Chapter 3: Voice

Eleanor took Brielle to the bathroom to clean her up. They came back a few minutes later to the living room.

"What do you think, honey? I'm sorry that this is the only thing we have for girls. I wore this when I worked at the bar in the town."

Brielle wore a maid outfit the same as those outfits from maid cafés.

She blushed and straightened out the dress.

I don't know what it is but I find the way she was dressed very cute.

"Oho~ Look at Brielle~ So adorable."

Father clapped his hands making Brielle blush.

"Can you go make food without me, George? I have to feed our little Clyde."

"Oh. No problem. Save a bit for me too. Ehehehe."

"Just go."

My mother chased father out of the room and picked me up.

Brielle was gazing at us while she sat on the couch.

"If we can't find a suitable home for you then you will have to stay here for the time being. How does that sound?"

Mother casually spoke with Brielle. She lifted her sweater and took out one of her humongous breasts.

I greedily grabbed it and put it in my mouth.

"O-Oh, my. Slowly, Clyde."

I saw Brielle in the corner of my eye touching her chest while looking at me.

"Is something wrong, sweetheart? Does your chest hurt?"

"N-No. Why is he sucking on madam's chest?"

"Oh, this? It's a type of bonding for mother and child. I'm also feeding him. Look at how cute he is sucking on his mother's milk."

'... please let me drink in peace...'

I grumbled inwardly.

"Do you want to feel?"

Mother took out her other breast.

"S-So big... and plump.."

Brielle's small hands could barely lift mother's giant boob.

"Haha. They are filled with milk given their huge size. They shrink whenever Clyde drinks on my milk. However, they're this large the very next day again."

Brielle gulped.

"W-Will I also have breasts as big as these?"

"Hmm... it has to do with eating healthy foods that makes you grow. So maybe?"

A bit of milk oozed from mother's other breast.

"Ah, it's leaking."

She wiped it off with a napkin.

"That's better."

She put it away. Brielle looked at me drinking on mother's milk.

"Will I have to feed him too with my breasts if ma'am isn't around?"

Mother spat out a bit of saliva out of surprise and laughed.

"Heavens no. You're still a child yourself, darling. And besides to produce milk you have to give birth first."

"Is that when a man and a woman sleep in bed together and do the deed?"

"Where have you heard of such things? But yes."

"So Clyde is a boy and I'm a girl. If we do it then I can make breast milk too?"

Mother face palmed herself.

"Goodness, where has this child heard of such things..."

Mother instructed Brielle to go make a bed. We don't have many mattresses so she had to sleep in my room.

..

In my room on my bed, Brielle looked up at the ceiling. I just silently gazed at her.

She then turned to me and pinched my cheeks.

"Such a good boy~ whose a good boy~"

I'm not a dog, miss.

She picked me while I kept silently looking at her.

"You're so cuuute~ Look at your small feet. Kyahaha~!"

I sighed inwardly at the brat that kept bothering me.

I had to play with her for 30 minutes before she fell asleep that night.

◇◇◇

Brielle began taking lessons from our village chief's residence. Seeing as how she could help mother around the house, she had to learn duties of a maid. The village chief has about four girls in service in her house. Brielle could learn a lot from them as they could show her the ropes about being a maid.

It wasn't that my mother told her to do the duties in the house, she herself said she had to earn her keep since she's staying with us. It seemed she was from a very strict family.

I've been busy training my magic. I've been noticing the presence inside myself getting bigger by each month. It's like something was growing.

That second core is still a mystery to me. I was doing my best to find out what it was.

A carriage often comes to our village to seek out any children aged 12 and older capable of magic. They are sent from the mage tower to find talent in the rural villages.

Is the mage tower taking a different approach than the academy? They take village kids regardless of their status. As long as they can cast magic, they are welcomed in the tower. The academy has a lot of nobles so I guess the commoners aren't treated very well by them.

The court mages always bring a crystal ball to measure the child's aptitude. It would usually show the kind of grade their mana is at already. There were a lot of ones and twos. They are given badges which state their mana rankings. I even saw some older children with rankings 3 and 4.

I wasn't sure how far I was. I usually rank myself by the type of spells I can cast. There was also an old book that had a table of contents. It might not be accurate since it was from 200 years ago.

The contents were as follows:

Elementary ranking spells–One and two.

Intermediate ranking spells–three and four.

High ranking spells–five

Upper High ranking spells–six, seven, eight.

God-rank magic–Ninth grade.

There have been no records so far of anyone possessing mana equalling seventh and eight besides the members of the White Order. Not to mention ninth. No one other than the Great Mage of the past who they call the Sage, has achieved mana of that ranking.

They used to rank mana by their colours but stopped after it was tested to not be accurate according to the descriptions.

It took me three years to reach Intermediate magic. Considering the fact that I'm still a toddler, this growth is abnormal.

I reached a bottleneck in my self-training though. The descriptions, runes and even drawing the magic circles were becoming more difficult. I needed magic book's knowledge far better than the current one I possessed.

"Hm? Is something the matter little Clyde?"

My mother picked me up with a gentle smile.

"Book..."

I held it out to her.

"Ah, is it too difficult to read the paper? I did buy this back in my teenage years after all..."

She then fell into contemplation.

"Maybe I should buy you a new one? I sense magic power inside my baby so maybe that will be helpful in the future."

I froze when I heard her.

'She can tell I have the aptitude for magic...?'

Is it because she's my mother that she can tell? There's nothing in the scripts that tell me of mages being able to sense another's mana. Well, unless you release your mana yourself.

'Ah, shit...'

So that was why. My mana was leaking throughout my pores without my knowledge. It has nothing to do with her being my mother. It's just that my body isn't adapted to holding mana inside itself. It's the same as babies not being able to control their excretion.

'Another downside of being reborn as a baby.'

So she knew all along. My father isn't a mage so he wouldn't be able to tell.

I frowned.

"Why is my little Clyde looking at me like that~? I'll buy you the book so don't worry~ mommy will be sad if her baby hates her~"

'You're misunderstanding something..'

All the sneaking around I've been doing was useless. It seemed to be normal for babies to leak mana through their bodies since their bodies aren't accustomed to keeping the mana inside their cores.

I had to find a way to control this body's wastefulness of mana. This was why so many children of the academy had such little pools of mana. They never learned to control their usage when they were younger.

No wonder I feel so lethargic after casting about ten Intermediate spells. Since my mana pool was large, I assumed I'd be able to hold out longer.

My mana grew significantly after I turned four years old. I was able to learn something called chantless magic which meant all I had to do was infuse mana into my magic circles and chant the spell inside my head.

That's as far as I got before my progress stalled. I didn't understand magic completely just from reading books. This world is foreign to me so I need to be taught by someone.

'I need someone who can guide me. Someone experienced...'

My talent in magic is useless if I can't make it bloom early on. Seeing as how I'm of common birth, hiring a tutor would be expensive.

I heard that the best teachers cost hundreds of gold coins. How much money would a thousand gold be worth on Earth? Do people just have that kind of money lying around?

'Man, why did I have to be born as a commoner?'

My name is Clyde Astley of the fallen Astley household. My father's parents were the last of the family to have the name Astley to fall from status.

I never met my grandparents before. Usually, they'd come visit during their grandchild's birth right?

I only read the diaries my mother wrote during her younger years so I know very little. She mostly ranted about wanting a better life for herself. She met prince charming, aka George Astley, their territory's young master who courted too many village girls.

He was the son of a noble family. He had six older siblings so he had the lowest standing in the household.

The two of them occasionally went out to meet each other in secret. A noble with a commoner wouldn't look good in front of others.

Anyway, the two of them left home when they were both 15 years old.

I read in Eleanor's diary how they had their first child when she was 18 but what happened to it? The pages that came after the mention of that baby were torn out. Maybe they didn't want to let anyone know they abandoned a child...

If I calculate... father is twenty-six and mother is twenty-seven. That would mean they had their first child nine years ago. So my sibling would be nine by now...

'Do I really have an older sibling out there?'

If so, where? Maybe I should ask them in the future.

**

I was finally able to leave the village today. Mother and I went to the town called Lapel. It's a fairly large town located in the outskirts of the kingdom.

The carriage ride was safe since no bandits attacked us. I had this thought that villages are more prone to attacks from bandits than a city but it seemed father was doing a good job as our fief lord's knight.

Our fief lord's name is Mason Bentinck. He is an earl who has employed father for over ten years ever since they came to this village. I heard that he was also the one who build our house. No wonder our house looked better in comparison to others.

Only the village chief's residence was far larger and more modern, at least to this world's standards.

Anyway, I heard my father saved Lord Mason when they were on their way to their newly bought territory. He saved Lord Mason's entire family from a horde of monsters. My father is a knight with higher than average skills compared to others.

If I were to rank him then he'd be an A rank adventurer. My old man is pretty strong.

When we arrived at the town, I checked out everything there was to offer of this world. There were many different races in this world like Demihumans, elves, humans, dryads and even demons.

There are still four demon lords remaining in this world. But they are neutral towards society unlike their predecessors who killed for no reason.

I wonder why they stopped seeing humans as their enemies. Could that mean there's a higher power that's threatening them?

Anyway, Demihumans have received more equal rights compared to in the past. They are spreading their influence from the Beast Dominion into the human nations. There has also been protests to stop demihuman slavery. This world is truly the same as Earth's history when blacks were discriminated against.

I began sucking the popsicle my mother bought me. I wasn't sure if it really was a popsicle but it looked like one.

It's a fairly new product from a merchant firm that opened up a few months ago. I've eaten five on my own so far.

Since the town is fairly large, we booked a coachman to ride us around town. It was a little similar to taxi's.

"Hm?"

I saw something strange in the town. A crowd of people were standing around the front gate.

"What's going on?"

I saw smoke coming from multiple directions. Buildings were even burned down and bodies were strewn across the ground.

-----!!!

A yell suddenly caused me to look towards the town gate. I infused mana into my eyes and saw the source.

A man was violently shaking the gate to make them open it up.

More people followed behind and did the same. The guard seemed to be confused and froze.

"What is this? Mister coachman, please back up." My mother held me tighter.

"Y-Yes."

---!!!

The neighing of a horse caught my attention.

I saw a cavalryman of the Royal Army ride his horse towards the people by the gate. A large platoon of knights came out of the forest and blocked our path of escape. We had no choice but to get down after they drew their swords.

"YOU DARE COMMIT TREASON!?"

He swung his sword once and cut off the head of two people.

"...Huh?"

I didn't realize I dropped the popsicle on the open page of my book.

My mind was filled with confusion.

Why did he say they committed treason?

With haste in my steps, I climbed down the carriage and ran towards the crowd of people. My mother followed close from behind to stop me. I had to see what was going on.

More cavalrymen came with the first one and lined up in front of the gate.

One person stepped forward after climbing off his horse.

He was a handsome man with blonde hair and a tall built. He didn't look a day over 20.

Everyone who heard the commotion came to the front gate. We entered through a different one so we couldn't tell what the chaos was about.

"I have received word that a certain noble family has deserted the nation to side with the Republic. The Vitian household's head, Cleve has gathered the surrounding villagers to fight for his selfish cause. These monkeys are trying to flee to this town after their failed attempt. We have received word that there were many other villages joining him as well."

He looked at everyone present.

"Are any of you intending to join him because of your disapproval of the new tax rolled out by the royal court?"

Everyone shook their heads.

He nodded with a smile and took out his spear. Its blade released an ominous white aura.

"Bring the fools who ran away."

The people who ran to the gate were thrown onto the ground. There were six in total.

"Hold their heads."

The knights nodded and held all the people's heads.

I wanted to scream for them to stop but I couldn't. That was the first time I saw people being killed right in front of my eyes. When mother arrived, she hurriedly closed my eyes. But I could still see through the gaps of her fingers.

"Please...!"

"W-We were forced–"

In one clean arc, he severed all their heads. A white trail was left behind after his swing before vanishing.

People started screaming in fear as more of them got suspected.

Magic warrior.

They are people who use aura to strengthen their bodies. Aura is a form of mana with a different structure. My father is also an aura user but his wasn't as violent and strong as the man wielding the spear.

The man swung his spear again.

Thwack

Another head was sent flying.

"We were ordered to exterminate anyone who dares to go against the Kingdom's Law. A resident must never disobey the rules of the land they live on. Some of you have broken that rule and attempted to flee with the Count. This is similar to treason. Which is why we must eliminate anyone involved. I, Clark, the captain of the Knight Order will personally deliver your judgement. Bring them all forward. Look at those bodies " He pointed to the headless corpses, "This will be an example to all the traitors hidden among you."

All the knights grabbed the people and shoved them towards a mage wearing a wizard's hat and robe.

"Gared will use [Lie detection]. If any of you try to lie then I will send your head flying."

The wizard nodded and began chanting a spell.

People were lined up in a long row. I heard multiple screams echo from inside the town.

Speaking of the town...

'Why is no one outside?'

It was strange how all of the people suddenly vanished when the knights of the Royal army showed up. Only those who were too late to run were present. Could it mean that there were some who worked with this traitor they mentioned?

"What was your reason for arriving in a carriage?"

My mother was up next.

"Um, I wanted to buy some essentials for our house. I also came to look for books for my child."

"Books for a three year old kid?"

"He's four."

The wizard laughed with amusement.

He placed his hand above mother's head to confirm it.

–"Leave him alone! He wasn't involved!"

I heard a voice.

It was a voice that seemed to scream at someone. A female voice.

'Huh?'

No one else seemed to hear the voice.

"Mom! Dad!"

There was also the sound of a boy screaming for his parents.

"...?"

I left mother and began looking for the voice. Since I was a toddler, no one cared where I walked.

My mother also seemed to be unaware that I left since she was busy talking with the wizard.

I quickly ran towards that voice seeking help.