Infancy Period Read online

  Ahh..... I was too quick in deciding.

  Just too quick in deciding. I shouldn't be hired at this place.

  I'll get attacked sooner or later.

  .......Lilia was a person who seriously believed in that kind of thing.

  Part 4

  In the beginning of the second year, she was still afraid of him.

  But she didn't know when it started,

  Rudeus' unpredictable movements started to change.

  He wasn't like a ninja anymore, and usually stayed in Paul's study on the 2nd floor.

  Speaking about the study, it's just a room with a few books.

  Rudeus stayed there without going out.

  Lilia secretly observed him, and found him mumbling to himself reading the book.

  A meaningless mumble.

  It should be. At least, it wasn't a commonly used language in these lands.

  It was still too early to be learning how to talk. Of course, letters have not been taught to him yet.

  So it was just a baby looking at a book and randomly making sounds.

  Otherwise, it would be too strange.

  But Lilia always had the feeling that the words sounded like they carried meaning and structure.

  Rudeus seemed to understand the contents of the book.

  It was too frightening.....

  Lilia always thought that when she saw Rudeus from the gap in-between the door.

  But the strange thing was that there wasn't any disgusting feeling.

  Come to think of it, ever since he locked himself in the room, that unknown source of discomfort gradually disappeared.

  Though he occasionally showed that disgusting smile even while she carried him, it didn't feel unpleasant.

  He wouldn't bury his face into her chest, and he wouldn't suddenly pant.

  Why did she always find him scary?

  Lately she felt that he was sincere and hardworking, and didn't want to disrupt him.

  Zenith seemed to share her sentiments.

  After that, Lilia felt that not caring for him was better.

  It was an idea that went against common sense.

  In fact, it was abnormal for human beings not to care for a child that was born not too long ago.

  But recently there were signs of knowledge in Rudeus' eyes.

  There were only "chikan"[7] eyes a few months ago, but now there was a strong will and shining knowledge in them.

  What should be done? Even though she had knowledge of taking care of children, Lilia, who lacked experience, found it hard to judge.

  She couldn't remember whether it was the guards-maid senpai or her mother back in her hometown who said this, but bringing up a child had no correct method.

  At least, she doesn't feel disgusted, uncomfortable, or frightened.

  In that case, it's best not to disturb him. Otherwise it would end up with him going back to how he was originally.

  Chapter 3 - Magic Textbook

  Part 1

  It has been 2 years after I was reincarnated.

  My legs and waist were starting to become strong enough for me to walk with my feet.

  I was also starting to learn this world's language.

  Part 2

  After I decided to live on seriously, I started to consider what I can do.

  What did I need in my life.

  Studying, sports, and skill sets.

  The things a baby can do were very few. At most, I can bury my face into someone's chest.

  When I did that to the maid, she showed an unhappy expression.

  That maid definitely hated kids.

  Sports can be done in the future, but now, for the sake of learning words, I started to search for books in the house.

  It's important to be literate.

  The literacy rate of Japan was nearly 100%, but there were many people who were poor in the English language, so they balked at the idea of going overseas and even treated foreign languages as a skill set. Therefore, learning this world's words was the first assignment.

  There were 5 books in this house.

  Could it be that the books in the world are expensive, or could it be that Paul and Zenith don't read books? The two reasons probably existed at the same time. To me, who owned thousands of books, that was something unbelievable.

  Though every one of them was a light novel.

  There were only 5 books, but it was sufficient for recognizing words.

  This world's language was similar to Japanese, so I quickly remembered it.

  Even though the letters are completely different, learning how to speak went very smoothly.

  It would be fine as long as the vocabulary was memorized. Learning how to listen was very useful.

  Father read me the books more than once, so learning the vocabulary also went smoothly.

  Perhaps it had something to do with this body's ability to memorize.

  After being able to read the language, I found this book's content to be very interesting.

  In my past life I had never thought learning was interesting, but when I thought about it, it was the same as memorizing information from the internet. How can it not be interesting.

  Come to think of it, did that father really think that such a young kid would be able to understand the contents of that book?

  It's fine if it's me, but a normal one-year-old kid would have frowned and cried loudly.

  There were the 5 books.

  >

  This is a special encyclopedia that contains all the various countries in this world.

  >

  A book that describes monsters that appear around Fedoa, and ways to handle them.

  >

  A guidebook that contains the method of using magic attacks, from the elementary rank to the advanced rank.

  >

  The fairy tale of a summoner named Perugius, who traveled along with his companions battling the demon gods, saving the world, punishing evil, and rewarding the good.

  >

  The adventures of three talented swordsmen belonging to different sword style classes who met each other and entered the labyrinth.

  Putting aside the two books about fighting, the other 3 let me learn a lot.

  Especially the guidebook about magic.

  To me, who came from the world without magic, the things that were recorded here made me develop a very deep interest in it.

  After reading through them, I understood a few basic things.

  1. First of all, magic can be approximately placed into 3 categories.

  [[Attack Magic]] --- Attacking a target

  [[Healing Magic]] --- Healing a target

  [[Summoning Magic]] --- Call out something

  3 types. Easy to understand.

  Even though it has various functions, according to the guide book, magic was originally developed for battle. They are not really used outside of battle and hunting.

  2. To use magic, you must have mana.

  Conversely, as long as you have mana, you can use magic.

  There are two ways of using mana.

  [[Use your own mana within your body]]

  [[Draw out mana from something that contains mana]]

  It must be one of these two.

  I can't think of a good example. It's probably something like a generator for the former, and a battery for the latter.

  A long time ago people only used their own mana to use magic, but as generations passed, magic was analyzed and became more advanced, and the amount of mana used increased explosively.

  It was fine to the people who had a lot of mana, but those who had less mana couldn't use the magic.

  So the magicians of the past thought of ways to draw out mana from elsewhere to fulfill the magic's requirement.

  3. There are 2 ways to activate magic.

  [[Chanting]]

  [[Magic formation]]

&
nbsp; There's really no need to explain right? Use your mouth or draw a magic formation to activate magic.

  Magic formations were the norm a very long time ago, but now Chanting is the norm.

  In the past, the simplest chant required 1-2 minutes.

  Even though it wasn't very long, this method was very difficult to use in battles.

  In retrospect, once a magic formation is drawn, it can be used repeatedly.

  It was a certain magician who successfully reduced the chant time. Then chanting became the norm.

  The simplest one is about 5 seconds, and basic magic attacks can be used with chanting.

  But if there's not a immediate requirement, then complicated magic techniques, even now, is still the norm for drawing magic formations.

  4. A person's magic is basically set when you are born.

  A normal RPG will have MP increase once you level up, but it seemed this world will not increase it.

  Basically, everyone's profession is warrior. Just saying this term makes me feel like there is somewhat of a change......

  What about me, hmm.

  It's said the amount of mana is hereditary.

  The fact that my mother is capable means I can probably hope for things to a certain extent.

  A little worrying. Even if my parents are talented, my genetic makeup felt like it won't be of use.

  Part 3

  In any case, I started to try out the simplest magic.

  There were methods recorded for both chanting and magic formations in the guidebook, but since chanting was the norm and there wasn't any place for me to draw magic formations, I started with chanting.

  It seemed that the more complicated the magic is, the longer the chant time will be. In fact, it has to be used with magic formations as well, but for beginning magic there should be no problems.

  A skilled magician seemed to be able to use magic without chanting.

  Voiceless incantation or reducing the chant. Something like that.

  But why is it that you don't need chanting when you're skilled with it?

  The mana usage wouldn't change, and even if you level up your MP wouldn't change either.....

  Or is it the more skilled you are, the less mana you'll use?

  But even if your mana usage decreases, there's no reason to skip a step.

  .............Whatever, I'll just try it out first.

  I held the guidebook in my left hand, stretched out my right, and read out the words from the book.

  [Bestow the protection of water to the place where thou demands, let the crystal clear flow here, WATER BALL]

  A feeling that something like blood flow was gathering into my right hand.

  As if the blood flow was squeezed out, a water bullet the size of a fist appeared in front of my right hand.

  [Whoa!!]

  The moment I was touched by that, the water bullet fell onto the ground and dampened the floor.

  The book said the bullet should be shot, but it fell down.

  Perhaps my concentration was broken and the magic ceased.

  Concentrate, concentrate......

  The feeling of blood gathering in my right hand. This, this, this kind of feeling ....... Mmmm.

  I once again raised my right hand and recalled that feeling before, imagining it in my mind.

  Even though I didn't know how much mana I had, it was best not to treat it like I can use it multiple times.

  Concentrate and let every attempt be successful.

  First imagine it, then repeat it every time in my mind, then use it in reality.

  If it's a failure, then imagine it in my mind.

  Until I can do it perfectly in my head.

  In the past, this was how I practiced every move in fighting games.

  Because of that, I don't really fail when I execute a combo.

  Practicing this method should have no problems...... I hope.

  [Brea....the.....]

  A deep breath.

  Sending blood flow from my feet and head to my right hand, using that kind of feeling to gather strength.

  And fire it out from my hand.

  Carefully, carefully. With every heartbeat, gathering it bit by bit.....

  Water, Water, Water, Water Bullet, Water's Ball, Water Ball, Water Ball Pantsu.....

  Evil thoughts were mixed into it. Let me try it again.

  Concentrate, squeezing out waterrrrrrr.........

  [HAH!]

  I unconsciously shouted like a man from the temple, and the water bullet came out.

  [Eh, huh.....?]

  Plop.

  The moment I was surprised, the water bullet dropped down.

  [............ Ah.]

  But just now, I didn't chant it right?

  Why did......?

  What I did was just recalling the feeling of using that magic and imitating it.

  But just redoing the flow of the magic makes chanting unnecessary?

  Is voiceless incantation that simple?

  Isn't it an upper class technique?

  [If it's that easy to succeed, what's the use of chanting?]

  Even a novice like me can use voiceless incantation to activate magic.

  Concentrating the mana in my fingers and creating the shape in my mind.

  It was just that.

  In that case, chanting is completely unnecessary. Everyone should do just it.

  (............ Hm.)

  Could it be that chanting is the automatic use of magic?

  You don't need to gather the blood-flow like feeling, and just have to say it out and the spell will compile on it's own.

  It should be something like that.

  It's just like automatic cars. You can actually change it to manual and have it still work.

  [Chanting will automatically compile into magic.]

  That is a very good point to it.

  1) It is easy.

  Gathering that blood-flow like feeling...... instead of saying something like that, why not let everyone use chanting and succeed. Then both teacher and student will have an easier time.

  And after doing something like that every time, it became [[Chanting is something that is necessary]].

  2) It is convenient to use.

  Needless to say, attack magic is used in combat.

  Rather than closing your eyes and going "mmmmmmm" while concentrating, chanting it quickly is still faster.

  Running with all your strength while drawing a clear picture, or running with all your strength while saying the chant words - it's a question of which is easier.

  [It's different for various people. Perhaps there are those who would find it easier with the former.....]

  I quickly flipped through the magic textbook, but I found nothing on voiceless incantations.

  Weird. From how I felt it, it's not that hard.

  Perhaps it's something that I have, but it's not as if other people can't use it at all.

  How about this.

  A magician typically starts out as a beginner and ends up as a veteran, and everyone uses the chanting method to use magic.

  After thousands, ten of thousands of times, the body is already used to chanting.

  Then when it comes to voiceless incantations, they don't know what to do.

  Therefore, as it's not disseminated, it's not recorded in the guidebook.

  [Whoaa, that explains it!]

  Then I'm an uncommon person, rawr.

  That's something amazing right?

  It's like I'm using a tip sheet.

  [They used a crime catalyst without singing an oratorio!?]

  [But all I did was use this catalyst like normal and open the gate.][8]

  That kind of feeling?

  Woohoo, I'm getting excited!

  .................

  Ah, no no. Calm down, cool down.

  The past me was deceived by this feeling.

  Just because I'm better at using the computer than the average person and got that feeling that I was someone
chosen, I became greedier and eventually ended up in failure.

  Be humble. The most important thing was to not treat myself as someone who's better than others.

  I'm a novice. A novice.

  A novice who had beginner's luck and managed to hit the bowling pins with a strike.

  Merely beginner's luck. Don't think that I'm a person with talent. I should be concentrating on studying hard.

  Good. First rely on the chant to use the magic, then based on that feeling, practice the voiceless incantation repeatedly.

  Just base it on that format to learn.

  [Then let's do it again.]

  But when I stretched out my right hand, I felt a little tired.

  As if there was something heavy on my shoulders.

  The feeling of fatigue.

  Is it because I'm concentrating too hard?

  No, I'm at least considered half-pro at using the internet (self- proclaimed). If I needed to, I can continue hunting for 6 full days without sleeping.

  My concentration wouldn't vanish from just 2 tries.

  [That is to say, my MP is spent....?]

  That's just too little right? Or is it because I'm a beginner, my efficiency when using mana properly is really low?

  No, how can that be.

  To be safe, I tried firing one more, but in the end I fainted.

  [Oh really, Rudeus, If you're sleepy just go to the toilet and then sleep on the bed.]

  When I woke up, I was treated as wetting the floor, falling asleep while reading the book.

  Damn. I'm already so old yet I got treated as wetting the floor.....

  Damn it...... Damn it..... Eh, I'm only 2 right. Wetting the bed could still be forgiven.

  But seriously, my mana was too low.

  Hah...... This made me feel really powerless...... Well, since it's only 2 water bullets, in the end it had to be the method.

  In any case, I should practice to the point where I can fire it straight away......

  Hah......

  Part 4

  The 2nd day, I was fine even after firing 4 water bullets.

  I only felt tired after the 5th shot.

  [Strange.....?]

  From yesterday's experience, I will faint if I fire again, so I should stop here.