Her new life was somewhat slow-moving. She was, after all, a fragile baby who had just been born.
Her senses were numb, and she was asleep most of the time. Although she tried to think over her situation, as long as she was a child, there was nothing she could do.
On the positive side, her family did not appear to be poor. Though they weren't likely to be rich either.
They lived in a wooden house. However, it was a rather spacious and well-organized house. It seemed like a normal family.
Her father was extremely muscular and had slight Asian features. He had a tremendous amount of facial hair.
Her mother seemed to be the opposite of her father. She was quite slender, but one could see well-developed muscle mass. It turned out that she also had an older sister who occasionally visited her and tried to play with her. She was about eight years old.
As would befit a decent isekai, there was magic here. However, it was not a typical type of magic but probably something like Chinese Xianxia and Wuxia. Although she had read it a few times in her previous life, she wasn't that familiar with it. Still, she was a bit excited. Especially since her parents also seemed to be cultivators.
Pretending to be a small child was not easy. And breastfeeding was a bit embarrassing. The milk didn't taste very good either.
Attempting communication was something she dismissed right away. After all, who knows how the parents would react to the realization that their baby was in fact a full-grown woman.
Perhaps they would even kill her. Even in the best-case scenario, they would treat her coldly. In one word, an confession such as: "Hey actually I'm a grown woman from another world called Earth". It would be the greatest stupidity. What kind of idiot would admit to that?
Time passed. She was born around winter as she saw snow outside her window. It was already spring. About three months had passed with earthly time. Slowly she began to understand the language. Word by word. She didn't understand whole sentences, of course, but the whole family took care of her. Even the word mom sounded similar to the earthly equivalent. In the local language, it was "Mao." Dad sounded something like "Tati". She could understand it because they repeated the words while pointing at each other.
She had no children on Earth, so she wasn't sure when babies would start to talk. However, she knew that it was still too early.
It was quite painful. Everyday life was boring. She spent most of her time at home. In her own room (which was quite nice).
One day, when it finally got a little warmer and the snow melted, she finally went outside with her mother and sister. They resided in the woods. After about an hour of hiking, they reached the city. Well, a rather small town. It resembled a rather underdeveloped generic town in Europe but with some Asian elements. A mysterious combo. Likewise, her parents—her mother was definitely more European in appearance (Scandinavian, perhaps?). And her father was Asian, but more with Kazakh traits. However, she ignored these questions. She had finally got out of the house.
The city was vibrant. They made their way to the bazaar. It was packed with things she had never seen before. It reinforced her belief that she had indeed found herself in another world. Colorful vegetables and fruits similar to the devil's fruits from One Piece, meat in a toxically -neon -like color.
Together with my mother and sister, we went further outside the bazaar area. It was a more elegant part of the city. The buildings were larger and resembled real stores from the old world. Before entering this part of town, a guard verified their identity.
Could it be that this part was only available to the rich? Or perhaps nobles?
People here looked much better dressed and more wealthy. This meant that their family's status was not the worst.
They went to a weird-looking white building. She was unable to figure out what kind of store it was as she was unable to read the language (which looked like a bizarre noodle).
Immediately upon entering, she felt an intense odor. A spice store? Or odd perfumes?
Wait a minute. Is this...
Alchemy store. Or something of that nature.
It was truly breathtaking.
Everything was lighted by candles. No natural lights. Not very smart, it seemed, but surely was atmospheric. Shelves were packed with bottles, peculiar colorful mixtures, dried herbs, and phosphorescent fluids.
Her mother left her with her sister and started talking to the shopkeeper herself. She immediately noticed that he was missing one eye. His hair was incredibly greasy, and he looked like he hadn't seen the sun in a few years. What was he supposed to be? Was he an alchemist or a reddit moderator? Anyway, it looked like my mom is buying some materials.
It took some time. It was evident that she used to negotiate prices very intensely. At one point, when they were probably arguing about the price of some yellow urine-colored herbs, mother suddenly pointed at her.
Oh. Did she use the typical Karen argument of "Oh I just gave birth, doesn't she deserve some kind of discount because of that...." I don't mind, but I'd prefer not to be used as an argument for discounts on some herbs....
The shopkeeper alchemist looked at her and smiled. He walked up to her and began to speak to her as if she was a child. Well in the end she was a child. Then he patted her on the head. He then pulled out a coin. She opened her eyes wide. It really was beautiful. She had never seen anything like it. It had very intricate designs and an irregular shape resembling a circle.
Seeing her bewilderment, he smiled and said something. He then handed her a coin.
Who would give such a young child money?
Is he some kind of dumbass? A normal child could swallow it and choke. I may be in another world, but common sense should also apply over here as well.
Despite the fact that it was unreasonable nobody reacted by snatching the coin away from her, neither her mother nor her sister. They, too, smiled seeing that I liked that gold and luminous coin.
Eh, who cares? Not like I am planning to choke anyway. They are lucky that I am that smart.
She had nothing better to do so she started looking at the coin.
Her sister began looking at some things in the store, while her mother continued to negotiate. What irresponsible caretakers....
Suddenly she heard a strange female mechanical voice.
Capital has been obtained.. Do you wish to use [10 mu] to activate the system?
[YES] [NO]
Oh my god. Is this the legendary system that allows her to become a true heroine?! She couldn't believe it. Just the fact of being from another world was enough, but another cheat is always welcome; there could never be too much. She smiled broadly. She imagined with the power of her mind that she was "clicking" the "yes" button.
20 [mu] has been added to your account. Activating the system... Withdrawing 10 [mu] from your account... Synchronization will take a few hours. Thank you for your patience.