The Magic Circle Floating in Midair
But this was where a turning point arrived.
That giant boar bigger than a cow apparently really was called a Big Boar, just like the name suggested.
I learned that from a conversation between the man and woman… no, my parents.
“How many Big Boars did you kill?”
“Zero.”
“Ahaha, just as I thought.”
… Zero? Seriously? That instant answer, though.
The day after the man… n-no, uh... o-oh... ahem. Ch-Chi… Father-dono and the others returned, it seemed the town held a festival.
Because they’d managed to exterminate the Big Boars that had been ravaging the fields outside town. And because the meat had been distributed among the residents, that was what the maid taking care of me told me.
“Young Master’s father is a truly wonderful lord, you know.”
Hearing the maid say that made my heart warm for some reason.
It seemed my parents in this life were loved even by the people working in the mansion.
Was it really okay to believe?
Believe in those two? Believe that God had truly given me a kind family?
Several days later, the woman… Mother, went out to the town church.
Her magic was probably holy magic. Which meant faith in God was important, and she likely needed to offer prayers at church regularly.
That day, I spent my time in Father’s office. Thanks to that, I learned a little about the barony.
The barony wasn’t very large. Just this town where the mansion stood, one farming village, and one mining town.
But that mine. You’d think the existence of a gold vein would make the barony prosperous, but apparently not.
I mean, come on. There’s a mine inside such a tiny territory. It wouldn’t be strange for their finances to be thriving, right?
But among the people visiting the office, there were obvious debt collectors.
What was going on?
There weren’t many luxury goods inside the mansion. Mother didn’t wear flashy dresses either, and the jewelry she wore was minimal.
I didn’t know how other nobles lived, but this certainly didn’t look extravagant.
Hmm. Could the mine actually be on the verge of collapse?
That was what I thought, but apparently that wasn’t it either. The mine had only been discovered a few years ago, and the amount being extracted had only recently stabilized. I overheard him talking about it with the butler.
Then was that debt from the initial investment into the mine?
Well, even if I worried about it now, there was nothing I could do.
Better stop thinking about it for now.
More importantly.
This man… no, Father, could use magic!
“Hm. Looks like the light’s about to go out.”
Removing the glowing stone from the lantern, Father muttered something.
The hand gripping the stone began to glow, and that light was absorbed into the stone.
“There, that should do it. Hmm? Dermont, you were awake? Could it be you’re interested in the magic just now?”
“A-ahh...”
I-it’s not like I care about this man! It’s the magic. I’m just interested in the magic!
“That was light magic. It’s my specialty attribute magic.”
“Chaa~”
Light magic!? Specialty attribute!?
“By imbuing a magic stone with light, you can make it shine for a while. Of course, it doesn’t keep glowing forever. See? If you tap it like this, it lights up.”
“Ohhh~”
So the thing set inside the lantern was called a magic stone. And by enchanting it with magic, it emitted light... got it.
Then Father showed me fire magic too.
“It’s getting cold. Shall we light the fireplace?”
“Uooh.”
Once again he muttered something, and flames flickered to life at his fingertips.
When he brought the flame close to the firewood stacked in the fireplace, the wood immediately caught fire.
Watching the firewood crackle and pop, my heart pounded.
I’d been born between parents who used holy magic, light magic, and fire magic.
Maybe I could use magic too?
If that was the case, then there was only one thing to do.
Practice until I mastered magic.
That said, how exactly was magic used?
If a baby barely over three months old suddenly said, “Teach me how to use magic,” people would definitely look at him strangely.
Before that, I still couldn’t talk properly. I tried to speak, but I couldn’t pronounce things right.
That part probably depended on the actual physical body.
If I saw someone using magic, I’d observe them carefully. Maybe I could figure something out from that.
That was what I thought, but apparently none of the maids working in the mansion could use magic.
No one had used magic during these past three months, after all.
It didn’t seem like my parents used magic all that often either, which meant my only remaining option was self-study.
First, I should try feeling the mana flowing inside my body.
.. .Yeah. I learned that I had absolutely no idea what mana even felt like.
Feel it. That’s all there is!
I tried searching for anything inside my body that resembled it, but I couldn’t figure out what was what.
On top of that, a baby’s body demanded sleep, so I spent most of the day unconscious. Thanks to that, my mana detection training didn’t progress the way I wanted, and before I knew it, I’d reached six months old.
But this was where the turning point arrived.
After learning how to crawl, my range of movement expanded, and I got so excited that I crawled all over the room nonstop.
As a result, I got too carried away and slammed my head hard against the corner of a dresser.
Ghk. I-I’m not gonna cry from something like this.
But the one whose face changed color was Mother.
“Kyaaa! D-Der! I-I’ll heal you right away!”
The moment Mother cast Heal on me, I felt something warm flow into my body.
Could this be mana?
Then, for the first time, I realized there was something around my navel reacting to Mother’s mana.
This had to be my mana.
Now then, what next?
Hmm... both Father and Mother always seemed to cast magic from their hands. In Father’s case, specifically from his fingertips.
Then I should practice moving the mana in my navel to my fingertips.
But how do I move it?
This was completely a matter of image training.
I imagined the mana I felt around my navel as blood, picturing it flowing through blood vessels.
Because of the drowsiness constantly hitting me, all I could manage was a few sessions a day, each only lasting several dozen minutes.
Whenever I desperately tensed my stomach while trying to force it to move, it felt like the thing in my navel just hardened.
Tensing up was no good.
Without putting strength into my stomach, I relaxed and focused on image training.
But it wouldn’t work.
Don’t rush it. I’m still a baby right now. Babies being able to use magic probably isn’t something that happens very often.
But looking at it another way, if a baby could use magic, that would make him incredible.
And if that happened, my parents would definitely praise me like crazy.
I had no memory of ever being praised in my previous life. If anything, I was told, “If only you didn’t exist.”
In this life, though, they praised me no matter what I did.
Was it greedy to want even more praise?
But apparently, my desire was accepted.
One day, not long before my first birthday… It suddenly appeared.
Yes. It floated there.
After more than a month and a half, I’d finally managed to extend the lump of mana close to my fingertips.
Mother had been knitting a wool hat for me, and she accidentally dropped one of the knitting needles onto the floor.
The instant I reached out to pick it up and touched the needle, it appeared.
“Ma-c-ile!?”
Floating there was unmistakably a magic circle.
What do you think about this chapter?
