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8. Flying Baby
“Are you going already?”
Julia-kaasan said dejectedly.
“It can’t be helped. The neighbouring Sonorato is still rowdy at the moment.”
According to Alfred-tousan, the internal strife between influential lords in the neighbouring country Sonorato is slowly coming to an end with a ceasefire, but the embers are still smouldering, so the Third Area Army is still in a semi war-ready stance watching the borders of Sonorato.
In such a situation, Alfred-tousan managed to ask for the impossible and get a leave of absence after 7 months.
Its length is 2 weeks.
That feels long to a modern Japanese person, but it seems the distance on foot between this mansion and the Ranzrack Fortress, where dad is stationed, takes about 1 week to cover.
By having the [Horse Riding] skill, dad managed to come back in 5 days by changing horses, but even if he returns with the same pace, just traveling would take up 10 days.
Therefore, out of the two-week leave of absence, the number of days he can freely use is essentially 4, or if you take one off as a backup for traveling, then barely even 3.
“Even with things being as calm as they are, there is no telling what will happen. Normally something like the commander leaving the fortress shouldn’t even happen, even temporarily. Thanks to my subordinates telling me ‘We will make time for you to at least take a look at your child’s face no matter what’ I managed to come home somehow, but I can’t stay for long. I really need to return to the fortress.”
“‘Return’ to the fortress….huhh..”
Mom muttered wistfully.
Hey, Mr. Dad, isn’t that a taboo word?
I draw a ♭(Physik) and poke the head of the old man with a building block.
“Ouch! Hey, don’t hit people with building blocks!”
“Baabu”
While being carried by dad, I glance at Julia-kaasan.
With that glance, it seems dad noticed what I wanted to say.
“…..heh? Me?”
Dad tightly hugged Julia-kaasan, who tilted her in confusion.
…..hey, don’t squeeze me in between.
“A child is sensitive to their parent’s feelings, they say. ‘Don’t make mom sad’ is probably what Ed wanted to say. Being my son, he is quite…. no, much too sharp!”
After giving me snappy retort, dad starts to think hard about something.
“….alright! Fortunately, battles are currently scarce. Let’s take you to the fortress this time.”
“Eeh? Really?”
“Well, as a father, being reprimanded by a baby like that…. Ed, do you want to visit dad’s workplace?”
“Baabu!”
So my first outing was decided to be a trip with both parents to the Ranzrack Fortress.
◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆
It’s a one week journey to Ranzrack Fortress.
If it’s only dad, he could go faster it seems, but this time, in addition to Julia-kaasan, the barely six months old me is also here, so this became a trip where we ride the carriage in a gentle pace, so that we will arrive on the exact day when dad’s leave of absence ends.
(By the way, my private maid, Steph, is house-sitting.)
But, even with such a high level, was it alright for a commanding officer to ride home alone?
I started having such concerns, but it seems that while riding home, dad had town and village guards escort him alternatingly, and the plan was to rendezvous with the escorts from the fortress on the way back.
That means dad really did many unreasonable things to able to get home.
Maybe I did a bad thing somehow.
I was also interested in the towns and villages on the way, but since dad hurried forward, we only stayed for lodging in every town and village, and there was no extra time to look around.
There should be more flexibility with time on the way back from the fortress, so if I ask mom, we should be able to have a short look around a town.
On the way to the fortress, I decided to focus on expanding my maximum MP.
Since we were traveling with a carriage I couldn’t just move any way I liked, even if I wanted to raise my magic levels, it was a situation where it was physically difficult to do so.
Also, I was able to get a promise from mom during the unveiling party that she will teach me magic, but only after we return from the trip.
However, there are problems with expanding my MP.
The biggest one is, that since both my parents are always with me, if I use up all my MP and faint, it would most likely become a small commotion.
Regarding that, I thought of a way of deceiving my parents and use magic sneakily by keeping my eyes closed, keeping my mana from leaking out with [Mana Control], and omitting the letter writing movements with [Letterless Invocation].
If I keep my eyes closed, even if I faint, no one can tell by looking.
The problem was what kind of magic should I use, but I got an excellent idea about that one too.
Having my butt hurt by the shaking of the carriage, I suddenly thought of using [Physical Magic] on myself.
‘fuwari‘, only a little, but my body was floating.
Fortunately, on the way to the fortress, I could endlessly repeat the chain of ‘keep using [Physical Magic] on my body, then faint when my MP runs out’, without tiring.
My MP has grown quite high, so I thought that it would become difficult to use up, but I’ve found out that the Master class magic skills eat up at least 10 MP.
Furthermore, by activating [Mana Control], [Letterless Invocation] and [Physical Magic] in parallel, I can use up 30 MP at once.
Knowing that, it’s simple.
I kept steadily increasing my MP, by continuously (not counting the time for meals and when my parents started talking to me) executing the infinite loop where I use up all my mp – which took a few seconds at first, then a few minutes after -, then faint for about 5 minutes, then start using up my MP once again.
――Those gratifying times continued on for 1 week (168 hours).
And then at last, the day of arrival to the Ranzrack Fortress, which was Alfred-tousan’s workplace and the base of the Third Area Army of Santamana Kingdom, has finally come.
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