"Valerie!" One of the girls screamed out in terror. So they knew my mom.

"Anne, hurry and get the first aid kit. She is bleeding, and she is bleeding very badly."

A red-headed girl blurted it out in panic but tried to stay calm but clearly failed. The girl who had just screamed my mom's name nodded and went toward the front of the carriage. She was looking for the first aid box.

The man got inside the carriage and gently put mom down on the floor.

"What happened to her? Where the hell is Jake?"

"Calm down, Jeremy! When I got there, it was only Valerie and this kid." He said, pointing at me.

"Aston, is this their youngest child they had been writing in their letter about?" Now I finally know his name.

"Yeah."

"It’s surprising how he isn’t crying in the way you are carrying him."

The way he was holding me was indeed uncomfortable.

He had been picking me up by the diaper; even Arthur was better than him at carrying me. The back of the diaper was in between my butt and my front part was being squeezed tightly. I wonder if I could ever pee again after this. No even more than that, what if I become incapable of having kids because of him. I couldn’t talk, so I silently sulked with my head down.

Aston lifted me up, making the pain worse. I glared at him as he looked at me.

"He is kind of weird. He hasn't been crying the whole time, even when I found him. He was just silent. Babies usually cry when they see me since I am bad with kids."

They all nodded as they looked at me altogether as if trying to examine me. What was there to look at me anyway? I was a sweet, handsome, angelic-looking child.

"Probably, he is just so shocked that he can't cry."

I wonder if I looked shocked right now for them to say such a thing. I know that babies always cry, but I sometimes forget just to cry, which seems to worry many people. I usually keep in or tolerate my feelings in my past life since I could tolerate pain or keep my emotions to myself. I would cry only if I needed something like other babies. The girl, Anne, who had been searching for the first aid kit, finally found it. I only noticed it when she said, "I got it!" loudly. My eyes followed her as she walked toward mom with the kit.

"I'm going to start walking the horses so that we could get to Jake's house as soon as possible."

Aha, so they were dad's friends who were supposed to come here tomorrow, so why are they here earlier? Aston handed me to the red-headed woman. She gave me a smile and cooed at me before making me sit on her lap. Anne was busy putting on bandages on mom's wounds. The black-haired guy that I do not know the name of just sat there at the corner and stared out of the window.

The red-haired woman and Jeremy were trying to keep the company by trying to make me laugh. I had to pretend I was happy, so they would be satisfied with themselves. When in actuality, I was just worried about mom. I had not realized how attached I was to her until this point in life.

It took us around half an hour to finally get home. We did have some encounters, so it took longer than usual to get here. By then, all of mom's wounds had been tended to perfectly. She was not even bleeding through her bandages.

The red-headed woman carried me on her hips as she got down the carriage. Jeremy was holding mom in his arms. Once everyone in the group gathered, we went to the door. It was Aston who stepped forward and knocked on the door. Not even a second had passed when the door opened, only to see dad's concerned face that quickly went into terror as he saw us injured. Aston stepped between us and punched dad right into his right cheek, then he stepped aside giving Dad a clear path to us. Dad looked at Aston in shock before proceeding towards us.

Dad quickly scanned me to see if I was hurt. He looked so relieved when he only found scratches on my body, nothing serious. Dad then hurried over to mom.

"What happened to her?"

"A Level ‘E’ mana-beast attacked them, but we managed to kill it before it did anything. She is fine. Anna did a good job patching her up."

"Mom?" Arthur said. He must have just woken up. His hair was all over the place, and he was rubbing his eyes. When he got a better look at her, he started to panic. "Moooom!"

Mom let out a small groan and slowly opened her eyes. I guess it took her a moment or two to figure out what was happening. When Jeremy saw mom starting to squirm out of his arms, he slowly let her down and gave her support since she was having trouble standing on her own. She held her forehead with her other hand as if she had a headache.

"Alex."

At first, her voice lacked strength and was so low and fragile that no one could hear it, but her voice started to rise. "Where? Where is Alex?" Her voice broke a little when she said, 'Alex.'

"If you are talking about the baby, Diana has him."

Her eyes started to search everywhere, and then it landed on me. I left out a little giggle so that she knows that I am okay. Her expression softened a bit as I giggled.

"Honey, you need rest."

Dad gently held her by the other arm and took her inside. Diana, the woman who was carrying me, stopped in the living room, so I couldn't see further what happened. At most, he was taking her to bed.

Diana sat down and put me on her lap. I was not a fan of sitting on a lady's lap, but I had no other choice. I tried to struggle out of her lap, but she just held me down. Anna came up to us and knelt down so that she and I could make eye contact. Anna pointed her index finger and began poking my stomach; it was sort of hard. What was she doing in the first place?

After a few pokes, she started to coo at me and left.

Okay...that was weird.

I thought back to what had happened in the woods. I was not strong at all. I couldn't do anything, except for that one time. I needed to start training myself so that I could get strong enough to protect my family and loved ones. Even if I had skills from my past life, it was useless if I couldn’t use them.

Dad came back into the main hall. Without saying a word, he grabbed Arthur's arm and picked me up. Even though Arthur started a tantrum, saying he wanted to stay, he was dragged back toward our bedroom. Dad tucked Arthur in, even if he was a stubborn child. Before I was put inside my crib, Arthur fell fast asleep. Dad left quickly, probably impatient to talk to them about what had happened.

He didn't even check if I was asleep. I stared up at the ceiling, thinking about how I can get physically stronger. I then remembered Arthur and dad's little training session about gathering mana. I decided that I might as well try it. I sat up, trying to remember what exactly dad said to Arthur.

Mana is all around us, so what we have to do is pull it toward ourselves and make it our own.

I thought about what he had said and replayed it inside my head over and over again. Dad made it sound like he was pulling the mana from the environment and bringing it to him. I had trained myself by meditating. Maybe I could try the same method and hope it turns out to be mana. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath in, and let it out in short outbursts. I imagined mana from trees, animals, fields, humans, and all other living things coming toward me in thousands of shattered lights.

I tried to bring the reachable lights with my mind and brought it to my body's center point. Something was happening, which meant I was succeeding in gaining something. It was a very slow process, and my mind was having trouble since I still had a little kid's body, but it was happening.