In a world filled with lush green forests and large mountains, there was a great chunk of land that floated high in the sky. It floated there and kept its inhabitants away from all native creatures down on the ground. In return, the people living on the continent were spending their lives happily together in harmony as it floated so high that it reached the clouds.
It was a beautiful morning, with the sun's brilliant rays of light shining down on the island. On that beautiful day, a particular event had occurred; and it was inside a hospital that it happened. That event is none other than a mother finally giving birth to her child.
The baby, who was a boy, was sleeping silently while being held by his father. Likewise, his mother was also sleeping from exhaustion. At the side, a lady was performing a checkup on the mother's condition and smiled when she felt there was no problem.
“Doctor? Is she… alright?” The father asked nervously.
“Nothing to worry. She is just tired,” the doctor replied calmly. “Give her some time, and she'll wake up on her own.”
“Okay. Thank you, doctor,” the father replied after sighing in relief.
After nodding at him, the doctor left through the door and left the two adults there with a new addition to their family. He watched her leave before turning to look down at his baby boy, who was fast asleep, and wore a happy expression on his face
“Hello,” the father said in a quiet voice, but the baby did not stir and kept on sleeping quietly.
It was a while later that the mother woke up after having recovered from her tiredness. All that time, the father had sat in a chair beside her bed quietly while rocking his arms back and forth smoothly for his son to sleep peacefully.
His mother smiled at the father and son duo before extending her arms towards them and saying, “Give him here.”
At her request, the father gently passed their baby boy, who was wrapped neatly in a towel by a nurse that visited them as soon as the doctor left.
As if the sudden movement caught him by surprise, the baby stirred and finally opened his eyes. They peered at him as they noticed the drowsy look in his eyes, before a sign of clarity replaced it.
“He's awake now,” his father muttered, and his wife nodded in agreement with a warm expression in her face.
The baby looked at them for a moment before glancing sideways and all around the room. He seemed to be surprised by the surroundings, but was not crying like the babies from other rooms.
“A baby that doesn't cry means that it's a smart baby,” said the mother happily.
“Really?” Her husband asked, looking surprised.
“Yes. My grandmother said so when she raised me, so it must be true,” she replied happily, eyeing her son with a very warm expression on her face.
“Ah,” her husband responded, nodding in understanding. “If she said that, then it must be true.”
His wife nodded silently as they both looked at their baby with great cheerfulness. They had no idea that their child was the reborn old mage from the future that returned to the past in order to save the world.
“I see. I've been reborn successfully,” the mind of the old mage thought in a satisfied voice, “but where is this place and what year is it?”
That was the reason behind the baby glancing around his surroundings in surprise initially.
“Well, I doubt I can learn anything about the world in its current time when I'm just a baby,” he admitted, inwardly sighing and turning to focus on his parents.
“These… people must be my parents. My… father and… mother,” he thought slowly when the sudden emotions of happiness and sadness caused him to start crying.
“Oh no!” The mother said in surprise, rocking him back and forth gently in her arms. “There… There… It's okay. Your mother's here for you.”
“So is your father,” added her husband from beside her excitedly.
The baby slowly stopped crying and looked at them with a tear stricken face. His mother gently moved her hand to wipe away the tears and gently pinched his cheeks.
“That surprised me,” the baby thought emotionally. “If my emotions are imbalanced, then I'll automatically cry since I don't seem to have full control over my body.”
As an experiment, he tried moving his hands, but they merely twitched. He turns his attention to his legs and tried moving them, but the result was the same as before.
“Indeed, I can't move anything but twitch around. Oh well. I'm sure I'll grow to control my body like all other kids,” he thought confidently, “but this feeling… Having the affection of my parents feels really strange.”
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In order to save the world, the old made had sacrificed everything he had, like his power, strength, knowledge, wisdom, and his memories. As such, the only things he could remember about the past is the contract binding between him and the Entity Limitless, and his purpose of returning to the past.
“I will protect this world,” he thought firmly, “because it's a mage's duty to see his life through to the end, not see the world end. Wait. How did I say that?”
He felt puzzled at suddenly quoting something like a principle of his from the past even though he should have lost all memories of his past life.
“Maybe, it's the principle that lives deep in me and so it cannot be removed,” the baby thought finally as no other explanation could make sense of it.
At that moment, he felt his body shift a little and looked up at his mother. She was chatting energetically with the person that appeared to be his father, who wore a huge grin on his face.
“I don't understand anything they're saying to each other,” the boy wondered. “I suppose the language in the past is very different from the language in the future. This'll be a challenge but maybe it will be fun to learn together with my parents.”
For some reason, he had a strange feeling in his heart as if he did not really enjoy the growth he experienced in the past. The possibility came to him that perhaps he was an orphan, and the orphanage he grew up in was not a wonderful place.
“I don't remember my past, but I'll make sure to not miss an opportunity to enjoy my current life while I can as I grow!”
He knew there would be no time to enjoy his life once he’d grown into an adult and set out to stop the evil from endangering his world. Thus, he was determined to enjoy the small time he had to grow before becoming an adult.
Before that, however, his stomach had something to say as it let out a small growl. This made him realise he was hungry.
“Wow. I'm feeling very hungry. Oh no! I'm about to cry! No! Wait!” He cried out to his body, but it would not listen as he began crying loudly.
“What happened?” His father asked, looking surprised. “He's been fine all this time.”
His wife did not immediately respond as she silently observed her son before saying, “He's probably hungry.”
“Oh…! Right. Of course,” the father said, realising and feeling silly as he wore a grin on his face.
She began unbuttoning her shirt when she realised something and looked at her husband, who was looking eagerly at them.
“Keep watch at the door,” she instructed him.
“Eh?” Her husband asked, looking disappointed. “But… I wanted to see.”
“I don't want you to!” She replied firmly in a voice that did not accept resistance. Nodding towards the door, she said, “Go.”
“Hmph! My son became more important to you than me!” Her husband exclaimed in exasperation, looking glumly at her, but her serious express did not allow him to interject. So, he rose to his feet and walked over to stand near the door with his back facing towards the room.
He did not witness his wife chuckle at his reaction before turning her attention to her child. As she began unbuttoning the rest of her shirt, her son became shocked and managed to close his eyes in time.
His mother was surprised by this action, and she let out a small giggle in amusement while saying, “Don't be shy.”
She began to breastfeed him, and it did not take long for him to stop drinking her milk. All the while he had shut his eyes tightly while repeatedly thinking of the same words over and over again.
“I must not look.”
Once she finished, she buttoned her shirt and said to her husband, “I'm done.”
He turned around looking and said, “Okay.”
As he came back and sat down next to her bed, she looked at him in amazement and asked, “You're not angry at me?”
He shook his head and said, “No, and why would I be? I realised how silly my request was to watch a mother feeding her child.”
She smiled and reached out to touch his cheek gently. Then she began caressing it with a tender feeling.
“My husband, and my child are as important to me as my eyes,” she said, making him widen his eyes slightly before touching her hand that was on his cheek.
“I'm glad,” he said simply while making an emotional face, and she smiled at him.
In the meantime, their son was observing them silently with a hint of curiosity on his face.
“I wonder what mother said for father to make that kind of face. Maybe it was an emotional dialogue or something,” he thought, feeling happy for the strong bond that connected his parents together.
His father noticed a pair of eyes looking towards them, and looked down at his son watching them in silence.
“What is it? Why are you looking curiously at us?” He asked his son, who obviously could not reply.
“He's probably feeling happy to have a father like you,” his wife told him gently.
“Really?” He asked her, then he looked down at his son and asked, “Really?”
The baby looked at them with interest and thought, “I feel somehow they're talking about me. I wish I could at least understand them. Oh well. In due time, I will learn the language of this time!”
He was very determined to achieve, but first, he had a lot of growing to do. Suddenly, his mother began patting him on his stomach gently with a smile on her face.
“You had your meal, right? Now, take a good long rest, my son,” she said in a tender voice.
The boy, on the other hand, thought, “Mother. Stop. If you keep doing that, I'll start feeling sleepy.”
Just as he said that, his eyes started to feel heavy, and they swayed up and down from drowsiness.
“Sleep well, my child,” his father told him happily.
Their son looked at their smiling faces in drowsiness and thought, “Wow. I never thought falling asleep would feel… this welcoming.”
As sleep threatened to take over him, he put a final strength in praying to the gods by saying, “Please, let this not be a dream when I wake up next time.”
With that, his eyes closed, and he quickly fell asleep.