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It had been 8 months since I fainted while my mother was tidying up the house. The reason I fainted was that, in the blink of an eye, I woke up to find myself with the eyes that were granted to me, along with the abilities, after that incident. I spent a week not being very active, but I believe my body needed to adapt in order to use those abilities.
A year has passed since I reincarnated in this world, and I finally started forming words. I also managed to learn the language and took my first steps. Although I still can't walk frequently, at least I try. I never imagined that something as natural as breathing in my past life would be so difficult to learn again. I usually crawl around the house.
—"Byron, where did you go?" —said my mother with a worried tone.
'I feel pretty comfortable with this woman as my mother. It's really ironic how the roles have switched in this life. In my past life, it was my mother who abandoned me as a child, and in this world, the man who would have been my father abandoned me. I refuse to call him father. He left this sweet woman, and the only father I will have is Yasuke Vanish. I hope he is okay. It seems strange that we share the same name and last name; maybe the light that gave me life did it as a favor. It would be strange to get used to another name.'
—"There you are" —my mother murmured, with a pout, while lifting me from the floor and making sure I didn't escape.
This woman is my mother. A few days ago, while I was listening to a conversation between her and someone else, I found out that her name was Isabella Vanish.
'In my past life, I would have killed for someone like you to be my mother. Surely, you would have made my father happy, and he would have given you what you deserve, unlike that man who didn't act like an adult and left you when he found out you were pregnant,' I mused, while watching my mother make funny faces and speak to me with a peculiar tone.
'This is what bothers me about being a baby: having to nurse from a woman, being controlled all the time, and also this tone that, for some reason, makes me feel like an idiot.'
—"Well, I'll let you rest, but be careful where you go. I already saw you trying to climb to the upper floor" —my mother said, leaving me on the floor near the kitchen.
'Of course, woman, I'm trying to climb to the upper floor. That's where the interesting things are. One night, while we were going to bed, I saw my mother open a chest she had, and I was able to see three books. I was surprised that she had books because, from what I knew, they were a luxury only people of higher class could afford, and they weren't very common in villages. My goal for now was to read those books, and I already had an idea of how to do it.'
—"Gwaaha-a" —I let out a squeal, moving as if I had no energy.
My mother stopped what she was doing and came running.
—"What's wrong, my little Byron?" —she said, lifting me from the floor.
'That's it, woman, take me upstairs, hehe.' To make it more believable, I leaned on her shoulder as if I were tired.
—"I see, moving so much and keeping your mother company while she cooks wore you out" —she said, lowering her voice, while kissing me on the forehead.
Although it embarrassed me to act like a baby, I didn't mind my mother showing me affection. It was probably because of the lack of maternal affection I experienced in my past life.
—"Well, I hope you rest. I'll come check on you from time to time. Goodbye, my dear" —my mother said while placing two pillows to make sure I wouldn't fall while I "slept."
After hearing my mother go downstairs, I got up carefully.
'I'll have to be careful, since she closed the door to listen better and enter the room more quickly.'
I looked at the chest beside the bed. It surprised me to see it open; my mother had left it that way because she kept some things there, besides the books.
'The world definitely loves me. It's one of the few times it's open.'
Moving slowly to avoid falling, I approached the chest. Suddenly, my face lit up with excitement.
'Just a little more...' I was struggling to reach the book on top of the others, and it was almost within my grasp.
'Yes, I did it. Let's see what we have here. Fortunately, learning the language made it easier for me to learn how to read. I guess it's because of my selfish desire to ask the light ball to let me learn languages faster.'
I ran my chubby hand over the title of the book: [Secrets of Mana and Restricted Magics]. It had a very bourgeois appearance. On the bottom right, there was a seal that said: [Royal Seal]. The other part was worn.
'How does my mother have this? Well, let's take a look.'
I opened the book and immersed myself in it.
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Six hours had passed since I started reading. The book explained two things: the first was what mana was and how it was used, either through magic circles or enchantments. It also said that mana was flexible, though with limitations. The second part interested me even more.
I read a title: Vol. 2 Illusion Magic.
Upon seeing that title, I was filled with doubts. In the first chapters of Mushoku, there was no mention of illusion magic; it only talked about elemental and healing magic.
'What is this supposed to be?' This filled me with more doubts as I turned the page.
'What I understood was that illusion magic used mana to affect a person's perception, creating illusions through concentrated mana waves. Of course, it had limitations: you couldn't alter someone's perception so drastically, like making a dragon think it wanted to eat you. Maybe I could learn more about this in another manual, or over time.'
'An example of this magic would be that if you have an apple in front of someone, you could use mana waves to make that person not see it, or even see it somewhere else.'
—"Aghh" —I exclaimed, surprised, upon hearing a noise on the stairs.
I quickly closed the book, put it back where it was, and lay down on the floor, pretending to be asleep.
—"Still sleeping? It's very late. I hope you don't wake up in the middle of the night" —my mother said, as she lay down and adjusted me on her chest. After a few seconds, I fell asleep.
'Is it really that late? I guess I lost track of time with this book.'
—"Ahh-mm" —I yawned, feeling like I was turning off.
'Reading for so long drained all my baby energy. Tomorrow, I'll investigate more about this magic.'
About a minute passed, and the surroundings began to darken.
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Thank you so much for reading. Tomorrow I'll try to write two more chapters. If I can't, I'll make one longer. I could only write up to here because in Argentina it's already 12:30 a.m., and I have to go to school tomorrow.
I'll try to develop the "illusion magic" theme for sword combat, as it will complement the Zero Signal ability.
Thanks for reading.😁