I don’t know what happened to the attackers yesterday.
All I know was that Mary brought them somewhere and I never saw them again. Even though I asked, Mary just smiled and assured me that they were properly dealt with, whatever that means.
Initially, I wanted to go out and explore a legitimate dungeon today, but Mary advised against it as she claimed that it wasn’t safe for now and requested I stay at home, at least for the next few days.
Mother also supported her so I decided to just stay in for now.
Since I already did some fighting yesterday, I wasn’t really in the mood to do my usual practice, thus I asked if I could see how Katsuki was trained.
They quickly agreed to my request and I got to follow Mary and Katsuki during her training.
Honestly, I was half expecting there to be some complicated training regime involved or even some really secret training methods but expectations and reality were quite different indeed.
I got to watch Katsuki practice walking around while balancing a stack of books on her head to ensure her posture was perfectly straight. Then there was the cleaning and serving duties that Mary seemed to be very particular about.
Usually Katsuki would practice by serving Mary but since I was there, our Head Maid got me to participate so that Katsuki could serve me instead.
The plus was that I was being served sweets and tea throughout the practice so I had no complaints about it. It seems like Mary already knew about my love of sweets and prepared for it, as expected of the Head Maid!
Ok, I admit that it might actually be quite complicated since there were things she had to know like the exact temperature the water had to be before she could serve the tea, something I would definitely not think about when making tea.
All in all, the training seemed relatively normal to me in terms of training a maid, it was just that Mary was a strict but also extremely competent teacher.
They did tell me that combat training will only start after Katsuki mastered the service part of being a maid so there’s still that to look forward to at least.
Watching Katsuki also got me itching to learn something as well and Mother was quick to volunteer herself to continue my lessons with Aerialla Academy curriculums, something that we stopped halfway since Ardi and Odeta came over.
Thus, I was brought to the mansion’s library where I would be given a private lesson with Mother.
“Ufufufu~ It has been a while since we’ve done this, haven’t we, my little one?” Mother giggled before leaning against the table that I was sitting at. “I suppose I should first ask what my child is interested in studying first?”
“Magic!” I answered immediately.
That was the obvious choice of course. Ain’t no way would I come all the way from another World just so that I could learn how to do maths.
“Ufufu~ As expected of my child!”
I raised my hand quickly, “Before that, Mommy… I just learned recently that it’s normal for people to chant when casting magic, so why is it that I can cast magic even without chanting? Mommy never taught me how to chant either.”
“Ara? That’s simply because you are Mama’s child of course~”
I stared at Mother for a good long minute.
She eventually giggled, “Ufufufu~ Truthfully, it is indeed out of the norm that my little one is able to cast spells without magic, even Mama is surprised, you know?”
Mother snapped her fingers and a book flew out from one of the shelves to stop at her hand.
I quickly pointed at the book, “How did Mommy do that? You didn’t chant at all!”
She set the book down on the table in front of me with a soft smile, “There are multiple ways to use magic and chanting is just one of them which Mama will teach you in a bit. Does my little one recognise this?”
I looked down at the book she was pointing at and nodded. It was the ‘introduction to magic’ book that I had read which allowed me to start on my path to magic in the first place.
Mother then flipped open the book to a specific page that was detailing the basics of casting a spell.
“My little one may have incorrectly assumed that chants and rituals are optional in casting a spell. They are not optional, but actually instrumental instead. Spells are not able to be cast without a catalyst of some sort with the most common form being chants.”
I looked up at Mother, “I’m guessing another is rituals? But Mommy did neither of those things?”
“Ufufufu~ Listen closely and tell me what you hear~”
She snapped her fingers again and a ball of light appeared above her hand.
She dispersed the light ball after a while and snapped again, creating the same result.
The third time Mother snapped her fingers, a ball of fire appeared instead before it was quickly extinguished.
Mother then looked at me expectantly, as though thinking that I would have solved the mystery already.
I wasn’t sure what was different but the fact that Mother told me to ‘hear’ was already a major clue.
“The… Last snap was a little louder and… Sounds different?” I guessed, which was honestly just me bullshitting it since I didn’t really have any idea if it was true.
Unexpectedly, Mother clapped her hands together, “Well done! That is correct, my little one!”
“Eh? Seriously?”
“Ufufufu~ That is right, my little one~ If you have a very intimate understanding of the spell you are casting, you are able to substitute chanting for something else! Even snapping of the fingers would do! But yet, my child doesn’t even need to do that, as expected of my child!”
That… Doesn’t really explain anything… Doesn’t that just mean she has no idea either? Does it have something to do with me being an Off-Worlder then?
Unfortunately, aside from that one trashy asshole that I met, I haven’t seen any other Off-Worlders that I could ask about this either.
Instead, I tried asking Mother, “Mommy… You mentioned that spells come instinctively to us when we are able to cast them, right? Do the incantations come with it as well?”
“Ufufufu~ That is correct, my little one. Mama assumes my little one never got any incantations at all?”
I nodded my head.
She tapped a finger on her chin, “Ara? Does this perhaps… Have something to do with my little one’s special circumstances?”
Looks like Mother is wondering the same thing as I was too.
“Could that be the reason, Mommy?”
“Unnn… Unfortunately, Mama does not know anyone else like my little one so Mama is unable to confirm that either. But Mama believes it’s because my child is special~”
Not to say I don’t believe her but well… I guess I’m just sceptical about it.
“Are there any benefits in chanting?” I asked.
“Ufufufu~ Let’s test it out, shall we? I command the water to form under my direction, [Aqua Ball].”
A fist sized water ball formed in the air above her finger.
I also reached out my hand and imagined my magic forming, casting the same magic as Mother did.
A water ball of the exact same size appeared above my hand, taking the exact same time to form as well.
Mother disintegrated her ball and quickly pulled me into a hug, causing my water ball to splash itself onto the ground.
“Ahhhh! As expected of my little one! My child is definitely the best in the World! Mama is so proud of you!”
It’s just a water ball though… And we don’t even know if this is just something inherent of Off-Worlders or just me in particular and why.
“Mommy? Do you think this has something to do with me manipulating Mana Crystals when I was young?”
Mother suddenly pulled back, “Ara? Now that my little one has mentioned it… That could be possible too. You were manipulating mana before your own mana was formed, so perhaps that gave you more control over magic than others? Ufufufu~ As expected of my little one! You already found something revolutionary!”
“Ummm… I mean, it’s pretty much impossible for normal people to do what I did right? Normal children wouldn’t even be able to understand or even have any interest in manipulating mana… So aside from other Off-Worlders, I don’t think anyone else will be able to replicate this.”
“Ufufufu~ That may be true, but that still means my little one may have found something extraordinary! If you were to write a research paper on this, your entry to Aerialla Academy would not only be guaranteed, but you might even be accepted as a professor!”
“Ehhhh?! Just like that? Actually… No, no, no… I don’t want to do something that troublesome. I think I’ll just leave it to the other Off-Worlders to find out. Surely someone else would also figure this out anyway.”
“Ara, ara? If that is what my little one wants. In that case, shall we have some magic lessons first? Mama will help you practise any magic my little one is interested in!”
It has indeed been a while since I last studied with Mother, let’s aim to get my magic proficiency up as much as possible before I start attending school!