Chương 41: The Weird Night

Edric refused to accept Sieghart's claim that he was unharmed without checking for himself several more times. He dragged the boy away from the burning remains of the wagon and made him sit beneath the light of three enchanted lanterns. Then he examined every exposed section of skin with the dedication of a suspicious physician. Sieghart's wet shirt was removed and inspected for hidden blood. Edric checked his arms, shoulders, back, chest, legs, and even the soles of his feet.

The explosion had left dirt and soot across his body, but there were no burns. A small bruise had formed near his left knee, probably from the awkward landing, although even that injury barely hurt. Protection had prevented the physical shock from damaging his organs. The water-aligned change had handled the heat, while Wind Magic had kept the fall from breaking anything. Sieghart remained remarkably intact. That didn't stop Edric from calling one of the medical attendants.

The man repeated most of the inspection, asked Sieghart several questions, and made him follow a moving finger with his eyes.

"I think he's fine."

"You think?" The attendant looked at the crater where the wagon had been.

"Considering what hit him, being alive should be impossible. Fine is the best explanation I have." Edric didn't appreciate the answer. He questioned the attendant about internal injuries, delayed burns, magical poisoning, damaged hearing, and several conditions Sieghart had never heard mentioned before. Sieghart endured the process patiently at first. After the third examination of his arms, his patience began approaching its natural limit.

"Grandpa, I'm still fine."

"You were inside an explosion."

"I remember."

"You could have injuries that we can't see."

"If you keep squeezing my arms, I will." Edric ignored the complaint and checked Sieghart's pulse again. Only after confirming that it remained steady did he finally release a long breath. The tension left his shoulders, making him appear several years older within moments. He sat beside Sieghart and covered his face with both hands. Relief had replaced panic, but it didn't erase the memory of watching his grandson disappear inside the fire.

Edric would probably see that explosion whenever he closed his eyes for several nights. Sieghart understood the reaction. If their positions had been reversed, he doubted he would have remained calm. Edric was one of the few people in either of his lives who had cared about him without demanding anything in return. Sieghart reached over and patted his grandfather's shoulder. His hand was too small for the gesture to appear particularly reassuring, but Edric seemed to understand the intention.

"I really am fine."

"I know what I saw." Sieghart didn't have an answer for that. The fireball had obliterated an entire wagon and destroyed enough supplies to support dozens of soldiers. Surviving it without a wound looked unreasonable even to the person who had done it. Edric finally raised his head. That was when he noticed the crowd. Soldiers, officers, attendants, Aura users, and wounded fighters had gathered around the destroyed supply area. Some pretended to inspect the damage, but most were looking directly at Sieghart.

Their expressions weren't particularly comforting. Before the battle, Sieghart had appeared to be an ordinary child with unusual hair and an impossibly large mana pool. That alone had been enough to create rumors. Now, everyone had seen him use magic offensively. They had watched enormous spheres of water cross the battlefield, disrupt the Firian formation, and transform what should have been another costly defense into an advantage.

They had also watched the enemy respond by launching its largest attack directly at him. Then Sieghart survived. The combination changed the way people looked at him. Confusion remained, but it was mixed with caution, calculation, and something uncomfortably close to fear. A five-year-old capable of recharging dozens of weapons was valuable. A five-year-old capable of influencing a battlefield was dangerous.

A five-year-old capable of surviving an attack that would have carbonized a veteran Aura user was something nobody present knew how to classify. Several soldiers whispered while pointing toward the crater. An officer examined Sieghart as though trying to determine whether the child might secretly be wearing some legendary defensive artifact. The ice swordsman stood farther away, his arms folded across his silver armor.

His expression lacked the fear displayed by the others, but his attention remained sharp and thoughtful. He was measuring Sieghart. Perhaps everyone was. Edric's relief became concern again, although the danger had changed. The Firians weren't the only people capable of threatening his grandson. Power attracted interest. Noble families could attempt to recruit Sieghart or force him into service. Military commanders might view him as a Restorer capable of supplying entire armies indefinitely.

Scholars could demand access to him in order to study the abnormal mana pool that had already made people suspicious. Some might suspect that his abilities came from forbidden methods. Even House Emberhart presented a danger. Lord Alaric had shown little interest in Sieghart while believing his firstborn possessed no valuable combat Aura. That lack of attention could disappear once reports of the battle reached him. Alaric had already accepted fifty gold coins in exchange for Sieghart's services.

If he learned that his unwanted son could change the outcome of battles, he might begin selling those services far more often. Edric looked toward the officers. Several were already talking quietly while watching Sieghart. The explosion had eliminated any possibility of concealing what happened. Too many people had witnessed the water spheres. Too many had seen the boy survive. Edric began wondering whether he could send Sieghart away before the commanders decided how useful he might be.

Returning him to the farm would remove him from the battlefield, although it wouldn't prevent rumors from spreading. The journey required two days on horseback. Sending a five-year-old alone remained unreasonable, even if Sieghart possessed enough magic to protect himself from ordinary dangers. Edric couldn't leave the camp without permission. His unit had already suffered losses, and abandoning command would damage both his reputation and House Emberhart's position. He might ask Captain Harlan to assign an escort.

That request would require explaining why Sieghart needed to leave immediately. The captain might agree for the child's safety, or he might decide that the boy had become too strategically valuable to release. Every option carried risk. Edric looked at his grandson and found Sieghart paying no attention to the surrounding stares. The boy had closed his eyes and returned his focus to the spell that saved him. That response somehow made Edric even more worried. Sieghart wasn't an ordinary child.

He understood danger, concealed his emotions, and planned farther ahead than many adults. However, intelligence couldn't protect him from every powerful person who might decide to use him. He remained five years old, legally under the authority of a father who had already demonstrated how little affection influenced his decisions. Edric placed one hand upon Sieghart's shoulder.

"We're going back to the tent." Sieghart opened one eye.

"I was testing something."

"You can test it somewhere people aren't staring at you." Sieghart glanced around and finally noticed the attention. Several soldiers looked away immediately, proving that they had been watching far too closely.

"So much for being subtle." If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it. Edric almost laughed, but the sound never escaped. He gave the crowd one final warning look before leading Sieghart away from the destroyed wagon. The stares followed them. Inside the tent, Sieghart sat cross-legged upon his bedroll and activated Protection. The familiar layer of mana spread beneath his skin, reinforcing his body without producing any visible effect.

He focused upon the sensation he had experienced during the explosion. Protection normally felt solid and uniform. Mana covered every section of his body with equal density, creating an invisible barrier against physical damage. Sieghart imagined water. He cleared his thoughts, allowed his breathing to become slow, and recalled the calm intention used to activate Water Creation. The mana beneath his skin responded gradually. Its texture changed. The protective layer no longer felt completely solid.

It began flowing around his body, circulating beneath the skin as though following an invisible current. Sieghart moved one arm. The mana shifted toward the muscles facing the direction of movement, then flowed back once his arm stopped. The effect remained subtle, but it made Protection feel more flexible. He concentrated upon his hand and created a small flame above one finger. The heat touched his skin, but the water-aligned mana moved toward it immediately.

Warmth spread across his palm instead of gathering around a single point. Protection distributed the temperature exactly as it had during the fireball's impact, though on a far smaller scale. Sieghart extinguished the flame. He opened the system and focused upon White Magic. Nothing had changed. [White Magic — Level 1] [Support Path] [Protection — Level 2] There was no new spell. The technique didn't display an elemental variation, and the system gave no indication that Sieghart had modified Protection at all.

That was strange. When he discovered Fireball, the system recognized the spell immediately. The same happened when he unlocked Protection and Mana Transfusion. If elemental Protection qualified as a new spell, it should have appeared when he survived the attack. That had been the clearest possible demonstration of the effect. Sieghart repeated the process. He activated Water Creation with one hand and studied the nature of the mana. Then he transferred the same feeling into the layer surrounding his body.

Protection became fluid again. The change was real. He could feel it, control it, and reproduce it without standing inside another explosion. The system simply refused to acknowledge it.

"Of course." He continued cleaning soot from his enchanted bow while Sieghart examined the skill tree. Protection was the only spell beneath the Support Path. Perhaps that was the limitation. Black Magic possessed four elemental paths and several spells, allowing Sieghart to combine their effects freely. White Magic remained almost completely undeveloped. The Support Path contained a single technique.

Without additional spells establishing how elemental reinforcement worked, the system might treat Sieghart's discovery as an improvised application instead of a separate ability. It was also possible that Protection wasn't supposed to become an individual elemental spell. The technique might be flexible by nature, adapting to whatever kind of mana the user supplied. If so, Sieghart had spent years using the most basic version because the system had never bothered explaining that possibility.

He couldn't decide which interpretation annoyed him more. Either I haven't fulfilled the requirements, or the instructions were hidden inside a near-death experience. Truly excellent design. Sieghart moved his attention toward White Magic itself. It remained at Level One. Black Magic gained experience whenever Sieghart killed an enemy or assisted someone else in doing so. Mana Transfusion improved through repeated use, while individual spells advanced after reaching performance milestones.

White Magic had gained nothing. Protection had reached Level Two when Sieghart increased the amount of mana passing through it, but that advancement hadn't affected the parent magic type. He had no healing spell to use upon injured people. He couldn't cleanse poison, restore stamina, or strengthen allies. That left him with a single defensive technique and no obvious method of generating White Magic experience. Sieghart stared at Protection.

"How am I supposed to level you?" The skill didn't answer. Sieghart imagined several possibilities. Perhaps White Magic gained experience when Protection prevented lethal damage, which meant the fireball should have provided an enormous amount. It hadn't. Maybe the spell needed to defend other people. Unfortunately, Sieghart couldn't expand Protection beyond his own body yet. The remaining possibility was more ridiculous.

"If I punch something to death while Protection is active, would that count?" Sieghart sighed and dismissed the system. He knew that he wasn't the smartest tool in the shed, especially when comparing his magical knowledge to scholars who had studied their entire lives. However, even an average person deserved clearer instructions than this system provided. It behaved less like a helpful guide and more like a silent examiner waiting for him to discover every rule independently.

Sieghart had wanted magic since awakening in this world. More specifically, he wanted the ability to raise one hand and fire lightning from his fingers. It was difficult to imagine anything more satisfying than pointing at a distant enemy and answering every problem with several million volts. Instead, he could create fire, water, wind, and control loose earth. Those abilities were useful, but none possessed the immediate style of lightning.

Fireball came close, although the Firians had demonstrated the danger of depending too heavily upon one element. Lightning would also provide speed. If Sieghart could create and control it, he might attack Aura users before they closed the distance. Electricity could disrupt muscles, bypass some armor, and possibly improve his movement spells. Unfortunately, producing lightning was considerably more complicated than igniting fire. Flame required heat, fuel, and oxygen.

Magic allowed Sieghart to simplify the process by converting mana directly into the desired effect. Lightning required separating electrical charges, creating a difference in potential, and forcing the resulting discharge through resistant air. Sieghart remembered the broad principles from Earth but lacked the detailed scientific knowledge required to reproduce them safely. Infinite mana didn't automatically provide infinite voltage control. An unsuccessful Fireball might scorch the ground.

An unsuccessful lightning experiment could stop Sieghart's heart, burn his nerves, or strike everyone nearby. That made battlefield experimentation an unattractive option.

"It might take a while." Sieghart returned his attention to Protection before Edric could add more restrictions. He spent several hours practicing the transition between neutral and water-aligned mana. The effect became easier to reproduce with every attempt. He couldn't maintain it without concentration yet, but the spell reacted more quickly whenever he imagined water flowing around his body. Before sleeping, Sieghart tried giving Protection the nature of earth.

The mana beneath his skin became denser and more rigid, but maintaining the change made his movements uncomfortable. That result suggested his theory was correct. Protection could adopt elemental properties without becoming a new spell. Sieghart merely lacked enough control to use those variations efficiently. The discovery provided a new direction for his training. He fell asleep while imagining armor flowing like water, hardening like stone, moving like wind, and radiating heat like fire.

For once, no alarm horn interrupted his rest. The following morning, Sieghart resumed training. He helped recharge the surviving weapons, although the soldiers no longer approached him casually. Many placed their equipment down and retreated several steps while he worked. Their caution irritated him, but it also prevented unnecessary conversations. Sieghart preferred suspicious silence to dozens of questions he had no intention of answering. Edric attended another meeting with the officers.

When he returned, his expression remained guarded, and he refused to explain what they had discussed. Sieghart suspected that at least part of the meeting concerned him. The commanders had seen his offensive value. They had also learned that the Firians considered him important enough to target with their strongest attack. Some officers would want him moved to a safer position. Others would argue that his water magic offered the best chance of reducing casualties. Sieghart doubted anyone had asked what he wanted.

He continued practicing throughout the day. Water-aligned Protection became stable enough to maintain for several minutes. Earth-aligned Protection lasted only a few seconds, while attempts involving wind caused the mana to move too quickly beneath his skin. He avoided testing fire until he understood the process better. Surviving one accidental self-immolation seemed like enough progress for the week. The sun crossed the cloudless sky.

Smoke rose beyond the eastern hills again, showing that the Firians were gathering heat. The sight convinced every soldier that another attack would arrive after sunset. The defenders prepared accordingly. Fresh supplies replaced those destroyed with the wagon. Archers received fully charged bows, shield bearers soaked the ground, and officers warned everyone to watch the sky for another large fireball. Sieghart was moved away from the wagons and placed beside a reinforced barrier.

Three enchanted shields surrounded his position, each carried by a defensive Aura user. The precautions made sense. They also made him feel like a valuable piece of siege equipment. As the sun approached the horizon, the entire camp fell silent. The defenders assumed their positions. Edric stood among the archers, glancing toward Sieghart often enough to confirm that his grandson remained behind the shields. The temperature remained high. The final sunlight disappeared beyond the western horizon.

Everyone waited for the alarm. Nothing happened. No silhouettes appeared across the battlefield. No waves of heat advanced from the eastern hills, and no flames gathered around approaching fists. Minutes passed. Then half an hour. The defenders remained in formation, unwilling to relax simply because the enemy had missed its usual time. Officers sent scouts toward the edges of the battlefield, but none returned with reports of an approaching force. The Firians didn't attack at sunset.

At first, a few soldiers appeared relieved. The camp had earned a night to rest, and the wounded gained another day to recover. Sieghart didn't share their relief. The enemy had attacked at the same time during the previous evenings because that timing offered the greatest advantage. They had gathered heat throughout the day and spent it immediately after losing access to sunlight. Changing that pattern meant they had changed their plan. Perhaps Sieghart's water spheres made another direct attack too costly.

Maybe the Firians were developing a method to counter him, or they had decided to target a different section of the border. The smoke beyond the hills proved that they had gathered heat. They simply weren't spending it here. Sieghart looked toward the dark battlefield as the stars appeared overhead. The empty ground felt more threatening than an advancing army. A visible attack could be studied. Silence concealed every possibility. The Firians had learned from the previous battle.

Their absence proved that Sieghart's intervention mattered, but it also meant the defenders no longer knew what would happen next. Sieghart activated Protection and shifted it toward water without taking his eyes from the eastern hills. The battle hadn't been canceled. The enemy had merely stopped announcing when it would begin.