I had just entered a completely different world, where I was an adult trapped in a child’s body. I knew at that very moment that this was no ordinary world; there was something strange and magical about it. However, one thing that I was sure about is that I hated but also loved being a baby. Honestly, sometimes it was so irritating not being able to speak, especially when you want to tell them that the food they are feeding you tasted like poop.

I had so many rashes because I randomly did the – you know what – into the diaper, that too uncontrollably. For a person who has been in control of himself for an entire lifetime, this was sure an experience. I could not communicate with them when I had an itching somewhere. I could not tell them that the milk is too hot for me, and sadly, I could not walk either.

The only good thing about being a baby was that I got the VIP treatment all the time. I would literally just smile, and everyone would go into awe. Even an unintentional “Gu-Gu” from my mouth would make everyone around me so happy. I mean, seriously, I had no idea how overrated babies are until I became one. I had just entered a completely different world, where I was an adult trapped in a child’s body. I knew at that very moment that this was no ordinary world; there was something strange and magical about it. However, one thing that I was sure about is that I hated but also loved being a baby. Honestly, sometimes it was so irritating not being able to speak, especially when you want to tell them that the food they are feeding you tasted like a run-over spoiled carcass. I don't know what run-over spoiled carcass, but it should taste bad. Right?

I was equally pampered and loved by everyone for almost no reason. Of course, my parents did have a reason to love me, and deep down, I felt really good to have what I craved in my previous life finally, but at the same time, it was so irritating to tolerate all those aunties and kids kissing my cheeks. However, at the end of the day, I knew they all loved me, and I felt so good thinking about it.

My parents were the sweetest of all. They would literally get everything for me and go to every extent just to make me happy. If I needed something, I just had to show them my cute, adorable, handsome -ahem- face, they would literally get me everything in the world. They would let me do anything and let me get away with it. I would puke my clothes off the entire time, and they would still never get tired of me. That’s the purest form of love I ever got to witness.

Anyway, it has been a few months since that day I discovered I received a second chance at life by whoever it is. I have been pleased so far. Arthur, my brother in this new life, always kept me company, and to be honest, I liked him. I could feel his love and affection toward me the whole time.

Once, he saved me from a bunch of bees, even though it was his fault for accidentally throwing a rock at a tree that I was sitting right underneath. When the bees took off from their beehive to attack us both, Arthur covered me with his body and ran while half of my body was being dragged through the grass. He could never hold me the right way. He chokes me half the time, but I am glad that he has been trying really hard to be a good brother. 

Usually, children get jealous of seeing their parents love their younger child more. They get irritated to have to share

their things, including toys, with their siblings, but Arthur is different. He genuinely loves me and shares his toys with me, which is pretty unusual. He even shares his favorite wooden horse toy with me that dad made for him.

Anyway, this new life seemed great, at least way better than the previous one. I finally had a family that loved me to the core. It was not so bad being a child. Until one day, I was sitting on the floor playing with my toys, thinking about what is actually happening with me, and how on earth is it possible to be born again with the same adult soul, a loud crash snapped me out of my thoughts. I crawled all the way toward the kitchen and peeked in to see what had happened.

The scenario told me that the plate must have fallen out of her hand to the floor and had now broken into pieces. I went inside to see if I could do anything to help, but all I did was add to the trouble. I realized that I had just caused her to worry even more, as I yelped in pain because something stabbed into my hand. It was, of course, a shard from the broken plate.

As soon as my mom noticed that there was something wrong with me, she rushed over and picked me up in her arms. She looked at me in pain and held my hand up, “Oh my God. What have you done, Alex.” I did not even realize I was crying until my cheeks got all wet. Mom immediately took me to the living room, where Arthur was playing with the wooden horse. He got up worried as soon as he saw my teary eyes. 

"W-what happened to Alex?"

"He got cut, baby. Make sure you don't go near the kitchen."

"Okay, mom."

Mom carefully took the tiny shard out of my hand while I reflexively held my breath. The moment she took it out, blood started to trail down towards my elbow and began to drip. I thought mom would freak out, but instead, she gently took my hand and put her other hand over it. This was strange. Was she trying to stop the blood from flowing? I watched as the bright green light went all over my hand. I looked at my hand close to see the wound was closing up abnormally fast. Is this magic?

So I was right from the beginning that there is something weird about this world, and now it was clear; it has magic. I was clearly astonished. I had never experienced something called magic in my previous world, so this was fairly new to me. I could not stop staring at the green light until mom had finished up healing my wound.

"I'm home!"

Suddenly I heard my dad’s voice. He had just got back from gathering firewood for the upcoming cold winter season. Dad came to the living room and raised an eyebrow.

"What's going on here?"

"Oh Alex got accidentally cut and I was healing him."

"Is he ok?" He was concerned from the tone of the voice.

"Yea, he is fine. Why don't you take both of them to the back and you can train Arthur?"

Hold on, WHAT TRAINING?

“But he just recently turned six, I don’t think he will understand how to do it, and usually kids learn it on their own. You can’t force it.”

“I’m not saying you have to make results. All I want you to do is try.”

“You know the magic academy will only let him in until he is of a certain age, right?”

The magic academy sounded so cool. However, mom was starting to get angry. Not paying attention to what mom had just told him, he said:

“Arthur, let’s go training.”

Dad picked me up and took me outside as Arthur followed us. Once we arrived at the training ground, he made me sit on a bunch of grass. Damn, my diaper rashes were starting up again, so I moved against the grass and adjusted my diaper until I was comfortable.

"Ok Arthur, let's start training you to be a swordsman."

Arthur nodded eagerly.

Dad sat down on the sandy floor and closed his eyes. Arthur went over and sat down next to dad, repeating what he had done.

“I’m only going to say this once, so listen up closely.”

Dad opened his eyes and tilted his body toward Arthur.

“To be a swordsman, you need a little bit of mana to create Aura. Mana is all around us, so what we have to do is pull it towards us and make it our own.”

I looked at Arthur. He was staring at dad, dumbfounded. Even if I did understand it, I knew Arthur was too young to understand this thing. I heard mom give out a sigh. I guess she was watching us the entire time.

“I told you, honey. He is way too young to understand this. If you really want him to learn right now, why don’t we go to the Flores Kingdom?”

“But that is too far, and I am not letting him go there alone. He needs his parents.”

“We are not letting him go there alone. We are going with him, plus a few of our friends are coming along.”

“I guess, but what about our home here?”

“We both know that we have to go sooner or later. If they find us here, we won’t have a backup like we usually do.”

Their conversation made me a little anxious. They who? Was someone after us or targeting us? The situation made me question lots of things. I looked up to see my mom’s worried face. She looked very troubled; then she looked at me.

“You know, the king used to be a good friend of mine, so he can help.”

Wow! I did not expect a king to be my dad’s friend. I got even more curious about what my dad really is.

“So, do you want to go?” Dad looked up at her probably hoping for a positive answer. They stared at each other for a while before my mom gave him a slow nod.

"But before we do, I need to go shopping for some things for the trip. Do you know when they are going to come?"

"They won't get here probably till tomorrow evening."

"Okay, then I'm going to the town with Alex." Dad just nodded in response.

Dad only nodded in response. My mom picked me up and headed toward the place we were going, probably a small town? I’ll find out later. It was really exciting since this was my first time going somewhere ever since I had been born. She got a towel and wrapped me with it on her back, so basically, it was a piggy ride. My mom walked for around two hours through the woods until we got to a small town. There were all sorts of things being sold there like jewelry, animals, food, and everything you may normally find in a market.

Out of all the things that were happening there, the first thing that caught my eye was a magician. He was juggling balls of fire with his bare hands, effortlessly. It was quite interesting to watch. I also saw different types of fruits that did not exist in my past life. My eyes explored many other things that were completely foreign to me.

My mom bought a little toy for me. She gave eight copper coins to the guy from the store. I learned the currency of this world from my mom trying to teach it to Arthur last week. I knew that a hundred copper coins equal to one silver coin, a hundred silver coins equal to one gold, and a hundred gold coins equal to one diamond pearl. Apparently, no one was rich enough to get gold and diamonds until and unless they were kings.

As I explored this interesting town along with my mom, the day was close to coming to an end. The sun had begun to set by the time we got all our supplies for the trip. We headed out to the house. It is understood that the woods were a dangerous place to walk through during the night. There could be dangerous animals lurking out in the night without us knowing about them. My mom was walking faster than usual so that we could reach our house safely as soon as possible. 

“Damn, we should have gone to the house sooner.” I heard my mom loudly mumbling to herself. She had not dropped the pace the entire time. I could tell that she was getting tired from her breathing pace; she was breathing rapidly. Carrying me in her arms was not making it any easier either, since I probably had gained weight from these last few months.

Snap. Crack. Crunch.

No, it was not a delusion; we both had heard the noise. There has to be someone around us. My mom quickly stopped and began scanning the area. We probably still had an hour or so till we got to the house. Dad must have noticed the time too. Right?

Snap.

This time, the sound was coming from somewhere closer than the last sound. I turned towards the noise and squinted my eyes to see if I could figure out what it was. It could just be a cute little bunny, hurrying home.

Suddenly, the beast let out a nasty growl, as if trying to prove my thoughts wrong. There was only one by the noises and that one growl. As we looked around to see who exactly was creating the noise pollution, a large wolf and tiger hybrid stepped out into the moonlight. Well, I thought it looked like a wolf and tiger hybrid. It was something else.