Jakob's (Ivan's) Perspective
It's dark.
And now i'm no longer warm.
When Typheer pushed me into the darkness I lost all warmth. The current area surrounding me is cold, and damp?
Wait damp?
I tried to opened my eyes, utterly curious to what put me in a scenario that would make me utterly soaking wet. To my horror, there stood a woman peering down on me with a smile perched on her face. She grinned as tears streamed down her face.
Oh great, I was just born. That is absolutely nasty.
——
The room around me was strange. Although all I could see was the bed's canopy above me and the ceiling adjacent to it. I could tell that the damned god didn't lie to me. This was truly another world I had been born into, for the better or the worse? That i'm yet to discover.
This is evident because there isn't steel everywhere. There's only wood, I could start weeping here and now for that fact alone. Thank you O' holiest Typheer for delivering me into a wooden room instead of rusted steel. It smells like freshly cut wood and candle incense instead of urine and steam!
As much as I want to cry that statement of thanksgiving out, I unfortunately can't. I can't speak at all, matter of fact. Every time I try to, it just comes out as a soft coo or cry.
Come to think of it, why is this lady so much larger than me, or even more why is she holding me, aren't I heavy?
In curiosity, I peered down to my body and noticed that, reincarnation didn't treat me as kindly as I wished it had.
I peered upon a blanket made of a rough sheep wool like material covering me, wrapping me as though I was a butterfly undergoing metamorphosis.
That cursed god must have forced me to start out as a newborn. That must mean that this lady that's currently holding me and weeping over me is my mother. To whom just, unfortunately for me, gave birth. Not that I remember it, thankfully.
My mother is a beautiful woman, with long brown hair and dark green eyes. Her complexion is fair and she's looks strong but kind. Yet, looks are often deceiving.
'salambakt studictamp lurtampta" said some girl off to the side.
Hold on, what the hell did she say? That startled me beyond belief. That's great though! First he sends me here as a baby, and now I can't understand their language either? I hope he's getting a kick out of this, I'm for sure nagging his ear off during our next meeting.
"Saramontana si our little boy" said my mother.
Now hold on, was that what I think it was? Maybe this god just forced me to assimilate to the language, because I am quite confident my mother just said "our little boy" and if that's the case then maybe after a few more words….
"Can I hold him, dear?" a man said off to the side.
Yes! I can understand them now. Is this some magic or something? Maybe a gift from that god. Whatever it may be, I'm just greatful to not have to listen to these people speak in words I don't understand, i'd go insane. Once more, praise be to Typheer for making me a young genius!
Not to brag of my intelligence or anything but it really is a god-given talent.
The man grabbed me from my mother, i'm presuming this is my father? He's quite forceful, and his hands are calloused. Not to mention the scars on his face. This man looks tough.
This man was dressed in fancy black attire. From what I could see, he wore a suit coat, it was high quality as well, though I can't tell what type of fabric that is; assuming that it comes from this world then I'm oblivious to what quality it is.
He also wore a gold chained hat, strangely enough it wasn't any shape I had seen back in Rus. It was kind of shaped like a top hat however a lot shorter and with a gold chain wrapped around its base. I assume my parents are quite wealthy in that case. Score!
Who was that other lady though?
I looked to the my. A maid! Goodness gracious I am blessed! Someone to wait on me.
"Truly a righteous looking young man, right dear?"
Don't get your hopes up.
"He'll make a great addition to this Barons household even if he isn't the heir."
my mother shattered my dreams with one sentence.
…
Curse you Typheer. A baron? It's over for me. If I go to school, i'll be shunned!
- - -
Three years have gone by since I was first born. Typheer has yet to call me to another meeting, I don't know what the old man is waiting on. However in this time i've learned a lot on how this world works.
This nation is called the Kingdom of Sievenheim. Sounds quite a lot like our worlds vikings; though it's more similar to Western Europe. Of course only in the landscape and structure of society does it have similarity.
The kingdom is broken into three distinct classes. First of which being the Monarchs, second being the Nobles, and third being the peasants. Nobility is split between Barons, Viscounts, Earls, Marquesses, and Dukes and above dukes are the kingdoms elite military commanders called Revilite.
My father is an honorary baron who gained his rank after fighting in the fifth Sarcation War which happened 10 years before I was born.
My mother was a commoner who was born to a family of blacksmiths.
The one thing i've learned is that blacksmiths are horrifying. Specifically my mother. Whilst I love her to death, I also fear for my life around her. I believe that just living amongst her is like a sense of warfare training; and it's not even my father whose doing the conditioning. Rather my mother who whips me into shape.
Despite being only three, i've caught a grasp on this world written language, which is far easier to do than when I was in the other world; as now I know this worlds language from birth. There's quite a few strange expressions I don't understand though, like "The shatterbush burns before the cattle". Shatterbush is a flameproof plant, I don't understand the meaning of the expression at all.
In my free time, I often read some of the books in my families library. We have a large selection and it's taught me quite a bit about the functions of this world.
First and foremost, there is a sort of magical energy in the universe called Reve. All things on this planet were created using reve-energy (or so the story goes) and thus all things consistently emit reve. Humans cultivate a reve center in their upper skull called the Revetain which draws in that reve from our environment. Usually we develop a revetain when we turn eight year old.
However, I plan on attempting to form one forcefully. From my research, I have concluded that you can create a revetain by cultivating reve in the same way that you would develop a "dream" which are circles of reve that surround a revetain which allows you to hold more magic energy.
My mother, despite being from a blacksmith family, is actually a high level mage and a magic geek. When she found me reading a book about magic theory one time, she ended up freaking out and trying to convince my father to let her teach me magic. In which my father sensibly shot her down due to me not having a revetain. I was two year old at the time.
I have two siblings, an older brother who is the heir of the family barony and an older sister. Both of whom are extremely kind to me. My brother is fifteen and my sister is thirteen, they're both attending the Royal Capitals School of Development.
It means I don't get to see them until they have school breaks.
And finally, the moment everyone is waiting for. My name is Jakob Steilor, the 2nd son of Baron Datler Steilor and Baroness Yona Steilor; and i'm three years old.
I felt as though I was a primary school student doing an introduction just there. Gross.
——
"Young Master Jakob," our Maid Lila calls out "your cousin is here."
Drat. This is the most dreaded moment of all for me. Acting like a child. For if I act too civilized around my cousin, it'll probably make bounds for suspicion on wether or not i'm truly the youth in the body that I inhabit. I've done well so far, and who knows what my parents would do if they found out I was actually a seventeen year old trapped in a three year olds mind.
I walk into the entryway of our estate and stand next to my mother at attention stance. It's not really military attention but the way these nobles act makes me feel like the king is a drill sergeant and acting out of line gets you executed.
Mother turned to me, "If you make your cousin cry again like last time, I'm barring you from using the library"
It wasn't my fault. Truthfully.
"Yes mother." I reply complacently, yet it was an empty promise.
Our maid leads my aunt in to our estate and my mother greets her in the Seivan way. Two kisses on the cheek. Quite western.
My aunt is a Duchess, and my cousin is the dreaded first son of a Duke. Though only a year older than me, his pompous behavior instills me to inquire of the god of death to show this young man the depth of hellia. What are these nobles raising their children to be? Demons? Still I enjoy his company.
I smile "Divum!" I shout crawling toward my cousin with open arms as if to hug him. He meets my embrace. This cringey childish behavior Is eating away at my soul.
"Jakey! Are you ready to play today?"
I almost wretched right there and then.
"Yes! What are we playing?" someone spare me this misery, I endear you.
"Let's have a sword spar."
What a fool. I've been training for this day for eons.
(Authors Note: It's been 2 weeks since Diviumina defeated Jakob for the first time, mind you.)
Today is the day i'll crush that fools ego.
Our mothers sit watching us, laughing as their young boys spew threats of violence at eachother racing for the training grounds. It's quite barbarian.
Due to our family being a decently well off household, we have our own built in training grounds. It's nice since when I get of age i'll be able to train in my swordsmanship here instead of traveling miles away for apprenticeship.
Me and Divum run for the small wooden swords crafted specifically for us. I still can't get over the beautiful scent of freshly cut wood, praise Typheer for wood.
Unlike my old life, I love sparring. That's due to the fact that I often lose. Yet what's more, is that you truly feel your life is on the line in a duel. All of which is exhilarating!
I don't know proper sword form yet, neither does Divum, however regardless we swing the swords at eachother. Blocking and attacking. It's more or less just swinging; and whilst I hate acting childish, I do love this portion of the experience.
Divum sends his sword down shooting to my right, I intercept the path of the blade with a carefully crafted block along the flat edge of my blade. His sword slides off and I lunge forwards going for the strike, surprisingly he dodges sending me spiraling face first into the training ground floor availing him to laugh at me.
Though it's embarrassing, it doesn't feel bad. Rather, I love it. The feeling of having freinds—regardless of how egotistical they are—and having caring family, is something parallel to my experience in my last life. Yet this is something I will fight to protect until the day I die.
Yeah. That's it! I pledge myself in this life to getting stronger in order to protect my family and friends. It's corny, I know, but it's my devotion. I wasn't summoned here to defeat a demon king or what not; so i'll make my own purpose.
After a short while of sparring, we're both run down. Divum can hardly breathe. All of it is the fault of this tiny body.
"Why don't we take a break Jaky" my cousin exclaims. Gladly I agree, with a smile on my face. A true smile mind you.
We walk over to where my mother and aunt are sitting and set up next to them on a small stone wall used to seperate the training pit from the walkway.
We don't have a massive estate, we have a small mansion with a training pit, a garden, and a nice fountain powered by a Reve Magic water stone. It's not too big, yet I would say a variety of the lower class would kill to have this.
That's what hasn't changed in this kingdom, I was privileged to be born in a middle-high class family, and while it's not the brutal slums of Rus. The lower class still struggles to get by. Many of them live a happy life: for example our estate village of Sanidril is home to a small population of around 150 people, yet my father makes sure to treat them with the upmost respect and care. Of which I respect him greatly for.
However in other regions, illegal slave trades, thieves guilds, and other detestable illegalities occur.
I sip the cup of tea that Lila had prepared for me and Divum. Lila is an elf, an estranged race from the east. Quite beautiful as well.
Due to my idleness, I decide to tune into whatever conversation the adults are having to my right:
"Did you hear about the 'peasant killer'" my aunt called out to my mother.
This caught my ear, I pretended to not hear but continued listening. It sounded intriguing.
"No! That sounds terrible, do continue."
"In our territory, the village of Dunloi has seen various murders on those of the lower class, specifically 32 accounted murders. Thus, a large concern has presented itself among the commoners in that region and we aren't getting adequate resources. We've employed one of our retainers to assist in this situation but to no avail."
"That's terrible Katherine, is there anything we could do to help?"
"Not at the moment Yona, your comfort is enough."
A serial killer huh? I used to deal with those all the time in Rus. I mean i've never caught them personally but still, or had to see them. I still heard of them a lot, and tried solving the cases on my own. Yet, who would go after peasants specifically? It's strange.
Possibly a noble? I wonder.
After that, it was time for departure so we saw my aunt and cousin off to their carriage. My mother gave her condolences about the passing of their common class and sent them off with our lands specialty desserts. A fine gift for traveling all this way.
I'm truly confounded on the serial killer case, yet there's such a lack of evidence that I can't do much to help unless it comes to our territory. I doubt it will matter, though i wonder if the concern would spread to nobles eventually too.
Oh well, there's a much more pressing issue I must face at the moment…
"Mama, free time?" I coo. If there was a pill that made me age rapidly I would take ten of them.
"Yes Jakob, you're free to have the rest of the day to yourself, if you use the library please clean up after yourself, we don't need a spillage like last time."
I laughed nervously. Though I wasn't going to the library today. I rushed off to the garden and sat within the gazebo. The garden was a perfect place to build ones revetain, due to the abundance in flowers and flowing water, which produced a huge amount of reve.
According to the guide, I need to enter a meditative state and try to feel the Reve around me. Once I grasp that, it should be like envisioning a vacuum sucking in the reve to my upper skull; something should happen when I unlock my revetain but i'm unsure about truly what that is.
I sat on the ground with my legs crossed, and began to relax into a light meditation. My eyes were closed, and all I saw was black. Eventually though, I began to enter a trance like state.
This is when they began appearing. Little balls of light, and they were, wait? Green?
Reve is sorted into four classes:
Red - Fire
Blue - Water
Brown - Earth
White - Wind
but green? That's unheard of. Out of all the accounts I've read, there's never been a single case of green reve. That's astonishing, I bet that damned old man had something to do with this. Is this the "blessing of the child of dream" that he was droning on about?
I began collecting the reve. However it took at least 10 minutes to get one ball of reve into my upper skull. This would take a while.
———
3 Hours later.
I feel my revetain developing. This is a sure of a hell lot more painful than letting it develop naturally. It's taken three hours of constant meditation. I don't have that patience normally.
If it's like this everytime you develop a Dream then it probably takes ages to develop.
Dreams are ranked in terms of power levels:
Dreams are the lowest power level
Nightmares are the medium level power
Trances are the highest power level
each contain three different levels.
but…
…
Almost there.
…
I don't know exactly when, but suddenly, it all went quiet. My eyes were closed narrowing in on one final ball of reve. And In the moment I accumulated my final ball of reve…
It all went white.
From behind me, I heard a familiar voice.
he spoke:
'It's been a while, fated child of dream'