I woke up to the sun in my face. So I wasn’t dead. The doom and gloom was for nought. I LIVE!

"HELLO? GUYS? ANYONE THERE," I shouted out. But no words came out. Only baby noises.

So I did die.

I am a baby. Of course I was.

A freaking baby. I tried to get a good look at my hands, mainly to confirm this, but I couldn’t really control my body. This made sense actually. Babies really weren’t known for their stellar motor function.

Okay so I have to get someone’s attention, I have to do what babies do best. Poop mah pants! I tried to force a toot, but nothing came of it. Of course this body was practically usele-

My train of thought was broken by a maid picking me up.

"Now now young master Alberich. Don't cry," the maid said as she swaddled me. I could get used to this. "It's okay young master, Amelie is here. Your mother and father are away and it’s my job to take care of you."

It was safe to say that given the fact a maid was swaddling me, I was fairly well off, or my parents hired a random teenager to take care of me. Nice. I was in the care of a stranger. Fortunately for me, Amelie, the maid was wearing the whole maid getup, a black dress, white long sleeved shirt and matching white apron.

All the attempts at moving and trying to make this baby body work seemed to tire me out, and I fell asleep very quickly.

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The days that followed were very uneventful. I was made to do the typical baby things; eat, sleep, poop mah pants. It was a very boring cycle. Fortunately Amelie was there to cure my boredom. She’d carry around what I realised was manor in a baby carrier she made from blankets.

I also met my parents and siblings. I had two brothers and one sister. Elara was the oldest, she was 17. Konrad was the second child, being sixteen and then were was Ulrich, who was thirteen. My parents, Ulrick and Helanan von Eisenwerk were on the older side, and there were genuinely

My father was the count of Eisenwerk, a region known for its abundant iron deposits. The whole place was built around the Iron mines, essentially making us a mining town.

Growing up in the Eisenwerk household, I didn't see my parents too often, they were busy running the county. My father was never around, he was always either out on diplomatic missions or on trade related business trips, during the rare occasions he was home, he'd lock himself in the study doing paperwork. It was surprising that he even had time to have kids.

Right after I was born, Elara got involved with running the county, she and my mom handled all municipal affairs, accounting and any other work that came with the territory. My brothers ran the county mines. Konrad oversaw the mines themselves, and Ulrich (yes the naming is confusing, but I learned to live with it) handled everything that had to do with imports and exports.

With my family busy running the county and serving the capital, I was left to my own devices, of course I had Amelie, she was my assigned caretaker.

I like to think that Amelie saw herself as my older sister, because she most certainly acted like it. When my family wasn't around, she'd address me as Alber and not "Young Master". This was fine by me.

My education was meticulously tended to. My sister sought out tutors who’d live in the manor and teach me a subject for a season. The only subject I needed was language. Eshore, the country I was born into had a primary language called shoran. It wasn’t too hard to pick up on since it shared a lot of components with other Germanic languages like English, German and French.

When it came to subjects like Mathematics and Science however, I had issues with. In my previous life, I'd managed to work my way upto a PhD in Mechatronics, specializing in armaments.

The “advanced” math in this world would’ve been considered to be at a fifth grade level in my previous life, thus making things very boring for me.

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One particularly humdrum after, the boredom was starting to get to me. I’d been putting up with endless low level studies for seven years. I wanted to go outside and explore the county. I wanted to see the mines and decided that I was done. I turned my attention to my tutor, I couldn’t recall his name and frankly I didn’t care for it either.

He was a portly man with a receding hairline and a stern expression. Clearing his throat he continued, "Now then, Master Alberich, if I have seven apples and give you three, how many apples remain?"

I stifled a yawn. "Four." Easy enough.

The tutor beamed. "Excellent! Now, a more challenging problem. If I have an apple tree and I give you two apples everyday, how many apples will you have received after five days?"

"Simple," I said, leaning forward slightly. "We can determine this through observation. On the first day, I’d have two. On the second day, two more, totaling four. On the third day..." I continued until I reach the end of my answer.

The tutor, pleased, nodded along. "Precisely!"

"But," I continued, "what if we wished to know how many apples would’ve been given after ten days? Or a hundred? We could, of course, continue this process, but there must be a more efficient way."

The tutor frowned. "A more efficient way? Surely, simple subtraction is sufficient."

"Perhaps for a few days," I conceded. "But what if we wished to predict the number of apples remaining after a year? Or a decade?"

The tutor sputtered, "A decade? Why would anyone need to know such a thing?"

"Perhaps for planning purposes," I suggested. "For example, if we were to increase apple production, we might need to predict the rate of change of consumption over a longer period. These calculations could help us determine the number of trees required to keep our county fed. Heck, we can look into exporting these apples to generate revenue."

The tutor stared at me, bewildered. "Such...such complex calculations are beyond the scope of this lesson."

I shrugged innocently. "It seems to me that you’re incapable of finding an elegant way to solve such problems."

The tutor, visibly uncomfortable, muttered something about "idle speculation" and "disturbing the natural order" before abruptly ending the lesson.

It wasn't long before Elara came storming in as she always did after I scared off a tutor.

"Good god Alberich!" she shouted, "Another one? Really? How did you manage to scare off all the tutors we got you this month?"

"Sis, I can't help it if these so-called “academics” are stupid. They keep testing me on the same basic drivel that I mastered three years ago."

Elara knelt down to match my height "So, we're just going to keep playing this game where I find you a tutor and you scare them off?"

"I guess so. That is, unless you let me go to the mines with Konrad."

"Not this again. You know that I can't allow that. The mines are no place for a child like you. And who's going to keep an eye on you? Konrad will be working."

"Amelie."

"Oh come now. Amelie is not suited for-"

"Actually I am perfectly fine with the idea, Lady Elara," Amelie said, as she walked into the room, " you see, my father worked in the mines and I would bring him food as a child. That was until he started working with your family and the meals were provided."

"Regardless, the mines are not a place for a young lady."

"I understand that my lady, but as the Young Master’s assigned caregiver, it is my job to take care of his every need to the best of my ability."

"I can't talk you out of this can I?" Elara asked, getting back up.

"I'm afraid not."

The two women bowed to each other and Elara left soon after.

Once Amelie was certain that we were alone she broke her calm and composed character. "WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU THINKING?" She asked me in a hushed, yet angry tone.

"Amelie, I yearn for the mines."

"I don't understand your obsession with the mines, Alber. I really don't."

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That night, my brother Konrad was called. I don’t quite know what they discussed but what I do know is that Amelie came to my room later with a pair of sturdy looking leather boots. They fit me perfectly.

“Alber, are we really going down to the mines tomorrow?” Amelie asked as she sat on my bed.

“Is someone scared that they’d get hurt?” I asked Amelie, who was now inspecting a pair of boots similar to mine.

“No. it’s just that those mines aren’t as whimsical as your books make them out to be,” Amelie paused, “I can’t imagine how your brother spends all day in that place. It’s hot, dusty and downright horrible.”

“Didn’t you spend most of your lunch time down there as a kid?”

“I did. But those visits to my dad were short. I’ve never spent a whole day down there.”

“So why did you volunteer to accompany me? I’m sure that Konrad could’ve arranged for me to be escorted by one of his foremen.”

Amelie looked away from me and back at her new boots. The candle light didn’t illuminate the room well, but even I could tell that she was blushing.

Ah.

“SOMEONE’S GOT A CRUSH! SOMEONE’S GOT A CR-” I exclaimed, but was silenced by Amelie who rushed in and put a hand over my mouth.

“Have you lost your marbles?” she whispered. Her face was as red as a tomato. Though tomatoes weren’t a thing here. I missed pasta bolognese.

I moved her hand away from my mouth and smirked. “So? How long?” I asked. I didn’t know that anyone could turn any redder, but Amelie proved me wrong. I was almost concerned.

“Good night Alber!” Amelie said in a hushed, yet frazzled tone as she left my room. Her new boots made a deep thud as she speed walked away.