The light grew bigger, blinding me until my vision got accustomed to it. I found myself in a room filled with people that I do not know about.
'Where am I?' I tried to open my mouth, but no words formed. Instead, I began to cry like a baby.
"It's a boy, Lady Luminosity." Judging by how she was dressed, I immediately recognized that she was a nurse. The nurse handed me to a woman, or rather, my mother, gently.
"The child has the look of both the parents!" A woman who was dressed like a maid, exclaimed. The whole room burst with cheer, but the woman who was holding me with tenderness and care needed to raise her finger to keep the whole room quiet.
"Indeed. He has the same hair color as his father, and same eyes as mine." She smiled and carefully caressed my wet hair.
Judging from the situation, I have been reborn. However, I was born in a rich family. I could already tell that this family is rich because no middle-class family in their right mind would hire ten maids.
"What name will you give the child, my lady?" Another maid asked, careful of every word she was saying. One wrong word, her head will hang.
"Even before he was born, me and my husband had already decided on a name." She answered. "From henceforth, your name will be Arthur."
I think it's the baby's instincts that a smile appeared on my lips. The maids saw the joy that this baby just emitted, so they too were happy.
"Nurse." My mother called the nurse, and a nurse quickly went by her side. She took me from my mother's arms, the warm feeling fading away quickly. I cried, or rather, this baby cried instinctively.
The nurse left the room and transferred me to another room. They placed me in a windowed crib. There was a machine beside the crib where it monitored my heartbeat per minute. I didn't know what they were doing. They kept touching me with their hands, staring hard at the area they were touching me. But what fascinated me was that a yellow, glowing circle the size of a contact lens appeared in front of their eyes, just floating inches away.
What the heck was that? I don't know.
I guess thinking hard for babies makes their brain hurt to the point this body begins to cry out of nowhere. Or he might be missing his mother. I don't know how babies work.
After doing a weird check up on my body, they returned me to my mother. Except, my mother was gone.
"Lady Luminosity got up and began to do her duty." The maid whom I assumed was the head maid, said.
What? What kind of a mother… Well, I don't want to judge. I wasn't even there for my children when they were born.
"How absurd!" An elderly nurse walked in the room. "What kind of a parent abandons their child and continues to work even after a painful labor?" She said in outrage. "How will she know the baby is healthy?"
"We were tasked to report it to her after the diagnostic checkup." The head of the maids replied.
The elderly nurse clicked her tongue. "Damn that woman. What's important for her: the child or her duty for her nation?"
That question hit me like a hammer.
True. As a General, I have countless lives to watch over. Abandoning my duty will put the lives I was protecting at risk. But… As a parent? That's…
I don't know.
The head of the maid, whose name I learned from the elder during their bickering, was Hoshuka. She has been serving the family of Luminosity ever since she was born. It appears that her family has close ties with mine.
She chose to serve us instead of finding herself a boyfriend. That revelation struck me again like a hammer.
Yeah… Like me.
How I chose to serve as a General for my nation, rather than taking care of my loved ones.
The maids escorted me to my own room. They placed me carefully in the small bed and wrapped me in warm clothing. After doing their chores, which was supposed to be my mother's job, they left me alone in the dark.
Wait, what? Are you seriously leaving a baby alone in the dark? Wait!
But before this baby could even cry, my eyes felt heavy. Fatigue overcame me thanks to the warmth this clothing was giving off me.
And I fell asleep.