Chapter 8: Blessings of God

Two more years have passed since I’ve started speaking. During that time, I have learned a lot of things, like my appearance for example.

I wasn’t able to really determine my looks when I was a baby because I can’t even move my neck, but my hair was bluish silver with the texture like that of a thin silver thread.

Along with that, which I’ve witnessed looking in the mirror, the color of my skin was white enough to say that it was deathly pale, and the color of my eyes were different, which gave me a rather distinct characteristic.

My right eye is red, and my left eye is blue. It seems like I’ve inherited both Lyell’s blue eyes and Maria’s red eyes.

Combining all the features that I’ve inherited, it could be said that I have quite a noticeable appearance. My facial features alone are already quite adorable, and I could already see a promising future even though I am only this young.

Of course, other than that, my body has also grown. However, even though I tried so hard to train my magic and body, the results were not that good.

Although magic still exists in my body, when I try controlling it, it goes out of control and I won’t be able to consciously manipulate it as I wanted.

This body, though I tried muscle training since the infancy period, my build was quite similar to Maria and is somewhat weaker than most children of the same age group.

Well, Maria is actually quite a sturdy person who was able to overcome our tough adventures. She has more physical strength than an average person. Compared to me, even though we were on the same level of experience, I am more frail and weaker than her. Even though my aim is to be similar to the hero Lyell, it seems like I have inherited more of Maria’s features instead.

Today, after a day of training, my family gathered in front of the fireplace and was bonding with each other.

I’m going to be three years old soon, and because my legs have become pretty firm, I am now able to move around freely in the house.

But this evening I just sat on the floor doing some mild stretches.

My physical strength has already been exhausted, but if I’m only doing mild stretches, then the impact on my physical strength won’t be that much.

「Uuh~」

Lyell, who sitting on the sofa behind me, looked at me with a smile as I do some stretching exercises. Next to the fireplace is Maria, knitting, and Finia who was sitting beside her.

I was sitting on the floor, aligning my knees and bringing my heel beside my butt. It would be hard to do this in a male’s body, but this body had no problems with that because of the difference in the body structure of both genders. Apparently, this body has a considerable problem in terms of physical strength and endurance, but seems to have considerably high dexterity and flexibility.

I secretly spread my left foot and kick my right foot a little. Moving a few centimeters in this form, I then move to the left.

I repeated this several times and was moving right to left for a while. But Lyell picked me up from behind and put me on his lap.

「Ya, Lesh–me-go!」 「Don’t hate me, Nicole … Can’t you play with dad once in a while?」 「Muu ~」

I twisted my body and jumped out of Lyell’s lap. I’m going to pronounce it more clearly, 「Stop it, release me」 but as my vocal cords are still underdeveloped, I will definitely end up wording it in baby talk.

After escaping, I instantly found my point of protection. Maria looked at me jumping off and was ready to receive me with open arms. But well, to jump into my former comrade’s chest would be too embarrassing. So I decided to jump into Finia chest instead, who was standing next to Maria.

Because she is small and petite, I could easily jump up to her chest. Finia hurriedly picked me up as I jumped so suddenly. Just like how elves look, she has a thin body, with a thin waist and a soft fluffy chest which could make you say that she’s certainly a woman. The smell of fragrant flowers drifted slightly around her which was really comfortable.

I followed the source of the smell and it was drifting from a small bag hung around her waist. Perhaps it was a potpourri1 made with wild grass. She is wearing such a simple scent which is better compared to noble children wearing perfume.

I stretched out my hand to her waist and took the small bag to check what was inside it. Other than that, I don’t really have any other ulterior motives. I just wanted to see the origins of this flowery scent.

But after seeing my actions, Maria couldn’t help but smile wryly and giggled.

「Nicole is still a girl after all, she seems to be curious about the potpourri」 「It’s not that rare」 「But you know, she was not that keen on such small things before. Not only did she not want to wear skirts, she even asked Lyell to teach her swordsmanship, which was something that a boy would do」 「Nicole-sama is very cute after all, right? You could even say that she’s the cutest in this village!」

Finia emphasizes that while holding me. Certainly, my appearance is similar to Maria, which is a very good appearance that is neat and mature. Moreover, because I am considerably smaller and frailer than the average child, it made me look like an adorable aristocratic girl.

But what I am aiming for is the hateful Lyell’s style. With a figure of a Hero who could freely use a sword comparable to the length of his body. It was a form that I was aiming for and was not able to reach. However, with my current body, it seems impossible to also reach that figure even now.

「That’s right, Finia. Won’t you be making potpourris together with everyone tomorrow?」 「Everyone, is it?」 「Yup, I think the west village has now become a meadow? It’s also getting warmer soon, so the flowers will be blooming」 「Thinking about it, it’s about time… Will it not be dangerous going outside of the village? 」 「It’s not only Finia who will come along」 「But, won’t I be protected by Maria-sama instead?」 「Well, it’s not like I’m really that bad at close combat」 「I understand」

Maria was not a priest warrior, but a pure rear-guard. When it comes to combat abilities, she could be considered as the weakest even among the backline like the beastwoman Cortina and the elf Maxwell. However, she still surpasses the strength of ordinary people. Though the current me is far more inferior.

「Then it’s concluded, right? Well then, let’s prepare some packed lunch for tomorrow before going to the meadow」 「Yes, I understand.」 「Also because a ceremonial baptism will be starting soon, let’s take a break before that time arrives」

The ceremony of baptism is a ceremony received by a child three years after birth and is also a ceremony to examine the abilities of the child. In this world, there are children who are given the ability called a blessing, the benefits of that gift give the owner overwhelming effects.

For example, from mythical grade abilities like a different dimension space that can store unlimited objects, eternal youth as the name suggests, and charm ability that could attract others just by eye-contact. There are also blessings like ones possessed by Lyell and Maria that are useful in battles like martial-arts and high speed chanting among others. Additionally, there are also other abilities that aren’t that useful so it’s more of a gamble. Just by having a gift, things that required ordinary people decades to achieve could be learned in just a few years.

Of course, they are things that you could learn even without such abilities, but people who possess the abilities far outshine those who don’t, like in swordsmanship for example, which would greatly boost the ability of one who possesses it compared to one who doesn’t.

However, depending on the presence or absence of such abilities, the growth rate obtained by training will differ a lot. As it was a ceremony to determine those things, residents of this world always take the baptism very seriously.

By the way, Lyell’s gifts are Combat Tactics and Toughness. This greatly improves his combat abilities and giving him high endurance. By possessing this, he can continue to fight with almost inexhaustible physical strength.

Gadius’ gift is Shield Arts and Robust. It allows him to receive an enemy’s attack with a shield and also can attack with a shield to repel enemies. And robustness is the ability to endure enemy attacks. With these two Gadius was able to demonstrate a defensive power which could be said to be the life-line of the party.

Maria possessed God’s Miracle and High-Speed Casting. This is a talent mainly focused on the use of sacred magic and the ability to activate it instantaneously. This allows her to quickly cast sacred magic. In a battle that even a difference of seconds could mean death, her magic is another life-line aligned with Gadius.

Maxwell’s gift is Aptitude for All Attributes of Magic and Magic Power Increase. It’s the ability to master all kinds of magic and the ability to enhance their effects. Maxwell, who releases wide-range attacks with powerful magic spells, was the main attacker of the party, which is the opposite of Gadius.

Cortina possesses Ingenious Strategy and High-Speed Calculation. Ingenious Strategy is the ability to see through the enemy’s strategy and to derive the optimal strategy and tactics, the High-Speed Calculation is the ability to calculate instantaneously as its name implies. With the combination of these two gifts, she could instantly handle the information in front of us and instruct us on the best course action.

Because of that, she was able to understand why help was needed earlier than anyone else at the time before I died.

Also, I couldn’t forgive Gadius who brought such a request upon us, but more than that, I could not forgive myself who could not properly come up with the right measures to protect myself more than anyone else, I then ended up in this place as a result.

Compared to them, my gift was quite plain. What I had was a Thread Manipulation and Covert Tactics. It was purely assassination tactics to move around without being noticed by anyone and stopping the enemy’s movement by using steel threads.

That is why there are a lot of disadvantages if I confront an enemy head-on. It could even be said that I was fortunate enough to be able to subjugate that Devil.

I do not yet know what happened to those gifts after being reborn, but it seems like I have inherited those skills seeing how dexterous my fingers are and that my training hasn’t been found out by Finia.