The Soldier Mage 2 Chapter 2

Well, this wasn't how I imagined it would go. I was now reincarnated inside a 6 year old boy in another world. I still remembered everything from my old life, likely G.o.d's doing. Well, best to think of it as a fresh start.

The lady that was at the foot of bed is this boy's mother and I guess mine now. My hair was now brown instead of black and I had a much smaller frame. I missed my black hair and larger set of shoulders but I would get used to this eventually I told myself. Looking at my reflection in water, my face was somewhat normal, puffy cheeks and brown eyes.

From what I've learned so far, the boy hit his head rather hard and lost consciousness. It had been close to a week and the parents were almost ready to give up on him ever coming back. I questioned many things when I was able to speak, turns out I also now know this language just as well as English, my inquiries scared the father and mother as they thought I had suffered permanent brain damage.

I really wanted to be truthful with them, I was about to tell them about the real me when I reconsidered. What would they do when they learnt their child was dead and a stranger lived in its body?

They could a.s.sume I'm some kind of demon and I've no way of defending myself, so I decided to play along. I felt guilty about lying to them but it was also not such a bad lie when I thought about it. In their minds, their son was back and they cried tears of joy, how could I take that away from them?

So instead I faked memory loss and spent the better part of a week asking all sorts of questions. I learnt my mother's name was Violetta, dad was Henry and I had an older sister by the name of Emma. We also own a store in the city of Drecos and live above it. Dad is an armorsmith, we make a decent living from it.

Another shocking revelation was that magic exists for real here. G.o.d did mention it but it's hard to think about all that when you're being reincarnated. No one in the family can use magic though. Apparently it wasn't too late for me still but no one was counting on it.

Monsters are also apparently quite a problem. The world is relatively big but us humans don't hold that much hold over the land, its relatively safe within city limits but strong creatures roam the wilderness. There are 3 human kingdoms and some non-human ones like the Dwarves and Elves.

Enough reminiscing, I have to go with father to learn the crafts of the trade. I'm still young but everyone has to pull their weight in this world. I'm expected to continue the family business when Henry, I mean father, gets too old and to also take care of both my parents.

Father says I'm a quick study but I still have all my memories so it's almost like cheating. We mainly work with leather and iron, other metals being too expensive for us to learn to use. It takes trial and error to properly learn what temperature to heat a certain metal, how hard you can hit it when it's heated without it breaking or deforming, a luxury we don't have.

I'm not strong yet, my stats accurately reflecting that but I hand father all the tools he needs and I do the finishing touches. Yes, that was another thing that shocked me in this world. For all intents and purposes, it functioned essentially like an rpg video game. I liked video games, not much else we could do on base when we were stuck there and waiting for potential orders.

Much like in video games, everyone could see their status by displaying the window. Seeing someone else's status requires use of magic and that isn't available to everyone.

Much like how we don't need to think about breathing, wanting to see your stats opens up a display in front of your eyes.

Wilfred Lamarche [Lv. 1]

HP: 20/20

Str: 2

Con: 2

Agi: 1

Dex: 2

Int: 44

Wil: 38

Wis: 52

Lck:???

It seemed like retaining my memories from my previous life helped with my mental attributes; Intelligence, Willpower and Wisdom. No idea why my luck stat is unknown though. I asked dad about it and he wasn't sure either but the rest of my stats made sense for my age and level he said. I obviously didn't tell him my Int, Wis or Wil was that high, didn't want to scare them.

And so life continued on like this for some time. I was surprised to see there was no such thing as school but then it made sense when you thought about it. Society is very stratified and most jobs tend to just be pa.s.sed down in the family. There's no need for a college degree or to teach every peasant how to read when they won't be able to get those jobs anyways. It made me sad that there was essentially no hope for commoners, except some very few ones who were born with talents and grew up to be adventurers.

Although I could live a relatively relaxed life as a smith, my military training and morals made me want to do more than that. Also the fact that G.o.d said he'd be watching me added a bit of pressure.

2 years later

I was so focused on the book I was reading that I didn't hear mother speak to me. The second time she spoke, more forceful than the first made me wake up from my studies.

"Wilfred, would you be a dear and head down to the market to grab some meat for tonight's supper?"

I acknowledged her with a nod and picked up the small coin pouch on the table. I had a rough grasp of the currency of this world now. 50 Copper pieces made a Silver one and 100 Silver ones made a Gold piece. We had some money but not enough to be called rich. I had about 38 copper pieces in this pouch, more than enough for the meat with some to spare. A family of four could eat for around 16 coppers a day, a.s.suming they went for the least expensive and most nutritional food they could and ignored taste.

There was a butcher that lived not too far from us. He was a sort of family friend. He gave us a good price and in exchange father made sure his knives were all sharpened. I headed down leisurely, enjoying the sights.

The city of Drecos was the capital of Leganon. It was the smallest of the three human kingdoms but there was still some prosperity. The two larger Kingdoms often had conflicts and we were neutral towards both, that helped trade flourish and neither wanted to ruin that relationship or make it so that Drecos would join a particular side to flip the odds in the enemy's favor.

The architecture was oddly reminiscent of late medieval era from my world, mostly using stone and wood with some of the more wealthy citizens starting to use refined bricks.

I picked up the order from the butcher and headed back home. It was getting late and the sun was starting to set. It was especially dark at night as there was no moon orbiting this planet. At least I a.s.sumed it was a planet, I hadn't gotten any information on that front yet. I often thought back to G.o.d and that conversation we had. I didn't know how he expected me to bring change or try and do good in these circ.u.mstances. Perhaps that was the point. That I needed to risk myself or perhaps that it was simply due to luck.

"Well well well, who do we have here?"

A voice called out to me from within an alleyway. Not stopping walking but glancing to the side, there were 3 boys, all of them older than me and looking quite rugged. The neighborhood we lived in wasn't very rich so it only had a minimum amount of guards on patrol. Crime was not rampant but it wasn't non-existent either. I tried to hurry up my pace but a girl cut across from another alley and blocked my way forward.

"If it isn't little w.i.l.l.y" Spoke the largest and meanest looking of the bunch.

"I'm surprised you're still up and about. What with that fall you had. I was sure you'd be dead."

"I'm sorry, do I know you?"

The small gang all erupted in laughter and what appeared to be the leader stepped forward.

"Oh don't worry, you'll be sorry. Looks like that fall knocked some marbles loose in that head of yours, you'll remember us in time."

I had almost no chance to dodge his punch from that distance and I dropped the package, falling to the ground. I still remembered my hand to hand training but that kid had double my weight and at least 8 years on me.

I got up and entered a defensive stance, trying to calm myself and remember exactly how this went.

"Well well well, looks like he'll put up a fight this time!"

They all laughed again and the big bully swung hard. This time, I was ready. I pushed down on top of his arm, making his punch go downwards and to the side of me while closing in and raising my knee into his groin. It wasn't flashy or manly but I had to play with the hand I had. There was no way an 8 year old boy would beat up a 15 year old one in a fair fight and that was without counting the support he might have from his friends.

His eyes bulged and he stepped back, obviously in pain but not before managing to yell out.

"Grab the little f.u.c.ker!"

Hands from behind and all sides caught me and held me in place. Even the girl, only a few years older than me, had quite some strength. I was in a pretty bad predicament. If only I had my equipment back from when I was a soldier.

As I was straining to no avail, the bully regained his composure and started to approach me. This wouldn't be good, I couldn't get killed again. But then I felt something. Like closing your eyes and sensing an object is there, being aware of it and knowing you could just reach out and grab it. It felt silly in retrospect but I had nothing to lose, I couldn't move my hands but I reached out anyway and I grabbed it.

I couldn't feel the hands grabbing me anymore. Everything was quite silent. I felt empowered, lightweight. It then came to my attention that I was glowing green, some kind of translucent shining emanating from me. I didn't have any idea how magic worked but neither did they and so they ran.

I quickly picked up the package and ran back home with due haste, not wanting to test my luck if they came back and realized I had no idea what I was doing.