'Hmm? I actually fell asleep?'
Nial was a little sleep drunken and drowsy. He felt like he could go to sleep again right away.
However, he also knew that he had to get back to work, otherwise, his people would probably feel like he threw the hard work toward them without doing anything in return.
He didn't really like being considered lazy, or a person who pushed aside his responsibilities. Thus, he wanted to get up from bed when he noticed something.
'Why are my movements so heavy? Is it because I'm still tired?'
Confused, Nial continued to try moving around, only to fail miserably. He had no way to get up from the soft bed that seemed to embrace his entire body.
It was a weird feeling, and Nial quickly noticed something was wrong.
This sensation intensified even further when he opened his eyes widely, revealing a pair of heterochromatic eyes. One of his eyes shone in a bright and lively silver color while his other eye was royal golden in color.
As for the reason why Nial knew what his eyes looked like right now…he saw it in the mirrored image of the young woman who leaned over to him to pick him up from the crib.
Yes…A gorgeous woman with long silver hair and similarly bright and lively silver eyes smiled brightly at him as she picked him up.
Just like that, Nial found himself in the arms of the gorgeous woman…in the body of a newborn child.
He was not sure what was going on, where he was, and how he could escape, but he was sure that something was really wrong.
"Nial Lacardian, my little star. Did you already finish your nap~?" The woman asked, rubbing her nose against his.
It was at this moment that Nial realized a bunch of things in shock.
'Why the hell can I see? Why is her face so huge? And…why is my name Nial Lacardian all of a sudden?!'
Nial couldn't understand the world anymore. He wanted to say something, but only incomprehensible words escaped his lips.
A moment later, he began to cry out of frustration.
He bawled his eyes out even though he didn't really want to cry. His rational mind told him to cast his frustration aside and to find out what was going on, but his body didn't even think to take his thoughts into consideration.
"My little star, why are you crying?! Did mommy do something wrong? Are you hungry? Do you want to sleep a little more? Did you fill your diapers?! Ahhh…I'm so useless!!!"
The woman didn't expect Nial to start crying all of a sudden. His loud screams rang through the huge chamber, causing more distress to the young woman, who twisted and turned her body in an attempt to find something to distract him before she would figure out what exactly was going on.
It was evident that the woman was doing her best to be a good mother, but also that she was not exactly experienced with raising a child.
For a moment, Nial felt a little sorry, but it was not as if he could do something against his body's reaction to cry out loud either. It was not as if he liked it that way.
While the young woman, who had introduced herself as his mothers, tried to stop the crying baby, a small figure appeared on her shoulders.
It was a 30-centimeter-long lizard with long legs and a majestic head shape which made it seem like the small lizard was a miniature version of a dragon. The lizard had leather wings as well.
It even spit flames out of its mouth, distracting Nial as searing flames filled the ceiling above him.
"Ayyy, Rex, what are you doing?! Don't burn Nial's room!" The young woman shouted in distress.
Rex, the monster that seemed to be an actual miniature dragon, looked at her for a few seconds before his head turned to the baby.
The baby had stopped crying and his eyes were gleaming brightly at the remnants of the searing flames. The sparks distracted Nial even more than crying out loud.
This was not what he intended to happen, but he couldn't do anything against it! His body reacted to the emergence of the Miniature Dragon and the searing flames.
"Gahh!!" Baby Nial squealed out, his heavy hands moving for the first time, trying to reach out to the ignition sparks that dispersed slowly in the air above him.
It was a little embarrassing, but Nial couldn't really do anything against his natural reaction either. Thus, he just followed his instincts while trying to understand what was going on.
'How did I end up here? I was extremely tired and went to sleep…and now I am here, in an…illusion? Is that really an illusion, in the first place? Everything feels so real. But I couldn't have been reincarnated either. I can clearly tell that I am still alive. Or am I dead?'
Shaking his head inwardly, Nial tried to dispel the negative thoughts that flashed through his mind. Thinking negatively wouldn't help him out in any way.
The best way to find a solution was to find out what the actual problem was. The source of his problem had to be found.
This was not further difficult. Figuring out the source of the mess was rather easy. After all, only one major thing had changed about him before he began to feel increasingly tired.
'The seed that formed from the golden particles…that should be it…so it wasn't an unknown trait of my Cursed Divinity but probably…the doing of the Advocate? Is that what it is? Did the Advocate actually plan all of this, even that I would devour the corpses of the Gods in the Divine God of Truth's main office?
How did she know my Cursed Divine Ability, and that my Cursed Divinity would be the Heart of Gluttony?'
No matter how the Advocate found out about it, Nial was pretty sure that he found the source of the problem.
But…he was not yet sure what would happen now, or where he was in the first place.
'Wait…the mother of this baby called me Nial 'Lacardian'...Isn't there something wrong with that?!'
'Wasn't that the name of the royal family in the Lacardian Empyrean Void?!?'