It had been beyond stupid, he hadn't even ever ran seriously since grade-school, he should have known he wouldn't have the ability to get three high-schoolers out of the way of a speeding truck.

He barely managed to pull one of them back by the collar before his body fell forward, his legs couldn't support his own weight.

For a brief second, he saw the flash of a light before a barreling truck crushed him against the pavement as everything went dark.

A blinding light slowly filled his entire concussionness.

'Ah… is this the afterlife? I suppose I'll be heading to hell. Makes sense, my brothers did say something to that effect as they beat me up and kicked me out of my room for masturbating to Loli porn instead of attending my parent's funeral.'

However, when the light cleared —and instead of being met with a flaming realm of brimstone— he saw a young beautiful blonde staring at him.

'Why's an Angel in Hell?' Still feeling loopy from dying, his brain struggled to advance further than his surface thoughts.

"Xx'x xxxxxx xxx!" An indescribable string of babble came from a giant brown haired girl who came into view.

The Angel looked away. "Xxxxxx, xxx xxxx xx Xxxxxx." She also spoke in babble and then she smiled down at him.

'Is that English? I suppose Hell is a more widely accepted western concept, but I didn't do too bad in school and yet I can't understand a single word.' The world fell out beneath him as the Angel moved away and the brown haired girl got closer.

"X'xx xx xxxxxxx." After speaking more babble, the girl reached her arms and hands out.

"Aa!?" He suddenly exclaimed in surprise as the girl began to lift him up. 'Wow watch it lady. I'm pretty heavy, I don't think a scrawny thing like you could handle— uh?' His entire world shifted as he was plucked up and held above her head.

From his position, he was able to see a rustic room of wood and stone, he also saw small hands dangling from his small wrists.

"Xxx."

"Xx, xxxxx."

The two continued to speak back and front in their own language, but he didn't pay any attention to them.

'What's going on?'

…

…

About a month passed before he was finally able to accept reality.

He had been reincarnated in another world.

He had completely died trying to save those high-schoolers, and he had been reborn as a baby in a different world that hadn't seemed advanced beyond the medieval age, and apparently magic was real here.

While being cared for, the blonde girl whom he assumed had given birth to him, would occasionally bring him out his room and have the brown haired girl hold him as she worked.

It seems she was a cleric of sorts, she would stop by a church looking room in the building they lived at and her hands would glow green as she magically healed injuries.

After realizing magic was real, he then began to actively attempt to understand his surroundings.

…

…

Around six months after being born, he had just about gotten the hang of the babble language being spoken around him.

He had learned his own name, it was Rudeus.

And it seemed his mother was named Zenith Latreia, and she was a Healer Mage who was currently boarding at a church/orphanage in exchange for healing the townspeople.

The brown haired girl had left before he could catch her full name, all he knew was that it started with a K. She was pretty weird, a little off putting would be a gentler way of saying it.

When she was left alone with him, she'd whisper to him as if he could understand her and then she'd smile wide with a pair of dull green eyes.

Other background information about this world was just outside of his complete grasp, but he knew enough to understand that this was some sort of fantasy world with knights and monsters.

Although he could crawl about now, his options were very limited, he could either stay in his room or go to the large room where the orphans were staying.

The other rooms were either locked or for public access.

And considering when he peered through the windows or open doors he'd see a bustling village, there was an almost constant stream of people coming in and out.

'Ugh, why can't you all go explode somewhere?' From his spot on the second floor balcony, he was staring down at the three guys who would occasionally stop by and attempt to flirt with his mom.

Zenith spent most of her free time in the altar area of the church, she seemed to be praying but she had no qualms about indulging in gossiping or chatter whenever someone came by.

When she wasn't there, she would be reading storybooks to the orphans or just playing with them. She was also responsible for cooking the meals here.

Overall, Rudeus only saw his mother during the morning for breakfast, afternoon for lunch, and at nighttime for dinner, getting cleaned, and a bedtime story.

Aside from feeding and cleaning him, she never spent time with him. 'Some Angel you turned out to be. What am I? Just some mistake from a one night stand or something?'

He didn't take his mom as some kind of whore; she never reciprocated any attempts at flirting and she never spent the night out, but regardless, she was still a picture perfect example of parental neglect.

His former parents had been an example of caring but passive parents, and although he didn't blame them for not helping him enough, he didn't feel any love towards them as a result.

Funny, he was basically confined to his room but he spent most of his days crawling around searching for something interesting.

His old family probably would have given him a gold star if they could see him now. Actually, scratch that, if they saw how he smiled when he was sucking milk straight from a real nipple, they would probably bash his skull in.

He had wanted to try this time around, try to live a decent life he wouldn't regret, he honestly thought he could, but it was clear that just wasn't his fate. So he returned to his room and crawled into his crib. 'Status!'

Name: Rudeus Latreia.

[HP: 10/10 - SP: 2/2 - MP: 4/4]

[STR: 1 - AGI: 1 - CON: 2 - MGI: 3 - LUK: 3]

Affinity: Earth, Fire, Air, Water.

Skills: Appraisal LV1. Basic Elemental Magic LV1. n%I=WX. Magic Affinity LV1. Mana Capacity Growth LV1. Sense Mana LV1.

He had discovered this on the edge of his consciousness shortly after becoming fully aware, he had played enough RPGs to understand it.

Unfortunately, he wasn't able to use any of his Skills.

Appraisal gave him barebones information and a sharp headache.

Sense Mana made him dizzy and lightheaded.

He had no idea how to even use Magic or Mana.

And whatever n%I=WX was, it did nothing he could notice.

All in all, his second life wasn't anything special.

…

…

He had stopped keeping track, but he would bet two years had gone by since he was born.

Unsurprisingly, his new lifestyle of lazing about waiting for milk and napping had led to him becoming quite the chubby baby.

Since he didn't have much to do, he had tried using Appraisal and Sense Mana whenever he felt like it. He wasn't a masochist, but aside from a brief spike of pain and nausea, he wasn't losing anything.

He almost got sick of it, but he decided to keep going after they leveled up.

Anyway, he was a toddler now, so that meant he needed to be potty trained.

He had been reluctant to give up being manually changed, but he knew Zenith would give up eventually so he pretended to need a week before he was fully trained.

In that week, he had noticed how frail his legs and arms were, a clear side effect of his new lifestyle. Although he would prefer to keep lazing about, he didn't want to end up underdeveloped.

Another thing he noticed in that week of walking around, was that most of the other orphans were gone.

Actually, most of the people in the village were gone.

"What happened?" Rudeus muttered to himself as he peered through a window to a mostly empty village.

"Isn't it obvious?" A toddler spoke up behind him with a dead calm tone.

He nearly jumped in his skin as he twisted his neck to look at the person who snuck up behind him. It was a girl with frosty white hair and frozen violet eyes. He couldn't speak, his heart thumped in his chest and his lungs were squeezed by his rib cage.

"Everyone ran." She eventually answered her own question. "You're Rudeus, correct? Since you spend your time isolated, I'll assume you're ignorant of the current situation, would you mind if I explained it to you?" Her words were cold, detached. She almost gave off the impression that she wasn't human.

Through his uneasy nerves, he nodded his head.

"Very well. South of here were other villages that lived near the border, however, they all got caught up in the conflict between Demon and Beastkin armies, and they were destroyed. The survivors kept fleeing inwards, and they had to keep moving as the armies also kept getting closer."

'This doesn't sound good.'

"This village is next on the chopping block, and if monsters don't come, then bandits will."

"Doesn't that mean those armies are eating into this kingdom's border? Isn't the king going to do something?" By changing the focus away from an interpersonal conversation to one of a bigger scope, he managed to calm down.

"That would seem like the case however, the current king has taken a neutral stance regarding the war. He wishes to establish an alliance with the victor, but it is unclear who that will be at the moment. He has allowed his citizens to defend themselves, however, he won't allow any soldier to lend a hand."

The more she talked, the less human she sounded. 'What is she, a robot? Or maybe a Kuudere?'

"Oh, forgive me, I have yet to introduce myself. I am Sefiria."

"There you are." A voice laced with steel called out.

He turned his head and saw another toddler, she was also a girl. She had bright fluffy golden hair and striking blue eyes, her skin was a clear white and almost looked like porcelain. And as she walked up, her eyes seemed to scan over his body.

"Good, it seems you are done moping, now we can get started." She raised a hand and cupped her chin as she nodded.

"Uh, what?" He almost reflexively asked, these two girls didn't seem like normal toddlers, they almost felt like…

"I assume your death had been quite traumatic and the shock of being reborn had taken a toll on you, I won't pry." She spoke in a matter-of-fact tone, as if she had known everything.

'Uh, well no my death wasn't that bad, I was just being lazy.' His brain seems to skip over a few things.

"However, I have to ask if you've been given a mission, or if you saw anything between lives."

"Uh, no, nothing, I just saw a light, some darkness, then more light."

"Hmm, I see. Just like Sefiria. Well, for the sake of transparency, I'll let you know that this is my second time being reborn. And it seems this time Being X wasn't the one pulling the strings, and apparently I have to watch out for the Witch of Envy."

Rudeus could almost hear his reality shatter like glass as he came to terms with what he was hearing. 'Oh… I see. I'm just a side character in someone else's story.'

"Where are my manners? It is nice to finally make your acquaintance, I am Tanya, an unwanted child of the Crimson Demon Clan." She held out a slender hand, a black cat with wings jumped upon her shoulders. "This is Kuro, don't mind her."

His arm almost didn't listen to him, but in the end he gripped the small hand of this world's protagonist. "N-nice to meet you."

"Now that formalities are out of the way, let's go. We can't keep Lugh and Ernesti waiting all day." Tanya said and then she walked away.

"I hope you aren't overwhelmed." Sefiria said in a completely calm tone, and then she also walked away.

'...Hahahahaha! As if I was important! What was I even thinking? I'm not some Light Novel protagonist, of course someone as pathetic as me wouldn't be the main character.'

Rudeus wanted to return to his room, he actually wanted to cry himself to sleep, but his body didn't play along and instead he dejectedly followed after the two reincarnated toddlers.

AN: Howdy. I've had this idea for a while, however it took a while for me to find a good blend of the things I wanted.