South of the Central Continent, the Kingdragon Kingdom, capital city Wyvern. Year 405 of the Armored Dragon Calendar.
In one of the chambers of the royal palace of the Kingdragon Kingdom, maids had hands full of work as a new child of the royal bloodline was about to be born.
This would be the reigning king's 29th child.
The mother? A slave woman — the King's plaything and not even his concubine. Purchased at a slave market, impregnated on a whim.
Even so, the baby was still a child of the King. Everyone involved treated the birth with the utmost caution. Any mistake or complication could bring severe punishment.
The midwives were experienced. A Healing Magician stood ready, ensuring the birth proceeded smoothly.
Before long, a new life entered the world for the first time… Or so one would think.
Tiny clear green eyes blinked at the unfamiliar world. Pale blond hair clung sparsely to a small head.
The mother, who was just crying out in pain not long ago, could not help but smile as she saw that her baby resembled her.
At that moment, one of the maids stepped forward. "To preserve the King's dignity, a fitting name has already been chosen. Since it is a boy, he shall be called Mordred. Mordred Kingdragon, the 16th Prince of Kingdragon."
The mother could only form a wry smile. Although her son was a prince, it was a prince in name only. And she hadn't even been allowed to choose her son's name.
The King himself wasn't even present. She doubted he'd given a moment's thought to the child's existence.
It was even uncertain whether she would be allowed to raise her own baby or she'd be thrown back into the dungeon cell. After all, in the king's eyes she was just a slave - captured and valued only for her beautiful appearance.
All things considered, the child was the result of rape. But it did not stop her from loving her own baby. In this hopeless life of a slave, her child, the life, which she had carried in her belly for the last 9 months, was the one thing she could cherish, her light.
But while the mother stared at the baby, the boy stared back with a strangely intelligent glint in his eyes.
'Does it mean… I really reincarnated?!' The baby named Mordred Kingdragon stared in shock at the beautiful blonde woman before him.
Hey, Morgan Freeman wasn't lying after all! That guy really reincarnated him!
And according to that self-proclaimed God, who took the form of Morgan Freeman when meeting him because that's how Mordred apparently saw God, he'd reincarnate in the world of Mushoku Tensei.
As far as Mordred knew, a baby should not have proper eyesight for a good couple of weeks after just being born. But if it's Mushoku, then it checked out; some logic could be thrown out the window.
The first scene of seeing a beautiful big-boobed blonde mother also checked out as the standard for Mushoku Tensei reincarnation.
If Morgan Freeman didn't lie to him again, then he also reincarnated with the talent and potential of a Servant from the Fate series - Mordred Pendragon.
Back during his meeting with Morgan Freeman, he was asked to pull a lever of a flashy and tacky-looking gacha machine to determine his future potential.
Among supposedly all Heroic Spirits, he ended up pulling Mordred Pendragon - the Saber Class Servant in the series and the illegitimate child of the King of Knights Arthur/Artoria Pendragon.
As far as Mordred was concerned, it wasn't a bad pull. Saber Mordred was a strong second tier Servant, only inferior to top Servants.
But this didn't mean he gained Mordred's strength or abilities in any way, or anything related to Mordred as a Servant like her sword or armor. He would only inherit Mordred's talent and potential from when she was alive.
Even so, just that alone was something amazing.
For Mordred, if he reincarnated in a world of swords and magic yet was unable to gain any strength for himself, it would be a life worse than death.
Taking several steps back, perhaps this wasn't entirely true. Just the possibility of restarting his life, and in a fantasy world he knew, would be something quite amazing even if he was an ordinary person. Although it would be agonizing to not be able to become stronger, life would at least be somewhat interesting, and he would get another shot at doing things better. Is this not what every average webnovel reader dreams of?
In the current situation, with supposedly the talent and potential of the son of King Arthur, Mordred was extremely eager to begin exploring the new world, restart his life and gain great strength for himself.
While looking at the beautiful woman in front of him, Mordred also thought that perhaps his new body's looks will also not be bad. If he had Morderd's potential, wouldn't he have her genetics too?
The mother's blonde hair and green eyes matched perfectly! These were the Pendragon genetics.
Even though the woman was not exactly Saberface, she was beautiful.
But before Mordred began planning his future and secretly making a harem member list, which began with Eris, he was soon pulled in closer by the blonde woman and was presented with a breast.
Eh, it was breast-feeding time?
Mordred let out an internal groan.
'Sigh. A man's gotta do what a man's gotta do…'
He was now a baby, so he had to swallow his pride. To grow up big and strong he needed nutrition; even grass needs to drink to grow, or so said his father, an alcoholic.
…
A while later.
'Mordred… Mordred… I heard this word a few times already. Does it mean in this world my name is actually Mordred?' Mordred pondered as he was placed down in what seemed to be a crib.
The woman that seemed to be his mother had said the name Mordred a few times to him and the midwives had also repeated it later when they picked him up. It seemed that his name from now on was really Mordred!
Fate liked to play jokes…
No, Morgan Freeman did. Who else could have set things up this way apart from this ROB guy?
Either way, Mordred was not a bad name. He quite liked it, even if it was embarrassing to use the name of an 'anime character'. Eventually he'll just have to own it!
While being moved around earlier Mordred had also seen a bit of the world around him. He seemed to be in a high class room with expensive-looking wooden carved furniture. Apart from the blonde woman, there were a few maids there as well.
From this, it seemed as if he reincarnated in a rich family.
But the father was not there. No males were present.
Mordred felt a sense of Deja Vu…
'So my father is either a high-ranking noble who's very busy or just doesn't care,' he thought.
After thinking for a moment, it was even better if he had a neglectful father; it beats having to pretend after reincarnating to be a good boy in front of an overly protective man that's probably younger than him, fooling the poor guy. Or having a father that's simply a horrible abusive asshole that's worse than having no father at all… In contrast, being neglected was perfectly fine.
As long as he displayed sufficient talent, he should still be able to gain access to some learning materials for Magic and so on.
While having these thoughts, Mordred wriggled around his little limbs while laying flat on his back.
His mobility was limited to maybe 20% of the norm, making him feel strange. He felt like a mental hospital patient strapped to a straitjacket; not that he had personal experience.
Putting these distracting thoughts aside, Mordred focused on something far more important.
'Magic! Can I use it?'
Of course he couldn't. He hadn't learned it yet. But what if?
'Tsk. I'll have to wait until the coast is clear,' Mordred reevaluated after glancing around, noticing someone still being there.
If he internally wished to float up, and then he suddenly really floated up in front of the maids, then there were two options. Either Hagrid would come pick him up, because he's a wizard, or he would be exorcised for being possessed by an evil spirit.
He could skip on risking the second outcome for the time being!
For now, he thought back to the magic system of Mushoku Tensei.
He was not only an anime-watched but also a webnovel reader, and a quite mindful one, so he knew Mushoku Tensei quite well.
Learning the Magic itself and the spells' chants was one thing, but what the novel's Protagonist discovered was that simply spending Mana while you're still young works wonders to grow your Mana Pool.
Apparently, no one else had noticed and figured this out in the last 400 years; everyone else believed that a person's Mana Capacity was decided at birth.
Either way, starting to exercise your Mana Pool at a young age is crucial to growing an extremely large Mana Reserves in Mushoku Tensei. The younger you start, the better!
'As far as I remember, all that Rudeus did to grow his absurd Mana Pool was really just exhausting his Mana every day. I hope I can somehow do that without learning Magic… But can I?'
He could probably only begin learning Magic when he learns how to read, when he's at least 2 years old.
But this meant 2 years wasted!
He had no idea how he could go about it otherwise, so he could only attempt using his imagination while hoping for the best.
Mordred calmed down and focused on his body.
He closed his eyes, and concentrated even more in order to attune himself with his body.
'Focus.'
Suddenly, as if a switch was turned on, he felt a jolt of electricity shooting through his entire body. The shock made him wide awake and alert.
It was a slightly frightening experience.
However, after that he began to see with his mind's eye white lines all over his body, running down his limbs like wires.
'What's that…' Mordred was a little dazed.
Seeing those lines, what came to his mind were the lines that Shirou Emiya in the Fate Stay Night Series could see when he performed Magecraft, whether on objects he inspected or the Magic Circuits of his own body…
Mordred's natural conclusion and guess was that these 'white lines' might be his Magic Circuits, which are probably used to move Magical Energy through his body.
With this thought, he moved on with his original objective. He internally willed to control a flow through those lines to 'send out' his 'internal energy' into the outside world.
After sending out this command, he immediately felt a change!
Beginning from the area where his heart was, faint warmth traveled along the white circuits and along his limbs, before gathering at the tips of his fingers and being sent out.
'I did it!... I think.'
Mordred felt excited. Although there was also a sense of fear that he might be doing things wrongly and fry his nerves, like Shirou was apparently doing.
He maintained the flow of energy while being careful. If he started training his Mana Reserves right after popping out of the womb, that would truly be called starting to cultivate young!
Unfortunately, because Morgan had him pop up right at this moment, he had wasted 9 months in the womb. He could only try to make up for it by being especially diligent.
But it was not before a few moments later that Mordred felt increasingly tired.
Suddenly, he passed out.
.....
Name: Mordred, apparently
Age: 1 hour
Strength: F--
Endurance: F--
Agility: F--
Mana: F- | Seems to have some.
None.
None.
...….
AN: I have already written 50 chapters (entire Season 1) and planned the entire novel. From this point, I will be publishing one chapter per day. Somewhat in the late afternoon of CET time (not decided yet).