I spent around three hours on learning the Martial Practice ‘Flavour’ and I’ve now arrived at a point where I can test it out.

I was interrupted once when I was brought breakfast, but I left it on the table that holds the medicinal plants. The interruption caused me to take longer to learn the Martial Practice, but I managed to grasp the basics eventually – all that’s left for me to do is test it out. Luckily, I can use the breakfast stored on the table!

Breakfast is a simple piece of bread and some fruit. While the bread doesn’t look like the appetising type, it’s better than nothing. The fruit’s not something I can recognise, but it looks as though it tastes good.

The first step in trying out my new Martial Practice is to try these items before using it so I can compare the tastes from before and after it’s use.

The taste of the bread is stale, which is understandable, as it’s been here for around two hours. Surprisingly though, no bugs have gone and attacked it. Are there perhaps preventative measures for bugs around? The fruit, on the other hand, looks strange with spikes. Once it’s peeled, it tastes similar to a sweet orange. It’s regrettable that using this skill will most likely make it taste horrible.

Testing the skill simply requires the user to think about using it. Simply put, as long as I think about changing my taste buds, the Martial Practice will work. Of course, unless it’s mastered, it’s a useless thing for Practitioners. Which probably means it’s useless for me to even try, but you never know.

…

The bread and fruit now both taste like shit. No matter how I try and use the skill it seems impossible to stop it tasting bad. I almost want to cry- never mind, I really am crying now. The food just tastes that bad now.

I think the guards just played a prank on me. It’s probably even a common prank that people play – I better get them back tenfold! Ahh, screw it. It’s not like it matters anyway.

This thing is the only thing I can practice for now, I think, as I have my health to consider, alongside the lack of Martial Practices around. I’m fairly sure our library doesn’t keep any and the ones we do own are probably hidden as they are dangerous. Something like that.

“Argh.”

Letting out a grunt, I stop attempting to train ‘Flavour and prepare to sleep for a little bit. I have around two days left of energy which I don’t know how long it’ll last. I’ve judged how it works for now – randomly. No matter how I try and manage it, it doesn’t stick to any pattern. It sucks.

If it wasn’t random, I could setup some sort of plan for the future, but it is random so I’m extremely annoyed. Oy, goddess, this is your fault, you know!? What are you doing to compensate me? I’m fairly sure she’s laughing at me facing my misfortune.

*Ahem*

It appears I’ve wasted quite a bit of time that I could have been resting but I suppose a few minutes won’t have much of an effect. Trying to get every little bit of sleep is something that’s bad for you. That’s something that I learned at some point… I don’t remember when, but it’s stuck in my mind for a very long time. I find it sort of contradictory but I’ll follow it in hope of getting stronger!

Right, sleep. Judging by the sunlight coming in through the window, it should be around 10am, I think? So, lunch will be in around 2 more hours. Well, probably. It won’t matter if I’m asleep as that’s fairly normal for me, but I wonder who’ll bring it in. Breakfast was brought in by a nameless maid (She was quite old, with graying hair and everything), who smiled as she gave it to me. It was weird as she didn’t make a sound other than knocking at the door before entering. I guess she was a mute.

It’s normal for a variety of maids to be employed in a kingdom. At least, I think that’s the case. After all, the king probably has various tastes… Err, not that particular maid, she’s probably too old. And I don’t wish to particularly wish to think about that sort of thing as the king is my father. It’s too weird…

Thinking thoughts like that, I quickly fall asleep.

—-

“Onii-san!”

I jerk awake as the sweet voice of a young girl calls out.

“Ah! Ohh, Lumi. What’s up?”

“I brought lunch for you!”

“And yourself?”

“I brought my lunch too! Let’s eat together!”

You assuming child! Who said you would be able to eat with me, huh? Well, it’s not like I’m going to reject it… I was expecting for another maid to bring in my food, so it being Lumi is a pleasant surprise. I kinda wanted to get a bit more sleep beforehand but it doesn’t matter. Checking the amulet, I’ve increased my amount of energy so it’s now at four days… It really is random, isn’t it?

Thinking of things like that, Lumi sots on the bed and places a basket on it as well. She opens the basket and what’s found is…

“That’s a lot of sandwiches….”

“Is onii-san disappointed?!?”

Lumi’s giving off the feeling of a dog being scoled right now and I just want to pat her head… Huh, that’s weird, right? Since when has that helped make someone feel better. Somethin’gs warped my sense of what’s good and bad. Or warped my feelings. Hahaha, let’s just fix this problem. She’s still looking at me with that sad look.

“No, that’s not the issue. I just don’t think I could eat a lot.”

“I’ll eat anything onii-san doesn’t!”

“You’re setting yourself a big goal there.”

“Don’t underestimate me, onii-san!”

Ahh, what? Why do I feel like she just issued a challenge? She did, didn’t she? My little sister just challenged me! Erm… I’m not exactly sure what the challenge is though. I got caught up in the moment and reacted as such. I guess I’m still immature. Which is weird, given I have approximately…

Huh? I can’t seem to remember how many years of experience I have. No matter how hard I think about it, I can only feel like I’m an eight year old. An extremely mature eight year old, but that’s how old I swear I am… But I still have the memories of all my past lives?

The first life where it was just a simple life of going to school, then university. I visited some ruins before dying during an airplane crash…

Then, the goddess let me into heaven, where I got to meet some of the gods. They were from all sorts of religions! Nope, still no sense of time?

I visited hell after and met a few of the rulers of death… A few of them were hot! Erm… I’m still not a pervert, okay.

There’s about 20 other ‘Past Live’ memories, but no matter how hard I think, they seem to be just that – memories. Apparently, the goddess has gone ahead and changed my mind! Well, it’s not like it’s that bad of a change, it just feels weird.

Anyway, the weirdest thing is, though I reincarnated into this body, I have no ‘memories’ aside from the few I’ve made in the past days. The age of maturity shouldn’t be counted, but it’s definitely how old I remember being. Eight years old. (The fact that in every single set of memories, I still haven’t had any sexual encounters makes me sad. You’d think I’d have at least done something…)

So, when I began this new life, though I tried to think of my previous age (I think I’ve known before…), I basically am an eight year old with extensive knowledge… My memories are simply a resource. Maybe I’m a little different from how I used to be, but I’ve got the feeling my personality is pretty much the same as from before. Though, others who reincarnated can entirely change after their reincarnation. Some are utter dicks.

That’s the gist of it. As much as I’d like to think of myself as a mature person, I’m a young child. I guess it’s helpful for those around me as I’m not completely out of this world. I can appear as a young genius! That is, if I wasn’t sick, I could appear like a young genius.

Rather, for me as I am now, my intelligence is simply making up for my lack of physical ability. I’ll never be known as a young genius even if I am the prince. If anything, the fact that I am a prince means that I’m expected to surpass the common masses.

“Onii-san? Are you going to eat?”

“Mmmm… Sorry, I’ll take this then.”

Saying so, I take a sandwich which looks as though is has some sort of meat on it from the basket. I feel bad as Lumi hasn’t begun to eat, probably due to the fact she was waiting for me to eat first. I’m a bad brother!

I take a bite of the sandwich.

“Huh?! It’s amazing!”

Lumi blushes a little , before saying something in a quiet voice.

“Th-thank you onii-san. I, I made these.”

“Hmmm, you did?”

“Yes… It was the lesson i had today.”

“I see. Thank you.”

I pat her head for a little bit which makes her blush even more. It’s cute. Looks like patting her head isn’t such a bad thing after all. I wonder why I was stressed about it?

“… I’ll make more for onii-san again!”

“Thank you.”

I continue to eat the sandwich I picked up, while watching Lumi eat a lot of sandwiches ravenously. If she was a little older, I think she’d be worrying about how much she ate. As she’s a child, it probably doesn’t bother her too much. Although, she should focus on etiquette more… No, in front of me, she’s allowed to do as she pleases. I’m sure she knows what’s appropriate and at what times. In fact, she should be more knowledgeable than myself.

Right, after all, she’s been educated by someone in the castle, while I have done nothing! MY knowledge is all from other worlds! I don’t know why this makes me angry, but it does!

A maid knocks and enters and speaks.

“Tomorrow morning, you’ll be leaving for the academy. Please prepare yourself appropriately.”

She leaves swiftly, and Lumi looks at me before apologising.

“Sorry, onii-san. I need to sort some stuff. I’ll take the basket and leave what you want…”

I only take a second sandwich and send her off by waving my hand (while holding the sandwich).

“It’s fine, it’s fine! They’re delicious… Now off you go!”

I have some more time to rest, thankfully. I have used a days worth of energy and I’m fairly sure it’ll take me until tomorrow to be fully recovered.

“Time to sleep..”

I fall sleep after fidgeting for around five minutes.

---

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