I slowly opened my eyes, or at least I tried to.
For some reason, my eyes were sticky. There was a woody scent filling my nostrils, and baby faint cries could be heard around me.
Suddenly, something held me up, and I could finally open my eyes fully.
"■■■■■■■"
What the hell...?
In front of me was a woman with reddish hair, glasses, and a maid uniform. She had a soft smile on her face as she cradled my body carefully.
"■■■■■?"
Her voice was soft and melodic, but the words coming out of her mouth were completely unintelligible to me.
Even though my hearing was kinda deficient and my ears were covered by a sticky liquid, I could hear everything around me.
In the middle of my confusion, I tried to speak and ask questions, but only slurred sounds came out of my mouth.
"Mnh-Aaann"
What is happening?
As I looked closely around me, it seemed I was in some kind of rustic but well-decorated room. The light from some candles flickered softly, illuminating the space.
Even though the room looked fairly spacious, it couldn't be properly appreciated because there were a lot of people in it.
"■■■■"
To my right side was a little girl, with the same reddish hair, features, and uniform as the woman who was holding me.
The girl was holding a baby in her arms, and she was looking at it with love and adoration in her eyes.
"■■■■■■■"
The girl moved her lips, saying something, but I couldn't understand her.
Suddenly, the woman who was holding me laid me on the lap of a red-haired woman who was on a bed.
The reddish-haired girl did the same thing, laying the baby she was holding next to me in the lap of the red-haired woman.
The woman with red eyes like fire stared at both of us with a tired but somehow proud smile. She was drenched in sweat, but her face refused to show weakness.
She looked at the baby next to me and murmured something. The only thing I could distinguish was a name.
"Ars..."
The baby, now named Ars, stopped crying and looked at the woman with newfound amazement in his big green eyes.
After smiling at him, the woman turned to look at me. Her thumb brushed gently across my cheek as I heard the name the woman said to me.
"Ryker...."
I don't know if it was the fact that I had received so much gentle attention for the first time in a while, or if it was the fact that this woman had given me a new name, but something in my heart stirred as I heard the name she gave me.
Looking at a window next to the bed, I could see the night sky and the stars gleaming outside. However, the most important part was my reflection in the window.
I was a small baby. Now there was no doubt. I had reincarnated.
---
In the days following my reincarnation, I learned three important things.
First, my name was Ryker.
Second, I had a brother named Ars.
Third, my mother was the red-haired woman who had been lying on the bed the day I was born.
These were simple things, but in my situation, living in a baby's body, they were an achievement for me.
My new home was a wooden crib I shared with my brother, Ars. It was a nice and calm place at first, but when Ars started crying every night, I realized it wasn't really that good.
Still, I didn't hold any grudge against Ars, of course. He was just acting like a normal baby. In this scenario, I was the weird one.
So no matter how much Ars punched my head with his tiny fists, he would still be my little brother. Or just my twin brother? Well, I don't know. He was my brother.
Most of my days were spent sleeping and staring blankly at the ceiling, but sometimes people would come to visit both Ars and me.
The reddish-haired girl was the one who came the most, though she was mostly focused on taking care of Ars.
Also, a blonde girl around the same height as the reddish-haired girl came to visit us too. This one, however, seemed to like staring at me, and she sometimes traced circles on my little forehead with her finger.
One night, I even saw an orange-haired girl staring quietly at both of us with a curious gaze, though I almost never saw her again.
But if there was one person who came the most, it was a beautiful white-haired woman with the curious detail that she had pointed ears.
At first, it was strange, but seeing how kind and attentive she was to both me and Ars, I didn't pay much attention to her pointed ears.
Sometimes, all these people would gather and come to visit us. They would come to tickle and cuddle Ars, and he would let out little giggles of amusement as he buried his face in the women's chests.
Me, on the other hand...
"■■■■Ryker■■?"
I was more of an apathetic baby.
I don't know if that is even possible, but hey, I'm a reincarnator, so who am I to judge what's possible at this point?
Sometimes people would try to tickle me and make funny faces, but most of the time I wouldn't laugh.
Not because I was trying to be rude, but simply because I was past the mental age where silly faces made me laugh.
So I had become like the exotic little animal of the household.
"Ryker■■■■■"
A gentle voice snapped me out of my thoughts. Looking up, I saw the white-haired woman and realized I was in her lap, being rocked.
She had such a kind and maternal smile that it made me question whether perhaps she was my actual mother. Why else would she take so much care of me and my brother?
-Bang!
A squeal escaped my lips when I heard the loud sound of a door bursting open.
Tilting my head to the side, my vision was obscured by the fierce red hair I had already grown somewhat accustomed to seeing.
"■■■■■■!"
The loud and excited voice belonged to my biological mother.
Her red eyes swept across the room and found both Ars and me. She moved quickly, took Ars from the reddish-haired girl's arms, and pulled me off the white-haired woman's lap.
Ars, who seemed to be dozing off, blinked in confusion, but then, upon recognizing my mother, he started to touch her and bury his face in her chest.
A tired sigh escaped my mother's lips, and she casually pulled out her breast and started to breastfeed Ars...
In front of everybody!
Looking around, everyone was just smiling sweetly, as if they were watching a cute cartoon.
"I don't want this!" I shouted, but instead, the sound that escaped my lips was, "Wahh! Mnnahh!"
My mother looked at me with a puzzled expression, but then she laid me down in the crib.
Now, I won't lie to myself. Obviously, by this point, I had already felt hunger, and of course, I had already been... breastfed by my mother.
The thing is that, up to this point, I had only done that when my mother, or at best the white-haired woman, was present. Not in front of the whole damn family!
It was already embarrassing enough to be a twenty-year-old guy in a baby's body and be breastfed, and now I had to expose all my shame to others? Hell no!
However, in the following days, I had to completely adapt to my new situation. I was a completely helpless baby, so I slowly adapted to being breastfed and bathed by other women.
A curious thing I noticed was that, most of the time, it was the white-haired woman and the reddish-haired woman with the maid uniform who would bathe me.
Rarely, my mother would do so.
After a few days, the reddish-haired girl and the blonde girl got into the habit of taking Ars and me out of our crib and taking us for walks outside the room.
Finally, I could see the outside world!
Well... maybe not quite yet, since they only took us for walks inside the house. But for me, that was already an adventure.
Apparently, my family was quite wealthy, because the house we lived in wasn't a house. It was a mansion!
There were rooms everywhere. The hallways and living areas were adorned with fine wood and stone detailing. The living room and kitchen were fully equipped with nice but rustic furniture.
There was a damn staircase right in the middle of the house!
The only odd thing was that everything was really simple and basic. There was no electricity or any sort of modern technology.
Maybe our family was the sort of exotic rich people who liked living in the countryside, isolated from the rest of the world.
But recalling the white-haired woman's pointed ears, a theory began to take shape in a corner of my head...
Anyway, now I had the chance to meet even more people that lived here.
A little girl with brown hair and pointed ears was the first one to interact with me. She looked around two years old. Our interaction consisted of her simply staring at me with curious eyes.
The second person I met was a blue-haired girl of maybe one year old. When we met, she just opened her sleepy eyes, took a glance at me, and went back to sleep.
I don't know why, but something tells me this girl will be really lazy when she grows up...
Finally, the most mysterious person was a quiet blonde woman who spent most of her time sitting quietly in the yard of the house.
One time, the blonde girl laid me on the lap of the older blonde woman. She looked at me in silence, but for some reason, something tugged at the back of my mind. It was a strange sensation.
Something tells me that she was happy to see me.
My routine was simple, but it was filled with a love and warmth I don't remember ever experiencing. Honestly, it was nice.
---
Today was pretty much a simple day as usual.
I was on the couch, hanging out with Ars and the two girls who accompanied us everywhere. While Ars was enjoying the attention, I was trying to crawl away and explore the house by myself.
Unfortunately, the reddish-haired girl always caught me and put me back on the couch while chuckling.
Suddenly, the front door opened, and the orange-haired girl I had seen once before ran out of the house. My curiosity was overshadowed by surprise moments later when someone walked through the door.
It was a tall, brown-haired man, and in his arms, he was carrying my mother.
It was surprising to see my always-energetic mother now with a relaxed look on her face, being casually carried by a man I had never seen before.
The man laid my mother down and stared at Ars with a completely stunned gaze. He sat down on the couch, holding Ars like a precious gem.
Ars blinked in confusion and patted the man's chest. Once he noticed it wasn't a woman's chest, he started crying.
I'm starting to think my brother might grow up to be a perv...
Suddenly, the man started crying too. He had a very relieved but at the same time sad look in his eyes while crying and holding Ars.
The situation was turning a bit too awkward and emotional for me, so I decided to crawl to the edge of the couch and tried to hide beneath the cushions.
Quickly, every member of the house surrounded the crying man and consoled him with calm expressions. Even the brown-haired girl gently patted his head.
Nevertheless, I couldn't stay hidden forever. After calming down and stopping his crying, the man turned and looked at me directly.
His eyes widened again, and his face was filled with surprise. He passed Ars to my mother and then extended his arms toward me.
Once I was scooped up by him, I could see his face and features more closely. He had green eyes, but one of them seemed a little bit different from the other.
"Ryker."
This was the first male voice I had heard ever since I reincarnated into this world. I felt something stir in my heart, just like when my mother named me.
Seeing him looking at me with eyes filled with so much love made my heart stir in a way that felt painful but nice at the same time.
"Wahh Baa!"
The man laughed at my babbles, and his eyes welled up again as tears rolled down his cheeks and fell onto mine.
It was impossible to distinguish his tears from mine because I was crying too. I couldn't help it. I was never good at managing soft emotions.
The people around us had surprised expressions because this was the first time I had cried since reincarnating, but I didn't care.
These were tears that didn't bother me.
Honestly, it was nice.