Knock, knock.
The sound echoed softly through the quiet hallway.
Hannah's hesitant a little, then with firmer hands she rapped against the door in front of her.
She raised her voice slightly, "Eric, are you still sleeping?"
Eric inside was furious. Who dares to disturb a growing kid's sleep! No, more importantly did he again miss his morning training?
He sat up on his bed and glanced at the slightly ajar window.
Looking at the bright morning Eric was depressed, it seems he really missed his morning training. Although he could do it later as he was mostly free, he also lost the mood for it.
Since it was currently the rainy season, the morning was always confusing as the sun came out only when it was already too late. But Eric also loved the rainy season, so he always got bewitched by the 'dark gloomy' clouds, and ended up forgiving the rainy seasons. But at this rate his twice daily training was reduced to only once per day!
'What a headache. But then again, I am already quite strong and nearly as strong if not more than how I was in my past life. Is there any reason to workout that hard?' Eric thought deeply.
While Eric was in thoughts, the door of his room opened and a blonde woman peeked out from beside the door frame.
Eric recognised the blonde girl as he sees her every day.
She was Hannah, 18 years old; she was also his caretaker within this orphanage. She was cheerful and a mischievous grown up girl, and was like a big sister to him.
Hannah had short blonde hair, face sprinkled with freckles across her nose and cheeks, her grey eyes were bright and alive. Overall she was fairly pretty.
Eric wonders why Hannah arrived to bother him at such early hours; normally she wouldn't disturb him till breakfast time.
Hannah's eyes brightened, "Hey! Since you're up, at least say something!"
Eric glared. He was still sleepy and doesn't like any short of alarm bells whether it comes from machines or humans.
Hannah enters the room, and then a silent awkward moment stretches between both of them as they stare blankly at each other, without either of them saying anything.
Hannah's eyes were drawn towards Eric's bright blue eyes, which seemed like holding two bright blue stars within.
Eric was ten years younger than her. He has unkempt black hair and striking blue eyes, overall he was very handsome even as a child. In fact he was a lot taller than most other children within the town. She hates to admit as Eric was in fact even an inch taller than her.
Eric rolled his eyes. He was just a kid and didn't want to mistakenly fall in love with a girl due to long eye stares, so he promptly dropped to his bed and closed his eyes to sleep.
Hannah woke up from her admiration over blue eyes, and got annoyed by Eric's behaviour.
As she was planning to tickle Eric awake, she recalled something. She quickly adjusted herself, and then coughed like a matured respected woman.
Eric opened his one eye to let Hannah know that he was listening.
Hannah smiled and extended her right hand. On her palm rested a small, velvet case.
A genuine smile bloomed on her face, "Happy Birthday, Eric. Congratulations on turning eight!"
Eric opened his eyes wide. That's right! Only during his birthday's the heavens cry tears of regret so it always rains these days. He always tends to forget the pains of heaven.
He sat back up and took the case, and nodded at Hannah with a smile, "Thank you, Sister Hannah."
Normally Eric wouldn't call Hannah 'sister', except when he was also playing with her, but he was sincere this time as he was genuinely happy.
Eight years old means another few years more until he goes around destroying, ahem, adventuring this new world! He was very excited about it for a long time.
Eric cradles the box in both his hands, and subconsciously caresses the smooth surface with a gentle touch.
The box was small. It strangely reminded him of a certain event from his past life where he found a larger box while adventuring within an old army bunker, within a jungle, and happened to find a pistol inside the box. Sadly it was rusted and cannot be used...
He wonders if there are any guns in this world.
Hannah felt a blush creep onto her cheeks in embarrassment. Eric was handling the gift with so much care as if it was some priceless heirloom. It was honestly embarrassing as it wasn't anything extravagant.
She coughed, "You were saying the other day that your pen isn't working properly, so I bought you one." She spoke awkwardly, "I-it's nothing too expensive. Haha…"
Eric smiled back at Hannah. He opened the case, and found a new pen, nothing fancy. But he knows that Hannah had spent her own money to buy him this, an orphanage kid. He was grateful.
Although Eric was an orphanage kid, he was the only one who was so grown up, the rest were just toddlers. This Orphanage was also strangely wealthy compared to the town. Overall, everyone treated him nicely within the Orphanage, and he lived his life no less than a real Prince.
-A maid to take care of his needs, plenty of wealth to extract from the House Mother, and he even has his own training ground, and moreover no responsibility!
Eric was certain that even a real Prince would feel deeply jealous of his amazing lifestyle!
He closed the case, and then glanced back at Hannah.
"Is this the only reason you woke me up?" Eric asked wondering if there are any other reasons, as Hannah could just have given him this gift anytime during the day.
Hannah's expression started changing as she recalled something important.
She slapped her forehead, "Ah… yes. House Mother has summoned you to her office. She wants to see you within... ten minutes!"
Eric raised his brow in bemusement. House Mother Bella Noll never wakes children up this early. Her philosophy was simple—children should eat more, play more, and sleep more. She had never disturbed him so early in the morning.
"I Understand." Eric yawned and slowly crawled out of his bed, "I'll go and take a bath first."
"Need me to wash you like old times?" Hannah teased, and rolled up her sleeves with a mischievous glint in her eyes.
Eric glared, and then raged, "Get lost! I'm grown up!"
The memory of Hannah bathing him when he was merely 3 or 4 years of age still haunts him, especially how she was flickering something with her finger.
Hannah pouted, "How boring…" She left, leaving the door wide-open.
Instead of leaving Eric walked towards the sole window of his room.
Eric's room was of decent size, and remained unchanged since he took over. There are two beds, one in which he sleeps and the other which always remains empty. Other than that there are two wardrobes, two wooden tables with their chairs, and a window and door- opposite to each other.
Eric noticed the rain had already stopped, so he pushed open the window completely.
Morning breeze rushed in, thick with the sweet fragrance of countless blossoming flowers in the orphanage garden.
The sight that met Eric's eyes was absolutely gorgeous. The rain-washed garden, the vibrant flowers, the bright sky—everything was breathtaking, a masterpiece painted with a thousand colours.
Eric was a nature lover, not to extreme lengths, but he enjoyed almost all sceneries.
Ever since he arrived in this world he was mentally blown away by the natural beauty of it. It was not about colours or such things, those are there, instead it was the atmosphere.
Due to his inability to come to any logical reasons, Eric confidently declared that someone must have turned on the HDR settings of this world!
Eric put his hands on the window sill, and allowed his thoughts to wonder.
He doesn't remember where he was born or when he arrived at this orphanage. His toddler memories are mostly blurry and forgotten, just like everyone usually is. He is barely holding onto a few tiny fractions of memories but those are not of any great significance.
He knows by information that he arrived at this orphanage when he was just two years of age. Before that his vision wasn't the best nor was his memories. From what he recalled and able to make sense was that he probably was born into a really-really wealthy family, a little too wealthy.
Probably his parents at some point realised that they had bred the most Evil entity in the universe so they must have tried to get rid of him, but sadly they were cowardly and only threw him away instead of slicing his throat. Pathetic!
Ahem, jokes aside, he doesn't recall if his current parents had died or are still alive, but after six years of living within this town no one came to take him back. So, although it was a little sad, either both his parents had perished, or had truly kicked him out. Eric welcomes the latter with open arms.
He was glad his parents had discarded him as if his guess wasn't wrong from his recollection then they are probably some Royals or a very-wealthy Nobles. No matter which one, he doesn't want to entangle himself with so much responsibility. He prefers he remain the same as his past life - completely free.
In his past life Eric was a self- proclaimed adventurer and an explorer. He enjoyed the Earth thoroughly while also doing various dangerous stunts with craze. And so one day he fell off a high cliff and turned into meat paste while laughing crazily on the way to his doom. Of course it wasn't intentional but nonetheless he enjoyed till the freefall lasted.
After that, who would have thought that while Mother Earth was so fed up with him and kicked him out of her orbit, another Mother called 'Celestia' seemed to pity him and choose to embrace him out of her ignorance.
It was too naive of her, how could she invite a random child to her home? Who knows, the child could be a demon!
Nonetheless it was too late for Celestia to regret, and now that he had arrived, he definitely wants to adventure around the world.
But he cannot leave this Ringwood town till he was fifteen, as in this world fifteen is considered adulthood. Going outside before that age could risk him getting kidnapped, and then he might lose a kidney or two. So, he wasn't too rushed to leave yet.
Celestia's main language or rather the most spoken language, numerical system, was also known as 'Celestia'. Other than that, the size, weight, measurement scales and so on are mostly similar to Earth.
This town- Ringwood Town was not a popular place and barely few travellers ever visit. It was a country-side town with buildings largely made of wood, mud and stones. The streets are mostly filled with soil and dirt except a few places which were properly constructed with cobblestone.
There used to be forests surrounding the Town forming a ring shape, and from that the name- Ringwood. He also heard that there is an ocean somewhere South East of the town, which he definitely wants to visit before leaving the town permanently in future.
This town in a sense was a fantastic place to retire to and live one's remaining life without much contact from the outside world. And strangely in this peaceful, village-like place, there is such a big orphanage which not only has a huge ground coverage but the main building itself was also built properly like that of some wealthy family. It wasn't too decorated but the entire place was well-built with stones, bricks, wood, and painted mostly in white.
It was not hard to guess, Bella Noll- the House Mother of this orphanage had probably chosen this town as her retirement as she was fairly old. Perhaps she was once a wealthy person somewhere and now used her wealth to build this luxurious orphanage in this country-side place.
Over the years many people wanted to adopt Eric. But how could he agree?
Only those foolish and naive children had agreed to move and live with their 'new parents'. Perhaps they want to experience the love of parents, but he doesn't want such attachments and shackles to bind him, not to mention he was living a fantastic life within the Orphanage.
After admiring the breathtaking scenery from the window sill, breathing in the morning breeze with a peaceful smile, Eric decided it was time to get moving, lest Bella Noll scold him to keep her waiting, though she never did so ever in the past.