I woke up after an unknown amount of time — but the moment I tried to move, something felt wrong. Terribly wrong.
'My body feels… heavy. Did I get sick? I should apply for leave today if that's the case.'
I opened my eyes, expecting the dull, old ceiling of my shabby apartment.
Instead, what I saw above me froze me. I could do nothing but stare.
What spread above me could only be described as the pinnacle of luxury and grandeur—something that could not, under any circumstances, belong to my apartment.
The ceiling before my eyes was grand and ornate, polished to perfection, with a chandelier hanging magnificently from its center.
The chandelier itself was made half from gold and half from something that resembled diamonds a little too much.
'But there's no way those are real diamonds… otherwise the chandelier alone would be worth the equivalent of several mansions.'
No matter how I thought about this situation, this couldn't be my room.
'Have I been kidnapped?'
'But why would anyone kidnap me? I don't even interact with people, so there's no one who would hate me enough to do something like this. And what benefit could anyone gain by kidnapping me? I'm as far from wealth as a person can possibly be, and I don't have a single meaningful connection.'
I tried to look around the room to confirm my surroundings, but the heaviness of my body made even that simple action far harder than it should've been.
Forcing strength into my neck, I slowly looked around to see what kind of place I was in — but what I saw only made understanding the situation even more impossible.
The bed I was lying on was so large that it was easily around three times the size of my own bed… maybe even larger than that.
The room itself was dimly lit, making it difficult to grasp its full size, but the furniture and decorations I could see were so luxurious that everything became even more incomprehensible.
'Does someone this rich even exist in this country? Or perhaps I was kidnapped and taken to another country? But why? And why do I feel so oddly calm even though I've most likely been kidnapped?'
'I don't understand anything about this situation…'
I sighed and raised my hand to rub my eyes — but the hand that entered my vision was tiny. Soft. Chubby. Unmistakably a baby's hand.
'Huh?'
At first, I thought my mind was playing tricks on me. But when I moved my hand again, the tiny baby hand moved instead — and I could clearly feel that the hand I was moving was that small, delicate hand.
This time, a genuine jolt of panic shot through me.
My heart felt like it was beating out of my tiny chest, and my thoughts immediately fell into complete disarray.
Hundreds of thoughts flashed through my mind in an instant. Among them was one particular thought that I had occasionally entertained, yet always dismissed as something not worth considering.
That thought was:
'What would it feel like if I were reincarnated in another world?'
'No… that's just too absurd.'
I felt my panic growing more and more, so I forcefully tried to calm my thoughts.
'Calm down. I need to confirm things before I jump to any conclusions.'
Turning my head carefully to look around the room again, I spotted a full-body mirror standing at the far end.
The mirror was somewhat distant, and with the room dimly lit, it was difficult to see what its reflection showed.
With great effort, I dragged my small, heavy body toward the edge of the absurdly large bed so I could get a clearer view inside the mirror.
When I finally managed to look into it, the face that stared back at me was not mine.
It was a baby — too small, too delicate. The kind of baby who looked as if it had been born very recently.
That baby had deep jet-black hair and ashen grey eyes.
The moment I saw that tiny figure reflected back at me, my panic didn't just grow — it exploded. I could no longer calm myself at all.
Everything I thought I understood about my life shattered in an instant.
'What the hell?! Why did I suddenly become a baby?! Is this the reincarnation I've seen so many times in web comics? But why would I reincarnate out of nowhere?'
'I went to sleep after a normal day, no matter how hard I try to remember. I didn't experience anything supernatural that could possibly lead to reincarnation.'
'Is someone trying to give me a second chance at life? But I was completely happy and satisfied with my life, so why would anyone give me another chance?!'
'And I didn't even die. I wasn't hit by a truck, I didn't get into an accident — I just went to sleep like any other day.'
My mind was now in complete disarray, with all kinds of thoughts crashing into each other.
But as all of that chaos swirled inside my head, I suddenly heard a soft sound — something like the opening of a door.
I turned toward it and saw a woman entering the room.
The woman was wearing an outfit that had an uncanny resemblance to the maid uniforms I often saw in web comics.
She slowly lowered her head slightly, and our eyes met. The moment she looked at me, her expression shifted into a mix of bewilderment and panic. Then she spoke in a tone filled with worry.
"Young master Adrian, why did you wake up at this time?
And you shouldn't crawl so close to the edge like that — you'll fall down!"
I didn't understand a single word she said; to me, it sounded like complete, incomprehensible gibberish.
'What is she saying? Don't I get language comprehension as part of the "reincarnation package"?'
The woman's sudden entrance only made my panic and confusion intensify further until I could no longer even understand my own thoughts.
But then she stepped closer, gently scooped me up into her arms, and held me as if I were the most fragile thing in the world.
She began walking toward the room's window, humming something that I could only guess was a children's lullaby.
When she reached the window, she drew back the curtains.
Slowly, the heavy fabric parted — and all the jumbled thoughts in my mind fell silent as the outside world came into view.
Beyond the window stretched a night sky that seemed endless, overflowing with countless shining stars, each one twinkling softly in perfect harmony.
The sheer number of stars filling the night sky was overwhelming. I couldn't compare it to anything I had ever seen on Earth.
For the first time since waking up, my mind stopped screaming.
All I could do was stare dazedly at that breathtakingly beautiful sky.
A sensation I had never experienced before washed over me as I continued to gaze upward.
I could not understand this feeling. Yet this indescribable sensation gradually replaced the panic and confusion that had consumed my mind until moments ago.
I didn't understand this world, but one thing was clear: this was no dream.
After that, time passed quickly yet slowly — like a paradox.
Days turned into months, and months turned into years.
And just like that… five years passed.