As the days went by, all the house’s servants who had at least taken the step to magic were asked to sign this world’s equivalent of an NDA (Non-Disclosure Agreement) or be released from employment, those that were asked but did not sign would be given a letter of referral so they will have an easier time finding employment. All those who were asked signed.

Fortunately, we are just a baron house and do not have an army of servants whose families we need to take care of now.

Now that I can not only sense mana, but also manipulate mana, my grandparents often spend time with me using their mana manipulation near me to different create shapes which I try to imitate.

One might think it is easy because it is just the use of the imagination to form shapes, but that person would be wrong, a general shape is rather easy, if you don't mind the wobbly borders, blunt angles, and many other defects.

Currently, even if I try to do a straight line, it still comes out as bent in certain areas and easily buffeted by the environmental mana flowing around.

Apparently, when I first conjured an arm after taking my first step to magic, my parents and grandparents were overjoyed.

From what Grandpa said, this was one of the first steps in mana manipulation. It was to visualize reaching out with my own mana. Most people imagine a tendril of their own mana, while I visualized an actual arm. From what the adults say, no matter how poorly formed the arm was, it was impressive for the first attempt.

***

It has been a month since I was able to wield my own mana, and besides my training in mana manipulation with Mum and my grandparents, I have been spying on the maids that use the so called non-circle or household magic.

Every time they light a fireplace or candle, conjure water to wet surfaces for wiping, or summon a localized gust of wind to blow leaves into a pile, they always do hand signs followed by a word that has no translation to what is commonly spoken around here that I could find.

On the other hand, Mum and my grandparents can do the same feats or greater with a flick of their fingers, why is this you may ask.

After having all the previously locked away unrestricted magic literature read to me, I found out the answer was rather simple. It all came down to practice and mana manipulation.

All of magic is made of words of power, both written and verbal, most of the human kingdoms and empires use either Runes, Glyphs, or both.

Stolen novel; please report.

While an experienced mage who memorized all the words of power he could, was able to pick and choose which Rune/Glyph to use, and with his well-practiced mana manipulation bring those words of power to life purely through the power of his trained mind.

The common non-circle/household magic user did not have time to remember a whole bunch of runes and spend hours upon hours practicing their mana manipulation.

A non-circle/household magic user would usually just memorize the most basic Runes, the hand signs associated with the specific Runes, and the sequence of Runes for the effect that they want to achieve. After performing the sequence of hand signs, throwing mana at it, and saying the keyword for the spell, the effect will take place. The downside of this method is that no matter how much mana you throw at this spell, the effect will stay at a static power and duration because all the parameters have already been set by the sequence of Runes.

All of this reminded Luke of all the programming he did in his previous life to make a robot for his course project perform the actions he wanted.

And like there were many programming languages in his previous world, in this world there were many different languages of power. Besides Runes and Glyphs, there were Eldritch Tongue, Draconic Script, Elemental Script, Arcane Sigils and so much more.

But back to me spying on the maids. I have been trying to emulate what they were doing for weeks and am still unable to produce anything, in fact, my attempts at the hand signs and keywords were so cute to everyone around, even the maids, that they interrupted my practice with hugs and kisses. By the 3rd week, I was totally defeated, my baby hands were unable to make the hand signs, and my speaking parts were not developed enough to say anything complex.

And so I lay here in my cot, defeated, as my Mum manipulated a mana circle in front of me to copy and I attempted to copy it with my own. But not all is lost, I can honestly say that I have improved in my mana manipulation.

But I am still bored, everything has become somewhat repetitive with all this magic, all I have been doing is drinking milk, sleeping, pooping, having books read to me, practicing mana manipulation, and drinking more milk. I did notice I get hungry more often ever since I started mana manipulation training, thankfully Mum had “equipment” powerful enough to handle my increasing appetite.

Let's try a change of pace. The next time I saw Dad, I clung to him and made a fuss when Mum and the grandparents tried to take me away for mana practice, this put a big smile on Dad’s face, he rarely gets to hang out with me all day.

***

Dad brought me to his study for the first time. Where Mum's study is filled with books about magic, history, politics, and the like.

Dad's study is filled with different kinds of books, they were mainly body training instructions, a few weapon technique instructions, treaties on different massed battle strategies, metallurgy, outdoor survival, blacksmithing, and farming.

But all that was only on a thin shelf in the corner of the study, the majority of the room was covered and decorated with weapons both melee and ranged, and armor, especially one suit of armor that looked badly damaged and purposely left unrepaired.

When Dad saw where I was looking, he brought me in front of the dented and punctured armor.

As he traced the dent lines and puncture holes, Dad wore a smile of pride on his face. "Let me tell you the story of how your old man became a baron."