Chapter 4: Athena
**K-408**
**Fitoa Region, Villa Buena**
**Kian POV:**
At this moment, I am focused, staring intently at my mother's belly with my eyes at full power, while she is lying on the bed, gently stroking my head with her right hand and smiling happily. She must think that I am excited about having a new little brother.
In reality, I am, but my focus is elsewhere. I am analyzing how her mana reacts to the pregnancy and how it affects her and the baby. From what I've observed in the past week since she discovered the pregnancy, there hasn't been any drastic effect. The baby is only absorbing a tiny amount of the mana circulating around it, but I will keep an eye out for any signs of abnormalities.
"Mom, it's time for me to go to Mr. Peter's house," I said, turning to her.
"Of course! You can go. I'm so happy that Mr. Peter has started teaching you to read and write. He is such a kind-hearted man!" she said, exuding happiness.
She must be pleased that I started classes with Mr. Peter. She must think I'm very lucky, but I can only say that luck had nothing to do with it. The Sharingan genjutsu is truly very useful.
The day after receiving the news, I sought out Mr. Peter and, using genjutsu, managed to persuade him to teach me reading and writing. As a bonus, I acquired his small collection of books.
Small because he only had six books, but for this world, I would say it's a very luxurious collection for a commoner, even though he is a merchant.
Four of them were stories of great adventurers, one told the story of the seven heroes who defeated the Demon God Laplace, and the last was the most interesting: it explained the three main styles of swordsmanship. I was intrigued by what the human body is capable of in this world.
The best part was that I gained knowledge of the common sense of this world, which I had been lacking. Now I know more or less how the classifications of strength and magic work in this world.
Magic and swordsmanship are classified as: beginner, intermediate, advanced, saint, king, emperor, and finally, god, only changing the suffix of the title depending on the magic element or swordsmanship school. Anything outside of the three main swordsmanship schools is called a warrior.
Now, I finally know the types of magic that exist. Attack magic includes fire, water, earth, and wind.
There are also healing magics, which are divided into healing, detoxification, barrier, and divine attack.
The last is the most intriguing: summoning magic. From the context I gathered from the book, you would theoretically be able to summon spirits according to your needs, whether to light a fire to illuminate the road or to create drinking water.
"Goodbye, Mom, I'll see you later," I said, getting up and walking towards the door, waving at her.
"Goodbye, dear, be careful on your way," she said, waving back at me.
On my way to Mr. Peter's house, I am thinking about my next step, now that I am almost mastering reading and writing, as I can memorize everything he teaches me with my photographic visual memory.
I think I need to work on my project to recreate the techniques I saw in anime and manga. I'm sure I'll manage to recreate some of them; I just don't know how long it will take.
...
**K-410**
**Emma POV:**
"Kian, can you see where your sister is?" I turned and asked my son while I was cooking lunch. He was sitting lazily at the dining table, waiting for the food to be ready, looking at me with his blood-red eyes.
I admit that when he was born, I was a bit apprehensive about his eyes. After a while, I realized that there was nothing particularly unusual about them, and I breathed a sigh of relief. I still feel a strange feeling when I look into his eyes, but I've gotten used to it and no longer mind.
Now that I look at him, he's not holding the notebook and pen that he always carries with him and never lets go of.
He said Mr. Peter gave them to him as a gift for finishing learning to read and write. I'm still grateful for his kindness in accepting my boy as a student.
The last time I asked Kian, he said he was helping Mr. Peter with his merchant work. I'd be happy if he grows up to be a merchant, even though his father would be sad that his son didn't follow in his footsteps as a blacksmith.
That was something I found a bit odd. He was always interested in learning or watching someone work, but he would only watch once and then lose interest.
Even at the forge with Owen, it was no different. He never went there to watch Owen make the same tool. He only appeared when Owen was creating a tool he had never seen before, so I'm glad he showed interest in becoming a merchant.
"Sure, Mom, I think she crawled into the bedroom," Kian said, getting up and going to look for his sister. After taking a few steps, he stopped and looked at the wall with his hands on his chin.
It seems he got gloves from Mr. Peter. I looked at his hands, which were wearing perfectly fitting black gloves. Previously, he always carried a clean piece of cloth to wipe himself off whenever he touched something dirty.
That is one of his peculiarities. He seems to have a certain aversion to any kind of dirt. I don't know when it started, but as far as I remember, he has always been that way, even though he never cared if it was me.
"Is there a problem, son?" I asked him, since he had stopped midway and was staring out the window for a few seconds.
"Nothing, just thought I saw something, Mom," Kian said and turned to go where his sister was.
I don't know whether to be happy or sad that my second daughter is like her older brother, full of overflowing curiosity, always crawling somewhere and never staying still.
I was quite surprised when Zenith told me I was pregnant. I didn't expect another pregnancy so soon, but I was happy nonetheless.
Then, nine months later, a healthy girl was born with beautiful jet-black hair like her brother and father. The only difference from her brother is that she doesn't have the blood-red eyes. She inherited my deep blue eyes.
It is not common for children to be as well-behaved as my two are, although the little one is giving more trouble than her brother. From what I've heard from other women in the village, I've been very lucky with my children.
"Mommy," I hear a lovely voice calling me, and I turn to see my daughter Athena, feeling delighted. I was the one who named her, but the idea came from when Kian murmured that name, and I heard. I thought it was a beautiful name. Later, I asked where it came from, and he said he read a very old story about a woman with that name, known for her wisdom and knowledge.
"Come here, my baby," I said, as I picked her up from Kian's arms. He took the opportunity to remove a necklace with a star-shaped pendant made of a metal I had never heard of.
He always puts this necklace on her at night and takes it off in the morning. When I asked why, he said it's a magical amulet that wards off nightmares. I still don't see why he takes it on and off every day, but I don't mind much.
As I played with Athena and Kian sat back down and watched us with a small smile at the corner of his lips, I heard footsteps at the entrance and then a voice.
"Emma, I'm home. Where are my two little ones?" Owen came toward us with his arms open. He then picked up Kian in one arm and Athena in the other, giving them both a big hug.
I looked happily at that scene, wishing that this day could last forever.
…
**Kian's POV:**
As I got up to find my sister, who had escaped to some corner of the house again, I paused for a moment and looked out the window beside me. Through it, I could see a bright mass of blue mana flying until it reached a certain distance and exploded into droplets in the sky.
I think it came from Mr. Paul's house, but it couldn't have been him. From what I've heard, he is a pure swordsman. Maybe it was Zenith? I'll have to confirm who it was.
"Is there a problem, son?" my mother asked.
"No, I just thought I saw something, Mom," I said to her as I walked off to look for my beautiful and adorable little sister. At first, I was curious if she would be born with the Sharingan too, but in the end, she was born with Emma's blue eyes and the same jet-black hair as Owen and me.
I continued to monitor my mother during the pregnancy, and nothing abnormal happened. After my little sister was born, I checked her mana levels and was surprised to discover that she had five times the amount of mana I had at birth, which certainly confirms her talent.
But that alone wasn't enough. I wanted to find a way to increase her mana quantity. I preferred a fuinjutsu, but I only had a basic idea in my head and hadn't yet managed to make it work.
So I had to settle for the second-best option: magical items and tools, which was my current field of study while trying to make the fuinjutsu work.
I started creating magical items and tools by studying the ones Mr. Peter brought me under the influence of the Sharingan. Learning blacksmithing from my father also helped a lot.
"There you are," I said as I picked up Athena, who was hiding under the bed, and carried her with me. I had to use a bit of touki to make the task easier.
After that, I took her to the kitchen where my mother was.
After handing her to my mother, I took the opportunity to remove the pendant that was around her neck.
The pendant was star-shaped and made from the piece of metal I had found many years ago. It was my greatest creation to date, with only two functions: to absorb and disperse mana. I achieved the absorption thanks to the metal's properties, so the dispersion part was more challenging.
The idea I had was simple: the pendant would suck her mana since I couldn't find a way to influence the mana in her body. After the pendant absorbed her mana, the next day I would take the pendant to a more remote area and disperse the mana. I didn't want to disperse the mana at home because there was a risk of attracting monsters that sense gathered mana.
It was a simple and efficient method. Given the amount of mana Athena currently possesses, I wonder how much mana she will have after this method stops working, as I've been helping her with mana training since she was one month old.
I still drain my mana through the now magical tree in the backyard, but the efficiency has decreased a lot because I need to spend several hours near the tree to disperse all my mana. I urgently need to find a useful way to disperse my mana, preferably into a magical item, or I'll have to find a way to learn attack magic.
I've been putting it off because I didn't feel the need to learn it at the moment, as I think the level of my touki, along with the perception and foresight that the Sharingan brings, is sufficient for my personal defense. Currently, I am focused on a project that I am almost finishing, and if I manage to complete it, I will finally be able to accelerate my learning speed.
The problem is that I have a creative block for the final part of the spell and need some spark of inspiration to finish it.
While that spark doesn't come, I think I'll finish researching an item that will help me earn more money, and with more money, I'll be able to buy more books.
After sitting at the table waiting for the meal and having a small episode with my father, I left home and headed to Mr. Peter's house.
Walking to his house, I was thinking of a way to further expand the operations of Golden Horizon, which is the company I helped Mr. Peter found. Before, he only worked with selling products from Buena Village and bringing some supplies to sell here in the village.
After I "convinced" him to found the Golden Horizon trading company, I started passing on to him the magical items and tools I created that no longer had any use for me, for him to sell in the city of Roa.
This then helped me have more money to buy more magical items and tools to study and make even more.
It was a healthy vicious cycle that I will maintain for now, but it's time for the company to expand more and start doing business throughout the Fitoa region.
And the quickest way for a company to expand would be by absorbing others, but I think I'll just need to convince the right people to work for Golden Horizon because I also don't want to attract too much attention until I reach a certain level of influence. I think I'll have to make a trip in the near future, and I'll take the opportunity to finally make the first contact with the bosses of this region, the Boreas Greyrat.
A good first impression, I think, requires a good present, and I already know the perfect gift for them.
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