So. This is what it's like.

I thought, coming back to consciousness for the first time. My first thought, by a new system. Never before have these synapses processed this level of thought before, firing electrical pulses through relatively new gray matter, coming to several conclusions about itself.

One, I was having a thought.

Two, it was the first time I had a thought.

Three, the second sentence was technically a lie.

It took a bit for my brain to catch up to what exactly was happening to itself. Having a new one, an infant one at that would do that to you.

I woke up again a bit later, to another new thought.

I was not alone.

I had reached this conclusion through one simple fact. There was something breathing next to me. Turning my head properly, never mind distinguishing shapes from one another is incredibly hard for a newborn baby, so it took a bit to get to confirm this thought, but it was true. My hearing, after all, was quite a bit better.

It sounded like a newborn, the noises next to me. The whole time I was conscious, I could hear them. They wouldn't wail, just exist. Test out their voice. How high and how low they could get it. It was honestly really interesting, the way they would methodically experiment with the measure of control they had over it. I, however, despite being very interested, tried no such thing. That would be the third, and most important thought I would have, going forward.

You and I are different.

After all this time, having grown up and coming to know Rudeus, on a personal and intimate level, he was always different. Driven, was the word for it. He tried new things, and didn't stop trying until he had mastered it. Each and every time it looked like he was close to giving up, he would get up and try again.

He was entirely defined by his willingness to go above and beyond with everything he put his mind to. In short, he applied himself.

That was the core of his character, as I knew him. From my life, but also from my previous life.

I was different, however. Unlike Rudeus, (previous name unimportant) I lived a full life. I died young, and some would argue too early, but I didn't regret anything. I made friends, got along with my family, took and gave, traveled, partied, loved, lost, and gained.

I had grown up in a fortunate time, to a fortunate family. The only possible regret, from a purely fundamentalist point of view, would be that I never started a family of my own. I never married, and never had children. I took care of others, but never had someone I could claim to be my sole responsibility.

It wasn't a regret, merely an observation. If I had the chance to do so in this life, I wouldn't feel rushed to take it. I wouldn't need to grasp it with two hands, and then tug like my existence depended on it.

So, we were different. Our early years especially reflected on this. When he learned how to crawl, he would crawl until he could stand. When he could stand, he would try to walk, until he could run. Every target in front of him he trail-blazed through.

I wasn't in such a hurry. I knew the milestones I had to accomplish in front of me. Start talking by this age, finish potty training by that age. Even then, I did things at my own pace, whether they were much faster or slower than normal.

(The feeling of a full diaper is not a fun experience. At all. Moved on quick from that.)

As a consequence, although we were twins, me and Rudeus would never really interact much. To him, I was just another baby. Not developed enough to interact with him, and therefore not overly interesting. When he would go off to do his own thing, I preferred to stay around Mother and Lilia.

Speaking of, watching the rest of our newfound family interacting with us was sort of my new form of Netflix. (You could only entertain yourself so much staring at a wall, or practicing walking in a straight line until you got tired.)

Mother, Zenith, was overly excitable, in every way possible. She would get overwhelmed very quickly, whether that would be by sadness, happiness, or both. She was a new mother of twins, and barely out of her teens, so in a way that was understandable.

Lilia was the complete opposite. She never showed much of any emotion at all, save for when Rudeus would try to get close to her. Her lips would pull up in a sort of disgusted snarl. When the novel would talk about his pervertedness, they really weren't kidding around. As a two-month old, he loved rubbing his face into breasts at every possible opportunity. Bastard wasn't even hungry, and he would wail like he absolutely needed milk and then proceed to ignore the food offered and. Well.

It was kind of disturbing, and I wasn't going to lie and say it wasn't a contributing factor towards our distance from each other. Zenith and Paul seemed to find it hilarious though, to the detriment of Lilia. They were enablers if I ever saw them, laughing their faces off and saying 'as is expected of a Greyrat.' or some BS like that every time it happened.

Speaking of, Paul was exactly the man I envisaged. He didn't take care of us all that much, whether that was due to his job, or the norms of this new society he kept a good distance from anything to be considered parental duties. Not to say that he was an absent father by any means. He would play with us often. But if something happened, he would always give the dumbest sheepish look towards Lilia or Zenith, and if they weren't nearby, he would freak out. Hilarious, if I hadn't just fallen on my face and was actively bleeding.

All that to say, the Greyrat family home was full of real characters, with dynamics between them and me that made me increasingly more and more fond of them. It wasn't hard to start to love them, previous family notwithstanding.

Not that I tried particularly hard not to. Zenith and I had an instant connection. We just got along. Her sunny disposition, along with her dedication to motherhood made her a pretty ubiquitous figure, even as she pulled shifts at the local clinic every so often. Being showered with positive attention by such a figure at all times made me particularly partial to her and I tried to help her out as much as possible. Lilia would often complain that we made rearing children too easy.

We were self accommodating, but I made it a point to teach Zenith how to be a proper caretaker. Carry me this way, adjust your grip! Clean up that. Yes, it's vomit, that happens. Get used to it! No, you're not supposed to feed a child food this old! What is wrong with you?! Along with my favorite, call Lilia! Please. We were going to have siblings later after all, so she had to be prepared.

Now naturally, I didn't say any of this, but nonverbal communication, whether by gestures or facial expressions did the job easily enough and I got used to doing it even when I learned how to speak this world's crazy language. To be honest, I absolutely despised the Human tongue. Not that it was overly hard to learn, or read or write in, but just because of the weird conventions it had.

It was disturbingly similar to Japanese. In the way you would refer to other people, or address them. You had a formal keigo, and a casual tameguchi, but you didn't use those words for them. Obviously. It wasn't Japanese, but it still acted like it was! It gave me a serious existential crisis, on whether or not this world was even really real or just an imagination of Rifujin's, given life by some weird magic.

Stupid tangent aside, I didn't talk overly much, even when I learned how, opposite to practically everyone else in the family besides Lilia. ( Rudeus too, while far from extraverted, loved to talk.)

We got along in that sense. When it was just us two, I didn't have to do much to communicate with her. I could just lay there, exist.

Zenith, bless her, when she noticed I was holding out on her in the talking department, had tried to get me to open up my mouth through increasingly desperate measures.

She tried jump scares, weird puppet plays she made Lilia help her make, and asked me questions constantly. It was a game at this point. And I was winning. She realised I was taking the mickey out of her about a few months in and started pouting, and getting upset with me. Like a child. Which set me off even more, naturally.

Lilia would just shake her head, divert her attention (like you would a child) and then she would try again another day. That was another thing I liked about Lilia. She just understood. Whether it was covering up for something a child really wasn't supposed to be doing, or just being a supporting presence in general, she was awesome and I kind of looked up to her.

I had a niggling suspicion that she herself sort of already knew me and Rudeus were reincarnations. I mean, the story did mention she was versed in child rearing, so the numerous irregularities she spotted probably raised all sorts of alarm bells for her. But she never said anything and covered for us, always. Even Rudeus, who she avoided like the plague. She would, probably unconsciously, whenever both Rudeus and I were in the same room gravitate towards me. Even for something as simple as folding laundry next to me, or preparing dinner in the kitchens.

I was her favorite, no doubt, and I absolutely abused that. I mean, I got an extra cookie at tea time! What's not to like!?

Erm. Moving on.

Paul was, like I said, not an overly present father, preferring to train outside in the yard or spend.. time with my mother inside. When he wasn't at work or doing any of those things, you could find him polishing his swords and armor, or visiting a friend or neighbor. He was sociable, certainly, but his time with us was limited.

When he would make time for us though, it usually ended in disaster. For such a highly trained swordsman, he was extraordinarily clumsy and accident prone, worse than Zenith. When he tried to play with us, he would trip over us, bowl something hot over, or drop something he wasn't supposed to. On us.

It was almost like a curse. At some point both Rudeus and I wisened up and started practicing our dodging strats whenever he was around. (I could hear Piccolo's voice in my head.) It didn't help Paul's self esteem any, that we would naturally flinch whenever he came close, but our self preservation came first, thank you.

Now, Rudeus. Mmm. How to describe my relationship with Rudeus, or Rudi, like Zenith keeps forcing me to say. It wasn't strained, nor particularly distant, even if you could describe it as such.

I don't know if it's because I was the same age as him, and the trauma was fresh, but in the early years he didn't like to associate with me overly much. Now granted, I did absolutely nothing to discourage this. I didn't yet know how to hide tells of my reincarnation yet, and he would be the absolute first to notice if something was off. I didn't know if it was an instinctual drive or what, but I did not want anyone to find out I was reincarnated. So, I accepted the emotional distance. I progressed at my own pace, yes, but always made sure it was after something Rudeus did. Always, always I pretended to be behind him, less intelligent. Less curious. Less driven.

Sometimes, I wouldn't even have to try. Rudeus was naturally intelligent, even with the boost he received from his new young age, but I was cautious. When I was more sure that he wouldn't recognize me for what I was, when the facade was so delicately woven as if to be a persona, barely recognizable from my true self, that's when I let him back in.

Eventually, he warmed to me and even started actively seeking out my company, treating me like a much younger sister. How rude.

"I'm much older than you are, nii-chan." I didn't actually call him nii-chan, but having to translate every part of this dumb and backwards language is too exhausting. It was close enough. "You no can treat me like this." I pouted as he pat my head in patronization.

"It's 'you can't treat me like this, nee-chan." He said, easy smile on his face. "And twelve minutes isn't 'much older.' In fact, it's positively inconsequential."

The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

I could see his pointed nose shining. "You're doing that on purpose." He laughed. "Answer my question nii-chan! Why bucket?" I asked, getting this conversation back on track.

He mulled it over in his head, whether to reveal the purpose of his actions here on the second floor, alone in a room with a grimoire and a half filled bucket, or leave it be. He then shrugged. "I'm practicing my magic. Here, look. All this water I made myself. Cool huh?"

"Ooo. You're a faucet nii-chan?"

His face twitched. "Eh— not exactly. I used this spell, called Water Ball. It's in this book here. Oh you can't read. Right." Well I could, somewhat, but he didn't need to know that. "It's all about magic, and it teaches you how to do it."

"Oh! Oh! Could I learn how to do it too, Rudi? Please? Please?" I asked, speaking more than I had in over a week. But I had to, this part was crucial.

"Ummm. Sure." A drop of sweat went down the side of his face. "Can't hurt." He mumbled.

"Now," And off he went into lecture mode. He explained basically all the things he went over in the light novel, the different branches of magic. The levels, like Elementary, Intermediate and Advanced, etc. And then the process of incantations and his theories about the fixed quantities of magic capacity. Curiously, he didn't say anything about incantation-less casting. I nodded my head at all the right places, like I didn't already know all of this. (And hadn't read the book myself too.)

"Repeat after me: Let the great protection of water be on the place thou seekest. I call a refreshing burbling stream here and now. Water Ball!" He expected me to remember all that?

"Uuuh. Let the great protection on the place you seek. Umm. Burbling… now? Water ball!" I jutted out my hand. Predictably, nothing happened.

Rudeus waved me off. "No worries, no worries. Try again. Let the great protection of water be on the place thou seekest. I call a refreshing burbling stream here and now. Water Ball!" For good measure, he demonstrated the spell as well, water materializing seemingly out of thin air and forming right over the bucket. He let it drop in.

I tried it two more times before he realized I couldn't memorize the entire incantation just having it said to me, so he helped me rehearse it before I tried again.

Prodigies. The worst.

"—ere and now. Water Ball!" Woah, that's an interesting feeling. The magic flowed through from my arm into my fingertips, finally, like hot syrup it coalesced outside of me, into a small globule of water in front of me. After it finished forming, it unceremoniously dropped. Next to the water bucket.

"Woopsie."

"That's… that's all right. I'll get Lilia-san to clean it later."

"Okay. I'm gonna try it again! Let the—"

"Woah! Over the bucket this time!" He grabbed my hand and positioned me above it.

"Heh heh. Right." I laughed sheepishly.

I went through the incantation again, paying particular attention to how the hot syrupy feeling progressed through my body. "—now. Water Ball!" And out it came.

As soon as it did, I started feeling drowsy and sat on my butt. "Oof. I'm tired. I'm going to sleep nii-chan." I knew trying a third one would knock me out immediately, so I lay my head down and did so before it could force me.

"Wait, what? Hey, I still need to practice here!" His complaints fell on deaf ears. "Hey!"

----------------------------------------

The next day he was there again, practicing with his bucket. "I'm here again, nii-chan! Teach me!"

He looked back behind him and sighed. "Promise you won't fall asleep on the grimoire this time? I was actually going to use it, you know." He was at that point already? Of trying the Water Cannon? Interesting. How long did he keep this practice secret from us?

"Sorryyyy." I wasn't sorry, not at all. "You only do Water Ball, nii-chan?"

"For now, yeah. I want to try different power and speed adjustments before I move onto something else. I'm assuming it helps control."

"You're assooming?"

"Assuming, yes. Now watch. Here, I'm producing one with Size 4, Speed 5." A water ball coalesced, and shot off into the bucket, without chanting. He explained the order of spell activation, and how to go through the process.

"Ooo. Lemme try!" Before he could protest, I tried it myself. Summoned the magic, set the size, then the speed, and off it went. I maybe overdid it a little.

"Nee-chan! You missed the bucket again!" Oh right. I was supposed to aim for that…

"Woopsie."

"Don't woopsie me! You knew what you were doing." But say, that took quite a bit out of me. I don't think I'm going to be able to do that again. Seems like adjusting for all those extra parameters does indeed up the mana cost. Good to know. "You didn't chant. Huh."

No. I didn't. Let's see how he reacts. "Did I have to?" I made a show of tearing up. "Did I do it wrong?! Is it gonna hurt?!"

"Ah—No! No— Nee-chan. You'll be fine." He waved his hands in front of my face placatingly. I moved over to hug him. He tensed up a tiny bit, but hugged back.

He still does, after 3 years of knowing him. I understand he was a shut-in, and Japanese to boot, but a little physical affection shouldn't be catching him off guard like this still.

"It's good that you didn't chant. Great even! But, well, it doesn't make me feel very good." He mumbled that last part.

"What? why not?" I implored, eyes as big as I could get them.

"Nothing you need to worry about. Just my ego."

"Oh you're right then. Nothing to worry about." He ended the hug.

"You're a rude little sister, you know that? Not cute at all." He had a mock-strict expression on his face.

"Hey! I'm cute! Kaa-san says so all the time!" And I was. Adorable I mean. Very much so. Being Zenith's child did miracles for my looks even as a child. Don't underestimate the power of good genes.

"Well. When you grow up maybe. I could see it." He was giving me a completely different look this time. Yeah I know what you're thinking.

I stood on his toes. "Stop smiling like that. It creeps Lilia-chan out."

"OW! Mm—Mm! Anyway, do you think you could try something like that again? How are your mana reserves feeling right now?"

"No I'm tired. Can I sleep now?"

"Sure. Just, anywhere else. Not on the grimoire please." I was tempted to do just that, but allowed him the reprieve. Wouldn't want to break canon this early after all.

"Okay." I layed down a few metres away from him, just to be out of the blast zone. About two minutes later, there was a hole where the window used to be.

"Uuuuh—" A shout came from outside. Paul likely saw that. Must have been some sight.

You could hear two sets of hurried footsteps on the other side of the door cascading in volume. The door opened violently.

"What happened!? Whoa…" Paul rushed in, staring at the wall with the hole in it. "Wait—hey, what the… Are you two alright?" He started mumbling to himself, perplexed.

Zenith followed him into the room, much calmer. She saw the puddles on the ground and came to her own conclusions. Rudeus looked like he shot the family pet, he was sweating through his shirt with nervousness.

"You two, did you read out loud what is written in this book?"

"Yes." "I'm sorry." I included myself. I wanted the magic loli to teach me too, thanks.

Rudeus lowered his head in shame.

"No, wait, this is an intermediate.."

"Kyaa! Did you hear that, darling!? Our children are geniuses after all!" She grabbed Paul's hands and jumped around in exhilaration. That looks fun. Kinda like a dance. With only one willing participant.

"No, erm, we didn't teach them any words—" He got ignored.

"Let's hire a home tutor right now! These children will become remarkable magicians in the future!"

Lilia came into the room, and calmly started cleaning up the mess. I gave her a guilty smile. She ignored me. Well, can't win em' all.

"Hey dear, go out to Roa tomorrow and put up a job request! This talent must be properly trained!" She was getting more excited the more she went on.

"Wait, didn't we decide that if we get a boy, he would get trained in swordsmanship?" Paul objected.

"But he can activate intermediate spells at this age! If he starts training now, he will become an amazing magician!"

"But a promise is a promise, right?!"

"What promise!? Don't you always break your promises?!" Here we go.

They pointlessly argued some more until Lilia finished cleaning and intervened. "Let him learn magic in the morning, and learn swordsmanship in the afternoon. Isn't that fine?" She offered.

"Ooo! I wanna learn swordmanship too! Teach me too tou-san!"

"Haa~? I guess? If you're both doing it.."

And so, I manipulated events to learn both magic and swordsmanship. And all I really did was sit there. Life can be so easy sometimes.

----------------------------------------

"I am Roxy. Please give me your guidance." She was even shorter than I expected. Just over four feet (1.2m) tall at a glance. That's obscene.

"You're short." Rudeus said, absolutely brimming. I could tell it was love at first sight for him.

"I don't wanna hear that from you." She said, as my parents still said nothing.

"Also, why is there a stick in your hair?" She oh'd, and removed said stick from her hair.

"...I had a run-in with a monster." Right. Is that because I delayed her arrival by a day? "Hah. Anyway, which one's the student I'm supposed to teach?"

"Ah, both of these, actually." Paul pointed to us. I smiled in greeting. Rudeus winked.

Roxy sighed. "Haaa. I guess it happens from time to time, huh, that there are idiot parents who think their child has talent after growing slightly.."

"I heard that!" Even if you're mumbling I can still hear you from this distance!

"What?" Zenith said intelligently, not helping her case.

"It's nothing. However, I think those children of yours won't understand the concept of magic yet."

"It's fine. Our children here are very talented!" Zenith piped up. Again, not helping her case.

Roxy sighed again. "I'll try my best…" She has a real interesting vibe. Can't decide if I like it or not to be honest.

----------------------------------------

"Well, let's start from the magic textbook—no, before that, let's test how much magic you two can use." We had relocated to the courtyard for the first lesson, grimoire open and on display for us. She was told we could read, so she put it there, but I don't think she believed it. It wasn't open on the right page. "Let me demonstrate. Let the great protection of water be on the place thou seekest. I call a refreshing burbling stream here and now. Water Ball."

A basketball sized water bullet formed in her hand, hitting Zenith's beloved tree at high speeds. A branch fell off. Not bad I guess.

"How's that?" Why is she asking us?

"Yes. That's my mother's favorite tree. She raised it with much care, so she'll probably get angry." Rudeus said with a smile, clearly enjoying the scenario.

"Eh!? Really?"

"No doubt."

"Oh that's bad isn't it?" She rushed over to the broken off tree branch and reattached it with healing magic. Another chant, and the branches were back to the way they always were.

"Phew."

"Sensei! You know how to use healing magic!?" Rudeus piped up.

"Um, yeah. I have no problems up to the intermediate rank."

"Amazing! That's amazing!" He exclaimed, clearly talking her up.

"No, if you train properly anyone can do things to that extent." She tried at modesty now, but the corners of her lips turned upwards, her nose twitching. Wow, she's so easy.

"Now you two. Try it?"

Okay. Rudeus tried his hand at cobbling up the half-remembered incantation, but I didn't bother, just launching a Water Ball from my hand, no announcement or anything. His was more powerful, and faster, but hey. He's been practicing for months here.

It was still enough to catch Roxy off guard. "A shortened chant?! And incantation less casting!?" Wow. That's some reaction.

"Can you both use incantation less casting?! Do you feel tired?"

Eh. "A little." "Yes, and I'm fine here."

She immediately reverted to her prim expression. "Is that so….. Looks like there's some worth to teaching you two, huh?"

"I heard that."

"Now then, let's hurry to the next spell.."

"AAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!" Zenith screamed from behind us. Oh, Rudeus hit the tree. How could I forget?

The drinks on the tray she's holding fall onto the ground, her hands covering her mouth as she stares at the snapped tree. Sorrow quickly turned into anger. Uh oh.

And so, Roxy got yelled at for a good three minutes.

Once Zenith left Roxy started sitting on the ground, bashfully drawing something in the dirt. "To think I made a mistake so quickly.."

"Sensei.." Rudeus muttered.

"Haha, I might be fired tomorrow." I feel bad for her now. Even if it was hilarious.

Rudeus went over to pat her shoulder, and I felt obligated to pat her other one. "Guys?"

"You didn't fail just now, sensei."

"Ru—Rudi..?"

"You're accumulating experience." He said. Not bad, brother of mine.

Roxy stared at him in surprise. "Th—that's true. Thank you." She stood up.

"Yes. Can we move on now?" I whined.

"Of—of course!" Roxy coughed and regained her bearings.

And so from this point forward, we both got taught by the demon loli how to break the laws of physics every day.

----------------------------------------

Then, there was afternoon training with Paul. To be honest, I was looking forward to this a little more than magic. As cool as magic was, I was always more attracted to the romance of sword fights. Steel clashing upon steel, as honor and valor are put to the test, each contestant knowing one wrong move, one foot out of place, one arm put up a second too late, and it was over.

"Nee-chan, you're drooling." Rudeus whispered over to me. I quickly caught myself.

"Mmm. While it would be great if we just went right ahead and moved onto learning stances and some such, first we'll need to build up your body! I'm going to teach you how to do the push up!" Paul started.

Yeeeh. And so he did, teaching us the proper form for push ups, sit ups, running and other forms of basic exercise. No weights yet, we were still very young.

For right now, we were just working on basic conditioning, but since I'm literally three that ended fairly early on into the afternoon.

After that, Rudeus went off to practice more magic on his own, and I did the same. For about an hour until I got bored. Well that's wrong.

Since Rudeus had been doing it for quite some time before me, he had much larger mana reserves than I did, so I could physically do less. Usually after about half an hour (and increasingly more) or so of expending mana I took a nap and joined the rest for dinner, before hanging out with Zenith or helping Lilia do the chores around the house. An extra person meant more work, so to pass the time I sometimes helped her with the simple stuff.

When she would let me anyway. "Child, it's not proper for you to be helping the maidservant with her tasks." She said, for about the twentieth time this month.

"I'm bored!" I said, grabbing a broom, and well. Doing my best. These things are not made for children my size.

"You have toys in your room do you not?" We've had this conversation so many times I don't really bother answering her anymore. Sorry, but toys meant for three-year olds get boring fast. I needed something to stimulate my adult brain, and since the total amount of books we have here comes up to a grand total of five…

After the task was done I hopped on top of the kitchen counter and watched her prepare dinner for today. She got to work at an unhurried pace. She was ahead of schedule. Zenith wouldn't be arriving for another two hours, still at the clinic. Paul was busy responding to a report that a monster made it onto one of the farms, so he wouldn't be back for a while either.

I sang a song under my breath. One not from here. I changed all the words, but I still loved the meaning.

Yurari yurureri utakata omoi meguru—

"Altea-sama." Lilia interrupted me, looking me in the eye, before getting back to her task.

"Mm?" She smiled.

"No, nothing." Oookay. I continued the song.

Tsutau minasuji, sono te ga hikaru asu wa~

I've always loved singing, and it's one thing I would never change about myself coming into this new world. I would have to get used to my different vocal cords, never mind the uhh, other change, but I knew all the techniques still. Maybe, once this body's grown I'll become a bard, or a musician or a singer in some royal court. Could be fun.

Hikari e te o nobasu—

"You have a really pretty voice, Altea-sama."

I smiled at her, after finishing the phrase. "Thank you, Lilia-chan."

Altea-sama, huh.

Altea Greyrat.

It was a nice name.