"So he's just unconscious?" Asked Isabel with a frown. It's right after the sun has risen and she's currently in her son's room together with Arthur, Lana and a maid that looks as pale as a prisoner on death row. Isabel is staring on a carriage sized burn mark on the stone ceiling.

"Yes, there's not a scratch on him. If he wasn't so unresponsive i'd think he was sleeping." Answered Lana. "Renee over here says she was here when it happen. Renee dear, come here." She says while gesturing towards the pale maid with dirty blonde hair.

After Renee approaches Isabel goes straight to the point. "What happened?"

"Y-yes, milady," Begins Renee. "I was on baby duty during the night when i heard the young master's cries, so i came in and changed his diapers. When i was about to leave, the young master called out again while pointing to my fire-"

"Fire? What fire?" Interrupted Isabel with an expression that could kill the faint of heart.

"I-I was using magic to illuminate the way, b-but i swear it wasn't me that burn the ceiling, milady!" Answered Renee with panic in her voice.

"I see, what happened then?"

"T-The young master called while pointing at my fire, s-so i thought he was curious about what it was. I told him it was called fire and tried to help him pronounce it by repeating the word. He was getting close when he abruptly let out a surge of mana and seemed to launch fire into the ceiling before falling unconscious. So i ran to call for Lana." Finished Renee.

Everyone in the room was quiet for a few moments until Arthur who kept to his own until now walked over to the crib with the unconscious baby. He quietly stared at his son for a while before speaking, "He has mana exhaustion." He said with a smug smile while looking at his wife, who was having none of it.

"His name is Lance, and he will be a fierce royal knight when he grows up." said Isabell with narrowed eyes.

"Now, now, my love," Began Arthur, returning a narrowed look of his own. "He's too young for us to decide what he will become for now, but he clearly has problems controlling his mana, if he didn't run out of mana so soon he might have damaged the ceiling and who knows what would happen then?" He spoke while his smile widens.

Isabel, now gritting her sharp teeth, "FINE! But only basic mana control! If you try to teach him any arcane theory, i'll burn your office down!" She declared, before stomping away. "And get someone to clean the ceiling!" She said right before leaving.

Arthur, with his smile now cramped, "I doubt he would understand arcane theory, anyway..."

~PoV: MC~

Ugh, what a headache! Do i have a hangover? Oh wait, i'm a baby... I am also hungry.

Looking around, it's daytime and the burn marks on the ceiling are gone. Oh, Lana is sitting nearby reading something. Let's tell her i'm hungry. "Ei!" My mouth is a little dry, how long did i sleep for?

"Oh? Finally awake, are you?" she says something while closing her book. Now, how should i go about telling her i'm hungry? Oh, i know!

"Mama!" I declare proudly. Look! She understood straight away. Now i just have to wait... Oh right, magic. Let's circulate mana while we wait.

Is it just me or do i have less mana than before? Well, the difference isn't that big anyway, so it's fine.

Lana sure is taking her time, let's also do some vocal exercises while we wait.

Oh, there they are. "Did he really speak?" Mother is asking Lana something, she's always so serious, no wonder Athena is always acting so adult-like. Today also she's wearing a serious-looking uniform.

"Yes, milady. I very clearly heard him say 'mama'." Oh, i recognize that milady word, but why is she saying mama? Do people call someone else's mothers mama around these parts? that's kinda weird, but ok.

Mother approaches me with her usual serious face and picks me up, but she doesn't move to feed me, she's just giving me a glare. Uh-oh, is this about the ceiling? "Speak." Sorry mother, i'm going to need a little more information to understand what you want. She turns to Lana when i don't answer.

"Come on, young master! Say 'mama'! Ma-ma!" Says Lana. What's this about 'mama'?

Mama is the scary lady with the sharp teeth, right? "Mama." I say while pointing at mother.

Uh-oh, mother's expression is shaking, is she angry? "Lana, excuse us for a second." She says something to Lana, and Lana leaves.

Aaaaand now she's hugging me and pecking my head with kisses. "Such a good boy!" Mother, please be careful not to hurt me with your teeth. Also, your serious expression has completely fallen apart.

Oh right. I'm hungry. "Ei!" I call out to her. She lifts me to her eye-level. Uwah, that big smile of hers would terrify me if she wasn't my mother. "What is it, Lance? Did i hug you too hard?" I don't know what she's saying so i just point at my food source. "Oh, i see."

While i'm being fed, father enters the room. "I heard that he finally woke up and also that he spoke?" He's saying something, but i'm busy right now, so i'm not paying attention.

"Yes, he said 'mama' while pointing at me. I'm clearly his favorite parent, and he will definitely follow in my footsteps." Mother is back to her usual serious self and i think i recognize the word for yes.

"Oh, come on Isabel! A two weeks old baby should barely be able to recognize faces. Our son is not only speaking but shooting fire at the ceiling!" Father seems to be getting emotional.

"What's your point?" Mother is not getting emotional at all.

"My point is that our son is a genius and should receive an education befitting of a genius!" Father is being loud as usual.

"Sure." Mother is not loud at all.

"But I-!... What do you mean sure?" Father is being less loud now.

"I mean that i know you're trying to turn him into a bookworm like yourself, but i'm already his favorite parent so it doesn't matter."

"... What's the catch?" Father seems fearful now.

"You have to call him Lance." Mother seems happy.

"BUT ARCHIMEDES IS A PERFECT NAME FOR-" Okay, i'm ignoring father now. What's his deal with Archimedes, anyway?

After i'm done being fed and mother has left, father showed me how to heat objects using mana and make a gentle magic candle flame just like miss fire's. I wanted to learn more magic but it seems i get sleepy when i use mana. Too Bad.

Well, i guess father isn't that bad after all.

~time skip~

It's been a few months since i started learning magic. I'm getting pretty good at their language too. I learned that mother works in the military and, while i don't know her specific rank, i've never seen her being ordered around so it should be pretty high up, which makes sense considering the amount of servants in the castle.

While my baby life has changed little, i now need to sleep less often than before, sadly that means more time to be bored, happily that means more time to practice magic, sadly i have yet to learn magic that can change my diapers. While i did learn a little bit of telekinesis, i can barely push and pull things, so that's still a work in progress.

Let's see, the magics (spells?) I have learned so far are: heat, candle flame, light, breeze, moisture gathering, self-enhancement, self-healing, telekinesis and teeny tiny lightning. Oh! There's also the first magic i used, i call it fire burst, but i never used it since then because it takes too much mana and i'd have to sleep straight away... It's also very dangerous, but that's besides the point.

Heat lets me either heat up or cool down something, i can't boil water with it, but dad can so i should be able to when i grow up. Candle flame is a small steady flame, the hardest part is keeping it steady and not flickering. Light makes a floating light that reminds me of a firefly, dad can make it as bright as a light bulb and even use it as a flash grenade. I don't think i need to explain breeze, and moisture gathering is simply too slow, i think it would take me a week to fill a small cup with water.

Self-enhancement is really cool, it lets you strengthen your body or enhance your senses. Mom uses it all the time when sparring. I have to say, seeing the way people in this world fight is pretty weird. It feels extremely lacking in finesse until you pay attention to how they are wielding their mana. But even then i feel their actual sword techniques to be lacking, though who am i to say that, i'm just a baby.

Self-healing is as the name implies, though i can barely heal a needle prick at the moment. Mom got really mad when dad pricked me with a needle, so i have had little chance to practice. Telekinesis feels a lot like the force from a certain franchise about wars among the stars, using it feels very similar to breeze, though on solid objects instead of the air. Teeny tiny lightning (not the official name) is as the name implies, a small electric spark between my fingers.

Today, dad came again to teach me something new. "Cast a flame for me." I do as he says.

He stares at my flame for a moment and then it gets snuffed out in an instant. What happened?

Father seems to know what i'm thinking. "I just disrupted your mana. Try again." I do as he says.

This time i'm paying attention to his mana... the heck? He pretty much just used his mana as if a whip and hit my flame with it. "Now you try it." He says while creating his own flame.

Hm... no matter how i try to hit it, it just feels like i'm whipping a wall. "This is the importance of mana control, if the difference in control is high enough, a superior sorcerer can completely dominate an inferior one." He says with a smug smile, the bastard. I'll show him. "Take this lesson to heart and always practice these exercis-..." Hehehe, i used breeze to suffocate his flame.

He's looking at me with narrowed eyes, not so smug now are you? Oh, he's doing something with his mana... Isn't that just candle flame and breeze together? the flame is bigger, but that's it. Instead of using breeze to pull the air away i do the opposite and shove as much air as i can into his flame.

His fire grows bigger for a moment before it's blown away. He didn't like that. Now he's doing something weird with his mana, it's taking a very specific shape that resembles a symbol of some sort that collapses in on itself while it turns into a ball of fire... okay? The heck was that?

Using breeze to either push air away or into the flame does nothing. Whipping obviously doesn't work this time as well. Gathering moisture seems too slow to have any effect... huh? Now that i look at it, the flame seems disconnected from him, normally you need to keep pumping mana into the flame. Hmm...

I'll try to use candle flame and see if my fire can collapse his fire... "Wait!" *woosh*

There's a new burn mark in my room, this time it's a circle with about one and a half meters in diameter. I look at dad with a smug smile. Mom is gonna be so mad at you. Hehehe.

~small time skip~

I was right, mom got really mad at him. From that day onwards dad stopped teaching me and I started spending more time with mom while being carried by Lana.

I think mom has a military rank around Colonel or Major General. The castle we live in is huge, it even has a small farm inside it. It's the kind of castle that would probably take months to siege, although i don't know if that's still the case when magic joins the mix.

Some suits of armor and weapons i see from time to time seem too heavy or big for human use, as expected from a fantasy world.

The soldiers and knights that meet me always have the same reaction. They get momentarily surprised and then act all respectful. I learned some new fancy words from the knights.

Turns out we are on the north-eastern border of the country (not sure what the name of the country is) and the lands further to the east are populated with various tribes and clans, so while there aren't any big wars, the military on this side of the country spreads itself thin to make sure they stop any raiding parties heading towards civilian settlements.

Most of mother's time is spent on her office reading and writing letters, so i still have plenty of time to practice magic. When i run low on mana i have Lana read a children's book for me. Sometimes mother reads for me when she has the time, although she always picks books with wars in it, i think she is some kind of military nerd, if that's even a thing.

I also saw Athena from time to time, it seems she spends pretty much her entire day on one class or another, i've seen her learn etiquette, history and dancing. The poor thing must not have any free time... Wait, am i going to be like that too?

One thing i noticed is that there are plenty of women on this country's military, including my mother. You'd think a country with medieval culture would treat women poorly but that doesn't seem to happen at all.

Today it seems my grandmother has come to visit us. It seems she's also in the military, although she is higher ranking than my mother. I'm currently being held in my mother's arms with Athena and father on either side of us while waiting for grandma to come through the front door.

The door opens as i take my first look on my mother's mother... She looks like a slightly older Isabel, how old was she when she had mother? Wait, how old is mother in the first place?

"Thank you for visiting, mother." Says my mom to her mom, that's confusing.

"Thank you for having me, Isabel." Even her voice is similar to my mother. "Long time no see, Arthur." She gives my father a nod, which he returns with a stiff face. "You have grown splendidly, Athena."

"Thank you, grandmother."

"And you..." She stares at me, is there something on my face? "How old did you say Lance was, Isabel?"

"He will be five months old in two days, mother."

"And you said he can use magic?"

"Mostly cantrips and control exercis-" "Mostly?" Mother starts and grandmother interrupts her.

"Yes, mother. We found out he could wield mana when he launched a burst of flames while trying to imitate a maid's candle flame."

"..." She stares at me again. "Lance, can you understand me?" I nod. "Can you speak?"

I shake my head and try to say 'not really'. "Moh welly." Close enough.

"Can you read and write?" She continues. I shake my head. I just started learning after all.

"He can only recognize a few words, mother. It hasn't been long since he started learning." Yeah, thanks mom.

"... His eyes are golden, but his pupils show he carries our royal blood." The what shows what? "We'll have to wait until he's older to make sure but... Tell me boy, do you still remember how you did that 'flame burst'?" Uhh, yeah. I nod. "Let's go to the practice range, lead the way Isabel."

And go to the practice range we did.

Getting there, mother holds me in front of a practice dummy. "Show me your magic, boy." Says grandma. It's been a long time since i used it, but it's not that complicated. I make two 'nodes' of mana, turn one into a shallow cup with the opening towards the dummy and the other a sphere that fits perfectly inside the cup. And spin the two in opposite directions. This is much easier than last time.

In a couple seconds they are going as fast as i can make them go, so i will the mana to become fire.

And then i pass out again... this sucks.

~PoV change~

The whole family is quietly watching Lance do his thing. Arthur wants to stop the casting since it seems extremely unsafe but his mother-in-law shuts him down with a glare. So he prepares to cast a barrier spell just in case.

*Crack* *Ka-boom*

Together with the thundering sound and a shock wave flies a torrent of bright golden flames that seem to imitate the flames of a dragon's breath. The flames completely engulf the practice dummy and keep flying out in the shape of a cone until they hit the castle's wall.

Everything happens in less than a second and is over in the blink of an eye.

A few seconds pass as the audience recover from the flash and sound. They open their eyes to see that the baby is unconscious, the test dummy has ceased to exist and there's a dent on the castle's wall.

A few more seconds of silence pass as the audience processes the recent events.

"Isabel." Liza calls her daughter.

"Yes, mother?" Isabel answers without looking away from the now black castle wall.

"Didn't you say this castle's walls were enchanted to disrupt magic?" Asks Liza.

"They are, mother."

"I see..."

"..."

"... Let's go eat something, shall we?" Suggests Liza.

"Good idea, mother."