TBATE: Shadows Of The Past

Chapter 2 - A Magical Introduction

{1st POV: Arthur Leywin}

I was a King. I could have had my country's army assemble at my feet, kneeling down with the snap of a finger. I had outdueled competitors from different countries, as well as my own people, to settle disputes and maintain my position. In terms of swordsmanship and controlling ki, I was second to none, for personal strength was essential to becoming a ruler in my past life on Earth. Kings were not born but raised. Yet, I could not think of a prouder moment in my two lives than now.

I can crawl baby!

Until now, I had to make do with the stories my mother would tell us while trying to make us fall asleep. I would grumble out noises of complaint when she stopped too early. Sometimes our father would sit my brother and me on his lap while idly talking to us about his old days, which gave me some hints as to what kind of world this was and what it was filled with.

Reynolds Leywin, a former adventurer (apparently a viable occupation in this world), had quite a lot of experience in the field. He had been a part of several parties that went on expeditions to search for treasure and fulfill missions acquired from the Adventurer Guild. He eventually settled down when he met our mother at the Kingdom's border in a city called Valden. He proudly told us how our mother fell head over heels for him at first sight when he visited the town's Adventurer Guild hall where she had been working at the time, but I suspected it was the exact opposite of how our mother slapped him across the back of his head and told him to stop telling us lies.

My name was now Arthur Leywin, and my brother's name was Cain Leywin. It seemed they had given me a nickname, Art, which, as a former King, sounded a little too cute. But hey, after catching a glimpse of myself in the metal sheet they used as a mirror in the washroom, I had to admit I looked absolutely adorable. I had inherited my mother's glowing auburn hair, while my bright azure eyes were inherited from my father. My brother looked just as adorable as me, with his short patch of black hair and dark black eyes. His always stoic face made him quite the eye candy. Do not get me wrong, I am not saying this because I am a doting elder brother!

Which reminds me, I had heard that I was the first one to be born, making me the older brother! I had always wanted to be an older sibling.

After weeks of attempting to crawl, yet only achieving an uncoordinated scuffle in place, I had finally succeeded. I even managed to sneak into the family's library/study room, with my brother tagging along, while our mother was hanging the laundry out to dry. Mother ruefully commented on the day we started to become mobile, saying, "I swear, you both are going to be as hard to manage as your father."

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{1st POV: Cain Leywin}

It had been a few days since my brother and I had finally learned to crawl. Right now, we were both in our family's library, reading up on information in an encyclopedia about the world we lived in.

He didn't seem to mind me sitting next to him, which was probably due to the fact that he didn't know I was a reincarnated person, although I had a gut feeling he actually did know.

Anyways, he closed the encyclopedia soon after we finished reading it, and situated himself on the ground by lying on his belly.

I sat with my legs crossed, pondering over the information we had just read. This world seemed pretty underdeveloped, from what I could infer from the encyclopedia. There wasn't anything as advanced as the telephones from the 1800s, or any world-changing scientific knowledge for that matter.

I assumed that there wasn't any knowledge of world-changing science because the people from this world had become over-reliant on magic. This over-reliance on magic had slowed down their development in other scientific fields.