Mischievous Alice: The Eyes Of Hermes

"Ugghhh...What happened? There was a truck...and the child….", Iris thought to herself. "I managed to pull him so he should be safe….". Then, with a sudden jolt she exclaimed in her mind, "Kei!"

Iris woke up in fright as she remembered Kei hugging him tightly with the truck just inches from them. She felt scared, worried, shocked, all feelings are mixing up inside her. She tried to get up but she couldn't. She tried to speak but no words would come out...just..sounds of wailing and crying. She stretched out her hands trying to reach for something until she noticed her hands were so small like that of a baby.

"Huh?! Wait….why are my hands so..small? Am I dreaming?"

Pondering over the thought that she may be dreaming, she looked around her surroundings. She noticed that she was in a bedroom with a classic and elegant medieval design. She was sleeping with a beautiful woman and there were maids at every corner dressed in their cute uniforms. Some were cleaning, some were arranging clothes in the dresser, and some preparing a meal at the table near a big victorian-like window. Past the windows, you can see the view of a beautiful garden with a little child playing swords with a man that looks like a knight.

"....where..am I?", she wondered yet again.

An old man dressed like a butler approached them.

"Madam, breakfast is ready. Would you like to take it on the bed or on the table? I highly suggest on the bed since you just gave birth, your body might be too weak to stand yet."

"No, I want to stand up. I've been lying in bed for days and my back is starting to hurt.", the beautiful woman answered him smiling. She had this kind and gentle face that looks like she can't hurt a fly.

"She just gave birth huh? Then, she must be my mom?", Iris thought again. "Wait...if I'm a baby, and she's my mother, and I'm in an unknown place...then, does this mean that I've been reborn?", at this thought Iris laughed hard. "That's impossible. Hahahahaha! Those things only exists in books or movies. I must be dreaming." She then, pinched herself with her tiny hands. "Ouch, it hurts!.....wait ...so this means..I'm not dreaming? I ...reincarnated?!"

~Monologue~

Ughhh ...And yes, I have indeed, reincarnated in another world while retaining the memories of my previous life. Three years have passed since the day of my reincarnation. In that time, I learned a lot of things thanks to the maids who loves gossiping, and my little brother who often comes to tell me stories, and to my new parents who loves to cuddle me and say things about my future and their plans for me. I also learned to cope up with the fact that I have already died and there's no way of turning back. I am no longer called Iris and my name now is "Alice".

And so, I'm in a new world called "Terra". This world looks very similar to Earth, only less the different plants and animals, and there were different races too! So far, I've been told that there were fairies, elves, beastfolks, demons, mermaids...there were angels too but they said they're like spirits so most humans can't see them. But most of all, there's "magic" in this world! Yes! Magic! Apparently, there's an abundance of "spirit energies" or mostly known as "mana" all over the place and that enables anyone who has the affinity to use magic. And so, you can see adventurers, knights, mages, sages, potion-makers, etc walking around the streets here and there. There are guilds, too! But I haven't gone to one yet. My parents rarely bring me outside.

By the way, my mother's name is "Aquila Caeles". She's that elegant and beautiful woman with silver hair and reddish eyes sitting in the balcony. She's almost in her 30s but still looks like an 18 years old and has a forever smiling face. She's also very gentle and kind and generous. I'm lucky to have her as my mother.

Then, there's my dad, "Cygnus Caeles", the overly handsome and tall man with purplish white hair and sky blue eyes, talking with merchants. Apparently, our family belongs to a noble lineage whose known to be great merchants or businessmen. And being in a family of merchants, you'd probably think that we're filthy rich. To be honest, I thought so too! Until I saw the state of our household.

We may be living in a very big mansion right now, but if you look closely, all the furnitures are very old and the paint of the walls are crumbling. The walls and doors and gates are all worn out and needs repairs, definitely! Even the utensils seems like they haven't been replaced since forever! The bed sheets and clothes we wear are all old fashioned and has been used and worn multiple times already. And we're supposed to be nobles?! I'm beginning to think I'm no more than an ordinary child who belongs to a poor family ...again ...in my new life.

Ughh ...I never wanted, or intended to die in my previous life since I have my wonderful boyfriend, but if I'm going to live a new life again, then I might as well live it to the fullest. And to do that, I need to be filthy rich. I don't want to be poor again! It's hard to be rich in my previous life but this is an entirely new world with a lot of resources. I'm definitely gonna be rich this time around. And once I'm rich, I'm gonna' create my own harem of handsome men. And I can play with them whenever I want. Hahahahaha! I've always wanted to try that one out.

~End of Monologue~

"Honey, and my children, I need to tell you something.", Cygnus started in a serious tone as the family was eating supper in the dining room.

Everyone looked at him worried.

"As you may have noticed, our finances are not doing that great these days...or years, actually. And if this keeps up, I'm afraid we would need to sell our properties."

Aquila held her husband's hands tightly.

"But don't worry, we have hope.", he exclaimed. "Tomorrow, a big caravan will be coming from a very far away place in the northern continents. They weren't supposed to come here since they don't have our country's permit but we can still trade with them at the port. They certainly will carry special goods from the north. We just need to buy as much as we can from them, and sell them at a higher price here. Many people would surely buy them and we can profit twice or thrice as much!"

"That's good news then, honey."

"But does that mean you're going to use our remaining funds to buy their items?", asked "Alexander", Iris' or Alice's older brother. He's now 9 years old with bluish white hair and a pair of blue eyes and pale white skin. He may still be a kid but you can't hide his handsome features and definitely not his wits.

While they were discussing, Alice was lost in thought. "My brother is really handsome thanks to my parent's genes. If it weren't for him being my brother, he could definitely be part of my harem one day. "

"Yes, Alex. That's...what I'm thinking...and planning. So I need everyone's opinion. How much should we spend for investments in the items? 50%? 60? 70? But even with 70% of our funds, we may not get much items. Since their items are from the north, surely, even the base price would cost much."

"In that case, let's observe. We'll meet with them tomorrow and look at what they got then decide how much we should invest.", answered Alex.

"Yes, and when it comes to it, we may need to take a risk."

"Yeah, and we need to be careful which items to pick."

"My husband and my son, you really both think alike. Both wise and kind. I trust in any decision you have.", added Aquila.

"How about you little sister? What do you think?" Alex said turned to Alice while picking her up and making her sit on his l.a.p.

"Huh?", Alice was surprised. She wasn't listening at all. "Yeah…hehehehe"

"Hahahahahaha!", everyone laughed at her cuteness. Alice was very cute as a child. She has purplish silver hair and a pair of red eyes just like her mother.

The dinner continued and a few moments later everyone slept early so they could go early at the port.

Dawn arrived and the family set out to go to the port. This time, they brought Alice along since she insisted she wanted to come. As they arrived, a lot of other merchants can be seen around waiting for caravan's arrival. It seems that the caravan had to travel by boat to avoid the dangerous forest on their route. Few minutes passed and finally, they got out and set up their goods in a vacant area. There were indeed lots of beautiful looking items and everyone flocked over that area.

While everyone was busy picking up the things they wanted, including Cygnus and Alex, Alice and her mother stood near their carriage waiting for them. Alice watched and observed everyone until she noticed something glowing in the last cart of the caravan where no one was checking. The last cart contained things that looks very old and ugly and weird. Probably why no one was looking at it. But Alice got curious.

"Why...is there something glowing over there?", she asked pointing her finger at the last cart.

"Hm?", Aquila looked at the direction of her tiny fingers but she didn't see anything glowing. "What's glowing?"

"There, beside the old vase. Some of them are glowing and shining!"

"It must be a trick of the light, my dear child."