Chương 5: Chapter 5 - Brother
— Leon Greyrat —
A few months had passed since our arrival in Buena Village, and in that time, we had entered the year K407 of the Armoured Dragon Calendar, which meant that I was now two years old.
Since we had no record of the day I was born, going off by the start of the year was an easy solution.
Anyway, other than getting settled into our new rural lifestyle, not much had changed for our new family.
Well… apart from one thing, that is.
"Young Master Leon, are you sure you don't need anything to eat?"
Our family had grown by one, in the form of our new maid, Lilia.
She was a beautiful woman with violet-purple eyes and reddish-brown hair that she tied up in a half bun with hair strands resting on both of her shoulders, much like Mama's hairstyle.
She also had a slender and voluptuous body and wore oval-shaped glasses and most notably… a maid outfit.
I was a bit worried that she was a little too beautiful, as with her large breasts and pretty face, she was exactly the type of girl that would cause Paul to make a mistake, but I suppose I had to trust in the man until he proved himself untrustworthy.
I just hoped he could keep it in his pants until I was old enough to take care of Mama without him.
Anyway, Lilia, while beautiful, was quite cold, at least on the outside, but once you got to know her, she opened up a bit.
Especially with me.
Though that might just be due to my childish charms.
"I'm fine, Lilia! And didn't I tell you to just call me Leon? We're living in the same house after all," I said while kicking my feet in the air.
I was currently lying down on the bed and going through one of the books Mama and Paul had gotten.
Specifically, Wandering the World, a reference guide to the various countries and places in the world.
This was a good way to increase my reading comprehension while also expanding my worldview, and most importantly, it was fun to read.
After all, while I had adventured with the Fangs of the Black Wolf for a year, we only travelled around the southern region of the Kingdom of Asura, where I just so happened to be born.
And even then, I was asleep most of the time, so I didn't learn much about what was happening around me.
"I am but a maid, Young Master Leon. It would be presumptuous to forgo my manners," she said, shaking her head.
"Yeah, but we aren't like those petty nobles, you know? Plus, you're not just a maid. At least not to me. We're probably going to be together for a while, so we're more like family, right?" I responded with a smile.
If anyone knew that blood didn't need to be shared to be considered family, it was me.
"...I suppose so. You're a good child, Leon," she said as she started affectionately rubbing my head.
Closing my eyes at the pleasant feeling, I then felt the pressure of her hand increase a bit.
"Make sure you don't turn out like your father."
"I-I got it, Lilia! I'll never turn out like that guy!" I whined.
"Good," she said, nodding.
"Fufufu! You two sure get along, don't you?" Mama laughed.
Lifting my head, I looked over to her, who was sitting next to the fireplace.
With the harvest season starting up along with the arrival of spring, Mama was now almost nine months into her pregnancy, and her belly had grown to show as much.
I hoped my new brother or sister would come out nice and easy, but even if they didn't, I would be right next to her with my healing magic in case anything went wrong.
I mean, seventeen was supposed to be the prime time for a woman to give birth, and Mama had an active, resilient body from adventuring, so she should be safe.
"Indeed. The Young Master-"
"Lilia," I interrupted.
"Ahem. Leon is a good child, so it's only natural I look at him fondly," Lilia said.
"And I'm better at calculations than Paul!" I added happily.
"Yes, you are," Lilia chuckled. "At this point-"
"Agh!" Mama shouted, cutting Lilia off.
Clutching her stomach, Mama got to her wobbly legs before Lilia stepped forward to support her.
"L-Lilia! I… I think-!"
"Don't worry, Miss. We've prepared for this. Here, let's move to the bedroom," Lilia said, taking charge of the situation. "Leon, can you call Master Paul over? And stay outside the room until I call you, alright?"
Nodding my head, I then started making my way outside to where Paul was training his swordsmanship.
So it was finally happening, huh?
It seems like I will be meeting my new sibling very soon.
— Information on the Six-Faced World —
Paul Greyrat
A tall, muscular, and handsome man with sandy light-brown hair, that he keeps cut short save for his long ponytail and bright green eyes.
Born in the year K388 to Amarant and Valentina Notos Greyrat.
His personality is bold, confident, playful, and lustful, with a particular attraction for women with large breasts.
Paul was the leader of the S-ranked party 'Fangs of the Black Wolf' and is an Advanced-ranked swordsman in the Sword God, Water God, and North God styles.
He is currently the knight assigned to Buena Village of the Fittoa Region of the Asura Kingdom.
— Leon Greyrat —
Looking down at the sleeping form of my new baby brother in his crib, I couldn't help but cast another healing spell on the newborn, ensuring that nothing was truly wrong with him.
The birth itself went without any issues, and I only needed to help Mama recover from the pain, but what was odd, was the fact that throughout the whole process… he didn't cry.
Babies were supposed to cry, right?
Well… I suppose it doesn't matter as long as he and Mama were healthy.
Anyway, yes. It was a boy, just like Paul had hoped for.
Rudeus Greyrat, my new baby brother.
With light brown hair and emerald green eyes, he looked like an exact copy of Paul, though that might change as he grew older and matured.
But for now, his chubby cheeks, large eyes, and small, button nose made him a very cute baby that aroused the instincts of protection in me.
Yeah… while I didn't know exactly what the future held, I promise that I'd make sure Rudy grew up happy and healthy, just like a good big brother should.
"Leon? Is something wrong?" Mama asked from behind me.
I shook my head in denial as I got off the stool.
"No. Just checking on Rudy," I answered.
"I see… Leon, you know that you're still my son, right?" she said gently.
Seeing her holding her hands out to me, I climbed onto the bed and into her arms before snuggling against her chest.
"Yes. Don't worry, Mama. I understand you'll be a bit busy with Rudy for a while," I answered.
"Hmm, that's true. Not every baby is as good as you were. But don't worry, they also sleep a lot, so we can still spend lots of time together," she reassured me, resting her chin on my head.
I always liked it when she held me like this, as it made me feel both warm and secure.
Perhaps knowing I would soon be too big to do this also played a part in my bittersweet mood.
"Mmm… I want to learn intermediate healing magic, too," I said with expectation.
"Maybe, Leon. Only if you're good," she said, raking her hands through my hair.
I was pretty sure I had enough mana to cast it, and I was wondering what different spells of different ranks did with mana.
Hopefully, with enough practice, I could make my own spells and take full advantage of my chantless casting.
But for now…
"Mama… can I take a nap here?" I asked.
"Mmhm! Mama's a bit tired too, so let's take a nice, relaxing rest. Okay, sweetie?"
Nodding my head, I shut my eyes, letting the crackles and hisses of the fireplace lull me to sleep in my dear Mama's embrace.
Hopefully I would still be able to do this just as often.
I really loved this feeling, after all.
— Rudeus Greyrat —
It had been a month since I had been reborn, and the reality of the situation had finally set in.
I… was a baby.
Gone was the fat, disgusting body of a 34-year-old shut-in NEET, replaced with the uncontrollable body of a newborn child.
Reincarnation was not an unfamiliar setting for a fantasy guru like me, but I was wondering exactly how this came to be.
No goddess. No summoning. I was just… here.
Anyway, the first two people I saw after being born, the handsome man and the beautiful woman, were my parents.
Or at least, I'm pretty sure they are.
If I had to guess, they were both in their early twenties, younger than I had been in my past life.
Haa… and they already had a baby at their age? Lucky…
Actually, that wasn't quite right, as they already had another kid, who looked to be around two.
He was cute, with choppy golden hair and dark brown eyes, and his face was already charming enough to make any shotacons' mouth water.
And seeing that smile he showed me so often, I had no doubt that he was going to get even more charming as he grew older.
And no, I was not jealous. Not one bit.
Anyway, I quickly realized that I was no longer in Japan, as the language they spoke, and the little parts of the culture I had picked up were completely different.
And considering how they used a fireplace for heating, and the furniture and tableware being made out of wood… I was probably in some undeveloped nation, right?
Actually, I've heard of a group of people in America that live without technology like this, so I might be closer to normal civilization than I thought.
Or maybe it was even something crazier, like being transported back in time or something.
Well… I wouldn't really be able to find out much more like this, so I suppose I'll just have to wait until I'm able to crawl.
— Leon Greyrat —
A couple of seasons had passed since the birth of my brother, and the air was now beginning to chill as winter reared its ugly head on the land.
Don't get me wrong, I truly loved the sight of the landscape blanketed in snow.
But the cold… it was dangerous.
Not necessarily for me and the adults, but rather for Rudy.
The first winter was always the first trial every child goes through in life, and it's due to this instability in the early years that one's first birthday isn't celebrated until they reach five years old.
But hopefully, with enough snuggles and naps beside the fireplace, my baby brother would easily survive the winter.
Anyway, speaking of the little guy, he had recently discovered how to crawl.
"Rudy!" Mama shouted before placing her hands on her hips. "Jeez. As soon as you take your eyes off him, he slips off somewhere!"
"Hey, as long as he's healthy, it's fine, right? I was a little worried when he didn't cry when he was born, but it seems there are no problems," Paul responded with a shrug, watching Rudy crawl around the floor with amusement.
"He still doesn't cry though… He only babbles when he's hungry or dirtied his diaper," Mama said worriedly.
"Well… it's better that way, right?" Paul said.
Leaning down, I scooped up Rudy, who was hiding under the chair, into my arms.
"That's not something you should say about your kid, Father," I said with disappointment before I looked down at my brother. "And Rudy… just what are you doing with those?"
Releasing a sigh, I then tried to take off the pair of panties my little brother had decided to wear over his face, but he was quite adamant about keeping them on, gripping the edge of the fabric with his small hands.
"...You really like those, huh?" I murmured.
"Gah!" he responded happily.
Seriously…
At first, with his good behaviour and quiet demeanour, I thought he was like me.
A Miko of some sort.
But unlike me, he didn't have any aversion to breastfeeding, or rather… he relished it, revealing a giddy smile each time Mama pulled down her shirt.
And it didn't take long for his natural childishness to show in more… perverted ways.
Squeezing Mama and Lilia's breasts, burying his head in said breasts, constantly leering at those breasts… a lot of breasts.
And also with the underwear thing, like right now, it was obvious that Rudy was a little… weird.
Well, he was half of Paul, so I guess he was simply developing a little early?
Anyway, having eventually wrestled the pair of panties off his face, I passed Rudy over to Mama before grabbing my coat and making my way outside.
"I'm gonna go try some elemental magic, okay Mama?" I said.
"Okay! Tell me if you need any help, and don't stay out there too long! It's getting cold, after all," she answered.
"Got it!"
A couple of days ago, I graduated from Mama's teachings, as I had learned how to read, showed off my already stellar arithmetic skills, and became an Intermediate-rank healing and detoxification magician.
I still wasn't at the level of Mama, as I still lacked the skill and experience, but I was sure I would eventually reach her with enough practice.
Besides, with my chantless casting abilities, rather than training to complete spells, I was practising my control of mana in general.
Building up the basics, one could call it.
I also discovered that Intermediate-rank magic was actually quite difficult.
The Beginner rank was mostly about innate talent, along with some level of concentration to maintain the spell, but going past that required the user to help guide the mana flow alongside the chant.
If I were to explain it… for Intermediate-rank magic, the incantation showed you the path, but wasn't able to follow through on its own like with Beginner spells, so it needed a push from the magician.
This was also why Intermediate-rank mages were seen as extremely skilled compared to Beginner-rank ones.
Anyway, with all that said, my schooling had finished, yet I was still eager to learn.
Which brought me to now.
Watching my magic power reserves grow over this past year, I had come to a conclusion.
Childhood was key.
From how the common belief said that kids could only learn magic at five, and that there was little hope to grow magic reserves, I guessed that this rate of growth slowed down at five, and by ten, it stopped altogether.
So that meant that right now was the prime time to grow my reserves.
And since I wouldn't have to harm myself or anyone to use the magic, elemental magic should be a much more efficient way to expand them.
Initially, I was worried that Mama still wouldn't let me try it, but now that I was older, and we had a large yard for me to practice in, there were no worries about making a mess.
I just had to be sure not to aim for the plants.
Mama would get really angry if I destroyed them, after all.
Pulling out A Textbook of Magic, I slowly went over the contents, searching for where the things I already knew ended, and the new information started.
Most of the basics of magic I had already covered with Mama's lessons, and considering I was a bit of an anomaly with my chantless casting and mana reserve growth, I didn't know how much I could trust it anyway.
Ah! There we are!
Waterball. The most basic of Beginner water spells.
As its simple name implies, it summons a ball of water that is then launched at an enemy.
Well… no time like the present.
"Let the vast and blessed waters converge where thou wilt and issue forth a single pure stream thereof- Waterball."
Extending my hand while casting the magic, I focused on the sensation of my mana moving through my body.
Similar to Healing, my mana cycled through my arm toward my hand, but while Healing radiated it outward, this time, it concentrated in my palm before releasing all at once, forming a floating sphere of water about the size of my fist over my palm.
Hmm… I was still unsure what exactly in these chants changed the element and effect of the mana, but I hoped to discover it with enough practice…
As my thoughts trailed off, I lost my focus on the magic as the sphere of water collapsed in on itself before falling to the ground with a splash.
…Seems like I'll need concentration to maintain elemental spells too.
Tuning out the world, I spurred the mana in my body to follow the path toward my hand as I focused on the image.
Compared to healing and detoxification, water was quite easy to picture.
Flowing streams… vast oceans… coursing rivers… and going deeper than that, a water molecule.
With two hydrogen atoms connected to an oxygen one at the centre.
Keeping the image of water in my head, both scientific and as a basic understanding, I released the mana that was concentrated in my palm, and as expected, a ball of water soon formed just like it had with the incantation.
But, unlike what the spell description said, it didn't launch forward.
Maybe I needed to add that part myself?
Picturing adding velocity to the water, the ball then shot forward.
Well… 'shot' would be a bit of a hyperbole.
It flew about a meter, before abruptly falling to the ground, as if it had simply jumped out of my hand.
…Yeah, this definitely still needed some work.
But that was a part of learning, right?
For the moment, it would be much more useful to just use an incantation, as the spell would actually, you know… launch as it's intended.
But in the future, the control I had over the spell would vastly increase, and the time it took to cast would shorten, as I had already learned from my experience in healing magic.
And even then, the control and usefulness part could come later.
What I needed to focus on in these early years was the amount of mana I used up so that my reserves grew larger.
Everything else could come after that.
But luckily, growing my control and mana reserves both used the same method, so there was no need to prioritize one over the other.
I just needed to cast a lot of spells!
Ah, but… I should cast my last spell inside, so I don't freeze to death after passing out.
Fortunately, I could now roughly tell when my reserves were low, so I wouldn't- no, shouldn't mess anything up.
So let's do this, Leon!
— Leon Greyrat —
It's been around three months since I began my training with elemental magic, and I was now a Beginner-rank magician in all four schools.
Interestingly, for elemental magic, the difference between different Beginner spells was staggering, both in the required skill and the mana amount needed.
I also discovered that elemental magic followed a set process for each spell: the creation of the spell or generation of the element, setting the size of the magic, setting the speed, and then activation.
With incantations, it was a bit harder to change the settings of the magic, but it was still doable.
Healing magic, on the other hand, simply… happened.
Radiating from your hand like a fire.
Of course, you would need to pump more mana into it depending on how much you needed to heal and focus the spell on the injured parts, but that was quite easy.
Though… that might just be due to my experience with it.
Personally, I found the whole process a bit too rigid for my liking.
In fact, the whole concept of spells was like that.
For instance, with the water spell Water Arrow, it was simply generating Waterball before moulding it into the shape of an arrow and launching it.
And Ice Smash was just creating a Waterball before freezing it into a ball of ice and launching it.
So, I was hoping that with enough control, I could simply use the elements as I saw fit without being shackled by the concept of spell creation and the theory behind it.
But I suppose that would have to wait until I grew my skills a bit more.
"Hey, Mama! I'm back," I said, taking off my soggy boots to dry them near the fireplace.
Unfortunately, I was not yet good enough fire and wind magic to dry them myself without ruining them, so for now I would be using the natural method.
"Hey, sweetie! Dinner's almost ready, so don't get started on anything yet," Mama said from the kitchen.
"Ooh! What are we having?" I asked.
"Boiled pork and some veggies. But what took you so long out there? I thought you were just going to practice a little bit because of the cold?" Mama asked.
"Yeah, but then Father asked me to help him clear the snow with fire magic," I answered.
Both Lilia and Mama sighed simultaneously at this.
"That husband of mine… I'll have to give him a stern talking to when he comes back," Mama said.
"It's fine, Mama. I'm casting magic anyway, so I might as well put it to good use," I said with a shrug.
"If you're sure…"
Making my way over to the two ladies, I took in the pleasant scent of the nearly-finished meal before sitting down at the table with my magic book.
"Besides, I should get on his good side since he'll be teaching me swordsmanship after winter ends," I said.
"Oh, that idiot would be happy to teach you regardless," Mama said.
"Yeah, I guess so," I said, remembering how excited Paul was to pass on his skills. "But… are you sure he wouldn't make fun of me during it?"
Not even attempting to refute my point, Mama turned her head back to the pot before she started silently stirring.
Well… I guess that answers my question.
Unfortunately, Paul was definitely the kind of guy to make fun of his students.
Even if it was his three-year-old kid, they wouldn't be spared.
And I would rather not get talked down to by a guy who thought giving water to a baby was acceptable.
"Are you sure you want to, Leon?" Mama asked. "I know that he and Ghislaine kind of pressured you into it, but with you being so talented at magic…"
"It's fine, Mama. It's good to be multitalented, right?" I reassured her.
Plus, while magic was great and all, it was pretty bad for self-defence.
Even if one used chantless magic, a Sword Saint would cut you down before you could do anything.
"Haa… if you're certain, then I suppose I'll let him train you. But, Leon. Are you sure you don't want a magic tutor as well?" Mama asked.
I shook my head in response.
"No thank you, Mama. At least not yet."
I could say that we shouldn't spend our money carelessly, especially with a baby sibling, and likely more in the future if their nightly activities were to be any indication, but I knew my Mama wouldn't accept that as an answer.
"I still need to try the Intermediate spells from the book, and even then, I need to focus on practising what I already know rather than learning new things."
Mama still had a small pout on her face, so I guess I would need to ease her worries a bit more.
"But… if I ever hit a roadblock, I'll ask you then, okay?"
That seemed to do the trick as she noticeably perked up with a smile.
"Good! And don't you forget that, okay?"
"Got it, Mama."
At least for now, I had no need for a tutor.
I mean… I don't know exactly how they would even teach me, considering how I likely went against the traditional way of learning with chantless magic and all.
But when I aim to learn Saint-ranked spells, I'll need a teacher since the magic book we had only covered up to the Advanced rank, and spell books with Saint-rank magic are extremely difficult to find, if not impossible.
"But, Mama…"
"Yes, Leon?"
"...Where is Rudy?" I asked.
She instantly lifted her head before her eyes began darting around the kitchen.
"Dammit. Rudy! Where did you crawl off to this time!?"
And such was life.
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