Mana, Spells, and a Surprise (Remastered)

(2 years and 2 months after reincarnation)

[Kyrielle's POV]

About a month has passed since I started training with dad. During the weekends, I would practise swordsmanship and improve my technique, the One Line strike with dad's advice.

Though I said training, it's more just body workout where I do exercises that help builds my body... My results are slightly better than when I first started out, but still nothing when compared to dad who can do a hundred squats, sit ups and push ups then run a 10km run without breaking a sweat.

There are humans with seemingly superhuman feats on this world... and I have a theory about that.

It has something to do with Mana.... I don't know what, or how, but this 'mana' thing enhances the body's performance.

For the morning, I'd always do physical training with dad, but most of the time he is not around. I can't do anything without dad around, so it becomes a problem whenever he has guard duties and can't train with me.

_____________

"Mama, can I go out to play alone?"

"No Kyrie, you can't. It's dangerous outside because there are a lot of bad people outside! There are even people who'll force you to marry them after they kidnapped a cute little girl like you!"

"Eek!!! Anything but that!" Not the lolicons! I am a child, I can't do those things!

"Then listen to mama and don't go out without an adult with you okay?"

She said as she patted my head while busy working the counter.

"Mnn... But the backyard?"

"It's 'What about the backyard?', Kyrie. Yes, you can play in the backyard, just don't make a mess."

"Yay!" I yelled out as I excitedly ran out towards the backyard of our house.

"Wait Kyrie!"

"Hmm?"

"You'll get your hair dirty if you play in the backyard with your long hair like that. Let mom teach you how to tie your hair up properly so that you don't damage or dirty it."

"Okay." I walked up to mom, who had her red hair tied into a ponytail whenever she's working. She started to untie her hair...

"Ghyse, can you borrow me your hair band as well?"

Ghyse also ties her hair into a ponytail while working, even though she has only neck length hair. I wonder if this is how all girls tie their hair to avoid the hair getting in the way?

"Hmm? Sure."

"Thank you. Kyrie, turn around and let mom teach you how to do it."

"Mmm!"

"Follow mom carefully, Kyrie. First, hold the two hair bands with your mouth. Now, grab one side of your hair, and gather a patch of hair near the top."

She led my hand to teach me to do it by myself... I grabbed a patch of hair to the left, near the backside of my head.

"Without letting go of these hair, you grab the next patch of hair on the lower sections... Gather them all, and grab the hair band that you are holding on your mouth to tie it up like this.... You should have a tail of hair hanging on one side of your head now."

"Oh..."

"Now, repeat the same for the other side."

"Mama... I still can't do it..."

"Haha, don't worry Kyrie, mama will just teach you until you remember! For now, I'll just tie it up for you... There, done!"

"Mmm?" She tied another tail on the right side of my head.

"She's very cute, madam!"

"Aww, you look so adorable in that hairstyle Kyrie! You need to look at it yourself! Here, a mirror."

I took a look at myself in the reflections... My long red hair was tied into two adorable twin tails. The childish looking hairstyle gives off a sense of innocence to my small and petite body, and the contradicting color between my blue eyes and the red hair further compliments this hairstyle.

This is TOO adorable... even my heart skipped a beat when I saw myself in the mirror... This is no doubt THE hairstyle for me.

"It looks so pretty!"

"It fits you really well, Kyrie. With that twin tails, you won't have to worry about getting your hair dirty while playing in the backyard now, so go ahead!"

"Yay!"

What? I'm creepy for acting like a little girl? That's because I AM now a little girl now, Mr Sherlock!

But I have a feeling that all this might actually be the influence of this body's hormones changing my mind though... Without thinking about it, I had started to identify myself as a girl over a boy. Even my inner monologue is not starting to switch to a girl's voice....

But being a girl is hard.... You are physically weaker and shorter. Using the toilet and cleaning yourself up is a chore, especially since long hairs are inconvenient go clean. I also miss being able to pee while standing up....

But still, I am starting to get used to being a girl now which I'm very conflicted about.... That being said, there actually quite a few good things with being a female though.

First off, you get have more attire freedom. You can dress cutely, or coolish, or prettily, or even with a sexy exposed style and no one will question it, whereas if a man were on do it a lot of people will be weirded out.

Girls are also generally just more attractive than boys. And you can also have a twin tail like this as well! It's just so cute and adorable!

"Remember Kyrie, don't break dad's vase or he'll get angry!" Mom yelled out to me from inside the house.

"Okay!"

In the afternoon, I would study and help out mom alongside Ghyse with alchemy. I have learned all the basic principles behind potion making, but I am basically talentless at it...

Unlike me, Ghyse is good at making potions like mom. She is actually an intern working under mom, and my distant relative, an aunt. She and mom shares the same grand father it seems, that's why all three of us have the same red hair color. The red hair gene is dominant over blonde hair gene, it seems.

All things asides whenever dad isn't at home, I have tons of free time in te morning before I study alchemy. What can I do now?... It's not like I can actually think of anything to play with even in the backyard.

Oh wait, I haven't read that magic book have I? I want to learn about magic too! I want to become a magical girl and- wait, what the hell am I talking about?

_____________

I took the book 'Basic Magic Textbook', and sat down on the chair inside my room to read it... I didn't read it in the living room because mom might scold me for reading about magic.

I've read about how magic works in just about an hour... It all comes down to 4 basic types.

Elemental Magic.

Illusion Magic.

Enchanting Magic.

Miracle Magic.

All spells are powered by mana, which can be found inside our bodies. Mana itself comes from around the world, but no one knows where or what mana is.

It is said that the total amount of mana in this world is constant, but it is higher in concentration around different parts of the world. The source and how Mana is generated is currently unknown, but so far in human and demon history, no cases of Mana running out ever happened.

Exactly what kind of energy is Mana? That is the big question. As long as we don't know the source of where it came from, then we will never have answers for that question.

This 'Mana' thing fascinates me, a science student back in school. It's not something that chemistry, biology or physics can explain, and so it's the new uncharted territory of this world.

But while mana itself is difficult to understand, it isn't as complicated when it comes to application with it. There are only two types of mana, Environmental and Reserve Mana. All creatures absorb mana, and Reserve Mana is the amount of Mana that your body can absorb before it is full.

Just like body shape, height and muscles, Reserve Mana is highly dependent on genetics... Although with training you can increase the amount of Reserve that you have, there's only so much that you can improve with just practise alone. I am not confident in my body to have good magic genes though....

Imagination is a big advantage with magic. To cast a spell, you must first visualize a spell in your head. Most people can't do this, and so chants were created to help people that can't visualize to cast magic as well by visualizing it in the form of words.

Usually, the stronger a spell is, the harder it is to visualize. But so long as you can visualize, you can always find someways to shorten the time required to cast a magic by simplifying the process of imagination.

And the power of a magic is governed by the limit of your imagination... Dubbed 'Magic Power'. The larger the scale of something you can comprehend and imagine, the larger the Magic Power, simple as that.

Magic has the rank : (brackets) signify the percentage of the people that classfies into said rank.

Elementary or Magically Disabled (50%)

Intermediate (25%)

Adept (15%)

Master (10%)

Saint (1%)

Pioneer (0.01%)

Most people who are elementary level can't even cast magic. And people who can reach Adept rank can usually reach Master rank as well.

Magic Saints are what seperates the best mages from the good mages. Only 1% of the world can become as powerful as them.

And then there are the beasts with magic.... Magic Pioneers. There are only 3 Magic Pioneers in recorded history... Baal the Demon Lord and his archrival Lynn are both Magic Pioneers.

But that is enough reading for now... Info dumps are boring no matter how interesting the info is.... The natural thing to do right now would be to actually try out magic for real!

It's like I had rediscovered the internet again when I learned about magic... It's so exciting!

_____________

Right now I'm standing outside my home, in the backyard. I'm here because I can't be burning down my home with magic.

"But what should I cast?..." Hmm... I'll go for that fire spell that I casted last time then! It is elementary level so it should be easy.

"Oh Lord of the light, bring forth warm and light upon this one, Ember!"

A crest with bright blue light formed in front of my hand. I could feel heat gushing from my spine to my palm, and powering the crest in my hand.

"Woah!..."

But... How do I actually activate the spell?

I stopped paying attention to the heat flow along my arm... It was then, the spell actually fires off and ignite into a small burning fire right in front of the crest just now.

....I think I get it now.

"Oh Lord of the light, bring forth warm and light upon this one, Ember!"

'Fwuo...'

"Haha, it actually works!"

So this is magic! But I wanna try out other magic as well!

I looked for an elementary water magic and then found it, Water ball, along with the chant....

"...Oh water heed me, bring forth the beginning of the seven seas, Water ball!"

Once more, the feeling of heat was felt from my spine traversing to my arm and then to my hand. A blue crest with beautiful patterns formed in front of my hand, waiting for me to activate the spell.

"Now!" When I cut off the flow of Mana, a floating ball of water spawned right out of the crest and dropped on the ground.

'Splash.'

"Hmm, how disappointing...." Can't I like shoot it out or something?

I expected it to be more than this but it's still a elementary level spell.... There's no way it would be effective in combat.

"Hmm... Aren't elementary level spells useless then?"

Out of curiosity I flipped through the book once again.

'Elementary magic is the simplest form of magic. While normally useless for battle, by thinking outside the box using it, there are ways to use even the weakest spells to great potential.

Although levels like Elementary and Intermediate were put to all spells, it is only a gross summarization of a spell.... With enough Magic Power and Mana, even an Intermediate spell can reach Saint rank.'

With a bit of a creativity even the most worthless things could be put to use... This is true even for magic. And it seems that generally speaking a spell's power is not very specific and it depends on an individual's ability rather than the spell's strength itself.

"I'm just getting even more excited now!..."

_____________

I tried out all sorts of magic.... And I had no troubles with casting any magic that I came across.

Wind Gush blows a gush of winds at the opponent, simple enough.

Mud Puddle generates a small layer of clay that rest on top of the floor, and disintegrates into sand after a couple of second. Alternatively, you can force the clay to harden to become rocks before they become sand.

Those were all the spells that I tried before I ran out of mana...

"He who sour the skies, drive away this one's enemy, Wind Gush!"

'Fwuom!'

"Uwa.... I feel exhausted all of a sudden.... Why am I..."

'All Spells use Reserve Mana to fuel. When one runs out of Mana, they may feel tired, dizzy and ot of breath.'

"Ah... I've run out of Mana huh?..."

After firing off about 9 more spells, I felt extremely exhausted.... For now, I'll head back to my room and take a nap then.

'Cha Chank.' I opened the door to the house once again... And then I clinbed up the stairs and headed for my room.

"So.... Tired.... I want to... Sleep..."

'Thud!' I dropped to the floor.

"Kyrie?! What's wrong- eh?"

"Zzz...."

"...She fell asleep?... I suppose I'll carry her to her room then."

____________

(2 years and 7 months after reincarnation)

About a few months have passed since then, it's autumn now. The weird thing about the last season, Summer is that it's still quite cool, cool enough to not sweat without any AC units in the house.

This is impossible in Japan where during the summer, even wearing your birthday suit inside the house without an AC on would result in a sticky and salty body.

Anyway, I added magic training to my list of things to do almost everyday. The more important thing is that my mana increased by a whole lot more with practise. From only being able to cast 9 elementary spells, to being able to do 20 now.

Each time I exhausted my mana, my Reserve Mana would grow a little. Once my Mana grew, I started to be able to feel the Mana flowing inside me, around the spine. Even though it's invisible, even though I don't actually 'feel' anything along my spine, I can somehow tell that there's mana. It's weird.

If I let loose my Reserve Mana, it felt like my Mana would expand like gas, but it always stick to my body without escaping into the surroundings, kinda like an aura, or gravity... It's weird, I don't know how to explain it.

Every day where dad isn't around, I would train with magic. Although I said 'train', it's more like playing around than training because I'd try out all sorts of ways to use magic.

Each magic is casted slightly different from the other. You don't just pour mana into it after you chanted for a spell, there are different steps and procedures to each spell to use it properly and to achieve different effects. For example, with proper control I can make Ember extend out, or make it stronger and hotter than it usually is.

And of course, mixing magic is possible. Though I rarely found any that worked well at all, I had one such combination that is very deadly.

Mixing Wind Gush and Ember together, by gathering and charging a Wind Gush with an Ember inside, I can coat the winds inside with fire and blast it out in a burst of flames.

Although it's powerful, it's very short ranged and also extremely slow to charge, so I need to tune it out to make it suitable for normal uses. I named it after the chemical reaction that takes place, 'Combustion'.

Speaking of fire magic, I found out what I'm good at in terms of magic... I am extremely good at Fire magic.

'Each individual has different synergies with different elements and magic, some slightly more powerful and some slightly less.

Very rarely, an individual may be born with an affinity for a specific type of magic, and said individual would be EXTREMELY proficient with that affinity. Magic Masters are often people with these affinities.

Individuals with an affinity may find it easier to cast a type of magic. Those type that they cast may also be much more powerful than normal.

The most important traits of someone that has an affinity is the ability to shorten the chant or even remove the chant of a single type of spells. Such speed advantage would be almost impossible for a normal mage to deal with.'

I somehow was able to cast fire magic without chanting. In an attempt to chant faster, I messed up the chant of Ember. Somehow when I imagined that the spell still firing off, Ember activated without me finishing the chant.

That led me to discover chantless casting. Although the signature magic crest still appears, there's no need to chant for a fire magic.

I could use fire magic without chanting if I just imagine the spell that I wanted to cast. I could remember every single detail of all fire spells that I've tried, and recreate them without any chanting.

This increased my casting speed tremendously in fire magic, and probably makes me a very dangerous fire mage in a fight. Usually it'd take somewhere between 2 - 3 seconds to chant a spell, but with chantless casting I could fire one off in about half a second, which is a tremendous speed boost.

However for any other spells, it is not possible. At best I could only chant faster like a rapper, but I could never cast those spells without chanting. I can't understand or remember the details of Mud Puddle or Wind Gush, nor can I even shorten the chant at all. It's just not possible.

And I also found that you can chant the words silently... As in you chant it in a whisper. This meant that I could hide what spells I'm about to use if I don't yell out the name of the spell like an idiot.

Here is a list of magic that I learned to cast.

Elementary ranked : Ember, Water Ball, Wind Gush, Mud Puddle.

Intermediate ranked : Earth Wall, Wind Blade, Rock Sling.

Combination magic : Combustion (Ember and Wind Gush)

All of them is learned from the book, although it only included elementary and intermediate magic. But I haven't learned all the magic there, there's roughly 2 spells for each rank and each class. I can't learn all of them and be able to use them effectively, so I just stuck with the two elements that I'm somewhat good at besides Fire, which is Wind and Earth.

One bonus Adept ranked magic came along with it, Fireball. I have been having my eye on that bonus spell in the book, but apparently it hits the target and explode.... I don't want to be blowing up my house, that's why I have never even casted it once.

That is also the reason why I've never casted any fire spells above the rank of elementary. Fire spells are usually highly destructive even amongst all elements, it's dangerous to practise them within a city.

Fire mages typically are useless in many situations because of their superior destructive power.... In situations where they are effective though, they are one of the strongest elements to use against your opponent. A lot of mages even though aren't good at fire magic, will still use them just for the fire power alone.

Although fire is strong, it can be countered by water magic, the most versatile element. The strongest element is the Dark and Lightning element, which both are highly advanced forms of magic.

This book doesn't have any spells of those two element, and not much is actually knew about those two types.... It was said that only the Demon race uses those two types of magic.

________________

On days where I only wanted to exhaust my mana rather than experiment with magic, I would just cast Ember at the maximum power and range possible, and then let it burn until my mana runs out.

"....Now, burn!" I extended out my arm, and imagined an Ember burning at 2 meters away from me with the intensity of a small torch.

'Fwuom!'

"And.... Double!" With my second arm, I did the same thing.

'Fwuom!' (2x)

"Hmm..." Not bad. Now I'll just let it burn out my Mana in about a minute....

Anyway, this is usually how my day went on. I train with dad or play with magic in the morning, I helped mom and Ghyse during the afternoon, and I relax at night after dinner.

"Kyrie, remember to wipe yourself clean before sleeping!"

"Okay, Dad!"

I found it strange that during these past 2 years, no birthday celebration was made for me at all. It seems that it's not that my parents doesn't care, it's just that people just didn't celebrated birthdays at all because just a few decades ago, everyone died young and it'd be pointless to celebrate.

Instead, celebration is made when a child grows 6, becoming an adolescent. Once again at 12, when they are considered as a teenager. And one last time when they reach 16, where they are considered as adults.

It seems that the adulthood of this world is two years younger than on earth, so you wouldn't be branded a lolicon if you married a 16 year old in this world. Not that anyone would actually get married at such a young age though.... forced marriage isn't a thing around here.

But what I find even stranger isn't the peculiar birthday culture... It's the lack of any school at all, or rather a lack of low-price public school.

____________

"Mom, are there places where people teach alchemy or language?"

"There are, they are called 'schools'. Mama learned her healing miracles at a school, you know?"

"Mmm... What about daddy?"

"I don't think Thomas learned his sword techniques from a school.... He's mostly self taught from fighting monsters in the past. It's nothing you should worry about."

"Mmm."

"....Talking about schools reminds me of my family. You have a grandma and a grandpa."

"Grandma and grandpa?"

"Yes... Mama is not a commoner, I was the daughter of a noble family. Mom ran from home because I was forced to marry someone that I doesn't love.... I hope Kyrie won't run from home in the future as well, Mom'll be very sad otherwise!"

"I won't!"

"Madam... Are you sure about telling Kyrielle your past?"

"It's fine, she'll know sooner or later anyway. Knowing my past has no impact since we live in different cities from my parents."

Mom was a noble lady, and a priestest as far as I can tell. Her peculiar hair color and her beautiful face is likely a result from her noble background..... It was thanks to her that I was born with such a cute face and hair!

But all the tangents asides, while kids doesn't need to go to school, it's not that it doesn't exists. Being able to read at my age is really surprising, as people don't generally go to school or even learn any advanced arithmetics.

As a science student, I don't have much trouble with those things so I wouldn't have to worry about it even though Dad and Mom never taught me any of those.

I don't think I'm planning to go to school anytime soon because... I disliked schools. Kids are rude, and some are even bullies, like me. Worst still is that school costs a whole lot in this world....

There's no internet to learn from in this world either. I can't watch funny tiktoks or use Facebook, so there are actually a lot of periods where I just sit down at home and do nothing.... Not even reading or anything, just nothing. It seems that people of the past without any technology spent many of their time like this.

Pencils and books are not rare here... To my knowledge, it should be in the medieval ages. This meant that I'm not actually in the medievals, and more likely somewhere more advanced, like the Renaissance.

(AN : The timeline for this fake world is not accurate, but it is set sometime during Renaissance period, just before Industrialization.)

But even though things are either very expensive or inconvenient here, this peaceful life is surprisingly good.

For now, I can be the only loving daughter to my parents who help out with the chores and their work, and get to play around with magic....

___________

(Few days later....)

(Dusk)

'Cha chank.'

The door to our shop opened, and the person who came in is none other than my blonde hair father, Thomas.

"Daddy!" I yelled out energetically as I ran up to him to hug his leg...

"Woah! Still as energetic as ever huh, Kyrie? Good girl." He patted my head gently as he replies to me.

I know he likes it when I do this.... This is why I always hugged his leg whenever he came back, I wanted to please him and make his day a bit less stressful.

"Welcome home, honey." Hmm, Mom sounded serious. Something might be going on here....

"I'm back, Katherine.... Umm, Katherine?"

"....." Mom put down her cooking wares and walked up to dad. And then, without even saying anything....

"....Did I do something wrong? I'm sorry-"

"We have another child!" Mom yelled out in a happy voice towards dad.

"What?!" (2x)

"It's true! I tried it out with the Pregnancy Test Solution (a type of potion meant to be pregnancy tests) and it changed color! I'm pregnant again!"

I'm shocked... this explains why mom recently had terrible nauseas. I thought that she was just tired, but to think that it's because of her being pregnant with my sibling...

"....Katherine, you shouldn't work so hard if you already knew you are pregnant! You should've just contacted me instead, and I'll hire a midwife to take care of the chores."

"Well, I was waiting for you to come home so that I could surprise you! Besides, the food aren't cooking themselves, and Kyrielle helped me out with a lot of the chores..."

I didn't do much though. As a 2 year old, there's not much that I could've helped out with.

"Hmm... but tomorrow I will go out to hire a maid to take care of everything else at home. You definitely shouldn't be the one to do these!"

"There is no need for that. Ghyse has just about finished her internship with me and she needs money to jumpstart her own business, she wanted to take this job and help me out. She has experience with delivering Kyrielle, so she'll be a great midwife."

"I see... You already have everything planned out huh? There's really no place for a weak little husband like me...."

"Oh don't be sad! I'll still love you even if you are useless."

"Saying that doesn't help much at all..."

"Daddy is lame."

"Grk!..."

I can be pretty brutal with my words at times. This is the privilege of being a child, you can be completely honest and not get called out for being rude.

Before I know it, I am about to become a big sister... It's a great news for me, because I was the younger sibling in the past. Now, I can finally enjoy bullying a little sibling!

I was joking, I just wanted a little sibling who can grow up and spend time with me. Perhaps we might even become best friends?

(Chapter end)