Author's Notes:

This is where the fun begins. I split this into two chapters since it got too long, but I'm uploading them together.

Thanks to LugawAlchemist for the Beta work. Check out their fanfic "Mushoku Tensei: Reclaiming My Birthright in Another World" for an interesting MT AU.

Chapter 3: The skies over Buena

K 416, Buena, Fittoa Region

Tanya Norn Greyrat

"Humans have learned through experience that, as indicated by Murphy's Law, anything that can go wrong will." These thoughts filled my mind as I ate breakfast before Magic lessons today. I needed to prepare even more for any potential problems coming up.

Etiquette classes proceeded smoothly after Paul resolved the differences between the regions. It meant more work for us kids; however, it would be necessary in a feudalistic world such as this. Being a Noblewoman may be a requirement for economic and political autonomy.

Despite Paul's questionable actions, which led to Aisha's birth and Lilia being brought in as a second wife, he was a good leader I can work with.

He collected minimal taxes, encouraged free trade between the merchants passing through the village and the villagers themselves, trained the local guardsmen into being competent enough to defend themselves (although Lilia is whipping them up into even better shape), and barely intervened in affairs unless absolutely necessary.

In a mercantilist age, he went against the establishment of the first guild in Buena, which meant that craftsmen were free to make what they wanted without restrictions on their trade; the quality of their work, rather than restrictive politics was the kind of free trade I wanted to see.

When I grow older, I will plant the seeds of industrialization and create factories. With the overabundance of wood, meat, and food we have, perhaps I can industrialize book production, packaged meat, and food exports and live a comfortable life as a wealthy food and media magnate who also happens to be a noble.

Buena grew even more during the winter; with guaranteed warm and safe houses and a massive oversupply of meat, grains, and even some fruit and vegetables, villagers managed to get their extended family to move over. My own rough estimates are that the village hit 500 people, or 100 families, during the winter and that many houses were crowded during this time. I expect a housing boom with all the treant wood after the end of the snow.

Sylphie wanted to join our next magic training and appeared in the yard. We kept our treant wood bonfire out as usual, something the villagers started to treat as a common sight to see. We just had far too much Treant wood from our tributes and hunts that we needed to burn them every day out in the snow just to keep our storage from overflowing. If it meant that our house and yard were relatively warm and cozy during winter, it was a minor issue to deal with, especially with magic, making cleaning and pollution control very easy.

We gathered as Zenith stood in front of us; I was with Sylphie. Despite Aisha's insistence on learning magic, we decided it would be too difficult for Zenith to teach someone without any magic knowledge at all in the same class as Sylphie and I. So Zenith would teach Aisha and even Lilia beginner magic twice a week.

"This is the first time I will teach two people since our lessons with Aisha got interrupted yesterday. Although I'm not so sure how much I can teach Sylphie over here." Zenith said with an embarrassed look on her face.

"However, I think I have some insights I can still share with her. Sylphie, how much magic do you know?"

Sylphie smiled with a look that made me think she was thinking of the past. I wonder how much Rudy was able to teach her.

"I can do Advanced Wind, Intermediate Water magic, Beginner Fire and Earth magic, Beginner Healing spells…" Sylphie said with an increasingly quiet voice.

"Couldn't you do them chantlessly like Rudy?" I spoke up, desperately wanting to learn chantless magic properly in this world.

"Uhmm… yes, he told me it was super rare and that only very skilled mages can do it silently, but I showed him!" Sylphie showed a surprising amount of confidence for a normally shy girl; the first time I remember seeing her this confident since the time she attacked Paul after Rudy was given to Ghislaine.

"Can you teach us how you did it? I can only shorten my spells; however, I also know how to do all Attack, Healing, and Detoxification spells at an Intermediate level. I can train you there in return." Zenith struck a good deal with Sylphie, especially since chantless magic is a much rarer thing than Intermediate magic. Zenith would probably try to learn advanced wind magic from Sylphie, too, later on.

"I'll try; Rudy told me that he wanted to teach magic someday with his little sisters, too."

Zenith took the opportunity to play matchmaker.

"Yosh! You'll be the best older sister to Tanya and Aisha, plus you'd make your Mother-in-Law happy." Zenith chirped; she was really pushing for Sylphie to marry Rudy, although keeping a highly talented mage in the family is probably a good political move, too.

"Ohh! Do I get to have an older sister? Please teach me like big brother Rudy, big sis Sylphie!" I said with my closest rendition of puppy dog eyes.

I played along, too. Sylphie would make a great asset in the future. Nobles in my past life sponsored intelligent children with scholarships and hired them immediately afterward. Companies in my life before did similar things, too. If we could bind her to the family, she increase our chances of safely dealing with whatever noble plots may happen.

Sylphie heavily blushed, and her ears even twitched. However, she snapped back to attention with a renewed drive and added confidence.

"I remember the day Rudy taught me how to do chantless magic like it was yesterday. I'll tell you what he told me." Sylphie stood in front of us.

She started reenacting the day she learned chantless magic.

"Right. So, you know the feeling you get when you're going through the incantation for a spell? That feeling throughout your body that collects in your fingertips? Try doing that without saying the incantation. Once you feel like you've got the magical energy gathered up, let the spell you want to cast come to your mind and then force it out through your hands. Try to do something like that. Start with something like Waterball."

Sylphie closed her eyes and started muttering and murmuring, doing a weird, wriggly dance that reminded me of toddlers wanting to go to the toilet. She started wriggling her fingers around, and a water ball came out, gently floating in the air and landing outside our yard with a little splash on the pile of snow.

"Hehe, I got carried away and recreated how I tried to cast it the first time. I tried to feel incantation while doing spell genesis, size determination, speed determination, and then activating it." Sylphie said excitedly.

That sounded a lot easier than I expected.

I focused on activating a water ball spell silently. I kept my eyes open on the target, 1000 feet up in the air, just to be safe. It'll mix with the snow in the air after.

Waterball, radius 5 inches, velocity 500 mph, and 1000 feet up. I was feeling that odd tingle I always felt when casting this spell, although it was a lot fainter than the first time I did it. It was building up, and I released it. It felt a lot more draining than usual. Was silent magic that draining? I already had the endurance to keep casting water balls every thirty seconds for hours on end, together with Zenith, when we watered the farms.

"Boom!" The water ball shot up to the sky as usual, but it exploded with far more force than I normally expected it to do.

"Woah! My little Tanya is a genius!" Zenith carried and hugged me again; why did I have to be a toddler? Zenith looked very excited.

"That reminds me, you should release the spell as soon as you feel it. If you hold too long, your mana goes down, and whatever you cast gets a lot more powerful. Rudy told me it was like supercharging a spell, whatever that means. He didn't get to explain it too much to me before he… errrmmm… left." Sylphie must have awkwardly remembered the day Rudy got sent to Roa with Ghislaine.

It makes sense; I must have put too much mana, or compressed the water, or both. Compressing water takes a huge amount of energy, although high-pressure water can cut through metal. I must have used a large amount of mana to do so when I kept it longer than needed. Although it really takes time to create a rough idea of the force and vectors needed to launch the water ball that high in the air. Could Sylphie compute math so easily that she doesn't even need a wand to focus her magic?

"Let me try," Zenith said as she started squirming. You could see the intense look of concentration on her face. She started holding her breath and turning red.

Zenith gave a loud sigh after thirty seconds. "I can't feel it. I vaguely remember feeling a tingle when I first cast waterball many years ago, but I can't feel it anymore." She pouted at her lack of success.

"I guess I'll have to try to get the feeling even though you two master it instantly. Sylphie, could you teach Tanya how to do a fireball? I'll try this for a few minutes." Zenith went to the side and kept doing different faces as she tried to do magic chantlessly.

I think Zenith is very unhappy and embarrassed to see herself outstripped by children so easily.

"Rudy told me the best way to learn magic is to chant it first, get the feel of it, and then you can do it chantlessly. However, I kinda forgot the words to the fire ball spell. It's been a long time." Sylphie scratched her ears as she said it.

I got the textbook and opened to the part of the fire ball.

I read the instructions and decided to imitate what I did earlier with the water ball.

Fireball, radius 5 inches, velocity 500 mph, and 1000 feet up. I adjusted my mental calculations to assume the projectile has functionally zero weight, unlike the weight of the water ball spell, which had a set mass per unit volume. The spell's force would be unaffected by gravity and would tend to fly to the sky instead.

"Let the great protection of fire be on the place thou seekest. I call the bold heat of a torch here and now. Fireball." A distinctly different tingling sensation occurred in my body; I instinctively knew how a fire ball spell felt after computing and casting it.

Since I didn't overcharge this spell, a normal-looking fireball came out and rose into the air.

Sylphie clapped at my progress, likely amazed that someone less than a third of her age was able to cast a spell on her first try. But I did that with Zenith, too, for my first-ever spell and under even worse circumstances.

I decided to give it a try silently. Using my freshly gained sensation for fire ball spells, I made the same magical formula in my head and let loose. The only difference was multiplying the radius by two, which increased the volume and mana cost by eight times.

I felt the distinct heat of the fire ball as it flew up to the sky, causing a bright roar in the overcast snowy sky. Snowflakes fell on top of me; I remembered that steam turns to ice much faster than regular droplets due to surface area and other heat dissipation issues.

"Tanya, how do you do it so easily?" An exasperated Zenith asked me. She looked so discouraged and frustrated.

"When I tried Fire ball, I felt a strong tingling sensation that was distinctly different from the water ball spell I kept using before. I concentrated on that feeling while computing the parameters of my spell." I tried to simplify my explanation while Zenith listened intently.

"I vaguely remember feeling different during the times I learned those intermediate spells from Roxy a few years ago, but I dismissed them as regular mana drain. I wish I paid more attention to casting it and feeling the various sensations involved when casting a spell. That kind of sensitivity would be useful for more than just casting silently. I bet Roxy managed to make her spells chantless by now; she taught so much to Rudy." Zenith said while focusing.

"I'll try to focus on how I feel when casting spells and try to get that sensation when those new spell scrolls arrive. I know Therese would be in some hot water if she got caught doing this, but she's a bit of a rebel herself, especially for her favorite older sister." Zenith had a firm resolve, thinking of how to move forward despite her difficulty in feeling magic.

I guess at her older age, she no longer feels the sensation of magic as sensitively as those who learned magic more recently, or maybe it is also related to our function of developing brains and bodies. Still, for Rudy and Roxy to figure that out, they might cause a magical revolution together.

"Don't worry, Mother; I'm sure you're smart enough to figure it out too. I'll try to find ways to help you get that feeling, too." I chimed in.

Zenith used that opportunity to tearily hug Tanya again.

"Ughh-waaaaa! Need… air… Mother." I squawked indignantly. Why do toddlers have to be so weak, and why is my mother so freakishly strong?

What was it with my parents and their overly clingy nature? Lilia doesn't baby Aisha as much as Zenith does to me.

She let me go and then proceeded to teach intermediate spells to Sylphie. She told me that since I could get the hang of Beginner spells so easily, to practice the Beginner spells per element first, and once I could confidently cast them chantlessly, I would start learning intermediate spells with Sylphie.

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Three months passed, and spring was approaching; I would turn three around fall, and what a wild ride it has been.

It took me a little longer than expected to cast Beginner spells chantlessly without overpowering it. I was taking too long to solve the equations needed to get my spell to the exact specifications and targets. The more time I spent preparing a spell, the more likely it was to blow up and consume far more mana.

I asked Sylphie how she managed to solve the spell size and speed so easily, and she shrugged, saying it was just natural. I've seen kids on TV before who did math fast enough to compete with people using calculators, but I didn't expect Sylphie to be one of those geniuses.

One thing I had the advantage over Sylphie was healing and detoxification. While she was already learning the intermediate versions from Zenith, my Beginner-level spells were more effective than her Beginner spells. I think my knowledge of medicine and biology from two lifetimes gave me a solid foundational advantage. Aerial mages were also taught how to do basic healing spells and body reinforcement techniques. We had a clear idea of which hormones, systems, and other bodily details we had to tweak in order to maximize our performance. Sylphie and even Zenith just knew of healing from the books and notes Zenith had, which were cutting edge… maybe 400 years ago.

Zenith explained that more complex healing and detoxification information were tightly controlled by the Millis church and that even other magical groups only conducted higher research on these with explicit permission of the Millis church, not unless they wished to face the wrath of the missionary knights, who freely roam the human-inhabited continents.

I'm lucky to be surrounded by geniuses and prodigies, and it keeps my progress looking reasonable. I even managed to convince Lilia that I figured out how to do multiplication, division, and even fractions, as well as geometry, within the last three months too. Aisha was already able to add and subtract, which was exceptional for someone approaching three; I kept getting placed on the same pedestal as my older brother. I know some fantasy and sci-fi stories have super child geniuses, but I feel like I got sent to one of those.

I reached beginner level in sword fighting in all three styles, and Paul even complimented me.

"You're even better than Rudeus was at his age, although he actually started sword fighting at three," Paul said as we started our spar; at the end of our lessons, he gave a light spar where he constantly corrected me each time I made a mistake, or when he hit me or broke my guard.

Of course, I was also cheating by using reinforcement magic and perception magic on myself, but Paul said he noticed that I was stronger and faster than Rudy at that age, too.

Well, of course, I was the reincarnated human adult, unlike Rudy.

"I wonder what's keeping Rudy from taking that extra step forward; even Ghislaine told me that Rudy just can't get that special aura that makes us what we are. Even when I learned how to sword fight before I was five, it was as easy as a swoosh and a fwoom." Paul said as he started slicing stone barriers I made using a wooden sword. Paul's magical reinforcement formula was stronger than anyone else from my old company; he would've mowed people down with our trusty shovels if given a chance.

I guess Rudy isn't all perfect, but why am I comparing myself with a nine-year-old?

Another benefit of learning chantless magic is that Paul started making me use it while we spar, at least for the last spar of the day. Maintaining my focus while handling his attacks was taxing, to say the least.

I asked him why he doesn't use magic himself, and he explained that chanting magic while fighting close range is nearly suicide. Most mages tend to go behind the fighters and the shielders; the most basic spells wouldn't be able to damage more serious monsters, while more powerful spells run the risk of injuring nearby party members.

Talhand, one of the two mages in their old party, was a rare warrior mage. He was strong enough to handle normal monsters and proficient enough with his magic spells to adjust basic parameters to help on the front line. He was often paired with Geese, the vulnerable scout type.

Zenith, on the other hand, made up for her lack of defense by being a proficient healer; intermediate healing magic was good enough for most situations to keep the party alive despite common injuries. Advanced magic was only needed to repair organ damage or reattach limbs. Thankfully, that situation never happened to the party, or else they would pay a hefty amount to the nearest Millis cathedral that had a qualified priest to do so.

He also shared a short story about his feelings on magic. "I'm no good with magic myself; I prefer my trusty sword and would rather leave all the magic and healing with Zenith." Paul had a strange look in his eyes, but I think he just wanted to focus on his love of swords.

"On the other hand, maybe if I knew how to do magic chantlessly, I would do some tricks in battle too, but Saint-level and higher sword fighting skills look like magic anyway." Paul continued as he casually sliced through my barriers.

I wanted to learn how to fly, but I hadn't had the chance to figure out flight magic. Zenith never brought it up, and Sylphie hasn't done it either, although I got permission from my parents to follow Sylphie around town later.

Maybe I should try to figure that out myself.

I got bonked in the head.

"You're still not as good as Rudeus was in using magic in a combat situation. You get distracted too easily. Then again, you're a three-year-old; it's a miracle you're paying this much attention." Paul said as I rubbed my sore head. He managed to destroy my barriers too quickly despite my reinforced earth magic.

I just want to train hard enough to be strong enough to resist anyone else's attempts to ruin the peaceful and wealthy life I want to have. At least this isn't total war anymore; I would rather deal with noble plots in luxury than live like a soldier on the frontlines again.

Noble plots are nothing compared to a petty, self-proclaimed god that can manipulate entire nations to ruin your life, even at the cost of millions of humans.

"Maybe you need a break; get Lilia to help you wash up and eat lunch. Sylphie will pick you up after lunch anyway."

I nodded after Paul told me that and thanked him.

After an uneventful lunch with more Boar meat, which Lilia and Zenith have found dozens of ways to cook by now, dry bread, and the Fittoan version of Sauerkraut, I still yearn for a real, flavorful meal, but despite the extra money we had recently, spices, sweets, and even coffee and chocolate beans are too expensive for a normal meal. The extra monsters have also caused traders from farther places to avoid going to Buena.

This caused a limited stream of traders who took caravans with hired adventurers to and from Roa, hiking prices and reducing supplies. If it weren't for our generous policies, low taxes, and strong security, the villagers would've long starved or suffered from ruinous poverty. What Buena was doing sounded a lot more like a small-scale Scandinavian capitalist welfare experiment minus the added bloat of the bureaucracy. Paul would have made a good politician in my first world.

I thanked Zenith for the nice lunch and went to the door just before Sylphie knocked.

I opened the door, and a cheerful Sylphie greeted us.

"Hi, Miss Zenith, hello, Tanya. Are you ready to go out with me?" Sylphie said in her shy tone. She's been getting more comfortable talking to us ever since she started training magic and etiquette with us over the last few months, but she was always intimidated by Zenith.

"How many times did I tell you to call me Mama or Mother... My kids barely call me Mother, and I wouldn't want my daughter-in-law to do the same thing. I swear I feel like an old granny with the way my children talk back at me. Even Aisha calls me Madam or Miss Zenith instead of Mother or Aunt." Zenith did her usual reply to Sylphie's formality. She seemed to support Rudy's future polygamy even more than Sylphie did.

It was difficult for me to call Zenith "Mama" since it was already quite a stretch to consider this relatively young woman as my Mother. Rudy seemed to have issues calling Zenith mama too, although it could be because Rudy's natural genius makes him have a hard time communicating with family (he hasn't even sent a letter these past few years) and my reluctance to have parents less than half my age causing our lack of childish clinginess to our parents.

Maybe I should send Rudy a letter and ask him about magical theory and the like; he must be on his way to King-tier or even Emperor-tier spell casting by now.

Sylphie talked to Zenith for a while, some usual daily pleasantries, while I prepared my wand and some provisions for our hangout.

Zenith gave me a brand new wand; it looked almost exactly the same as Rudy's old wand, which she gave to Sylphie weeks ago. Sylphie appreciated the wand and said a lot of things about it, which would have made any normal man have thoughts if she were closer to twenty than ten. Zenith had a look that implied she was fine with those thoughts as long as Rudy was the recipient.

I hope Zenith doesn't do the same thing to me and proactively finds me a man.

Sylphie brought me to a small hill on the outskirts of Buena, with a tree overlooking a nice view of the plains around the village.

"This is my favorite spot to learn spells on my own because Rudy taught me the most interesting things about magic here." Sylphie smiled as she told this to me.

"Tanya, have you mastered all beginner spells without overpowering them?"

I nodded and said, "Yes, I finally figured out how to make it work exactly to my specifications."

"Specifications… You really say the most grown-up words, Tanya; Rudy had to tell me what that meant when we discussed spell adjustments the first time he talked about it." Sylphie took out her wand and showed something interesting to me.

A stream of water came out, and it was steaming. I felt the warmth coming from that flow of water; I didn't know we could adjust the temperature of our spells. We had ice spells as a subset of water spells, but we couldn't adjust the temperature to make it liquid water either.

"What was that?" I asked with genuine interest; being able to manipulate the temperature of a spell had very interesting implications. Maybe I can make an icebox work like a refrigerator for longer periods of time; I would love to store better meals and fresher ingredients. Maybe even find a way to get fresh fish to Buena instead of all those heavily salted and preserved versions.

"That's combined magic; I used waterfall and heat hand in quick succession to make that hot water stream appear. Rudy can do it even better by using both spells at once." Sylphie explained as she started casting a flurry of partially frozen water instead.

I thought of the equations for heat hand and waterfall before I started casting them. It wasn't too unfamiliar since I had to run multiple equations when I did flight magic before, although the computational orbs made most of the constant adjustments and calculations for me after I set it up mentally.

Lukewarm water came out of my stream of water; what was I doing wrong…

Oh, I forgot water is a lot harder to heat up than metals. I imagined heating up armor, bullets, and shells and using the specific heat for steel instead of water. Water needed ten times more energy per unit temperature change.

I did it again with the variables adjusted, and hot water came out.

"I did it, Sylphie!" I shouted as I jumped around celebrating. Can't fault a man, especially reborn as a little girl, celebrating for figuring out this aspect of magic so quickly.

I was rewarded with an awkward headpat from Sylphie.

Come to think of it, Visha and Sylphie are both roughly seven years older than my physical body as Tanya. I wonder if I should raise Sylphie to be as useful and loyal as Visha was. That is, if Rudeus doesn't come back and claim her as his wife. But she can still be a cooperative sister-in-law anyway.

"You Greyrat siblings really are something; Rudy seemed to know everything I could ask him about when he taught me magic, literacy, and even math. You're just as smart as he is; even Aisha is a very competitive learner. Next thing I know, you'll be flying like Rudy did and leave me behind on the ground."

Flight magic exists here?!

"How did he fly? What spell did he use?" I hurriedly asked Sylphie; this was the one type of magic I missed the most.

"Uh-yeah, kinda? He blasted off to the sky and landed far away; he said he was a little tired by the time I got to him. I've been trying to do that myself, but I can't control myself once I leave the ground." Sylphie

"Can I see how you do it? I might be able to offer some tips." I'd like to believe that by the time I died in my previous life, I was the foremost expert in aerial combat magic.

*Whoosh*

Sylphie blasted herself to the sky, blowing me back in the process.

Her propulsion magic is too strong; I don't see her countering with gravity magic.

"Woah, Wooooaah!" Sylphie flies around uncontrollably in the air for a few seconds but lands in an undignified heap.

She also chantlessly healed herself and stood up; I guess kids are fine with tumbling around, even though they may be magical elf girls. I would have to teach her how to reinforce herself and land properly; dealing with broken limbs from unassisted falls would be a pain, even with the more powerful healing magic available here.

"I see; you've been propelling yourself without keeping yourself afloat. There are ways to stay afloat while constantly on the move, but that would require constant corrective action that would be nearly impossible to turn into spells. However, if you can remove one variable to vastly simplify your maneuverability, it would be a lot easier to manage your flight." It was the difference between keeping a zeppelin afloat compared to a jetplane or even a helicopter.

Aerial mages were more like helicopters in the sense that we had a lot more maneuverability and versatility, but we lacked the sheer speed and (for the most part) ability to fly very high.

Our computation orbs simplified our spellcasting and kept us from losing control; wands here didn't provide the same computational abilities as orbs did, but magic was stronger and simpler to use here.

All I needed was to provide a single equation for the spell; I didn't need to keep it running as it worked.

I dug in deep to remember the sensation of my flight magic, the weightless feeling when using those equations alone. We never needed to chant magic in the old world.

Magicologists from my previous life discovered a method for changing the world through the use of computation orbs. In a physical world bound by three dimensions, the technology actualizes phenomena by applying the appropriate amount of stimulus to the right location.

I remembered a few things from my time as a test subject for the cursed Type 95 Orb at the Kruskos testing lab.

The quintessence of computational orb technology would probably be its practical application in aviation formulas that allow a mage to levitate without a vehicle. By generating propulsion, it thrusts the operator into the air and keeps them balanced. If they feel like it, mages can mimic witches riding on broomsticks.

This world felt like my old world, and I lacked the equipment to test for any significant differences otherwise.

"Let me try," I told Sylphie, who looked like she was removing dirt from herself after the rough landing.

Counter-gravity propulsion spell, volume 10' x 12' x 36', acceleration 9.8 m/s2 along the y-axis, weight 13.5 kg, force roughly 132 N. I know it gets difficult when the Empire liberally switches between the Imperial and Metric systems for spell computation, but I didn't want to recompute everything if I moved over back to metric. Speed learning formulas and estimates would be too much of a pain without a proper educational system around me.

I felt that sudden, disorienting feeling of weightlessness; it was just like the first time I learned flight magic. I was still stuck in place since I didn't move myself, but I knew that if I provided any form of vertical acceleration, I would keep moving until other external forces countered it.

I felt an immense drain, like a clear chunk of my mana disappeared in one go. I haven't felt this tired even when I cast water ball spells 200 times over the fields in an hour. I felt like I could only keep it running for 30 seconds at my current mana capacity.

I reinforced my body as much as I could, expending the same effort I would when I spar with Paul in order to take the stresses of the upcoming propulsion spells. Normal humans in my past life wouldn't have survived the stresses of high powered Aerial magic on their bodies directly, or at least would suffer debilitating injuries when the forces needed to accelerate and decelerate someone with their body as the direct reinforcement of the magical mechanism would cause a lot of Newtons to crush different parts of the body.

I applied an underpowered wind spell to provide some external force: Blast, radius 5 inches, speed 20 mph, and directly under my torso.

*Oof* I need to increase my body's endurance and resilience as soon as possible.

I was much smaller than my past self, and even a vastly weakened Blast spell was enough to push me upwards at twenty mph.

The reinforcement spell was a good idea.

I repeated the spell to make me go forward relative to myself, considering this as a basic reorientation before I did more daring tricks.

I was now diagonally flying higher and forward. I knew the dangers of flying too high with my flagging mana, so I cast another weak blast spell to make me go down and another to make me go back toward my initial position. I needed two tiny spells to spin me in the right orientation, too, small touches, but I didn't want to land facing the other way, even just to show off a little bit…

It was such a crude way to fly, but I managed to land softly.

I used a large portion of my mana, but with enough practice, I believe my mana capacity would increase like a muscle under exercise and workouts.

"Were you a fairy or a pixie in your last life, Tanya? You flew so naturally; even Rudy couldn't do what you did!" Sylphie looked starstruck as she asked me.

I groaned at the thought of being called a fairy or a pixie again.

"Don't be silly; I'm as human as Rudy is. I just… got inspiration… from what you did." I had to think of a quick lie to explain how I even knew this kind of magic when Rudy didn't know how. I was supposed to use him as a scapegoat.

"Errmm. Rudy and Roxy left some notes at home; it mostly doesn't make sense but. – " Sylphie pulled me uncomfortably close before I got to finish my sentence.

"Where are the notes?! I want to see them too; I'm the real disciple of Rudy!"

I enhanced myself to push her off me; I forgot how excitable kids can be.

"Wo-oah, wait. Unfortunately, we sent them all back to Rudy; it was his stuff, after all." I shrugged my shoulders, feigning cluelessness.

"But Miss Zenith told me that we weren't allowed to send Rudy anything; even my Papa won't let me send anything to Rudy when he goes to Roa. This is so unfair!" Sylphie was pouting and complaining like a kid… which made sense since she was a nine-year-old.

"Don't tell anyone I told you this; my parents would be unhappy. But those were rightfully his stuff; we couldn't understand it anyway. We still gave you his wand because he was considering giving it to you before he left." I explained in a rational manner.

Misleading or gaslighting a child would've made me feel a twinge of guilt if I wasn't a toddler on the outside.

"Alright, I'm sorry for acting like that to you, Tanya." Sylphie apologized and used a Millis bow; it was the most recent etiquette lesson we had that week.

"Putting our etiquette lessons to good use, I see. Anyway, I can try to teach you how to do this, but you'd need to understand what gravity is." It was good that there was a word for gravity in this world; it was mentioned once or twice in the magic book. I had to double-check with Zenith even though I guessed it from context clues.

"Oh, I know that! Rudy taught me it's the thing that makes stuff fall to the ground. He said more stuff about it before, but it's a bit hard to remember; even Miss Zenith didn't tell me much more than that." Sylphie gave me a look that matched my subordinates before our early missions. Eager yet relatively inexperienced.

Considering how rarely mentioned it was in the book, I assume gravity isn't a well-taught lesson. I guess that's close enough to the bare basics.

"Yes, there's a certain speed things fall to the ground, and it gets faster over time." I was trying to simplify acceleration due to gravity and decided to use freefall in a vacuum.

"All you have to do is to set magic that can make you go up against it. Here's the equation." I told her the equation and assumed that this little savant would understand it; after all, Sylphie kept casting chantless spells faster than I did, even though it was cruder.

Sylphie nodded obediently. I decided to vocalize the spell, to pretend it came from a normal spell. "Counter-gravity propulsion spell." I covered myself and Sylphie this time, making us both weightless for a few seconds.

Sylphie staggered after the experience, unused to the feeling, but she quickly recovered.

"Counter-gravity propulsion spell," Sylphie shouted.

I decided to give it a try by pushing her up using my magical reinforcement once more.

"Waaaaaaah!" Sylphie shouted as she flew towards the tree.

*Crash* This was the second time in a short time that Sylphie crashed; it made me remember the days I was testing the Type 95 orb.

Sylphie landed with a crash and healed herself quickly. If the 203rd had this kind of healing available to them, I would've trained them even harder; maybe I wouldn't have died against Mary if they were able to subdue everyone else around her and focus on her.

"Congratulations, you also got it on your first try. Now you just need to combine wind magic, in really small bursts, together with that gravity spell, and you can fly around like I did. Although it really drains my mana fast." I said with a genuine smile; who wouldn't be proud of their student learning something they made on the fly(pun intended).

"That really took something out of me; I couldn't even concentrate enough to do wind magic right after this one. Is this really what Rudy was experimenting with before he left? He might be flying over the skies of Roa right now. Do you think that he'd swoop in and hold me by my hand as we fly around Buena? I'd love to feel the wind blowing past us as we fly into the sunset." Sylphie never talked like this while we were around Lilia and Zenith; what does she think I am? One of her girl friends? I cringed at the thought. I had no interest in listening to prepubescent women talk about their crushes. Ι thought I avoided that fate in my last life by going straight to the Imperial Military as early as I could, but fate doesn't give me a break even as a toddler here.

Maybe Sylphie hit herself in the head too hard after that crash.

I never had a friend who treated me like that in my past life; most people around me either treated me like a commander or a little girl, but rarely their peer. That discounts the annoying enemies around me who considered me the Devil when the "God" they worshiped was responsible for far more deaths than I was.

Visha and even her friend Elya (if I remember right) kept their girl talk around me to a passable minimum, although the difference in our rank might have been the reason why they were less outspoken about their discussions about men in my presence.

I swear I could see stars in Sylphie's eyes as she kept talking to herself. I don't think she was even noticing me as she talked about Rudeus.

"Tanya, when you grow older, I bet you'll find yourself a Charming Prince that would sweep you off your feet. Or maybe, in your case, you'd sweep them off their feet with your flying skills. And your older sis Sylphie will be here to guide you all the way. You look so adorable and pretty; I bet you'll grow up like your Mother. Not like simple old me." Sylphie's ears were even moving up and down as she talked; I better steer the topic to more comfortable things.

I sandwiched Sylphie's face with two pieces of bread on both sides of her, trying to snap Sylphie out of her sudden blabbing. I vaguely remember a show that did something like that in my first life, although Sylphie wasn't exactly an idiot sandwich.

Then again, love makes people stupid.

"I think we need to focus on refining our flight magic. I only crudely connected wind magic to my propulsion magic, and the mana wastage was far too high. You didn't even seem to control your flight once you became weightless. On the other hand, how is your mana holding up?" I said with a straight face as I decided to let go of Sylphie's face. She looked like a tomato sandwich with her red face, topped by her green hair.

"Uh-ah, yeah. I think we need to add this to our magic training. And maybe we can even teach Miss Zenith and Aisha next if they get the hang of chantless magic, too." Sylphie started speaking with her more normal voice again.

"But first, let's enjoy a little snack." Sylphie brought out a sack with some fresh cheeses and cured meats and set them on a platter that she also had for our excursion to the hill.

The bread I brought was supposed to be eaten along with it, making for a tasty snack.

This was the first of many picnics where we slowly refined our flight magic and increased our mana capacity.

And despite Sylphie's claims to treat me as a younger sister, I felt that I was treating her the opposite way each time.

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Canon Omake: Letters to Rudeus Part 1

Late K 416, Roa, Fittoa Region

Dear Rudy,

I hope you get this letter; I had to pay the silver coin I saved up over the last few months of doing errands in order to pay the passing trader to send this to you at Roa.

Lord Paul still won't allow me to send you anything, and even my Papa won't let me send you any letters, but I took Tanya's advice to ask someone else to send it for me instead.

I can fly now! Or at least I can stay in the air without crashing and breaking my bones again. The notes you and Roxy left behind with Tanya helped us so much.

Who knew that gravity magic was that simple? The feeling of weightlessness after the counter-gravity propulsion spell makes it much easier for me to use wind magic to push me in the right direction. While I still can't use them at the same time, I think I found a balance between my floating and my moving skills.

But Tanya manages to do it so effortlessly; she's like the stuff of legends. She's almost as smart as you are.

Even Aisha is doing well. She's been able to cast her first water ball spell, and after simply asking her, she somehow managed to make it chantless, too. I demonstrated it to her the same way you taught me. Both of us are your proud disciples and followers.

You're so awesome, and I miss you.

Miss Zenith and Lilia have even been training me well in Asuran and Millis Noble etiquette so that I will be ready to be your wife!

I really miss you, and I hope to see you soon. Maybe I'll fly to Roa and meet you as you fly around the skies.

Lots of love,

Sylphie

Also, can you send me your notes? I really want to learn all those other magical skills you have. Zenith only knows intermediate magic.

There were scratched-out portions and ink blots around the letter, as well as signs of hesitation across the different parts of the letter.

Rudy isn't going to read this any time soon; it would disrupt any plans to put him together with Eris first.

I guess I must warn Paul about this; Sylphie is much smarter than she looks. However, I really doubt that Paul's toddler should be able to give Sylphie advice like that; children's imaginations must run wild these days.

"Alphonse, find that merchant who sent this letter to me; he should be taught a lesson not to be so easily swayed by a child meddling with Boreas politics," I ordered Alphonse as I started thinking about this letter.

If Sylphie was telling the truth, then Eris' claims that Rudy flew her away from the kidnappers two years ago wasn't a lie either. Rudy must be holding back a lot more than I expected. Maybe if I get Eris to pester Rudy to fly again, I might see the secret to this Gravity Magic. Having Boreas Grandchildren who would know the secret to his kind of magic would be a boon to my legacy and also greatly increase my chances of taking over the house from James.

As far as I know, when I studied all I knew about magic from the family library, Gravity Magic is a highly secretive and ancient form of magic that only people like the Dragon King Perugius or Saint Millis managed to do. If Rudy and his former master, Roxy, were secretly able to use gravity magic, they have far more potential than they let on.

Perhaps I need to make Rudy even more attached to the Boreas household; I wonder what I should tell Paul.

Author's Notes:

It's my headcanon that Buena expanded for one reason or another between the time Rudy left and the displacement incident. The monster attacks affected the entire region, and if someone like Paul was already struggling with it in canon by Rudy's birthday, most villages around him would be in much worse shape (including Sara's village further south in Milbots). People flee to safer places as refugees, and Buena is likely a haven for that.

Shortly before Rudy's time, there was an old teacher in Ranoa who knew how to do chantless spellcasting; he's proof that you don't need to learn it as a child or as a super powerful, nearly immortal being like Orsted or Laplace. Apparently, even Magonote (on his Syosetu/Shōsetsuka ni Narō account) said that Aisha could learn chant-omited and even chantless spellcasting if she put in the effort. So ten isn't a hard limit, although it may take a genius with a lot of time and effort to do so. Or someone with otherworldly techniques to help them learn it.

The amount of mana drained by casting 120 normal water balls per hour is far less than one cumulonimbus. A rainstorm has far more water than 120 basketball-sized water balls, after all. It isn't unrealistic to expect Zenith and Tanya to not get tired over that.

I think, at this point, it's extremely easy to overestimate Rudy and Roxy without proper context.

Sylphie had "some intermediate and some advanced spells" when she was working as Fitz; since she knew Sonic blast in canon by the time she fought the Assassin, this would be the advanced spell she knows.

The Salaryman implied he had sexual relations with women outside of marriage because by saying it's a male thing, "But I am biologically male. Certain sexual instincts are programmed into me." in the first LN, however, he clarified that he never had relations with a married woman, nor did he (have the chance to) marry. If anything, the Salaryman in Tanya has an "uncurable" ED arc.

Remember, Tanya isn't a perfect narrator, so if you see canon-breaking assumptions or ideas, it may just be from Tanya's limited POV.

Sylphie is also looking at Rudy with Rose-tinted glasses. She also had no peers to discuss her feelings about Rudy in canon until the Ranoa arc, unlike here, where she considers Tanya as a peer (or even just a younger sister figure) to tell her feelings to. Of course, the salaryman doesn't want to hear any of that.

This means there's a thing or two there that seems to break Mushoku Tensei canon, but it really isn't breaking canon if a more knowledgeable observer saw what was going on. Here's one obvious possible canon overlap… Tanya still thinks that you'd need to do more complex equations to make a spell, being used to the more complicated and limited system from her past life. She just happens to vastly overestimate Sylphie's math skills. The extra time she needs to make the equations ends up dumping more mana into the spell. There's another important thing in the story that looks like it is violated, but it isn't; Tanya is just making a wrong assumption with limited info available.

Paul might know what Touki is, but he never seemed to explain it to Rudy. He treats it so instinctively, and Tanya just assumes it is reinforcement spells like she normally does. Paul improved as a teacher, but not by an unrealistic amount.

Nanahoshi never complained about being disoriented with gravity, so it's safe to assume it is very close to 9.8 m/s2. Even relatively minor shifts (5-10%) would be noticed instinctively by humans, especially if they don't come from the six-faced world. Rudy (and, in this story, Tanya too) was reborn, so their bodies are fully used to SFW gravity if it is different from Earth.

Sylphie didn't understand the equation, or the concept that well, however, she felt how Tanya's magic felt like when Tanya added her to the gravity field, making it a lot easier to copy since Tanya made up the spell name.

I think calling a party member a Tank in a pre-industrial world is weird, so Paul would likely call them a shielder.

In Paul Gaiden, Paul tried magic but didn't like it. He also ended up trying to heal his mother with healing magic; unfortunately, it was too little, and too late.