Not Your Typical Past

This novel is also what brought me to this world, or at least was the catalyst or tool used to lure and transport me here. If this novel hadn't come into my life, I'd probably be at home right now, making breakfast for my sister.

Speaking of my sister, she's the one who started this whole chain of events that led me to getting my hands on this novel. If I hadn't walked in on her that very day, I definitely wouldn't be in this strange world.

But at the same time, if I hadn't gone to her room that day at that specific time, and seen what she was doing, we wouldn't have the relationship we have now. 

Without that moment, we would have been more distant than strangers walking by, even though we were blood-related siblings.

So, if you'd ask me, if I'd still do exactly what I did in the past, knowing that I'll be transported to this world, I'd still say that I wouldn't change a thing, as it's the very reason me and my sister are close. 

Much closer than how we were before.

Now, if I had to explain the chain of events that led me to this place, I'd have to start by briefly talking about my past, which is not as normal as everyone would think it would be, since I now appear like a normal functioning member of society in everyone's eyes. And don't look any different from everyone else, who've lived very different lives from me.

My past is well...It's not the most pleasant one.

To be brief and concise, as I don't really like recalling it, I should start off by saying that I was separated from my birth parents at a very young age.

I was separated, or to be more exact 'taken', at a stage of my life where I could barely speak any full sentences or remember the faces of my parents very well. So for the majority of my life, I lived without the guidance and protection of my parents, and was left to fend off on my own.

My life after the separation was, to say the least, extremely cruel and tax-bearing. It's something that would cause, even the most iron-blooded men to have mental trauma for the rest of their life, and never be a normal functioning human once again. 

Well, those strong-willed men would first have to survive what I had to go through and live, which is highly unlikely as all the peers I had with me at that time, have returned to the earth, where they rest for an eternity.

As sad as it may seem, I'm pretty sure they were at peace when they passed on, knowing that they don't have to live through that cruel life anymore.

...Now moving on from the dead.

After spending more than seventeen years of my life in that manner, from basically a child to a fully grown adult, I finally managed to escape from that vicious cycle and returned to the ordinary and mundane world, where I was first taken away from.

I honestly had no idea about what to do when I escaped that life, as freedom and a carefree life without having to worry about the safety of my own life every minute, were completely new to me.

That peaceful world I re-entered was unfamiliar territory, and I had no place in it. 

The only place that I could return to, that I vaguely recalled, was to my family, whom I was taken away from.

After spending more than a decade of my life without even thinking about my parents, as I was too busy keeping my own life intact, I lost all the familial belonging and love I once had towards my parents.

Through the passage of time, the same people I used to call father and mother in the past, were just people who were a little closer than strangers to me, so I was hesitant to meet them.

But even still, it was the only place left in the world where I could return too, so I decided to go back to the distant memories of a family I once had.

After tracking down my parents, I thought that it would be difficult to explain who I was to them and what I've been doing this whole time, and I was fussing over how to introduce myself to them.

But all of that was unnecessary, as the moment my mother saw me for the first time in years, when I came to introduce myself, she broke down in tears while saying the name my parents had given me in the past over and over again.

Apparently, when I asked her later about how she knew it was me, she said that she just knew the moment she saw me that I was her son she once lost, which tugged a few heartstrings in my heart, which was surprising, as I didn't think I would be able to feel that way towards them ever again.

After the warm welcome my mother and father had given me, by hugging me and crying on my shoulders for an entire hour, they asked me where I was this whole time. 

Seeing that I was struggling to tell them the truth, they decided to just let it be, as it was enough for them that their son was back home again.

After that, I started living in my parents house, which they insisted on, even though I was already an adult. 

I thought that I would never care about them as much as I did in the past. But as time went on and I saw how caring and loving they were towards me every day, I slowly started to have a sense of belonging and treated them like any filial son would.

But even though I was getting closer to my parents every day, we couldn't really be called a harmonious family yet, as a major factor came into play, of which I had no knowledge that it even existed.

That factor that threw a wrench in the works of becoming a normal household family, was my little sister.