“Open up Sammy, the flare hawk is flying to his nest,” Sam’s mother said sweetly.

His mother was a beautiful young woman in her early twenties with wavy blonde hair and ocean blue eyes.

Sam opened his mouth and allowed the spoon of mashed green food in before closing his mouth on it.

“Awww, such a good eater you are,” his mother praised as she pulled the spoon from his mouth.

“It’s strange. That slop look’s disgusting, yet it doesn’t taste half bad. Guess it’s just the development of our taste buds as we grow,” Sam thought to himself.

“Ready for more?” His mother asked, to which he happily opened his mouth.

“How about I try feeding him?” His father John asked nervously.

John was also in his twenties with jet black hair and dark brown eyes that almost appeared black. He had two visible scars on his head, one across the bridge of his nose and another on the right side of his neck. 

“Alright, let's try it again,” his wife replied sympathetically.

“All right, I guess it’s time to try this out,” Sam thought to himself as his parents switched seats. “He’s not the same as that bastard, but I can’t help but feel anxious around him even though he’s done nothing to deserve that.” 

In his previous life Sam didn’t have any memories of his mother, but the memories of his father were burned into his brain. The man was an alcoholic that acted like a king, and treated his son like a servant. He made demands of his son, and when he failed to meet them or they weren’t to his standards he would beat him. Even if he did nothing wrong and his father was drunk while in a foul mood he would beat him. Once he was old enough to start working he was even expected to give up his paycheck to him. In the end joining the military was the easiest way out, though he often said he felt the desire to serve and protect humanity during the war, the truth was that he joined as a way to escape his Hell. 

Now in a new life, he still couldn’t shake the terrible memories of his past father. John had done nothing wrong, he had been calm and gentle. He appeared to be a proper father, but everytime he got close to his son he would act scared. Only in his mothers arms did he seem happy. It was as if he suffered from PTSD due to his previous father.

John lifted the spoon with a little food in it. “Open up Sam, daddy’s going to feed you now.”

Sam kept his eyes on him the entire time, slowly opening his mouth to allow the spoon. Slowly the spoon entered, and his mouth gently closed. John pulled the spoon back with a smile, after eight months he finally was able to feed his son. 

“I did it!” John exclaimed excitedly.

“Kakaka,” Sam coughed. His father’s excitement caused him to gasp while his mouth was still full of food and he started to choke.

John’s face paled as his wife quickly leapt into action and started patting Sam's back. Soon he stopped coughing and John looked completely depressed.

“Maybe it’s best if I don’t feed him.”

Knock knock

The door opened and an old woman, who’s hair had long since lost any color and was now nearly pure white walked in. 

“Good morning,” the woman greeted.

“Good morning Kathy,” his mother replied.

John just grunted depressingly.

“What’s wrong with him?” Kathy asked.

“He tried to feed Sam again.”

“Oh don’t worry about that. My second child was the same way, wouldn’t let my late husband even hold her without her screaming at the top of her lungs. Then as she grew up she became the biggest daddies girl you’d ever seen.”

“Thanks for the pep talk,” John said as he stood up, then bent down to be on eye level with Sam. “Your mom and I need to go to work now, so behave for Miss Kathy.” He reached out to tousle Sam's hair, but he flinched before he could touch him. John pulled his hand back as he bit his lip. “We’ll be back like usual.”

His mother then kissed Sam’s head and she and John walked outside and headed to work.

Sam sighed as Kathy took a clean towel and whipped his face before setting him in a bassinet, and began cleaning up from breakfast.

“Alright, time to begin.” To help organize his thoughts and keep himself sane, Sam started making a mental log of everything he had learned since being born in this world. “Based on the imperial calendar it’s been about eight months since my…well death. It seems that one of those old religions got it right and we are reincarnated after we die… so no heaven it seems. I remember some of those younger troops would read stories about this kind of thing, really wish I had paid them attention now. What was it called? Isilka, Izeke, Isekai? Anyway, let's start from the beginning. My name is Sam, I have black hair like my father, and my mothers blue eyes. I hope women have self control in this world, because I have no doubt I’m going to be very good looking as I grow up. My fathers name is John and my mother is Sarah. After eight months of observation I’ve determined we don’t have a last name. I’ve come to the conclusion that we are commoners, and only nobility gets a last name. My original suspicion that I was reincarnated into the Dark Ages has been proven false. Even though they seem less technologically advanced, they do have limited indoor plumbing, and devices for cooking and lighting. No central heating or cooling systems, however after last week's heat wave I finally have an answer to many questions. I witnessed my mother create an icy cold gust of wind just by waving her hand. I have seen ice in drinks before, but thought they had some kind of appliance for that, but I’m now suspecting that those were my mother’s creations as well. My new found mobility has significantly improved my ability to gather information, so I expect to have more answers soon. However, my current theory about my mother’s abilities is that this world possesses magic.”

Magic didn’t exist in his previous life, but they did have internal energy. That was of course a blanket term to explain it. Around the twenty fourth century humans started appearing that had learned to cultivate and use internal energy. The terms of course were different based on the cultivation method used. Kai, Aura, Qi, Chi, Mana, chakra, they were essentially all the same, it was just the method of cultivation that affected people's bodies differently. In his previous life Sam followed the Qi method, which caused one’s senses to be drastically increased. The empire spent decades researching internal energy in an effort to find a superior method of cultivation that allowed all of the benefits of all methods, but they could never find a perfect method. In the end they made information readily available of each method, and recommended methods for military members based on their career field.

“As for my parents, they work in a field called adventurers. From what I’ve gathered, this world is filled with both magic beasts and monsters. I have yet to learn the difference between the two, but that’s only a matter of time. Worst case I’ll learn after I’ve mastered communication.”

There was some clattering from the kitchen. Sam sat up to look and saw Kathy was starting to dry dishes.

“Kathy is my…well I guess she’d be my nanny. Apparently she was the one who delivered me, and has since helped teach my mother different things about raising a child. Looks like information like that isn’t as readily available as it was in my previous life. Anyway, my mother returned to work two months ago after I started eating more solid foods than breastfeeding.” Sam shuddered. “I’m so thankful I lack certain hormones otherwise that would have been even more uncomfortable. Anyways, back to Kathy, as long as she stays as busy as she usually is at this point I have about ten minutes before she notices anything has happened. Time to begin Operation BookWorm.”

Sam took one last glance at Kathy as she put away some more dishes. He then threw his blanket and a stuffed animal over the edge of his bassinet. Grabbing a hold of the edge he pulled himself up and then climbed over, landing atop the blanket.

“Good thing this diaper provides extra padding, otherwise I may have had trouble enduring that,” Sam thought, then started crawling to his parent’s bedroom.

Thankfully the door was open so getting in was easy, but then came the hard part, getting on top of her dresser. Sam began pulling out drawers one after another as he climbed into them. After a few minutes he was finally on the top, and laid on his back breathing heavily.

“I really need to get in shape. This was way too hard, but the reward is worth it. I should have five more minutes before I risk getting caught.”

He then rolled back to his stomach and made his way to several books. He had learned long ago that, even though the written language was different, he could read it.

“Let’s see, children’s stories, a book with a lock? Probably a diary or something else of the sort. Ahh, here it is, Magic for Beginners.” Sam carefully laid the book down and opened the cover. “Hmm? A signed copy? Who’s Gabrielle? Weird, must be a second hand copy. Oh well, time to gain some understanding.”

Shortly after reincarnating, Sam tried to reestablish his core, but saw something he didn’t expect. There were two different energies within his body. As much as he wished to get started, he decided he needed to exercise patience to prevent a potential problem later.

“Ok, here we go. Unlike aura which gathers to form a core right below the rib cage, mana gathers in the form of a circle or ring around the heart. Hmm, so then one of those energies is aura and the other is mana. Is it possible to have both? And which is which? Though the color that aura takes tends to differ from person to person, mana always has been seen to show itself as white. Ask and you shall receive. So I’ve got blue and white energy. That means white around my heart and blue at my solar plexus, easy.”

He then took a meditative position and began sorting the energies into their respective areas.

“Oh my goodness!” Kathy exclaimed as she rushed into the bedroom. “How in the world did you get here?” She questioned as she picked him up. “I swear, my kids didn’t start doing this kind of stuff till after they started walking.” She then took notice of the book on the floor, and picked it up. “Oh I get it. Did you want me to read to you?”

“Sure, but how about that book I had open?”

Of course all she heard was just a baby babbling, and not his actual request.

“Alright I’ll read to you, and we won’t tell your parents about this just yet. One time is a fluke, twice is a habit,” she said as she walked to the rocking chair to read to him.