It was night and the sole illumination in one particular room was a flickering light bulb, just enough to remind Adrian that they hadn't been changed in months.
A pile of papers, tangled cables, and empty energy drink cans littered the metal desk before him.
His fingers moved mechanically over the keyboard with his eyes half-open, barely tracking the lines of code dancing across the triple-monitor setup.
Maybe the fourth in a row? Or fifth?
In another room, people were laughing, probably some late-night birthday celebration. Adrian wouldn't know.
He was always the guy who fixed problems behind the scenes and that guy who worked while others celebrated deadlines he barely met.
He was a systems engineer for an overambitious tech startup. In the beginning, it felt like his passion. Now it just felt like rot.
He had once worked as a technician and as a mechanical engineer, and his current job was meant to be an uplift, but as things turned out, much hadn't changed.
His back ached, his wrists burned, and his eyes dimmed. He hadn't eaten in over twenty hours. Maybe even more.
"Just a few more tweaks to the interface..." he muttered as his fingers slowed. The program glitched again. He blinked at the error log, tried to process it, and then—
His fingers slipped from the keyboard. He reached forward instinctively but knocked over his half-full cup of stale coffee and then he fell and hit the cold floor.
There were no screams, only silence and a strange, numbing warmth that spread through his chest.
'Is this how I go? Alone? On a dirty office floor?'
Adrian laughed in his mind. It wasn't even tragic. It was a pathetic end to a pathetic life.
There was darkness, and then light.
Adrian felt strange. He couldn't move his limbs, nor could he speak. He couldn't even open his eyes properly. The world around him was muffled and distant, like he was hearing through water.
"Five!" an excited voice exclaimed, breaking through the silence.
"Lady Mirenia, you did it! You've given birth to five beautiful, healthy babies!"
Applause and soft laughter followed. Footsteps moved closer and a gentle hand brushed against Adrian's forehead.
"A miracle... truly a miracle from the Goddess," whispered the midwife.
Adrian opened his eyes, and this time he could see, albeit not like he used to. He saw blurry shapes of a woman lying in bed and four other bundles, all crying or squirming, lying in the arms of attendants.
His four siblings wailed as if competing for who could scream the loudest. While he, on the other hand, said nothing.
But it was only after some seconds of him maintaining his silence that the midwife frowned.
"Strange... This one's not crying."
Strangely, Adrian could understand every single word the woman said. But he wasn't interested in her, as he was still trying to become acquainted with his new body.
His body felt tiny, soft, and helpless; his head felt too big; his arms were too weak to move, and his vision was still unfocused but clearer by the second.
He tried to open his mouth to maybe say "I'm fine," but all he managed was a gurgled wheeze.
"There's no sound," the midwife said anxiously. "He might not be breathing properly."
"Is something wrong with him?" Lady Mirenia asked with a tense voice.
"Not sure yet. Sometimes newborns take a little longer... We'll get him crying. Just a moment."
Adrian could observe the leaning midwife and was almost set into a panic. 'Wait, what are you—'
A sharp pain exploded across his upper thigh.
Adrian's tiny body jerked violently as the woman pinched him. She did not pinch him gently or curiously but with the seasoned, brutal fingers of someone used to delivering babies in tough conditions.
'What in the actual hell?!'
His mind screamed a thousand curses, but all that came out was a high-pitched cry. The pain lingered on him for a moment before his brain finally caught up with the sensations.
"There we go!" the midwife said proudly, holding him up a little higher. "Nice and loud! He's healthy, just stubborn."
The room relaxed and a few chuckles followed before the midwife took him and his new siblings to be cleaned off.
'Alright, this is real. I've been reborn... Somehow.'
Time blurred after that. Carried from arms to arms, wrapped in warm fabric, held close to someone's chest. Everything happened too fast for Adrian.
He managed to pick up on some common names like: "Lady Mirenia," "Lord Cedric," "The Borin House." There was talk of how rare it was to have quintuplets, how the stars must have aligned. People came and went. Some offered prayers. Others gifts.
But through it all, Adrian stayed mostly silent, watching, listening, and processing every single bit of information he could.
Over the next few weeks, Adrian confirmed what his instincts had already screamed:
There were no machines. No electronics. No phones or city lights. People dressed in long robes or wore tunics. And most importantly, the word mana was spoken more often than the word food.
He watched as the servants lit candles with a flick of the fingers. Saw how the nursemaid placed her hand over a feverish sibling and whispered a chant that cooled their skin instantly.
'Magic. Literal magic. And I'm in the middle of it!'
As days passed, he observed his siblings too. All four of them. They were all loud, needy, and fussy. But compared to them... Adrian was quiet.
Not because he couldn't speak, it was because he simply had nothing to say. Not yet. Because in his mind, questions remained:
'Why am I here... and what the hell am I supposed to do in a world ? Will I be able to use magic too?'
Just like that, days flew into months, and the months soon turned into years, and in the blink of an eye, it was already time for his tenth birthday... A child's most important year in Thanad.