Magic was something that was omnipresent in this world. Magic wasn't something extraordinary, it was just that people had misconception about it. Whether they were nobility or commoner or kings or emperors, most of them had percieved magic the wrong way. Magic wasn't free or unrestricted, it was bound, it was tied to something. It had to follow laws which were unbreakable or were not surpassed. Yes, there were some prodigies who did something extraordinary, something that blew people's mind away, but they also didn't break the laws, they just mended it to their needs.
That something which governed magic wasn't something unknown to the world, but they just were ignorant about it, they just labeled it heresy. They branded it as something going against their faith and ancestors. That something was Science. And here were two people who understood it almost completely.
Milo Stankovic and Leslie Harding, Milo being a physicist from another world and as for Leslie, well she was his wife, so what could he do.
Magic was executed through mana and it was something that was present everywhere. It was present in air or in water, in soil or in cloud, heck it was even present in all the living beings of universe whether it was demons or humans or wild beasts or dragons. It was just that wild beasts had mana in form of a core through which they executed or controlled magic. It was called mana or magic core.
While wild beasts had magic core but other races didn't, was because of intelligence. Other races were conscious, they knew what was good for their well being and what wasn't. They were self conscious and that was the reason they could have their own realms.
18 months had passed since Claude had been learning languages. Now he was 3 years old. He could now converse wth his masters in either human or elven language. In between teaching languages to Claude, his masters would occasionally show magic to him, so that he could understand what magic was. Everytime they did so, Claude would applause and try to mimic their voices or hand actions.
The reason Leslie and Milo were so focused on teaching Claude languages first was so that he could interact with people, but more importantly so that he could cast magic. Every realm had their own languages. Every realm was named with the races dominant in it, but it wasn't the only reason. Language was also one of the reasons too. With discovery of Bridges, population of each realm also intermingled. Humans went over to Dragon and Elven realm. Demons and Devils made way to the Human realm. But one thing remained consistent, that was language. All the Realms never changed their language no matter how their population changed. No matter which race came over, language remained the same, the original language. Dragon realm had dragonic language, Elven realm had elven language.
It was so because that language resonated the most with mana of that realm. For example, in dragon realm, dragonic language resonated with mana the most, more the resonance more powerful the magic, that's why dragonic language was more prevalent in dragon realm and same was in every realm.
Learning languages was difficult and costly. One required brains as well as finance to learn different languages. Luckily, Claude had both. When Claude was approaching his third birthday, his masters took him out to the city for the first time. As usual Cerebrus was left to guard the mansion. Over the past two years Claude and Cerebrus had bonded quite beautifully. Often, Claude would be found on Cerebrus' back, and would roam around the mansion like a king inspecting his territory.
Their estate was quite far away from the city, around 120 km. Leslie and Claude were left at the gate of mansion whereas Milo went to the backside of the mansion and brought out a odd looking carriage. As soon as carriage entered Claude's eyes, he asked his master.
" What's that master? "
"That's a vehicle." replied Leslie.
After vechile came to the stop in front of them, Claude began to inspect it. He had seen carriages in the books kept at the library but they weren't anything like this. It had four wheels, two in front and two in rear. It had a cover in front of the seat and as he began to lift the metallic cover in front of him, Milo voice sounded out.
" Get in Claude, i will teach you about it later on. "
To which Claude replied " Yes, Master "
After Claude sat on the side with Leslie, Milo put a Air magic crystal into the chamber, just below the steering wheel. And voila, vehicle began to move.
Claude was very fascinated by this artifact, but it quickly faded away as soon as they hit the road. He was entranced by the sight of world outside the mansion, he hadn't interacted with anyone else except his masters so he was curious to see the world.
As they were moving towards more populous region, Milo drove the vehicle towards a unhabitated area and stopped the vehicle. Leslie took Claude with her hand and said
" Let's get out. "
Claude wondered what had happened as he followed Leslie. As soon as they got off the vehicle, Milo vanished the vehicle within a blink of an eye.
Claude was suprised when he saw that, he kept staring at the place where car was originally. He asked Leslie,
" Where is the vehicle, Master?"
Milo just laughed and told Claude
" It's a space ring. I kept the car into my space ring. "
" Don't worry Claude, I'll gift you one later on. "
Claude was visibly excited with the thought of posession of a space ring. He quickly thanked Milo and three of them went back to the main road. They got on a carriage of a farmer heading to the city.
Claude saw many carriages on the road to the city. There were old fashioned carriages pulled by beasts. But Claude didn't see a single vehicle and wondered where his master got that vehicle.
City they were heading to was capital of Frey Kingdom, Raison City. It was founded by the first King of Frey kingdom, Harrison Frey, the First. It was a huge city with around a population of 6 million. There were academic institutes, hospitals, guilds, trading houses etc present there. Bridge was also present there, although a bit far away from the city.
Two hours had passed since they began traveling in the carriage. At the beginning of journey road was full of dirt and mud but as they began to move toward the capital, roads began to be more developed. They were made up of stone and were smooth. This kind of road would wear down the carriages less.
As they approached the city gates, one could see two lanes entering the city. One for carriages and one for peddlers. As farmer shifted their carriage in the correct lane, a guard by the gate said emotionlessly
" Identifications"
Leslie moved her hand and three documents fell in the soldier's hand. After confirming their identities, he sent them away. After paying and saying farewell to the farmer, they went their own ways. On entering the city, Claude was very excited. All the knowledge he had about outside world was from the books, he had no first hand experience.
Milo had previously come to the city to get identification documents for Claude. Though he had to pull some strings, he had gotten what he wanted. According to the documents Claude was an orphan from a village far away from capital. His village was raided by bandits and he was saved by a passing traveller who passed him to an orphanage. From orphanage he was adopted by the couple.
Leslie asked Claude with a gentle tone
" Do you like it, Claude? "
Claude just nodded his head, he was too busy in taking the city into his eyes.
After walking for 15 minutes, they came to a stop in front of a building. It had a board hung on it which read " Golden Leaf Inn". The trio entered the inn. They were planning to stay for a few days, to familiarize Claude with the world. After asking for a room with multiple beds and paying the charges, they went to their room to rest. They called it a day.