Chapter 5: Magic
It took a little while for Shinji, or rather Leon to get used to the world he was currently in.
After being "born" he was essentially trapped in his crib for so long that it felt like purgatory instead of a rebirth. A curse for him to continuously gestate the desire to move and find a way back to his master since he was alive and well. But he couldn't due to the monumental crib walls he was too short to climb.
It was utterly disgraceful.
The same person that had trained his physical abilities and aspects of them such as balance, couldn't even stand on his two feet anymore. He felt fatigued from simply trying to get on fours as if there were hundreds of kilograms on his back.
Though at some point he had no choice but to accept things as they are. He was literally a baby. Even if he found a way back, what could he do for his master in this state? Singing 'uwaa's for him as mental support?
He could have tried to escape after a few months of development but by then God knows what would happen to Raymes. The group that was trying to assassinate Raymes had certainly failed even after sending thirty specialists but would they give up at that?
'Honestly…they are making me regret calling out to the Gods.'
He had done it in the spur of the moment, after all, when you are bleeding out, broken…and about to commit suicide, you don't tend to be in the clearest of minds.
And now he is almost a year old.
An entire year!
To make matters more complicated, he somehow had an esper for a mother, or something of a kind, since she somehow could actually communicate with him.
It made no sense but apparently, she could tell some of what he was thinking. Of course from his perspective this should've been an advantageous thing, considering he could ask her to help him go back to his original world. However, the woman turned out to be more of a pain in the ass than he thought she'd be.
It was as if she couldn't hear what he was thinking about returning back to where he came from. Nothing about him trying to say his name was not Leon but Shinji Kyokotsu. She couldn't hear when he said he was from Japan nor when he said he wasn't from this world.
Nope. Nada. Not a freaking word.
And to make things worse…
"Uwaa!"
'Get away from me, you smell.'
"Oh my, does my adorable baby want a hug from Papa?"
"Uwa,"
'No.'
"Aw, come here, you!" His "father" lifted him and gently embraced him.
The man with scarlet hair was as annoying as he was inane. He always had a goofy smile plastered on his face and by the Gods did he smell of cigarette smoke. How someone like him managed to get a beauty like his mother (objectively speaking) was a mystery to him.
…But it was odd.
The man might have been somewhat of a hindrance, but he was by no means negligent. It felt...new. The sensation when his father held him, the feeling of protection that came was by all means alien to him. Could it have been a father's influence on a child?
He was a warrior.
An assassin.
One who does not depend on others. One that does not need others' protection. However, when this man, Joel, sang him lullabies in his deep slightly distorted voice, it was as if all thoughts left Leon had no other thoughts.
(Shinji from henceforth will be referred to as Leon).
Leon fell asleep with surprising ease each and every time. An act he would wish for if it were from before.
"Say Leon," his father began, drawing his attention back to reality, " do you wanna see something cool?"
"... Uwaa?"
'Something cool?'
The man grinned before taking Leon outside. He felt excited, considering it was his first time out of the four walls. This world was contrary to the cityscape he was used to. There were no tall buildings, nor hordes of people but simply,
Lush green grass.
A fresh breeze.
And a hefty clearance within wooden fence borders. After taking a deep breath, the man exhaled happily.
"Isn't it a nice day outside today?" He grinned, before positioning Leon against the outer wall of the house, facing towards their yard.
"Now watch this carefully, Leon," he whispered, "I heard when you were born you had an interest in magic and well, I am somewhat of a magician myself."
Once more, just like Martha had done, he muttered something incomprehensible. Extending his hand forward, Joel opened his eyes before casting, "[Stone Bullet]."
Out of thin air, defying every ounce of physical theory, a large stone slowly materialised before shooting off into the distance.
'...What the f*ck?'
It left Leon flabbergasted, something his father prided himself on.
'That literally defies any logic. Where? How? It doesn't make sense!' Leon struggled to come to terms with this. Perhaps it was due to his slight doubt in his mind being swept away...or his literal understanding of reality being thrown away.
When he first saw Martha, all he saw was green light and he felt a bit refreshed. It was enough for him to dismiss it as a weird occurrence and a green light source.
But this?
He couldn't deny it.
His father Joel Fitzwill, the typical happy-go-lucky person, just demonstrated something that could make Einstein cry!
'…I need more!'
He needed to observe it more.
He was interested in seeing it in more detail.
But this oaf couldn't understand a word he said…he'd just have to use the only means he had.
"Uwaa! Uwaa! Uwaa!" he began exclaiming, waving his arms as if trying his best to show his "enthusiasm" for his father.
'Please. Please. Please! With this, my goal might be possible!'
A seed of hope planted in his tiny heart, as he yearned to see this sorcery again. He wished to learn as much as he could about it, and hopefully, reunite with Raymes.
He'd been pretty bummed out because his old body was charred beyond recovery. However, with this, maybe…just maybe he could take his current body there!
Joel looked over to his son and saw bubbling excitement in his expression and grinned. The baby was rather cold to him, which always made him feel depressed. He'd tried a lot, really he had.
He tried to play with toys.
He tried to feed him.
Bonding activities normally get children excited but it was as if his child simply didn't care for them.
The only one he responded positively to, or by his standards, didn't try to move away from him for, was singing lullabies.
But Joel craved more! He wanted his child to laugh and be embraced by him and so much more!
His wife had been of no help. She simply told him that babies tend to like their mothers more but surely that wasn't it!
He did attempt to go to Martha…who well…laughed at him. A lot. The shame he endured continued for days before Martha finally told him the child might like magic.
'And by the grace of God, she was right. Bless you, Martha. I'll make sure to bring you some cream pies later.'
"Let's show you some more shall we?"
_________________________________________________________________________
In the evening they all decided to have dinner together. It was Noelle who had just returned from outside and had in a snap cleaned everything up and prepared to feed him with her super mom skills.
"What's the matter, dear? You seem rather happy today, any particular news?" Noelle asked, smiling at her glowing husband.
"Yup." He nodded excitedly. "Leon played with me today!"
"Oh?"
"He laughed and giggled. I've never felt so happy in my life." His father wiped tears away from his eyes, "I'm…so happy. Honey, can you bake a pie for Martha? I must thank her!"
"What did you do to get him to play with you?"
"Uwaa," Leon called out.
'Magic.'
"Ah, I see." Noelle nodded, "Hm-hm, your mana reserves must be low by now right?"
"That's righ-" Joel paused, before looking at his wife with a confused expression. "How do you know I showed him magic?"
"Uhh…"
"Uwa."
'Don't let him know.'
Leon doubted whether his mother would cooperate, but she nodded at him.
"Well, that's the only way Martha knows how to get his attention."
"Oh, that makes sense," Joel nodded. "Our boy must be destined to become a magician later on! Which tower do you think he'll go to?"
"Uwa."
'The one farthest away from you.'
"Pfft," Noelle chuckled before recomposing herself. "Uh, let's see honey…I think he'll join the white tower."
"The white one?" Joel repeated. "Yeah, he is all composed and stuff. He'd probably fit right in!"
'I wonder what these towers are for?' Leon thought before realising there was no point in asking. He doubted his mother would actually tell him, so he wouldn't bother for now.
Just a bit more…just a bit, and he'd be able to climb over his crib's walls. When he does, he'd learn more about his current situation.
He may be reduced to a small child now, but he was still the greatest Agent in history. He will find a way through.
Through the worlds.
Through the timelines.
Through the domain of the Gods.
Back to his master.
And so he ate another gulp of sludge, planning his journey unaware of the unfortunate fate ahead of him.
_________________________________________________________________________
And so time passed by, each and every moment ticking painfully slowly and testing his patience.
Leon had recently learned to crawl, so he began spending his time reading books. Their house wasn't particularly spacious or anything, but it was substantial enough to have a study/library space.
It turned out, despite how delicate she looks, his mother is actually a knight, while his father is a merchant who owns a couple of stores, which explained the need for a study like that for either of the two to manage any documents of reading they had to do.
Though their wealth wasn't as extreme as that of upper-class nobles, they had enough funds to be considered "rich" by the general populace. This simply meant that they had a plethora of books that ended up in the library one way or another.
The books were written in a different language, so it was particularly difficult to learn anything from them. Alas, he had taught himself Deutsche from scratch in two weeks. This task was no big deal either.
He simply had to convince Noelle to do a couple read alongs, and link the words to her words, et voila.
Language learned... somewhat.
He had overestimated the duration of time he could spend learning and it was indeed limited. Noelle was as insistent on him sleeping plenty as she was on feeding him that mush she calls food. He understood that he hadn't developed teeth yet but come on! It gets tiring.
Though the books in the study seemed a tad more complex than what he should've had to deal with, he tried to extract whatever meanings he could and join the dots.
As a matter of fact, the only basic information he could obtain was the name of his country and the bareest of its details.
[Arcania] was the country that produced a bit of a conflicting result in the books. Its positioning was optimal, even if it was sandwiched between two other kingdoms, the access to the open sea allowed for effective trade channels to nations further out. On top of that, people would have to pay tolls to access the massive port it had. It was an advantage only they could enjoy.
As a result, the country's financial position was rather good, and they even had amicable relations with the neighbouring Kingdoms (at least on paper).
It was a pity that he didn't have internet here. At the very least he'd be able to create an objective truth about Arcania, but he'd take whatever he could get right now. It wasn't possible to fact-check everything mentioned in the books, and well, he wasn't tall enough to reach many of them. But he got what he needed for the most part. Though climbing the ladder to higher books was equally daunting as he became more and more hesitant on each and every step. Despite crawling up to the third step, he didn't go further.
'Of course, every book about royalty paints them as if they are demi-Gods but idolisation is expected in a place where information flow is controlled.' He rolled his eyes. 'I thought that since my mother is a knight I'd have access to more restricted documents but I guess her ranking isn't high enough anymore?'
What interested him, however, was the factor he was hooked on. The very thing that gave him precious little hope.
[Magic] is the concept of conjuring a non-tangible source of energy abundant in this world. It is used with specific incantations or symbols to create a physical phenomenon. Said source of energy was most likely something he had heard often, mana.
It is believed that mana exists all over the world, however, in varying concentrations. It is secondary storage for normal chemical energy that humans use and functions differently. That probably explains why no one on Earth could use it. The concentration of mana was simply too low for any spell to be invoked.
Simply put, he transferred energy from one form to another. Something that allowed him significant relief, considering he was not certain that the universe's rules were still standing rock solid.
Conservation of energy was a core concept that underpinned many other things. An unbreakable law that could not be broken by anyone other than God. Energy cannot be created nor destroyed, only transferred.
The truth of the matter was, when he saw magic from his father, it seemed like he was creating something…out of nothing. Instead, he created something by channelling an internal store of energy or rather mana.
However, now he faced another problem.
One that he couldn't solve.
'No point in thinking about it now.' He reasoned.
Leon operated on a practical level. Magic interested him greatly because he couldn't know whether he could solve the problem or not. It was something that could succeed, but he didn't comprehend enough about it. So he wanted to know more.
Now, however, he knows he can't…at least not yet. It took very brief thinking to understand the scale of magic that could be done based on the levels there.
According to the book he read, magic operates on a circle system. From no circles to the 10th circle. Each circle added capabilities with additional outputs. The level of spells increased, but he had no clue what level they reached.
'It's a shame there aren't any books here beyond the fourth circle. I guess father and mother are only in the fourth circle?'
But just from the scale of the spells from the fourth circle, it became apparent that the level of mana he needed was not something he possessed at the moment.
So he won't let it bother him for now.
Although magic existed, swordsmen and weapon users seemed equally distinguished. Especially since only 40% of the world's population could use magic, martial artists should have had a superior reputation.
Yet magicians' usefulness and their long history only helped their reputation.
"Oh, Leon this is where you were."
"Uwa."
'Damn it.'
"Now now young man," Noelle pulled him into her arms. "We don't need to use this type of language. You know better than that."
"Uwa."
'You are literally communicating with an eleven-month-old child, what are you talking about?'
Noelle hummed as if she hadn't understood him but still took him back to his room.
"Uwa."
'Answer me. How do you know what I'm thinking?'
"Well dearie," Noelle sang, her sweet voice tickling his ear. "I am a tad bit special you see. You'll understand later. Now it's bedtime. If you want to be a big, strong man, you need to sleep well. Besides, you are tired already."
"Uwaa."
'No, I am not.'
"Oh my, but how could that be? You're yawning right now."
"U…wa."
'Huh…I am.'
Noelle giggled at his confusion, before laying him down in his crib and spinning the miniature toy above his bed.
"Uwa!"
'I don't want to sleep now! Books!'
Noelle chuckled at her child's antics. "Alright my young scholar, you can read later. Didn't you know sleep is the greatest ability of living beings?"
"Sleep my beloved baby," she leaned in to kiss Leon's forehead, gently caressing his growing tufts of red hair that looked so similar to his father's. She could only guess how handsome he'd look in the future. After all, there was no doubt that her child would become a lady killer.
She couldn't help but smile lovingly at him. At times his intelligence and way of speaking surprised her, but there was no way to know if it was normal. Since no one could communicate with a person's mind as she could, there was no point in asking others either.
'Sleep well dear, tomorrow is your first birthday.'