In truth, I don't remember much about how reincarnation happened. I saw flashes when I was in my new mother's embrace before flashing again to look at my father's face. It happened often up until I'm old enough to think, when I was 3-4 years old. That was the time when all my previous life memories flooded back into my tiny toddler brain, which made me passed out an entire day.
And so, here I was, standing, breathing, hearing in this new foreign world. My new body is small of course, it's a child. The most distinct feature I found so far about me, that was shared with everyone else and never had been seen before back on earth, was our pointy ears.
What was distinct about me was my platinum blonde hair, which was weird because both my parents had brown hairs. Although no one seemed to questioned my heritage, so I don't mind it much. Aside from that, my eyes were also teal in color, which also didn't match my parents'.
My father didn't seem to like me. Originally, he paid close attention to me, until I was 3 years old when he suddenly ignored me and focused on managing our domain. He always looked at me with disdain, like he never wanted me. Whenever I tried to ask him about something, he always said "Ask your mother about that", before leaving me with his guards.
Contrary to him, my mother seemed to shower me with love. It was foreign to me, I never had any love from anyone for half of my past life. Now, I was suddenly being hugged by my mother while carrying me like a child. Wait... I am a child.
I ask her about my father's strange behavior, of course, trying to mimic a children's look of curiosity. Her face fell for a second before her poker face came up, then she smiled, it was fake of course, and said to me.
"Your Father works hard to manage our realm, Elissa. He does love you, but his love is in a unique way".
I nodded attentively, trying to dispel any kind of flowery language she might add afterwards.
I know she is lying, if he did love me then he wouldn't look at me as if I was a stain in his white clothes. But, I don't know what is making him suddenly turned like that. I can't gather information either, people always lied to me when I ask about him.
I tried asking the servants, the Gardener and even the guards, both said the exact same thing my mother said. However, their lying face wasn't as good as my mother, and I can see several of them looking at me with empathy. Which made this whole situation confusing.
Eventually, I grew up to be a tall 6 year old. It was at this point when I can explore the world more freely. I learned much from reading books from the library, which I was now allowed to enter. I also learned a lot just by listening to my mother's story, which mostly consists of fables from old times.
I now know that I'm what the people in this world called an elf. Our pointy knife ears are the obvious and distinct feature that we have. What surprised me the most is that the average elf could live up to 400 years! I couldn't believe myself, that woman, she truly fullfiled my wish!
I read more about the world, more specifically about the place I'm currently in. I knew that my family had a high status in society, it was evident because we literally lived inside a massive castle in the middle of a bustling fantastical city. But, I never knew what exactly was my family's title and standing in this world.
This new world is quite similar in terms of Medieval Europe. There are kingdoms dotting the landscape and most of them adopt a system of feudalism which means that the peasants of the land are owned by the lords who owned that land, which is passed down from generations via a system of hereditary succession.
Then, I finally learned the name of my family's domain, the Elven Realm of Calenon. My father, which is often called the Grand Prince of Calenon had carved out this domain after separating from his main family branch. And so, he has been ruling this domain for about 300 years, quite the long time. This also means that I would be the second ruling monarch of this realm if my father passed away, not like he's going to soon, he's very healthy.
Calenon is not independent however, it and several hundred other lords are part of the larger Empire of Holy Ranavia. Calling it an empire definitely shook my view of what an empire actually was, because although it was an empire by law, in truth it was nothing more than a loose confederation of feudal domains who squabbled for land and fought against one another, occasionally.
Calenon itself is one of the main realms in the empire, because it was granted the title of Electorate. Calenon along with 6 other domains are responsible to select a candidate to become an emperor.
I realized that my responsibility will be a lot more than what I anticipate, not only would I have to manage the realm, but I'm in the center of politics inside a larger Empire, which made me nervous a little bit. It wasn't like I'm scared of it, I once was a president of a country damnit! I have to be strong and prepare to lead this nation in the future.
With this new revelation, I seeked out the library almost every day to learn something new about this world.