Month (1 month) since birth,
.
.
Gregory came to understand one of the universe's most profound truths, concerning time.......
That is, boredom is the form that transcends all manners of suffering. He was well aware of the fact that time was a bitch!
Some philosophers have said that "we heal from suffering only by fully experiencing it," means "we will not understand the value until we have lost something that we previously had an abundance of."
For passion, people will labor for hours, or even days of effort. But seeing the same roof and window over and over that he couldn't peer through rendered boredom far worse.
Smart pants may argue that being a baby would be as easy as it appears. However, those folks are most ignorant: a man in his late twenties, imprisoned in the body of an infant, must constantly act like a juvenile in order not to creep his parents out. There were no sapients to talk to, and by mistake, if you tried to talk, then that was considered your need for sustenance.
Furthermore, he couldn't do a thing even if he wanted to. Being a baby is even more harrowing than working in a nine to five; he constantly felt hungry all the time, so to satiate that hunger, he had to constantly drink milk and his inability to control his bowel movements then became a conundrum.
As a result of constantly changing his baby undergarments; caused a lot of itching on his baby buttocks. Worse, he can't even scratch that itch because his grubby little fingers don't know how to listen to his directions. He could only wriggle his butt here and there to slightly reduce it but it's like just applying a temporary stopgap to the leaking dam by applying some duct tape.
While this was going on in his daily life, he continued to absorb those lights on a constant basis. He knew that the potential of a child whose brain was still growing would be the highest; it's like building a muscle; the more you flex, the bigger it grows.
To not cause trouble, he began absorbing the lights at night when everyone went to sleep.
As a result, the regime sets in.......
Eat, sleep, poop, and occasionally a finger-grabbing routine. However, no one has claimed that following childbirth, one must continue to endure this arduous procedure on a daily and regular basis.
***
Finally fed up with being in his home prison all the time, Gregory feigned wailing. At first, his mother didn’t understand what was wrong with her child. But whenever she picked him up from the crib, he would stop crying. This was repeated multiple times. Finally, his mother realized that he hated being in the crib, so she started carrying him whenever she performed her duties by wrapping him tightly in a linen bundle, placing him in a basket made of pine straw, and hanging the basket on her back. (A/N: similar to how Nepalese women take care of their babes; gathering tea leaves while carrying a bamboo basket on their backs.)
Gregory learned many new things while his mother kept him by his side. For example, he witnessed his mother effortlessly lifting a barrel weighing more than her with a single hand. Household chores such as cleaning and igniting the firewood were done by magic only; no physical effort was required. He frequently observed her muttering an incantation, which would cause a soft wind and flames to appear in her hands.
He even tried multiple times to try to repeat those incantation or hand moments but to no effect; they were completely out of his reach.
But during those magical experiments, there were discoveries also made: Whenever tried to cast gibberish spells– he observed that mana would flow out of his body but nothing would happen. It would just evaporate in surroundings and if he continuously evaporated mana in his body then either he would get headache or drowsiness would catch up and make him go into sleep of tiredness.
It felt like he had come to some land of wonders where anything was possible, and that might be true in some ways too.
Another discovery he made was that this planet somehow has seven suns and three moons. During one of their house cleaning escapades his mother told him stories about how the number of suns represents the number of gods, while moons represent the goddesses, while this planet has so many celestial bodies. But somehow it still manages to cohabit lives……. Probably magic.
Gregory remembered that back on Earth, scientists had stated that no life could survive if there was more than one star in a system. First, the fact that no being can survive this amount of radiation; second, more than one center of mass destabilizes the entire system of planets. But who knows? Maybe as he was in a fantasy world, what wouldn't be possible on earth might be possible here.
One day, Gregory was chilling in his crib when his mother Trisha picked him up, wrapped him in the bundle, and tied him to her back. Gregory wondered if it might be the same as every day of cleaning and doing some house chores, as this is his regular routine of getting carried by his mother while she was doing house chores. But instead, his mother brought him outside of their house and closed and locked the door of house by waving her hands into some incantation and she started walking in the direction of the village, as their house was located on its outskirts.
The road leading to the village was made of basalt with a smooth finish, properly paved, and from time to time some symbols would flash by on some stones.
The village of Falafel is a small village settlement with about 300-400 people. The village itself is on the outskirts of the kingdom's border. It is one of the three villages that are on the border of the kingdom. The village is covered on one side by tall mountains which look like they are piercing the heavens, and on the other side by a vast, lush jungle. Perfect place for holding defense from any invasions: they may be beasts, monsters or even bandits.
As Trisha was carrying Gregory on her back, the recipient was looking in every direction with a newfound light. Since, it was Gregory's first time inside the village, generally, his mother would go alone, while his father or brother would be at home taking care of him, though she never brought him ten paces away from home like this. It might be because he is too young, or there might be some other problem, he didn't know.
Gregory saw a village that was filled with a lot of people. The difference between the villages which were in the 60's or 70's with here was no difference except that every person in the village looked like they were on steroids. Every person looked bulky and strongly built, as if they were ready to go to war at any time. But whenever they passed by someone, that person would either stop to greet them or pinch his cheeks. By the end of half-hour of strolling Gregory’s had big red swollen cheeks.
While Gregory was babbling to himself about the child atrocity, he did not fail to look here and there so that he would not miss any details about his village who knew when he would get such a chance to come out of his house prison again.
The village was made haphazardly, but placement of every house had been well-planned, so the space was not wasted. But there was no proper water drainage or supply system. Everywhere houses were of the same material as that of his home but there was no planning in making houses. But rather than dirty streets or blockages: everywhere it was a definition of cleanliness.
As both of them were passing by a flower shop, the woman at the counter called out to Gregory’s mother while waving, "Oh! Hey Trisha"
Trisha smiled and responded in her melodious voice "Sara, how are you? You are looking very pretty today!"
Sara blushed "I am not that beautiful as you. Anyway let me see! How pretty he looks; so that you have been keeping him safely guarded in your house over a month."
Trisha giggled as she passed Gregory onto her "a glimpse of the mighty and adorable; one and only my son."
Sara picked Gregory up and started cuddling and ruffling his non-existent hair. That was not all, She then picked a calla lily from her wicker basket and tucked it behind Gregory's ear.
That completely blew off Gregory's fuse , 'What the hell!? Why do I always run into people who either pinch my cheeks or harass me like this? This should have been a happy easy-going trip to the village not a torture.'
While Gregory was thinking about how to get out of this woman's hands, even thinking of sinister methods such as peeing on her dress.
She came up close and whispered to Trisha: "Do you remember the lord having a son this fall at the same time you did?"
"I heard from Priest Jeremy that his naming ceremony took place just the day before yesterday, and guess what he was titled after?" She went on.
"Who?" "Someone influential!" Trisha whispered.
The woman replied with a serious face, “Well, that’s obvious, but still, you guessed that right! He was named after Joseph Stalin."
"Sssssss" Trisha hissed. "The same Joseph? Ruler of all and one of the dread kings?" exclaimed Trisha before inquiring further.
“What does the royal family have to say about this then?" Trisha exhaled deeply and then realized, “Right, there has to be a representative of theirs in the lord's mansion, right!”
“Yes, I heard that the Lord said that a person's title does not represent their character, but their actions do! Using his own son as an example, but also slyly stating his intent to use his son's talent to close the distance between the royal family and his family.”
Trisha whispered, "So what's going to happen to the village? With the lord going on the royal family's side so openly other lords would not take this lying down right!" She continued in a hushed voice. “Are there any major changes happening?”
“Yes, starting in the following month, taxes will increase by 15%. With a 55% tax, we are already stretched thin and with the addition of this new tax, how are we going to live? A farmer I spoke with predicted that the plague would result in a very small harvest this year. The plants are refusing to grow on siphoned soil. On the other un-prepared soils, the plants are not even willing to sprout."
“I hope they will be able to solve the problem soon because I heard that the village coffers are also running dry of grain and stalks already.” Trisha said.
The woman continued, “Yes, if we did not have a sufficient supply before winter, then hunters would have to hunt more, and with winter just around the corner, they would have to travel into deeper portions of the forest and you know how those parts of forests are in winter? right!.”
Trisha made a firm decision and thought, 'Before things go awry, I will persuade Edward to talk to the village chief to find some alternative.'
Sara firmly squeezed Trisha's shoulder and added, "We must take measures or more hunters might suffer injuries or worse there would be more casualties than the previous years combined. I am also quite worried about Jenny's father's safety."
Trisha comforted her, "don't worry Edward is with him and they will take care of each other" Trisha then placed a reassuring hand on her shoulder while saying,"Sara, don't worry. I will discuss this with him. You shouldn't worry this much."
While their talk was going on, Gregory was also listening and absorbing information like a sponge. After hearing about taxes and some kind of scourge, he got an idea of the overall situation in the village.
Most importantly, he also learnt about some naming systems in this world. He was also confused why everyone had names and he didn't get one, but who knew there would be a naming ceremony such as this? And by the looks of it: seems important.
