Chapter II - Edona, Age 1

It's been just over one year since my birth, normally I would say that it has been rather uneventful, but that is far from the truth. In terms of what I have learned about this world, it wasn't any major, yet it was enough to have a basic understanding of society here. For instance, the language of this world was exactly the same from what I knew in my previous life, to be honest, I still wondered about this to this day. For example, I couldn't be certain if the language long before I was born was always like this or if my mind just, I guess, naturally adapted to it. It was certainly something to look into in the near future.

I wished I was allowed to enter this mansions' library, but Elinos made it adamantly clear that he believed I wasn't old enough. To be honest, I was quite confident that I would be able to read the contents of the books. Because I came to the conclusion that if I could understand what they were saying, it was more than likely that I could understand the writing. Of course, I couldn't argue against his judgement because I didn't want them to be suspicious of my behaviour at such an early age.

Because of this, most of my time was made up of trying to cure my boredom, so it wasn't a surprise that I was laying upon my bed completely bored out of my mine. Obviously the servants of the mansion, especially Talaena and Sylna would go out of their way to play games with me, but I mostly feign that I was enjoying myself for the most part. In the first year of my life, I was spending most of my time Niona, but eventually she started to spend less time with me until it got to a point she would spend weeks away from me. This all started roughly nine months ago, my first assumption was possibly being pregnant once again, however, I couldn't be certain.

Regardless, it wasn't so bad being young, as it didn't mean I had any major responsibilities to uphold, so you could say it did have its ups and downs, but it mostly restricted what I could do. Which, in turn, created the problem of not really having anything to preoccupy myself. Everything I wanted to do was out of the question, as I was considered too young to even partake in such activities. I feel back upon my bed, catching a glimpse of silver locks of my on hair that splayed out around my tiny body.

I heard a gentle knock at the door before it opened, revealing Talaena standing on the other side of the door frame before walking into my room. Talaena had a bunch of clothes in her arms, you could tell they were freshly cleaned as I could smell the flower scented soap that they had previously been washed in.

“Pardon me, Miss Edona” Talaena announced herself, bowing her head before walking over to the closet in the corner of my room. She opened the double wooden doors of the closet that already had dozens of dresses hung up. Talaena then began hanging the cleaned clothes in the closet.

Twisting around upon my bed, I looked at Talaena aimlessly not for any real reason, only to occupy myself for the short amount of time. I didn't expect a reaction or response yet, as Talaena continued with her chores, she suddenly turned around to face me.

“Is something troubling you, Miss Edona?” Again, I didn't expect anything from her, so it took me by surprise for a moment when she suddenly asked me that question. I suddenly began to fidget around even more upon the bed as I briefly thought to myself what I wanted to ask her. As for Talaena her body was positioned halfway between facing the closet and me while she continued with her chores finishing off hanging up the last few dresses.

“I-I just r-really bored.” I'm unable to still properly speak as I would often stutter on many words and I also found it hard to properly pronounce a lot of what I said. In my previous life, I never knew what I was like to be a baby or toddler, I can only remember small snippets from that particular time. On the other hand, being reborn made me see a whole new perspective of how things played out. This time around, I came to realize how truly hard things will be for the next few years for me, and just the thought of it drained all the remaining willpower that I had left.

I noticed Talaena's surprised look on her face, and I quickly realized why. And I can't blame her, who wouldn't be overjoyed to hear someone like myself utter some new words, no matter how bad my pronunciations were. To be honest, when I first realized this I became very conscious of myself, and would quickly resort to interacting with people as little as possible. I suddenly felt a strong grip wrap around me, almost scaring me to death.

I turn my head to see an overjoyed Talaena with a big cute smile in her face as she hugged me, she slowly swung me around off my feet ever so slightly. Furthermore, I could feel my cheeks getting warm just from the embarrassment that I was currently being forced to endure, thankfully however, it came to stop when Talaena put me back down upon the polished wooden flooring.

“With each passing day, you become adorable than the last!” She gently clapped her hands together, as for myself, I couldn't help, but feel even more embarrassed than before. Which, in turn, gave Talaena even more reason to try to coddle me to death.

For a brief moment, I thought I could hear someone calling out somewhere inside the mansion. At first, I thought I was imagining things until I heard it again, this continued until it got to a point that the person calling out was in fact Sylna. And to no surprise, she had been calling for Talaena this entire time. I looked to the person in question only to see Talaena's surprisingly scared expression plastered across her face, and the pupils in her eyes had shrunken some much that anyone would mistake for lizard eyes.

Both of Talaena's hands clasped each side of her head, almost like she wanted to pretend that she couldn't hear Sylna calling her name. At this point, Sylna was literally shouting her name, clearly showing signs that she had already lost the all the patience that she could muster up until now. Again I look back at Talaena only this time to see her slightly trembling on the spot, it was obvious that she was trying to play it off as no deal. But little did she know that I wasn't buying it one bit, and to be honest, I sort of wanted to see where this went as I have never witnessed this situation between the two maid servants.

The door to my room suddenly swung open as if someone had blown it off its hinges, almost with some type of explosive. Turning towards the door, I could see Sylna standing under the door frame glaring in the direction of Talaena who had immediately turned to face the other way to avoid the sinister gaze from her superior. I didn't even have to ask, I could feel the terrifying aura emanating from Sylna as she stood there for a few seconds in silence before finally speaking.

“Talaena!…” I could see the one in question visibly flinch, “… I've been looking everywhere for you, hurry Lady Niona is going into labour, bring all the items we need!” I perked mu head up towards Sylna after what she just said. Wait, is Niona pregnant? I should have known the time frame matches up, why didn't I realize it sooner!

“U-Understood Mistress!” Talaena instantly responded, soon turning into a panicked state before she started to leave. Both Sylna and Talaena seemed to be too focused on what they were doing that they completely forgot that I was even here, the both of them leaving me alone.

All I could hear were the hurried footsteps in the hall outside before it fell silent. I considered following them for a brief moment, but I decided against it, after all, I was still getting use to the lay out of this huge mansion. I would still get lost, as many parts looked relatively similar to one another, so it was easy to mistaken certain places for one another. To be honest, I was also dissuaded from doing this after being told off by Sylna many times for wandering off by myself.

Just the idea of getting lost in this mansion again and then being scolded by Sylna is enough for me to stay right where I am, and wait out the boredom that was inevitably going to creep upon me. But, the idea of doing nothing here while I waited is literally just as bad, if not worse, than my previous thought.

I fell back in defeat not knowing what to do upon my comfy bed, just staring at the ceiling thinking to myself how I should past the time since both Sylna and Talaena won't be here. I could just play with my dolls, but the novelty of that has already begun to wore off. Not only that, but I would have definitely head to the library, however, as I mentioned before that was a no-go at this point until a few years have passed that is. An idea crossed my mind about seeing if Derrian wanted to do something, but the thoughts of last time ran through my mind and I quickly decided against it.

My thoughts instantly went back to the time about a year old, where Talaena tried to persuade Derrian to spend more time with me, even thought we're just half-siblings. Although at the time, Talaena probably only thought of it as Derrian going through his rebellious stage. But, when I saw the look in his eyes back then, I knew that I better keep my distance from him as much as possible. It made obvious not long after I was born that he had no intentions of playing nice with me, even if he didn't show it to anyone else.

As I laid still upon my bed, thinking quietly to myself, I noticed a small dash symbol appear in the corner of my vision. At first, I thought that I was imagining things, seeing that it had been a pleasant sunny day I thought the lighting was playing tricks with me. That is, until I turned over onto my side facing away from the window that the flashing dash was in fact there. Not knowing what to do, I waited, expecting either something to happen or for it to go away, until a line of text appeared before my eyes.

[… EvoGenetics …]

[... Updating Operating System ...]

You're probably expecting me to be surprised at this point after not seeing this thing for so long, but to be honest, very little would surprise me at this point I think anyone would agree that at this point so truly amazing would have to shock me.

[... Update Complete ...]

[... EvoGenetics First Generation 1.1 Installed ...]

Before I realized it a large screen appeared before something reminiscent of the science fiction movies that I could vaguely remember seeing from my past life. Once all the text had properly loaded in I began sifting through it all to what it was all about.

[... Name: Edona Miradan ...]

[... Age: 1 ...]

[... Gender: Female ...]

[... Race: Demi-Eldar ...]

It seems to be pretty simple information at this point. Beneath this information looked to be some kind of table or grid. I continued on looking through the contents of grid itself.

Seeing this table of information brought back memories of from my previous life too I could remember too much I could get snippets here and there. What all this seemed to remind of was something called a role-playing game I couldn't much about it besides from the fact that players would take on the role of a pre-established character or one they've created themselves. In this instance, however, I seemed to have been set with the former seeing that I never had a choice in who or what I could do.

I looked through the contents within the table and it all seemed pretty standard from what I could siphon through my current batch of memories so far. Health is obvious if I reached zero I would most likely die again and my endurance meter must be related to my own physical fitness. On the other hand, magic, finesse and mana I could even remotely surmise what these three things could be I tried to rack my brain with any useful information regarding these three topics, but to no avail. I decided to stop trying after the first one seeing as no good would come from needlessly trying figure out something that you can't.

I noticed another line of text under the table all it said was Powers. I focused on the word and as if it could read my mind another screen appeared before me overlapping the previous, however, this time there nothing just a blank screen. I laid there pondering to myself for a moment staring at the two partially see-through screens hovering before me. I was so lost in my own world that I hadn't even noticed a panting Talaena standing underneath the door frame to my room.

Panicking I quickly sat up trying to desperately figure out a way to get rid of these screens before me, and again as if reading my mind they disappeared. I looked towards Talaena who was also looking back at me, at first, I thought she saw everything, but to my surprise it looked like she hadn't noticed anything at all.

Can only I see this status screen or am I only one who has this ability? I didn't have time to dwell on such things. Before I could even get my thoughts sorted out Talaena started to tell me something.

"Miss Edona, you probably won't understand what I'm about to tell you, but..." Talaena must have been running as her short breaths forced to take a moment to herself before continuing "...you have a little sister now!"

I didn't know what to say, well obviously I couldn't really say much as my speech patterns were still developing yet this was one of those moments where I truly wanted to say something. Instead I imagined what I looked like in Talaena's eyes sitting there on the edge of my bed with a stoic look on my face. Before I even realized what was happening Talaena picked me up in her arms running out of my room, and towards what I presumed to be where Niona currently was.

It was all a blur as the thought of having a little sister suddenly brought another batch of memories from my previous life. I could remember seeing another woman who I assumed to be my mother in my last life resting in a bed with a baby in her hands. Her face was all a black blur like it was purposefully crossed out so I couldn't remember her at all. My young self seemed to reach up onto the bed looking intently at the baby in mother's arms. Suddenly the wave of memories vanished instantly, and before I knew it me and Talaena was already inside Niona's room.

Looking down I could see Niona holding another baby in her arms looking just as worn out and flustered when she gave birth to me. To be fair, I'm surprised she was able to have a baby so soon after me I didn't think it would have been possible, then again, this world doesn't seem to follow the same Laws of Nature as my old world so I guess anything is possible here. Talaena gently placed me down own the bed where I noticed dozens of the other maid servants were gathered.

Crawling over slowly I could see that my little sister was fast asleep and that Niona had a joyous smile.

"Look Edona, it's your little sister, Ellana" Niona said to me my eyes fixated on Ellana for some reason her presence just drew me it felt like I was somehow connected to her, but I couldn't see we would be.

My vision was suddenly covered in a barrage of words and symbols.

[... EvoGenetics ...]

[... Establishing Connection ...]

What's all this about?

[... Connection Established ...]

I was confused with what was going on for a whole year I didn't see any of this then suddenly in the last fifteen or so minutes all of this is happening, it didn't make any sense to me.

[... Link Established - Subject E-3431 ... Subject W-7783 ...]

Right then, I felt something change within me I don't know how I knew this or what it even was, but in the back of my mind I knew for certain that me and this girl somehow made a connection through this system. All I could think about was what this all meant, and deep in the back of my mind I wondered who this person before me meant to me in my previous life.