Mother

"What's wrong?"

When he heard Zenith scream, the man called Paul stuck his head in through the window.

Perhaps because he had been swinging his sword just now, he was drenched in sweat.

"Dear, listen to me. Rudeus was just hit on the head by a book from the shelf. He must be terribly frightened right now."

"Oh, boys grow by getting hurt."

A slightly neurotic mother, and a father who answered offhandedly with an open-minded attitude.

This was a scene I had often seen since coming to this world.

However, perhaps because my head had been struck this time, this mother called Zenith did not back down.

"But dear, this child has only been alive for one year! You should be more worried about him!"

Paul scratched the back of his head.

"Even if you say that, children grow by falling and tumbling a few times. Especially boys. Besides, even if he does get hurt, as long as you're here, he'll be fine, right?"

"But... when I think about the chance of him suffering some serious injury I can't heal, I get so worried..."

"It'll be fine."

As Father said that, he pulled both me and Mother into his arms.

A blush colored Mother's face.

"He didn't cry even after getting hurt. As expected, my child will become a talented swordsman."

As he said that, Father kissed Mother.

After that, they first took me to the room next door and laid me down, then moved upstairs and began the process of making me a younger sibling.

At first, I thought this was probably just what an ordinary medieval era was like. People in the past did not have many forms of entertainment, so all they could do was make children for fun.

But...

"Magic, huh..."

After that incident, I began carefully listening to the conversations between my parents and the maid.

As a result, I discovered many unfamiliar terms.

The names of countries, the names of knights, the names of regions, and so on—none of them had ever existed in the history I had learned.

So this world... was not Earth.

I had not reincarnated on Earth and returned to the past. I had reincarnated from Earth into another world.

Hmm... Then every assumption I had made about what I could do had to be overturned.

In a world with magic, the knowledge from my previous life stored in my head was most likely of little use.

Things defying common sense was the main theme of this world.

Holding a book, I crawled along and found the maid in our house, Lilia.

Right now, she was probably resting in her own room.

Every time I crawled over like this, she would pick me up and read to me.

When I crawled to the door of her room, I knocked on it with the book.

"Master Rudeus, you've come again?"

I nodded and patted the book with my hand.

"Listen..."

"Very well. I will read it to you."

Lilia picked me up, placed me on her bed, and began reading.

Learning to read was an extremely important step.

Since this world was completely different from my previous life, even the language had to be started from zero.

I liked experiencing the charm of different languages, and even in this world, I felt the same.

Lilia read very slowly, as if she knew I was identifying the characters. Her voice was also very gentle, so I always liked coming to find her.

If I had to choose who in the house was more like a mother, Lilia was clearly more motherly than Zenith.

After an hour, the book was finished.

Should I say, as expected of a child? My ability to learn language was far faster than I had imagined.

I opened the book again, and most of the words had not been forgotten from my mind.

It seemed that after listening a few more times, I probably would not need to go to Lilia anymore. I could just go to the study and read by myself.

"Tha... thank you," I said a little unclearly, but that could not be helped. A one-year-old child still could not speak clearly.

Lilia smiled gently and picked me up.

"What are you planning to do next, Young Master?"

Though I really wanted to say I was going to the study, this body was honestly a little tired.

I got tired just from listening to a book for a while and reading for a while.

A child's body was such a hassle...

"Sleep..."

Lilia smiled, then carried me back to the bed.

"Would you like me to sleep with you, Young Master?"

I nodded and closed my eyes at once.

"Mm..."