2 A new world, and a new beginning?

At first, I was quite confused by what was happening. No matter how much I pondered about it, such a long and vivid dream was bizarre even for someone in a comatose state.

The dialogues between my new parents and the people around me were meaningful and clear. All of this couldn't be something that I created using my imagination, right?

Most of the time, they talked about things that I didn't know and used a language that I never heard before, but curiously, I understood what they were saying as if I used this language my whole life.

Consequently, the only logical explanation for what was happening was because consciousness or maybe my soul transcended the realms of my world and reincarnated into a new body.

I didn't know how such a thing was possible, and I didn't know what happened to my other body, but because of my hobbies, I was familiar with this kind of situation.

I read hundreds of web novels and webtoons with this kind of plot, but I never imagined that such a thing would happen to me. Well, it was true that there were times when I was so fed up with my life and wanted to reincarnate in one of those stories, but to think that it happened. It was a surreal experience.

Still, that was why I didn't panic and even had a positive impression of the situation, understanding that this was a chance. 'I may be able to restart my life,' I thought to myself, 'so I will take advantage of this miracle rather than feel scared. I feel like the now or never line applies to this situation.'

It felt a little a bit childish talking to myself that way, feeling like I was some kind of character in one of those 'isekai protagonists', but I couldn't help it.

Oh! And I may even find a nice girl in this world if that was the case. Hmmm, these protagonists depicted in these popular stories tend to attract women, didn't they? I wonder if that would happen to me too.

But still, thinking back about the plots, they also tried to solve the problem of the world where they reincarnated to, or more like, they were always dragged into these kinds of troublesome situations. In other words, their actions attracted problems.

As someone who lived for thirty years, I didn't want my second life to take another wrong turn. I didn't want to die meaninglessly.

I might have reincarnated, but I shouldn't let it get over my head, thinking that I was special or something like that. This was mostly a coincidence.

I had a goal in mind, to find a nice girl, of course, but it was more like a side quest. Although it sounded harder than conquering the whole world to me. And this time, I will use more creativity in my approach. That was all I wanted to do.

Did I lack ambition? Maybe. But from my point of view, it was a high-risk, high-return situation. Becoming the most powerful being in this world? Creating a harem? Good. But the more ambitious someone was, the more power they needed to achieve them, and the more trouble they put themselves into.

And here was the most important question. At the very end, would I feel happy and fulfilled if I followed such a path? Would it be worth it to take the risk and wager this second life on such ambitions?

The answer was clear. It wasn't. It was just stupidity.

With that in mind, I decided that gathering information about this world would be the priority. Knowledge is power.

Although I was still three years old, I could understand all of the conversations around me because on the inside I was an adult. As such, I tried to process everything that I saw and heard, gathering important bits of information.

Putting my past life aside, I could tell that I was not on Earth anymore, that was for sure. I knew that my new name in this world was Adam Von Kepalta, son of Julius Von Kepalta and Marie Vyh Kepalta.

Julius, my father, was a middle-aged man with a handsome face and a distinct aura. He was a ruler, some kind of king, or it so it seemed. He seemed to be well-liked by the people around him and was described as a wise ruler that brought prosperity to his territory which was, I needed to emphasize this, a whole planet.

As for my mother Marie, she was a very beautiful woman and had this aura of gracefulness and intelligence about her. She was very calm as a person and her voice was very soothing but she was also strict with her husband and was never afraid to voice her opinion or give appropriate advice when needed. In summary, she was a good wife and a caring mother.

Still, I couldn't even move my body as I wanted to, and even though it was embarrassing, my mother took care of all of my needs even though I was a 30-year-old man on the inside.

In the end, I just decided to not think about shame and pride at all, because it was inevitable either way. It was best to focus on different things.

Nonetheless, being a baby, I couldn't move around, so all I could do was listen passively. In other words, listening to the conversations of the people around me, filter the essential ones, and link them together.

Apart from that, I ate a lot, slept a lot, and sometimes, I felt like my ability to think was slightly restricted.

But apart from that, nothing unusual happened. I mean, not as unusual as my reincarnation.

*****

For a few years, I spent most of my time learning this world's language, so that I would be able to speak it, although I understood it.

First, the universal common language, and then, a few popular languages were used frequently.

Furthermore, I got used to my new body as I grew up, and when I had the body of a five years old boy, it was easier to move around.

'I don't look like my previous self at all though,' I thought, looking at my face in the mirror.

Every day, I left my room while my mother was busy with other things and strolled across the hallway of the huge castle, with a particular destination in mind.

This castle was the most important building on the planet and also my new residence. It was enormous and although it was called a castle, it was more like a gathering of several huge structures. One of that structures was a library. There were countless written pieces inside of it, so as soon as I could move around, I began to search for more information by reading books and archives there.

It was the best place to gather more knowledge about this world, after all. Well, it was the best course of action to take, but the people around me were surprised by this and thought that I was born a genius. As if it took that much to become a genius. Well, I guess, normal 5 years old kids didn't read encyclopedias to pass time.

I was 30 on the inside and my mind was more mature than the typical 5-year-old child so their praise didn't make me that much happy. I decided to pay no mind to my father's bragging about how exceptional I was to the people around him and even to the envoy from different planets.

During the last two years after coming to the library every day, I learned about the historical, political, and social aspects of this world little by little.

Time passed by and I continued my information gathering.

I was amazed by my ability to process information because it felt so easy. It was like my brain was some kind of sponge that absorbed everything I read.

'Is this some kind of supernatural ability?' I thought. Well, it was probably because my brain was still young.

As I read, I was astonished by what I discovered. The immensity of this world amazed me, along with the fact that many planets were populated by intelligent species, which were mostly humanoids. However, thousands of different non-human species or mixed races also existed.

A considerable number of these planets were affiliated with the Holy Empire, the most powerful and influential organization in this world, which was closely connected to the Holy Church.

This was the very reason why I got confused with the era that I got reincarnated into at first, because in this world, not all civilizations were advanced, and even if they had spaceships, it was only because the Empire sold this advanced technology to them or helped them to build these ships.

Well, it made sense. It wasn't like the Empire had any reason to design their clothes, their house, or their city for them.

But because of that, most of the planets that were newly acknowledged by the Empire were permitted to access advanced technology and to build spaceships or buy them, so even if their civilization was similar to medieval times on Earth, the technology was more developed.

'So this is the advantage of being able to communicate with other people in the vast universe,' I thought, realizing how valuable the information from the books was for a foreigner like me.

"Thousands of years had passed since that day when monsters first appeared, and the world changed dramatically," I said, reading one line out loud as I sat on a comfortable chair inside of the library with a history book in my hand.

Some eyes were fixated on me because this place was open to anyone as long they obtain authorization but I didn't have time to pay attention to these people so I continued to read.