《Rebirth, but not quite.》


 Chapter 1: Birth and Fire

    So much noise! And I was in such a good sleep too! I almost feel like crying... This place is too bright- HEY! Stop moving me aroun- DON''T YOU SLAP ME! Take this! HA, YAH... Dammit, can''t reach them...

    Tsk, just wait until I open my eyes, I''ll show you a slap... Oh? Someone''s hugging me... Or should I call it holding? These people are huge...

    *Yawn* so sleepy... I''ll worry about the giants later, for now, back to sleep it is...

    ~ PoV change~

    "Congratulations! It''s a big baby boy!" Said the midwife while she held up a baby. Right after she gave a short frown before lightly slapping the newborn on his buttocks. "Oh?" she exclaimed when instead of crying, the baby shouted while trying to hit her with his tiny hands. "HAHAHA! The boy''s a fighter!"

    "Lana, stop goofing around and give me my child." Said a tired woman lying down nearby while being attended by maids that cleaned her and her bed.

    "Just a moment, my lady." Answered Lana with a big smile while she cleaned the baby boy before handing him over to his mother.

    Just then the door to the room opened in a rush as a man walked with a tense look on his face, "Is it done? Is something wrong?" He asked in a hurry.

    "Everything''s fine, dear, our son was born safe and sound." Answered the mother with a small smile while she held the boy in her arms.

    "Thank goodness, I was starting to worry when I heard no crying. Lana, did you make sure he''s breathing?" Said the father while he calmed down slightly.

    "Sure did, my lord. But I think the boy takes after his mother, I never had a baby try to hit me before! HAHAHA!" Laughed the midwife while ignoring the once again tense face of the father.

    "Quiet down, Lana! You''ll wake the boy!" Commanded the mother with a voice that could only be described as a ''whispered shout''. Lana only answered by stifling her laughter. "Don''t just stand there, dear, come see your son." Hearing that, the father jolted before walking over.

    "He''s so big... So this is our first son, huh? Archimed-" "Absolutely not!" the mother interrupted the father''s monologue, which gave him startle. "What do you mean?" The father asked with bulging eyes. "We had a deal! Your Victoria if a girl, my Archimedes if a boy!"

    "We made the deal before he was born, look at him! He has strong arms for a newborn, and you heard Lana, the child is fierce! A name like Archimedes simply. does. not. suit him!" She argued, her stern tone making it clear that this wasn''t a negotiation.

    "Fine! Then Aristo-" "Stop trying to give our baby child old people''s names!" The father got interrupted once again. "They''re not old people, they''re ancient respected sages!" He retorted.

    "I don''t care! Either pick a simple name with some fierceness to it, or I''ll do it myself!" The mother gave an ultimatum together with a glare.

    "Kuh! You already named Athena, this one is mine!..." He answered before going into a thinking position with his hand in his chin and brows furrowed.

    As if she was being called, a young girl with curious eyes but holding a stern expression entered the room cautiously.

    "There you are Athena, come say hi to your baby brother." Said the mother with a small but gentle smile when she saw her daughter.

    The girl called Athena approached the bed and soon her eyes locked on the sleeping baby. "What''s his name?" She asked without looking away.

    "I stopped your father from giving him some fancy old men''s names, so now he''s thinking a new one with some fierceness to it, any suggestions?" At her mother''s question Athena perked up as her eyes seemed to brighten.

    "How about Lance?" "NO WAIT!" Her father seemed to panic just as she made her suggestion.

    The woman holding the baby gave a smile while ignoring her husband "''Lance'' huh? Simple and fierce, I like it." "STOP! THIS IS MY TURN!" The father continued to interrupt. "Lance it is then!"

    "NOOOO!!!" The father lamented while forgetting the whispered part of the ''whispered shout''.

    "Ba-paap." Said a small seemingly grumpy voice, as everyone went silent.

    ~PoV change: MC~ (italic words aren''t understood by MC)

    "Shut uup" I say while being rudely awoken once again, ''these guys just have no manners'' is what I think while I struggle to open my eyes that seem heavy.

    When i finally open my eyes, everything is too bright and blurry, but after a while I manage to make out the shapes of two people, a little girl around 8 years old and a man in his early thirties with some fancy clothes, they''re both just staring at me, ''is there something weird on my face?''

    The man suddenly looks above me and seems to get scared of something, "Sorry." before I can try to understand what he said, some movement under me grabs my attention and I turn to look behind me.

    "Geh!" It''s a giantess! There''s a giant woman smiling at me while holding me in her arms! Now that i look again, the other two are also enormous, the heck?! Where am i?!

    "Good morning, Lance." The giantess speaks in an unknown language, she has smooth blood red hair that''s slightly shorter than shoulder length and purple eyes that are literally shining, as in actually emitting light. Oh, did I mention vertical pupils? Well, there''s also that. She has a small burn scar on the side of her neck, her face seems sharp and refined and she''s looking at me with a small and gentle smile. "My name is Isabel, I''m your mother, you can call me ''mama''"

    Oh well, at least the scary giant lady doesn''t seem to want to eat me or something, but I should tell her I don''t understand her language, better be polite just in case. ''Sorry, madam, I can''t understand you.'' "buube babaa, ga-ap gubeba bu." THE HECK WAS THAT?!

    While I''m questioning my diction, the smile on the giantess'' face widens and I can see her teeth, STOP THAT! YOUR TEETH ARE TOO SHARP! IT''S SCARY! DON''T COME ANY CLOSE- Aaand she kissed my forehead, jeesh, i almost had a heart attack. "Aren''t you a precocious little boy? Trying to speak so soon." The baby-eater says something while hugging me tightly, okay I take the ''baby-eater'' back, her hugs are great and make me want to sleep again.

    She loosens the hug and turns me around to the man nearby. "That''s your father, his name is Arthur, you can call him ''papa''." She speaks while pointing at the man with brown curly hair, golden eyes and glasses. He''s wearing a fancy blue and gold cloak. I might be mistaken, but while his eyes are also shining, he doesn''t seem to have vertical pupils. About what the giantess said, I could only recognize the words ''Arthur'' and ''papa''... WAIT A MOMENT, PAPA?! No, calm down, let''s not jump to conclusions, maybe they have a similar word in their language, let''s just give the giant man a wave.

    Why''s my arm so small and chubby?

    "Hello to you too, Archimede-", "Shut up." Without giving me time to analyze my situation the man says something and the woman interrupts him, was he trying to say Archimedes? Why would he suddenly talk about mathematics? WAIT! I recognize his voice! He''s the rude guy who woke me up! WAIT AGAIN! Back to the chubby arm, this isn''t normal at all! As I look over my body, I can finally confirm: I''m a baby! A big, chubby, weak baby!... Well, either that or I''m a mutan- WAIT A THIRD TIME! Did she say ''mama'' while talking earlier?!A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

    While I''m doing an investigation on my memories, subject ''mama'' turns me again, towards the little girl this time, looking at her brownish red hair and vertical pupils on purple eyes (this time I can''t spot any light, so it''s not everyone?), I would hazard a guess that, if those two are my parents then this is my sister. "And that''s your elder sister, Athena. Say hi to Lance, Athena."

    "Hello, Lance, since I''m your elder you have to behave and listen to me, okay?" Haha, this kid gives me the feeling that she''s trying to act like an adult, that''s cute. Anyway, I''d hazard a guess that I''m Lance and this subject sister is Athena, but would subject ''papa'' be called Arthur or Archimedes? On that note, I don''t remember if the subject ''mama'' spoke her name. Geez, why are they using so many words? Don''t they know I don''t understand? Oh well, let''s not be rude and greet Athena.

    I wave at her and say ''Hi, Athena.'' "Bai, Gabeba." Goddammit, is this a curse? Looking at the girl, her expression stayed frozen, but her eyes are shining strongly. So you can turn it on and off? That''s convenient.

    "Good boy," subject mama speaks from behind me while turning me back to her, while I''m turning I notice some people I missed earlier, are they family too?... "You must feel tired from all this talking," she says as she hugs me again, talk about comfy. "Mama is tired too, let''s go back to sleep, shall we?" She seems to get herself comfortable on the bed while still holding me in her arms. *Yawn*, would you look at that, seems I''m still sleepy, I hope no one awakes me this time...

    ~Time skip~

    Okay, it''s been a few days since I was born and I have some answers to my earlier questions and a bunch of new ones on top.

    First off, yes I''m a newborn baby, my name is Lance, nice to meet you. My father is called Arthur, and he seems to be some kind of scholar, my mother is called Isabel, and while I can''t tell what''s her job, I can tell she likes to exercise. I concluded they are my parents simply because my mother feeds me when I''m hungry and I saw the two of them kiss once, so that seems like a safe bet.

    Aside from them I also met Athena who is either my sister or something similar to that (cousin maybe?), and an older woman called Lana who seems to be some kind of maid, I feel a vague grudge whenever I look at her, I wonder why? I don''t remember the names of the other people around, but I''m pretty sure they are servants like Lana.

    Being a baby is very embarrassing, uncomfortable and boring. Embarrassing because I''m always taken care of in emasculating situations (like being fed and cleaned); uncomfortable because I have to ''do my business'' on my diapers, call and wait for other people (normally Lana) to clean me; and boring because all I have to pass the time when I''m awake is observe the people around me and do some basic stretches and vocal exercises.

    Well then, here we get to the weird part: I''m pretty sure I''m not a normal baby. Wait! Don''t roll your eyes! Let me finish. You see, normal babies aren''t supposed to have complex thoughts and have knowledge of things they never saw, like light bulbs and computers. Hell, I doubt babies have the brainpower to think as much as I do!

    I know what you''re thinking, my imaginary companion! ''You''re obviously a reincarnated individual!'' But there''s a big issue with that theory: Who was I before I was Lance? Normally when someone reincarnates, they''d have memories of their past life, normally even including how they died. Then they''d meet a god of some sort that explains to them why they are being reincarnated and sometimes tell them about some big baddie demon lord or evil god or whatever. And don''t even get me started on cheat superpowers!

    Now where was I? Oh right. I have no personal memories of my past life, no name, no family, no friends. I remember skyscrapers and the names of a few celebrities, but nothing about myself... Oh well, not like that changes anything about my current situation.

    What''s my current situation you ask? It''s the middle of the night and I feel like ''doing my business'', so I''m shouting as loud as I can so that a maid comes to clean me, no, I''m not crying, it just sounds like it because of my baby speech curse. *Creak* Oh there they are. Oh? I don''t know this maid, normally it''s Lana who takes care of me, though I guess she too has to sleep at some point... Why does the maid have fire floating above her finger?

    "Good evening, young master Lance, did you call for me?" I obviously proceed to ignore the somewhat tired looking maid. It''s here! Ever since I saw my mother''s eyes I already suspected. This world has MAGIC! Oh right, I need to ''do my business''. Wait for me magic, I''ll be right with you. I gesture the maid to wait for a moment with my hand and when I''m done, I gesture to my behind. ''please clean me'' "bwis gu-ey be." Close enough.

    She seems to understand and moves to clean me, magical fire still floating nearby. "Lana did tell me young master is a smart baby, but I always thought she was exaggerating, sorry for underestimating you young master." I recognize the words Lana and young master but I''m not paying attention to that, I''m busy studying the fire. I am most definitely not trying to block out the fact that a young and pretty woman is cleaning my business, no, sir...

    Oh, the humiliation...

    Okay, I''m witnessing magic right in front of my eyes, the fire is about the same size as a candle''s flame and is floating about a meter away from me. This is enough evidence for me to accept (at least temporarily) that magic is very much real. So, how does it work? Is there something like magic power/mana that is being commanded by this maid''s consciousness to take the place of fuel? After all, if we want to follow scientific common sense, nothing is created nor destroyed, only changed, so the fire needs to come from somewhere. Well, if I were to guess from generic fantasy logic, before a spell comes the control of mana, and before the control of mana comes the feeling of mana.

    So, can I feel mana? I close my eyes and try to concentrate on the direction of the flame. Hmm, I''m only feeling the slight heat that''s coming from it... Oh? I think I can feel a little something... It''s like a weak wind (or maybe scent?) is coming off the maid and bunching up where the flame is before being consumed. I try to concentrate on the maid this time, is there a specific place in her body that the wind comes from? Hnng concentraaaate. Well, I can vaguely feel what I guess is mana inside her, but I can''t spot a source or storage unit, I tried concentrating on the brain, heart and stomach but it just feels like every other part of her body.

    Oh well, moving on, do I have mana? Turning my senses back to myself I try to look for the feeling I got from the maid... Hm, as expected, there''s nothing- WAIT! I can feel something similar! It''s quite different from the maid''s mana in that mine feels like is sleepy and doesn''t want to move, I wonder if this is because I never used magic or because I''m a baby? I almost missed it because of how quiet it is.

    Do I just will it to move? Let''s try to pump it around my body like blood, at least the maid''s mana felt like it did that... I don''t know if it''s working, it doesn''t move no matter how much I concentrat- It moved! It''s just really really slow, as if it''s very heavy.

    "There you go, young master, you''re all cleaned up." Oh, the humiliation is over. Wait, don''t leave yet!

    "Ei! Don bif." I call her attention.

    "Hm? Is there something else, young master?" Good, she''s listening.

    I gesture towards the fire and say ''that!'' "Bab!"

    "Oh this? This is called fire, young master. Can you speak it? Fire. F-i-r-e." Oh, is she trying to teach me the word for fire? Not what I wanted but might as well.

    "Bai-eh..." Not quite, let''s try to pronounce the F properly. "Pai-eh!" Well, at least it''s better than before. ''Is that good enough for you, miss fire?'' I ask myself as I look back to her.

    She giggles. "Almost there, young master. Fi-re. Fi~re~." I know the word, woman, I just can''t pronounce it because of my baby curse!

    Screw it, if this will buy me time to study her magic, I might as well play along. "Pai-eh!" "Fi-re!" Why are you getting so invested in this? I continue trying to speak ''fire'' while my mana is slowly speeding up its movement.

    After a little while, I feel it''s going fast enough, it gives me a feeling of being full of energy, now let''s see if I can will it to come out of my body like she does... Hm, I feel it separated from me a little, but then it returns to my body... Oh well, baby steps I suppose... No pun intended.

    By now I can separate a strand of mana a reasonable distance from me, but how do I stop it from coming back? I stop trying to speak and concentrate on her fire again, her strand of windy mana goes to the center of the flame and bunches up, and then disappears as its turned into fire.

    I turn back to my mana and try to make it bunch together into a tiny sphere, I kind of succeeded but soon after I lose control of it and it comes back. "Hm? Young master? Did you do something just now?"

    Don''t interrupt me, miss fire! I''m almost there, I just need to figure out how to ignite the mana!... Igniting, huh? Would I need something like a spark? What would be the mana equivalent of a spark? Maybe like wood I could rub mana with more mana really fast? Or maybe I just need to imagine a spark really hard?

    Oh well, let''s try both. I concentrate really hard and make two bunches of mana, one is a sphere, and the other is slightly concave, like a really shallow cup. I make them touch while spinning in opposite directions while imagining a spark with all my concentration. This is quite hard, I doubt this is how miss fire does it, but might as well try for a little while longer...

    "Young master, what are you doing?" Quiet down, miss fire, can''t you see I''m busy? Oh right, she wants me to say fire.

    ''Fire!'' "Phaire!" *Crack!* *Woosh!*

    "..." Oh dang, mom is going to be so mad. I left a huge burn mark on the ceiling.

    And now I''m super sleepy again. Let''s see... miss fire is unharmed, that''s good, though she has a funny expression on her face. If that''s all then I''ll worry about the ceiling tomorrow. Good night...

 Chapter 2: Education and Grandmother

    "So he''s just unconscious?" Asked Isabel with a frown. It''s right after the sun has risen and she''s currently in her son''s room together with Arthur, Lana and a maid that looks as pale as a prisoner on death row. Isabel is staring on a carriage sized burn mark on the stone ceiling.

    "Yes, there''s not a scratch on him. If he wasn''t so unresponsive i''d think he was sleeping." Answered Lana. "Renee over here says she was here when it happen. Renee dear, come here." She says while gesturing towards the pale maid with dirty blonde hair.

    After Renee approaches Isabel goes straight to the point. "What happened?"

    "Y-yes, milady," Begins Renee. "I was on baby duty during the night when i heard the young master''s cries, so i came in and changed his diapers. When i was about to leave, the young master called out again while pointing to my fire-"

    "Fire? What fire?" Interrupted Isabel with an expression that could kill the faint of heart.

    "I-I was using magic to illuminate the way, b-but i swear it wasn''t me that burn the ceiling, milady!" Answered Renee with panic in her voice.

    "I see, what happened then?"

    "T-The young master called while pointing at my fire, s-so i thought he was curious about what it was. I told him it was called fire and tried to help him pronounce it by repeating the word. He was getting close when he abruptly let out a surge of mana and seemed to launch fire into the ceiling before falling unconscious. So i ran to call for Lana." Finished Renee.

    Everyone in the room was quiet for a few moments until Arthur who kept to his own until now walked over to the crib with the unconscious baby. He quietly stared at his son for a while before speaking, "He has mana exhaustion." He said with a smug smile while looking at his wife, who was having none of it.

    "His name is Lance, and he will be a fierce royal knight when he grows up." said Isabell with narrowed eyes.

    "Now, now, my love," Began Arthur, returning a narrowed look of his own. "He''s too young for us to decide what he will become for now, but he clearly has problems controlling his mana, if he didn''t run out of mana so soon he might have damaged the ceiling and who knows what would happen then?" He spoke while his smile widens.

    Isabel, now gritting her sharp teeth, "FINE! But only basic mana control! If you try to teach him any arcane theory, i''ll burn your office down!" She declared, before stomping away. "And get someone to clean the ceiling!" She said right before leaving.

    Arthur, with his smile now cramped, "I doubt he would understand arcane theory, anyway..."

    ~PoV: MC~

    Ugh, what a headache! Do i have a hangover? Oh wait, i''m a baby... I am also hungry.

    Looking around, it''s daytime and the burn marks on the ceiling are gone. Oh, Lana is sitting nearby reading something. Let''s tell her i''m hungry. "Ei!" My mouth is a little dry, how long did i sleep for?

    "Oh? Finally awake, are you?" she says something while closing her book. Now, how should i go about telling her i''m hungry? Oh, i know!

    "Mama!" I declare proudly. Look! She understood straight away. Now i just have to wait... Oh right, magic. Let''s circulate mana while we wait.

    Is it just me or do i have less mana than before? Well, the difference isn''t that big anyway, so it''s fine.

    Lana sure is taking her time, let''s also do some vocal exercises while we wait.

    Oh, there they are. "Did he really speak?" Mother is asking Lana something, she''s always so serious, no wonder Athena is always acting so adult-like. Today also she''s wearing a serious-looking uniform.

    "Yes, milady. I very clearly heard him say ''mama''." Oh, i recognize that milady word, but why is she saying mama? Do people call someone else''s mothers mama around these parts? that''s kinda weird, but ok.

    Mother approaches me with her usual serious face and picks me up, but she doesn''t move to feed me, she''s just giving me a glare. Uh-oh, is this about the ceiling? "Speak." Sorry mother, i''m going to need a little more information to understand what you want. She turns to Lana when i don''t answer.

    "Come on, young master! Say ''mama''! Ma-ma!" Says Lana. What''s this about ''mama''?

    Mama is the scary lady with the sharp teeth, right? "Mama." I say while pointing at mother.

    Uh-oh, mother''s expression is shaking, is she angry? "Lana, excuse us for a second." She says something to Lana, and Lana leaves.

    Aaaaand now she''s hugging me and pecking my head with kisses. "Such a good boy!" Mother, please be careful not to hurt me with your teeth. Also, your serious expression has completely fallen apart.

    Oh right. I''m hungry. "Ei!" I call out to her. She lifts me to her eye-level. Uwah, that big smile of hers would terrify me if she wasn''t my mother. "What is it, Lance? Did i hug you too hard?" I don''t know what she''s saying so i just point at my food source. "Oh, i see."

    While i''m being fed, father enters the room. "I heard that he finally woke up and also that he spoke?" He''s saying something, but i''m busy right now, so i''m not paying attention.

    "Yes, he said ''mama'' while pointing at me. I''m clearly his favorite parent, and he will definitely follow in my footsteps." Mother is back to her usual serious self and i think i recognize the word for yes.

    "Oh, come on Isabel! A two weeks old baby should barely be able to recognize faces. Our son is not only speaking but shooting fire at the ceiling!" Father seems to be getting emotional.

    "What''s your point?" Mother is not getting emotional at all.

    "My point is that our son is a genius and should receive an education befitting of a genius!" Father is being loud as usual.

    "Sure." Mother is not loud at all.

    "But I-!... What do you mean sure?" Father is being less loud now.

    "I mean that i know you''re trying to turn him into a bookworm like yourself, but i''m already his favorite parent so it doesn''t matter."

    "... What''s the catch?" Father seems fearful now.

    "You have to call him Lance." Mother seems happy.

    "BUT ARCHIMEDES IS A PERFECT NAME FOR-" Okay, i''m ignoring father now. What''s his deal with Archimedes, anyway?The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

    After i''m done being fed and mother has left, father showed me how to heat objects using mana and make a gentle magic candle flame just like miss fire''s. I wanted to learn more magic but it seems i get sleepy when i use mana. Too Bad.

    Well, i guess father isn''t that bad after all.

    ~time skip~

    It''s been a few months since i started learning magic. I''m getting pretty good at their language too. I learned that mother works in the military and, while i don''t know her specific rank, i''ve never seen her being ordered around so it should be pretty high up, which makes sense considering the amount of servants in the castle.

    While my baby life has changed little, i now need to sleep less often than before, sadly that means more time to be bored, happily that means more time to practice magic, sadly i have yet to learn magic that can change my diapers. While i did learn a little bit of telekinesis, i can barely push and pull things, so that''s still a work in progress.

    Let''s see, the magics (spells?) Ihave learned so far are: heat, candle flame, light, breeze, moisture gathering, self-enhancement, self-healing, telekinesis and teeny tiny lightning. Oh! There''s also the first magic i used, i call it fire burst, but i never used it since then because it takes too much mana and i''d have to sleep straight away... It''s also very dangerous, but that''s besides the point.

    Heat lets me either heat up or cool down something, i can''t boil water with it, but dad can so i should be able to when i grow up. Candle flame is a small steady flame, the hardest part is keeping it steady and not flickering. Light makes a floating light that reminds me of a firefly, dad can make it as bright as a light bulb and even use it as a flash grenade. I don''t think i need to explain breeze, and moisture gathering is simply too slow, i think it would take me a week to fill a small cup with water.

    Self-enhancement is really cool, it lets you strengthen your body or enhance your senses. Mom uses it all the time when sparring. I have to say, seeing the way people in this world fight is pretty weird. It feels extremely lacking in finesse until you pay attention to how they are wielding their mana. But even then i feel their actual sword techniques to be lacking, though who am i to say that, i''m just a baby.

    Self-healing is as the name implies, though i can barely heal a needle prick at the moment. Mom got really mad when dad pricked me with a needle, so i have had little chance to practice. Telekinesis feels a lot like the force from a certain franchise about wars among the stars, using it feels very similar to breeze, though on solid objects instead of the air. Teeny tiny lightning (not the official name) is as the name implies, a small electric spark between my fingers.

    Today, dad came again to teach me something new. "Cast a flame for me." I do as he says.

    He stares at my flame for a moment and then it gets snuffed out in an instant. What happened?

    Father seems to know what i''m thinking. "I just disrupted your mana. Try again." I do as he says.

    This time i''m paying attention to his mana... the heck? He pretty much just used his mana as if a whip and hit my flame with it. "Now you try it." He says while creating his own flame.

    Hm... no matter how i try to hit it, it just feels like i''m whipping a wall. "This is the importance of mana control, if the difference in control is high enough, a superior sorcerer can completely dominate an inferior one." He says with a smug smile, the bastard. I''ll show him. "Take this lesson to heart and always practice these exercis-..." Hehehe, i used breeze to suffocate his flame.

    He''s looking at me with narrowed eyes, not so smug now are you? Oh, he''s doing something with his mana... Isn''t that just candle flame and breeze together? the flame is bigger, but that''s it. Instead of using breeze to pull the air away i do the opposite and shove as much air as i can into his flame.

    His fire grows bigger for a moment before it''s blown away. He didn''t like that. Now he''s doing something weird with his mana, it''s taking a very specific shape that resembles a symbol of some sort that collapses in on itself while it turns into a ball of fire... okay? The heck was that?

    Using breeze to either push air away or into the flame does nothing. Whipping obviously doesn''t work this time as well. Gathering moisture seems too slow to have any effect... huh? Now that i look at it, the flame seems disconnected from him, normally you need to keep pumping mana into the flame. Hmm...

    I''ll try to use candle flame and see if my fire can collapse his fire... "Wait!" *woosh*

    There''s a new burn mark in my room, this time it''s a circle with about one and a half meters in diameter. I look at dad with a smug smile. Mom is gonna be so mad at you. Hehehe.

    ~small time skip~

    I was right, mom got really mad at him. From that day onwards dad stopped teaching me and I started spending more time with mom while being carried by Lana.

    I think mom has a military rank around Colonel or Major General. The castle we live in is huge, it even has a small farm inside it. It''s the kind of castle that would probably take months to siege, although i don''t know if that''s still the case when magic joins the mix.

    Some suits of armor and weapons i see from time to time seem too heavy or big for human use, as expected from a fantasy world.

    The soldiers and knights that meet me always have the same reaction. They get momentarily surprised and then act all respectful. I learned some new fancy words from the knights.

    Turns out we are on the north-eastern border of the country (not sure what the name of the country is) and the lands further to the east are populated with various tribes and clans, so while there aren''t any big wars, the military on this side of the country spreads itself thin to make sure they stop any raiding parties heading towards civilian settlements.

    Most of mother''s time is spent on her office reading and writing letters, so i still have plenty of time to practice magic. When i run low on mana i have Lana read a children''s book for me. Sometimes mother reads for me when she has the time, although she always picks books with wars in it, i think she is some kind of military nerd, if that''s even a thing.

    I also saw Athena from time to time, it seems she spends pretty much her entire day on one class or another, i''ve seen her learn etiquette, history and dancing. The poor thing must not have any free time... Wait, am i going to be like that too?

    One thing i noticed is that there are plenty of women on this country''s military, including my mother. You''d think a country with medieval culture would treat women poorly but that doesn''t seem to happen at all.

    Today it seems my grandmother has come to visit us. It seems she''s also in the military, although she is higher ranking than my mother. I''m currently being held in my mother''s arms with Athena and father on either side of us while waiting for grandma to come through the front door.

    The door opens as i take my first look on my mother''s mother... She looks like a slightly older Isabel, how old was she when she had mother? Wait, how old is mother in the first place?

    "Thank you for visiting, mother." Says my mom to her mom, that''s confusing.

    "Thank you for having me, Isabel." Even her voice is similar to my mother. "Long time no see, Arthur." She gives my father a nod, which he returns with a stiff face. "You have grown splendidly, Athena."

    "Thank you, grandmother."

    "And you..." She stares at me, is there something on my face? "How old did you say Lance was, Isabel?"

    "He will be five months old in two days, mother."

    "And you said he can use magic?"

    "Mostly cantrips and control exercis-" "Mostly?" Mother starts and grandmother interrupts her.

    "Yes, mother. We found out he could wield mana when he launched a burst of flames while trying to imitate a maid''s candle flame."

    "..." She stares at me again. "Lance, can you understand me?" I nod. "Can you speak?"

    I shake my head and try to say ''not really''. "Moh welly." Close enough.

    "Can you read and write?" She continues. I shake my head. I just started learning after all.

    "He can only recognize a few words, mother. It hasn''t been long since he started learning." Yeah, thanks mom.

    "... His eyes are golden, but his pupils show he carries our royal blood." The what shows what? "We''ll have to wait until he''s older to make sure but... Tell me boy, do you still remember how you did that ''flame burst''?" Uhh, yeah. I nod. "Let''s go to the practice range, lead the way Isabel."

    And go to the practice range we did.

    Getting there, mother holds me in front of a practice dummy. "Show me your magic, boy." Says grandma. It''s been a long time since i used it, but it''s not that complicated. I make two ''nodes'' of mana, turn one into a shallow cup with the opening towards the dummy and the other a sphere that fits perfectly inside the cup. And spin the two in opposite directions. This is much easier than last time.

    In a couple seconds they are going as fast as i can make them go, so i will the mana to become fire.

    And then i pass out again... this sucks.

    ~PoV change~

    The whole family is quietly watching Lance do his thing. Arthur wants to stop the casting since it seems extremely unsafe but his mother-in-law shuts him down with a glare. So he prepares to cast a barrier spell just in case.

    *Crack* *Ka-boom*

    Together with the thundering sound and a shock wave flies a torrent of bright golden flames that seem to imitate the flames of a dragon''s breath. The flames completely engulf the practice dummy and keep flying out in the shape of a cone until they hit the castle''s wall.

    Everything happens in less than a second and is over in the blink of an eye.

    A few seconds pass as the audience recover from the flash and sound. They open their eyes to see that the baby is unconscious, the test dummy has ceased to exist and there''s a dent on the castle''s wall.

    A few more seconds of silence pass as the audience processes the recent events.

    "Isabel." Liza calls her daughter.

    "Yes, mother?" Isabel answers without looking away from the now black castle wall.

    "Didn''t you say this castle''s walls were enchanted to disrupt magic?" Asks Liza.

    "They are, mother."

    "I see..."

    "..."

    "... Let''s go eat something, shall we?" Suggests Liza.

    "Good idea, mother."

 Chapter 3: Instinct and Butterfly

    When i woke up grandma had already left. My days continued same as before with two main differences. One: miss fire (who i found out is called Renee) would sometimes read for me, she likes sappy romance. And two: Father sometimes would teach me magic again, but from now on mother would always be nearby.

    I learned that the magics father has taught me are mostly tricks and exercises used to build a foundation in mana control and intent clarity. Actual spells are cast using runes that are both more stable and restrictive. For example, if i could imitate my ''flame burst'' using runes i could limit the amount of mana to put in the spell and not pass out every time i use it, although that would also weaken its effects.

    People who can use these magics are called mages, mother is a mage herself although she mostly just uses strengthening magic. People who use arcane runes to cast spells are called sorcerers, and that''s what father is.

    Over the following months i also learned a few more magics: magic sound; light structures; color, smell and taste changing; dirtying and cleaning; growing a seed into a sapling and rejuvenating a flower; calming and scaring an animal; weaken or strengthen fall; and last but not least, weaken or strengthen shadows.

    Magic sound obviously makes a sound; light structures can shape light into something that seems physical (but isn''t really); there''s not much to say about color, smell and taste changing aside that it is temporary; dirtying and cleaning are pretty much a specialized variation on telekinesis for using on spread out objects, like dirt; growing seeds and rejuvenating flowers is pretty much using self-enhancement and self-healing except without the self part, also, no, i cannot make myself grow faster, it only works on seeds because of the seed''s simplicity.

    Calming and scaring an animal is pretty freaky in how it borders the territory of telepathy, we used a small rabbit to practice, i feel father went overboard in showing off when scaring the poor thing; weaken or strengthen fall essentially increases or decreases the acceleration of gravity on an object; weaken or strengthen shadows makes a source of light seem brighter or darker.

    Father said that these are all the exercises he knows that aren''t mana-intensive and that pretty much all spells are built on top of these magics one way or the other.

    He also mentioned that some living beings can somehow be born with or develop an instinct to cast certain magics. Humans, for example, often develop instinctive self-enhancement or fire-based magics. When one develops an instinctive magic, that specific magic becomes extremely mana-efficient and easy to control. That''s normally how beasts and the untrained become able to wield magic.

    Sometimes this magic instinct can be passed down hereditarily, and that''s what''s going on with my mother''s side of the family. The name of the country we live in is Sylvian Queendom, yep, queendom as in ruled by a queen. It seems a woman who had a magic instinct for self-enhancement, general mana-sense and control founded the country. That magic instinct was passed down between her female descendants very frequently and only sometimes would there be a male inheritor.

    My mother''s family is an offshoot from the royal family that began when a princess who didn''t want to compete for the throne started her own family and became the first entitled as a royal knight. Turns out my family name is just another word for ''knight'', Chevalier. This family of ours occupies most of the top ranks in the military. I hope i''m not forced to join the military when i grow up.

    Yes, my name is Lance Chevalier. Yes, it pretty much means ''spear knight''. No, i don''t plan on becoming a spear wielding knight.

    Oh right, the royal magic instinct comes together with vertical pupils and slightly sharper teeth, and as it turns out, i have those. Mother said that it''s normal for the instinct to only manifest properly later in life, for now self-enhancement will only be slightly easier than normal for me, but it seems i have the mana sense and control for the most part.

    Back to the present, it''s been a long time since grandmother came to visit and i''ll soon become a year old, i''m mostly able to speak properly, though there''s still the occasional lisp. I can read, although sometimes i need someone to explain some new words, and write, although with magic, my hands are too small to hold a quill properly. I can eat baby food and more importantly: i can ''do my business'' by myself... Yes i need magic to do it, but that doesn''t change the end result.

    I''m getting pretty good at magic, both my control and mana quantity have improved greatly. Today, dad taught me my first arcane rune, it''s a general rune for projectiles. The effect of the rune is pretty much just sustaining a magic with no need for the caster to keep pumping mana into it, this allows for the effect to be activated at much greater distances. The most basic usage for the rune is combining it with telekinesis to create a force missile. The effect can be described simply as a ranged punch (not a baby punch, a normal one).

    "The missile rune is extremely versatile in that it can be modified and combined with a large variety of other runes to change the effects." explains Father. "A sped up missile becomes a bolt, a bolt of greater power becomes a spear, a overcharged missile can also become a bomb. The possibilities are endless. Also, just to clarify, terms like missile and bolt are just nicknames in essence, there is no need whatsoever to conform to these presets."

    I managed to cast missiles with force, fire, wind, light, lightning, water and stone. The first two went as you''d expect. The wind one ended up simply as a sudden breeze with longer range. The light one ended up as a flying ball of light that flashed when it hit the target. The lightning one ended up with a very short range, it seems lightning only remains stable for a short time, after that it simply dissipates. The water and stone ones went similarly to the force one except with more weight behind the punch. I didn''t want to use ice because freezing water takes a lot of mana (for a baby).

    After that i just kept experimenting with the force missile in order to understand the rune''s limits. I tried making it bigger, faster, pointier and so on. I ended up with a pretty strong force stab. Although it was only strong when compared to a normal force missile. It did end up with a high mana-efficiency though, so that''s good.A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

    I spent the next couple weeks experimenting with various missiles, since father didn''t want to teach me more runes at the moment. My favorites are the force spike, force cut and the stun missile. The stun missile is essentially a combination of light, sound and the missile rune. When it hits, it let''s out a bright flash and a loud sound. It''s a little lacking in raw power, so i could really use that bomb rune on this one.

    I also made an incendiary missile that combines fire and wind to spread out the fire when it hits, but honestly, it''s just a poor man''s fire bomb at this point.

    Today we are getting another visit, this time it''s one of my mother''s cousins, so i''ll just call her my aunt.

    "Good to see you, Isabel." Says auntie with a big smile while she hugs mother. She has auburn hair unlike my mom''s blood-red, her face is softer and her body is less toned. Good, grandma looked so much like mom it gave a feeling of my mom time traveling from the future. Auntie is also different in that she is wearing a casual dress.

    She also greets dad and Athena before moving on to me. "So this is our family''s little arsonist, huh?" She asks with a big smile.

    Geh, that''s rude. "Hello, auntie, my name is Lance."

    "Hello Lance, my name is Alexandra, i''ll be your teacher for the foreseeable future." She''ll be my what?

    I look at dad and he only shrugs his shoulders at me, the traitor. I look at mom and she only nods at me, she was the enemy all along! I look at my last hope, Athena, she only gestures towards auntie with her chin. Oh right, auntie is waiting for my answer.

    "... Okay?" Is my answer.

    Auntie''s smile widens. I have a bad feeling about this, she won''t teach me etiquette and detailed history, right? I''ve seen Athena study that and it just seems like torture to me. In history, for example, there is a bunch of failed rebellion attempts that the teachers made Athena memorize, i''m pretty sure that is done just to demotivate any rebellion ideas.

    "Isabel, how about we have a talk in your office, just the two of us?" Suggests auntie, and mother leads the way for her. Now it''s just me, Athena and our father.

    I look at dad and say, "Dad?" He seems to read my mind and answers. "Don''t look at me like that, it''s your grandmother''s orders." Oh, no... The game was rigged from the start!

    ~time skip~

    From that day onwards, auntie started living with us. She would teach me various topics in the mornings and i''d practice magic and rest in the afternoon.

    Right now she''s teaching me about the potential problems for an army during winter.

    "Hey, auntie." I raise my hand.

    "I already told you to call me ''teacher''." She answers with a stern expression.

    I sigh. "Teacher."

    "Ask away." She answers with her smile back on her face.

    "Why do i have to learn about this stuff? Athena is the one who will lead armies." I ask dejectedly.

    "Hm? You don''t want to help your sister when you grow up?" What a hypocrite, she taught me it''s impolite to answer a question with a question.

    "Sure i want to, i''d just rather not be in troublesome kinds of leadership positions." Mom''s work seems extremely stressful, i''d really rather not.

    "So you don''t want to learn how to lead armies?" I shake my head as fast as my baby neck will allow me. "I see. Well, to answer your question, because you are a Chevalier. Everyone in our family needs to learn the basics of warfare."

    That''s horrible! "T-then, could we at least focus more on magic for now? You know, since i''m too young to move around much, i have plenty of time to practice magic, but i have only learned a single rune so far so i have stagnated on that side of things." I ask with the last of my hope.

    Auntie has a thoughtful expression. "Well, i suppose that''s fine. Let''s see... Show me the magics you already know." Thank all that is holy.

    We go over the magics i know and i show her what i can do with the missile rune. I don''t cast fire burst because i don''t want to run out of mana at the moment. She teaches me some variations on the magics i know, like specializing heat to either just heat up or cool down something or using telekinesis on only a specific kind of target like pyrokinesis and hydrokinesis.

    We end today''s class with learning a rune for propulsion (also called direction), when used with missile it can increase the projectile''s speed, power and range. Although it increases the mana cost and makes it harder to home in on a target. It works really well with my force spike.

    After lunch, i want to practice more, but my mana is too low... Is there any faster method to regenerate mana? I lie down and close my eyes as if to take a nap and concentrate on my mana. Going by generic fantasy logic, one would either circulate the energy to promote regeneration, absorb the energy from the air that one breathes or... meditate?

    Might as well try all of them at the same time. I circulate my mana while breathing deeply and trying to pull mana from the air in my lungs... I''m not sure on the meditation part though, should i just contemplate the meaning of life?

    Pushing meditation aside for now, breathing and circulating seems to work in promoting regeneration of mana, but the difference isn''t that big... Well, since i''m pulling mana from the air, how about i use magic to help my breathing?

    I control the surrounding air to go steadily in and out of my lungs while i enhance my body to assist, don''t want to end up with oxygen poisoning or whatever that''s called. All the while i''m circulating the mana through my body before using it to to pull in more air and mana.

    The resulting process ends up feeling as if i''m circulating mana both inside and outside my body, quite the odd feeling. But it works! I think my mana regeneration almost doubled by doing this.

    After my mana is full again i ask Lana to take me to the practice range and i start experimenting with the propulsion rune. No, i''m not playing with magic, this is serious research.

    Turns out you don''t even need to combine it with the missile rune to use it, I can use it as is. For example, if i combine it with fire it results in a flamethrower. I can do a flamethrower even without the rune, using only raw magic, but with the rune controlling the direction and speed becomes quite easy. Another example is combining it with breeze can result in a very strong wind with minimal mana cost.

    Of course, i also combined it with missile to make bolts, making various spells become viable, like lightning bolt, while the range is still pretty short, that''s only relative to other bolts. I also managed to make a wind blade, although i''m pretty sure a force blade is better in every possible way.

    I also spent some time practicing curving bolts and trying to combine various magics. After a while i started running low on mana so i did that breathing/circulation thingy again. Should i just call it meditation and be done with it?

    Now i want to practice advanced raw magic like my fire burst. But where do i even start?

    Oh, i know! I will try to make illusions! That ought to help me practice mana control. Let''s start small and try to make a butterfly.

    I make the shape of a butterfly using light structures and delicately use ''change color'' to fill in the details. It''s a little hard to maintain the structure and details at the same time, but that''s the whole point of this exercise, so it''s ok.

    I made it into a monarch butterfly, its wings are orange with black lines and white spots. A problem is that i don''t remember exactly how the torso of the butterfly looks like so i just made it similar to a dragonfly and made it black with white spots. Good enough.

    Right now i have a floating light statue of a monarch butterfly. Now i need it to flap its wings... there we go, that looks natural enough. And now i need to have it rise and fall together with the flap of its wings realistically... Okay, i think this is the hardest part. Having to maintain the illusion while at the same time bending it and moving it across the air is very difficult.

    I only succeeded near dinner time. There must be an easier way to do this, i should ask auntie tomorrow.

 C4: Quest for non-combat magic

    I asked auntie with help making illusions and showed her my butterfly. She taught me a magic that can pretty much do everything in one go, even simulate weight. It just takes a lot of mana to use it and that''s why she didn''t teach it to me before. Fair enough.

    I feel some pride in being able to make the butterfly without the illusion magic. Oi, auntie, don''t look at me with those pitying eyes! I don''t feel defeated at all!

    Anyway, illusions aside, i made grave mistake.

    Auntie noticed i like magic and started keeping runes hostage from me. If i want to learn a new rune i need to remember the name of that one general that managed to use conscripted soldiers to ambush and defeat a group of knights. Honestly, i''m too distracted by the fact that a couple of fireballs could probably completely break the soldiers formation, so all i learned is that you shouldn''t go to war without a few sorcerers on your side.

    I also asked mom for some clay and started using pottery to practice magic during my afternoons. Using telekinesis to mold clay means you don''t get dirty. Although firing the stuff does take a lot of mana.

    In due time, auntie did teach me new runes. But honestly, they aren''t that interesting. They are essentially ''missile but with more power behind it'' or ''missile but carrying a payload that goes boom''... okay, that second one is VERY interesting, but what i mean is that they are all just variations on shooting stuff.

    The ones that aren''t related to shooting stuff i can''t use because they are either specialized for physical stuff that isn''t compatible with my baby body or needs a living target to play with, like healing.

    When i complained about this to auntie she just said: "We, sorcerers of the Chevalier family, are specialized in combat magic for the most part." Let me translate from knight-speech to human-speech: ''i only know how to shoot stuff, punch stuff and heal stuff.'' is pretty much what she means.

    Sadly, as a baby i can''t practice much magic that involves me jumping around and that kind of thing.

    So i went to dad to see if he could teach me something other than shoot/punch/heal. If he doesn''t, i''ll need to convince mom to let me go to somewhere i can find wounded soldiers. There are always soldiers getting hurt while fighting some barbarian or another from the east and in case there aren''t maybe i could convince some knights to go sparring without holding back.

    "Hey, dad." I call out as i enter his study. He was reading a book before i arrived. Most of dad''s books could be boiled down to tutorials on how to kill the most people with the least amount of mana. Dad works as a magic artillery captain, he leads a group of sorcerers to battle and together they cast some huge spell and shoot at the enemy. Normally they''d also defend against enemy spells but there aren''t many mages on the barbarian lands.

    "What is it, son?" He asks as he adjusts his glasses.

    "Can you teach me some non-combat magic?"

    "Non-combat magic?" He raises his eyebrow. "What''s wrong with combat magic?"

    "Nothing, i''m just getting tired of shooting stuff, can''t practice much strengthening techniques and have nothing to heal. So i wanted something different."

    "Hm, if that''s the case then i do have a couple things to teach you." He says with a smile.

    "Really?! Like what?!" Finally! I was starting to worry my family only knew how to kill things and organize armies to kill even more things.

    "I can teach you some nature spells and some detection spells." He says with his chest puffed out. Dad, i''m pretty sure that''s just a variation on healing magic and the second one is used to search for enemies... But i''ll take it!

    "Wow dad! You''re the best!"

    "Hahahahaha!"

    I should start looking for books on non-combat magic.

    ~Time skip~

    Those nature spells are indeed just a variation on healing magic, but a cool variation at that. I can use it to command plants to grow in certain ways. For example, i can grow a tree into a chair or a statue... i can also grow a tree into a trap, but i''m starting to resent offensive magic...

    But the real treasures are the runes for those detection spells. Of course dad only used them as detect life, detect magic, night vision and that kind of thing, but the important part is that they give mental feedback to the caster! The potential for this stuff is huge! For example, with the right runes one might be able to make a spell that searches the ground for ores, allows one to see through walls and with enough mana, maybe a spell that can scan the topography of a region and make maps!... Of course i can''t do any of those, but the potential is there!!

    I did manage to make a simple ''room mapping'' spell, although i need to find a way to exclude furniture from the mapping, right now it''s too mana intensive and i can only ''scan'' about a room and a half of its surrounding rooms.

    Sadly, books on magic aren''t traded willy-nilly, so it''ll be a long time before i can get my hands in some.

    Right now i''m being carried by Lana to my mother''s office, i can already walk by the way, but baby walk is just too slow.

    I''m going to mother''s office to try to convince her to let me heal people. I considered using rabbits and chickens to practice, but even if i don''t mind eating them at all, as expected, torture for the sake of practice doesn''t sit well with me, it''s not like i''m in a life or death situation, after all. Practicing on humans will be more effective, anyway.

    "Excuse me, mom." I say as i''m carried in.

    "What is it, son?" She looks up from a letter and says, with a slight smile, the same thing as father did when i visited him.

    "I''d like to practice healing magic." I go straight to the point.

    "Oh? Is this about what your father mentioned? About you being bored with combat magic?" She asks with a raised eyebrow.

    "Err, pretty much, yes?" I have a bad feeling about the look in her eyes. Is she angry?

    "Follow me." She says suddenly as she stands up. Yep, i really have a bad feeling about this.

    She leads us to the practice range. The place looks like a war zone because of my daily magic practice, i stopped being given practice dummies a long time ago, so i have to raise the earth in vaguely shaped statues every time i come here. There is also a simple kiln and bags of clay near the corner.

    After we arrive, mother turns back to me. "Not too long from now, i''m going on a trip to a nearby town." Wait, what? "Don''t look at me like that. It''s been almost two years since i last went on a trip, it''s only been so long because i was pregnant with you and after that, because i had to get back into shape." So you weren''t in shape when i saw you sparring against seven knights at once? But that poor heavy armor fellow was launched from his feet as if a bull had hit him...

    She continues. "Normally, i go on barbarian hunting excursions every couple of months, go to town once or twice a year and go to the capital every couple years. Anyway, i''ll be going on a long barbarian and bandit hunting excursion soon, and after that i''ll visit the biggest town on this side of the country." That makes sense i suppose, no point in having mom stationed here if she won''t fight.

    Well, i thought the point was so she could defend the country in case the ''barbarians'' (they''re just people that don''t belong to a big country, they still build stuff and wear clothes... Well, they do tend to be violent raiders) amassed a large army, but thinking about it, if they did that, they''d definitely avoid this castle. I mean, i''m pretty sure those ballistas shoot bolts that explode on impact, attacking this castle without tons of sorcerers is just a very complicated way of committing mass suicide.If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.

    Back on topic, why is she telling me this? As if reading my mind, she continues. "We are going to play a game, if i catch you, i win." Uh-oh, i see where this is going. "If you can stop me, you win and i''ll bring you with me." That''s not fair at all! "Lana, put him down over there." She says as she moves to the other side of the practice range.

    Goddammit, i bet there''ll be both people to heal and opportunity to buy books on non-combat magic on that trip. But how am i supposed to stop mom?! Do not be mistaken, only an idiot would underestimate my mother just because she can''t use sorcery. Not only can she cross the distance between us in less than three seconds, a spell that can bring down a house would only dirty her uniform. Even leaving a scar on her, like the one on the side of her neck, can already be considered a feat to brag about.

    Even if you ignore that, she uses her mana senses as a sixth sense during combat, so she also doesn''t have blind spots to exploit aside from just being far away from her.

    All i can think of that i can do to stop her is to hit her with a stun bomb and then a overcharged mana disruption bolt. The stun bomb will cause a bright flash and loud sound, so that will temporarily disable her sight and hearing. A mana disruption bolt is a combination of lightning and dispel that makes it hard to control mana for a few moments with minimal actual damage, of course, she could dodge a normal one with just her mana sense, so i need to stack multiple propulsion runes on it to make it difficult to dodge without seeing it from afar. That should lower her defenses enough for me to knock her out with a telekinetic blow.

    Sadly, casting the stun bomb in a hurry will definitely be costly on my mana, that combined with the overcharged mana disruption bolt will leave me with very little leftover mana, i''ll need to start that regeneration technique right aw- "Ready or not, here i come!" Oh shi-

    I manage to cast the stun bomb as she is about halfway through the practice range, the ball of light flies and lands slightly in front of her. My eyes are already closed and i''m concentrating on casting the disruption bolt while regenerating mana at the same time.

    I open my eyes right before the spell is ready in order to aim. She''s only about twenty meters away! I shoot the bolt in a hurry.

    Of course she does a matrix dodge! But at least that stopped her in her tracks for a moment. I pull in a deep breath to regenerate some mana and start casting a hurried mana disruption trap. I manage to set it up in front of me right as she leaps forward to catch me. God, that big smile on her face as she lunges forward is terrifying.

    The trap hits her, but it''s already too late since i''m out of mana and she caught me. Even then, i doubt that shabby trap had enough power to disrupt her for more than 0.2 seconds.

    She lifts me up in a hug as she laughs loudly. She''s definitely a battle maniac.

    Damn, i feel like crying. Another six months doing nothing but learning about wars and shooting stuff... I should get some knights to spar without holding back.

    "Aww, my boy, don''t be sad." Mom interrupts my evil plans. Did i show it on my face? She''s being unusually clingy, normally she only does this kind of thing in private.

    She continues. "You''ve proven that you''re very capable, even if you lost. I''ll let you come with me, but only if you promise to stay with your guards at all times. Even if you''re capable, you still have little mana."

    Really?! "Okay! I promise!" Being with guards is a small price to pay to relieve my accursed boredom.

    With that done, i concentrate on regenerating mana. It''s still early in the afternoon and i''d rather not go to sleep so soon. I want to try sculpting glass today, i already got a big bag of sand delivered.

    "Lance! What are you doing?!" Mom interrupts me with a little bit of panic in her voice.

    "I''m regenerating mana, what''s wrong?"

    "Don''t do that! You''ll get mana poisoning!" She scolds sternly.

    "Mana poisoning? Doesn''t that only happen if you try to gather more mana than your body can hold?" I ask, confused. Mana poisoning happens when you try to push yourself past your natural limits. There is a limit to how much mana the body can hold and how active that mana can be, if you try to go beyond those limits you feel a sharp pain on your whole body, so if that was happening, i''d definitely know.

    "No! I mean the other kind of mana poisoning! If you try to pull too much mana from the air, you''ll start feeling dizzy and it will damage your body in various ways!" Isn''t that just the oxygen toxicity thing?

    Looking at my thoughtful expression, mom narrows her eyes. "You... Lance, since how long have you been using this method to regenerate mana?"

    Uh-oh. "Since, uh... S-since about a week after auntie arrived?" I answer meekly.

    "Lance!" Her eyes open wide. "That was months ago!" She suddenly holds me close and starts running/leaping extremely fast. After i use magic to compensate the wind pressure, it became quite the fun time, but i make sure to hold back my giggles to avoid angering mom.

    Soon enough we are back inside the castle and mom slows down as she barges through a door. Looking around, this is the chief healer''s clinic. "Chief!" Mom shouts.

    "Who''s hurt?!" An old lady walks in from a side-room in a hurry. She looks old enough to need a cane to walk, but walks with her back straight. That''s magic for you.

    "Chief! I need you to see if my son has mana poisoning! The breathing kind!" Mom says with a serious face.

    "Set him down over there." She points to a bed. Mom complies.

    Chief approaches me and cast a few spells. I recognize a few detection-style runes, but others are unknown to me, i should get her to teach me later.

    With every spell she casts, the old lady gets less and less tense. Until she stops and gives my mom a confused look.

    "He''s more than fine, lady Isabel. Aside from being a little low on mana, he''s the personification of health."

    Now it''s mom''s turn to look confused. "... Thank you, chief. Sorry to bother you." She says as she picks me up and takes me back to her office.

    She sets me down on the table and crosses her arms while narrowing her eyes. "Explain yourself." Is all she says.

    "Uh..." Does she want to know how my breathing technique works? How do i explain ''too much oxygen is bad'' in simple words? "W-well, fire uses wood as fuel, without wood, it just suffocates. B-but on the other hand, if you pile up logs on top of a small fire, the fire won''t burn fast enough and will end up suffocating all the same. Similarly, the human body uses air as fuel, too little results in death, and the same for too much. When i''m pulling air to my lungs i use self-enhancement to control the amount of air my body absorbs while pulling all the mana i can get out of the air and making it my own." I took some liberties, but i think i got the meaning across.

    Mom stays silently glaring at me for a while, until she spreads out her mana to the air and uses it to guide the air and assist in her breathing. She keeps her eyes closed as she uses the breathing technique for a while before stopping while letting out a sigh. "Don''t worry me like that, son."

    After a moment she continues. "I''m going to teach this to your father and your sister. Aside from them i''ll leave it to your discretion." What? Do we need to keep it a secret? As if she could read my mind she continues. "Do. Not. Teach this to just anyone. Mana amount and regeneration greatly limits how much someone can practice magic. If this... ''Lance breathing technique'' goes public, a great number of mages and sorcerers will pop up in the following years, and a considerable number of those are bound to not be loyal to the queen. And i believe you''re smart enough to understand the consequences of that..."

    I gulp... I just wanted to not have to wait so long to keep playin- i mean, researching magic.

    "H-how about we teach this to the rest of the Chevalier family?" I ask cautiously.

    Mother thinks for a few moments before answering. "Better not teach it to everyone just in case, if you want i can discuss with your aunt who from our family can be trusted with the secret and teach it to them when i have a chance to do so secretly." So auntie is trustworthy? That''s good. Dealing with untrustworthy people can be stressful.

    "Yes. Please do so." I say with a relieved sigh, i''d rather not have to keep secrets. Mom nods and then furrows her brows and tilts her head.

    After thinking for a few moments she speaks. "... I don''t mean to push your hand but... What about the royal family?"

    I just mutter a "Uh..." while looking for the right words to answer.

    Mom smiles with narrowed eyes and jokes "If you weren''t my son i''d believe you''re thinking of something stupid."

    "That''s not it! I-It''s just that, it''s hard to trust people you never met, you know?" I explain hurriedly. From the Chevalier family, i already met auntie and grandma, at least.

    Mom giggles. "Silly boy, the Chevalier and the Sylvian royal family are almost one and the same. Sylvians who want to serve in the military and are capable enough often join the Chevalier family through adoption or marriage if the blood is different enough. And Chevaliers who want to work on politics and management often become Sylvians. Although that''s quite rarer than the first one... But nevermind that, you''ll meet the royal family soon enough, you can decide then."

    Huh, i knew the families were close, but didn''t know they were that close.

    After that, mom went to find the rest of the family to teach them the technique while i went to find the chief healer to ask her to teach me.

    "Teach you? Sure! As long as you pay me! HAHAHA." so says the old lady. I furrow my brows but then i have an idea and run off.

    I come back with a box of my best ceramic products. They''re even glazed you know?

    I offer them to the old lady but she just scoffs at me. "I meant money, boy! These aren''t even made of porcelain! This is worthless to me." WHAT?!

    I could go ask mom for money, but that would be like admitting defeat to this greedy old woman.

    So i did what any proud man (baby) would do: I spied on her while she healed people who got injured while training and people who got sick one way or another, i then proceeded to use the ''monkey see, monkey do'' method of research until it was time for the trip.

    At some point she noticed what i was doing and started threatening me with a spanking, but i just used that as an opportunity to practice my stealth techniques and spells. Hihihi, should have accepted my vases and tea sets, old woman.

    I managed to learn many of the runes she uses for what i nicknamed ''diagnostic spells'', they should be useful, i even managed to make my room mapping spell more mana efficient by ignoring furniture.

    I also learned how to sculpt glass during the days the old granny didn''t have to work and made a hair band with a glass flower to give to Athena on her tenth birthday that''s coming soon. Unlike mom, she keeps her hair long and in a ponytail.

    Sculpting glass with magic is more convenient than ceramic, since you don''t need to use a kiln. Although you do need to multitask more. Instead of a book, the one who taught me how to control the color of the glass was actually one of the soldiers. He said someone from his family is in the glass making business. I gave him a tea set as thanks.

    With that, the day for the excursion arrived.

 C5 Barbarians and Bandits

    Here''s the plan for the barbarian hunting excursion: We''ll go straight north for a while and then southeast until we are directly to the east of the castle, then we''ll proceed to the southwest until we are directly south of the castle. All the while we will visit any villages and look for large groups of raiders or bandits.

    By the way, the difference between the two (bandit and raider) is merely where they were born. In the current day and age, robbing and killing people from a different country is only slightly frowned upon as long as you don''t go overboard. Good thing the Sylvian Queendom only has to worry about the barbarians to the east and pirates on the south''s sea, since we have friendly relations with the country to the north and have a large stretch of monster territory separating us from our closest neighbors to the west.

    Back to the excursion, the whole thing should take two weeks at least or a little more than a month at most, only when that''s over is when we''ll go to a nearby town.

    I''m going to practice healing, Athena is going to kill for the first time (family tradition, weird but ok), Mom and dad are going to do their jobs and auntie is going to protect me and to teach me- WAIT! What do you mean ''auntie is going''?... What do you mean slack off? I''ll be healing people, you know?... So what if i''ll be having fun with it? Isn''t that a good thing?... I won''t get bored of healing in just a month and start experimenting on live subjects! (probably)... Okay, fine! But she''ll have to teach me about the interesting plants and beasts we come across instead of more wars!

    *Ahem* Anyway, where was i? Right, auntie is going as a guard and teacher for me, Lana isn''t going, so Renee will be taking care of me, and i''ll also have another guard: Joseph (Joey), he''s a big and scary-looking, commoner-born knight that wields the classic spear and shield combo, although he keeps the shield on his back unless the enemy is using ranged attacks, so it''s not quite the classic style. Even though he looks scary, i know he''s all right.

    By the way, mom wields a type of sword called ''heavy saber''. It''s pretty much a single-edged long sword that is made to be about double the weight it probably should have. Single-edged swords are generally called sabers in this country. Athena also uses a saber, although hers isn''t that heavy.

    Aside from us, there will be many knights and a few sorcerers coming as well. No foot soldiers though, since we''d have to slow down for them to keep up. We''ll be riding (or being pulled by in case of a carriage) monsters that are pretty much horses except bigger, called War-horses.

    I''ll be on a carriage with auntie, Renee and Joey. Dad will be on a carriage with a few other sorcerers while mom and Athena are on horseback.

    We set off right after the sun has risen. Renee and Joey stayed on the front while i had to listen to auntie in the back. Auntie, i don''t need you to tell me in order to know the barbarians believe in nature-based gods.

    I could only practice magic properly during the rests, but during the rides (when auntie wasn''t talking) i played with detection spells. The first three days of the excursion were peaceful, but during the fourth someone found the tracks of a pack of monsters, it was the kind of monster the local guards in the villages can take care of, but it''s better to get rid of them sooner rather than later... That and mom wanted to show off to her kids, so off we went.

    We found them near a creek, about a dozen dire wolves (wolves but bigger and meaner). The battle was a one sided massacre to the point i felt sorry for the doggies. That''s until i was called to heal a knight that got bitten, it wasn''t life threatening, so the other healers left it to me. Safe to say, i don''t feel so sorry for the doggies anymore. But i managed to heal the knight until there were hardly any scars left. Magic is amazing, huh?

    By the way, mom is scary, she uses some variation on enhancement magic on her saber together with telekinesis to cut things from afar.... Athena is just like mom except smaller and less... hardcore? Vicious?

    I learned how to skin the wolves from one of the knights, he also taught me how to preserve meat, but we didn''t do it to the wolves since their meats are known to not taste very good, we have better meats on us. During one of the later rests he taught me how to tan leather, but we didn''t do it right then and there because it takes a long time to do properly.

    The trip was peaceful again until the tenth day, where a watchtower we came across told us about signs of a large encampment to the east. This means that it could be both barbarians or humanoid monsters that can start campfires, like goblins or gnolls (short, humanoid animals).

    Mom sent the scouts ahead while the rest of us set up camp.

    The scouts later returned with the news of almost 100 barbarians. We have about 50 knights and 10 sorcerers. Our numbers might seem small but it''s more than enough to deal with 100 barbarians.

    The only worry is that the leader of such a large group is probably a mage of some sort. But even then, odds are he can either just use strengthening magic or shoot a little bit of fire.

    Our group set up an ambush to thin down the enemy numbers quickly. The magic boom boom kind of ambush.

    Athena looks pretty tense as expected.

    Mom told me to stay away, so my carriage parked on a hill overlooking the ambush site on an inconspicuous spot behind some foliage. I sat on a tall tree branch together with auntie and used magic to see things from afar.

    The barbarians look like a bunch of bandits, and the leader seems to know strengthening magic if the huge axe on his back is anything to go by. They don''t seem to have many archers, why?

    *Boom* *Boom*

    The explosions would be pretty to look at if it wasn''t for the gross flying body parts.

    Straight after, dad sends two long range spells at the guy with the big axe and knocks him out. I have a feeling i know where this is going. The other sorcerers launch large-scale spells while the knights charge as if to follow the spells.

    When the knights hit, they don''t stop moving, they keep on riding while all the while mowing down any unlucky bastard they come across. After the knights are through, some barbarians notice the situation isn''t very hopeful and try to run away, but they are picked off by bows, crossbows and spells before they can get very far.

    The rest of the thirty or so surviving barbarians gather in a spear formation, but the formation is soon broken by magic and spells from both knights and sorcerers. While the remnants are being finished off, i see two knights capturing the knocked out barbarian leader.

    The whole fight took less than an hour. I''m not sure if it even reached half an hour. We move our carriage to reunite with the rest.

    While moving, auntie asks a question. "So, what did you think of the battle?"

    "I think barbarians aren''t very smart." I answer. If they want to raid our country, they need to at least increase their numbers by a large margin.

    "While that''s true, they didn''t attack us because they didn''t know our strength." I raise my eyebrow and she continues. "Those men were probably exiled from their tribe or clan. They wouldn''t come our way in such a large group otherwise. The people who come raid by choice normally only travel in groups smaller than twenty and mostly act as highwaymen."

    I furrow my brows. Does that mean they didn''t come here to raid? As if reading my mind she continues. "Don''t be mistaken, they would still act like heinous criminals if we didn''t stop them. While they may seem pitiful while fighting us, if they reach a farming village, they would be much more cruel."This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

    Soon we meet up with the rest of the group and after cleaning up the battlefield and healing the wounded knights and horses, we move away to make camp for the night.

    Like i expected, later that day, a large circle of bonfires was set up and the insides was to be used as an arena for Athena to fight the barbarian leader. The barbarian was given his great axe and freed from his shackles.

    It''s quite odd seeing a little girl face off against a tall barbarian, but i''ve seen Athena fighting and she could easily kill a bear on her own.

    While barbarians speak the same language as us, this man didn''t speak a word. He seemed to understand the situation he was in and picked up the axe while preparing to fight. The knights also didn''t jeer nor cheer, they remained silent.

    Soon Athena took the first step forward, but the barbarian charged at her when she took her second step.

    Athena smoothly dodged the charge while delivering a quick cut in the back of his knee. The barbarian seemed to take the little girl more seriously after that and approached her slowly with his axe raised.

    They slowly approached each other until when they were close enough, Athena leaped forwards while the barbarian brought down his axe. But the axe was too slow, Athena cut off the man''s left hand and took her distance again.

    The single-armed barbarian, threw his axe at Athena and charged to try and grapple her. Unfortunately for him, he wasn''t a very good thrower and his wounded knee made his charge weak. Athena easily side stepped the axe and leaped forwards once again, this time, it was the man''s head that flew.

    After a few moments of silence, the knights cheered and chanted Athena''s name, while mom approached and hugged her.

    The body of the barbarian was burned and his ashes buried. The next day our journey continued.

    The trip until the castle''s direct south was uneventful, but on a village we passed by a man who claimed someone stole his chicken, but when we investigated, we found out he killed and ate the chicken while drunk and then forgot.

    After we arrived home, mom had some work to do and our trip to town was slightly postponed.

    During that time, Athena''s 10th birthday arrived, and we had a big feast together with the knights. The tenth birthday is considered special in this country because it''s the age where children are sent in apprenticeships away from home. Of course, Athena has been learning since she was five and practicing the sword and horse-riding since she was seven. But in the case of people who don''t want to follow in their parents'' footsteps, this is the age where they strike out.

    I gave her the hair band i made together with a hug as congratulations.

    Soon it was time to travel again, but this time there would be fewer people travelling with us. We keep the nearby roads safe with constant patrols, so at most we''ll meet small groups of bandits or monsters. Even then we are still accompanied by 10 knights and four sorcerers.

    The people who stayed with me on the last trip are still coming, so is mom (obviously) and Athena, but dad is staying this time. Athena is coming to accompany mom in her meetings, but in my case, after i''m introduced i''ll set off to buy books and materials. Mom gave a huge allowance to spend, well, at least i think it''s a lot, she said it''s enough to buy more than a hundred books, so it probably is.

    This time me, auntie, Athena and mom are going on the same carriage. But we are bringing two extra horses in case they need them.

    The trip started just like any other day: with auntie talking endlessly.

    "The bulk of our Sylvian Queendom lies on a peninsula that extends into the sea." Like italy, but without the boot shape. "As such, our biggest military organisation is the navy who make sure the nearby waters remain pirate-free, that the merchants pay their tax, and that no one brings or exports any products that might harm the order in the queendom." I furrow my brows.

    "Wait a minute, aunt-" "teacher." "Wait a minute, teacher. Didn''t we agree that you wouldn''t talk about wars during our trips? Why are you talking about the navy?"

    "I''m not talking about wars, i''m talking about a military organisation." Answers auntie with a straight face. She doesn''t feel any shame at all!

    "And in history, does that military organisation often takes part in wars?"

    "Of course, but we aren''t talking about those today, please stay on topic." This woman is infuriating.

    "Why are you so against hearing about wars, Lance?" asks Athena.

    "I''m not, what i AM against hearing is ONLY about wars. You see, i am too small to learn how to dance and any physical part of etiquette. Not only that, but i already know more mathematics than her. So most of the time, she is teaching me about some war or another."

    "I still don''t get how you know more mathematics than me." Complains auntie. "You''re not even two years old!"

    "If you stopped reading about wars and practiced your equations, this wouldn''t happen." I fire back.

    "Lance." Uh-oh, mom has her stern face on. "Watch the attitude, son."

    I sigh. "You''re right... Sorry aunti-" "teacher." "... nevermind."

    Our journey continued peacefully while i kept casting detection spells to see if i can find any monsters or bandits.

    I didn''t.

    We slept on a village that''s on the bigger side and set out the next morning. But this time i noticed something different, we are being followed by two wagons.

    Don''t get me wrong, they aren''t being sneaky or anything of the sort, they are out in the open and following pretty close.

    "Mom, who are those guys following us?" I ask.

    But auntie answers before my mom can. "They are merchants taking advantage of our presence for safety." Is she feeling insecure about her teacher position? Don''t worry, if i want to learn about a war, i''ll definitely ask you.

    "And we are going to slow down so that they can keep up?" I ask. I noticed earlier that their horses are just that, horses, not war-horses like ours.

    "Might as well." This time mom is the one to answer. "We aren''t in any hurry and they aren''t that much slower than us."

    I guess that makes sense. There is no specific date for us to arrive at the town of Turin.

    The town of Turin is the biggest town in this north corner of the country. Further north of the country there is an enormous mountain simply called ''Sun Mountain'' that separates us from our neighbors to the north together with a few other mountains. But around Sun Mountain there are two long and wide valleys that one can take to cross to the other side, The East Sun Valley and West Sun Valley.

    The country to the north of us, The Endel Kingdom is landlocked on all sides and has a high demand for imports. As such, many merchants try to cater to that demand and buy products on one of the many ports to the south, go through Turin and then through one of the valleys to reach Endel.

    Not only Endel, many merchants go to and from Turin to the other, smaller towns that are closer to Turin than one of the ports to the south.

    Mother is going to Turin to visit its lady, Countess Eugene Monz, some local military leaders and other business contacts she has around these parts.

    As the days passed, and we approached Turin, more and more merchants (and perhaps other kinds of travelers) gathered on our trail and our group soon became big enough to be called a caravan.

    Most nearby villages are farming and hunting villages, the products made in those villages are in part used to pay tax, part kept, and the rest sold to merchants so the villagers can use the money to buy things they can''t make locally. Most of the merchants following us probably just bought products from those villages.

    Oh? I just detected some humans in a small forest nearby, my range is getting pretty good.

    "Mom, i detected some people over there." If they are bandits, i doubt they would try to attack a group this big, but it''s better to let mom know, anyway.

    "Good boy." She says as she signals a knight to come over. I''m not a dog...

    Mother sends a scout ahead and orders the others to be ready for combat. The scout returns and tells us there are two groups fighting in the forest, from the attires and equipment he guesses that it''s a group of bandits fighting bounty hunters.

    Mother rides away with half of the knights and sorcerers. Athena stays with us this time.

    After a while they return with some extra people, and i''m pretty sure that bloody bag on mom''s hand has a head in it.

    The people they returned with are the wounded bounty hunters and i''m supposed to heal them, the most common wounds are shallow cuts on the arms and head. I start with the guy that had his right arm cut off (good thing it''s recent and that the arm is mostly intact) and follow with those three that have some ugly burns on various parts of their upper bodies, seems the bandits had a mage. Lastly, we have the girl with the broken shoulder and the guy with a broken knee.

    They were tracking a group of bandits when they were ambushed by more bandits than they expected, four bounty hunters died and these five would soon follow.

    I healed them to the point where they only had tiny line shaped scars, the burn scars ended up being a little stylish if i''m honest. But small scars like these often become harder to see with time. All in all, i only had to regenerate my mana two times to heal them all, surprisingly, the cut off arm was the easiest to heal. Healing burn wounds to the point where they aren''t critical isn''t very hard, but i didn''t want to leave huge scars on them so i went the extra mile.

    And they made those broken bones a proper mess when they kept trying to fight, quite the grisly scene on their insides, honestly.

    "The bandits they were tracking probably joined up with another bandit group." Says mom, now that i look, it seems her bloody bag has two heads in it, gross.

    After that encounter, nothing else happened on the way aside from more merchants joining us and those bounty hunter guys trying to get mom to hire them. Mom, please don''t break his knee again, i worked hard on healing that... Yes, i can probably heal him again, but that doesn''t mean- *Crack* Goddammit, mom, that''s not how you should deal with insistent people.

    With that, we arrived at Turin.

 C6 Book Rush and Town healing

    We can see Turin now. While it does have stone castle walls, they were clearly built when the town was smaller. I think it wouldn''t be an exaggeration to say that most of the town is only protected by a fence. It''s a tall, dense and sturdy fence, but still just a fence nonetheless. It''s like you took a wood wall (you know the kind, with various standing logs/planks with pointy tips on top) and spread it out a little bit.

    Oh, now that i use magic to take a closer look, construction on an outer stone wall has already started. Cool.

    We steadily approached the town with our enormous trail of merchants and travelers behind us. Good thing we are at the front, wouldn''t want to wait at the end of this line... That guy in the back, you have my deepest condolences, rest in peace.

    Those bounty hunter guys from earlier are still with us. Since they were so insistent, mom told them that if they proved themselves while serving as her sparring partners (read: punching bags) she would hire them.

    At this point i feel we should hire them if only for their strong will alone... At least they are getting free food...

    On the bright side, i can heal without leaving scars now, thanks to them.

    After we reach the town''s gate (just an opening in the fence with guards in front) we were let through almost straight alway. The insides of the town seem... inconsistent? We are on a paved road at the moment, but to the sides i often see dirt roads. And on the matter of houses, some were clearly made by professionals while others seem just like the houses you''d find in any village. The local higiene doesn''t seem too bad at least... relatively...

    But after we are through the inner wall, it''s like a different place entirely. No dirt roads, no shabby houses, and i''m pretty sure that thing in the distance is an aqueduct. Yep, inconsistent.

    Soon we arrive at the castle and get down from the carriage. As the front doors open we hear the cheerful voice of a woman saying "Welcome!"

    On the other side we can see who i assume is Countess Eugene Monz, her husband, and four out of their six kids (the other two already married).

    The countess looks to be around my grandmother''s age, so not too old, but old enough to have some white in her hair. So does her husband, but he looks strong, if i don''t remember wrongly he''s a knight.

    Two of her kids are young adults and the other two are in their teens.

    The greetings proceed normally until it''s my turn. "Nice to meet you, I''m Lance Chevalier and I''ll soon become two years old."

    "Oh my, i heard your youngest was a genius but i didn''t expect him to speak so smoothly at that age." Yep, it wasn''t easy to escape from the curse of baby speech. "Is it true that you can read, too?"

    I nod, but mom speaks before i can say anything. "My claims weren''t exaggerated, you should know me better than to think i''d brag about things that didn''t happen." So you admit to bragging about things that did happen?

    "Come on, Isabel, you know i didn''t mean it that way." The Countess sighs.

    "So it should also be true that the boy knows sorcery, right?" Interrupts her husband. I can''t remember his name for the death of me, so i just nod. "Why don''t you show us some spells then?"

    What kind of spells should i use? In this situation illusion tricks would be best, i guess.

    "Son," Mom interrupts me before i can begin. "Remember that game we played?" That totally unfair one? i nod. "Remember the second spell you used?" The overcharged disruption bolt? i nod again. "Show him that one." I furrow my brows in confusion, you want me to hit him? "Don''t look at me like that, just do it." Well, i guess the spell doesn''t do much actual damage aside from messing up the mana inside the target''s body.

    I shrug my shoulders and cast the spell, the spell flies together with a *crack* of lightning and hits the count before he has the time to dodge. The man shakes from the electrocution and falls to his knee in a pose that makes him seem as if he''s enduring a great pressure, i''m pretty sure he''s overreacting, the physical part of the spell is already completely over.

    I look at mom, she has a smug look on her face... I''m pretty sure my mom''s a show off.

    "Did... Did he just cast a disruption spell in less than five seconds?" The Countess asks. Five seconds? Did she think i learned the runes just now or something? I mean, during a life or death situation, even two seconds would be a small eternity. You might as well just use raw magic or a different at that point.

    After that, Count Whatshisname said some praises like ''as expected of a Chevalier'' or something like that, and after we had a meal and were showed to our guest rooms, i was finally allowed to go shopping.

    I want to buy a variety of books, like books on smelting, architecture and other production types. But my main target is enchanting and non-combat runes like for construction spells and navigation, and for that i need to head towards a specialized seller, good thing auntie knows where to go. It''s a place with a fancy name like ''Hocuspocus Arcane Emporium'' or something silly like that.

    I''m on the carriage again, this time without mom and Athena but with two new people: Hugo and Carol Monz, the Countess'' two youngest. Hugo is in his late teens while Carol is on her earlier teens.

    "So," I start a conversation with the two. "What do you two do for fun around these parts?"

    They look at each other for a moment and then back at me. Hugo starts "W-well, mostly we spend time with other young nobles, either sharing a cup of tea or riding a horse around town to look for something interesting."

    "We often go watch plays or hear the music of traveling bards." Adds Carol.

    "Oh, plays! I''ve never seen one, what are the plays about?" I ask, i have little hope for bards since i doubt they would match my tastes in music.

    Carol seems to be a big theater fan, she talks about various plays and how touching such-and-such scene is. From what i gathered the plays are mostly romance and drama focused, not my kinda thing, but it might be fun to watch once.

    With Carol talking about a play that sounds a lot like Romeo and Juliet we arrive at our destination.

    The place looks as fancy as its name implies; it has a temple vibe with all its unnecessarily tall ceilings and pillars. The employees recognized the two siblings just as we entered the place and they guided us towards some big shot old sorcerer.Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more.

    "Hugo, Carol, what can i help you with today?" He glances at me. "And if you don''t mind my curiosity, why do you have an infant with you?"

    "Good afternoon, master Logan. We are here today just to accompany this child, he''s Lance Chevalier, son of Isabel Chevalier, who guards the east border." Explains Hugo.

    "Hello, i''m here to buy books!" I say with a smile.

    The old man looks at me, then back at Hugo, then back at me. He clears his throat. "What kind of books are you here to buy, young Lance?"

    "Books on enchantment and non-combat runes!"

    "... For your father?" I shake my head.

    Hugo interrupts. "I know he looks young, but please make no misunderstanding, Master Logan. Lance is a sorcerer, we''ve seen it ourselves." He says, as he looks at his sister, who nods.

    "... Can you show me a spell, young man?" He asks.

    Nice! I had a spell in mind earlier when mom decided to butt in. I nod and start casting, the spell takes five seconds and a lot of mana, but i cast it. A swarm of colorful butterflies appear and fly around us gently before gathering near the wall. There, they stack up on top of each other and their colorful wings form a tapestry of colors that results in an image.

    The image is of a peaceful lake we passed by on our way here. It''s a very pretty place, so it stayed on my mind. I also added a few forest critters and such to add some life to the place. I keep the spell up for about twenty seconds before i decide to stop wasting mana.

    I look at the old man, but he''s still staring at the now empty wall. After a while he turns back to me and speaks. "I''ve never seen such a use for the ''spell swarm'' rune... and using that light based rune from the night vision spell to organize the colors was quite creative, well done young man."

    "Thanks, i thought that was a good spell to prove i''m a sorcerer. But the butterflies are still too mana-intensive. Do you have any books on illusion spells?" I return.

    "Of course we do! Come, i''ll lead the way." He says as he starts walking.

    I''m done picking books after a few hours, i got enough books to fill a big chest, but i managed to get a big discount on the books. Though the old man kept talking about meeting his great grandchildren near the end.

    Why would i spend time with a bunch of kids?... I know my own age, okay? But it''s the inside that counts!

    The way back was peaceful and i went to sleep after dinner. Need to sleep well to grow faster.

    ~~

    After breakfast, i still wasn''t free to go. Mom wants me to meet the local military''s big shots.

    The Sylvian military is made up of three organizations: The army (land-based), the navy (sea-based), and the inquisition (who is more of an intelligence organization, honestly). Nobles are allowed to have private armed forces but there are limitations placed to prevent rebellion.

    By the way, while the title ''Royal Knight'' makes it seem like they would work only as mounted infantry, they actually take part in every one of the military organizations. Not only that, not all royal knights are from the Chevalier family, nor is every Chevalier a royal knight, only most.

    I already know the local army''s big shot, that''s my grandma. Since there is no navy this far inland, the only big shot i don''t know is the inquisition.

    First, we go see grandma. I get to see the northern army headquarters and the noisy training grounds. Grandma is as cold as always. This time again, she had me shoot at a target, except this time with spells and with a bigger audience. I think i did well, grandma especially liked the stun bomb and the vampiric fire bomb that uses the enemies'' mana to burn more (the trick to defend against it is just to take control of the flame, it''s your mana in it after all).

    She wanted me to use the flame burst again but i still have the whole day ahead of me, so she excused me this time. But before we left, mom taught her the ''Lance Breathing Technique'' when we were in private. I think that name is kind of lame, but it''s descriptive and simple enough so i can''t complain.

    Right now we are having lunch with the inquisition''s big shot. No, i won''t remember their ranks... maybe later.

    He''s a friendly man with slicked back black hair with a little white here and there. His name is Wiliam, and he''s also a Chevalier.

    We talked about lots of things and he mentioned that the town looks inconsistent because it expanded too quickly, but there is already a project in the works to turn it into a city. Turning a town into a city has something to do with quality of life stuff and not only size.

    He also told me where i can find the kind of books i''m looking for, and that''s where i went after lunch.

    After i got to the bookstore i lost track of time until auntie scolded me, but it was worth it. With this i should have enough hobbies to pass the time until i''m old enough to have more freedom in the ways i spend my time.

    I arrive a little late for dinner and go to sleep after that.

    When i wake up next morning i realize i don''t know what to do anymore. I could start reading right away, but it would be a waste of opportunity. So i think: What can i do here that i can''t do back home?

    1. watch plays and stuff like that.

    2. watch professionals doing their jobs in person.

    3. maybe heal some people to practice? In a town this big there should be plenty of people in need of healing.

    4. ... Fight crime? No, scratch that, auntie wouldn''t let me and mom would kill me... maybe buy stuff? i still have some leftover money... But what can i buy that i can''t make?... art? No way, why would a baby buy art? That''s silly... Souvenirs?

    Well, one thing at a time. After Breakfast, i ask Carol about plays and she tells me there will be one in four days. Okay, i have four- no, four and a half days since the play only starts in the afternoon.

    Let''s start with healing, when i ask mom how i should go about it she tells me to talk to grandma. So i go to the army''s headquarters again. I don''t even have to wait, grandma welcomes me right away.

    As we sit down (well, she sits down, i''m standing on Renee''s lap.) i get straight to the point. "Grandma, i want to practice healing!" I state clearly.

    Grandma stays quiet for a few moments before she raises her eyebrow and the corner of her lips. Uh-oh, something bad is coming. "I will arrange for it, wait here. I will get someone to bring tea and cookies, i should be done in less than an hour." She leaves before i can say anything, she looks excited?

    I can hear lots of shouting being done outside, but i ignore that and take a look at grandma''s books, there is always shouting in this place, nothing to worry about.

    After a while, i''m reading a book on discipline training while munching on cookies when grandma comes back. "Follow me." She says and we do.

    Grandma guides us to the training grounds, and there are tons of people there, both soldiers and knights. Grandma sits me down on the edge of the field and sends a signal to the mob. They divide in two groups and then... proceed to beat the living shit out of each other. Oh. As expected from my grandma.

    I spent the whole morning healing people and watching soldiers simulating a civil war, i was using the breathing technique pretty much the entire time.

    Honestly, it shouldn''t be that bad since they were using blunt weapons made for sparring together with armor. But a bunch of the older guys had wounds from long ago that never healed properly, what a messy army.

    I had lunch with the army and grandma organized an escort and announcements so that i could heal the townspeople. The escort was very well organized, they scanned the crowd for dangerous individuals while helping the weaker people to the front.

    Healing diseases was quite new for me, there was this one guy that i''m pretty sure was drinking water contaminated with heavy metals and a considerable number of people had STDs.

    Some people had diseases i had to pretty much wage a microscopic war against, they ended up pretty weak when i''m done so i asked the soldiers to get chicken soup for them.

    Sadly, i can''t heal old age, so while i did heal various symptoms from organ failure and that kind of thing, i couldn''t heal the actual source of the problem, so i just told them to not overexert themselves.

    By dinner time i was completely exhausted. But it was worth it, both my mana efficiency and casting time had improved by leaps and bounds. There were still lot''s of people to heal, but they were all minor stuff, like scars and scratches. I asked grandma to take me to the houses of the people who couldn''t come tomorrow and retired for the day.

    The next morning i saw some gruesome situations while visiting the sick, i did the best i could but some people still had to lose some limbs, at least no one died AFTER i arrived.

    With that done, grandma had me promise to help with the soldiers'' training again and now i have a free afternoon and one item less on my to-do list. So i decided to visit pottery shops.

    It was very... normal? Don''t get me wrong, they did make pretty stuff, but i just expected more from a fantasy world.

    After that i bought some materials to make porcelain and paint to use on pottery, and that''s another day done.

 C7 Spending time and Freedom

    The next morning i went to the army''s headquarters again to help with their training. This time they were more organized and simulated a larger variety of combat scenarios, like duels and one versus many and i also built up various obstacles, walkways and rooms without ceilings using hardened dirt to simulate uneven terrain, fighting on bridges or atop castle walls and indoor environments.

    Most of the structures were brought down later, but i left a dedicated obstacle course where one needs to run, skip, jump, climb and crawl to get through, since grandma took a liking to it.

    After that i went to a tannery (place where leather is tanned) at the edge of town while i used a spell to protect me against the smell. I bought some good quality tanned leather to have something to compare with in case i make my own.

    On the next day, before i could think about what to do, mom told me to go with her to meet someone.

    "Lance, this is Horace, he''s a trustworthy merchant i''ve known for a long time. From now on, if you want to buy or sell something, you''ll go through Horace."

    "Pleasure to meet you, Horace, i''m Lance." I greet the bald man with a big mustache.

    "The pleasure is all mine, young master Lance, i''ve heard a lot about you, but the rumors could never prepare me to see how young you are." He says with a smile. "I must thank you, young master, one of the people you healed was my sister-in-law. If you need any favors, i''ll be happy to help. I have trade contacts from the southernmost beach to the northernmost mountain, including the capital. If you can find it in this country, i can sell it to you!"

    "I believe i''ll have various things to sell in the near future, i will probably need your help then."

    "I''ll look forward to it."

    After that short greeting, i listened to mom and Horace as they shared stories. It seems Horace is something like a childhood friend of my father.

    In the afternoon i found out Athena was free and kidnapped her to roam around town with me. We went looking for street artists, like bards. Like i expected, many bards really weren''t a good match for my musical tastes, but there were a few singing groups that i liked.

    Athena likes street food.

    The next morning i spent watching blacksmiths. Man, they sure need strong stamina to keep working for so long. I also bought a good quality short sword to have as an example for later.

    Finally the time for the play arrived, today too i kidnapped not only Athena but mom too. The play was... pretty good, actually. It had some boring parts and was way longer than it needed to be, but it was fun overall.

    The story was about a knight that falls in love with the noble lady he protects, the lady is touched by his selflessness and reciprocates the feelings, but if they want to marry the lady has to inherit the seat of family head so she competes against her evil sister.

    Spoiler alert: The knight dies helping the lady win the seat of family head.

    Renee cries a lot, but surprisingly, Joey cried too. Is he the classic ''looks tough but is a softie inside''?

    The next day we left on our way back home. The bounty hunters from before are still with us, and are still being used as punching bags, but i think they improved their strengthening magic a little.

    This time again we have carriages following us, but most of them are carrying soldiers to switch with the castle''s current ones. I went back to casting detection spells while in the carriage and reading during rests, i don''t read while in the carriage so as to not get sick... Oh wait, i can use magic to deal with that, can''t i?... I started reading during the rides too, but i still stopped frequently to cast detection spells.

    During the travel i started experimenting with detection spells to detect a variety of things, like ores, rocks, water and even wind currents. But i never forgot to keep casting detect human and detect monster.

    The journey was mostly peaceful aside from a small group of bandits running away from the local patrol that we ran into (RIP). During rests i started practicing building structures using dirt.

    With that we arrived back home. I planned on lazying around for a whole day, but auntie had other plans. "Now that we''re back here, i can finally go back to teaching you history!" Oh no.

    "Auntie, have mercy! We just got back!" I beg.

    "Absolutely not! First we''ll start with a series of tests to see if you''re remembering things properly."

    "You can''t! This is torture!" But she''s not listening to me anymore.

    ~~

    The next day after class, i finally start studying enchantment. But mom interrupts me in order for me to build a training facility for the castle.

    Sigh, i''ll be with you soon, my dear enchantment.

    ~~

    The day AFTER THAT, after class. I ACTUALLY start studying enchantment.

    Enchantment has an entirely separate rune system from spellcraft, but many principles are interchangeable so it''s not that hard to learn.

    We can classify most enchantments as passive or active. Passive ones are in effect at all times and can be used even by non-mages (i.e. a simple durability enchantment), while active ones need the user to input mana into the object in order for the effect to activate (hence the name).

    I started practicing using durability enchantments on some simple quarter staffs and went on from that.This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

    ~time skip~

    It''s a little more than a month from when i started learning enchanting. I still need a lot of practice, but i''m already at a point where i can do multiple active enchantments on a single item depending on the material and its size.

    I''m already two years old and i''m growing pretty fast, i should be able to step up my physical exercises when i''m three. (currently it''s just stretching, walking and climbing people.)

    For my purposes, this level of enchanting skill is enough for now, so i move on to construction magic and architecture. I use mainly dirt and magic grown wood. Mom started complaining about my works of art getting in the way, so i had to demolish them and start using an empty plot of land near the castle to practice, what a spoilsport.

    When i''m good enough with it, i dig a tunnel deep down into the earth and gather stones, then i use that to practice construction. When i get the gist of building small stone houses i take the next step and gather iron ore.

    It''s only for personal use, so it''s not that hard to find enough.

    Finally, i need to build a magic smelter that can grow hot enough to melt iron so as to clean all impurities. The melting point for iron is beyond 1500 ��C, and let me tell you, that is HOT.

    The book i have on smelting doesn''t know how to melt iron completely, it only gets really close to it.

    The biggest problem in reaching those temperatures is that the heat from the flames dissipates into the surroundings, so i build a stone (better for enchantments) furnace and give it passive enchantments to resist the heat and keep it inside the smelting chamber. Then, i give it an active enchantment to produce heat on the inside as i input mana.

    The furnace works, but it''s not very mana efficient, so i build and enchant similar ones again and again while experimenting with what works best. I''m pretty sure the air circulation inside the furnace matters, so i make experiments with plenty of air circulation and with very little.

    I also make some spells to measure iron purity, carbon content and material hardness, sadly i couldn''t give you actual numbers for the death of me. But i do have a variety of tried and tested blades and armors to compare with.

    I keep making experiments with the highest possible iron purity (carbon aside) as my objective together with being able to control the carbon content and with that the hardness (more carbon = harder steel)

    At some point, my enchantments had become very efficient and i couldn''t decide between a couple styles of furnaces. So i decided to make a set of two furnaces, the first one melts the iron and makes it as pure as possible before it flows through the second one, in it the carbon content is adjusted and the end result is poured outside.

    Like this i can make low/mild/high carbon steel as i wish.

    I also want to learn how to make alloys, but that''s for later. For now, i''m going to learn how to make stuff!

    I make a ceramic mold in a vaguely straight ''swordy'' shape to start with and wait for the molten steel in it to cool down while i build a second furnace that doesn''t actually melt the stuff, only heats it enough to make it moldable. I also prepare water and oil for quenching experiments.

    If i''m not mistaken, the quenching changes something about the structure of the steel and whether the cooling is slow or fast changes the end result''s brittleness. After quenching one can temper the steel (making spring steel) by heating it in some way i have yet to find out.

    I start with my target as the classic straight, double-edged european longsword blade that tapers to a point. I try out ways to use telekinesis to forge the blade, search for the best quenching speed and how to get the tempering just right.

    By the time i make a blade just right, i''m 2 years and 8 months old. I blame Auntie for how long it took.

    During this time i kept recycling the blades i''m not satisfied with, but three blades ended up pretty well so i set them aside to make proper hilts for them later, for now i just give them an ergonomic wood grip and a simple pommel to adjust the weight distribution. I don''t even put a guard on them.

    I sharpen and polish them (using magic, obviously, do you have any idea how long it takes to do that normally?), ooh looks pretty.

    I bring them to mom to ask her opinion. Well, Joey is the one carrying them.

    "Mom, what do you think of these blades?"

    "... You made these?" She asks.

    "Yep, but the hilt is incomplete and i haven''t enchanted them yet, so please don''t compare it with your own saber." Not only is her sword enchanted, i''m pretty sure it''s made of some kind of alloy.

    "I know." She says curtly as she stands up and grabs a normal sword from a closet. "Joseph, hold this." She gives the normal sword to Joey and holds my sword in her own hands. "Don''t let go." She says as she hits Joey''s sword with her own with what''s probably too much strength.

    She then searches the sword for damages. "Only a small chip, easy to fix." And then she looks at Joey''s sword. "Oh, that dug in pretty deep." She then swings the sword for a little while. "I''d say it''s about as good as a lower end enchanted sword. Good job." Success!

    After that i assemble a proper hilt, with cross guard and all, and enchant them with a basic durability and sharpness enchantment, and then i make scabbards for them. And they''re done! I send them to mom and have her decide what to do with them before i start to experiment with various styles of blades.

    Straight or curved, single or double-edged, thrust or cut-specialized, western or eastern style. I keep making blades, recycling the ones that ended up badly or finishing up and enchanting the ones that end up well.

    Until i got bored with them and started making other things... Don''t look at me like that, i''m not going to make swords for the rest of eternity. What did you expect?

    I moved on to other weapons after that, since armor takes too much steel and i don''t want to spend that much time digging and mining, staying down there for a long time can''t be good to my body.

    After i got bored of making weapons aimlessly and started taking orders from the knights that work in the castle, but why does everyone want a fiery sword? That''s not mana efficient at all, so i suggested putting a flamethrower spell enchantment on their off-hand gauntlet, but they were having none of it.

    Of course, they had to bring the metal themselves.

    After i turned three, mom finally allowed me to use body strengthening freely, so i started running and jumping around by myself. I also started experimenting with metal alloys, Horace even gifted me a book on the subject for my birthday, i gave him a fancy porcelain tea set as thanks.

    Of course there is absolutely no way i''m going to spend weeks mining for the various metals myself, so i just bought them from Horace.

    By this time i was getting bored with forging stuff, so i would sometimes practice combat magic, construction magic, go back to ceramic and glass or try my hands on something new like painting and sculpting.

    I''m now four and my main source of entertainment is weeks long construction projects on large scale, like stone towers and small castles, but like usual i have to bring them down so they don''t get in the way. I even built some bridges on the nearby rivers, but i had to destroy some of them since mom said ''barbarians could exploit them''.

    Excuse me? If they get close to the castle''s ballistas, there is no way my bridge will be able to help them, i''ve seen a few test fires of that thing.

    Currently, i''m trying to come up with a way to use windmills and waterwheels to produce some kind of mana fuel or magic energy so that i can make some kind of mana engine, but it''s not going very well.

    "Congratulations, Lance, you''ve finished your basic noble education." Says auntie out of nowhere.

    "... What does that mean?" I ask, confused.

    "Well, it means i''m done teaching you and that you are now educated enough to get a job!"

    "But... I''m like, four?"

    "Indeed, you are, Lance. Congratulations on being the youngest noble to finish his basic education!"

    "So i can do whatever i want from now on? And wait, what''s gonna happen to you?"

    "You still have responsibilities as a Chevalier. As for me, i will stay here for a while and leave for the capital when it''s more convenient."

    "S-so i... i don''t need to study about wars anymore?" I ask, careful not to get disappointed.

    "W-well, you probably should, but you don''t quite need to..." She says hesitantly.

    I cried. Finally. I''m finally free.

 C8 Road Trip and Fishing

    "We are going to the capital in about half a year," Says mom suddenly during dinner. Oh, right, she did say she goes to the capital every few years, and she hasn''t gone since i was born. "You should come with us then." She tells auntie.

    "Sounds good." Answered auntie, and so it''s decided.

    "Lance, now that you''re done with your education, you need to think about what to do with your life. Have you decided on a line of work?" Asks mom.

    "What?... Mom, i''m four?" I answer.

    "It''s never too early to think about the future." She says with a straight face.

    "Don''t worry, Lance," Says auntie "I''m sure you''ll find a good job in no time. And since you''re so young, you have plenty of time to try a line of work and see if you like it." But i''m four!

    "Even if you can''t find a job," Et tu, Athena?! "You can always just stay here and work for me." ... Now that i think about it, this is also an opportunity to get rid of my boredom...

    But a job sounds so boring...

    ~~

    Now that it seems my freedom is limited, i have to use what''s left of it well. There are a few big boy ideas i should finish pursuing before i''m shackled.

    Printing technology (Already exists but can only be used by mages) and improved carriages.

    I wanted to start an industrial revolution with my mana engine project, but i''m nowhere near knowledgeable enough to make something like that. So i''ll make do with improving transportation and communications a little bit to contribute for something like an age of enlightenment.

    For printing, i''ll make do with the basic stuff: A board where you attach letters to make what''s essentially a big page-sized stamp.

    I also made a few ballpoint pens while i was at it, because quills suck.

    For carriages i made a suspension system with tires and springs and i also tried various ways of making the rest of the carriages lighter and tougher.

    By the way, this country already had access to rubber, they just didn''t make much use of it yet.

    The end product ended up as a metallic skeleton frame that one uses as a base and attaches seats and storage compartments. I made it in three sizes: big, medium and small. And made three archetypes: one specialized in storage, one specialized in human transport and finally, one that does a little bit of both.

    Now that that''s over, i still have some time left before we leave for the capital. I decided to look into an idea i had a long time ago.

    You see, there is this peculiar pair of magic tricks called calm animal and scare animal. To cast them, you simply concentrate on an emotional state like calm or anger and use mana to send it towards the target. The only spells i know that use this style of magic are ''war cry'' and ''soothing sound'' that intensify and spread the effects using sound, also allowing it to work on more intelligent beings.

    But here''s the thing, if i can send over my emotional state, can''t i use the detection spells'' feedback runes to read a target''s emotions as well? So i experiment with that using the animals inside the castle, but i don''t really get anywhere with it, what a shame... Let''s make some fancy gifts just in case i need them while in the capital.

    ~~

    Now, the journey to the capital is soon upon us and i''m four and a half years old. I''m pretty big for a four-year-old, to the point where i wonder if magic helped me grow somehow, i must be almost as big as a six-year-old. I have my father''s curly hair and golden eyes, and my mother''s vertical pupils and sharp teeth. My hair color is the same as Athena''s, that is to say, a mix of father''s brown and mother''s blood red.

    Sadly, mom doesn''t allow me to practice any fighting until i''m seven. But at least i can still run the obstacle course.

    Horace really liked the carriages and the ballpoint pens i made, but he doesn''t think much of the non-magic printer, he only sees it as a cheaper option to the magic printer. You can''t win every time, i guess.

    On the topic of the journey, we''ll travel for a month towards the northernmost port on the eastern coast and then take a boat ride that should take between half a month and an entire month. Man, travelling sure takes long.

    Mom, dad, Athena and auntie are all going, so is Renee and Joey. Of course, we are going on one of the carriages i made, this one i enchanted to make lighter and tougher.

    We are headed towards Turin at the moment and, while i''m still using detection spells, i''m trying to teach my family some road trip games.

    "I spy with my little eye... something purple!" I declare.

    "Is it a flower?" Asks Athena.

    "No."

    "Is it an animal?" Asks dad.

    "Yes."

    "Is it a bird?" Asks auntie.

    "Yes."

    "That''s not fair!" Says Athena while mom and dad nod in agreement. "I don''t know many bird names..."

    "That''s okay, i can still see it, so if you can point towards the one i''m thinking of it still counts as your win." I say.Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

    They look around outside the carriage for a purple bird. I smirk, there is no way i''d make it as easy as picking something close to us, i had to use magic to spot the twilight pheasant. "Ah!" Uh-oh, Athena noticed my smirk.

    She narrows her eyes and i can almost see a light bulb going off a moment later. She starts enhancing her eyes with magic while looking around. Everyone else, notices this and start doing the same.

    Mom is the first one to spot the pheasant and now it''s her turn to pick something... You don''t have to be so smug about it, mom... "I spy with my little eye... something red!" I have a bad feeling about this.

    My bad feeling is confirmed when 10 minutes later we spot a red flower in the horizon on the way we came from.

    Everyone agreed to stop playing this game, except for mom who kept acting smug.

    During rests, i would cast a combat spell and dad would give me a few tips on how to improve them. That or just heal mom''s training partners (punching bags). By the way, mom did hire the bounty hunters from last time, but they aren''t coming with us, the current punching- i mean, training partners are just the usual knights.

    We passed by Turin on the way to the port and grandma made me spend an entire morning healing soldiers again, but that didn''t delay us much. We also picked up Mr. William from the inquisition there.

    The place we are headed towards is called Zaderi port town, there we will join a small navy fleet that will escort us towards the capital. The capital is located on a bay on the eastern coast of the country and is famed for its exotic market and great ship builders (aside from being, you know, THE capital).

    We are already close to Zaderi and i''m excited to see the navy guys and their ships'' enchantments, i''m not very excited about the ships themselves because i''ve seen illustrations of them before and they are very mundane.

    The sea around here sure is pretty.

    The navy knights aren''t that different from normal knights, aside from wearing lighter armor and shorter weapons.

    The ships enchantments are as you''d expect aside from one uncommon one that i would call something like... Hydrodynamic? Anyway, it helps the boat slide across water easily.

    The fleet we are joining only has five ships, three big, sailing only ships, and two galley-like ships with both paddles and sails.

    It didn''t take long for us to set sail and... it didn''t take long for me to run out of books to read and realize how boring this is...

    "Mother, help me, i''ll die..." I tell my mother with my voice weak.

    "Don''t say something so grim just because you are bored, go read a book or something."

    "I''ve already read every book on the ship. Even the captain''s..." Captain Zach is a nice guy for letting me read his books.

    Athena, who''s also in the room, says. "Why don''t you try fishing?" Fishing, huh? "I think one of the sailors has a fishing pole."

    "Athena..." i speak with tears on my eyes. "I''ll never forget your help on this day." I say before running off to look for a fishing pole.

    A while later i finally start fishing... and... it''s BORING!

    So i cast a spell to detect life aside from humans to look for fish and whatever else live in these waters. When i detect a fish, i use a magic trick called lure animal and when it arrives near the hook i use telekinesis to stab it with said hook and body strengthening to pull it up on the deck (some fish are a little bit too big for me to be confident in pulling without magic).

    I learn how to prepare the fish for cooking from one of the sailors and use magic to do it so i don''t get my hands stinking of fish. I use magic to cook it without adding any spices and snack on it while looking for my next prey.

    The smell of my fish attracts other predators in the form of Athena and mom. "You shouldn''t eat too much or you''ll be too full to eat dinner." Says mom while Athena nods, i can see where this is going... "So i''ll help you by eating whatever you catch so it doesn''t go to waste."

    "Me too!" Says Athena. "So it doesn''t go to waste!" No matter how serious your expression is, you are salivating too much.

    "Athena can eat, but you can''t!"

    "Now, now, that''s no way to talk to your mother when i''m only trying to help you." She says as she sits down near me anyway. "Athena, go grab a few spices for us please." Don''t ignore me!

    After a day or two i get bored of magic fishing as well and start experimenting with new ways of using detection magic.

    The new spell i come up with is a very complex one with tons of runes in it, but it''s built mainly on top of the missile rune. It launches an invisible projectile that flies into the distance while scanning it''s surroundings. When it reaches a certain distance it initiates phase two of the spell and launches a second projectile that i call feedback projectile, since it''s what delivers the feedback to the caster.

    Like this i start looking for other ships at enormous distances, maybe i''ll find a pirate? But before pirates i detect a whale nearby!

    "Mother! I found a whale! Should we hunt it?" I''m pretty sure i read somewhere that whale oil is valuable and its meat a delicacy.

    "Do you just kill everything in your way when you''re bored, son?" Says dad. How rude.

    "Don''t you want to know what whales taste like?" I ask.

    "I already know its taste, i''ve eaten it once before i married your mother."

    "Then how can you judge me for wanting to try? A whale had to die for you to eat that."

    "Stop bickering, you two." Says mom. "Yes, son, we can hunt it. But only if the captain agrees to help." I don''t wait for her to finish and run towards the captain''s quarters.

    "CAPTAIN!" "By the queen! What is it, boy?! Are we under attack?"

    The captain isn''t very tall but has a lot of muscle, he has dirty blond hair kept short and a big nose.

    "No, don''t be silly. I found a whale! Can we hunt it?!"

    "Don''t scare me like that, boy! But still, a whale huh? And how big is this whale?"

    How big, huh? i look around for something to compare. "About from that wall to the mast." I point out a distance of about 10 meters.

    "Oh! They rarely get that big around these parts! Fine boy, we''ll do it, but i''ll have to talk to the other ships first." He shouts something at the sailors. "Tell me boy, where is this whale?"

    I have a name you know? i mumble as i cast the spell again. Oh it''s closer. "About 500 meters that way." He looks at me, then at the direction i pointed, then back at me.

    "Was that a spell?" What is this man saying?

    "Does it matter? Let''s go hunt a whale!" I answer while pushing him out the room. He doesn''t budge at first but lets out a snort and a ''fine'' before he starts moving.

    For some reason, all of the captains seem willing to hunt the whale. Is it a culture thing?

    The galley-like ships go ahead and start the hunt before the three other ships can catch up. As we arrive the whale is already on death''s door.

    The whale was steadily dismantled and i ate whale meat that day, it''s a little too gamey for my tastes.

    Overall, the hunt was quite underwhelming. So i went back to casting detection spells to relieve my boredom.

    After a while, i detect something big in the distance. I try to get a more precise reading, but it''s moving a little too fast, so i just shout out what i know. "Something big is coming from the east!" I use magic so that even the other ships hear me.

    The galleys in a couple moments let go of the whale carcass they were still dismantling and the ships start moving in formation away from it.

    Soon, a shadow of more than thirty meters approached from the depths and lunged at the carcass with a speed that overshadows its size. In the few moments it stayed near the surface, i recognized it. "A megalodon!" Are we going to hunt it too? I''ve no recollections of any mentions about its meat.

    But sadly, it wasn''t meant to be. The megalodon only grabbed the carcass and swam away, the coward.

    "Dad, did you ever eat megalodon meat?" I ask.

    Dad looks at me with some sorrow, pats my head, and walks away while mumbling something about "Like mother, like son". What''s that supposed to mean?

    I look at mom. She''s salivating while looking in the direction the megalodon swam to. So is Athena.

    Okay, i get what he meant, but i wasn''t hungry. Only curious.

 C9 Capital, Job Offer and Fire

    A while passed from the megalodon encounter and we are already approaching the capital. We met no trouble at all during this time, or rather, trouble actively avoided us. I detected ships (probably pirates) multiple times but they would never approach us, and unlike the whale, the captains didn''t want to waste time chasing pirates.

    We can already see the capital, and as expected, the place is enormous. The Queen''s castle was built on a higher altitude and seems to watch over the surrounding lands.

    As we dock, an older royal knight that''s not a chevalier comes to guide us to the castle, he seems to have taught mom and auntie when they were younger, so he must be pretty strong.

    "So this is the boy wonder, huh?" He says while looking at me.

    I just give him a "Nice to meet you, my name is Lance and i''m four years old."

    "... Aside from his mana, he seems pretty normal to me..." When he says that, mom gives me a look as if to say ''do something'', so i do the butterfly painting spell to make a picture of the whale hunt i saw on the wall of the carriage. "... Okay, i get it now."

    Am i going to have to prove myself often? It''s somewhat boring after the second time... Should i try to use more complex spells?

    After we arrive at the castle and are showed to our rooms, it seems we can do whatever we want since her majesty is only meeting with us tomorrow.

    "I''m going to the training grounds. You better behave." Says mom as she leaves with auntie and Athena. So i''m left alone with Renee (Joey stays somewhere else with the other knights).

    "Renee, have you been here before?" I ask.

    "N-no, young master, this is my first time in the royal castle." She seems tense.

    "Oh well, let''s look for a servant to ask where the library is." They must have some exotic books here.

    I walk around for a while but i can''t find anyone and i''m now completely lost, detection magic doesn''t work in this place, also, i have a feeling i''m being watched with all the statues and paintings everywhere. "This place is kinda creepy, huh?" I mutter to myself.

    "Isn''t that a rude thing to say about the royal castle, young man?" An old, knight-looking man asks as he turns a corner. Damn he scared me.

    "I''m sorry, i just can''t seem to find anyone. Do you happen to know where i can find the library?" I ask politely.

    "The servants use hidden passages to move around, boy." He says with a smile. "But i''m going to the library myself, do follow me." He says as he starts walking. I quickly catch up to him. "So, boy, you have a name don''t you?"

    Asking someone''s name without identifying oneself is rude, but i don''t really care. "My name is Lance and i''m four years old."

    "Oh, i heard about you. The genius baby right?" I''m not a baby anymore! "My name is Chester."

    "Chester? Are you related to the king?" Chester is the name of the king. By the way, they call the queen''s husband king here, instead of just prince consort.

    "What do you mean related? I''m the king!" He says as he puffs his chest.

    I look at him suspiciously. "I thought the king couldn''t grow facial hair?" This old man has a big white mustache.

    "That''s just a rumor started because i always shaved during my youth!" He says.

    "I don''t know, sir. I''ve seen a painting of the king once and his skin was smooth, his hair blond and his eyes bright green." This old man''s eyes are more brown than green.

    "These are the scars of battle and old age! And the green eyes was just artistic freedom! Anyway! There''s no way anyone would pretend to be the king while inside the royal castle, would there now, boy?!" He says while huffing and puffing. We already arrived at the library.

    "I''m just teasing you, your majesty. Consider it revenge for following me around." "You noticed?!"

    "Of course i did, your footsteps aren''t very quiet, your majesty." Of course, i can only do this because i''m too young to be punished severely.

    The king''s eyes narrow. Uh-oh, he wouldn''t hurt a kid would he? Let''s run away just in case.

    But it''s too late, the king quickly extended his arm and grabbed me. "You know kid, i heard a lot about you." He says while he enters the library with me under his armpit. "I also heard you have a special fondness for history." NO! "You see, there''s this ancient war i''m very fond of..." "NOOOOOO!"

    That day i learned that the royal library is hell on earth.

    ~PoV change~

    In the queen''s room at night, Catherine III was reading a book before bed when her husband entered.

    "So, how is the boy?" She asks.

    "Cheeky, is what he is." He answers with a snort.

    "I heard about that." She says with a smile. "Maybe now you''ll shave that silly mustache? But no, i meant his abilities."

    "It''s not silly! And his abilities are genuine, i''ve never had to cast dispel so many consecutive times my whole life. I''m pretty sure he started trying to burn down the library at some point."

    "So, will you give him the assignment?"

    "I''ll try, knowing his kind, if i try to force a duty upon him, he''ll probably just slack off. I can only try to give him benefits that outweigh the troubles."

    "From the reports, offering forbidden books should work like a charm." Says the queen as if it wasn''t a big deal.

    "... Cate, are you serious?" Chester asks grimly.

    "Don''t look at me like that. You''ve seen the blades he makes, i''m pretty sure he''s already near the level of those 100-year-old master smiths, and that''s WITHOUT spending months on each sword. Imagine what he can do with a little push from us!" She takes a deep breath. "In short, we''ll offer him some forbidden knowledge before the mission together with the suitable training, if he proves trustworthy and reliable during the mission we can think about giving more later."

    "... That makes enough sense... Although i still think he''s too cheeky."

    "Don''t be a baby!"

    ~Back to MC~

    We are meeting with the queen right before lunch and then sharing a meal with her right after.

    The hall is your stereotypical throne room, with a red carpet that goes through the middle of the place right to the place where we have to kneel, an elevated throne and on the two sides of the room you have a bunch of serious looking people staring at us. Don''t they know staring is rude?

    We walk to the kneeling place, do the whole ''pay my respects to your majesty'' ordeal while introducing ourselves. The queen does the whole ''you''ve done well protecting our borders'' shtick that can be shortened to ''Thank you for your work, keep it up! Your kids seem to be growing well''.The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

    My legs hurt.

    After what feels like an eternity it''s finally over and we are going to have lunch with the queen, i make sure to be on my best behavior, definitely not because that demon of a king is with us, not at all.

    But the moment the door is closed, the queen lets out a sigh and throws her fancy cloak off together with her fancy staff. She even kicks off her shoes and sits down on a sofa while resting her legs on top of the short table.

    I look at mom, dad and auntie and they are acting like this is normal, although dad''s face is a little cramped. I look at Athena and she is looking at me, i shrug, she shrugs back. We look back to the queen.

    "No need to be so stiff, we are all family here, sit down wherever you like, lunch will take a while but we have a few appetizers to snack on." The adults do as she says and us kids follow after some hesitation.

    The adults talk for a while with little formalities. By the way, the queen is an old lady with white hair, similar age to the king, but her blue eyes and sharp teeth make it clear she has royal blood.

    After talking to Athena a little she finally turns to me. "So Lance, what do you think of the capital?"

    I wasn''t able to look around much, but from what i see, the place is as expected for a big fantasy city. "Big and orderly, i guess?" I answer.

    "Ha! No, silly, i meant to ask if you like it."

    "Oh, in that case it''s alright, not like i saw much anyway." I answer honestly.

    "I see." She nods. "I heard you haven''t decided on a line of work as of yet."

    Where did that come from? "Yeah, i haven''t." i nod.

    "What do you think of the inquisition?" I don''t think i''ve ever shown much aptitude for the inquisition, why is she bringing this up?

    "They''re cool, but the work seems stressful." I answer honestly.

    "Indeed, it is, but we make sure the rewards are worth it." I heard. The inquisition is the smallest of the three military organizations, but every single one of them are payed well. But i''m not very interested in gold, land and titles.

    "I''m sure you do..." She''s not going to push me into the inquisition, right?

    Now the king speaks. "You see, we have some trouble on the south isles. Kids have been disappearing a little bit too often, mainly orphans, and our investigations have returned little."

    Oh, they want to use me as a spy because i''m a kid! But that seems not only troublesome but dangerous as well... But on the other hand, spies are pretty cool...

    The queen continues. "We were thinking of sending you disguised as an orphan to investigate a little bit, but i''m sure just gold wouldn''t be enough as a reward for a sorcerer of your caliber... Tell me, Lance, have you heard of... Mind magic?"

    "Mind magic... Like in the stories?" Mind control is often used by villains in fictional stories.

    "Not quite, but similar." She answers. "You see, mind magic is indeed real, but you don''t see it often because it is considered a forbidden school of magic and sorcery." Well, that makes sense, i wouldn''t want to have people messing around with my mind. "We were thinking of teaching it to you as a reward and assistance for this job we are offering you, together with some other skills you might need, of course."

    "..." Freedom and peace OR Forbidden knowledge and spy work... I look at mom, but she has her face emotionless with a look that says ''your choice''. Dad looks conflicted and Athena looks worried. But auntie has a smile on her face, what''s her deal?

    Well, let''s weigh the pros and cons of accepting it.

    PROS:

    Probably not boring

    Mind magic

    She also mentioned ''other skills''...

    Favor from the royals

    CONS:

    Danger

    <s>Work</s> (I will have to work sooner or later.)

    Outside my zone of comfort

    In all honesty, i''m almost accepting just for the ''probably not boring''... "What does ''mind magic'' entail and what would i need to do?" The queen''s smile widens.

    Yeah, no, we all knew i would accept in the end, but you could at least pretend that you didn''t.

    ~small time skip~

    "How could you accept that?! You''re not even five!" Surprisingly enough, Athena is the one scolding me. "What is her majesty thinking sending a child as a spy?!"

    "Calm down, Athena, she said they would only send me after i''m deemed ready. She gains nothing if i just die, only loses a potential sorcerer." Why am i the one defending the queen? Isn''t this more mom''s style?

    I look at mom just as she speaks. "Athena, you know very well your brother isn''t a normal child. And he''s also a Chevalier, facing danger for her majesty is what we do." There it is. Although i''m not that into the whole duty thing. But Sylvian is my home and it''s generally pretty nice in here, for a medieval world anyway. I haven''t met any cartoonish villains and that''s a big plus in my book for any country in a fantasy world. "... Although i also feel it''s too soon..." mom adds after a moment.

    "But we haven''t even taught him the sword yet! And he may need to kill someone and hesitate because he never did it before!" Argues Athena.

    Dad is the one that answers. "He doesn''t need the sword, he''s good enough with magic to kill most knights and a small army of peasants." That''s not a pretty picture. "And about killing... We still have some time." Uh-oh, i don''t want to kill people, it''s gross.

    "Well, that''s one concern down." Says mom. "What else?... He can fish, but he still needs hunting and foraging experience." Oh, unlike killing people, that sounds pretty nice. "Did he learn how to use the stars to find out where he is?"

    "Yes, i taught him while on the ship." Answers dad. "And matters of disguise and stealth will be taught to him by his future teachers." Why are they talking like i''m not here?

    "Wait, if he''s going to be disguised as an orphan," Starts Athena. "then doesn''t he need to learn how to... you know... do chores?" Why does she say it with more gravity than she says stuff about killing people? Why is everyone''s faces so grim?

    "... We should just leave those things to her majesty''s people..." says dad.

    "Yes, we should leave hunting and foraging to them too, so we should just take care of his first kill." Says mom. My family could really use some chill on the murdering department.

    Don''t get me wrong, even if i like modern earth''s morals better, i understand that this is the kind of world where people won''t hesitate to kill me, so i better reciprocate with the same mindset. And if i try to just imprison them, i''ll need to keep them fed and guarded so they don''t escape, but that food and those guards would be of much better use if used on the people who DON''T try to kill me and take my stuff.

    But even if i understand that, i''m not in any hurry to do it. But it seems i don''t have much of a choice on the matter, mom already left to organize a bandit/pirate hunt with the local military.

    Ah damn, maybe i shouldn''t have taken the job.

    ~~

    We are currently hunting bandits. The reason we chose bandits rather than pirates was simply because there were recent suspicions of bandits hidden near the capital.

    We have 100 knights and 60 sorcerers with us, the number of knights might seem a little low (relatively, since it''s from the capital''s), but that''s just because there''s a bunch of Chevaliers here, including sorcerers, so there''s not much need for more.

    We are a day''s ride away from the capital, and we are nearing the hills where the bandits'' base should be located. I start casting my long range detection spells.

    "What''s that spell you''re casting, boy?" One of the nearby sorcerers asks, from her eyes, she''s a Chevalier, but maybe the blood isn''t very thick in her, since her teeth are normal.

    "Long range detection, madam." I answer politely, but without taking my concentration away from the spell. "In short, just detection on a two-stage missile." That grabbed the attention of the nearby sorcerers.

    "Ho? That''s pretty smart, did you come up with it yourself?"

    "Yes, madam. I was trying to detect things while on the open sea."

    "Haha, no wonder they call you a genius, is it tru-" "Excuse me, for a moment, madam." I interrupt her, i got the results from the spell.

    "I detect humans behind the hill on the northwest." I shout while using magic to make sure everyone hears.

    "Speed up! Let no one escape!" Shouts mom''s teacher who i never got the name for. And speed up we do.

    When the bandits enter our sights, and one can tell they are bandits just from a look, i try to count them using the techniques i was taught. I lost count at three hundred. How come there''s so many this near the capital?

    Later i would learn they were using cave systems to hide and were usually spread out, we caught them bunched up by coincidence.

    But for now, it was just like with the barbarians, but in larger scale and with more dismemberment.

    Gross.

    Half of the knights charged early on, while the rest kept encircling the enemy together with the sorcerers. When the knights finished their hit-and-run, the spells flew. I''ve never seen so much fire in my entire life.

    With that, the enemy''s cannon fodder was gone, only the tough guys that were good with body strengthening were left. Then, the knights that were sitting back charged together with some sorcerers and when the first group of knights returned, they charged again with the rest of the sorcerers, and that includes me.

    But i wasn''t needed anymore, by the time our charge arrived, every enemy was dead, dying or unconscious. Mom picked one of the unconscious ones and the rest were executed and the bodies were looted and burned.

    The people on this bandit hunt don''t need the loot on bandits, but it''s better not to leave it here in case more bandits pass by.

    We followed in the direction the bandits came from and found a cave, some of the hunting party went in, but most of us camped outside.

    Soon, i found myself in a familiar situation, a ring of fire with a kid and an adult man inside, except this time i was the kid, instead of Athena.

    While my opponent is being waken up, freed and armed, i''m thinking of the fastest, cleanest and most painless way to kill a man. Quite the weird thoughts for a four year old.

    I was thinking of using a disruption bolt together with a raw telekinesis attack to knock him out and then fry his brain with lightning, but honestly, fuck that. I''d rather be done with this as soon as possible and not give my opponent any chance to dodge or even hope to get close to me.

    With my mind made up, i signal the knights to free my opponent.

    He picks up a sword on the ground and points it at me.

    "Don''t-" He tries to speak but i''m already done.

    Two raw mana constructs, a cup and a ball, rotating in opposite directions.

    No runes, no tricks.

    Only "FIRE!"

    The ring of fire that surrounds me seems to lower itself as if kneeling.

    *KRRRRACK* *BOOM*

    A cracking sound from the shaking air. A thunder that follows the shock wave.

    And then the light, so much light.

    When my eyes adjust to the dark, i notice i''m still awake.

    Damn, i was hoping on falling asleep so that no depressing thoughts would come up.

    Well, they aren''t coming up right now, so it seems i fine... But i''m still a little sleepy.

    I ignore the crater and walk up to mom, who hugs me, and i fall asleep.

    At least he shouldn''t have felt much pain... Shit, there come the depressing thoughts.

    I should have used more mana.

 C10 Goodbye and Training

    We are already back on the capital city. My family hasn''t gone back home yet, but they are busy meeting their acquaintances in the capital. Right now i''m going to meet my future teachers.

    As i enter the room, i see a scary woman with lot''s of scars and... auntie?

    As if to answer my doubts, she speaks. "I used to be a spy before i became a teacher, you know?" She gives me a smile. No, i did not know that.

    "... You won''t teach me about wars, right?" I ask cautiously.

    Auntie sighs. "No, i''ll be teaching you about disguises, acting, and the more social part of a spy''s work."

    The scary lady speaks after auntie. "And i''ll teach you how to not die. My name is Eleanor." Her voice isn''t as scary as her looks.

    She looks to be a little younger than grandma. From the fact that her height is as around one of those basketball pros, i''d wager she has the so called giant''s magic bloodline. They are one of the few bloodlines that are more common to find all around the world because they didn''t form a noble house or anything of the sort. As one may guess, they are good with self-enhancement.

    Eleanor has dirty blonde hair she keeps in braids and blue eyes. Like i said before, she has multiple scars on her face, neck and arms (that''s all the skin she is showing).

    "For today, you''ll just show me what you can do in terms of stealth and combat." She continues.

    At the end of the day, she wasn''t very impressed. "Your stealth is as expected for someone without proper training in the field, and while your magic and spells are at a high level, the way you use them is too static, like an army or navy sorcerer who fights while protected at all times... For now, just take this feather and keep it floating near you at all times with telekinesis." That shouldn''t be too hard.

    It seems the first half of the training will be more auntie focused, while Eleanor will only have me doing some basic exercises. While on the second half, Eleanor will be taking me on trips to hunt monsters or to use a military fort of some kind as practice grounds.

    Only after i''m done with these two is that i''ll learn mind magic from someone else entirely, even though auntie seems to know mind magic... Did she ever use it on me?

    ~~

    On the next day, auntie is the one teaching me now.

    "Since you are new at spy work, your first disguise shouldn''t be too different from your real identity in order for you to get used to it faster, however, it shouldn''t be similar enough that your persona reminds others of the real you, thus allowing them to make the connection easily."

    "Is it even worth it to make the persona similar to my real self?" I ask.

    "Yes, very much so. The spy''s act can fall apart from the smallest of slip-ups, by making the persona similar to the real self, we essentially decrease the number of possible slip-ups." She says. "Think of it like this, how hard would it be to pretend to be the same person you are now, except with a different name?"

    Quite easy. "Quite easy, right?" Was that mind magic? "Now if we add something else, like, let''s say the persona should love eating sea products. That would make it slightly harder, but not by much. But if we add that he is left-handed or completely blind, the difficulty jumps up to another level entirely, and so does the dissociation with the real identity."

    I see, i guess that makes sense.

    "On my last spy job, the target already knew how i looked like and kept an eye out for me. So i pretended to be a man scarred by battles." She says as she puffs her chest out with pride. How did she hide those? *smack* "Don''t you know it''s rude to ogle a lady''s body?" She says after lightly smacking me. You were practically shoving them on my face! I haven''t even hit puberty yet!

    "I was wondering, how did you make yourself look like a man?" I ask while hiding my grievances.

    "Magic, of course! But you''ll learn how to change your appearance later." Good to know. "But for now, we need to discuss your persona..."

    ~~

    Several days later, my family will soon head back home without me.

    "-that''s the trick to it. And never let the enemy take the initiative, force them to react to you instead. And-" Athena is currently teaching me something, but she''s speaking too fast and my mind can''t process it all.

    "Athena, that''s enough. He already has a teacher." Interrupts mom. "But son, why do you have pebbles floating around you?"

    Eleanor took the difficulty of the exercise up a notch, so i''m now floating multiple pebbles instead of a feather. "Training." I answer.

    "I still can''t believe my son will learn forbidden magic." Says dad. "Listen son, don''t become an evil sorcerer. They never live good or long lives."

    I look at him like he said something dumb. "I know, dad. Do i look that stupid in your eyes?" History speaks for itself when it comes to people who get drunk on power and sow too much enmity, no matter the world. Even if my magic is great, everyone runs out of mana at some point.

    "No, but you do look reckless." ... Point taken.

    Their ship will soon depart and now it''s time to say goodbye.

    I hug each of them. "Don''t die.", "It''s okay to fail, it''s only your first mission.", "Good luck.". That was in the order of Athena, mom and dad.

    And there they go. Renee and Joey are also going.

    Feels lonely...

    Let''s go annoy auntie, asking her age should work.

    ~~

    "32?"

    "NO!"

    "34 then?"

    "NO! And stop increasing!"

    "Oh... Then 40?!"

    "It''s none of your business, is what it is!"

    She''s casting a spell, time to run.

    ~~

    During the next few months, my training progressed greatly. My persona is going to be an orphan called Leonardo (nickname Leo), and the backstory is that my father was in the navy and my mother was a whore, they both died and my father''s family refused to take me in, so the town guards took me to the orphanage.Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.

    My persona''s appearance was inspired by Eleanor, with dirty blonde hair and blue eyes, but without the scars of course, only the normal scars for a child like scratched knees and stuff like that. The curly hair stays, but obviously the vertical pupils and sharp teeth need to go.

    The appearance is held up by something that is like an invisible magic tattoo, i can turn it on and off at will, pretty cool.

    Talking about magic, we decided it was too much to hide the fact i can use magic (since i need to rely on it in any case of danger), so we decided to just hide how much i know. I was even taught how to make magics and spells seem badly executed, it''s harder than you''d expect.

    After a while, auntie had me go play with some street kids in the capital as Leo. It was pretty awkward at first, but after i taught them some games and how to make some primitive stuff, like a sling (just a string with a place to put the rock), they opened up and taught me their own games and places you can go to do an errand to get some pocket money.

    How twisted has my life become when doing normal kid stuff becomes training?... At least i''m not bored.

    One day auntie had to show me around a brothel so i wouldn''t be too unaccustomed to one just in case.

    "Aren''t you ashamed of taking a little boy to a brothel?" I tease auntie.

    "Aren''t you ashamed of knowing what going to a brothel entails?" She shoots back.

    "... Did you read my mind?"

    "I don''t have to, you just confirmed it." Damn, she caught me. "But that makes this easier, you do know where babies come from then?" I nod. "Good."

    The brothel she shows me is the stereotypical style, with the front as a bar where the waitresses are a little too friendly and their clothes a little too short. This is too much stimuli for little old me.

    The place seems to also be a gambling den. Pretty smart. The clients gamble and if they lose, the house wins, if they win, they probably drink and hire a working girl to celebrate, so the house always wins.

    The madam of this house seems to be an informant for the inquisition, classic character archetype.

    "Who''s the mother of the kid?" asks the madam.

    "No one, i''m just showing him around." Answers auntie, since i''m currently disguised as Leo.

    They only talk shortly and we are gone again.

    "Did you learn anything new?" auntie asks.

    "I learned that the queen should make a law for every brothel to need a healer capable of healing diseases." I answer honestly.

    "... I guess that''s reasonable." You bet it is.

    Auntie also taught me how to make reports and stuff like that.

    ~~

    When it comes to Eleanor, unlike her appearance suggests, turns out she''s really kind and gentle. Or at least, she is to me. I once saw her give a soldier a glare that could kill the faint of heart when he complained about us using the training grounds.

    About the training, for combat training i''m either using magic while running through obstacles or using magic while dodging the wooden stick she swings at me, i''m pretty sure she''s holding back, but that thing still hurts when it hits me.

    I would complain, but she always does that "pain, pain, go away" thing while blowing on the bruise, so i can''t bring myself to do it.

    Aside from that, i''m told to keep things floating or to keep a candle lit or keep a flower from wilting, or something similar, all throughout the day (aside from when i''m outside disguised as Leo and a few other exceptions). She says it''s to make using magic feel natural and second nature.

    For stealth training, it''s not only about being unseen and unheard, but also... ''unfelt''? Is that even a word?

    Anyway, even one''s mana circulation can grab the attention of anyone with enough training, nevermind magics and spells.

    The trick to staying hidden is all about control, an easy way to understand it is to think that sudden movements of mana make ''noise'' and to avoid making noise one needs to keep their mana, magics and spells moving gently and slowly, in this case, the less mana one uses the better.

    Before learning this i never noticed, but i can only barely feel Eleanor''s mana, so i''m pretty sure it works. I wonder if i''m able to sense her at all if she tries to hide?

    ~~

    It''s already a few months since i became five years old and i''m starting the second phase of the training.

    During this whole time i had little free time to spend making things, but from time to time the queen would ask me to make some stuff for her, mainly carriages and enchantments, so i still managed to avoid having my skills rust. For some reason, i''ve been getting the urge to make a stained glass window, must be the royal castle''s architecture inspiring me or something.

    Right now i''m traveling by foot with Eleanor and auntie, we are going to the monster territory closest to the capital. Unlike the monster territory to the northwest of the country, this one is relatively small and safe.

    During the journey, i have to act like a wanted man and hide from any passerby, avoid all villages and hunt or forage my own food. Killing rabbits feels more gross than fish.

    We only arrive after what feels like an eternity. And here i felt horses were too slow.

    Our main targets are gnolls, they are like animal people. No, not like cat girls. More like animals that started walking on two legs and wielding sharp sticks and stones.

    Are there even cat girls in this world? I mean, when considering magic bloodlines... Wait, don''t get distracted. Where was i? Right, gnolls.

    Gnolls have senses similar to their animal counterparts, and they are rarely alone, so they should serve well as stealth practice as well as combat.

    There are other monsters in this place too, but they are mostly animal variants.

    With a single detection spell and i already found potential targets, though i don''t know what they are, at least i know they aren''t humans.

    When we are closer we become more careful, i use a more detailed detection spell very slowly and gently.

    Jackpot, five gnolls.

    I signal five targets to the other two and start slowly skulking ahead while gently enhancing my sight, hearing and smell.

    I finally spot them, they are skulking around as well, but they focus their attention on the ground, probably hunting rabbits or similar rodents. They are wolf gnolls and have good sense of smell, good thing i checked the wind.

    I get into a position where i have a clear sight to all five heads and very slowly start casting five force bullets (sped up force spike). Normally it would take me only about half a second to cast these five, but since i''m going for stealth, I slow down the casting. I finish casting without being detected and fire away.

    I can see that the gnolls noticed me the moment i fired the spells by the fact that they seemed to jolt upright. But it''s already too late, they all have holes in their heads.

    I confirm their deaths with a diagnostic spell, cast a detection spell to check the surroundings and use enhanced senses to do one final scan. Aside from a huge rabbit inside a hole, there''s nothing.

    So i signal my two teachers with a small whistle. And while they come out of their hiding spots i kill the rabbit and start butchering it quickly using magic. Since it''s a monster rabbit, the critter is simply huge for a rabbit and a single one should be enough for us three even considering how much Eleanor eats...

    When the two are done looking around i speak. "I got dinner." and point to the rabbit. "Should i burn their bodies?" I point to the gnolls.

    But Eleanor picks me up and hugs me. "It''s alright, we''ll take care of it. You did well." She''s treating me like a kid again... Yes i know my age, but- you know what? Whatever. It''s been a long day with lots of walking, i should let myself be spoiled a little.

    After eating the food auntie prepared, i sleep straight away inside my bedroll.

    Monster hunting should be more fun.

    ~PoV change~

    Eleanor and Alexandra watch the five-year-old boy disguised as Leonardo sleeping peacefully.

    Eleanor is the first one to speak. "Is this really alright?"

    Alexandra only looks at her and raises her brow as if to tell her to explain.

    "Training a child this young to kill. Is it really okay? Shouldn''t he spend his time just playing around like others his age?... He may seem mature sometimes, but you''ve seen him playing with the other kids, he was having fun just like the others, that wasn''t acting..." She finishes with a sigh.

    Alexandra just stayed quiet for a while before answering.

    "If it was anyone else... I wouldn''t agree with this whole assignment, but... With him it doesn''t feel like a big deal... Like this whole thing is just another of his hobbies and he''ll soon jump onto something else..."

    The Chevalier and the giantess stayed silent for the rest of the night even as they switched places for keeping watch.

    ~Back to MC~

    I spent the next two weeks hunting monsters. I even came across a Gnoll mage, but the poor guy could only shoot a little bit of fire.

    Sometimes auntie would even have me get as close as i can without getting detected. Being near an enemy, even a weak one, feels very disconcerting. I have a newfound respect for melee fighters.

    Right now we are already back in the capital and i was given a few free days for resting. Eleanor and auntie suggested i go to play with the kids again, but no thank you! I''m making a stained glass window! That is, as long as the queen cooperates, of course.

    "How is our little genius doing today?" She says as i''m finally alowed to meet her.

    "I want to make a big stained glass window for the castle." I don''t beat around the bush.

    "A stained glass window?" Does she not know what that is? I find that hard to believe.

    "Yes, it''s like a painting but made using colored glass instead of ink. The way the light interacts with the colors often give it an ethereal beauty." I explain.

    "No, Lance, i know what it is. What i don''t know is why you suddenly want to make one and why you are so excited."

    "I don''t know either, but i have a feeling the throne room is perfect for it. Not one, but two stained glass windows together with a chandelier each, i just need to choose the image, i was thinkingoneofthe paintings of the founder slayingabeast, but i''mnotsureforthesecondone, i shouldtake anotherlookatthecastle''spainting-" "Stop! Stop!" Huh, what?

    "I don''t need to know all that, but i won''t confirm or deny i''ll use the window either... Will this make the throne room less safe?"

    "Not really, rather, with those big windows already there, it''ll probably become safer than now after i''m done enchanting the metallic parts."

    "Good, i''ll give you the resources you need and if the end result is good enough, i''ll use it. Is that all?"

    "I haven''t thought of what images to use yet, any suggestions?"

    "Just go talk to the crown princess, she''s more into this art stuff than me."

    Good, it''s decided, i''m making the best stained glass window this world has ever seen.

 C11 Art and Practice Run

    Right away, i go meet the crown princess. Luckily she wasn''t busy at the moment.

    "So you''re the kid i''ve heard so much about, how about making a saber for me?" Says the princess relaxedly while holding a tea cup.

    "Lance Chevalier greets your highness." Although she''s a princess, one shouldn''t think of a girl in her early teens wearing one of those dresses with wide hips. She''s around my mom''s age (30s) and wears a suit that would be militaristic if not for the artistic decorations. She keeps her blonde hair braided in a way that makes it seem short. Altogether, her appearance could be described as handsome if not for her hourglass figure. "About the saber, maybe after this. For now, i''d like your help in choosing a couple of images for a set of two stained glass windows for the throne room."

    She suddenly tenses up. "You mean big ones, right?" I nod. She stays silent for a while. "Tell me your plans." I do as she says. I plan to build a window for the front of the throne room and one for the back. As visitors enter the room they would see the one behind the throne and as they exit they would see the one above the entrance. I would also make chandeliers with strings of white diamond-looking glass that i would enchant to absorb light during the day and let out light during the night, that way the windows would illuminate the outside surroundings at night and be seen even from far away.

    The princess, who by the way is called Catherine Sylvian IV, stays silent for a while once again before speaking. "Can you paint with oil on canvas?"

    "I can, but i use magic so the texture differs from normal paintings."

    "Show me one of your works then, i want to see your style." Style?

    "Your highness, i don''t have a singular style." That raises her eyebrow as she tilts her head in confusion. Well, it''s better just to show her.

    I use magic to make a picture of her similar to how she is now, sitting down while holding a teacup and with a flower garden behind her. I make the picture photorealistic at first and then switch between various styles, from the oldest to the newest but sticking to realistic styles and i stop from going more abstract than impressionism. I also sometimes mess with the mood of the picture by messing with the colors and lighting, making it darker and gloomier or brighter and cheerful or holy.

    I also make it as if it''s a stained glass window, with all the lines of dark metal holding the colorful but almost geometrically shaped glass.

    The whole thing took about half an hour since i would sometimes struggle to remember or to decide the way i want to represent the style. I''m pretty sure i forgot or misrepresented a few, but whatever.

    The princess stays silent while staring at the now empty wall for a couple minutes before calling a servant and asking them to bring plenty of canvas and paint. Goddamnit, she wants me to do it again doesn''t she? "Do it again but on canvas this time." Fuck.

    ~~

    For the next couple days, royal servants, various officers and knights witnessed the crown princess stomping around with a young boy of royal blood all around the castle and even to some public places.

    Some rumors started of the princess having a secret child, but those were quickly shut down by the ones who recognized the boy''s description as the Chevalier prodigy from the north and the fact that the princess was often seen in public and was never seen pregnant.

    But the fact remained that the crown princess was going on outings with a cute young boy while she was still single and late for marriage. That was enough to start a different set rumors that were here to stay.

    Soon after the redecoration of the throne room and the construction of the grand castle windows was done, the outings died down and the boy wasn''t seen with the princess anymore. But that only made it seem as if the princess was reacting to the rumors, giving them credibility.

    ~~

    "Sigh." Finally done, who would know that the crown princess was an art nerd? She even dragged me around to art establishments and noble houses to show me examples of things and had me paint and sculpt a variety of things for her.

    I was starting to doubt whether we would make the windows at all, but we did.

    The one behind the throne has the founder standing with a big smile while leaning on a great sword beside her, she''s wearing armor and has a cape flowing in the wind. All around her are people from all walks of life kneeling. Above her is a circle with the profile of the royal castle in it.

    The one above the entrance has the founder once again, this time leaping above the sea and about to bring down her sword on a megalodon while various ships and sea creatures watch.

    Together with the windows are chandeliers with strings of diamonds (the princess bought actual diamonds instead of just using glass) that brighten the room during the night.

    The princess even had the room de-enchanted so that i could sculpt the walls and pillars with various patterns, like vines and flowers or geometric patterns and symbols.

    And who had to re-enchant the whole thing? ME! I was having none of that shit, so i made a big artifact that looks like half a circle of small crystal balls connected to a single big one that allowed me to control the mana of eight willing mages and enchanted the whole room as if it was a single object.

    There, now not even an enchanted ballista can break through those windows, nevermind the walls. If you ever want to make a new entrance to this room, tough luck, none of my business.

    And when i was finally done, the accursed princess wanted me to make banners and carpets for the place. FUCK NO! Was not what i said, i have the patience of a saint, i know. "Please forgive me, your highness. But i have to return to my training, i''m already late as of now." Yep, my free time ended two days ago.

    I''m done with art for the foreseeable future. Even without this spy stuff, if the royal family doesn''t make it up to me for the last week, i''ll hold a grudge for the rest of my life.Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

    I practically begged for Eleanor to take me to the next trip. This time we are going to a noble estate, i have to get in, break into a safe, copy a document, close the safe and get out, all without leaving discernible traces or being spotted.

    The noble in question was informed of this exercise and rewarded for his cooperation.

    Getting through the outer wall wasn''t hard, both the wall and guards were prepared more in case of a large number of bandits, not a little kid sneaking in during the night.

    Getting through the garden was really slow since i had to erase my footprints, that''s until i learned how to move without leaving any by using magic.

    I hide near the mansion and cast a spell to search for the safe. I find two, but i was told earlier that the one in the basement is not the one. So i climb the outside until the window closest to the safe and use another spell to analyze the nearby structures just to make sure this is the right room. It is.

    I use raw magic to unlock and open the window. I make sure my shoes aren''t dirty before i gently go in. The safe is behind a painting, just like every safe should be.

    While i move towards the painting, my enhanced hearing notices footsteps going to this room''s door.

    I quickly hide inside a small cupboard (only possible because i''m a kid). But as it turns out, the footsteps just ignore this room and keep going. I let out a sigh with a mix of relief and irritation.

    Then comes the slow process of de-enchanting and opening the safe without breaking it, but thankfully nothing interrupts me. I copy the document (just a bunch of numbers) and then comes the slow process of closing and re-enchanting the safe properly.

    I make sure i displaced nothing noticeable before i get out through the window, climb down the side, sneak through the garden, and while i''m climbing out through the walls, a guard sneezes and my heart almost jumps out of my mouth. Good thing none of these guys are good with mana, or else they would have noticed my mana going slightly out of control.

    I get out unnoticed and make my way to the meeting point with those two. I''m not sure why auntie came too, but maybe it was in case i was caught and they had to bail me out.

    Eleanor said i took too much time, that if they had slightly better guards, i would have been noticed after that sneeze and that i relied too much on my small size, but i think she''s just jealous of how easily i can hide.

    It''s one thing to sense the mana inside oneself, but to sense outside mana isn''t easy to normal people. Anyone that can do that wouldn''t be standing on the wall.

    I''m pretty proud of succeeding on my first infiltration, but too much of it felt like a gamble. I had to gamble on the guards not looking my way, on no one opening the cupboard i hid in and on no one coming in during my safe-cracking.

    Two out of three gambles are about me being spotted, so i know what i''m making next! A Camouflage Cloak! I don''t know why i never made something like that before.

    By the way, invisibility is a no go because it takes too much mana.

    During the next break i started making it and remembered why i never made something like that before. Enchanting cloth is troublesome because a small tear can be enough to ruin the enchantment and giving it a durability enchantment that is good enough would leave too little ''space'' for an enchantment as complex as camouflage. I want to experiment with making tougher cloth but i don''t have enough time to get satisfying results.

    I consulted with auntie and she mentioned some makers of gambesons (padded jacket used as cloth armor) and arming doublets (clothing wore under armor) would use alchemy to strengthen the cloth. What the-? I only learned how to make simple medicine and poisons from my alchemy books.

    "Of course, silly. Why would the craftsmen just give away their secrets for the entire world to know?"

    I just added corporate espionage to my to-do list.

    I didn''t want to do this, but i have no choice... I have to go into the royal library.

    I approach the library while using everything i learned for the past year to stay hidden. The guard sees me, but i''m not hiding from him.

    I enter the library and look around, no one here. I slowly look for a section on alchemy, found it! I slowly look for a book on cloth. "Can i help you?" "gyYAAAAAAH" I perform a manly warcry and do a tactical retreat.

    When i look to the place i tactically retreated from, there''s an old man there. "Did the king send you?" I ask, just to make sure.

    "No, i work here." He says.

    "How come you''re so sneaky?" I was a little distracted, but my magic sense should have picked up on him.

    "I learned over the years so as not to bother any visitors." Well, you sure bothered me! "Are you looking for any specific book?" Oh, right!

    "I want to learn how to strengthen cloth using alchemy." He quietly thinks for a while before looking around him and taking a book from one of the higher shelves and handing it to me. "Oh, thanks, can i take this outside?"

    "Yes, the queen has given permission for you." Oh, convenient.

    I manage to make a working camouflage cloak by the end of the free time, but it''s too shabby at the moment. The cloaking takes too long, the mana efficiency is bad and the mana circulation isn''t smooth enough to be sneaky. The cherry on top is that, while the alchemic process did make the cloth stronger, it''s not good enough to substitute an enchantment.

    I''m starting to doubt whether this is really alchemy, so far it seems like just a poor man''s excuse for chemistry. Where are the miraculous healing potions? Where are the tonics that make a man stronger and faster? I refuse to believe a fantasy world wouldn''t have this kind of thing.

    Oh well, at least i have a project to work on when i''m not training.

    Instead of going on another trip, i practiced breaking into safes and doors without leaving a trace and also sparred with multiple people at once. The idea is to get me used to escaping a group of enemies surrounding me.

    When i showed i could escape 30 soldiers, Eleanor started mixing knights in. I start having trouble past the 10 knights mark. Of course, they aren''t anywhere close to royal knights, but they''re still knights.

    I also learned how to play dead like a pro, slowing down my heartbeat and all that good jazz.

    Eleanor says that i should be able to start on mind magic in less than half a year.

    "Now that you mention time, is it alright to take so long to get the investigation started?" I ask. "Aren''t there kids disappearing?"

    "The investigation has already started, silly. There are other people already working on it." Says auntie. "While there are kids disappearing, it isn''t something like tens of them in one go. More like about three every year."

    Now Eleanor speaks. "It''s pointless to send you unprepared. If the investigation ends before you finish your training, so be it."

    Oh well, if you say so.

    ~Time skip~

    "A notice from the queen?" Asks a knight to his superior.

    "Yes, it seems she will send a spy trainee to infiltrate the fort and steal that helmet." He points to a helmet on top of a low cupboard with a guard sitting on each of it''s sides. "This will be a test to the spy and also for us."

    "That''s not very fair, is it?" Says the knight. "Not only does the spy need to get in here without being noticed, we already know what he is after." Oh boy, do i agree with this guy.

    "Maybe the queen wants the spy to fail? Who knows what goes through the minds of royalty?" Answers the superior. My personal theory is that she wants to ''put me in my place'', whatever that means. Good thing i have my camouflage cloak, now to make an illusion of the helmet while at the same time camouflaging and moving the real deal.

    I think i''m developing a grudge against royalty.

    After grabbing the helmet i go through the whole under a short table, get out through the door and then get outside through a side door of the fortress. Oops, seems they noticed the helmet was an illusion.

    Then now it''s just a matter of speed.

    I quickly climb the outer walls and jump from the top while using most of my mana to lower the gravity on me.

    ~~

    "Remember that your mission has nothing to do with fighting," Says Eleanor for the third time, "in case of danger you just need to run away."

    "I get it, Eleanor, stop treating me like a kid."

    "What are you saying?" Asks auntie. "You obviously are a kid."

    "It doesn''t mean you have to treat me like one!"

    The door opens and the queen and king walk in.

    "You''re finally done with that part." Says the queen. "It shouldn''t take long for you to learn mind magic, good luck." She says before she leaves. Okay?

    "Well then, let''s get started." Says the king. Geh, so my teacher is the king?

    Can''t i just get a book or something?

 C12 Mind Magic and Orphanage

    Turns out, to use mind magic, you have to kind of convert mana to ''mental power''. It''s quite the strange feeling. Feels similar to using self-enhancement on your brain, but instead, directly on your mind.

    By the way, using self-enhancement on your nervous system generally just results in being able to increase your reflexes by a certain margin. It''s the kind of thing frequently used to get an edge on high level combat, but won''t be of much help to a beginner like me.

    As one ''charges up'' mental power, they become able to feel the emotions of nearby individuals, as if a sixth sense (seventh if you include mana sense). Together with that, you also become able to control your own emotions betterwhile one''s mind and senses feel somewhat sharpened, although that might just be a consequence of the control. This is the rawest, simplest form of mind magic.

    Then comes minor manipulations, you can kind of pull a certain emotion from a target or push down on another. For example, you can make a person fear you or minimize a fear they would otherwise have. But like the name implies, the effect is just minor, you can''t make someone fall madly in love with you or force someone who caught you on a lie to not feel any distrust.

    I can see how this can be useful for a spy. I have a feeling auntie might have used this on me to make me pay attention to her teachings.

    After that i was taught a vague form of telepathy based on emotions, which allows you to kind of emit an emotion. This can be used for communication, like telling someone what you are feeling, and also for acting, like emitting fear when you''re not really afraid or confidence to help sell out a bluff.

    All of these techniques are very instinctual the moment you charge up on mental power and are also borderline impossible to notice by anyone that isn''t a practitioner of mind magic and paying close attention. This includes emitting emotions, the target will feel as if he just naturally noticed.

    Next up comes the more forceful stuff, if you charge up too much, you''ll feel a headache and at this point you can cause greater effects on your targets. This includes more powerful manipulations, more detailed telepathy (only works with other mind mages) and other stuff i haven''t learned yet. When using this much mental power, it becomes much easier for people to notice and even untrained people can notice something''s up as long as they are perceptive, even if they don''t quite understand what.

    "Today i''ll teach you the more disturbing part of mind magic." Says the king. Was the manipulation stuff not disturbing enough? "Our practice targets are some of the worst men one can find in this country, kept alive specifically for this, so there''s no need to worry." That only makes me worry in a different way.

    We enter a small room in the dungeon with a man tied to a chair and his head inside a bag. I bet his mouth is gagged and ears are covered inside that bag too.

    "This is the most basic mental attack." Says the king before he pretty much just mentally punches the guy. "It''s very good for stunning and interrupting, but doesn''t leave lasting consequences, so it''s good to capture enemies too. Try it."

    Damn, this brutal stuff still makes me queasy. Good thing my emotions weaken when i charge up.

    I successfully perform the punch. The feeling of having my mind come in contact with someone else''s gives me goosebumps. "Well done. Next, this is what we call mind-cracking."

    He puts his palm on the man''s head and wields his mind to grab onto the man''s. ''How can a mind grab another?'' you ask? I don''t know, man. I''m just telling you how i see it.

    And then he punches a whole on the man''s mind. Holy shit. I can hear the man''s muffled grunts of pain. "This allows a more direct access to a target''s mind, try to sense the insides of the hole." I do as he says and i get more detailed readings than just emotions. I can almost feel him shouting stuff like ''Fuck the queen''s dogs, what the hell are they doing to me?! When i get out of here i''ll skullfu-'' okay, that''s enough of that.

    "Don''t shy away yet, this is the more useful part. Come back and try to feel my mind inside his." I do as he says. "I''ll send a thought inside him, try not to get distracted." I charge up and concentrate.

    I can feel the thought he sent. It''s something between ''Drink'' and ''Alcohol'', the thought echoes in there. The prisoner''s mind pretty much halts when he receives this, and then he starts to think and remember about various things related to the king''s thought.

    Things like wondering whether he''ll ever drink again and remembering about his favorite and most hated drinks. And we pick up on all of it. I can almost feel visual information, as if i''m trying to remember something, pretty freaky.

    "This can mess up with the target''s memory, so don''t use it on anyone you wouldn''t torture and kill." Mess up how? "A mind mage can open up his mind to allow for infiltration without lasting consequences, but it would be idiotic to teach someone just to check if they''re guilty or not. Try to break into his mind yourself."

    Oh boy, this is a grim day, isn''t it?

    ~~

    Turns out there are no runes for mind magic, you only use it on its raw form. I find that hard to believe, most likely we just don''t know the right runes to use.

    But thanks to that, i only need to do some mind equivalent of sparring to get my mind defenses in shape before i''m done with it.

    During that i received a letter that said mom is pregnant again, so i''m getting a little brother or sister soon.

    I write a letter back before i set out.

    ~~

    Hey mom, dad and Athena. Lance here.

    I''ll be setting out soon for the assignment.

    I managed to make a few friends while wearing my disguise. It was fun while it lasted.

    Someone called Eleanor taught me stealth and combat. She looks scary but is really nice. I even hunted a few monsters and infiltrated a few places as practice. Stealth is really cool and i recommend you guys to learn it as well. It''s good for practicing mana control as well.

    I helped decorate the throne room too, i''m sending a couple pictures with this letter so you guys can see my work. The crown princess is a real slave driver, but don''t tell her i said that.

    Mind magic isn''t all that it''s cracked up to be. I was told i''m not allowed to tell you much about it, but it''s okay to say that its range is really short and the more forceful usages aren''t easy to hide. Honestly, i think i like stealth better than mind magic, but it should be useful.If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.

    Together with this letter i''m sending a few accessories i enchanted to protect against mind magic and a gift for Athena''s fifteenth birthday.

    Please don''t give my future sibling a silly name like Archimedes. And put him in a room with enchanted stuff to see if he learns how to sense magic early like i did.

    Wish me luck!

    -Lance Chevalier.

    ~~

    By the way, Athena''s gift is a set of two sabers, one long and one short. I made them with the best alloy i could come up with (for this use) and enchanted them to the best of my abilities. They should cut through enchanted armor and strengthened muscle relatively easily.

    Oh well, time to leave. From tomorrow onwards Lance will disappear for a while and in a couple weeks Leonardo will be escorted to the orphanage that has been targeted the most often. Here''s hoping for no evil gods being awoken from their slumber or anything silly like that.

    ~Time skip~

    *knock knock* "Miss Marie, open up!" The guard calls out at the door to the orphanage.

    Right now i''m Leo, i''m wearing cheap clothes and i also made my camouflage cloak look cheap.

    "I''m going! i''m going!" Comes a voice from behind the door, before it opens. "What is it- Oh?" She looks at me. "Is he staying?" The guard nods. "Hello, little friend. My name is Marie and i''ll be taking care of you from now on. What''s your name?" She smiles, but i also sense some worry from her.

    Miss Marie is in her thirties, her looks are normal but her warm attitude is charming. She has brown hair in a braid and wears an apron over her dress without showing much skin. From what i''ve been told earlier, she started an orphanage after her husband died, she has no children of her own.

    "My name is Leo." I answer shortly. I''m supposed to act like i feel out of place.

    "Is that your full name or just a nickname?" She asks.

    But the guard interrupts. "The boy is called Leonardo, he''s from some town up north. Here''s this month''s donation from the crown, it already takes the boy in consideration. Good afternoon." The somewhat rude guard leaves.

    "Well, Leo, come in." I do as she says all the while looking around the place. The place is somewhat big for a commoner''s home, but the furniture is humble. "Are you hungry?" Actually, yes i am. So i nod. She brings me to the kitchen/dinning room and sits me down on a big table while she goes to work. After a short time she gives me wheat porridge and a piece of toasted bread. Bland but filling.

    "The other kids are outside right now, but they''ll come back soon. How about washing up?" I accept again. She tries to clean me herself but i stop her.

    "I can clean myself." I''d rather not go back to the baby days of being unable to take care of myself. Besides, i''m embarrassed.

    "Oh? That won''t do. What if you forget a spot? Just leave it to aunt Marie." What? No! I move to run away. "No, no, no, Leo. You have to be obedient or else you don''t get dinner." Why would you do that? Are you a pervert?

    "Why?!" I ask, betrayed.

    She sighs. "I need to see if you have any diseases or wounds, Leo. Sometimes children keep it hidden. So stay put." Oh, the humiliation. "So, the guard says you''re from the north, where from?" I''ll take any distraction at this moment.

    "Turin." It''s the place i know the best.

    "That''s pretty far away, why did you come so far south?"

    "A man from the navy said i might have family here, but they wouldn''t have me..." I emit some sadness to better sell my disguise. Now that i think about it, isn''t what i''m doing pretty heartless?

    "Well, their loss. You''re a perfectly healthy young boy." She says as she finishes torturing me. "Here are your new clothes, i''ll wash your old ones later." Oh wait.

    "Wait! My cloak! It''s still clean!"

    She looks at me, then at the cloak, then she searches the cloak for stains and smells it. "Well, i suppose it''s fine." She gives it back to me.

    Thank goodness.

    After i''m dressed we hear a "Auntie! We''re home!" from the front door.

    "Well, let''s go meet your new siblings." Says Marie.

    When we go downstairs, i see three boys and three girls. "Kids, meet Leo, he''s your new sibling."

    The six of seem surprised for a moment before they say "Hello, Leo." Some later than others.

    "Hello." I say as my eyes are going from one to another while i try to keep their appearances to memory.

    One of the boys starts speaking. "I''m Dave, i''m 10 years old!" He has short black hair and eyes. He then elbows a younger boy to the side. "Now you!"

    "H-hello, i''m Archie, i''m 8 years old." He has medium length (for a boy) blond hair and green eyes. Now they both look at the third boy who just looks back at them.

    "Carl! Tell him your name and age!" Dave says.

    "Oh, ok. I''m Carl and i''m 9." He has messy brown hair and eyes. After speaking he just stands there with a relaxed expression while the other two look at the girls.

    The girls share a look before the oldest one steps forward. "H-hey Leo, my name is Olivia and i''m 11. Don''t worry, i''m sure you''ll fit right in with the rest of us." She has long brown hair and green eyes.

    "My name is Emma and i''m 9 years old!" says the next one. She has short black hair and brown eyes.

    "Mia, 7." Says the youngest one, shortly. She has Long blond hair and blue eyes.

    "What about you? How old are you?" Asks Dave.

    "I''m 6." I became six recently.

    "6? You look like 8." Says Emma. Well, it''s just the truth so i just shrug.

    "That means you''re the youngest among us!" States Dave, outstanding deduction abilities, buddy. I nod.

    "Leo isn''t from around here so show him around later. But for now, get yourselves cleaned up while i get started on dinner." Says Marie. "I''ll add some dried fish to the soup today." Do they not have meat often? That''s no good. I''ll have to put my fishing skills to the test then.

    The children go wash themselves in separate places. Marie gestures me to follow her, so i do. She works as i watch. "Can i help?" I ask.

    "Oh? Do you know how to cook?" She asks in return.

    "A little bit." I''m not sure if i can make anything fancy though. I should try making stuff from modern earth when i''m done with this spy(bait) stuff.

    "Okay, then cut those in small pieces for me."

    The rest of the evening was peaceful. Everyone sleeps in the same room, including Marie, and she doesn''t allow anyone to stay up late.

    The next morning, everyone starts doing chores after a bland breakfast of bread and yesterday''s leftovers. Olivia was the one who taught me what to do, although i already knew most of it aside from the ''what goes where'' kind of thing.

    After the chores are over, we''re allowed to go outside to play.

    "Now, Leo, we''ll show you around town." Says Dave. Not today, buddy.

    "Where is the closest place with plants, rocks and no houses?" I ask.

    They stay silent and then look among each other and then back at me. "Why?" Asks Emma.

    "I want to make something." I answer and look at Archie. "Do you know a place?"

    "Y-yeah, there''s a spot near the river that floods often so barely anyone builds anything there." Oh, i think i saw it on my way here.

    I start running in the river''s direction. "Hey, wait!" "What are you doing?!" I hear some shouts behind me but i just keep running, when i look back they are all following me.

    I arrive at an area near the river that has what i''m looking for and start looking for rocks. I find good enough ones by the time the others arrive. I start hitting one rock on the other.

    "Boy, you sure are fast, Leo." Says Dave between breaths.

    "What are you doing?" Asks Emma also breathing heavily.

    "I''m sharpening a rock." I use a little magic in secret to speed up the process.

    "What for?" Asks Dave.

    "To get some wood."

    "And you''ll use the wood for...?" Asks Archie.

    "A fishing spear!" I answer proudly.

    After that they just watch in silence as i sharpen the rock and use that to cut a thin three down that i turn into a spear with three prongs, i also make some string and a small pointy rock.

    Then i run with those towards the beach and use lure animal secretly to fish until i''m out of time.

    When i''m done i have 10 fish on two strings (i used the pointy rock to pierce the fish and run the string through it.), most of them are slightly smaller than a palm. It''s a little heavy so i give one of the strings to Dave. He accepts them with a confused face.

    "It''s late, let''s go home." I say before i start jogging back to the orphanage. They start following me after a moment.

    We arrive as the sky starts to get the colors of twilight. "Kids? Is that you?" Asks Marie before she comes to the entrance of the house. "What...?" She seems a little stunned. Well, we are pretty sweaty.

    "I got some fish. I''ll leave them in the kitchen while i wash up." I say and i do just that.

    ~PoV switch~

    After ''Leo'' leaves the room, Marie speaks. "What happened today?"

    Dave and Emma are the ones that explain.

    "Good, i was worried he stole something." Says Marie with a sigh. "Well, it looks like we''re having soup with plenty of fish today. Go wash up."

    ~Back to Mc~

    When done washing up i prepare the fish for cooking. Most of them are going in the soup and some will be roasted.

    Today''s dinner was much more filling.

 C13 Orphan Life and Forgetting Priorities

    The next day went similar to the previous one, except Marie told me to not leave the other kids behind and to not ignore them... Someone snitched on me.

    Because of that, i didn''t run. Well, i already have the fishing spear, so that saves a lot of time. I also have a kitchen knife and a relatively big wooden bucket Marie allowed me to borrow.

    ��Hey, Leo.�� Calls Emma. ��How come you know how to make this stuff and use it?�� Emma is somewhat tomboyish and is the only girl with short hair among the three.

    ��I saw a fisherman doing it and imitated him.�� I answer. ��There��s lots of things you can make with just plants, rocks and dirt.�� Nobody''s born knowing how to smelt ores after all�� It doesn��t count when it��s otherworldly knowledge, you know?

    ��Don��t you want us to show you around town?�� Asks Dave. He��s kind of a leader for the group since he��s the oldest aside from Olivia, who goes along with the flow most of the time.

    ��I do, but not now. I want us to be able to have meat in every meal, and for that, not only do i need to catch a lot of fish, i also need to smoke them to keep them preserved.�� Smoking isn��t very complicated, but needs time, so i have to take what i need back to the orphanage and do it there.

    ��Can you teach us?�� Asks Archie. He seems like a worrywart. The other boy is Carl who seems to be permanently in a daze.

    ��Sure.�� Don��t want to do everything myself after all.

    That day also i caught a bunch of fish, but this time i removed their innards right away.

    I also grabbed the necessary wood and leaves so that i can start smoking the fish tomorrow. I couldn��t carry everything all by myself of course, so i had the other kids help, with all seven of us together we could carry a lot of stuff.

    Marie is surprised again by the amount of stuff we are carrying, but not that much since i told her what i wanted to do when i borrowed the bucket that is filled with sea water. The fish we aren��t going to be used today are left in sea water to suck in the salt for tomorrow.

    Then next day before we leave, i teach the other kids how to start smoking things. The basics of it is to cook the meat using smoke instead of fire, so you need to keep the fish away from the fire with a grill like structure made with sticks and strings, burn something that produces a lot of smoke like leaves and wood chips, and cover everything up in leaves so that most of the smoke stays inside.

    Aunt Marie is taking care of the fire while we go out to get more wood. There��s firewood back in the orphanage but it��s better not to waste it.

    When we get back I teach them how to make strings, since with those you can make a lot of the more primitive stuff. Including the fun to use sling and the fishing spear.

    We played with slings while taking care of the fire for the rest of the day. The smoked fish ended up well.

    The next day we fished as a group and I taught them that the fish is closer than it seems. They seemed to notice i can do it abnormally fast, but it��s nothing that can��t be explained with skill.

    We smoked the fish again the next day, and we finally have surplus so that i don��t need to fish every day.

    So on the next couple of afternoons we went out to play like normal kids.

    The other kids showed me places to play, places with interesting things and places where they go and do chores to get some pocket money, like sweeping the floor or waxing one thing or another.

    The town we are in is on the coast of a big island near the Sylvian peninsula, so there is always one ship or another passing by. It is one of the few places where children are disappearing and I��m pretty sure there are some spies other than me spread around here.

    While we walk around town I keep my senses enhanced and stealthily cast detection spells to see if i detect any signs of the kidnappers or even monsters, but as expected, i get nothing. While we don��t know much about the culprits, we know they work slowly and carefully.

    I hope I don��t have to stay here for too long, I want to try making airplanes��

    ~~

    The days passed with us switching between getting fish and going out to play, and soon i had already spent half a year here.

    ��So rock beats scissors, scissors beats paper and paper beats rock? That last one doesn��t make any sense.�� Says Emma with her brows furrowed.

    ��I see.�� Says Archie. ��Rock must be a metaphor for might and paper must be a metaphor for knowledge. And knowledge is superior to might, therefore-�� Sometimes Archie thinks too much.

    ��Scissors?�� Asks the taciturn Mia, interrupting him.

    ��... Agression?�� Answers Archie, now unsure.

    ��Wouldn��t paper beat rock just because it��s the only one left?�� Suggests Carl, who i found out isn��t always in a daze but always relaxed.

    ��No way, Carl. That��s dumb.�� Answers Archie.

    ��Hey! Don��t call Carl that! He��s just a little slow!�� Complains Dave.

    ��C-calm down, guys, it��s just a game, let��s hear Leo to the end.�� Mediates Olivia. Everyone turns back to me.

    Oh right, i was teaching them rock-paper-scissors. *Ahem* ��Well, the game is normally used to decide something between two people in a fair way, but we can also add something to it to make it a fun game by itself.��

    ��Like what?�� Asks Dave.

    ��Like making the loser do something funny, like imitating an animal or a person, or make a funny face until he wins a match, punishments like that.�� I say.

    When she heard ��punishments��, Mia��s eyes seemed to shine for a moment�� Why did i just get a shiver?

    And with that we started playing.

    Dave never accepts his losses.

    Archie keeps delaying the match to try and rationalize what his opponent��s next move is.

    Carl doesn��t do the punishments properly.

    Olivia never accepts her victories.

    Emma is actually very normal.

    And Mia�� How come someone so cruel always wins? I payed attention, but she isn��t using mana at all, and when i tried to read her surface emotions all i got was schadenfreude...You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

    ~~

    Finally some danger popped up! The detection spells i had set up to last for the entire night picked up on an intruder. Airplanes here i come.

    Multiple intruders arrived in our shared bedroom. I didn��t expect eight kidnappers at once, but maybe it��s related to how they never leave any clues?

    I pretended to sleep while paying attention to the intruders, I kept a disruption bolt ready just in case. But i needn��t worry, the target fell straight into my trap and tried to make me breathe something, probably a chemical similar to chloroform to knock me out.

    Of course, as a designated bait i was prepared for that, I only pretended to struggle for a second before pretending to go unconscious. All the while, using magic to protect me from being affected by whatever that was.

    Uh-oh. The other intruders are moving onto the other kids, this doesn��t match my target��s modus operandi, but they are doing the same they did to me onto the others, so there��s no immediate danger as long as Marie doesn��t wake up.

    I let out an internal sigh of relief as we leave without waking up Marie. I feel a little bad for not interfering before we are being kidnapped, but this is what i came here for.

    If the others were being killed, i wouldn��t mind failing the mission, but in this situation i��d rather not.

    These kidnappers are clearly trained in stealth, but they aren''t doing anything that would make them untrackable like the kidnapper i��m after. So is it a different group of criminals? Isn��t that too much of a coincidence?

    We move away from the orphanage for a short distance and get into a few carriages. Okay, once again, not the target��s modus operandi, carriages draw too much attention in the middle of the night.

    During the ride i don��t hear anything useful, only some ��Well, that part is over.�� ��Yeah.�� kind of thing.

    The carriages drive to the coast and load us inside a cage on a ship together with other kids. What a mess, there is no way they haven��t been noticed.

    After a couple more kids are dropped off the ship sets sail, altogether, there are 15 kids here including me. I keep trying to gather information and i catch a somewhat useful conversation going on.

    ��Who could have known? The old man was right, no one on our tail.�� Says man A.

    ��I still don��t like this job, what does he need so many kids for anyway? I say we get out of this country before things come crashing down, i could bet my left hand that they��re going to start a manhunt to find us.��

    ��Tone down that paranoia of yours, by the time they start hunting we��ll be enjoying drinks-��

    And so on.

    I��m so glad i slept with my camouflage cloak despite the weird looks i was getting.

    Okay, i have a few theories for what��s going on, but i can save the theorizing for later, let��s set some priorities straight.

    <ol>

    <li style="font-weight: 400">Survival. If i die, there is nothing i can do, everything goes to waste.</li>

    <li style="font-weight: 400">The other kids survival and escape. Simply because i don��t want to live with that guilt on me. It��s not rare for mages to reach 150, you know? That��s a long time to have guilt trips.</li>

    <li style="font-weight: 400">Capture and interrogate ��the old man��. If that��s impossible, killing him should help too.</li>

    <li style="font-weight: 400">Capture or kill these hired kidnappers. I doubt they know much, but if i can��t interrogate the old man, these guys will do too.</li>

    </ol>

    That seems good enough. Even if the old man might be more important than the kids when thinking on a grand scale, I don��t really mind.

    I keep using a large variety of detection spells to see if i can find out where we are headed. All nice and stealthy of course.

    From what i see, we seem to be heading away from the coast towards the south, and together with two more distant ships, we are heading towards two anchored ships in the middle of the sea, one large and one small.

    Now, the decision i need to make is: Do i stay pretending to be asleep or do i try to escape in order to move more freely?

    These hired hands aren��t paying attention to us�� To hell with it, I don��t know what awaits us, so i need the freedom if i want to deal with the unexpected. I doubt they even counted how many kids they have here.

    I activate my camouflage and slowly unlock the cage with magic and slip away from it before locking it again.

    Now, from how these guys were acting, they are probably going to dump the kids on the ones who hired them and scamper away. I put down some tracking sigils like the one responsible for my disguise, i spread them amongst the men and the ship.

    Now i wait.

    ~~

    We are anchoring near the awaiting ships, smaller boats are moving the kids over, they are all still unconscious. I hold onto the outside of the boat to move with them.

    Like I suspected, no one seemed to notice i��m missing, if they had I would need to use mind magic to stun them before sneaking back in. That��s one less hassle.

    By now i doubt the inquisition��s higher ups aren��t tracking me down using my disguise sigil, so two out of my four objectives should be accomplished in a matter of time.

    Arriving on the bigger ship, i climb up it��s side and scout out the situation. Instantly i spot three old hooded people ordering the hired hands around. Two old women and a single old man.

    Well, fuck. The man and one of the women have somewhat sharp teeth. I can��t see their eyes because of the hoods, but I guess those suspicions of corruption aren��t just suspicions anymore.

    They seem to just be putting the kids in cages again, so no immediate threat.

    While they are doing their thing i look around the rest of the big ship, nothing special, no more kids aside from the ones arriving right now, not even a crew. So i switch to the small one. The two are connected by a really long plank.

    Oh boy, where to start on the small one? It��s like someone put a sign up that says ��demonic ritual site, please make some sacrifices here�� on the entrance to the cargo hold (the place inside the ship where you store stuff). There��s blood drawings everywhere, even the ceiling. They even have a goat��s head on an altar!

    I use a detection spell to check on the outside, still moving kids between ships, who told you to grab so many kids? Greedy bastards.

    If that��s the case, let��s scour this place for some info on forbidden magic. I don��t recognize any of these symbols they used, maybe it will help sabotage them later.

    Conveniently those old cultists left an old book nearby with plenty of details on the ritual. As one would expect from old cultists, it��s a youth stealing ritual, but the methods are completely different from any kind of magic i know.

    Yeah, I can��t learn much in such a short time, but i did find a few symbols that seem to determine the direction of the flow of ��lifeforce��(whatever that is). So i switch the direction so that the sacrifice steals the youth from the sacrificer, this way one of the cultists might accidentally commit suicide.

    But now that i think about it, should i really risk it? Even putting a kid on the sacrifice part of the-

    *CRASH*

    Some loud noises from outside. I keep my calm and slowly use a detection spell. The old cultists are killing the hired hands. Yeah, I should have expected those greedy bastards to do that.

    But this is a perfect opportunity!

    Quickly I grab all the books and diaries on the ship and put them on a bag, slowly i move back to the big ship, while leaving a couple tracking sigils on my way, and put the bag on a out of the way room.

    When the old cultists think they have won will be my moment to strike. They can��t kill so many men without wasting a lot of mana.

    The big ship and its surroundings are a scene straight out of a action movie, i��m watching while holding onto the outside of the ship. The hired hands are using strengthening magic to jump between the ships, the boats and the old cultists�� ship while the cultists shoot them down one by one with spells, one of the ships is already sinking. I wonder why the hired hands don��t just run away?

    Oops, one of the cultists was hit by an enchanted arrow. I bet it��s poisonous too, if she doesn��t treat that quickly, she��ll die. For now, she��s out of combat.

    Talk about biting more than one can chew. The other cultists are still doing well, but from time to time they get small wounds from someone throwing their weapon before they die.

    The cultists still win in the end though.

    When they turn to heal the poisoned one i strike at their backs with two overcharged disruption bolts. No, i��m not trying to capture them alive, i need to mess up their mana if i want to kill them properly and if i use fire burst i��ll get low on mana.

    At this close a distance, of course both bolts hit. I cast two heavy water spears while they are stunned. Water may not seem to have much offensive might, but with enough pressure it can fuck shit up.

    As i launch the two spears the wounded one tries to send a fire bomb at me, so i instinctively turn one of the spears to hit the fire bomb.

    ��Well shit, that was a lot of mana on that fire bomb.�� is my last thought as i fell unconscious due to the bone-cracking shockwave.

 C14 Changes and Decked Out

    Ah, fuck, everything hurts. I never knew my everything could hurt like this.

    I start healing myself as I open my eyes and look around. My vision is a little blurry, but I can see I��m inside half of a broken ship that was washed ashore. Did that firebomb break the whole ship? Then why am I inside instead of on top of it?

    Damn, I should have made a barrier, dad was right when he said ��you can never cast fast enough��.

    Why do I feel something��s off?... Hmm�� Was it always this easy to heal myself? Well, I didn��t hurt myself often, so I��m not sure. Oh right, my clothes are a little too tight�� Why are there red lines on my skin? Are those claws on my fingers?

    Okay, calm down. One worry at a time. First off, being inside of a ship�� This ship is the smaller one with the ritual stuff... OOOH! Okay, I can guess what happened.

    One of the cultists must have survived the explosion and tried using me as a sacrifice in a hurry and died, good thing i messed with the ritual, huh? Back up plans are simply divine.

    There are a few things that doesn��t explain, like why wouldn��t they just heal themselves or use me specifically instead of another kid, but it��s the best explanation I have since it explains why I��m suddenly slightly bigger and with red lines all over my body like an anime character that just activated his special ability.

    Boy, that sure was a close one, huh? Let��s find out my situation.

    I cast a few detection spells without leaving the wreckage, stealthily of course. No humans around�� Well, I��m royally fucked, the amount of monsters nearby indicates that this is monster territory.

    My disguise sigil that also had a tracker function is gone, so i��m on my own on this mess.

    I already don��t feel any pain, so let��s check out what my surroundings look like. Oh? When i stopped healing, the red lines disappeared. Well, they didn��t quite disappear, they just became a pale skin color, like a very thin scar. At least like this it won��t be too attention grabbing.

    Dang, suddenly becoming bigger messes with my sense of balance, at least i didn��t grow too much, my clothes still fit, even if they are a little on the tight side. Good thing we wore slightly loose clothes on the orphanage.

    Looking around outside the wreckage, i seem to have been washed ashore on a bay somewhere. The spell to find north points towards inland, so i��m in a place with a bay on the south coast�� Well, i��m not on the Sylvian Peninsula, that��s for sure.

    I��m either on an island or�� I detect the tracking sigils i left on the ships. They are too far so i don��t know the distance, but they are on my southeast��

    Fuck, I��m on that huge monster territory northwest of Sylvian, aren��t I? How long have i been drifting for? It must have been for multiple weeks�� How haven��t i starved to death?...

    �� Oh well, at least now I have a reason to make an airplane�� Right when i think that I see a flying monster in the distance that can only be described as a bat that tried to become a hawk and supersized his body to be as big as a cow.

    Ok, no airplanes, for now.

    I need to decide whether i go back by sea or land.

    Making some kind of boat and going by sea would be faster, but anything with half-decent eyes would be able to spot me on open sea, so i would need to come up with a reliable way to hide and move at the same time.

    Going by land would be slower, but hiding would be easier and i would be able to eat things other than fish.

    I feel like going by land, but I can change my mind later if there��s a need to, for now, I need to see what supplies i can get on this wreckage and build a hideout.

    ~~

    When I say build a hideout, I meant dig. I dug a diagonal tunnel and turned the end of it in a room and then dug another tunnel out the back of it, just in case. I used wood from the wreck to build a few supports and stored some in case i need them later as well.

    I then hid the entrances with plants and spread a few enchantments to hide smells, sounds and mana coming from the inside.

    I then bring the supplies from the ship to the hideout and make sure to hide my tracks and smells. What i found on the ship was food, water, a few tools, cloth (clothes and blankets, not an entire sail) and ropes, aside from the wood from earlier.

    With that done, I scout the surroundings with detection spells once again. Still safe, I sigh with relief.

    So I start eating. What i found was mainly a variety of preserved meats and fruits, no wheat though.

    After eating enough for two adults I have to check the thing I was putting off for a while now.

    What��s going on with my body?

    I take a deep breath and create a mirror with an illusion.

    The lines become really noticeable around my eyes, my hair took a hint of maroon on its color, but it��s just a little bit, barely noticeable. What��s really messed up are my eyes. At first, when I was digging the tunnel, I forgot to make a source of light, I only realized when I got out later that I didn��t need one anymore.

    My pupil that used to be a single vertical slit now is a three-pointed star, two points above, one below�� At least I didn��t grow a tail or something�� Yep, just double-checked, no tail.

    Am I part of a new magic bloodline? Do I have any new characteristics aside from lines and night vision? I doubt my hair color matters��You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

    I cast several diagnostic spells. My internal stuff hasn��t changed much aside from my eye, although everything seems a little bit stronger, especially the boney parts, including my teeth and nails, or should i say fangs and claws?

    Anyway, I��m perfectly healthy for someone who stayed unconscious and without food for an unknown number of days.

    The lines go red whenever I move mana around too much, but after a while i got the hang of moving mana without making the lines go red.

    For now, let��s make a disguise sigil to make me look like a normal Chevalier, just in case I run into someone�� Let��s make another one to make me look like Leo again, just in case I run into someone who��s not a fan of Chevaliers.

    It��s already night by the time I��m done with everything, so I check the stars to confirm I��m on the western monster territory.

    Confirmed. I sigh, such a pain.

    Well, I��m full and hidden, and I��m not going anywhere today. So back to sleep I go. Let��s hope I don��t change again next time I wake up.

    ~~

    It��s been three days since then, my appetite is proving to be a source of trouble, so I decided to stockpile on food before making some armor and weapons, and start heading back home only after that. When I say weapon, I don��t mean swords and stuff, but of the magic shooting kind.

    It��s not like I can��t use physical weapons at all (you don��t need much training to be able to hurt someone with a spear), it just isn��t very efficient while I��m so young and light. I��m still going to make a knife though.

    I already started gathering food and I��ve already gathered a bunch of edible leaves, nuts, berries and roots. Now I just need meat. I��ve gotten a little bit from birds, but that won��t last long at all.

    So, after spreading out a few simple traps to catch smaller prey, I��m hunting down a bipedal rabbit almost my size that moves by leaping from the side of one tree to another.

    I send a force bullet It��s way while it��s in midair, but the prick twists itself and avoids a fatal wound. It tries to leap again but I pull it with a wave of telekinesis and then shoot a force bullet again, this time it��s a fatal hit.

    But all that moving spread around a lot of rabbit blood, so i grab the rabbit and hide in a bush nearby while covering my tracks and smell. In the bush I look around with my enhanced senses and see nothing, so I use detection spells.

    As I expected, there��s something big making its way here, so I dig a small hole to hide in with my prey. After a little while I can hear the stomping sounds approach while hiding less than a foot under the ground with a small hole open for breathing and being able to see what��s coming. I still have my camouflage cloak, but it��s better to hide just in case they have heat vision.

    When it arrives, I take peek and what I see looks like a bear sized four legged crustacean�� That��s a lot of meat... Might as well hunt that too.

    I use telekinesis to mess with some leaves on the other side of it before sneaking closer to it.

    The exoskeleton of monsters is often really tough, so if you don��t want to waste mana breaking through it, you need to either crush it or target the joints, since they are often less defended.

    When I��m close enough to its left to have a clear shot, I send two force bullets towards the back of its ��knees�� on the two right legs before leaping back. As expected, the joints were torn apart by my spells and it��s fallen to the side.

    It turns its head to me and tries to hit me with a acid spit, but it couldn��t aim properly since it just lost two legs and couldn��t turn its torso properly. I just had to use telekinesis to deflect a couple drops of acid.

    I��m about to hit its neck with a force hammer when i notice a lot of mana going to its torn legs. I��m curious so I hide behind a tree and cast a detection spell to make sure nothing else is approaching. All clear.

    I then pay attention to its torn legs to understand what it��s trying to do, like I suspected, it��s trying to heal back limbs it had lost. This is a golden opportunity to learn how monsters do that kind of thing, so I keep watching while making sure nothing is approaching and using diagnosis spells to better understand what it��s doing.

    Sadly I can��t stay idle for long, so after one minute or so, I finish it off and take most of its meat, grab the rabbit and go back to my hideout. Grabbing its shell to make armor? Maybe if I couldn��t make proper steel. Don��t underestimate steel just because it��s mundane, it��s easily superior to this guy��s shell.

    But I realized something important today, this little trip of mine is also an opportunity to study magical wildlife. In this kind of environment, natural selection is cranked up to 11 thanks to the influence of magic, so only those with the best physique, mind, instincts and magic can survive and prosper.

    What kind of things can I learn from centuries of magical evolution?

    At least now I have something to do aside from survival.

    ~~

    It��s been two weeks since then, and I��m finally done with my armor.

    First off is a relatively thin gambeson shirt (cloth armor) and thick pants, on those I attached the rest of the armor.

    On top of that I have a steel cuirass with enough space on the joints to not get in the way and with some metal covering the throat. Steel plates on the shoulders, elbows, knees, back of the gloves and top of the boots.

    Between those joints I have steel splints that should help in protecting me from losing a limb without adding too much weight.

    The helmet only covers the top and back of my head and a little bit of my cheeks and chin, a little similar to the roman helmet, except without unnecessary decorations. It doesn��t cover my eyes, nose or ears, can��t have that.

    I enchanted the whole thing as a set with toughness, temperature regulation, weight and noise reduction, this way even the cloth and leather parts are quite tough.

    Although I left out some weight reduction on the gloves, boots and forearm splints to leave room for other enchantments.

    Mobility aids for boots and gloves, like for climbing and leaping. I can do that without enchantments but like this I don��t have to concentrate too much to do it. Also, footprint hiding for the boots.

    The forearm splints I enchanted to be more like five little wands attached to each of my arms. To avoid confusion I had the left ones have more defensive/support spells and the right ones more offensive ones.

    On the offensive side I have: Force bullet as a basic attack, force spear for those with more defense, force cut for when piercing and smashing doesn��t work very well, disruption bolt to stun those that rely on magic and fire bomb to clear up large groups.

    The point of having these enchantments is to deal with sudden situations, so I don��t have to waste time making the runes for the spells. So I picked the more simple and versatile spells.

    For the defensive side I picked: Barrier for blocking stuff, force push in case things get close to me or I��m targeted by multiple small projectiles or toxic gas, stun bomb to stun things (i mean, what else did you expect?), detect life and detect movement for when i don��t have time to cast better detection spells.

    With that done, I made a dagger. The shape is somewhere between the modern combat knife and the bowie knife (combat knife is pretty much a thin bowie knife anyways). The enchantments are only for toughness and to assist with cutting and piercing with telekinesis, simplicity is power.

    Then I re-made my camouflage cloak with cloth, leather and a few pieces of steel, and re-enchanted the whole thing to also hide smells, sounds, heat and mana.

    Finally I made a bedroll and a relatively small backpack. Thanks to magic, I don��t need to carry much aside from food, water, spare cloth, string and a bed.

    Most of the two weeks was spent getting the materials and making the enchantments dense and stable enough. If this was a game, I��m pretty sure I would have levelled up my enchanting skill multiple times.

    All decked out like this, I feel pretty badass. Mom would be proud.

    Finally, It��s time to set out.

 C15 Wolf and Monsters

    What a beautiful moonlit night. Good evening everyone, this is Lance Chevalier speaking and I may or may not be taking too many detours to check out interesting monsters.

    Right now? Right now I��m following a troll to a cave. Funny thing about trolls, aside from stinking a lot, they also have an outstanding regenerating ability.

    �� The cave is clear aside from the troll, let��s set up a few enchantments to avoid being interrupted.

    Now, you may think that what I��m doing is cruel, but honestly, after killing a bunch of stuff for food for the last five days, I��ve grown mostly desensitized to hurting non-humans. I actually started enjoying the feeling of stalking and ambushing prey. Although what I��m about to do still makes me a little queasy, I��m still think it should be worth it.

    I send three heavy force cuts to his two arms and his left leg.

    Now, I hide again, and start observing. During these last few days I came up with a couple spells to help analyze a third party��s magic, It��s similar to diagnosis but with more focus on the target��s mana.

    I��ll spare you the details, but after ten minutes, the troll��s limbs are halfway regenerated, so I cut them off again and send a force smash to its head, to knock it out. Now I try to heal his limbs myself. Kinda weird to heal limbs I cut off myself, but who am I to judge myself?... I��m pretty sure ��who am I to judge�� isn��t supposed to be used like that...

    The feeling of regrowing a limb reminds me of growing plants with magic. Well, that��s as much as I��m gonna learn without human trials. I destroy the troll��s brain and start casting a few detection spells to see if there��s anything interesting in this cave.

    Oh? That��s a pretty big crystal, let��s start mining then.

    Crystals are great with enchantments, a big one should allow me to make interesting things.

    With that done I decide I might as well sleep in this cave for today, but I need to clear the troll remains first, fire magic is good at cleaning things.

    ~~

    Okay, I admit I might be wasting too much time chasing monsters around, but it��s their fault for looking so interesting!

    Right now I��m climbing a small mountain to try and catch one of those gigantic bats I saw on my first day here.

    I almost killed it earlier, but it had something like a magical echolocation so it managed to detect me and run away.

    So I did what any young gentleman would do and made an enchanted net so that I could capture it, wound his eyes and study his echolocation.

    This should be close enough, I cast detection spells to find it.

    Uh-oh, there��s just too many of them in that cave. Let��s just leave echolocation for next time then�� Huh? What��s that?

    There��s a big dark-gray wolf sneaking behind some bigger rocks. It��s pretty good at stealth, I almost didn��t detect him. But that��s not important right now.

    If that dumbass spooks the bats, I��m screwed too!

    I need to kill it silently so that I��m not notice- And the wolf just lunged at a bat that was flying out of the cave.

    Yeah, no, I��m running away.

    Three seconds after I start running away, a flood of bats start flying out of the cave. It was at this moment the wolf knew, he fucked up.

    Although I say bats, one needs to remember that some of them get to the size of cows and have claws large enough to kill horses. I��m already halfway to the woods, so I take a glimpse behind me.

    Would you look at that? That wolf runs really fast. Unfortunately, the fucker is leading the bats straight to me. Oh no, you don��t. I��m not dealing with your shit for you.

    I take a few shots at the wolf��s legs but the cheeky bastard dodges, that��s ok though, that was only a distraction.

    When the cheeky bastard is about to pass by my side I jump at his back and grab onto his fur, he tries to bite me for a moment but realizes that if he stops to do that, he��s fucked. I��m too small compared to him for him to get rid of me easily.

    With that solved I turned back to the ba- Holy crap, TOO CLOSE! Force push! Force push, Force push!

    That bought me some space.

    Fire bomb! *Boom*

    And that took care of a few of them. It didn��t kill many, but wounded around ten of them enough for them to not fly anymore. Ten down, a couple hundred to go.

    Don��t look behind you, stupid dog! Keep running!

    I can��t waste mana on a horde of bats, there is no way I can kill all the bats before I run out.

    I look around as the wolf runs, maybe there��s somewhere I can hide or something.

    Nope, but I can see a tree with dry leaves.

    I charge up in mental power and express my desire for something in that direction.

    The wolf ignores me, the cheeky bastard. I bombard him with manipulation for him to want to go there himself. Finally, he follows.

    As we pass by the tree with dry leaves I send a fire bomb at it. The fire spreads and I make sure the tree burns like a torch. This should at least buy us some time as they dodge or maybe even scare them enough so that they don��t chase us anymore.

    As the bats near the burning tree I send two stun bombs towards them, just to demotivate them further.

    It works, the bats fly around a little bit before heading back home.

    The wolf also notices, but when he tries to bite me I��ve already leapt away onto a tree branch.

    I send a stun bomb straight at him, he dodges but it doesn��t matter, the stun bomb sends a bright flash and loud shockwave in all directions, affecting anyone nearby.

    While stunned he tries moving but trips and falls, I throw the net I made for a bat onto him.

    This wolf may be dumb, but he is very good at running and even knows stealth. It should save me a lot of time if I can tame him. I��m not some kind of taming master, but the carrot and stick approach isn��t complicated.The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

    When the wolf recovers from his stunned state, he moves to bite the net, so I hit him with a disruption bolt.

    Then i make a lot of fire and keep it floating above my hand while using mind magic to make him feel fear.

    Incapable of running or retaliating, his choice is only death or submission.

    After a few moments of staring, the wolf lowers his head and makes his body seem smaller.

    I grab some smoked meat from my backpack and throw it at his feet. After he eats it, I slowly remove the net, prepared in case he tries anything funny.

    Since he stays still, I give him more food.

    Now that I look at him calmly, he��s a pretty scary bastard. I��m pretty sure he��s big enough to carry an adult, much bigger than dire wolves.

    I slowly approach him, I would never do this without wearing armor. He still doesn��t move. So I climb his back.

    I use mind magic to emit desire towards a wounded bat that can��t fly. The wolf starts walking towards it.

    There, that ought to save me some time.

    Arriving there I blind the bat and study how its magical echolocation works, but not before giving another piece of meat to the wolf.

    Something of his size should take a lot of food, but should help me travel, hunt and carry stuff, so it should balance things out.

    If things don��t work out or he tries something funny�� Well, I won��t give him a name unless he can behave while living back in the castle. If he needs too much food, I��ll just let him go, but if he attacks me, he��s dead.

    ~~

    The wolf eats as much as four or five adult men would. But since he runs so fast, it��s worth it to keep him around, so i took break from traveling to make a saddle of sorts out of leather from our prey.

    I also made reins so I don��t need to use mind magic to direct him all the time (and I��m not sure how to do it any other way), but I didn��t attach it to his mouth, of course, I set it as a collar, it works well enough.

    By the way, I only need about as much food as a single adult man, I don��t get as hungry as my first day here anymore.

    When we hunt something big, I take a break of travelling to preserve the meat and stuff it in bags on the saddle, but we compensate for the lost time by not having to hunt for food.

    I also stored some monster honey I came across in a wooden jar as a souvenir for back home.

    A monster territory of this size has a great variety of monsters, to the point where many of them are unnamed, like the wolf I��m riding. I think this wolf��s parents were just bigger than normal dire wolves, but this fellow was born with a magic bloodline similar to Eleanor��s giant bloodline.

    I bet he needed too much food to survive and was driven away by the rest of his pack. Pack hunting animals are great at taking down prey bigger than them, but they always need to share the food, so there is a practical limit to how big they can get before they need too much food. Either they have a large number of small hunters, or a small number of large hunters.

    If you are wondering, ��Are humans with a magic bloodline just the human version of monsters?�� the answer is: Kinda, yeah. The big reason we don��t call ourselves monsters too is simply that humans aren��t changed too much by these magic mutations, while most other animals can have some drastic changes.

    Similarly to how humans often develop magic bloodlines related to strength and fire, certain kinds of animals have tendencies of their own. Pretty much everything has tendency for strength, but, flying animals for example, would also have a tendency for telekinesis, gravity and maybe even lightning.

    Most monsters develop a mutation that enhances some aspect of their lifestyle, a snake for example, may simply become bigger and stronger, or maybe become able to hide better, or to shoot their poison from a distance. One rarely finds a snake spitting fire, although it��s still possible, there��s even a record of a fish becoming able to wield fire.

    The monsters I��m most interested in are those that are able to use their mana in interesting ways, and they are somewhat of a rarity when compared to the more simple ��snake but able to lunge really fast�� or ��mountain lion but as big as a tank��.

    Right now I came across a goblin tribe fighting a tribe of gnolls and I��m hidden while watching both tribes�� shamans. Since they don��t know runes, they need to use raw magic for everything, and while most of the time they do things in a directly inferior way, sometimes they demonstrate glimpses to interesting ideas.

    If you are wondering about what species of animal goblins and gnolls are part of, the answer is: Probably a new one. Goblins are probably an offshoot from a offshoot from another offshoot of an ancestor to homo sapiens. While Gnolls are probably just a specific style of magic mutation, considering how there��s a kind of gnoll for any animal out there.

    If you are wondering about the humanity of these guys, they don��t have much. Attempts have been made to teach them various things, but they aren��t much different from monkeys aside from their ability to use tools and make tribal societies.

    Oh, and just making clear, goblins do not rape humans. They have females of their own and would much rather eat human women and men. But there is some superstition about this stuff.

    ~~

    I��m not even sure how long it��s been since I woke up on that shipwreck anymore. I stopped looking for interesting monsters and am just rushing towards east. I want to sleep in a comfy bed, eat food made by professionals using fancy spices and talk to someone who isn��t a wolf.

    I finally detect human life nearby so I rush towards them, or rather, tell the wolf to hurry up.

    I think the wolf started to like me, and honestly, I like him too. I��d still be able to kill him if he doesn��t behave, but I wouldn��t be able to do it with cold detachment like before.

    As I get closer I check if those people are bandits, but thankfully they are a team from the army, probably making sure there isn��t too high a concentration of monsters near the country��s borders.

    Knowing that, I stop holding back my excitement, I remove my ��Leo�� disguise but maintain my ��normal Lance�� one. Then I shout. ��HEEEY!!��

    The soldiers grow alert when they see the wolf, of course they do, I��m such an airhead. I stand up on his back and wave my hand. ��Don��t shoot! I��m riding the wolf!�� Yes, I see you, crossbow man, drop that please.

    ��Halt! Who goes there!�� Mr. Knight is going with the classic line, huh? I can appreciate that.

    ��My name is Lance Chevalier! I shipwrecked in monster territory more than a month ago!��

    The knight perks up at the mention of my name. He approaches me himself and says while keeping an eye on the wolf I dismounted. ��Please wait a moment, sir Lance, I sent someone to call for my superior.��

    I haven��t been called sir before, only young master and kid. ��And who��s this superior of yours?��

    ��My name is Victor Chevalier, young Lance.�� Says someone else, he does have the eyes and teeth. ��I��m Isabel��s younger brother, so you can call me uncle.��

    I heard of you, mom says you��re a wimp. I don��t say that out loud, of course. ��Nice to meet you, uncle Victor, mom told me about you.�� When I say that his face cramps, does he know that mom thinks he��s a wimp? ��Do you know how long I have been gone?�� I assume he knows of the situation down south.

    ��Not exactly, but if my memory doesn��t fail me, it should be somewhere around four or five months.�� Damn, I��ll become seven years old, soon�� Damn, I��m one messed up six years old, huh? ��It��s good you��re back, Isabel insisted you��d be fine, but the crown princess reacted poorly to your disappearance.�� Geh, that nerd really should get a hobby, oh wait�� ��What��s with the big wolf?��

    ��Oh, him? I found him, he runs really fast.�� I pat his neck. ��You think mom will let me keep him?��

    ��Probably, she always wanted a pet monster when she was a kid, but mother only allowed us to keep war-horses.�� That sounds like mom.

    ~~

    I would stay in the western castle for a few days, for rest and writing a couple letters.

    I sent a letter back home, another to the queen and another to the orphanage down south.

    While here I met my three cousins, the older two are really serious and treat me like I��m a soldier, so I don��t like them very much, but the youngest one, Michael, who is 9 years old is pretty chill.

    ��I heard you know how to make everything, is it true?�� asks Michael.

    ��No way, it��s impossible to know how to make everything. I only know pottery, glasswork, sewing, leather tanning, blacksmithing, architecture-��

    ��What can��t you make?�� He interrupts, rude.

    ��Uh, I can��t make�� poetry? And, uhh�� I don��t have much experience cooking either...�� I doubt he would accept me saying ��I can��t make some stuff that doesn��t exist�� but I keep thinking of modern things when asked what i can��t make. Oh right! ��I can��t make siege engines either! Mom didn��t let me experiment with them in case I damaged the castle. And while I��ve read about making ships, I could only practice on small rivers.��

    ��Lance, that��s pretty much everything�� Can you make me a sword?��

    ��What kind of sword?�� I don��t really mind.

    ��A double-edged sword that shoots lightnin-�� ��NO!�� ��What?! Why?!��

    ��Because it��s dumb!�� I have to make a stand here or the world might end up filled with stupid swords.

 C16 Home

    I��m on my way back home to the eastern border castle while riding the wolf, uncle Victor and my cousin Michael decided to come with me and visit my family.

    The queen probably wants me to go straight to the capital, but I decided to temporarily neglect my duty to the crown. I really don��t want to travel for so long ever again, I��ll go down to the capital when I make an airplane.

    The wolf is behaving well, although he growls at people from time to time and I��m pretty sure he wants to eat the war-horses.

    Maybe I need to take him for a walk from time to time? ��Hey, uncle.�� I call out. ��I think I should go hunt something with the wolf.��

    ��Hunting, huh?�� He answers. ��That sounds like fun, mind having some company?�� Uncle has the same red hair and violet eyes as mother, although he keeps his hair short and has a little bit of sideburns.

    That might be a good idea, maybe if the wolf experiences hunting together with other people he will consider them ��part of the pack�� or something like that? ��Sounds good, but remember to leave some prey to the wolf.�� That��s the whole point of doing this, after all.

    ��I can come too, right?�� Asks Michael. He has similar violet eyes to his father, but his hair is more on the auburn side.

    ��Hmm, as long as some of the knights stay with you as guards, it should be fine.��

    ~~

    ��Well, that was pointless.�� Says uncle while watching the wolf tearing apart a boar. ��It was over before it started.��

    ��I did tell you he was fast, didn��t I?�� I say. ��Stop that, you��ll ruin the meat!�� I push the wolf��s mouth away from the boar before I start to skin and bleed it.

    ��Aren��t you afraid he��ll bite you?�� Asks uncle.

    ��He knows better.�� I say, before I throw the wolf his share of the meat.

    By then, Michael arrived. ��How did you manage to tame such a strong wolf, Lance?��

    ��Carrot and stick.�� I answer.

    ��You tamed him with carrots and sticks? Do wolves even like carrots?��

    ��No, silly. Carrot as in reward and stick as in punishment. When he does what I want him to do, I give him food and scratches. When he does something I don��t want him to do, I give him a disruption bolt and a stern scolding.�� I explain calmly.

    ��... You think I can tame a monster too?�� Michael asks.

    ��... Maybe when you��re older.�� I answer.

    ~~

    Right now, we��re passing through Turin. Due to the mountains and hills in this northern area of the country, if you want to go anywhere, you have to go through Turin.

    I��m alone with grandma in her office, reporting on what happened that day on the south. Normally I would report to the inquisition, but grandma is fine too since she��s, you know, my grandmother.

    ��So this one shot a fire bomb with all her mana and you used one of the water spears to take the hit?�� She points at one of the pictures I drew while asking. I nod. ��And the shockwave knocked you out?�� I nod again. ��Were you not strengthening yourself properly?��

    ��Of course I was!�� Does she think me an idiot? ��I��m just too small and light, strength wasn��t enough, I needed to use telekinesis to counter the shockwave, but it was just too fast. While strengthening myself and controlling the spears, I didn��t have enough concentration to use telekinesis that fast.��

    ��Hmm�� Well, what happened after that?��

    ��Oh, well�� I woke up on a shipwreck in the western monster territory looking a little�� Different.�� I didn��t feel comfortable showing uncle, since I just met him, but grandma should be fine. ��Let me show you.�� I turn off my disguise. My pupils change, my hair gains a little bit of maroon and thin scar-like lines appear on my slightly tanned skin.

    Now grandma seems surprised. ��Well, that��s�� Something.��

    ��And when I move mana around, this happens.�� I show her the red lines.

    ��Intriguing�� The ship you woke up in was the one with the ritual, yes?�� She seems to be going towards the same conclusion I had. I nod. ��The ritual must have triggered a change in your bloodline�� Do you have any changes to your magic instinct?��

    ��I think my mana quantity, control and sense just increased, together with using magic inside my body becoming easier, like healing and strengthening. So it might just be like the royal bloodline, but slightly more?�� I say while shrugging.

    ��Fire didn��t become easier?�� She asks.

    ��Not any easier than anything else, thanks to mana sense and control, everything became a little easier. I even had a breakthrough in enchantment.�� I detach my knife from my belt and hand it to her.

    She removes the knife from its scabbard, looks at it a little, runs a little bit of mana through it and stabs her wood table with it, shouldn��t have done that. The knife goes straight through the table and only stops when it reaches the guard. You just ruined a perfectly good table.

    ��... Is this made of those ��alloy�� things you spoke about?��

    ��No, just steel. Didn��t have the time to search for specific ores to make the right kinds of alloys.��

    ��... Can I keep it?�� Goddamnit. Whatever, I nod. I was going to make a better one later, anyway. ��Ahem, anyway, It��s possible the differences between your new bloodline and the normal royal bloodline will only appear when you reach puberty. That��s when bloodlines really kick in�� You might want to keep your new characteristics hidden temporarily while I discuss this with the other elders and the royal family, but it��s not that big of a deal if someone finds out, only a little annoying.��

    Yeah, I thought the same thing. ��So, what happened that night?�� I still don��t have the complete picture.

    ��What you��d expect from what you already know, a Chevalier elder caused a distraction and another one didn��t allow for anyone to stay behind. While all the operatives were on a wild-goose chase, they had their hired thugs kidnap kids all over the island.��

    She continues. ��Our men only realized something was up when Eleanor checked your tracker and saw you were on the sea. Sadly, when they arrived on the ship, the second ship was already gone. Since you still had your tracker then, they tried to chase it, but it had too much of a headstart on them, and then your tracker disappeared.��

    Lets see, uncle already told me that the kids were fine, but let��s ask anyway. ��What about the kids and the books I left on the bigger ship?��

    ��The kids were fine, if a little scared. The ship was enchanted and protected them from the fight. We got the books as well. Oh, you keep calling them cultists, but there was nothing religious on their diaries, so they were actually just rogue sorcerers.��

    Good to know, what else do I want to know?... Oh, right. ��Why did the surviving rogue only take me? And why would he use the ritual without making sure it was working?��

    ��The current theory is that there was something wrong with his life force, he needed to use the ritual, and fast, if he wanted to live. And according to the books, children with a lot of mana are the best sacrifices for this ritual.�� She explains. ��These rogues weren��t taught by a master, they only had a couple books and had to figure things out by themselves, they probably hurt themselves by accident when trying to perform the ritual using their previous victims.�� Huh, so they were just improvising with what they had, what a mess.

    Well, if I had any other questions, I don��t remember them.Love what you''re reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on.

    ��What��s with the wolf?�� Grandma asks suddenly.

    I look at the huge dark-gray wolf that��s lying down on the carpet nearby, his ears flutter as he notices my look, but otherwise, he��s not doing anything. ��What do you mean? he��s not doing anything.��

    ��No, I meant why is he here?�� Oh that.

    ��Because I��m afraid he might eat the war-horses if I leave him in the stables.�� Good thing this place has big doors almost everywhere.

    ��This is why I�� Nevermind...�� She stares at my hands. ��The enchantment on the forearms feels different from the rest...��

    ��Grandma, If you want me to make stuff for you, you can just say so.�� Is that a blush on her face? What are you, an anime schoolgirl?

    ~~

    When grandma was escorting me out I remembered something important. ��Grandma, I want to try healing lost limbs, do you know anyone who would be willing?��

    ��...�� She just stares at me with a poker face for a few moments before saying. ��Sure, why not? Follow me.��

    She leads me to a tall and muscular young man without his right forearm. ��Hey, big guy, my grandson wants to try healing a limb, how about it?��

    The big guy looked confused for a moment before he becomes interested. ��You��re the kid- er, young master that healed the whole town, right? I��m up for it, what do I need to do?��

    ��Um, first I need to reopen the wound, do you want me to make you sleep with a spell?��

    ��No need, I want to see it and I��ve been through worse.�� He says while waving his arm stump around.

    ��Well, here goes nothing.�� I use force cut on the end of the stump right then and there and do as I remember. As you might expect from monsters, they don��t know any runes, so this is healing done completely with raw magic.

    I can see the big guy grinding his teeth, but I ignore him.

    It feels different from the troll, slower, like I��m stretching something beyond its limits, but it��s working, his elbow formed properly and I''m halfway done with his forearm, but it��s taking too much mana.

    So I concentrate my mana sense on his arm, I look for places where bits of my mana is being wasted, I also find that the bone is the hardest part to regenerate, so I send the mana that was being wasted there.

    There we go, now it��s both cheaper and faster. I finish healing his hands without running out of mana, but only barely. ��Damn, that was harder than I expected, I still have a long way to go, huh?... Well, thanks for helping, you two, I will go take a nap now, see you next time.��

    They just stay silent, how rude. Well, whatever, I have a comfortable bed awaiting me, let��s go wolf.

    ~~

    While on the way to the eastern castle, I detected a small group of highwaymen. I decided this was a good opportunity to teach the wolf that it��s okay to kill humans too, sometimes.

    That was a pretty grisly scene�� Aside from that and going on a small hunt here and there, I arrived home uneventfully.

    ��Uncle, I��m running ahead.�� I say when we get close to the castle.

    ��Sure, just make sure they know it��s you.�� He answers with a smile.

    I nod and tell the wolf to run. While on the way I shout with magic ��I��M HOOOME!��

    The soldiers get spooked by the wolf, but some of the knights recognize me, so the bridge is lowered and the portcullis raised as I pass straight through, I wave to the knights as thanks.

    By the time I arrive at the main keep, my family is walking out from inside. ��Lance!�� shouts Athena.

    ��I��m home!�� I answer as I dismount from the wolf.

    ��I expected you to grow taller, but even then, aren��t you too fast?�� Asks mom, as she hugs me. ��It��s good to see you in one piece.��

    ��Weren��t you so sure he would be fine?�� Oh? Uncle caught up when I wasn��t looking.

    ��I was, and it��s still good to see I was right.�� Answers mom as she looks at him with narrowed eyes.

    Dad was the next to hug me. ��Your new sibling is taking a nap right now, his name is Noah.�� I just nod. Thankfully they didn��t give him a silly name.

    Then Athena who looks relieved. ��Don��t disappear like that again.�� It��s not like I did it intentionally��

    ��I��ll have someone show you your room, Victor.�� Says mom. ��Knowing you, you must be dead tired from the journey here.��

    ��You��re the same as always, Isabel.�� Says uncle. ��I��ll let you catch up with your son.��

    ~~

    ��...And when I woke up, I looked like this.�� I finish telling them what happened and show them how I look now, red lines and all. ��Grandma said to keep it a secret for now.��

    ��Oh, you showed this to mother?�� Asks mom.

    ��Yeah, I gave her a report in person.��

    ��That might be troublesome, then.�� She furrows her brows.

    Uh-oh, what does that mean? ��How so?��

    ��She��ll probably look for a fianc��e for you earlier than normal and push you to have kids as soon as possible.�� When mom says that, father smiles and athena looks at me with pity.

    Oh, it��s just that. I sigh with relief. I was already prepared for something like that, so I��ll just run away from home when that time comes�� It depends on the potential fianc��e as well��

    Only fools face their problems head-on.

    I��m not a ��one true love�� kind of guy, but marriage can have a big impact in one��s life and if it��s with someone you dislike, that impact will probably be negative.

    ��... You��re thinking of running away, aren''t you?�� Uh-oh, mother figured me out.

    ��Uh, not at all.�� Damn, acting skills, if you could get off your ass then it would be nice.

    After that I had to listen to a lecture about responsibility to one��s family and country.

    ��I get it mom...�� I need to change the topic. Oh right. ��What about Athena? Is there any potential fianc�� you have in mind?�� When I ask that, Athena��s face cramps up.

    And mom��s face darkens. ��No, all the young men worth anything are already taken, and I��m not about to allow my eldest to be a second wife or concubine, nor will she marry a suspicious foreigner.�� Haha that��s the same situation as the crown princess.

    Huh, wait a moment. ��If finding a good match is so hard in this generation, then won��t it be the same for me? Then I don��t have to worry about it, right?��

    She looks at me like I��m dumb. ��While your sister can��t BE a second wife, YOU probably should have one�� or three, so it��s fine.�� Yeah, no thanks.

    The situation of polygamy in this country is a little bit jumbled up and changes depending on the standing of the individual.

    While women aren��t allowed to marry multiple men or to publicly keep a lover, when the wife has a much higher standing than the husband, it��s normal for the existence of a lover to become something of an open secret. And if the husband dies or doesn��t succeed in making an heir, it��s normal for the woman to remarry.

    When it comes to men, in most cases it��s the same as the women, but when magic bloodlines and instincts become involved, the man��s love life can become a social war zone of people trying to use him as a stallion.

    While a harem might sound all fine and dandy on paper, in practice it��s just making your home a cold and awkward place. Just imagine being on the other side of that kind of relationship, that��s how the women you��d share a bed with would be feeling, except with pressure from their families to have a child as an extra on top.

    And then there��s the idea that I would be expected to care for my in-laws or be seen as a dishonorable man. No thanks, running away sounds less problematic. I could travel until I find a nice girl to marry and only then come back with the excuse that I��m already married.

    I nod to myself, that sounds like a plan. ��You��re thinking of running away again, aren��t you?��

    Shit. ��No! I was, uh...�� I look around for something to talk about. ��Right! I was thinking of asking to keep the wolf.�� I point at him. He��s just lying down nearby.

    Now dad is the one that speaks. ��Right, I wanted to ask about him.��

    ��Does he not have a name?�� Asks Athena.

    ��No, I found him while traveling in the monster territory, he was fast so I tamed him. I didn��t know if I��d be allowed to keep him, so I didn��t give him a name.�� I look at mom. ��So? Can we keep him?��

    She stares emotionlessly at the wolf for a while before answering. ��Sure, why not?��

    Nice! ��You hear that boy? You can stay!�� He understands that I��m referring to him so he comes to me and I pet him. ��Now you just need a name.��

    ��How about Graymane?�� Suggests mom. What?

    ��No, call him Nightwind!�� Suggests dad. Why?

    ��... Dark Steelfang.�� Even Athena?

    ��What are you guys doing? What��s with those names? Are you joking?�� I ask. ��I was thinking something more like Harry.�� When I say that they all look mildly disgusted.

    ��Why would you give him such a bad name?�� Asks dad. What do you mean? Your suggestion was only better than Athena��s.

    ��You should call him Dark Steelfang.�� Says Athena.

    ��No way, that��s a terrible name! So is Nightwind!�� What��s wrong with these people?

    ��So his name will be Graymane, then?�� asks mother.

    ��No, Harry is bet- �� ��As the head of this family, I declare his name to be Graymane.�� Interrupts mom.

    ��You can��t do that!�� I object.

    ��I just did.��

    ��That��s not fair, Isabel. Nightwind is clearly better.�� Says dad with furrowed brows.

    ��You heard Lance, it��s a terrible name.�� Answers mom. What?

    ��Now my opinion matters?! You can��t just pick and choose when to listen!�� I object again.

    She ignores me and walks up to the wolf, he seems a little guarded but relaxes when she pets him. ��Nice to meet you, Graymane.��

    Athena follows and does the same. ��Nice to meet you, Graymane.��

    I sigh. ��At least shorten it to just Gray so it��s not a mouthful.��

    ��Gray can be his nickname.�� Says mom.

    I roll my eyes.

    ~~

    After that I met Noah, all I have to say is: Babies are ugly, huh?

    He��s a normal, healthy baby boy. I tried teaching him simple magic but didn��t receive much of a reaction, his mana is perfectly still.

    At least he has the eyes of a Chevalier, so he should be able to learn magic later. I should make some toys for him too�� Maybe I can teach magic using enchanted toys? An idea for later.

    Then I spent the next two days just resting.

    It''s good to be home.

 C17 Plane, Swords and Blood

    On the third day since I arrived I went hunting with�� *sigh* Gray. Only after that did I start with my airplane project.

    The problem of flight is the lack of efficiency, even right now I could use telekinesis to lift myself, but by doing that my mana would run out quite quickly, even when considering how much mana I have compared to my weight.

    It��s possible to use a spell to improve the mana efficiency, but even then it wouldn��t be good enough to be used as a method of travel, it would function more as mild levitation than actual high speed flight.

    A more practical method would be to use self-strengthening combined with ��weaken fall�� to leap high and fall slowly, this is used more commonly by knights well trained in magic.

    What I want to make is an airplane that can both glide and propel itself using the driver��s mana, what i need is speed and low mana consumption. Since I haven��t made a mana engine or anything of the sort, the plane��s power will have to come straight from the driver.

    So the plane will have to be as light as possible, one set of wings and one propeller�� Do I even need a propeller?

    This is going to take a while, isn��t it?

    Should I just make something like a wingsuit or deployable hang glider to improve the leaping style of movement?...

    No! True flight is one of mankind''s dreams! No compromises!... Maybe later, if I get stuck on some part��

    ~~

    ��Cousin, what are you making now? A road and a carriage?�� Asks Michael. He and uncle came to check out my test area near the castle. They are leaving soon.

    ��No, silly. I��m making an airplane!�� I declare.

    ��A what?�� Asks uncle Victor. I��m not using the english word for airplane of course, I��m using a word for air combined with a word for gliding, since the word for airplane didn��t exist before.

    ��An airplane. It��s like a carriage that soars through the skies.�� I explain.

    The father and son duo look at each other and then to me, and then to my airplane prototype.

    ��Are those wings, then?�� Asks Michael. ��Aren''t they supposed to flap? And is that a�� windmill on the tip?��

    ��Yes, no and no.�� I answer respectively. ��They are wings, but they don��t need to flap, since an airplane��s method for flight is different from a bird. And the thing on tip is called a propeller, it propels the airplane forward by pushing the air backwards.�� At least that��s how I think it works.

    ��...Really?�� Asks Michael with a doubtful expression. I��ll show you.

    I sit on the cockpit (it��s just a chair and a handle to put mana into the propeller) and start running mana through the propeller.

    Slow and steady, the prototype airplane starts accelerating. When the speed is enough I push the nose of the plane up with telekinesis.

    I slowly separate from the ground. For a few seconds I��m soaring above the land.

    And then the nose goes too far up and starts to loop backwards, so I jump out of that deathtrap and use weaken fall on myself while thinking ��mayday mayday mayday��.

    I walk to those two and proudly declare: ��See?! It works!��

    They nod while looking at the crashed prototype silently.

    ~time skip~

    It��s now a few months since I started and I managed to make something vaguely like an airplane. It��s made mostly from wood and doesn��t have any way to control it aside from just using telekinesis to turn it or give it more or less mana to control the propeller, so it��s a poor excuse for an actual airplane. But it can take off from a runway, stay in the air without falling apart and sometimes even land without breaking when I��m careful!

    I may or may not have crash landed multiple times.

    Having a vague idea of how working planes look like was a great help in speeding up the process.

    Now the main problems are the controls and mana consumption. But to decide on the controls I also need to know the mana consumption for each method, since adding hinges and parts might increase the weight and with that the mana consumption, or using telekinesis might be worse.

    So I need a way to measure mana consumption. I contemplated about using precise measurement methods that could be replicated and compared by anyone using stuff like a specific magic tool that boils a liter of water using 100 mana points, or uses telekinesis to move an object that weighs one kilo for a meter with a specific speed and that kind of thing��

    But honestly, screw that. I made a jumpsuit with something similar to a ruler on the front of the torso, when I use mana a little mark moves up the ruler. I calibrated it for when I use all my mana, the marker reaches the top. After that I just had to put numbers on it from zero at the bottom and 100 at the top.

    Like this I can measure the mana I use with percentages. When I use half my mana, the mark will reach 50. Yes, it��s a completely arbitrary measurement that will change with my skill in controlling mana, but so what? I don��t need anything ultra specific. This will do just fine.

    ~~

    When I was about to go back to work on the airplane after being done with the suit, tragedy struck. I am already seven years old, and mother decided to get me started on the sword.

    My research time was crippled by having to do boring exercises. Don��t get me wrong, I do want to learn how to use the sword, but footwork and edge-alignment exercises are, in fact, not fun at all after the initial excitement passes.

    When it comes to the Sylvian swordsmanship, it��s somewhat different from swordsmanship from modern earth��s history. After all, in this world you have monsters and superhumans.This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

    It places a heavy focus on dodges and lunges, while parries, grapples and that kind of thing are somewhat underdeveloped.

    Of course, they still exist, but when fighting opponents with ten times your weight or that can drastically increase the strength of an attack, you��d rather just move out of the way too. That and normal swords (not made by me) simply wouldn��t be able to take the forces at play without breaking.

    In actuality, the sword is NOT the most favored weapon for war or fighting monsters, it is normally a sidearm that one would draw if their main weapon (like a spear or bow) is broken or in a situation they can��t use it, like tight spaces or when the enemy is too close for the bow and crossbow.

    However, due to being so easy to carry (relatively) and effective when compared to other small weapons (daggers, axes, maces) when one is trained with it, it became the skilled fighter��s self-defence or backup weapon.

    And like how military officers would be issued handguns in modern times, people in similar positions here would carry swords and with that the sword became associated with high ranks, and then with nobility and royalty.

    The only exceptions to this rule are greatswords, which are swords about as tall as the user. Short swords and arming swords (just think ��one-handed sword��) would be used as sidearms or with a shield at least, while long swords and cavalry sabers would straddle the edge between sidearm and main weapon.

    With the sword��s reputation and convenience it became the weapon every noble must be trained in, but when it comes to raw power, larger weapons with greater weight, leverage and reach would be preferred.

    My training is either fake sparring where no magic is allowed or some simple practice cutting. But it seems I��m not allowed to spar for real for a good while.

    At least I don��t have to take sword classes together with other classes like Athena had to when she was younger, so I still have some time to research.

    ~~

    More tragedy struck after a while.

    Grandma started sending people without a limb or another for me to heal from time to time, it was all good since it was a rare opportunity for practice.

    At some point, random people started coming and asking for me to heal them. Even then, it was still all fine and dandy since more practice = better. Although a couple of wanted men tried to get me to heal them, so I killed them myself.

    The trouble started when the small groups became groups, and then big groups that I couldn��t heal in a single day (limbs take a lot of mana), and now to a fully fledged caravan full of people.

    ��This is starting to take too much time away from my research.�� I muttered as I walk out of the castle towards the encampment of maimed and moribund nearby.

    ��Maybe you should start charging money for it?�� Suggests Athena. I��m guarded by her, Gray and multiple knights, including Joey who used to be my bodyguard when I was a little younger.

    ��I didn��t want to decrease the chances to practice, but maybe I��ll have to. How many handicapped can exist in a country anyways?��

    When people notice me I start to hear the annoying begging, aren��t you here because you know I��ll heal you? Just shut up and wait patiently for your turn.

    ��Sir! Sir! Please!�� A young woman barges out of the crowd while carrying a young boy. ��My son is dying! Please heal him!�� The hell?

    I quickly cast a spell to check on the boy. Yep, his hand was probably bitten off by something and the wound wasn��t treated properly, so now it��s infected. How he even survived enough to arrive here isn��t important at the moment. ��Put him on the grass.�� I speak clearly.

    I normally heal people inside a tent the knights set up, but whatever. She follows what I say and I quickly use a force cut and start healing. All the while pulling more mana from the air.

    When I��m done the woman does the usual tearful thanks, yeah yeah, i get it. ��Stop thanking me and give him something light to eat.�� The boy is just waking up. So I wave her away.

    With so many people here, I bet there��s more people with open wounds. Normally those who come here have their wounds closed and scarred, but maybe with this caravan came some people who simply don��t have the money for both normal healers and medicine.

    When they notice I��m done, the others go back to begging. ��SHUT UP!�� I shout with magic and the crowd recoils in surprise. ��Allow the ones at risk of death to come forwards!��

    The crowd just looks around and mutters for a while, but like I expected, after a while some dying people are carried to the front. ��Don��t carry him like that you idiot!�� I shout in my mind but not out loud.

    ��What a proper mess.�� Is what I think as I heal the zombie-like people.

    Ah shit, that guy��s heart stopped. The family who carried him here seem to notice he stopped breathing and starts making a scene.

    I don��t have time to reason with them so I just shove them out of my way with telekinesis and start trying to resuscitate his heart with lightning while healing the rest of his body. I bet this guy was mauled by a bear or dire wolf, his whole body is a mess.

    I never defibrillated anyone before so I don��t know how strong the electricity needs to be, but whatever, I��ll start weak and go from there, I can heal him from any damage the lightning might cause anyways.

    I get it on my fifth try and he starts breathing again with a jolt, that was quicker than I expected. I finish him up and move to the next one while ignoring the tearful family.

    I sigh. I��m finally done with the critical ones and sit down on the grass to take a break.

    ��He��s a saint...�� Who said that?

    Oh no, the other people are starting to mutter saint this or saint that. ��Oh no, you don��t!�� I shout. ��The ones who call me saint will have to pay for treatment!�� The crowd goes quiet again. ��That��s what I thought.��

    I��m not having any of that ��saint�� shit. Sylvian doesn��t have an official religion but I don��t want anything to do with the ones from other countries. That��s bound to be a pain.

    When I recover some mana I start healing the non-critically wounded inside the tent like usual. At some point I immerse myself in the process and my actions become almost mechanical.

    Breathe in to regenerate mana, force cut on the patients stump, breathe out, start ��pulling�� on the wound with healing, breathe in, push more mana to the bone, breathe out and so on.

    When I near my twentieth patient I get a strange feeling from the ground below me.

    I look down while waiting for the next patient to come in. Blood. The floor in front of me is covered in blood from the force cuts I used to reopen the wounds. There��s not much blood loss since I��m quick about it, but the blood has accumulated from the large number of patients.

    I can feel the mana in the blood�� as if it��s my own��

    I will the mana to come to me. It listens.

    I take a deep breath, the red lines shined for a second there, good thing the next patient isn��t here yet.

    The feeling of absorbing the mana from the blood is almost intoxicating, but I push it down and go back to healing.

    Maybe I shouldn��t start charging after all.

    ~~

    ��So it��s blood?�� Asks mom. I��m currently on a family meeting with everyone. Uncle and Michael went back home a long time ago.

    ��I think so, although I��m not sure of the specifics.�� I answer. I��m telling them how my new bloodline is probably related to blood, well, other people��s blood.

    ��Well, that��s good to know, at least now we have a vague direction to experiment towards.�� Says mom.

    ��That��s all fine and dandy, but what��s that about you bringing someone back to life?�� Asks dad.

    ��I didn��t bring him back to life, dad. His heart had just stopped, I only kicked it awake with a little bit of lightning while healing everything else.�� I explain.

    ��Lightning?��

    ��Yes.�� How to explain this? ��Think of it like giving the heart a scare so that it wakes up and remembers what it��s supposed to do.�� Good enough.

    I sigh. ��I used a lot of mana today, so I��m going to sleep early. Good night everyone.��

    ������Good night, Lance.������ They answer all together as I stand up.

    What a tiring day. And here I thought healers were too greedy.

 C18 Flight and Reward

    It��s been almost half a year since the blood incident and I��ve learned a little bit more about the magic instinct. For example, it works with any animal��s blood and even the fluids of some insects (I don��t know if it��s called blood too). But it has to be recently extracted. It also works on the fluids of plants, but it��s about only half as efficient.

    It also works similarly to other more normal magic instincts in that I can use telekinesis on blood (hemokinesis?) very easily now, too bad it��s not much more effective than water, or rather, due to the viscosity, it can be actually worse at times.

    Oh well, can��t win them all, at least the mutation enhanced the royal bloodline��s characteristics as well. Mana sense and control are truly invaluable, any little extra can help.

    Maybe I can use this to improve blood transfusion? Magic can deal with blood loss (of course it can, it can even grow limbs), but who knows when the knowledge would be helpful. I think AB+ can donate to everyone and O- can receive from everyone, or is it the other way around?

    Oh, whatever. Who knows how mana affects the blood types anyways?

    Since then, the number of handicapped coming here started trickling down until it stabilized to around ten people every week or so. I��m suspicious of people calling me saint behind my back, but at least they know that I deny the title.

    Healing people became a weekly chore to me, like going hunting with Gray, who is behaving exceptionally well. I think he��s not even wishing to eat the horses anymore, and I agree perfectly, horses just don��t taste that great..

    When it comes to sword training, it��s become a little bit more fun since I can spar now, but it��s a really subdued and slow spar. Why is mom being so careful? I��m pretty sure when using magic I could take a pistol bullet to the head with only a bruise to show for it, even if she hits my eyes I can just heal it with magic.

    ��We aren��t going slowly merely for safety. This initial training is to make you get used to the postures and movements so that you can perform them smoothly and instinctively.��

    Well, you��re the expert.

    But it��s in the airplane department that I have progressed the most. I experimented not only with the ��flaps�� that would turn the plane but also with the whole design of the wings, propeller and even the ��chassis�� itself.

    I have no idea if those are the right terms for things, but since I��m technically inventing the airplane, whatever I call it becomes the right terms... I am the law!

    Since I have no idea how to make a clock aside from something to do with springs and cogs, the only method for measuring speed is to use a sand timer for around five minutes and measure how far the plane can go from the starting point.

    Just like with combat, the most efficient way to do things is to combine mechanical and magical methods. Since I don��t need (have) an engine and used enchantments to compensate for some stuff, the airplane ended up much lighter than a normal one would be.

    The amount of wood I used in experiments would be staggering if there wasn��t so much forest nearby. Deforestation? No way, we call it reclaiming land here.

    The controls are mostly working. Honestly, there��s probably some stuff I��m missing but whatever, I��m no expert in this stuff. As long as it can takeoff with minimal space, fly for long distances and lengths of time without consuming much mana and land in not so flat land or mostly still waters, it��s good enough.

    The queen has already sent me multiple ��reminders�� of going to the capital to get my reward, although she didn��t tell me what that reward is. I want to get those books from the cultist- oh right, rogue sorcerers. Cultists just sounds better.

    If she tries to give me work disguised as a reward, honestly, I will strongly consider starting a revolution. If I go with something democratic like ��the people should be the ones to rule�� I doubt I would get called out for being a Chevalier�� Oh, dang, my grudge against royalty is acting up again, I blame the princess for that.

    I answered that I was busy following a sudden inspiration and that I would head there soon (that was four months ago), it��s technically true if you count me being born with knowledge of modern earth as a sudden inspiration.

    ��So I��m going to the capital after I do a longer test on the airplane prototype.�� I explain to my family over dinner.

    ��You��re going on that flying deathtrap?�� Asks mom.

    ��Yes- No! Prototype number 174 is not a deathtrap! It��s perfectly stable and efficient!�� How rude.

    ��What happened to the other hundred and seventy three?�� Asks dad.

    ��They weren��t perfectly stable and efficient.�� RIP.

    ��That plane doesn��t look that big, are you not bringing Gray?�� Asks mom. The wolf in question recognizes his name and looks up from the meat he was eating.

    ��I think he��s used to you guys already, didn��t he let you ride him a while ago? I was thinking of leaving him here since he��s so heavy.�� He almost weighs as much as the plane itself.

    ��You saw that?�� Asks mom with a cramped face. I nod. Yes, mother, I saw you grinning like a little girl while he was running around with you on his back.

    ��... I��m coming too.�� Says Athena out of nowhere.

    ��What? The plane only has one seat though.��

    ��Then make a new one with two seats, or you can go on my lap.�� Ugh, no way, that sounds emasculating. You wouldn��t say it like that if you knew how hard it was to make n.174.

    ��Why do you want to come with me anyways?�� Is she bored?

    ��You��re seven and a half years old Lance, you shouldn��t travel without an adult nearby.�� Oh right, 15 years old is considered an adult here, so Athena is already a grown up.

    ��Bu-�� ��No buts, the last time we left you to your own devices you were used in a sacrificial ritual and got stuck in monster territory.�� I actually can��t argue with that.

    ��Fine, but you��ll have to learn how to pilot, the emergency protocols, how to do chores-��

    ��Wait! Why do I need to learn chores?!�� I give her an evil smile, she fell right into my trap.

    ��Why, of course you need to do chores. No servants will be coming you know? You are fine since you have plenty of mana, but a servant would be dead weight on the skies.�� This is not quite the truth, but is pretty close to it.Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author''s preferred platform and support their work!

    Hearing that her face sours and she bites her lip. Hahaha! Not so determined now, are you, Athena?! That��s what you get for trying to babysit me! Lance!

    ��Lance, stop being a brat and do your sister��s chores. You use magic to do yours anyways.�� Says dad. How could you?! Now Athena has a smug look on her face! I��ll remember this!

    ~~

    I had to delay the departure to design and test the two seater, then delay even more to teach Athena how to use the pseudo-parachute harness (just a bunch of straps enchanted with weaken fall) and how to pilot�� and building another plane when she crashed the one we were going to use��

    ��How was I supposed to know that pulling back makes it spin?!��

    ��Because I said so?! And everything makes it spin if you go too far, did you forget everything I said?��

    ��No!... It��s just that�� actually doing it is very different from thinking about doing it...�� Well, I guess she has a point.

    I sigh. ��Fine, next time I��ll be on your lap to help you.�� The airplane has two seats, one in front of the other, not side by side, that would make the plane too wide unless I did some considerable changes to the rest of the design.

    On the trip I��ll be taking what��s left of the monster honey as a gift and also the huge crystal in case I��m spending a long time there, I��m thinking of making it into some kind of staff-like weapon or, if I can make something similar to a plate with it, a visor for a helmet with a heads up display of some kind, but I��d have to try it out with glass first�� Oh dang, I��m getting distracted.

    I��m taking food and water of course, I plan on taking turns with Athena so that we can spend most of our time flying while only taking breaks for hygiene and rest in general, the plane is efficient enough for that if we don��t go at max speed all the time.

    Talking about max speed, I��m pretty sure it goes around 200 km/h, not sure since I don��t know how to make a velocimeter and the measure method I use isn��t very precise. But the travel speed we will be going most of the time is around 170 km/h, I think that��s pretty good for the first airplane made with only vague ideas about what an ��aileron�� is.

    In this world, ailerons shall be called ��wing flaps��.

    And the first airplane shall be called ��The Pilgrim Mk.1��,

    ~~

    It��s finally the day for departure, the two-day long test went well, and i��ve made all that I would need, including pilot goggles for me and Athena, she looks way cooler than she has any right to be.

    After saying our goodbyes, we get on our seats and the army guys watch as we take to the skies, I��m pretty sure this trip will be extremely fast when compared to the normal one.

    ~~

    Turns out I was right, ten days instead of around forty five. It would be faster if we didn��t keep stopping for bathroom breaks, since one of us can drive while the other sleeps.

    Athena likes flying, but after the first few days both of us were tired of spending so much time cooped up.

    When we landed in an empty part of the capital��s bay surrounded by navy ships, there was a little bit of a commotion in the distance, but thankfully I informed the queen ahead of time and the military wasn��t alerted by the flying vessel and welcomed us instead.

    I dismantled some parts of the plane and took those with us as we left, in case someone tries to steal this. It��s not that I don��t trust the guards, I just don��t want to tempt fate, air supremacy is a term for a reason, a very deadly reason.

    After walking for a short while I was greeted by some people I��ve met but don��t remember the names and Eleanor, I think those guys are royal knights, but I��m not sure, let��s pretend to know them either way. Oh! That guy has one of the swords I made, and that one a spear.

    ��Hello, everyone. Hello, Eleanor!�� I give them a wave.

    ��Greetings, Sir Lance, Lady Athena. Her majesty has been informed of your arrival and is already awaiting you.�� Says one of the knights. That��s why I don��t remember your name, if you act all serious your name will just be lost in a sea of ��soldier people�� on the back of my memories.

    Good thing as a Chevalier I don��t need to care too much about etiquette since I��m technically his equal even though I��m just a kid.

    ��Lead the way.�� Says Athena with her serious mode on.

    We get in a couple of carriages escorted by a bunch of knights. Eleanor is in our carriage.

    The moment the door closes Eleanor picks me up and puts me on her lap. ��Eleanor?��

    ��What?�� She acts like it��s no big deal. Well, it really isn��t, she gets clingy from time to time, I think it��s because her children are all in the navy and haven��t given her any grandchildren yet. But I won��t allow her to do it when I��m bigger.

    ��Hello Eleanor, I��m Athena. Thank you for taking care of Lance for such a long time.�� Greets Athena.

    ��Hello Athena, I heard about your skills, we should do a little sparring some time. Maybe this old lady can teach you a thing or two.�� Eleanor��s words makes it seem as if she sees Athena as an equal, but her eyes tell me she thinks Athena is just a slightly older kid when compared to me.

    I bet she��s holding back from patting Athena��s head.

    The two of them talk about my combat training while I serve as something of a decoration during the ride.

    We soon arrive and meet the queen and king after a short walk through the castle.

    ��Here��s some honey I got in the western wilds, your majesty.�� Monster honey is considered a luxury since the people who can get it normally have better things to do. I considered starting a monster bees and flowers farm, but that kind of thing takes a lot of time.

    ��Thank you, Lance. It��s good you finally came to the capital, that ��airplane�� thing you made seems quite interesting.��

    ��Sorry for taking so long, your majesty. I wish to make one for you, if you��ll provide the materials.��

    ��That sounds wonderful. Now, for the main reason I called you here: your rewards.�� She looks straight at me. ��For your willingness to put yourself in danger for the sake of the queendom��s children, I, Catherine Sylvian the third, grant you access to one section of forbidden knowledge of your choosing and the books on ritualistic magic you acquired during your mission, together with a couple we had here. Aside from that, there��s also a monetary reward, but I��m sure you��re not exactly lacking in that department.��

    I wasn''t quite willing to put myself in danger, I just underestimated those guys a little too much. But I��m not saying that out loud. She says a section of forbidden knowledge, but I doubt they have many options.

    And yeah, I��m not lacking for money, not only can I just sell some stuff if I need it, I��m almost royalty in this country, I can always just ask for money from another Chevalier (who��s most likely loaded), or the royal family themselves.

    My eyes themselves are already better than a credit card. Although that��s a little jumbled up by the new bloodline�� Getting distracted again.

    ��Can I go choose something now?�� I ask while bottling up my excitement.

    ��Here��s a list with a short description of what they entail.��

    <ol>

    <li style="font-weight: 400">Curse magic: weaken and sabot- Yeah, no cross that one, sounds like just the opposite of strengthening and healing. There must be better stuff here.</li>

    <li style="font-weight: 400">Necromancy: binds souls to corpses that- bla bla bla. Yeah, I get the point, the part about souls sounds interesting, but having to deal with corpses sounds like a pain, that��s a maybe.</li>

    <li style="font-weight: 400">Prayer magic: Unsystematic style of magic with borderline random effects, can have side effects on the user��s psyche. Okay, I��d rather not mess with that kind of stuff, I want to remain sane, thank you very much.</li>

    <li style="font-weight: 400">Disease magic: The name is self explanatory.</li>

    <li style="font-weight: 400">Golem making: The study of making moving statues that can be used as warriors. That��s quite the vague description, why is it even here? Are they afraid someone could create an army?</li>

    <li style="font-weight: 400">Cannibal strengthening technique: Seems interesting for study, but not for actual use, like necromancy.</li>

    </ol>

    They all seem at least mildly interesting, but one of these is not like the others. ��Why is golem making even here?�� I ask the royal couple.

    ��Necromancy started as branch of golem making combined with the ritualistic magic you came across on your mission.�� Explains the king.

    ��Golems rely on something called a ��mana core�� that ca-�� ��DID YOU SAY MANA CORE?!�� I interrupt the queen. This is it isn��t it?!?!

    A mana engine! Of course! I should have seen it coming when I read the word golem.

    ��Y-yes, a mana core. It acts as a mana generator and something of a brain for the golem.�� Answers the queen, taken aback by my outburst.

    SO IT HAS A.I. TOO?!?! ��...How long has it been since this was invented? Where did it come from?�� I ask.

    ��About three centuries, it was made here by the sage Archimedes.�� That��s a name I haven��t heard in a while. Thank goodness it��s not something we got from a foreign country.

    ��I choose golem making.��

 C19 From the ground up

    I was correct, screw golems, the mana core is where it��s at. It works similarly to enchantments, as if you��re enchanting a heart/brain into an object. The ��AI�� is not quite a computer, but it can control its ��body��, sense and interpret its surroundings and follow orders, so I��m pretty sure it��s even more advanced than an early computer.

    By itself, it��s already a key to a magical industrial revolution, and it was locked down for three hundred years because some idiot used some principles in it to try to revive his dead girlfriend. Oh, the humanity!

    Let��s see, where do I even start? Let��s just throw some ideas around and see what would be best to begin with.

    <ol>

    <li style="font-weight: 400">Transportation and communication.</li>

    <li style="font-weight: 400">Gathering raw materials.</li>

    <li style="font-weight: 400">Processing raw materials.</li>

    <li style="font-weight: 400">Manufacturing.</li>

    <li style="font-weight: 400">Military applications and Security.</li>

    <li style="font-weight: 400">Intelligence gathering.</li>

    <li style="font-weight: 400">Construction�� I think that��s about it, I doubt I can do anything for individual civilian use.</li>

    </ol>

    Goddamnit, this just made the Pilgrim Mk.1 obsolete, didn��t it?

    I bet I��m forgetting something, but I��m sure I''ll remember with time. I��m certain I can make some vehicles, like cars, trains and ships- PUBLIC ILLUMINATION! That��s a good one!

    I need to learn how to make roads and railroads too, the one I used for the airplane tests was just me cheating with magic and bricks.

    I need to hurry and brainstorm specific ideas and decide where to start. ��Lance, why are you so excited about this stuff?�� Asks Athena.

    ��This ��stuff��, as you call it, will allow humanity to take its next step as an enlightened species, Athena! It��s like the difference between goblins and us! While they play in the mud, we��ll be soaring the skies!��

    ��... I think I understand why you��re so excited, but I��m not so sure airplanes can elevate humanity as an enlightened species, Lance. A barbarian with an airplane would still be a mere barbarian.�� Reasons Athena.

    ��I don��t mean airplanes...�� ...Oh, wait. She��s kind of right. Even if I kickstart an industrial revolution, medieval people will still think as medieval people, except with trains and lower cost of living. I sigh.

    Most of the country��s population are farmers living with minimal knowledge of anything aside from their work, that��s all fine and dandy, except they are also very used to death. Healers aren��t very common at all and it��s normal for out of a couple��s five children, one or two might die from some disease or another.

    Our country is lucky in that we mostly don��t lack food and have a good monarch who holds most of the power, but everything else is

    That won��t stop me from making stuff, but if I want to live in a more advanced country, culture has to advance with the tech.

    So I don��t only need to make the tech, but write books and start schools, huh? Well, there goes my childhood.

    Let��s begin with just making some tech, at least that��s simple.

    ~~

    I first made communication devices based on detection magic. One can write something on a glass screen and press a button, the mana core would send the writing through a spell towards the targeted device. It comes with two glass screens, one for receiving and one for sending.

    I just call it ��arcane telegraph Mk.1��, no need to complicate things.

    The range isn��t anything to boast about, but it can connect most towns, and those that it can��t, I just make a relay station that doesn��t even need to be manned. The main problem is that if you use it too much, it will run out of mana, but that��s just a side effect of me trying to make it small, I can just send a bigger mana core to places that need it.

    The most difficult part was encrypting the message so that they can��t be spied on or faked.

    I��m sure it isn��t optimized at all when compared to modern earth��s telecommunications, but it��s much better than using birds.

    It was a pain to make them all for the whole country, so I made some golems to do the more basic parts while I concentrate on the mana cores.

    After that was done and I made some backup telegraphs and went on to my next project.

    Since that��s communications done, let��s go for transportation. For starters I made a simple car, it was quite easy, honestly, since I already made carriages before and even an airplane.

    Then I made a small truck, still quite easy, so I tried making a car with tracks, like a tank would have. This took me more time, but I still succeeded, magic just makes things that easy.

    Although they aren��t as advanced as modern day vehicles, they��re good enough.

    The royal family is the one giving me the materials to make this stuff by the way. After I showed them the telegraph I got their interest quite easily.

    I made a few tens of each kind and gave them to the royal family, how they are going to be used is not my problem to think about, they��re better than horses, though.

    Now comes the big one, I��m making a goddamn train!... and the railroad, although roads are more boring, they are needed.

    If I didn��t have to practice swordsmanship with Athena it would go faster. Sometimes Eleanor and auntie, who work as teachers in the royal castle, would come to practice with us.

    Athena spends most of her time improving her swordsmanship or leadership by doing 100 vs 100 practice battles, guess who has to build the dirt castles and heal the wounded? Even the princess would participate from time to time.

    ~ Time skip ~

    I��m currently nine years old, I��m already mostly done with land transportation, when I��m finished making the first railroad I��ll move on to something else, probably sea transportation?

    ��Lance, why do you need to know so many details about the land?�� Asks auntie. ��Don��t you just need to follow the highway?�� She and Eleanor are having tea with Athena and I in my living room in the royal castle��s guest quarters.This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

    ��I need to see where building bridges and digging tunnels would be better than just following the road.�� Right now I��m planning a railway that connects the capital in the southeast with Turin in the north. ��I might as well make a new highway while I��m at it.�� The current highway is just a wide dirt road, I can��t make asphalt, but the least I could do is make a road that doesn��t get super muddy when it rains.

    The crown princess will be marrying the second prince from Endel kingdom, the small snowy and mountainous country to the north, in a few years. Trade will most likely increase even faster than it has until now, if we have trains connecting the capital to Turin, it should help the entire country��s economy.

    ��Is this ��train�� of yours really better than using ships?�� Asks Eleanor. ��I��m not doubting you, it��s just hard to believe.��

    ��Yes, trains aren��t as fast as planes, but they are pretty damn fast and can carry a lot of weight. I��m pretty sure that even if I��m the one making the ships using mana cores, they won��t be able to go faster than the train.�� I explain. ��The advantages of ships is that you don��t need roads or anything of the sort and that carrying a lot of cargo can be easier.��

    Wait, now that I think about it, doesn��t this mean that it would be better for the economy if I made ships?... Whatever, I��ll make some later, ships can be stolen, but trains can��t.

    ��LANCE!�� Shouts the princess as she barges in.

    ��Your highness, even if you��re soon-to-be queen, you should still knock.�� Says auntie.

    I nod. ��It��s only polite.��

    ��Screw polite! I��ve come to request a gift for my crowning!�� Uh-oh, I don��t like where this is going. ��Lance! I want you to rebuild the royal castle!��

    The room falls into silence. Fuck, this will delay everything. Knowing her, she doesn��t want just a strong castle, but a beautiful one. ��Uhh, your highness, isn��t the current castle perfectly fine?��

    ��That��s the problem! It��s just fine! I don��t want ��fine��, I want majestic! A castle worthy of our great country and ME, it��s beautiful future queen.�� Ah, fuck, I wish she was despotic so I had a reason to start a revolution. As she is now, one could say she wastes the country��s resources, but one could also say this improves the country��s prestige.

    Knowing me, when I start designing the castle I��ll get carried away and try to make a flying castle or some other stupid nonsense. ��How about after I��m done with the railway, I make some decorations for the current castle, Your highness?��

    ��No! Work on the railway is to be halted! I want the castle rebuilt from the ground up!�� Fuck, I shouldn��t have mentioned the railway. ��I want the construction plans done in a year at most!�� She declares before she stomps away.

    I sigh. If I talk to the current queen I should be able to get the railway started, but I doubt she didn��t agree to this castle business already.

    ��Work hard, Lance.�� Says Eleanor.

    ��You��ll be fine, you��re good at this kind of thing.�� Consoles auntie.

    ��I��m sure the castle you make will end up great.�� Encourages Athena.

    ��I��m sure too, I only worry about how long it would take and how tiring it would be.�� I sigh again.

    ~~

    Okay, I completed the railway business and got the construction started, the trains are already done and other sorcerers will help with building everything. This together with the new castle is bound to put a dent on the queendom��s coffers. I should offer blacksmithing and enchanting services to nobles and Endel��s royalty to contribute to the national economy.

    But that��s after I��m done with the castle plans.

    A castle is, in essence, a fort where a lord of some kind lives in. So, if you want to boil it down to its essentials, it has two simple priorities: safety and comfort. In the royal castle��s case, it can also serve to awe and inspire those who see it, welcome visiting dignitaries and that kind of thing.

    When it comes to comfort, the castle would need plenty of space and have everything the lord would need in their daily life.

    In the royal castle��s case, the castle would need to have plenty of luxuries and decorations, like pools and gardens, maybe even an open field for horse riding. This would make the construction lengthier and more expensive, but that��s not my problem, but the future queen��s.

    When it comes to safety, the point is not for the castle or fort to be indestructible, the idea alone is silly, you can��t make something you can��t destroy. What you can make, is something so hard to take over that it becomes impractical.

    The point of fortifications is to give the defenders such an advantage that the attacker would need to waste tons of men, time and resources to break through. This would normally be done by giving the defending archers or catapults plenty of defence from the invaders. Only rarely would the defenders actually fight in a melee, and even then, they would funnel the enemy, making the invaders�� numbers less important.

    The main methods of siege are the following:

    <ol>

    <li style="font-weight: 400">Break through the front gate and defeat the defenders inside. The most basic method.</li>

    <li style="font-weight: 400">Climb or break through the walls and defeat the defenders inside. Just like the first one except you ��cheat�� by ignoring the well defended front gate.</li>

    <li style="font-weight: 400">Have men infiltrate the castle to open the gates and defeat the defenders with a surprise attack.</li>

    <li style="font-weight: 400">Stop the defenders from receiving supplies and let them starve until they surrender. Very costly on the time department, since castles often have stockpiles of non-perishables and use wells for water, bigger castles may even have small farms inside like back home.</li>

    </ol>

    So when designing a castle, one should make it impractical to attack anywhere other than the front entrance, essentially preventing number two. Having multiple, layered gates can make it harder for infiltrators to do much, since they would need large numbers and that makes stealth harder.

    For the fourth method, one could have a farm big enough to sustain all defenders, or have a secret entrance that allows the castle to be supplied secretly, although that entrance could become a security risk.

    And for the first one, one should make attacking the front a true hell where the invaders are vulnerable to the defender��s attacks from all directions while the defenders have plenty of protection.

    If you can make it so the attackers have no choice but to attack the front, and then kill thousands of them while they are trying, odds are the enemies�� morale will fall through the floor and the men will refuse orders to attack the front, forcing them to do the impractical and attack some other side or waste time waiting around for the defenders to starve when they are actually still receiving food.

    Just imagining an army��s chain of command falling apart because attacking is suicide brings a smile to my face.

    With that thought I get lost in my ideas.

    ~ PoV Switch + time skip ~

    My brother hasn��t left his room in the last week. At the beginning he would just skip sword practice and eat his meals in his room with the excuse that he was busy, but since three days ago he stopped responding and receiving food.

    *Bang!* Eleanor kicks the enchanted door once, it��s unlocked but Lance put something in the way on the other side. *Bang!* *Bang!* On the third kick the door breaks open and the furniture holding it closed scatters.

    We enter the room and the moment we stepped in, everyone becomes stunned. There is paper everywhere, even the walls and ceiling, scribbles and drawings on every piece of paper.

    After a couple moments I remember what I��m here for. ��Lance! Where are you?!�� I shout as I look around. My shout wakes up aunt Alexandra and Lady Eleanor from their stunned state.

    After a while I find Lance passed out on the floor. ��Lance! Lance! Wake up!�� I shout as I shake his shoulders.

    His eyelids tremble as they open slightly, his dry lips open as if to say something, but he��s too quiet.

    I bring my ear closer to his mouth. ��I did it�� It��s finally�� done.�� What does he mean? Was he attacked?

    I notice his hand moving. He points to a corner of the room with a wall sized painting in it. ��What in the world?�� I mutter when I see the painting.

    ��What? What did he say?�� Asks aunt Alexandra.

    ��Look.�� I point to the painting and they follow my finger.

    ����... What the hell?���� They mutter at the same time.

    In the painting there is an enormous castle in an island surrounded by another island shaped like a ring with walls and towers in it on the water of the capital''s bay. There are towers with something similar to ballistas spread out everywhere and an enormous bridge connecting the castle to the rest of the capital.

    ��That��s one way to interpret ��from the ground up��.�� Says auntie.

 C20

    ��Yawn.�� So hungry, I feel like I could eat a whole boar.

    I lift the covers and�� This isn��t my room.

    Ah right, I made a mess of my room, I remember now. But did I finish designing the sewage system? That I don��t remember�� Whatever, food comes first�� after finding out whose room is this.

    I get out of the bedroom and find out, it��s Athena��s guest quarters. ��Young master Lance, you��re awake! I��ll inform Lady Athena at once, please excuse me.�� There goes the maid. Oh right.

    ��Bring me breakfast on your way back, a big one.�� I say before she leaves.

    ��Understood, young master.�� With that I sit down and wait for my food.

    I feel like I��m forgetting something�� Oh right, since I passed out, Athena will be- ��LANCE!�� Speak of the devil, err, think of the devil? One way or the other, she��s pissed off as expected.

    This is going to be a long morning.

    ~~

    I wasn��t allowed to work on my plans for a week after that, although I don��t feel it��s much of a punishment since I could use a change of pace after concentrating on the plans so much��

    Is what I thought until the princess, who was ecstatic about the castle plans, introduced me to her friends, who are also a bunch of art nerds.

    ��I quite like the way you used color on this one, what gave you the idea?�� Asks the redhead woman (I refuse to remember their names).

    What is she asking? ��...I wanted to give it more color?�� Is she expecting me to answer with something like ��I wanted to bring out the soul of the princess in this painting�� or something? I��m not very good with subjective stuff like that, I just used magic to paint a picture of the princess and then stylized it in a colorful way with patterns that reminds me of the art nouveau style.

    They react to my answer with silence and furrowed brows, until the brown haired man seemed to come to a realization. ��I see! You used the colors surrounding the princess to bring out the flowery characteristics of her beauty.�� He nods to himself while stroking his beard.

    Now that I look again, the way the colors surround her does remind me of a flower- Wait a moment! I��m the one who made the painting!

    ��Oh! In this one she gives off a brooding feeling, like she��s getting ready for war.�� No, she��s just looking down and there��s more shadows.

    ��Even I didn��t know I could look like that until he showed it to me.�� Says the princess. ��While most painters have trouble depicting reality, Lance goes beyond and carves parts of reality away to give focus to an emotion.��

    I swear, I just used more black paint, that��s all.

    ��Speaking of carving, I heard you can also make sculptures and pottery?�� The lady with the big nose asks.

    ��Yeah, I used to make various things to practice mana control, besides, it can be fun.�� I answer.

    ��Did you ever make anything as big as the stained glass windows?��

    ��Yeah, all the time. I used to build small forts and big towers over several weeks.��

    ��What?! Where?!�� Why is she so excited?

    ��Back home on the north, they were all demolished, though. Only a few bridges remained.��

    ��Demolished?! Was it the barbarians?!��

    ��Calm down!�� I��m right here, no need for shouting. ��I demolished them myself, they were getting in the way of the army��s work.��

    ��Oh�� Have you built anything like that around here?��

    ��Aside from the train, I��m currently working on the- mhrmm�� The princess puts her hand on my mouth. Rude!

    ��That one is confidential for now.�� She says.

    ��Confidential? How do you plan to hide something like that?�� I��m not going to make a camouflaged castle�� Or am I?

    ��It��s only for now, don��t worry.�� Oh, ok.

    These higher-ups are so fussy about everything. ��Anyway, on the scale of the windows, I think there��s only the train for now...�� I continue to explain about the train.

    These guys are a little annoying, but they��re not that bad a company, I��m feeling a little bad for not remembering their names.

    Only a little though.

    ~~

    After that break I went on to make ships and riverboats. The princess is mad that I didn��t start on the castle right away, but I need the ships to build the foundations for the castle�� And I might as well make riverboats while I��m at it.

    While I was working on that, I was informed that I don��t need to hide my bloodline anymore, since the people who need to know have been informed and measures have been taken in case of trouble.

    I would wonder about what kind of trouble there could be, but I��d rather not stress myself with that and just be glad that something that could go wrong, didn��t go wrong. Take that, Murphy.

    Some people would give surprised reactions when they see me now, but since I��m in the palace, most people here were in the know. Sadly, the number of guards that follow me everywhere I go has pretty much tripled. Oh damn, that guy is a royal knight.

    I have a royal knight as a guard now�� Does this change anything? I don��t think so.

    Whatever, let��s remember his name. ��Hello, sir. I��ll be relying on your protection from now on, can you tell me your name?��

    ��... Sir Lance, we��ve met before, my name is Mattias�� Oh fuck. I quickly look around, I hope Athena didn��t hear that.

    She heard it.

    And she made sure I heard her scolding after that.

    Fuck off, Murphy.

    ~Time skip~

    Construction of the foundation for the castle started. I��m using ships to pick up sand/dirt from other parts of the bay��s underwater floor, and piling it up on the future location of the island.If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

    Well, I say ��I��m�� but it��s mostly the queen��s people using the stuff I made. When it comes to me, I��m underwater with my golems making a stone wall surrounding the initial dirt mound. This wall will be enchanted and then surrounded by more dirt. This enchanted wall will help making the foundation more solid and keep it from being eroded by waves over time.

    This wall will also serve as the main protection against underground and underwater attacks, so I��ll need to prepare some countermeasures for that kind of thing as well. And, although I didn��t write it down in any of the plans, I��ll personally dig a secret tunnel that will go underground, across the bay, and back to the surface on land.

    I��m using a diving suit, the type that kind of reminds you of an astronaut, to oversee the golems.

    There��s no need to worry about dangerous monsters here, since everything in this bay was overhunted (overfished?) to hell and back... But being underwater is still creepy, so I have a golem keeping watch with detection spells.

    That��s another thing I made, golems with detection spells, I didn��t make many because the princess found out and told me to get back to working on the castle. But I think these will help with security in places without many sorcerers. The queen has already recognized the value of mana cores and allowed some of the more trusted sorcerers to learn how to make those.

    I��m excited to see what they will make.

    The islands will be built as one big island, but will have a large moat filled with seawater separating the island in an outside layer and an inside layer, the outside layer will have an entrance towards the inside of the bay, that��s the main entrance and the place where we��ll build a bridge.

    If you haven��t realized yet, the capital��s bay is huge, even when this is done, there will still be plenty of space for ships. And the center of the future bridge can be raised to allow for bigger ships to move freely and block the entrance to the castle at the same time.

    Mother will be visiting the capital soon. She will be using magic cars to get to Zaderi (port town I��ve been to once), and from there, take one of the new ships to come here, so it won��t take that long. I hope the train is up and running by the time she goes back.

    I think I��m already pretty good with the sword and body strengthening, but I have been delayed somewhat due to work. I hope mother doesn��t mind it.

    ~~

    ��Hmm... I guess this is good enough for a ten year old.�� Says my unimpressed mother. She just checked how good I was with the sword. ��But you rely too much on magic.�� Yeah, duh, I��m a ten years old kid fighting an adult, of course I rely on magic. That��s like complaining a man hunting a bear relies too much on his spear, even if it��s true, he would be an idiot if he didn��t.

    Like one would expect, I can easily surpass people who can��t use magic, but when it comes to those with it, I will always be at a disadvantage since I��m smaller. But thinking back to the barbarian Athena killed when she was ten, the current me should be able to kill him too.

    ��So, can I skip sword lessons for a whil-�� ����No!���� Both Athena and mother interrupt me.

    Damn. I like the sword, but I dislike dividing my time between the castle and the sword like I am now.

    ��Son, I��ve let you run wild since young because I didn��t want to stifle your potential, but now you��re ten years old, you aren��t a child anymore. You need to work on your discipline and composure.�� Says mom while Athena nods. ��No skipping sword lessons, no forgetting people��s names.��

    I��ve been snitched on!

    ~Time skip~

    The castle is almost done and I��m twelve years old. This construction speed might seem fast for a castle of this size but it could have been faster if those sorcerers the queen sent took their job seriously and read the instructions properly, the stuck up bastards.

    All that��s left is to enchant the whole thing and the weapons, so mages and sorcerers from all over the country are being gathered so that I can use their mana.

    The outer layer and the inner layer are going to be enchanted separately. The outer one will be a normal enchantment, but the inner one will have a mana core to allow it to have stronger enchantments.

    The weapons are going to be of multiple types. I made enchanted ballistae since that��s what this country��s military is the most used to, but I also made some golem-like magic turrets to guard various parts of the castle, including the places no knight would want to be stationed in, like the sewer system and the basement.

    But the real star of the show is the magic cannon. It doesn��t use gunpowder, because why would it? I only know how to make black powder (sulfur, charcoal and saltpeter, not sure of the amounts). But it uses the principles of an actual gun, as in, using extreme pressure in a confined space to push a projectile forward and using grooves to give it a spin in order to stabilize its flight.

    This baby is what gave me the most trouble during this whole time. I needed to experiment a lot to decide on the projectile material, weight, size, shape, rotation, flight speed and so on.

    I made multiple types of ammo too. There��s the solid and pointy one I just called AP for armor penetration, then you have the one with a concave point that is meant to break on impact, the hollow point or HP. I��m not sure how effective this kind will be in practice, but I imagine it should help spread out damage on lightly armored targets.

    But there��s no way I��d leave it at that, is there? I turned a few rounds into mana cores and had them self-destruct on impact, resulting in the magic version of high explosive rounds, HE. And for those with enough armor to stop the AP one, I made a round with shaped charges as inspiration that concentrates the explosion of a HE round into a single point, this one was just SC for shaped charge.

    Together with an HI round for high incendiary and the mana disruption round, MD, for big monsters and magic barriers, we have AP, HP, HE, SC, HI and MD. Now the problem is that few people can make any round other than AP and HP, but that��s not for me to worry.

    But if you think I��d be done with just raw power you are gravely mistaken, the cannon itself has three mana cores in three different parts of it that serve three different functions.

    You have the barrel core, that is responsible for shooting, the base core that is responsible for moving the barrel in reaction to the high recoil and holding the other two in place.

    And the targeting system. Yes, you heard me right, I made a goddamn targeting system. The gunner uses it to mark a target and the system will compensate for the distance, wind speed, target movement and even water refraction to tell the gunner where he should aim at.

    The only way to dodge is to move fast and change directions quickly, but anything that can do that shouldn��t be too heavy and you wouldn��t need a goddamn cannon to destroy, the magic turrets should be enough. And even then, the gunner can turn off certain aspects of the targeting system, like compensation for target movement, and aim by himself.

    In case of flying enemies, I made magic turrets specialized for that, and if they are slow enough the cannons will work on them just fine.

    To enchant the place using the mana of the many mages and sorcerers I had to make a new device, this one is a big platform with an altar-like protrusion in the center, that��s where I��ll stand on.

    ��Thank you for coming everyone!�� I speak to the small crowd. ��I��m Lance Chevalier and I��ll be the one using your mana. Just walk into the platform orderly, push most of your mana in it through your feet and walk away in that direction.�� I explain.

    They follow my instructions and I begin the large scale enchantments. Controlling so much mana is a little hard, but since the consumption keeps up with the supply, it��s not that bad and I get used to it quickly. The mana usage isn��t very efficient due to the huge area I��m spreading it out on, but that��s the whole point of using so many people, so it��s cool.

    ~~

    It takes two hours of enchantment for me to be done, making the castle��s mana core took a lot of effort, only ten of my mana batteri- err, voluntary helpers still haven��t taken part.

    There, now the castle is done. Now I only have to finish the bridge, set up the garden, and make every single furniture, carpet, curtain and banner�� whose idea was it to have me- oh right, it was my idea, never mind.

    Maybe mother is right and I do need more discipline, huh?

    *Crash!* *Thump thump thump thump* *Boom!*

    Oh, that? That��s just the classic ��ambush when the country��s strongest are weakened�� being stopped by the barriers I set up earlier and being annihilated by the golems and magic turrets I left nearby. There��s also a group of royal knights left aside for just this kind of thing, but they are inside the barrier and making sure there is no enemy amongst the ones inside.

    ��Calm down, everyone. We were prepared for this kind of thing.�� I address the ones inside. Their shoulders relax a little, but they still keep alert.

    I thought anyone who would try this kind of thing would be perceptive enough to see the defenses and smart enough call off the attack, but I guess I was wrong.

    Oh, right, we need captives to interrogate. I command the golems to capture the one with the fanciest clothes alive. Then I charge up in mental power and start scanning the minds of everyone inside the barrier.

    I didn��t even need to get a headache. I found one amongst the ten guys that still had mana. I cast a disruption bolt while shouting ��Capture that man!��

    The ones near him take advantage of my disruption bolt and knock him out.

    When I��m going to start checking out the ones without mana, someone charges at me with a sword, not very smart, honestly. The royal knights guarding me still have all their mana and beat him down with just their fists without me needing to do anything.

    Why can��t people just play nice? I doubt these two and their families were treated badly before this.

    Whatever, I��ll let the royal family worry about this mess. I have a bridge to build.

    I��ll ask for the cannibal strengthening technique when this is done, if they refuse I��ll never listen to their demands again.

 C21 Puberty

    The castle is done, and it better go down in history as one of the world��s wonders from the metric tons of beauty I shoved into it. Even the goddamn secret tunnel is pretty, and the bridge is borderline heavenly. I made sure to add flowers and vines in aesthetically pleasing places without overdoing it, the royal gardener will have his work cut out for him.

    I even gave the vases enchantments to turn the salty smell of the sea into flowery scents.

    The only place I feel it��s a little too gaudy is the throne room, but whatever, as long as the history books remember that it wasn��t my idea to use so many jewels, it��s fine.

    How would the history books know that, you ask? Because I��m the one writing it! There��s no way I��m letting the last three years of my life be excused as receiving a divine revelation or other such nonsense. I��m writing down what I did and why I did it, while leaving some details about security aside, of course.

    Oh, talking about security, the attack last time was instigated by someone from Heiron, the country located beyond the monster territory to the west. Usually they just sponsor pirates to raid ships in our waters, but it seems theydecided on weakening our national might after hearing of the alliance with Endel.

    In light of this I made a few ships inspired by the idea of the dreadnought. The cannons in it aren��t as big as the castle��s though. The Chevalier grandpas and grandmas leading the navy loved it anyways, though. The arcane radar I put in there should be a big help.

    The ship simply has more armor, speed, power and utilities than the enemies��, so it dreads naught. They can��t hurt it, outrun it, defend from it or hide from it.

    I��m leaving asking for forbidden knowledge for later, I��m thinking it might be better to get curse magic for an idea I have.

    While I was working on making airplanes with mana cores to finish off the trio of ground, water and air, the endelian prince arrived to marry our princess.

    ~~

    Like most endelians he has pale skin and dark hair, his hair has a little bit of blue in it, not like a raven but more like some parts are blackish and some parts are dark-bluish. So this is my future king, huh? His name is Kurt Endel.

    ��And this is Lance Chevalier, the one I told you about.�� The princess introduces me.

    I bow respectfully. ��It��s an honor, your highness.��

    ��Yes, it��s the same for me. Seeing you, I still can��t help but be surprised by your young age, even if I was told about it clearly.�� Endel speaks the same language as Sylvian, and so do most countries nearby, but everyone speaks slightly differently. Endel pronounces sounds like ��S�� and ��A�� differently from us. But it��s not different enough to not understand, only slang terms sometimes aren��t shared.

    ��I was very impressed by that ��train�� of yours, I was discussing with Catherine about building a ��railroad�� crossing the border.�� He continues. Don��t tell me that, the royal family has the blueprints, they don��t need me to make more trains or railroads.

    Of course, I��m not saying that out loud. ��Thank you for your compliments, your highness. I worked hard on those.�� Neither confirm nor deny, Lance, just smile.

    After that they moved on to introducing more people. Dealing with people with higher status than me is so awkward. I hate having to speak politely.

    ~~

    After I��m done with the airplanes I had to teach a royal knight how to pilot one.

    She chose the kind of plane that doesn��t have a co-pilot to learn how to drive, so I had to teach her the same way I taught Athena. In other words, I��m on her lap.

    ��No, Lady Joann, you need to pull it back to go up.�� I explain calmly.

    The thing is, Lady Joann is a charming young woman, and since I��m at the initial stages of puberty, being in close contact with her is distracting.

    ��Sir Lance, Athena told me about doing a loop, can I do that?�� Goddamn it, it��s Athena��s fault she wanted to fly this style of plane, huh?

    ��Sure, we just need to get some altitude first.��

    I teach her how to do it. She giggles happily when she succeeds. Stop giggling behind my ears! I can feel your breath!

    Calm down, deep breaths, she��s old enough to be your�� She��s not old enough to be your mother but she��s still much older than you��

    Being a teenager sucks.

    ~~

    Done! with the castle, land, water and air transportation AND the arcane telegraph under my belt, I should be able to get both the cannibal thingy and curse magic�� That and I need to get it done before the coronation ceremony, don��t want to deal with that art nerd, who knows what she��ll ask for next.

    The current queen is more reasonable.

    ��You want two sections of forbidden knowledge? Did you even study ritual magic at all?�� Ah, right, completely forgot about that.

    ���� Is that a no?�� I ask carefully.

    She sighs. ��Fine, you��ve proven yourself to be very helpful to the country�� But I have a small task I want your help with.�� I take it back, neither of them are reasonable. ��I wanted you to make the new crown DURING the coronation ceremony, I��m sure it would be a nice spectacle, don��t you think, dear?�� The king nods.

    Well, that��s not too big of a deal, but it might not be that impressive. ��Sure, but I��d need to practice a little bit to be able give it some flair.��

    ~~

    There, the new queen has been crowned and I made a cool show with fire and lightning, now back to the stuff that matters.

    The reason I wanted the Cannibal thing is NOT because I want to eat people, it��s because I wanted to see if I could learn something from it to use on blood (without drinking it, that��s gross) and stuff, because of my bloodline and all that.

    And the curse magic, I was thinking it could be used to help commoners feel mana by disabling all other senses temporarily.

    But that��s for later, for now I��m tired, so I��ll just study these things on my own while making swords and armor and training with the sword to relax my mind. Like a vacation�� No, I know I just described work, but it��s relaxing for me and 100% resting would be boring and stressful

    I��m not workaholic, I swear��

    �� Maybe I��ll just learn how to cook something other than just roast and boil things��Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings.

    ~Time Skip~

    For the last half a year I��ve been focusing more on the sword and unarmed combat. Now that I don''t have to divide my attention it��s a lot of fun. Even pain and injury isn��t scary since I can just heal everything, so it��s only annoying when you��re pumped up with adrenaline.

    I��ve studied the ritual magic, curse magic and cannibal thingy. Out of ritual magic I only got a little bit of usable knowledge, since most of it involves sacrifices, but I managed to come up with enchantments through engraving symbols on things. Not sure if it��s better or worse, haven��t experimented enough, but there is potential here.

    The cannibal thingy is as gross as you��d expect, I only managed to improve the amount of mana I get from blood by a little bit, so that��s a big disappointment. I should have gone with necromancy.

    But curse magic is more interesting than it first seemed. Yes, decreasing all other senses can help with feeling mana, but as it turns out, mana sense is kind of connected to one��s sense of touch in general, so by focusing on that and reversing it, I managed to actually increase one��s mana sense through enhancement magic.

    So I made a ��sense chamber�� that is pretty much just a water tank with a breathing mask that weakens every other sense while strengthening one��s mana sense.

    To test if it works I went to the place where conscripted soldiers are trained and brought the sense chamber with me on a truck, my bodyguards have their own cars. Kind of Ironic that children shouldn��t drive but a child was the one who introduced cars in this world.

    Arriving there I look for someone I��ve met once. There he is.

    ��Hey, uncle! Can you help me with something?�� I ask him.

    ��Hmm?�� The trainer uncle turns to me, I don��t remember his name, but Lady Joann introduced him to me and asked me to heal his missing arm. ��Oh! Sir Lance! How can I help?��

    ��I want to test something, follow me.�� I walk back to the sense chamber without waiting for an answer and ignoring the recruits he was teaching earlier. I remember him because while introducing him, Lady Joann mentioned he did a great job for someone without mana and earned the rare chance to be trained in mana even without any instinct or bloodline.

    But he couldn��t learn it and remained on the lower ranks until now that he is in his thirties.

    If my sense chamber works on him it should work on almost everyone. ��Just put this mask on, get in there and try to sense your mana and the mana in this jewel, don��t worry about getting wet, I can dry you later.�� The jewel was enchanted to be as obvious to mana sense as possible. ��If you manage to sense your mana, try to circulate it through your body. Go.��

    He seems to take a moment to understand everything, and then he takes a deep breath and enters while leaving his sword and sheath on the ground.

    This should take a while�� What should I do while waiting?

    Looking around, I see the recruits�� and a blunt training sword nearby��

    ��Hey guys, how about some sparring?�� I give them my brightest smile, they don��t seem to like it very much.

    ~~

    After about one and a half hour.

    ��Ah, don��t be a baby, it��s just a broken arm.�� I heal her. ��There, good as new. Now, you five over there are already rested right? Let��s go round two.��

    The chamber opens right then. Finally.

    I approach him and dry him up. ��Let��s see���� I concentrate on his mana and�� Yep, it��s moving. It��s too slow to do much, but it��s good enough. With this sensing mana becomes much easier and he can work on it by himself. ��Thanks for the help.�� I say to the man who seems to be having an emotional moment or something as I pack things up on the truck and leave, bodyguards in tow.

    In exchange for this I should be able to get necromancy.

    ~~

    I made ten of those chambers in exchange for necromancy, but like the others it was mostly disappointment, the bastard that wrote these notes didn��t know jack about souls, just stumbled into something that kind of worked. And even then it didn��t quite work since he still had to turn the bodies into something similar to golems for it to work.

    I��m feeling doubtful about disease and prayer magic. Well, prayer magic I was always doubtful about since it was written down that it was random and could make people who use it go bonkers.

    Sigh.

    ~~

    I started to get in contact with writers of various subjects in order to try and make standardized educational books with a gradual difficulty increase. I also got help from auntie.

    ��Lance, dear, are you doing this because you want to be a teacher?�� Asks auntie.

    ��No way!�� I hurriedly shake my head. ��I just want to get the books and the system ready, the teaching can be done by someone else.�� Teaching is not my kind of thing, thank you.

    ��Thought so. But what do you mean by system?��

    ��Oh, that. I��m thinking of starting a school to teach basic things like reading and math to commoners.��

    Auntie looks at me with confusion. ��Why?��

    ��To improve the quality of the country��s workforce.�� Just basic education would do wonders for the country��s culture. Well, that and I��m hoping this will help prevent mass unemployment caused by sudden technological advancements brought by the mana cores down the line.

    She frowns. ��This just isn��t your style, Lance. In what way is this entertaining you?��

    ��Uh, exchanging letters with the best writers in the country can be pretty entertaining.��

    She just frowns harder.

    I sigh. ��Fine, I just want to get disease magic.��

    ��Oh, that makes more sense, but why this of all things? Can��t you just make other things like the train?��

    ��How many things like the trains do you think I can make?��

    ��I��m pretty sure you already made a few.��

    ���� Whatever, education of the masses is just as important as trains, if not more on the long term.��

    ��But will it be enough to get you disease magic, though?��

    ������

    Fuck, that art nerd won��t give me disease magic for this, will she?

    I should just publish the books and move on to trying out the heads up display idea.

    ��Yeah, fuck schools.��

    ��Lance! Language!�� Oops. I said that out loud.

    At that moment, Athena opens the door without knocking, like always. At least it gives me a chance to change the subject.

    ��Lance, I��m going to a dance tomorrow. Can you be my pair?�� She asks out of nowhere.

    Geh, I��ve went to a couple of these before, not a big fan. I just eat the food and avoid people.

    Seeing my displeased expression, Athena continues. ��Oh, come on, Lance. You know I don��t have any male friends, you wouldn��t make me go alone, would you?�� Athena doesn��t befriend men because they often approach her only for her status.

    ��But dancing with my sister is so lame����

    ��It��s just one dance, you can go eat after that while I talk with my friends.�� Well, I guess I can do this for her. But only because she reminds me of people��s names when I forget them.

    ��Fine.�� I still remember you snitched me to mom, though.

    ��Thanks.��

    ~~

    The dance is going like normal, that is to say, boring.

    We walked in holding hands and walking at the same pace as we are announced loudly. After that, Athena talked to people she knows while I kept a smiling mask on my face.

    The actual dancing part of the dance could be fun, but it��s so stiff it becomes boring after the first minute.

    With that done, I��m about to go grab some food when suddenly. ��Sir Lance, may I have this dance?��

    I look at the girl and my eyes are only lacking the actual words to say ��you focking wot, m8?��

    ��Lance, don��t be rude.�� Athena grabs my hand and puts it on the girl��s.

    This woman, she��s selling me out!

    If I make a scene I��ll never hear the end of it, so I just go along for now. But I��ll never go with Athena to a dance again. This card of yours was single-use.

    While dancing the girl begins the conversation. ��Sir Lance, I��m a big fan of your work.�� Yeah, sure, and I bet you��re an even bigger fan of my bloodline. ��I picked up enchanting thanks to being inspired by a sword you made long ago.��

    I still can''t get used to be called ''Sir''. ��Oh, you picked up enchanting?�� Isn��t she trying too hard?

    ��Yes, I did. I was wondering why you never seem to make the popular style of fire shooting swords. Is there a technical reason?��

    ������ Looking at this girl again, beauty aside, she looks to be my age. And yet, here she is trying so hard to make conversation. Oh well. ��I don��t believe I caught your name?��

    ��My name is Sarah Morgan, sir.�� She answers with a smile. The Morgans are responsible for a bunch of ports on the east, if I��m not mistaken.

    ��Well, Lady Sarah, do tell me, what is a sword for?�� I ask.

    ��Sir? A sword would be�� for killing?�� She answers unsure.

    At this part of the dance we do a little spin. ��Yes, but I��m talking about the specific methods and situations where the sword is used. The sword kills by cutting, piercing and very rarely by blunt impact, usually on very short ranges. As you can guess, none of those have anything to do with shooting neither fire nor lightning.��

    ��But sir, doesn��t a heated blade become very sharp?��

    ��Duly noted, Lady Sarah. But heating the blade softens the metal and could even undo the benefits from quenching and tempering. The sword might even break apart if it hits good enough armor. ��She makes a ��Oh�� expression. ��In any case, neither fire nor lightning is more effective than simply using a telekinetic aid for the cutting and piercing on their own, and if the swordsman really needs a little extra range, one can just enchant it with a force cut with minimal usage of room for the enchantments����

    When I noticed, I was babbling on. In my defense, she��s done her research.

    When the song was over, ��Thank you for the dance, Sir Lance. The conversation was also very insightful.�� She gives me a curtsy.

    ��May I have the honor of the next dance, Sir Lance?�� Another one?

    I look at her offered hand while thinking for a few moments.

    Oh, to hell with it. ��Sure.�� It beats sitting around waiting for the time to go home to arrive.

    Now, did this one also study about one of my interests?

    ��I heard you have a pet monster wolf up north, Sir Lance? My family has a large selection of tamed monsters down south����

    Well, I��ll be damned. Maybe these seduction attempts aren��t that bad.

    At least they��re entertaining.

 C22 Tournament and Preparations

    I��m finishing up the work on the books, I need to make tons of copies so it becomes cheap to anyone, so I also had to make machines to help with making paper and mass printing.

    I had an old acquaintance of mine, Horace, in charge of ��selling�� the books around the country, but really, he��s charging almost nothing for the books. Most of the expenses have been covered by me with money the crown owed me. The price exists only for the books to not be seen as worthless.

    This won��t magically allow for street urchins to become scientists, but maybe the son of the baker or the daughter of the town guard will be able to learn how to read and a few other elementary things, like calculating income and expenses and understand that Endel isn��t a very big or mighty country, but has plentiful mines.

    Auntie also kept a bunch of copies as well.

    I also wrote down every vague scientific concept (I call them theories in the book) I could remember, but that I don��t understand or remember fully, these ones I didn��t actually spread through the country. I don��t want my mumblings to make me seem insane or foolish.

    It��s been a long time since that dance Athena tricked me into going, I went to two more since then, but at the third one I started getting bored of the superficial conversations�� And a few older girls began doing stuff that borders on sexual harassment, but that��s beside the point.

    ��So, Lance, you��ll be fifteen soon. Have you decided on a girl to marry yet?�� Asks Athena during a meal.

    ��No, I�� Wait, I don��t want to listen to a single 23-year-old asking me that!��

    ��... Really? Not even the Julian sisters?�� She asks, completely ignoring what I said.

    The Julian sisters are of a bloodline widespread worldwide, like the giants. They are similar to normal fantasy elves, they have pointy ears, slender bodies and slowed aging, although only on appearance, they still only live as long as anyone else.

    Their magic instinct is one that permanently enhances their senses, so they usually make for good scouts and that kind of thing.

    ��No, they��re pretty, but they��re a little bit stuck up for me.�� They always act high and mighty when talking with anyone that isn��t higher status than them. It��s to the point I wonder how they remember everyone, I guess they have a good memory.

    ��Well, you better hurry and pick someone before mother does, and I��m pretty sure if mother doesn��t pick someone, grandmother will.��

    ��Yeah, right.�� I answer while rolling my eyes. ��If I refuse to marry someone, what are they going to do? Force me? Can they really risk me running away?�� I��m pretty sure I already did more than enough for the country to be excused from this kind of thing.

    ��They just want you to have an heir as soon as possible, since your bloodline was born from the royal family��s�� Did you hear about the tournament?��

    About the what? ��No, what tournament?��

    ��Well, you know how mom asked dad��s hand in marriage after dad won a combat sorcery tournament?�� I nod. ��Well, someone thought that since it worked for dad with mom, it should work for a girl with you too. So some girls started organizing a combat tournament.��

    For fuck��s sake, mom and dad were already planning to marry before that tournament, dad only used the tournament to prove his combat skills to any Chevalier that might disapprove of a merchant��s son marrying mom. I face palm�� Before I stand up in panic.

    ���� WAIT! No one promised my hand in marriage to the winner right?!��

    ��No, but�� Her majesty turned the tournament into an official national event, all women born in Sylvian and less than 20 years old are allowed to participate, and there��s a reward for even the fifth place in both categories, high ranking commoners will also have a high chance of receiving a knight title or more����

    Man, I should really pay more attention to the royal announcements. Does she mean sorcery and martial arts when she says ��both categories��?

    ��Oh�� So it��s not about me anymore? At least some good has come out of this mess.��

    ��No, well�� Since it��s now a tournament sponsored by the crown, it��s become an implied truth that the winner is the girl with the highest chance of marrying you���� She says while scratching her cheek.

    ��What a proper mess�� Well, I��m not healing the participants in that case.�� Completely ignoring my will, they deserve everything that happens�� Well, maybe not if they lose limbs and-

    ��No! The least you could do is healing them in support!�� Says Athena. Am I hearing some panic in her voice?

    ���� What did you do, Athena?�� I ask while staring at her and keeping my face emotionless.

    ��Huh? What do you mean?�� She��s looking everywhere but not at my eyes, suspicious. I just keep staring at her. ��Err, I might have been the one to talk about mom and dad��s history����

    If that was all she wouldn��t be acting this suspicious, I narrow my eyes. ��And?��

    ��I, uh�� May also have been the one to give the idea of doing a tournament�� And told the queen about it�� And I might also be a referee for the tournament����

    I face palm again. ��Goddamn it, Athena. Did you get drunk, again?��

    ��That was only once!��

    I��m so done with this�� But should I heal them or not? I guess I should even if only the critical ones.

    ��Am I a softie?

    ~~

    While on a VIP seat overlooking the tournament arenas I work on the heads up display project, HUD for short.

    It��s the second day of the martial arts category. I��m mostly ignoring the fights, someone will call me if I��m needed.

    This HUD I��m working on would be a visor inspired by video games that displays information to a soldier that helps him make sense of the chaos of battle, like discerning friend from foe, showing enemy positions, current orders, that kind of thing.

    The original idea was to have only a visor that displays the info and a crystal of some sort to be a mana core that determines what to display, but when I was working on receiving orders I realized I��m thinking too small, why stop on the individual?

    My line of thinking is interrupted by the loud cheering from the outside and I��m starting to regret having come.

    But seeing the fight cleared the regret, the fight is clearly unfair, someone skilled in magic is fighting someone who can barely use self-strengthening, if this wasn��t the martial arts category, the former would probably just burn the later to ashes.

    But seeing their swordsmanship clearly shows why the fight isn��t over yet, the more magically inclined one seems to be more used to fighting monsters, where controlling the opponent��s weapon is either unnecessary or impractical, while the other one is using a style of swordsmanship clearly different from the orthodox Sylvian style.

    What jumps out the most is the way she seems to control her opponent��s sword, the Sylvian style tends to avoid binding blades since that might damage the sword too much, that��s what shields are for.

    The one with more mana still wins though, so I asked one of my guards to call the loser up here.

    ��Here she is, sir.�� He says before he leaves. The girl seems tense and uncomfortable.

    ��Thank you for coming, miss. My name is Lance Chevalier, what should I call you?�� I introduce myself politely.

    ��My name is Chiara. It��s nice to meetcha- *ahem!* Meet you, Sir Lance.�� She corrects herself mid-speech and does a messy curtsy by lifting the corners of her tunic.

    ��Haha, no need to be so stiff, miss Chiara, you can speak normally.�� One can tell she didn��t grow up with money just by looking at her clothes, hair and skin. She has dark brown eyes and hair, which she keeps short. ��I called you to ask you about your swordsmanship, where did you learn it? From whom?��

    Hearing that, her shoulders lose some tension. ��Oh, that. I learned it back in Monreas, from a pirate hunter called Jacque.�� Monreas, if I��m not mistaken, is a big port on the west coast, right?

    ��Was this pirate hunter from Sylvian?�� I wonder if this swordsmanship is from another country.

    ��I��m sorry, sir, I don��t know. I�� I only watched his classes in secret. The only time I talked to him, he only gave me a few tips����

    Oh well, that��s fine too. ��I have an offer for you. Teach me what you know, and in exchange I will help you improve your magic, as well as give you food, lodgings and that kind of thing.��

    She fidgets a little in hesitation. ��Sir, I�� I didn��t really join the tournament to become your concubine or anything of the sort, I just-��

    ��Don��t be stupid,�� I interrupt her. ��I also didn��t come here to look for a wife or lover, you silly girl, I��m here in case there��s someone critically woun-�� And I��m interrupted in turn by the loud audience once again.The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

    Speak of the devil, someone just lost an arm, how does this even happen? The weapons are blunt�� ��Sir Lance!�� One of my guards barges in the room.

    I just wave him away. ��Excuse me for a moment.�� I say to Chiara before jumping out of the balcony and using weaken fall to slow my descent.

    I��m already used to healing this level of thing and the wounded girl already passed out, so I have time to talk to the one responsible for the wound. ��What happened?�� I ask the black haired girl looking over with an interested expression.

    ��I told her I was going to stop holding back if she didn��t surrender, but she didn��t listen.�� Her tone of voice seems defensive, as in defending herself from an accusation.

    ��Oh well, she probably thought you were bluffing or something.�� But still, you��d think there would be many stops between weak blows and limb tearing blows, I didn��t know someone could be this bad at controlling their strength.

    The healing done I give a wave to the audience and a nod to Athena who��s nearby as the referee.

    As I walk away the black haired competitor calls out. ��Sir Lance!��

    ��What?��

    ���� Are you really marrying the winner of the tournament?��

    ��No way! Would YOU marry someone just because they won a tournament?��

    ��I don��t know���� She answers while fidgeting with her bloodied spear. ��Maybe?��

    I just roll my eyes in return. ��Good luck.��

    Back in my VIP room, I talk to Chiara again. ��As I was saying, I came here to heal people critically wounded. As you may know, usually, people well trained in strengthening magic are only allowed to fight other well trained people, but that��s not the case in this tournament.�� I explain. ��Oh right, talking about healing, let me check you for any hidden problems.��

    I don��t wait for her to answer and grab her hand and close my eyes to concentrate on the diagnosis. ��Do you have any scars you want me to leave be?�� I ask. Eleanor didn��t want me to heal her scars, she seems a little proud of those.

    ��Uh, no, I don��t.�� I nod. She has a couple of bones that didn��t heal properly, various skin damages that accumulated over time and her left eye seems messed up somehow, did she get hit in the eye? Are the tournament healers slacking off?

    With that done, I go back to my offer. ��So, how about it, will you teach me?��

    She seems dazed for a moment before she kneels and answers ��Yes, sir. Please allow me to teach you.��

    ��What��s with the kneeling?�� I ask.

    ��Uh, aren��t I supposed to kneel when I��m hired by a noble?��

    ��That��s only if swearing loyalty. Can you imagine having a shoemaker kneel every time you go hire him to make a shoe?�� Nobles usually have many shoes.

    ��Oh����

    ��Yeah����

    Well, this is Awkward��

    ~~

    The magic and sorcery part of the tournament was more entertaining, and people got critically wounded more often, but everyone was a good sport and avoided going for the head, so no one died.

    I don��t know if I can heal someone who had their brain destroyed, but I doubt it. If the damage is small it should be fine though.

    I��m already fifteen, so Athena will go back home after the tournament is over.

    I��m going with her even if only temporarily, I want to see Gray and Noah, who should be seven now.

    Oh, right, mom and dad too, totally didn��t forget them, yep.

    Right now I��m in a dinner with the current and previous queens and kings, and various military leaders, Chevalier or otherwise. The old men all have white mustaches or mutton chops and the old women all use magic to ��dye�� their hair in fancy colors, both men and women have bodies that would make many young people green with envy.

    Not me, of course, I��m developing just fine�� At least my skin is better��

    ��We��re invading Heiron!�� Says the queen out of nowhere, in her willful tone as usual.

    I��m just going to pretend I didn��t hear that. These potatoes taste great. ��Your majesty,�� One of my great grand-aunts begins. ��You mean to merely deliver punishment for their actions or perhaps do you mean to conquer the whole country?�� She doesn��t even question our ability to succeed.

    By ��their actions�� she means both the assassination attempt when I enchanted the castle and the pirate sponsoring they have been doing for who knows how long.

    While the various vehicles I made and the castle used tons of resources, the train and the cargo ships have the country��s economy more active than a happy puppy.

    That together with the all-time low bandit and pirate activity due to better scouting, communication and troop-mobilization (never mind the somewhat primitive dreadnoughts), and our country has the resources, both human or otherwise, needed for putting Heiron down like a mad dog.

    ��Conquest will be our intention. However! Our main objective is merely their coastal lands, we shall target the rest of their lands only if the cost on our troops isn��t too high. With just the coast we will greatly decrease the pirates to our west and force traders from further inland to go through us in order to have access to the great sea.�� Answers her majesty. The old people all nod in approval of the art nerd��s words.

    ��Your majesty, how much time do we have to prepare?�� Asks a taciturn old man who��s not a Chevalier.

    ��It��s uncertain, but we should have more than a year. I��d like to remind you that this conversation is confidential and to not begin the conscripting of soldiers before I give the say so.��

    The old people exchange looks before a Chevalier old man asks shortly ��Civil war?��

    ��Indeed! Civil war!�� Answers the queen. ��Our spies have reported that a civil war for the throne is about to begin in Heiron, the kingdom is divided between the first and second prince factions. I wish for us to attack the weakened victor before he has the chance to stabilize the country, as such, there is no fixed timeframe for the war preparations.��

    The previous queen (I��m not referring to them as Catherine the third and the fourth, that would be even more confusing) continues for her daughter. ��As you may guess, since we won��t be conscripting and criminal activity has lowered, the main preparations, for now, will be in the logistics side of things and training the soldiers we already have.��

    ��That��s where you come in, Lance.�� Says the current queen. ��I want you to help our logistics as a consultant, so that they can better use the new vehicles, and I want you to help with the training by making golems to serve as practice opponents and building parts of fortresses for siege practice.��

    Oh, so that��s why I��m here. That sounds like fun so I don��t mind doing those things even for free�� But I��m not going to tell her that though. ��What do I get out of it, your majesty?�� When I say that, Athena nudges me with her elbow while a frown decorates her face. Everyone else on the table simply sighs.

    Don��t look at me like that, you know very well my work won��t end with just some consulting and crafting, she could just have other people do that, I��m not the only one who knows how to make mana cores anymore and my construction methods are already written down in the royal castle��s library for others to learn.

    She most likely is banking on me getting carried away again, she doesn��t have to pay extra if I��m the one who��s asking to do something. The worst part is that I also believe I��ll get carried away when playing around with the military, of the top of my head I��m already imagining paratrooping knights�� hahaha, so anachronistic.

    My delusions are interrupted by the queen��s answer. ��I��m willing to allow you to access another section of forbidden knowledge.�� Ha! I see right through your ploy. Most things in that forbidden library is underdeveloped and mediocre, unless you consider gruesome murder a fun pastime, of course.

    I can already guess that disease magic won��t allow me to create counter-plagues like I was imagining when I first heard of it, and prayer magic is most likely merely intent-based magic rather than the control-based magic that is more widespread.

    ��Your majesty.�� I begin my counter attack. ��Correct me if I��m wrong, but you also wish me to take part in the coming war, do you not?��

    The art nerd narrows her eyes. ��Yes����

    ��And what would be the reward you were planning for that?��

    ���� Access to any magic secrets we acquire from Heiron���� She answers while still looking at me suspiciously. The old people in the table remain silent during this exchange while looking between me and the queen with curious expressions, aside from a few who simply don��t give a damn and don��t go back to eating simply because the queen is speaking.

    As I expected, she wants to bait me with magic. Heiron probably has even less magic secrets than we do, both in quantity and depth. I shake my head in answer. ��Your majesty, please answer me honestly: Have my works ever disappointed you?��

    The table falls into silence for several moments before the art nerd answers. ����You use too little jewels and gold sometimes�� And you refuse to get married obediently���� She answers with a somewhat apologetic expression. The first one is just your bad taste, and the second one isn��t related to work.

    But I��m not going to say that out loud, this is a rare opportunity to turn one of my projects from unprofitable generosity to profitable generosity�� depending on how you perceive profit of course.

    ��Your majesty, due to the mana cores, soon will be the dawn of a new age for our country.�� I begin. ��Can you imagine what would happen if I used mana cores and golems to optimize farming, mining and logging?�� When I say that, even the old leaders, previously bored of listening to the absolute leader of the country trying to negotiate with the country��s spoiled little genius, start paying attention again.

    Even the old royal couple has solemn faces. Most of the country��s manpower is occupied by those three jobs. ��While almost everything produced in our country would become cheaper, there would also be mass unemployment. Some fools might try revolting, but the ones affected the most will be the lowest of the low, the weakest of the weakest, so they wouldn��t be much of a threat, but����

    ��There would be mass migration, some would go to emptier parts of the country, others would flee the country entirely�� many would resort to crime���� The current queen isn��t as dumb as her fascination for shiny things implies. ���� Get to the point, Lance.�� There goes her patience.

    ��Thankfully we have too few enchanters capable of creating mana cores to optimize the whole country in any short amount of time, even if all the current ones tried. Sadly, that also means every other aspect of our technology will also be held back by this lack of numbers and resource gathering speed.�� I explain clearly. This is also the reason I don��t just make tons of magic guns for infantry, at the current state of the country I��m limited in terms of metals and enchanters�� That and I don��t want to introduce sniper rifles without developing counters for them.

    I continue. ��Here��s my suggestion: Public Education! Make the ignorant masses educated enough to not need to rely on those three areas of work for employment and have them do other work, work that is harder for a golem to do. Help as many children as possible receive basic education so that when we gradually decrease the jobs, they will be able to simply receive more education in something else.��

    I let my words sink in for a while.

    ��So that��s why you were writing books!�� Says the old king. ��You just wanted more resources to play with!�� Fuck off, old man�� But yeah, I need a lot of steel to make something like an aircraft carrier.

    ���� What does this have to do with your reward?�� Asks the current queen.

    ��I want both what you offered and this as my reward.�� I say without even a hint of shame on my face.

    ��Don��t you think you��re asking too much?�� She asks, her eyes narrowed with suspicion once again.

    ��Do you really think so, your majesty? Secret knowledge is, by its very nature, limited in development. I have to make something useful out of it by myself, like I did with the mana cores and using curse magic to make the sense chambers.�� In other words, the knowledge she offers isn��t worth much before I get my hands on it. ��That aside, I believe the castle we stand inside at this moment is more than enough proof that I will go beyond what you ask of me, as long as it��s not against your will, of course.��

    ���� ��As long as it��s not against her will�� you say�� But what of the ��country ruled by the people�� you spoke about in your letters to the writers and teachers that helped you write those books.�� Says the old king, his eyes narrowed in suspicion, just like the art nerd. Athena��s eyes widen and she tenses up.

    Well, shit. I only mentioned it in passing when discussing philosophy. Wait, they were spying my letters? That��s so rude.

    Oh well, drastic times require drastic measures. ��It is my personal opinion that monarchy is an unstable system of ruling in the long term.�� I speak honestly. ��It requires a single problematic ruler to bring down generations of progress and stability�� However, that is not to say it has no merits at all. Having all that power in the hands of a single individual means the country��s might is united behind a single will, as long as that single will is wise and competent, the country shall prosper.��

    I stand up, walk near the art nerd and kneel. I then use mind magic to open my mind to external intrusions. ��Don��t poke around too much.�� I say as my feeling of discomfort is pretty much broadcasted to the senses of everyone in the room.

    ��Well, in that case excuse m-�� ��Stop!�� The old king begins but is stopped by the current queen, his daughter.

    ��Lance��s actions so far show he has the best interest of the country at heart, it is unnecessary to do this.�� She says. Wow, I didn��t expect her to be so nice. ��Besides, what will you do if you ruin his artistic skills by accident? It��s too risky.��

    Oh, ok. Never mind then.

    At least my suggestion/request was accepted in the end.

    I really shouldn��t let my expectations get too high when dealing with this art nerd.

 C23 Kurt and Army Equipment

    *Kurt Endel Sylvian, the current king PoV*

    Sylvian changed since I came here when I was a boy, various things stayed the same, but the abilities of their enchanters took a massive leap.

    Carriages that don��t need horses, ships that need neither sails nor oars. And the train, oh the train, who knew travelling so fast was possible?

    �� I don��t remember much about the plane since I passed out when it separated from the ground�� But from the outside they look to be very fast too.

    And ��all of this is thanks to a young Chevalier�� is what I was told, but I always found that doubtful, ��Are they trying to improve the fame of the Chevalier even more?�� is what I thought.

    The Chevalier are already known far and wide as the key reason Sylvian managed to remain stable for so long, since any noble that tried to amass power would have a Chevalier inquisitor knocking on their door.

    Many countries kings tried to form an elite force similar to the Sylvian royal knights, but anyone that tried to create anything other than a small number of elite bodyguards ended up with rebellion or something similar. Even if those elites are part of the monarch��s family, like the Chevalier are to the Sylvian family.

    When I asked Catherine about how she maintains the Chevalier��s loyalty, she only said the obvious. ��I treat them as family and make sure they have the best of luxuries in the country.��

    I don��t know if she��s just keeping it a secret from me, but I doubt it since I was told of the existence of mind magic, although they didn��t allow me to learn it. I��ve read a book on the Chevalier that theorized there is something special about the Sylvian and Chevalier bloodline that makes the betrayal less likely.

    Oh right, back to the boy, even after I met him, I still felt he wasn��t that impressive aside from the fact he mutated his bloodline while young. My family only has a fire-based bloodline that isn��t even that strong, and here��s Sylvian improving theirs even further.

    I can only sigh about that.

    During the coronation I saw that he did have some skill when he put up a show by smelting the ores, forging and enchanting the new crown. But even then it was only a show, while the way the fire made the night seem like day and the way that lightning fell from the sky as if the gods were blessing the coronation were very pretty, it was still merely pretty.

    I did see him do some more impressive things but even those might just be something someone else taught him, so while I can accept him as a genius, I still find it doubtful that he is truly responsible for something like the train.

    But when Catherine was informing her military council about the invasion of Heiron is when I understood Lance��s position in Sylvian.

    When Catherine gave him an order, he answered with a ��what do I get out of it��! And that��s not the even biggest surprise, everyone, including Catherine, didn��t take this as insubordination!

    They took it as if it was merely a child being silly!

    While I was still speechless about the situation, he demanded a country-wide project as a reward ON TOP of receiving the most precious knowledge from both Sylvian and Heiron.

    And then my father-in-law brought up evidence enough for an execution, but people only seemed mildly suspicious! Catherine even refused to use mind magic on him when he offered. The feeling of sensing his mind was disturbing.

    After dinner was over I spoke to Catherine. ��Is this really fine? Don��t you find that ��country ruled by the people�� idea way too suspicious?��

    ��Kurt, dear. We have reports on Lance since he was a baby, if there��s one thing that��s safe to say about him, is that he would never want to deal with politics and diplomacy�� Honestly, even I abhor that kind of thing���� She sighs.

    So�� It��s safe to say he��s loyal because betrayal would be too troublesome?�� That��s a�� unique way of looking at things. ��And what of that ��public education�� project?��

    ��You heard what he said, this isn��t much for him as it is for the country itself�� I wonder how a country where everyone can read would look like. Would the country be filled with intellectual scholars discussing philosophy? Would there be more artists?��

    I think she��s exaggerating, but I guess it��s good to dream a little. ��What about that at the end? Why didn��t you read his mind when he offered?��

    ��Oh that. It��s not too complicated. There are two possibilities, Lance either wants to start a revolution or he doesn��t. If he doesn��t, there is no real problem and it is best if I don��t read his mind so that he will feel that I believe in him and will trust me more.

    If he does and I read his mind, we would have a rift between us and he might not work for the country anymore. But even if I don��t read his mind, we would still know he wouldn��t start a revolution alone, as long as we make sure he doesn��t gather powerful supporters we would both have him working for us and avoid a revolution.

    As such, it��s for the best if I don��t read his mind. But even then, I still think father was just being a worrywart, he��s too used with dealing with spies and can��t trust people anymore.��

    That��s�� A little bit more complicated than I expected��

    ~Back to MC~

    I��m waiting for the tournament to be over before I set out to help the soldier training.

    Talking about training, I have been practicing together with Chiara and my bodyguards. It��s fun to have something new to learn after so long.A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

    It didn��t take long for the tournament to be over, Chiara wasn��t among the commoners to receive Knighthood, but that��s to be expected, she��s still too weak for that, though her improvement is noticeable even during the short time we have been teaching each other.

    The winner of the martial arts category is one of Eleanor��s grandchildren, Ellie. She��s also of the giants�� bloodline, so she has more than two meters in height. She looks like a young Eleanor without scars and with green eyes instead of blue.

    ��Don��t worry Lance, grandma told me you weren��t really going to marry the tournament champion. But when they offered a position as your bodyguard I thought it would be fun, so I took it.�� Oh well, one more sparring partner, I suppose.

    The winner of the magic and spell category was actually one of my more distant kin, with vertical pupils and everything. Her name is Theodora, her part of the family is considered to have a ��thinner�� bloodline than usual, so she being born with very pronounced bloodline characteristics came as a surprise.

    ��It��s only logical for you to marry a Chevalier, so our children can have a higher chance of inheriting your bloodline.��

    ��Didn��t you hear Ellie? I��m not really going to marry you.�� Is she deaf?

    ��Don��t be silly, as if any man can resist my charms.�� She says as she adjusts her long brown hair with one hand and has the other on her hip.

    I can��t help but snicker a little. She��s older than me but she looks younger, so when she does a pose it looks a little silly.

    ��What are you laughing at?!��

    ��Oh, no, I wasn��t laughing. I just lost my breath from witnessing your beauty.�� Better to not be rude.

    ��Oh, that��s good then.�� She answers and pushes her chest out with both hands on her hips and chin raised up.

    I can��t help but snicker again, I think this time I heard Ellie snicker too. This time Theodora just returned a small smile.

    Athena enters the room at that moment. ��I still can��t believe you actually won, Theo. Why didn��t you tell me you were that strong?��

    ��You never asked.�� ��Theo�� answers with a smug grin. Oh, so they know each other.

    ��So that��s why you were trying to convince me to only suggest a sorcery tournament.��

    ��Uh, no, that was just because sorcery is superior to martial arts.��

    Oh, that��s not the case at all. ��If that was the case we wouldn��t train so many knights, now would we? While sorcery is great and more versatile than physical combat, self-strengthening is simply too mana-efficient and shouldn��t be underestimated.�� I correct her.

    Athena answers. ��She knows, dummy. She��s just saying that so it doesn��t seem she was trying to exclude her competition.�� Athena gives her a cheeky grin.

    ���� Anyway, are you also going to be a bodyguard for me?�� I ask the now pouting Theodora. She just nods.

    Normally bodyguards are only allowed to be of the same sex as the one they are protecting, but it��s not like I care much.

    ~~

    Before I left the capital for the big military encampment nearby, I had to organize the equipment side of things here.

    Conscripted soldiers are only given a spear, helmet, shield and boots. No actual armor, the soldiers themselves only grab the thickest, toughest clothes they have, whether they are made of cloth or leather, and use that as improvised armor.

    One shouldn��t underestimate the protection tough clothing can give, but it can��t really compare to proper armor.

    Many families have gambeson (proper cloth armor) that��s given to the younger ones being conscripted; those families with more money would have either leather plate armor, a mail shirt or scale mail.

    Only professional soldiers and knights have proper plate armor.

    The soldiers also need to bring a short blade, a blade somewhere between a hunting knife and a short sword, to use in case the spear breaks and for general utility. The poorer ones would just bring the biggest kitchen knife they have.

    Soldiers using kitchen knives and tough clothes don��t seem very acceptable to me, and the equipment they are actually given isn��t of the best quality either.

    The crown had already set up a smelting operation to make large quantities of steel a long time ago, so I just need to get the smiths organized and equipped with the tools needed to mass produce the equipment.

    With the right tools, steel plates can become quite cheap to make both in terms of money and time, so I went straight for making cuirasses. Of course, not everyone will get those at once, but the front line should have these.

    Even if they don��t get armor on their limbs, protecting the vitals can be enough to buy time to get them healed and ready to fight once again. Even if you��re a cold bastard that doesn��t feel a thing for the lives of the soldiers, better equipment and survival odds can do wonders for the troops morale, and morale can improve their combat effectiveness.

    If you have better gear than the opponent and that one time they stabbed you only gave you a scare before you were good to go again the next day, you won��t feel like running away as much when something scary happens.

    Mail shirts would be more convenient for maintenance and adjusting the size between people, but they just take too long to make and aren��t as effective as a cuirass. I considered buying the used ones in the country to give to those who aren��t on the frontlines, but then the materials would be of inferior quality.

    I��m pretty sure the mass production of cuirasses will have mail shirts decrease in price anyway, so if they really want those they might be able to buy it with a soldier��s salary.

    I also had helmets made that cover more of the head than just the top, but I made sure to not cover the ears, eyes, mouth and nose, so it ended up similar to the helmet I made when I was stuck in the monster territory, in other words, similar to the roman helmet.

    Being able to breathe well can do wonders for the soldier��s stamina, I don��t need to explain why being able to see is good, and being able to hear orders and communicate with your fellow soldiers is good for the troop��s cohesion.

    They currently use round shields, so I had to choose between kite shield (teardrop shape) and scutum (big rectangular roman shield, sometimes nicknamed tower shield) for the new shields.

    Round shields are ok, but they don��t match the human body��s profile (like a standing rectangle), so I��m not a big fan.

    The scutum is great for making tidy formations, but it��s hard to wield weapons larger than a short sword (like the gladius) together with it.

    Since the soldiers are used to using spears, I went with the kite shield, but I made sure to suggest the roman style of combat to the army��s higher ups, which is essentially a throwing spear, big shield and short sword used in tight formations.

    After improving the quality of the spears and having short swords made to substitute the blades they bring from home, I set up the making of training equipment, like weights for weight lifting and weighted shields, spears, short swords and armor. Of course I don��t have many made since, unlike with normal equipment, the soldiers can just take turns using the weights.

    Oh, when it comes to the boots, I have to give it to the country; they do give the soldiers some pretty good quality leather boots. But then again, they have to. If the soldier gets some disease on his feet while marching just because it rained a little, that could delay the marching speed by too much.

    And trust me, while fighting and formations always take the spotlight, being better at marching than your enemy can easily win wars.

    I just had to set up a production of rubber soles for the boots and that��s that. I can��t synthesize rubber using chemicals, but since I used it in carriages and cars, the country��s production of natural rubber increased.

    Equipment for those in higher ranks will have to be taken care of on a case by case basis since there can be a lot of variety in their preferences, especially when it comes to enchantments, that��s a logistical hell I��m not touching.

    I��ll leave that to the proper logistics guys and just advise in terms of what kind of steel or alloy to use.

    After making devices similar to photographic cameras and organizing some pilots to scout the enemy��s geography and fortifications I set off towards the training grounds.

    All that took almost two months; I feel that��s pretty fast when you consider all that I did. But even now the civil war hasn��t started yet. Maybe it will take longer than we expected?

    Well, more time for me to play soldier.

 C24

    It��s... IT��S BEEN A GODDAMN YEAR! Where��s the goddamned Heiron civil war?!

    I��ve come up with efficient physical exercises by using diagnostic magic during the practice.

    I��ve written books on basic spear and sword technique, WITH ILLUSTRATIONS.

    I��ve finished up my ��command center�� and ��visor�� projects.

    I have better maps of Heiron than Heiron themselves have!

    The public schools are already up and running too!

    I��ve went as far as organizing the various basic strategies and tactics for land-based combat. Do you have any idea how boring that research was?!

    I even practiced using fire burst! It still takes a lot of mana, but I can use it six times before I run out, it��s pretty cool, I also learned how to use a weaker version of it and��

    Wait! That��s not the point! I��m pretty sure I��ve done all I can here and that accursed civil war hasn��t even started yet! We still need to wait for it to be OVER before we attack!

    ��Lance, I��m already eighteen, how much longer are you going to make me wait?�� Says Theodora.

    ��Theo, for the hundredth time, I��m not going to marry you just because you said I should.��

    ��Why not?! We have been together for a year already, we are pretty much living the married life!��

    ��Because you��re fu- friggin�� annoying!��

    ��Nice save.�� Thanks Ellie.

    Athena went home already, so I��m stuck with my bodyguards for company.

    ��No, I��m not! I��m charming and beautiful! You just can��t admit your love for me�� Wait, could it be?�� Lance, have you cheated on me?!��

    I answer by slamming my face on the table. I should have just asked some quiet girl to marry me. I wouldn��t have to deal with this in that case.

    ��Ellie, was it you?!��

    ��Nah, I��m with you all of the time, aren��t I?�� Answers Ellie, her relaxed smile never leaving her face.

    ��That��s right, but who else could it be�� No, it couldn��t be�� It was you!�� She points at Chiara who was ignoring us while eating a sandwich.

    Chiara shakes her head. ��Mi? I didhn dhu manetheng!��

    ��Don��t speak with your mouth full, Chiara. It��s gross, and no one can understand you.�� I tell her.

    After swallowing she speaks again. ��Sorry, my bad. I meant to say: I didn��t do anything.��

    ��Lies! You��re the one he spends the most time with! And you have been taking care of your appearance recently! You��re trying to seduce my man!�� Is that make up on your face?�� She asks with her eyes narrowed.

    Well, I��m teaching her magic after all, and while she doesn��t have much to teach me anymore, she still helps me practice. But she does look better than when we first met.

    ��No, Lance doesn��t buy me fancy things like make up. Do you really think I look good? Thank you, I love the way you braided your hair, too.�� She says shyly.

    ��Lance, you��re too boorish.�� Says Ellie. ��How can you not buy her make up?��

    ��She never asked?�� I answer. I��m pretty sure only noble or otherwise rich people use make up, and even then it��s not like back in modern earth where pretty much every woman uses it, mom and Athena hate it, saying it��s uncomfortable.

    Then it��s Theo��s turn to complain. ��Ugh, you just don��t get it, Lance. Let��s go Chiara, I��ll let you use mine, our skin tone is similar.�� Weren��t you just accusing her of ��stealing your man��? Whatever you say, miss mood swings.

    Sometimes I think she��s mocking me.

    Man, I really need male friends. Mattias should be training at this point in time, right?

    ~~

    My prayers have been answered. The kids from the orphanage decided to serve in the military together. They heard I was training new recruits and decided to perform their military service together.

    Their ages range from one to three years older than me, so from 17 to 19, it��s nostalgic to see them again all grown up.

    ��Are you really Leo?�� Asks Olivia, the oldest one.

    ��Yep, that��s me!�� I use magic to change my looks to my old persona��s. ��This is what Leo would look like today, if he existed.��

    Seeing that everyone felt a little bit more at ease and started talking to me about various things. Like what happened that night, what they have been doing since then and how Dave insisted that they enlisted right now (they would have to when they became 20 anyways).

    They seem put off by the eyes and teeth, but they recognized my voice since I never modified it as Leo, although it changed a lot since ten years ago, so did theirs.

    Sadly, they had to train too, so they didn��t have much time to hang out with me, but I took it upon myself to train them in magic. Normal soldiers aren��t trained in magic, I��m doing this as a personal favor.

    Chiara hit it off with them and from Chiara they also made friends with the two tournament champions, but the rest of my bodyguards are as stiff as always, including Mattias.

    But aside from that, not much changed and I was still bored waiting for the war to start.

    ~~

    I sent a request to wait for the war to start while staying back home, so they sent one of my great grand-aunts to check out my work and make sure I��m not exaggerating when I say ��I��ve done everything that I can��. Grandma also came for some reason.Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

    ��I��ll just trust your word when you say that just lifting oneself from the ground over and over will help making the soldiers stronger, but is so much meat really needed?�� Asks grand-aunty, is that a word? Well, it is now.

    ��Yes, to strengthen the body one needs exercise, food and rest. If one of those three is missing, the individual can even grow weaker. When it comes to food, meats, eggs and milk are vital, sweet potatoes can also help.�� I answer.

    I had to fix up the trainees diets and also make sure they slept properly. Most people were happy about the quality of the food, but they didn��t like that I prohibited all kinds of booze while they were undergoing training.

    At the beginning some people would stay up late and sneak in some kind of wine or honey mead. But I didn��t even need to punish them much, since those that didn��t sleep or got a hangover would feel like they were in hell the next day during training.

    By the way, I can heal hangovers. Kehehehe.

    ��Is that the ��nutrients�� stuff you wrote about in your books?�� asks grandma. I nod. I didn��t expect she would read my books.

    ��And why is such fancy training even needed for conscripted soldiers?�� Asks grand-aunty.

    ��Not only is strength and stamina very important when you aren��t very skilled in martial arts, if we get the people used to living healthily here, they might live healthily when they are back home, and a healthy population has a myriad of advantages for the country.�� I explain calmly. ��Besides, some of these conscripted soldiers will end up as professional soldiers, and if they learn magic, having a strong, healthy body will help in various ways.��

    Being strong and healthy allows one to have more mana and to regenerate mana faster. It also makes self-strengthening a little bit more efficient.

    After that I showed them other parts of the training grounds, I showed them the archers, the siege practice battlements where soldiers practiced being both on the offensive and the defensive side, the training of new mages and sorcerers and the specialized training for healers.

    Sadly, the siege training doesn��t involve actually using siege weapons, only assembling and disassembling them. Rebuilding the battlements would take too much time. But we do have target practice with normal targets.

    We also didn��t do training for cavalry, driving, piloting, using cannons and foraging for food, that��s being done somewhere else. I only send golems for them to use from time to time.

    Sadly, the paratrooping knights are also training without me.

    ��Is it really fine to have so many wounded in the training grounds?�� Asks grandma.

    ��Yeah, it is. If you look closely, none of them have life threatening wounds. So it only helps the healer trainees and trains the soldiers to not be so scared of pain.�� We do a lot of sparring with large groups, so it��s normal for people to get hurt one way of another, even if we don��t use sharp weapons. ��I make sure they wear their helmets, so no one dies.�� There��s still the risk of them breaking their neck, but one could say even normal sparring could break people��s neck.

    After that I showed them the group sparring and the use new military communication devices, as in the visor and the command center. Sadly there��s too few enchanters to mass produce the visors so only the elite will be able to get them. But the command center is like an armored truck with various devices inside for understanding the battlefield and giving orders.

    I already made something like mobile long-range artillery, but once again, that��s being trained with somewhere else. It��s like a tank but made to shoot from extreme distances (like, can��t-even-see-where-the-rounds-are-landing distances) and without much armor. I didn��t make actual tanks yet because we can��t produce enough of them to actually risk having one go against knights and sorcerers head-on.

    It wasn��t too hard since I already made track-based cars and cannons before.

    ��Well, I suppose your job out here is indeed over.�� Says grand-aunty. Well yeah, I want to work on making magic guns (and protection against it) and improve the various things I already made, but I can do that back home. ��Her majesty would rather you infiltrated Heiron and helped the other infiltrators escalate the tensions between the two factions, but you can also choose to just wait for the war while up north, if you want to.��

    Well, that��s an offer and a half.

    Let��s see, do I want to help push a country into a civil war that will probably result in thousands of deaths just so my country can attack them after and possibly conquer them all?

    Honestly, with all the stuff I made, we could probably win if we went against them head-on, civil war be damned. And I knew it was a matter of time for Sylvian to start conquering stuff from the moment I made the dreadnought, I actually expected it to be the barbarians first.

    If you��re wondering if I��d feel guilty about the many deaths that I��m contributing towards, the answer is ��kinda?�� Honestly, although this isn��t really an excuse to go conquering stuff, I don��t hold many people in this current era in high regards, and I��m already desensitized to death.

    The many bandits and pirates that would pop up just about everywhere, they are often just commoners who felt like making some extra coin on the side and happen to have an axe back home. That doesn��t mean I consider them all evil incarnated that deserve to be purged, but neither do I feel they deserve much pity.

    I still remember that assassination attempt when I finished enchanting the royal castle.

    Maybe I��m already an evil bastard too��

    ��Lance, is something wrong?�� Grandma calls out.

    Oh right, I got distracted. ��Right, I��ll go to Heiron. But I want to stop by back home, I haven��t seen Noah since he was a baby.�� I think he��s eight already? Time sure flies. I wonder if Gray even remembers me.

    ~~

    Yep, Gray remembers me. When I walked out of the transport plane Gray pounced on me and pushed me to the ground while growling angrily. ��Don��t attack!�� I make sure my bodyguards don��t do anything stupid.

    I��d really rather not hurt him, so I use mind magic to feel his emotions. ��Oh you big baby, I didn��t abandon you.�� This big guy was more sad than angry about being left behind. ��You��d hate the capital, it��s very noisy there and you��d need to go really far to be able to hunt anything.��

    I calm him down and give him some scratches; he whines a little bit but accepts.

    My bodyguards relax when Gray stops growling.

    The three girls from the tournament are still with me, but the kids from the orphanage didn��t finish their training yet. I already taught them the minimum basics so they should be able to get a reasonably good rank.

    It��s strange to meet the people and see the places of my childhood now that I��m older. Mom greeted me with a sharp toothed smile, dad seemed to be holding back tears, this softie hasn��t seen me since I left for the capital years ago.

    Once again, being the same height as them gives me funny feeling.

    It hasn��t been to long since I saw Athena, so the only difference in her is that she��s unhappy that I took the job to infiltrate Heiron.

    Meeting Noah was a little awkward, but not too much since I have been sending letters telling stories and trinkets like a miniature model of the royal castle from time to time.

    He already started learning how to fight and ride, but he says he��d rather learn sorcery than focusing on the sword like mom, much to her displeasure.

    It��s not like one needs to choose between sorcery and martial arts, it��s just that most people tend to focus on one on the other, but it��s normal for knights to know a couple runes and for sorcerers to be trained in the sword, even if not too much. And if someone underestimates the physical might of a sorcerer they are bound to regret it.

    I have to leave soon, but not before sparring with mother. No magic allowed, aside from self-strengthening.

    I manage to use the techniques I learned from Chiara to make a few openings, but she never panicked and caught my blows whenever I tried to exploit those openings.

    My moves that combine defense and offense in one were always seen through and blown aside with sheer might from mother.

    In the end, we exchanged blows, I managed to graze her thigh but she hit me straight on the throat, making me cough. I guess you can��t beat experience with just this much technique.

    ��That was pretty good, you have improved plenty since last time.�� Sorry mom, can��t hear you over the sound of my coughs. ��You said that commoner girl was the one to teach you those exotic techniques, right?�� She points at Chiara who looks like the team she was cheering for lost the match. I nod.

    In the end it was decided that Chiara would work for mom. The two champions decided to wait for me here as well, but the rest of my bodyguards would go back to the capital.

    Well, here I go sneaking around again.

    Let��s hope this time is less boring.

 C25 Blind Demon

    ~Third person PoV~

    In a big town on the coast of Heiron, there was tension in the slums.

    ��Did you see it?�� One man asks his companions in a shady bar filled with suspicious individuals.

    ��Yeah���� One of the other men pauses to drink a mouthful of cheap wine. ��Another one��s gone, who will be next?��

    ��What? What are you talking about?�� Asks another, clearly not knowing what the others were going on about.

    ��Oh, right, you were out in the sea for the past couple weeks, so you wouldn��t know�� There��s someone hunting the leaders of all crews�� Someone found One-eye Billy��s body earlier today.��

    ��What the hell? Who��s the suicidal bastard? Doesn��t he know those guys made deals with the nobles?��

    ��No one knows, he never gave anyone his name, but everyone calls him ��the blind kid��, since him being young and blind is all anyone knows about him�� aside from being terrifyingly strong.��

    ��No one knows where he will show up and anyone that tries to catch or kill him dies. So he��s still out there.��

    ��So he just kills the crew heads and then disappears?��

    ��Well���� The men exchange glances. ���� He also marks the rest of the crew with scars and tells them to either obey him or get out of-��

    Just then the door to the bar opens with a *bang!* And a group of thuggish men enter. ��Spread out and find him!��

    While the intruders begin to look around from table to table, a hooded figure suddenly stands up and runs for the closed window nearby. ��There he is! Get him!��

    The man breaks through the flimsy wooden window but a few moments later he��s thrown back in. After him, a muscular man climbs through and joins the others inside. ��Hold him.�� Is all he says, and the men obey.

    The captured man��s hood is lowered and everyone can see the black burn mark in the shape of a hand on his face. Murmurs begin to come out from the people watching.

    ��Tell me.�� The muscular man puts a knife on the scarred man��s throat. ��Tell me everything you know.��

    ��I can��t, man!�� The scarred man responds with some panic in his voice. ��That guy��s a fucking monster! He will know if I say anything! He knows everything!��

    The muscular man signals to his subordinates with a nod and they give the scarred man a few punches and kicks. ��Don��t give me that bullshit, just give me what I want. I want to know his name, where he sleeps, where he eats, who he fucks, everything!�� Near the end he started to sound angrier.

    ��I don��t know any of that shit, man!��

    The muscular man seems to calm down a little. And then he moves his knife and cuts off the scarred man��s left ear. Screams sound through the bar and some of the clients start to complain. ��What the fuck?! Do that somewhere else, buddy!�� ��Some of us are eating over here!�� ��You��re gonna get blood on my new hat!��

    The muscular man raises his hand and from that hand fire starts coming out. ��I don��t have time for your shit, shut up, all of you.�� Seeing the fire magic, some men quiet down and some others just up and leave the place.

    ��Now, where was I?�� The muscular man turns back to the scarred one, but is again interrupted by a lot of noise from the people outside. ��What is it this time?�� But before he can do anything the noise suddenly stops.

    Tap, tap, tap.

    In place of the noise he hears a light tapping sound from the entrance.

    The tapping stops and the door slowly opens.

    The tapping resumes as a man enters the bar.

    ��You!�� The muscular man shouts as the other thugs pull out their blades, mainly daggers and short swords. The man that just entered has brown hair, plain clothes and bare feet, a blindfold and a stick he uses to lightly tap the ground in front of him.

    The blindfolded man stops when he hears the shout. ��Me?�� He asks while pointing at himself.

    ��Don��t play dumb, you little shit! You killed my brother!��

    ��Brother?�� The blindfolded man asks as he lifts his blindfold, showing the men in the bar his scarred eyes, eyes that look like someone showered them with fire. ��Nah, sorry, never seen him.��

    The muscular man doesn��t even speak answer, he just throws his fire towards the blind man. ��Oh shit!�� The men still in the bar prepare to run away.

    The blind man waves his hand and the fire dissipates as if it never existed.

    ��Surround him!�� Shouts the muscular man and the thugs obey.

    One of the thugs gets a little too close to the blind man. The hand that is holding the stick seems to blur for a moment and that thug falls to the ground with a hole in his throat.

    Seeing that, the other thugs take a step back. ��Fuck���� The muscular man murmurs. ��All at once! Now!�� To their merit, the thugs actually moved at once, showing they weren��t new at fighting mana-wielding opponents.

    The blind man used his empty hand this time, he grabbed one of the thugs by the wrist, lifted him and used him as a club to hit the others around him, except the muscular man.

    While the thugs were busy standing back up, the blind man lunges towards the muscular one and swings the stick. The muscular man uses his big knife to block the attack, but the knife breaks. ��WHAT?!��

    The blind man crouches and swings the stick again, hitting the larger man in the ankle and lifting him off his feet. While he��s in the air, the stick moves again and slaps the man back to the ground.This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

    ��Gah!�� The man hits the ground with a dull sound. The blind man kneels besides him and puts his hand over his eyes. ��Wait! No!�� Are the muscular man��s last words.

    The blind man��s hand spews fire onto the pleading man��s eyes. He doesn��t scream much since he died soon after, but the spectators witness the gruesome sight of fire coming out of his ears, nose and mouth.

    With that done he turns to the surviving thugs. ��You know very well I��m faster than you, do you not?�� The men who were about to move for the exit flinch. The corpse of their leader is still smoking besides the blind man��s feet. ��Drop the knives and kneel.��

    One man tries to run away regardless, only to end with a hole in his throat like the first one. ��Tsk tsk, he would still have the choice to leave town, but now there��s no choice at all.�� He turns his head towards the others. ��What about you? What do you choose?��

    All of those left alive drop their blades one after the other and kneel. One by one, the blind man touches their faces and leaves a dark burn scar in the shape of his hand, the men grunt in pain when he does that, but their pain seems to go away just as quickly as it came.

    When the blind man is nearly done, one of the already marked men pulls out a hidden knife and lunges at his throat, strangely enough, the blind man just stands there. The blade connects but doesn��t draw blood.

    ��Did you forget to sharpen it?�� Asks the blind man before also giving him a hole in the throat.

    With the marking done, the blind man turns to the start of this whole mess, the marked man that tried jumping out the window.

    When he noticed the blind man��s attention, the marked man started panicking. ��I swear, I didn��t say a thing!��

    ��Yeah, yeah, I know.�� The blind man gestures towards the ground and the part of the ear that was cut off floats to his hand. He approaches the marked man, puts his ear back in place and heals it.

    ��There you go, buddy, good as new. Keep up the good work.�� With that the blind man walks towards the exit.

    ��Oh right!�� He stops and turns to the thugs he just marked. ��You guys can either leave town in a day or obey my orders�� Well, you can also choose the third option.�� He says while pointing at the corpses on the ground with the wooden stick he clearly doesn��t need. ��But I don��t recommend it, very poor future career options.��

    One of the few men still in the bar snickers. ��That guy gets it.�� Says the blind man before he leaves while tapping his wooden stick on the ground again.

    Tap, tap, tap, tap, tap.

    ~Back to MC PoV~

    Phew, the beginning is always the hardest with these kinds of things.

    After checking on a couple brothels and gambling dens to make sure nothing came up, I go back to my (literally) underground base.

    There I find Eleanor waiting for me. ��Lance, are you sure you aren��t wasting your time?�� This again?

    ��Of course not! I��m decreasing the pirate activity, scouting the underworld scene ahead of time, acquiring funds so we don��t need to rely on supply drops AND contributing towards the mission all at once.��

    This all started when I arrived here in Heiron, the other spies all had positions of power that, while giving them access to a lot of things, also limited their freedom of action. So I took to the underworld to help them cover their bases.

    As it turns out, the reason the civil war hasn��t started yet is the same as the reason we want it to start: the country will be severely weakened and open to foreign attacks. They are especially afraid of the ��Sylvian magic ships�� (that��s how they call the dreadnoughts).

    So the country is essentially a pressure cooker at the moment, tensions are steadily rising, but no actual conflict starts aside from a few assassination attempts here and there.

    To decrease their worries I suggested decreasing our patrols on the west side of the sea and spread some rumors of trouble in the east or something like that to make us seem less threatening, but that would allow for more freedom on the pirate��s side, and that would be bad for the country��s economy.

    One thing lead to another and this is the third port town that I��m taking over the underworld of. The name of the ��gang�� is Black Hand (for obvious reasons).

    I come to a town, kill the pirate leaders, force their crews to work for me inland, convince them to stay working for me using money, take over the rest of the underworld, move on to the next town. By the way, everyone that leaves town is killed by the men that actually work for me, best not to leave loose ends.

    The black burn mark is also a tracking sigil, so no one can hide. I have various devices here in my base to watch over them and the whole town, so I know when they get into fights and that kind of thing.

    Two things most criminals have in common are that they don��t have access to proper magic training and they make bad financial decisions, so competing with them isn��t that hard.

    I make a lot of money by simply managing the businesses well and not spending senselessly. And if anyone tries to make trouble, I can either have my men deal with it or do it myself. I also use mind magic to make sure my men don��t make any trouble themselves, so there��s little opportunities for backstabbing.

    Eleanor speaks after a while. ���� And what��s with the whole ��blind�� thing?��

    ��Oh, I��m just doing this to train my mana sense.�� Since my puberty started, my bloodline��s characteristics have become sharper, body strengthening and mana control have become extremely easy and I can feel the blood inside nearby people and animals, as if I had a ��blood sense��. But I felt my mana sense was lagging behind.

    If I need to see something in the distance or colors I can just use a detection spell.

    ���� You��re sure you aren��t doing it just because you feel it��s cool?��

    ��Uhh�� Oh! You��ve come at a good time, why don��t you come visit the local lord with me? Here, wear this����

    ~Third person PoV again~

    Viscount Allison is in a bad mood. The plague that is those ��black hand�� bastards arrived in his town and the men who used to bribe him are all dead, so he essentially lost a considerable source of income.

    ��Don��t bother me until tomorrow,�� He orders his butler. ��I��ll go to bed after reading some letters in my study.�� He continues to think while walking to his study.

    His men haven��t been able to catch anyone, the black hand bastards are like rats hiding amongst the other lowlifes in the slums, his attempts at hiring those lowlifes to find them have resulted in the men he hired to wind up dead, so no one is taking his money anymore and the bounty is left untaken.

    Already in his study he pours himself a drink and moves towards his desk.

    ��That wine smells great.�� He feels a chill come up his spine when a voice comes from behind him, where there should be no one.

    He turns around and sees the famed leader of the black hands sitting in one of his fine chairs. ��Guar-!�� He attempts to call for help, but is interrupted by a large blade being rested on his shoulder by a second intruder, clearly implying he will lose his head if he tries anything.

    ��There is no need to worry, if I was here to kill you, you��d be dead already. Sit down.�� The viscount is extremely bothered by this lowlife telling him what to do, but this isn��t the time to complain, he obeys.

    Sitting down he takes another look at the two intruders.

    One is the young, blindfolded, bare-footed leader of the black hands. Wearing clothes cheap enough to be wore by slaves, the only difference being in how spotless his is. Looking closely, even his feet don��t seem dirty.

    The second one is a huge cloaked figure, the only details he can see are their size, the emotionless eyes and the huge sword they are resting their hands on.

    If it was any other assassin, Viscount Allison would just fight back, but this blind kid is known to be as skilled in magic as a noble, and the huge bastard doesn��t give the impression of weakness either.

    ��I��m here to humbly ask you to stop going after my men and to have that bounty removed.�� ��Humbly my ass�� is the first thought to go through the Viscount��s head.

    ��And if I refuse?�� The Viscount has an idea of where this is going, but he asks just to make sure.

    ��Well, aside from you never being able to sleep without fearing for your life again, I��ll also tell a certain Baron about who was responsible for the assassination attempt on his heir.��

    The Viscount grimaces. He knew this would come back to bite him in the ass when he heard the assassin disappeared after failing the job.

    ��But it��s not all bad, I��ll make sure those naughty kids in the slums don��t go overboard and I can even tell you about a certain noble who may be hiring mercenaries in secret if you make a kind enough donation for this blind beggar���� The young blind man makes a big, gentle smile.

    The Viscount is sure now, this blind kid is what the stories talk about when they mention demons.

 C26 Retaliation

    With this Black Hand gang, I��m going for something in between friendly neighborhood mafia and force in the shadows.

    We have various ranks inside the gang, and since I can easily make them stronger with gear and magic training (no sense chambers, just normal curses and strengthening), I don��t need to care about how strong they are, only how loyal and behaved they are.

    Saying ��loyal and behaved�� to describe criminals might seem like nonsense, but what I mean is people who are smart enough to see that they can��t fool me and that it��s better for them to follow my instructions.

    The only trouble is that since I refuse to teach curse and mind magic to them, I have to keep moving between places using a plane I made for stealth and speed, I need to move to promote men to higher ranks and check others for insubordination, but after a while these naughty boys start to stabilize and the naughtier ones are all sent to the farm upstate.

    Many of the ��less smart�� criminals try to take a little bit more money here, and a little rape there, but I can easily find out whether they did something wrong by just asking them while using mind magic to check their emotions and the same devices I use to detect combat also detect if they try to force themselves on someone.

    Don��t ask how I taught the mana core how to judge between rape and consensual sex.

    The number of people that behave is pretty good, but let��s just say the underworld got much thinner after I was done with it. I let the more reliable of my minions walk around without the obvious marks on their faces, but I still have tracking sigils on them.

    Since I pay them with money, alcohol and discounts on brothels, they don��t want to risk getting punished since that��s pretty much all they could ever want aside from authority, meaning in life and that kind of fancier stuff.

    Since Heiron has such a developed underworld scene I can easily make a lot of profit from targeting mainly other criminals and getting a few ��protection fees�� from various businesses and traders, except I actually protect them from stuff, including corrupt officials and other criminals.

    When I begin taking over the towns, the Black Hand mark is seen with derision since they are all people who surrendered. But right now, all along the coast of Heiron, the Black Hand is being taken seriously.

    Other criminals don��t do a thing in our territories and while the nobles still pretend to be taking us down by executing some fake marked men (for the naked eye, the mark is very easy to fake), they also know not to mess with us.

    Well, most of them, anyways.

    ��Sir!�� One of the lower minions rush into the room I was using to meet with my higher ranking men. ��Something different came up! My team leader wishes for your orders!��

    ��Report.�� I don��t beat around the bush.

    ��A noble from further inland is visiting the coast and kidnapped the daughter of a merchant under our protection, should we leave it be or move regardless?��

    I can��t help it, a big smile appears on my face. This is my turn to grab the spotlight from the country and make public opinion to favor me.

    Although I can��t grab too much attention from the royals, this will be more beneficial to reaching my black hands towards the rest of the country. ��Tell your team leader that I��ll take care of it personally.��

    Besides, fighting corrupt nobility is a man��s romance.

    ~PoV Switch~

    Marianne can��t calm herself.

    When she was a teenager, she was sold by her family to marry a rich merchant just like cattle. She wasn��t the kind of woman to just stay submissive like her husband expected her to, so he mistreated her and she in turn did what she had to do to make sure her daughter wouldn��t suffer the same fate.

    When she was knowledgeable enough about his business, she poisoned him and took over, all she had to do was bribe a couple people to make sure they didn��t check the body for poison.

    But now some noble bastard took her daughter away and all that work was made pointless. She tried getting help from the Black Hand thugs, but as expected, they wouldn��t put their hands on a noble-

    *Tap, tap, tap, tap.* �� *Knock, knock.*

    Hearing the knocking on her door, Marianne thinks of a thousand possibilities of who it could be. ��Maybe someone found out I asked help from those thugs?�� is the one that doesn��t leave her mind.

    *Knock, Knock.* ��Is miss Marianne in?�� A young male voice asks from behind the door. She hasn��t been called miss in a long time.

    She knows she can��t run if the nobles wanted to find her, so she resolves herself and opens the door.

    ��Oh good, I was starting to think I had the wrong house.�� Marianne freezes.

    Young.

    Blind.

    Barefoot.

    It��s him.

    He moves inside without being asked, Marianne is too stunned and tense to stop him as he closes the door gently. ��I came to get your help so that I can help you in turn.�� The young man famed for being brutal speaks. ��I just need a single drop from your blood.��

    Hearing the word ��blood�� she awakens from her stupor. ��B-blood?��The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

    ��Yes, miss Marianne. I need your blood to make sure I can track your daughter.��

    Hearing that, Marianne��s mind is once again running faster than a war-horse. From ��he will track her�� to ��he��s moving against a noble�� and back to ��he needs my blood to do it��, all in a single heartbeat.

    She pulls out the knife she always keeps on herself and is about to make a cut on her hand when the blind young man stops her. ��Calm down, miss Marianne. I only need a single drop. Here, give me your hand.��

    The young man grabs her hand, raises it to his face, and bites the tip of her finger. Marianne jolts from the sudden pain, but controls herself.

    A drop of blood floats in the air, and then the wound on her finger is gone as quickly as it came, all healed.

    The young man raises a compass-like object and the blood floats in it. She sees a feel light symbols characteristic of enchantments shine on it and then it��s stored away again right after.

    ��Thank you, miss. Before I go, I need to ask: What is your recommended punishment? I personally suggest death.�� The young man gives her a bright smile.

    ������ Marianne is stunned once again. ���� Death is fine.�� She speaks before she can think about it.

    ��Nice choice.�� He says before leaving.

    *Tap, tap, tap, tap��*

    Now Marianne has even more things to worry about.

    ~Back to MC~

    I had to go to the client��s house to make sure I avoid a ��the princess is in another castle�� situation.

    Right now I have my best men surrounding the inn the noble rented completely for him and his servants.

    I have my favorite cloak from back home, a helmet, chainmail shirt and a short sword, all three bought here but enchanted by me. I also modified the helmet to have no opening for the eyes.

    ��Here I go, cut down anyone that tries to run away, except for the Inn workers, make sure everyone remember their faces from the drawings.�� I say before I get out of their line of sight and start using the camouflage from the cloak.

    While camouflaged and suppressing my mana presence, I silently walk to the Inn��s wall and use my nails (claws) to climb to the second floor��s window.

    Inside I find four men playing cards and drinking while sitting around a table.

    They��re all semi-proficient in mana, in other words, they can use self-strengthening and probably fire, maybe a couple other things.

    I use an illusion to make one of the men look like he��s fallen asleep, and cut that one��s throat. He has a little bit of passive body-strengthening, but not enough to give me trouble.

    I do the same with another one before the other two find it strange that both of them are suddenly sleeping and feel the smell of blood.

    ��Hey Julius! Wake up!�� ��What the fuck is this smell of blood?��

    I��m not really bothered, this isn��t a infiltration mission anyway. I cut the third throat of the night without illusions this time.

    ��WHAT THE FUCK?!�� The fourth one shouts as he falls backwards together with his chair.

    He only has less than a second to scream as I jump on top of him and cut the fourth throat of the night.

    This is a retaliation mission.

    I hear a single set of footsteps coming to the room��s door with my enhanced senses. I wait just in front of the door, not even camouflaged.

    The door opens and a man with slightly more mana starts speaking right away. ��Watch the noise you b- What the fuck?!�� He notices the bodies, blood and me.

    My blade also notices his throat, but I see him dodging so I change trajectory to his heart and my blade punches through his chainmail while I cover his mouth with my other hand to muffle his screams.

    I walk to the innermost room of the second floor, a room with no windows.

    There was only one guard in front of the door. Five throats.

    Inside the room there are two maids trying to make the merchant��s daughter look even prettier than she already was, but the fact that the girl seems to be holding back tears doesn��t help.

    They stop when they notice me. ��Be quiet if you don��t want to die.�� The three women stiffen up. ��Oh, not you, young miss. I won��t kill you.�� I tell the rescue target.

    I tear up a few blankets and use the cloth to tie up the two maids and make a rope. ��Follow me, quietly.�� She nods. ��Cover your mouth to make sure you don��t scream when you see the blood.�� She stiffens up again but still nods.

    I hold her hand and move back to the room I entered through.

    Before I enter the room. ��Hey, Brutus! What��s taking you so long?�� I hear a shout coming from the stairs going down a little distance away from us.

    I give the girl the rope point her to the window and say. ��Get out that window, I have men outside. You know how to tie the rope right?�� She nods hurriedly, sometimes glancing at the corpses in the room.

    I turn my back to her and cut the head of one of the men before heading towards the stairs with the head in hand.

    A knight walks up from downstairs. I say knight, but I��m not sure if he has the title, only that he has the equipment and the mana�� Although he��s not as good as our Sylvian knights��

    ��Catch!�� I say while throwing the head towards him.

    He reflexively grabs the head and before he can realize that he��s holding a decapitated head, I cut off his right arm.

    The head falls to the ground as he steps back while holding the arm stump and screaming. I expected him to fall backwards but he didn��t, he only lost his balance for a moment.

    But that moment is enough for me. I jump at him and force him to the ground.

    I try to go for the sixth throat of the night, but he holds my wrist with his leftover arm. So I tear his throat using my left hand claws.

    No time to think, no time to fight properly. Poor bastard.

    I pull the mana from his blood and I��m recharged.

    That just feels right.

    Time to make a proper mess.

    I start running downstairs. Right now, the rest of the people here are already alerted due to the knight��s screams.

    Right as I enter the big room I send fire bombs towards the weaker men and make a beeline for the second and last knight who was sharing a table with the target noble.

    I send a stun bomb towards them right before we clash. The noble tries to dispel it but fails, much to his surprise.

    My enemies are blinded and deafened for a moment.

    I go straight for a grapple with the knight, he tries burning me with fire blindly, but I block it with a simple barrier. Fire without runes to assist it can be very weak sometimes.

    I stab him through the ribs multiple times but he manages to stop me from tearing at his throat.

    I don��t have much time left to deal with the noble, so I shove blood into the knight��s wounds and use the blood to tear at his insides. The knight vomits some blood and stops moving.

    I use the mana in his blood to recharge as I use both my arms and legs to launch myself towards the noble.

    Just as he recovers from the stun bomb he sees me leaping at him from the ground. He tries to push me away with a force wall, but I sense it coming and counter it with one of my own.

    I throw a punch at his face with tons of body-strengthening. ��Falcon����

    *Blam!*

    He��s knocked out faster than I expected, maybe I used too much strength? Well, he��s alive, so doesn��t matter.

    I grab him and prepare to fight the others, but they all either ran away already or died in the fire, I expected more. The fire is getting out of hand so I snuff it out myself and get out of there with my captive.

    This fella should know a noble secret or two.

    ~ Third PoV ~

    Eleven elite guards and two knights: dead. The noble they served: disappeared.

    The news shook the town.

    The local lord feels frustrated. ��That ignorant bastard had to cross the blind freak! Now I have to do a manhunt even if just to put up a show.��

    Rumors run through the populace. They say it was retaliation for the noble trying to kidnap a young woman and force her to be his concubine.

    Next morning the noble is found.

    His feet are tied to the roof of a building in the town square, his body dangling upside down.

    His eyes are burnt black and the inside of his head, like his mouth and ears, also show signs of being burned.

    Everyone knows what that means.

    One young man thinks:

    ��I��m gonna need help from auntie and Eleanor if I want to expand any further.��

 C27 Expansion and Soul

    After killing that noble I started expanding the Black Hand gang further into the country with help from the few people in Sylvian that know mind magic, including auntie.

    With our influence spreading I make sure to befriend more people too, many servants in noble houses receive our help in one thing or another and even a few spies, working for those nobles to spy on someone else, are friends with us.

    And with that I can offer information to various nobles to help push them towards a civil war.

    Sometimes I give fake information to a spy and then to the noble that spy works for, so when he receives it from me he might not believe it, but when his own spy says the same thing a few days later it becomes harder to doubt.

    I already have much of the country primed for war, but I��m lacking a proper trigger, the cinder that will set this whole country on fire.

    The old king is already dead, but the two princes both know they might lose everything if they don��t keep their shit together. They even sent a bunch of envoys to other countries to try and get their support.

    Sadly for them, the two countries that could actually help, Sylvian and Munsberg (country to the northwest), are the ones they fear would try to exploit the opening a civil war would give. So they are only getting support from smaller kingdoms that wouldn��t be able to send much help.

    I already have a plan, I��ll fake an assassination attempt at one of the princes, so I have my men take over the capital��s underworld.

    Sadly they are having trouble with one of the current gangs, a handful of my higher ranking boys even died.

    If you want something done properly, you have to do it yourself, I suppose.

    I sneak in the enemy��s base just like I did with that noble, and start killing.

    But when I��m heading towards the inner parts of the base, my blood sense detects someone that my magic sense didn��t.

    I focus my magic sense and I can sense the bastards only slightly, there are three of them, all well trained in stealth. Sneaking up on a Chevalier is no easy feat.

    These guys are probably the ones responsible for the mission failure.

    I turn around innocently and ask ��Someone there?�� They stop approaching me, I can feel their heartbeats quickening. I keep turning my head left and right to pretend like I��m searching for them.

    I use a couple detection spells to take something like mental pictures of them. I recognize one of them from a drawing I��ve seen before, he��s a famous general with a confusing name like ��Brogandoff�� or something like that.

    Shit, I can��t kill this guy. That might make the princes unite against me, I need to either run away or knock him out and finish cleaning the place.

    After a while I shrug my shoulders and move towards a narrow corridor where they can��t surround me.

    Running away would be simple and believable, but I��d need to come back later to clean this gang.

    Knocking him out would be harder�� there��s a chance he��s very strong. While I have an easy time killing lower knights, this guy is probably on a completely different level, and he has two well-trained helpers too��

    Running away it is.

    I turn a corner to break line of sight and start using my cloak, hiding my mana and all that good stuff. I also make an illusion of myself entering a room up ahead.

    I concentrate on hiding as they move past me and towards my illusion.

    When they pass me I start moving towards where they just came from. I exit through the first window I see and close it quietly when I��m done.

    By now they must have realized I��m gone. After distancing myself from the place, I quickly dig a hole with magic, enchant its walls and hide in it. Yes, I remembered to leave an opening for air to come through.

    Now I have to wait for a long time, this is gonna be really boring isn��t it?

    Seems in my hurry I underestimated the people I can��t blackmail, I��m going to have to keep an eye on them while moving in the capital.

    ~~

    Like I expected they organized a big search to find me, some guys even walked over my hole. If I didn��t enchant it against detection spells I��d be screwed, or at least humiliated as I��d need to run away in an unsightly manner.

    I realized that I��m not the best at dealing with people that I can��t force to submit, maneuvering in the capital should be left to the spies more used to that kind of thing.

    The Black Hand has already spread its influence to much of the country, they should be a big help in making the two factions weaken each other and sabotaging them when we invade.

    The cooperation between the two big factions is already breaking down, I should be careful not to get carried away and ruin the whole project��

    ��I��m still taking down that gang though; just need the right kind of distraction to do it��The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

    ~~

    With the capital side of things stabilized I left business there to my more competent compatriots and kept working on the countryside (After taking down that gang, of course).

    I mostly gave nobles a scare to make sure they didn��t get any ideas and did the same to the men.

    The main problem was that the people I left in charge were a little bit too lax for my taste. Well, there wasn��t murder and rape, but some of the minions ended up embezzling some of the protection money.

    While doing a general check around the country to see if I missed anything I overheard a complaint that one of my men got someone pregnant and refused to marry her.

    The thing is: when I asked him, he said he didn��t sleep with her and my mind magic says he��s telling the truth.

    So I visited the girls house and after reassuring them that I wasn��t here to silence them I tried to get to the bottom of the matter.

    After asking a few questions I concluded that the girl wasn��t lying either. Since they are saying contradictory things, one of them must be wrong, even if they aren��t lying.

    So either the man is wrong and he��s the father even if he doesn��t know it OR the woman is wrong and the father is someone else.

    At this point, I just realized I have no reason to be actually looking into this, but since I��m already here I kept going. I ordered a search done to find men that look like the one suspected of being the father.

    If this doesn��t work I��ll look for witnesses of the two together.

    ~~

    Like I guessed, the guy simply drank too much that night and forgot about sleeping with her, case closed, don��t care about what will happen between the two�� But something else caught my attention while staying in this town.

    There��s a haunted house here.

    As in a house that is abandoned because of ghost rumors, even when someone tried to demolish it, the workers he hired quit.

    Now, you may be thinking ��What��s the big deal? Just rumors of ghosts, it��s probably a cat in the attic making noise or something like that.�� But you are missing two important facts.

    <ol>

    <li>This is a fantasy world with magic and monsters.</li>

    <li>The basic principles of necromancy I learned heavily point toward the existence of a soul or soul-like thing.</li>

    </ol>

    Those two facts together mean there is an actual chance of existing ghosts in that place.

    The place itself does give a gloomy feeling, but that could be excused by lack of maintenance.

    It��s a three story house, big enough that it could be considered a mansion. First two floors are made with stone, third with wood.

    It��s built on top of a hill somewhat separated from the surrounding neighborhood

    And yes, I��m dying of curiosity to check if there are actual ghosts in there.

    I switch my disguise so that I can heal my eyes (if there��s a ghost I want to see what it looks like with my own eyes) and go in.

    Although gloomy, the place was clearly owned by a somewhat rich family. I can see various decorations damaged by time and covered in dust.

    Normally every expensive thing would be looted in an abandoned house. I��m pretty sure that cup over there is made of silver.

    I use a few detection spells to check the place out. The layout of the rooms is normal, no secret rooms or basements, I also detect no life.

    But the attic has something getting in the way of my spells, if my spells made a map, there would be nothing drawn where the attic would be.

    This means there��s something or someone interfering with my spells.

    I��m getting excited, there��s a high likelihood that even if I don��t find a ghost, there��s something interesting here.

    I move towards the attic while occasionally using detection spells.

    Until the void in my detection spells starts moving.

    Towards me.

    I wait for it to come and set up the stuff I prepared in case there��s a ghost.

    In various cultures on earth, there is a custom to give offerings to appease spirits and that kind of thing. Normally food, incense or treasure.

    I set down and light up some imported, nice smelling incense, a big bowl with a variety of foods including fresh fruits and a piece of raw, bloody meat (who knows what kind of food a ghost would want? I don��t) and a small open bag with a few coins of gold and silver, enough to buy and then maintain a war-horse for a couple of months or provide for a family of five for a year.

    There, unless the ghost is extremely specific in their tastes, this should be enough to befriend/pacify it.

    The void in my detection stopped around the corner of the hallway I��m on.

    I take a few steps back from the offerings, sit down on the ground and start snacking on some cookies.

    I also use the magic echolocation I learned from a monster a long time ago, the range for this magic is short when compared to normal detection spells, but it��s much harder to hide from.

    The results from the magic are in: there��s nothing there. I smile, it must be an actual ghost, and I must be lucky�� Unless it��s the evil kind of ghost, in that case I must be unlucky.

    The void stays around the corner for a while before approaching me once again, I can��t see it with my eyes either, but my mana sense can tell there��s something there, although the details are fuzzy.

    I��m getting the chills and feeling spooked. Would steel and magic work against it? Maybe mind magic would��

    Where the void in my senses is I begin to see a vague and small human silhouette, like I��m looking at someone through some dense smoke or fog.

    ��It��s for you.�� I say while pointing towards the offerings.

    The ghost stays a couple steps away from the offerings and from the silhouette, it seems to be looking at me and then at the offerings.

    ��You don��t want it?�� I ask.

    I can see the silhouette shaking its head. It then approaches the food and picks up an apple. From my mana sense I can tell this ghost is actually immaterial, not made of matter, but when it��s hand touches the apple, the apple is lifted as if normal.

    I pay attention to the area between the apple and the ghost��s ��skin�� (or should I call it surface?), my mana sense tells me it��s some abnormal form of telekinesis lifting the apple.

    The ghost lifts the apple to where their mouth would be and takes a bite�� huh? Where does the bite of apple go?

    Once again, I concentrate on my mana senses. I can��t ��see�� inside of the ghost, but I can tell that it still doesn��t have any mass or matter.

    While I��m wondering if the ghost can turn matter into energy, the ghost finishes eating the apple.

    The vague silhouette slowly becomes slightly more defined and I can see some details. The ghost seems to be a human child, although I can��t tell if it��s male or female.

    While I��m trying to figure out the details of the ghost��s appearance I hear a distant voice saying ��Thank you���� and the ghost seems to disperse into bits of mana.

    The bits of mana come to me and before I can act they are kind of absorbed by my body. Okay, now I��m really getting the chills.

    I quickly use a bunch of diagnostic spells on myself, only to find there��s nothing wrong. I then charge up in mind power and dive into my memories.

    After a while of looking around I find a memory that��s not my own.

    The owner of the memory seems to be laying down in a bed while looking out the window, seeing a group of children play.

    I also find a couple other fragments of memories, but nothing as complete as the first one.

    I calm down my mind before I get a headache and try to use my own senses to check if I feel bad in any way�� nope, I feel great, if a little spooked.

    I look around and use various detection spells, only to find nothing at all, not even the previous void.

    Damn, I was hoping to use the ghost to study the nature of souls.

    Well, if there��s no ghost anymore, there��s no reason for me to be here.

    Not long after that I finished stabilizing the gang on the countryside and went back to Sylvian. And not long after going home, the civil war started.

 C28 Rematch and Traveling again.

    C28

    Arriving back in Sylvian, I first went back home to the northeastern border fortress. I��ve been out for a little bit less than a year, so I��m planning on resting there for a couple of days.

    There are three things I want to do while the civil war is going on.

    <ol>

    <li>Basic human rights for slaves.</li>

    <li>Get research started on agricultural technology.</li>

    <li>Make a rifle.</li>

    </ol>

    Since there��s a good chance we��ll steamroll Heiron in the soon to come war, we��ll end up capturing a bunch of slaves, so I want to convince the queen to make a couple laws for slaves.

    I��m not planning on abolishing slavery and serfdom all of a sudden, but I want to force slave owners to at least keep their slaves alive, fed, clothed and sheltered, outlaw slave contracts without a time limit and guarantee that the children of slaves are born free.

    I also want to prohibit slave exportation, since we can��t enforce these laws outside of the country. While this will be bad for the economy on the short term, it will be good for national pride and for the economy on the long term.

    About national pride, maybe I should look for ��self-made�� people to use for propaganda. I also want to simplify the country��s flag to make it more iconic.

    Slavery around these parts is pretty bad but isn��t as bad as slavery of Africans during the colonial era, and I want to make sure it stays that way.

    Cruelty aside, relying too much on slaves is bad for the country��s stability. Free people are much better for GDP-like stuff than slaves.

    When it comes to agricultural technology, I want to get some people studying agriculture with a focus on nutrients and soil chemistry.

    Of course, there��s no way we��ll come up with chemical formulas for stuff out of the blue, but with trial and error we should probably come up with proper knowledge on crop rotation and fertilization, maybe even domesticate some monsters.

    Now to the third topic: guns. Since I��m planning to make guns based on mana cores instead of gunpowder, the only guns I��m making are a long-range sniper rifle, machine-guns and handguns.

    After all, we don��t have enough trustworthy enchanters that we can teach how to make mana cores, so there��s no way we��ll have the entire army equipped with guns.

    Honestly, out of those three, guns are the only topic I��m taking care of directly, the others I��m just going to ask other people to do it for me.

    With my short term plans organized I wait for the jump signal from the pilots.

    ��You��re clear to go, Sir Lance!�� Shouts the co-pilot so that I can hear him over the wind. I give them a thumbs up and jump out. I enjoy sky diving, can��t help but giggle when I��m falling, as if I��m being tickled.

    When approaching the ground I activate the parachuting harness, although everyone else seems to call these feather fall harness.

    As I slow down I recognize some people waiting for me on the ground.

    And as I land I hear various greetings and welcomes from my family and friends. After the greetings calm down I receive some news, starting with mom. ��Good news, Lance. The queen is pregnant!�� She says with a smile.

    Well, I guess having an heir to the crown soon will be good for the country��s stability, so yeah, good news, I nod.

    Dad is the next one to speak. ��Also, we��ve been receiving many letters from scholars for you. A few of them even came here to try and see you, since you were coming home we let them stay and wait for you.��

    Sounds like nerds are starting to come out of the woodworks, err, I mean, respectable scholars have honored me with their attention. ��I��ll talk to them over a meal after I take a quick bath.�� Sounds like the days I planned for resting aren��t going to happen.

    ~~

    I have a headache, these nerds scholars are really loud and like to shout over each other, I can barely hear my own thoughts.

    ��ENOUGH!�� I shout with magic. ��Are you scholars or bickering children?! First off, you!�� I point toward an old woman and a slightly younger (but still old) woman. ��Humans aren��t born innocent nor evil. Innocence and evil are arbitrary in the first place! And you!�� I point towards a middle aged man. ��I didn��t say that orthodox geometry is useless in real life! I said perspective-based measures are inherently flawed and if you kept reading you would see that I also said ��although they are flawed, the flaw is small and, in practice, almost irrelevant unless you are making absurdly precise calculations��!�� I take a few moments to catch my breath.

    Wait a moment; they started arguing so fast I couldn��t ask what I wanted to know since we sat down. I see someone is about to speak again, so I raise my palm towards them. ��Before all that, you haven��t told me yet: What in the queen��s name are you doing here?�� I ask while looking at each of their eyes in turn, all five of them. Noah is also here, but he��s just looking around confused.

    They exchange glances and then look back to me. An old woman answers for the group. ��We wanted to know if you wanted help in writing more books.�� I furrow my brows. They are here to ask for work? The hell?

    ���� Are you guys�� Unemployed?�� I ask cautiously and receive various expressions as an answer. My palm proceeds to cover my face. Of course they are.

    ��Lance, what��s going on?�� Asks Noah. Oh the (arbitrary) innocence of this little brother of mine. He just liked to listen to this bunch of nerds, so he came along for the meal.

    ��Nothing much, Noah. I just have more work to do than I expected.�� More things to talk to the queen about I guess.

    ~~

    Turns out a lot of scholars rely on teaching basic education to the children of merchants as their main profession. Although a lot of them started working on the schools and others are working in places without schools, a considerable number of them are now unemployed.You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

    Since this is the case, I��m adding ��convincing the queen to start a higher education program�� to my to-do list.

    ��So you guys are going to the capital already, even though you just arrived?�� Asks Athena. I��m hanging out with my friends and siblings near the training grounds after a little bit of training.

    That is: Ellie, Theo, Chiara, Athena and Noah. I still haven��t found out where the orphans are, but they aren��t here and should have already finished training.

    Mattias is also here, but I don��t really consider him a friend since he��s always so strict and professional, I think I��ve never seen him smile.

    ��Not immediately, I still need to go through a bunch of letters, but after that we��ll need to take the train.�� This time Chiara will be coming with me as a bodyguard instead of teacher, just like Ellie and Theo. She got a lot stronger while I was away.

    ��Just because there��s a bunch of scholars unemployed? I��m pretty sure they can wait a couple days, you should stay for longer.�� Athena Insists.

    ��No, no. Not just that, there are other things I need to do, and more importantly, I need to keep an eye on the queen��s health.�� I answer.

    Theo answers that. ��Doesn��t her majesty have a ton of healers with her? Why would you need to be there?��

    ��Well, I just don��t feel comfortable leaving it to other people.�� I explain with a shrug. The amount of things that can go wrong are simply too many, I��m feeling a little paranoid. ��I also want to do a healing tour to commemorate the occasion on the way.��

    ��Healing tour?�� All of them ask, almost synchronized.

    ��Yeah, I��ll go to the capital by train and heal people for free at every stop.��

    ��That��s my son, always so nice to the masses.�� Mother says as she approaches. She has a big smile on her face, and I have a bad feeling about this. ��It��s been a while since we last sparred hasn��t it?�� She asks with her hand on my shoulder.

    I narrow my eyes in suspicion, but nod anyways.

    We get in position with blunt steel long swords.

    After three exchanges she manages to disarm me�� What?

    ��Is this son of mine going soft? Tsk, tsk. That��s no good.�� She says with an annoying grin on her face while raising her chin so she��s looking down on me. This woman�� She��s holding a grudge from the last sparring session!

    ��I wasn��t ready that time! Let��s go again!�� I really want to wipe that smirk off her face, I don��t care if I seem like a sore loser. She only smiles wider and gets in a stance as an answer.

    I concentrate harder this time, she clearly worked hard in learning from Chiara��s style and even improved on it. Her blows carry both superhuman strength and precision, my sword almost leaves my hand multiple times but I hold on.

    Every exchange leaves me open to the next attack, so I need to compensate for that in a hurry, leaving no space for me to counter.

    If this keeps going I��m just going to run out of mana first, so I steady my feet and pretend to go for an attack that parries hers while threatening her with the point of the sword.

    She reacts by dedicating herself to the blow harder, trying to just use brute strength to get my sword out of the way.

    I let go of the sword and lunge towards her, since she expected her sword to encounter mine it just keeps moving, leaving her side open.

    If I can��t beat her with the sword, I��ll beat her unarmed.

    I go straight for grabbing her wrist, she lets go of the sword with that hand and tries to use the other to hit me with the sword, but I drop to the floor while using all my weight to pull her with me her blow once again just ��whoosh�� hits the air.

    Now I��m on my back while she��s on a half kneeling position to my side. The sword that missed last time now falls onto me again from overhead but the distance between me and mom is too short so I just reach for her neck.

    And then the leg that was kneeling springs out all of a sudden and hits the side of my head.

    I black out for a second, but when my vision comes back, mom has her sword on my neck while breathing heavily.

    I guess shortening the distance against a self-strengthening pro wasn��t my brightest idea, but I got pretty far since she relies on her sword so much.

    More importantly, the annoying grin is gone from her face, so that means it��s my turn to grin. ��Still think I��m going soft?��

    ��Humph, you only got lucky.�� Hearing that only makes me smile more.

    �� But not before I heal my head that hurts like hell.

    ~~

    The letters from scholars were either unemployed ones looking for work or just scholars trying to ask me about one thing or another, for example one of them was asking about the bathroom I designed for the royal castle, more specifically the toilet.

    So I didn��t take too long in writing back, since most of them will be getting the same answer of ��I��ll talk to the queen about it, ok?��

    Coming with me are the three tournament girls, Noah, Gray (big doggo), Mattias + twenty men who are either knights or sorcerers. Are they multiplying?

    We are taking armored half-track vehicles to Turin, where we will take the train all the way to the capital while healing people on every stop. We are using half-tracks instead of normal cars because there��s still no proper road between the fortress and Turin.

    You��d think the fortress would be a priority for road construction, but in truth, the barbarians aren��t seen as that big of a deal now that they can��t sneak through due to the scouting devices spread throughout the border.

    So railroads and roads are being built in other places, including Endel.

    Gray is walking until we get to Turin, then he will be taking the train with us. A war horse wouldn��t be able to keep up, but he��s fine.

    Noah is coming too since he never went to the capital, and now is as good a time as any.

    The trip to Turin was uneventful, large groups of bandits don��t even exist anymore. Any bandit nowadays will be in small teams, disguised as just another traveler, without proper armor or weapons. Harder to find but their threat has also lowered.

    We didn��t keep other travelers company like when I came through here with mom a long time ago, but I told one of the servants to ask people we came across if they had any wounded that needed healing, but there were only a couple.

    About three quarters of the way to Turin we came across two well-guarded carriages. I watched from the window as the servant asked them if they wanted any healing.

    While watching with a bored expression, I felt a hint of a familiar smell that I couldn��t quite remember, so I enhanced my sense of smell to see if I recognize it.

    Oh, that��s blood.

    ��Sir Lance, they have no wounded, shall we go on?�� The servant asks me.

    ��They don��t?�� I ask in return. Now isn��t that quite suspicious? ��Let me talk to them myself.�� I say as I get out of the car. I send a discrete signal to the bodyguards to prepare for combat. Mattias and Ellie move to my sides and I enhance all my senses and charge up in mental power.

    As I approach them the smell of blood becomes clearer.

    ��Hey, you.�� I call out to the guard that was talking to my servant. ��Have you seen any bandits around these parts?��

    I can feel him getting tense, but no sign of guilt. The smell of blood isn��t coming from him either. ��No, sir. If there are any bandits, they have avoided us, Sir Lance.�� It��s normal for him to know who I am just by seeing my three-pointed-star pupils.

    At this point the rest of the guards and the people inside the carriages come out. ��Something wrong, sir?�� Asks a woman around my mother��s age.

    ��No, not quite. You see, I feel the scent of blood coming from someone around here. And this friend here�� I point to the man I was talking to. ��Said you haven��t run into any bandits����

    The woman is tense as well, but like the guard she doesn��t give me any sign of guilt. ��Oh, it must be rabbit blood. One of our men killed one earlier.�� She points to a man with a bow and quiver near the back.

    ��I see. Come over here, friend.�� I beckon him.

    He approaches and indeed the smell of blood is coming from him. ��Have you killed any humans recently?�� I ask.

    He swallows his saliva before he answers. ��No, Sir Lance.�� His mind is tense but still no guilt.

    ��Oh well, sorry about stopping you.�� I signal my men to relax.

    ��Paranoid much?�� Asks Ellie with a smirk. I just give her a short glare as answer.

    Looking at the carriages�� people who are now relaxing, I notice the woman who acted like a leader earlier has a sword on her waist. ��Excuse me, madam. Could you lend me that sword for a second?��

    She tenses herself slightly but obeys. I take a few minutes to enchant the sword. The sword itself is similar to a small backsword, convenient to carry around. ��Here you go.�� I return the sword. ��Sorry again, farewell.�� I say and signal my men to get a move on.

    ��Am I getting stressed out?�� Is what I think while I hear the goodbyes from the people we stoped.

    Next stop is Turin.

 C29 Through Turin to the Capital Again and Discussion

    We don��t take long to reach Turin, the place is much bigger than when I last came here as a two year old. Strangely it feels like yesterday and ages ago at the same time.

    It��s a strange feeling to remember memories from when I was so young.

    Last time I came the outer walls were more akin to big fences and the roads, houses and other infrastructures were rather basic or incomplete.

    Soon I meet Countess Eugene Monz and her family again, but only her eldest daughter is around, the other five were already married to other noble families and moved away.

    The countess and her husband already look rather old, seems they will be stepping down from the position soon. Again, it��s a strange feeling to meet these people as an adult.

    I don��t stay long since I never got close to their family aside from the younger Hugo and Carol who moved away. My grandma also isn��t here so I don��t have much reason to visit the army base.

    Someone I do want to visit is old Logan and his family. He was the owner of a store catered towards magic and related subjects. I kept in contact with him and some of his family, exchanging letters discussing magic, books and magic books.

    Kinda used him as a Google when I was searching for something I couldn��t find easily.

    Old Logan is rather old and stepped down from his position on the ��somethingsomething Magic Emporium��, he spends his days reading, taking walks and annoying the younger generations of his family like any old man should.

    Noah enjoyed listening to the old man a lot and Logan was joyful at having someone with the patience to listen to him ramble endlessly.

    The army prepared the scene for the free healing and Countess organized a small celebration to commemorate the queen��s pregnancy. The population of the place increased quite a lot, so I was busy most of the time, but the food was good at least.

    On the next day we set out heading south on the train and repeated the same routine. Arrive, visit people, heal/celebrate, rest, and move on.

    The state of the country was much better than last time I travelled like this, couldn��t find any bandits near the main roads, the cities seemed richer and the population seemed happy and healthy.

    Of course, I only had time to do a superficial look around, but even this is a rather big improvement. Further away from the railroad the changes should be smaller, but not by too much.

    The train is much faster than carriages and ships, only slower than the plane, so we move at an incredible pace. The healing is what takes the most time.

    Its impressive how many people choose to just ��walk it off�� when it comes to health problems instead of paying healers. I don��t have much of a sense for money, but are they that expensive?

    When we weren��t busy I would just chat with the girls and Noah or go hunting with Grey.

    Because of all the stops it took about two weeks to arrive at the capital. When we got there we went straight to the castle.

    ��Wow! It looks just like the miniature you sent me!�� Noah exclaims while we cross the bridge to the castle. ��Was there really no island there before you built it?�� I just nod in return.

    Seeing the castle again stirs up some feelings in me, like pride and nostalgia, so I just immerse myself in those feelings while remembering the stuff I need to do.

    Slaves, agriculture, guns, higher education�� I should also see if I can increase the number of sorcerers trusted with forbidden magic�� And sorcerers in general for that matter, there��s no way we can keep up this growth speed without relying on truckloads of magic.

    Right, by this point, the stuff I made should be showing some problems I missed. I should take reports of problems on the various devices and try to improve on them.

    There are other things I want to do, but those can be left for after the war, I have enough on my plate for now.

    In the blink of an eye, we meet the art nerd her majesty the queen. She already knows Ellie, Theo and Chiara since I spent a lot of time with them since the tournament, but this is the first time she��s meeting Noah�� And Gray too��

    ��How the hell did you tame a wolf of this size?�� The queen asks.

    ��Food and mind magic, I suppose.�� I answer.

    ��You brainwashed him?�� She asks with eyes open wide.

    ��What? No! I just made it clear that if he tried to bite my throat off again, I��d kill him. One thing lead to another and here we are.�� I explain. ��Anyways, give me your wrist so I can check your health.��

    She grumbles a little but does offer me her wrist. No wounds, normal blood pressure, no nasty virus or harmful bacteria in worrying quantities. Her womb is healthy and pregnant, rather early stages, not sure how long exactly since I didn��t study this area in too much detail.

    ��All good, but you need to eat fewer sweets.�� A little bit too much sugar in her system. She groans in displeasure but nods. ��Don��t worry, you can still eat fruits.�� Her frown lessens a bit with that.

    ��Well, if that��s all, I��ll get going. It was nice meeting you, Noah. And gray too.�� She says with a smile but I interrupt her before she leaves.

    ��Actually, I need to discuss some things with you.��

    ��Is it fun things or boring things?��

    ��Uh, boring things, I suppose.��

    She sighs. ��It��s always the boring things. Fine, is it small stuff or big stuff?��

    ��Pretty big, I think.��

    ��How come it��s always the big boring business that comes to me?�� Uh, because you��re the queen, I suppose? ��I��ll need to gather some advisors then, you should get your brother settled down in your guest rooms first, and then come up to the meeting hall.��

    I show Noah around the guest quarters and make a map real quick so that he can go exploring. The girls stay with him to make sure he doesn��t get in trouble (He��s well behaved but you never know) and make arrangements for Gray so he doesn��t end up killing the horse of a visiting noble or something (He��s been well behaved lately but you never know).

    In the meeting room the queen and a dozen advisors of various fields are already discussing something when I arrive, but it seems to not be important since they are acting somewhat informally.

    ��Okay everyone, time for work.�� The queen interrupts the conversation when I arrive. ��So Lance, what is it you want to discuss?��

    ��First up is slavery.�� I say while sitting down ��I expect a considerable influx of slaves from this war and it��s best for the country if we are prepared for them. Thank you.�� I say to the maid who serves me some tea before she bows and leaves the room.

    ��I��d say we have more than enough men to suppress any slave uprising, what else would we prepare?��

    ��Uprisings are only short term problems, I��m talking long term.�� Well, unless they happen repeatedly and endlessly. ��Stop me if you disagree, but our country would be at its most powerful and prosperous if most of the population is well trained in their professions, perhaps including training in magic.��

    ��Well, yes, that is the same logic behind the education program, is it not? But, you are not saying we should teach slaves to shoot fireballs and calculate the sizes of geometric shapes, are you?��

    ��No, of course not���� Then again�� ��Well, not exactly.��Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.

    ��Here we go again.�� I hear her mumble while brushing her hair with her hand. ��Spare me the preamble, Lance. Make your point first and try to convince me of why you are the lord of reason and foresight after.�� She says sarcastically.

    Rude, but fair enough. ��We need to take measures to prevent the country from relying on cheap slave labor too much at the cost of the prosperity of the lower class citizens and, on the long term, the prosperity of the country overall.�� I think that��s to the point enough.

    I won��t mention human rights and ethics too much, this is still a country where the reaction to death by starvation or infant death is just ��too bad, but it can��t be helped.��

    The queen discusses with her advisors briefly. The overall conclusion is that they agree that it can be a problem (they aren��t idiots after all), but don��t see how it could happen in the near future nor do they think the problem would be too grave.

    Good thing I have thousands of years of earth history and the power of hindsight backing me up. ��Let me set up a fictional scenario to help you understand the gravity of this matter: let��s take one of the commoners we are training as we speak to fight for us.

    ��Suppose this hypothetical commoner�� Let��s call him�� Flavius, let��s say Flavius is found to have outstanding talents in both magic and martial arts, and studies as well, as such he receives the best training we can give so that he can perform his best in the coming war. During the war itself he shows himself capable and rises through the ranks, almost becoming a knight.��

    I use simple illusions to accompany the fictional story, showing a young, stern-faced man growing up into a sturdy looking veteran.

    ��After the war, he goes home as a shining example of what a soldier should be, and tries to use the money and connections he gained in the military to improve the lives of his family and himself.

    ��But here he finds a problem: most would-be job opportunities he looks for is occupied by slaves owned by nobles and well-off merchants, he has to scramble to get his children and nephews in apprenticeships of profitable professions, because many others are in similar situations and compete with him every step of the way.��

    When I reach this point, many advisors nod in agreement, but their expressions show they still don��t see it as too grave problem.

    Here goes the kicker. ��So Flavius does what he does best: War. He tries to prepare the youngsters of his family to join the military and goes back to the army himself.

    ��He once again displays his talent and in time even manages to land a knight title, but at the same time his family grows and he forms bonds with more of his brothers-in-arms.

    ��Inevitably, many of these brothers and family members die in battle, and ironically their selfless sacrifice increases the influx of slaves, forcing more and more citizens to feel forced to join the military, forming a vicious cycle of death and bitterness.

    ��In time, the military becomes flooded with men like Flavius, men who survived on their talent for war and who lived a life of bitterness denied of peace. All the while, outside the military, the country is flooded with oppressed slaves, who are forced to work for rich men they hold no loyalty towards����

    At this point the room is solemn. These people aren��t idiots after all; they know the scenario I��m speaking of would be festering with unrest and potential for internal conflict.

    The history of the Sylvian peninsula is filled with infighting; it��s why the inquisition was created in the first place, so any noble knows the severity of what I��m talking about.

    What I��m speaking of here is a problem that happened in the good old Roman Empire, legionnaires went back home to retire as a farmer, as was tradition, only to find that land owners and slaves made it impossible.

    This was an ominous crack in the metaphorical foundation of Rome. The same Rome that venerates Mars, the god of war, and preaches that every ��proper�� citizen and leader should serve in the military couldn��t actually support the proper retirement of its soldiers.

    This crack was exploited multiple times. I don��t remember the details properly, but someone (I think one of the big names like Caesar) promised he would give his soldiers their due and convinced them to march on Rome itself, an act that would be inconceivable in the past.

    I continue. ��Of course, this is only one hypothetical scenario, and we could take measures to prevent this specific situation. However, my point still stands: Necessity is the mother of invention and to sit atop a tower of slaves will only cause our legs to rot.�� I conclude and look in the eyes of the men and women in the room.

    None of them achieved the status needed to enter this room by being idiots, when a pitfall is pointed out so directly their minds instantly look around to see if they missed any others.

    Even if they don��t have concepts like gross domestic product (GDP) and human development index (HDI), their subconscious�� were trained through years of administrative experience and can tell that slaves are only capable of limited contribution towards the development of the country.

    The queen rests her back against her throne and closes her eyes to think for a minute while I sip on the weird, imported, spiced tea that I had to reheat with magic. The taste reminds me a lot of cinnamon, but who knows what fantasy nonsense is actually in it?

    ��So, what are you suggesting?�� The queen pulls my attention away from the aromatic tea. ��That we don��t take any slaves at all? That would put a heavy burden on-�� I wave my hand to interrupt her.

    ��I can��t claim to have the experience your side of the table has on these matters, so I can��t confidently suggest such drastic, direct measures.�� I begin. ��I was thinking more on the lines of putting a deadline on all forms of servitude, like we already do with criminal slaves. After their time is done, the slaves would be given a choice between becoming a citizen or leaving our lands to try their luck elsewhere.

    ��We should also force slave owners to give minimum support to their slaves, as in keeping them fed, clothed and sheltered. This would force slave owners to consider how many slaves they can support instead of just using them as consumables, with the side benefit of increasing the amount of slaves that will attempt to turn into citizens.

    ��If we also prohibit rape and the more extreme forms of punishment, I can bet most slaves would choose to rely on us rather than risk starting again somewhere else, increasing the human resources available to our country, and essentially turning unreliable Heiron citizens into semi-reliable Sylvian citizens.

    ��If you look at these measures altogether you can see it would give the crown an image of kindness and justice, so we could take further steps in this direction, like giving citizenship to the children of slaves, starting programs to help ex-slaves out of poverty and prohibiting exportation of slaves overall.

    ��This would improve overall morale and national pride of the citizens, and give us a moral high ground when compared with our neighbors, both present and future�� When I say that I think of Kurt and his country of Endel to the north. ��Where��s his highness Kurt, by the way?��

    ��He��s keeping company with some visitors from the north.�� The queen answers while massaging her temples. ��You can consider your suggestions about slavery to have been received. Was that all you wanted to discuss?��

    ��No, the next topic is related to education. The schools we made for basic teaching resulted in some capable scholars losing their main source of income. This is the perfect opportunity to make a university.��

    ��Do elaborate.�� The queen speaks almost lazily while leaning on the arm of her chair. Did the previous topic tire her that much?

    ��In short, a university is an advanced school. While the schools we set up around the country teach a basic level of knowledge, a university would be better equipped and staffed to be able to raise professionals and scholars with the highest level of education possible within the country��s means. I suggest reforming the old royal castle into a grand university that puts the rest of the world to shame.��

    ��That sounds extremely expensive.�� Says one of the advisors. I��ve seen him before, but didn��t try hard to remember him aside from his appearance. ��The construction, the staff, the books and supplies among other things should put too heavy a strain on the royal treasury when combined with the costs for the nearing war and the more mundane expenses.��

    ��Yes, even with my help it should still be rather expensive.�� By my help I mean negotiating with the scholars, making paper, printing books and assisting in variety of manners with the construction. ��That��s why I plan to go out of my way to make money by making things for nobles and rich merchants from here and Endel.��

    ��Making things? What kind of things do you mean?�� Another advisor asks.

    ��Swords, artwork, clothing�� Even construction work isn��t off the table. I suppose only things like cannons and the more advanced vehicles are off the table, really. I should be able to charge rather high prices, right?�� I look around the room and see people nodding. ��You think that would be enough to offset the costs of the university, sir?�� I ask the old man that raised the issue.

    ��Perhaps. We��ll have to see how it goes in practice, but it should at least make the costs bearable.�� He agrees.

    ��Another thing we need scholars for: research in agriculture.�� I skip towards the next topic. ��We simply don��t know enough of the specifics of agriculture at the moment, there is a high risk we are unknowingly doing something wrong that will result in slowly worsening the land and reducing crop yield.

    ��We need scholars who understand of flora, fauna and farming in general to begin researching as soon as possible to learn how we can improve food production and improve the growth and health of livestock as well as search the wilds to find plants and beasts with potential to be domesticated.

    ��Monsters, for example, are well known to grow quickly. However the only monster we breed is the war horse.�� I finish.

    ����The costs for this project shouldn��t be anything too absurd, depending on the scale.�� Says the old man from earlier, who complained about costs, while scratching his chin. Is he a treasurer or something like that?

    The queen then voices her thoughts. ��Yes, this project is rather easy to approve. We only need to discuss the details, really.�� She looks around to see if anyone disagrees.

    One advisor raises his finger and speaks. ��Rather than disagreeing, I��m only somewhat curious. What does Sir Lance mean by domesticating plants? Don��t we just need to grow them?��

    ��Oh that, the crops we currently grow have gone through centuries of breeding to be big, pretty, healthy and tasty. If you look at their wild siblings, you can barely recognize them.�� I explain.

    Let��s see, what else. ��The next few topics are actually just statements I suppose, first up: we need more sorcerers. We need more mages and sorcerers in general, but more specifically, we need more of them doing civilian work and work with forbidden magic.

    ��Second: I need reports of problems on the various things I made to see if I can improve on them. Suggestions and complaints are also welcome.

    ��Third: I��m going to make firearms. Think cannons but downsized to be more like crossbows�� And I think that��s about it�� Oh, the second one was more of a request, wasn��t it? Oh well.�� I shrug.

    ��Please tell me that��s all, you��ve given me more than enough work already.�� Says the queen, and when I nod she continues. ��Then you can go, you know where to get materials for these ��firearms��. For the rest of us, we need to actually turn those ideas into reality.��

    I just smile, stand up, do a short bow and then leave.