Subaru POV:
It's been like 2 years since I was reborn as a baby. Finally I learned how to walk, so the navigation around the house became easier for me.
Not only that, but now I can talk. Finally I could communicate with my parents and a maid.
And finally I started to pick up the language of this world. Slowly I will definitely master it.
That's just a small step towards my dream.
Surely, having a matured mind in a baby's body could be considered as a cheating, and I can agree to that. I was always getting praised and compliments from my parents. due to my intelligence as a child. I tried to acting like a normal child, but still getting compliments was nice.
Most of the time I spent is either watching Paul training with his sword or watching over the maid, she was treating her job with respect.
The maid's name was Lilia and it seems that she was wary of me.
Well, not like she was avoiding me or afraid of me, but still treated me with caution.
Well, that's quite understandable, I haven't cried since the day I was reborn. Which definitely meant something was up, but my parents did not pay mind to it. Probably because it was their first time having a baby.
Paul works as a knight of the village and he is off right now and Zenith works in a clinic, so I basically have nothing to do right now.
So I make this time fruitful and try to learn how to read by myself.
After all, it's important to be literate.
There were around 5 books in the house, which should be enough to cover up the basics of the reading.
Paul was reading me a book whenever he was able to, so I managed to pick up a bunch of words.
The language, or as they call it, Human language was quite simple, somewhat similar to Japanese. So it wasn't too troublesome to learn it.
I guess the reason for my fast-learning ability is due to me being a child.
Or maybe because I had a matured mind? Who knows.
In my old world, I was reading lots of manga and books to distract myself from the outside world, so it wasn't something new to me. Besides the content of the book I find it quite interesting.
As I said, there were 5 books.
Traveling around the world.
Something like a guidebook, which describes the whole world. Other continents, their dangers, their inhabitants and their nations.
We were in the Central Continent, the richest and the biggest continent.
Even though I am not really a big fan of learning history, it's crucial here. Politics, war, dramas and more it's all common in this world, so I need to know who I shouldn't mess with.
Fedoa's Monsters, Ecology and Weakness.
Another guidebook which described the monsters all over the Fedoa region and how to deal with them.
I pretty much expected the existence of monsters In this world, so this book is crucial as well.
Guide to Magic
By the far the most interesting book. A guidebook which explained how to use attack type of magic, from elementary to advanced rank.
Yeah, I am keeping this one with me. Just what I needed. Will be reading this one a lot.
Perugius' Legend
A fairy tale about a summoner named Perugius, who traveled along with his companions, battling the demon gods, saving the world, punishing evil, and rewarding the good.
Just another fairytale just like in my old world, to entertain the children. Paul has read this one to me a few times.
Three Swordsmen and the Labyrinth
Another fairy tale as I assumed, about the adventure of three talented swordsmen of different sword styles who encountered each other, and entered the labyrinth.
I guess in this world instead of the dungeons, it's labyrinths instead? Or is it the same thing?
Anyway, putting the last two books aside, the other three are coming to a use.
Especially Guide to Magic.
Magic was a common thing in this world, it never existed in my old world… Well, besides the fiction movies. But still, to experience it, to feel the mana flowing through the body, to chant a spell by my own hands. Yeah, I am getting a bit excited.
Reading through the book, I understood a few basics.
First of all, the magic divides into three categories:
Attack magic - basically an offensive spell, the name explains itself.
Healing magic - pretty self-explanatory as well, heals a user or a target
And lastly, Summoning magic - summons something? I guess you can summon a familiar or a spirit to protect yourself. Or if you are feeling too lonely… What was I about? Oh right, the book.
Three types, pretty easy to understand.
Next is the mana thing. As a huge fiction nerd, there wasn't anything new. You need mana to cast a spell. Higher spells require more mana. Pretty simple to understand.
The only thing that caught my attention is that you can draw out mana from something that contains mana.
Mana potions? Or from the atmosphere? Hmm. I wonder if you can draw out mana from a living being. Well, but that's for later.
There are two ways to cast a spell.
Incantation and magic circles.
To activate a spell, utter a chant or draw a magic circle.
The higher the magic tier, the longer the incantation and more complex the magic circle.
And lastly, the mana pool is set when a person is born.
So basically, if you were born with a small mana pool, you wouldn't be able to become a great magician.
This fact would have saddened me, but I knew I was special, I just haven't awoken my hidden abilities yet.
So with regained determination, I continued reading through the book.
Yeah, so I started trying to cast the simplest spells now.
I started with incantations, it was considered as a norm and I found magic circles quite hard to draw. Besides there wasn't any ink or paper to draw it.
Moving on, as I said earlier, the more complex the spell the longer the incantation.
Honestly, I find it quite ineffective, couldn't someone come up with an easier method? It will take a few minutes to cast an advanced magic spell, by that time you can consider yourself dead if you are fighting against a dangerous foe.
Whatever, let me just try this.
At first, I wanted to try out an intermediate water spell, but I thought I wasn't ready for that. Besides the name of the spell "Water Cannon" sounds quite dangerous, I am not risking damaging or flooding the house. So I stick with an elementary water spell.
I held the book in one of my hands as the other one was stretched out. As the guidebook said, you need good concentration before trying to cast your first spell.
I took a deep breath, before uttering the chant.
"Bestow the protection of water on the place thee demandest, let thine crystal clear flow here, WATERBALL"
I felt a sensation of blood gathering in my hand. In the next moment, a water ball the size of my fist appeared in front of my hand.
Now I concentrated once more, the feeling of it shooting from my palm. It's velocity, weight, gravity and speed.
And then it shot right into the wall. It wasn't any fast to be able to damage the wall, but it was a success!
"Whoah!" I jumped into the excitement. I did it! The first ever spell was successful. And then I tried to cast it again. But due to the past excitement, I dropped the book and forgot the number of the page.
Uhhh, what was the incantation again? What if I just say the name of the spell itself? Would that work? The book mentioned that the only way to chant a spell is by saying full incantation. I stretched out my hand and concentrated once more.
"Waterball!"
The blood was flowing from my toes to the top of my head into my hand, I kept on concentrating.
I imagined water in my head. The lake. The sea. The ocean. H2O, anything that resembles it.
The feeling of it shooting straight from my palm yet again.
And it worked again. Another waterball the size of my fist formed and shot straight to the wall again.
Huh?
Did the guidebook just lie? About the whole incantation thing?
So by concentrating the flow of your blood In your veins and uttering the name of the spell, you can cast it? What's the point of all of this incantation thing? It was unnecessary!
I was flipping through the pages of the book trying to find any information regarding the incantation, but there wasn't any. That's weird, how come no one has discovered it yet?
Or maybe it was one of my hidden abilities? I am able to shorten the incantations?
This means I am not an ordinary person. That's amazing! Finally I discovered my hidden ability! I am getting so excited! I was the chosen one!
Jumping in excitement I tried to cast another spell.
"Waterb— Eh?"
I felt sluggish, my legs were weak and the feeling of fatigue.
What's happening? Maybe it's a side effect of my hidden ability? Or could it be… that I ran out of mana?
The pool of mana is set the moment you are born. So my pool is just enough just to shoot 2 elementary spells?
No, how can it be?
I tried to cast it again just to be safe, but I lost my consciousness.
Lilia POV:
I used to be a royal servant in the Asura Palace. Beyond my standard responsibilities as a maid, I was also tasked with the role of a guard. This meant I had to be ready to wield weapons and protect the royalty when needed. I devoted herself to my responsibilities and performed my role as a servant impeccably, with no errors or shortcomings.
As a performance of a fighter, my rank was slightly above the intermediate in sword style. In the end, when the assassination happened, I got horribly wounded with a poison and with help of the Royal doctors they managed to neutralize the poison.
However, one of the side-effects was that I was so longer able to run, so the palace quickly casted me away and I was relieved from my duties. It was completely reasonable, I couldn't perform my duty as a guard anymore, so there wasn't any reason for me to be there.
After leaving the capital and traveling I arrived in the Fittoa region. It is a vast agricultural area on the borders of the Kingdom. The lands are largely rural with many forests.
So I decided to look for a job here.
Mainly, I was looking to continue my job as a servant. There were 2 reasons. Due to my wound, a career which included huge physical activities or fighting would be unfit for me.
And the 2nd reason is because it was paid well. However, I avoided being hired by high-ranking nobles. It's too risky, they would have ways to contact the capital. If they found out that their maid used to be a royal servant, I could be used as a political pawn. So I decided to avoid these political plots.
After exploring the Fittoa region for a month, I stumbled upon an intriguing job listing. A low- ranking knight from the Buena Village was searching for a housekeeper and the advertisement mentioned the need for someone with experience taking care of children.
Buena Village sat isolated at the outskirts of the Fittoa region, surrounded by nothing but nothingness. The village's location was far from ideal, but it made up for it by being the most suitable place for my needs. Her employer is a knight of a low rank.
But the knight's name was the main reason why I decided to work here.
Paul Greyrat.
Paul was one of the students of my old master. Apparently, after a fight with his father he was disowned and after arriving he decided to study how to handle the sword.
He had a huge talent. Even though I was learning the sword style much earlier from him, he still easily surpassed me.
One night, after another sparring, Paul stormed into my room and sexually assaulted, taking my virginity. But after some time, I realized it wasn't too bad, I was glad it was him and not one of these disgusting fat nobles in the Royal place.
But after reaching advanced level in all three styles of swordsmanship, he abruptly left the training hell and decided to become an adventurer.
It had been several years since I last heard of Paul, and not only he became a knight but also got married? I did not expect that from him. Paul wasn't a bad guy as far as I could remember. If I told him about my problems, she was sure that he would help her.
Also there were a few things I could negotiate with if he refuses.
Having contemplated all these factors, she headed to Buina.
Paul welcomed me with open arms. Zenith was going to give birth soon, and having someone with experience taking care of children could really help ease the couple's workload. I also had a special advantage: I was a familiar face to one of them. Both parents were relieved to have me around, not to mention that my salary exceeded my expectations. This was practically a dream come true for me.
But then the child was finally born.
The baby's birth proceeded as normal with my expertise, although several complications were involved. However, as soon as the baby came out, I began to panic. The infant remained silent with a blank stare, causing me to break into a cold sweat. The newborn showed absolutely no signs of life. This was not supposed to happen.
As I reached out to examine the baby, I found that he was indeed alive. His heart was beating, he was still breathing, but he remained eerily silent. This was not a normal occurrence, especially for a newborn. I remember the wise words spoken by an experienced guardsmaid: babies who don't cry at birth are prone to complications. A sense of panic began to consume me, but my nerves settled after hearing a faint murmur escaping the baby's lips. The baby's eyes turned toward me, and his lips parted ever so slightly. At that moment, I knew that everything would be alright.
The child was named Rudeus. He was rather an abnormal child. He wasn't crying, nor fussing. I assumed it was due to his physical weakness. But it was proved wrong when he learned how to crawl.
He started crawling everywhere in the house - the kitchen, the back door, the supply room, the cleaning cupboard, the fireplace and even on a second floor sometimes. As soon as no one paid attention to him, he was gone. He was always found inside the house and sometimes even outside but no further than the porch of the house. Perhaps he was still afraid of going outside.
I was wary of Rudeus. It all started from the moment she found him after disappearances.
Most of the time Rudeus would simply stare into one dot, ignoring everyone around him.
Sometimes he would at Lord Paul's training,
Zenith's cooking or he would look after me as I do the usual housework with a smile on his face. It was a very unusual smile for the kid. It wasn't a smile which those disgusting nobles sent her while leering at her breasts when she was working in the Royal palace.
No, it was a fond smile. Like he was appreciating all of my work while staring at me with amazement in his eyes.
Sometimes he would spend his time imitating reading a book, or so as I thought. Surely, there is no chance that a 2 year old child could learn how to read, right?
Surely, after sometime I got used to him and stopped being wary of him. I expected him to do more obnoxious things, but instead he spent most of his time with his book which he found in the Lord Paul's study room. I swear, I could hear him rumbling as he was staring at the page of the book, like he was comprehending it. I still couldn't believe that he could read it.
But soon, it changed.
One of the days, when Paul and Zenith were off the work, I expected Rudeus, as always, to either be in the study room or watching over me as I diligently worked. But instead it was neither. I thought he was at the porch of the house but he wasn't there.
Soon enough, I found him on the second floor with a book in his hand. I was wondering what he was doing until I heard his voice.
"Bestow the protection of water on the place thee demandest, let thine crystal clear flow here, WATERBALL"
As he uttered the spell chant, the water ball the size of his fist formed in front of his palm and shortly he shot it straight to the wall.
I was shocked. The child was only 2 years old and he was able to not only read, but also cast an elementary water spell? I just couldn't comprehend it. However, the next thing he did shocked me even more.
"Waterball!"
Yet another waterball formed in front of his fist and it was sent successfully straight to the wall.
Did he just… shorten his incantation? As far as I know, only a few very skilled magicians were able to do that and to see a child of such a young age doing it with a first try, surely shook me to the core.
Maybe he was actually training while no one was looking? He was always carrying his book with him, so it might be the case. Or maybe Paul read the chant out loud while reading his book to him and Rudeus memorized it?
As I was thinking, he tried casting another elementary spell.
"Waterb— Eh?"
Suddenly, Rudeus fell to the floor. I quickly ran up to him to check for any sights of injuries. He was still breathing and nothing abnormal happened to him. Did he run out of his mana? His mana pool was so low, so he was able to cast only 2 elementary spells.
This fact both relieved and disappointed me.
He could be a great magician with such a method of casting spells, however, now that path is blocked due to his mana pool.
As I picked him up and carried him to his room, I was thinking about telling Paul and Zenith of what I just saw. Knowing them, I knew that Zenith would be so excited and would try to find a magic tutor for Rudeus and Paul initially wanted his son to be a swordsman.
So I decided to leave it as it is, maybe when Rudeus grows older we could hire a magic tutor for him.
Subaru POV:
I felt my head spinning and my limbs were numb, what just happened?
"I recognize that ceiling…"
Right now, I was in my room in the bed, I don't even remember how I got here in the first place. But slowly, the memories came back to me. The magic book, elementary water spell, success, shorten incantation and sudden disappointment after all of that.
Right, my mana pool was low, when I started getting my hopes up they were shattered into million pieces.
Aww man, I was getting so hyped with my new ability, but now it seems completely useless!
Honestly, what time is it? Oh, right, there is no clock. Great.
Judging by the light outside, I can with full confidence say - it was a midnight.
And no one was worried about a child being unconsioness for a whole day? How did I get into my room in the first place? I had slight suspicion towards Lilia, since she was the only one absent during my spell casting.
Well, for some reason, I was very sleepy. Was it because I wasted my entire pool of mana? Or it was more of the child's body. That doesn't matter to me, I'll just close my eyes.
So yeah, it's been a weeks and I was wrong. Horribly wrong.
You see, remember when I said that mana pool is set the moment you are born? Well, it seems like it was a lie.
After the first day of my magic casting, I decided once more and to my surprise, I was able to cast 3 waterball. The next day 5 waterball. The next day 7 and so on. I started collecting the water into the bucket and quickly getting rid of it. No evidence - no crime.
So the book lied yet again. The mana reserve slowly increases as you cast more and more spells.
That's pretty simply and reasonable. I kept casting spells just before I started getting sleepy and immediately stopped it, in case of faiting again.
I stated reading through the book again, elementary spells of air, earth and fire to be more specific. And yeah, I was able to cast them just saying their spell name outloud. The hope again filled my heart. I kept increasing my mana pool and practicing with elementary spells. I have to be cautious with fire spells, they are no jokes.
It was very surprising that the book contained so much useful information and yet useless at the same time. With this book, I was sure I would be able to master intermediate and later advanced spells.
Now, with regained determination, I urgely continued studying and training.