Today marks two years, I thought to myself. Two years since I had been killed and reincarnated. Reborn into the body of Dalleon Baldorbain, the son of a minor lord. It had been one year since I had started training my Mana and Soul. I also used science to give me an advantage while using magic.

Since it was my birthday, my parents had thrown me a little party. All the maids helped celebrate too, but now that I was at the age that I could speak a few words, I let the maids know who was my favourite. From that, a little competition had begun to see who could make me smile the most.

My parents gave me a few toys and even baked me a small cake. Well, my parents didn’t do that, the chef did. It’s the thought that counts, I suppose, and it was a fun day.

I looked out the window, the moon a bare sliver. I was sitting on the windowsill seat in my room. I had been upgraded from a crib to a small little bed, but everything else in the room was the same aside from the toys. I still read the books that Mother left on her desks and on the bookshelves, and had even familiarised myself with history, basic magic theory, and the social standards in the world. There were only a few books left on those shelves that I hadn’t read yet, and I was determined to get through them all. My knowledge was far above that of a two year old; more than that of a twenty year old.

If you counted my added information from Earth, it would be far above even the scientists and theorists of this world. Not that they weren’t intelligent, but modern day science would take them centuries to achieve. Maybe more because their research was mostly based on magic these days.

The technology here seemed to be around the 14-15th century, but there were a few exceptions regarding magic powered contraptions. One of the most popular inventions right now was an extremely fast letterbox. It was expensive to install, but once you did it connected to a network that included all of the other ones. Air paths were connected in a tightly woven web, and all you had to do to send a letter was add some of your own wind magic to address it. It would then fly the most efficient path to the receiver. My parents had talked about it all day today.

Speaking of my parents, I think that my parents are starting to suspect things. I occasionally slipped out of character and acted like an adult, even when I was trying to be careful. Well, all kids act a little differently, I suppose. Maybe I could become a child prodigy, play it off as me being extremely talented from birth. My mana stores could prove it alone, and I still had all my knowledge! I had learned that mana stores and magical prowess were very important nowadays, as more and more of day to day life included magic. Hell, I even heard that noble schools were changing their curriculum to focus more on increasing mana stores and magical prowess. Some magical theorists had produced a device that calculated how much magical power (many people simply called it MP) that a person had and estimated how much they could grow within an allotted time-frame. They were going around the kingdom in an orderly pattern, and it would take a few more years to reach the town that we lived next to. I overheard Mother and Father saying they couldn’t wait to have me tested, but I dreaded the day. If they found out that I had significant mana stores at such a young age, they would surely know something was going on!

I sighed. I would most likely be exposed when that happened. It wouldn’t be normal for a small child to have high mana stores and be able to use a few types of special magic. That doesn’t mention the fact that by that time I'd become proficient in all base magic, as well. There were certainly guaranteed to be a few child prodigies, but for a child younger than five to have all of that power would be especially unusual. I would be the first person to have that kind of power, at least the first in quite a long time.

In the books I had read, there was one other person with powers like mine. He had all common magic as well as the special types. The only exception was demon magic, as I alone was the one who had been granted such a gift. It was said that he had conquered and united several nations, including Faer, into an alliance that was still alive today. Recent newspapers had stated that animosity had started growing at the borders, though. I guess nothing lasts forever.

Special magic included light, dark, healing, gravity, and creation. From Mother’s notes, I had learned that light was rarish—about one in a few thousand people had it—while gravity was the rarest. Creation magic was just a little bit more rare than gravity, but not by a lot. About one in every hundred million people had it. There were only about five documents relating to what creation magic could actually do. Eyewitnesses had said things along the lines of “it just appeared out of nowhere!” Research had also found that while only those five cases could use it, many others throughout history had it. Only thing is, no one actually had enough mana to use it.

I could now perform intermediate level magic—turning air into small blades, water into ice, bending metals, and precisely controlling the temperature of an object. I had just recently harnessed some basic light and dark magic, so I could now control my shadow a little and separate light into its different colours. Both were cool party tricks, but wouldn’t help in any real situations yet. I wasn’t worried though, as I knew I would grow and learn to control my magic at an even higher degree.

There was little chance that I had the other types of special magic—healing, gravity, and creation—but then again, it seemed that Azareth(The big demon who had talked to me almost 2 years ago) had given me a cheat code. My own special form of magic, an easy to train mana store, and aptitude in all four elements along with light and shadow! At this point, it was almost a given that I had all the other types of special magic too—I just hadn’t figured out how to use them yet. My point is, I wasn’t only increasing my Mana storage so I could be more powerful in the base forms, but also so I would be capable of using creation magic, if I had the ability.

The facts were still pretty vague though. I assumed that at one point, I could improve my demon magic and talk with Azareth again. It seemed my demon magic wasn’t associated with mana, but another source of power. I had nicknamed it ‘soul’, as demons deal in souls. I had also found from a book of Mother’s that only those with high mana could see demons. I don’t know if that translates over to my demons, but if it is true, it’ll be a lot easier to conceal them later in life.

I was already making a mental list of things to ask him if I ever saw him again. A conversation would probably take place at least a decade from now, as I could barely sustain a small group of imps for longer than a few hours. Maybe one day I would be so powerful I could summon Azareth.

Back to the main point, creation magic was another reason they were going around the towns. They were trying to find someone with creation magic and high mana storage capabilities. They would then train them and try to harness the power and use it as a weapon of mass destruction.

There were a few reasons for this: advancing magical research, and a war with a neighbouring country that had been going on for almost a hundred years now. No news seemed to come from the war aside from occasional newspapers about battles and protests.

This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

I had also recently learned that our kingdom was actually called ‘Faer’ while the world was called Aci. Much like how in my past life, America was a country but we lived on planet Earth.

I actually learned that from Father, who was around more, too. He would sit and talk to me most nights. It was never grief or complaints, just good things that happened, things I would need to learn, and repeatedly trying to make me say ‘papa’. One night during these talks he confessed to me, though I don’t think he knew that I understood it, that he was trying his best to be a good father. He told me that he was going to train less, and stay home with me more. I remember that I smiled when he said that, and Father smiled back.

I may have had parents in my past life, but I realised in that moment that I loved my current parents just as much.

***

I paced the floor of my room, absentmindedly biting my nails down into little stubs. It had been almost an hour since I’d sent out the imp. I had run out of books last week, so I’d been sending imps to other houses to collect books. I had sent him to a neighbours’ which I knew had many books. They lived about a fifteen minute walk away, but my imp had been able to run there in about five. Weird, since he had such little legs.

I had previously made a lockpick out of metal and given it to the imp. I bent a paper clip I had found on Mother’s desk earlier in the day into a rake, and another into a turning tool. I had then imbued the imp with the instructions on how to pick a lock and the book it needed to find. After that was done it scurried out of my room, closing the door behind itself.

So here I was, waiting for it to return. I had expected it to take around 45 minutes; thirty minutes to go there and back, half an hour for lock picking and stealing. It should be back by now. Stress and anxiety started to set in. I wonder what held it up, I thought to myself.

I was biting my nails to the point that I wouldn’t have any more by the time the imp got back. It was a horrid habit, one I should have dropped when I was reborn. And it didn’t help much that my last few molars were coming in and my gums were almost always in pain. I continued to chew on the hard plastic-tasting nub in anticipation.

I heard the clinking of glass for the third time in the last fifteen minutes, as my parents were celebrating something. What they were celebrating, I had no idea, but they had thrown a small party for something Father had done. Guests were over all night, and I believe a few were staying the night. When I had been herded off to bed, they were just settling in with drinks in the sitting room. It would be tough for my imp to sneak through, but also a good time to test my theory that only those with high mana could see demons.

The sound of a door opening and swiftly closing both broke my thought and also the sound of chatter from down below. It was silent for a moment, before I heard a muttering of Father. I couldn’t make out anything he said, but the silence continued.

The sound of a sword being unsheathed resonated in the air. It came from directly below me, what would be the entrance room. Also known as the room with the door my imp would be coming back from. I gulped as a shriek, presumably from Mother, rang out through the silence.

Oh shit. I should have thought this through. There was no way that an imp carrying a book could have slipped past all of those people always undetected. I should have told it go through the back door, or even climb up the wall and open the window into my room.

Damn it! It must’ve been caught!

The noises I heard next can only be described as chaos; yelling, the sounds of swords cutting through the air, the loud thud of something hitting the ground, and the shrieks of the woman as if a rat had just flown by their feet.

My heart was beating extremely fast. I had to act quickly. I ran over and climbed into my little bed, pulled the covers over and began cuddling a pillow. Pretending to be asleep, I willed the imp to come to my room. If the imp could make it here, I could dispel it before anyone had the chance to capture it, and I would have access to the book. Unless the thud had been the book. That would be bad. Just as a precaution, I focused on the imp, thinking, Get the book if you can. If there is too big a risk of being caught, leave it.

Hopefully it could get it, but if worse came to worst, I could live without it.

The question everyone would be asking would most likely be, ‘Why would an imp steal from a neighbour and bring it into the Baldorbain’s house?’ I would be free from suspicion (as I am currently a two year old who should be unable to perform magic of any kind, let alone never-before seen demon magic), but my parents and the staff would be most definitely suspected.

I flipped over the pillow I was cuddling and quickly drew a pentagram and an almost complete circle around it on the bottom. Another discovery was that the demon magic didn’t activate until I drew a complete circle around it. That would make it easy for me to draw circles in advance for a fight. I tried to slow my breathing as the noises drew closer. I could make out a few words now, mainly, “Demon!” and “Evil!”. Soon, my time to act would come. I heard my door open frantically as the yells drew closer. The lighting was dim, but I saw that the book was still tightly clutched in the impulses.

Leave! I thought, willing the imp to get the ever living hell out of this reality. I closed the circle as fast as could be and flipped the pillow to face the mattress. That was no one could see the weird circle flaring out of existence. I glanced over to the door and saw the imp disappear in the now familiar flash of bright red light. The book one again thudded to the floor as the footsteps came closer and closer to my room. Yes!

So the imp had grabbed the book! There was still time, so I used wind magic to quickly sweep the book under the bed and out of sight.

Time to act!

As the crowd (if you could call it that) slammed the door to my room open, the yells “woke me up”. I pretended to jolt awake and began fake crying. Father and the other men searched the room, soon gathering at the spot where the last remnants of the spell circle burned out of existence. Mother, and a few other women, ran towards me, scooping me up and cradling me in their arms.

The imp may have been caught, but the book was here. I quietly sighed in relief. For the following fifteen minutes I was sang lullabies and was taken care of by Mother.

Soon, the adults left my room, muttering to each other whispers of disbelief. Mother seemed reluctant to leave me, but she soon set me down and left my room, too.

I laid on my bed for a few minutes just to make sure that they were gone. Then, I climbed down from my bed and slid the book out from under the bed. Propping the book against one of my pillows, I opened it to the first page and scanned the index.

There was the introduction that I skimmed and then it got down to the nitty gritty details about how gravity magic worked.

After half an hour, I found out that gravity magic was nothing more than manipulation of the density in an object. This went against all science that I had learned on Earth.

You might remember that everything had a density. Water had a density of 1g/mc3, while iron had a density of around 7.9g. Being able to change that factor without changing the mass or chemical compound of the material was something unknown even on Earth.

But then again some magic was still tied to our laws, creation magic…. “Matter cannot be created or destroyed”. I can only create things using the matter around me. Honestly, at this point all of the science talk was hurting my brain. I guess magic had some perks too, huh? No boring classes to sit in to learn the laws of the universe.

After I had absorbed all the info, I slid the book back under my bed and laid down, settling under my covers. Soon, I was deep asleep.