What's going on—didn't I die? Grey was immediately thrown into confusion upon gazing at the two human figures that appeared in his vision the moment he opened his eyes. Blinking his eyes a few times, he had to make sure that he wasn't dreaming. Is this the afterlife? he asked himself.

The first figure is a woman with angelic beauty who's seemingly overjoyed for some reason, staring down at him with her dark-blue eyes that are fairly calm. She was playfully moving her lips and looked like she was talking, but Grey was only able to hear vague mumbling noises coming from her, causing him to be thrown into deeper confusion.

The second figure entered Grey's sight as soon as he turned his head to the right. It's a middle-aged man, probably around his age, who was also gazing down at him for some reason as he was smiling blissfully. The man's snow-white hair is very noticeable and eye-catching, causing Grey to stare at him fixedly.

But the more he stared at the man, the more he wondered, Who are these guys? Grey wanted to ask the two people, but the moment he tried to speak, he was stunned to find out that all of his teeth were missing and his tongue was fairly shorter than usual. The shock urged him to scream, but he couldn't because of the overwhelming confusion that piled up in his head.

Soon after, the two figures moved their lips simultaneously as their voices got clearer every second for Grey to hear. And the first words that came to his ears caught him off guard and left him staring into space.

"Our son looks wonderful." The woman blurted out. She's seemingly speaking in a different language that Grey could, surprisingly, translate and understand.

'Huh?' Grey blinked a few times, hoping that he must've misheard her. But the fact that these two are staring down at him undoubtedly makes sense. His body was lying down on something, and he could feel it. Soon after, he finally noticed the soft arms that were holding his seemingly tiny body, followed by the tiny hands that appeared in his sight the moment he commanded them to rise. Am I really—

He calmed his mind and settled his thoughts. Getting back to the scenario in front of him, the white-haired man said, "He's handsome, just like his dad." He had such a proud and confident look on his face while saying that.

Hearing his words clearly, Grey concluded that he was indeed in a child's body. Looking at his tiny hands once again, he couldn't help but be surprised. How did this happen? He asked himself. Although he was having a hard time accepting it, he has nothing to do about it. After looking at the two people in front of him, he assumed that these two people were his parents.

"So, what should we name him?" The man, whose name he doesn't know, said this, looking at him directly in the eye and then looking back at the woman named Emily beside him.

As soon as Grey heard him said that, he felt the urge to reply. he hastily breathed in all the air his small lungs could take and spread his lips. "Gwrey..." A low-pitched voice escaped his mouth, followed by his parents widening their eyes. He himself was also surprised to what he did. He somehow managed to talk... in a cute way though.

"Ahhh!" A shriek escaped his mother's mouth after almost dropping him in surprise, causing his heart to almost burst in shock after his careless mother almost dropped him.

"He talked?" Both parents uttered in perfect sync, looking at him with their mouths wide open and eyes widened. They took another glance at him before tilting their heads and then looking at each other.

Just to make sure that they didn't misheard the kid talk, the father brought his face closer to him and said, "Did you really talk my son?"

"Grey... my name is Grey." The child spoke. This time he managed to blurt out the letters perfectly, looking at the man with a confident expression and smiling proudly at himself.

Hearing the child talk clearly didn't brought anything that makes sense in their heads. The father quickly lifted him up from his mother's arms and looked at him with suspicious eyes. His face got closer and closer to the point where he's almost kissing the child.

But before anything weird happen, Grey vigorously pushed back the man's face using his feet and said, "What do you think your doing? Let go of me fool.", in a stubborn manner.

"He's really talking." The man excitedly looked at his wife while lifting the kid in the air. "Our son's a genius." He exclaimed, playfully smiling while lifting Grey up and down constantly until he felt dizzy.

"That's weird." The woman named Emily suddenly uttered, causing the father and Grey to stop and curiously look at her. Both of them are patiently waiting for the woman to say something as she was still sitting on a bed covered in white sheets. "It's already been six hours since I gave birth to him but it seems like his spirit mark still haven't appeared and moreover, how can an infant actually talk?"

What does she mean by hours? Does that mean I've been unconscious for hours? It took some time before Grey could process his thoughts as confusion flooded his already-dumbfounded mind. And what mark? He wondered before staring back at the man holding him, who had a completely different reaction than him.

"Well, the fact that he could already speak was strange enough." His father spoke. "But now that I think about it, his doesn't have a mark—I guess he's just special." The man was looking all over his body constantly as he spoke, seemingly curious about something.

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

"Hey, what are you talking about?" Stop looking! Grey was constantly kicking the man below him before he was completely put back on his mother's arm.

"Well, I guess we don't need all the books that we bought for him." The woman had a frown written all over her face as she said those words, causing Grey to look at her with a concerned gaze.

"Don't worry about his lack of spirit mark. He will be a strong man... because we're going to raise him." The father spoke as he lifted Grey with one hand and pinched the child's chin, causing him to lean away from the man's hand. "Well then, from now on, your name is Grey Crossford, son of Edward Crossford and Emily Crossford." The proud father stated this happily as he smiled widely with his eyes shut.

Looking at them, the only thing that Grey did was shut up. He knew for himself that asking too many questions of this person might endanger his still-fragile body. He settled with one thought in mind: I have room for research later; for now, I need to observe my surroundings.

After a few minutes of sorting all his thoughts as he lied down on his little bed, Grey finally came to a conclusion. This might be a new world, different from my previous one. He thought, and he knows the idea was insane enough to make anyone believe. But right now, this really feels like a new reality for him, and it's inescapable. He was living in a new body, and everything around him felt different from his previous life.

While he was drowning in thoughts, he suddenly remembered the past scenarios that had happened before he got into this situation. The demon king, with whom he fought for days, strangely left him his final words, causing him to wonder. What exactly did those words mean?

Unable to find the answers, Grey just stared at the ceiling while smiling uncontrollably. He said to live my life differently and to be wise about who I am going to trust. That sounds like a warning. Did I live wrongly in my past life? Or does he really know that this will happen all along? Why would he even warn me about it? And moreover, what exactly is this place? His mind was instantly filled with piles of questions that he couldn't answer alone. But for him, one thing is clear.

I will live this life differently. That's the only certain answer that came to mind after he put his time into thinking about it. Come to think of it, I never had a family since I was a kid in that place, but in this world, I have both a mother and a father. So technically, I'm already living differently. The thought drew a smile on his face before he felt a sudden sleepiness and yawned.

The stamina of Grey's body simply couldn't keep up with his brain's advanced functions, and he eventually started feeling sleepy all of a sudden. I need to learn more about this place. A fleeting thought occurred to his mind before he completely drifted to sleep.

Meanwhile, his seemingly paranoid first-time parents had their eyes glued to their son's fluffy cheeks. "He's so cute." Emily couldn't help but compliment his son's good-looking appearance. "Look at his hair; it's white as snow, just like yours." She giggles, redirecting her gaze at her husband's face.

"Yeah, and those eyes... definitely look like yours." Edward couldn't help but smile before wiping the tears from his eyes. "I'm being too emotional lately; I wonder why." He said this, sitting on a wooden chair and keeping his eyes focused on his lovely wife.

Emily smiled back, her teary eyes closed, and said, "Yeah, we never expected to have such a wonderful child." She leaned her head on his shoulder and said, "I just wish he wouldn't suffer because of being born a commoner." She said it with a face of worry.

"Yeah, I hope so." were the only words that escaped Edward's mouth. "Being born different is truly a curse in this ugly, magic-driven world."

...

The next day, Grey's eyes sprang wide open upon hearing a noise that echoed through his ears.

"KNOCK! KNOCK!"

He found himself facing the right side of his bed, his eyes peeking through the gap of the wooden crib his parents had made for him. He quickly averted his eyes to search for the origin of the noise and saw his father running towards the door, flipping it wide open. Before Grey could even make a comment about the noise, an old woman entered from the door, casually looking around.

And who's this weirdly looking old woman? Grey thought, looking at the old woman with suspiciously narrowed eyes.

The old woman in front of his eyes is seemingly very old because of her wrinkled face and the noticeable strands of white hair on her head, even though she's wearing a hat. The woman's pointed ears are also noticeable, which made Grey curious about the person's identity even more.

Grey couldn't help but wonder who this woman could be as he watched his mother approach her and bow her head.

"Good morning, Lady Lilith!" Emily greeted the old woman politely. It was quite surprising for the child to know that his mom knew this old woman, and given that she was being polite in front of her, Grey assumed that this old woman was most likely her mom's old acquittance.

Emily then held her hand and guided her toward her son, causing Grey to be more cautious as the stranger casually approached him.

The old woman named Lilith looked at Grey at first as if she were analyzing every part of his body. Then, Edward quickly stood beside her and asked, "What do you think?"

This gave the old woman a puzzled look as she scratched her head. "I'm not really sure," she said, looking at Edward before gazing back at Grey. "This is the first time I saw something like this." She said, flipping the covers to see the child's tiny body underneath.

"Even us were surprised to find his lack of spirit mark." Edward bluntly stated, looking at the old woman with an anxious face.

Once again, those words threw Grey into confusion, causing him to wrinkle his eyebrows. What the heck is that spirit mark thing? he was utterly asking himself with a hell of a lot of questions. And why are you guys looking at me like that? He screamed in his head, unconsciously kicking his small feet while looking at the old woman with confusion.

His actions caused the old woman to return the cloth that covered the little child's body. Lilith looked at him with a gentle face before raising her hand in front of Grey's face. "This won't take long." She said.

Confused as he was, Grey stared at the old woman's wrinkled palm in awe as he saw a silver-colored mark glowing on her palm. Seeing this brought memories to the young man's mind, causing him to look closer.

Magic—that's the first thing that occurred to his mind after seeing the mark. Soon, he felt a sudden warmth in the air around his body that caused him to look around him only to find himself levitating in the air. What's happening?

The old woman is using magic, and Grey was certain about it. But he was confused to know that someone like him couldn't feel the mana Lilith was using. It was as if the woman was using some kind of advanced sorcery that his senses couldn't detect.

Soon after, Grey heard the woman named Lilith say, "As expected, without the mark, he doesn't possess any magic."

Hearing this brought a single question to his head: What the heck?..., followed by the realization that he indeed lost his ability to use magic.

Did I lost my power? Or perhaps it got a restart?