Felicity: The Sixteenth Life

CHAPTER ELEVEN: Child of the gods

"It's cold..." Felicity thought as she tried opening her tired eyes. She was surrounded by darkness.

Did she perhaps die? Did she reach the end of her life as Felicity? There was a lot of questions swirling inside her mind and thus she stopped thinking for answers and started organizing the facts first.

The day couldn't had been more routine. She went about her chores and trained for a while. That was exactly what she had been doing for the past week. So what was it that caused her to suddenly start vomiting blood? Did she perhaps have a terminal illness? Then how come she never experienced any symptoms until now?

"Hmph," Felicity scoffed internally, feeling quite ridiculous. "If I'm indeed dead then this might be the most frustrating death yet... It's not as painful or torturous as the past deaths but with those at least I knew from what or why I died. Suddenly vomiting blood for no reason and losing my life on what could have been the best circumstances of surviving to adulthood, this can't be more frustrating. At least tell me why I died, so that I'll know what I did wrong and I wouldn't make the same mistake ifever I reincarnate to the seventeenth life..."

She had been doing good so far as Felicity. She had high hopes that she would be able to live past twelve years old this time. And yet things had to end like this... Just why? Who was it that is doing this to her? What kind of sin did she commit? Why is she being punished so harshly? She had been confronting those questions for the longest time, but until now, she wasn't even shown any sign or hint to any of the answers.

"At least tell me... So I'd know what I did wrong..." she repeated, without actually knowing who it is that she's talking to.

All of a sudden, there was a blinding light. And came the crying noise of a baby.

"It's a boy..." a voice said as Felicity felt herself being held by wet and warm hands.

"Ahh... Is this the seventeenth life?" she asked herself.

However, the face she saw next made her stop. This couldn't be the seventeenth life, for the person looking down at her at that moment was Gordon, the father of her first life as Noah.

Noah was born as the seventh son of a farmer. As if that family was not dirt-poor enough, the scumbag of a father kept on adding kids to the family. As a result, the family itself ran on a 'survival of the fittest' system. Noah watched as the weaker kids succumbed to death first, either by malnutrition or by Gordon's beating.

The mother Nelia cared nothing for the children. She was too afraid of her husband to even say a word in the children's defense. Her safety was more important than theirs.

Fortunately, Noah was gifted with a healthy and strong body. From the early age of three, he had been helping out with menial tasks at home and at age five had started accompanying his father to the fields.

Even so, he was still beaten like his other siblings. The older siblings even beat him and the younger children as if following their father's example.

Noah's death was not a quick one. It was on a chilly autumn evening, a fortnight after his twelfth birthday, when he was given an errand to buy some liquor for his father, and he was run over by a carriage on the streets.

There was a man in the carriage who went out momentarily. Judging from his clothes, he's quite a wealthy individual. Perhaps he's a noble. Noah tried calling for help. But his throat was crushed and upon opening his mouth, he couldn't make a sound. The nobleman had the coachman carry his broken body to the back of the vehicle, and drove along with him.

It was very painful. Noah knew he had a lot of bones and skin broken, but he was still alive. In the midst of excruciating pain, he hoped that the noble was taking him to a physician to be treated. But he was wrong.