Ready? …No? I Don’t Care! Go! (2)

"…Rest well now, Diane."

…At this point, I was too exhausted to even be surprised at the sudden mystery voice. Things were moving too fast for my poor brain to keep up with.

First, my mom dies literally minutes after I was born. After. I. Was. Freaking. Born. I mean, I get that it can happen but, seriously? I was literally born a second time! (Take that Nicodemus)

As if that weren't enough, this girl's voice comes out of left field.

My head was already struggling to keep up with the "born a second time" part, let alone a new mysterious person that showed up out of nowhere.

Suddenly, I felt myself being scooped up by a mysterious girl. I couldn't make out her face as there was suddenly more light shining into them.

Not wanting to go through the pain of adjusting my eyes again, I returned my gaze back down. There, my eyes widened as I saw something that was truly mystical.

Plants… were moving.

Not like they were just drifting in the breeze, no. They were digging up the dirt while holding my mother's body up. It was like they had a mind of their own, as though they were a living being's appendages.

Soon enough, a large impression was formed in the ground. The plants then moved my mother's body into it and then began to pour dirt upon her.

Suddenly, I heard a choked voice speak.

"… I'm… really, heuk… sorry, Diane."

The girl suddenly broke into tears.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry this is all I could give do…"

I awkwardly sat in her arms, not entirely sure what to do.

So… listen. I'm perfectly aware that this is an emotional moment. This girl and my mother probably had some deep relationship or friendship in the past. I also know that my mother's death likely impacted this girl quite a lot but…

…What am I supposed to feel right now?

It's not like I spent time and energy to invest in their relationship to feel what they're feeling. I mean, I'm freaking… what? Less than an hour old?

Plus, it's none of my business. I'm just a baby who was… er…

…Ah, I get it now.

I felt my eyes beginning to tear up again.

Right, what was this anyway?

Was it just instinct? Did I subconsciously imprint the mystery woman as my mother? Was that why I was suddenly tearing up and crying?

It was truly mysterious how these feelings I had never felt before began to well up within me.

Perhaps, this was my 'melting my stone-cold heart.'

I didn't know if it was my infant mind's lack of cognitive ability, but my thoughts began to wash away as I let the tears begin to freely flow. The unknown girl cried, slowly burying my mother's body.

Our quiet wails echoed in the unknown space.

**

"…"

My infant body was carried by the unknown girl through a forest.

I know I'm not in a position to complain, but… I couldn't help but wonder if the girl was lost. I know it wasn't the best thing or the moral thing to be thinking of right now, but an infant's attention span is ridiculously tiny.

But what was really killing me wasn't the boredom but a need for sustenance. In other words, I was hungry. I was so hungry that I needed to use all of my brainpower to hold myself back from crying about it.

Was this one of the traits of a baby? An uncontrollable desire for food?

"…Ah! You're probably hungry, right?"

Strangely, the girl understood my needs as though she read my mind.

She wiped her tears.

"I'll make sure to get you something."

Thank the lord.

"Though I'm not sure what human babies eat…"

I retract my earlier gratitude and what do you mean human baby? Is that not obvious that I'm human? Was I born as some kind of weird talking monkey?

It was then I finally noticed an oddity.

This girl had long ears.

Not like her ear lobes were long, but the entire shape of the ear was different. Her ears were long and pointed. I wasn't sure why, but I suddenly had an urge to play with it.

Unfortunately, as a newborn baby, I had extremely little motor control. I could only aimlessly fumble my hands in the air.

Eventually, we arrived at a portal of some kind. I felt myself being twisted up and out, along with a sudden hit of nausea. If I were a normal baby, I probably wouldn't have been able to handle that.

But this sickening feeling soon disappeared like smoke.

My eyes widened as I looked at the sprawling sight before me. We were in a city of some kind, and it appeared we had directly teleported right past the gates. What I saw before me were buildings that seemed to be built out of a jade-like material. These jade buildings were so flawless and smooth that each seemed to be carved from a single, huge stone.

Making this place look even more awe-inspiring were the huge trees that intertwined with the buildings, filling this whole city with a more distinctive and organic ambience. Looking up, I see homes built on unnaturally thick branches extending out of the massive trunks even larger than the buildings with smoke drifting out of their chimneys.

The entire ground inside this city was covered in a lush field of soft moss, with only the narrow sidewalks and the main road paved with smooth stone. The dense array of branches that fanned out from the trees covered most of the city in a canopy of shade, but there was a warm, luminescent glow throughout the city thanks to numerous floating orbs of light situated in every corner and street.

While I stared, my tiny baby mouth slack-jawed, still processing the world around me, the girl snickered.

"Huhu, look at you."

She poked my nose.

…I was a teenager mentally, so normally, this kind of thing would be embarrassing but being starved of affectionate acts for the entirety of my life until now, I couldn't say I didn't like it.

In any case, we soon arrived in what appeared to be the girl's house.

It was relatively small and shaped like a studio apartment. While the only furniture consisted of a couch, table, chairs, bed, bookshelf, and dresser, along with a couple other things, they all fit together perfectly. Whoever put this room together had a good sense for this sort of thing.

The room's state was a bit of a mess, but it looked like the mess was methodical.

In any case, the following couple of weeks after my journey out of the tunnel was pretty much pain. I had little to no motor control over my limbs except being able to wave them around like an idiot, and even that got tiring quickly.

I felt like one of those fatass children of rich merchants.

Heck, forget about moving my body; I couldn't even control when I take a dump when I want to.

I'd just be chilling in the room, and all of a sudden, it just comes out. I don't even get a warning. It's either a streamer or a buckshot, and let me tell you, neither feels good. Wonder why babies cry when they stain their diapers a particular shade of brown?

But in all honesty, it might've been fine if my caretaker, who I learned was called Alea, knew how to take care of me properly. She barely knew how to change my diaper and tried to feed me some kind of trail mix from hell. At least, it was hellish for me, who couldn't even chew since I didn't have teeth.

Luckily, our neighbor stepped in and managed to set her straight.

In any case, during this period of extreme physical inability, I've had much time to think about where I am and what I'm doing here.

To organize my thoughts, I had probably reincarnated by some mysterious phenomenon that I'm not aware of, as I'm pretty sure no weird magic or curses were put on me before I died in my last life.

Once I established that I had reincarnated or done something similar, I momentarily thought I was in some version of my world's past.

To keep things short, that thought was blown away. This was because of two reasons.

It would seem that I reincarnated into a different word as people with long and pointed ears didn't exist.

Plus, I was 98% sure that a civilization hidden in a forest like this didn't exist. 98 because I didn't pay attention during history.

The other reason was magic.

Right, my old world didn't have any of this magic.

But before I could make any actual judgments about it, I needed to gather more information as my only source was somewhat limited.

This said, "only source of information", Alea, would often speak to me when she was home about all sorts of things.

To summarize what I learned from her, I was in a place called the Kingdom of Elenoir, the home of the elves. More specifically, its capital: Zestier. For the record, this supposed race of elves was a race that I wasn't, which explained her calling me a human.

…Thank God I wasn't reincarnated as a talking monkey.

As for this world, it seemed to be fairly straightforward. It was filled with magic and warriors, where power and wealth decided one's rank in society. In that sense, it wasn't too different from my old world, except for the lack of technology and a few other factors that were involved with power in this world.

In my old world, wars had become an almost obsolete form of settling disputes between countries. Don't get me wrong, of course there were still smaller scale battles and armies were still needed for the safety of the citizens. However, disputes concerning the wellbeing of a country were based on either a duel between the rulers of their countries, limited to making use of ki and close combat weapons, or a mock battle between platoons, where limited firearms were allowed, for smaller disputes.

Therefore, Kings weren't the typical fat man sitting on the throne ignorantly commanding others, but had to be the strongest fighter to represent his or her country.

…Well, not that I ever became one. I just trained to try and become one before getting stabbed in the freaking chest…

"…Whew."

In any case, it seemed that this reincarnation messed with my head somehow. Perhaps it was due to being in this baby's body?

I felt a lot more immature. Less like a teenager who had spent his life training and more like… a baby.

"…"

I couldn't help but shudder slightly at the prospect of who I was changing. To be honest, the fact that the me now could be different than the me from the past scared me.

I shook off the thoughts, though. I didn't like thinking about it if I didn't need to.

I looked up at the dull ceiling and closed my eyes.

The final scenes of my life flashed behind my eyelids. The feeling of the sword tearing through my chest was still vivid and fresh.

The red-hot blood spewing into the air.

The horrified face of my friend and the darkness that consumed my vision soon after.

The only thing I regretted was being unable to think of another solution. A solution where they wouldn't have to had made… such a face.

I shuddered slightly.

A firm resolution rose up within me.

I'll become someone who never makes anyone have to make that face because of me.

…Currently, I had a pile of poop in my diaper… it was a streamer too.

Ah shi—