It has been over a year since I have been reincarnated, and my second birthday is approaching. My parents seem to think of me as a crybaby, though not for the reasons they assume.

I guess it doesn't matter as am still a baby and I have no dignity I have to uphold. I still do occasionally remember my parents, though my reaction isn't as severe as before.

Throughout the year, have started to understand the language that my parents are speaking. Though I can't say I have mastered the language, I can understand the basic conversations my parents hold with me.

I have finally discovered my parents' names as well. My mother's name is Lucy Argenti and my father's name is Joseph Argenti. My name seems to be Julius Argenti, though my parents call me Jules, for short.

As my first word, I decided it was going to be "mama". I was going to try to learn the word "fuck" in this language and say that for my first word, but my parents never swore in front of me.

Throughout the year I have discovered how to walk after many failed attempts. At this point, I have stopped being embarrassed by my failures.

Being a baby is really introspective and has taught me how I don't need to be worried about others' judgment of my failures and to keep moving forward no matter what. Though having encouragement from my parents was also helpful as well.

One thing that sucks about being a baby is that you have nothing to do and your life is spent eating, sleeping, and shitting all while being stuck in one place. Kinda reminds me of the covid-19 lockdowns.

To keep me entertained I would ask my parents about magic. They told me about mana, the fuel that causes the phenomena called magic. Mana exists within everyone and is everywhere.

My father specializes in heat magic and that's what allowed him to do the tricks on my first birthday. He would occasionally sneak into my room to show me how he uses magic.

But soon he would be discovered and punished by my mother because she didn't want me to get burned if my father lost control of his magic. I would often hear arguments.

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

"WHAT WOULD HAPPEN IF YOU BURNT MY PRECIOUS JULES' FACE?!"

'Oh, she's mad.'

"Well... well honey, I have gone to Central High and know how to control my mana. He also enjoys my demonstrations."

I could imagine his face, stammering in fear.

"Hmph, I don't care, no magic in front of my baby until he's older. Also as punishment, no sex for a month."

I think my mother was being a little too overprotective, though she could be right about the dangers of magic.

***

It has been a couple of years since then. I am currently 4 years old and my favourite hobby is reading books. I used to sneak out of my room to read, but I soon realized I couldn't understand a thing.

I begged my parents to teach me to read and write. Being the doting parents they are, they complied. They were shocked to discover how fast I was learning. I had 16 years of experience behind me, so it wasn't that hard. I learned a lot about mana thanks to the books.

Mana or scientifically called Biological Energy is something all lifeforms on this planet emit. From the smallest bacteria to the largest dragons, everything has it. Anything that creates mana is (with some exceptions) considered to be alive.

If I focus, I can sense the mana in the atmosphere, emitted by plants and animals. I can also sense the mana being circulated within myself. There is no 'awakening' and everyone can intrinsically use mana from birth.

I once tried to shoot a mana blast, but I soon as I did it, I fell unconscious. I probably used too much mana.

Nobody has discovered how mana is created nor why it exists in the first place. Mana defies the universe itself. But, life itself is similar, they both are unnatural and defy logic.

People who use mana for combat are called mages and are divided into ranks from F to SSS. F ranks are obviously the weakest while SSS is the strongest. Other jobs that involve mana such as enchanters are ranked by this system, but also based on their skill level.

More than 99.99% of the population exists between F to E ranks. These ranks are also known as civilian ranks. These ranks only exist as a formality.

Mana wasn't the only thing I learned from the books. I discovered that will live on an isolated continent similar in shape to Australia which has a size nearly equivalent to the surface area of the entire Earth. This continent's name is Midori. The state I live in is called Califordia.

There have been attempts to find other continents but all expeditions end with the ships getting sunk because of terrifying undersea monsters.

There is also a war currently going on between us humans and what we call the demon race that has been going on for nearly 4 centuries.

I've asked my parents about the war and they say that we live far away from the contested borders, so it is highly unlikely for them to attack here.

The reason for the start of the war is unclear, though the only fact we know is that the demons suddenly invaded without warning using blitzkrieg to take massive amounts of territory from the humans.

The humans were caught unaware and lost hundreds of millions of lives because of this. This was the start of the great human-demon war.