Waaah, waaah.
"Is it normal to hear the cry of a baby as it dies...?"
I thought, Alexander, as reality faded around me. Was this an auditory hallucination from blood loss? Or perhaps a child nearby had been caught in the explosion.
If it were the latter, it would be a tragedy. My purposeless life would end today, and there was no way a newborn could survive an explosion in a downtown laboratory.
"I'd love to save him, but I'm in no condition to help anyone. My body is cut in half." I tried to clear my mind, but all I could do was hope to be reborn into the fantastic and blissful world I had glimpsed before falling into darkness, not this miserable world I had known.
Waaaaaaaaaaah!
The wailing grew louder, echoing in my mind. I wouldn't be surprised if the baby suffocated from crying at such a volume.
"What a pathetic death. I can't even help a nearby child."
My vision plunged into darkness.
With no sign of the baby, the cries persisted. As I endured the shame and remorse, I wondered why I hadn't died yet. I had sustained countless mortal wounds, my body cut in two at the waist. There was no way I could survive another ten seconds. Yet, the wailing did not cease. In a moment of confusion, I realized the sound was coming from my own being.
"The sound is coming from my body!"
Without understanding what was happening, the truth revealed itself in that fleeting instant.
Today, December 1, 6021, the eldest son of the family of sword and fighting masters, Raimon Flower, had entered the world.
Two hundred days had passed since my rebirth.
As Raimon, I could already crawl with dexterity, exploring an environment that felt both familiar and strange. There was no other explanation for my existence than that I had been reborn after my death. I was living a dream I had always read about in fantasy novels. And even if I shared my story with others years later, I doubted they would believe me. They would see me as a child with a vivid imagination, or worse, they might fear what they couldn't understand.
The possibility of being treated as a cursed child loomed over me. So, I accepted my new name and the heavy burden that came with it: being the eldest son of the dreaded Flower family.
Being the eldest son of the Flower family was no small matter.
From the few fragments of conversation I had grasped, I understood that most people considered it a privilege to be born as the firstborn of the Flowers. A family of high status in the Empire, feared by enemies and loved by its people. In a world full of monsters and dangers, human power manifested in extraordinary ways. Physical and mental abilities were common, but blood powers were the most coveted.
Thirty days after my birth, I underwent a test that revealed my blood powers. However, I felt lost.
"I would have preferred to be born into a normal family."
In that case, it wouldn't have taken me a hundred days to accept the truth about my situation. Exhausted from living in the shadow of a powerful family, I felt the weight of expectations pressing down on me.
I had been reborn into the same family, as the same child, on the same day of my previous life. With no siblings, I would likely inherit the same talents I had in my past life. And with the advantages of this new world, I should excel even more.
Swordsmanship and blood powers became my goals. However, the Flower family focused more on developing physical skills, as their lineage endowed them with immunity to most blood powers. This heightened the mortality rate for young heirs, as various families from both enemy nations and within the Empire sought their assassination.
The Zilphen family, with their natural ice powers, and the Fire family, masters of fire, were the Flowers' greatest enemies.
"I am the eldest son of the Flowers. I wonder if the curse the clerks speak of, which dissipated the moment I arrived in this world, still follows me. How can I adapt to this family and try to live a freer life this time?"
There was no way to live my life as I had before; I needed to learn how to wield the full potential of my lineage without leaving the House of Flowers. If the curse that had plagued my family for years had lifted, I could learn to wield the sword and seek adventure. My curiosity about this wonderful world began to swell.
As I pondered deeply, my eyes started to slowly close.
My body could no longer obey my mind, and exhaustion overcame me. I fell into a deep sleep. Within those small dreams, unbeknownst to me, the union of my strong soul with the lineage of this body was causing earth-shattering changes that would help me overcome numerous crises in the future.