Acceptance

The next day, daylight rose, illuminating the Loret Empire's Imperial Capital.

Tian Long had been extremely tired yesterday, so he slept in the room that was assigned to him, and after making sure he slept, she stayed with him for a few hours, looking at his face before she finally left him. 

After waking up, Tian Long could guess where she went and was cheering about it since he inwardly started shipping them from yesterday. In any case, with their robes adorning them and the Throne in the Throne Hall, it didn't take him much to learn that they should be the King and perhaps the Queen, or the greater counterpart, the Emperor and the Empress.

The door suddenly opened, and he could see a middle-aged woman dressed in imperial maid clothes enter the room. She bowed with a respectful stance for a second and walked to him. 

"Excuse me, your highness..." As if giving a word of caution, she belatedly grasped his hand and brought him to the bath, undressed him, and cleaned him.

Tian Long was stiff the whole time. He didn't even glance at the middle-aged woman maid for a long time since her curves were rather wet and visible through her clothes. He looked at her face and saw that she was in beauty in her own right.

'Such a person happens to be a maid?' Tian Long imagined by the way she dressed similarly to the other women in this place, except it was somewhat more different, perhaps, grander.

After he was cleaned and dressed up, he felt rather refreshed, way more than what he would feel by experiencing a normal bath. In short, his senses became somewhat normal, and the muddleheaded feeling totally left his mind.

'Was the bathtub filled with something rejuvenating? I remember it smelled strange...' Tian Long imagined.

The middle-aged imperial maid grasped his hands and made their way to the Study. 

In the Study, Claire stood up and eagerly waited for her son to show up. 

Due to certain matters, she had rather failed to bath her son by herself. So she took a bath and freshened up before coming here.

*Creak!~*

The door opened, and the maid let go of Tian Long. From inside, he saw the person whom he recognized to be his mother.

She smiled genuinely and widened her arms when she saw him, "Davis Loret, come to mother..."

Tian Long was astonished to see her act cute like this, 'This person is supposed to be the Queen or the Empress, isn't she?'

He quickly hid his bewilderment and kept his appearance as a three-year-old child. He rather watched her curiously, not responding to her invitation.

Claire then repeated what she said with another gesture.

Tian Long then carefully and slowly approached like how a baby learned to walk for the first time. He was not acting, but it was really hard to move his body that hadn't moved from birth. He didn't know that but chalked it up as his soul synchronizing with this child's body.

Claire was with wide arms, ready to give a hug. Tian Long made his way to her and got enclosed by that warm feeling again. She hugged him tightly and wished that he will never disappear from her sight again.

*Creak!~*

The door was closed, and the imperial maid left the Study.

A minute passed, yet they stayed like that. 

Tian Long rather felt somewhat different, yet not at all constricted. A feeling of wanting to cry welled up within him, completely making him understand that this child's developing body was somehow influencing him; his emotions.

'Perhaps, I fused with this child's soul, no?' Tian Long gulped as he rather had an eerie thought.

"Davis, your Mother will take care of you and your guide you from now on in almost everything, let's start from the basics, shall we?"

Claire widened her lips slightly and smiled like an angel. Tian Long blinked as he suddenly felt that she had the sweetest smile in the world, so bright yet calm.

She grasped his hand and made him sit on a chair. Then as if without a care in the world, she started teaching him the language of the world.

======

A week had now passed, and Tian Long was already able to run and play. There were so many delicacies within this place, and he ate all which he was fed, and he felt rejuvenated with each bite. The quality of the food alone was enough to make him look no longer like a starved child but a healthy child.

He was even fed a little bit of meat, which he found to be incredibly delicious than almost every dish he had on Earth.

Other than this, his progress in the language of this world was smooth. He could now understand simple conversations.

The imperial maids will deliver him food thrice a day, and a bed had been set up in the Study. In fact, he was the one who requested his mother to do so.

Knowledge is the foremost power he could have in this world. In any case, with his current developing body, becoming strong like the others he saw in this Imperial Castle became impossible; hence, absorbing knowledge became his priority.

As a person who was closely related to the term 'transmigration' and 'possession': he wasn't willing to waste his time.

Tian Long realized that he was absorbing knowledge unusually fast, being able to remember it clearer than in the past, but he chalked it up as his soul is powerful.

His guess was accurate this time though he didn't realize it.

The Transmigration Stone strengthened his soul. In fact, it was its primary effect, but the people of Earth didn't found the way to achieve Soul Strengthening.

Tian Long started to like this new mother of his significantly. She cared for him rather extremely and played with him whenever he completed his assignment. He enjoyed playing with her, and maybe it was because of the small body, but he felt like a child when he was with her.

He was also aware that his emotions had largely experienced a change, and his thoughts were also being influenced. Due to this, he had particularly tried finding anything wrong with his soul as best as he could but failed to find any abnormalities other than the anomaly, the black book in his soul.

"Davis, finish this assignment, and then we can play a game I've prepared."

"Yes, Mother!" Davis cheerfully replied, continuing to act like a child.

Not only did she play with him every once in a while, but she also showered him with wonderful motherly love. He didn't know what had happened to her in the past, but he could tell she was currently giving her everything for him.

To reciprocate her kindness and also to become a knowledgeable person, he didn't slack on these assignments.

'This is going smoother than we expected, my son can quickly learn anything I teach. He is definitely a genius!' Claire smiled proudly as she felt that she was able to measure Tian Long's talent approximately.

======

Another week had passed, except it felt increasingly slow to Tian Long.

He had somehow started to grow fond of his mother. He was now able to talk, read, and write fluently. His knowledge of the language progressively increased at a rapid pace with his hard work, but somewhere in his heart, he started having guilty feelings of being this close with the dead Davis's mother.

Sometimes, he could even feel his inner self whispering to him, 'You killed her son, why are you laughing together with her?'

'Is it fun? Playing with the mother of the child you killed?'

'You think she is your mother? No! You just possess her son's body!'

"Stop it!!!"

"Davis?" Claire had a worried expression on her face.

Tian Long snapped out it and remembered what had happened. His mother had just joked about how she would have felt if he had died out there.

"Are you fine?" Claire worriedly asked.

Tian Long evaded her gaze and answered.

"Yes, it's nothing." 

Claire blinked once as she felt that her son became somewhat... different.

======

Another week further passed.

Tian Long gradually started distancing himself from Claire. He wouldn't sometimes play after finishing his assignments. He just solely finished her assignments and increased his knowledge of the language.

Claire grew increasingly worried about her son not being that much responsive anymore.

'What's wrong? Why did he start distancing himself from me? Did I do something wrong? It can't be because of how I joked about him dying, could it?' 

Claire thought that she had done something wrong, later she felt that he would eventually be his old self again as time passed.

======

The fourth week.

A lot of events transpired, yet Tian Long forgot how to face his mother with a normal expression on his face. He became irrational and even started blaming himself when he saw Claire being overly worried.

On the one hand, he felt that he didn't deserve this kind, a heart-warming mother for the wrong he had done to her child, and on the other hand, he felt that he should make his mother happy. These conflicting emotions had his heart tearing apart from the inside.

It also made him confused as to how to face her in the future. These were all new emotions to him as he didn't have a father or a mother figure in the past as he was an orphan.

In the Study.

"Davis~." 

A voice full of longing echoed in Tian Long's ears.

"Mother..." Tian Long glanced at Claire for a second before evading her gaze for the nth time.

Just the sight of her pure and clear purple eyes rather left him feeling burdened. He even thought of escaping this place, but every time he shortly left the Study, he could see the Imperial Guards rather heavily guarded every pathway and hallway.

"Look at me, Davis." Claire pleaded with a troubled expression on her face.

Tian Long slowly turned to look back at her.

"Did mother do something wrong? Why aren't you speaking to mother anymore?" Claire bit her lips as her eyes turned moist.

Tian Long remained silent.

"Is the place not good? Did I treat you... wrongly? Is it because I joked about your death?" 

Tian Long felt suddenly unbearable as he heard her tone of voice. He felt his heart constrict with pain on hearing what his mother said.

Claire still didn't know why her son was avoiding her. This had caused her much more pain than the time he disappeared. Looking at him be in front of her, yet behave as he did not exist left her feeling anxious and distressed.

Tian Long remained silent like a child ridden with guilt.

How could he not feel guilt? Even though it may not be direct but indirect, he still killed her son, and that was something he would not make an excuse for or even ignore it.

He swore that he would live the life of his part as well, but he didn't rather expect this scenario at all.

Looking at his face, Claire took a deep breath, "After I lost you, I thought I would never see you again, I had no wish in this world other than for you to return safely. Every day without you was torture to me. I thought I had lost you forever, but you returned! My child returned to me, studied with me, played with me, and so why!"

Claire sobbed, "Why are you not speaking to Mother anymore!?"

Tian Long was overwhelmed with guilt after hearing that, making his pupils tremble!

Claire suddenly hugged her son, forcibly. 

Tian Long tried to distance himself from her, but it was no use. His meager strength didn't even make him capable of budging.

"Davis! Don't go! Please talk to Mother! I want my Davis back! Please give my Davis back!" Claire cried as tears cascaded down her cheeks while her arms were hugging him with all her emotions, "I can't take it anymore!" 

It was as if Tian Long experienced a severe blow when he was hit with all these sensations.

"Mother!!" He felt his heartache and clenched his fists.

'Fuck! I won't run from this anymore!'

He instantly hugged her with his fragile arms and declared with a hoarse voice, "Your Davis is here, Mother! Your Davis didn't go anywhere. I am still here..."

At that moment, Tian Long accepted his whole new identity, Davis Loret, with all his heart.

Suddenly, resplendent light shone and started swirling around Davis's glabella while his soul started shaping itself into a spherical form.

Claire noticed it as her eyes widened displayed shock. She couldn't believe her own eyes as she looked at his face that was met with confusion.

"Davis…you achieved Nas... Nascent Soul Stage..." She dumbfoundedly muttered.