Humanity had prophesized the coming of the Chosen One since the beginning of the Mechanical Era. A brave human arriving from another world with otherworldly abilities will save the lands from chaotic destruction and bring a new era to humankind.

 

In a place far, far away and some years in the past….

 

A light shimmered in the sky as a new star was born. In a mansion situated on top of a mountain surrounded by forests, a man was pacing about as he waited for the arrival of a new family member.

 

WAAA! WAAA! WAAAAAA!

 

Bursts of sharp and loud cries filled the bedroom as the door opened to reveal an old woman carrying something wrapped up in a bundle. “Respected sir, congratulations on being a father. You have a beautiful baby boy!”

 

“Wonderful! Quick, let me hold him.” The man smiled as he held up his hands earnestly.

 

The midwife transferred the baby over and the man quickly lifted up the wraps to reveal a cute and pudgy face with a head full of black locks. Wait, what? Black hair? How was that possible? Both he and his wife were blond-haired.

 

Sudden realization came to the man as he shoved the baby back to the midwife and stormed into the room. “You cheating whore! How dare you!”

 

“W-What do you mean, l-love? When did I c-commit such a thing?” The woman, who just finished giving birth, tiredly stuttered.

 

“What do I mean? Have you seen this spawn? He has black hair! He’s clearly not my child! Who’s the real father? Who have you been fucking behind my back?” The man roared with rage as he slapped the woman in the face.

 

“Dear, I didn’t! I didn’t do anything wrong! I-I don’t know what happened! Truly!” The wife tried to reason but her mind kept blanking as she was too shocked by the slap earlier.

 

The man threw the frail woman out of bed and roared for the guards. “How dare you embarrass me like that? How dare you ruin my reputation! Out! Get out of my sight! Guards! Take her away!”

 

As the guards dragged the woman away, the woman kept begging for mercy. The man ignored the woman’s pleas with a broken heart and rage-filled eyes. He turned towards the shocked midwife and ordered her to throw the baby out as well.

 

The midwife was too shocked to object and carried the newborn out of the house. The midwife, feeling sorry for the poor mother and child, led them away to her house where she took care of them while they recover.

 

However, the woman did not recover. In fact, her mental health began to spiral out of control along with her physical and emotional health. Until one day, an unspeakable thing occurred. The woman, in her unstable state, suddenly started applying makeup and cleaning up herself.

 

Afterwards, she hugged the baby that she never laid hands on since ‘that’ day and gently rocked the baby to sleep. While she continued rocking, the woman left the midwife’s house while carrying a basket and headed towards the city gates.

 

When the city guards asked what she was doing trying to go outside, she replied that she was going to see the baby’s father. Seeing nothing of it, the guards let the woman leave. However, how was she going to see the baby’s father when the man lived within the city? As soon as she departed from the city, the mother carried her child towards the forests.

 

Near the heart of the forests, the mother placed her child on the grassy floor and opened up her basket. While the baby continued to sleep peacefully, the mother’s face turned wretched. A devilish and insane face appeared as evil thoughts filled the woman’s mind.

 

You did this to me! You cursed child! It was all your fault! You! Kill! Kill! KILL!

 

The woman reached into the basket and pulled out a vegetable knife. Raising it up high, the woman plunged the knife into the baby’s chest, causing him to awoke in pain and shock. As the baby screamed, the mother pulled out the knife and, without looking at the child, slit her throat to end it all.

 

The mother collapsed onto the bloody ground, her life instantly gone from her corpse. The baby’s cries slowly became silent as his consciousness too began to fade away. It was at this time when a man emerged from the bushes while carrying a hunting bow.

 

The man had scruffy brown hair and wore an old and tattered leather armor. His kind-looking face stared at the bloody scene in horror. The man quickly rushed towards the woman and checked her pulse. The man sighed when he found that the woman was already dead. As he was about to leave, he noticed that the baby…the baby was still alive!

 

How was this possible? The baby clearly had a knife wound through his heart. The man reached out and felt the baby’s chest. A miracle! The baby’s heart was actually on the right side of his chest! The man quickly placed his palm over the wound and muttered a minor healing spell.

 

Within seconds, the bleeding stopped and the wound closed shut. However, the baby was pale from the blood loss so the man decided to bring the child home with him. He looked at the dead woman with the knife in her hands and realized that she was the cause of all this chaos.

 

“To actually try to commit a murder suicide with this innocent child, how dare you call yourself a mother? You deserve to die and rot like this without a proper burial. Hmph!” The man muttered before carrying the baby with him back to his cottage in the woods.

 

And so, five years had passed since then. The baby, now named Henry McLester, grew up to be a fine young lad with bright eyes and a charming smile. But that’s not how the story went. Henry, in fact, did not grow up bright and charming. Instead, something changed in him on the day of his near death. It was like he had experienced something unnatural.

 

And indeed he had experienced something unnatural. Right before his life almost slipped away, he dreamed terrible nightmares of being brutally stabbed by a crazy woman. However, the woman didn’t look like his late mother but more like a young woman around his age.

 

Wait…his age? Isn’t he only a few months old? The woman in his nightmares looked to be around twenty! No…why was he, a baby, thinking of such complicated things? And then, it hit him. The sudden realization that he had a past life.

 

He was Li Han, a young Chinese student freshly graduated from high school. He was on his way to university…when he got stabbed by a crazy woman…stalker? The memories were fuzzy afterwards but Li Han…no, Henry knew that he was not originally from this world of swords and magic.

 

Henry believed that he had reincarnated like the ones he read in online novels. But, what was the purpose of his reincarnation? Did the gods take pity on him and gave him a second chance? Or was there a greater purpose?

 

Henry didn’t know what to do but he couldn’t help but brood over the matter. And because of that, everyone viewed him as a gloomy and antisocial child. The only redeeming factor was his thirst for knowledge as one could find him reading all the books in his adopted father’s small collection.

 

The day was like any other day, except one thing had been added to Henry’s routine schedule. As he had just reached his fifth birthday, it was time for him to test out his status. His father, Kevin McLester, was a retired cleric who decided to settle down in the forest and live his life peacefully.

 

Because Kevin had ties with the church, he had easily obtained a profile plate for Henry’s fifth birthday. On the day of his celebration, Kevin handed the plate to Henry and helped him test out his profile.

 

Kevin pricked a needle on Henry’s finger and dripped a drop of blood onto the profile plate. Then, the doting father quickly healed the wound and the two took a look at the glowing profile plate.

 

Name: Henry McLester

Title: None

Age: 5

Gender: Male

Affiliation: None

Skills:

• Good Memory (Passive) – While not photographic, Henry’s memory is rather good and he can remember something after viewing it a couple of times.

Blessings:

• None

 

Is that my status? It looks way too ordinary. Henry couldn’t help but lament. Maybe he wasn’t brought into this world to do something great? Maybe it was all because the gods took pity on him.

 

“Hmm. Looks okay and you have a skill to boot. Now that’s genius right there! Good memory eh? We can definitely make use of that.” Kevin smiled as he rubbed Henry’s head gently.

 

Really? So, it’s basically above average. What could I even do with a good memory? Henry gave his adopted father a dubious look.

 

“Don’t look at me like that kiddo.” Kevin grinned as if understanding Henry’s look of doubt. “You can do many things with good memory. For instance, magic requires memorization of spells and scouting requires memorization of certain telltale signs as well as mapping. You can have a large variety of things to do with good memory. What do you want to start on first?”

 

Magic! Definitely magic! Henry’s eyes brightened up when he heard about magic and his hands reached out as if wanting to grab that word. “Magic! I want to learn magic!”