9 Chapter 9 - New Life

Maybe I should've insisted and reincarnated into an older body, after all. Waiting around like this really sucks.

Hey, what's up? How's it going? Actually, not too bad, not bad at all...it's nice, pleasant and peaceful in this world, and the members of my new family aren't a bunch of assholes like my previous family was, so that's nice.

However...it's been five years since I was born into this world, and it'll be another five years before my powers awaken. This really sucks.

It's so boring a lot of the time. This world does have a decent level of technology, but...in comparison to my old world, I'd say it's at a level of where technology was in the 1970s or so. At least, I think so, I'm didn't exactly keep track of the chronology of the technological progress in my previous world.

We've got plumbing and electricity in this world, so there's stuff like ceiling fans, televisions, automobiles and phones...but, like, the old kind of phones with external cords and wires, not cell phones, and certainly not smartphones.

Still, it's more than comfortable enough, and while I do miss modern technology, I'm getting used to living without it. My new family has a small TV, and there are some fairly entertaining shows in this world, so yeah.

My name in this world is Larrk Stryker, which feels a bit over the top, but I have to admit, I think it's kinda cool. It kinda makes me sound like someone who abuses birds though.

I've got two parents and an older brother who's six years my senior, making him eleven years old, so he already has his powers. Which actually gave me the perfect excuse to ask for the instructional books on Magic and stuff.

I simply told my parents that I want to be like my brother, and they were happy to oblige and teach me...this way, once I awaken my powers, I should be able to use spells immediately.

The only downside is that the instructional books in this house only has stuff about Dark Attribute techniques and spells, nothing that relates to the Light Attribute.

We lived in a small village in a nation called Obsidian, which was in the middle of the Dark Continent. The five countries of the Dark Continent were spread out like five parallel, horizontal strips, with the borders separated using fences manned by guards.

Based on the map of this world that I've seen, the five nations of the Light Continent are spread out in approximately the same way the number five is displayed on a dice.

The village I lived in was called Juana...because it was rich with marijuana plants, which the villagers sold to the nearby town. There was also a large forest that was split by a wide river close to the village, the forest had a lot wild animals and Magical Beasts, and was also rich in fruits and vegetables.

All the essentials were readily available, so yeah, this is a pretty comfortable place to live in. And as a bonus, this village is pretty far to the northeast from the capital city of Obsidian, Dianus, so we're well out of the sights of any Nobles.

Honestly, I've got nothing to genuinely complain about...which is a weird feeling since, in my previous life, I had so much to complain about.

From what they've told me, my father and brother are highly skilled with Magic, while my mother is highly skilled in hand to hand combat, so they help with hunting and gathering for the village, and are also sort of the village bodyguards. I've never seen them in action myself, but I've seen how trusted they are among the other villagers.

Everyone else here isn't very good with Magic, just like the God had told me...Commoners really do seem to have very low education levels, some of them can't even read or write.

But my parents seem pretty highly educated, certainly more so than anyone else in this village...but asking about that might be weird coming from a five year old, so I should wait till I'm older.

I have to say, the way they write dates in this world is kinda weird, the months are almost completely different...fortunately, the written and spoken language is the same as english, so I had no trouble picking it up...though, of course, I had to pretend like I did.

Just like in my previous world, this world also counts a year as three hundred and sixty-five days, and has leap years. The main difference is that it only has ten months, five with thirty-six days and five with thirty-seven days.

The months were, in order, Martius, Aprilis, Maius, Junius, Quintilis, Sextilis, September, October, November, and December.

And on leap years, the extra day doesn't fall under any month, and is simply referred to as Day Zero on the first day of the year.

My birthday was the 6th of November, which is the 6th day of the 9th month...nice. Oh, and the current year is 2006 in this world, so I was born at the turn of the century, and will be turning six in about five months.

Maybe having Magic has resulted in this world advancing slower than my old one? There's also the fact that this world is smaller, so there's less people, meaning less ideas, especially since the Nobles pay no attention to the Commoners.

There's also the severely lopsided education level between Nobles and Commoners. And there are some things that you'd expect to have been invented with this current technology level, but don't exist. This world doesn't have any aircrafts, for one thing. And weapons like bombs don't exist either, though guns do.

Anyway, today is the 35th of Junius, 2006, and I was currently just waking up, as rays of sunlight streamed in through the blinds on the window in my room.

I awoke to the sound of the creaky ceiling fan in the room, sitting up with a yawn as I stretched my arms up sleepily. I then glanced towards my door as I heard someone opening it...oh, it's my older brother in this world.

"Hey, little bro, time to-....oh, you're already awake. Wash up and come to the kitchen, breakfast's almost ready," Remarked my brother, as he poked his head in.

"Yeah, okay, I'll be there in a minute," I nodded with another yawn, feeling a bit too comfortable and lazy to get up right away.

"Alright, don't go back to sleep like you sometimes do, got it?" He grinned in response, as he shut the door and left.

Have to say, at first, it felt kinda weird having a new family, especially since I'm mentally only about a decade or so younger than my parents are, but lately, I hardly ever think about that fact.

They're really great people, and knowing what my previous family was like, that's something I'm not going to take for granted.

My brother's name is Argent Stryker, he's eleven years old. He had two-toned medium-long hair, the right two-thirds or so was reddish-brown and the left third was a light purple, and he parted his hair at the line where the colors met.

He had deep golden eyes and greenish turquoise eyebrows, and was tall and well-built for his age, with a fair complexion. He was really friendly and cheerful towards me, I really like him.

Recently, he's started training me in hand to hand combat...naturally, he goes really easy on me. I mean, I am a five year old, he'd totally kick my ass if he took it seriously.

I haven't really seen him use his Magic yet, and I don't even know what his Soul Weapon is. Using those against a kid would be way overkill, after all. I'll find out eventually, there's no real rush.

Well, anyway, I should get up now...my mother in this world is a great cook, every meal is something to look forward to.

I then got out of bed and stretched my arms up, before heading for the door and opening it, heading for the bathroom as I rubbed the corner of my left eye.

After I got done brushing my teeth and splashing some water on my face, I headed for the kitchen, which doubled as a dining room...this house is several times smaller than the mansion I spent most of my previous life in, but it's really grown on me.

I feel so much more at home here than I ever did in that mansion. I have to admit, I kinda hate doing chores, but I'm getting used to it.

The rest of my family was already at the table, watching TV as the waited for me, a morning talk show on screen.

"It's about time, sleepyhead, good morning," My mother greeted me with a smile.

"Mhm, good morning," I replied with a sleepy nod, as I took a seat at the table.

While I've made an effort not to act suspicious for a five year old, I'd decided not to overdo it too much...I speak pretty fluently now, and while they have mentioned a few times that I picked up speech remarkably quickly for my age, they didn't seem suspicious or anything, just impressed.

I just felt really cringy deliberately talking like a little kid, so I slowly but surely improved my speech over the last couple of years, and now I speak normally. I've also avoided acting like I take too much longer to learn something than I actually do.

I mean, I do have a photographic memory, after all, and I shouldn't make it seem like I gained that ability out of nowhere. And I figured the best way to ensure that is to make it seem like I'm a quick learner right from the get go.

So long as I still act somewhat like a kid, I should be able to avoid arousing any suspicion. Yeah, I know, it's kinda deceitful, and I do feel a little bad since they're all such nice people, but hey, I'm technically already deceiving them by hiding the fact that I'm actually more than twenty years old on the inside.

In the short while since I came to this world, I have to say, I'm really enjoying this life so far...here's hoping that doesn't change...

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