Edited by: Piamo I had to make some changes, unfortunately. I might just update when I have the chapter edited. Sorry for the confusion but now the story should be a bit more clear.

Atlas felt a pain in his head when he regained consciousness. He thought he would wake up in the hospital, but he found he was in a dark and damp place. He was lying on his side but he could move his limbs so he wasn’t tied up. After feeling the material around him, he realized he was in a potato sack.

Wherever he was, it was moving vigorously, like a carriage on a dirt and rocky road. It was moving fast as if the people driving were running away from monsters.

With how bumpy the ride was, he could only assume that his head was hurting because he hit his head a little too hard on this moving vehicle.

“We need to hurry up before the sun sets,” Atlas heard a man’s voice say, “We need to get rid of this monster quickly.”

“Understood, Master!” He was an older man who had been a driver his whole life.

It was the first time he had to move so fast, but the horses didn’t mind. They, too, wanted to leave the forest as soon as possible.

The man called “Master” was a nobleman. The person driving the carriage was his personal driver.

The man mumbled to himself but he was sitting next to Atlas, so Atlas could hear him.

“He’s got the blessing of the Evil Dragon God. Disgusting. We can finally get rid of him to appease the Light God.”

Atlas couldn’t see or understand these people well. He could make out bits and pieces of the conversation, but it was a completely foreign language to him. He didn’t know how he even understood the bits and pieces of what was said.

The only words he knew were “monster”, “evil”, “god”, and “rid.”

Since he was the only one trapped in this small sack, he was probably the monster or the evil god they were trying to get rid of. But what did he do and why did they kidnap him? He was just eating ice cream, tripped, and hit his head on a light post. There was no need to treat him like he was the plague…

Why did someone decide to kidnap him when he should have gone to the hospital? This kind of treatment was barbaric. Wasn’t he in the city? Why was he suddenly on a dirt road in a place where he could barely understand the language?

How did he even get here?

With so many questions, Atlas just focused on listening. He probably wasn’t allowed to speak seeing he was in a potato sack. He wished they had given him a potato while he was sitting in the sack… He was feeling kind of hungry.

“We are far enough in the Great Dragon Forest. Let’s drop him off here.” The nobleman spat out his words like venom.

The nobleman’s looks were average with his blond hair and blue eyes. He wasn’t the most physically fit person but he was scrawny, like he hadn’t eaten a good meal in days. Though he was by no means ugly, his facial expression contorted his face, making him look like an evil demon ready to kill their victim.

He looked completely different from the cursed child who had black hair and gold eyes. The blessings of the Evil God turned the child’s hair and eye color at birth, showing no resemblance to himself or his wife.

The child had no name. They didn’t want to give the cursed child a name at all.

Even though his wife, who had red hair and green eyes, gave birth to this abomination, they couldn’t get rid of the child because he was born in the presence of priests. The priests knew of his existence.

The Holy Church wanted to use the child, who was blessed by the Evil Dragon God, as a source of magical energy, or mana, for the light users of the Holy Kingdom. Time and time again, though, they could not extract enough mana from the child.

They could just see that this child had a lot of mana. He had so much, it was probably more than the Pope, the most powerful Light Attribute User in the whole kingdom.

In the Holy Kingdom, having Light-attributed magic meant that the Light God had blessed them. This would put them higher up in the social hierarchy, even as a commoner. If they had attributes other than light like fire, water, earth, wind, etc., they were forgiven. If they didn’t have the Light attribute, they were discarded.

With the decline in light magic users, they were desperate for more and more mana. There were not enough magic users to replenish the reusable energy stones, which powered almost everything in the continent’s day-to-day life. They thought they could have a new energy source, but it was impossible.

They didn’t know if it was because of the cursed blessing or if the child was purposefully withholding his mana, but the priests could not get enough out of the child.

With the yearly purge of other attribute users, they could finally get rid of the child blessed by the Evil Dragon God in the Great Dragon Forest that bordered their Holy Kingdom. This day was the best time to sacrifice the children to the Light God who was watching over them.

With the Evil Dragon God as the enemy of the Light God, tossing the attribute users in the Great Dragon Forest was the way they showed their piety toward the Light God. The Great Dragon Forest was protected by the Evil Dragon God. Sacrificing non-light attribute users on the Evil God’s sacred land was the best way to sacrifice the cursed children and tarnish the land. Getting rid of them as children was the best because they were the least likely to survive.

“Toss the sack out,” the nobleman commanded.

At his command, the two guards that were with him grabbed the malnourished child in the sack and heartlessly tossed him out the window. Atlas hit the ground and groaned. His body was not strong enough to withstand the impact of falling from the height of the carriage or car he was in.

Why was it that he had to fall so many times!? He couldn’t even finish his ice cream before he tripped on that stupid crack in the sidewalk! He was still grieving over his ice cream. He’d only been halfway done with it.

Atlas played dead in the potato sack until he couldn’t hear the sound of the horses' hooves on the ground. He used his hands to pry open the opening. Looking around, he saw that he was in a clearing, but the clearing was surrounded by trees.

Basically, he was in the forest with no food, water, or shelter.

Atlas inwardly screamed. He’d just gotten here and he was already being told to die! The world was too cruel to him.

Before he could think about anything else, he looked down at his hands and saw they were two times smaller than what he was used to. He was stunned. He clenched his fists, tightening them, before releasing them when his hands ached.

“Why… why are my hands tiny?” Atlas questioned in a small voice.

Then he realized his usual deep voice was a little too high-pitched for his liking. He looked at the rest of his body while he was patting his face.

He was small. He had become a child.

“Did I reincarnate into another world?!”

Everything finally clicked.

“My ice cream! I didn’t get to finish eating itttttttt!”

The wail could be heard all throughout the forest by the animals, bugs, trees, and plants—and, of course, by the monsters.

*****

Miles away from Atlas, in the Hirean Empire…

The moment Milo opened his eyes, he quickly sat up and tried to slow his beating heart. The last thing he remembered was pushing a mother and child out of harm’s way and then getting hit by a speeding car. He remembered the impact but couldn’t remember the pain.

Milo patted his body and didn’t see any bandages on him. He knew he had broken a few bones, slammed his head into the ground, and bled to death. Was modern medicine good enough to revive him from the dead?

Once he calmed down, he realized the room he was in wasn’t a hospital. And he definitely died that day.

So where was he?

It looked like he went back to the Georgian architectural era with the fireplace as the focal point, the pillars that resembled Greece and Roman architecture, and the neutral colors that donned the room. There were some pops of color with the paintings and the statues. There were also gold designs on the wallpaper and expensive-looking fabrics and furniture. Overall, it was flashy, screaming wealth and power, like colonialism.

Milo felt cold sweat drip down his back. Did he travel back in time when he died? What the hell was going on?? Why couldn’t he feel scared even though he knew, logically, that he was scared???

Before he could think anymore about his circumstances, his head began to hurt, his vision went blurry, and he felt nauseated.

He collapsed back into his bed, clutching his head. The pain became too much to bear and he fainted once more.

The maid who went to go check on Milo saw that the little Lord was having a fever. She rushed out of the room to call the doctor, the Duke, and the Duchess! They were shocked to see his situation deteriorate.