed dramatically the moment Demy realized Alex could clearly understand her. While she, of course, continued to fulfill the role of a mother, she immediately became a strict teacher as well. For an outsider it would’ve looked weird how she spoke to a child who normally would barely recognize his parents faces, but Alex loved such attitude. His only condition was that Demy would call him ‘Alex’ instead of Alen, the way she called him at first, and she gladly complied.

If one didn’t count this peculiar attitude towards her son and the abnormal worship of her late husband, Demy was a very bright and talented woman. In addition, Phil managed to pick a very pretty wife and some suitors didn’t even care about her having a son – they came to her shop and spent inappropriately long time conversing with the shopkeeper. Demy didn’t mind it. She easily guessed their intentions, but as long as she could increase her profits, she gladly gave a smile or two away.

Meanwhile Alex was forbidden to make a sound and silently meditated under the counter. Of course, it was something he wanted himself as well and, till the time he was able to crawl around, meditation was the best practice he could do.

He did show interest in Demy’s potion-brewing skills, but she kept on insisting Alex would continue to practice his father’s techniques. Since he was the newcomer to this world, Alex decided to trust her judgment and the first few months were spent in such fashion.

The duo didn’t have any other family members and the only people who joined them for dinner now and then was an elderly couple – Hanna and Sigmund. Demy called them ‘aunt’ and ‘uncle’, but Alex’s guess was that it was only a polite way of addressing them. He himself only made ‘gugugu’ and ‘bububu’ sounds trying to pretend to be a normal baby and, from what it looked like, the old couple bought the play.

The two fulfilled not only the guest roles, but also brought food supplies to the mother and son. Demy, of course, always paid for it, but didn’t leave the house herself. Thus for months apart from Hanna and Sigmund Alex only saw the customers of their shop and they were not that numerous. But to his surprise mother was not worried about their financial situation one bit. Even though their stock kept depleting, she brewed few elixirs now and then and they got sold pretty quickly.

Alex was itching to learn his mother’s craft as well, but had to wait for now. From his experience working with Gael, he knew that not only he didn’t have the required Qi for the basic alchemy, his fingers were so small he couldn’t hold a flask or mortar.

The first time they left the home was only in the middle of the winter, when apparently the two elders got sick and Demy had to buy groceries herself. This was also the first time she went for a longer walk after the occupation of Haldenburg.

Alex was wrapped to her chest and curiously kept glancing around while listening to her introductions. After he begged Demy several times, she finally gave in and took a longer route around the city for him to see the sights. It was a bit odd to see a young mother leisurely taking a stroll and introducing the world to her child out loud, thus people kept throwing curious glances their way. Some customers even recognized her and came over to chat.

Alex was a bit disappointed. With the concept of ‘saints’ existing in this world he expected to see something special – if not flying carpets and phoenixes, then at least some lesser magical beings and enchanted weapons or armor. Unfortunately, the winter’s snow looked as white as everywhere else and not only the way people dressed, even the buildings were similar to the ones in the previous worlds. The most exotic sight he saw was coachmen silently guiding their horses without whips only using their mental power.

Demy explained that the primitive animals like horses were easily controlled and one didn’t have to have a great talent in order to do that. It didn’t fit well the concepts of the ‘beast world’ Alex was once born as a wolf in, where beastmasters cultivated the special force of nature techniques for decades in order to communicate with beasts. Here, on the other hand, every Tom, Dick and Harry was able to do that and it didn’t make any sense, except if the techniques to influence the mind of an animal were different or the force of nature, or rather – Qi, worked differently in this world, had another density or frequency.

With Demy continuing her explanations and Alex deep in thoughts, they arrived at the central marketplace. The busy noise woke Alex up from daydreaming and he finally started to pay attention to the surroundings again.

This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

Finally there were new things for Alex to see. While his mother chatted with vendors, he inspected some vegetables he never saw before as well as weird looking livestock that resembled pigs, except they had thick wool.

Suddenly Alex realized his mother never actually ate meat. It was probably the reason why her milk tasted so sweet. Indeed, he was still drinking milk and didn’t look forward to change his diet at all intending to use his mother’s ‘services’ as long as she was capable of providing them. Of course, the favorite part of his meals was the packaging, but no one had to know that.

Inwardly grinning at his own joke, Alex glanced around and noticed a squad of guards or soldiers not too far away. They were dressed in armors made of thick fur, but obviously few of them were not used to such climate and were slightly quivering in cold.

“Armenidians.” Demy quietly whispered so that only Alex could hear.

He already guessed as much, but he couldn’t understand why they were not using Qi to protect themselves. Even the basic techniques could warm a person in the current weather and after all it was only around minus ten, maybe fifteen degrees … well … Celsius. But the leader of the squad was not uncomfortable at all. The middle aged man was dressed in a light leather jacket, even surpassing the comfort levels of the local nordlanders.

Most people avoided staring at the soldiers or, after noticing them, directly turned around and rushed away – the memories of the recent war were still fresh and many had lost their loved ones to the people like them.

Alex didn’t care about such things and only noticed them because they stood out so much, but then his eyes widened in shock. The subordinate who was responsible for paying vendors apparently had his fingers frozen stiff and at some point clumsily dropped the satchel with money. But before the satchel hit the ground and the shiny coins scattered on the flattened snow, the squad leader flicked his fingers and the satchel suddenly appeared on his palm. Alex was certain it didn’t teleport, but some ‘suction’ force made it move at incredible speed.

Alex was so shocked by the sight, he didn’t even notice how the leader slapped the guilty soldier on the forehead and how the surrounding people failed to hold back their laughter. Only few minutes later Alex poked Demy and whispered he wanted to go home. He needed to find out more about the telekinetic abilities as soon as possible!

Since he could never become a saint, Alex was more than happy to ‘settle’ for the second best thing. In fact, this ‘second best thing’ would basically be considered a magical ability in any of his previous lives, thus he had to learn it at any cost!

Unfortunately Alex couldn’t rush things. In order to prevent Demy from directly refusing the information he sought, he had to trick her.

After the long walk their home seemed much smaller compared to how it was when they left, but Alex didn’t mind. The one storey house was located in a quiet part of Haldenburg and only had four rooms – the biggest one was the shop and the one right next to it was the laboratory where Demy made her mixtures. Another small room functioned as a storage and the last one was their bedroom.

They also had a small kitchen and that was where they currently sat. Alex just finished his lunch and Demy was cooking her stew when Alex asked her to tell about his father.

In the past months Alex learned it was the simplest way to take her mind off from any problem or lift her mood. This time it worked like a charm again and Demy excitedly began to tell another story about Phil’s heroic deeds. Alex was not particularly interested in the content, but he had to patiently wait for the river of words to end so he could finally ask what he really wanted.

Demy talked all though her meal and only then Alex finally got a word in and told what he saw in the marketplace.

“Oh? The coin satchel most likely belonged to the leader and he had ‘branded’ it.” She carelessly explained, “That way he could immediately find it in case it got stolen or lost.”

“Branded?” Alex adorably furrowed his brows. During the past lives he long had learned that grownups, especially women, for some reason loved when children made weird faces.

“Yes, branded. I also do it with my equipment when I work.” Demy explained and lovingly kissed his forehead.

“Oh … so it was nothing special …” Alex pretended to be disappointed.

“Uhmm … if it was as you said, that person was actually quite skillful.” Demy said, “He felt the object with his brand to move unnaturally and immediately recalled it.”

“But it’s something everyone can do, right?” Alex asked.

Demy thought for a bit and said, “Yes and no. First of all, one has to master Qi to some level. Then they have to know a branding technique. And while the basic branding on an object is relatively simple to perform, there are higher levels – like when one enslaves an animal … or a person.”

For a minute the atmosphere became gloomy, but then Demy quickly recovered and continued, “But that soldier was definitely a skilled Qi warrior. Most never reach the level where they can move their branded objects, but to recall something from mid-air … he definitely is not some random nobody.”

“Alright! Enough chatting!” Demy picked Alex up and carried over to her laboratory, “It is too early for you to think about things like that. First you have to learn how to deal with saints, the rest will come naturally. You are your father’s son after all!”

Alex was not disappointed. In fact, he got more information than he hoped for. First of all, the telekinetic ability was based on a Qi technique – that meant he would be able to learn it in the future. Second, the concept of branding techniques opened another wast field of knowledge he was eager to acquire. But his mother was right, he had to practice his father’s techniques first or he wouldn’t even have the chance to learn anything in the future.

The perspectives of the current life looked way too appealing to waste them just like that!