I've been reborn.
Rudeus realized this fact soon after he was born.
In the ten-plus years he spent shut in his house in his past life, he didn't do anything valuable or meaningful. But he did a ton of meaningless, worthless stuff.
He had read countless online novels about being reborn in another world.
Plus, he had no attachment to his past life.
He adapted to his new life almost immediately.
A great dad, a kind mom, a pretty maid, and he was the only child in the family. It was almost the best start he could ask for.
That's how it should have been.
However, when Rudeus saw the red-haired boy, he instinctively felt a sense of confusion and fear he couldn't explain.
Shirou Greyrat.
For some reason, seeing the Greyrat family's adopted son reminded Rudeus of his older brother from his past life.
Even though his older brother had always been a gentle person, who took great care of him, and even tried to guide him out of his troubles when he hit rock bottom.
However, even that gentle older brother eventually turned into a demon, completely destroying the deeply fallen version of himself and kicking him out of the house.
Seeing Shirou's face, Rudeus almost instinctively remembered his older brother's final expression.
Uncontrollable fear, no, it should be guilt, spread from the bottom of his heart.
This made it very hard for Rudeus to face Shirou. He even really didn't want to have anything to do with his brother in this life.
These days went on for half a year.
Even though Shirou was always kind to him, making delicious food, and even showing more patience than his older brother from his past life, the more he acted like this, the more Rudeus overlapped him with his older brother from his past life.
If he made a mistake, would Shirou also turn into a demon, beat him with a baseball bat, and kick him out of the house?
Rudeus couldn't stop these thoughts from forming in his mind, and his fear grew even stronger.
This made Rudeus even forget to consider the possibility that Shirou might also be a Reincarnated Person.
He just kept running away, avoiding any contact with Shirou. And as soon as he was old enough, he locked himself in the attic.
This made his current experience almost exactly the same as his past life.
Was he really going to repeat the same mistakes again?
Rudeus himself wondered and felt frustrated, but he couldn't do anything to ease the anxiety deep inside him.
Luckily, in this life, he had at least regretted his past mistakes.
He realized that his biggest problem in his past life was that he never kept working on one skill.
Yes, if he had spent his time on the same thing for those thirty-plus years, working hard to be the best at one thing, would things have been different?
With this idea in mind, Rudeus started studying the Greyrat family's books.
In his past life, he was actually something of a genius, growing up hearing praise from others. But he was too caught up in pleasing himself and never used his intelligence in the right way.
Now that he had a chance to start over, he naturally started to change.
So, Rudeus quickly learned the world's language and found a book called "Magic Textbook."
He then realized that magic existed in this world, and that people could learn magic if they were willing to spend time studying it.
Rudeus started learning magic from the basics and found that he had an unexpected talent for it.
Although he didn't know how fast the average person learned, he almost immediately mastered using magic on the first day. He was able to turn the magic power he gathered into a stream of water.
He even quickly learned how to release magic without chanting.
At that moment, Rudeus felt very excited, and even a little smug.
He felt that if he put his heart into doing one thing, he could achieve results. Naturally, he had hope of changing his life's path and getting a new life.
However, it seemed to be fate, or maybe just a coincidence.
His brother Shirou showed talent in swordsmanship at almost the same time, splitting a rock in the Greyrat family's yard with one blow.
When Paul saw Shirou split the rock, he felt complicated, feeling like he had lost face as a father.
But the person who was really shocked at the time was Rudeus.
The confidence he had just built up, the feeling that he might not repeat his past mistakes and might even surpass his brother... all of that instantly disappeared.
Rudeus realized again that his cleverness and his little tricks were completely useless.
After all, he didn't think his magic could destroy such a big rock.
From that day on, Rudeus became even more closed off and started spending all his time practicing and studying magic.
He saw his brother Shirou as his inner demon, the huge shadow from his past that he couldn't get rid of.
Only by surpassing Shirou, surpassing his brother, could he find true redemption.
However, the more he thought this, the more the shadows of the past came back to haunt him.
In the end, Rudeus even realized that he had unknowingly started to become as withdrawn as he had been in the past, staying in the attic all day and not daring to go out even a step.
Because of this, when Paul and Zenith suggested going on a trip, Rudeus felt more resistance than ever before.
No!
He definitely couldn't go out!
The outside world was full of enemies!
Except for that small room, everyone just wanted to laugh at him!
Rudeus had these delusions in his mind. He realized his own weakness, but he couldn't escape the nightmare that surrounded him.
And Rudeus never expected that Shirou would take the initiative to offer to stay with him.
Even so, he still didn't trust this brother, feeling that one day he would kick him out of the house like his older brother from the past.
He must not trust anyone, he must not have faith in anyone.
Rudeus became more and more closed off, completely locking himself in the attic.
Even at night, he didn't go out a single step. The only things that were with him were books about magic and a burning candle.
Being too tired, he unknowingly fell asleep, not even noticing when he knocked over the candle before falling into a deep sleep...