A year passed. During that time, I continued to take notes on magic and explore different hypotheses.

But it was hard to do research.

First of all, I couldn't write things down. Obviously. That would give the whole jig up about me being a normal, if not a bit precocious baby- Well, child now.

Second of all... magic was really complicated. And I was also sure of something.

The incantations and magic circles were different magic systems. They led to the same result, but they were definitely different paths.

The incantations themselves weren't just a memory aid. Instead, it was actually a prayer for power. I didn't know the mechanics, but I did know that it caused mana to get automatically shaped the moment that the incantation was complete unless I stopped the flow.

Interestingly enough though, if I mimicked the flow, I could reproduce the same result as the incantation.

But that result was different from using a magic circle.

When using a magic circle, I would always get the same result. ALWAYS. Same output, shape, amount... even temperature.

I think. Hard to measure that part, but I was fairly certain.

The magic circle *was* the flow of mana. But it was a different flow from when an incantation was used.

Comparing it to math... if incantations were like 2+2=4, then magic circles were like a long string of complicated expressions to get back to 4. Something like (((1+3)/2)+6) * 0.5 ... or something.

There were a bunch of extra parts in there that seemed to be unnecessary. But removing one part made the whole thing collapse.

It was weird. And ad hoc.

I couldn't fault the person who developed magic circles... but I really felt like I could do something better. It was needlessly complicated and convoluted. Stable, sure. But there were a lot of moving parts in it.

Ah, and then there was the other thing about mana dissipation that I found out.

If I let the spells finish the way they were intended, I would lose control of the bit of mana I used to cast the spell. But if I took over and manually directed the flow in the same way, I could pull my mana back after causing the physical event.

And that made me wonder if I was doing something wrong. Or if the person who developed the magic system was doing something wrong.

Was magic resistance a thing? If it was, then casting magic the way the spell was meant to be done didn't seem very effective. While mana turned into whatever the spell conjured up, it was still mana. I didn't know for sure, but my gut told me that someone with a mana force field or something could block the water ball launched by the incantation because it was mostly water mana.

On the contrary, if a water ball was made the way I did it with my mana serving as the core of the spell... or better yet, with the magic circle, then it would be hard to block that.

Well, unless the magic force field was a straight up kinetic energy nullifier.

But then what about wave energy? Radiation?

You could probably stop flames, but you couldn't stop the heat. If flames were hot enough and you burned up the oxygen, then it didn't matter if the flames were stopped.

Same with water. If you made the air damp enough, it would get harder to breathe and then-

Ah, that was a side tangent.

In any case... I got better at magic. Specifically, water magic.

Using water ball as a base, I managed to figure out how to make multiple water balls, create a mini water gatling gun by having a spinning gauntlet of magic circles, and a bunch of other cool things.

But it was just elementary level magic.

According to the magic text book, this world had a ranking system on things. Seven levels, used for both magic and fighting. And from lowest to highest, it was:

1. Elementary

2. Intermediate

3. Advanced

4. Saint

5. King

6. Emperor

7. God

...Or something like that. The book said that Saint could also be Saintly, God could also be Divine, etc.

But the long and short of it was that each rank meant stronger and wider effects. At least when applied to magic.

The book didn't go into too much detail, but apparently Saint-ranked spells were enough to destroy a small city while God spells were enough to destroy... at least a continent?

Basically a nuke. Probably.

So I was curious again.

By this point, I had thoroughly mastered the water ball spell and broken it down to the basic parts... and figured out how to link a few different casting types.

It would take a while to explain, but basically I figured out how to use a magic circle to start a base, use the flow from an incantation on top of that to adjust various features, and then use multiple threads to add even more attributes. Things like temperature, rotation speed, density, etc. With each 'thread', I could add more things and tweak various parts.

Exciting stuff.

Ah, all of that was done in secret, of course.

Most of my training was done late at night while my parents were 'sleeping' or in the storage room on the rare occasions that I could sneak off alone.

That was getting harder these days. Miss Lilia seemed to have realized something was up since she asked me to help her with chores more often. And my mom was also spending more time at home with me, either cooking stuff or reading stories. Then there was my dad who kept dragging me into the courtyard in his free time to demonstrate his 'peerless sword skills...'

I didn't mind. In fact, it was pretty fun. Spending time with them without having to worry about being judged or having any expectations was relaxing. And it helped me not think about 'that' too.

It did put a limit on my research time though.

But today I was free!

There was apparently a disturbance in the forest, so Dad went out on patrol early this morning and Mom went with him for back up. Not only that, but Miss Lilia had a lot of laundry to do, so she would be outside for most of the day.

In short... a perfect opportunity to try out more stuff from the book.

So once again, I returned to the storage room.

As always, I pulled open the window and then picked up the book, flipping to an intermediate spell for once.

"Let's see... <Splash flow> sounds interesting."

It looked like a direct upgrade to water ball. Basically a water cannon using mana.

Perfect to test out the difference in ranks.

I nodded to myself and walked up to the window. After that, I aimed my hand towards the sky and started chanting, paying careful attention to the flow of mana.

"Supple spirit of water and princess of streams that flow through the earth..."

So far, so good. The same sort of flow I got with water ball. No difference at this point. Then moving on...

"...Sweep away all things with your hidden inner might..."

A thrum of power.

I could sense it starting to get out of control, but I was prepared this time. Instead of letting the spell run wild, I clamped down on the flow of mana and focused, purposefully controlling it instead of letting it spill out.

But it was the same still.

Was it just that then? Were all spells just the same basic core with more power?

But that didn't make sense.

Confused, I finished chanting the spell. "<Splash flow>."

Silence. At first nothing happened. At least, nothing new.

Water gathered at the palm of my hand, forming a water ball.

Seeing that, I frowned and started to pull my mana back to cancel the spell.

But then everything changed in an instant.

A roiling surge of energy. My mana suddenly jerked out of control and took on a life of its own.

At the same time, the carefully controlled water ball erupted into a swirling mass of frothing liquid, growing larger by the second.

"Argh, I knew it!"

Like before, I quickly formed the matching magic circle with my left hand and overlaid it with the swirling mass of water.

But it didn't stop.

"Eh?"

Wait. That's not supposed to-

*BOOM*

A massive explosion. The swirling mass of water erupted, flying forward like a giant cannon ball.

The wall blew out. Debris flew through the air.

And the ball only got bigger as it flew instead of shrinking.

A giant swirling mass of water that looked almost like a crystal sun. It flew far above the sky, glistening in the air...

Then with another deafening boom, it exploded, sending water flying everywhere in a sudden downpour.

Like a heavy rain, the sky suddenly turned dark as water fell.

I froze.

My body condition was fine. The spell didn't actually drain much mana from me because I carefully regulated it. Not only that, but my constant practice had increased the amount of mana I had too.

No, I wasn't worried about that. Instead...

This was bad.

This was really bad.

I made a mistake.

I made a really big mistake.

Now, like this...

The magic textbook fell to the ground. But I ignored it.

Impossible.

It was impossible now.

If my parents found out, they'd treat me like a genius. They'd think that I was one of those child geniuses who could do anything. They'd pin their hopes and expectations on me.

Me, who made my parents live with their heads bowed down in shame for two decades because I never met those expectations.

'What happened to you!? You were a genius! You were supposed to change the world! Now look at you!'

I screamed and collapsed on the floor, clutching my head.