009: Peacefulness

September 14, 2020 - 7 minutes read - 1281 words

“It’s a nice day today” Al

Alfred, that is, me, is enjoying a nap in the mansion’s garden. The grass here is reminiscent of a lawn and feels great. While it’s summer, the temperature doesn’t feel too hot since there’s a nice wind and the humidity isn’t suffocating. Japan was just weird. In the cities you would experience the heat island that caused the temperature to rise so much. It seems it was due to the buildings and asphalt everywhere and not enough green areas and water covered areas. To that point, Koriat village has nothing like that. The countryside is so nice.

I don’t know what I’ll work in when I grow up, but I don’t want to spend too much time working. I realized this when I went fishing with Eleanora, shouldn’t it be very profitable to transport fish to inland areas with transfer magic? Sure, the royal capital isn’t too far from the sea, but getting the fish moved quickly enough to keep them fresh must be difficult.

While a refrigerator does exist in this world, it’s very expensive, so there aren’t many available. Furthermore, you won’t find any trucks with a builtin climate control or large refrigeration facilities. Even if you had a refrigerator, you’d be heavily limited in what you could transport. With transfer magic, I could buy directly from the boats when the come back to sell their catch, then deliver directly to the requestor. If I need to keep the catch cool, I can use my ice magic. Isn’t this just bountiful profit? I wonder if that will support my dream of a rich slow-life?

“Now, he seems to be sleepy and happy.” Bartolo

Bartolo has appeared and is bending over to look at me. He’s blocking out the sun in a unnerving manner. Ordinary children might be crying at this point.

“Bartolo… I’m awake.” Al

“Don’t ask for any more of that.” Bartolo

Bartolo sits down with a tragic atmosphere.

“No, but this is important, the sugar is…” Al

“Not now, idiot.” Bartolo

Bartolo didn’t give me time to say anything else, he covered my mouth and took me behind a bush. To anyone from modern Earth, it would be a child abduction. But this is far from that, Bartolo looks like he’s trying to protect his important treasure from a bunch of wolves. He’s in survival mode. I wonder what’s occurred to make Bartolo like this?

“Sugar!?” Elna

As soon as we had hidden, the front door was opened and someone poked their head out. That voice sounded like my mother Elna.

“Ah? I thought I heard someone say sugar, right?” Elna

Really? Mother? That door is quite heavy, how did you open the door so easily?

“Yes, I’m sure that Mina heard that word.” Mina

Behind Elna is the maid Mina, the slightly ditzy maid. With her figure, why can’t she be more dignified or elegant…

“Hmm, something is off. I can’t see anyone in the garden.” Elna

Elna tilts her head in thought, then returns into the mansion.

“What’s happening?” Al

“Don’t say that word right now. You can tell something is weird?” Bartolo

What? Will you tell me what happened? Ah well, curiosity can kill a cat, so I should be careful.

“So did the reserve survive?” Al

I’t not that I’m scared of Elna and Mina, I’m just worried for Bartolo’s livelihood.

“There’s only a little bit, but there’s still some left.” Bartolo

Bartolo is grinning from his small success. Bartolo may still have his humanity. It’s hard to work hard when you have nothing worth protecting. I’m confused, I may have something I want to protect.

“The situation is still workable. There are still some dishes I’ll be able to make. Oh, the cream sauce that you told me about is almost ready.” Bartolo

“I’d like to have it soon, I’m getting tired of all the tomato sauce these days.” Al

“Different can be good.” Bartolo

Bartolo laughs and walks back to the kitchen. Things are fine.

A few days later, I was reading a book in the mansion when my mother came in with a smile.

“Let’s do some magic practice today!” Elna

Where did this come from?

Hmm, now that I think about it, I feel like Elna had mentioned something about practicing magic back when Eleanora took me to the river after sword practice. To be honest, I was feeling I was taking it easy today, I had just been reading and not done any magic training yet. I ended up following Elna out of the mansion. Behind the mansion there’s an dirt field that’s used for training. Next to it is the wall surrounding the mansion. Further on you can see the plain that I like to use for naps. In other words, there isn’t any danger with practicing magic here.

“What kinds of magic does Al use? I’ve heard you can already use water and earth magic from Eleanora.” Elna

“Yes, I can use both of those.” Al

“Can you show me all the magics you can use?” Elna

“Sure” Al

I start with my regular trick of forming soil into a chair with Earth Magic. I’ve experimented with different styles to find the most comfortable shape of chair. I’ve done it enough that I don’t need to chant anything audibly to do it, though I still think an abbreviated version of the chant.

“How did you do that without chanting, Al?” Elna

My mother seems a bit surprised with my chair.

“I can do it just by chanting in my head, so why wouldn’t I?” Al

Elna seems a more shocked that surprised. Have I gone further with magic than I thought?

“Yes… I see. Is there any other magics Al can do?” Elna

“Uh huh.” Al

This time I made a cup with Earth Magic and put some ice in it with Ice Magic. Since it’s a hot summer day, I lick the ice to cool off. I made a second cup with ice to give to my mother. As I was walking over to Elna to give her the ice, I noticed a clump of weeds off to the side, so I used some Wind Magic to chop down the weeks. I use the Wind Cutter spell from Wind Magic to cut branches off trees or drop tree nuts. If you make it too powerful, you’ll damage the nuts, so I’ve been sure to be careful.

“I think that sums up the magic I’ve been using recently.” Al

“I see that you can use the main four attributes, as well as Ice Magic.” Elna

My mother has an awkward face, like she’s proud and confused at the same time.

Yeah, I’m glad I didn’t do any demonstrations with Fire, Thunder or Spatial Magic.

“Huh… Al is farther than I expected, so I guess I have less to teach you? I’ll need to rethink your magic training, so let’s end it here today?” Elna

“Ok, I understand.” Al

Apparently I was further along than what my mother thought. I’m a little worried, but I’m glad it looks like something we can be proud of.

“Al is amazing~ You can use so many different magics without chanting. Do you have any offensive magic?” Elna

Offensive? Who would this three-year-old be attacking? I’m not even allowed to go down to Koriat village by myself yet. Furthermore, that’s not what I’m interested in.

“I like to use magic to enrich my daily life.” Al

“That style of magic is a great fit for Al.” Elna

She laughs to herself, and we join hands and take a walk through the garden.

Today was peaceful.