??? POV :
"We meet again, darkness."
I monologuing as I saw this familiar place again. Now, what is this place really..? Is this an afterlife?
I should've died.. right..?
Wait, who am I..? Why I can't remember anything except my own death? So many questions popped out in my head.
Frustrated by my own thoughts. I scratch my hair wildly, and then started to calm down..
I can still see my own body this time. Somehow, the platform where I stands are pretty reflective.
I'm a grown man with a dark grey hair. Although my face was blurred out by somethingーI think it was a mistーI hoped that I still young, though.
Then I looked around. All that I can see is only a black landscape.
What is going on here..? When I about to take a step. Someone's voice came to my ears.
[Greetings, Mortal.]
I quickly jumped backwards. Soon enough, I realized it was a woman's voice.
"Who is it?!" I put my stance, if I recalled my memories well.
[Do not be afraid, Mortal. As I am here to bestow you an opportunity. Choose one that ease you the most.] Huh? What opportunity..? Who is she anyway?
"Yeah, sure. But first, please show yourself." Right when I ended my words, a lot of mist-like thing started to emerged from below.
"This is not funny." I try to distance myself from the point where the mist gathered.
The mist started to concentrated on some point. It begins to form a human figure. I quickly took my steps away from that. It slowly resembled a woman.
"What are you..?" I already tried hard enough to hide my shock. The more I looked at her, the more I forgot that she was not a human.
She looked like a woman at her 40'sーperhapsーwith her white hair. I can't judge only by her figure. She brought herself a bow and a quiver on her back. With her ponytail and her piecey bangs, her expression's looked more solemn.
[You did not need to know for what nor who I am, Mortal. But you may call me Diana. The only thing that you need to know is whatever the choice that you made right now, is going to carve your next future.]
My next future..? So I'm not dead yet, right?
I don't know why, but her words are full of divine aura. I scratch my nape. Waiting for her next line. For a seconds, I thought she was waiting for me to react but she gestured something that I don't know.
Don't tell meー..
[Do you believe in gods, Mortal?] Her voice rang in my ears. "I particularly don't, becaー.."
[Do you believe in reincarnation then..?] She cuts my line as fast as I answered her's.
What the fー.. Calm down, my brain. She's not someoneーor somethingーthat you want to messed with.
"Uh, maybe." Then she closed her eyes. Her mouth muttering something that I can't hear.
A few minutes passed. She still doing that weird gestures. I can't help but getting a little bit frightened. Is she actually a death prophet..?
[Host acquired. Synchronizing target and host.] I quickly took more distance from her. Sharpening my senses.
[Congratulations, Mortal. I found a suitable body for your innate abilities. Consider this as an atonement from your ancestor sins. May the Gods favor your demeanor this time.
Na echeis mia kali zoi, Thnitos.¹]
The landscape immediately blurred when she ended her words. Her figure dissipated slowly.
"W-wait! What did you do to me..?!" I yelled to her flying figure.
[You will know soon enough, Mortal.] Right when she ended her words, my vision darkened.
"Diana..!"
ーー
In a certain house that filled with joy. Someone is giving birth to a baby. Her husband is walking back and forth outside the room, panicking. Afraid that something might happens to his beloved family. As his anxiety grew more, he hasten his walking pace.
Then he faintly heard a baby's cry. He quickly looked to the door. Euphoria started to filling his bloodstream into his brain. After a few seconds, someone opened the door.
"The baby is safe, Sir Baron." A woman halted at the doorframe. The husband that called Sir Baron greets her with a big smile.
"What about Aster..?" He rushed to grab the woman's shoulders.
She muttered something before answering him. "She's on her weakest condition, Sir Baron. I'll call my senior for her treatment."
Sir Baron didn't even flinch. He loosened his hands on the woman. "O-okay, thank you, Nia." the woman quickly left him alone in the doorway.
Realized something, Sir Baron snapped his mind and then entered the room. Inside, he can hears a baby's cry and his wife, Aster's voice comforting the baby.
"Ge-geralt... it's a boy..!" Aster's small voice rings inside his head.
Geralt trembled, then walked slowly into the bedside. He didn't realize that tears started to flows on his cheeks.
"I'm a father!" Geralt pulled a chair for him and sits beside Aster's bed.
"What do you name him..?" Aster's hand reaching for Geralt's cheeks.
"Lindow... It'll be it. Do you like it?" Then he rubs Aster's hand on his cheeks.
She answered it with nod. "Lindow. You'll be a great hunter when you grew up, son." then she smiled and kissed her forehead.
Little did they know, that a grown person was residing their newborn baby.
ーー
Lindow Baron's POV :
This is a terrible jokes. I really hate this.. Why am I becomes a baby again? Curse her!
Is it why she asked me about reincarnation..? Although I forgot everthing in my past life, that doesn't mean I have to repeat it all over again.
By the way, I already tried many times to summoned her. I yelled her nameーDiana, of courseーand even thinking about her hard enough until I got a headache but it didn't do anything.
I'm doing nothing for almost 2 years in herーI mean, my motherーcare. It was just about an infant that tried to move on his own.
But that times is over, because I can sustain my own body now!
In the past 3 years. I had a difficult times tried to mapped out the house's section, because it was massive! You know, HUGE! Absolute huge. I guess it's not a house anymore, it was a mansion.
Our rooms were on the second floor. My room was seperated from theーum, my parentsーby an empty gap and a staircase in the middle. They're on the right side of it.
The second floor was only filled with rooms with pots and pictures as a decoration in the doorway. Four rooms on each side.
Meanwhile on the first floor, it has many doorway. The kitchen, the dining hall, the main hallーif I recalled it rightーand the library. Those were the ones that I visited with theーgosh, it's hard to call them my parents. Guess I'll just call them by their name.
Enough with the tour. I need to focus on other things.
I just slipped Aster's watch again. It was pretty challenging, although she already knew the place that I always visited if I'm gone from her sight.
I realized if I wanted to make a good use of my situation, I have to gather information as much as possible. Even the slightest opportunities, I won't missed it. This time, I had an easy way. The library.
A moment earlier, I found an interesting book. [The Keepers] was written on its cover.
It says that many years ago, there was an anomalous phenomenon. A mysterious domain called the Abyss suddenly emerged. It brought our world both fortune and misfortune. Many creatures also came from it, wrecked havoc on many lanー..
Click
"There you are, sweetheart~" Ah.. It's Aster. Guess I have to end this here.
"It's lunch time. You won't missed your favorite food, don't you?" Aster pinched my nose lightly. I answered it with a 3 years old nods and laughter.
"Hm..? What did you read this time..? That's quite a book to read, sweetheart." Then she picked me up and carry me. We passed a few maidservants.
Oh yeah I forgot, there's also a maidservants in the mansion. From the three that I remembered, only one that I fond of. His name's Orlog Norm.
Orlog is a good guy. Although he's not on his youth anymore, he still cared about things inside the mansion. He easily managed to take care everything. From the laundry, foods, sanitation, and transportation. I think he was the head of the maidservants in here.
Time easily passed by in the dining room.
As usual, after we dine, Aster brought me to her workroom. She started to do that since I was two. She told me the same story everyday, about a human lived a happy life with a dragon. The first time I heard it, I confused. How did they done it? Are there any specific methods..?
Wait, why am I concerned about these kind of things?!
Aster said it was her family's folktale, passed down from her great-great-great grandfather. After she ended her story, I always asked her to explained something that I attracted the most. Magic.
Yes, magic.
Aside from my enthusiasm, when I first heard it, it felt very nostalgic. A strong sensation that I can't even explain. Soon, I ignored it when she started her tutelage.
While Geralt told me about the dangerous things like an adventures, weapons or monsters, Aster told me about the safer things, martial techniques, virtues and random things that she likes to share.
She said that in general, magic were consisted of many elements. In order to conjures magic, someone must felt and channels their own mana from their mana gist.
And you know what, I felt the same feeling again.. I exhaled, tried to configured what the feeling is.. Nothing flashed on my mind.
Although I knew it's what a mother do, there's a thing that I hate her for. She kept warned me about the dangers of magic. Ugh..
One night, she told me that when I reached my age for studies, I will not learned magic with them. Rather, someone will teach me something that only she who understood it.
That shocked me a little. Doesn't every parents wanted to teach their own children?