Haa~ I almost screwed up

I returned crawling back to the study room with a relieved mind and a relaxed face, if I were even a moment late then I might have ruined the very book that I had been reading for all the information about this new world.

I settled down on the floor once again, picked the book back up, and started reading it once more only to find out that the city I live in is a part of the nation of Magnolia formerly known as the Aristocracy of Magnolia.

Before the last war, the reins of the country of Magnolia were in the hands of a handful of nobles who ruled the entire country from the capital city of Santa Magnum.

Around 800 years ago the prominent noble houses of Magnolia, then known as the Aristocracy of Magnolia, established an organization called ‘The Council of High’ and replaced the then existing monarchy at that time to rule over the entire nation using their vast power and influence in fields of economy, trade, and military that easily surpassed the royals.

The council stayed in power for around 800 years and played a vital role in moulding the final geographical, polititcal, and economical structure of the country and the entire continent.

But after the last war, also known as the "Last War of Dominance" ended, the council that had been ruling for so long was finally dismissed, dissolved, and disbanded and finally a democratic government with a Chancellor as the head of the state was established.

The new formed democratic government started taking bold actions as soon as it came into power.

First of all they started with targeting their fierce rivals, the nobles. All the noble families throughout the nation were suddenly stripped of all their titles and privileges, not only that, even large parts of their estates were forcefully snatched or confiscated from them by the democratic government in power.

This forceful occupation led to revolts from many esteemed noble families but in the end, they were all crushed thoroughly by the government through military action.

The government as its actions clearly demonstrated, must have desperately wanted the nobles to retaliate in the first place, I guess they probably just wanted an excuse to get rid of all the 'troublesome' elements altogether. What a bunch of sneaky thieves… I guess humans are evil no matter where you go.

But still, even if you project yourself as the savior of the commoners it doesn’t mean that you have the right to exploit those who happened to have a decent amount of money, property, and power. I don’t get why the government acted in that way, it was wrong for them to have persecuted the nobles in such a rough manner…

Sigh… why am I wasting my time thinking about this.

Not thinking anymore about the unfair and unjustified government policies I started reading the book again,

“On the continent of Galandora, irrespective of nationality or race, only people of noble birth are allowed to have surnames, apart from them no one else is allowed to have any surname or title. This tradition is being followed throughout the entire continent since time immemorial and has now become a part of the culture. Although there were many voices and protests against this law but none of the ‘New countries’ or governments have shown much interest in changing this long tradition of inequality either”

Whoa… that’s harsh! Not being allowed to have a surname and all. Isn’t surname the proof of one’s familial roots?

I don’t know why the hell they are still following this ridiculous system though? I mean won’t the people with no surnames hold a grudge against those with surnames? This blatant discrimination might prove to be dangerous for the society.

No… actually, now that I think about it, it’s like the government is purposefully trying to alienate the former nobles or something…?

Hahaha… no, I must be thinking too much. There is a democratic government ruling this nation, discrimination on the basis of birth would be the last thing to happen in this country of all places.

Hmm… now that I think about it… isn’t my name Peter Griffith, I obviously have a surname. Does that mean I am also a noble?

I don’t know how I should feel about this… should I be happy that I am of ‘noble birth’ or should I be sad that my ancestors had their rear ends beaten by the government? Or that I might be discriminated against by others just because I happened to be born in a noble household?

Well whatever, no use thinking about it now.

There was some more miscellaneous information about the continent which I hurriedly went through and then I completed the book for good.

It was then that my gaze fell on one of the many books that were lying on the ground, its name was “The Basics of Fighting and Magic”. It was the book that I had been searching for for a while now, since according to all the fantasy novels that I have read the protagonist usually learns everything about magic and stuff like that through these kinds of books which have kind of an old and grand vibe to them.

I placed the book before me on the floor, I could practically feel my mouth watering, right now the only thing I wanted to do was to read the entire book with no one stopping me!!! It was as if I was about to read the new chapter of my favorite manga that just got released.

Shaking my head and not wasting any more time, I hurriedly opened the book and started reading it,

The contents of the book went like this,

“This world is made up of small particles of energy and essence called the ‘Mystick’. When bundles of ‘Mystick’ come together either by formation (bundle of Mystick sticking up together by the user’s will) or by collision (bundle of Mystick sticking up together due to the clashing between two different users of Mystick) they release a particular amount of energy (which is different in each case), which in general, is called the ‘Mystickal Energy’.”

*flip*

“Mystick is the most fundamental building block of the world, it is present everywhere, although its density may differ place to place depending upon different factors such as environment, population, monster activities, etc.”

*flip*

“People who make use of Mystick for fighting or for other professional works are called the ‘Mystickals’. Mystickals use the Mystick present in the environment and the Mystickal Energy present inside their bodies for different purposes depending on their needs. The amount of Mystickal energy inside a person’s body depends upon various factors like the environment in which one grew up, their life experiences, their lineage, and sometimes luck- both good and bad”

*flip*

“It is said that the formation of classes like nobility and royalty in the old days was primarily based upon the innate Mystickal Energy these supposed individuals held inside their bodies, thus, the people of noble birth tend to have more Mystickal energy as compared to others who are not, but it should be noted that the amount of Mystickal Energy inside an individual’s body is only superficial and it shouldn’t be used as a sole means to determine your opponent’s strength”

*flip*

Ignoring the last statement, I guess I do possess a decent amount of power inside me. Now I’m even more excited to learn about the fighting style in this world!

“Mystick can be used in two ways in terms of fighting, first, by using it to strengthen and sharpen the body and weapon that one is wielding, and second, by using it to cast magic or mystick spells. The first method of fighting is way more prevalent than the second one because the number of people with enough aptitude to cast spells is very low. According to an estimate, only 1 out of 50 people can use Mystick to cast spells and only 1 out of 1000 people can use it to fight, thereby making spell casting a very rare job throughout the continent”

*flip*

“There are, in total 7 magic elements, 4 of them are called the Basic Elements-they are Fire, Water, Earth, and Wind, and 3 of them are called the Hybrid Elements- they are Lightning, Ice, and Wood. A person in his lifetime can use all of these elements up to some extent but wanting to perform a big spell using any of these elements solely depends on the innate aptitude for the user”

*flip*

“In order to cast a spell one has to say out the chant responding to that spell, a small mistake in the chant is enough to render the spell useless, or in the worst case scenario, it might get reversed on the user! With some proficiency, one can omit parts of the chant and in some rare cases, omit the complete chant itself but cases like that are extremely rare. This is why the number of people who use Mystick or Mystickal energy to cast spells in order to fight is extremely low”

*flip*

“That’s why most of the Mystickals use Mystick and/or Mystickal energy to only strengthen their bodies and weapons and not for casting spells. For more information, you can visit our training center, the Heues Training Center, and get yourself trained by our elites! Discount of 20% for those who decide to pay an entire year’s fees all at once!!!”

What the hell!? Was that an advertisement? This is the first time I have seen anything like this… well, I guess the people here are human so it makes sense that they might come up with something like this,

Closing the book I checked the time on the clock once again, it was nearly the time for my mother to come back and check up on me.

So I hurriedly put the book back where it was and crawled as fast as I could to my room but then something unexpected happened, no, actually it was something that I had expected to happen but didn’t give much attention to since my curiosity to learn more about this world was torturing me. Back then I decided to ignore the matter for the time being.

But now that I am confronted with the problem once again, I realized one thing that I should have realized in my last life, procrastination is a bitch.

***

I entered my room and before me, there stood a tall insurmountable mountain. I had already descended that mountain just an hour ago but now looking back at it again, I doubt I can mount it back.

The thing before me was the bed I had been sleeping in for the last 6 months, in other words, my cute little baby cradle. I was able to get out of it somehow but how the hell am I going to get back up on the top of that swinging bed!?

Ugh… I should’ve just stayed in the bed and waited till tomorrow to read those books!!!

“Hum~ Hum~ Hum~” it was then that I heard the humming of a woman.

The hums were very sweet but I was filled with a sense of guilt and fear in my heart as soon as I heard those sweet hums.

I was confused about my next course of action so, in the end, I decided to do the best thing that came to my mind; lay on the floor and play asleep!

So I did and in the meantime, mom entered the room as well.

Her humming stopped. There was a deep, biting silence in the room which eventually got broken by a frightened scream from my mother,

“Peter!!!”

She took me in her arms and started rubbing my head and back gently,

I slowly and carefully opened my eyes to look at her and her face came into my view.

The moment I laid my eyes on her face I felt a heart-wrenching pain in my chest,

My mother had an extremely terrified expression on her face and she kept on crying and saying ‘I am sorry Peter’ over and over again

By the time this happened my father Patrick arrived,

“Patrick! Peter fell off his cradle!!! I am sorry! I am sorry!! I should have paid more attention to him! Ah!!! My son! I am sorry!”

Someone might think that she is exaggerating but in reality, she wasn’t, her reaction was completely justified.

My mother kept on crying, her entire body shivering with guilt and fear, looking at her act like that I felt so ashamed that I cannot even explain. It wasn’t my mother’s fault that I was out of the bed, it was me from the very start. I was the one who sneaked out of this bed in the first place, then why is my mother blaming herself for it.

‘Stop mother, it’s my fault, not yours’ I wanted to say these lines out loud but I know that I can’t, it will only break her heart if she comes to know that the child she conceived after so long turned out to be possessed by someone like me.

Actually, now that I think about it, I might have probably killed her real son and taken his place inside this body.

I don’t have any right to give any form of pain to such a gentle lady, I owe her for giving me a second chance in life, the least I can do for her is to not give her any pain, and well… even though I don’t want to admit it, I guess I do love both her and Patrick and I don’t want to see the two of them get hurt. I want those two to live the best life they could, and I want to give them everything that I wasn’t able to give to my parents in my past life.

I didn’t even know when but tears started to drip out of my eyes and I started crying, my mother panicked even more after she saw the tears I had in my eyes and was about to say something but before she could, I put my hand on her face, below her eyes to be precise, to say that I didn’t want to see her cry.

At first, she didn’t understand what I meant but the moment she did both of my parents broke into laughter.

“Hahahaha…” Both of my parents laughed for a pretty long time and after that, my father spoke while wiping tears off his eyes,

“I guess little Peter doesn’t want you to cry, hah Kristen?” he said in a joking manner.

My mother didn’t say anything and just kept on smiling with a happy expression on her face.

Patrick, my father continued speaking,

“Hmm… how about we take him back to our room? I mean, he only started sleeping in this room just a few days ago, didn’t he? Then it shouldn’t be a problem for him to come back and sleep with us now, should it? And… I also want to spend more time with Peter since I am usually not at home… hahaha”

He said in a half-laughing and half-embarrassed voice.

My mother looked at him warmly and then handed me over to him.

I was then brought to the same room as my parents where I was put to sleep on the baby cradle that was placed beside the bed. My parents didn't sleep and kept on looking at me for a long time. It was kind of embarassing to be looked at for so long, so I just closed my and fell asleep.

***