Helga was shocked the first time she actually realized that the babe’s eyes were red, for more than a couple of reasons. First of all, it was said that in the past the only people who had red eyes were those who were descended from angels or cursed by gods, for what reason though? Nobody really knows, but they’re usually kept at an arm’s length and the red-eyed are left by themselves only going outside from time to time.

Besides that, there was also the fact that none of alexander’s parents had the eyes, which would mean that he was cursed, but of course, there was also the possibility of alexander not being Frank’s son, but nobody who knew Alexa liked to entertain the thought of her being unfaithful, especially if they ever saw the couple together, they were like glue, always stuck together and laughing about whatever it was they were whispering to each other.

Apart from being shocked by the sight of his eyes, she also felt quite sad, as alexander had the same red hair of his mother, the sweet Alexa who she had taken an active role in raising, and that surely didn’t help at forgetting about the woman.

Helga felt heart ache at seeing the child, he truly resembled his mother in more than the hair, for he had the same delicate nose and bone structure that the young Alexa had, though him being a male meant that it would probably change somewhat later on.

Besides the ache also came some curiosity, seeing as when the child saw her he was neither scared nor curious, he merely stared slowly at her, almost as how a wolf measures his prey from afar, though after a bit she seemed to feel the cold gaze soften after he was fed.

She wondered what Alexa would’ve thought of him, perhaps she would’ve worried about him, after all, the poor Alexander did seem quiet and tired, why? Nobody had any idea, for his mother had eaten more than her fill in her pregnancy, which made many joke about how seeing how much she ate, she’d probably had twins.

Alexa’s death had hit everyone hard, she was quite beloved in the village, but the one who took it the hardest was indisputably Frank, Alexander’s father. The poor man hadn’t come out of his room for 3 days, merely drinking the water that Helga left outside of his door, and his thanks was no more than a whisper.

Perhaps tomorrow she’d kick his door down, for gods’ sake, Alexa wouldn’t want this, nobody would want this, if it continued, the poor man could very well die and leave the little creature of his alone, and she’d be damned if she allowed that to happen.

Helga looked at alexander and saw him sleeping soundly, and she wondered what the gods saw in the child to give him red eyes, perhaps his uncanny intellect? Were they the ones who gave it to him? Perhaps he had some sort of grand destiny? The idea gave Helga some hope. However, she was well aware of the fact that only a small portion of red-eyed children had this sort of “destiny”, with the vast majority of the cursed ones like alexander dying at an early age.

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As far as she knew, the rest of children were merely the product of a passing lingering gaze by bored gods with too much time in their hands, perhaps just looking for an interesting subject to stare at and torture for a few years until inevitably they stop looking and let them go or when they ended up dying, which was what would probably happen to the poor alexander.

While she thought these things, she noticed that alexander stirred slightly, he seemed to not like his crib, but that was quite normal as the “crib” was no more than a basket filled with rags, so she tried to soothe him.

She put her hand lightly on his chest and activated her skill, 【Soothing presence】which made her hand shine lightly and seemed to finally calm the child, however unlike what she expected, Alex didn’t fall asleep, he merely stared at her, once more analyzing her. Helga was sure that it’d be a long night until he fell asleep.

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Alexander waited for the woman to leave him alone, which was not easy, the woman just would not leave him by himself, leaving Alex quite puzzled, seeing as he had never experienced this before.

When he was a child there was never anyone taking care of him, how he survived to be old enough to take care of himself, he did not know, but he had no doubt that it was nothing short of a miracle if there was such a thing.

In the end Alex finally realized that he was a newborn, and those were hardly alone, so he settled on pretending on falling asleep, which prompted the woman to nod to herself and finally giving him the solitude he needed.

After thinking a bit, he decided to try to use his old abilities. He first tried to use elemental magic, the most basic air current should be enough to see if he still had the power he used to have, so he proceeded to try and harness as softly as he could some mana.

After a while of nothing happening he finally was sure that, as he had feared, he had lost his past abilities just as the notification he had gotten while he was in that darkness had said.

Alex sighed softly and after thinking a bit he decided on his course of action. The place where he was seemed safe enough to run out of mana for a few hours safely, so he should start by practicing mana control all over again.

He remembered then the first time he learned how to use mana, at the time he was 11 years old and he was a slave on the Demihuman Village of ragas on the forgotten lands.

He remembered how he would sneak on his master’s home to take a few peeks at basic books on mana usage, and how many times he was caught and beaten to an inch of his life, only being spared because him dying meaninglessly would be akin to gold thrown in a lake, not to be found by anyone ever again.

He’d always be given 3 or 4 days to recover and then he’d be worked all day once more, no matter if he could barely walk at a normal speed by that time, he’d be punished and left without supper by the day if he lagged behind.

Truly, those times were very dark days, but somehow Alex felt that they were better than when he lived under his father, his original father, for at least in Ragas he knew that they wouldn’t be as disgusting as the old man

Alexander opened his eyes after his brief meditation on the past and concentrated his meager mana on his heart, where he started to feel a slight heat slowly rising, at which he softened the pace with which he was concentrating the mana.

Thinking on it, these techniques of mana handling were made for 9 year olds, and him being a newborn could mean that what he was doing could at best make his heart burst, and at worst… gods, perhaps thinking about what would happen if he harmed his pure mana was not the wisest choice in this moment.

Right now he needed concentration, so he softly and slowly gathered the mana in his heart. Hopefully, he’d get back to his former power in no time.