CH 4

Chapter 04: The Day the Mage was Born

I turned three. The magic I could use increased day by day and I’m proud to say that I’m getting pretty good at it. This might be one of the advantages of being reincarnated.

I couldn’t move my arms and legs well since I was a baby, so I moved them every day, and the feeling of grabbing something closely resembled the feeling of using magic and manipulating it to do as you wish.

Thanks to that, I became able to use new magic. There were two magic spells among those that I wanted to focus on and practice.

The first was directly controlling the mana in the air and moving items with it. ‘Psychokinesis!’ flashed through my mind. Having said that, I could only move a leaf or a pebble.

But I realised that making ice with magic and hardening dirt was an overwhelming simple thing. I can manipulate objects of a certain weight and size.

I don’t have any use for this magic right now, but I might be able to use it like funnel [1] one day.

The second magic manipulated heat. I wanted to use a freezing spell, so I was experimenting with it and now I can use magic that manipulated heat instead. All I had to do was simply imagine ‘freezing’ to use freezing magic, but strangely, I couldn’t use it without imagining ‘where the heat goes’ because of my knowledge of the concept of ‘heat energy’. Through that process, I was able to manipulate ‘heat’ itself to some extent.

Heat magic is quite useful and allows me to regulate my body temperature with ease. I was thrilled to be able to do this with a baby’s body.

Most importantly… I discovered that it was rather simple to change mana into ‘heat’ and that my conversion efficiency is good. Rather than creating flames, converting mana into just ‘heat energy’ can create more energy with less magic.

That is to say… converting mana into heat energy, contracting it, and releasing it… creates a means for me to attack.

I’m three years old, but I’ve successfully obtained a means to attack.

However, it is necessary to keep ‘irradiating’ it to produce a reasonable effect. I would like to find ways to improve this, such as increasing the amount of mana used.

I’ve also become better at handling the mana in my body little by little. When activating magic, I used to use the mana in my body as a ‘magnet’, but now I can spin the mana inside my body without activating it.

I feel that the mana in my body is more concentrated than the mana in the air. Just moving the mana in my body was a good way to control my magic. Most importantly, I can do this in my room if I’m just moving mana in my body.

… I guess you could say that I’m getting ready to flee.

◊ ♦ ◊ ♦ ◊ ♦ ◊

Although, it would be difficult for me to survive on my own at this age. In addition, my life would surely be in danger if my true identity were to be exposed. That’s why I think I’ll behave myself for a while.

I have no desire to be ‘Emperor’ but the emperor role had been imposed on me. In addition to the Chancellor and Chief of the Ministry of Ceremonies, I’ve met with some other nobles (probably from prominent houses).

Well, even though I said I met them, they just came to greet me one after the other. I guess they don’t expect anything from a three-year-old. It felt as if they were telling me that I sit there and be a figurehead.

I wonder if there really is such a thing as ‘it’s natural to remember the names of nobles,’ which I’ve often seen in novels where people reincarnate as nobles themselves. All the nobles I’ve met have only given me their official position or title, so I can’t remember their names at all.

Maybe they have something like ‘real names’ here. I’m called ‘His Majesty’ instead of my name as well. The only time I’ve been called by my name was when a religious person (like a priest or pastor in my previous life) came into my room with a thick book and performed something like a baptism on me.

… But come to think of it, the Chancellor and the Chief of the Ministry of Ceremonies introduced themselves by name. It’s not taboo to use your real name after all.

… But I’ve heard people refer to their master’s by their ‘real name’. Those two don’t feel any loyalty towards me, but they may have introduced themselves by name for courtesy.

Hmm… I don’t know. It would be simple if I could ask someone about this, but I can’t since I’m only three.

It would be useful to be able to gather information secretly without being detected, so I have tried magic such as illusion and invisibility… but I haven’t been able to succeed. I’ve been practicing magic for a while now, so I know that my magic will activate if I imagine what I want, but I haven’t been able to imagine illusions or invisibility very well.

I don’t know anything about optical camouflage or its principles.

Will I find out what I know first, or will I escape first…?

Geez, it really is inconvenient. I can’t wait to get out of here…

Also, I’ve recently been able to distinguish between the Chancellor’s faction and the Regent faction.

The Chancellor’s faction calls him ‘Ryou Lord Raul [2]’ and the Regent faction call the Chief of the Ministry of Ceremonies ‘Lord Aquicurl’. In contrast, those in the Regent faction call the Chancellor, ‘Lord Raul’, and those in the Chancellor’s faction call the Chief of the Ministry of Ceremonies, ‘Archduke Aquicurl’. Those who don’t include ‘Ryou’ or ‘Arch’ in their titles are from the neutral faction. There may also be those whose public position differs from their actual position. However, just being able to distinguish between the two is a significant step forward.

I believe this is essential information for survival. I’m glad I was able to identify them before I started talking to the nobles.

◊ ♦ ◊ ♦ ◊ ♦ ◊

At night, I’m put to sleep in the glistening canopy. My bed is too big, the room is too big and there is always a guard by my bedside.

Humans are adaptable, and I’ve learnt to sleep under these conditions. It’s times like this that make me realise that I’ve become ‘Carmine’.

But luckily, there are times when the night guard is asleep. This is probably a big problem in terms of security, but I’m thankful that he falls asleep sometimes.

I made sure that the maid on the chair was asleep and reached down to touch my private regions.

… I’m sure you’re wondering what I’m doing, but it’s not what you’re thinking.

I’ve been wondering about the magic diaper for a while now, so I’d like to analyse it.

I can go to the bathroom on my own since I’m three now. The only time I wear this magic tool is at night, and it’ll eventually be removed, so I’d like to find out how it works before that happens.

Ah, the toilet is a flush toilet by the way. There’s no lever to pull like in modern day toilets, instead, there’s always a small amount of water constantly flowing through the toilet. It was a let-down since I heard that there weren’t any flush toilets in medieval Europe.

But then again, there were flush toilets in the Roman Empire so maybe it’s not that strange.

Now back to the magic tool.

Since I’ve successfully broken it down, I’ll dismantle the round part and the tube part.

First, the tube part… yeah, the room’s too dark to see anything.

The round part is the same, but I feel a strong… or rather dense mana coming from it, and it’s flowing out into the air little by little.

I’m sure the mana wasn’t coming from the air, but from this dense mana in the tip of this part.

I would like to light the lamp…. But I can’t wake up the night guard, and I don’t know anything about magic, so I’m not sure if I will be able to understand anything, so I’ll give up on this for now.

Instead, there’s one more thing that I would like to try.

I want to see if I can use the mana from the magic tool to activate magic. At first, I converted it into heat energy.

… I got a momentary response, but the mana quickly faded away.

Next is to block the connection of the shaft, or ‘hole’ with my palm and convert the mana inside of the tool into heat energy.

… I did it.

Next, I’ll release my hand… the heat energy stayed in my palm… it is indeed warm.

… I see.

There was some kind of magic tool or magic that prevented me from using magic indoors, but now I understand its effect.

The effect of the spell on the magic tool that makes it impossible to use magic indoors is probably ‘immobilise mana in the air’ or something similar.

When you use magic, you convert the mana in the air into reality or energy.

It’s like playing with clay. Mana was clay. You knead it to form something and that becomes magic.

However, if the clay is completely dry and hardened then it can’t be kneaded nor can it form into anything.

So, if the mana in the air is frozen, then it cannot be ‘kneaded’ and magic won’t activate.

Magic in ‘sealed places’ can be activated, so I can move the mana in my body and magic tools can be used. Perhaps it can be activated because it ‘doesn’t make contact with the mana in the air’.

So, if I covered a magic tool with my hand like I had done earlier, the magic will work inside of the tool, and there’s no spell in this room that can neutralise the effect of magic once it’s been activated.

It also takes mana to ‘move’ or ‘fire’ the magic once it’s activated, that’s why there’s nothing that can be done when magic is activated in the way it was just before.

The heat in my palm has already cooled down because it takes mana to ‘maintain’ the heat energy.

But I got an important clue this time.

When the mana from the magic tool flowed into the air, I felt magic being activated temporarily.

In other words, when new mana flows out into the air, there is a slight delay until the mana is neutralised.

If the mana from my body can be released outside and activated for an instant… then wouldn’t I be able to use magic indoors?

Okay, let’s give it a try.

In the meantime, I have a bad feeling, so I’ll reassemble the diaper that I took apart and put it back on.

Then, I move the mana in my body and gathered it in my right hand. It’s easy so far. The problem is how do I get the mana out of my body.

For now, I’ll change the image I have of mana. I’ve been imagining it as liquid until now, but I’ll change it to particles. The size of the particles should be small enough to pass through the gaps between my skin cells. I’ll call this ‘magic element’.

Then the magic element started flowing out one after another in my palm. I quickly converted this into magic… and then heat energy.

… I did it. I actually did it. I wonder if the mana in my body is highly concentrated since my palms are extremely hot.

At the same time, I felt weak. Ah, so this is what happens when the mana in your body is drained.

I fell down and fainted.