I asked auntie with help making illusions and showed her my butterfly. She taught me a magic that can pretty much do everything in one go, even simulate weight. It just takes a lot of mana to use it and that's why she didn't teach it to me before. Fair enough.
I feel some pride in being able to make the butterfly without the illusion magic. Oi, auntie, don't look at me with those pitying eyes! I don't feel defeated at all!
Anyway, illusions aside, i made grave mistake.
Auntie noticed i like magic and started keeping runes hostage from me. If i want to learn a new rune i need to remember the name of that one general that managed to use conscripted soldiers to ambush and defeat a group of knights. Honestly, i'm too distracted by the fact that a couple of fireballs could probably completely break the soldiers formation, so all i learned is that you shouldn't go to war without a few sorcerers on your side.
I also asked mom for some clay and started using pottery to practice magic during my afternoons. Using telekinesis to mold clay means you don't get dirty. Although firing the stuff does take a lot of mana.
In due time, auntie did teach me new runes. But honestly, they aren't that interesting. They are essentially 'missile but with more power behind it' or 'missile but carrying a payload that goes boom'... okay, that second one is VERY interesting, but what i mean is that they are all just variations on shooting stuff.
The ones that aren't related to shooting stuff i can't use because they are either specialized for physical stuff that isn't compatible with my baby body or needs a living target to play with, like healing.
When i complained about this to auntie she just said: "We, sorcerers of the Chevalier family, are specialized in combat magic for the most part." Let me translate from knight-speech to human-speech: 'i only know how to shoot stuff, punch stuff and heal stuff.' is pretty much what she means.
Sadly, as a baby i can't practice much magic that involves me jumping around and that kind of thing.
So i went to dad to see if he could teach me something other than shoot/punch/heal. If he doesn't, i'll need to convince mom to let me go to somewhere i can find wounded soldiers. There are always soldiers getting hurt while fighting some barbarian or another from the east and in case there aren't maybe i could convince some knights to go sparring without holding back.
"Hey, dad." I call out as i enter his study. He was reading a book before i arrived. Most of dad's books could be boiled down to tutorials on how to kill the most people with the least amount of mana. Dad works as a magic artillery captain, he leads a group of sorcerers to battle and together they cast some huge spell and shoot at the enemy. Normally they'd also defend against enemy spells but there aren't many mages on the barbarian lands.
"What is it, son?" He asks as he adjusts his glasses.
"Can you teach me some non-combat magic?"
"Non-combat magic?" He raises his eyebrow. "What's wrong with combat magic?"
"Nothing, i'm just getting tired of shooting stuff, can't practice much strengthening techniques and have nothing to heal. So i wanted something different."
"Hm, if that's the case then i do have a couple things to teach you." He says with a smile.
"Really?! Like what?!" Finally! I was starting to worry my family only knew how to kill things and organize armies to kill even more things.
"I can teach you some nature spells and some detection spells." He says with his chest puffed out. Dad, i'm pretty sure that's just a variation on healing magic and the second one is used to search for enemies... But i'll take it!
"Wow dad! You're the best!"
"Hahahahaha!"
I should start looking for books on non-combat magic.
~Time skip~
Those nature spells are indeed just a variation on healing magic, but a cool variation at that. I can use it to command plants to grow in certain ways. For example, i can grow a tree into a chair or a statue... i can also grow a tree into a trap, but i'm starting to resent offensive magic...
But the real treasures are the runes for those detection spells. Of course dad only used them as detect life, detect magic, night vision and that kind of thing, but the important part is that they give mental feedback to the caster! The potential for this stuff is huge! For example, with the right runes one might be able to make a spell that searches the ground for ores, allows one to see through walls and with enough mana, maybe a spell that can scan the topography of a region and make maps!... Of course i can't do any of those, but the potential is there!!
I did manage to make a simple 'room mapping' spell, although i need to find a way to exclude furniture from the mapping, right now it's too mana intensive and i can only 'scan' about a room and a half of its surrounding rooms.
Sadly, books on magic aren't traded willy-nilly, so it'll be a long time before i can get my hands in some.
Right now i'm being carried by Lana to my mother's office, i can already walk by the way, but baby walk is just too slow.
I'm going to mother's office to try to convince her to let me heal people. I considered using rabbits and chickens to practice, but even if i don't mind eating them at all, as expected, torture for the sake of practice doesn't sit well with me, it's not like i'm in a life or death situation, after all. Practicing on humans will be more effective, anyway.
"Excuse me, mom." I say as i'm carried in.
"What is it, son?" She looks up from a letter and says, with a slight smile, the same thing as father did when i visited him.
"I'd like to practice healing magic." I go straight to the point.
"Oh? Is this about what your father mentioned? About you being bored with combat magic?" She asks with a raised eyebrow.
"Err, pretty much, yes?" I have a bad feeling about the look in her eyes. Is she angry?
"Follow me." She says suddenly as she stands up. Yep, i really have a bad feeling about this.
She leads us to the practice range. The place looks like a war zone because of my daily magic practice, i stopped being given practice dummies a long time ago, so i have to raise the earth in vaguely shaped statues every time i come here. There is also a simple kiln and bags of clay near the corner.
After we arrive, mother turns back to me. "Not too long from now, i'm going on a trip to a nearby town." Wait, what? "Don't look at me like that. It's been almost two years since i last went on a trip, it's only been so long because i was pregnant with you and after that, because i had to get back into shape." So you weren't in shape when i saw you sparring against seven knights at once? But that poor heavy armor fellow was launched from his feet as if a bull had hit him...
She continues. "Normally, i go on barbarian hunting excursions every couple of months, go to town once or twice a year and go to the capital every couple years. Anyway, i'll be going on a long barbarian and bandit hunting excursion soon, and after that i'll visit the biggest town on this side of the country." That makes sense i suppose, no point in having mom stationed here if she won't fight.
Well, i thought the point was so she could defend the country in case the 'barbarians' (they're just people that don't belong to a big country, they still build stuff and wear clothes... Well, they do tend to be violent raiders) amassed a large army, but thinking about it, if they did that, they'd definitely avoid this castle. I mean, i'm pretty sure those ballistas shoot bolts that explode on impact, attacking this castle without tons of sorcerers is just a very complicated way of committing mass suicide.
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Back on topic, why is she telling me this? As if reading my mind, she continues. "We are going to play a game, if i catch you, i win." Uh-oh, i see where this is going. "If you can stop me, you win and i'll bring you with me." That's not fair at all! "Lana, put him down over there." She says as she moves to the other side of the practice range.
Goddammit, i bet there'll be both people to heal and opportunity to buy books on non-combat magic on that trip. But how am i supposed to stop mom?! Do not be mistaken, only an idiot would underestimate my mother just because she can't use sorcery. Not only can she cross the distance between us in less than three seconds, a spell that can bring down a house would only dirty her uniform. Even leaving a scar on her, like the one on the side of her neck, can already be considered a feat to brag about.
Even if you ignore that, she uses her mana senses as a sixth sense during combat, so she also doesn't have blind spots to exploit aside from just being far away from her.
All i can think of that i can do to stop her is to hit her with a stun bomb and then a overcharged mana disruption bolt. The stun bomb will cause a bright flash and loud sound, so that will temporarily disable her sight and hearing. A mana disruption bolt is a combination of lightning and dispel that makes it hard to control mana for a few moments with minimal actual damage, of course, she could dodge a normal one with just her mana sense, so i need to stack multiple propulsion runes on it to make it difficult to dodge without seeing it from afar. That should lower her defenses enough for me to knock her out with a telekinetic blow.
Sadly, casting the stun bomb in a hurry will definitely be costly on my mana, that combined with the overcharged mana disruption bolt will leave me with very little leftover mana, i'll need to start that regeneration technique right aw- "Ready or not, here i come!" Oh shi-
I manage to cast the stun bomb as she is about halfway through the practice range, the ball of light flies and lands slightly in front of her. My eyes are already closed and i'm concentrating on casting the disruption bolt while regenerating mana at the same time.
I open my eyes right before the spell is ready in order to aim. She's only about twenty meters away! I shoot the bolt in a hurry.
Of course she does a matrix dodge! But at least that stopped her in her tracks for a moment. I pull in a deep breath to regenerate some mana and start casting a hurried mana disruption trap. I manage to set it up in front of me right as she leaps forward to catch me. God, that big smile on her face as she lunges forward is terrifying.
The trap hits her, but it's already too late since i'm out of mana and she caught me. Even then, i doubt that shabby trap had enough power to disrupt her for more than 0.2 seconds.
She lifts me up in a hug as she laughs loudly. She's definitely a battle maniac.
Damn, i feel like crying. Another six months doing nothing but learning about wars and shooting stuff... I should get some knights to spar without holding back.
"Aww, my boy, don't be sad." Mom interrupts my evil plans. Did i show it on my face? She's being unusually clingy, normally she only does this kind of thing in private.
She continues. "You've proven that you're very capable, even if you lost. I'll let you come with me, but only if you promise to stay with your guards at all times. Even if you're capable, you still have little mana."
Really?! "Okay! I promise!" Being with guards is a small price to pay to relieve my accursed boredom.
With that done, i concentrate on regenerating mana. It's still early in the afternoon and i'd rather not go to sleep so soon. I want to try sculpting glass today, i already got a big bag of sand delivered.
"Lance! What are you doing?!" Mom interrupts me with a little bit of panic in her voice.
"I'm regenerating mana, what's wrong?"
"Don't do that! You'll get mana poisoning!" She scolds sternly.
"Mana poisoning? Doesn't that only happen if you try to gather more mana than your body can hold?" I ask, confused. Mana poisoning happens when you try to push yourself past your natural limits. There is a limit to how much mana the body can hold and how active that mana can be, if you try to go beyond those limits you feel a sharp pain on your whole body, so if that was happening, i'd definitely know.
"No! I mean the other kind of mana poisoning! If you try to pull too much mana from the air, you'll start feeling dizzy and it will damage your body in various ways!" Isn't that just the oxygen toxicity thing?
Looking at my thoughtful expression, mom narrows her eyes. "You... Lance, since how long have you been using this method to regenerate mana?"
Uh-oh. "Since, uh... S-since about a week after auntie arrived?" I answer meekly.
"Lance!" Her eyes open wide. "That was months ago!" She suddenly holds me close and starts running/leaping extremely fast. After i use magic to compensate the wind pressure, it became quite the fun time, but i make sure to hold back my giggles to avoid angering mom.
Soon enough we are back inside the castle and mom slows down as she barges through a door. Looking around, this is the chief healer's clinic. "Chief!" Mom shouts.
"Who's hurt?!" An old lady walks in from a side-room in a hurry. She looks old enough to need a cane to walk, but walks with her back straight. That's magic for you.
"Chief! I need you to see if my son has mana poisoning! The breathing kind!" Mom says with a serious face.
"Set him down over there." She points to a bed. Mom complies.
Chief approaches me and cast a few spells. I recognize a few detection-style runes, but others are unknown to me, i should get her to teach me later.
With every spell she casts, the old lady gets less and less tense. Until she stops and gives my mom a confused look.
"He's more than fine, lady Isabel. Aside from being a little low on mana, he's the personification of health."
Now it's mom's turn to look confused. "... Thank you, chief. Sorry to bother you." She says as she picks me up and takes me back to her office.
She sets me down on the table and crosses her arms while narrowing her eyes. "Explain yourself." Is all she says.
"Uh..." Does she want to know how my breathing technique works? How do i explain 'too much oxygen is bad' in simple words? "W-well, fire uses wood as fuel, without wood, it just suffocates. B-but on the other hand, if you pile up logs on top of a small fire, the fire won't burn fast enough and will end up suffocating all the same. Similarly, the human body uses air as fuel, too little results in death, and the same for too much. When i'm pulling air to my lungs i use self-enhancement to control the amount of air my body absorbs while pulling all the mana i can get out of the air and making it my own." I took some liberties, but i think i got the meaning across.
Mom stays silently glaring at me for a while, until she spreads out her mana to the air and uses it to guide the air and assist in her breathing. She keeps her eyes closed as she uses the breathing technique for a while before stopping while letting out a sigh. "Don't worry me like that, son."
After a moment she continues. "I'm going to teach this to your father and your sister. Aside from them i'll leave it to your discretion." What? Do we need to keep it a secret? As if she could read my mind she continues. "Do. Not. Teach this to just anyone. Mana amount and regeneration greatly limits how much someone can practice magic. If this... 'Lance breathing technique' goes public, a great number of mages and sorcerers will pop up in the following years, and a considerable number of those are bound to not be loyal to the queen. And i believe you're smart enough to understand the consequences of that..."
I gulp... I just wanted to not have to wait so long to keep playin- i mean, researching magic.
"H-how about we teach this to the rest of the Chevalier family?" I ask cautiously.
Mother thinks for a few moments before answering. "Better not teach it to everyone just in case, if you want i can discuss with your aunt who from our family can be trusted with the secret and teach it to them when i have a chance to do so secretly." So auntie is trustworthy? That's good. Dealing with untrustworthy people can be stressful.
"Yes. Please do so." I say with a relieved sigh, i'd rather not have to keep secrets. Mom nods and then furrows her brows and tilts her head.
After thinking for a few moments she speaks. "... I don't mean to push your hand but... What about the royal family?"
I just mutter a "Uh..." while looking for the right words to answer.
Mom smiles with narrowed eyes and jokes "If you weren't my son i'd believe you're thinking of something stupid."
"That's not it! I-It's just that, it's hard to trust people you never met, you know?" I explain hurriedly. From the Chevalier family, i already met auntie and grandma, at least.
Mom giggles. "Silly boy, the Chevalier and the Sylvian royal family are almost one and the same. Sylvians who want to serve in the military and are capable enough often join the Chevalier family through adoption or marriage if the blood is different enough. And Chevaliers who want to work on politics and management often become Sylvians. Although that's quite rarer than the first one... But nevermind that, you'll meet the royal family soon enough, you can decide then."
Huh, i knew the families were close, but didn't know they were that close.
After that, mom went to find the rest of the family to teach them the technique while i went to find the chief healer to ask her to teach me.
"Teach you? Sure! As long as you pay me! HAHAHA." so says the old lady. I furrow my brows but then i have an idea and run off.
I come back with a box of my best ceramic products. They're even glazed you know?
I offer them to the old lady but she just scoffs at me. "I meant money, boy! These aren't even made of porcelain! This is worthless to me." WHAT?!
I could go ask mom for money, but that would be like admitting defeat to this greedy old woman.
So i did what any proud man (baby) would do: I spied on her while she healed people who got injured while training and people who got sick one way or another, i then proceeded to use the 'monkey see, monkey do' method of research until it was time for the trip.
At some point she noticed what i was doing and started threatening me with a spanking, but i just used that as an opportunity to practice my stealth techniques and spells. Hihihi, should have accepted my vases and tea sets, old woman.
I managed to learn many of the runes she uses for what i nicknamed 'diagnostic spells', they should be useful, i even managed to make my room mapping spell more mana efficient by ignoring furniture.
I also learned how to sculpt glass during the days the old granny didn't have to work and made a hair band with a glass flower to give to Athena on her tenth birthday that's coming soon. Unlike mom, she keeps her hair long and in a ponytail.
Sculpting glass with magic is more convenient than ceramic, since you don't need to use a kiln. Although you do need to multitask more. Instead of a book, the one who taught me how to control the color of the glass was actually one of the soldiers. He said someone from his family is in the glass making business. I gave him a tea set as thanks.
With that, the day for the excursion arrived.