Darkness. This was his first thought after waking up.

'Where am I?'

He tried to move his limbs but the sensation of touch had something amiss from what he was used to.

'Wait, can I think?'

'I clearly remember getting shot in the c.h.e.s.t by those gangsters. Am I in a coma?'

He tried again to move or open his eyes but the only thing he could feel was the sensation of being cramped and the only thing he could see was darkness.

'I guess I'm still alive, seems that I can't even achieve a quick death in my life. Well, at least it's warm in here.'

There was a constant warmth in his body, making the environment quite cozy.

'At least after I wake up my parents will let me off the hook for a while. Maybe I should just take this chance to get away from that house and go abroad, there should be at least a cleaning service hiring me.'

He thought of the possibility of exploiting that near-death experience as a mean to break free from the cage he called home. He considered how his parents would react once he said to them that he will drop the university to be a dishwasher.

'Dad will not make too much trouble for me, but mum will surely go crazy. Nowadays the only thing I can do home without starting a fight is reading. Maybe I will lose that too'

Since he remembered, he loved playing games, reading books and getting drunk. He found anything else boring and this seriously affected his school career since high school. So, the situation in his house grew more and more difficult for him to sustain as his parents would rather yell all the time than accept that the university wasn't fit for him.

'I guess a big part of that situation is my fault, after all, I've spent most of my life being drunk or isolated in some book. Not a good job as a son indeed.'

Thinking this, regret emerged in him. If he knew better at that time, he would've not used booze as a mean to vent and maybe the situation in his family would have been more peaceful.

'Well, I can't change what has already happened, and I didn't really have many options to keep myself cool while pretending all the time'

When he was 14 he figured out that something was not entirely right with him. He would see his friends going after girls or pretty clothing, emphasizing love and social status in a group of people. Yet, he only felt curiosity toward s.e.x without ever being able to really bind with someone. As for human society, he saw it as a bunch of rules created by humans in order to force them to live together.

'Aren't those rules created by men? As a man, I should have the right to ignore them and live the way I want to.'

'In the end, it's a world ruled by money. If you have it you can do whatever you want; if not you can only end up in one of the gears of society, acc.u.mulating money till the moment you die.'

'What a pitiful way of living. Forced by the rules of humans to work in order to acc.u.mulate pieces of paper, while those have value only thanks to the same rules you are obeying. True freedom is only achievable by gathering enough paper. Is there even value on living a life like this?'

His reasoning would stop from time to time as he would sleep or try to wake up his body.

In this way, days passed.

'Maybe I'm in a permanent coma and I will have to wait for true death in order to be freed from this darkness.'

The darkness surrounding him started to affect his mood, the only thing keeping him sane was the warm feeling in his body.

It was at that point that light appeared in the world of darkness, which seemed to get bigger as time passed by.

'Finally a change! I should follow th---'

When his eyes got used to the light he could finally see what was around him: a middle-aged fat woman was looking at him with worry, lightly touching his c.h.e.s.t. The strange thing was that her hand seemed to cover his entire body.

'The f.u.c.k is happen---'

He could not finish his line of thought that the fat woman already turned him to the side and lightly slapped his b.u.t.t.o.c.k.s.

For some reasons, he felt pain from that light slap.

'What the f.u.c.k are you doing woman?!?'

He said, yet what came out of his mouth was only a shrill cry.

After hearing that cry, the faces of the people in the room relaxed and the fat lady brought the baby to the arms of a pale but beautiful woman lying on an old-fashioned bed.

"It's a boy, my lady, and a pretty curious one, according to the way he looks at everything"

Even though he understood nothing of what the fat woman said, the young man in the body of a baby could easily figure out the situation he was in.

'Am I reborn? Wasn't it a coma?!?'

The woman holding the baby uncovered her c.h.e.s.t and attempted to feed him.

'Wai--!'

Before he could say, or rather yell anything, a liquid poured down inside of his mouth and he lost himself in the dizziness of his first meal.

"I will name you Noah, yes, Noah Balvan it's a good name"

Noah looked at the woman feeding him with half closed eyes. The woman had long black hair untied on his back and ice-blue eyes below her thin eyebrows.

'Sure my mother is beautiful. Noah should be the name she gave me, at least it's a good name'

The door of the room opened and a man in his forties with short black hair and a stern face walked directly toward the woman on the bed.

"Lily let me see the child"

Saying so, the man directly took Noah in his arms and raised him in the air to have a better view of the baby. The fat woman and the other two maidservants on the side of the bed lowered their heads at the sight of the man.

"Mhm, a bit pale and skinny but there seems to be some kind of wits in him. Maybe he will not be able to be a guard for the main family but he might succeed as counselor. You did a good job Lily"

Saying so, the man gave the baby back to his mother and moved toward the exit. Seeing this scene, Lily said softly:

"Rhys he's your son and his name is Noah, can't he aim at being more than a simple guard?"

Stopping at the edge of the exit, Rhys turned to look at Lily and said in the most natural manner:

"Even if he has my blood in his veins he has yours too mixed in, the son of a ***** should consider himself lucky enough if he can protect the descendant of the main family"

And he went out of the room, leaving Lily with watery eyes hugging Noah. She didn't see the deep stare of the baby in her hands toward his father after he left through the door.

'It seems that this family is not so simple, I should do my best to learn the language of this world as fast as I can'

Thinking so, he closed his eyes and went to sleep.

Five months have passed since Noah was reborn in this world.

It was spring, or at least it seemed so for what he saw of the outside environment. The mansion he lived in resembled a countryside villa from his previous life, yet it had the size of a castle and was mostly made of wood, with a wall made of rocks on the perimeter.

In that moment, he was in the arms of his new mother, peeking around while she was walking through the mansion talking to him. Little did she know that Noah managed to understand most of what she said.

'The language of this world is not so hard, also because it has a lot of similarities with the English of my previous world. Well, it's also thanks to Lily never leaving my side and continuously speaking to me'

These five months were spent by him mostly in his mother's embrace walking around Balvan mansion, with Lily explaining the most random things to him. Thanks to that he had a general idea of his position in the family and how the mansion was structured.

The mansion was divided into 2 rings, outer and inner. The inner ring was composed of a 4 stories building and it was the place where the main family lived; the outer ring had two 2 stories buildings and a 3 stories one and they were respectively inhabited by guards, servants, and guests.

At the moment, they were on the first floor of the guest's building, which was reserved to them since he had the blood of the main family in him, and since Lily was the beloved concubine of Rhys.

Noah's father, Rhys, was the third and last son of the old patriarch of the Balvan family, Thomas. As such, even though they did not get access to the inner ring, they could still live a comfortable life in the outer one.

"You must grow strong, little dear, the people in the inner ring will see you as a bastard and will spare no effort to abuse and bully you, especially the legitimate grandsons and granddaughters of the patriarch"

Hearing this, Noah's mood became heavier.

'I lived a life without meaning, in a world full of compromises and now that I'm reborn I'm asked to endure bullying because of my social status only to become a tool for the main family to use. It seems that I will live another life void of meaning'

Lily kept talking but Noah's mind was away, trying to figure out the best course of action for this life.

'If I stay here I will probably have a lot of benefits, after all, the Balvan family seems quite wealthy. I just don't know enough of the outside environment of the mansion so I can't be sure of the possibilities the outside world has to offer'

Noah was already considering running away from the family. He appreciated the affection and the efforts of this new mother, but these feelings were far from the love he should've had for a parent.

'I already had a family and it didn't go so well. This time I don't have to go through various experiences to understand the kind of person I am so I can always choose the things that suit me the most. If life in the inner circle is too hard for the sole reason of being a bastard I won't mind abandoning the mansion. Plus, I have 25 years of experience in advance and the knowledge of a more advanced world, my possibilities should be plenty.'

From the clothing of the people, the structure of the buildings and the state of the furniture, he could guess that this was a world without electricity, so way behind in the field of technology compared to his previous world.

'Yet, this might be also a disadvantage; my habits are those of the industrialized society and my thoughts are those of a guy from the 21st century, I don't know how the people here might react to some ideas. I must be careful.'

Sometimes thinking about his future, sometimes listening to his mother, the day passed and the night was approaching. Lily walked to a balcony in order to watch the stars appear on the dark sky. Noah used this chance to study the environment outside the mansion. Outside the defense wall, there were sheep grazing the fields, there was a large stone road that started from the main gate of the mansion and stretched in the distance, cutting the green fields into 2 halves. A field of what seemed corn was being cultivated on his right side and a forest was barely visible on his left in the distance.

It was a beautiful scenery, one Noah wasn't used to seeing, and now this was his new world. Then he shifted his gaze to the sky, and he seemed to see the darkness enveloping the redness of the clouds due to the sunset. At the beginning it was like a small dot in the distance, becoming bigger and bigger as it was going in their direction. Only then he realized that something was wrong. The darkness wasn't caused by the nightfall but by the silhouette of something undulating through the clouds.

It was fast and it was getting closer and closer.

At some point, a deafening roar ran through the peaceful countryside. It was coming from the figure in the sky.

A black winged body dove from the clouds diagonally, speeding toward the flock of sheep outside the mansion wall.

It was 7-8 meters long and had big black scaled wings, actually the scales were covering all of his body.

It dove at such a high speed that Noah could not make out the time difference between its exit from the clouds and its nearing to the terrain where the flock was.

Suddenly, the wall illuminated with purple and runes appeared on its surface. It emitted a steady but loud hum and the purple color of the wall spread toward the countryside in the direction of the flock.

The beast seemed disturbed in its descent and tried to halt itself mid-air spreading its wings.

But its speed was too high and it inevitably fell on the ground where the purple halo was going, creating an immense pit.

The moment the purple halo touched the dragon, smoke rose from the pit and another roar, one of pain, sounded in the dusk.

Filled with hatred, the dragon inhaled and then spat out a tongue of red flames toward the mansion that took the form of a lance as it kept nearing the outer ring.

Lily was frozen in fear seeing the lance of fire coming in her direction while Noah was still too stupefied by what he was seeing in order to even recognize the danger he was in.

Before the flames could reach the outer wall though, a figure appeared mid-air in between them.

He raised his right hand and mumbled something then the lance of flames hit something like a wall of air.

The attrition between the flames and the shield lasted for some seconds before the flames were extinguished and the floating figure was visible again.

He was an old man, with a straight combed long white beard reaching his waist and unbound long hair flowing in the wind. He was wearing a Chinese kimono with large sleeves yet the right one was now burned, showing his slim but sturdy arm.

He looked at the dragon right in its eyes and the dragon did the same.

That standoff lasted for about 10 seconds before the dragon roared once again and turned to leave at high speed through the sky, in the direction of the forest.

The old man waited a bit more in the air over the wall looking at the direction where the dragon went. After being completely sure that the beast was gone he sighed and disappeared.

This pain was what made him return to reality as he left a small groan to wake his mother from the reverie.

Lily returned to reality too, softening the grip on Noah, and she was about to say something before being interrupted by an aged and deep voice.

"So, this is my latest grandson, am I right?"

Noah didn't believe in the existence of the soul during his previous life, living was after all about empirics and reality, no place for religious or spiritual thoughts. But after he was reborn, he started considering the idea that there was much more than the eye or the advanced machinery could see.

As he was staring at the old man gently standing on the edge of the balcony, seemingly appeared out of nowhere, his mind fell into chaos.

'There was a dragon appearing and going after a sheep. So this world has dragons in it. Then the wall lighted up and hurt the dragon right? Then the dragon got angry and wanted to burn all of us but this old man, which apparently is my grandfather, blocked it with one hand while flying and then stared at the dragon to make him fly away.'

After a brief sum up the previous events in his mind he only had one thought.

'Where the f**k did I end up?!? This guy can literally fly and fight dragons and they want me to protect them?? Is something wrong with their minds? Wait, if they want me to protect them, it means that I should be able to learn a thing or two.'

His line of thought got interrupted by Thomas entering the balcony and slowly walking in their direction.

"Yes, lord Patriarch. This is Noah, son of Rhys and my own son."

Lowering her head, Lily gently exposed Noah to Thomas in order for him to have a better look at the baby. Maybe Lily wanted to use this occasion to impose a tinge of love in Thomas for his grandson so that he could protect him in the future, or maybe she was just scared stiff at the sight of the old patriarch that she could do nothing else but to expose her son with trembling hands.

Noah, in the meantime, was staring at the old man with fervent eyes.

He didn't even notice the passion and curiosity that his stare was displaying.

'People in this world can fly and fight with f.**k.**.g dragons! Old maaaan, look at how cute I am! Teach me how to fly!'

But only some sounds came out of his mouth, they resembled words but they had no meaning. So Noah stretched his little arms toward Thomas, in order to appeal to his feelings, putting a face of happiness at the sight of the nearing patriarch.

'You fight dragons but you still love your kin, right?'

Needless to say, the whole dragon incident left a deep impression on him. After all, dragons were only legends in his world and were represented as mighty and unbeatable. While their might was up to fantasies, in this world dragons could be fought, and you could win.

"Oh"

Looking at the baby happily stretching his arms toward him, Thomas could not help but show a trace of warmth on his serious face. Then he picked up Noah from his armpits and stared at him with a slight smile.

"Ooh, he seems pretty interested in me, there sure is some smartness in this child. Maybe he will really become a good counselor of the family. I'll keep an eye on him from time to time"

Hearing this, Lily was ecstatic and hurried to say the most respectful thanks she could muster.

"Many thanks, lord Patriarch. I'm sure that his safety can be assured for life with just one gaze of yours"

She bowed saying so, with both hands forming a praying form.

"There is no such being that could do that. Here, take Rhys' son and bring him back to his room. Today's events are not for a child this little to see"

Thomas handed Noah back to Lily and disappeared from the balcony. Lily could not stop her excitement after he left and kept cheering Noah.

"Have you heard? He will keep an eye on you! The Patriarch of the Balvan family will keep an eye on my son. Hahaha, this is wonderful. And he said that you could become a counselor, this is wonderful too. Not only my son will be protected by a mighty cultivator, he might also be away from the battlefield for life."

As a mother of a bastard son, Lily knew that the possibilities of Noah were not the brightest compared to the other descendants' of the main family so she was suddenly relieved when she heard some insurance from the patriarch.

Carrying Noah back to their sleeping quarters in the center of the first floor, she did not notice that the baby in her arms was silent and that his eyes were growing more and more determined.

'A counselor my ***! What's the point in giving advice to people with such powers. Any problem can just be blasted out like the old man did with the lance of flame! To think that a power like this actually existed! I must get my hands on it. I might have to risk a bit though, it seems that the purity of the bloodline is kept in high regard inside the Balvan family so showing some talent might attract unwanted attention from the main family descendants. Yet, I need some information to really understand what's going on'

From all the books he read, he could imagine that the fight for succession or even the envy of someone with a higher status than him might end up in blood.

'I already died once, and it was by accident. I don't want to be put in a political scheme and end up dead again, being powerless about it.'

A never felt determination ran through his little body, while Lily was preparing to put him in his cradle.

'A world where power is not given to men from the society they created. A power that seems to come from the inside of each individual, a power that belongs only to themselves. Lily called him a "cultivator", I must find something about it. I must learn to walk and read as fast as I can so that I can have some form of independence and at the same time show some early talent in the literature field. It might bring me to books that describe what a cultivator actually is and how to become one.'

'A bullet in the c.h.e.s.t hurts way more'

And so, only 8 months after his birth, Noah was standing upright on the ground, taking his first steps.

'This is so f.**.k.**.g slow, I need to train for this. I should start running from time to time in order to be more healthy and be more comfortable with my body.'

Even though he was disappointed with how slow he was growing up, Lily and the maidservants were stupefied.

"This baby has been trying to stand up for 3 months and now he did it. Most importantly every time he fell he would not cry but try to stand up again. If we didn't stop him every time he could have gotten a big injury by now"

The chatting maidservants were totally ignored by Lily as a sense of pride enveloped her seeing her baby walking at the age of 8 months.

"This must be the patriarch blessing, I knew something good was bound to happen since that day."

Luckily or not, Noah achievement was pinned to the supernatural character that was Thomas Balvan.

Surprises in the first floor of the guests building were far from over though.

"Come to mummy little one, you did a wonderful job today. Mum is happy!"

Saying this she half-kneeled on the ground with spread arms waiting for Noah to reach her embrace.

Noah looked at her and smiled, then moved with spread arms toward her and yelled at the last moment before the embrace:

"Mommy!"

And then he fell in his mother embrace, while Lily and the maidservants stared at him with wide eyes.

'This should be enough to get me an early education.'