2 The new life

Several months of living in another world made Einhard realise how much it sucks to be an adult trapped in a child's body.

If he were to start complaining, he could go for an hour, but that would be unreasonable, after all, no child is given autonomy from a young age, so he'll just grit his teeth and bear with it.

Honestly speaking, that was not even the biggest problem he had, boredom is a bigger enemy right now, being in a child's' body has nothing to do with it, oh no, if that were the case, then he would just have to wait till he grew up and the problem would solve itself.

It's that, you know? trapped in a medieval-like world, a human that has experienced the wonders of modern technology, of course, he would feel bored.

Regardless, it's not like there was absolutely nothing interesting here, the swirling mist-like substance would be one of them.

Einhard became aware of it several hours after regaining his memories.

At first, Einhard was quite baffled with it, rubbing his eyes to make sure he was not imagining things. He asked adults about it, but no one seemed to see it, it was rather troubling, coming to another world just to go mad like this.

Not wanting to make a fuss about it, Einhard dropped the matter.

After some observation, the substance was identified, it was mana, of course, even an idiot would've realised it.

Mana became a major time-killer for Einhard, how so? you ask, well, it appears that Einhard can, to some degree, control mana, nothing too bog, just making shapes with it, he even performed a puppet show after gaining some proficiency with it, unfortunately only he could see it, so if someone called him weird for showing such an interest in empty air, he could do nothing about it.

But the invisible puppet show was not just a simple time-killer, it proved to be quite beneficial, thanks to it Einhard was able to discover mana in his own body and could even control it to a certain degree, but the amount was pitifully low, if he had to visualise, it would be smaller than his thumb.

Growing his reserves was not that big of a deal, simply draining it and waiting for its recovery several times was enough to see some progress, alas it is just a meagre amount, nevertheless, Einhard is still just a child of three years, so there's no need to be rush and potentially damage his body.

Today, as usual, Einhard was enjoying the puppet show nobody else could see, while also applauding the play.

... He's not weird, okay? this is just... yes! this is just training!

By the time Einhard was finished another boy approached him.

"Yo, midget, time for dinner"

Hearing that boys voice caused Einhard mood to both plummet and rise up at the same time.

Let's clarify some things, Einhard is the shortest kid around, which is not surprising, he is, after all, the youngest in this orphanage, but that is not a reason why his mood soured, it was this jackass, Colin, who never called him anything but a midget, it might be immature of Einhard to get angry at a child for such a thing, but

'I have my pride as an adult, damn it!'

It was especially annoying to be made fun of by a snobby brat of all things, but there's nothing he can do at the moment, Colin was three years older than Einhard, so all he could do was to endure.

Anyway, Einhard was getting hungry, so dinner was something he was looking forward to it.

There were a lot of things Einhard was expecting to be eating in another world, in orphanage no less, but a fresh salmon was not in that list.

'for real, eating salmon every day, what is this? a luxury orphanage? if it's like this here, then what would the nobles meal look like?!'

Inside the orphanage building, Einhard was mostly a loner, it is hard to connect with kids for him, being In his mid-twenties mentally and all.

The only time Einhard interacted with other children was outside when playing chase, which he did only for sake of running, and if other kids approached him themselves.

Other than that, unless he was tasked by an adult to call them or something, he was quiet all the time, he had better things to do, such as experimenting with mana, as it was mentioned above, thanks to an invisible puppet show, Einhard got a decent understanding of mana in general and ever since that he's been trying to use it for other something else, the first thing to come to mind was reinforcement.

Einhard found some degree of success in this subject, as of now he can slightly reinforce everything that is solid, but truth be told the results are kinda pathetic, to get the idea, Einhard can make a fragile stick as strong as a sturdy stick... amazing!!!

Well, there's that, he does not dare to try it on himself, most of the things he tried to reinforce shattered, it doesn't happen as of late unless he's carelessly overflooding it with mana, reinforcing himself is plain scary right now, to be honest.

'But enough of that, the dinner is done and now it's time to play'

This was also something Einhard looked forward to, not the playing part, just running around, feeling the soft grass, cool breeze hitting his face, having spent last several years of his previous life in the big city this rural place clean air and a lot of greenery was rather... pleasant, refreshing.

Everything went well, Einhard actually had fun, but accidents do happen sometimes, as was the case right now.

For some reason, many of the kids were gathering around the tree and were making a fuss about something

Einhard made his way there and just observed, turns out, some girl climbed up a tree and couldn't get down.

Her name was Elise, she had a blond hair and was also three years older than Einhard, they never really interacted with each other, but from afar she seemed like a nice kid

'She got pretty high, no wonder she can't get down'

Thought Einhard, though something bothered him

"Why'd she even climb up there?"

Einhard asked no one in particular, but someone did answer him

"Maybe a bet or something"

Colin stood there nonchalantly, seems like he answered for no apparent reason.

They looked at each other for a moment before Einhard broke eye contact and clicked his tongue.

"Anyway, what are we gonna do?"

Einhard was not really that fond of children, but that does not mean he will just stand still and do nothing when there's a kid, half-crying, on a tree.

Unfortunately, as of this moment, Einhard is a child himself, there's not much he can do, he may even make the situation worse.

In the worst-case scenario, Einhard would willingly use his body as a cushion, but the adults were already on their way, so the situation was virtually resolved.

But, as always, nothing ever goes that smoothly.

The branch that Elise was latched on gave an audible crack, which startled the girl enough for her to lose her balance and fall.

The worst-case scenario it is then.

Einhard was already under Elise the moment he heard the cracking sound.

"Oof"

Upon the impact, Einhard let out a weird sound, though he can't reinforce himself yet, that did not apply on his clothes, which ultimately proved to be useless, because it still hurt like hell.

Elise quickly got of Einhards stomach.

"Are you alright?"

She stammered out between sobs.

Einhard, now freed, squirmed around, clutching his stomach

"Yeah... just... fine... "

Einhard was not fine, even though Elise is very light but so is he.

'This could've gone better'

Thought Einhard as he was taken inside the building to get some sort of treatment and scolding as well, for being reckless.

Einhard himself didn't care

"I'm not injured, so no problem"

He tried to placate angry Elena with these words, but it seemed to make her even angrier

"Of course it's a problem! what if you got hurt!? don't do such things so recklessly, you hear!"

She finished her words with a flick on his forehead.

Einhard silently listened, nothing he would say could get him out of this semi-lecture, so might as well pretend to listen, it would make things easier for him.

"Are you listening? you are not just nodding for nothing, right?"

It would seem that Einhard was seen through

"Say it with me, 'I won't do that again'"

"'I won't do that again'"

He said, not actually meaning it

"You don't mean it"

What a sharp mind this woman has...

"I get okay! I will not do it!"

Einhard said with a slight pout, it has been almost a lifetime since someone nagged him like that, so he lost himself there a little.

"Good, you finally get it, I have to go now, be careful"

With that Elena walked away, she had things to do in an orphanage.

Left alone Einhard let out a sigh that was more of a groan

"This is my life now..."

Now Einhard truly had nothing to do, he could go outside and play, but after what happened he wasn't really feeling like it.

'I'll go to sleep, I guess'

Einhard discovered that depleting mana reserves causes one to become sleepy, he didn't even need a minute to empty his own, so sleeping anytime he wanted was not a problem, though in the future it may not be a viable option.

But before he could proceed, Einhard noticed a blond hair at the corner of his eyes.

It was Elise, what she wanted, Einhard had no idea.

As she approached, Einhard noted that Elise had a somewhat dejected expression.

"I'm sorry about before..."

She said in a childish, high-pitched voice mixed with sadness.

Einhard stayed expressionless, but he was quite troubled actually, as mentioned above, he is not fond of children and vice-versa, kids also never liked him, his experience with them is filled with nothing but annoyance.

"... It's okay"

So Einhard will just accept the apology and be done with it.

Sadly, this didn't work, Elise's face stayed the same.

He had to put more effort, accepting an apology, from six-year-old...

"It's okay! I'm telling you, I'm all healed now!"

Einhard tried to sound cheerful, but it looked rather forced, given it was, but it got the job done.

Elise's face lit up and couldn't contain a smile.

"Really! I'm glad, because of me you got hurt, I'm learning healing magic, but it's still shoddy... next time I'll heal you myself!"

Einhard had no way of knowing this, healing magic is rather... special in this world, which means Elise is also special, but that is another story altogether.

"Yes, take care of me then"

Replied Einhard, he did what he had to and now was ready to relax.

"Yes, I will make sure of that!"

Elise was filled with enthusiasm.

Amidst her newfound motivation, Elise got an idea

"Hey..."

She started out slowly, her cheeks had a light shade of pink

"... from now on call me 'big sister'!"

Einhard was truly caught off guard

"... What"

It was baffling

'Where did that even came from!'

"Yes! from now on you are my little brother! big sis will take care of you!"

Einhard had a lot of question, but also a half a mind to not start an argument with a child.

'Whatever, I guess...'

And thus, Einhard has got an older sister in this new world.