It’s been three months since Hanson’s child was born, but the household didn’t have the vitality it should have. The atmosphere was so strange that even those walking outside could feel it.

Some laughed and celebrated while others whispered among themselves. Some prayed to gods while others yelled for the devil’s destruction.

Arleno Hanson paced back and forth behind the large wooden desk in his work room. Sunlight beamed through the massive, colored windows, highlighting his tousled black hair and brown trousers. Most considered him handsome if they ignored the fatigue worn on his face.

On the sofa a blonde woman in a beautiful blue dress sat watching Arleno who paced throughout the room. When the sunlight hit her hair, it shone like threads of gold that reached down to her waist.

The woman, still staring at Arleno, cleared her throat before speaking.

“Dear, why don’t you rest a little? You’re not looking good right now.”

The man stopped on a dime, turned, and looked down at the woman.

“But Maria, my love… you know I can’t. I don’t know what to do now...”

The man dropped on his chair and put his head in his hands. Maria looked at her husband and tried to comfort him.

“What troubles you this much anyway? I don’t see what could cause you so much distress.”

The man, Arleno, suddenly stood up from his chair.

“Don’t pretend that you know nothing, it’s all that cursed child’s fault. What if people find out about him? What should I do? The honor of the Hanson will suffer severe damage if people find out about him.”

Maria took a deep breath.

“Dear, calm down. You don’t need to act like a duke in front of me. Drop that farce and tell me what you want to do.”

Arleno sat beside his wife.

“I don’t know, my dear, I don’t know. If I could find something to do, then I wouldn’t have this many problems.”

Maria hugged her husband and whispered in his ear.

“Calm down, we don’t know if he is cursed yet. After 10 years, we finally had a baby, the gods are not that cruel to give us a cursed child after such a long time. Why don’t you bring bishop Alphosino here to tell us if he is normal or not?”

The man jumped up from his seat and yelled.

“Yes, that’s it! I can bring the bishop to be sure of everything! Maria, I don’t know what I would do without you, my love.”

Arleno hugged his wife and shouted at the door.

“Maid, bring me some tea, I need to relax a little.”

From behind the door a woman voice could be heard, “Yes, my lord”

*POV: Arleno Hansons*

Damn, I’m so nervous, After sending someone to get an appointment with the bishop a week later, time seems to have flown. And now I’m sitting in the carriage and moving towards the temple, I can’t control my nervousness. What should I do if my child is cursed? Should I get rid of him? But, he’s my child and I can’t do that to him. Urgh…. Hugging my head is the only thing I can do now, I know nothing and I don’t care anymore. After lifting my head, I can see the massive temple in front of me. There was a statue of a man holding a child into the sky. Truly, they do a great job in creating the statue of Utar, the god of life. But this is unimportant right now. When my carriage reached the entrance, someone came out and brought us into the temple.

On the way I could see statues of priests and priestesses in the hallway. There were also paintings of great paladins on the wall. While I was looking at these works of art, I didn't notice we had already reached our destination. Our guide told us to sit down and make ourselves at home until the bishop arrived. I sat in the white sofa and begin to looking around the room when the bishop came in and greeted us with a smile on his face.

“Hohohoho… What was catastrophic enough that the great duke Hanson visited our old temple?”

I look at the bishop, and after a short period of silence asked him my question.

“Can we have some private time, bishop Alphosino?”

Bishop looks at me in the eyes and after some time, he tells the people that came with him to give us some space. My own attendants get out of the room as well.

“Well, can you tell me now what’s happened, duke Hansons?” asked the Bishop.

I look around the room and after some time I begin, “You know bishop, I was blessed with a child three months ago.”

After hearing that bishop started to laugh happily and asked, “Hohohoho! that sounds perfect! Why are you so unhappy about this?”  

After taking a deep breath I continue, “I’m happy, I’m so happy that I cannot describe it with words! But I’m afraid that child is cursed.”

The bishop leaned back on the sofa with a cocked eyebrow and asked, “Why would you say that? Is there any problem?”  

“Well, the moment that the child was born, whatever we did, he never cried. Not even once.” I look at the bishop who raised his eyebrow. “After that we thought maybe he was a special child but then we brought him to his room and left him there to rest… strange things happened...”

“Strange things? Like?”

“He’d never cry for food. Whenever we brought him out of his cradle, he rolled around happily and made strange noises. When we decided to give him some toys, he fashioned a skull from them, and if you give him pen and paper, he always draws some sort of murder scenes. At night, you can hear eerie laughing coming from his room. He sleeps for most of the day as well, and on top of that, he never shows any reaction to the people around him…”

After hearing my speech, the bishop scratched his chin and began to think. “Let me see the child, if what you said is correct we must get rid of him. Letting evil grow may create something strong enough to endanger humanity. Or maybe something even worse!”

I gave the bishop a tired look. “Bishop, it seems you misunderstand something. There’s a reason that I say he’s cursed, but not that he’s possessed.”

The bishop gave me a long look and with a small gesture of the head ushered me to continue. I looked at the ceiling and while leaning on the sofa, told him.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

“He doesn’t have any mana.”

Bishop looked at me and suddenly a smile cracked across his face, “Hohoho, that was a funny joke, duke Hansons! But please stop joking when we speak of evil.”

“I’m not joking, bishop Alphosino. Would I come to you without reason? My child has no mana! Even his Ki is low enough for me to think he has none at all…”

“How is that possible? Every living being has mana. Nothing can continue living without it.”

“I don’t know, I don’t know how it is possible. I know nothing bishop which is why I came to you. I know there is no demon inside of my child because he has no mana, but that is truly all I know.”

The bishop placed his hand on my shoulder and with a warm voice comforted me.

“Get up, duke Hansons, let’s go to your mansion and see the child. Then, with the help of gods, we can find out what happened.”

After looking at the bishop's warm face I get up and follow the bishop to the outside, we ride on my carriage to the mansion.

*POV: Bishop Alphosino*

After getting out of the carriage, I see the duke's mansion. His mansion is as impressive as ever. Should I say it's as expected from one of the richest family in the empire? The duke starts to show us the way. Two of our highest ranking priests and I follow him.

As we pass some corridors, the painting on the wall attract my attention. On one of them is a knight that held a humanoid monster’s skull and on some others, there are epic battles taking place. Some show beautiful landscape, while other show some people.

Before I know it, we reach a room. The duke open the door and enter the room.

We follow him and see the room is full of baby tools and toys. On the ground, I could see some kind of painting that, assuming it's a child's handiwork, clearly shows people killing each other. A few meters from the painting, I can see a devil face created with toys. In the cradle, a boy is sleeping peacefully, but I can’t believe my eyes. This boy show absolutely no sign of mana. I can’t feel any sort of evil spirit or demons nearby. I take a deep breath and walk up to the cradle and place my hand on the boy's body. The boy wakes up and looks directly in my eyes. As the duke said, he didn’t cry like any normal baby, but I can see intelligence in his eyes. However, along with intelligence, I can see coldness that even frozen lands in the south can’t compare to.

“Oh, the mighty gods, please help this lowly servant of yours and give me some of your powers. Show every evils nearby and rain your punishment upon them.”

After saying the incantation, a golden light surrounds the room, but there is no reaction.

I take my eyes from the child and look at the duke's face, and with a gesture I tell him to follow me.

After exiting the room, I looked at the duke's face and said:

“We need to talk.”

“Then, please follow me to my working place.”

Then the duke begin to walk, and we follow him. After a few minutes of walking, we reach the duke’s working room and after sitting on the sofa in the room I said:

“That child is surely weird, but he is not anything evil or cursed.”

One of my company looked at me and with a harsh voice he said:

“But bishop, that child is too strange. We need to get rid of him, how can you be so sure that he’s not an arch-demon that's hiding his strength? Don’t you think the same, brother Mortir?”

After giving an affirmative nod, Mortir looked in my eyes and said:

“I agree with brother Essnalen, Why are you so sure that he is not a demon or devil, bishop Alphosino?”

After looking at those two, I give a long sigh.

“The reasons are simple, Only arch-demons can hide their strength that well and they are smart enough to pretend to be a normal child, but when they hide their strength, they don’t completely erase it, normally they let a little amount of their strength leak so they look normal.”

It seems they are not convinced yet, Mortir gave me a look like he is looking at a crazy old man. Youth, hohohoho, well it’s better I teach them to not show their thoughts like that, or else, they'll get themselves into trouble…

“But bishop, he may be a new arch-demon that makes mistakes 'cause it’s the first time he possessed a body. I am still thinking we should get rid of him.”

“Hohohohoho, both of you are young. Don’t judge without considering everything. That child don’t have a mana core, also no matter what happened, it’s impossible for an arch-demon to possess a child.”

The Duke suddenly stood up and with a happy voice he asked:

“And why is it impossible, bishop?”

“The reason is the same as why you can’t fit an ocean in a cup. The child’s body would break the moment arch-demons or devils try to possess it. The young body can’t handle the vast amount of power.”

The Duke relaxed, and after giving a long sigh, opened his mouth. But before he could say anything, Mortir yelled:

“Then what are you saying about the devil he creates with toys? Or the murder scenes he draws?”

I looked at Mortir and with a heavy tone tell him:

“He is just imitating the paintings on the wall, the devil is probably the result of his trying to create that humanoid monster and I don’t need to mention murder pictures, right? This house is full of those kinds of drawing and it’s better to change them, duke, they are too harsh for a child.”

The Duke was startled and with a shaking voice he told me:

“I will change them as soon as possible, but then what is his problem? Why doesn’t he act like other child?”

While looking around the room I said:

“I don’t know as well, that child clearly shows the signs of great intelligence. I am at a lost for words. In my whole life, I never saw something so strange.”

Then my eyes fix on a reversi board. After looking at it for sometimes, I get an idea.

I look at the duke and said:

“Can I borrow that board game for a little?”

The duke look at me with confusion before nodding in assent.

“Sure, go ahead but I can't understand how that old board game will help in this situation.”

I give the duke a smirk and said:

“You will find out soon. Just wait a little.”

*POV: MC*

It’s been three months since I reincarnated. The life is good and I enjoy my life. I can't move my body freely and I don’t have control over my body, but it’s alright.

Unlike how I thought I'd be when I was born, I’m not surrounded with people and the great me is alone all the time, so long as you exclude the times someone would come and give me milk in a bottle. I can’t understand why they aren't ever the same person, or why my mother is not the one that gives me milk. I'll make sure that when the great me manages to learn their language, I’m gonna tell them that they should only give kids milk from their own mothers. That way it’s better for any child's body.

By the way its seems I don’t have a name, and even if I have one, I don’t know about it, so I name myself The Greatest.

Anyway, I discover how awesome I am after looking at the masterpieces I create.

Hmm. This painting sure is one of the best paintings ever drawn. Oh, someone in a maid uniform came in to give me milk, but after seeing my masterpiece, she screams and runs away. How rude! People in this world don’t have any sense of arts. Just look, it's perfect!

At least almost… let's add some more detail to this masterpiece. Well, it’s not the first time that they scream and run away after seeing my work.

Today, something strange happened. A good looking old man with a long beard comes and wakes me up. How rude. Didn’t your mother teach you not to bother someone who's sleeping?

Youngsters those days don’t know manners, old men too. Really... After I give him a long look, he say something and then the room became brighter for a bit. Then, he walked out of the room… without even saying goodbye.

What’s his problem? And when I was getting ready to go back to dreaming about my wife, he comes back again with a board in his hand.

They pick me up and place me in front of the old man who's now sitting on the ground. The old man put 4 beads in the middle of the board. There are two white beads and two black beads that place like a cross.

Then someone else sits near me and they begin the game. It's really is a simple game. If you are white, then you place a bead in front or behind a black bead. If you place the bead so that the black bead's between two white beads, they turn white. I wonder how those beads change color on their own? I thought this world's technology is like middle ages? By the way, you can’t place your bead anywhere you want. You should put it in place that puts the black beads in between two white beads. Or in other words, each move you make has to turn one of your opponent's color into yours.

After the board become full of beads, they count the beads and the old man won this round.

Then the man near me gets up and places me in front of the old man. The old man removed all of the beads and placed his bead.

Oh, I get it, so you want to play with The Great me?

You will regret your foolish decision. You may take the white but I’m not going to lose.

*Some time later*

That was close. I win with 33 vs 31. I never thought the old man would be this smart. 'Cause I couldn’t move well and the board is as big as I am, someone would pick me up so I can place my beads. Also, I learned that by taking the corner, you have a higher chance of winning the game.

The next time I won’t have a close call like this.

The moment the old man got ready to get up and go, I start yelling for another match. Its seems the old man understands my intention and starts clearing the board again.

*Some time later*

Fufufufufufu… I am The Greatest, and you are watching my glorious wins right now. 3 wins straight muhahahahaha. And in the last match, I win with 62 vs 2.

This is what you get for going against the great me muhahahahaha.

The old man started laughing with me, then he picks me up and put me back in my cradle before leaving the room.

*POV: Arleno Hansons*

After seeing my son win against the Bishop, I was at a loss for words. We came out of his room after placing him in his cradle. I look at the bishop and said:

“What do you think, bishop?”

Bishop gives a hearty laugh and said:

“Hohohoho… nothing, he is just a smart kid. A very smart kid. Anyway what is his name?”

Come to think about it, what is my son’s name? Did we ever give him a name in the first place?