***The World***
***Angrod***
I did a pretty good job at keeping a low profile for four whole years, but at the age of five I just couldn’t hold back any longer. Not to mention that playing a drooling idiot was hard and complicated work.
When I started to form coherent sentences, mother and father were overjoyed. They even threw a party just for the three of us. Admittedly, that made me feel a little guilty about leading them on.
In the end, I had to show at least a little of my true capabilities – even if it put me ahead of the curve – or I would have gone insane.
Of course, asking detailed questions about the exact political state of our country would have been a little strange, apart from the stuff which I overheard anyway because I was almost always with Ireth.
But stuff like, ‘Why do we always have to stay in the palace?’ or ‘Are there no other kids?’ – those were legitimate questions.
Okay, maybe not the last one. Sometimes, I did stupid things, but I wasn't that stupid. The last thing I wanted was for my parents to feel bad for me and set me up with a playmate. That would have been torture, so I carefully avoided mentioning anything about being lonely.
Today, I was currently very busy ‘playing’ with the wooden cubes that Rose had brought me. They weren’t the normal children’s toys I initially thought them to be when Rose presented them. In truth, they were a magical training exercise for gifted children that was camouflaged as a game.
Each cube had a little enchantment embedded inside it that would react if a young individual with talent focused enough attention and mana on the object, causing it to float on its own. The enchantment itself was attached to a little gemstone inside the cube, so this toy was by no means something a commoner would have been able to afford.
To say the least, I was overjoyed at such a present.
The game is a welcome excuse to exercise my magical muscles and so I made it an important point to spend at least five hours a day playing the game – to the satisfaction of my parents, of course.
I was very thankful to Rose for bringing me this toy.
It would have never happened, hadn't she caught me one day flexing my magical muscles. She walked in on me while I was animating a doll. Seeing my talent, she decided to test my aptitude with the cubes. The whole magic-thing was already out of the bag by then, so I had no real excuse to keep playing dumb.
My mother is a very attentive person, so she wasn’t all that surprised at this revelation. She already had an idea that I am ahead of other children. Luckily, she decided to attribute my rapid development to the fact that I was always surrounded by people who allowed me to learn things, with Rose doing her best to tutor me in her free time.
I was so lucky that Rose and Ireth had a genuine misunderstanding about who taught me magic. Rose thought that it was Ireth, showing off spells in her free time, and Ireth thought that Rose decided to up the game and taught me a spell.
For the moment, I was safe, but if they ever realized that nobody taught me anything about the mystical arts my game would have been at an end.
This morning, we were in my mother’s office and Ireth was watching me from the office table as I tried my best to hold as many cubes as possible afloat. I failed more often than not to levitate all ten of them, but that was to be expected. This new body of mine had to be trained up from level zero.
Rose is currently standing watch at the entrance, waiting to aid the queen if she needs something.
The office itself is as large as a normal person’s living room, the furniture elaborately carved from expensive wood. Even I – as a former god – regard two hundred square metres of office space as a little large for the purpose. At least there is more than enough light, given that a whole wall of the room is taken up by a single, large window front. Though, I admit that I don’t exactly know what an average commoner of this world would regard as normal living space.
The ceiling is high enough for a second floor and half the space is taken up by shelves which hold all kinds of records that are relevant to governing the country.
Despite the flourishing magitech of Tirna’s society, the people of this world haven’t yet made the leap to computers. They have calculators and a version of a magical engine, but nothing that is more complicated than a simple finite-state machine.
A positive point was that the people had already developed an understanding of non-magical science. As far as development and invention are concerned, this was a golden age. According to my current understanding, Tirna is right at the beginning of the industrialisation age. Many artefacts and machines of today are hand-crafted by specialists or small teams of artificers.
Slowly, a smile spreads on my face. I can't wait to get myself some influence to steer this world's development where I want it to go. In my previous life, I had made a big breakthrough right before I died, and I couldn't wait to proceed with my research regarding Mana Crystals. If I did it right, I would be able to challenge the gods, even if I wasn't one myself. I just hope that my death didn't cost me some vital memory.
The rest of the day, I mostly spent bugging Rose with teaching me how to read. It was an adequate excuse to learn something about the world, especially since Rose had the convenient habit of just grabbing some scroll or book on the many shelves in the office. Luckily, none of them were genuine children's books. This meant that each time Rose read 'stories' to me, I acquired a satisfactory amount of knowledge regarding this world’s history, geography, and other basic knowledge.
I wasn’t too worried about math, physics, and magic – since the former me was an expert on those fields. So I mainly relied on my slowly, but steadily returning memories.
The fact that I had never regretted expressing my wishes a little early was also due to my roller-coaster dad. Let’s just say that I have a huge dislike of being moved suddenly in unexpected directions.
Sighing, I drop the wooden cubes, feeling a little woozy after expending all my mana. Being reduced to a mortal mage with a limited mana pool feels horrible after being a god for so long. I blink. Or should I say that having the memories of a god feels horrible? Thinking about this too deeply will probably get me into philosophical territory which I don't want to venture into.
When I reached divinity it came with a huge boost to my mental resources and capabilities, along with access to all the mana I would ever want to wield.
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I press my lips together, frustrated.
I have to stop whining about my former self. It’s a fact that I am weak right now and if I want to regain my power, I have to train to my utmost in order to increase my mana pool. Maybe I can even boost myself with some artefacts once I manage to piece my jumbled memories together. Then I'll reinvent some basic weaponry.
My face scrunches up involuntarily as I stare at the cubes in front of me. Another possibility would be to sacrifice a few people to strengthen my soul.
But I abandon the thought as soon as it comes to mind. Not to mention that my parents wouldn’t allow it, there are strict regulations on necromancy. Once, my mother ordered a sizeable part of the army to hunt down an individual who had transgressed into the arts of forbidden magic.
Using a sacrifice to empower myself would be a last resort. There are a lot of ways to steal mana, or using the energies that linger in the environment. As a former practitioner of soul and mind magic, drawing energies from my surroundings should be easy if I have a focus.
A stupid grin appears on my face.
With a focus that is attuned to my body, I could probably pull off a flying toddler. It would be easy to evade my father’s brutish grasp. Fly baby! Fly! Evade the roller-coaster dad and cast some candy creation magic.
Now that I am imagining it, it freaks even me out? Let's not do that or I might end up locked in a tower until some princess comes to my rescue.
“He is doing it again,” Rose whispers.
“Doing what?” Ireth looks up from her work, searching the room.
“That creepy expression. A child of his age shouldn’t do that.”
“Angrod! Stop that!” Ireth shakes her head. “Sometimes, I really want to know what’s going through your head in a moment like this.”
“Sorry,” I reply sheepishly and quickly rub my cheeks, trying to regain control over my facial muscles. I may be an immortal, but being inside a child’s body has certain effects on me that I don’t particularly care about. For one thing, controlling my expressions is harder than I remember it to be. Damned biology!
Suddenly, there is a loud 'boom' and my heart makes a leap up into my throat when an explosion shakes the palace. A moment later, something crashes against the office’s window-front, going up in flames. The explosion outside lights up the room as bright as a bonfire and impacting debris is repelled by magical wards which flare up with bright, blue light, reinforcing the window’s physical structure.
Ireth was up in an instant, throwing the office table aside with one hand. A brief instant is enough for her to reach my side and pick me up, retreating away from the window before I manage to take another breath. I had never before seen her move that fast.
Rose had summoned two daggers from nowhere and was anxiously studying the window front. The magical wards had taken a heavy blow but held, and I already pitied the poor fellow who would have to clean up the sooty mess.
Once Rose was sure that there would be nothing coming through the glass, she turned and opened the door to the office. She whispers something to the guards who were waiting outside.
Returning her attention to the queen, she gave us a slight nod. “There is nothing extraordinary outside. Should I go and check what this was all about?”
Ireth took a deep breath but didn’t move from her position, keeping her body between me and the window. “Just tell them to send someone to check out the situation. There is no need for you to risk yourself, Rose.”
Nodding, Rose gave the guards according instructions and closed the door, locking it. Then she proceeds to the windows and after taking a brief look outside, she closes the curtains.
“It seems like someone tried to fly an old airplane into the palace. The machine likely shattered on the palace’s outer shields and some fragments managed to penetrate.”
“I thought the palace is safe from suicide attacks!” Ireth complains and returns to her office chair, still holding onto me. She sits down, pulling me onto her lap.
I myself am still a little too baffled to complain about being treated like a comfort doll, so I just shut up, especially since I can’t contribute anything to the situation.
“We are perfectly safe,” Rose replies calmly. “The outer wards aren’t intended to block a physical attack like that. Their purpose is to set off any attack magic and break up projectiles before they impact the palace's actual defences. As it stands, this seems to be either a rather poorly executed attempt on our lives, or a test of our defences. It didn’t look like the palace suffered any actual harm.”
“Great!” Ireth grumbles. “I am so sick of these underhanded attacks, Rose. Two months ago it was poison. We were lucky that the kitchen staff found out before any of it reached us. If those cowards would at least show themselves, whoever is responsible. I would twist the necks of those bastards. It’s been a while since they tried something so bold.”
“Language, Majesty.”
“Right.” Ireth looks up and pats my head. “I hope Nicol was in the throne room?”
Rose just smiles. “I am sure of it. There would have been no reason to be outside the palace right now.”
There is a knock on the door and Rose opens it after taking a look through the door's spy-hole.
Nicol quickly enters the room, waving for a group of guards to wait outside after having made sure that there is no damage to the office.
“You are all alright,” he sighs and walks over to the window, taking a look behind the curtains. “Those bastards knew exactly where your office is, Ireth. I can hardly believe that they hit this exact spot just by random chance.”
“We should move the queen's office to one of the underground levels. Just in case,” Rose suggests.
Ireth reaches for Nicol when he comes closer to take her hand. “Do you think that they found out about Angrod?”
The king curls down the corners of his lips, showing his displeasure. “I wouldn't rule it out. We've spent a great deal of effort on keeping our son a secret, but there are many eyes and ears in the palace. I assume it's just a question of time until the prince's existence becomes public knowledge.”
“If those bastards take another child from me, I'll have the aristocracy executed as a whole! No matter if it hits innocents,” Ireth swears with such fervour in her voice that it causes goosebumps down my neck.
“Now now.” Rose tries to calm the situation down, gesturing with her hands. “If we start a random witchhunt without proof it could set off the civil war you were fearing all along.”
“What does it matter?” Ireth asks. “If we do nothing, they will get us sooner or later. As long as they leave no tracks it's just a question of time.”
Nicol pinches the bridge of his nose. “It may be that they didn't know of the crown prince and just were after you to get to me. But you are right. Maybe it's time to show the noble houses that an attack on the king and queen has repercussions.”
“What!?” Rose babbles, clearly afraid of doing something rash. “We can't-”
Nicol raises his hand to cut her off. “We won't do anything that's directed against a particular noble house. What I can do though, is to loosen a few laws and tighten others. I always wanted to do something that would make life harder for those with aspirations for the throne. At this point, I don't really care anymore about keeping them happy. The weaker their position becomes, the better. Eventually, they will make a mistake or lose the necessary resources to launch such attacks without making their identity known. I'll meet with the nobles and make it clear that I want rolling heads. If I promise a suitable reward, those who are against the peace will have a harder time finding supporters. At the very least they will have to be more careful about who they are speaking to.”
As the adults were talking, I sunk further and further into my mother’s lap, hoping that they would continue to stay oblivious to my presence. This was the first time I had been present to such a discussion, and I didn’t want to spoil the possibility of gaining knowledge.
Apparently, I was deep in shit.
Given this new information, I concluded that there was apparently a group or even several groups of people who were unhappy with the current regime. Unhappy enough to have killed my older siblings and to launch several assassination attempts in order to kill off the royal family.
Had I underestimated Seria? Was her idea of divine punishment to reincarnate me to one life after the other, each one more dangerous than the next? If I just died often enough at a young age, several times in a row, I would eventually even lose my immortality.
“I hate the gods...” I mumble involuntarily.
Ireth doesn’t lose any time in pinching my cheek. “What did you just say, young man!? No insulting the Goddess! Do you understand!?”
“Mh… donh… leh… meh… go…” I flail helplessly at my mother’s hand but to no avail. Her fingers could as well be pliers of steel.
“You are too harsh on him, Your Majesty,” Rose interferes.
Yes! I don't deserve punishment!
“How could he know anything about Tirna’s religion if we never brought him to a temple?”
Religion!? What? No! Don't give me that shit! Like I would ever pray to anyone but myself!
“It may be time to rectify that!” Ireth proclaims. “Rose, do you think it’s possible to clear out one of the temples and have a proper baptism ceremony for our son?”
The king purses his lips. “I am sure it would be possible to arrange something anonymous...”