My eyes opened once more. I felt somewhat calmer, my mind had greatly appreciated that reset.

I turned my head to its side and gazed towards the room around me. It was the same room as before, with its wooden floor, ceiling, and walls.

Sigh

It seems I can no longer deny reality. I am no longer in America. It seems I’ve traveled to another world.

Admittedly, I had read quite a few web novels back in my old world so I’m feeling a mixture of excitement and sadness.

Who wouldn’t love to have the chance to live out a fresh life in another world? Quite an exciting idea isn’t it. I didn’t exactly have many attachments to my old world. I was just an orphan that grew up in the foster care system. I was lucky to be taken in by an old guy who ran an Italian restaurant. That’s where I discovered and became obsessed with cooking. Out of all the people in that world, he was one of the only people I had any particular closeness.

Of course, there was one other source of sadness in my heart. My kitchen appliances… I felt my chest clench just thinking about them. Their shiny metal surfaces and pristine edges... I had gone to that competition just to get them since the old guy’s kitchen was kinda wearing down. Sniff… I was so close… dammit…

Oh well… It would be a shame to waste this life that I’ve gotten by brooding over lost treasure. I made my small body sit up. Seeing my small legs and body I couldn’t help but feel another pang of depression.

I was never that tall in my previous body… Why must this world torture me yet ago and literally make me a child… I must grow taller… In the past, I avoided drinking milk as a child. It was my biggest regret before I transferred worlds. I must follow through this time.

Stretching my arms lightly and wholly waking up, I shuffled to the edge of my bed. While it wasn’t a cradle, the bed was lowered close to the ground, and my stubby legs could even gently touch the floor.

I pushed myself forward a bit and let my legs stand on the floor while I leaned against the bed. It would be foolish of me to just jump off the bed. Clearly, I was still an infant around a year-old and I had no idea how old I truly was or how strong my muscles were yet.

Besides, this body had just recently gone through a fever, as that woman had revealed earlier. I still have no idea who she is, but there’s a high chance that she’s my mother. She was weirdly excited, but she could just have a happy personality. I don’t mind, I’m a relatively carefree person.

As I stood, I felt a bit of weakness in my knees and my legs buckle a bit.

Urgh.

It seems that this body isn’t ready to walk quite yet. Well, that doesn’t mean I can’t train it. Thus, I shuffled left and right and tried to slowly adjust to walking. The height difference was something to get used to as well, but that shouldn’t take too long. As I trained my legs slowly and carefully, the door to my room suddenly swung wide open.

In shock, I slid down to the floor with a thump. Luckily I had landed on my butt and not my face. The man from earlier walked in. From my position on the floor, he seemed so tall. Most likely this man was my father I guess. Either way, he almost caused me an injury so I gave him a quick glare.

Of course, I wasn’t truly angry at him. My temper wasn’t that bad. After all, what parent would knock on the door of their infant child before coming in?

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The man looked at me plopped down on the floor and his eyes lit up.

“How adorable…”

Shiver

I’ve heard of doting parents, but this seems a bit ridiculous. I can tell it’s not of a bad nature but it’s still extremely weird. I felt that now was the time to run away, lest I have another mental breakdown.

I tried to stand up and make my escape, but my legs weren’t ready yet. I fell to the floor once more.

Dammit! Being a child isn’t fun at all.

The man briskly walked over and picked me up, raising me to his eye level.

“So cute… our Emilia is the cutest little bun ever!”

Eh?

Did he call me Emilia? So it seems that I am the receiving end of those unrealistic coincidences I saw in those novels. How nice for him to tell me my name like that too. I’m getting a sense of deja vu...

Oh well. I don’t know why this happened, but let’s just cruise along with it.

The man cradled my small body and brought me out of the room into a seemingly larger area with a table. The scent of food wafted by my nose.

Food!

My stomach growled slightly. I was starving... reincarnating really takes the energy out of you. I gazed towards the source of the smell. The back of that weird woman was in front of a primitive looking stove. She was stirring a pot filled with a somewhat liquid and solid substance.

Inspecting the stove, I was struck with confusion. There was only a flame and no dials? How was that possible? It didn’t look like there was gas coming out either, yet it was burning in a consistent way. Furthermore, the pot was made of ceramic and looked quite beaten up.

It seems it was an unfortunate veteran who had gone through numerous battles and endured many wounds. It was clear from the stains and burns on its surface. I gave it my silent salutations. If I could I would allow it to retire as soon as possible and take a long rest in a cabinet.

Either way, the man sat down in his normal-sized chair and settled my small self upon his lap.

“Honey, looks like our little Emilia is a bit hungry.”

The woman turned back the man and spoke.

“Alright, that’s just at the right time, breakfast should be ready shortly.”

Taking out some ceramic bowls she spooned the dully colored substance into two normal sized bowls, and one tiny one. With three wooden spoons, she joined the both of us at the table.

As I gazed at the man’s bowl and the tiny one meant for me. The dull substance looked quite questionable. As the man picked up a spoon and stirred it a bit in the bowl, it’s viscosity was quite strange. I mean from my perspective, it looked like a form of oatmeal? However, why couldn’t I see the oats? My previous appetite was quickly dwindling and a terrible feeling crept up my back.

My instincts were telling me this wouldn’t be a nice experience. Of course, I couldn’t say anything as the man picked up the spoon and guided it towards my little mouth. Besides, I wouldn’t deny that I was curious, perhaps it was a new ingredient or something along those lines.

“Open wide!~ “

I tried my best to keep my mouth open, and he spoon-fed me the sludge.

Che-

It was scalding hot, couldn’t this stupid doting man think about how hot it would be. Either way, after singeing a couple of my taste buds, the taste of it hit me.

Ewww… What was this warm woody taste? It gave the feeling of moldiness on the tongue. What on earth was it... The chunks were oddly solid too, not even fully cooked through. There was a distinct blandness as it was clear that no seasoning whatsoever had been used. How disgusting.

While my trained tongue was adamantly rejecting, my stomach needed some form of solid in it. Resisting my urge to spit it out, I swallowed. Sweat oozed out of my forehead.

It slid down my throat in an unpleasant manner, and I shivered in displeasure. What the heck was this. I gazed at the man who picked up his own larger spoon and took a thick glob of the thing and shoved it in his mouth.

“Delicious!”

I felt my little jaw drop. Delicious? Have you people never tasted… anything? I mean even uncooked vegetables tasted better than that slop. I felt my cooking soul be set aflame. I would get used to this body and take over this kitchen as soon as I could. Not only for my mental health, I needed to enlighten these buffoons to the art of flavor.