Knock, knock.
The sound echoed softly through the quiet hallway.
Hannah hesitated a little, then with firmer hands she rapped against the door in front of her.
She raised her voice slightly, "Eric, are you still sleeping?"
Eric inside was furious. Who dares to disturb a growing kid’s sleep! No, more importantly, did he again miss his morning training?
He sat up on his bed and glanced at the slightly ajar window.
Looking at the bright morning, Eric was depressed. It seemed he really missed his morning training. Although he could do it later as he was mostly free, he also lost the mood for it.
Since it was currently the rainy season, the mornings were always confusing as the sun came out only when it was already too late. But Eric also loved the rainy season, so he always got bewitched by the dark, gloomy clouds and ended up forgiving the rainy weather. At this rate, his twice-daily training was reduced to only once per day!
'What a headache. But then again, I am already quite strong and nearly as strong- if not more than how I was in my past life. Is there any reason to work out that hard?' Eric thought deeply.
While Eric was lost in thought, the door of his room opened and a blonde woman peeked from beside the doorframe.
Eric recognized the blonde girl as he saw her every day.
She was Hannah, 18 years old; she was also his caretaker within this orphanage. She was cheerful and a mischievous grown-up girl, and was like a big sister to him.
Hannah had short blonde hair, a face sprinkled with freckles across her nose and cheeks, and her grey eyes were bright and alive. Overall, she was fairly pretty.
Eric wondered why Hannah arrived to bother him at such early hours; normally she wouldn’t disturb him till breakfast time.
Hannah’s eyes brightened. "Hey! Since you’re up, at least say something!"
Eric glared. He was still sleepy and didn’t like any sort of alarm bells, whether they came from machines or humans.
Hannah entered the room, and then a silent, awkward moment stretched between both of them as they stared blankly at each other, neither saying anything.
Hannah’s eyes were drawn toward Eric’s bright blue eyes, which seemed to hold two bright blue stars within.
Eric was ten years younger than her. He had unkempt black hair and striking blue eyes, and overall, he was very handsome even as a child. In fact, he was a lot taller than most other children in town. She hated to admit it, but Eric was even an inch taller than her.
Eric rolled his eyes. He was just a kid and didn’t want to mistakenly fall in love with a girl due to long eye stares, so he promptly dropped onto his bed and closed his eyes to sleep.
Hannah woke from her admiration over blue eyes and got annoyed by Eric’s behavior.
Just as she was about to tickle Eric awake, she recalled something. She quickly adjusted herself and then coughed like a mature, respected woman.
Eric opened one eye to let Hannah know he was listening.
Hannah smiled and extended her right hand. On her palm rested a small velvet case.
A genuine smile bloomed on her face. "Happy Birthday, Eric. Congratulations on turning eight!"
Eric opened his eyes wide. That’s right! Only during his birthday do the heavens cry tears of regret, so it always rains these days. He always tends to forget the pains of heaven.
He sat back up, took the case, and nodded at Hannah with a smile. "Thank you, Sister Hannah."
Normally, Eric wouldn’t call Hannah 'sister,' except when he was just playing with her, but he was sincere this time, as he was genuinely happy.
Eight years old meant another few years until he could go around destroying, ahem, adventuring in this new world! He had been very excited about it for a long time.
Eric cradled the box in both hands and subconsciously caressed the smooth surface with a gentle touch.
The box was small. It strangely reminded him of a certain event from his past life, where he had found a similar, larger box while adventuring in an old army bunker in a jungle. He had happened to find a pistol inside that box. Sadly, it was rusted and could not be used.
He wondered if there were any guns in this world.
Hannah felt a blush creep onto her cheeks in embarrassment. Eric was handling the gift with so much care as if it were some priceless heirloom. It was honestly embarrassing, as it wasn’t anything extravagant.
She coughed. "You were saying the other day that your pen isn’t working properly, so I bought you one." She spoke awkwardly, "I-it’s nothing too expensive. Haha…"
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Eric smiled back at Hannah. He opened the case and found a new pen—nothing fancy. But he knew that Hannah had spent her own money to buy him this, an orphanage kid. He was grateful.
Although Eric was an orphanage kid, he was the only one who was so grown up; the rest were just toddlers. This orphanage was also strangely wealthy compared to the town. Overall, everyone treated him very nicely within the orphanage, and he lived his life no less than a real prince.
—A maid to take care of his needs, plenty of wealth to extract from the House Mother, and he even had his own training ground. Moreover, no responsibility!
Eric was certain that even a real prince would feel deeply jealous of his amazing lifestyle.
He closed the case and then glanced back at Hannah.
"Is this the only reason you woke me up?" Eric asked, wondering if there were any other reasons, as Hannah could have just given him this gift anytime during the day.
Hannah’s expression changed as she recalled something important.
She slapped her forehead. "Ah… yes. House Mother has summoned you to her office. She wants to see you within... ten minutes!"
Eric raised his brow in bemusement. House Mother Bella Noll never woke children up this early. Her philosophy was simple—children should eat more, play more, and sleep more. She had never disturbed him so early in the morning.
"I understand." Eric yawned and slowly crawled out of his bed. "I’ll go and take a bath first."
"Need me to wash you like old times?" Hannah teased and rolled up her sleeves with a mischievous glint in her eyes.
Eric glared and then raged, "Get lost! I’m grown up!"
The memory of Hannah bathing him when he was merely 3 or 4 years of age still haunted him, especially how she was flicking something with her finger.
Hannah pouted. "How boring…" She left, leaving the door wide open.
Instead of leaving, Eric walked toward the sole window of his room.
Eric’s room was of decent size and remained unchanged ever since he took it over. There were two beds—one in which he slept and the other, which always remained empty. Other than that, there were two wardrobes, two wooden tables with their chairs, and a window and door opposite each other.
Eric noticed the rain had already stopped, so he pushed open the window completely.
The morning breeze rushed in, thick with the sweet fragrance of countless blossoming flowers in the orphanage garden.
The sight that met Eric’s eyes was absolutely gorgeous. The rain-washed garden, the vibrant flowers, the bright sky—everything was breathtaking, a masterpiece painted with a thousand colors.
Eric was a nature lover, not to extreme lengths, but he enjoyed almost all scenery.
Ever since he arrived in this world, he was mentally blown away by its natural beauty. It was not about colors or such things, those were there, but rather the atmosphere.
Due to his inability to come up with any logical reasons, Eric confidently declared that someone must have turned on the HDR settings of this world!
Eric put his hands on the windowsill and allowed his thoughts to wander.
He didn’t remember where he was born or when he arrived at this orphanage. His toddler memories were mostly blurry and forgotten, just like everyone’s usually are. He was barely holding onto a few tiny fragments of memories, but those were not of any great significance.
He knew from information that he arrived at this orphanage when he was just two years of age. Before that, his vision wasn’t the best, nor were his memories. From what he recalled and was able to make sense of, he probably was born into a very, very wealthy family—a little too wealthy.
Probably, his parents at some point realized that they had bred the most evil entity in the universe, so they must have tried to get rid of him. But sadly, they were cowardly and only threw him away instead of slicing his throat. Pathetic!
Ahem, jokes aside, he didn’t recall if his current parents had died or were still alive, but after six years of living in this town, no one came to take him back. So, although it was a little sad, either both his parents had perished, or they had truly kicked him out. Eric welcomed the latter with open arms.
He was glad his parents had discarded him, as if his guess wasn’t wrong, from his recollection, they were probably some royals or very wealthy nobles. No matter which one, he didn’t want to entangle himself with so much responsibility. He preferred to remain the same as in his past life—completely free.
In his past life, Eric was a self-proclaimed adventurer and explorer. He enjoyed Earth thoroughly while also performing various dangerous stunts with crazed abandon. And so, one day, he fell off a high cliff and turned into meat paste while laughing crazily on the way to his doom. Of course, it wasn’t intentional, but nonetheless, he enjoyed the free fall while it lasted.
After that, who would have thought that while Mother Earth was so fed up with him and kicked him out of her orbit, another mother called 'Celestia' seemed to pity him and chose to embrace him out of ignorance.
It was too naive of her. How could she invite a random child into her home? Who knows, the child could be a demon!
Nonetheless, it was too late for Celestia to regret, and now that he had arrived, he definitely wanted to adventure around the world.
Though sadly, he couldn’t leave Ringwood Town until he was fifteen, as in this world, fifteen was considered adulthood. Going outside before that age could risk him getting kidnapped, and then he might lose a kidney or two. Thus, he wasn’t too rushed to leave yet.
Celestia’s main language, or rather, the most spoken language and numerical system were also known as 'Celestia.' Other than that, the size, weight, measurement scales, and so on were mostly similar to Earth’s.
This town, Ringwood Town, was not a popular place, and barely any travelers ever visited. It was a countryside town with buildings largely made of wood, mud, and stone. The streets were mostly filled with soil and dirt, except for a few places properly constructed with cobblestone.
There used to be forests surrounding the town, forming a ring shape, hence the name 'Ringwood.' He also heard that there was an ocean somewhere southeast of the town, which he definitely wanted to visit before leaving permanently in the future.
This town, in a sense, was a fantastic place to retire to and live one’s remaining life without much contact from the outside world. And strangely, in this peaceful, village-like place, there was such a big orphanage, which not only had huge ground coverage, but the main building itself was also built properly, like that of some wealthy family. It wasn’t overly decorated, but the entire place was well-constructed with stone, brick, and wood, painted mostly in white.
It was not hard to guess—Bella Noll, the housemother of this orphanage, had probably chosen this town as her retirement, as she was fairly old. Perhaps she was once a wealthy person somewhere and now used her wealth to build this luxurious orphanage in this countryside place.
Over the years, many people wanted to adopt Eric. But how could he agree?
Only those foolish, naive children had agreed to move and live with their 'new parents.' Perhaps they wanted to experience the love of parents, but he didn’t want such attachments and shackles to bind him, not to mention he was living a fantastic life within the orphanage.
After admiring the breathtaking scenery from the windowsill, breathing in the morning breeze with a peaceful smile, Eric decided it was time to get moving, lest Bella Noll scold him for keeping her waiting—though she never had in the past.
