It was fortuitous that the split soul had woken from its hibernation during a time when both his parents and his grandfather were out of the house.
Pilemon, his father, had recently turned 15. The age of majority on this continent. The proper age when a noble was supposed to get married and start popping out children, in contrast to the tender age of 9.
There had been a massive banquet to celebrate the heir of House Notos Greyrat's third birthday (They celebrate birthdays in intervals of 5 on the Human Continent for some reason). A majority of the Asuran noble houses had been invited for this celebration.
In return, Amarant now needed to bring Pilemon on a national tour to visit the various Asuran noble houses that had accepted the invitation and attended Pilemon's birthday banquet to return the favour. As well as to introduce the young man to the local nobility, reaffirm existing alliances, highlighting their political enemies, and paying homage to the movers and shakers of the Asura Kingdom.
His mother Selena, as Pilemon's lady wife, was naturally obliged to accompany her husband on his tour.
Thank god for that too. Due to his rather unique but tragic position as Pilemon's only child and, with more unlikely to come from Selena due to her miscarriage resulting in a barren womb, being showered with love would be an understatement.
From the native Luke's memories, he had been positively drowning in the affection and excessive coddling from a mother who knew she would not have any more children, and grandparents who were excessively protective of their only grandchild.
In order of the extent of their coddling: His grandmother, mother, grandfather and father.
With Amarant, Pilemon and Selena off touring the Kingdom's noble houses, Luke only needed to fend off the excessive coddling of his grandmother.
"Come here my darling boy, sit on grandma's lap." Valentina Notos Greyrat patted her gown covered thighs while gesturing for cookies from a nearby servant.
If not for his memories, Luke would have been skeptical had anyone told him the beautiful woman before him was a grandmother.
Valentina was only in her late thirties, but she didn't look a day older than 25. With light auburn hair and a massive chest capable of toppling kingdoms, Luke's grandmother was the picture perfect example of a refined and elegant noblewoman.
Albeit a noblewoman that had the habit of bribing for her grandson's affection with cookies and sweets.
"Yes grandma!" Luke replied with perfect emulation of the native five year old Luke. After all, he had all the memories of the native soul he had devoured plus the acting chops guided by the A.I. Chip's micro adjustments.
Luke let himself be carried on to the noblewoman's lap, not minding the titanic mammaries that now rested on his head.
A servant brought over a plate of cookies and Valentina fed him happily while cooing baby noises.
The woman still saw him as a little baby even after years of not being one technically.
"Say ahh."
"Ahh." Luke opened his mouth and munched on the offered cookie.
"Good boy!" Valentina praised while patting his head that was largely covered by her colossal chest.
"Luke, you were rather quiet during breakfast." She said, wiping off the crumbs from Luke's lips with her handkerchief. "Do you miss your mama and papa?"
Luke paused as though to think before nodding, the unreal jiggle physics of his grandmother causing a ripple in the low cut dress she wore.
"Mhm! And grandpa too! When are they coming back?"
"Based on their pace… earliest would be in two months?" She answered, but hugged the tiny Luke at the same time, "But if you miss them so much, do you want grandma to send a messenger to call them back earlier?"
Luke took another pause as though considering the offer before shaking his head, "Nah, papa's work is important right? It's okay, I can wait."
Valentina nearly teared up at her grandson's considerate and kind nature. She had certainly been aware of how much her daughter-in-law and herself had spoiled Luke, but she didn't really care either. It was a grandmother's job to spoil her grandson, and the men were the ones who were supposed to be responsible for discipline.
But Amarant was only tough and surly on the exterior while being soft and relenting on the inside. Only towards Luke of course. For everyone else, the Notos patriarch was as ruthless a noble lord as any other.
But to think their unrestrained showering of love and affection could have raised a child like this… Valentina held the small frame of Luke even tighter, causing her hefty breasts to deform against the back of her grandson's head even more.
"You're such a good boy, Luke! Is there anything you want? A new toy? Or a mountain of sweets? Grandma will get it for you, no matter what!"
Luke turned back excitedly, ignoring the flesh mountains that now pressed against the side of his face, "Anything? Really!?"
"Mmhm!"
The child gave an excited grin, revealing the charm of a boy who had inherited the best of both his parents' genes.
"I want to learn magic! Is that okay, grandma?"
Valentina tilted her head quizzically, "Magic? Didn't Luke say you thought swords were cooler?"
"Well yeah, but… magic sword! Isn't that even cooler!?"
Luke felt nothing at having to act like a childish five year old. Acting was just a means to an end. Pride? He did have that, but pride cometh before the fall. And he was not and never would be someone who would willingly compromise on his goals due solely on something as intangible as pride.
Acting like a child for immediate benefits was more than worth it in his opinion.
Especially when his grandmother had agreed immediately to his request.
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"This… this can't be it!" Luke had to hold himself back from making an even bigger scene.
In his hands was a book, titled
Because it would take a few days for Valentina to hire a magic tutor, she gave Luke permission to peruse the family library for now.
The library of a centuries old noble family was the size of a small ballroom. Texts of all subjects were not excessively hoarded, but it could not be said to be necessarily lacking either. It was a library kept for appearances sake rather than for honing the academic pursuits of Notos Greyrats.
The reason why Luke was making such a big fuss, which was so unlike himself, was that he had just been reading about the magic of this world and its spellcasting principles.
In short, it was ridiculously easy. According to the book, all one needed to do to cast a spell was chant an incantation.
After a spell caster says the magic words with the intent to cast said spell, their mana will automatically course through their body and form the effect of the spell.
All the spellcaster needed to do then was to point it in the right direction.
It was akin to shooting a gun. Speaking the incantation would be the same as pulling the trigger, and the spellcaster only needed to point the firearm in the right direction and the mana in their bodies would act as the gunpowder to fire the bullet.
And that was it.
Luke felt a part of him bristle. Do you know how much effort the Original had to go through to learn magic and cast spells? Well, the split soul didn't remember the details but he knew at least that it was freaking hard!
Magus spellcasting was completely different from the magic of the Six-Sided world.
Magi needed to construct the mental model of the spell using their Spiritual Force. Only then would external energy particles be attracted to their innate Magic Power and be intricately transformed into a spell through the nature of this spiritual force.
It may sound simple but constructing a spell model was a complicated affair. Depending on the rank of the spell, the spell model could consist of dozens and up to hundreds or even thousands of runes.
And the backlash from making a mistake during the construction of the mental model and subsequent failed activation of the spell could result in injuries both mentally and physically.
Using the gun metaphor once more, casting a spell in the Magus World required the spellcaster to have memorized the blueprint of the specific gun beforehand, and prior to casting a spell, draw the blueprint freehand in their minds.
A mistake in drawing the blueprint will result in a failed activation - i.e. the gun will blow up and the gunpowder will combust, which could at its worst kill the caster, or leave injuries of varying intensity.
Wasn't it unfair? Even the rank 0 spells that acolytes could cast in the Magus World had a similar requirement. While spells in the Six-Sided world, regardless of rank, were just as easy to cast, only requiring the incantation and sufficient mana.
There were also no mentions of elemental affinities. Back in the Magus World, every magus aspirant would test their elemental affinities in order to know which element would best suit them as not just the spells, but the meditation techniques used to advance in rank would also differ based on their elemental affinities.
The magic of the Six-Sided world was just so… simple, in comparison. Simple wasn't necessarily a bad thing. A simple magic system meant magecraft was accessible not only to the highest strata of society.
With more people able to learn magic, competition and innovation would go hand in hand. Though that didn't seem to be the case here. Thousands of years of recorded history and it didn't seem like the development of magic ever went beyond 'say magic words and boom boom'.
Perhaps it was the opposite. With magic being so accessible it instead led to complacency and taking the miracles of magic for granted.
Whereas in the Magus World, spell models and magus resources were fought over like wild dogs fighting over scraps even despite the population of acolytes and magi being so small!