In the middle of a winter night in the year of B984, there were cries of pain resounding throughout a village.
"Aaaaaaaaahhhh!!!" Myleria's screams were getting louder by the hour. It was her first childbirth, and her husband was pacing back and forth outside the bedroom.
"Milord, it has been four hours since the start of her contractions, and yet the baby's head has yet to be seen. I'm afraid..." Nanny Lan sighed and turned her head to the bedroom doors. She had sometimes witnessed unsuccessful childbirths, resulting in the child being born in a deformed state and dying not long after, or the mother right after giving birth.
"Myleria...." Brock face was pale as he had realized his dear wife was in a dangerous situation. "What should I do?" Actually, Brock had already been thinking of ending his wife's misery but he was too unwilling, as his love for his wife was no less than the distance between heaven and earth.
"AAAAARRGHHH!!! BRRROOOOCCKKKK!!" Myleria's screams reached Brock's ears, who was just outside of the bedroom doors. No longer being able to stand it, he swept aside the wooden doors and dashed to his wife's bedside. When he looked closer at her face, he couldnt help but gasp. "Myleria..." Her face was deathly pale, her brown eyes were once so full of life were now so dim that Brock couldn't stop his tears from flowing out, as he felt as if his heart was being cut by a thousand swords.
"Brock...." the contractions had finally stopped, giving Myleria a moment's reprieve from the pain. "Help....me... cut open my womb...and take out the baby...." Myleria struggled to whisper to Brock. She was so exhausted that she no longer had the energy to even raise her fingers.
"My wife...." Brock had already started to sob, trying to think of ways to help his wife. However, he was just a ex-mercenary and was only proficient in the arts of the sword and did not know any healing magic. Having gone through several life and death battles, his willpower and courage was above an average man's, Brock had finally decided to end his wife's pain.
"My Myleria... My wife... If there is a next life, I hope we will meet again." Brock eyes harden with resolve as he reached for his sword.
"Swooosshh!" Brock's sword flickered through the air, his cut barely avoiding the baby's body. The baby had already started crying, and Nanny Lan reached out to carry the child. "Milord, it's a boy..." Nanny Lan's words fell on deaf ears as Brock's attention was wholy focused on his wife's face, watching her take her last breaths. He wanted to treasure every moment, down to the last millisecond. As he clasped her hand, the world seemed to have stood still as Myleria and Brock looked at each other's eyes.
...
The next day, the villagers had already learnt about Myleria's unfortunate 'childbirth' and viewed the baby as a cursed child. Brock and Myleria's body had already disappeared, leaving the crying baby in their rundown house. Everyone had asked Nanny Lan where the baby's parent had gone to, but even she did not know the answer, as she had went home after making sure the baby had no physical defects.
To make things worse, Myleria's past as a prostitute was no secret. Brock was often ridiculed for having married a prostitute, and the couple was often shunned by most villages until this village's Chief had agreed to let them stay out of pity.
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"Waaahh! Waahh!" the baby started to cry, writhing about in his blanket.
"Chief, let's kill this cursed child and throw his body off a cliff!" A middle aged man shouted out. Many villagers had also said the same thing, fearing that the child would bring disasters to the village.
Having no choice, as almost the whole village had the same sentiments, the village chief decided to give the child a quick death. He was about to reach out when sudeenly, a shrill cry sounded out from the skies!
"IT'S A MAGICAL BEAST!! THIS CHILD IS TRULY CURSED!!" The same man who was the first once to first tell the village chief to kill the baby, shouted out. The whole village was panicking as they had rarely seen magical beasts, aside from the weaker magical beasts that merchants sold to richer folks as pets or watchdogs.
For the average man, they could only see the silhouette of a bird soaring through the skies above the village. However, top tier experts will notice that it's actually a Three Legged Crow, one of the few magical beasts of the higher levels!
In this world, magical beasts are classified into 9 levels, level 1 being the weakest and level 9 being the strongest. There are also rumors of beasts that possesses powers even more powerful than the level 9 magical beasts!
"Cawwww!!" the Three-Legged Crow swooped down, like a black meteor. In an instant, it had already claimed the life of an unfortunate villager as it pecked its way through his head! However, no one noticed the dead person as they were already running for their lifes, locking themselves into their houses in a desperate attempt to protect their meager lives.
The Three-Legged Crow had flown back up into the skies, surveying the crowd for its next potential victim. It was just then when it saw Myleria's newborn child, who was crying due to the noise and chaos. "Swoooosh!" it flickered through the air once again.
It was at this time that some people had regained a shred of their common sense and managed to calm down to access the situation. When they saw the dead body, they couldn't believe what they saw! Lying in the middle of the village plaza was a man with a 3 inch hole in his head, or what was left of his head! "Holy $#@%!!" They were trembling in fear at the corpse. Most of them were already thinking that they were doomed to die like that. It was just then when one of them saw the Three-Legged Crow swooping down towards Myleria's child.
"I knew it! He is truly a cursed child!"
"The monster came for him!"
"Don't resist, the gods are angry, they must have sent the it to appease their fury!"
In a flash, the Three Legged Crow had dug its razor sharp talons into the baby's thick blankets, and flew off to the horizon.
Chapter 2: Reincarnation