Author: 夜州 (Yashu)
Silvia was Cain’s personal maid and educator, and she was the one who taught him how to read, amongst other things.
“Shall I read this picture book for you, Cain-sama?”
He was a high-schooler mentally, but since he couldn’t read, he didn’t really have a choice in the matter.
He did his best to seriously learn all the letters while trying to ignore the humiliation he felt from being read a picture book by a girl younger than him.
She traced over the words as she read them, after which Cain practised writing them.
Proper paper hadn’t been invented there yet, so people usually wrote on parchment, fabric, or wooden boards. The picture book they were reading was written on half-decent paper, making it quite the high-quality item.
Mentally and knowledge-wise, Cain was still a high-schooler, but with the brain of a three-year-old, which meant that he could easily learn things. A month later, reading letters wasn’t an issue any more.
“Cain-sama, I don’t think you need any more practise reading and writing. You must be a genius, being able to learn everything at the age of three! You’re at a more advanced level than even Reine-sama!”
“It’s thanks to you, Silvia. You’re good at teaching, so I managed to learn everything quickly.”
Looking for a proper book, Cain first buttered Silvia up, making her hide her face behind her hands in embarrassment.
“By the way, do we have any books about the history of Esfort or magic?”
“Both of those can be found in the library.”
“We have both? I want to read them. Could you bring me a couple?”
“All right. I’ll bring some over after lunch, but I doubt you’ll be able to understand such difficult books.”
Usually, three-year-olds who wanted to read books on history and magic didn’t exist. But, Silvia still assented, albeit quite doubtfully.
It had been a month since he had reincarnated, and he had finally, finally gotten his hands on a book about magic. Cain felt quite ecstatic.
He had been perfectly well ever since he reincarnated, and he had managed to get permission from his mother to go wherever he wanted as long as it was within the estate bounds.
“I want to use magic quickly. I am a bit worried about whether I actually can, though…”
After lunch, Cain was reading the picture book again when Silvia entered the room, books on history and magic in hand.
“Cain-sama, I’ve brought a book on the history of Esfort and a simple book on magic.”
“Thank you.”
“History and magic are both difficult, you know. And you can’t even use Status magic yet.”
“It’s fine. It’s just knowledge for when I become able to use it.”
He looked at the titles of the two books.
[The History of the Kingdom of Esfort]
[A Beginner’s Guide to Magic]
The Kingdom of Esfort was where he was currently living.
It had been almost 300 years since it had been founded, with the royal family being on its 15th generation.
The first king, and founder, seemed to have been an adventurer-turned-hero who had first made a name for himself, then a village, which had rapidly turned into a city and then a country. His origins, however, were unclear.
His name was Yuuya tera Hirasawa Esfort.
Cain nearly yelled out loud when he saw the name.
“He was definitely Japanese.”
The current king was called Rex tera Esfort.
The family seemed to have dropped the ‘Hirasawa’ some generations ago.
The country itself was an aristocratic one, with noble titles being, in order of rank: royalty, archduke, duke, marquis, margrave, count, viscount, baron, and knight. Only siblings of the king could be archdukes; everything from duke through count were called ‘higher-ranked nobles’, while viscount through knight were ‘lower-rank nobles’.
Nobility was hereditary, but the family of a head-of-house were treated as quasi-nobles, and their families were treated as commoners.
Honorary titles as well as knighthoods only lasted one generation, and their families were still treated as commoners, which were both measures in place to prevent too many people from being nobles. The heads-of-houses were paid salaries by the country, so if there were too many nobles, the country would go bankrupt.
The Silfords were margraves, which meant they were higher-rank nobility.
The mansion they lived in was large enough to be called a small palace.
Then, finally, Cain opened the book about magic.
“Magic really is magical…”
The first thing he saw when he opened the book was the following sentence:
[This book should be read by people who have received their baptism when they were five and can use Status magic.]
Cain turned to the next page, wondering if it was impossible to use magic before that.
[How to feel magical power in your body]
This world’s people apparently had an organ that could store magical power, located near their solar plexus.
Its location differed based on species.
He closed his eyes and concentrated.
He looked for it, mentally searching around his body, and the area described in the book suddenly felt hot.
“I guess that’s it.”
He tried to be aware of the flow of magical power in his body, and he slowly became able to feel it circulating throughout his body.
“It almost feels like it has its own veins and arteries.”
As he said that, he realised he could control how the magical power flowed throughout his body.
Swirling it around in his body, he turned to the next page.
[Gather magical power in your index finger and chant the following]
“Hmm. Like this?”
He concentrated on gathering magical power in his index finger, and, thinking of a candle, he chanted “O, fire!” as was written in the book.
He had only wanted it to be around five centimeters, but a fifty-centimeter pillar of fire shot out of his finger instead.
“Whoa! That surprised me.”
He let go of the magical power gathered in his finger, and the fire went out.
“I know how to use magic now, but practising fire magic inside a closed room is kinda dangerous. I think I’ll have to settle for only reading the book for today.”
He found out while reading the book that there were the four basic magical elements of fire, water, wind, and earth, but there were also others, like darkness, light, and void. Since magic was activated by adding magical power to a mental image, it was possible to make original ‘spells’ based on the basic elements.
“It’s really hard to resist trying that out right now with all my knowledge from reading light novels.”
Feeling slightly sluggish due to a decrease in magical power due to the magic he had used earlier, he focused on the book again.
“I wonder where it’s written how to get better at manipulating magical power and how to get more.”
He searched for what he was looking through, flipping through the book.
[Your manipulation of magical power will improve if you circulate it within your body daily.]
[Using up all your magical power and resting to recover it will increase the maximum amount of magical power you can use. However, this maximum amount differs from person to person.]
“These two are the most important. I’m still only three, so I still have plenty of growing left to do. I’ll focus on being able to use more magical power, as well as practice.”
He grinned in satisfaction at having found what he was looking for.
“Cain-sama, it’s time for dinner.”
It was Silvia. Cain looked out of the window, through which the rays of the setting sun were shining.
He had been so immersed in the book about magic that he hadn’t even noticed the passing of time.
“All right.”
He put the book down on this desk and left the room.
When he reached the dining room, his mother and Reine were already there.
He sat down, and they all waited until his father finally appeared and sat down.
“Let us give our thanks to the seven gods of Marineford.”
Garm said, then began eating. The other three followed suit.
“Cain, I heard all you do lately is read books. Do you like reading?”
“Yes, father. Since I am not yet at the age where I may go outside, I find it enjoyable to learn about the outside world instead.”
“He’s only three but he can already read and write perfectly!”
Sarah said, smiling. She must’ve been proud of how smart her child was.
But, being able to concentrate like a high-schooler had allowed Cain to learn to read quite easily, no matter how different the letters used were from what he was used to.
“I want to do the baptism and use magic!”
The truth, however, was that he had already used magic.
“I see. You’ll become a court magician in no time.”
Garm said happily, taking a sip from his glass of wine.
“I, I will become an amazing court magician! I’ll be Cain’s senpai and wait for him there!”
Reine seemed to have a talent for magic as well, and she also seemed to want to go to the academy to learn more.
People in this world went to school for five years, starting when they were ten. All territories had an academy, but the most prestigious one was the Royal Academy of Esfort, located in the capital. You’d receive a warm welcome anywhere you went looking for a job if you managed to graduate from there.
***
Then, two years passed, and it was time for Cain’s baptism.
He had practiced and trained using magic in the past two years.
He had tested out using magic in secret, under the guise of going on walks.
He held back, because people would most certainly notice if he started destroying the environment, so he practiced by shooting wind magic up into the air.
And, as a result of all his training alone, he forgot the meaning of the word ‘self-restraint’.
“Good. I’m kinda getting used to it now.”
And that was how he spent his days.
Then, the day of his baptism came.
Europa is a cool moon 
Restraint sounds like a relative of common-sense chan. They’re always missing.
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