The Light

Chapter 2 – The Light

"Ugh, what is this light? Wait, where am I? Aren't I supposed to be dead? Am I dead? This must be the afterlife. Wait, how did I die…"

At this moment, Sarah remembered everything that happened. She was a mercenary hired by the Church to retrieve a Holy Artifact in an abandoned castle, but when she finally found it, she was killed by her second-in-command for a handful of gold.

"If I ever see this bastard again, I'm gonna make him regret stabbing me in the back!"

Sarah then wondered if she was still alive. It was weird, she could feel limbs, but they did not seem like hers. All of the uneasiness she had accumulated while exploring the castle was now gone and she felt good. She opened her eyes, only to see a wooden ceiling above her.

She frowned deeply, seeking answers to her countless questions as as she heard some people talk in an unknown language and looked in the direction of the person speaking.

*Oh it's a girl! Congratulations! She seems to be in perfect health, an old man said, gently tapping Sarah's cheek.* (Text between * means that it is in a language that the MC cannot understand)

The man speaking was a paunchy old man with a smile on his face.

At this moment, a very Sarah involuntarily let out a cry of surprise because she inspected her surroundings and realized that she was surrounded by three human-looking giant. Her voice was abnormally high and it befuddled her even more.

Moreover, she was on a table, and the three giants were observing her. It was dark outside, but the room she was in was illuminated by three lanterns hanging on the walls.

She then looked at herself, her left hand to be precise and realized it was smooth, too smooth and… tiny? Even stranger, her scars had magically disappeared.

"Wait, why are my hands like this? They look like a baby's hand… WAIT! WHAT! Am I a baby? I am a baby? What the hell happened? So these people are not giant, I am just very small…"

Before she could think more about her current predicament, Sarah was taken up in the air and put into the arms of a woman with a sweet and gentle smile on her face. By the look on her face, Sarah assumed the woman must be her mother.

*What do you think we should name her, darling, the woman said*

*I think Lucia suits her very well, no? A tough looking man with a huge smile on his face responded*

*Yes! Let's name her Lucia.*

And thus, unbeknownst to her, Sarah was renamed Lucia.

Not paying any attention to the people talking about her, Sarah, now named Lucia, assessed her current situation and realized that she must've been reborn. It would be the only reason why she was now in an infant's body after she got killed.

She then wondered if the strange dagger and the pearl she found in the castle were the reason why she reincarnated after she got killed by the man she thought was her closest friend.

Now having regained her composure and deduced what happened to her, Lucia observed around her.

The woman holding her was not very tall, only 155 cm (5ft1) and had long chestnut hair that flowed and stopped at her lower back. She seemed to be around 25 years old and was very pretty. Her radiant smile and shining green eyes immediately warmed the heart of Lucia and made her feel a little better. After all, her current predicament wasn't that bad, for the first time in her life, she had two seemingly loving parents and wasn't in danger. She relaxed a bit and next observed the man that should be her father.

He was a well built and brawny man that looked as if he could easily break a man in half with his massive hands. He was a huge man, two meters tall (6ft7) and despite his ferocious look, he also had a beaming smile on his face and looked like the happiest man of all time.

While she observed her genitors, the old man said, with a calm voice:

*-Lilia, don't get yourself to be excited, you need to rest.*

As he advised Lilia, white light started to flow out of his hands toward Lucia's mom and when the light touched her, her complexion immediately improved and her face got a little redder. She clearly felt better.

What? Is this magic? Am I turning crazy? I can't have imagined it, right? That means I'm in another world. I guess I can give on my revenge plans for now. But still, I need to be sure.

After witnessing the inexplicable phenomenon, Lucia decided to try to get the man to use his magic again. To force his hand, she bit her finger hard with enough strength to make it bleed and started crying, doing her best baby impersonation.

When the adults in the room saw the baby bitting her own finger and then start crying, they laughed a bit at her and Morg, her father, said

*Darling, I think our baby is an idiot.*

Although Lucia did not understand what he was saying, she could pretty much guess by looking at the adults making fun of her and to get her revenge, she started crying louder and even screaming.

*Look what you've done, Morg. Now she's making even more noise, Lilia said with a smirk on her face.*

*It's my fault now? I'm sorry Lucia. Could you please stop crying? You are not an idiot, the man begged the noisy child.*

Alas for him, Lucia did not listen at all. She really wanted to see the old man's magic again. Luckily for her, her wish soon became reality when the old man grew tired of her screams. The same event happened for a second time; wonderful white light flowed out of the man's hand and miraculously healed her injured finger.

"Wah, there really is magic in this world, I must learn it. Imagine what I could do with magic… I wonder if it's possible to combine magic and swordplay. The possibilities are endless. This world is wayyy better than my old one!"

Now that she had gotten what she wanted, Lucia stopped making a fuss and reflected on what she learned. She was now convinced that this world had magic and thus really wanted to learn it, it was a completely new thing for her. It was only seen in fairy tales in her previous world. Also, she was in another world, which means that she could not get revenge on Vance for what he had done. Still, she did not miss her own world at all, she had no living relatives, and the people that she trusted the most died or betrayed her. In fact, she was quite happy to be in a new world where she could start over from scratch, she had no regrets. Don't be mistaken, if she saw Vance again, she would certainly kill him, but she would not waste her time trying to go back to her old world simply for revenge.

Unfortunately, she realized she was dead-tired and couldn't think straight anymore, reincarnation was truly an energy-consuming activity, so she couldn't stop a yawn from escaping.

Seeing Lucia yawning, her parents decided that it was time for her to sleep and thus, her first night in this world was filled with dreams of monsters and magic.

The next morning, Lucia woke up in her mother's embrace and seeing that she was still busy sleeping, she decided to wait until she woke up. She deserved her sleep, she had just given birth after all.

While waiting for her mother to wake up, Lucia examined her tiny body.

"Wait, why was I able to bite my finger yesterday? Aren't babies not supposed to have teeth? (touches teeth) Well, I guess babies have teeth in this world. Also, for a baby's body, it seems unusually strong. Yesterday, I bit myself with a lot of strength but only managed to injure my finger slightly. Must be a thing of this world…"

While she was still processing those shocking revelations, her mother woke up and the moment she saw Lucia, her eyes brightened.. She took her into her arms, but at this moment, Lucia noticed something strange, there was a weird mark on her right hand, a red spiral-shaped pattern, the same as the one on the pearl.

Lucia thought that maybe the pearl and the dagger merged with her when she died and they were the reason why she got reincarnated. Still unsure about it, Lucia concentrated on the pattern, like what she did with the pattern inside the pearl in her previous life and the same phenomenon happened. Time seemed to be slower, at half speed, for everyone except her for a good half a second.

Overjoyed by this new ability, she tried to use it again, without success. She looked again at her palm and noticed that the mark faded a bit, it was now a pale red.

Afterward, she looked at her left hand, but there was no mark or anything unusual on it. It looked just like a normal baby's hand.

For the next few days, Lucia lived the life of a baby, her mother taking care of her. Being a baby was really awkward with the mind of an adult, especially being fed and breastfed, but Lucia could not understand the language of this world, so she had to act like a baby. However, it was not easy to imitate a baby, her mom was always with her and because Lucia did not want to worry her, she was forced to cry, giggle, poop and do all sorts of disgusting things baby do.

Her father went to work early in the morning and came back late at night, always in full-plate armor. She assumed he was a soldier of a guard. Every time he saw her, his usually stern face would immediately brighten up and a smug smile would appear on his face.

During those days, she noticed something strange while her mom was reading a story while holding her in her arms, the writing of this world was the same as the writings on the wooden doors of the throne room. Unfortunately, she could not read, therefore she could not translate what was written on the doors.

It really puzzled her that there were writings that looked like there were from this world of origin, but she guessed that some mage could travel between worlds. Maybe it was their fault that she reincarnated. She then realized that maybe she was just a guinea pig for some crazy old wizards...

Also, she discovered that she could only use her power once a day, the mark on her palm would fade after she used it and the day after, it would recover its colors, precisely at midnight every night. She decided to keep it a secret to everyone, she had no reason to reveal her ultimate trump card and it would be quite hard to explain why she had it.

"It's nice to have a loving family, it looks like my second childhood will be better than my first. Also, I need to learn magic and how to fight, the power of the weird mark is too good to be wasted. But first I need to learn the language, it's problematic to understander absolutely nothing. Finally, I need to inform myself about this world, but there is no need to rush, I am a child after all."

Just like that, Lucia set herself a few goals. First she needed to learn to read and speak the language. Secondly, she needed to find as much information about magic as possible and to learn magic. And thirdly she needed to find information about the world that she was in.

Committed to those goals, a year passed very quickly for Lucia.