New Family & Fate Ch. 9

The caretaker walked into the nursery, holding the door open behind her for a kind looking young lady and a rather reserved looking young man. So far this looks good, I'm guessing they're a young couple but why would they adopt? Well whatever, its not my problem, actually its good that this happened they likely have little to no experience with children which could work out well for me.

"Now as I'm sure you know this is a large responsibility" The caretaker began her spiel about responsibility while wrapping me up in a blanket. She gave this speech to almost everyone, the one exception I'd seen had been an older looking woman who was greeted with a 'welcome back' making me think the exception was cause she'd done this before. After the young couple answered that they'd take care of me, and they'd signed my certificate I was handed over to the young woman to be named.

"What do you think Tribus? What should we name the little one?" The young woman looked over at who I assumed was her partner, Tribus, and asked.

"I don't know Novem, I don't want him to have one of their names but family tradition states we can't exceed ten..." Tribus, seemed rather concerned about this. I recognized both their names as versions of latin numbers but the 'family tradition' and no more then ten thing didn't make much sense.

"Well if we can't go forwards we could go backwards...." Novem began to mutter under her breathe.

"Thats it! We can name him Zero! We stay beneath ten and continue the numbers family tradition!" He seemed rather excited about this, although the correct latin version of zero is nulla I believe, the sudden switch to English number names seemed rather strange.

"Fine, Zero it is." Novem turned to look at the caretaker a affirmed my new name.

*Ding*

{Name acknowledged; Zero Dawn}

{Granting title [Named]}

Oh god, my name is edgy! The eye skill wasn't enough even my name has to be cringe! Why god! Why would you do this to me, even if the people of this world accept the name as normal what about me! I have to live through the cringe.... wait the multiverse! Most places had the same numbers, meaning my name is weird in many places. Damn you fate!

And so, named, sad, and swaddled I was carried out of the nursery. I opened my left eye to take a look around. Even with nothing irritating going on with my left eye I usually kept it closed to help level soul sense. But with this being the first time I'd been outside in around 6 months I wanted to see it with my own eyes...eye. What I saw was clean streets with beautiful buildings, judging by the street size and what I could see this was likely a city or very large town. We didn't continue into the town however, instead we headed past the teleportation platform and out of the city.

After a short trek down a wooded road we turned left down a small gravel path. As we rounded a small bend in the end I saw a nice mid-sized house with what looked like some sort of training field in the back. Next to it was a smaller building and finally attached to the house by a small walk way was a decent sized tower.

Novem looked down at me and smiled, "Welcome to your new home Zero."

And that's when it finally registered; I'd been taken in by somebody who wanted me. A new family for my new life. I decided that I would accept this young couple as my new mother and father. Or at least I was going to...

"Sis, I'm going to continue my research you take care of little Zero ok." Tribus smiled before heading off to the tower.

Oh, well that's awkward....ugh, I accept them as my new big brother and sister I guess. And as if on queue, responding to my embarrassment I pissed myself. And so, like any good baby does I promptly started crying.

"Uh! Don't worry, I prepared for this! Come on Novem calm down!" She started to panic ever so slightly while rushing into the house. Being blurred through the house at speeds that definitely weren't safe we arrived at, judging by the crib and changing table, my room. She put me down on the table and a few magic circles flared to life. The dirty blanket was disintegrated and some wind blew the ashes away. Novem then wrapped me up in the blanket that was on the table. A new blanket appeared and took its place, some kind of storage space?

"Uh, well I guess the tour will start here." She's going to give me a tour of the place? Seems rather convenient for me but then again talking to children is supposed to help development.

"This is your room, right across the hallway is my room and Tribus's room is down the hall." She walked out my room and into the hall before muttering "Not that he uses it…" beneath her breathe.

"Downstairs is the kitchen, living room and store room. The tower is Tribus's lab and clinic, the training yard is for me and the little building off to the side is for you when you grow up!" Oh big sis Novem, where were you and your expositioning ways all my existence! Also I get my own building? Most teens are happy to get an extra room for themselves I'm going to get a whole building! Of course it's likely just going to be a library but still.

I have to say finally having someone to explain everything too me was nice. Is this the protagonist treatment of having relatives and friends that give expositional dialogue about everything?

By the end of the tour I was starting to get hungry so naturally I used the only form of communication I had; crying slightly while yelling 'hungy!'. I was still slightly worried about that; a one year old on average can understand simple instructions as well as mimic some basic words they hear often.

As we walked to the kitchen, I saw it. A wall covered in bookshelves. By god it was beautiful! I sincerely hoped that they were history books and other things in the non-fiction category. After all while fairy tales are helpful in figuring out the culture of the world history books would be more helpful.

We arrived at the kitchen, and I was set down in a high chair next to an island. Meanwhile Novem went and pulled some baby food from an iron box that I assume functions as a fridge. This is another large negative to being a baby, baby food. A bunch of crushed up bits of who knows what on a spoon.

While I was being fed Tribus rushed in and grabbed a bottle of water.

"Sis I got called in; apparently two C-ranks had a spar and something went wrong." He quickly yelled that out before rushing out the door.

"That's your big brother Tribus. He's an A-rank medical mage! That means he helps people." Novem looked down at me and explained with a happy look on her face.

A medical mage working with a bunch of assassins and ninjas…. He's just an iryo-nin isn't he! Why! Was it actually because of my appearance? Raised by ninjas, letter based ranking system, medical ninja folk! What kind of shitty Konoha clone is this place! Next thing you know there's gonna be a ninja academy and an ANBU secret police and everything! Wait there are kids here, there may actually be a ninja academy…

Well fuck… I'm way to tired for this shit. And so I did what most babies do after eating, I went to sleep.

The next morning I woke up to the sound of muffled explosions. And so I did something that was step one on my 'be a genius' plan. I got out the crib and crawled my way to the window. This should be fine, especially with my increased physical stats acting as an excuse.

I got to the window and pulled my self up. I opened my left eye and looked out at the training grounds. I saw Tribus and Novem blurring around at speeds I couldn't comprehend just barely seeing them when the paused to cast magic. Novem was mainly casting spells that had no outward effects as far as I could tell. She was primarily using a spear to get in close.

Meanwhile, Tribus was the exact opposite using a Bo staff and casting more standard magics. Fireballs and lightning zipping all over the place. If I had to guess maybe those are his affinities?

All of a sudden Novem held up a hand and turned to look at me. Some kind of presence detection maybe? I wonder if it's based on sight or not. Well let's just get this over with.

"Yaaaa!" I yelled out and started giggling while clapping my hands together. God how I hate this, so embarrassing.

"Did you like all the pretty colors little one?" In a flash Novem was standing right in front of me. So shushin is real too huh? At least there isn't a swirl of leaves, although there was a hand sign…. Let's just assume that's a magic thing, Tribus was moving his staff in certain motions as well.

"Ya!" I stood up, intentionally looking a little unsteady while doing so.

"Aww you can stand!" And there it is, the power of being a baby. Most things will be ignored as long as your cute.

"Well, are you hungry? Cause I'm starving!" She picked me up and walked down to the kitchen. Tribus was already there sitting at the island next to my high chair.

"So he was watching?" He looked up from his book and asked.

"Yeah he got out his crib and went over to the window." Novem smirked slightly "He actually stood up by himself."

"What! Why would you let me miss that." He did actually seem saddened by that.

"Well don't worry you'll get plenty of time with him in the future. You saw his stats he seems magic focused."

"Yeah but we don't even know his affinities, the care taker didn't tell us."

"Well," Novem rolls her eyes and sighs "she did say someone would come tell us. You know something must have happened. We skipped several people on the list after all."

And with that little interlude we all sat down, not that I had much choice, and ate breakfast together. Yeah, this is nice. I could get used to having a family again…

Later that day I was sitting on the couch while Novem sat there reading a book to me. Tribus had gone out to his tower after lunch and we'd been sitting here for a while, the book was relatively basic. It was a standard story about a knight, a princess, and a dragon. I had no idea if it was realistic or not, the knight and the princesses jobs sounded important, but they may just be fantasy tales.

As she finished the book there was a knock at the door. Novem stood up and walked out to answer it while I sat there wondering who it was. A family friend maybe? Novem walked back into the living room with someone I recognized; Toby Umbras and behind him a small old man shuffling along.

"Grand Elder Umbras what brings you here today? Are you who the caretaker talked about? Is little Zero ok?!" She was… worried for me? That's nice.

"Oh don't worry child he's fine, I'm sure you noticed that the caretaker didn't mention any of his affinities to you?" He slowly walked to the side and began to speak.

"That's because his affinities are undetectable, you see he's a mana blessed child and his blessed attribute takes priority causing attribute tests to come out as faulty." He gestures to the old man behind him.

"This is elder Wilks he's here to do a fate read and determine his path and attributes."

"His path?" Good to know I'm not the only one confused.

"Yes, as I'm sure you saw his stats are biased towards magic. However his awakened weapon is a Glaive. This makes his training rather awkward. To be honest I was very happy to see you two on the list, a mage and a martial user looking to adopt. Perfect for his situation." Toby began to explain in depth why he was here. Meanwhile I focused on the old man. Even with my eye closed I could see a blurry outline of his mana.

"So with that out of the way we should vacate the room and let Elder Wilks do his read." And with that he took Novem by the shoulders and escorted her out. Rather rude if I do say so myself; I mean coming into someone's home, taking a room and escorting them out of it without even asking. Even if he does have some kind of superior status it's still rude.

Elder Wilks came over to me and place his hand on my forehead. A strange gold and silver magic circle flared to life between us. After around twenty seconds he suddenly jerked, fell backwards and started screaming.

Novem was the first through the door, Umbras shortly behind her. She quickly placed herself between me and Wilks, protecting me I guess. Meanwhile Umbras waved his hand and simply said 'Life Ring' a green circle flared up over Wilks and the screams began to die down.

"Wilks! Wilks can you hear me!? What happened!?" Umbras grabbed Wilks shoulders and gently shook.

"W-what? Where… ah! The boy! Umbras where is the boy!" Wilks, after a moment of confusion jolted up from the ground. It was only after seeing me he finally began to calm down a little.

"Sis?! What's going on?! I heard screaming!" Tribus sped through the doorway a magic circle blazing on each hand.

"Ah, Grand Elder Umbras! What are you doing here!" Upon recognizing Umbras the magic circles quickly died down. However he remained tensed and looked ready to fight at the drop of a hat.

"I'd like to know that too Wilks? What happened?" Umbras looked over at Wilks and asked looking rather displeased and mildly concerned.

"The boys fate is unreadable! All I see is void; eternal, cold void." Wilks shuddered while explaining, as if reliving a bad memory.

"But the boys attributes shine like stars within the void, all 7 of them!" And as it passed he became extraordinarily happy.

"S-seven! What! How? The max you can have with no training is six?!" Tribus began to freak out while Umbras had an excited look on his face, me and Novem remained confused however.

"Yes seven! He possesses all six tier ones and the tier two 'soul'! Hahaha our Shadow tower has gained a genius! Hexa-Mages be damned! For we have a mage born with seven!" Wilks began to laugh hysterically while also… crying? Tears of joy I'm guessing.

"Ha! I knew the boy was worth the price!" Umbras also seemed mighty pleased with himself. Although I'd like if he didn't bring up the fact that I was sold and purchased.

"Tribus what does this mean?" Thank god Novem was as confused as I was. Yeah I'd already decided, Novem was my favorite.

"It means our little bro is a genius that's what! Humans can usually only be born with a maximum of six attributes from birth. Him having seven is incredibly rare. The last human to be born with seven attributes was the first emperor of the Sun Empire. And that was over 350 years ago!" Tribus seemed almost giddy with joy at the news.

"What does an unreadable fate mean Wilks?" Thank you Umbras for asking the real questions! I will remember this…

"It means he's destined to accomplish something; good, bad, small, large. It's all irrelevant to fate, a blank fate means he's destined to do something even fate doesn't fully understand. It could be huge it could be tiny I simply don't know." Wilks began to slowly explain seemingly over his little emotional moment.

So fate can't get a bead on me? That's nice, hopefully that deals with seers and fortune tellers as well. The last thing I need is to be assassinated at 3 for something I'd do 20 years later.

After all if there is one thing to take away from fiction stories in my past life it's that fate has and always will be a protagonists bitch. And while I don't think I'm a protagonist, the very least I can do is follow their footsteps in this regard. Fuck fate, I'll do as I damn well please.