I Didn't Even Want To Live, But God Forced Me To Reincarnate! Chapter 41: Fenix And My Magic Training (2)

"Fenix, Fenix! Do all phoenixes have the same size as you?" I asked another question that I just came up with.

To be honest, I thought phoenixes are huger than this.

"Did you just think that phoenixes should be bigger than my size is, right now?"

"Oof! Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to mock you or what… I'm only curious!!"

I don't want her to get offended, if she is indeed categorized as small among phoenixes—at least from the phoenixes in the stories. Forgive me, Fenix, please understand my curiosity!

"Oh… about that, Lyra…," Mom wanted to answer my question, but Fenix cut her off.

"Nah, little girl, my original size is much bigger than this. Big enough that your mom can ride on me."

"HUH? What?!"

"Right now, I might be as big as an Eagle to fit in the room, but yes, my original form is around twice your mom's height."

"Awesome… Can I ride on you, some day?"

"Hmm, be careful not to fall, I won't hold back, okay? And be sure not to wet your pants because you're afraid of the height, haha! So, maybe, when you're older."

"Promiseee?" I reflexively reached out my pinky.

…wait a second, since when have I developed this habit?

Perhaps it's the influence of both my parents, Alt-nii, Vince, Chloe, Niina, and even Clavis… they are all doing this childish pinky promise thing. Oh, even the other children that I played with, as they made me promise to play again with them someday. Something that I never really did as Reinst.

"…Do I have to do this?"

Fenix seemed to be looking at my mom, so I turned around to look at her, nodding.

Fenix sighed. She reached out one of her talons and touched my pinky with it.

"Alright."

"Yayyy!!"

I can't wait to know how it feels like, riding a phoenix!

I can transform to be a bird and fly with the help of my magic (but I need to train it before I can do it). Even so, the feeling would be different than this!

Ah, I can't wait for when I can get my own familiar!

But before I can get one, I need to train my magic.

After all, familiars are kinda like the symbols for powerful magicians.

Here is another motivation to train my magic!

I can't wait to discover what I can do with my new magical power~

"Lyra, try forming this," Mom said, while putting a feather in front of me.

Today, Mom is teaching me magic in the middle of her work~ By now, I am getting familiar with the Royal Magic Court.

[Hîwung w¯ælrâp]—I chanted the basic chant for [Ice] magic—'Ice forming', used to form something I can see.

After a moment, the replication of the feather—in form of ice, started to take shape.

"Hmm, you're getting faster in chanting and the detail is finer. That's good! Your p.r.o.nunciation is getting better, too."

Yes. To train magic, we can't just try a single chant once and abandon it after we feel like we can do it. We have to train it so that we will get better results and faster speed.

It's quite a ha.s.sle having to learn another language to be able to use magic—it's much simpler to learn swordsmans.h.i.+p.

But it's quite fun to think that we can create something just from our power alone!

"Alright, I think we have covered the basic of ice magic. Before we proceed, I think… you should learn basic life magic as well, Lyra. It's important to know how to heal," Mom said.

She opened the book of spells towards the [Life] section and put it down so I could see the content.

That's right, my strongest affinity after [Ice] is [Life]. That's good to know! Healing magic will surely come in handy!

Wait a minute…

"Mom, healing magic is to heal wounds, right? How can we practice it if we are not wounded?"

"Good question!"

Mom suddenly turned away from me, and she seemed to be looking for something in her desk.

I tried to catch some glimpses of her, and at that moment…

Mom is grabbing a kitchen knife!!

Wait wait, she couldn't be doing what I think she will…?

"Mom, wait, don't---"

Just as I was about to shout and stop her from wounding herself just so I can practice my healing magic on her, she turned around and sliced something she's holding.

…phew.

Seriously, that kinda scared me off.

Thank goodness she didn't intend to hurt herself.

Even if it's for my training, I still don't want to see my mom getting hurt because of me. Even when she can patch it up herself.

"Hmm, what is it, Lyra?" She asked, oblivious to what I was thinking.

"Errrrr, nothing, never mind it, Mom!" I smiled wryly.

Then, as she approached me, I could see the thing she's holding.

It is a medium-sized sponge that has a skin-like color and texture.

"Mom, that is…?"

It's something that I never saw before.

"This is the equipment we've developed to practice healing magic, Healtan. Since it seems quite… something… to purposely hurt yourself in order to learn."

She paused for a bit.

"Oh, right, it seems quite inefficient to do that."

…I get the feeling like she wanted to say… 'it seems quite m.a.s.o.c.h.i.s.t enough'! But that's a word you don't want a small child to hear and learn.

Being an avid reader in my past life, I managed to learn lots of words, and have many vocabularies stored in my head!

Yup, it's all for knowledge, don't get me wrong!

It's important to have the knowledge about some inappropriate words or words with innuendos—so others won't be able to trick you with your nescience.

"It's constructed to mimic natural skin and meat, but it's completely synthetic, no worries. For starters, I will try to just graze the skin to cause a first-degree abrasion. It won't bleed, and it is the easiest type of wound to heal."

She then used the blunt tip of the knife to lightly graze the healtan.

Oooh, now, it produces a grazed skin that doesn't bleed.

Perhaps it's similar to the type of wound we get from falling to the ground.

"Alright, try healing it, Lyra."

I glanced over at the page Mom opened for me and made sure I've memorized the correct spell.

[Gehælan!] I chanted heal in the ancient language.

In my mind, I try to picture the wound healing, so it will guarantee the success of the magic and increase the speed.

Slowly, the wound starts to close.

However, the edge of the wound still remains.

"Aaah…," I sighed in my disappointment.

"Ah, the edge of the wound isn't affected, huh? It's okay, Lyra. Life magic is kinda tricky and tiring, after all," Mom pats my head.

That's right, I feel that it's harder for me to do [Life] magic compared to [Ice]. I can feel fatigue building up in my body. It's building up way faster than when I tried using ice magic. So, the rumor about [Life] magic being so energy-consuming is true?

If life magic is quite hard to master, just how did Mom manage to master it? From what I heard, she could even do complicated [Life] magic.

Now that I think about it, magicians are amazing.

"Let's keep trying, but tell me when you feel tired. We can take a break, and you can play with Luca if you want to."

"Okay!"

To be honest, I felt quite disappointed in myself and didn't really want to try that hard after the failed healing magic trial. I'm afraid I will get very disappointed if the result is not as I expected.

I am used to dealing with the crus.h.i.+ng disappointments during my past life, but before I noticed it, I have started to have expectations again. My perfectionist characteristic is still here with me.

It seems I have quite a high and unrealistic expectation of myself, being the daughter of parents with incredible magic talents.

Like, perhaps I can get it right on my first try, or that I don't feel that tired at all, compared to other people.

But none of that happened. I should have asked for a cheat before I was reincarnated!!

Ah, well…

I want Mom to be proud of me, so, I will continue to strive in my training!