Four Split Personalities

[Where is this...where am I...]

Harper Ramsey struggled to open his eyes, only to find he could not feel his body at all. He tried hard to sense everything around him, but there was no feedback whatsoever, neither from his spiritual power nor from the possibly nonexistent sense of sight, only silence and darkness were perceivable.

No smell, no temperature, no gravity, nothing at all.

Even for Harper Ramsay, who had lived nearly a thousand years, this feeling akin to a lost specter was utterly unprecedented.

Apart from barely being able to think, he couldn’t do anything else...

[Could this be the afterlife?]

But the elderly man, whose heart had long since given up life, was not afraid; he just silently sighed in his heart, calm and indifferent.

However, at this moment, a flickering light suddenly appeared in the distance, startling Harper, who was ready to cease his thinking.

At the same time, a chaotic noise vaguely emerged from far away. It sounded like many people were loudly talking about something. Harper tried to discern what they were saying without success, yet he couldn’t stop the intermittent noise from entering his ears.

Wait a minute... ears?

When he suddenly realized that he could feel his auditory organs, the light in the distance rapidly approached, filling his entire field of vision in an instant, and then...

"Hey, Ramsay, it’s a boy!"

Harper saw a female figure with a blurry face cheerfully shouting to someone in the distance, then gently lifted him up, wiping his body with pleasantly warm water while smiling to another person outside his field of view: "Ada, you really worked hard, the little guy is very healthy."

[Ada?]

Harper was stunned, his mind greatly shaken.

The next second...

"Thank you, White Frost, hurry... let me see him."

A voice he thought he had long forgotten sounded very close, and Harper’s thoughts instantly froze.

The blurry world in his vision shook, and a figure as if covered by a thin fog appeared.

Harper strained to open his eyes wide, and at last, the person before him gradually came into focus. It was...

[Mother...]

He felt as if struck by lightning, his heart filled with mixed emotions and an overwhelming urge to cry out loud.

"Wah wah wah wah!!!"

And so, he truly began to cry out loud.

"Haha, this child is really spirited~"

"Hey, White Frost, let his father come in, he surely wants to see his son with his own eyes."

"Hey! Dopey Ramsay, you can come in now!"

"Ah ah ah! Ada! It’s great that you are okay!"

"Hehe, it’s because White Frost is here..."

"So this wrinkled little guy who looks like a monkey is our little Ramsay?"

"White Frost..."

"Hmm?"

"Kick him out."

"Alrighty!!"

Amidst the noisy and familiar chaos, Harper Ramsay’s world in front of him became increasingly blurred.

....

"Running away to make a mess in the kitchen again!"

The mother from his memories cornered him against the wall, squatted down half-way, and stared at him with feigned anger: "Little Harper, what exactly are you trying to do!"

Isn’t that obvious? Of course it’s...

"I want to cook!"

That’s right, there couldn’t be any other answer—it had to be this one!

"No, that’s not cooking, that’s burning down the kitchen, dear."

Mother sighed deeply, forehead in hand, and took him by the hand back into the smoky kitchen: "Let me teach you..."

....

The severe Cold Light flashed through the air, and the wild fowl that was intact just two seconds ago now evenly fell into the porcelain bowls before him - wings, legs, breasts, necks, heads, claws, and innards were all neatly arrayed on the prep table, taking a good while before the blood to seep out belatedly.

"Eight Cuts in a Flash!!"

The Flower Elf female sitting not far away exclaimed in surprise, looking towards his mother standing with her hands behind her in disbelief: "How old is little Harper now?"

"He’s still far from it."

Mother chuckled gracefully, but even without looking back, he could guess her eyes were filled with satisfaction and pride.

....

"What? You want to leave home to travel? A culinary journey?!"

The father, who was always indecisive, widened his eyes in confusion, flailing with his arms: "But... but haven’t you already become quite excellent? And your mother still has many skills to teach..."

"I’m still far from it, Father."

Harper, with his secretly prepared luggage, smiled faintly, then cast a glance at his mother standing beside his father, and muttered under his breath: "Mother is also far from it, her cooking is too rustic."

"You little brat, what did you say..."

"All right, I actually think little Harper is quite ambitious."

Mother patted Father’s shoulder, her face bearing a touch of melancholy that he had not noticed at the time, and smiled at him, waving her fist: "Work hard."

....

"Wow! Your cooking is amazing!"

The blonde-haired human girl held the grilled meat excitedly as if she had found a treasure, wiping her mouth with her sleeve in an unladylike fashion: "Isn’t Mudkaqiu supposed to be super disgusting?!"

Sitting beside the fire, he cast a disdainful glance at her: "There are no bad ingredients, only bad chefs."