The surprise birthday party is a mark on a colorful year alongside Volwyn and Sylv'air arrival. The mansion become livelier as time went in a blink of an eye while I continue my training and studies as usual.
Volwyn finally finish compacting his report. I may call it compact, but it's still a few hundred pages thick. One of its copy was added to the mansion book collection as a memento. I only read a glance of it, but there's nothing really interesting for me. Maybe I will read it after I'm finish with Volwyn's books.
Apparently the report got stuck in Rohan Academy research committee queue list for a few months before they notice it. The researchers they sent to respond the report reached Ronia village almost six months after Volwyn sent it. They come to question involved personnel to double check their statements about the incident.
They went to the old doctor to ask the specific of my fever. Rupherd to ask where exactly he found me and Lana. He didn't allow them to meet Lana in fear of triggering her trauma, you can't blame him for taking precautions. The last one they come to visit is me, examining every nook of my body in attempt to find any abnormalities.
"Now young master Glenard, would you please show these guests your magic?."
"Of course tutor Volwyn, it is my pleasure. "
Alright, time to make these researchers amaze with my magic, let's do this as planned.
First I will lift water from a cup, then lightly blowing wind to their faces, and finish with writing a majestically embroiled version of my name without touching the quill pen. It's just simple control without any spell, yet I'm sure they will find it exemplary.
Actually I don't really care about their praises, but Volwyn have promised me he will order a new book if they are satisfied. He will pay for any book I want, and I'm going to make sure we order a good one.
Volwyn just stare at me as if I'm a court jester who is currently entertaining foreign guests with my life at stake. Thankfully their reactions are exactly what we hoped for, there will be no execution today.
"Magnificent young lord!. May I ask since when you are aware of being a mage?."
"Tutor Volwyn is the one who notice my talent. It is almost a year since then-"
"-Not even a year and you have progress this far!?. Is there any incident where your magic activate by its own?"
"-How far is the range of your telekinesis? How many objects can you control at once?."
"-Can you control objects without having vision of it? what if it's entrapped in closed box?"
Whoa, maybe a little bit too much reaction. There's no way I can give an answer to all that questions. Even I don't have clear picture of my own power yet.
I give a glance to Volwyn asking for help, thankfully he also share my concern. Giving a wrong answer here might bring inconsistency in the future, the one thing you have to avoid in a research report.
"Now now my fellow researchers. What important is that our young lord here are fully capable of using his power. The details is not set in stone yet, he's still have room to grow. Why don't we continue your visit to the next step?, the carriage are already waiting for you."
"Ah yes, we already took too much of young lord's time. Please excuse us while we continue our investigation. Your talent is one of a kind, I'll be grateful if you can pay us a visit at Rohan Academy in the future."
"I'm grateful for your praise esteemed researchers. I hope my demonstration is useful in your investigation."
The visit end with handshakes between us. Some of them almost didn't want to let it go before saying their full name. As usual I forget about it right away after they close the door, I just can't find myself remembering someone's name without spending at least a month with them.
Afterward those researchers borrow a few guards as escort to enter the Great Forest. They bring a few babies with them as experiment materials to reenact the disease.
When they returned in the evening, one of those babies have developed a fever. No one know whether it was caused by the disease or simply because the forest is simply too harsh for a baby, it will took many years for the result to show.
The researchers stay in the village for a few days before announcing their decision. They were fascinated by my ability to control 'magic' at such young age, but it is not enough to act as evidence of the plague second emergence.
The research report was then put in limbo for lack of valid data, to be forgotten together with other numerous report in the list of may have been true.
I for one, welcome the return of peace to the village. Volwyn on the other hand was struck hard by the news of his work went unrecognized. Our tutor session was spent with me reading his books while Volwyn lost himself in the realm of despair.
It was bad enough to the point of assigning someone to watch over him. But soon enough he has successfully overcome it, perhaps because he have fallen to one of our maids who was tasked to taking care of him.
*******_______*******_______*******
Rupherd continue to escalate his training as I grow older. The training regime change from stances and endurance to full time spar. The spar itself also went up another notch than before, it seems until just now he's just playing around with me.
I receive new cuts and bruises every day, but both of us know it's for my sake. Either I got beat up now and improve or I will be useless when a real trial come knocking on the door.
"Top! Left! Now right! Jump!"
Today as always Rupherd is leading me by the nose. I'm sure it almost look like a dance for the spectators.
But I also have tricks of my own. I wait until Rupherd do a high horizontal swing aiming for my neck. Normally I will parry his sword or step backwards, but not this time.
I duck to evade the sword and charge towards Rupherd while lowering my body as much as possible.
There's a gust of wind above my hair, proof that I've successfully avoid his sword. Meanwhile my only focus is on his left leg, swinging my sword towards it with hope to finally land a hit on him.
Alas, Rupherd is far too fast for me. He lift his foot and quickly stomp it back to the ground with my sword under it. The force pulls me forward, losing my balance and topple in front of him. I know I've lost the spar when his sword lightly hit the top of my head.
"Nice one Glenard, but you shouldn't swing it too wide if you're aiming for the legs. Try to swing upwards into the center of my body instead."
"..I can't. The sword is too long, it will graze the ground if I do that."
"Hahaha!, it's true that you're still a little bit too short to do that. Well that's also the reason why you can evade my previous attack, right now a simple duck is your most effective maneuver against horizontal swing-"
Rupherd explanations is disrupted half way by the spectators cheering. It is the village guards, nowadays they are no longer a simple militia, several seasoned swordsman from the cities have migrated here in hope for a new job.
Whenever Rupherd is busy or away from the village, I spent my time sparring with the guards. Most of them will play around at the beginning, but soon they have to be serious or risk being beaten by a kid. They always complement my fighting style after the spar, it is my own fusion of human and demon swordsmanship.
Of course both the style and my body strength is still nowhere near close enough to be able to beat an adult, but it's just good enough to make the guards consider me as a little warrior. I can't say the same thing to them though, their average skill probably about the same as a goblin. Which is considered as one of the lowest among demons.
"It seems our little bout have attracted too many spectators, go ask them to spar with you next."
"You are leaving early, father?."
"Yeah.., there's more reports of demon activity lately. It seems there are several other sub-race except goblins mixed in as well. I'm going to double check their possible hiding place nearby."
That just made me worry whether this village guards are capable to stand against real attack from the demons. With Rupherd to lead them perhaps they can fend the goblins long enough for reinforcements from Redwall castle to arrive.
But what if the attacker is ogre and troll?, maybe centaur and beastman as well?. At least that's what I will send as the vanguard of the demon army if I was still their ruler. I can only hope the united kingdom professional army are on another league than this village guards
Thankfully all recent attacks to the village are still normal raids by goblins. The number of attacks are lower than other frontier villages, but the frequency is getting higher every year.
This put me to question their objectives. The attacks are very rarely yield anything of value to them, yet they keep coming without any regard of it. It's very likely they were attacking because someone ordered them, not because they want to.
Perhaps my replacement on Ga'ux throne have taken a more offensive stance against humans, after all It is one of main suggestions I often receive while still in reign.
Too bad I have absolutely no clue about the situation over there, no human is stupid enough to risk his life to scout beyond the Great Forest. Perhaps they have also prepared themselves for upcoming war against humans. The question is how they have the information about it, could it be there's demon living within human society as a spy?.
As long as I'm stuck in this village it is very unlikely to hear any news about my former Ga'ux demon kingdom. The best thing I could do right now is to continue impressing Rupherd with hope that he will allow me to leave the village when I come of age.
Rupherd himself is only a few steps away from the training field before coming back to toss something to me. It is a silver coin.
The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.
"Your share this month. I may not return for a week, so I should give it to you in advance."
"Thank you father."
This is Rupherd birthday gift to me, a monthly pocket money if I didn't skip a single sword practice.
The amount itself can be considered quite large for an underage child. It's enough to bribe the guards to have spar with me anytime I want.
"Don't forget to visit your mother while I'm away. She told me you haven't visit her lately."
"..No, it just that I don't have anything to talk about. Last time mother only look at me while I'm reading."
"That's fine, I'm sure she is happy just from seeing your face."
Are you sure that is enough?. Lana doesn't talk much whenever I visit her, perhaps because there's not much she could talk about while being bedridden.
She always prefer to hear me talk about my day instead. What books I read, who I duel with, whether I have any problems or not. It almost felt like a minister giving daily report to his queen.
Sometimes if the weather is good, Gaby or the other maids will take her for a walk around the mansion. On better days the route will be lengthened to the village outskirts, especially to the flower field she affectionate with.
Her health is steadily recuperating as years pass by, but there's still a long way to go until full recovery.
Rupherd didn't just stay still and wait, he sent request to various famous doctors asking them of any possible way to hasten the recovery.
Some of them visit the village to take a look at Lana, yet their answer is always the same. Wait until her body slowly absorbs all the mana she spent, then she will regain her fitness back.
There's actually a few method to help the progress, but it might bring more harm to her instead. As the problem is mana absorption, the easiest method is to go to a place with thick mana concentration, locations branded as the Anomaly. There's several of those place scattered in human realm, but none of those are a place a sick person should visit.
Monsters roam those lands, result of over absorption of mana for a long period of time. Human know better than to live near those place, but plants and animals were drawn by high mana concentration. Those plants and animals will mutate soon after they took residence in those place, creating new generation of monster.
In the end there's nothing to do but wait. The best place for her is here, neither near or far from the Anomaly Great Forest. Mana concentration is quite thick, yet not on a level where living beings will mutate easily. Thankfully Lana took a liking to Sylv'air medicinal herb brew, it should fasten her recovery a little bit.
Perhaps I should drink the brew together with her?. I guess that can be a perfect pastime while thinking about new topics.
*******_______*******_______*******
Sylv'air move out from the mansion within a year after her arrival. As for why Sylv'air decide to move. The amount of request Sylv'air receive for her herb brew is beyond the rate she can give it as free. Rupherd also wasn't too happy with the amount of villagers come knocking on our mansion simply to ask a few sips of Sylv'air herb brew.
Almost every day Sylv'air have to visit the forest to pick up new herbs, only for it to be diminish a day later. Rupherd and Sylv'air agreed something had to be done. Herbs for sick villagers will still be free, but herb brew have to be charged.
A new location was specifically chosen for villagers to drink their brew. Rupherd give the decision to Sylv'air, and she choose a house near the central plaza.
That house is one of the largest in the village, previously owned by a noble who's using it as a villa. As the goblin attack intensified, that noble rarely visit the village out of danger. It was almost run down from lack of usage before Rupherd managed to persuade the noble to sold it.
It took quite some time to return that house to a condition suitable for living. The amount of money involved from transfer to renovation is also quite large. As Sylv'air is kind of oblivious about this sort of thing, She have to borrow most of the money from Rupherd.
The joint establishment between both of them will be managed by Sylv'air, but most of the profit will went to repaying Rupherd. Sylv'air seems quite happy about her decision, so I'm not in any position to comment.
Open land behind the house is used as a garden to grow medicinal herb. While the front will be used as a herb shop for villagers and travelers. The brew price tag itself is best described as almost nothing. Rupherd want most villagers to afford it, yet not at the point where they will took it as granted.
The brew pretty much improve villagers condition after all, reducing it will only lead to more sickness.
The business is going pretty well, but a sudden visit from a well known gourmet certainly increase the exposure. There's more caravans making a stop on our village simply to drink the brew.
That gourmet went on and on about how the amount of herbs is perfect, and the water temperature totally bring out the best of the herbs aroma and taste. I know Sylv'air brew is top quality, but I didn't expect it to be this famous among humans.
In the end Sylv'air still had to visit the forest often, sometimes she was even forced to harvest it from Anomaly Great Forest. The villagers only know how to harvest the herbs from nearby field, so the amount and type of herbs they can collect is nowhere near enough.
As most of the herbs Sylv'air uses only grows in central part of the forest, she often return to the village late at night. Her presence in the shop is so scarce, the villagers are more used to be welcomed by our mansion maids instead.
There's talk about reducing the amount of herb used in the brew while waiting for the garden to reach its maximum output. But I don't really care about it, as the co-owner son I can enjoy it for free with premium quality. Although Gaby sometimes angry at me whenever I drink too much, like right now.
"...Just how many refill you already have?."
"This?, my fourth. Counting the one in your plate it will be fifth."
"Say who this is for you!?. We got a line out there waiting for a single sip while you wasting yourself for an hour here!."
"I would prefer to call this recuperating process. I'm simply using the facility available to me for fastest recovery from fatigue."
"Shouldn't it be alleviate by the third cup at most?. It looks to me you are already fit for another run around the village"
"First cup is for my parch throat, second cup is to fill my stomach, third is to refill my mana, fourth is to spark my spirit, fifth is to make sure I have a reason to watch you working until the shop close."
"...I hope you got a stomachache."
Despite saying that Gaby still fill my cup to the brim, my flirt for fifth cup is a success.
Gaby somewhat act as the head waiter of the herb shop whenever Sylv'air is off to the forest. The relation between both of them still haven't show any sign of improving since they first met. Sometimes they will talk about important things to the shop, but you will never find both of them having light conversation while waiting for customers.
Rarely will Gaby talk to Sylv'air when the three of us was still hanging around in my room. Only after Gaby learnt she is a herbalist that Gaby began to encroach Sylv'air to take her as a disciple. It was more of an order than a request, but Sylv'air accept it nonetheless to avoid Gaby from leaking any information about her. It is Gaby price for her silence about how I've known Sylv'air long before she saved me from fake injury
Gaby attitude to Sylv'air became even weirder with their tutor-disciple relationship. If it related to herbs both of them will talk as normal, yet outside it Gaby will ignore her if possible. Whenever I ask Gaby why she does that, she would just turn and walk away from me. Sylv'air said it's most likely because Gaby still consider her as an intruder, yet there's no change over the years.
Both of them doesn't seem to have any intention to become more than simple acquaintances at workplace. I guess it's better than them fighting all the time, but I hope they can get along someday.
Maybe it is just my imagination, but sometimes when I was talking with Sylv'air, Gaby glare at us as if she want to pounce at her from behind.
Time slowly pass as I drink my fifth cup while watching Gaby run around the shop tending the customers.
Looking outside the herb shop again, there sure is a lot of people lining up for it. I think most of them doesn't even reside in this village.
Ronia village sure have gotten larger over time. There's talk about reforming fields near the village wall into a new area for residence. That would mean the field have to be relocated far away from its original location, further expanding the village limits.
I don't know whether I should be happy about this or not, there will be more competition for my herb brew.
As for me, there's nothing out of norm I can think of.
Sword training with Rupherd at morning, tutor session with Volwyn after lunch, refine my domain control at afternoon, drink at Sylv'air and Gaby herb shop when tired, visit Lana at evening to talk about my day. That's how I passed my day lately.
I can feel myself getting stronger, albeit nowhere near as powerful as my former demon body. I know there's a limit to human strength, the only way to surpass it is by perfecting control over my other power, the domain. I have several ideas as to how to use it, but it will require total mastery for full effect.
Perhaps it will took a few more years to fully grasp the reins. Thankfully time is something I can afford to spent right now.