Chapter three

Zenith watched her, now one-year-old, child reading a book while sitting at a table, the book lay on his lap as he flipped the page occasionally.

"..."

She remained silent as she walked closer and leaned over his shoulder to see what he was reading.

It was a history book.

"Are you interested in history, Gray?"

He didn't seem surprised that she was behind him, it was a hard task to surprise him, really, like he knew where the two of them were.

Was it the "Parent-child connection", he heard about when she was doing bigger jobs as an adventurer?

Gray nodded and flipped another page, this one seemed to talk about the second great human-demon war.

"Want to help me with the garden when you're done?"

Immediately, he closed the book and placed it on the table. Jumping off the chair, he looked up at her with green eyes similar to her own and nodded.

Ruffling his blonde hair, she picked him up, getting a small disgruntled noise from him, and walked out to the garden.

She loved getting these reactions out of him since he was a "big boy" now, he tried to act independent, like a grownup, which she found very cute.

"let me down."

She pretended that she didn't hear him, and knelt near some dug-up dirt.

To the side, there were some saplings that he immediately noticed, smiling slightly, she reached over and handed him one of the saplings and took one of her own.

Planting the sapling, she looked over to Gray, seeing him imitating her movements.

There were errors but she would fix them when he wasn't looking.

They planted the rest of the saplings with him helping her and they were done in no time... She just had to fix some of the mistakes he made after Gray went for a nap, she didn't have the heart to tell him that he did anything wrong. Not yet.

"Good job, Gray, now let's go wash up."

She tried to rub off the dirt from her hands but they were still dirty.

Sighing at the fact that she couldn't pick her adorable little munchkin up, the two walked inside again.

With the task complete, they could start the preparation for dinner... After they washed their hands.

___

Gray Grayrat was... Having an average time, it had its ups and downs, but it was okay.

Losing his whole world was quite a hit to his mental state, but he was coping.

His new parents helped to distract him but it could only last for so long.

At first, he didn't know where he was, he didn't even know when he was... And now, he can confidently say that he still had no idea.

Swords and magic were common enough here to make books about it, history is filled with wars but the time between each of them is enough to call those periods "Peace times"... Oh, and did he mention, Magic!

He thought it would be exciting to learn but in reality, it was very underwhelming. There were no books about chantless spells but considering his first thought when he discovered he could cast was "How can I break this", he theorized that it should be rare.

In the book, they had gone only to the intermediate level, so there should be an advanced level along with beginner and intermediate and maybe an expert level... He called it level four. As as far as he knew, there was only one rank above advanced but asking would still be strange, he shouldn't be able to read something as complex as a magic book.

Flipping the history book, his theories were proven wrong.

Apparently, there was a Saint rank after advanced.

And judging by the dragon generals, the order went simply.

Beginner, intermediate, advanced, saint, king, emperor, and god.

Basically, they were stroking their own ego.

There were three styles of magic: attack, healing, and summoning.

The attack magic were four basic elements: Fire, water, wind, and earth.

... Now, why was this written in the history book instead of the magic one?

Shrugging mentally, he flipped another page.

What was really peculiar was the ice-covered fields mentioned in some of the descriptions of the battlefield.

Ice must be a high-ranking water spell but it should be able to be used by itself.

Maybe there are some sub-elements to the others too but that would be for the future him to find out.

Right now, he needed to broaden his minuscule amount of reserves.

Six water balls after two days wasn't good progress, but it seemed to double his reserves whenever he depleted them.

Look at him, a one year old going on and breaking the fundamental rules of magic.

Releasing a sigh, he closed the book and put it aside on the bed, his child's brain needed rest.

... He missed the children from the orphanage, he was like their big brother and he liked being an older sibling, knowing that so many kids were looking up to him just made him try harder, he was their role model and he wanted to be a good one.

And thinking about the past, the seventeen-year-old in a one-year-old body fell asleep. Emotions in turmoil.

___

When he woke up, Gray immediately registered the pleasant feeling of warmth around his head.

Opening his eyes, he saw his father, Paul, sleeping in front of him, one hand passing over his small body.

Then the one holding him must be Zenith.

The hold tightened around him as he sighed again.

Looks like he was stuck here for a while.

Maybe the next few hours since he woke up early most of the time.

... He was squished again.

Aw, come on.