Welcome to My New Life

Gwen's consciousness left her body for a brief moment before finally focusing back on what was in front of her. She was staring at a sparkling piece of stone, as candlelight started to shine against it, it reflected it back into Gwen's eyes. She tried to cover her face yet for some reason, it was extremely difficult to move how she wished. As her hands finally went close to her face, she was briefed caught off guard by her chubby fingers.

She fumbled backward, landing on her back. As much as her instincts wanted her to cry out, she suppressed it with great difficulty.

"What the… is this what she meant?" Gwen steadied herself and tried to analyze her body, soft and squishy, that was the conclusion she came up with. She was completely helpless as anyone could lay a hand on her, and she wouldn't be able to fight back.

She saw a black bracelet covering her wrist, it seemed to be able to be taken off but no matter how hard she tried, it just wouldn't go. Gwen put it at the back of her mind and decided to focus on other things.

Gwen looked around the room and saw her sleek wooden cradle, rocking back and forth without anything influencing it. This was a little creepy but she further examined her surroundings, exquisitely detailed carvings on the walls showed a mural that paints the picture of a child standing atop the world as numerous pained shadows worship it. Now this was even creepier, Gwen tried to look back at the shiny gemstone that initially caught her attention when she noticed that the red tint it had wasn't natural.

Upon further examination, there was blood lining the edges of this gemstone. This piece of gemstone seemed to have the odd property of taking in the color of whatever liquid was around it, in this case, blood. Gwen didn't understand just why a child like her would be left alone with a bloodied gemstone.

Unsteadily trying to waddle at her own pace, she finally reached the door. Unfortunately for her, it was just that bit too high, barely out of her reach. Gwen immediately tried to look around her room yet there was nothing of use, just a bunch of well-done dolls and a small mirror by the side.

With nothing else better to do, Gwen tried to examine herself, trying to see if she truly did take Gwendolyn's body. As she stood in front of this flat plane, it reflected short purple hair and innocent red eyes. Gwen sighed that small bit of relief as at least she truly was within Gwendolyn's body. There were too many things that she needed to do to rule the world in 30 years but that could wait for later right after she figures out what kind of situation she was in.

In the novel, it started out when the protagonist, Pia, was thirteen years old, having her village ransacked and destroyed she sought to find protection within the castle walls. At this point in time, Gwendolyn was twelve, a year younger than her.

Given that she skipped the few months of birth to where she already developed enough to be able to walk. She would be roughly 1-2 years old, this would be enough time to start abusing Gwendolyn's latent talent to the fullest. In the novel, mana fills the entire world, being the very source of life itself. Without mana, there is no life, this made a lot of things more simplified yet at the same time more mysterious.

Although Gwen knew that Gwendolyn had immense talent, a talent so great that she would be able to singlehandedly go against every single human, monster, demon, angel, or dragon and come out on top. There was only one problem with this, Gwen had no idea where to start.

"Feel the mana in the air…? I don't feel anything. Nothing warm or hot or cold or anything, just nothing," Gwen tried to heighten her senses by closing her physical feelings, by doing so she thought that she would be able to feel something.

"Yep, nothing. I guess I'm screwed, huh?"

Gwen crouched down and scratched her head in confusion, "Argh! At least let me have your talent! This isn't fair!" Right now, Gwen was throwing a tantrum, if another person saw this then they wouldn't have minded but if they knew that there was a 20-year-old girl inside that baby's body then they would start judging.

Time passed doing nothing, Gwen looked at the mirror with a deadpan expression, still admiring how cute Gwendolyn's body was, "At least I look nice. I'm going to die but at least I'll look pretty doing so."

Going through her memories, Gwen tried to recall any tidbit of info that would even be remotely useful for her current situation. Countless memories flashed by her when she finally found something.

"Yep, I found it. Gwendolyn was always a gifted child, even having mana slowly pour into her even as an infant. Well, that's not happening so I guess I'm doomed. Gwendolyn, you said you were gonna give me your… oh?" A person suddenly opened the door, he wore all black as there was one slit where he could see through. He saw Gwen posing in front of the mirror with her left arm on her waist and her right arm dangling down, similar to how a model would pose.

"Hi," Gwen stopped posing and waved at the very suspicious man in front of her. She finally interacted with a person after all this time.

"Hi…?" The masked man looked at the bloodied ruby on the floor and the still-alive Gwen well and kicking, even having the luxury to say hello. He was vividly shocked at how well Gwen was taking being kidnapped.

"Ahem, little miss, your parents are here for you," The masked man tried to keep his composure but Gwen immediately saw through the cracks in his façade.

Gwen saw that the masked man was shifting his eyes between the bloodied ruby and her, "What's wrong?" Gwen casually walked towards the bloodied ruby, trying to see how the masked man would react.

"Nothing, really. Where are you- wait, wait, little miss, did you… play with that?" The masked man's face immediately dropped when he saw Gwen come and pick up the bloodied ruby. She examined it and saw that there was nothing wrong with it, she was completely oblivious to the completely devious energy that it was emitting. In the masked man's eyes, Gwen casually picked up a death artifact and held it without any kind of protection.

"Yea-"

Left with no other choice, the masked man immediately ran forward, taking the bloodied ruby in Gwen's hands and throwing it away at the wall, he was only in contact with it for a brief moment but the devastating aftereffect of it soon showed. The sheer force at which he threw it showed just how powerful the man was, even the carefully carved and decorated wall of this room was cracked. He was vividly exhausted as if a large amount of life force was taken away from him, panting and clenching his chest.

"Little… miss… let's go…" The masked man's initial energetic and deep voice was now raspy and aged, Gwen finally realized that there was something wrong with the bloodied ruby and decided to just follow the man in front of him.

"I don't know what happened but he's on… my side? I think? No clue. Well, it beats being stuck in a room all day."