章 2: Brave New World

My eyes fluttered open and I looked up to a high roof. I started standing up before I realized that I was short. Exceedingly short.

I looked around at my huge room. My room, even though my parents were very well off, was nowhere close to the size of this room.

"Why is this room so big?" I asked myself out loud. I looked around until I was face-to-face with a mirror next to a closet.

"Why am I so small?!" I exclaimed. I noticed a few things. First thing, I looked like I was 6. I had the same characteristics such as black hair and face shape. Something funny was that my hair somehow stayed without any product. The only exception was that my eyes were brown instead of their usual amber.

And the second thing was that I was wearing fancy clothes. It was a black suit with an ascot and leather gloves. All this pointed towards the obvious conclusion that I was the child of a powerful noble family.

I walked to the window and looked out. I saw several fields. I saw dummies on one of them and assumed that it was a sword-training area.

Once that thought crossed my mind, I had a sudden splitting migraine.

"AGH!" I yelled out as I closed my eyes. I felt tears forming in my eyes. This was the worst pain I'd ever experienced in my life.

I fell to the ground, clutching my head. Tears were starting to stream down my face as the migraine continued. It felt like someone was getting added to my brain.

After a minute, the pain gradually subsided. A few seconds later, I was able to think again. The first thing I did was vomit.

"Blargh!" I vomited before starting to pant heavily. I started remembering my identity in this world.

'So that's who I am.' I thought. My name was still Zack Zephyr, the youngest son of my family. We were known for our magic power and swordsmanship. The perfect fighters. Officially, the Zephyr family is a family filled with great heroes.

"Shit," I whispered out. My parents were known for being strict, so not having magic is going to fuck me over sideways. There's a high chance that I'd have to deal with assassins.

And the second thing was that there was a ceremony for me tonight to show off my magical power. And courtesy of my deal, I don't have any.

'Wait, my deal!' I thought with excitement as I thought about finding a way. It's hard to describe the feeling, but it was like knowledge that I just instinctively knew. I understood the science all around me.

But what I couldn't figure out was to cheat the ball. I didn't have enough information on how it worked. I grabbed the nearest object and threw it across the room out of frustration.

My stomach started rumbling. "Well, if I'm fucked no matter what, I might as well just enjoy life for the next 12 hours."

When I opened the door, my servant looked like she was about to walk in.

"Master Zack, I was just about to walk in. Are you alright? I heard screaming." Jane asked.

"Uh y-yeah," I said. "I just felt a little sick and threw up."

A concerned look appeared on her face as she put her hand on my forehead. "Your temperature is alright. Are you feeling anything else?"

"No, I'm fine. Really." I said as she took back her hand. "I'm off to breakfast."

"Alright. If you feel ill, then go to the infirmary." She said, eyeing me for a while before entering my room.

Jane was always the most caring out of all the servants in the house. I was inserted into this world, and a past was made for me. In that, I treated all the servants poorly. Not severely violating human rights and slavery bad, but still bad. Hitting and disrespecting them. If I'd been back in our world, I'd definitely be arrested.

Note to self: Treat them better. I continued walking to the dining room. Most of my siblings were already there, eating their meals. I walked over to my seat and saw the bread and soup

"Someone finally woke up." Alex, the second youngest in my family, said. I just nodded as I began eating.

I would've just gone in with my hands, but there were strict rules against using your hands. So I had to use a spoon for the soup, and a knife and fork for the bread. It felt so stupid eating it like that.

"So brother, have you finished your preparations for tonight?" Leah asked, the second oldest.

'What preparations?' I thought before the information came to my mind. Right before the ceremony, the person is supposed to display some sort of talent.

Dominick, the eldest and heir, displayed his senses and tactics by beating another kid of another family while blindfolded. Leah displayed her flexibility with this world's version of gymnastics. Addison displayed her hand speed through cup stacking. And Alex showed his drawing skills.

It's more of a formality, but you're expected to at least be talented at something.

"Nope," I said. "I haven't even started."

Everyone stopped what they were talking about and looked at me. "What? I'm just gonna move the piano."

"You seem … different," Dominick said in an icy voice.

'Damn, that was fast. I thought it would've taken someone longer.' I thought. I never understood why people try denying it. If anything, it'll make you look more suspicious.

"And you're the same. Yet you don't see me saying anything." I replied. "I'm trying out something new."

Dominick's eyes went up and down, analyzing me. He was silent for a few seconds before speaking. "Hmph. Change your speech. You sound like a peasant."

"Okay, eldest brother of mine," I said in a mocking voice while making a face. He just rolled his eyes and went back to eating, as did everyone else.

Well, that leaves one question on my mind. What song should I play?———————————————————————————————————————

I was looking at the ceiling while lying on my bed. Without magic, I need good ways to defend myself. I was brainstorming ideas until I heard a knock on the door and it opened.

"Master, all the guests have arrived," Jane said as I got up. She started to fix my shirt so it looked neater.

"Jane, pick a number, 1 or 2," I asked her.

"I beg your pardon?" She asked as a look of confusion appeared on her face.

"I can't decide on what song to play."

"Well, in that case, I chose the number 1." She said as she finished and patted me on the shoulder.

"Heh, you picked the hard one," I told her with a chuckle.

"Come on now, the event is about to start." She said as she began guiding me.

She took me on a route I'd never seen before and ended up backstage. I took an audible sigh. I'd never performed in front of an audience in my old life, so I was jittery and nervous.

I took a deep breath and slowly exhaled before someone moved the curtain. I turned to look at the audience, which was my first mistake. All their eyes were glued onto me. I gave a small wave as I headed to the piano.

I placed my right hand over the E key as I began lightly tapping the key at a slow pace. Gradually, the speed increased as I rapidly pressed the E key before suddenly stopping and playing notes with my left hand.

The song I was playing was Rush E with the impossible parts omitted (obviously). The tempo changed and my fingers started to speed up. I noticed a few mistakes as I wasn't used to the size of my hands in my new body, but the people didn't seem to notice.

With each key press, I felt a surge of exhilaration. It brought me back to the countless hours I spent on the piano. Sometimes it was with Jordan watching me, or just alone.

My fingers continued moving across the piano with speed and precision as I kept thinking about my old life.

'Did I make a mistake choosing this over paradise?' I wondered to myself as I started reaching the end of the song. I didn't know where Jordan would be, let alone if he was even in the same time period as me.

My hands sped up for the final time as I approached the last notes. As soon as I pressed the final notes, it felt like a small weight was lifted off my shoulders.

I looked at the audience to see that everyone was clapping.

"This was more impressive than the last kid." I heard someone say. There were murmurs of compliments for a while until the dreaded moment arrived.

My mother walked onto the platform. "Thank you all for coming to this celebration. I must say, even as the boy's mother, I am stunned at his performance. But now we'll begin the mana capacity test!"

Everyone started clapping and whispering again about how powerful I would be. If only they knew. My hands shook as I placed it over the ball.

'Please God, at least help me out this one time.' I prayed as I closed my eyes.

I heard some gasps and loud whispers. I opened my eyes to look at the ball.

It was

…