9. The Boredom Cure
His family returned in relative silence. Tyrus shifted excitedly in his seat, assuming he had just gotten the deal of the century. Veronica happily held Castus and stroked his head. When they returned home Castus' presents were already displayed in his room. The dagger proudly displayed on the wall. Yursa had taken the petals and brewed them into a tea that was awaiting Veronica to give to Castus. She fed it to Castus, who struggled to drink the unbelievably bitter tea that seemed to mysteriously dry his mouth out somehow, but when he finished it he felt something snaking around his chest. Convinced some effect had taken place Castus resolved to check that screen when he was alone to look for changes. In the meantime more pressing thoughts swarmed his mind.
After the meeting at the church Castus began to realize that while the blessing could be a boon to him, if he couldn't find a way to defend himself it would quickly become a target. This thought quickly became a goal and a striving need to Castus. It stuck with him over the last five years as Castus physically developed and carefully kept his mask of a perfect son.
Castus had a decently sheltered childhood so far. He wasn't allowed outside without supervision, and he was never allowed to stray beyond the gates of his front yard unless his family was going somewhere. While it was safe, it acted more as a prison to Castus. It severely limited his range of movement, and the constant supervision prevented him from experimenting with his blessing. Castus was dying to have the autonomy necessary to learn how his blessing worked. He had managed to slip his wardens though and conducted a few experiments. He was still cautious about how quickly he developed as a child though, trying to stick to what he believed to be a normal progression of childhood. For the first time in his life, he was happy to have been forced to baby sit his kid sister all those years ago.
The first experiment Castus had ever conducted with his blessing was the material analysis skill. He had taken hold of one of the legs of his crib and tried to use the skill. Much to his dissatisfaction it was not as simple as it seemed to activate. It took two days to learn how to get the skill to work. He had to imagine the effect transpiring and it would work the same in reality. The downside of the activation was that when it occurred Castus was only attempting in a fit of frustration. No one saw him do it, but it caused the lower half of the leg to his crib to vanish. This puzzled his parents to no end, but it was dismissed as a strange occurrence. This alerted his father of a possible tampering of their home to magic though, resulting in new magic detection formations being added to the house. The result for Castus however was a new tab appearing in that screen. It was aptly named material library. As one would expect it had analyzed the wood Castus had just vanished and now showed the name of the wood and the properties of it.
The second experiment Castus had tried was with the material generation skill. This one activated much the same as the material analysis skill. He had learned from his mistake though and waited to use this one when he had finally been allowed outside. He pretended to squat down over a tree branch and activated it with his back facing his mother. Fortunately, this skill wasn't flashy, but upon activation Castus quickly realized the largest issue. Mana. Castus had barely any mana to utilize so upon creating a finger sized piece of wood his world went dark. This had caused his father to call in a number of doctors to check on him and cast a number of different spells on Castus. It was chalked up to a dizzy spell from lack of sleep. This seemed to satisfy his father, but it resulted in more supervision during his activities. To compensate for this Tyrus hired another maid, Anabelle. Unlike Yursa who was mostly silent and very serious about her job, Anabelle was a glowing, smiling face. Yursa did approve of her attitude, but Tyrus did not care.
The third and final experiment revolved around the information Castus had gained from drinking that tea so long ago. His status now displayed a new skill, Poison resistance (minor). This skill was self-explanatory, he gained resistance to some poisons. He had not discovered how to gain other skills yet thought, leaving the section quite bare. It did give Castus the understanding that certain skills could be obtained through items or materials.
This is where Castus had to stop his experiments for the time being or potentially arouse suspicion. Castus firmly believed a third incident would cause a more serious investigation into him or his home, which could be diasterous, especially considering his father's paranoia. Since the dizzy spell experiment, Yursa or Anabelle watched him like a hawk at all times except when sleeping leaving Castus with no choice but to sit and wait.
Now at the age of six though, things were going to change. A few days ago two big things had changed. Firstly, his father believed it was time for him to stop messing around outside and begin his education, meaning he was going to get tutors for various subjects soon. To his father this was him starting his education early and giving his son a head start, to Castus this was a cure to his boredom and potential ways for him to continue his forlorn experiments. Secondly, both of his sisters were now age twelve and were going to start attending a noble academy. According to Tyrus all proper noble ladies attended an academy to learn superfluous activities like dance, dinning manners, and to Castus surprise magic. He had never seen either his father or mother use magic since he was a child. The only time he would see it performed was by either Yursa or the new maid Anabelle when using it to speed up chores.
When Castus had learned that his twin sisters would learn magic he quickly asked the burning question that had been reignited in his heart. "Father, will I get to learn magic?" Tyrus was surprised by the sudden interest in the subject from his son, but soon grew a mysterious smile and nodded his head. "Yes Castus, in due time you will also learn magic." This had elated Castus and was currently the only driving factor as he waited for his tutoring sessions to begin in a week's time.
The week pasted slowly as Castus waited for his promised tutors. They would be staying at the house for a period of two years, before departing for new tutors every two years until Castus had reached the age of twelve as well. From that point he would move on to apply for a noble academy and his father had set his eyes on the top three schools for Castus to get into.
The day finally arrived for his tutors and early in the morning a quick tapping at the door alerted the waiting Castus, who rushed to the door with vigor no one in his family had seen from him. Yursa still beat him to the door though, opening it for the guests who had arrived. 'Finally I can do something besides pretend to be this child.'
The door revealed two men standing in front of the door.