In a huge ground covered by high walls but without a roof, swords and different weapons were hanging on stands near the walls.
At the center of the ground, a young boy and a man were sparring with wooden swords or rather, with the size difference it would be more correct to say that the man was playing with the boy.
The boy moved, drenched in sweat, aiming his wooden sword at the man's thigh.
"Do not put too much focus on one attack." Kevin said as he dodged the incoming sword attack as he shifted his stance and lightly touched the sword tip at the young boy's forehead.
"It should have hit!" the young boy, Karl, whined as he slumped down on the floor, spreading his arms and legs wide, throwing his sword at Kevin's feet.
"When fighting someone a lot stronger than you, you should always think for the impossible to become possible and for the possible to not happen." Kevin said as he picked Karl's sword and put both his and Karl's sword into a sword stand.
"Then how do I defeat someone a lot stronger than me?" Karl asked while panting.
"One is called a lot stronger because you can not defeat that person." Kevin said with a smirk as he looked at Karl wasted on the floor. "When you fight someone a lot stronger just try your best to last until you find a way to run away."
"Can I not win if I learn some strong fighting techniques?" Karl asked, his breathing a bit calmer than before.
"You think techniques are some miracle? To learn strong techniques you also need to be stronger. Miracles do not happen Karl, just keep working hard so that you can catch up with the people stronger than you."
'Heh as if! My reincarnation is still a miracle.' Karl thought as he closed his eyes.
"Do not think of fighting techniques so soon. You will learn techniques after you go through the ceremony, things will happen as their time comes, you just have to work hard." Kevin said as he walked towards the exit of the training ground.
'That is the thing father. With my knowledge, I can make that time come according to my will.'
Karl slowly stood up from the floor after Kevin had left and exited the training ground, staggering.
Meanwhile, as Kevin was walking towards his office, he saw an old man in front of a window, looking out.
The window was at the top most floor of the 'duke's manor', which was where the office of Duke of Hearth was, and from the window one could get a clear view of the training ground Kevin was in.
"Father I think you should try to talk to him more." Kevin said with a wry smile as he looked at the old man, Marcus, the previous duke.
"How is he?" Marcus asked, still looking out of the window.
Understanding the intent behind his father's question, Kevin sighed but still started talking.
"A genius. It has only been two weeks since he held the sword for the first time and he already has a bit of control over the speed and power of his sword attacks. He can already move while performing somewhat precise attacks which took, even me, a month to do!
I was thinking of only watching and telling him what to do but I changed my decision after seeing his fast growth and started to teach him while sparring after a week." Kevin spoke with a proud expression on his face.
But Marcus' eyes instead sharpened as he turned his head to look at Kevin.
Kevin understanding the thought of his father quickly added, "I am not ignoring his basics, his growth is just that fast. He can already guess the trajectory of a simple sword strike, and can think of some good moves to try to land a hit. Practicing by himself would have just been a time waste for him."
Even after hearing Kevin's explanation, Marcus' expression remained the same as he slowly opened his mouth.
"Just because he can does not mean he should.
If he becomes too used to such a fast growth, he might become lazy when he sees how much faster his growth is than others his age.
Worse, if he keeps growing at such a fast rate, he might succumb to his mind demons when his growth slows down later in life.
You know about the troubles of a genius." Marcus said in a cold tone.
Hearing Marcus' words Kevin looked down as he stood quiet like a child being scolded.
"Do not teach him any further. The ceremony will be happening in a week. After that he will go to the Children's Hall where he will learn with others of his age." Karl stated as he turned back and started walking away, his foot steps being the only sound one could hear in the corridor.
After Marcus left, Kevin walked up to the window as he looked at Karl, exiting the training grounds with a waddling gait.
"Troubles of a genius huh." Kevin wore a self depreciating smile as if recalling some bad memories.
***
Karl was now lying in his bed, still drenched in sweat as he heard a knock on his door.
"Young Master, Duke has sent a message." An old voice came from behind the door.
'Message?' Karl thought as he said "Come in."
The old man, dressed like a butler, entered Karl's room and spoke after giving Karl, who was still lying on the bed, a bow.
"Duke said that he just got some urgent work and would not be able to teach you for now. He also said to remind you that the potential testing ceremony will be happening in a week." Butler ended his words with another bow as he turned around and left the room, closing the door.
'So I will have to practice by myself till he gets free.' Karl lamented.
'Never mind that, the ceremony will finally be happening in a week!' Karl exclaimed mentally, grinning.
"It has already been 3 years huh." Karl thought out loud as he looked around the room with a nostalgic smile.
The room was very different than it was 3 years ago.
The room which had looked big and empty when Karl first came in, now looked full and homely.
His small cradle was now replaced by a huge bed.
There were tables, at one side of the bed, with toys arranged beautifully on them.
There were three huge cabinets on the other side of the bed which were filled with clothes. There were also clothes lying around on the bed and Karl was just lying over some of them.
'So much time has passed, though not a lot of things have happened in the last three years.
I started practicing sword two weeks ago.
I was somehow planning to ask dad to teach me or to at least let me practice as even though I can walk and run, mom starts telling me to be careful and yadda yadda which annoys me a lot. But when I became capable of running, dad was the one to tell me to start learning the sword.
I did not notice in my past life as I was a kid without any will of my own, but having parents telling you what to do and how to do things constantly is very annoying.
I get that it is out of care I am not a kid!
Also there was something that had made me very stressed.
Something I felt as time passed is that my thinking or rather emotions are becoming more like a child.
When I got access to toys, it became a nice time pass for me to play with them, thinking nothing, just moving them around like a kid.
At first, I thought it might be because, it is my first time growing up with eyes so a lot of things are still new to me but as I understood the situation more, I found out something very abnormal.
It was something I would not have even thought about normally.
When I started to feel love and bonding with my family and people around me, something that I had never been able to do in my last life as I was pretty insensitive to emotions like love, I thought back to my past life's family and friends but...
I could not remember them.
I could remember their names or voices and the same was the case for my friends but I could not remember anything I had done with them, any interaction.
I could not even remember my dog's name.
At first I panicked and tried to think back everything, thinking for hours to remember what I had forgotten but it did not work. All I could do was to remember their names and voices but I knew that I was going to forget them as well if I do not keep recalling them.
I was pretty scared by the development but as my new parents and new granny kept taking care of me, I made a decision.
It was to... forget them.
I had already lived my past life and even though it was not good, I still did not have any regrets as I did my very best. So I decided to end it at that.
It is better to enjoy my new life to its fullest rather than dwelling on the past which was filled with sadness.
I can enjoy this new life to its fullest only if I live as a kid, though I still have the wisdom I had before.
I will have to make friends with people my age, someday, marry someone of my age so I have to live and think as a kid, not as a 28 year old.
In front of my parents, I whine and behave like a kid, but the point is that I do not act anymore. Now, I just do what I feel like doing.
But there is a really good thing among all that happened which matters a lot.
I still remember the novel!
For some reason I did not forget the novel.
I think it is because I kept recalling it even after coming to this world as I kept making plans on how to use that information.
The only information I have used from the novel till now was to form a ether body. There are still a lot more things I can do!
I have still not shown the powers of my ether body to anyone. I will do that slowly so that people think that the power is because of my growth.
I can not share the method of formation of ether body with my family because I can not explain the source of that information.
And even if I could, formation of ether body can only be done when one does not have aura or mana, though it only applies to the first step.
Isurt also could form an ether body because Karl had broke his aura cores and mana rings.
For my parents, they are already too strong to lose their cores and even if they start learning it right now, they would at most be able to complete the second step of the formation before they die of old age.
So ether body will be something only I will have.
I had completed the first step of the formation of ether body when I turned two years old. Since then I have just been enhancing the etherised blood, which is a short form I made for ether enriched blood, by adding more ether in it.
I will continue to enhance it till I reach the limit of the quantity of ether I can put in the blood. That will be when I will start the second step, completing which will also increase the limit.
I am not sure of my power level as the only person I have fought yet is father, which was also without using the power of the first step of ether body, though it is not like using those powers would have let me even make a hit on him.
To know my level I will have to fight the kids my age.
I will do that after the ceremony.' Karl thought as he fell deep asleep.
"KARL!"
"KARL!!!"
Karl's eyes opened up wide as he heard his mother's shout as his heart started to steel itself for the scolding that was about to come.
"What do I do with you! Why do you never listen to me! You are only three years and you already do not listen to me! What will you do when you grow older!
I always tell you to take a bath and change your clothes before you sleep! And this smell!
Did you not even change your clothes after you exercised last night!" Ercia shouted as she signaled a maid to pick up the clothes lying in the bed.
"Mom, I will take care of my clot-" Karl tried to speak but was cut by Ercia.
"I know all the care you take! I do not understand how you can possibly sleep when covered in sweat!"
'Yeah you would not. Only I know how it felt to cry after shitting and peeing on my own clothes to call someone to change them. I was not too much of a hygiene person even on earth and after living the way I did, I can not care any lesser about hygiene.' Karl thought as his face started to grimace as he kept hearing her mother's scolding.
"Do not make faces when I am telling you something!" Ercia shouted as she started pulling Karl out of the bed.
"Wait, I will go and bathe. You don't need to rush me." Karl said meekly, scared to hear some more of her mother's words.
"Don't need to rush you? Did your father not tell you about today!? I swear like father like son! How could he forget about such an important thing!" Ercia stopped pulling as she clutched her head with her hands.
"Mom, calm and just tell me what is today." Karl asked interested in the new development but Ercia's next words gave a headache even to him.
"Today, your fiancée and her family are coming for a visit!"