Finally, it was Michael’s first birthday celebration.
The days flashed by super fast, all because of a little incident that happened in his crib.
Somehow, there were burns and water marks on the wall. It was tiny, but it was enough to cause alarm throughout the whole household. They quickly found out that it had traces of magic, meaning someone cast a spell in the room of the young master.
Even though it was a minor incident, his mother acted like Michael was subject to a botched assassination.
Maids were doubled, security was tripled, and Michael was forced to sleep in his mother’s room for the time being.
Michael thought it was an overreaction, but he learned from the maids that this little incident was the talk of the whole nation.
Magic investigators quickly found out that the spell came from only one person, and was cast at the same time.
No big deal, Michael thought.
But then he found out that having multiple elemental mana was considered extremely rare.
Having dual elements would land you into the genius category while having three elements could be considered as transcendent talent.
But having all four elements? That was the talk of legends.
Somehow or someway, this once-in-a-thousand-year genius sneaked into the youngest son of the Vanderbilt family and cast four harmless 1-star spells. It didn’t make sense.
It was then that Michael decided to be a little bit more careful with his spells.
Who knew how they would react when he revealed that he was the one who cast those spells, all while being a baby?
Soon, the fanfare died down. Since nothing was stolen and no one was hurt, the authorities chalked it up to some weird natural phenomenon.
But of course, his mother couldn’t help but brag to her friends about how her son was ‘blessed’.
It was quite interesting to see how fast she changed. One second, she was worried sick, but the moment the investigators told her it was a natural phenomenon, she was all smiles and talked about how God personally blessed Michael with talent.
Michael decided to tell her the truth when he got older.
[Technically, she is correct. God did bless you with this life and all your powers.]
Yeah, but she didn’t have to know that. Now, she’ll be bragging about it any chance she gets.
Case in point, during Michael’s birthday celebration, she greeted all the high-profile guests and introduced him to them personally. She was like a broken record, saying the same words of praise about Michael to the guests.
Thankfully, his father stopped her before Michael got too annoyed.
If it wouldn’t cause a commotion, Michael would have climbed out of the stroller and left the party. But since he had to act like a baby, he had to stay still in his stroller, looking at nothing but his mother’s bragging face.
In the meantime, he decided to gather more mana.
He made sure to gather as little mana as possible so as not to arouse suspicion.
Soon, he got tired and went to sleep.
But as he was about to fall into slumber, he seemed to have heard a peculiar little conversation from his parents and some guests.
“I have to give it to you, Vanderbilts. You’ve made such a nice-looking son,” said some old guy.
“All thanks to my genes, of course. Though, I guess my husband did give him some of his nice traits,” replied his mother.
“Hmm…yes. I must admit, I am envious of your lineage. What say you that we arrange something that will benefit both families? As you know, my daughter was just born.”
“I’m listening…” his mother said.
…
…
…
Time passed and Michael was now five years old.
He looked at himself in the mirror and saw a dashing young boy. He had his mother’s golden hair and his father’s sharp jaw.
He raised his hand and cast a spell, creating a blob of water larger than his head.
The amount of the elemental mana in his body had transformed by leaps and bounds. He could even fill up the water in his bathtub in one spell, which was surprising because this was the level of water that he saw those mages create.
At five years old, he could cast a spell the way a 25-year-old adult would cast it.
But perhaps the best part was his control. Instead of simply being a blob of water, he could stretch, contact, and change its shape as long as he willed it.
If he wanted, he could even command the water to wash him in just a second.
But of course, that would arouse suspicion.
“Young master, I’m coming in the bathroom!” said Beretta while carrying a large bucket of water in her hand.
She was one of Michael’s maids, and the one in charge of helping him bathe.
If Michael used his magic spell to wash himself, Beretta would immediately find it suspicious because there still wasn’t any water in the bathtub. She was carrying the first bucket right now.
“Hahhh…this is so inconvenient,” Michael uttered in disappointment.
Whenever he had to wash himself, Beretta would fill a bucket with water and slowly fill up his bathtub. She had to go all the way to the well in their backyard about five times to fill it.
“This is what I hate about the medieval times. I took for granted the faucets I had back in my old world. I wish I had that here. If only I knew how it worked, I would build it myself…”
Michael wasn’t good at studying, so he didn’t even know modern-day faucets worked.
[Would you like to learn how a faucet worked?]
ChatJK1’s timely suggestion surprised Michael.
You can do that?!
His personal AI assistant didn’t waste any time and downloaded the information directly into his mind, giving him mechanical insight into how faucets worked.
“This…I can…I can build this!!”
[Would you like a step-by-step instruction on how to build a faucet?]