Determination and Practice
The arrival of Matthias limit my time to practice magic. Now, I have to cautious not to be caught by him. This reminded me of the time stealthily reading manga instead of studying for a test. Seeing as he easily went to and fro my room from the connecting door made me aware of the existence of a retainer's room.
Recalling my mother's fear visage during my birth despite her insistence to smile made me want to be strong to control my own life. Her life seems lonely in her final moment without my father by her side. Countless scenarios went through my head from her being a captive to an abandoned mistress.
Secretly though, I was already turning the water in the flower vase into ice. Luckily, the material of the vase hid any evidence of magic.
"Good morning, Elmer-sama."
Again, Matthias entered without knocking. Usually, snake maid-san is the one who would greet me in the morning but since Matthias came, he took over the job of opening the window and greeting. Only after that, the maid-san would change my clothes and brought my breakfast. I stealthily closed my eyes and face the window to avoid exposing my mischief. Matthias is oblivious like always. He went to open the window and let the air in. Hint of rain seems to be in the air today.
"Nice weather today, what would you like to read today Elmer-sama?" Matthias said as he chooses a book from the bookshelves but unfortunately I had already read all the book in the bookshelves so I'm not interested.
A routine was started from a few day ago where Matthias would read a fairy tales for me after breakfast but… at what year baby started to talk? I? 2? It's weird right for a kid to talks at 1 year olds so I will keep silent today too. I don't want to be called a weird child. So, let's try to act normal for now.
Matthias was reading the first few pages of the book when the rain started to fall. I looked at the window and imagine the sliding the window freeze and chanted [Freeze].
The raindrops splendidly become ice drops but it's so small that nobody will notice. At first, I only managed to freeze water in a 1 meter radius but nowadays it had increased to 5 meter radius. I also need to chant aloud at the beginning but now I can do it chant-less. Magic need to chantless or else I will humiliate all the predecessor who transmigrate before me.
"We'll end today story at this today, Elmer-sama." Matthias closed the book, put it neatly back in the bookshelves and leaves the room.
For some time now, Matthias keep calling me Elmer-sama. Is that my name? And sama? Am I possibly from a noble household? Why didn't I listen to Matthias' introduction?
I only knew of Matthias name from the maid-san greeting. It's my fault for busy freaking out when he suddenly entered my room that first time. Forget it for now. It's no use if I continue brooding over it. Magic practices comes first.
My ceiling has a unique uniform geometric patterns in them so I would usually started counting the patterns when Matthias left the room before starting my practices openly. I started from the right hand corner all the way to the end.
[1, 2, 3,… , 1000, 1001, 1002, 1003,…]
When I ended counting till the left hand corner, I started my practice. I pictured a ball rolling in my palm. I maintained the image and chanted [Come forth, become a ball of ice].
After several tries, I noticed that I only need to chant [Freeze} to froze the water in its natural shape but if I want it to alters the shape, a longer and more precise chant is needed.
I rolled the iced ball in my palm and tries to picture a flower blooming instead of ball of ice. Again, I maintained the image and chant [Come forth, become a flower of ice].
The flower looks unsightly at my first try but then I tried to copy the flower that bloom outside my window and it worked. The flower looks just like the real thing if not for the translucent appearance of the whole flower. My magic drained after a couple more practice but the time magic taken to drain keep getting longer the more time I practices magic.
But is this level strong or weak in this world?
What would I do if I'm on the weak side?
Then I remembered that there are cafe vendors selling chilled drinks in my past lives. From my observation of the clothes and manner of Matthias and the maids, this world is similar to mid-century western country. Machine like fridge should not have existed yet but this is the world of magic so some form of freezing technique must have already been formed.
For now, let's aim as an ice vendor. I can become a café manager and sells chilled drinks when I grow up.
The other day , i tried freezing the top lay of my milk and succeed. the taste is quite refreshing. In the future, maybe I can also froze iced milk to create ice cream. Viva Ice Cream!