Medieval Company

Chapter 2 - A Harsh Reality

Sena stood silently by the lakeside, her gaze fixated on the calm surface of the water. The soft breeze barely disturbed the mirror-like reflection, allowing her to see herself clearly. Long strands of jet-black hair framed her face, cascading down her shoulders, a stark contrast against her simple village attire. Her sharp brown eyes, bright and intense, seemed to pierce through the reflection, as if searching for the person she once was in another life. Her lips curved slightly, a touch of irony coloring her thoughts.

"Heh~" she muttered, barely loud enough to be heard over the gentle ripple of the water. "Should I feel fortunate being born from a good seed?"

She studied her face, the features that, even by her own standards from a world long gone, were considered beautiful. A beauty that, while pleasant, now felt like a faint echo of a past life, almost inconsequential compared to the harsh reality she was facing.

Sena sighed at her reflection, the breath escaping her lips as if trying to release the weight of her thoughts. She stood up slowly, her eyes lingering on the water for a moment longer before turning toward a large tree near the lakeside. With careful steps, she approached the tree and settled down beneath its shade, her back pressing against its sturdy trunk. The cool bark provided some comfort as she leaned her head back and closed her eyes for a moment, letting the gentle rustling of the leaves fill the silence around her.

"It's been seven years..." she whispered, her voice trailing off as memories began to resurface.

The early days of her new life came rushing back. The struggle of being a baby again—a fully grown mind trapped in an infant's body. She remembered the frustrating experience of learning to crawl, her limbs refusing to obey her, and the endless days of watching her parents from the ground, unable to reach them or communicate. When she finally took her first steps, the feeling was less triumphant and more a grim reminder of the body's limitations.

Then came the challenge of language. It had taken time to even understand the sounds her parents were making. The unfamiliar words felt foreign, and grasping the meaning behind them had been like learning a new language from scratch.

'That was the worst experience,' she thought bitterly, 'for someone like me, mentally an adult, to be stuck fumbling through the simplest things like a helpless child.'

Her body had been so small, fragile, and incapable. The frustration had been unbearable at times, but Sena had forced herself to endure it, pushing through every painful lesson until, by the age of four, she had begun to grasp control over her new reality. Her thoughts drifted back to that time, wondering how she had managed to survive those years of helplessness without losing her mind completely.

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Her thoughts drifting to her family. Her father, James, was a farmer who worked tirelessly in the lord's fields, owned by Baron Hawke of the Mondrel Region. She admired him, even though their family's condition was far from prosperous. They barely made ends meet, living like most households in the village, scraping by with just enough to survive. It was funny, in a way, that this level of poverty was the norm.

'But hey, at least they care for me,' she thought with a faint smile.

Her parents, despite their struggles, took pride in her. They called her a genius ... though Sena knew it was because she had the mind of an adult, making her maturity stand out among the village children. Her intelligence, by the standards of this world, made her something of a prodigy in their eyes.

At the age of four, her family was blessed with a baby boy, a moment that had filled their small home with joy. Sena remembered that time clearly. The excitement in her parents' eyes, the overwhelming love they showered on the newborn. It was a new experience for her too. In her previous life, she had been an only child, so having a sibling was an unfamiliar feeling, but a welcome one. She hadn't expected the warmth she felt when holding her baby brother for the first time, a strange sense of attachment she hadn't anticipated.