Growth

The more Zaos heard his mother's voice, the more he began to remember certain words and their meaning. Thanks to that, he confirmed that he had knowledge of certain things while others felt completely alien to him. Most likely, before his birth, he lived in a completely different world. That was why both places felt out of place.

"So, I died and came to this world?" Zaos thought. "Why? Is that voice related to this somehow? Since I don't remember my previous life all that much, a lot of time has passed since I died in the other world."

Zaos was pretty sure that he should feel lucky since he was given a second chance, but in the end, he didn't feel like that in any way. It was like it didn't matter since it was something that happened beyond his control.

Several months passed by while he was thinking about that, but in the end, he didn't find a single piece of information that confirmed that reincarnation or transmigration was something in that world. So, aside from a new language, he didn't learn all that much. The only things he discovered were the names of his mother, who never left his side, and his father, who only showed up once a week to have dinner with his wife. His father was Laiex, and his mother was Lyra. Those names also sounded weird in his head, so that was another thing that confirmed his theory that he lived in a different world.

"Are you ????, Zaos?" Lyra asked.

Little by little, Zaos was beginning to understand what his mother was asking him. While she certainly wasn't using some difficult words, at least he was making some progress. Besides, even the difficult words were useful for him because he would make time pass trying to figure out their meaning and how to use them.

Six months after he was born, Zaos finally heard and understood a conversation completely. While the fact that his quiet father was one of the reasons for that, Zaos made a V sign inside his head since that was some progress. Speaking of which, in the six months that he had dinner with his parents, that had been the first time they said while eating. Either talking at the dinner table was bad manners, or their relationship wasn't that good. That was odd since Lyra certainly was a social butterfly. Even though most of the house servants talked behind her back, she always smiled when they greeted her.

"How is his growth?" Laiex asked.

Zaos frowned since he had a name, and his father probably knows his name… probably. Zaos wasn't so sure since he wasn't a present father. Still, he was almost one hundred percent sure his mother wasn't a concubine and that he wasn't an illegitimate child. So, Laiex's behavior was becoming odder by the minute and more annoying from Zaos's perspective as well.

"He is growing up fine," Lyra replied with a smile. "He doesn't get sick; he eats a lot and sleeps a lot. Zaos doesn't cry either, nor does he make any fuss. But he likes to stare at new things for quite a while."

"He never got sick until now, but he never made a fuss?" Laiex asked while frowning. "That is hard to believe."

It looked like Zaos' father didn't have a good impression of him. Still, Zaos didn't feel bothered by it since his father's impression wasn't that good either. While he didn't feel the need to show to his father that he was wrong, Zaos decided to work hard and prove that his mother wasn't a liar and that she gave him a strong body.

On the next day, Lyra took Zaos to the garden as she always does early in the morning and at the end of the afternoon. As soon as Lyra put Zaos on the ground, he tried to stand up on his feet. Still, since he didn't have anything to use as support, the best he managed to do was to stand while his knees weren't touching the ground, but his hands were. Zaos decided to call that stance crawling level five.

"It is a bit soon for you, Zaos," Lyra said with a smile after showing a bit of surprise. "Still, you did pretty well on your first try. I guess you will be strong just like your father."

Zaos couldn't help but stare at his mother's face. Despite how cold Laiex was, she still loved him to the point where she was very happy that father and son had something in common. Despite her amazing looks that Zaos expected that he had inherited, Lyra's self-esteem seemed pretty low.

"All right, my first goal is to walk, my second goal is to talk and make my mother's self-esteem reach the appropriate level," Zaos thought.

Since Zaos didn't have much time to train and many opportunities, it took him two months to be able to stand without anyone's help. Thanks to his hard work, his legs were also strong enough for him to stand still, and his legs wouldn't tremble.

"You did it, Zaos!" Lyra said excitedly. "Let's show this to you, father, the next time we have dinner together."

If it hadn't been weird, Zaos would have sighed at such a moment. Despite everything, his mother still wanted to share moments of joy with her husband. Even though she was pretty much treated like a lowborn concubine by him.

"Mama," Zaos said.

Zaos had decided to practice his talking a bit more, but in the end, he decided to give his surprise to his mother, and that worked more than expected. Lyra opened her eyes widely in shock since she didn't try to teach Zaos any words until now.

"Amazing, Zaos!" Lyra raised Zaos up to the sky. "You can talk! You can talk!"

Zaos smiled as well. At least this time, Lyra didn't compare him with Laiex. Maybe he wasn't that smart, or maybe she was too happy to think of that.