[NP] 2 – Are these people stupid?

It didn't take long for me to realize that I must have been reincarnated like one of those drawn stories Tobias read all the time he called 'Manga,' which was a part of his 'Otaku Culture,' whatever that is.

The people I found surrounding me when I reawoke decided to put me in some kind of nursery with a bunch of other brats that had been preventing me from sleeping due to their constant cries and whines.

If I could, I would have inscribed the Rune of Privacy long ago, but with this damned body of mine, I can only move my eyes and flail my limbs!

Instead, I barely got a wink of sleep last night due to being constantly woken up by the brats around me!

Every day for an entire week, I had to deal with the brats as some random people checked on me every hour!

And always, one of the people checking on me was some female of a species I am unfamiliar with that looked incredibly similar to that of a human. One thing different about this woman was the purple skin and tattoos on her face.

The other people in robes called the woman 'Grand Master,' who must be some kind of highly respected person, or maybe even the leader of these strange people due to how the others seemed to react in her presence.

The woman constantly used me as something to talk about all her worries and annoyances, which only proved to make my mood worse.

Especially since some of the things she 'informed' me sounded ridiculous.

Why would they try to stop Youngling's emotional attachment to others and call it a weakness?

Even though I partially agree with her, I also knew it could be a strength.

I saw it clearly with humanity. Most who fought in the third world war were doing so, so that their families would be protected from the horrors of war.

Heck, I've seen it. The courage and strength a person has when protecting someone they care about.

Don't get me wrong. It can be equally dangerous when someone loses someone they care about but so long as they have someone close to help ease their pain, they'll eventually recover.

Although I guess I have no right to say that...I had no one to help me get over Tobias's death. All I got was ridicule, disgust, and despise from those of my race, which is why I committed suicide by combat.

This woman, 'Lact,' I believe she called herself, also mumbled something about this 'Order' is dedicated to bringing 'Peace' and 'Justice.'

Which only made me more baffled. Are these people idiots? Are they seriously having to give up emotional attachments?

I'd honestly say that having emotional attachments would be a great help in the goal they have taken upon themselves.

But what they are doing? Seems like it would only lead to their downfall.

Imagine if someone in their order has a mental breakdown due to their brainwashing and decides to cause utter chaos across the universe because of their mistakes?

What made me even more worried was that this order seemed to use some sort of Magic.

For example, I saw 'Lact' open a door with a wave of her hand. But, with my crippled senses, I was barely able to notice that it was Telekinesis that the woman used.

Although the Telekinesis was strange to me, it was not Magic fueled by the energy of the universe but fueled by something...else.

It worried me, but until I found out precisely what fueled the spells of the Order, I won't pry.

Who knows, it might just be a new and unknown form of Magic that used different magical energy.

But if they fueled their magic through darker means, If so, I would not hesitate to kill everyone associated with this order.

For now, since I am stuck with this shitty body, all I can do is wait until I can at least walk and control my body.

I cannot even begin to explain the shame and humiliation of being unable to control my body...

---

By the time a year passed, I was fully able to walk and control my body and limbs, but with my current age, my motor skills are horrible.

I managed to steal a metal spoon from one of the caretakers in charge of feeding us and used the spoon to carve several runes and engravings on the bottom of my crib.

It took a while because it was made of metal, but within a few months, I carved all the runes and engravings I wanted.

The Runes I used were: Mana Attraction X, Durability V, Comfort V, Warmth III, Personal Privacy III, Hide Rune V, Recovery I, and Soothing I.

Recover helped heal injuries while soothing helped calm and relax the mind, and Personal Privacy was a modified rune that would block out most sounds around my crib beside the sounds I allowed to pass.

As for the engravings, I used: Protection III, Eagle IV, Mage IV, and Bear IV.

Protection would create a weak magical barrier to protect whoever lay in the cradle if they were in danger, Eagle would greatly improve my senses, Mage would increase the Mana density around me and help me strengthen my connection with mana, and finally, Bear would increase my Strength, Endurance, and toughness.

I had little time, a single crappy tool, and with my current body's state, I couldn't produce better runes and engravings.

If I had the proper tools and control, I would have already engraved a Rune of Growth that would help me age and grow.

I would have also added some Domain Enchantments but found that my connection to mana has dramatically weakened, meaning that I would have to train and strengthen my body all over again.

Have I mentioned how much I hate being a child?

---

By the time I was four, the Order had forced me and the brats around me to attend a class and learn how to write the common language of the galaxy, which they called 'Galactic Basic.'

The language was simple and easy to learn, so once I learned how to write the language within the span of less than a day, I asked if I could go back to bed.

They moved us to a different room filled with beds a while ago, and I laid claim to a bed in the corner and had to re-engrave my runes and engravings into the bed's frame.

Of course, I had to sneak out and destroy the runes on my previous bed, which was surprisingly easy to do, and I never got caught.

Although the teachers still looked a bit taken aback, they let me go back to our sleeping quarters, where I got some nice and peaceful sleep with my Privacy Rune up and blocking most noises.

Since I was a child and didn't have much privacy, all I did was sleep and wait.

They seemed to have cameras in the room to watch over us, which did cause some difficulty for me at the start, but once I learned that I could, with some effort, do it in the middle of the night and pretend that I was moving in my sleep, it didn't take long for me to regain my much-needed sleep.

Several months later, once everyone knew how to read and write the 'Galactic Standard,' they separated us into groups of 10 and started having us go to more classes, which I quickly realized to be brainwashing classes meant to engrain the order's way of thinking into the young.

While most of the things they taught us were simple education, they also went over history, which was obviously biased since the order seemed always to be labeled as 'Heroes,' 'Peacekeepers,' or something else similar in nature.

Over the curse of a few years, I also noticed that whenever they mentioned someone who left the order and did something terrible, they always blamed the person and not the actions or beliefs of the order that made the person leave.

As time passed, I found more reasons to leave this order in the future so my freedoms are not restricted.

When I turned five, they started trying to teach us how to use the 'Force,' the name for the Magic they used.

When I asked what the 'Force' was, the answers I got were vague, such as it being Energy that flowed through all living things, which sounded a lot like the Energy of the Universe that I was using to power my magic and crafts, could the Force be another form of Universal Energy?

Hmm...

With some hesitation, I let the foreign energy finally enter my body.

The first thing I felt was...intrigue?

"What the hell? It's alive?" I murmured out loud.

"What was that?" The teacher asked, looking in my direction.

"Nothing."

Focusing on the entity that the Jedi called the 'Force,' I began feeling a few more emotions.

Serenity, Joy, Hate, Confusion, and Sadness.

And as quickly as they appeared, they disappeared.