Chapter 1: Prologue

Standing on a large hill, or is this a small mountain?, I look down at a vast cityscape full of buildings of various sizes, from small square and rectangular building to large buildings taller than anything I have ever seen, and everything in between.

“Where is this place?”

My vision suddenly shifts and now I am standing in the clouds under the vast blue sky that tinges to purple and then a starry night sky in the distance no matter which direction I look. That’s when I remembered Ah... that’s right. I died once and then reincarnated, but I gave up my personal memories in exchange for extra knowledge and two unique skills [Unlimited Potential] and [Perfect Memory]. I guess this means my brain has developed enough for my ‘memories’ to unlock. It was with that thought that I felt my body rushing backward, and then I woke up.

Let’s keep a mental log of key points:

-First, I died in a previous life and was reincarnated.

-Second, I chose to give up all personal for extra knowledge and two unique skills [Unlimited Potential] and [Perfect Memory] (Perfect Memory is not the same as eidetic memory as I can choose to not remember things and even organize my memory as a choose referencing other memories).

-Third, the knowledge from my past life will unlock as my brain develops to handle it.

-Fourth, my unique skill have unlocked along with the knowledge from my past life.

-Fifth, my name is now Cero, I live the town of Gale with my Elf mother Seraphine and my Human? Father Ronan (I’m using the [?] because I seem to have some small silver scales near my ankles), and I am around 3 years of age, I should be a half elf.

-Sixth, in this world at the age of 5 people take their children to a church or elder with the [Baptism] skill in order to get baptized and receive their skill(s) which they can then see in their mind by thinking Status.

-Seventh, there is apparently an adventurers guild in this world and my parents used to be adventurers.

-Eighth, most of my knowledge of this world comes from my mom who stays home to take care of me, while my father works as a trainer at the adventures guild. I will be able to learn more about this world when I am old enough to leave home on my own.

Now that I’ve listed it all out in my mind, that is a lot of key points. Oh well, I guess I will do some mild exercise until my mom comes to wake me up. For the next hour I remained in my room doing stretches and light exercise that won’t negatively effect my child body, it was a refreshing way to start the morning. Around the time that I finished, my mom knocked and opened my door.

“Oh my, you’re up early today. Did you have a bad dream?” mom asked me while moving towards my bed to tidy it up. She has fair skin, silvery blonde hair, emerald green eyes, short pointy ears, and fairly tall for a woman at around 5’8”, probably. In my previous life she would be a perfect 10. Though her ears would definitely seem strange in a world with only humans.

“I had a strange dream and couldn’t get back to sleep. What’s for breakfast?” I replied while sniffing to try to find out.

My mom giggled at my question before saying “The usual, eggs, ham, soup, and bread. Wash up before you eat.” The soup is necessary to soften the dense semi-hard bread that seems to be the most common, I’m sure they have something drier/harder to use as rations.

“Okay~” I replied while heading to the back room where a bucket of water and cloth to wipe myself is located. I guess it is a common trope in light novels for the MC to go on and on about wanting a bath, but I get it now, a bath or shower would feel a lot better, but it’s not too bad with my child body. After wiping myself clean, I put on the clothes my mom had left for me and went to have breakfast.

After breakfast I ran out back while yelling “I’m going to play out back~” to my mom and hearing her sigh fade in the background. Dad leaves before the sun comes up in order to get to work before the adventurers show up to pick their job for the day, so that he has time to prepare the training grounds. Once outside I start running around the house slowly moving out from the house while looking for a stick of the right size to write in the dirt with. It may be a bit late to notice this, but we have a rather large sized property without neighbors, which is odd from what I remember of the rest of the town. I guess my parents are or at least were rather wealthy adventurers. It was with that thought that I found the perfect stick and moved to a dirt patch near the back of the house. From there I tried to draw out the letters and numbers from what I remember of my mom showing me.

“Hmm… I may need to ask mom to teach me letters, numbers, and words. I didn’t have my unique skills when she showed me before, so I can’t remember too much.”

After playing some solo games for children from my previous life I hear the back door open. “We need get some things from the market, you can play more later, let’s go.” With those words, I see my mom turn around and head back inside, so I put my stick near the back door and chase after my mom. Perfect timing, maybe I learn more about this worlds numbers and such. It’s strange knowing far more about a world ludicrously called Earth, than I do about the one I live on.

After walking for around ten minutes we finally arrived on the main street where there is an open air market place with stalls and people all around, it seems the regular stores are on a cross street a bit farther down. Mom had to carry me most of the way so that she we wouldn’t take too long to arrive, setting me down after we entered the area, unfortunately children have short legs, makes me feel like a penguin trying to keep up with a horses gait. I wonder if this world has penguins?

Looking around, I see a range from proper stalls all the way to products laid on a sheet, and everything in between. There doesn’t seem to be too wide of a selection of goods, but there is plenty of variety for the average person. I must really look my age with my head swiveling around at a rapid pace trying to take in everything and everyone, as if it were my first time in public. I see humans, beastkin (mostly canine and feline variants), and the occasional elf or dwarf. It seems elves and dwarfs are a minority, maybe they have a low birth rate due to increased longevity, I’ll check on that at a later point.

“What are you looking around so much for? The food stuff is over this way.” Says my mom while half dragging me farther into the market area.

I continue looking around while we make our way towards what we came here for when I spot something that looks like a grill lighter lined up on a sheet with other items of various shapes and materials. “Mom, mom, what’s that?” I ask while pointing at the object.

“What are you… ah, I see, so that is what caught your interest. That is a magic tool for starting a fire, not everyone can use magic or fire magic specifically, so they purchase one of those to light a fire for cooking while at home or traveling since they can be used by even those with a tiny amount of mana. There are also other tools and methods for starting a fire that may or may not require mana or a magic stone, but those aren’t used as often, mostly by people in places where they need to conserve every bit of mana they can.” Explained my mom in a tone that makes me believe she didn’t expect me to understand.

“Wow~, can you use magic? Can I?” I asked with my eyes most likely shining in wonder.

“Of course I can, I’ll have you know I am still one of the best mages in the kingdom.” Boasts my mom while puffing out her chest. “It’s a bit too soon for you though, you can’t start training until after you turn 5 years old and get baptized.”

“Amazing~” I say, putting a huge grin on my moms faces. I see, so people can start learning magic after getting baptized and being able to see their skills. As I continue walking along with my mom, we finally get to area selling food ingredients. Looking at the different ingredients I can recognize some things I have had since being reincarnated, and some of them look similar to ingredients on Earth, while others look completely new but probably have other similarities, such as taste and/or odor.

As we move through the stalls, and my mom picks out what we need, I keep pointing at different ingredients and asking what they are. I also point out different small wooden plaques, asking what is written on them. It seems that in this world, they have a number system similar to Arabic numeral system or decimal system, also I have found that we use a coin based monetary system, and the world uses a uniform currency called Lorn. In the future I will have to try the different ingredients available and reference them to the ingredients I know from earth, after all, it seems the food culture isn’t very advanced in this world. Food culture probably hasn’t advanced due to low literacy rate, in addition to difficulties with transportation and information sharing. At least they figured out how to obtain and use salt and other herbs and spices to improve the flavor.

After we finish our shopping, alright I only annoyed my mom and probably the shop keepers by asking a bunch of questions the entire time, but my mom did manage to finish the shopping so it’s all good, right? Anyway, after finishing the shopping and walking home, I was free to do whatever while my mom put away the groceries and prepared a simple lunch. From the stories I remember hearing from my parents, adventures and other travelers usually only eat dry rations while on the move or taking a short rest instead of stopping for lunch to save on time and because it can be dangerous.

While mom is doing the chores, I head out back to continue my writing attempts from this morning. I start by writing out the numbers in the dirt from memory, listing them in order from this worlds equivalent of 0 to 9. After repeating each number a few times to get used to it, I start doing arithmetic as I remember it, starting with addition and subtraction, then on to multiplication and division. This world doesn’t seem to have any high level of academics from what I have seen, albeit I have not seen much of this town, much less this world, so it is possible that there are places of higher learning somewhere, with scholars that come closer to the level of education from my previous life.

After about 15 minutes of writing numbers, doing math, and erasing everything with my foot, I move onto writing the letters and words I remember. It only took about 5 minutes to write it all out, but since I do not know how many letters are in this alphabet, I don’t know if I am still missing letters or not. Thankfully this world using a phonograms instead of ideograms or pictograms so it easy to figure out how to read, though being able to sound out words and understanding what they mean are entirely different things. As I was considering how to find out if there are more letters and what their names are called, as well as the proper organization of the alphabet, I heard the back door opening.

I quickly erased the letters and words I had written in the dirt with my foot before turning toward my mom who was exiting through the back door. “Lunch is ready, wash your hands and face, then come to the table” says my mom, luckily having not noticed what I had been doing.

“Okay~” I called back, feeling relieved she didn’t notice me writing. I at least need to hold off on letting her find out for a little longer, so that I can claim that I have been practicing for a longer than a single day or even a few. I don’t want to be thought of as too strange. I then wash up using a bucket of water and head in to have lunch.

After lunch which consisted of a salad, meat, and reheated vegetable soup with a small piece of bread, my mom goes out back to wash and hang laundry. Modern appliances like the washer and drier sure were convenient. Usually this is the time I would go to take a nap, but I want to look around the house a bit more to see if there are any books or some other writings I can use to help fill in any blanks in my knowledge of letters and hopefully improve my understanding of written words. I’m not sure why I didn’t look all around the house out of childish curiosity before now, but I at least know which doors are mine, my parents, the store room, and the toilet. Even if we have to pour water down it frequently to keep it from smelling really bad, I’m glad some past scholar or whatever figured out that installing some kind of sewage system prevents towns smelling horrid and also prevents epidemics. I wonder how this sewage system works? Does it utilize river water that is branched off from to continuously flow at a slow rate? Or perhaps it uses magic tools, or some kind of monster?

With all these idle thoughts, I walk down the hall opening doors I haven’t opened before. I found a closet, a spare room, another closet, at least I’m assuming they are closets because of their small size and the fact that they seem to have random items in them. “Oh, this must be an office or study, I don’t really care about the desk right now, but those are definitely books on the wall” I say to myself while looking around the room, eyes landing on book shelf, or more accurately, storage shelves with books and other papers and small items on them.

Walking up to the shelves I make a grab for the smallest book I can reach. Heavy. Is all I think while carrying the book to the chair since the desk is too tall for me and I don’t want to put the book on the floor. Looking at the book, it seems to have a fairly plain hard leather cover and parchment made from some unknown beast, held together by leather cord. Opening the book, and sounding out the first words, it seems this is a travel journal written by some adventurer. I spend a few minutes reading while sounding out each word grouping the ones I already know separately from the ones I don’t in my mind. After reading a few pages and understanding about 60 percent of it, I have come to the conclusion that there are only 22 letters in this alphabet, each one represent a different individual sound. Not too bad, I think this language easier than any of the languages I know of from my previous life. I think to myself as I put the book back and head to my room to take a nap before my mom comes back inside.

After my nap a begged my mom to show me some magic, and she eventually caved saying she would only show me a little bit. We moved to the back yard, before my told me while gathering some dead, dry leaves and grass “For safety reasons, I will only be showing you some very basic magic out here, and give a basic explanation. I won’t teach you any more until after your baptism and I’m sure it’s safe. I will now show you the basic fire magic for starting a fire.” She had finished gathering the dry leaves and grass into a small pile while talking that said “Ignite” before a small flame appeared in front of her outstretched finger.

With the small pile now burning, she said “Beginners will normally chant in order to get a clear image of the magic before using the keyword in order to activate the magic, but they can’t even start that until they learn how to feel the mana inside their body... Water” and just like that water began pouring out of thin air extinguishing the fire. Lastly she said “Wind” creating a small amount of wind to blow away the ashes.

I had been sitting in front of her with my eyes wide open, fully focused on not missing a single thing, be it sight, sound, or even feeling, using my [Perfect Memory] to it’s fullest extent. I came to my senses when my mom stood and pulled me up as well saying “That’s all I’m going to show you until after you baptism, understood? Now go play or something until dinner.” All I could do was nod my head in response.

Until dinner I sat against a tree, absentmindedly while recalling what I had just been told about magic, and playing it over and over again in my mind. No matter how long I thought about it, Ignite doesn’t make sense. I it had directly ignited the pile of dry leaves and grass or created a spark, I could could understand and agree to it, but it had created a flame, like something produced by a lighter, only a little bigger. If the keyword had been flame or something I could also understand and agree to that, but the word ignite doesn’t make sense unless the keyword isn’t so much important as it is an easy way of triggering the magic. It’s even possible that different places and different cultures pass down different key words for the same magic. Most likely the image and moving/shaping of mana within the body are the only important parts.

“What are you doing” I heard from diagonally behind me. It seems that I was so lost in thought that I lost track of time and didn’t notice my dad come home nor him walk up behind me. That was bad, I shouldn’t let myself get so lost in thought that I don’t notice my surroundings at all. I thought to myself while standing up and turning towards my dad.

Dad is the lean muscular type, not bulky but obviously fit, perfectly suited for his speedy swordsmanship. He’s probably about 6 feet tall, with dark brown hair and gray-blue eyes, lightly tan skin from training outdoors, and a clear voice that is manly but not very deep.

“Welcome home dad. Mom showed me some magic today, it was really amazing!” I replied with enough enthusiasm to express just how exciting it was to see magic for the first time.

“Hahaha, that’s great” said my dad while putting his hand on my head and mussing my hair. “Maybe I should show you some of my martial arts or swordsmanship sometime, gahaha.”

“There will be none of that dear” said my mom, appearing out of no where. “He’s far to young to be watching anything so violent or learning how to fight.”

“Right, my bad” replies my father meekly while scratching his cheek with his index finger. “I guess I just got caught up in the moment.” It seems that I’m not allowed to learn/watch anything that can be used offensively until I’m older. Which is probably for the best considering I’m far too young to be trying anything so difficult, I’d probably only injure myself, I don’t have the strength, nor dexterity to precisely move my body like that, not to mention the ability to hold even a training sword.

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Clapping her hands to direct our attention and change the topic my mom says “Dinner is ready, so go get ready to eat, and don’t forget to wash your hands dear.” Then she immediately turns around and walks back inside not leaving any opportunity for either of us to say anything.

We didn’t dare delay, immediately heading in to wash our hands and head to the table for dinner. Tonight seems to be some kind of roasted poultry that tastes like a rich chicken, not as rich as duck though, along with some roasted vegetables, freshly made soup and bread.

After dinner, I get to hear another adventurer story from dad, before we all head to bed. People typically go to bed at sun down to save on candles or the magic tool equivalent of a lamp. While laying awake in bed, not yet tired after taking a nap and then spending most of my afternoon spacing out, I start thinking about magic again. ‘They can’t even start that until they learn how to feel the mana inside their body’ huh. So as long as I can feel the mana in my body I should be able to start learning magic, right? With my knowledge from my previous life I shouldn’t have to worry about needing to chant in order to get a clear image of the magic I want to create. After thinking this far I close my eyes and steady my breathing, inhaling through my nose, exhaling through my mouth, looking inward to find an energy that I don’t know about from my Earth knowledge.

Using meditation techniques from earth I spend an unknown amount of time sending my conscience into my body, trying to sense my mana. It was rather hard to get to the point where I could feel the energy inside my body and begin to work my way through it. As a first timer in meditation techniques as well as being so young making it hard to focus on just my breathing, clearing my mind of any extraneous thoughts, I feel like I did quite well. I was able to find an energy that didn’t match with any of my Earthly knowledge, it felt like a lump of calming warmth in the core of my being.

Now that I found what I believe to be my source of mana, it’s time for the hard part… trying to move it around with only my willpower. I’m not sure how long it took, but I eventually felt like it moved a bit, not much, but it was a start. I opened my eyes, my breathing a bit rough. Looking around, it is now completely dark, and I’m quite tired. Time to get some sleep I thought to myself as closed my eyes again and turned to get into a comfortable position.

I spent the next few days doing mostly the same things; get up, stretch, exercise, wipe myself clean, have breakfast, play around (mostly running), practice writing and math, have lunch, sneak in a bit of reading while my mom does stuff outside, take a nap, ask my mom questions, kill time until my dad comes home and dinner is ready, hear a story or two, got to bed, and practice moving my mana around before going to sleep. It was about a week later when something finally changed.

I was practicing moving my mana around like normal, when all of a sudden, it felt like something clicked within me, and my mana began rushing through my body where I had been trying to move it, almost like a dam had finally opened or broken after spending a week probing it in every conceivable way. It was when my mana flowed into my head that I heard it, a small female voice saying “You sure are an odd one, I didn’t expect to find some child at the source of that mana fluctuation.” Slowly I opened my eyes and turned my head to see a small fairy(?) no more than 8 inches tall with long green hair, green eyes, a green dress, and four translucent wings with iridescent veins, giving off a soft glow not far from me.

“Who or what are you?” I asked in a small voice so as not to alert my parent to the fact that I am still up and have an unexpected guest in my room, all while staring directly into the eyes of the tiny lady with wings.

She opened her eyes wide in surprise before giving a huge smile. “I didn’t think you’d be able to even hear me, much less see me, what an unexpected surprise. My name is Sylphid, and I am the wind spirit, one of the pillar spirits of this world.” I see, so spirits exist in this world, that hasn’t come up in any of the stories of heard, nor in the books I have been reading.

“I wasn’t expecting to meet a spirit tonight either, especially inside my bedroom. So, what brings you hear Sylphy, oh, is it alright if I call you that? Also, I was just assuming you would be willing to be my friend considering you aren’t showing any hostility, or reserve… was I wrong in assuming that?” I quickly said after staring at her blankly until my mind caught up.

“Hehe, that’s fine with me, but are you sure? I believe most people would try to capture me or form a contract with my kind thinking they could become rich and powerful, not that it would work of course, and I was just passing by when I felt an unusual fluctuation of mana.” She said with a somewhat girlish yet charming giggle.

“I see, well, I’m only 3 years old, and I have no use for riches or power. I also don’t have any friends yet, so you will be my first. I’m Cero, let’s get along from now on.” I say with a bright smile on my face.

Sylphy giggled and replied “Indeed, I’m sure we will get along quite well.” I’m not sure what makes her say that so confidently, but at this moment it’s not all that important.

“Sorry to say this so suddenly after just becoming friends, but, it seems to be quite late and I really should be getting to sleep. I was just practicing moving my mana around before sleeping like I’ve been doing for this last week. So, could we pick this up tomorrow?” I ask with an apologetic look.

“That’s fine, I’ll sleep here tonight.” She says as she picks a small pile of folded clothes on a shelf to lay down on.

Shrugging I say “Good night” to her as I close my eyes and prepare to go back to sleep. To which I heard “Good night” in response.

The next morning, I wake up early in the morning as usual. The day goes by as usual with a few minor differences. First, I now have a spirit that seems to appear randomly but it seems like my parents can’t see or hear her, so that is at least a relief, though sometimes my mom looks around like she expects something to be there. Second, it appears that Sylphy knows how to read so I finally have someone I can ask about words I don’t know as well as other worldly knowledge without being looked at oddly. Lastly, I can now move my mana around with ease, so I had to change up how I practice, adjusting the amount I move to where, as well as moving it around to multiple places simultaneously while keeping the amount consistent. This new practice method was much more difficult than when I was just trying to move around my mana in general.

A few days passed with this normal. I’m still not used to how Sylphy just appears out of no where like that, but at least I don’t show a physical reaction anymore. I thought as another day passed by.

It was late mid morning of the next day, while I was outside playing by myself as usual. “Come quick, she needs help!” Sylphy says to me as she appears out of no where, trying to pull me towards the corner of the house by my hair.

“Calm down and tell me what you mean. Who needs help? What kind of help?” I reply slightly exasperated by her antics.

“The Celestial Cat, she’s pregnant and injured, laying under the house. Now come quickly.” She quickly answers, while still trying to pull me along.

“Alright, alright.. Lead the way” I say, having given up on getting any more information out of her, and follow here to the access that leads under the house. Moving the board, and crawling under the house, I’m lead to the edge where I see a cat with two tails, orange striped fur, big blue eyes, and pregnant belly, panting heavily and obviously in pain.

“I’m hear to help” I say to the cat, imitating a first responder. The cat obviously does not reply, much to my disappointment. “Is it alright if I pick you up?” I ask while inching closer, not expecting a reply.

“She won’t attack, and moving her won’t hurt her or her kittens.” Sylphy says to me in lieu of any kind of response from the Celestial cat.

Trusting her word, I get close and carefully pick up the celestial cat. She stares at me through partially open eyes, but does not show any major reaction, so I slowly scooted on my knees towards where I entered from while hunched over, carrying the celestial cat. Upon exiting, I stand up and run to the back door, throwing it open, and running into the house. “Mom! Mom, where are you?! I need help!” I yell as loudly as I can running through the house.

“What’s wrong? I’m right here.” I hear back, as my mom rushes into the living room where I am currently.

“She’s hurt, you need to help her.” I say while presenting the celestial cat in my arms.

Seeing the celestial cat in pain, my mom rushes over and take her from me. “What happened, where did you find her?” She says while moving to lay the celestial cat down and checking her condition.

“She was bit by something on her back leg, and she is also going into labor.” Sylphy says to me.

“I don’t know, she was already hurt when I found her under the house. I think something bit her back leg…” I say awkwardly, hoping my mom won’t ask me too many questions.

“We’ll talk more about this later. Go get me a bucket of water and a some cloths.” Was all she said to me while inspecting the wound on her back leg.

I rush to grab the bucket of water and as many cloths as I can carry, before awkwardly carrying it back and setting it down by my mom. “Is she going to be okay? Is she going to become a mom now?” I asked as innocently as I could. Trying to indicate that she was going into labor without actually saying it.

Using a wet cloth to clean her leg, so that my mom could get a better look at the wound, my mom says “It looks like she was poisoned, I’ll have to use magic, but she should recover just fine. I don’t think she is going to…” before my mom could finish speaking, the celestial cat let out a pained cry while still panting heavily.

“When I pick her up, lay down at least half the cloths you brought under her.” My mom commanded me, while adjusting to pick the celestial cat back up.

After setting the cloths under her, I was sent to get more cloths. When I came back, my mom had already used magic to get rid of the poison.

About 2 hours later, the celestial cat had safely given to 3 kittens, and was resting while recovering her strength. I had gotten in trouble for going under the house where it wasn’t safe, approaching an unknown magic beast, and not calling for help before starting my little rescue operation.

Later in the evening, I managed to get permission keep the celestial cat under the condition that the celestial cat doesn’t show any hostility or desire to leave, and I properly take care of her. That night I snuck out of my room to check on the celestial cat. When I reached out touched her head, her eyes shot open, and then I felt something like a thread connect from the celestial cat to me. Then, inside my head I heard <Thank you, without your help, both me and my children would not have survived.> Stunned I didn’t move for a while.

Quickly gathering my wits I quietly ask “was that you?” still a bit wide eyed.

<Yes, you accepted the bond, so now we are able to share thoughts telepathically> she replies calmly to my surprised questioning.

“Do you have a name? And what is this bond you mentioned? Are you feeling better now?” I asked in rapid sequence.

<I am feeling much better now, thank you. A bond is similar to taming magic, but is used by magic beasts such as myself, where as taming magic is used by people like you on monsters. I do not have a name, but I will accept one if you wish to have something to call me by.> She must be the patient type, seemingly not bothered by my asking questions one after another.

Thinking for a while, I asked her “how does Kaede sound?”

<That name sounds lovely. I’ll be called Kaede from now on.>

I conversed with Kaede for a while before going back to bed. As it turns out, she was bitten by a snake monster while running away, and managed to escape into town by using an illusion to to look like a normal cat. She described the snake monster but didn’t know what name humans have given it, but I didn’t ask her anything more about it.

The next day, I was able to convince my mom, that Kaede was safe to keep, and mentioned that I had named her Kaede, ‘because it sounded right’, and managed to avoid any questions about the choice in names.

Like that, my days were more eventful with a new pet, her 3 kittens, a spirit that appears whenever she feels like it, and my usual playing, studying, exercising, and the occasional trip to market with my mom. Before I knew it, the days turned into months, the seasons changed (apparently the climate here is moderate), and months turned into year. Now it was the night before my 5^th birthday, and I was going to bed, excited about my baptism tomorrow.

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