Early Years

by TurtleMe

  The Beginning After The End

  Volume I. Early Years

  By TurtleMe

  TABLE OF CONTENTS

  Prologue: Start

  Chapter 1: The Light At The End of The Tunnel

  Chapter 2: The Encyclopedia of Mana Manipulation

  Chapter 3: Head Start

  Chapter 4: My Life Now

  Chapter 5: Let The Journey Begin

  Chapter 6: Up The Mountain

  Chapter 7: How I Wished

  Chapter 8: Questions

  Chapter 9: Ones Held Dear

  Chapter 10: Road Ahead

  Chapter 11: To and Fro

  Chapter 12: Meeting

  Chapter 13: Q & A

  Chapter 14: What’s To Come

  Chapter 15: Next Step

  Chapter 16: Companion

  Chapter 17: Family

  Chapter 18: Peaceful

  Chapter 19: Proclamation

  Chapter 20: Everybody Wins

  Chapter 21: For Them

  Prologue: Start

  “The Continent of Dicathen is comprised of three major Kingdoms: The Forest Kingdom of Elenoir in the North, The Underground Kingdom of Darv nearing the southern borders, and The Kingdom of Sapin, located towards the eastern border of the continent. There also exist the Beast Glades, where much remains a mystery. Not much of the Beast Glades is traversed because of the abundance of beasts that are hostile to travelers as well as each other. Yet, every year, countless expeditions are made because of the temptations of the rewards one can reap……….”

  “flip”

  “…….The Kingdom of Elenoir is the birthplace of the Elf race, located deep in the Forest of Elshire where a layer of mist is naturally produced, deterring all but the elves, who, with their acute senses, can navigate freely…”

  “flip”

  “……Kindgom of Darv is a network of underground passages and enormous caves that can span up to several kilometers, whereupon the Dwarvin race reside.”

  “flip”

  “….The Kingdom of Sapin is easily the most populated region as well as the biggest kingdom in the continent. While this Kingdom is primarily made up of humans, there are many merchants from the Dwarvin race, trading commodities of many...”

  “flip”

  “…While the Beast Glades contain countless monsters and creatures, it also contains wondrous treasures for those who dare seek them. There are records brought by adventurers and mercenaries of dungeons and lairs of powerful entities that can make even the most generous priest into a greedy..”

  “flip”

  “….Between the forest of Elshire and the Kingdom of Sapin lies the Grand Mountain range which spans across roughly 90% of the continent, separating the North and East from the West and South ...”

  "flip"

  “While the Kingdom of Darv and Sapin hold a symbiotic relationship for resources, at most, the Elves seclude and act aggressively towards every other...”

  “flip”

  Closing the worn covers of what seemed to be an encyclopedia of this world, Arthur rubbed the bridge of his nose with his pudgy fingers, downcast, while emanating a gloom that was almost tangible. He let out a sound half sigh that only seemed appropriate with his toothless mouth…

  “PHUUUUUK…”

  Chapter 1: The Light At The End of The Tunnel

  I never believed in the whole “light at the end of the tunnel” bullshit where people, after experiencing near-death experiences, wake up in cold sweat exclaiming, “I saw the light!”

  But here I am currently at this so-called “tunnel” facing towards this bright light, when the last thing I remember, I was sleeping in my room (while others call it the royal chamber).

  Did someone assassinate me?

  I don’t remember wronging anyone. But then again, being a public figure of power can give others all sorts of reasons to want me dead.

  Anyways….

  Since it doesn’t seem like I’m going to wake up anytime soon and I’m slowly gravitating towards this bright light, I might as well go along with it.

  Seeming to take an eternity to go towards this light, I half expected some choir of children singing an angelic tune, beckoning me towards heaven.

  Instead, my vision of everything around turned into a blur of a bright red while sounds assaulted my ears. When I try to say anything, the only sound that comes out seems to be a cry.

  I hear muffled voices becoming clearer and I make out a, “Congratulations Madam, congratulations Sir, he’s a healthy boy.”

  …Wait

  I guess normally, I should be thinking along the lines of “Shit, was I just born? Am I a baby now?”

  But strangely, the only thought that seemed to pop up in my mind was “So the bright light at the end of the tunnel is the light coming through into the female vag…”

  Haha... lets not think about it anymore.

  Assessing my situation like the kingly king I am, I noticed, first of all, that wherever I was born into, I understand the language. That’s good.

  Next, after slowly and painfully opening my eyes, my retinas were bombarded with different colors and figures. It took a bit of time for my infant eyes to even start working. The doctor, or so it seems, in front of me had a not so appealing face with long greying hair on both head and chin. I swear his glasses were thick enough to be bulletproof. The strange thing was, he wasn’t wearing a doctor’s gown nor were we even in a hospital room. I seemed to have been born in some satanic summoning ritual room because this room was lit only by a couple of candles and we were on the floor.

  I look around and see the female who pushed me out of her tunnel. Calling her mother should be fair. Taking a few more seconds to see what she looks like, I’ll have to admit she’s a beauty, but that might be my half blurry eyes. Rather than a glamorous beauty, I would better describe her as lovely, in a very kind and gentle sense with distinct auburn hair and brown eyes. I can’t help but notice her long eyelashes and perky nose that makes me want to just cling to her. She just permeates this mother-like feel. Is this how babies are attracted to their mothers?

  I peel my face away and turn right to barely make out the person who I assume is my father by the idiotic grin and teary eyes when seeing me. Immediately he says “Hi little Art, I’m your daddy, can you say dada?” I glance around to see both my mother and the house doctor (for all the certification he seems to have), roll their eyes and my mother manages to scoff, “Honey, he was just born.”

  I take a closer look at my father and I can see why my lovely mother was attracted to him. Besides the few loose screws he seemed to have by expecting a newborn to articulate a two-syllable word (Where I’m just going to give him the benefit of the doubt and think he said that out of the joy of becoming a father), He was a very charismatic-looking man. With a square jaw line cleanly shaven. His hair, having a very ashy brown color, seemed to be kept short, while his eyebrows were strong and fierce, extending in a sword-like fashion meeting to a V shape. Yet, his eyes had a gentle quality, whether it was from the way his eyes drooped a little at the end or from the deep blue, almost sapphire, color his irises radiated.

  By the time I finished checking ou… I mean observing my parents; the wannabe doctor excused himself saying, “Please continue resting for a couple of days Mrs. Leywin, and let me know if anything happens to Arthur, Mr. Leywin.”

  The following couple of weeks after my journey out of the tunnel were a new kind of torture for me. I had little to no motor control over my limbs except waving them around and even that got tiring quickly. I realized that babies don’t really get to control their fingers all that much. I don’t know how to break it to you guys but when you place your fingers on a babies palm, they don’t grab it because they like you, they grab
it because, like getting hit in the funny bone, it’s a reflex. Forget motor control, I can’t even excrete my wastes at my discretion. It just… comes out. Haa…

  A positive was that I was breastfed by my mother.

  Don’t get me wrong, no ulterior motives whatsoever. It’s just that breast milk tastes a lot better than baby formula okay and has more nutritional value okay? Er… please believe me.

  The Satanic demon-summoning place seems to be my parent’s room and from what I figure, this place that I’m stuck in is, hopefully, a place in my world that is the past, where electricity isn’t yet invented.

  My mother quickly proved my hopes wrong when she one day healed a scratch on my leg when my idiotic father bumped me against a drawer.

  No…Not like, band-aid and a kiss heal, but a full blown, shining light with a faint hum from her fucking hands heal.

  Where the hell am I.

  My mother, named Alice Leywin, and my father, named Reynolds Leywin, at least seem to be good people, hell if not the best. I suspect my mother is an angel because I’ve never met such a kindhearted, warm person. While being carried on her back by a baby cradle-strap of some sort, I went with her to what she called a town. This town of Ashber is more of a glorified outpost, seeing that there are no roads, no buildings. We walked on the main dirt trail where there were tents on both sides with various merchants and salesman/woman selling all sorts of things, from common, everyday needs to things I thought couldn’t help but widen my eyes at, like weapons and armor and rocks… shining rocks!

  The strangest thing that I can’t seem to get used to are the people carrying weapons like it was part of their apparel. I witnessed a man of around 170cm carrying a gigantic war axe larger than him! Anyway, mother keeps talking to me, probably to try to get me to learn the language faster, while shopping for the day's groceries, exchanging pleasantries with various people passing by or working in the booths. Meanwhile, my body is turning against me once again, and I fell asleep… Damn this useless body.

  Sitting on the lap of my mother who was caressing me in her bosom, I was intently focused on my dad currently casting a chant for a good minute, which sounded like a prayer to the earth. I leaned in closer and closer, almost falling off my human seat while expecting some magical phenomenon, like an earthquake spitting the ground or a giant stone golem emerging. After what seemed like an eternity (trust me, for an infant who has the attention span of a goldfish, it was.) Three adult, human-sized boulders came out of the ground and slammed against a nearby tree.

  What in the name of…that was it?

  I flailed my arms up in anger and regret but my idiot father interpreted that into a “WOW” and had a big grin on his face saying, “Your daddy is awesome huh!”

  No, my father was a much better warrior. When he put on his two iron gauntlets, even I felt compelled to drop my underwear (or diaper) for him. With agile movements that were surprising for his build, his fists carried the force to break the sound barrier, but were fluid enough to not leave an opening. In my world, he could be classed as an elite, leading a platoon of a hundred soldiers, but to me, he was my idiot father.

  For what I learned about this world, it seemed to be a fairly straightforward world of magic and warriors where power and wealth decided your rank in society. In that sense, it wasn’t too different from my world except the lack of technology and the slight difference between magic and Ki here.

  In my old world, Wars became an almost obsolete form of settling disputes between countries. Don’t get me wrong, of course there were still battles on a smaller scale and armies were still needed for the safety of the citizens. However, disputes concerning the wellbeing of a country were based on either a duel between the rulers of the their country, limited to making use of Ki and close combat weapons, or a mock battle between platoons, where limited firearms were allowed, for the smaller disputes.

  Therefore, Kings weren’t the typical fat man sitting on throne ignorantly commanding others, but had to be the strongest, smartest man to represent his or her country.

  Enough about that though.

  The currency in this new world seemed pretty straightforward from the exchanges my mother had with the merchants.

  Copper being the lowest form of currency, then Silver, then Gold. While I have yet to see anything costing as much as a Gold coin, normal families seem to be able to live fine off of a couple copper coins a day.

  100 Copper = 1 Silver

  100 Silver = 1 Gold

  Everyday involved honing my new body, mastering the motor functions residing deep within me.

  Then one day everything changed…

  Chapter 2: The Encyclopedia of Mana Manipulation

  I was a King. I could have my country’s army assemble at my front feet kneeling down with a snap of a finger. I’ve outdueled my competitors from different countries as well as my own to settle disputes and maintain my position. In terms of swordsmanship and controlling Ki, I was second to none, for having personal strength was essential to becoming a ruler in my past world on Earth. Kings weren’t born but were raised. Yet, I can’t think of a prouder moment than now.

  I can crawl baby!

  ‘Till now, I had to make do with the stories mother would tell me while trying to make me fall asleep. I grumbled out noises of complaints when she stopped too soon. My father would sometimes sit me on his lap while idly talking to me about his old days, which gave me some hints as to what kind of world this was and what it was filled with.

  Reynolds Leywin, former adventurer, (apparently that’s an occupation in this world) had quite a lot of experience in this field. He was in several parties that went on expeditions to search for treasure and fulfill missions they acquired from the Adventurer Guild. He eventually settled down when he met my mother on the borders of the Kingdom in a city called Valden. He proudly told me how my mother was head over heels for him at first sight when he visited the town’s Adventurer Guild hall she worked at, but I suspect it was the opposite from how my mother slapped him across the back of the head and told him to stop telling Art lies.

  My name is Arthur Leywin now, by the way. Art for short, which, as a former King, sounds a little too cute, but hey, after getting a glimpse of myself in the metal sheet they use as a mirror in the washroom, I looked freaking adorable. I got my mother’s glowing auburn hair while my eyes are a bright azure color, inherited from my father. I don’t know how my facial features are going to turn out as I mature but as long as I don’t turn out fat, it’ll be okay.

  Watch out future ladies! Prepare to be heartbroken!

  Weeks of attempting to crawl, yet only succeeding in barely scuffling in place, I succeeded in crawling, managing to sneak into the family’s library/study room while my mother was hanging the laundry out to dry. Mother rued the day I started to become mobile, sighing, “I swear, you’re going to become as hard to manage as your father.”

  ______________________________________________

  I closed the encyclopedia down and situated myself more comfortably on the ground, which meant I just laid back on my tummy because crawling and sitting upright is damn tiring.

  Pondering what I just read, this world seemed pretty underdeveloped. From what I can infer, there doesn’t seem to be much technology. The only source of transportation seems to be horse driven carriages, varying in size for land, and ships with sails for rivers.

  Weapons were freely allowed and not really regulated unless you were visiting the royal family or people of that much authority. For God’s sake, it continues to baffle me every time I see people carrying weapons while shopping for groceries.

  Sure, in my previous world, Earth, there were soldiers and guards who carried concealed weapons, but they weren’t for the purpose of killing but to deter crimes from happening.

  But here, I witnessed a thief who stole a couple of items from the armory store the other day get chopped in half across the waist by a large, bald mercenary carrying a polearm. Seeing that, the citizens
even went as far as to applaud that oversized monk!

  A similarity that both this world and my previous world shared is the system of monarchy. This continent of Dicathen has Kingdoms where each Kingdom consists of King and royal family that rules. Unlike Earth though, the King is chosen based on lineage, going from the son of the King, to his son and so on.

  After scanning through the encyclopedia, there doesn’t seem to be much information on other continents besides the one we’re currently in. That’s strange, there are ships that carry goods and passengers across the continent through rivers, but maybe the technology on ships haven’t been developed enough to sail across oceans.

  One thing that was going to be hard getting used to is the whole premise of magic in this world. If we’re talking about superhuman powers, sure, the countries on Earth relied on people with them.

  On Earth, practitioners learned how to condense and utilize the innate ki that they had in their body. Think of it as a muscle if you will. Breaking the ki center down through overuse and resting it caused the ki center to become stronger, allowing for a bigger pool of ki to access from. Then the ki is channeled through the body at will and utilized for strengthening of the body.