111: Laziness Obedience

January 27, 2021 - 9 minutes read - 1829 words

On the rear area of the ship, Alisha and Ilya are sitting on wooden chairs taking their tea time. While they tilted their teacups, the sea breeze swept past their hair and cheeks.

I’ve noticed the sea winds are a bit rougher than the winds of Koriat Village’s plains, but the irregular gusting brings a nice variety to them. I’ve also gotten used to the constant sound of waves and the honks of seabirds. The sea had a different flavor of nature that is entertaining.

The horizon, where the blues of the sea and sky meet is very beautiful. In the sky far above me, clouds of various shapes, large and small, flow by in seeming freedom. Aren’t we flowing as well? I’m on a ship right now. While sailing over the vast sea, we’re in an illusion that we’re the only ones in the world. The vast sea rarely fails to impress.

“The sea is beautiful.” Al

While I was admiring the sea, Alisha opened her eyes while sipping from her cup of tea.

“This is delicious… I think it may be the best black tea I’ve ever had.” Alisha

She seems surprised, as I am an aristocrat and client. I’d have to say that her voice warmed the bottom of my heard.

“Surely this tea leaf is Royal Choice, isn’t it?” Ilya asks.

Ilya seems a bit surprised, even though she’s the daughter of a Count family. I felt like she would like black tea, seems my intuition was correct. If this was Irving or Rumba, I doubt they’d be able to guess the brand.

“That’s right, it’s Royal Choice.” Al

Obviously, there’s various types of black tea in this world, but I vastly prefer Royal Choice for its fragrant and elegant taste. You can enjoy it with a little sugar, or enjoy it plain, to enjoy the aroma and taste.

My mother Elna loves Royal Choice, so she is the first to get her cup filled. In the end, all of the Slowlette siblings have learned to love Royal Choice and continue to drink it, I wonder if it’s genetic? Even Eleanora, who isn’t the kind of person to drink tea, will drink Royal Choice.

“This is much better than what I could drink in my family’s mansion.” Ilya

“Alfred loves black tea so much he learned to brew it himself.” Alisha

“Well, I guess.” Al

A certain sibling would get angry if I wasn’t able to brew a good black tea. I picked it up from our servant Sarah because of that. Well, I can Transfer myself around using Spatial Magic, and when I want to drink tea outside it’s useful to know how to brew it myself. Thanks to that, I can have delicious tea wherever I am.

I tilt my cup and take some tea into my mouth. Along with the warmth, the elegant and mellow scent that’s unique to Royal Choice tea spreads over my senses. I swallow it and exhale.

It’s the expected taste, I made sure of that. It’s not as good as Elna or Sarah, but it’s still quite well made. While I continued to sip my tea, I watched the waves crest in the edge of my vision.

What the hell is happening? I hurriedly look around and even turn over a nearby blanket. However, I can’t find a bucket anywhere around.

While I was looking around the room, I heard the voices of Irving and the other male adventurers from outside. When I focused on the loud noise I spotted a long body like a snake. Then I saw the long body sink into the sea and disappear.

“What is that?” Al asks worriedly.

“Probably a sea serpent, it’s a big snake monster that lives in the ocean.” Alisha answers calmly.

Well, I’ve seen large snakes and moray eels in my previous life, right? But the shadow I saw was much larger than a person, wasn’t it? It could swallow a human.

To calm me down, Ilya responded in a gentle voice.

“It’ll be fine, sea serpents aren’t that hard to deal with.” Ilya

She’s right, that’s why Silver Wind and Rumba are here. For me, I could always escape to the sky or Transfer away, so I’ll be fine. I calmed myself down and started drinking the tea again.

Then Alisha suddenly came out with a distracting question.

“Isn’t Alfred’s magic strange?” Alisha

“What do you mean strange?” Al

“You can use Ice Magic and you can use magic without chanting, right? Are you really seven years old?” Alisha

If you consider my age from my previous life, it would be 34 years, but I’ve only had seven years since I was born in this world.

“Isn’t is possible to use Ice Magic and skip chanting if you practice regularly?” Al asks as he tilts his head.

“I can’t!” Alisha yells as she slams the table.

“I understand your feelings, but calm down!” Ilya snaps.

Ilya sounds annoyed by Alisha who leaned forward for her outburst. I feel a bit of annoyance at me as well from Ilya.

Ice Magic may have some aptitude requirements, but I feel like it isn’t that hard to omit chanting. While I’m thinking on that, Alisha calms down and asks.

“How can I start to use Ice Magic?” Alisha

If I start speaking about aptitude, talent, and intuition, Alisha’s heart will be shattered. Generally speaking, since God saw fit to give me the ability to use all attributes, how do I explain the process of using it?

I had a hard time at increasing my magic energy and controlling my magic power, and that was with all of the imagination cultivated in my previous life. I guess I’ll have to fall back to what God taught me if I want to give advice. I’m not sure how effective it will be.

“I think it’s possible if you pursue magic control…” Al

“The key is magic control?” Alisha & Ilya

They both exclaim at the seeming simplicity of my advice.

I create a water ball using Water Magic for a demonstration.

“Are you not even chanting under your breath?” Alisha

Alisha is suspicious, but I don’t care. I consider it so troublesome to chant every time I activate magic, isn’t it normal to work on eliminating that?

Then, I transform the water ball into a perfect sphere, then a dragon, then split it into 20 separate spheres that are rotating around each other. When I think back, I was able to use Ice Magic after I reached this level of control. Alisha and Ilya are shocked to see the water ball smoothly changing shape one after another while it floats freely in the air.

“That’s great control, I can’t do more than five.” Ilya

“One, two, three… ten, eleven balls. Don’t move them so quick! I’m trying to count them!” Alisha

“Alisha, please be more polite.” Ilya

It’s funny that Alisha is trying to count them as I move the water balls. Alisha is getting angry when I’m moving them to in a way to make it hard to count, so I stop and make them easy to count.

“20!” Alisha shouts after a second of counting.

“Yes, I can do more than that.” Al

“More?! You can do even more?!” Ilya

Alisha finished counting, but now Ilya is the surprised one. It’s funny how Alisha keeps getting surprised.

Well, if I just move them in simple paths, I could get up to 60 moving water balls. Like when I used Psychic magic in the snowball fight. There are times I feel I’m not that great at this sort of magic since I can’t defeat Eleanora even with those numbers. I know she’s a monster, but I still feel a bit despondent. After the snowball fight, I put more effort into training magic control and operation.

“Now, 30… Hmm, I wonder if Ice Magic can’t be used without this level of magic control…” Alisha mutters with a thousand-yard stare.

I just tried to give some careful advice, but I feel like I’ve discouraged Alisha anyways. Well, I think it’s best to work on magic every day, that’s how I got my level of magic control. Also to use magic in everyday life as possible, and use up your magic energy before going to sleep. If you continue to empty your magic energy, is should slowly increase. The more magic energy you have, the more magic you can practice before you run out. It’s hard to keep using magic energy until my body feels tired.

“Well, it’s not like I’m 100% sure that’s the secret.” Al

“No, the third princess, Leila, is famous for using Ice Magic, and has been noted for having a great degree of magic control. I think it’s a reasonable to consider it a requirement.” Alisha

“Is that so?” Al

I hadn’t seen the third princess at the aristocratic exchange party. Hmm, I feel like Viscount Yulina had said she was a princess who couldn’t walk, but could use Ice Magic.

“In the royal capital, for various events Leila will make a big ice sculpture to entertain the citizens. The ice sculpture is shaped in such a way that it’s clear it was made using magic. It’s become famous as a sight that can only happen in the royal capital.” Ilya

Hmm, I would love to see such a beautiful ice sculpture. I could probably make one myself, but it would be different from the ice sculptures thought up by others. I’m also interested in what people of this world would think up. I could always visit the royal capital using Transfer magic, so I should keep an ear out for events that I could see.

“Mr. Alfred, do you have any tips for skipping chanting?” Ilya

I have only one answer to that skill.

“I hate having to chant.” Al

“Yes?” Ilya

Alisha has become silent, I think I need to explain myself.

“So, chanting is like going back to a textbook after you’ve learned it, right? I feel like focusing on magic control and image control is a better way to use magic than trying to chant some words a person made up.” Al

When Elna asked me the same question, that’s how I answered. She responded by saying ‘I see, it’s certainly annoying. That’s an Al way of thinking." A few months later she was able to use magic without chanting. It seems like the advice worked for her.

I don’t know if it’s possible to just think about wanting to use magic efficiently or using magic quickly. I focus on my feelings of laziness and leverage them to free me from the annoying parts of magic. It worked for me and my mother.

After hearing my explanation, Ilya stared at me while Alisha balled her fists and shook them in anger.

“It can’t be that simple!” Alisha cried across the wide sea and sky.