— Rudeus Greyrat (One Year and Six Months Later) —
"Can you read it?" Law asked, leaning over his shoulder, making Rudeus scrunch his nose up.
"Of course I can!" Rudeus couldn't stop his grin from forming. Sure, he couldn't actually read every single word, but he could read enough to understand it! This was it, his chance to learn magic!
"Read it to me," Law demanded, and Rudeus ignored him. The brat could figure it out himself. "I said read it to me!" He demanded, and Rudeus turned around, giving the smaller boy a look that said, 'leave me the hell alone.'
Law narrowed his eyes and took a step before winding back his leg.
"Argh!" Rudeus shouted in pain as his little brother's foot connected against his back. "What was that for?!"
"Read it." Law demanded with angry eyes.
Rudeus snarled at the boy. Siblings were always little gremlins, whether they were older or younger.
A dark look came over the oldest Greyrat child as he thought back about his past life.
His siblings had kicked him out, forced him onto the streets, and to his death.
His little fists clenched in anger. Siblings truly were the worst, and they were not to be trusted.
Why couldn't Law have been born as a cute little girl? That way he could pamper her and she could develop a loving relationship with him. Yes, that would be the life, perfection incarnate.
But instead, he was stuck with this prickly toddler.
"Fine." Rudeus relented, and Law smiled before taking a seat beside him.
He really didn't want to read to him, and he was tempted just to make up words as he read to him; that way, Law would never learn magic… but the kid wasn't an idiot. In fact, Rudeus was about eighty percent sure that Law had been reincarnated in this world just like him.
Which only pushed Rudy further away from him. If his little brother was truly from his world, then sooner or later, the topic of their past lives would come up, and the last thing Rudeus ever wanted to talk about was his last life.
Back when he was a shut-in NEET that hadn't gone outside in twenty years for anything.
Rudeus shook his head, disregarding those dark, cruel thoughts, and focusing on what was in front of him right now. His chance for a new life of wonder and adventure: magic!
He began reading the book aloud, skipping the words he didn't know and trying his best to absorb the information as he did.
By the end, he felt he had a relative understanding of what he had to do.
Based on what the book said, casting magic wasn't even that hard, it really just depended on one's magic reserves and their ability to remember the incantations.
A smug smile came to Rudeus' face as he stood up and extended his hand.
"You're doing it?" Law asked with a tilt his head but Rudy just ignored him.
The older Greyrat eyed the book for a couple of seconds before speaking.
"Let the great protection of water be on the place thou seekest. I call upon a refreshing burbling stream here and now. Water Ball."
A bubbly ball of water appeared in Rudeus' hand, and both of the brothers stared at it, absolutely mesmerized.
Rudeus couldn't believe his eyes, to think it'd be that easy!
The water ball fell to the wooden floor, leaving a damp spot.
"Get that sheet, now!" Rudeus ordered his little brother, and for once the little brat obeyed, quickly getting up and rushing over to the large white cloth that covered some furniture and grabbing it to clean up the mess he had made.
The mess he made practicing magic!
Rudeus looked at his hand in silent fascination.
As Law cleaned up the water on the ground, Rudeus moved over to the window and climbed up so that his hand was reaching outside. As happy as he was, he didn't want to make a mess and get in trouble.
He closed his eyes as his hand extended out of the window.
He imagined feeling his mana and the process of making water. He recalled the jolt that went through his body as he made the water ball just half a minute earlier.
The way his mana pulled from his feet, through his legs, up his waist and through his torso, before going through his hands and out of his fingertips-
Rudeus' eyes shot open to see a ball of water just at the tip of his fingertips. The sheer surprise of seeing a water ball made him fall backward and the water splashed on his waist and crotch.
He…hadn't even said the incantation. So how did water appear?
"Did you just…" Law blinked his wide eyes as he looked down at Rudeus.
The green-eyed Greyrat paused for a moment before nodding his head and pushing himself onto his feet.
He looked down at his hands and kept silent.
Skipping the incantation was huge, it provided an incredible advantage when it came to fights, and a mage that could cast magic without incantation could probably best a swordsman, even in close quarters, or at least that's what he believed from his experience in RPGs.
All of that being said, the book doesn't say anything about wordless magic…so could it potentially be taboo?
What if he gets labeled as a heretical child, a spawn of demons or something like that and thrown into a terrifying institution?!
No, he couldn't risk that!
"Hey Law-" Rudeus started before pausing at the sight of his little brother holding out his hand.
It was at that moment when Rudeus remembered that his brother couldn't read the contents of the book by himself.
Law was clearly trying to cast the spell anyway, the same way Rudeus had done it.
Law struggled to do it, his head was going red and beads of sweat were falling down his forehead by how much he was trying to force it.
Rudeus frowned and walked over to his brother. He placed a hand on his shoulder, stopping Law from overexerting himself.
Law looked up at him in confusion and Rudeus looked down, thinking about the best course of action.
It was clear that Law was smart enough to figure some things out on his own, perhaps due to him potentially being a reincarnated person. But casting magic was not something he was capable of, at least not at the moment—not without Rudeus help.
Which means, Rudeus could use him.
Law wanted to know magic, and Rudeus wanted to grow and learn more about magic. If they both start off young, both can learn the most and share their learnings with each other.
Rudeus wouldn't fully bring himself to trust his little brother, not after what he went through in his last hour of his past life, but he could understand the value of working with him, if only temporarily.
"Why did you stop me?" Law frowned. The boy wasn't exhibiting childlike anger, it was just clear annoyance at being interrupted.
Rudeus studied Law's face for a few more seconds before he forced a small smile.
"You need help with the incantation again, don't you?"
Law's frown deepened. "No, you just skipped the incantation."
Rudeus nodded, and it was at this point he realized he had the upper hand over his foolish little brother. Reincarnation or not, it was clear Rudeus was smarter.
"Yes, I did, but I was able to do that because I felt what it is like to use magic." Rudeus explained with a smug smile.
Law paused as he fell into his thoughts, considering what he had been told, and Rudeus knew he had seen the bait, all he had to do was jiggle the hook a bit and wait for a bite.
"Then read it to me again." Law demanded and crossed his arms. Rudeus considered asking the blue-eyed boy to ask nicely, but that would just be unnecessarily causing more animosity between them.
"I will, but I want something from you."
"What? Why?" Law raised a brow.
"Because magic is pretty important, don't you think? If I don't read the book to you, it'll probably take you another year before you learn how to read enough words to understand the incantation."
"No, I can learn faster than that!" Law crossed his arms, and Rudy nodded, realizing he may have undershot the boy's intelligence.
Rudeus was almost one hundred percent certain he's a reincarnation now.
"Yeah, you may be right about that, but it'll still take you some time. All you have to do is promise me a few things and I'll teach you everything I know so far."
Law stayed quiet for a half a minute before nodding, agreeing to the terms that had been set.
Rudeus turned his head so that his brother couldn't see his face and grinned madly.
And just like that, Law had taken a bite on the hook, it was just time to reel him in.
"First of all, I want you to promise you won't speak about wordless magic."
Law tilted his head in confusion. Rudeus blinked at his little brother with narrowed eyes before they widened in realization.
"Wordless magic means skipping the incantation." Rudeus explained and Law's eyes lit up for a moment as he nodded.
"Okay, easy." He shrugged.
"Next, I want you to share anything new you learn about magic."
"Okay."
Rudeus grinned, happy with how easily this was going.
"Last, I want you to learn the sword seriously." Rudeus crossed his arms over his chest and Law raised a brow. "I want to see how a mage compares to a similar level swordsman. Something tells me our father won't be a good test dummy."
"Okay, that's even easier." Law agreed, and Rudy smiled. Rudeus already knew Law was interested in the sword, he had spent more than half a day watching Paul train outside, and their father enjoyed his son's fascination.
"Then we have a deal." Rudy held out his hand, and Law shook it.
"Rudeus, Law, are you both in here?" The door opened and standing in the doorway was Zenith who eyed the two boys fondly before her eyes fell on Rudeus, specifically his crotch.
"Oh dear, did it hurt so much that you couldn't hold it?" Zenith asked in a baby voice and walked over. The blonde haired woman picked up Rudeus much to his surprise and stroked his hair. "Lilia! Rudeus had a little accident!"
The red haired woman walked in and eyed Rudeus who looked at her with wide, embarrassed eyes, then at the wet spot just below the window.
"…Understood, Lady Zenith."
She didn't say another word as she started her duty, cleaning up the wet spot she thought was piss, all while Zenith comforted him.
Rudeus glanced down at Law with tearing eyes to see the boy grinning like an idiot!
This wasn't fair! He was too old to look like he wet himself!
— Law Greyrat (Six Months Later) —
My body dropped to the ground as I let out pants of exhaustion. I had pushed myself too far.
"Are you done? You lasted longer today than usual." Rudeus hummed uncaringly as water balls continued to drop in the near-full bucket.
Six months had passed since I casted water ball for the first time with the help of Rudeus, and in that time, we learned a bit more about magic.
One important thing we learned is that magic capacity is not determined at birth, with enough repetition and hard work, one can increase their mana pool.
Unfortunately for me, it seems my potential in magic and mana capacity was significantly less than my older brothers.
Rudeus was like a raging storm while I was like a cool shower. He barely ever got tired when he used magic, and I would drop after a few water balls.
Of course my mana pool has grown in the time we've been training, but I doubt it's even as large as Rudeus' when we first started!
Seriously, that guy is just built different.
Water balls continued to drop until suddenly Rudeus dropped and fell onto his back. The boy let out a huff of exertion before sitting back up.
"You've made good progress." He said with little emotion, and I nodded to myself.
I knew he didn't actually care much about me, it was obvious enough, but he wasn't wrong. I have made considerable progress since I first started. I even managed to pick up wordless incantations after the first couple of months.
"So have you." I returned the praise, attempting to perhaps forge a bridge between us. He disliked me since we first met, and while I didn't appreciate his attitude toward me, I've already experienced having my family barely care about me, and I'd rather not have a repeat of that.
"Hm." Rudeus hummed and stood up. He looked out of the window and stared down at the people outside.
I stood up, carrying my tired body over to the window as well and climbed the ledge so that I could see outside.
Unsurprisingly, Paul was training, and Zenith was gardening. To Zenith's clear annoyance, there was a group of women gathered around watching Paul train.
This was a very common occurrence.
To say my father is handsome is an understatement, he and my mother are absolutely stunning, but one attracts more attention than the other.
Paul is a flirt and a ladies man, on top of being an excellent swordsman. He is the type of guy women dream of, and I'm sure he's taken advantage of that fact more than a few times in the past.
As he swung his blade in precise, graceful movements, I found myself mesmerized by his skills. The blade was incredibly interesting and looked very powerful and fun to use.
Paul said he would teach me and was even going to start a few months ago when I expressed my interest, but mother had shut that shit down instantly. In all honesty, I don't blame her, I'm only about two and a half years old, so I'm still very young, and I doubt there are even swords my size.
With my mother denying me any sword training, and my father not being dumb enough to go against her, I settled for learning magic with Rudeus in the meantime, and practicing with sticks when I really wanted to play pretend.
*FWOOSH*
*SPLASH*
My eyes widened as I watched a ball of water smack against Paul's face.
Rudeus quickly ducked down, and not wanting to be blamed for the act, I ducked down as well.
When I did, I was Rudeus looking at his hand with quiet excitement.
"You launched it?!" I asked with no small amount of surprise. He nodded slowly as his grin began to grow.
We had spent so long trying to figure out how to actually launch the water ball, but we couldn't figure it out.
Rudeus held out his hand and aimed it at the bucket. A water ball formed and flew forward before splashing in the bucket.
"…"
My jaw had dropped as I slowly turned back to Rudeus who looked incredibly proud of himself
He pushed himself to his feet and kept shooting out water balls, first out of his palms, then out of his fingers. It was clear he was having a lot of fun with his newly acquired mastery over magic.
"So, how did you do it?" I questioned with undisguised interest. He looked at me, his grin slowly morphed into a smirk as he wagged his finger.
"Praise me!"
"Yes yes, very good, now how did you do it?" I stood up and placed my hands on my hips. My words seemed to have satisfied my selfish older brother.
"Alright, my dear servant, I, the great and humble Rudeus Greyrat will offer you some sagely advice."
"You mean dirty and perverted." I whispered under my breath but I was certain he heard me judging by how he suddenly choked.
Rudeus was without a doubt someone who got reincarnated. The shit he did was just too odd for him to be a normal baby.
Going into all the strange shit he has done would take forever, but merely mentioning his acts of stealing Lilia's underwear, sniffing them, wearing them on his head, and staring at her breasts with a goofy ass smile would be enough to put him as a reincarnation.
"Anyway, to properly launch magic the steps are: create, set size, set firing speed, activate."
I widened my eyes at that. I hadn't thought that an order on casting magic mattered, but apparently it does if we haven't been able to fire it until following that precise order.
To be honest, I had been setting the firing speed before the size, which is probably why it didn't work this entire time.
So I have nothing but my own foolishness to blame for my delayed progress.
I held out my hand and followed Rudeus' directions, and true enough, a water ball flew from my hand and into the bucket. I let out a breath of exertion and smiled at my older brother who returned it with one of his own.
We had finally cracked the final code in our beginner magic.
We played around with firing water balls for another half an hour before Rudeus walked over to the book and flipped through it.
"I think we're ready to try some intermediate magic now!"
I eyed him like he had lost his mind and just cursed his bullshit mana pool.
I'm fucking exhausted. The sheer thought of trying intermediate magic right now made me feel sick so I quickly waved him off.
"You got that, Rudeus." I pushed myself to my feet and prepared to excuse myself. "I'm beat."
"Huh? Alright, though this just means I'm gonna get further ahead of you," He grinned victoriously, but I just shrugged.
In truth, I've spent so long training magic and have worked so hard. Harder than even Rudeus, I've pushed myself to the point of exhaustion and then some, just to try and close the gap between us, and even after all that work, it hasn't been enough.
I'm not giving up now, but I know for a fact that reaching Rudeus' level may never be possible. He could just put in a little bit of work and his mana pool would grow a lot larger, while I only get small increases.
My best chance of matching him is by learning the sword and using magic to boost me in that field.
"Have fun." I said and waved as I walked out of the room and into the hallway. I made my way downstairs because I wanted to watch Paul train.
Sure I couldn't train myself, but maybe I could pick up a thing or two from watching him.
As I was prepared to go outside, I caught sight of Lilia cleaning the floor.
I smiled at the sight. I didn't really understand how we could even afford a maid, but didn't think too much about it. Besides, Lilia was less of a maid and more of a family member in my opinion.
"Hi, Lilia." I greeted as I walked over to her. She was on the ground, wiping the floors to keep them clean and shiny.
She looked up for a moment, her purple eyes meeting my blue ones with a small amount of interest.
"Master Law." She lowered her head out of respect. I didn't really like when she did that, but I knew stopping her wouldn't be possible.
She went back to cleaning, and I just stood there, with a nervous frown. I had wanted to talk to her, maybe strike up a conversation or learn a bit more about her, but it seems she doesn't want to be bothered.
"I'm going outside." I said before turning and walking away.
"Enjoy yourself." She said quietly behind me, and I couldn't stop myself from smiling.
Lilia definitely understands something isn't right with me and Rudeus, but especially Rudeus. All the times he's done pervy shit to her has left her on her toes when she deals with both of us.
A shame honestly, she's a nice woman.
I opened the door by pulling a chair for me to stand on, then made my way outside.
I hobbled down the steps and into the open yard where my father was swinging his sword.
My eyes momentarily locked onto my mothers back, but I disregarded her after a few seconds. I'm a man on a mission after all!
I stumbled further into the yard and Paul caught sight of me. He eyed me with confusion before a small smile took root on his lips.
"Whatcha doing out here, Law? Come to watch your old man swing this thing around again?" He grinned and I nodded.
"Well then, sit back and watch, hopefully you can pick up a thing or two while you're at it!" He winked at me and continued swinging.
""KYAAA!"" The three women watching him cheered and I completely ignored their existences. As cool as it seems to have a group of attractive grown women so close, the sword is much more impressive.
I watched closely, admiring every swing of the blade, every step he took, and all the ways his body would twist with his movement. The only thing I couldn't see well from my seat on the steps was my fathers breathing, which I assume was pretty important in swordsmanship.
I'd have to ask him about it later, maybe at dinner.
*BOOOOOM*
A loud noise rang from the house as pieces of debris fell down on my little body. I covered my head, attempting to shield myself from damage.
Within an instant, Paul was covering my body with his. He picked me up and carried me over to Zenith who immediately started fussing over me.
"Are you okay, Law?!" She worriedly asked as she grabbed my chin and began inspecting me for cuts and bruises.
"Mmm." I nodded with a bead of nervous sweat running down my brow.
I looked up at our house to see a massive hole in the second floor.
…Rudeus.
That kid was going to be a monster, but I'd be damned if I let him leave me in the dust!
— Chapter End —
Beta Readers: Basilisk Dragonboy1 Darklord331 LuluViBritania (FF.N, SB, WN and QQ)/-LuluViB99th Britannian Emperor(Discord)
Author's Note: I wrote this chapter fairly quick but didn't put as much as I wanted to into it. That being said, it's still a pretty lengthy chapter, at least by my standards. I'll try to move this fic along a bit more in the next chapter.