I couldn't think what would happen after my death, all the thoughts of either going to hell or the nothingness of the lack of sensations, images, emotions and ideas that could occur when in deep sleep. They were all suppressed by a single will; to not lose faith.
Although I didn't have a faith that was relatable to the priests and church followers, mine took me as far as what a soldier could possibly go.
After so many bloody and nightmare-like missions, I got a steady, well-paying job working as a guard at a secret government facility.
Guess what? I didn't imagine or even predict it, but in the safest environment I ever worked at, I died.
My last memories were of me going to sleep at the dormitory inside the government facility.
As a former member of a Special Forces Group, I was able to fall asleep pretty quickly, but any unusual noise would wake me up, by sheer instinct, ready for battle.
However, I didn't hear anything.
I don't remember making any enemies in that place, but come to think of it, being in the special forces after all these years, the government might have ulterior motives for shutting me down.
Anyway…
Where the hell am I right now? Why am I still able to think so freely? And what are these noises I'm hearing?
Strangely, it seems my head's under water while some people are chatting outside of it.
All I could see was darkness, but now there were sounds and a clarity moving through something resembling human flesh.
Ugh… The noises are echoing around me!
Sh*t, there's something pulling me… Where the hell am I??
And why do I keep losing my attention?!
Now, I'm being turned around…
Apparently, I got stuck into something?!
What the?! They're pulling me head first!
The lights got brighter when I got out of whatever place I was, the sounds got louder, especially a beep that repeated itself consistently.
Unfortunately, I couldn't do much other than cry the entire time as I was still attempting to regulate this part of my new body...
I was eventually able to open my eyes after a lengthy amount of time and effort, and the first thing I noticed was a group of individuals dressed in surgeon's attire, complete with mask and gloves.
"It's a boy, Miss."
The surgeon in front of me said, as he handed me to the person I presume to be my mother.
But, hold a moment...
The place I was inside, and got stuck… Haha, Goddammit…
Now, another thing that I want to forget appears.
I calmed myself, and focused to better understand the place I just got sent to.
To my surprise even though I understood the language people use here, I was sure, this is not Earth.
One of the doctors was not human, he or she looked like an elf from the fantasy movies with the eyes of a reptile, and the second reason is the game-like hologram that was being used as equipment, medical equipment, even the most advanced military equipment on Earth did not have a hologram like those.
And my useless new-born body came to affect me yet again… I lost my attention...
I looked at the person holding me, all sweaty and looking tired…
I believe it is only right that I refer to her as my mother from now on.
My mother had a lovely face, nothing like the reality I grew up in.
Even though she had a minor scar on her nose, she was gorgeous, and considering she was pregnant, the slight fatness that makes her seem lovely will fade, and... wow... My father is lucky.
"Honey, look it's a boy."
Talking about him, a gigantic man appeared with arms bigger than the head of the doctors around, oddly enough he was wearing a piece of cloth covering his eyes. I wonder why?
"Really?!" The gigantic man said, euphorically, before holding a doctor by the arms. "Doctor, there's no blood here anymore, right?"
Wait…
"That's… we just finished… there's still a little bit Sir..."
"I can see him later right?"
There's no way…
"Of course, you dummy it's your son after all." My mother said after rolling her eyes a bit.
"At least try touching him, you're his father." A woman's voice coming from afar, I presume from the door.
"Alright, I'll."
Even blindfolded, my father somewhat was able to grasp where I was, and started passing his hands in my face, quite abruptly, but surprisingly it didn't hurt, it felt as if he was trying to understand my face structure more clearly.
"Wait, is this blood?"
My father took his hand off me, after touching a bit of blood that remained close to my ears.
"No…" My mother answered.
"It is, isn't it? ugh, I'm gonna puke…"
"Honey, it's not blood…"
"No, it is and I'm not going to puke… I'm sure, I'll pass out…"
Seeing my father, a massive man, who seemed to be able to kill a bear with his bare hands, being unable to stand blood, I couldn't stand it...
"Honey, look Lu is smiling!"
I'm glad I at least managed to make my new mother smile, but after the moment of my arrival, these next two weeks weren't so bright...
I'm embarrassed of myself, and I don't want to explain why… But I think some of you will enjoy my shame.
I call it the only-bring-shame kind of body, because imagine a lovely young lady carrying you around showing you this wonderful sophisticated and futuristic house, and all of a sudden you feel the need to poop, but your body simply does it.
As if there was no care at all, just felt and reacted…
For God's sake, in her arms!
I know I shouldn't be reacting like this as a former special forces soldier, but I'm still a man! My self-esteem was being shattered!
Apart from that, there was a moment that I really liked, breastfeeding. Wait... It's not what you were thinking, for real, it's not...
It's just that on this planet, they make babies drink a special kind of drink every day. My mother said it was to increase my body's constitution.
It's something about my body being unable to deal with the outside world if I don't drink. It also has another benefit, it's to increase the chance that I could use mana.
Yeah, you read right, mana, this world has something that I only heard about in movies or novels.
Odd as it may seem, the futuristic room where I was born was not a hospital, it was my parents room. And the doctors, apparently, are friends or members of my family.
One of them even showed me the so-called mana, in action, after my dad gave me his own constitution drink instead of mine, he really thought they were the same, but if it wasn't for his friend (a doctor) being close at the time this happened, I would have either died or been put into a vegetable state.
Aside from my idiotic father action, the doctor's actions were astonishing; it wasn't anything like administering a pill or injection, but rather a glowing eyes and light coming out of his hands sort of healing.
I and any earthling would probably react the same way, disbelief, seeing such a thing at first hand isn't just another futuristic device.
But I can probably say, for sure, I was more in disbelief when I heard about who my father was.
In the words of my savior, in addition to being a stupid and soft-hearted man, Haral Moray was also known as The Iron Wall, and he also tried to explain about the outside world, but my useless new-born body failed to keep up and I ended up falling asleep.
After that accident, my mother took care of me more than my father. I have nothing to complain about, it's somewhat awesome, since I could see my lovely mother working with the futuristic cell-phone-like device, which displayed a hologram in the midst of thin air.
I wanted to learn about it (the content my mother read), it was all about magic and other engineering-looking things.
I was also able to read some news about the world I am in now…
Aside from having mana and futuristic stuff, this is a post-war world where mana has become less used, and scientists and engineers are being sorely needed to save the world from chaos.
However, mana can be used by most people, even if it's not well used, the more powerful families and countries all have Mana Experts, the so-called Awakened.
On the other hand, science and engineers require something not found easily, high IQ, creativity and courage to go against the taboos and high ranked people.
In certain aspects, it's similar to my previous world, even though it wasn't at war when I died. There was a lot of it, and most of it revolved around high-ranking ambitions, with the innocents paying the price.
Not to mention the hidden actions that each country did…
But enough of that, this world economic system is extremely robust, because the supply of paper and ores is limited (expensive not only in monetary terms), each individual receives only a single card that works as an identification and credit card, I am amazed they made this work though.
I'm sure many Earthlings would appreciate this facility, but putting it in reality would be a unique challenge.
I saw my mother once looking at baby stuff, like toys and such, and I got curious about a few things: How she would buy something, and how much time it would take to arrive here.
The answer, she acquired it with a single click, and the spaceship (the toy, it was a small realistic spaceship) arrived after I drooled on mother's lap, just a few hours later.
It cost 300 prines! (prines is the coin used, like the dollar)
The dress mother purchased earlier cost 140 prines. Yeah… The toy was expensive.
I known, I didn't really want it, but my mother saw my expression when I first saw it and assumed I wanted…
I was so surprised to see such a realistic looking toy, that the boy who never received a gift other than clothes once a year from his parents took over for a brief moment.
I tried to move my hands to say that I didn't really want to, but I assume she didn't understand.
From that moment on, my focus became mastering my own body, from opening and closing my hands to moving my tongue and jaw, sometimes even attempting to hum.
In his new body, Major Franco understands it's time to discover a bit more about this new world he was sent to.