“..baut.”
Tibaut slowly opened his eyes to the thing bothering his sleep.
“Tibaut!”
He jolted up to see a purple-haired woman by his bedside. She wore a pair of glasses that were as boring as could be with a maid dress that was as formal and serious as a funeral.
“Little master, why was it so hard for you to wake up today?”
The little Tibaut held his held arms open and the maid wasted no time hugging him and picking him off the bed. “My, what's gotten into you today, Little master? You're never dependent on me.”
He yawned as she walked out of his room. “Read me a book please Cillia…” The boy tiredly commented.
“Now, now young master, don't you want breakfast first?”
“Can't I eat during it?” He asked, rubbing his eyes.
“That's a bad habit, Little master.”
As she walked down the hallway, she walked into the head of the household.
“Ah, there you are Cillia. Can we talk for a moment? It's somewhat serious.”
The maid nodded her head and followed him into a nearby room. Magnus closed the door behind him and breathed a sigh.
“I do hope this isn't a case of infidelity you're trying to hide.”
Magnus looked at the boy in her arms. “Is he awake?” He asked.
She looked into his face. “He's fallen back asleep. But it must be something far more serious than I gave credit for if you brushed off my comment.”
“It is.” The man responded. “My lovely wife has decided that the moment the boy turns 12 he's to learn her magic or when he shows competence in any sort of magic. She hopes not to rush him and instead learn when his abilities allow it.”
“Any reason for the age of twelve?”
“She says that's the earliest she'd feel comfortable having him somewhere out of her sight. She wants to have him train among her family for a year or so to hammer fundamentals in him so she can train him easier.”
“And what does this have to do with me, Magnus?” The maid asked, setting down Tibaut in a nearby chair.
“She said she wanted to train him immediately if he could learn an uninherited magic and I suggested curing as it might be useful for a merchant.”
“Magnus stop drawing it out.”
“I'm your master woman, stop calling me by my first name!”
She rolled her eyes, the only reaction to his raised voice.
“Magnus, the only men I'll show that face to in this household are your sons.” She coldly responded. “If you want a woman to call you master, ask your wife in the bedroom next time.”
He sighed. “Couldn't you have just been a bodyguard or something then?” Magnus asked. “At least try to keep it up, who knows how much of a bother a guest might be if you used that tone around me? They'd ask for you to be lashed or some other nonsense.”
“For two people stronger than me? Don't be ridiculous. Don't worry I'm not sloppy enough for something like that to happen. And would you get to the point already?”
Magnus turned around and looked out of the room through the window.
“I need you to ensure that the boy's magic isn't impressive to his mother.”
“You expect me to betray Tomoe?” The maid asked.
“I'm not asking, Cillia, I'm ordering you as the head of the household and the bastion of this nation to ensure that boy's curing magic remains stagnant and unremarkable.” He said. He turned to look into her eyes and the woman begrudgingly submitted.
“If Tomoe finds out, I won't hesitate to relay these words to her. You won't have a problem with that, correct?”
“Correct. Just give me enough time to convince her the boy will not need any sort of offensive magic in his life.”
Cillia looked at the sleeping Tibaut. “As you wish master, when would you like me to start this farce?”
“As soon as Tomoe grows impatient or asks for it.”
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“Cilly, did my hubby tell you what to do yet or is he still dragging his feet?”
This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.
She opened the door and spoke with a glee only a mother could have for their child.
Both Cillia and Tibaut were in the room with Tibaut sitting on her lap as she read him a story.
It didn't take long for Tomoe to come to Cillia.
She closed the book she was reading to him and turned to her friend. “What's this about now?” She asked.
Tomoe then gave a brief run down to her.
“You always were good at teaching Cilli, so don't hold back with my boy!” She said with a pat on the back. The black-haired woman was almost infectiously positive. She picked her son up from Cillia's arms and began throwing up and down in the air, trying to contain her joy.
“Hey, Tibaut, do you know you're gonna learn Mama's magic soon!”
The boy was busy having fun going up and down in the air, he paid no attention to his mother's words.
DISTANT WORLD 9
The maid carefully used a pipette to pull up a purple liquid. She carefully placed it in a clear vase of water before putting a drop inside, with no change occurring to the liquid’s appearance.
She was outside the mansion, in the back of the property with a table laid out and Tibaut playing in the grass nearby.
(“What in the grass is so entertaining?”) She wondered before she picked out a flower in another vase on the table. She placed it in the water and walked over to the young boy.
“Would you like me to read another story to you, young master?” She asked before picking him up. She quickly slapped the bug he seemed to be playing with his hands and wore a stern expression.
“Please leave those things on the floor, Tibaut…” She weakly asked him.
“(Is she afraid of them?) Okay, Cillia! Can we play tag instead of reading, please? (Ugh, that last book was a bit of a doozy, I think I could use some exercise before listening to more of that)”
“As you wish little master, would you like to be ‘it’ or would love your wonderful maid to do the job?”
Tibaut looked up to the air. “(She always pretends to be slower than she is so… chasing should be more fun. I can never outrun her for more than a minute.) Get running hag.”
She softly pinched his cheek before setting him down. “I'll have to have a word with your brother later.”
She quickly set off, her steps as delicate as a cat's as she pranced along the grass.
(“Heh, that's what you get for making a commotion about me using magic.”) The little boy smirked as he chased after the woman.
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After 15 minutes of fruitlessly chasing his maid around, she carried him back in her arms to the table.
“Today we will be learning something very special, Tibaut. So please pay attention.”
She placed Tibaut on the table to sit down and he eyed the bottle with the purple liquid on the table.
(“How weird.”) Before he even realised it, he moved a hand towards it and attempted to push it off.
Cillia grabbed it the moment it fell off the table and placed it gently on the floor.
“I'm glad you didn't try to drink it, little master.”
She soon took the now wilted and dark-looking flower out of the vase.
“(Of course I wasn't gonna drink that, that shade of purple in this period of time isn't something to screw with!) It looked shady. It'd make my tummy hurt. (Sigh, I know it'd sound weird for a child to speak the way I am in my mind but it does feel a bit jarring to have my words come out differently from my mind…)”
“Little master, that bottle would give you far more than a tummy ache. If I allowed it to fall on the floor, it's likely that spot would never grow another blade of grass in my or your lifetime.”
She positioned the flower in front of him and the boy tried to grab it. She pulled it back.
“Not yet, little master, now pay attention.”
Cillia quickly engulfed the flower in a green glow emitting from her hand and the wilted floor quickly regained volume and colour as well.
The child started clapping for his maid and she smiled before handing him the flower. She picked another from the vase on the table and placed it in the tainted vase.
“This is the magic your parents have decided you should be learning for the time being. Do good and you can learn magic like your brother.” She said as she lifted him off the table and spun him around.
“Really? Can I make fireballs like Pyrus!?”
“Indeed you can (If anyone can take a mile from an inch, it'd be your mother…) you just have to pass my tests first.”
“Okay!” The boy excitedly responded. However, this excitement had more to do with him being spun around than any sort of information regarding the magic.
(“I mean, we're rich so I could basically hire some bodyguards to protect me when I'm older. We seem pretty important so it wouldn't be too big of a problem when I'm older to ask my dad for money to live by myself. Fighting seems like a pain in the ass no matter how cool making a fireball would be.”) He thought as he was spun by her faster and faster.
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Realising she was having as much fun as the boy, she placed him down and cleared her throat.
(“What am I doing wasting time like this? By the time I finish teaching him how to do this, the flower will be completely dead. But… I just can't help it, why did you have to make a such cute child, Tomoe?”) She thought while trying to contain herself. She'd likely never have a child, she just didn't see the point in one but remembering Pyrus’s youth and seeing the current Tibaut had her questioning herself.
(“I fear if that cheery fool doesn't have another child I might succumb to this yearning in my heart.”)
She tried her best to kill this desire and crouched down before grabbing Tibaut’s arm.
“(I suppose we better try with this first before other methods.) Alright Tibaut, feel my hand as I use it and try your best to replicate.”
She used her magic the best he could and he felt her curing magic on his hand. He opened his mouth, surprised it even had a sensation.
(“There's no need to confuse him with terms like inherited or uninherited, for now, I should try some subtler ways of getting him to use his mana.”)
“Just remember, it's a similar feeling to your fire, just make sure to-”
His hand started to emit a green glow.
“...”
He looked up to her face, unsure of what he was creating.
“Like this?” He asked.
She felt the glow in his hand and sighed.
(“Magnus… I think your request is somewhat unreasonable.”)