Almost immediately, the mana in Sebastian's body began roiling, circulating incredibly quickly. The same happened in Emelie but as she was closer to Lucas, she'd controlled her anger so as not to unintentionally hurt him.
"What do you mean, Bat?" Sebastian glared at him. It was one thing to suggest that you 'teach' someone's kid right after getting him sent to the hospital. It was another to threaten them while doing it.
"The fuck did you just call me?" Batain's mana began bursting out of his body, as well.
"Shut up and calm down. Sebastian, that was a rude thing to call your brother. You know he doesn't like that name. Batain, this is why etiquette is important to study, regardless of how complex and tedious you think it is. You just unintentionally threatened your brother and his entire family. Also, don't curse in front of a child." The old woman calmly intervened, all the while, infusing mana into Lucas' body.
Gradually, the energy in the room went back to normal, though the two brothers still stared at each other.
Seeing that there was still tension, the woman spoke up again, chiding Batain. "Explain what you mean so that your brother will understand."
Sebastian frowned. 'Why does it feel like Lady Etrea is taking his side?'
The old woman, Lady Etrea, was a healer of sorts. Sebastian didn't know her specialization. He didn't even know her first name. What he did know was that she'd always healed him to peak condition in the past, and that she looked the same over a decade ago as she did now.
Batain also frowned but listened to the old woman who, at 1.37 meters(4'6), was more than a foot and a half shorter than his 1.9 meter(6'3) frame. "I want to train your kid. I don't care about all the other shitty- I mean subpar tutors you hire", Batain said, correcting himself upon noticing the slightest frown on Lady Etrea's face.
"He's touched upon some cool stuff that no other tutor you hire can help him with."
The curiosity in the couple's eyes was palpable but Batain ignored it. "That's why I said it'd be good for all three of you. He learns some interesting stuff, you guys get a son to be proud of."
Emelie didn't overlook the rudeness of implying there was nothing in their son to be proud of yet, but she was far too curious about the thing Batain was dancing around to call him out on it, not that he would've apologized or even cared. "Explain."
"No. Ask your son to explain it to you after a while. You got that, uh.. Lucas? Lucas, right?" He gestured at Lucas who nodded. He looked a lot healthier and was able to get up but when he'd tried, he'd been pushed down with ease by the old lady. Of course, this was to be expected as he was still four.
When Emelie and Sebastian turned to Lucas, he nodded again. He hadn't been paying much attention to their conversation, instead focusing on his mana. However, he definitely had to learn all about what happened with Batain. The guy was a prick but dealing with that was a small price to pay for learning about whatever the hell that thing he did was.
And how were his memories relevant to it? He didn't have a death wish so of course, he wouldn't ask that. He still remembered being burned at the stake in one life because of his naivete in trusting someone with that info. Still, he'd definitely be able to come up with some sort of idea about the specialties of this reincarnation by embarking on whatever path this would take him.
About an hour later, Emelie and Sebastian sat on the bed in their room, both having changed into their respective nightclothes. Both of them had a frown but while Sebastian's was entirely resentful, Emelie's was tinged with worry. It was this worry that enabled her to siphon out most of Sebastian's rants, only tuning in when he said something that worried her further.
"Did I tell you about the time he burned both of my hands when I was 10? He tried to teach me to control water by having me put out fires but the fucking waste of space barely controlled himself. He was 26!"
Emelie would've chided him on his profanity but the actual content of what he said combined with the fact that Lucas seemed to be asleep, made it less than a priority.
Sebastian, noticing his mistake and the lack of response to it, then, noticed he wasn't helping the situation. "If you really don't want my brother to teach him, just don't let him go", he said, his voice a little too casual for her sake.
"You spent the last ten minutes telling me how your brother hurt, tricked, and overall, abused you but you have no problem letting him handle our child?" Emelie's voice rose as she kept speaking. In reality, Sebastian had been against the idea but Lucas kept arguing and the combination of Lucas' determination and his little kid voice had worn down Sebastian's reasoning and he'd stopped resisting.
This didn't mean he was going to let Batain screw around with his kid. It was just that he would let Lucas have a little taste of the type of person his uncle was. You could conjure up some water for a horse but you couldn't make it drink.
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Still, he'd backed himself into a corner by venting to Emelie. Now, no matter what, she wouldn't let him go. Realizing this, he simply raised his hands in defeat, and didn't broach the topic any further. Realizing any further argument would be pointless, Emelie turned off the lights after checking on Lucas who slept in another room.
Lucas was in deep sleep at this point. Lady Etrea hadn't fully replenished his mana, saying it would make more sense if he naturally replenished it as he slept. As such, he was still somewhat tired even after the whole ordeal, though it was likely that as a kid, he'd fall asleep relatively quickly anyways. Once he got back to his room, he drifted off to sleep, dreaming about the mystical saber he'd used earlier.
About 6 hours later, he woke up feeling fully refreshed which Lucas still found amazing. He never needed to sleep as much as he would normally. He suspected it had something to do with mana. Maybe mana worked in tandem with the regular functions of the human body, capable of providing tiny bits of replenishment which shortened the length of regular human sleep by a bit or maybe humans here were just built different.
Given that both rooms had their own bathroom, Lucas went to his own to freshen up, mentally griping about rich people, conveniently ignoring the fact he was one of them now. He did it too often in his previous lives as well, remarking on the senseless luxury people embraced while sitting on a massive bed wearing a silky velvet robe, a golden goblet of priceless wine in his hand.
After doing so, he changed into a casual outfit of some overalls. Normally, he'd have to wear something more fashionable and respectable but if yesterday was any indicator of the effort he'd be putting in, something he could get dirty was the correct choice.
He, then, wrote a note, and walked out of the room, asking servants for Batain's room because the man had neglected to tell him where it was. Ignoring their glances which ranged from curiosity to disdain, he was able to get there fairly quickly.
Meanwhile, Emelie sat, waiting for her child to wake up and wish her a good morning. Sebastian, having less trust in Lucas, had expected something like this, though. Their rooms were connected but this didn't mean that in order to get outside, Lucas would need to go through his parents' room or vice versa. Both rooms had their own doors; it was just that Emelie hadn't expected Lucas to walk through his.
She couldn't be faulted for this though. Lucas never really made any mistakes or did anything wrong which actually partially worried her for a while until she dismissed those thoughts as paranoia.
Lucas knocked on Batain's door which, luckily, was closed this time. There was no response. He knocked again. Again, no one responded. He knocked a third time. This time, the door slammed open and a wave of mana was about to engulf him when suddenly, the commotion stopped.
Batain glared down at Lucas, recognizing him, which only intensified his feelings of frustration. "The fuck do you want? I'm trying to eat."
Lucas didn't need to fake the curious determination in his voice. "I'm here to learn."
The man, who also happened to be shirtless, looked outside his window at the gradually brightening sky before looking back at Lucas. "It's not even sunrise." His voice was incredulous.
Lucas shrugged, not saying anything in response. Batain stared at him for a few seconds before slamming the door.
Less than a minute later, he reopened the door with a bright smile on his face. "Yeah, there's no way you're your father's kid. No matter what time it was or how old he was, he'd whine about being 'too tired' to train. Always the same shitty excuses and he has the balls to ask me why I call him a bitch."
The fully grown man, then, went into a several minutes long rant about his idiotic weak younger brother, while also gushing about his much more mature nephew, before inviting him in. Needless to say, Lucas zoned out five seconds in, simply waiting for it to end.
Once let in, Lucas immediately began looking for the magic saber, seeing it on the floor of the messy room. He would've asked about it and what it did before Batain interrupted him. "Start with the basics first or you'll either end up with nothing or just exhaust yourself like before."
"Sit down and circulate your mana", he said as he sat down on the bed. At the same time, a gust of air blowing the dirt, clothes and other minor debris away from under Lucas.
Lucas ignored the annoyance he felt at the man not even letting him ask about the sword, sat down on the floor, and circulated his mana at full speed.
Looking at the mana coursing through Lucas' small frame, Batain's eyes lit up. 'Huh, he's pretty good', he thought as Lucas' mana was riled up in a mere second. Once Lucas was done, he looked up at Batain.
Yawning, Batain scratched his ribs before sighing. "There's a ton of shit I have to explain for what you're about to do to make sense. And I know that behind that little baby body you have, inside lies a monster so luckily, I don't have to dumb it down.
He reached into his pocket, grabbing a small metallic object. It looked somewhat like a magnet but looking at it through his mana sense, Lucas could see something weird. Using solely his mana sense, normal objects like chairs and walls usually appeared dark. If he was facing a person or an animal, he could see their mana flowing throughout their body, lighting up in various colors. However, this object and now that he realized it, the saber both exhibited a sort of weird translucence.
Batain threw the object at Lucas who caught it, not appreciating the uncomfortable warmth that clearly didn't come from the object itself.
"Push your mana into it." Batain looked down at his nephew, who obliged.
Pushing his mana into the little block, he felt a little resistance, a novelty. When infusing mana into a normal object, it either doesn't work and the mana simply disperses or the mana breaks the object apart. Given this, there should only be no resistance or total resistance if this was a normal object.
Once he'd pushed a small chunk of mana into the block, Batain kept listing out instructions. "Now, push your mana into the block while also pushing the mana inside it, out."
Lucas silently raised an eyebrow. He would've asked a 'what the hell does that mean' if it wasn't for the fact he was supposed to be a child. He really felt stifled sometimes.
'Stifled.. oh I get it now.'
The mana in the block was still his mana. He was essentially forcing his mana in the block in order to push the other mana out. 'Wow he really sucks as a teacher. He made it seem like two different things when it's just the same. It's like pooping. You push crap out to make way for more crap.'
Once he understood this simple idea, he followed it and the block lit up as a brilliant white color.
Though the light was small, it seemed to be reflected in Batain's eyes as he smiled. "Shit, you're good."