||| Old version of the story. Instead read: Reincarnated in Mushoku Tensei: Realistically Overpowered (rewrite) |||
To my knowledge, a child should not be able to have proper eyesight for quite a while after coming out of the womb.
However, what I was experiencing made me doubt logic and what I knew.
In front of my vision, rather clearly, was the face of a beautiful blonde woman around 20 years old. Her face was wet with sweat and her hair disheveled, yet she looked down at me with a gentle smile.
Beside her stood a man of a similarly young age with light brown hair, giving me a stiff smile. He was a handsome and muscular young man; his physique was amazing.
At one point, the man stuck out his tongue and started making silly and goofy expressions toward me, at which I slightly twitched out of awkwardness.
"####-##### ######."
"###### ######."
The people around me talked to each other, but to me it only sounded like intelligible gibberish.
I tried to speak and tried to move his body, but it was fruitless. I felt various sensations coming from my body, but I could not control it.
Surprisingly, I seemed to be lying next to a little baby that seemed to be the same size as me.
This discovery got my head spinning even further.
Soon enough, the woman lifted me up with her hands and brought me closer as she looked down at me with a loving smile.
'Is this a dream? I really don't feel like I'm dreaming,' my heart thought.
To not feel like a fool, I consciously tried to do a reality check by willing myself to fly up, to see if I was not dreaming.
But it failed.
'In that case, could it mean…'
That I reincarnated?!!!
At that moment I saw the man picking up the other baby and then throwing it into the air while saying 'weee!'.
What the hell is that?!
Throwing up an infant that was just born!
So irresponsible!
Is this Sparta?!
…
[Zenith & Paul POV.]
Paul picked up one of his sons with his hands while smiling, then said, "After seeing you with such a big stomach, I thought I'd have a strong son, but it turns out we have two. Haha!"
Following that, he proceeded to throw up his infant son into the air and then caught him while cheerfully saying 'wee!'.
"Don't do that! Be careful! He's just a baby!" Zenith chided him at this.
Paul chuckled. "Haha. He'll be fine. He's my son."
Zenith formed a small wry smile, not knowing whether to laugh or cry. Their sons have just been born! They were not even toddlers. How could her husband be so thoughtless?
However, at that moment she was overwhelmed with happiness too much to complain. She simply smiled and dropped the topic when she saw that the baby didn't cry and her husband also stopped his reckless behavior.
Looking down at his other son in Zenith's hands, Paul flirtatiously smiled at her and said, "It looks like the first brother took after you, Zenith. He has both your hair and your beautiful blue eyes."
Zenith formed a gentle smile as she stroked her son's sparse blonde hair, then replied, "And the other brother has both your hair and eye, dear. I'm sure he'll have talent for the sword."
"That's right! I'll kindle a passion for the sword in him for sure and train him well… He can't waste his potential during youth like I did."
After seeing Paul's determined face, Zenith softly smiled as she found him strangely very reliable at that moment. She then looked at the child in her arms and gently said, "Dear, this boy has such pretty light blonde hair and bright blue eyes. How about we name him Seraph?"
"Seraph? Well, alright," Paul said as he slowly put down the other boy in the cradle. "In that case, let's call our other son Rudeus! Also after his hair. For short, Rudi!"
They agreed that if they had a son, he would learn swordsmanship, and if they had a girl, she would learn magic. But since they had two sons with such distinct features, it seemed settled which one would be better with a sword and which one better at magic.
Iconically, the future would not go exactly as the two parents had thought, as Rudeus would instead be a magic prodigy, but the elder brother's talent for it would not seem to be any worse, yet he would be even more than that…
…
[Seraph's POV]
A while later.
Short and chubby baby arms, the inability to control his body and hands, and to speak properly…
Also: two strangely giant adults looking down at me with loving smiles while talking in a foreign language as I laid down on a bed with another little baby just next to me.
It did not take long for me to come to the conclusion that I had reincarnated.
A normal person might not have come to this conclusion so easily, but fortunately or unfortunately my weeb level was high enough that it was instead the first thing I thought of.
After all, I thought of this because I wanted it to be correct!
And that's because… If I really did reincarnate to another world that might have different rules and physics, something like a fantasy world with magic, then I might be able to strive toward the impossible and fantastical dream of striving to attain Immortality and God-like powers!
I was not interested in these things because I had some kind of god complex or wanted to live forever, but simply because after the various experiences and realizations that I came to throughout my life, I became exceedingly bored and disappointed with my life on Earth. I felt that living while pursuing these grand and majestic targets in a world filled with dangers would be the most interesting, fun and meaningful way to live a life.
Only something like this could make my life interesting and full of meaning again.
Of course, the fact that in a fantasy world there are usually also fantastical beauties, adventures and the strong are revered was an appreciated bonus.
Totally not the main reason though!
At this moment I thought of acting more like a newborn baby.
"Gha… Gha…" Given that I was a child, I started wiggling my limbs around and let out weird sounds.
My sibling seemed somewhat retarded, but that's what a newborn baby should do, right?
I have already kind of dropped the thought that I was reborn in Sparta and that babies that don't look healthy will be thrown off a cliff like Simba, but it still remained at the back of my mind. I still didn't want to be seen as a strange or mentaly-retarded child.
In turn, it seemed that what I did made me be noticed because the beautiful blonde woman picked me up again with a soft smile and then brought me closer to her chest.
I was preoccupied with thinking of the consequences of my situation to properly register the situation around me, but I had to secretly admit that my mother's twin peaks were quite spectacular.
The moment the woman brought me closer, my hands followed a strange instinct and started grasping anything in sight.
And what was the closest in sight at that moment was the woman's chest.
Ugh.
Involuntarily, my hands grasped the cloth that held up the blonde woman's chest, caressing and gripping that area.
I felt so weird.
It wasn't like me. It isn't like I can't keep my hands to myself.
And it isn't like I even wanted to do this.
This has already happened when I was picked up earlier. I guess it is just a newborn baby's reflex to grasp things.
Yeah, I swear I'm not a pervert.
At least not to this extent.
"Gigigi, ghe ghe…"
However, at that moment I heard my other sibling let out a strange baby chuckle, even one that I could judge as 'lecherous.'
Yes, seriously. A 'lecherous' baby laughter.
I turned my head to the back, exercising my little baby neck muscles to the fullest, and saw the other baby that still laid on the bed.
The baby stared in the direction of me and our mother's chest with a perverted smile. Its hands were outstretched, opening and closing, as it gripped the air and chuckled in a lewd manner. "Ghe. Ghe. Ghe."
This weirdness and creepiness immediately caused me to break out in cold sweat.
Why did a newborn baby behave like this?
It was just so creepy and disgusting. It was like a scene straight out from a horror movie!
This kind of behavior was not befitting of a reincarnated adult either.
However, the woman seemed to be oblivious to it as she instead softly said something, [Are you hungry too? Be patient, Rudi. I'll feed Seraph first. After that it will be your turn.]
After that, the woman revealed one of her plump breasts and gently brought my face closer to it.
Ugh.
I instantly felt a little awkward as I momentarily forgot about my creepy sibling that reminded me of Mannish Boy from Jojo.
'Right. I'm supposed to suck now?'
Being treated as a child by a beautiful and sexy woman, made to drink her baby milk…
It was an extremely embarrassing situation.
However, if I wanted to follow through with my ambitions, I needed to grow up with a strong body.
Thinking of it, when I was still growing up during my previous life, I often skipped entire nights of sleep by gaming, sleeping very little and eating whatever.
It was only later in life that I switched to having a healthy diet and proper sleeping schedule, but the damage was already done. In this life, I didn't want to have a below average height and a weak body again.
I had to eat as much as possible, and give my growing body all the nutrients it needed.
Reincarnated Protagonists that refuse to drink milk until they finally get a bottle? Weaklings!
Forcefully ignoring my feelings of shame, I slightly gulped and then latched onto the nipple of my mother with my mouth.
At that time neither me nor my mother was aware of it, but upon seeing this, the other baby made an exagarredly resentful and ugly expression as it stared at this scene with eyes of jealousy. 'Damn that brat! I want to suck those tits too!'
However, the maid that stood at the side noticed all of the other child's strange behavior, a perversion that transformed into an ugly expression of hate, and could not help but feel shocked and creeped out.
Why was this child… So weird and creepy?
In the meantime, hefore I knew it my mouth started sucking the protrusion on my assumed mother's bosom as if by instinct.
At first, nothing happened as I sucked in vain.
But soon I felt a thick liquid enter my mouth.
I didn't expect much and simply focused on acquiring nutrients.
However, what I tasted was very sweet and sugary. It was similar to milk mixed with a lot of honey, or similar to condensed milk.
In all honesty, it was quite delicious!
After seeing that the milk was not strange-tasting as I expected, but surprisingly tasty, I began sucking at it with double vigor while enduring this humiliation.
It was all to grow up strong!
I had such plans, to eat as much as possible.
But before even a minute passed, I suddenly felt full already.
Just the idea of eating any more than that made me nauseous. It seemed that a newborn baby's stomach and needs are smaller than I thought.
I felt that it was time to stop, so I stopped sucking and pulled back my head.
After that I simply started moving my hands around while being held closely by the woman.
I didn't even need to force myself to fake doing random baby actions, as I only needed to follow this body's instinct.
As the woman noticed that I was finished, she put me back down on the bed and picked up the other sibling instead.
And what I saw next caused me to feel creeped out once again.
After being picked up, my 'sibling', without any reservations, started to immediately grope our mother's breast in a systematic manner unbefitting of a child while staring straight at them and giggling in a weird manner.
After feeling out the breasts, my sibling then buried its face into the woman's chest and rolled about while letting out perverted 'ghe, ghe, ghe'.
This lascivious baby was simply too ridiculous!
Seeing this, my baby face could not help but twist in disgust.
However, as I observed my digsuting sibling, my mind wandered.
Paul and Zenith.
As well as Rudeus.
I thought of these three names.
Firstly, the two adults I just saw were not drawn anime characters, but real people. Although the features somewhat matched Paul and Zenith, immediately assuming that these two were characters from an anime show that I watched before would be jumping the gun.
I could not understand any of the words that the people around me were saying. It all sounded like gibberish and blended together into a cacophony of sounds that was difficult to decipher.
However, among the many foreign words that made no sense to me, I noted the man saying the word 'Zenithu' a few times when addressing the blond women, and I also heard both parents accentuate the word 'Rudi' when seeming to talk about my sibling.
I think even 'Rudeus' was mentioned earlier once.
With all this, I felt quite convinced.
It seems I reincarnated in the world of Mushoku Tensei!
And apparently, Rudeus is my little perverted sibling.
…
After I came to the realization that I was very likely in a real world of swords and magic, I did not want to waste any more time.
Magic.
Could I use it?
I had to try.
It is often in fantasy that without learning magic, you can't use it, even if you have the talent for it.
But there are also those fantasy worlds in which all you need to do is use your mind, and the reality will be bent to his will.
Otherwise, it is sometimes at least possible to exercise simple magic control and interact with the world's special energy, even if nothing special happens in the outside world.
I quickly thought of trying out a simple meditation exercise.
I forcefully tried to ignore the disturbing sounds that my sibling was producing along with his perverted actions directed at 'our' mother, and quickly thought of trying out a simple meditation exercise.
As I calmed down my mind and focused all of my attention on my breath to enter a tranquil state, I concentrated and focused my entire being on absorbing outside 'energy' into my body.
In Mushoku Tensei that 'energy' should probably be adressed as 'Mana', but I tried to keep my mind open.
I had no idea if any of this would work, but I wanted to try anything. This was simply the first thing I thought of.
After all, as a baby I could do nothing else but this - use my mind.
As I began meditating mindfully, a minute passed.
Then several.
But I still didn't experience anything special.
After our parents finally left us, I ignored my sibling who was sending me strange looks, and continued my meditation practice.
I continued guiding my 'breath' through my body while supplementing it by imagining the absorbed world's energy strengthening me.
Unaware if it should be 'energy' that came with my breath, or energy that I would absorb from the atmosphere through my skin, I exercised my imagination and tried both.
There was no result.
To be honest, I was quite tired from the beginning.
Soon enough, I was unable to ignore the rising exhaustion that threatened to overwhelm me, perhaps simply due to me being awake, and eventually my consciousness drifted off to sleep.