[Charlotte's POV.]
Charlotte Carver is a 31-year-old low-ranking noblewoman deployed by the royal family of Kingdragon to nurse one of the king's children.
Until recently, she did not work as a nursing mother, but began just recently.
Her role was to raise one of the princes, a boy named Mordred Kingdragon. The boy's mother was apparently a slave who died soon after giving birth.
It was under the circumstances of her husband being dead, her original occupation being an etiquette teacher and her 11 years old son joining the palace as an exemplary knight squire that Charlotte was chosen for the job. The money was good and she would get to stay closer to her son by living in the palace, so she accepted it.
Time passed, and the boy grew up well, but she could tell from the beginning that Mordred was a very special child.
Starting from the time when she began nursing him, he would never cry unless there was a good reason for it - like his diaper being full or when he was hungry.
Additionally, he never threw tantrums and sometimes there were signs of unusual wisdom in his eyes.
It was very strange, but that's when Charlotte thought that the name Mordred was quite fitting for the Prince because it embodied the concept of self-control and restraint.
As a newborn, Mordred would also sleep a lot. He would be asleep for the great majority of the day.
It is true for all newborn children that they sleep a lot, but the little Prince took this to another level. After waking up for a brief moment to be breast-fed or have his diapers changed, he would always immediately go back to sleep without fail.
A few months passed as the boy continued sleeping a lot, but all this changed when he learned how to crawl.
He would begin to curiously crawl everywhere, seeming to want to explore the entire palace. Charlotte had to be careful to not leave the doors open, otherwise she felt that the Prince would definitely notice it and sneak out.
The Prince finally began to move around and was a very active child. Seeing it filled her heart with joy and brought back old memories.
But interestingly, the Prince's activity only happened in short bursts. The boy would wake up, move around like an overly curious child, tire himself out and then quickly go back to sleep.
…
A full year passed.
The Prince had officially turned 1 year old.
Around this time, the boy seemed to have become bored with the exploration of the outside world and returned to spending most of the time in his lair.
However, at one point, one thing managed to arouse baby Mordred's interest more than sleep. It was a picture book fairytale that Charlotte had once brought with her.
She wanted to show the pictures in the book to Mordred as he began learning the language, but she did not expect that the boy would fixate his eyes on the text while she was reading it and repeat her words as if wanting to understand them!
From that moment onwards, amazed, Charlotte began teaching the little Prince how to read.
Over time, Charlotte realized that she had underestimated Prince Mordred by believing that he was a clever child. It was far more than that!
After just a year, Mordred already learned how to speak fluently, and most importantly he even learned how to read!
A 2-year-old being able to read? It was something mind-boggling. The Prince was a genius, a very rare genius!
After discussing this with her acquaintances in the palace, they all expected Mordred to become a high-ranking official or a famous scholar in the future. This was also the limit of the boy's birth. If he became someone like the Prime Minister, that would truly be called success in life.
But this belief changed when one of those days, the Prince had asked Charlotte to bring him to the palace's library.
Although Mordred was young, he was still the son of the king, so there was no problem with him visiting the library if he wanted to.
Right after coming to the library, the boy quickly noticed the section with the label of 'Magic' and rushed to it.
Charlotte smiled as she followed him, saying, "Your Highness, you're too young to borrow anything from this section."
"I know… But I just want to look at the pictures!"
Hearing this childish reason, Charlotte felt that there would be no problem just taking a look.
The Prince browsed through the early section before finally settling on a book. He pulled it out and opened it.
It was a book that had many copies, a tome titled 'Guide to Magic'.
After shuffling the pages, the boy soon settled his sight. After a while, he spoke up, "Let the great protection of water be on the place thou seekest…"
It was at that moment that Charlotte realized that what the Prince was actually reading was an incantation for a spell, right from that book.
Her expression froze.
"No, Prince Mordred!" Charlotte immediately said in a panic.
"I call a refreshing burbling stream here and now…"
"Don't read it!" Charlotte snatched the book from the boy's hands.
The reason Magic tutors exist is because learning magic by oneself can be dangerous, or at least that's how Charlotte understood it. Mordred trying to read an incantation of a spell could have disastrous consequences if the spell backfired!
But it was too late.
"-Water Ball."
As the boy finished the last words of the incantation, announcing the spell's name, water began to rapidly gather in front of his hand, forming a fist-sized sphere of water.
Plop.
After forming, the water ball fell down and splashed against the stone floor of the library.
"Prince Mordred… you…" Charlotte was stunned.
It was Magic!
She did not expect Mordred to actually succeed!
Noble children would usually not even begin learning Magic until they're at least 5 years old, and even then many of them would have no success with it! But Mordred succeeded at 2 years old, and at his first try!
What could he be if not a Magic prodigy?!
"Ups…" The boy looked at his shoes, which were now slightly wet. He then looked up at his nanny. He said in an apologetic tone, "I'm sorry… You said to stop, but I really wanted to try it. And it was too late…"
Charlotte looked down at the boy sympathetically. Who cared about his shoes being wet or him not listening to her at this point?
The Prince that she took care of was an absolute Magic genius!
Charlotte grabbed Mordred's upper arms while looking him in the eyes as an overjoyed smile appeared on her face. "Good job, Your Highness! The King will be happy!"
…
[Mordred's POV.]
After glancing at the librarian, Charlotte looked back at Mordred. She leaned over and said, "Prince Mordred, can you do that again?"
"Mm, again?" Mordred looked at his nanny, then nodded his head like a good boy. "Okay..."
He extended his right hand.
"Wait a moment, I'll give you the book," said Charlotte.
But Mordred ignored her and already closed his eyes.
'Repeat the feeling from before… The feeling from before…'
He concentrated and attempted to cast the Water Ball spell silently.
He gathered his Magical Energy in the same way as before.
But after that he remained stuck as he simply couldn't replicate the same feeling!
'Water… gather… To form a Water Ball…' Mordred ruminated inside his mind but with no success.
With each passing moment, he was feeling increasingly depressed. What if he's incapable of doing silent Magic of this world because he has the body and Magic Circuits from another world?! It would just be such a shame!
Although the sword alone should be enough for him to become powerful, he also wanted to be able to perform this world's magic. He wanted to freely cast all kinds of Magic silently like Rudeus.
"Prince Mordred?" Charlotte called out with concern.
Mordred kept his eyes shut, concentrating. Soon enough, he spoke up out of desperation, "Water Ball!"
These words seemed to serve as a trigger. The Mana that remained stuck previously suddenly found the right way to flow and gushed out of his hand, transforming into a fist-sized sphere of water.
Plop.
Once again, the water ball splashed against the stone floor.
"... What?" Charlotte was stunned. Didn't the Prince just skip most of the incantation?!
***
***
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Name: Mordred Kingdragon
Titles: 16th Prince of Kingdragon, Magic prodigy (only by Charlotte so far)
Age: 2
Strength: F | Average human's strength (~100 kg).
Endurance: E* | Peak Advanced rank; his skin becomes tougher than steel when reinforced and cannot be harmed by a knife.
Agility: E* (F*) | Peak Advanced rank reflexes, surpassing trained athlete's running speed (Intermediate rank).
Magic Power: D- | Early Saint rank.
…
Water Magic: Elementary rank (chanted).
None.