"Watch out world! Because I'm coming for ya!"
"Brother? Is that you?"
Crap.
That was definitely Dina - my sister. My vision became blurry as I began contemplating how to handle the situation. Maybe... Maybe I could just ignore her and she'd think that she was just having an auditory hallucination. Yeah. That had to work.
My vision returned as I reached the end of my deliberation. Huh? What's this? Why is a girl with an angry expression, white hair and blue eyes' head upside down at the top my vision? Wait... Dina?!
"AAGH"
A slight shout left my lips as I startled backwards slightly, before hitting her legs standing behind me. Ah, she didn't die and have her head hung upside down, she was just behind me looking over and down to reach my face. Wait... I couldn't really say that this was worse than the scenario I had thought, but it still wasn't good. It meant that I could no longer hope that she would simply believe she hallucinated, because she was now seeing me clear as day.
Alright. In this case, I'd just have to make her believe that I still couldn't speak. There was no stopping her from knowing that I could crawl, but I could still trick her into believing I couldn't speak if I tried hard enough. It was probably going to be difficult, but I was prepared.
"Did you just... speak?"
I stayed silent, and simply stared up at her face.
She grunted and her expression morphed slightly, showing she was actually angry this time. "Come on! Answer! I heard you!"
I remained silent once again, making sure to add in any extra action I could to make her believe I didn't understand what she was saying.
She released a sound that I could only compare to a growl, before going silent. At first, I was relieved as I had thought that she'd given up. But then a smirk creeped up her face.
"Alright, then. Even if you can't speak, I'll still have to tell mama about you being able to crawl..."
I was stunned into silence for a second. Was this child a genius? She must've been able to realize that if I could speak, I'd be able to figure out that having her alone know I could speak and crawl was a much better outcome than having two different people know I could crawl. She had me backed into a corner. This wasn't just a bluff. Even if I truly couldn't speak, she still wouldn't have anything to lose from telling our mother about my ability to crawl. Goddamn it. I seriously underestimated her.
She turned around and began walking towards our mother. I was completely out of options.
"S- Stop! Please..." I shout-whispered towards her. It was still weird hearing my voice being that of a child, as in my head, I still imagined it to be my old voice.
I could feel the grin and excitement emanating from her face before she even turned around - although, when she did, the feeling definitely at least doubled.
"SO YOU CAN SPEAK! I KNEW IT!" She screamed into my face, after speeding back over to me from the other side of the room.
"Can you please keep it down?" I urged her, really not wanting to wake our mother.
"How am I meant to be quiet after discovering this?!" She shouted, albeit in a slightly calmed tone. "I mean, mama says that I only started speaking after seven months!"
Seven months? As I thought, she truly is gifted in intelligence.
"Well, seven months isn't bad!" I pandered to her.
"Thanks, but I already know that! And also, even if seven months is good, one month is unheard of! And even if you can speak, how at such a high level?!"
THAT'S WHAT I WANT TO ASK YOU!
"I just... picked it up..."
"STOP LYING!"
Yeah, I kind of expected that. Even I knew it wasn't a believable lie. What could I tell her? I didn't want to say the truth, as I wanted this life and my past one to be kept separate. But at this rate, I may have to... Wait - how come I didn't think of this sooner?! Yes, it's perfect!
"You wanna know the truth?" I asked in the deepest voice I could muster, while painting a serious expression on my face.
"Of course I do!"
"Heh... Well don't say I didn't warn you... I'm the Demon King reincarnated!"
Her face transitioned from one of excitement to disappointment.
"Didn't I say... NOT TO LIE!?"
"But I'm not." I responded in the most confident and matter-of-fact tone I could.
"Really? Prove it then!"
Perfect.
"Okay, I will."
Right now, I really couldn't do much. After all, my mana pool was only capable of holding one mana particle, and [Mana Master] was still completely untrained, making it practically useless. But even with one mana particle, there was still one thing you could do.
I stuck out my hand, aiming towards the window in case of an unexpected accident - even if an unexpected accident was completely impossible. I focused all I could into this. Finally, on one of my exh-
"So... are you gonna actually do anything?"
"GIVE ME A SECOND!"
Finally, on one of my exhales, I released the mana particle from it's confinement in my mana pool. As I did so, I imagined the spell that I wanted to replicate - the lowest ranked fire spell, Frayhigh. With a hiss, a flame appeared, floating just above my palm. It's warmth was comforting, almost like an old friend. I opened my eyes and looked over at the small flame. Wait... How?!
With just one mana particle, all that I should've been able to achieve with that spell is a small spark before the entire thing burns out. But not only was the flame definitely not just a small spark, it was also staying lit. How?!
...
Why was I even asking that question? It was obvious. This must just be the level of unrivaled talent that the Sword-Spell crest provides it's user. A talent completely foreign to me. This made me question just how complacent and lazy most Sword-Spell crests from my past life were, as I know that if I had this kind of talent back then, I would've been able to easily take out all Seven Cardinal Kings of Sin myself. Although, I suppose most people don't dedicate their entire lives to power, unlike me.
Oh, yeah. In this tangent, I almost forgot about my siste-
"WHAT?! HOW IS IT POSSIBLE FOR YOU TO NOT ONLY HAVE ALREADY FORMED A MANA POOL, BUT ALSO BE ABLE TO USE FRAYHIGH?!"
"I told you, I'm the reincarnated Demon King. Also, please keep it down."
In an instant, a slight look of fear covered her face. She fell to the floor and bowed to me.
"I'M SO SORRY, MISTER DEMON KING! PLEASE, DON'T KILL ME!"
"I- I'm not gonna kill you. Also, I'm not the Demon King anymore. Now, I'm Kane Limitia - your brother. So, treat me as such."
She raised her head slightly, the fear fading little by little. "Y- Yes, sir- brother."
Good. This was the perfect cover. Now, she wouldn't dare tell our mother. And in the future, she'll probably forget all about this, or she'll think that I was just a genius baby who was trying to be dramatic.
"W- Well, I'm going back to sleep. I don't really care what you do, as long as you don't kill me or mama." My sister told me, still in a slightly nervous tone - which was to be expected.
"Okay, then. Goodnight!" I figured I may as well try and forge some kind of good bond with her. "Oh, wait! Before you sleep, I have a question."
"Yes? What is it?"
"How did you know about mana pools and Frayhigh?"
At her age, a regular child would've only heard of mana in fairy tales, but no fairy tale that I've heard went over the topic of mana pools. And even if one did, they would never use the name of a real spell, like Frayhigh. So, how did she know what a mana pool was, or what Frayhigh was?
"Oh! We have a book on mana manipulation in the crate by the window. I think we've had it for a year, because that's how long I've been trying to form a mana pool."
Hm, so she's already trying to form a mana pool at such a young age? She truly is a prodigy. Although, if I had to guess, it would still take her around another year or two before she actually manages one. But six years old is still an incredibly young age to have a mana pool. In fact, I think that's even younger than the other two members of the Infinite Party - Caern Enyra and Lilith Pridefall. She could be a useful ally in the future if anything bad happens. Although, I did still have one question.
I began crawling towards the crate. "How did we afford a book?"
She instantly froze a little, before sighing. "Uh... I- I sort of stole it."
It didn't really surprise me. You do what you have to, to survive after all.
"Alright. Thanks, you can sleep now."
I heard a slight shuffle and turned around to find that not even a second after I finished my final statement, she had already gotten into the sleeping bag, and managed to fall asleep. Wow. That's another talent in and of itself.
I ran my hand over the top of the wooden crate, wiping off any excess dust. I don't know why I expected there to be a lot more than there actually was. It made sense that there wasn't much considering that she probably used the book quite often, but it just sort of felt like there should've been more. Oh, well.
I stretched my arms as far as they could go, slowly but surely managing to lift the top off of the box. After that impressive showing of strength, I tipped the box onto its side, as I wasn't able to see it from the top, due to the box's probably near 1000 foot height. It truly was a worthy foe, and I definitely wasn't just quite small - even for a baby.
Inside lay a leather bound book, roughly scratched with the title 'Mana's breath - a Guide for Beginners'. It seemed rather dramatic, but I really didn't care. Finally! After an entire month of doing nothing but sit around all day and practice speaking and crawling all night, I now had something to entertain me - even just a little. I attempted to pick the book up, before instantly stopping as I felt like it was going to end up picking me up before I managed it. Wow, how much information was really in this book? Just thinking about it made me even more excited, despite the fact that I would nearly definitely already know everything.
Realizing that picking it up was impossible, I decided to drag it out towards me instead.
Alright then, 'Mana's Breath'. Let's see what you know.