Fate: Wakame Tensei – The Reincarnation of a Failed Magus

[Krak-Quinn]

Matou Shinji had trouble remembering what had happened.

Ever since Sakura Matou relinquished control of the Rider Class Servant to him and he had entered the Holy Grail War, everything blurred together. It was a maelstrom-like rollercoaster of events.

Emiya Shirou, a boy he once thought of as a friend, had turned against him and threatened to kill him without remorse.

Tohsaka Rin, a girl who shared his fate of being born into a Magus lineage, had shown her true colors and attempted to kill him while looking down on him.

Illyasviel von Einzbern, Kotomine Kirei, and all the Servants, everyone involved acted as if he was a background piece in a play.

It infuriated him.

Shinji should have been special. He was a Matou, his family was special, and yet he wasn't.

He was defective.

A failure of a Magus, unable to even channel Magical Energy through his body.

Even as a failure, he still studied the books about Magecraft in his family's library endlessly.

And it all amounted to nothing.

Any sort of alchemical concoction he made would be subpar to an over the counter drug.

The only time his knowledge had any effect on the world was when he was made to draw the Servant summoning circle for his adoptive sister.

Even his final moments were a blur. His emotions and thoughts were lost on him, and he could only recall that he had been near Emiya Shirou and Tohsaka Rin when he had died.

---

An unfamiliar warmth was flowing through his blood.

Had he been poisoned? It would explain why his mind and body felt weak and unstable.

He struggled to even open his eyes, and when he did a bright light blinded him.

Blinking rapidly didn't help much, but it didn't take long for his eyesight to adjust a bit.

With blurry vision, he saw blonde hair.

"Aa!" He wanted to scream and jump back, but he couldn't move, his body was unresponsive.

And as his vision cleared up, he was relieved to find that it wasn't Emiya's Saber staring down at him.

"Waa?" He wanted to ask the lady looking down at him what had happened, but his lips, teeth and tongue were still sluggish.

'Well, I don't expect a random lady to know exactly what was happening, but maybe she saw something of note.'

"Xxxxxx, xx'x x xxx." A man spoke up in a foreign language, and then bent over above him.

'What language is that? Even if I'm not fluent in them, I'm still familiar enough with most widely used languages.'

"Xxx xxxxx."

'Seriously, if you're speaking to an injured person, you should have enough awareness to speak in their native language.'

He attempted to sit up, it had become clear to him that these foreigners wouldn't be any help in his current state. However his body still wouldn't obey him.

The responses and feedback he was receiving from his nerves were somehow wrong.

Either he had been horribly deformed, or he was suffering from a serious head injury.

"Wa—wa!" Again he tried to ask what was happening, if he could just hear his own voice, he'd be able to relax. "Wa…"

Further attempts to communicate ended when his eyes had adjusted enough that he could see the entire room with clarity.

He was in a room with walls, and a roof, made from wood.

"Xxxx, xxx xx." A female voice also spoke up, and then a redhead reached her hands below his range of vision.

"Ah!" He involuntarily let out a yelp as his body was lifted up.

"Xxxxxx, xxxxx xxxxx." The redhead had a gentle tone as she gently cradled him in her arms.

Although he couldn't understand her words, he could comprehend her intentions.

She was trying to calm him down.

A reflexive urge to defy this stranger died the moment it was born.

Surrounded by warmth, something in his brain began to shut down.

…

…

'What's happening? Did that Einzbern brat do something to me?'

No matter how much he tried, he couldn't recall the last concrete moment of his life.

Anyhow, he was now an infant.

He had fits of falling asleep and then waking up with yelp as he recalled his close encounters with death.

'Damn, damn! What happened? I was so close to winning! How did this happen to me?'

Whenever he was woken up by his fear or rage caused by a nightmare of the War, the redheaded woman in a maid dress would be nearby and ready to lull him back to sleep.

The blonde haired woman and brown haired man would occasionally stop by when he was awake and coo towards him.

'Stop looking at me like that! I'm not a baby!'

"Awa uaha!" His weak arms and legs would flail whenever he struggled to speak.

Regardless of how hard he tried, his infant body was incapable of speech.

And anything that he did just resulted in him tiring out his body to the point of passing out.

Eventually, his inability to speak and move, combined with his growing humiliation of breastfeeding and soiling himself, led him to silently crying at night.

The redhead maid was always there, and she always noticed. She would gently lift him up and then whisper what was probably a lullaby song until he calmed down or fainted.

His fits only further fueled his humiliation.

'It's because my brain is that of an infant's. That's why I'm not behaving like I normally would.'

…

…

Something was wrong.

He had woken up in the middle of the night with pain in his chest, his lungs and heart were aching.

His blood felt thick and hot, like magma, in his veins and brain.

Against his will, he began crying intensely.

The maid placed a freezing hand against his burning hot forehead, and then she ran out the room.

'N-no, d-don't leave me.'

For some reason, being left alone made his pain nearly double.

The blonde woman bursted into the room, the brown haired man was a step behind, and the maid followed right after.

"Xxxx!" The blonde shouted, and she placed her hand on his forehead, closed her eyes and then she began speaking in a measured tone. "Xxx xxx xxxxx xx xxx xx xxxxxxxxx xxxx x xxxxxxxxx xxxx, xxx xxxxxxxx xxxx xxxxx xxx xxxx xxxx xxx xxxxxxxx xx xxxxx xxxx xxxx, XXXXXXX!"

A green glow was emitted from her palm, and a wave of energy traversed throughout his body.

'—'

He couldn't form thoughts, a wave of indescribable pain exploded from deep within his soul, and then he blacked out.

…

…

When he next awoke, he noticed a few things.

For one, he had been moved to the room of the couple, and they seemed to have lost a portion of their initial excitement of giving birth. They were acting a tad more seriously when they interacted with him.

He would've preferred to be left alone with the maid. She didn't look at him with a clouded gaze, and she didn't pointlessly degrade herself with silly faces.

Anyway, none of that was actually important. He could've been left with a pack of wolves for all he cared for his living quarters.

After being woken up from pain, and then seemingly being healed, he had been made aware of something within his body.

It had actually been something he had first noticed and then dismissed as poison.

Something warm was flowing alongside his blood.

It was some sort of magical power.

He had ignored it, and as a result it had accumulated inside his body, until it was on the verge of bursting out.

And that wasn't all. When he was healed, it did more than simply helping his body, it reached down to his soul and corrected a defect.

In other words, his Magical Circuits were repaired and the overflowing energy was redirected into them which forced them open.

He had felt them bursting open and tearing under the pressure, but he must've been healed again, because they were fixed when he woke up again.

'I… My… Hahaha! Finally! I have them, I have them! Proof of my power! With these I'll finally…. finally…'

Like a truck, or a sword made from a pillar, or an arrow which shredded space, the realization tore apart his lifelong dream.

He wasn't a Matou anymore. He didn't have his family lineage to uphold. He had died and couldn't surpass Sakura, couldn't prove his father wrong, couldn't demonstrate to his grandfather why he deserved to be the successor.

He had been reborn.

And unless he was mistaken, the signs pointed towards it being in a parallel world.

Reincarnated.

He had been given a new life. One free from everything his old life had been chained to.

'No wait, the blonde had used magecraft, and I'm pretty sure she's my mother. So I suppose it's hereditary here too, then I guess I'll strive to be the best and not be replaced in this life.'

A second chance.

One where he wouldn't repeat the mistakes of his old life.

He'd become a true and proper Magus.

 

[Krak-Quinn]

Around a year had passed since he had been reborn.

He had gotten the hang of the foreign language early on and was able to learn a few things.

Rudeus Greyrat was his new name, his mother was Zenith, his father was Paul. And the redheaded maid was named Lilia.

They would also mention a few terms that he had no frame of reference for, a clear indication that he was truly no longer in his world.

A useless and annoying bit of information he picked up, was that his new parents were going at it like rabbits almost every night. The occasional shout or scream would wake him up, and then Lilia would sway him back to sleep.

Their talk about Magecraft was extremely limited, and aside from a casual mention they hardly ever brought it up.

On the topic of Magecraft, it may have just been his inexperience, but he couldn't get a single spell he remembered to work.

In his last life, he had spent most of his true free time reading and rereading every book in his family's library, and he had memorized most of them, however, not a single spell worked.

He had considered that his baby body and mind were hindering him, but that didn't mean he didn't consider other factors. He was in a parallel world, odds were that there wasn't a solid Greater Foundation in place, or maybe he just hadn't found it yet.

Even after he cycled through different schools of Magecraft, he still found nothing that worked. Of course, the reason he feared the most was that he was just a failure and could never cast a spell.

Regardless, he didn't let that keep him down; he had magical power flowing through his body, he just had to learn how to use it.

It seemed to him that the Mages here were different from the Magi back home. However, this observation was based on his interpretation of books back home and his body in his new life.

Mana, in his old life, was a magical energy that was as abundant as air. It was the lifeforce of the planet. But here in this world, he couldn't feel anything special in the atmosphere.

And although reluctant, he decided to call the magical power flowing through his blood: Mana.

It would make internal calculations easier if he didn't have to completely rewrite that concept, he could simply snip out the part where it originated outside the body.

Od, his own lifeforce, drawn out from his soul by his Magic Circuits. It didn't seem to differ at all from what he had read about.

Magical Energy, the mix of Mana and Od, the true fuel for spells, was a bit more difficult to form than he imagined.

In most of the books he read, it had been as simple as funneling both of the components into a circuit and letting it do the rest. However, for now he accepted that he was simply unfamiliar with the process.

Magic Circuit, two words that had a place amongst his biggest concerns. It was because of his defective ones that he had been replaced in his own family.

But now he finally had his own working set. And he could now see exactly what had been wrong with them.

They were bundled up and stuck together. Intercepting. Blocking. Sewn shut.

The Matou family specialization was in Absorption and Binding, it was clear to him that these concepts were turned against itself.

The more he forced magical energy through them, the more they tore apart, but as a side effect of activating his Circuits, he would develop something that resembled a fever. Which was when his new mother would use her healing spell on him, which straightened and separated them.

'If only my previous mother hadn't been a complete failure.'

On the mention of his old mother, she had been a Carrier of sorts, but in his last life the trait hadn't manifested. And since it was something that was passed down through blood, he would wager his new body wouldn't have it either.

The healing of his Magic Circuits was something akin to a miracle.

Especially since it allowed him to freely experiment with his limits.

Back to the topic of Magic Circuits themselves, he had about ten of them, and each of them could hold about the same amount as his body could handle.

On an external topic, he had done a light exploration of his new house by crawling about.

His current family weren't rich by modern standards, but considering they were unemployed, living in a two story house with a maid, and appeared to be settled on the outskirts of a medieval village, they were doing well enough.

His new mother was a mage, but it didn't seem like Greyrat was her original surname.

His new father would occasionally swing about a steel sword in his free time, he casually performed near peak human capabilities, so odds were he was some sort of mage as well. His wife had taken his name.

Lilia didn't seem to be a mage at all, but from what he gathered, she used to fight with a sword as well but an injury had permanently handicapped her.

Right now, his father was outside building up a sweat, his mother was cooking a stew, and Lilia was also outside and currently hanging up wet clothes to dry.

So he was unsupervised.

The back of his index finger was brought up to his teeth.

His teething had come and gone pretty quickly, his new mother would use her healing spell almost everyday when he cried a bit from the pain. So he had heard her chant pretty often.

And then he bit down, hard enough to break skin and draw blood.

"Emmphfff."

Pain threatened to make him instinctively cry out, but he forced it down and focused.

'Let this divine power be converted into a satisfying nourishment, and bestowed unto those who have lost the strength to stand once more, Healing!'

The stored up Magical Energy in a Magic Circuit swirled and twisted within himself. He felt his brain buzz as a warmth permeated through his body and wash away the pain.

The bite mark on his finger was gone.

He had finally done it.

He had truly and actually casted a spell.

Warm tears rolled down his cheeks, but he shook off the giddy feeling and shifted his focus.

He bit into his finger again, and once more he casted Healing on himself, he did this about four more times, and each time he patiently analyzed the exact process that was taking place.

After observing and gaining a better understanding of what was happening, he moved on to his second test.

His new father didn't seem to chant anything before he started swinging his sword, so there wasn't much he could replicate.

However, he clearly inherited his mother's ability to cast a Healing Spell, or it was likely he could copy his father too.

There was one spell he thought he might be able to use, even in this world. He hadn't attempted it before our of fear of permanently injuring or killing himself.

Reinforcement, a standard application of Magical Energy. The spell would fill in the gaps in an object and enhance its properties. However, it was a delicate procedure, one where the user should know where the gaps are and how much they can handle, or else the object might break.

He hadn't managed to get Structural Analysis to work, which was a large part in understanding the object before pouring Magical Energy into it.

There was a chance Reinforcement itself might not even work, however, it wasn't truly a spell, it was simply infusing Magical Energy into an object.

Instead of risking breaking an object, which would probably be noticed, now that he could heal his own body, he was ready to take his chances on it.

Since there wasn't a chant, he closed his eyes and pictured the Magical Energy moving as if he was casting Healing once more.

The phantom sensation played out on loop as he attempted to etch the initial build up into his mind.

The principals shouldn't be that far apart. Healing the body, and Strengthening the body, were simply a step away. An advancement from repairing, to enhancing.

He felt some Magical Energy being drained and flowing into his finger.

Once more he placed his finger between his teeth and bit down hard. He couldn't break through his skin.

Before the sensation could fade away, he replayed the sensation and forced the flow into his fist, and once more into his arm, and then into his entire body.

And then once he firmly remembered how to cast Reinforcement, he finally let himself go to his excitement and bliss.

…

…

Another year had passed since his birth.

His new family were alright, though most of the time his new parents were a little irritating.

Lilia was still the best out of the bunch, when she read him bedtime stories she would speak in a clear and concise tone. Unlike the young couple who wanted to mess around most of the time.

He also wasn't a fan of being tossed in the air and caught, or being treated like a baby in general.

So whenever he had actual free time, he would stay near Lilia.

As for his free time, that could be divided into two categories: practicing Magecraft and practicing Magical Energy manipulation.

He had gotten the hang of Healing and Reinforcement, he even etched them into a Magic Circuit for quick-casting.

He had even managed to set up a Healing to go off if he suddenly lost consciousness, it came in handy when he had miscalculated a Reinforcement and blacked out from the pain.

Attempts to use Reinforcement on objects not himself, proved difficult. He had found loose debris to test on, and he broke the first two dozen pieces, he eventually managed to not break them but he couldn't do much else.

As a two year old, he found himself with a lot less supervision, but he had just about reached a wall in his craft, so he shifted his focus elsewhere.

Exploring his home some more, he began truly bemoaning the fact that he didn't have a personal library anymore when he found a guide book on magic sitting in a chest and collecting dust.

 

[Krak-Quinn]

It was hard to grasp at first, so he spent an entire month reading and rereading the entire book every day.

His new parents and Lilia would occasionally read him a bedtime story, and show him the accompanying illustrations, so he took the chance to piece together the spoken words and written words.

Basically, he had no trouble reading the words of the 'Guide to Magic' book, but the concepts weren't meshing well in his mind at all.

Something was very wrong, or at least this world didn't abide by the same basic principles his old world had, and it was pretty baffling.

A simple incantation or array was all that was needed to cast magic. Of course Mana was still needed to fuel it, but aside from those components, any person could cast a simple spell.

Mana Capacity was determined at birth and inherited from parents, the literature made no reference to Magic Circuits or Magic Crests.

Magic was divided into four categories: Attack, Healing, Summoning, and Extra. There was no mention of different schools or types.

There weren't even mentions of Elemental Affinities, Sorcery Attributes, or even Origins. In fact, the Root itself wasn't mentioned in the slightest.

He might have chalked it up to the fact that the book was only teaching the basics, but those were the fundamentals for every bit of Magecraft back home.

And this book spoke only of magic, but not Magic. As in it didn't speak of Miracles. There was no difference in the class of magic, aside from how it was ranked.

It was honestly mind boggling to him.

He had read the chant off a page, and manifested a ball of water.

He had just read a few words and did magic.

For around ten years of his previous life, he had spent countless hours scouring tome after tome, desperately searching for a way to use Magecraft.

He had even planned on traveling to London when he was an adult and searching for a Magus willing to transplant even one Magic Circuit in him. He could very well die from a rejection if it didn't take, but he was desperate.

As a child, he dreamt of waving a wand and controlling nature to his whims. That dream died long ago, because he learnt of his reality.

A simple chant, and water manifested.

There was no need to study or decipher anything, no need to carefully manipulate Magical Energy into a specific format.

A simple chant, and water manifested.

He didn't hypnotize himself, or sacrifice anything. It hadn't been something special he inherited, he just voiced a few words, and magic did the rest.

And to further demonstrate the ease at which magic could be done, he only needed to memorize the feeling of his Mana activating the spell, and then he no longer required the chant.

He stared at his hand, above the tip of each finger was a small manifestation of an element.

Fire. Wind. Earth. Water. Ice.

And a simple application of magical manipulation when conjuring the elements could change their nature.

Plasma. Gasses. Metals. Liquids.

All this power at the tip of his fingers. And all he did was recite a chant written down in a book.

He wanted to vomit.

It was a sick perversion of everything he knew. All his turmoil in his previous life was caused by his inability to cast spells.

He had wondered, fantasized, about what his life would have been like if he had working Magical Circuits from birth.

The question of his succession wouldn't have been born, he wouldn't have a little sister, and he would've spent his days reading and rereading the tomes in his family library.

His father probably wouldn't have been drinking all the time and would've taught him.

He would've probably married Tohsaka, their child would've been magnificent. It would have had his smarts and her natural talent.

His grandfather probably would've actually looked at him instead of dismissing his presence.

He dismissed the magic and covered his mouth. A sense of disgust was building in his gut.

Shirou Emiya, that boy was different; he was truly honest to his core. Emiya was a nice person, an idiotically nice person, but the effortless way he could fire an arrow into the bullseye was sickening.

In his past life, Shinji Matou studied and trained to be excellent, although some would call it talent, he found that insulting. Unfortunately, he wasn't born special, so he tried to become special.

Dedication and hardwork, those were how he developed his talents. Unlike his peers, he didn't slack off or mess around, and that was how he crafted his social and academic position to be near the top.

A Magus needed to be excellent in everything they did. And as a child, he thought the inverse might become true, if he worked hard enough, if he was excellent in everything, then maybe he could become a Magus.

Effort, it was something he understood, it was something he was practically submerged in.

So, when Emiya joined the Archery Club, picked up a bow for the first time, and shot a perfect bullseye, Shinji Matou started to despise him.

It had felt like his own existence, effort and everything, had just been undermined.

After that event he had spent countless attempts to hit a perfect bullseye, and he hadn't managed it before his fingers became slick with blood.

For weeks he trained and trained, and although his efforts paid off, he could hit the bullseye eight out of ten times, Emiya hadn't missed once.

It reached a point where just seeing the boy he once considered a friend would fill his entire being with rage. Of course, it hadn't been long since he learned the truth of Sakura Matou's purpose, so his mood was already in tatters.

Shinji had eventually nitpicked a visible mark on Emiya's shoulder as unsightly and forced him to quit the club, but that did nothing to erase the tension between them.

All in all, effort had been his way of life. And never once had he dreamt of achieving power without it.

With the ease at which people could use magic, it made sense why his parents weren't important. This world probably didn't even have proper magical lineages.

'This false power is meaningless. Anyone with Mana could become a mage, but I'll show this world what it means to be Magus, and I'll show them true power.'

He didn't want to be lumped together in the same category as a simple Mage, he wouldn't be satisfied with that.

And so he decided that the magic of this world was no different from Mana, it was just a tool to further the development of his own Magecraft.

'Rejoice, Zenith and Paul; your child will carve his name deep into this world.'

…

…

…

It has been three years since Shinji Matou was reborn as Rudeus Greyrat.

And for the past year, he had been doing his best to analyze the Mysteries behind this world's magical logic.

Attempts to uncover the meaning behind the spell-chants had bore no fruits, and extensive testing of words and phrases and yet to yield an original chant.

Although he had not given up entirely, for now he decided that the incantations were similar to a command, and he had yet to find the necessary system to add a new one.

And so he moved on to discovering the limits of this world's magic.

So far, it seemed to only be limited to what he could feasibly imagine. If he was personally familiar with it, or if he had a vivid memory of its atomic or chemical makeup, then he could manifest it.

Aside from the initial transaction of Magical Energy to create the matter, there was no other price or cost. And he also had to repay that cost when disassembling that matter.

Another limit he uncovered was that foreign magical matter could not exist here.

The Matou study had also been home to magical experiments and test tubes holding various specimens.

He had observed them often enough as a possible means of obtaining Magecraft, that didn't pan out, regardless he memorized the compositions.

And those magical existences couldn't be formed in this world. For now he was hypothesizing that he couldn't create matter that didn't already exist in some form in this world.

Furthermore, he had tried to delve into the realm of imagination to conjure, however he couldn't manifest anything special, except for Crystallized Mana.

It wasn't as big of a discovery as he first assumed, primarily because his body was already in the process of solidifying Mana.

Perhaps it was due to his nature as Magus, but his body was slowly but surely containing Mana. His body in its entirety was accumulating Mana.

From the tips of his toenails to the ends of his hair, Mana was being stored inside his body. He had drawn a simple magic array and when a drop of his blood fell upon it, it activated.

Therefore, his body was basically solid Mana already, there was no need for Crystallized Mana.

Regardless he didn't dismiss further testing with it, as it was less inconspicuous than using bits of his body. He didn't want to risk being hauled off and treated as a living battery farm.

So far, the only unique use he found was transforming it into a powdered form and casting a wide area spell without travel time.

On a more technical aspect of manifesting elements, he had practiced controlling light to form illusions.

Also, he had learned that he could activate his spells with pure Mana, however the cost was almost triple of his Magical Energy's cost.

And whenever he attempted to manipulate his Mana and Magical Energy in its pure form, without using a spell, he learned that it couldn't exist outside his person.

As in, once it exited the confines of his flesh it dissipated extremely fast. Unless, it was fired out as a projectile.

He tested nearly everything he could think of, but he was simply incapable of maintaining control of raw magic power when it was outside his skin.

However, he did observe the unnatural fluctuations of it as it failed to remain stable, and he determined that there was an unobservable factor at play.

He had managed to replicate the fluctuations against a spell in activation, and reached similar results of destabilizing the magic.

If he had to describe it, he would say it was sort of an anti-wave that collided with the formula and disturbed the construction of a spell.

This observation produced a huge leap forward in his understanding of the spell formulas in general.

It was remarkably easy to manifest elements, however controlling them afterwards took some work, that was until he began dismantling the construction of spells.

By sending opposing components of the spell against itself, he was able to reverse-engineer the entire construction of the spell itself.

Then he was able to pinpoint exactly how spells operated.

Although manifesting elements was easy, to properly use it he had to precisely alter it in his desired way. And every alteration was another step, another line.

Use (set amount) of Magical Energy, conjure (enter composition), and (enter parameters).

The last step was repeated many times over to achieve the exact intended outcome.

But once he had what was basically a diagram of the spells blueprints, he just needed to etch an imaginary ten-by-ten grid with ternary squares for the parameters onto his Magic Circuits, and he could instantly achieve any outcome he had memorized.

After he was done etching down the conjuration parameters, he then began testing out different aiming trajectory parameters along with firing parameters.

Before he could create an automatic version, he needed to work out the kinks of the manual one. He had the basic scope down, however he needed to work on developing it on a proper scale.

His current version was working with a three dimensional trajectory axis, and reactive firing calculator.

There were no issues with using it with Water or Earth spells, however, only an instant after he conjured a Wind spell, he realized his mistake.

The reactive firing calculator wasn't calibrated to handle Wind yet.

It calculated the current mass to a near zero, and a wind resistance coefficient of a near hundred, what's more it failed to estimate a proper velocity or acceleration, therefore it inverted most variables which collapsed the intended spell.

The inversion jumbled the spell's construction, so even an immediate reflexive dismantling was ineffective.

The collapsed Wind spell imploded with a deafening loud sonic shatter as large wisps of dark purple exploded towards him.

Although he feared being sliced, the purple wave exerted a repulsive force against his arm and then his body.

The world blacked out for a moment, and when he opened his eyes, he was staring up at the sun in the open sky.

His nerves informed him that his wrist, shoulder and a few of his ribs were broken. And his eyes informed that his new father was currently cradling him.

"Kid! Are you okay!? What happened!?"

Paul's eyes anxiously shifted around, to the second story where the wall was blown out and to his son who had just been thrown out the room.

He needed a second for his brain to realize what had happened, he had been blown back by the failed spell and caught by his new father.

"M-messed up with magic." He mumbled with tears in his eyes.

He had yet to heal himself, his father was a skilled fighter, so he probably noticed his son's injuries. Nevertheless, after allowing the pain a few circulations, he applied a pain numbing spell to his wounds.

"Rudy!? Paul!?" Zenith shouted from the hole in the second story, then she leapt down, she only stumbled slightly before she ran up to them. "What happened!?" She echoed.

"Uh, he says he messed up some magic, but forget that right now, I think his arm is broken."

"Seriously!? Rudy, hang on okay, baby?" Zenith reached out and gently grabbed her son's broken arm, then she closed her eyes and began chanting.

With the connection of skin, and the application of a Healing spell, he was able to feel his new mother's Mana at play. The construction of her spell was pretty solid, however it was also mediocre at best.

Zenith's spell could probably be best described as a bandage, the blueprint was geared towards closing and sealing wounds, anything else was just a side effect.

Since he was the recipient, and his bone was definitely broken, he could tell that her spell wouldn't be enough. He didn't have long, she would finish her chant so he had to act fast.

He shot out subtle pulses of a slightly different outline against her spell, it was designed to shave off the excess and reinforce the intent.

Pain momentarily overwhelmed his numbing spell as his bones snapped back into place. "Mhfgh!" He bit his tongue to muffle a scream, however he continued into a whimper.

He could've erased all his pain or healed himself up, however, he was currently a child so he had to act as one.

In his previous life, he had found various reports of Dead Apostles and their failures in obtaining immortality in his library.

He had read multiple accounts of people attempting to reincarnate, however, the process would cripple certain aspects of their personality or abilities.

Regardless, most were discovered and executed as weakened children.

Therefore, ever since he accepted his life here, he's been playing the role of a child in almost every way.

 

[Krak-Quinn]

It would've been embarrassing if the current matters hadn't erased that concept from her mind.

Lilia slowly picked herself up from her spot in the grass and began taking measured steps towards the house.

While hanging out wet clothes to dry, she had heard something resembling a Sonic Boom, and then her employers shouted for their son.

Almost immediately, she broke into a run, however, her poisoned leg gave out after a single step. Her momentum threw her body towards the ground.

It was soft enough that she hadn't broken her nose, so there was that at least.

She would wager some people would have found her action either funny or confusing. Of course she knew she couldn't run, and she had never even attempted to do so in the three years since she was injured.

'Is Rudeus okay? I'm pretty sure Paul's family doesn't like him, but I doubt they would send an assassin after his child.'

If that child had been assassinated, she would probably be fired.

She had been fired from her previous job because she had let an assassin get close to the princess she was guarding.

Having lost her ability to fight competently, she had taken a job that only required her services as a caretaker.

Aside from watching their child, Paul and Zenith Greyrat didn't need her around.

And she doubted bringing up the past to Paul would have any effect on him if he had just lost a child.

'Maybe his pride would convince him that any danger should've been handled by himself. And hopefully, Zenith is so crippled from sorrow that she would require aid.'

As she began thinking of scenarios where she kept her job. Her mind wandered towards Rudeus Greyrat, the child she had been caring for since he was born three years ago.

Aside from occasionally being absolutely still and quiet, like he was sleeping while being awake, he was just an ordinary child. A bit on the fussy side perhaps, however he was quick to behave or be comforted.

It was rather amusing. When she was receiving midwife training, she had been told her demeanor would unsettle children.

Time and time again, she would be told her face and attitude would have to change. That children could intuitively assess the emotional state of their caretakers, and she needed to at least act as if she truly cared for them.

Still, she made up for her faults with her sword skills, so after losing that she was crippled in more that one sense of the word.

Nevertheless, she had managed to get a job, and it was one removed from the political playground.

Rudeus Greyrat didn't seem to dislike her detached nature. In fact he seemed uncomfortable being showered with the silly displays of love he received from his parents.

'… I would prefer that he be unharmed.'

For some reason, more than she feared losing her job, she feared him losing his life.

---

After healing her son, Zenith followed Paul as he carried their child up to the second floor, she was constantly asking her son if he felt okay.

Rudeus had mumbled that the pain was leaving, then he just sniffled a bit.

They eventually arrived at the storage room, where most everything was tossed around. Paul looked around the mess, and as he did that footsteps echoed behind.

Right after Lilia walked up to them, Paul handed off his son to her, and then started investigating what happened.

"Lilia, are you okay?" Zenith asked the maid.

"Forgive me, I tripped." Lilia's outfit and face was marked with dirt.

She went on to clarify that she heard a loud boom and their shouts, and had attempted to run, but her leg gave out after a single step.

"Is everything alright?" She ended with a question.

"Yeah." Paul called out while he was examining the broken wall. "It was just a broken bone or two."

"That's not alright, Paul!" Zenith disagreed with her husband. "Rudy, how are you feeling?" She asked once more.

"F-fine." Her son mumbled.

She could see his hands tightly clenching the fabric of the apron belonging to the maid holding him.

Something indescribable itched at her brain. "Do you want me to hold you?"

He shook his head. "N-no, the pain is gone now."

She hadn't asked if he wanted to be healed, but it was clear that was what he thought of when it came to being held by his mother.

Zenith felt her hands twitch. She wanted to hold her son, the boy she gave birth to. However, whenever she held him, he would throw fit and struggle to escape her arms.

From birth, Rudeus was fussy except when he was held by the maid.

His first word had been the maid's name, and then the names of his mom and dad. His first steps had occurred under the maid's watch. He was constantly requesting the maid to be the one reading to him at night.

"Ma'am, is something wrong?" The maid asked, having noticed her employer had entered a trance of sorts.

"Huh? Oh, no, sorry. Everything's fine, I'm just worried if there were hidden wounds I hadn't healed."

Her Healing Magic was intermediate ranked, so she knew she wasn't all powerful. It wasn't uncommon for an adventurer to succumb to internal bleeding even after being healed.

Of course, that had never happened to any of her patients. But that didn't erase the risk, especially not when panic for her son's well being had flooded her mind.

However, he seemed to be doing fine. And unless she was mistaken, she could've sworn her spell had changed mid-cast.

Although she had a talent, she had hit a wall while adventuring in her development, and so she stopped attempting to advance. And instead she focused on refining her fundamentals.

When healing her son, it had seemed like her spell had evolved while she was casting it. She had been too focused on the feeling of her Mana at the moment, but she was certain she had glimpsed the next step in her development.

Zenith looked away from the boy being carried by the maid.

Her Healing Magic, if she didn't focus on the sensation of the spell she had just casted, she was certain that it wouldn't ever advance.

---

It was rather bizarre, the logical side of Paul's brain needed a moment to catch up to his instinctual side.

One moment he had been maintaining his sword skills, when a variant of a Wind Magic explosion shattered the peaceful atmosphere.

He had felt his energy surge through his body, he was prepared to rush and swoosh.

And in the next moment he had leapt across the yard and caught his falling son.

His brain couldn't comprehend what type of magic beast could have snuck into the house and attacked his son, especially not one that had gone undetected yet possessed this kind of explosive power.

As a mage appeared on the second floor, he almost felt ready to fight her. However, his logical side reminded him that Zenith wasn't any good with Wind Magic.

If she had attacked, she probably would've used Fire or Water Magic.

And then he kicked the entire line of thinking out of his mind. His nerves had just been crossed in confusion, there was no possible way his wife would ever harm their son.

After Zenith healed up a broken arm, Paul led them inside and to the second floor. He handed Rudeus off to Lilia as she appeared, and then began investigating the scene.

He didn't find any traces of magic beasts, or anything really that could explain what had happened.

He felt his gaze shift over to his wife, she appeared unbothered and focusing on something else.

For the first time in years, the steel sword in his hands felt heavy.

---

Most of the pain had dissipated already, but his nerves still felt on edge.

He was Rudeus Greyrat, and as a child he couldn't be perfect, so he indulged in his emotions. And right now he was sulking that he had failed to properly cast a spell.

"Rudeus, can you tell me what happened?" His new father had spoken in a serious tone he had never heard before.

Obviously the fact of him using Magic couldn't remain hidden forever, and the chance it could be discovered was always high.

"I-I just the words on the book and… and then I was in pain."

Unfortunately, he hadn't imagined a scenario where his magic was discovered from his spell harming himself, so he lacked an in-depth excuse.

His new father blinked, his eyes appeared to shift around as he digested what he just heard. Eventually, his gaze landed on something off in the corner and he went to retrieve it. "This book?"

He nodded. "S-sorry for making a mess."

"No, no, it's fine, I'm just glad." Paul sighed heavily and his entire body relaxed. "Just glad you're okay."

"Wait, what?" Zenith blinked as she snapped out of her trance and her brain processed what she had heard. "Rudy, did you seriously do this?"

He sheepishly nodded. "Yeah. I'll help clean—ah!"

"Yah! That's my boy!" Zenith had yanked him away from Lilia and held him up with pride.

The rest of the event was just a few back and forths of asking him whether he really used magic and how he had done so.

And unless it was just his imagination, when Paul had asked him how he had learned to read, he could've sworn he saw Zenith give Lilia a rather nasty glare.

Regardless, he answered by claiming that he was just repeating some of the matching words from the storybooks.

Which got Zenith even more excited.

The matter was resolved when his new parents declared he couldn't practice magic again, not until they hired a magic tutor for him. And In the meantime, Lilia would be teaching him how to read and write.

And Paul would also start teaching him how to use a sword.

His new parents had argued for a while before they arrived at a temporary compromise, and so whatever their child was better at, he could pursue a future in that field.

…

…

It was about a month later that his magic tutor arrived.

And contrary to his parents expectations, it was a rather short girl with blue hair dressed as a witch,

She introduced herself as Roxy.

 

[Filo]

Damn, Zenith will boot maid out in this timeline due to jealousy, isn't she? Paul, don't you dare to pull out your sorry thing.

 

[Hyperionthetitan]

Damn, Zenith will boot maid out in this timeline due to jealousy, isn't she? Paul, don't you dare to pull out your sorry thing.

Click to shrink...

That way shinji would throw a fit and zenith might keep her based on the fact that her son is fonded of the maid and considered her his mother more than zenith herself . So rudeus gonna be a glue on this drama anyway ,just by guilt tripping instead of passing the speech check .


Also i thought shinji just being talent in everything but magecraft in canon ? Since when did he becone hardworking person

 

[Krak-Quinn]

That way shinji would throw a fit and zenith might keep her based on the fact that her son is fonded of the maid and considered her his mother more than zenith herself . So rudeus gonna be a glue on this drama anyway ,just by guilt tripping instead of passing the speech check .


Also i thought shinji just being talent in everything but magecraft in canon ? Since when did he becone hardworking person

Click to shrink...

Source: Me.
I made it up. I expanded on what I thought his mindset would be even if he was talented. Even with talent, a person doesn't become good in that subject if they ignore it.
So, to me, Shinji saw that he was talented in many subjects and them focused on developing everything in hopes he would somehow achieve Magecraft. That was his immature thought process as a child.

 

[Hyperionthetitan]

Source: Me.
I made it up. I expanded on what I thought his mindset would be even if he was talented. Even with talent, a person doesn't become good in that subject if they ignore it.
So, to me, Shinji saw that he was talented in many subjects and them focused on developing everything in hopes he would somehow achieve Magecraft. That was his immature thought process as a child.

Click to shrink...

Lol,fair enough i guess

 

[Godfire]

I'm convinced. Watched.