Chapter 1: Awakening

I heard unfamiliar noises; a woman with blonde hair was cradling me while speaking soft tones in a strange language. A young man comforting her and taking glances at me.

"Averisti? Ivantiori hashen ilinor." I heard her mutter.

Strange, this isn't where I was supposed to be, I was supposed to...

I can't... remember. I should be able to remember something, something important to me, but I couldn't. The emotions and the urge of my body hit me with an overwhelming urge to cry, so I did.

The faces of the young couple softened and broke into a smile, it appears this made them happy.

+++

The days went by with a blur, every time I tried to string more than a few thoughts together I felt a strong pain in my head and cried, and every time someone came and cradled me in their arms and rocked me gently. Most of the time it was a brown-haired woman in a uniform, but I sometimes saw the blonde-haired lady from the first time, graceful and wild, and very rarely an older blonde woman with an extremely stern look on her face. She reflected the image of nobility, regal and proud.

I've worked out a few things from my efforts, however.

1. I was reincarnated I believe; however, I could not dig up any memories of my past life, just various bits of knowledge that were ingrained in me.

2. The couple I first saw were my parents; the uniformed ladies were the maids, and the old lady was my grandmother.

It seemed I was unable to keep more memories within my brain, as I would soon forget information the next day. It was a strange dream-like state, so I did my best to hold onto these two things.

One night, when one of the maids was taking me to the bath, they made a detour downstairs; presumably to get away from the loud shouting down the hall that frequently woke me up.

As they continued down the hallways, I spotted a room full of brown rectangles and a thought sprang to my head suddenly.

3. Books contain knowledge, I can learn more about this world.

I gripped the maid with my tiny hands and started pointing towards the room with my chubby fingers.

The maid said something incomprehensible, so I kept swinging my arms and pointing.

Flustered, she observed my inscrutable behavior with worry, but she kept walking hoping to amend my worries in the bath. I started crying louder the further she walked so she looked around troubled before tentatively taking a few steps towards the room I was pointing to. I stopped crying.

She seemed to have gotten the hint and took me into the room and set me down. I crawled towards one of the books, flipped them open and was exceedingly disappointed to find out that I could understand nothing. I started sniffling in despair and was taken to the bath without resistance.

Oh, I just forgot something, but was it fact 1, 2, or 3?

+++

It seems it wasn't fact 3 because any chance I get I crawled out of the wooden device used to trap me and made my way to the room with books. I was caught nearly every single time, but I made enough of an effort that they moved me to that room during the day. The brown-haired ladies were even kind enough to hand me a picture book with weird symbols on them.

I must have been pretty delighted because I remember laughing quite a bit.

+++

I'm not sure how much time passed, but snow was accumulating outside the window, and I was finally able to keep coherent thoughts inside my head. My first task I assigned myself was to learn the language so I'd finally able to understand what the people around me were saying.

I wasn't sure how to do this, so I grabbed the skirt of one of the maids and pointed towards some of the symbols in the picture book I was given, they were saying some weird stuff at first and even gasped a little before finally repeating the same thing over and over again.

"Alashi. Alashi." she said with a smile on her face.

I assume it was a cup because the picture above it was a cup of some sorts, or it could have meant the material the cup was made of. Just to be sure I pointed at a cup on the table. She gasped a little and put her hands over her mouth before speaking.

"Alashi!" She exclaimed while shaking her head up and down. It seems I was correct, so I pointed towards myself.

She said some weird long name that I couldn't remember so I pointed to her.

"Sara." She spoke. Good I can remember that one.

The name of Sara belonged to the young lady with freckles and brown hair that rocked me to sleep during the night. I hope my little head can store all that down.

I saw her excitedly talk to two other maids as I continued to study the book.

+++

After some undiscernible amount of time had passed, I seem to have gotten a hang of the basic words and could at least understand what the maids were talking about with one another, given they used simple language.

"Young master Alfy is so smart! Could he be a genius?"

"Of course, Alfy is the son of lord Berolius after all!"

It would seem that my name is Alfy. Which is short for... I don't remember but it was really long.

Speaking of which, after I learned some words, I tried to speak something to the maids asking why I was seeing my parents less and less nowadays, but when I tried to speak nothing really came out. It seemed as though my vocal cords haven't yet developed enough yet.

After continuous attempts, I found that it hurt quite a lot. I believe I might have cried but Sara was around to console me.

In an attempt to whisk away my sorrows she read some books aloud to me, and though I couldn't remember much, I could recall the fascination and wonder it filled me with.

+++

Once again, some untold amounts of time passed me by and on a cold winter night my mother burst into the library with tears in her eyes. I was knee deep into a book about magic at the time before she tried to lift me gently. I resisted and held onto the book, so she grabbed the book I was clutching as well as the stack I had on the ground and left.

She brought me into a fancy room adorned with many sparkling trinkets. I could see a large mirror on one end and a massive canopy bed on the other; hints of fabric leaked out of a stuffed wardrobe and a soft silken carpet lined the floor. Even without coherent thoughts I could understand the extravagance of this room.

She paid no heed to the glittering gold that enthralled me and wrapped me in some clothes before stuffing the books into a big case with her and leaving.

The outside was cold, even with the layers of clothes on me, but I've no longer felt the need to cry since a while back, so I just admired the castle behind us. It was much larger than I thought with towering spires and an intimidating drawbridge.

Though it was not the majesty of the castle that caught my eye but rather three figures standing at the foot of the massive main door.

A trio of maids were watching us while we left, forlorn and dispirited. One of them, the brown haired young girl with freckles even shed a few tears for me.

Don't cry Sara, I'm okay.

I knew not the full situation but I felt like I should wave goodbye.

+++

From there on the scenery changed drastically. Instead of the marble floors and the spacious rooms we lived in a small wooden hut with two and a half rooms, not including the washroom; instead of a grand library I had to satisfy myself with the ones my mother had brought from the mansion; and instead of the maids taking care of me it was my mother now. She seemed rather tired and had a permanent scowl during these days so I tried my best not to make trouble.

Though my efforts weren't always fruitful as I think I may have gotten sick multiple times, but mother always took care of me.

I couldn't get a good sense of time during those days but after a period of time mother came to me during a sunny day and said some words that I couldn't understand before packing up once again. She led me by the hand where we met up with two rough looking men, a lady with a furry tail, and a girl with a big hat.

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They greeting my mother with a friendly embrace and my mother returned their gestures with a weary smile. They loaded us up on a carriage and we left the snowy city.

We encountered some wolf like creatures often during the day which had me on edge but all of them were great fighters and after the third instance or so I didn't think much of it. What is interesting though was that my mother would frequently join them with two daggers and start slicing up the poor beasts that the party would leave to her, go mom.

During combat the girl with the big hat would mutter some words before firing balls of water, I memorized those words in my head and kept repeating them until I shot one at her while during a negotiation in a stop at town. It was small so she didn't actually get hurt but the group stared at me in surprise, my mother included.

I think they talked about it a little after I went to bed.

One day when the group was setting up camp in the forest, the girl with the big hat spoke to me: "Listen up, Sylvestra says you're a genius so you should be able to understand me when I am talking, if you get it nod."

I nod.

"Hmm, this could be a fluke..."

I shake my head.

"Oh, wow." she looked taken aback before composing herself once more, "Ahem. Anyway how did you fire off that spell earlier, I didn't even hear you speak."

I shrugged.

"Well anyway, here is the basic incantation," she gave me a questioning look before turning to a tree. "Spirits of water heed my command, gather before me and propel forward, water ball!" A ball of water gathered before her wooden staff before shooting out and smashing into a tree, toppling it. I had memorized this exact phrase before.

"Oi, Rafine, make sure to save some mana in case of a nighttime attack, okay? The wolfenhils prowl around these parts." One of the tough looking guys, the bigger one with armor, looked up while building the tent.

"I know Donovan, shut it and mind your own business." She snapped back. "I'm no amateur." She stamped her foot with a huff, "but you know I-"

She didn't get to finish that sentence because I shot a water ball past her. Though it made me quite tired.

They both stared at me blankly until the lady with the tail cackled in laughter from across the camp: "Hahaha, maybe we should recruit the boy to replace Rafine."

"Oh my, my baby is a genius!" I was scooped up by mother, who had been watching from inside the carriage. I believe the group called her Sylvestra.

"Rafine! You must teach him magic; he could be a hero you know!" She exclaimed while rocking me excitedly in her arms.

Rafine looked irritated while staring at me before scratching the back of her head: "Yeah yeah, fine. Hey boy, you'll address me as master Rafine got it? You know, when you can talk."

I couldn't talk so I just nodded.

From then on out the girl with the big hat started teaching me magic.

+++

The moment I could finally get my thoughts in order was on my second-year birthday. The people of the human culture in this world don't celebrate every birthday but rather every fourth birthday. However, it appears the beastmen and outland race do celebrate birthdays of the people around them, if only to keep track of their age.

"Nya ha ha, here's a gift young Alfy, you best be grateful, okay?" Prisillia, the lady with the tail, handed a small wooden dagger to me. I had recently seen her busying herself with carving this exact piece of wood for about a week now, I had now idea it was a present.

I still couldn't talk much so I just grabbed her hand and nodded vigorously. My emotions were just developing but even so I could feel quite a warm sensation in my heart.

"We'll look after you 'till you're home safe you hear? You can count on it!" She patted my head roughly. Master Rafine was also in the carriage with me and gave me a small scowl but not one of displeasure.

"Prisilla, you're spoiling him!"

"Nonsense! Everyone deserves a gift on their birthday nya!"

"You say that, but you got me nothing on my birthday."

"Nya, what did you say!"

The two were bickering a bit in the carriage and while normally mother would be here, she was currently guarding the merchant caravan out in front.

In the short year I've learned a few things about my situation.

1. The old armored man in the group was called Donovan Dreathmane, he was the guardian and leader of the party; the other members were Swift, Prisilla, Master Rafine, and my mother. They each had other jobs and titles, but this was all I could remember.

2. It appears the group is an adventuring party called the Dragon's Teardrop and my mother was part of this party before she met my father, we were being escorted back to her old family home.

3. We frequently accompany merchant travel bands to protect them.

"Listen up Alfy." The pair of ladies stopped bickering and Rafine turned to face me, "Can you tell me the primary elemental magicks?"

At her request I conjured a large water droplet, a small flame, a small wind swirl, and, after a little while of concentration, a small pebble.

"Good good, now how many primary schools of magic are there in total?"

From her teachings there is the evocation, enchantment, conjuration and transmutation. There was also invocation, divination, and recovery but those were tied to the clergy and didn't really count.

I held up 4 fingers.

"Correct! And what does each school represent?"

I stayed silent. There was an awkward pause before Prisillia sighed and said, "He can't talk remember?"

Rafine blushed a little bit before continuing, "Of course I knew that Prisillia. It was simply a rhetorical question."

"Anyways, Evocation is classified as channeling magical power outwards to inflict damage, enchantment deals with channeling it inwards to empower oneself, conjuration is tied to creation of objects and transmutation with altering the state of objects. Fire and wind are generally the elements of choice for evocation and enchantment mages, while water and earth are the preferred elements of transmutation and conjuration mages."

I nodded, following along.

"Ahem, anyways, as a gift for your birthday I shall teach you a special spell that you won't normally see." She started muttering a spell under her breath before creating an icicle in her hands.

"The 3rd rank spell icicle spear is a cross between the evocation spell water lance and the transmutation spell deep freeze. It is unusual because it uses elements not often associated with those schools of magic and in unison together, no less. It has the attack power of a 3rd rank fire spell while also having the utility of being able to be used in caves and houses where fire magic would result in serious issues. Normally I would propel this icicle at something as an example, but I'd rather not do it in a moving caravan"

Looks like she really liked the spell, because she puffed up her chest in pride.

"Nya... you're giving him homework as a birthday present?" Prisilla questioned sourly.

"What do you mean homework? Knowledge is the very foundation of magecraft!" Rafine replied indigently.

"Nya?" she tilted her head, not really getting it but also not interested in questioning it further. Don't worry Prisilla, I didn't get it either.

"Ahem, I'll teach you the incantation so just remember it in the future when you go to an official school."

A few weeks later I shot down a tree with icicle spear. I think I heard Rafine say something along the lines of: "3rd rank magic at age two, what the..."

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