Chapter 3
After acquiring the skills of meditation and mana sense, Nick began to practice diligently, but his success in this was limited. He could definitely look at his mana core, but he did not advance further than that. The world had not changed fundamentally for him, and he could not sense anyone's mana except his own. At first, he tried to discern mana in the air and in other people, mainly in his maids and mother who often visited him lately. So he spent two weeks trying to develop his skills, this could not be called a success, since Lesser Meditation [Common] increased to Lvl 3, and Lesser Mana Sense [Common] to Lvl 2. If Nick admitted this to himself, it would greatly disappoint him, but he did not give up. The development of a new language skill was also not very successful, he could not make out anything except his name, and only because it was the most frequently spoken word he heard. Today mother deigned to take him outside, in the backyard of the mansion he saw nothing magical. In his opinion, although everything was beautiful, he did not find a drop of satisfaction in it. There was a well-kept garden with some blue flowers, a small number of wooden gazebos built under large trees. But as they walked through the entire territory of the mansion and his mother explained something to him, his gaze caught on some remarkable tree. It stood at the very edge of their territory, not reaching the stone wall 4 meters high. It did not look special, but Nick felt some drop of peace in it, the tree actually looked alive. Nick could not understand why he thought so, but he knew that this tree was special. Looking at it for the rest of the tour of the garden, he noticed how it moved under the pressure of the wind, which in fact should not be possible, since he did not feel the wind around him and did not see that the other plants even slightly moved. When he was put back to bed he fell asleep and was slightly less depressed about his failure to learn magic.
The next day Nick decided to throw a tantrum at his mother so that she would take him for a walk in the garden again. This plan had its place of success. Of course, he had to spend a lot of time for his mother to understand what exactly he wanted without revealing himself as a Reincarnator. When he was led through the garden again, he began to stretch his small hands to the tree and of course his mother led him to it. Closer the tree looked like a maple from his old world, it was about 25 meters high, which was normal growth for this tree, but its crown was unnaturally large and widened greatly at the base. It was very pleasant to be near the maple, even the air for some reason seemed cleaner. Nick's heart warmed up next to it for some reason. Even his mother, standing there, just quietly admired the surrounding landscape. And for the first time Nick really wanted to sleep of his own free will. He woke up already in bed, again looking at the maid who was on duty at his bed around the clock.
Poor thing, do they even feed you? I can imagine how incredibly bored I would be to constantly look after a child, it's really scary and terrifying
In the following days, Nick often tried to beg for a walk to the tree, sometimes he succeeded, and sometimes he did not. His father came to him three times to "visit his favorite son" and talk about some nonsense that he did not understand at all. One day, Nick counted the days spent in his prison of the mind and realized that he was already one month old. As today a wonderful banquet was arranged for him on this occasion, he saw more of his relatives, which was surprisingly easy to determine by their slightly dark blue hair. Nick counted more than 20 people in this banquet hall, while people came up one by one and greeted his mother and father. As far as Nick can understand, this was some kind of gathering of their clan.
I just don't have the courage to call them all a noble family, there are too many of them and almost every one of them had a sword with them. And why doesn't anyone think that a magical massacre is about to begin? Oh, was I right?!
Nick noticed how one of the maids took something out from under her dress and threw it at his father's feet, but what was most surprising was that the bomb exploded just a little, it looked more like a loud firecracker than a deadly weapon. And before Nick could even blink, three representatives of his family were standing next to the maid with naked swords that were near the poor maid's neck. The maid began to blush and the only thing he noticed was how her head fell.
Amazing, so the Phantom Sword Style specializes in speed. I literally didn't see anything except how her head was no longer attached to her neck. Isn't that too strong? And those three people seemed to have teleported. I'm pretty sure there's some kind of magic formation in the mansion that makes magic difficult to use, but doesn't work on swordsmen at all. How clever, very clever, I like it.
His father began to give some orders in a firmer voice and soon the banquet continued as if nothing had happened. Alas, nothing interesting happened during the entire event. Nick was taken back to his bed, but this time the butler stayed in the room with him instead of the maid. Surprisingly, Nick did not want to sleep yet and began to talk like a baby to the butler. At first, the butler did not answer at all, but later, like everyone else, he succumbed to his charm. He began to tell Nick about something, gesturing with his hands and sometimes making funny faces. Nick was really happy, because of how much the man had changed from an elegant butler to an ordinary cheerful uncle.
An unfamiliar maid entered the room and was immediately cut in half. The butler's face turned cold as the maid began to move. The man slowly pulled out his blade and somehow activated it so that it began to glow with a soft white light, after which the maid was cut into 12 more pieces, a putrid black mist began to emanate from her body and the corpse began to decompose right before his eyes. The butler said one word, after which he immediately spat on the floor.
"Undead!"
Even without knowing his language, Nick understood that he was talking about a necromancer or the undead.
So there is necromancy here, in principle nothing unexpected, but why the formation did not work on the necromancy spell was unclear.
The butler took a metal plate out of his jacket, and a blue barrier immediately appeared near the door. By that time, only ashes remained from the maid's corpse. Nick heard people running along the corridors, but other than that, no strange sounds. Soon Nick fell asleep despite his slight panic.
The next morning his mother greeted him along with the old maid and the butler. The day had not changed much, but no matter how much he begged his mother, she did not take him outside.
It's nice to know that people are worried about me, and it's also nice to know that the pathetic undead can't defeat my clan, ahahahaha, prepare yourself for a quick death, death worshipers! When I grow up, I'll start a personal vendetta, but of course I have to wait a little. Alas.
The new day passed just like all the previous ones, it was completely dedicated to training with mana.
***
Last night, after the assassination attempt on Dylan Ghostblade, Virion Ghostblade: Patriarch of the Ghost Sword Clan and Count of the Holy Kingdom, called a council among his clan.
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
"Does anyone have any idea who could have done this and how they managed to get into the mansion? And even more so, bring the undead here?! We have a holy field constantly turned on on our territory precisely because of this dirt!" Virion asked in rage.
"Master, we examined the bodies, the first woman was a blood mage and wanted to commit sacrificial suicide, she was accepted into our service two months ago. And the second maid had been in our service for more than five years, in the ashes of what was left of her we found metal dust and Master Rimel, our glorious artifactor, suspects that it was a special item that isolates and hides the undead from the holy field. He assures that mass production of this artifact is impossible." Answered Gerit Ghostblade, the man in charge of all security in the mansion.
"Although this is good, investigate the city and pay a decent compensation to the deceased maid, also give her children the right to learn the art of the ghost blade from Master Rayon if they show potential. Strengthen the security of the mansion, I want it to be patrolled at all times, and also maintain a constant anti-magic formation. Enlist the help of the holy church inquisitors to find the necromancer, he should be somewhere in the city to counter the formation, find his refuge and bring him to me. Whoever copes with this task will receive a Ghost Blade [Special+].
***
Another 4 four months of tireless training in mana sense passed and today he was able to raise the Lesser Mana Sense [Common] skill to Lvl 5 as well as Lesser Meditation [Common] to Lvl 5. It was really hard, his willpower and mental control stats jumped by one point each, and his strength, agility, endurance, constitution, vitality and perception stats increased by two points. Thanks to this, he was able to feel the mana in his body just a little bit, basically the mana that was in him was completely static, it only moved with the blood. And to understand this, in his opinion, it took him too much time. In these four months, he was able to slightly learn the language and take the Language Proficiency (Ramiast) [Common] Lvl 1 skill. Now he knows that his mother's name is Limia, his father's name is Varion, his butler's name is Benedict, and his personal maid's name is Maria. Two weeks after the assassination attempt, Nick was allowed out into the garden in the presence of his mother, butler and two more guards. One was definitely a mage, as he walked around with a large staff with a light blue crystal on top, and the other was another representative of his clan. On every walk, he asked to go to the tree and sometimes his mother would say all sorts of comments that he almost understood, "something about how much I like this tree and blah-blah-blah." During all this time, the tree slightly changed the color of its leaves to yellow, and then to red. Now the leaves are slowly falling off as winter is approaching. As far as Nick understood, the seasons in this world are almost the same as on earth. During these four months, a healer mage often visited him, the first time was right after the assassination attempt and then regularly every week, he apparently came before, but he was unlucky to see him. The next time he came Nick was sure that he would be able to at least feel the effects of healing magic on his body, all previous attempts to feel at least something were disappointingly unsuccessful. He practically stopped seeing his father, he was apparently very busy investigating the assassination attempt on him and as far as Nick understood the investigation was not progressing quickly, even with the help of the church. He knew about this because after the assassination attempt three nice priests came to him and in his opinion completely dipped his entire room and himself in holy mana, all this glowing performance took place under the supervision of his father, apparently he did not trust either the church itself or the priests themselves, which was actually a very big plus for Nick. Since in his opinion all Reincarnators should be devilish heretics for the average church. What was most depressing during all this time was that he did not receive a single level in the race. And this should have told him something. Either the race could only be developed through killing, or his three normal skills weren't enough to even raise him one level. The same thing happened with his magic stats, they hadn't increased at all during all this time.
Today Nick spends time in his room under Maria's supervision. Naturally, he tried to get a better look at his mana core and try to manipulate it, but of course it didn't work at all. Now Nick thinks that it's more because of the stupid magic formation that blocks magic than because of his own failure.
This stupid shit is preventing me from manipulating my mana and how the fuck am I supposed to become a fucking mage?! Fucking warrior clan!
In disappointment, Nick began to cry to somehow drag away his anger. Maria immediately began to calm him down and he could no longer behave like a little child, after all, he still had some pride. He did not think of what to do, he began to crawl to the maid and try to get her somehow to cheer himself up. But just at that moment, when he grabbed her hair with his hands and began to put it in his mouth, his mother entered the room. She laughed extremely cheerfully and began to joke about the maid, but Nick did not care at all while he was chewing her hair.
Damn, it's really delicious, when will they feed me normal food?! I'm ready to pour my characteristics into my physique to make it happen!
His mother snatched him from the maid's arms while Nick was dreaming about his own and led him to some part of the mansion. In the new room he saw a man and a woman who were sitting in the living room behind a large sofa, and in their arms was a child of the same age as him. The man and woman looked like typical mages, especially because of the same blue pendant on their necks. Their blond hair was slightly blue when the light fell on it, which was the same with the child. He was handed to the man and woman in turn, while they said something about how cute he was and blah blah blah, all Nick's attention was focused on their child. The most remarkable thing about him was that he looked at the living room as if it were nothing special and he gave his mother and himself only the most disinterested look.
Damn, man, you've almost given away that you're a reincarnator. God, how come you haven't been burned at the stake yet if you're so obvious. At least show some visible interest!
Nick and his new friend were placed on the carpet between the sofas so that they could both play and while the other child was in his own mental space, Nick began to make very evil plans about him. Very quietly, Nick approached him, but before that, he completely dipped his hand in his saliva and while the other child did not understand what was going on, Nick wiped his hand on his face. The boy's face first reflected complete incomprehension of what had happened, then true horror appeared on face, and only then the strongest disgust. While Nick laughed at him with a sincere childish laughter, the other child tried to get up and hit him and Nick, of course, moved slightly to the side, because of which the child fell head down, but he did not cry, instead, pure rage and indignation were reflected on his face. And before he could do anything, he was picked up by his parents, who were also laughing at him. A minute later the child calmed down and Nick decided to crawl up to him, while the parents were talking enthusiastically about something. Nick gathered all his verbal skills and said one word in English.
"Fool"
The shock he saw on the boy's face made him laugh even harder, and then cry. The boy couldn't figure out what had just happened, but after a while, waves of insight washed over him. The boy asked in English.
"Reincarnator?"
But because of the loud laughter, Nick couldn’t answer right away, he only nodded and watched as relief, and then the strongest shock, first appeared on the boy’s face.
Oh, today went so well, I haven't laughed so sincerely in a long time. It won't be funny to bother him anymore, what a pity really.
And while their parents were talking, Nick decided to pester his new friend's parents. He decided to try his favorite trick: lick his hand and then hit them with it, but it didn't go as he expected. Instead of hitting them with a slippery hand, his hand landed completely dry, and all the drool flew into his face. And now it was another kid laughing, not him.
Damn, water mages, I knew they were water mages. It was obvious! But how does she manipulate water while in an anti-magic formation???
Nick let his guard down and also got a slippery hand on the back of his head while the other kid laughed. And so for two hours the boys fought each other with slippery hands. At the end of the parents' get-together the other child's mother completely removed all the drool from the entire room with her magic. That was how Nick said goodbye to his new reincarnator friend.