9 A new member.

"He's a month old alreadyyy… I remember giving birth to him like it was yesterday."

"But I was the one who gave birth to him." My mother protested.

"Tomato tomato." Use a better example, old man. The reader wouldn't understand that. "Anyway, here's to your monthly birth anniversary! Or wait is it monthiversary? Mensiversary? Whatever!" My father was talking to me now.

He pulled something from behind his back... something that he was trying desperately to hide but something that barked and made its existence incredibly obvious.

Why was he trying so hard to hide a dog from a 1-month-old in the first place?

"He's the new member of our family! A dog!" Oh wow! Colour me surprised. I clapped with my hands while sitting down. "Now for the name!"

'OOH! OOH! ME! ME! I'll give him a name. I like naming stuff. Plus, their naming sense is horrible.

Uhh, let's see. Clu.. Clo... Clove. Clove is a great name!'

"Cl-" Oh shit! I forgot I couldn't talk. "CliCliCliCli" I gurgled and a bunch of salivae came oozing out. Nice save.

"Cli?" My mother looked at me while wiping my mouth. "Honey, he said Cli."

"Cli, huh?" My father pondered for a minute. "AH!" A flash of inspiration lit up his eyes. Uh-oh.

"Are you thinking what I'm thinking." My mother joined in. Double uh-oh.

"Hell, yeah I am." Uh-oh confirmed to the brim.

"From today onwards your name is…"

""CLINTAROU!""

NOOOOOOO-

"W00F! W@0F!" Damn that dog barked weird.

"Now moving on…" Already? My father jumped back and pulled a veil off the table. "It's party time!"

"Did someone say party?!" The door swung open and a readily dressed family was already standing outside. If I didn't know that they were the royal family, I'd assume that they were jobless by how often they showed up here.

"Heck yeah, we did! Let's get this baby started!" It was sorta weird to hear this come out from the mouth of a thirty-four-year-old, but for the time being, I'll let this pass.

###

The party was supposed to be for me, but the only people enjoying were the adults. I lied down on this bed flailing around my arm like an idiot.

[Whatcha doin' you idol loving freak?] I present to you, the berater. She crawled over and plops down on my palm. What a pain. Her brother closely monitored us with aggressive eyes.

Oh yeah... she has siblings by the way. An older sister and two older brothers. The oldest brother was the one who brought the snacks, during the idol incident. The one watching over us now was the younger siscon one.

[I don't have a lot to do… I can't even eat yet.] I replied to her.

[Sucks to be you, huh? Anyways, you're already a month old now… I was already able to open my mana field by then. When are you doing it?]

[You know… I've been thinking about how to stop you from making me join the war. And I came to a brilliant solution.] I moved on to stop her pestering.

[Not that I would ever let you off the hook, but go on.]

[I'm going to be incredibly weak.] I evidently caught her off guard.

[Is spouting nonsense another hobby of your's?]

[No, it's not. See, if I'm weak I would only be dead weight on the battlefield. So I'll just let my mana field stay shut.]

Ah, for the uncultured people here. Mana field is a part of the body that produces external mana, and shoots it out. That's what lets hero wench transmit thoughts to me without any contact. Of course, thought transmission isn't the only thing it's useful for.

If you have a mana field, you're able to physically manipulate and apply forces to objects and shoot out cool magic spells (as long as you have an affinity towards them). It's something that only geniuses possessed in this era. It was surprisingly common in my era though.

[That's not the reason why you're not opening your mana field, is it?] She caught on immediately.

[I don't understand your statement.] I reply.

[You just don't like the feeling of external mana.] Her gaze dug into mine.

[W-What-so-ever could you mean?] I looked away.

[It's that slightly suffocating feeling that everyone else can handle.]

[Huh?]

[Like you're underwater.] Her thoughts sounded way heavier than usual. [You're scared aren't you? That makes you an even bigger wuss than I remembered. Everyone from our could deal it just fine. But the demon lord is terrified of a little discomfort. What a shame, what a puny m-]

[Shut up! I hate it okay! Just because everyone could deal with it, doesn't mean that I have to too! I'm not a sheep! Mana frigging sucks. It feels like you're drowning but instead of going up for air, you're forced to form gills instead. Mana is the most obnoxious feeling thing to ever exist. It's fine if I never use magic ever again, as long as I don't get that icky disgusting feeling!] All my thoughts pour out in a rant.

[And it's fine, isn't it? From what I can see, magic fields are only limited to the strongest people in this era… I'll be able to survive in a world like this without ever having to force my magic field open. I'll never do it and you can't change my mind! UUU] I continued.

[Woah… calm down, runt. I was never going to force you to open it. You don't need your mana field to be open to become powerful anymore.] She insisted calmly.

[As I said, I'll continue to be weak! There's no need for me to be powerful!]

[But are you fine with that?]

[Fine with what?]

[Fine with being weak. People will start looking down on you. Especially since you're the son of the two greats of this alliance. And you were born strong in your previous life. Are you sure, you would be fine being weak? This world might be peaceful now, but it could all go to hell at any moment. What if you're in danger. Would you not look back at your current self and regret your decision?] Hero wench made some sound arguments. Completely unlike her usual self.

I half expected her to disregard everything I said and force me into it anyway. But she actually listened and responded sincerely... It feels really weird to be completely honest.

[I won't. At least I don't think that I'll be bothered by people looking down at me. I was hated by most of the world in my previous life. My own people feared me. Humanity thought of me as a terrorist while all I did was run an empire of my own. A few condescending gazes won't affect me. I don't think.] I turned around on my belly, having tired out my back and she did too. I put my hand on top of her's. For communication of course.

[And as far as being in danger goes, I have people who will willingly protect me now.] My parents were in my clear line of sight. [If things do get really bad, I might just call upon the hero to save my day.]

Eugh. Just eugh.

[That was too cheesy, you runt!] Hero wench starts ruffling my hair. [But it's fine, my job is to protect everyone in this alliance.]

She sure was weird. Going through the same farce, even after reincarnating. Sacrificing her life for the people. Do I look up to her for that? No. Self-sacrificial behavior isn't good in any situation. I would never die for everyone. You only get one life... or well, that doesn't hold true anymore, does it?

You could only go through so much pain before you give up. I wouldn't want to suffer through something painful just so someone could enjoy a painless life and forget about me somewhere down the line.

That's just sad.

I would rather, the people around me get good enough to protect themselves. But it sounds a bit hypocritical from someone who just vowed to powerlessness.

[Ah and also, magic powers work a little differently now.] She added.

[What do you-]

[When you turn 16, you go through a ceremony that awakens only the magic attribute best suited for you. Making everything streamlined and efficient. Of course, you'll be much better off if you could control a bit of every attribute like I can.]

Another exposition real quick, all the similar magical syntaxes get grouped together to form an attribute. If you have talent in a syntax, you're likely to have talent in the attribute. These would include stuff like healing, fire, water, and so on.

There are some special attributes that you gain from the Gods, like space and time. But they are rare, and usually only available to the peak of a race or devout followers. Or you could be like the me from 3000 years ago, and threatened a god to hand over his attribute to you.

Pretty 'bad ass' if I say so myself.

Anyhow, back in my era, you would awaken your mana core altogether, and figure out what the attribute you're talented in is, and then slowly build up on that, as the other attributes also slowly eat away at your mana.

[That system is incredibly efficient, huh? And here I thought everyone had gotten weak.]

[Modern technology, ma dude.] She replied.

[Yuu-chan, don't ever say ma dude again. Please. You sound like a grandma acting like wannabe hipster... it's just incredibly sad.]

[Noted. I'm sorry.]

This dumb woman forgot that I was talking about how I wanted to be weak. I'm such a pro at manipulation yet I never pride myself.