Daughter and Magic
~~Alke’s Point of View~~
Vio was in a great mood, having earned 5 points and 250 lira by collecting 30 Healing herbs and 20 Mana herbs, all meeting the passing standard.
“Dad, on the way back I want to try something, so I want to walk home!”
Even though she had spent half the day at the learning center and worked harder than last time during the gathering session, she must’ve been tired. But she looked so genuinely excited when she said it that I decided to let her try. If she got tired, I could always carry her back, and after that it was just dinner and bed anyway.
After getting down from my arms, she stood still for a while with her eyes closed. I thought maybe she was more tired than I expected, but that wasn’t it.
“Yeah, I think I can do it!”
The moment she murmured that, she started walking briskly, different from how she usually was. Her stride was still small because of her size, but her walking speed had clearly increased. She was now fast enough to keep up with me even at a normal pace. From the guild to the plaza, her speed never slowed. She even waved back to the adults closing up shop, and kept walking.
This distance alone used to be enough to wear her out, yet she still wanted to go? I glanced at her and she just gave me a thumbs-up. She still wanted to walk. Though we had taken the shortest route, I never imagined she’d walk all the way home.
“I did it! I finally managed to walk all the way from the guild to home!”
"Well, I'll be! That's somethin' else. I sure didn't expect that. Vio, what in tarnation did you do?"
“Well, you see, I tried enhancing my legs. I could do it for my ears and eyes, right? So I wondered if I could do it for my legs too. It’s amazing! Body enhancement is so cool!”
So she was using enhancement magic. Was that during the moment she had her eyes closed? But she didn’t chant anything, right? Actually, I haven’t even taught her chanting yet, have I?
"Vio, how in the world did you go and use that enhancement magic?"
“Um, I gathered the fluffy stuff—the mana—inside my body like whoosh~ When I wanted to hear better, I gathered it in my ears and thought, ‘Let me hear better.’ For my legs, I focused it into my leg muscles and thought, ‘Don’t get tired, walk faster,’ and it just worked!”
Is that possible just because she’s good at controlling mana? Fluffy stuff… does mana really feel like that? I’ll need to ask the Vice-Guildmaster about this. While thinking that, I patted my happy daughter’s head and began preparing dinner.
“Oh! Dad, can I prepare the bath?”
"I'd be much obliged, but didn't you use up some mana for body enhancement? You sure you got enough left? Don't go pushin' yourself too hard now."
“Yeah, I think I’m okay. If it feels too much, I’ll stop.”
She looked fine, and since she really wanted to do it, I figured I could leave it to her. If she did run out of mana, we were home, so I could just carry her straight to bed. I was told it’s good for kids to experience mana depletion at least once while they’re young, too.
With that in mind, I watched her. She filled the bath bucket with water and didn’t seem the least bit fazed. She even managed to activate the magic heating tool, so maybe she has quite a bit of mana.
After dinner, while I was drying her hair after the bath, she began to nod off and then fell soundly asleep. That gave me some relief. Daily life magic doesn’t use as much mana as attack magic, but it still requires a decent amount.
And unfamiliar body enhancement would have used even more mana. She must’ve used a lot of physical energy too, so the fact she stayed active all day on just an hour-long nap is impressive. I lifted her light little body and carried her to her bedroom. I handed her the hugging pillow we had specially made by Lilium, and she clung to it tightly, falling asleep with a soft breathing rhythm. I guess even if she’s not a koala or a gorilla, clinging to something while sleeping makes her feel safe. I watched my beloved daughter’s sleeping face for a while before leaving the room.
Now then, I’ve got a lot to report to the Guildmaster and Vice-Guildmaster. I want to start preparing the Karuta board too, but I’ll need to consult with them first. Besides, Vio said she wanted to help with the board’s crafting, so I can’t just do it at night without her.
"Vio? Still sawin' logs?"
“I’m awake. I’m awake, but I can’t get up.”
In the morning, when I went to check on her thinking she’d overslept, she gave me an odd answer. When I approached her bed, she was trembling.
“My legs hurt. Not like an injury, but… hmm... ah! It feels like really bad muscle pain!”
"Haha, I see, I see. That there's from yesterday's body enhancement. Enhancement magic can amp up your muscle strength, toughen your skin, or make you stronger, but all it does is give your body's natural abilities a little boost.
If your body ain't movin' to begin with, usin' enhancement magic won't make it move. And when you do use it, the backlash comes later. You walked more than double your usual distance yesterday, so your muscles are prob'ly givin' you fits now."
By the time adventurers like us start using enhancement magic, we’ve already built up enough basic strength and stamina that it just acts as a supplement, so we rarely get sore muscles. But Vio’s body is still growing. It’s a perfectly normal reaction, I told her, but she looked terribly disappointed.
“I wanted to use it in P.E. class today...”
"Yep, forcin' a Healin' from muscle pain ain't ideal neither, especially when your muscles are tryin' to grow. But not bein' able to move at all today would be rough. Maybe we oughta ask the Vice-Guildmaster to heal you up a mite. Everything takes gettin' used to.
Just usin' it for the learnin' center today should be alright, right? No gatherin' today, and nothin' to fret about in the afternoon neither."
When I mentioned healing, her gloomy face brightened. She expresses both joy and sorrow with her whole body, and it’s just too adorable.
Vio may be only five, but she thinks like a grown-up. Usually she insists on dressing herself out of embarrassment, but since she couldn’t move today, I helped her and carried her to the dining table.
Now then, let’s see if I can finish my consultations during her time at the learning center.
What do you think about this chapter?
