TBATE Ballad of Madness

Chapter 2 Dawning Reality

I was reincarnated as Arthur from TBATE??? What the actual...My thoughts were interrupted by a soft feminine moan. Trying to find the source, I tried to look back but my infantile neck just wouldn't allow me to. Just as I was about to finally take a peek at what was happening another voice cut in.

"Oh my, congratulations again as it seems that by the grace of heavens, your second child is also a healthy boy."

I felt a warm and gentle gasp of air blow my hair as my amm apparent 'father', seemed to have taken a sigh of relief.

So wait, I'm twins with the MC. But due to being born first, I must have taken his first name...aah this doesn't look good, I'll have to do something about it later. But wait a sec...
Observing my surroundings, it did seem that I was summoned with a demonic ritual. Soon I was handed over to my, this seems weird to say but, my mother. She was, just as Art described, beautiful an sweet, and just it was explained in the novel, I did feel a certain warmth and attraction towards her. Like being with her would shield me from any catastrophe.

This all felt soo surreal. Like it was really happening. I really was reincarnated in this world, but how? This was a world from the novel right?? Would I die in real if I die in this world?? Will I have to seriously have to go through all those situations along with the Leywins?? But how did I get here...
Suddenly, I opened my eyes again. I tried to immediately check my surroundings but the limited body movements seemed to have confirmed my suspicions. This was all real. I was deep in though when the warm feminine voice startled me, "Oh little Art, were you hungry too like your brother, or wait was it Ryan?" . It seemed, that my 'mother' was in the process of breastfeeding my 'brother'. Thinking about it, maybe we were identical twins, in which case it would be easy to return his name to him while I get to be called Ryan. But it would be even better if we weren't identical twins, after all, who knows just what kind of troubles I'd have to go through because of him. But whatever might the case be, I'll return his name to him, otherwise I'll feel too weird about it.

While I was thinking about all this, I'd failed to notice that I was actually sucking on something.

-- -- --

A few days had passed and I'd finally managed think my situation through. Since I already knew how the story went, I was sure of one thing. I absolutely can not make any big changes till Arthur reaches that point but I can't just really on Art for all the things as it would only drag him down. In the end, I decided to cultivate my strength in secret as much as possible while making little changes which would help me in the long run.

If my memory served me right, he learned to crawl and read the book about mana only after 7 months or so. The thing was, he had the advantage of doing something similar in his previous world with ki. All I had on the other hand, was knowledge of the future and this world, and my experience as a fresh recruit in an IT company.

Well, the best I could do was start early and hopefully form a core just after that incident. So to begin my plan, I started meditating and looking for the individual mana particles. I tried to concentrate real hard and then...I fell asleep.

-- -- --

A few months passed in a flash, and I had barely learned to control the individual particles just enough so as to will them towards my solar plexus. It was only then I realized how weak babies truly are, but by comparison, Art was still a monster though. It was only recently, after being able to feel and and will the mana particles that I noticed Art could almost crawl. Me on the other hand could barely flip to the other side while laying down. It as at this moment, I knew things had to change.

Up until now, my daily routine consisted of meditating while pretending to be asleep, sleeping, and listening to stories narrated by our 'parents'. It still felt really weird to think of them as my 'real parents'. After all, I already had my 'real' parents back in my world. Despite the occasional existential crises, I managed to pull through by meditating and listening to the stories. But now, Art was about to learn to crawl and then he would learn about mana.

It might seem that I am way ahead of him but the truth was, I needed a way to justify my growth and learning by mimicking Art was the most obvious way to cover my tracks. Afterall, I couldn't just revel to him that he was just a character in a book I once read.

And so the race had begun. I did my best to stay as active as possible for the next couple of weeks. To our parents, it must have looked like a complete personality shift.

-- -- --
Alice Leywin
-- -- --

Arthur and Ryan were the most adorable babies. Although they both looked similar, they couldn't be any different in their behavior. Little Art was always very active. As soon as my eyes were off of min, he would even try to crawl. Ryan on the other hand was much more calm. Too calm even. This one time Reynold accidently scrapped his knee by the drawer while lifting him up, and although the injury was minor he didn't even cry. Both Arthur and Ryan were awestruck though, once they saw my healing magic. They looked so cute I though I would've just gobbled them up. But of course I didn't.

Oh yeah, we decided to call them that way because for some reason Ryan would always react happily whenever we called him that even though I remembered naming him as Arthur.

I used to take them both to the market every now and then, and seeing how curious They both were, my visits to the town became a bit more frequent. I only did this for their education and to maintain the proper supply of fresh food of course. Although Ryan used to be the passive one, this all changed when Arthur learned to crawl. After seeing his brother crawl, Ryan started to try too. But as soon as he learned to crawl, another thing change, this time though it was Arthur. This one time Arthur managed to crawl to the study room and after that it was like he was a different baby!!!

Ok, I might have exaggerated this a bit but it was as if he had found a hidden treasure. Soon he paid even more attention when I read them both their bedtime stories. The funny thing though was that Ryan reacted in a similar fashion once he started crawling and found Arthur in the study room.

I was so proud to see them both be able to crawl at such an young age, but the surprises didn't seem to stop there.

I've heard about child prodigies before but I didn't expect both of them to be like this. They were barely one, and although could barely speak any syllable properly, the way they sat at the study with a book open looked as if they could almost read!!!

And just when I thought they couldn't surprise me anymore, both of them said 'Mama' first. I told them to repeat it again and again just to make sure I wasn't dreaming adn Reynolds sulked for the entire day that they didn't say 'Dada'.

Ever since they started reading, if they could even read that is, they seemed to just close their eyes shut and sit still. It was almost as if they were meditating. While Art would often seem strangely happy as he would raise his arms up in the air, Ryan on the other hand would often fall asleep. They both looked so adorable. I just hoped that they would always stay that way.