Ch 3 - Merrian town

It’s been two months now.
I’ve regained some control over my limbs.
Not much of progress.

As soon as my body can support my head in lifting, I could at least start crawling on my limbs.
It would be a huge upgrade nevertheless.

It’s morning right now and I already had my fill of breakfast.
There is no change in the menu since the day I was born.

I have noticed one thing, breastmilk flavor varies according to what foods my mom eats.
I’ve been fed 8-12 times on a daily basis, so that’s the one thing I noticed.

Other than that, I have not regained any good information as of yet.

“Benji, Mama’s ready so now it’s time to get you all dressed up.” a voice filled with enthusiasm echoed in my room.

Of course, it was none other than my mom.

The next second she appeared right in front of my cradle.

Like usual her gentle smile accompanied by her beautiful green eyes shined like gemstones.
She had tied up her beautiful red hair but some of her hair curls managed to escape and flowed and hid behind her earlobes.

Although her dress was a long frock whose green color seemed to have faded. The frock also had a lot of stitches, you can tell she’s been wearing this for a long time. Usually, such clothes would be already disposed of or given to servants.

She looked lovely despite her attire.

I could say that frock is my mother’s favorite dress she doesn’t wanna let go of, or we are just dirt poor.

As far as my experience, it’s the latter.

She lifted me up gently from my cradle and kissed on my cheeks,
“Alright, today I will let you accompany Mama to the grocery shopping.”

My mom frequently converses with me and despite I have the intellect of a grown-up man, the language barrier was the big problem.

But I am slowly but surely learning this language at an incredible pace.
And just now my mom said the word ‘Grocery’

Usually, whenever she says that word, she leaves the home for some time.
But before leaving she brings a girl named Martha who looked about 12-13 years old that takes care of me.

Martha lives in the neighborhood and she usually takes care of me whenever mom had to leave the house. Usually, she goes out during this time, normally for shopping.

But this time’s different, she said ‘Grocery’ but I don’t see that new girl Martha.

Just when Mom lifted me and placed me on my bed and started to undress.
I was once again butt-naked lying on the bed.

I am already used to this, getting undressed without my consent.

In her hand, she held a miniature-sized red colored T-shirt with a silly-looking design of smiling sun engraved on the front.

[“Is there a more plain-looking shirt?”] I asked.

*Aga Gu*

“Oh, you like this shirt. Mama personally sewed this sun for you.” saying so she started to dress me, “Benji- Stop struggling.”

I really struggled for some time but I had to give up and wear it finally.

Now my red silly shirt paired with a huge nappy, I was dressed up like usual.

She lifted me up in the air proudly,
“Oh, my little Benji looks adorable.” she complimented me followed by more kisses.’

I feel really silly but there was no way I could resist, not after seeing her beautiful smile.
If wearing weird clothes makes her happy then so be it.

She has sincerely loved and taken care of me since I came to this world.
I never met a person so warm and kind-hearted in my life.

I’ve never experienced such love and care before.
I was married to six wives and even had a lot of lovers back in my previous life.
The only woman I genuinely loved was my first wife Gloxinia, the rest of the marriages were for political gains.

Not to brag or anything but I was popular among the ladies and not to mention I was also a seasoned veteran in appeasing women in heart and body.

So I had thought I already experienced all types of love that the world had to offer.

But the type of love and care offered by my human mother was a really different feeling.
Is this the motherly love that was said to be the purest form of love?

I was a war orphan born and brought upon ravaged villages in the demonic realm.
I had lived a miserable life and fought me all way to the position of supreme Overlord.

So I never had experienced what it means to have parents.

After I was all dressed up.
She placed me on a wide piece of cloth and wrapped it around my body.
Then with the end of the cloth, she used one corner around her waist and the other around her arms. Then she lifted me on her back as I was a backpack.

Wait for a second, isn’t this… the famous baby-cradle strap technique.
I had read this method in one of the child care books.
This method was especially used by women to carry their babies so they can freely use their hands. The book even had pictures of a human woman carrying their kids as they worked in the kitchen.

Quite strange and handy method humans had invented.

I never expected the first time I will see this method would actually be used to carry me.

After my mother hanged me on her back, she checked if the cloth was tied properly.
After making sure that I was safe, we marched out of the house.

This was the time I was I was really excited to go outside after so long.

I have been in the void for… I don’t since forever.
Then I have been holed up in my house for the other 2 months.

I only got a few glimpses sometimes.

After stepping outside my home, the first thing I was greeted by the dazzling sunlight that blinded me for few seconds.

This baby’s eyes were too sensitive.
After I slowly opened my eyes to adjust my vision to the environment.
That’s when I noticed that we were surrounded by long tall trees whose top seemed to be disappearing in the skies. At the skies, there was also a flock of birds flying away from us as they disappeared amidst the cloud. There was a big wide dirt road in the front that seemed to cut through the trees.

I tried to look back at my home, there I saw my home was quite… weirdly beautiful.
My house was made around a giant tree that seemed to be hollowed from the inside. Most of the rooms were inside the trunk while more extended rooms were separately made. This house looked quite lovely except for those creepy wierd dolls and masks hanging around. My dad really needs to get rid of his habit of collecting creepy stuff and decorating our house with it.

Right now my mom seemed in a good mood as humming some tune, no clue what the song was she singing but I was surely loving it.

We walked for about 15 minutes through the woods and then came across a wide area which covered the feels. The lush green field was spread across till the horizon. There were many people diligently working on the field under the hot scorching sun.

Our dirt road ran through the center of this field.

People working nearby saw us and even greeted my mom.
Some of the female workers ran up to mom to greet her. My mom also greeted them pretty enthusiastically, they seem to know each other. Soon the female worker’s curious eyes fell on me.

They showered a lot of praises to both me and my mom.
They chatted briefly before returning back to their fields.

We once again marched onwards following the dirt trail.

It was not long when we entered a town.

The town itself was quite small and it looked quite plain.

The most important thing that I noticed was the town had two different languages on the wooden boards. One was a language that I learned when I visited the mortal realm called Agram the most spoken language. Meanwhile the other language I wasn't familiar with, it must be the regional language.

Similar billboard I saw at the entrance saying 'Welcome to Merrian town' with a funny-looking cow monster holding a bucket filled with crops.
Is that cow monster the town mascot or something?

It was surrounded by a wooden fencing wall that gave little to no assurance about one’s security. Even a 4th tier monster beast would easily penetrate the defense and raid this town in mere minutes.
Also, there didn’t seem to be any guards patrolling the area around here. This town might be situated in a protected area, no wonder everyone seemed so laid back.

There were a lot of old wooden buildings and houses whose wooden texture had faded from the passing of time. The road pavements in the town were rather made of stones and designed quite thoughtfully.

Wherever I could see there were civilians dressed rather modestly roaming around the city. Some of them had installed their market stalls which had a variety of things to sell, from crops and fruits to monster beast parts. There was even a shop that was selling weaponry.

I was in awe seeing so many people after so long.

My mom stroll around the town went from store to store to get groceries and other basic necessities. She was like a warrior fighting with shopkeepers in a battle of words.

She seemed to be arguing with almost every shopkeeper before purchasing stuff. This happened with every shopkeeper that she went to. And all the time my mom won the argument and come out of the shop with a satisfied smirk as she won some important battle or something.

I can’t understand what she was arguing about but I could roughly estimate she was haggling the prices. My mom was an undefeated bargaining warrior.

After we were done with the shopping.
We visited yet another shop.

But this time we went to a shop which was situated in the corner of the town.
As soon as I went near the shop I got some creepy vibes.

When my eyes fell on that shop I started to feel nostalgic and creepy at the same time.
There was an old gloomy-looking shop that almost seemed to be falling apart.

There were a lot of newly nailed reinforced wooden planks patched up to keep the old shop in place.
The shop’s roof had a hole that was patched up by a long blanket.

Some or almost every window glasses were cracked.
Also outside the shops were a lot of creepy masks placed on the wall that looked like monster faces and wow! Some even looked like demons!
There were also spooky-looking dolls hanging upside down from the roof’s ledge.

My eyes soon fell on the withered wooden plank hanging outside the shop's door that read ‘New Benji Antique shop’

From the looks of it, the wooden plank was recently modified.
The word ‘Benji’ was written on a cloth piece and just nailed it on the plank. The rest of the names were engraved on the wooden plank and only the name ‘Benji’ felt out of the place.
Behind the cloth piece, there used to be another name that was now hidden underneath my name.

Ah, this must be my old man’s shop!
Who renames their shop after their son, not to mention it's my pet name.

My mom glanced at me,
“This your papa’s workplace. He even renamed his shop’s name after you. Isn’t Papa just the sweetest?!” she said with a cheerful smile.

[“Could I raze this shop to the ground?”] I asked her.

*Baa Gugu* I snorted angrily with my baby sounds.

My mom smiled,
“We can't meet papa, right now. He looks busy currently, dealing with customers. So it’s better we go before he notices us.” she then started to walk away from the shop, “If he sees us, he will definitely get distracted and even abandon go so far as abandoning the customers.”

My mom smile turned a bit solemn,
“His business isn’t going too well here. If we accumulate enough money to help your dad move his shop to a bigger city, then his business will surely go smoothly and we will also become filthy rich.” a pleasant smile resurfaced on her face, “Then once we become rich, we’ll get new clothes, nice food and maybe even a mansion with a fountain at the entrance. I will also enroll you in the most prestigious school that our country has to offer. Hehe.”

I don’t know what she was talking about but her eyes were shining and her tone pretty melodious.
She looked happy once as some excited young teenage girl.

I got a sudden strong urge to protect her smile.

We later returned back home.
I didn't even notice when I had fallen asleep during our journey back on our way home.

Before I noticed I was back in the cradle without any nappy.
The cold breeze cooled my lower bottom as my tiny mighty shaft enjoyed the freedom from the shackles of my ever restraining nappy.

For fuck sake, did I soil my nappy, again?!

Later at night when my dad returned home, my mom told him about our adventures.
Although dad got disheartened and started pouting when he heard that we came to his shop but left without visiting him.
My mom just ignored my dad who was throwing a fit, all night.

Mom should take me outside more often.
Seeing the outside world was a nice change of pace.