Day by day, the cold was growing stronger.
Along with that, it seemed the sun was setting earlier as well.
In the past, Bettina would put me to bed as soon as it got dark and then leave the room.
But recently, she had started lighting a lamp, saying it was still a bit too early to sleep.
It looked like a lamp that burned some kind of oil.
Still, she was probably ordered to be frugal.
Even that lamp was never lit beyond the point where she could barely see her hands.
On this day too, even after Bettina’s face had become indistinguishable from the bed where I lay, the lamp was still not turned on.
‘It’s so dark.’
I didn’t dislike being lost in thought alone, so it wasn’t that the darkness bothered me too much.
But somehow, I found myself reaching my hand up toward the ceiling.
‘I wish it would get brighter.’ I thought, and after a few breaths, a faint light began to shimmer slightly below the ceiling.
“Eh?”
“Wow!”
Along with my confusion, Bettina let out a scream-like voice.
The light quickly vanished.
But the babysitter hurried over to the bed in a flurry.
“Lord Rudolf, Lord Rudolf, that’s a blessing—that’s a blessing, right?”
‘Huh?’ I didn’t understand.
Even when I searched through my ‘memories,’ unusually, no knowledge came up, not even anything close, let alone from this reality.
Blessing?
What is that?
‘Please explain.’
Though my mind was confused, I tried to just stare blankly, wide-eyed on the surface.
Bettina, unstoppable, continued to chatter as if talking to herself.
“This is amazing, amazing. Normally, you’d have to wait until you’re over one year old to have your aptitude tested by the Church before you can use it. As expected of Lord Rudolf—you have the blessing of light.”
I felt… I sort of understood, yet didn’t.
Aptitude at the Church?
Blessing of light?
“See, blessings come in four types: ‘fire,’ ‘water,’ ‘wind,’ and ‘light.’ Everyone is granted one of these. I myself have ‘water,’ so I can produce half a cup of water anywhere in a day.”
Half a cup a day…
That sounded either impressive or not so much.
Well, if you can do that out of nowhere, then maybe it is impressive.
Kind of like magic?
Maybe?
“I know someone with the ‘light’ blessing. Once they get used to it, they can light up about the size of their palm even in this dark.”
Impressive, but…
‘Isn’t that pretty lame for magic?’
Still, it surprised me.
So this was a world where magic existed.
‘Lame, but…’
“Oh, but, but—” Bettina quickly shook her head.
“If you use your blessing before the Church tests your aptitude, they’ll scold you. Lord Rudolf, you mustn’t use it in front of people yet. I won’t tell anyone. I want to brag about you to everyone, but I’ll hold back. Promise me!”
Pressed by her enthusiasm, I found myself nodding without thinking.
It should have been shocking to have this conversation here, but Bettina looked satisfied and reassured.
“Promise me. Absolutely.”
She repeated her admonition before finally leaving the room.
Left alone in the dark room,
I lay on my back and absently raised my hand again.
‘Blessing? Magic? No, I guess it’s a bit much to call it magic.’
Everyone is granted one of the four types.
Half a cup of water a day, light the size of a palm—that seems standard?
‘Well, I guess it would come in handy for survival.’
In a normal, civilized life, it seemed like something you’d hardly need.
But if you suddenly had to see something in the dark of night, it might be useful.
Thinking this, I tried again to gather my focus at the tip of my hand.
‘Be bright.’
A faint, hazy light appeared.
It felt just barely enough to see something.
My ‘memory’ whispered that I might be able to make out letters on a memo if I tried.
But looking around the whole room would be very difficult.
I could make it stronger for a moment, but it wouldn’t last long.
‘Maybe with practice, or as my body grows, I can make it stronger?’
I thought the ‘palm-sized light’ Bettina mentioned was for someone older than a baby, so my hopes weren’t high.
She also said ‘once you get used to it,’ so it was probably the result of some training.
Searching my ‘memory’ again, I found a note marked ‘fiction (?)’ stating there are cases where noble bloodlines have stronger magical powers.
I didn’t know whether to be hopeful or not.
I practiced lighting the light several more times.
‘I promised Bettina I wouldn’t use it ‘in front of others,’ after all.’
But then-
‘There are cases where someone uses up all their magical power and dies,’ my ‘memory’ warned.
Panicked, I stopped practicing and obediently went to sleep.
After that too, every night after Bettina left the room, I slowly practiced strengthening my limbs for crawling, along with getting used to the light blessing.
I couldn’t feel if the light’s strength grew from practice, but I was getting better at adjusting its range and direction.
Naturally, when I broadened the light, it got dimmer overall, and when I narrowed it, I could light up a smaller point more brightly.
So, there were basically two ways to use the light: softly illuminating a wide area overhead, and shining a narrow beam like a spotlight from my fingertip.
I practiced getting used to both.
After a few tries, I could keep the wide, faint light on for a long time without much effort.
The spotlight could last for a few minutes.
I could make it a bit stronger for a moment.
I decided to keep practicing more.
As for the ‘crawling acquisition plan,’ that was going well too.
Lately, I had progressed to the point where I could crawl around the bed.
I didn’t know if that was a typical baby trait or just my personal quirk, but for some reason, my hands were stronger than my legs.
I was crawling forward, pulling myself along on the sheets with my hands.
For the time being, I kept encouraging Bettina to pick me up so I could explore the house by walking around.
That day’s success was an unexpected encounter with a housemate I hadn’t been familiar with.
When Bettina carried me down the stairs, we met a tall middle-aged man dressed like a tuxedo coming out of a room at the back.
“Oh, this is Lord Rudolf. You’ve grown quite a bit while I was away.”
He smiled warmly and neatly.
This was Henrik, whom Westa and the others said was an indispensable presence in this house—likely the butler.
He was said to run the entire estate and manor on behalf of the often absent master and reserved lady.
He always looked busy, so missing a few days of greeting the master’s son was hardly something to blame him for.
“I’ve heard that Lady Mother has regained her spirits now that Lord Rudolf calls her ‘Mother,'” he said.
“Indeed,” Bettina, of course the one he was speaking to, responded cheerfully while gently shaking the hand holding me.
“Bettina, keep taking good care of Lord Rudolf, alright?” He waved his hand lightly and hurried off outside.
He looked so busy that there was no chance he’d put on any weight anytime soon.
Perhaps buoyed by the encouragement from the house’s elder, Bettina’s steps after that were noticeably lighter.