Ugh… What happened? I feel so… exhausted for some reason.

I slowly opened my eyes, my eyes slowly getting adjusted to the light. I looked at the ceiling, I could figure out easily that this was my room, since my room had these paintings and decorations attached to the ceiling.

I was in my crib, that was for sure. I felt the surface that my back was lying on, it was soft and really comfortable, comfortable to the point I could fall asleep again. But I shouldn’t there was once question on my mind. How did I end up in my crib? I was pretty sure I was on the floor before I went unconscious. Unless…

I then looked to my right to find Bathsheba and David, my ‘parents’ talking to each other. My eyes slightly widened as I saw Bathsheba holding the book, the book that was guide to magic. And David was holding the other book, the book with high school level questions.

Craaap… Have I been caught? Oh boy, is there a secret facility where delinquent or weird children who discovered magic will be sealed away?! Oh no…!

No no! I was overthinking stuff, there was no way there was a place like that, nor would these both send ME, their only child away. I saw Bathsheba about to turn her head to look at me, I immediately closed my eyes to act like I was sleeping.

“Do you think I accidentally left the book here while looking about Soly?”

“That is possible. I mean, Soly can walk but by no means, how could he have gotten these books here?”

These two seemed to be discussing how the books could have gotten here. They seem slightly suspicious but don’t want to believe I brought them here… I think? I then heard an audible sigh from Bathsheba.

“You’re right darling, there is no way he could have entered the room anyways.”

Bathsheba chuckled, and so did David but on a louder level. Never mind, it sounded more like a laughter now.

“Yeah, after all, our Soly was just a tiny little gremlin!”

Gremlin? Who are you calling gremlin, old timer? Oh wait, he wasn’t that old I guess. Pretty young actually.

I kept my eyes closed as I heard them continue talking. Majority of it was how the books were some old books both Bathsheba had during their high school days. It seems dear old David would sneak Bathsheba out of the school during classes and would hang out somewhere else. Reminds me of some old light novels with romance I used to read.

Either way, I heard footsteps leave the room as the door clicked to a close. I waited a few seconds before opening my eyes. Then I got up and sat in the crib. I looked around, then at the ground. I was surprised to see the books were still there on the ground, they ended up not taking the books, which honestly surprised me.

Either way, victory for me!

*

A few days passed, I was sitting on the couch, just sitting and minding my own business. Okay, I wasn’t sitting idly, doing nothing. I was watching as everyone, and I mean everyone in the house were almost busy doing something. David was walking around the house, decorating it. Bathsheba was helping the maid, Claire. They looked like they were making something.

I just sat on the coach and acting the cute baby I am!

Anyways, a few minutes or an hour passed by. As to your question to what I was doing… I took a nap. Yes, I took a nap on the coach in my new body. I then turned on my back to look up, to see David grinning as he was staring at me. Then he picked me up, I just let him pick me up since I was still tired.

I turned to see as David walked into the dinning room. I then looked up at a decoration. Wait… is today…

I was settled down in my seat as all three of them walked close and stood on the opposite side of the table as they yelled or spoke aloud.

“Happy Birthday Soly!”

They spoke in almost sync and in unison. That was when it hit me. It was my first birthday. And I hadn’t even realized it. True, almost a year has passed but I didn’t keep count of the date and days passing by.

Clair then went into the kitchen for a second, then a few seconds passed by as both David and Bathsheba settled down in their seats. I watched as Claire then came out of the kitchen, carrying a small baked cake in her hands. She then put the cake in front of me and cut three very small pieces. Each of them took a small piece, then put it in front of my lips.

I opened my mouth as they put the small pieces of cafe in my mouth. I closed my mouth and tried to chew carefully. It tested pretty good, not gonna lie. It was soft but not too soft. Almost perfect. Then I ate two more pieces fed by David and Bathsheba.

After I ate all the pieces, they clapped their hands while smiling. I too, smiled.

But a part of me remembered something. That’s right… Something similar to this happened in my previous life.

I didn’t have many friends after I became a teenager, I tended to ignore the people around me and didn’t talk to anyone. I didn’t want to-

…

No, the truth was, I was afraid. I was afraid of making new friends, talking to people and worst of all, I was afraid of being judged. I grew up in a world where people judged others way too easily. I guess, I… or ‘Hugo’ was quite the weakling.

Nothing can be done about it now. I looked at the faces of David, Batsheba and Claire’s faces, they were smiling and talking to each other… It reminded on how back in my teenage, the only ones who would celebrate my birthday with me were, my past parents.

Now that I think about it, they really cared for me, looked out for me. My mom was kind of a gone case in terms of mentality, but nonetheless, she adored me and cared for me.

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

My dad was an idealist, who had ideals and ideas for me since a young age. Though he let me take or have my own path. Yet, in the end I locked them away, locked myself away, become a worthless loser who didn’t value anything other than games, anime, novels and entertainment. And that led me to losing people and finally, my pathetic demise.

But now, fate seemed to have shown mercy on me, I was reincarnated in a new body, with a new life. I looked at my new… family. I am feeling nostalgic.

Ah, nothing much I can do now, I can at least live this life happily.

*

A few, almost many, months have passed since my birthday. I am able to walk steadily now and can talk more properly now. I was growing up and time seemed to be flying by. I would sometimes watch as Batsheba worked and took care of the plants in the garden, watching Claire cook or clean the house or even just glancing at David practicing.

You can say I have been doing these things a lot, just watching others. But that wasn’t the only thing I have done in these past few months. I had been also practicing my water magic. I was able to perfectly create water balls, fire them, adjust their size and make a small waterfall from my hands.

I have also been reading, studying and revising all the books I stole from the study. I wasn’t able to write perfectly yet but I have been at least been able to scribble or write gibberish. That was enough to satisfy me anyways.

But lately I have been bored out of my mind, I didn’t have much to do anymore, not that I knew of at least. Then the idea popped into my mind. I had been using water magic all this time but I haven’t checked the other contents of the book

I quickly sat up, looking around, then I spotted the book hidden under the bed. I quickly crawled under and pulled the book out. I then sat down and opened the book, skipping the pages with advanced magic spells and going to the next basic spells.

“Fire…”

I muttered under my breath. The next basic spell was… fire or what my mom cast in front of me for the first time, ‘Ignis Minima’ was the incantation and name of the spell. But in all honestly, lets just call it ‘fire generation’ spell for now.

There wasn’t much info for how to cast it except for just saying the incantation. Rest of the info was just history of who first discovered the flame, how the spell must be cast, how the user must be cautious, yada yada. All the basic stuff.

“Alright!”

I said as I got up, looking around to make sure no one was watching before extend my hand and pointing a finger up. I then paused as I looked at my finger. Then I spoke out the incantation.

"Ignis Minima."

I waited and watched as if something was gonna happen. I waited longer and longer yet nothing happened. I sighed as I turned and sat back down, looking at the book. There weren’t any clear instructions on what to do. Just the incantation.

The book had written that once the incantation is said, the spell will automatically act and create a kindle of fire. But as far as I knew, that was bull. Either saying the I said the incantation wrong or something was wrong about the book itself.

Then I realized something. I didn’t need to read the book, what I needed to do was think this through properly and logically. Of course, there wasn’t anything much logical about magic in the first place anyways. But that wasn’t entirely true either. Since in order to create water ball, I had to think it through naturally and made it work.

I then got back up as I extended my hand, pointed my finger and closed my eyes. Focus, what do I need to do?

First of all, what is fire? Fire isn’t just heat or temperature, it was a reaction. Oxygen reacts with a fuel of sorts, resulting in light and gas. I mean, I can already shape water molecules, so why not fire? I need to focus on the oxygen around me first... concentrate it, like I did with water. I will use mana to increase its density and wait for the fuel to ignite. But then there’s heat, how do I produce or increase heat? The heat is the tricky part. Creating fire isn’t about just imagining it, its a process.

Oxygen. Fuel. Heat. Friction. That’s right, first I needed oxygen. If I can use the mana, I can compress the oxygen around my hands and focus it on top of my finger tips. And if I try hard enough, maybe I can manipulate heat using mana, ignite the oxygen to a point it leads to combustion. Like in chemistry.

I focused hard, pulling the mana through my body and directing it into the air, compressing the oxygen like I would with water. But that wasn’t enough. I needed more heat. I needed friction, some kind of spark. I focused all my mana on the point of concentration and—there it was. A small flame flickered at the tips of my fingers, like a match lit in a dark room. However, it instantly sputtered, only leaving small trails of smoke.

I smiled as I fell on my back, looking at the ceiling. This wasn’t a complete failure all in all, in fact, it was quite the success in my eyes. I knew now that I wasn’t just pulling something from thin air. I was causing a chemical reaction, something that had to be carefully controlled. And like water, fire could be tamed… if I was careful.

But wait… something seemed off… I didn’t…

I sat up and looked at the book, then at my hands. I… didn’t say the incantation. I skipped it. But the book clearly stated that incantation is needed in order to produce magic.

“This book… Whoever wrote it sure is full of themselves.”

I then grinned. Or perhaps it was me who was too talented. Ho Ho! With this, I can call myself a prodigy- and a special kid! But still, it was quite good and necessary for me to practice. It was a good way of staying in touch with my work and experiments. But for today, this much was enough.

*