บท 9: Little Pumpkin

Reincarnation.

A fantastical notion that many believed to exist but at the same time a thing that many did not believe in.

Ashoka did not believe in rebirth either.

His life was nothing but full of suffering so, he did not even consider such absurd thoughts.

He thought that death was the end.

But even in his dying state, even though he didn't believe in rebirth, he wished he could reborn into a wealthy family to enjoy life at least once.

He himself thought it was laughable.

However…

"My little pumpkin, look here!"

A beautiful lady, with black eyes and pitch-black hair that flowed down over her shoulder, shook the blue-colored baby rattle as she tried to attract his attention.

"There is also a red one!"

She held out a red-colored one in her left hand as well.

Rattle!

Though he wrinkled his face at the sound of the rattles hitting each other, the lady did not stop her shaking.

"Aboo."

Ashoka gave a soft sigh and reached out for the baby rattle.

"Yes! Come this way!"

The beautiful lady breamed broadly and shook the baby rattle more excitedly.

There were two things in his field of view. A pair of arms, chubby like sausages, and a lady shaking the baby rattle.

'I still can't get used to this. These arms are my arms, and that lady is my mother…'

The lady's name was Chandra, Chandralekha to be specific.

Though it was still pretty unbelievable, he had reincarnated into that lady's child whilst retaining the memories of his past life.

He had naturally regarded it as a dream at first.

He thought that everything would be over after he got some sleep, but he never seemed to awaken from this strange dream, no matter how much he slept.

* * *

And so the days had dubiously passed to become one hundred days, and it was only then that Ashoka accepted the fact that he had, in fact, reincarnated.

"My little pumpkin! Over here!"

"A-woo!"

He didn't know why the hell she chose to call him a little pumpkin, but he just went along with her, because he knew she wouldn't give up until he did.

When he slowly crawled towards the baby rattle, Chandra stepped back little by little.

"Yes! A little more!"

Ashoka followed Chandra as he crawled and reached his hand out toward the rattle.

"Aboo…"

But his body could not endure the weight of his heavy head and started leaning towards the right.

"Oh!"

Chandra flung the baby rattle away and threw her body towards Ashoka, embracing him in her arms.

'She's quick.'

Her body was very fast. Though he did not why it seemed that she had acquainted herself with some kind of martial arts like in the novels.

That's right!

That was his second discovery in this life.

The world in which he reincarnated was not the Earth, but some entirely different world.

There were mages using magic, knights wielding swords, and all kinds of monsters.

For a weebs like Ashoka, it was basically heaven.

"Were you surprised? It's alright. It's fine."

Chandra patted Ashoka's back as she embraced him.

"Ooh."

Ashoka shook his hand. Her patting did not stop although he showed that he was not at all surprised and all right.

He was uncomfortable being held in her embrace since he could actively feel two melons pressing against his body and the fact that he remembered she was his mother pierced his consciousness even more.

"My Little pumpkin, shall we go see your brother?"

Chandra walked over to a cradle and opened the curtains covering it.

There was a cute little blond baby sleeping in it.

It was none other than the twin that Ashoka was born with.

'Tch! Just because he was born a few seconds ahead of me, he is the big brother? This soul has 21 years of experience, I will never accept it.'

Ashoka thought to himself.

'But, Blondie sure is cute.'

Though they both were twins, Blondie was much cuter than Ashoka, maybe because he had blond hair and red eyes, but he sure was adorable.

The warm sunlight shone gently over the baby, like a soft cotton blanket, but it seemed to have awakened him as he suddenly opened his eyes and started crying.

"waaaa....waahaaa"

"oh! My little sunshine, did I wake you up? here, come to mama"

Chandra took the blondie from the cradle holding both babies in either of her arms.

But even then blondie didn't stop crying and continued his screams.

'This damn crybaby!'

Ashoka, who was annoyed with the cries of blondie moved his small and adorable fist, and punched him in the cheek

"waaaa....wah...."

In response, the cries got much louder.

"My little pumpkin, don't hurt your brother!"

Chandra quickly separated them by placing Ashoka in the cradle and tried to calm the blondie.

'hehe...that's what he gets for annoying me.'

Ashoka smiled as he thought teasing a young baby was entertaining.

'Little pumpkin', as Chandra called him, was not his actual name, nor was 'little sunshine' his brother's.

It was just a baby bump name.

It was a tradition in the Mauryan Empire for the baby's father to choose the name for his children, but the Emperor appeared to be terribly busy and so they had yet to see a sign of him.

Thus, there was no choice but to be called by the baby bump name 'little pumpkin', even after more than a hundred days had passed.

'Whew…'

Ashoka looked about, laying in the cradle.

The room was wide enough to be able to run around in, the walls had a luxurious sea-colored wallpaper, and there was magic lighting hanging from the ceiling that lit up, even at night.

Not to mention the luxurious-looking cradles that he and blondie slept in.

He could not determine much, for his body was a baby's and slept more than twenty hours a day, but one thing was certain.

The Emperor is wealthy!

And as his mistress, so was his mother.

'Not bad.'

A rich or powerful family was preferable over a normal one, in any case, now that he had been reborn into the Royal family it couldn't get any better.

'I will make sure to live this life lazing around.'

Ashoka resolved himself while his eyes started to shut down as his baby body couldn't handle the fatigue.

'Ah! I hate this....'

---***---

Here is the discord link - https://discord.gg/DkY79kvMmx

Hop into the server, and let's have fun.

Some reference images of the character will be posted in discord.

Thank you.