Reincarnation, transmigration and or Metempsychosis.

These words can be easily translated by a single phrase “Rebirth of the soul in a new body”

I thought these words were only true in novels that had fantasy as themes or in religious books and scriptures that propagate the idea of what the afterlife would be.

But... if what I’m experiencing right now is real then it looks like I need to change my opinion of it.

….

A month ago, when I opened my eyes, my vision was suddenly flooded by a bright light, even though the brightness was quite annoying but that feeling itself gave me relief.

With that kind of incident I was prepared to die, but if I was even blinded by this light then that means that I somehow survived it...

*Sigh. I’m sure those two are upset about this incident, When I’ll see them, the first thing that I will do, is to apologise. I really dont want to see those two cry..

My vision finally adjusted to the light’s brightness and the first thing I saw was a man with untamed hair. He should be around 20-25 year old, his eyes that were as dark as obsidian were looking at me intently and his joy could be easily seen within it.

Noticing that his face was too close to mine, I tried to tell him about it…

“Ah,ah….”

But what came out from my mouth weren’t words, they were more like a groans or heavy breathing.

The man was delighted when he heard those sounds that he spinned me around for a couple of turns.  

Spinning and spinning and spinning

U-ughh.. If this continues on, I think I’m gonna puke..

“#!@#$ @# &$%&$?”

Luckily a voice suddenly resounded, stopping the man that was carrying me.

The man’s head was then hit resulting in a soft “PLOCK” sound.

A hand took me away from that man and carried me carefully.

Unlike the first person that handled me crudely, this one held me with great care.

The one that took me from the young man was someone quite older than him, an old man that should be around 60-70 years old, a pale hair color, a evidence of his age, a bearded face with the same eyes as the one that first carried me but unlike him that had laid back feeling, he had a softer, a more gentle feel to them and just like the other person this old man is looking at me with mixture of joy and relief.

But contrary to their feelings, my mind was currently in a state of turmoil.

For one thing I was carried like my weight didn’t mean anything to them especially this to old man.

Second would be, who are these people?...

“ @#%@ --------”

And if I base it on how this old man talk, it was obvious that he was a foreigner, his accent contained a mixture of european and maybe a bit of asian intonation.

“@!---^@#!%@ ##@ !!@%^ %#”

Another voice rang out and this time it came from a woman.

The old man then moved near to a bed.

On it was a beautiful woman with silver hair. She wore an exhausted expression, a girl in maid’s attire was currently wiping her face but even with the maid obstructing her view, her eyes were clearly glued to me. she smiled weakly as she tried to get up from her position but wasn’t able to due to her exhaustion.

Another maid came close and supported her back and properly sat her up.

With the maid supporting her, she slowly held her hands out to my direction. Gesturing the old man to give me to her.

“!@$@@#$----”

“#$@$@”

The old man talked with a hint of reluctance in his voice but the woman cut him off…

Even though I couldn’t understand their words, I was aware that words that the woman used weren’t something as kind as the word ‘please’ and with my own experience I definitely know, that those were words of an unbreakable order.

The old man reluctantly passed me to her and when the woman received me,she then gently hugged my body while she lightly rubbed her cheeks with mine.

Annoyed I moved my hands to push her away but the limbs that did so were not the one’s that I was used to.

They were short and weak, the one’s that an infant should have.

With this my confusion only grew bigger

“Ga….Aiya….”

Right then, I noticed that the sounds that were coming from my mouth were mumblings of newborn infant would make.

My confusion only grew worse as I started to panic and flailed my body around but the woman gently cradled my body making sure that I won’t fall off

It looked like my movement only made her happy since her lips curled upwards.

My body was then slowly swayed while she quietly hummed a peaceful tune.

My panicking heart was then calmed when I heard her humming, my movement stopped as I listened to the tune.

Hearing this woman hum made me feel safe and secure, slowly my eyes grew tired while listening to the tune, as my drowsiness slowly made me go to sleep, a sudden realization hit me.

Did... I die

If so… then, is this…

is this… my new life?  

T -then this girl… this woman…

must be…

My mother.

I already lost my consciousness when the that conclusion hit me.

…

With that my new life in a new body started.

I spent the following days observing and analyzing my surrounding.

Remembering repeated words and learning their meaning.

Remembering the faces of the people that I will come across with and understanding what their relationship with me was.

And more importantly finding out the name of the country,region or continent on where I’m currently living.

A month passed by with that as my main agenda and finally, I was able to understand their words or more likely I was able to comprehend their conversation from the words that I remembered.

While I  was listening to their conversations, I mostly remember the words or sounds that are being repeated in a single conversation and then I observed on how these words were usually used, an exercise that I usually use to library foreign language by saving a self-library recording on my phone, the only downside of this exercise, is that I have to personally figure out what each of these words mean.  

At first I thought that understanding their words would take a bit of time, my estimate were about 2-3 months at most but with how my mother cared for me it proved me wrong.

I spend most of my time being with her, which greatly help me in in understanding my surroundings. With her carrying me all the time and bringing various places, I was able to acquire more information about my current situation

First of all, It looked like I was born in some kind of medieval time period, looking at how the furnitures were all made from wood and with the lack of most common household appliances and electricity made it all to obvious. At night the whole castle is mysteriously light up by some sort of device which I still didn’t know.

And yes! I said castle

I had an inkling of idea when I first saw the maids that was helping mother during my birth but I never thought that it would turn out like this.

It looks like I was born in a family that was wee bit - nah who am i kidding my parents are the king and queen and they are currently running an entire nation.

Everyday, after breakfast, she then brings me to a room within the castle that displays most of our family’s precious art works, gems and jewelry. Among the stuff that are displayed, are paintings of the kings of our kingdom. She didn’t told me much about them and just gave me a brief introduction on each one’s accomplishments and blunders.

There were 4 painting that were displayed separately on a special wall.

At first I thought that the country that we’re ruling must be new since the leaders that were plastered on this wall were just 4, but months later, I then soon find out how wrong I was.

Mom introduced me to each of them starting with the first painting on the right til’ the last one on the left.  

The first king and the most intriguing among the the four, Subod A. Du Lucifer Von Croy De Ifis, ruled the longest among the 4, instigated an all out war against the entire world and died in a most tragic death. Causing us to lose the war and then exiled to a different continent.

When the first king died, there were was dispute on who will take over the throne which lead to a breakdown between the previous kings vassals,  the one who took over the kingdom and ascended to the throne was his brother, Dernet A. Von Croy De Xionard. After his ascension he immediately ended most of the quarrels within the kingdom.

He quelled most of the disputes by dividing the land that they were exiled on between the major houses, giving them rights and privileges to do whatever they want in them in exchange for their loyalty and servitude. For the duration of his reign he was able to settle most of the kingdom’s problems and created a functioning and peaceful kingdom independent from the central continent.

One of his most notable legacy would be the foundation of the Acadia Academy, creating a environment for educating and training children from noble and peasant lineage in controlling and honing their abilities.  

His reign abruptly ended when he suddenly disappeared during his travel around the continent. Creating a huge ripple that broke the relationship between the ruling houses.

Following his footsteps was his son, Lope Amarant A. Von Croy De Xionard.

Unfortunately, he was the exact opposite of his father. He started his reign by stripping the house of Drakul of their nobility and land. Accusing them of his father‘s disappearance, prosecuting them and imprisoning the leaders of the house.

With that as the starting point of his reign, the condition within the kingdom steadily declined.

Imposing laws and taxes that heavily burdened the citizens. He eliminated those that opposed him as he ruled the kingdom through an iron fist, the relationship between the nobles and commoners became volatile, corruption within the royalty increased, rebellions surfaced, and the kingdom suffered through famine and hunger.

Even with all of these chaos happening within the kingdom, he was able to hold his position through the support of the remaining ruling houses that benefited from his reign… but it all came to an end when the central continent invaded

From how mom described the events, it seemed that was our first greatest defeat if you exclude the war that the first king waged. Of course after rallying our forces we were able to repel the opposing army but the cost of our victory was high.

Due to this, the dissatisfaction of his governance increased which lead to a violent military coup resulting to his death.

The 4th and current king who is also my father, Argus Von Croy de Xionard.

A child from lower branch family of Von Croy, graduated top among his peers and was then assigned as a trainee for the royal army. His career as soldier was said to be the most spectacular in history, from a footsoldier he quickly climbed all the way up as a  war general.

He participated in two skirmishes against the invading forces witnessing how they easily mowed through our defenses and how many it was that they’ve sacrificed just to repel them.

The generals and military officers, suggested a reform in the kingdom’s defenses and to send a spy to survey the enemy’s ranks and movements but their pleas were mostly ignored by the late king.

It was only a matter of time when another invasion occurs and when the time comes, the kingdom would surely fall.

With that as their reason they’ve readily staged a military coup during a gathering of the kingdom’s leaders. The coup was a success, subduing most of the king’s supporters and successfully eliminating the ignorant ruler.

Upon his enthronement, father reformed most of the laws that the previous king imposed and even removed those that were too unreasonable and restricting to the citizens. Lope’s supporters tried to create some troubles during his reign but father was able to deal with it easily, giving them suitable punishments in the process.

Currently, he is running the entire kingdom and directing his vassals in fortifying the kingdom’s defences and is even able to implement some of the ‘tools’ that the invaders used

Mom was quite biased with father’s introduction but I noticed that when she told me about his accomplishment her tone will sometimes turn sour, specially when she reach the part about ‘He graduated top among his peers,’ I wonder if something happened between them when they attended the academy?  

After the short lesson in history, we then moved on to another gallery of portraits, which mostly  consisted of our relatives while some were important figure that had a hand in developing the kingdom to what it is today, while mom was talking and pointing at each portrait, my head was still stuck at previous kings…

Ending our tour on that museum like room with a portrait of someone that I may never meet, we then made our way to father’s library and spent most of our time there.

….

Four months passed by and I’m currently on the floor crawling my way around my father’s library .

The entire room is decorated with expensive decorations and furnished furnitures, shelves that are aligned along the walls are filled with books and documents that are neatly arranged and stacked, and at another corner of the room is a sturdy table that  was used by dad.

Mom is sitting at a table in the veranda, reading through the reports that were sent today.

Ever since I was born, she dumped most of her official businesses and gave it to my dad, freeing more time to spend with me.

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

On the other hand I’ve rarely seen my dad since he’s been drowned with all the work that were given to him by mom but nonetheless, when he has spare time, he usually spends most of it playing with me but those are just are chances of ‘if’ he has the time.

Describing my parent’s relationship is rather confusing, one moment father’s the one ordering mom to do this and that and the next it becomes reversed.

But there’s one thing that I do know that’s true, the two of them love each other.

They quarrel most of the time due to their difference in opinions but it always end up with the other side asking to be forgiven.

And even when they have their lover’s spat they mostly limit it to verbal insults and never breach past on laying a finger on each other.

Dad was the same as the time I first saw him, looking at him from an observer's perspective , he would be deemed as lazy and irresponsible which made people question his achievements in  and credibility in ruling a kingdom.

While my mom, Keena Von Croy de Xionard has an imposing aura of a ruler and undeniable presence of a queen, so far her beauty ranks at the top most of the woman I’ve met. Confident,strong, smart and gorgeous that It made me wonder how she end up with my father.

Today like any other day, I’m spending my time in search of books that I could read to increase my knowledge in this foreign world that I’ve been born to.

Ever since I’ve finished two of my objectives, I’ve been trying to fulfill the last one which proved to be tricky, my parents who I thought to be my best source of information wouldn’t talk about the detail of their affairs during their rounds around the kingdom and mom wouldn’t let me near anywhere that seemed to be a place where important matters are discussed…

I haven’t even visited the throne hall because of her!

My second best option in getting information would be through the small talks among our castle employees but that too proved to be a dead end since mom wouldn’t let anyone take care of me other than herself.

And here I thought that a queen had something better things to do than taking care of a child.

I am her child, so that should be an exemption...

with all of my choices ending up being a dead end I was left with my last option, reading.

In learning a new language I could vaguely understand the meaning of each words that were used if I carefully observe the speaker’s use of the word, the situation when the speaker used it, and through the gestures that speaker is doing while talking.

Which was totally useless in reading, it doesn’t matter whether if I could hold a proper conversation in a different language, once I was faced with foreign syllabary it only left me stuck wondering on how to read each character.

In this aspect I had to ask the aid from my mom.

The easiest way for me to learn how to read if she dictates and verbalize each word that is written in a book, in this case a children’s fairytale should be enough and with the free time she has after she finish her daily chores she is able to read all the books that I want her to read.

Although it always end with one book per session due to me sleeping halfway through it, it was still better than pondering on what those hieroglyphic-like characters mean.

One book a day for the past months, repeatedly pointing on characters that I had having a hard time reading, enduring not to fell asleep during our reading session and the pain that my throat had to go through just to wail loudly just so she would read me a single book. It was selfish but I had to use every arsenal I have just so I could accomplish my goal.

And today is the day where I test if I was able to read them by myself or not..

Making my way through the room I then arrived to one of the shelves near the wall.

Sitting upright, I then concentrated on reading the titles of the book on lowest shelves, after a few titles that were still gibberish to me, my eyes then caught on to a book that piqued my interest..

Th-The World of T-t-tyre?

Thinking that it was just another storybook my little arms reached out to it…

But soon I found out, that what was written in this book was what my current reality is...

================

It’s been a year and a half since the King and Queen bore their first born.

Prior to her son’s birth,Keena, immediately arranged her schedule, clearing out all of her appointments for the whole year, giving her more time to focus on taking care of her child.

For her race, being blessed with a child was something every couple could ever dreamed of but due to their origins and the state of their bodies, conceiving a child is very difficult.

So when she gave birth to her first born she made sure that she can give all of her care and attention that she can give to him.

Naming her son Alexander, she peacefully spent the passing days with him within their castle.

The first three months quickly passed by and most of it was spent leisurely with Alex inside Argus’s library .

Another month flew by with no changes in her son’s development, which made her anxious, excluding his mental development and curiosity which was normal,the aspect that troubled her the most was his physical growth.

Using a baby from the human race as a reference in his growth, where in four to six months prior to a childbirth in which they would show steady signs of muscle development by gripping objects or rolling over the place and sitting upright and properly balancing their heads, in the seventh and ninth were the months where they would become more active and move around the place by crawling and by the tenth and by twelfth month where they are able to mumble one or two words like ‘mama’ and or ‘papa’, properly standing upright and walking without the need for assistance.

In this aspect a child from their race could easily accomplish the first stage in two to four weeks from birth, the second in two to three months and the third in being four to six months early compared to a human. The reason for this was due to their race physical feature which enable a faster body growth.

Excluding the first stage where she immediately noticed after she breast feed him a couple of times, the second stage where he should’ve showed signs of development and growth a month from his birth didn’t show, on the other hand he showed more interest in books about fairy tales and such that if she didn’t read him a book for a certain time he would wail loudly, greatly distressing her.

She consulted with the castle’s physicians and healers about her troubles, worrying that there might be unforeseen complications during his birth that which will greatly affect his future, in which they immediately took proper actions and examined her son.

But, even with all of her worries they couldn’t find anything that would that would point to any complication that affects his growth. On the other hand one of the physicians diagnosed that  he might have a mental defect or a slow learner which she readily dismissed.

One things for sure, He doesn’t have a mental illness, which she knew from the fact on how curious he is and from what the they’ve observed he wasn’t physically weak either, so the only thing left she could do is wait and see how he grows while hoping that he could have a healthy future.

Days and months passed by with no improvement in his development. Negative gossips and whispers from their vassals and lords about his condition  were spreading like wildfire, making her worries greater.

She and her husband were the rulers of race that prioritize strength as the criteria for leading their own and from what she knew of their previous kings they were all men who wield great power that made their subjects and even their enemies fear them.

She didn’t care for what her son decides on what course his future would be, whether he wanted the throne and become king or someone who has freedom to roam the land or what not, as long as she could see him grow up to become a splendid man there was nothing she could ask for .

Their supporters will understand their current situation and would even help them if needed.

While their opposition, especially the late king’s faction who is taking care of his grandchild, would definitely see this as a weakness that can be exploited.

Even if the two of them were known to be the strongest among their race, there were always certain situations where one moment of carelessness could mean the end for one’s life and in this case she wasn’t afraid of her or his life since she knew that no matter what the situation was they could easily handle it.

She was more afraid of what will happen when she will be distracted for a moment giving opportunity for someone to act against her son.

Seeing as there was a need for her to hide her son if the situation deemed it to be, she secretly made some preparation while consulting her husband about her plans which he lightheartedly laugh off as being paranoid  resulting in them having a small dispute with him leaving a palm mark on his face due to her slapping him.

But all of them  were for naught, at the start of the 4th month from his birth, she saw Alexander trying to crawl away from the spot where she placed him, using his left hand as his support he tried to place his right hand forward only to fall face first on the floor. It looked like his left arm wasn’t able to properly support the weight of his whole body leading it to wobble ending with that scene.

Her worries were chased away after seeing that scene and instead were replaced with mixed feelings of joy and concerns. Even though it was late at least he was still going to grow up properly.

For the rest of following days of the whole month she placed him on the floor of the library letting him roam around the room till he is exhausted and fall asleep.Every time that happens, she gently lifts him up, cradling him softly in her arms.

That was start of his fast growth, after he was able to learn how to crawl, she would often lost track of Alexander’s where abouts only to find him behind a stack of books inside the library sprawled on top of a book, at first she thought that he was looking at the book’s drawings but after carefully taking a closer look on his eyes when he reads , she could clearly see that they were filled with comprehension and intelligence which is a clear evidence that he was able to understand the word that were written within the book that greatly surprised her.

In this aspect she thought that her daily reading session with him was the root of how fast he was able to read. Which she dismissed as something natural.

One month prior to that he was able to properly walk without support and after that he was able to mumble his first words surprised her.

“Book”

While pointing at a book with red leather cover at the third shelf of a bookcase inside the library, he was looking at her innocently, making it too hard not to do what he asked her to do.

“Of course I wasn’t expecting that his first words would like  be mama… but at least I wanted it to be… I mean I was the with him for the whole year… at least I could get something for my efforts”

she immediately handed the book that she asked for, all of the books inside this library  were safe and didn’t contain anything sensitive, so she left him alone and let him read all the books that he wanted

On the other hand, she was torn between of being happy to hear her son’s first word and on being heartbroken on them not being the words that she was expecting.

at the ninth month of the year he was able to hold a proper conversation without stuttering around.

six months from then he was now able to read a book that is deemed hard for his age. She hired the best tutors that she could hire to teach him everything they know but all of them quit after a few days of being hired. Of course they were meager at best compared with the teacher within the academy but even if she wanted to, he was too young to attend the academy.

The opinion about him within the vassals also changed but even though there were positive comments about his growth and his intelligence at such a tender age, there were also negative comments that degrades his standing within the nobility, describing how eerie of a child he was, instead of playing outside with the those of the same age as him he stays coop up inside a room reading, describing that he might have a weak body which will greatly affect whether he would become a strong king or not and etc. With most of it coming from previous king’s factions

Even so with all the rumors passing by, she was confident in what ever he decides to do in the future it will be something that will garner respect and admiration to those around him.

=======

Yep looks like I was wrong the prologue wont be a teaser this one is  :D

So anyway I won't say why I wont be able to update, I'm just letting you know that I'll go AWOL again for a month blame R.L for that. I won't be AWOL from RRL though, I'll just stop writing due to some reasons, and lurk around some novel I've been following and maybe leaving some comments here and there.

Currently reading: Tonyorobksy novel Aenthar ^^

Now I know how my FAV T.L'ers feel like when they juggle between their hobby and Life * sigh

ANYWAY~

Thank you for reading!

Impressions, typographical errors, and constructive criticism(though there's nothing to criticize yet T_T), anything I will welcome them in your comments!

Credits to my PR who is also a good friend of my mine. Please leave a thank you for him too since he is currently helping me with writing.

CIAO~ and best regards from JFG