Time goes by and I am just a few months away from turning 5 years old, and much has changed. It seemed like all the “attention” Mum showed Dad after coming back from the war had paid off, and I now have a new sibling.

A bouncing baby boy named Cedric has been added to the family!

But wait, there's more, friend and wet nurse of the Ironcrest family, Anna, gave birth to another girl named Heidi just a month before Cedric, and during those months of pregnancy, I thank whatever Gods brought me to this world that I was not in the shoes of the husbands of 2 women who became pregnant buddies.

If 1 pregnant woman having a mood swing was bad, having 2 of them together was worse, it just took 1 of them to have a mood swing to trigger the other. During those 9 months, it was almost a full-time job for Dad and Klaus to placate their wives.

***

Between the time I started training aura with Dad and now, I have improved my magic by quite a fair bit, I am still stuck at 3rd circle spells, but I managed to improve my mana manipulation to the point that I can cast 3rd circle spells without hand gestures, and just use chanting and mental power.

Training in Intermediate Mana Manipulation has also done wonders for my molecular magic. Where once I could only do gusts of wind and wind blades, now I can create a small localized tornado of wind blades. I tried using air molecular magic to fly, but have yet to get it right and always fall after getting a foot off the ground, and it takes a tremendous amount of mana to just get myself off the ground. Small steps Luke, one day… one day.

For water molecular magic, where I was once just shooting blobs of water and shards of ice, I can now shoot highly pressurized water that can cut through wooden logs (R.I.P Sir Stumpy VIII), and create ice constructs. The downside of water molecular magic is that it is dependent on environmental resources, if there is no water in the area, the only thing I can do with water molecular magic is cool down the ambient temperature around me.

For earth molecular magic, where once I could only shoot pebbles, shift the earth's surface, and make earth spikes shoot up from the ground. Now my earth molecular magic has taken a more utilitarian role, sure, I can shoot bigger rocks and make bigger spikes, but I eventually learned to make earth constructs like walls, pits, pillars, or even rough statues. Another thing I learned is a variation of shifting the earth's surface, it started by shifting myself along the dirt without taking a single step, and after more experimentation, it turned into me skating along the ground like I was on a frozen lake.

As for fire molecular magic, besides making the fire I shoot out bigger and more concentrated, I found little application for it besides maybe adjusting the temperature for cooking, but I could not test that theory because the kitchen was always occupied. The only other application was heating up metal, when I tried it on a small piece of scrap metal, it turned out I could double as a walking induction heater, it took quite a chunk of mana but I managed to get the metal hot enough to turn bright red.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

Lastly, after tinkering around with molecular magic and trying to remember all my science lessons, I finally managed to create lightning with molecular magic, and it was fucking dope and scary at the same time. I managed to ionize air and water molecules in my surroundings to create an electric charge, and when I released the electric charge, the majority of the charge managed to hit my target (R.I.P Sir Stumpy XII), but a small bit of the electric charge also jumped to me upon release, I had a minor burn on my finger and the shock that ran down my body hurt like a motherfucker. Eventually, I learned to control it well enough to not shock myself, but it did not make it any less scary.

Now, one might ask, “But Luke, how have you done all this without anyone noticing?” and my answer would be that they knew something was up from when I was throwing around wind blades during the assassination attempt.

After my interview with the Royal Constable was done, the more magically inclined members of the family started grilling me on how I was throwing around wind blades which should only be seen when I was capable of 3rd circle spells.

Naturally, I played dumb. There was no way in hell I was going to be able to explain to them the theory of molecular particles, I instead explained by saying, “I used mana manipulation to grab the wind and throw it at the bad guys.” pushing me for any more information results in me shrugging and saying that I just felt I could do it.

After watching me demonstrate my molecular magic multiple times, and trying and failing to imitate it, Grandpa said that my molecular magic was similar to the Instinctive magic used by Magic Beasts, and after a discussion among the adults, they forbade me from practicing my molecular magic anywhere in the mansion or out in the open, if I wanted to practice molecular magic, I had to go into the woods connected to the backyard.

Apparently, every magic tower on the continent might even go to war to try to get me and experiment on me if they learned I am capable of Instinctive magic. Mages throughout history have been trying to unlock the secrets of Instinctive magic, but so far, all have either failed or are keeping it secret from everyone.

For security's sake, we cordoned off a section of the woods large enough for me to train, and Grandma setup multiple detection arrays around the cordon-off area and linked them to a simple bracelet with a lowgrade mana crystal embedded in it just powerful enough to maintain the link to the arrays. If anyone goes past the arrays, the bracelet will heat up until it becomes uncomfortably warm.

It was during the setup of the arrays that Grandma introduced me to the basics of creating magic arrays. It turns out that magic arrays are one of the few fields of magic that does not need the person setting the array to be able to use magic. All they need to know is how to structure an array and just power it with mana crystals.

After asking Grandma more about arrays, she told me that some of the greatest Array Architects in history could not produce a lick of magic, and all I needed to be a successful Array Architects was a good grasp of Runes, geometry, and math. At the end of her explanation, Grandma looked at me, and I could practically see gold coins in her eyes, “Luke, if you want to get some real gold, become an Array Architect like Grandma, there is no shortage of rich merchants and nobles who would shower you in gold to setup arrays for their security.” Grandma said while rubbing her fingers together.

As I pondered her words, it did not sound like a bad idea. I will look into arrays when I have more time, then I will slap down some 21st-century math knowledge and see what comes of it.