2 What Sorcery Is This?

It has been about a month since I was reincarnated. It has also taken me this long to finally accept this fact.

Though my mind contained the consciousness and spirit of an eighteen year old, the body I currently possessed was an infant's. I had become a baby.

When I first opened my eyes and found two giants staring at me, I was shocked beyond belief. It was only until I saw my small, stubby hands that I came to the realization that it was not giants staring and cooing at me. It was my body that had become tiny.

I was unable to accept such a phenomenon at first. Because it was, and still is, ridiculous to think of. Reincarnation was an unfamiliar concept to me. It was part of the Buddhist religion, and that was the extent of my knowledge of it. It was also a popular concept in one of those Japanese animations. What did they call it? Isekai?

I didn't grow up watching anime so it was not something I was familiar with.

So for the few weeks after I was born again, I struggled to accept this new reality of mine. I frequently mused that this must be something like my personal hell. I died and was sent to be tortured by being turned into a baby for my sins.

I wondered what I had done when I was still alive that had been so heinous I was to be tortured like this, but I couldn't think of anything except the occasional lies I told my parents and that one time I stole some candy from a corner store. Oh right, suicide is considered a sin too.

But regardless since I was already in Hell, there was nothing I could do… Or so I thought.

The man and woman that had been staring at me when I first opened my eyes were apparently my parents in this new reality I was born into. They looked young, likely in their early twenties, so they weren't much older than me. At least when I was still alive.

The man was a tall, handsome man with brown hair and a mole near his left eye. While the woman was blonde with blue eyes, who also had a pretty great body if I do say so myself.

They spoke in a language I could not recognize that sounded vaguely European. It must have been part of my hellish torture, I assumed, being around people who spoke in a language I could not understand. It was a weird way to torture someone, but it was kind of frustrating I guess?

The next few weeks were equal parts agonizing and confusing.

Being fed breast milk from a nipple was definitely intensely confusing, and having little to no control of my bladder was just pure agony.

Not to mention I still couldn't move around freely because my bones were still developing. It even ached frequently, a sign of my growing body.

But this also led me to surmise that the likelihood of my new existence being a confusing form of hellish torture was most likely not true. Because, if I really was being tortured in Hell, then the devil in charge of my torture was really slacking off, since this did not feel torturous at all.

Plus, I had full control over my four limbs! I was no longer crippled like before my original bodied died! Wriggling my toes was my favorite activity during the period when I couldn't crawl.

This meant that I could only conclude that I really did reincarnate into a baby for some inexplicable reason.

I also found that aside from my new mom and dad, they also had a maid named Lilia that took care of the household duties. Which was a little strange considering how rustic our house looked.

Speaking of our house, it was incredibly medieval! They used oil lamps for lighting, and firewood for heating. There was no sign of anything remotely resembling electronic devices, and even their furniture were all made of wood. There was literally not a single thing made of plastic in the entire house!

Even the poorest people in third-world countries at least have mobile phones nowadays, y'know? If I really was reincarnated, could I have been reborn in to an Amish commune? Hahh… the idea that I was being tortured in Hell started making sense again.

As I slowly got used to my infant body, five more months passed.

As a baby, time actually passed extremely quickly, since I spent most of my day sleeping. A lot of the calories I consumed were in turn burned rapidly to nourish my growing body, so I often felt lethargic even during the day, forced to take multiple naps throughout daylight.

But in exchange, I started gaining better control over my infantile body over time. I could now crawl around on all fours! A major accomplishment in my books, given that I had to spend 90% of my waking hours laying on my back or putting in maximum effort just to roll over.

And let me tell you, the view at 8 inches from the floor looked way different from when one could walk around freely.

Sometimes, I could even look up my Zenith or Lilia's skirt- completely by accident of course! Not that looking did anything for me anyways, since my infantile body had absolutely no reaction towards that kind of stimuli.

Oh, Lilia is the name of the red-headed maid who worked for my parents, while Zenith was my mom's name.

Mom… the term became increasingly familiar to the tongue. It was hard not to form an emotional attachment to the woman who fed, cared for and doted on me since the moment this body was born.

I sincerely apologize to my real mom for recognizing another woman as my mother!

As for my new dad, his name is Paul apparently. Although he is still a young man by any measure of the term, he still tries his best to be a good father. Though he can be a little clumsy at times… he once even let me fall from a chair you know, and after I started crying he hid it from Zenith, saying that he didn't know why I was crying.

He did look extremely apologetic when we were alone after, so I could somewhat forgive him. Otherwise, I would have definitely bore this grudge and tattled to mom once I learned how to speak their language!

After living this new existence of mine for six months, I could already somewhat pick up their language, even if it was only bits and pieces of it.

What I once thought of as a vaguely European language was not one that I recognized. That didn't make sense to me since I should still be able to recognize the language even if I couldn't speak it right?

I wondered if I perhaps I was born in a rural area where folks spoke archaic dialects of European languages, which was why I couldn't recognize what language they were speaking.

From my fragmented comprehension of their conversations, I picked up that my new dad was apparently part of the village militia or something similar. He usually put on a few pieces of armour that included pauldrons, greaves and bracers alongside what looked like a uniform and cloak.

Wow… how rural was the region we lived in that people still wore metallic armour and even had a sword sheathed on their belt. Unless he was an professional LARPer who role played as a knight everyday? That was a little concerning.

Regardless, I was still beyond stoked that I could now crawl. Because even if I was crawling on all fours, when compared to the three years I spent as a cripple, it still felt amazing having full control over my four limbs.

Besides my newly regained mobility, being able to acquire the freedom to explore my new house was also exciting in itself.

I crawled whenever I could, especially when I was left unattended.

Zenith and Paul were incredibly happy to see me crawl for the first time, especially since it was still relatively early for a baby to be crawling it seemed. But after the initial joy wore off, it was quickly replaced by concern and some frustration since I always managed to escape even from their watchful gazes.

"He'll run somewhere the moment my eyes move away from him."

"Isn't it good that he's active? That means he has a healthy body."

"But what if Rudy hurts himself!?"

"Haha, something like that's normal. Besides, you'll have gnilaeh slleps to treat any injuries if he does."

It was easy to see who was the dad and who was the mom just from their conversations. It was still difficult to pick up certain words I have never heard them speak regularly before, so sometimes it was like they were speaking gibberish to me.

Ah, that's my name by the way. Rudeus Greyrat, or Rudy for short. It was a decent name I supposed, though it still sounded unfamiliar to my ears. Sometimes when Zenith called by my new name, I took a little longer to react. Come to think of it they might think I was slow in the head…

But because of my rampant crawling and exploring, even trying to climb up a chair once, I finally fell down when I lost control of my baby limbs and fell down, somehow even scraping my elbow in the process, making a loud thud in the process.

I looked at the wound curiously, man enough not to cry at such a small injury, but to my parents, Zenith specifically, such a scrape was tantamount to a fatal wound.

"RUDY!!"

She hurriedly ran to me, her worry and concern evident from the frantic expression on her face.

"It's okay Rudy, let Mama see your arm…"

Despite seeing that my injury was not as life-threatening as she had assumed, Zenith still had tears in her eye from the awful fright she must have been through.

"Didn't I tell you not to crawl around so much. See, you finally hurt yourself!" She chided me, with as much severity as she could muster – which wasn't a lot. Still, I had to be heartless to not feel heartened by the love and affection she was showering on me.

Zenith lifted me up and put me on a table tenderly, her gentle hands being careful not to touch the rapidly reddening scrape on my arm. I could see Lilia behind her as well, anxiously looking over my mom's shoulder though still trying to hold back an outward expression of concern. She sure took her job seriously…

"Young Master Rudeus doesn't seem to have noticed he had fallen… what a tough child." Lilia commented, calming down as well once she saw I had barely skinned my elbow.

Zenith smiled brightly, "Yes, Rudy is a strong boy isn't he?"

That's right, I'm a big boy. No, wait, why am I going along with this pace?

"But just in case, I'll cast a spell to make the pain go away." She remarked, while putting her forehead to mine and then giving me a gentle kiss on my temple while sniffing my hair. It was really weird how adults found the heads of new born babies smelled really nice to them. Lilia and Paul liked to sniff my head multiple times a day, and even Lilia did too some times when she thought no one was looking.

Zenith then rested her hand on my forehead while chanting something under her breath.

"Divine power is rich and nourishing. It offers the strength to rise again…"

A spell huh? Could this be this region's version of 'pain, pain go away'? I suppose most children might feel better from a placebo like this, but unfortunately for my new mama I wasn't most children.

"Healing."

However, the following phenomenon was not something I could explain with just science and words.

Green light was emitted from Zenith's palm, and a warm, radiant glow filled my body. I looked down and saw the skinned elbow rapidly mending, and it only took a few moments before it looked like I my fall did not happen at all. Even the dull ache on my bottom from the fall faded like it never existed.

This… what the hell is this? What kind of sorcery…?