Combat

Lucas sat in the back of a carriage, headed north to the city of Guilm. He'd gotten accustomed to the world but the fact that some modern inventions like magic powered faucets were a thing but not others like magic powered cars. Granted, cars are more complex but it still gave everything a weird sense of modernity clashing with antiquity.

Putting that aside, he thought back to what his mother, Emelie, had told him. "Had you been born in wedlock, had you been born when your father officially married me", she had revised, noticing Lucas' confusion at the strange word. "You would've gone to your father's house from the very beginning.

"But since we weren't fully married yet when we had you, you were kept here at least until you'd grown old enough to be called a child and not just a baby."

She hadn't mentioned that the real reason that he would've gone to live with Sebastian was because she'd be there too, nor did she mention that her pleading to take care of her child with the rest of her family, was the only real reason that he'd stayed with the Manour household.

Lucas wouldn't really miss life in the Manour household. Not only was it a downgrade from the Cazenarches' mansion where he'd been conceived, but nearly everyone there was a pain to interact with. His teachers would often find themselves trying to punish Lucas rather than teach him, out of a misguided sense of competition when they'd see his knowledge. In the subject of magic, it was ironically the same where his teachers would try to punish him because they thought it the only way of helping him learn.

As for his family members, they seemed cool but he hardly spent time with them so he hardly cared about them. This was also an effect of his teachers' "methods."

Of course, if he was being honest, he didn't really try to interact with them. If he acted normally for his true age, they'd get annoyed or worried and say he wasn't acting normal for his age. If he acted normally for his body's age, they'd get annoyed or worried and say he should be acting more mature since he could eventually grow up to rule over some part of the Viscounty of Conque, the land the family owned.

While he nodded with a serious expression on his childish face, when faced with such words, internally, he snorted or shook his head. 'Imagine that. I finally get reincarnated into some supernatural world and I do nothing but rule over some random pigs in some shitty corner of the world.'

He didn't have a set goal for what he wanted to do in this world yet. Usually, by the time he got his memories back, his original self would've had some ambitions of their own, so he'd simply improve upon them. That obviously wasn't the case here.

All he knew was that it would have something to do with magic. Maybe he'd revolutionize the world with modern inventions now based off magic. Maybe he'd just become strong, though considering how young he was, he had no idea what that looked like yet.

The issue, though, was his magic was somehow blocked or something. Hell, maybe his greatest achievement in life would just be him managing to make a block of water appear.

This was actually part of why he was somewhat excited about going back to Sebastian's house but as an actual person. The Cazenarch family patriarch was a Count which made the family more powerful than his mother's. Given that, they should be able to provide him with better resources. Maybe he really was facing some sort of disease or injury that the Manours didn't have the ability to cure or even detect.

The other part of why he wanted to go was essentially curiosity, to see what was further out there. He didn't really care much about Sebastian or the rest of his family.

Of course, he still viewed Sebastian and the rest of the Cazenarches as his family but it was more out of factuality. It was difficult for him to care about people he never met, and Sebastian didn't even want him to exist, as far as he knew.

'Not that I can blame him. 21 is kinda young to have a kid.' Lucas thought. He had trouble viewing Sebastian as a father figure. At first, he'd thought this was simply due to his mental age but he did view Emelie as a mother figure which complicated things.

He'd narrowed it down to two possibilities. Either the physiology of his body was manipulating his mind, or he had mommy issues. Neither was entirely unreasonable.

It was a debate he indulged in often, as entertainment.

He had gotten to this point mentally, and was debating it once more within his mind, when he felt the carriage rock and began to hear sorts of loud noises.

He looked up. 'Oh, are we finally here?' It was a closed carriage and he'd been inside, at the back, so he had no idea what was happening.

"Is anything wrong?" Emelie, further forward in the carriage, asked the driver. She, unlike Lucas, knew that the ride to Guilm was meant to take longer than it was, currently. It was unlikely that they'd gotten there so fast.

"Oh, don't mind it, ma'am. Some fools attacked our carriage and are now paying the price for it." The burly carriage driver said, chuckling at the little spat that was going on. Lucas noticed a funny little twang in his voice, a hint of an accent.

Emelie walked to the front of the carriage, peeking out the door, to watch and make sure everything was going okay. As nobles, she and her son had, of course, gotten security.

The thought had barely struck her as she looked backwards at the back of the carriage almost instinctively, to see her son. However, he wasn't there. At first, her heart had done an early beat, as she registered the sight, only to realize that he was sneaking past her, entirely silently.

"Stay inside. It's dangerous", she had begun to chastise, about to pick Lucas up and move him back into the carriage. However, he pushed past her, the sun nearly blinding him at first and the cold wind shocking him. It was worth it, though, when he saw the ending of the little fight that had just occurred.

He saw magic all the time. He literally had magic powered faucets. However, it was rare that he saw magic be used in a combative sense.

There were already six men on the ground, each entirely unresponsive. They were all injured in some capacity, with burn marks, and copious amounts of blood flowing from deep wounds.

However, seven men still fought. There were two with blue coats who seemed to be the security that had been hired. The other five men wore simple black shirts and pants. However, they were ripped, exposing cuts, bruises and burns.

One of the blue coats, a guy with black hair, pointed his index finger at an opponent rushing at him. Suddenly, a gray rock fired out of the finger, striking the enemy right in the forehead. It stunned them, and some blood was apparent but another rock sent them down.

The other blue coat, a shorter man with blonde hair, raised a palm towards another one of the supposed bandits. This bandit had been edging around him trying to find an opening to get to the carriage behind him. However, a blast of fire flew into his face. He recoiled but the blistering pain followed him. He opened his mouth instinctively to scream but that only made it worse as the flames flew into his mouth as well.

In a few seconds, he collapsed.

The blonde man who had been dealing with him, turned to look at the rest, only to realize they were all dead as well.

"You take long", the black haired man said.

The blonde man put his hands up in defense. "It's easier for you since you just throw a couple rocks at them. I actually have them to burn them to death."

"Make hotter fire."

The blondie rolled his eyes before noticing the kid on the carriage staring at him with bright eyes.

"Hey, look at the kid. Why's he out here?" He didn't gesture, simply saying the words while walking back to the carriage. As a member of the family's security, child care was not really part of the job so he didn't bother trying to interact with him. His mom should be the one taking care of that.

"He seems happy." The darker haired man responded.

The blonde man, hearing him, noticed that as well. "That's weird, don'tcha think he'd be scared or disgusted even? Should kids this young even see shit like this?"

"I don't know."

"What would you do if I asked you a question that would take more than three words to respond to?"

"That is impossible."

Lucas watched as the two men quietly argued. The battle, despite its brevity, was incredibly fun to watch. It made him feel something, whatever it was, churning throughout his body. He didn't know if it was due to his body reacting due to his age or if he was really that heavily affected by it, nor did he really care. His mind suddenly fixated on the word combat. That was what he wanted. This feeling of blood churning was exactly what he wanted to experience. This was his purpose, in this life. To experience combat.