I Ask You, What Is Magic?

"Say 'Ah,' come on Ryan, try and say 'Ah'."

"Ahh!" I opened my mouth wide, mimicking the sound babies make when they are asking for food.

"Great! Now say 'lee'."

"Leee!" I went along with an innocent expression on my face.

"Nice, nice, you're doing great! Now, try to say 'Ollie'. Nice and steady." 

"Owwy!" I replied with enthusiasm and laughed hard, looking forward to the faces I knew I was going to see in a moment.

"Nooooo! We were doing so great..." Oliver lamented as he cringed hearing me verbally mutilate his nickname.

"Move out of the way, Ollie. It's my turn now." Tristan cheerfully shoved away the grieving Ollie and got straight in my face.

"No no no, let me try one more time, he almost had it! Let me try once more before he loses the feel for it!"

"Nope, you set the rules, follow them. My turn now..."

We were currently in a lobby of sorts, finally a relief from looking around in the same room for months. It has been six months since my first waking, and around three months since I have started enjoying my second life.

Ever since that day three months ago, I had stopped feeling any chills on my skin, though I had also not felt that same warmth either.

By now, I had enough control and strength in my body to be able to sit still without toppling over, and enough stamina to last half a day without giving in to the slumber.

Though I still needed someone to help me sit up or stand up.

[I think it is about time you stopped teasing them. It would be bad if you were labeled as a troubling child.] Codex calmly butted in with his infinite wisdom.

Tch. Let me enjoy myself a little, would you? Plus it's not like I am faking a lot. I can say 'Triss' if I try hard enough, but saying 'Ollie' is genuinely hard. I rebuked him mentally.

[Understandable.]

Codex has been a constant voice in my head since three months ago, like an angel on my shoulder.

Except the angel part.

That reminds me, I do still need to work on my walking ability. The stronger I make my body as a baby, the more I'll be able to do as a grown up.

[That you do.]

Ignoring Codex's needless remark and making up my mind, I refocused on my brothers and raised my still chubby arms, making them stop their banter.

"Up!"

As if hit by a spell, both of my brothers turned to figurative mush.

"Up!" I repeated, this time with more oomph.

Seriously, stop doing that, you two. I berated them in my mind, feeling second hand embarrasment.

Triss — being the kind brother that he was — stood up and positioned himself behind me, as Ollie positioned himself in front me of me and pulled me up by my armpits.

Feeling myself steady on my feet, I gave my signal we all had came to acknowledge as me wanting to be unsupported: "Go,"

Ollie slowly removed his hands from under my armpits but still kept them close enough to catch me if I was about to fall, while Triss kept his hands near my waist.

One small step at a time, Ollie stepped back as I tried to step forward.

"Yes, yes, keep moving Ryan. We are here to catch you." They kept encouraging me.

But I didn't need any encouragement, I awaited the day I could walk freely. After being bound to less a square meter area for so long, my heart yearned to explore.

But first... the next step.

Almost falling a few times, I made it to the door on the other end of the room.

Remembering that mom had gone past that door a few minutes ago, I redoubled my efforts to reach her all by myself.

"Da!" I spoke, pointing to the door behind Ollie, prompting him to look over at Triss in askance.

"It's fine, open the door. This is the longest he's walked, let him try more." Triss answered the unanswered question and pulled his hands closer to my trembling body as Olly turned to open the door.

—Click

With shining eyes, I continued to take steps and slowly entered the light beyond the threshold.

The other side of the door was a big hall of sorts, almost twice as big as the lobby had been. There were a couple tables and chairs around them in the hall, and a reception counter with some stools next to the door I entered from.

"Mamma!" I called out while continuously stepping forward and looking for my mom.

There was a bigger door on the far side of the hall, leading outside the building and letting in a chill breeze in.

"Raiyu?" Mom's voice called out from somewhere on my right, but with the counter in the way, I couldn't tell where she was.

"He's here mom. He's walking on his own!" Ollie exclaimed without removing his eyes from my wobbling self.

This had been my longest unassisted walk so far, and I wasn't going to quit so early.

With some footsteps from my right, mom appeared in front of me in a apron and knelt down a few feet away from me, beckoning me to reach her.

Despite my shaking legs, I pushed on, and on and on—

SAFE!

Before I could fall, I corrected my pose and took a second to collect myself before continuing.

[That was a close one.]

Thankfully, Triss and Ollie trust me enough to not interrupt me. I'll be sure to practice their names at night. I mentally said both to myself and Codex.

Before long, I fell in mom's lap, wheezing my baby lungs out.

"Bravo, brother!" Triss clapped and jumped excitedly.

"Of course, he's my brother, after all!" Ollie bragged, getting smacked in the back of his head by Triss a moment later.

I watched it all while getting patted on my aching head by mum.

Huh?

Suddenly, my head started feeling heavy and my eyes turned blurry.

Did I push myself too hard? That shouldn't be the case, my legs hadn't given out before I stopped wal... king...

Before I could finish my thoughts properly, I passed out.

–

–

–

Black, dark, empty.

White, bright, full.

Looking at my body, I groaned in annoyance.

"Not again. What do you want this time?" I asked the void.

[This time it was purely triggered by you, Ryan. Apparently your reincarnation was not complete at your birth. You just now passed some kind of threshold, allowing you to further assimilate in... here.] Codex elaborated.

"Here? As in Velaris? You mentioned that name earlier, I assume it's the name of the planet."

[No and yes. Velaris is indeed what the natives call this place, but what I meant by 'here' is in this body.]

"I see. Yeah, I guess that makes sense. So, What's the holdup? Send me back out already." I asked while tapping my foot in impatience.

[It's... complicated.] He admitted hesitantly.

"What is? You were able to send me back the last time."

[Yes, because at that time your body was just sleeping, but right now, something is changing at a deeper level in your body.]

"Uh-huh, like what?" I asked half-heartedly.

I didn't particularly care about whatever was going on so long as I was sent back to my family.

[I am merely a fraction of your dad's soul, living inside a fraction of the ENAMAL's core chip in your head. But now, the rest of the nanites are also being pumped in your body, making it burdensome on your body to perform its usual working. But I believe—]

"Now hold on a second, what now?!"

[—the bots will handle it fine on their own.]

"..."

[Try saying 'status' now.] He prompted the speechless and almost fuming me.

Forcibly calming myself down, I followed his instruction: "Status,"

The floating text messages broke down and turned into a panel displaying my supposed 'status'.

[Status:

Given Name: Ryan

Age: 12 Months

Race: Hybrid (Human/Spirit)

Affinities: —

Runes: —

End]

The data on the status page looked barely anything like what I had expected, mostly because of the listed parameters. I had only coded the 'Name' placeholder in the original code. So it was obvious that whatever the code — and by extension, the nanited — were doing, I was oblivious of it.

Regardless, there were some interesting details to be noted in the status, for example...