Flügel takes a deep breath, covered in sweat, dirt, and grass. He looks to the right and left, seeing no one as far as his vision reaches. He tries to use water magic and, upon successfully creating a water ball, smiles. Happy both for being able to use water magic and for being able to wash himself.


    He cleans his own feet, with great difficulty, since he doesn’t have good balance as a baby. He does the same thing he did to leave the house: he envelops the door lock in a vacuum wind ball and concentrates on visualizing the key on the other side turning. Through the keyhole, he uses gravity magic. When he manages to turn the key, he quickly releases it and uses gravity magic on the doorknob.


    When the door opens, he realizes he made a mistake by forgetting to create vacuum balls for the door bolts as well. The door creaks as it opens.


    Nheeeck


    Flügel grabs the book and the small pouch of money. His limbs feel heavy, likely due to the excessive strain on his one-year-old body and the lack of mana. Afraid of fainting from mana depletion, he sits by the still-open door, using the same breathing technique he used when channeling mana to Nytheris, but now aiming to absorb mana.


    "Want some mana?"  Nytheris says in his head.


    Just a little, Nytheris, if you can.


    Flügel feels warmth spread throughout his body, which now feels lighter and less tired, though he is still quite exhausted and sore.


    Thank you, Nytheris.


    Flügel stands up and begins the same process to close the door, but with more speed, as he has gained some proficiency in manipulating both wind and gravity.


    He walks under the light from the kitchen window. Thanks to the house being extremely small, they don’t have a living room.


    Sitting under the moonlight streaming through the window, Flügel opens the pouch with the coins. He counts: there are three silver orlunas coins and five bronze coins.


    As a lover of money, Flügel smiles and decides to try hiding the coins somewhere Sophia and Aragi might have stored and forgotten, or at least thought they had stored there.


    Flügel knew where that place was: inside the last drawer of the dresser in their room. In his one year of life, he had never seen them open that drawer.


    But where will I hide the book?


    Curious, Flügel opens the book. It isn’t very thick, probably the same size as a history book from his past life. The book had the smell of an old book, with yellowed and dirty pages. Flügel couldn’t read either the author’s name or the title of the book.


    He opens it to the first pages, noticing the difficult and unfamiliar handwriting. As he flips through the pages, he notices a small magical circle, which makes him grin widely.


    A magic book...


    He flips through more pages and continues to see various magical circles with complex designs. After two minutes, he stops looking at the book.


    I’d better hide it quickly, in case Aragi or Sophia wake up. But where will I hide it?


    Flügel ponders, thinking about where he can hide the book, given the house’s small size. He looks up and sees a wooden beam, not just one, but several, supporting the roof.


    That will be a great spot...


    Flügel says with a smile, feeling confident after using so much gravity magic.


    He places the book on the ground, takes a deep breath, and, using both hands with gravity magic, lifts the book up to the beams. He tries to rotate the book in the air, placing it neatly on the beam. He walks back and forth, checking if he needs to adjust the book or if it’s hidden.


    Seeing that the book is concealed, he smiles. He picks up the pouch of money and walks to the bedroom, slowly and trying not to make noise. Upon reaching the bedroom, Flügel opens the last drawer of the dresser. It was hard to open, so he used gravity magic to help pull it out. He placed the pouch of coins there, under an old cloth. Inside the drawer, there were papers that seemed to be documents, as well as ink and a quill.The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.


    Flügel doesn’t stop to inspect the drawer and its contents. He simply closes it carefully to avoid making noise and then leaves the room. He heads back to the kitchen, turning right after leaving the bedroom, and finds the door to the small bathroom.


    Next to the room where Aragi, Sophia, and Flügel sleep is the room where Mael and Elijah sleep on the same bed.


    Flügel passes by their room. None of the rooms have doors, so he sees the two boys sleeping on the floor on a clearly poor-quality, old mattress.


    Flügel enters the bathroom, closes the door gently, doesn’t lock it, just leaves it slightly ajar. He quickly removes his shirt and pants, places his hand over his head, and starts releasing water using magic. He tries to mix the water with a bit of fire, creating warm water. He cleans himself with the warm water and washes his clothes as well. The high window in the bathroom helps illuminate the room thanks to the moonlight streaming in.


    He uses warm wind to dry himself and his clothes, though it takes over an hour.


    Flügel is almost fainting from exhaustion, so he quickly puts on his clothes and leaves the bathroom. He walks to Aragi and Sophia’s room, lies down on the floor, and quickly falls asleep from exhaustion.


    When Flügel wakes up, he is back in his crib, likely placed there by Aragi or Sophia. It’s already afternoon.


    He sits up in his crib, yawning, still tired.


    Good morning, Nytheris...


    "Morning, Flügel."


    Flügel makes Nytheris appear in the palm of his right hand and notices that Nytheris seems to be two centimeters shorter than before giving him mana.


    Alright, time to put the plan into action.


    Flügel says, letting Nytheris return to his hand. He climbs over the wooden bars of the crib and gets out. He opens the drawer where he hid the money, grabs the pouch, and runs to the kitchen, where his mother is once again making soup, with only three pieces of meat and a white vegetable.


    "Mama! Here!" Flügel says, holding up the pouch of coins. Sophia sniffs and wipes her face twice before turning to look at Flügel, as if wiping away tears. She looks at the pouch in Flügel’s hand and frowns, walking over to him and picking him up along with the pouch.


    Her eyes are red, she had been crying...


    "What’s this, son?" Sophia takes the pouch from Flügel’s hand and places it on the table. She opens it with one hand and sees the coins inside.  "Flügel, where did you find this?"


    "Drawer room!"  Flügel says with a big smile, acting like a child would.


    A spark of happiness flashes across Sophia’s face, a relieved and joyful smile. She strokes Flügel’s hair with a smile. "Good boy, you did very well, Flügel!" She kisses his cheek with a long kiss.


    Something tightens in Flügel’s chest, and it’s not Nytheris. Flügel feels he did a great job. All the exhaustion and fear he felt entering the forest and finding the corpse were well rewarded with praise saying she was proud of him. And he knows she has no idea he looted a dead man’s body to find that money, but that doesn’t matter to him. Not when he made Sophia, who sees him as her son, proud of him—something he couldn’t make his mother from his past life feel.


    Sophia puts Flügel down, ruffling his hair one last time, before taking three of the five bronze coins from the pouch. She walks over to the fire, where they cook, a fire inside a chimney and a large pot, as she’s making soup. She quickly extinguishes the fire, scattering the logs.


    "I’ll be back soon, Flügel." Sophia says, leaving the house.


    Nheeeck


    The sound of the door is audible.


    Flügel just waves his hand, saying goodbye. When she leaves, he walks to the room where Elijah and Mael stay. There, he finds no one.


    They’re probably playing outside... I could grab the book to try to learn more about it, but it’s risky. I don’t know how long Sophia will take to return or when Mael and Elijah will come back.


    Flügel climbs onto the chair he dragged to the window and watches the street. His eyes dart back and forth to the wall in the distance, afraid of whatever that thing is, invading the kingdom and causing destruction. It left a bad taste in his mouth. He knew he would die immediately if he confronted that thing.


    He sees Elijah and Mael playing across the dirt road, both with sticks, and two other boys playing with them.


    Flügel is still tired from his midnight adventure and ends up falling asleep on the chair without realizing it. He wakes up to the sound of the door opening, and Mael and Elijah enter along with Sophia.


    Flügel looks back, seeing Sophia carrying something in her right hand. It’s a wicker basket with what appears to be three different types of vegetables inside: a round, yellowish one, an oval green one, and one shaped like an eggplant but red.


    Flügel remains seated and decides to go back to sleep, as his body needs much more time to fully rest, since a one-year-old baby isn’t supposed to exert himself as much as he did leaving the house.


    As he rests his head on the back of the chair, he falls asleep again, his consciousness consumed by darkness.


    After what feels like only a second, he finds himself being woken up in his crib, with Sophia stroking his cheek and calling him.


    "Wake up, Flügel. Let’s eat, my baby."  Sophia says with a smile on her face, happy to have been able to buy some extra vegetables for the soup, as her children need vitamins, and not just her children, but she and Aragi as well.


    Sophia picks up Flügel, carrying him to the kitchen. Leaving the bedroom and entering the kitchen, the smell of soup with vegetables is strong, and it also seems to have a seasoning other than salt. Sophia places Flügel in the chair. Mael and Elijah are already seated at the table as well.


    This time, Aragi has returned home. He is smiling, probably because he managed to earn some money working for someone as a salesman, as he is very good at talking when it comes to selling.


    "What a good smell." Aragi comments as soon as he enters the house. He takes off his shoes and socks, walking over to the fire, looking at the large pot with three different vegetables and even a larger piece of meat than what was planned for today.


    "How did you buy this, Sophia?" Aragi says, surprised, as he watches Sophia place a bowl of soup.


    "Flügel found a pouch of money in the bedroom drawer, probably in that last one we never check... We must have stored it there and forgotten."  She says with a smile, handing the bowl of soup to Aragi. Aragi smiles, seeing the happiness and smile on his wife’s face.


    Aragi places the bowl on the table, ruffles Flügel’s hair with a smile on his face. He sits down and waits for Sophia to serve the soup to everyone, still with two pieces of meat for each of them, one small and the other medium-sized.


    For Flügel, the meat is shredded, as he is a baby and can’t eat a piece normally. He discovers that the green vegetable is the color of a pumpkin inside. It is soft, like a cooked pumpkin. The yellow and red ones are yellow and red.


    The red one gives off a slight spicy smell, but it isn’t spicy. The yellow one has a more bitter taste, and the one that resembles a pumpkin is milder. The red one is almost tasteless, almost like eating chayote. The seasoning made everything tastier, but Flügel isn’t sure what it is. The white vegetable is almost sweet, like a sweet potato.


    Flügel eats as quickly as he can, but he can’t eat too fast because it’s hot. He is starving after burning so many calories using magic at midnight and running from whatever that monster was.


    "How much is in the pouch of coins Flügel found?" Aragi asks Sophia.


    "There were three silver coins and five bronze ones. I took three bronze coins to buy these vegetables and more meat."


    "Three silver coins?" Aragi says with instant relief washing over his face. He sighs and leans back in his chair, resting his neck on it and looking at the ceiling, murmuring something like “thank you.”