2 days later.

  "And this is the living room," the fox woman said, her voice warm yet laced with a hint of anticipation. Her amber eyes flicked back to him, watching closely as though gauging his reaction. The lioness woman stood beside him, her tail curling slightly behind her, while the expression on her face was one of complete indifference. The same couldn't be said for the others, though, as the house buzzed with activity. People bustled in and out of the house, some pausing to steal curious glances at him, while others stopped to speak with his new mother or offer their congratulations on his Awakening. The air was alive with chatter and laughter.

  Not really being used to receiving this kind of attention, Tom just sat back, occasionally engaging in short conversations with some of the villagers who came up to him, but did nothing more beyond that. Afterwards, the two maids who had been attending to him for two days came up to him, and they were currently giving him a tour around the house. It wasn't big, but hey, it was to be expected for a village like the one they lived in.

  The house itself was modest but well-maintained, built from what appeared to be very sturdy timber and dark stone, with a thatched roof that gave it a rustic, cozy charm. Sunlight filtered through the open windows and cracks in the walls, and the faint scent of lavender drifted from the bundles of herbs that were hanging near the doorway. Every corner of the house felt lived-in, from the worn wooden beams overhead to the hand-stitched cushions on the chairs.

  It was a bit overwhelming, but it was not something that he didn't appreciate.

  "Oh, uh, thanks for showing me around," Tom said awkwardly, scratching the back of his neck. The fox woman smiled warmly at him, her eyes gleaming a bit. "It’s no trouble at all," she said, her fluffy tail swishing behind her. "We’re here to make sure you feel at home, and some of the other maids are very happy with the sudden cheerfulness of the mistress," she said as he walked behind her, her hands reaching out for the latch of the door leading into the next room as she opened it.

  The next room wasn't really all that interesting, considering the fact that it only looked kind of like a small kitchen you would see in one of those medieval stories, novels, or anime. In it was a stone hearth and shelves lined with clay jars and baskets. The lioness woman, who had introduced herself earlier as Nari, leaned casually against the doorframe, her eyes scanning the room while her tail swished lazily behind her.

  She was probably a battle maid of some kind, he assumed.

  Mira gestured toward the hearth with a small smile. "This is where most of the cooking is done. We occasionally go to the nearby villages or tribes in the area to buy supplies for cooking, but that isn't often needed since your mother is proficient enough in Folk Magic to nourish the land enough so that we can grow our own stocks."

  That was another thing that had intrigued him.

  Magic didn't exist in his world, even though the advanced technologies they had created were capable of replicating some of the effects that would look like magic to anyone in the late artificial era. Magic, as a whole, was just thought of as fantasy. Although some of the assumptions people had about it in his previous life were true (which was something only confirmed by himself), they were not entirely true. For example, people in this world didn't call nature magic, well… nature magic, but instead referred to it as folk magic. Basically, anything that was related to manipulating some kind of element was called folk magic.

  Tom just nodded thoughtfully as Mira spoke, trying to take it all in. Folk magic… it sounded quaint, but based on what he’d seen so far, it was anything but simple. If his mother, Anna, could nourish the land just with magic, then that had to take some serious skill and power. Still, the way Mira said it made it sound so casual, as though such feats were nothing out of the ordinary in this world, which made him wonder what was not ordinary in this world.

  As they moved on from the kitchen, Tom caught a glimpse of a younger girl peeking around the corner of the hallway. She had mouse-like features, with large, round ears and a lengthy tail tracing just behind her, along with a maid uniform that seemed a little too big for her size. Upon looking closely at her, though, he quickly noted that her eyes looked more like those of a snake than those of an actual rodent. The moment she realized she'd been spotted, she flinched and darted away from them, disappearing from view and leaving Tom to stifle a chuckle. It seemed he was not the only one who felt a bit out of place.

  The rest of the tour wasn't really much different from all the others, with nothing unusual happening that he thought he should remember. When they were done, Mira and Nari excused themselves as he went into his room. He thought about asking them to come with him but quickly dismantled the thought as he realized how awkward that would have been and how weird it would have sounded.

  As he entered the room and closed the door behind him, he breathed in a sigh of relief. His body still felt a bit weak, and walking was somewhat of a challenge, but the fact that he constantly had to put on a smile and act as normally as he could was what tired him the most. After all, in his past life, he had never really pondered the thought of interacting with people much because he had never bothered to make meaningful relationships, so the whole thing just ended up exhausting him.

  But what didn't exhaust him, though, was magic. His new 'mother' had given him a small grimoire for basic magical spells that he could try after he had begged her for the entirety of his first day to get one, and under his cutesy gaze, she had finally relented and decided to give it to him. He hadn't wasted any time diving into it the moment he had gotten it, though he quickly realized magic wasn't something that could be mastered overnight.

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  The book was written in a script he could somehow understand, though the strange, twisting symbols lining the text made it nearly incomprehensible at first glance. But, after a while, maybe due to his memories or perhaps some other cause, he was capable of deciphering what the text was actually saying in English. The book itself turned out to be a collection of basic spells, with none of them being particularly powerful, but each demanding precise control over one's own mana. Among them were practical incantations, like summoning small flames, levitating pebbles, or purifying water. Despite their simplicity, mastering even these minor spells required a lot of concentration and a deep, instinctive understanding of mana flow, which he didn't have the patience for.

  Tom had made some progress, though. Over the past two days, he had learned to summon a flickering wisp of flame for a few seconds before it sputtered out in his hand and float a pebble for five seconds before it fell back down, much to his annoyance. The mana inside him felt slippery, like trying to catch water with his bare hands. He instinctively knew that it was there, but every time he tried to guide it, it either slipped away, blew up, or fizzled out in his hand. Coupled with its immense size, he couldn't really grasp a feasible amount to cast a spell.

  But this time he was hoping to make some more progress today and maybe improve his control over it. Sitting cross-legged on the soft, fur-lined rug, he placed the grimoire in front of him and took a deep breath. The book was open to the page describing a basic flame spell, which was, as said before, a simple incantation designed to ignite a tiny flame in the caster's palm. He had already practiced it dozens of times, and the frustration of failure was beginning to gnaw at him, but he wasn’t one to give up so easily.

  Closing his eyes, he reached inward, trying to sense the well of mana that thrummed within his chest like a second heartbeat. The connection that he was looking for was immediately there, and the overwhelming sense of power that went through his whole body was unimaginable. It was a lot, yes, but he knew that if he could just grasp a thread of it, he might be able to make it obey.

  He tried to visualize the flame like a miniature sun burning at the center of his palm. It was, of course, dramatic, but it was the best analogy he could come up with that made sense to his mind. Slowly, he began to guide his mana, letting it flow from his core, through his arm, and into his hand. It wasn’t easy. The mana pushed and twisted, trying to spiral out of control as it always did, but this time, Tom clenched his jaw and forced it to stay on course. Beads of sweat formed on his forehead as he fought to keep the flow steady.

  Then, a spark flickered in his palm. His eyes flew open, and he watched in awe as the spark grew, blossoming into a tiny flame no larger than a candle’s flicker. It danced gently in his hand. He poured a bit more mana into the construct, the flame growing a little larger and nearly exploding out of his hand, but he ended the flow the moment he realized that it was going to blow up on him.

  “Amazing.” The flame writhed and twisted in his palm, responding to his will as though it were alive. With a flick of his fingers, he caught it mid-air, letting it hover just above his hand. Closing his eyes for a brief moment, he envisioned the form of a tiny dragon. The fire reacted instantly, reshaping itself into the appropriate shape he had envisioned. It hovered there, flying in his hand and even breathing out fire from its mouth, but it could not last for long, as eventually it faded into nothing, the mana he had infused into it completely spent.

  The flame dragon sputtered out moments later, leaving only the faint smell of smoke in the air. Tom let out a deep breath, exhilarated yet drained. He glanced at his palm, half-expecting it to be scorched, but his skin was unmarked. The rush of controlling something so volatile left his heart pounding, but it was progress and a clear sign that he was finally starting to get the hang of mana manipulation. At the very least, he could be proud of that.

  A knock at the door startled him. "Thalos?" a stranger's voice called softly from the other side. "May I enter?" He blinked in surprise. He wasn't expecting any visitors, especially after the tour. Wiping the lingering sweat from his brow, he stood and glanced briefly at the grimoire before closing it and setting it aside.

  “Uh… sure, come in,” he called hesitantly, still catching his breath. There was a pause, then the woman pushed the door open slightly and peered in, the beard on her face being the first thing to catch his eyes as she entered the room with a smile.

  Tom blinked. The woman standing in the doorway had a stout, sturdy frame, thick braids of dark hair framing her face, and a finely groomed beard that rested neatly on her chin, along with a smile to go with it. Her warm brown eyes looked kind, and there was a certain dignity in the way she carried herself. She wore practical clothing, too. a simple tunic and trousers, with a leather apron slung over her front, stained with soot and grease. The second thing to catch his eye, though, was the small cage she held in her hand.

  She was a servant, and from the looks of her, she was most likely a dwarf. That was the only explanation he had for her beard, but he could be wrong. "Ah, apologies if I startled ye," she said, her voice a deep, pleasant rumble. She smiled, revealing slightly elongated canines, and stepped inside the room. "Name's Brida. I’m the village blacksmith, but I also work here part-time when old man Foc has closed down the shop. I came to check in on ye, and to also give ye this since it was your mother's request that I do so”

  She held up the small cage for him to see, and Tom leaned in curiously. Inside the cage, sitting on a little wooden bar, was what looked like a tiny, man-like creature with feathers made of flickering flames. Its legs resembled those of a bird, but its overall appearance was man-like, save for the feathers that covered the creature's entire body. It blinked up at him with its eyes and tilted its head as though sizing him up. It looked somewhat human, but some of its features almost resembled those of a Phoenix.

  The creature inside the cage tilted its head again, which ruffled its feathers and sent tiny embers drifting to the bottom of the cage. It had a curious, mischievous look, and it seemed surprisingly calm despite being confined in such a small space.

  "Is ... that a homunculus?" he asked, looking up at Brida for an answer. Brida, on her part, only chuckled. "Aye, sharp lad. This wee fella's a soul-bound construct, and a lively one at that. Yer mother thought it might do ye well to have a little pet at yer side to protect ye when she's not around, seeing as she almost lost ye recently.”

  She handed it to him. Hesitating for a moment, his fingers brushed against the cool metal of the cage. He had seen constructs in stories before, the ones that his real mother would normally read to him at night, but actually seeing the real thing for the first time was a bit... well, magical. He never thought he'd see the day when such a creature actually existed, let alone be entrusted with one as a personal companion.

  “Is that all?” he asked, and that’s where Brida flustered. “Well… I was hoping I could ask ye for a silver coin so I could…” Her eyes turned away from his, her body nervously fidgeting around. “…buy a drink at the tavern,” Brida finished with a sheepish grin, rubbing the back of her neck. "I don't mean to bother ye, lad, but I’m runnin’ low, and it’s a small thing, but… well, I’d appreciate it.”

  He blinked at that, a bit surprised by the request. After all, she'd just brought him this strange creature, and now she was asking for a coin? It was a bit strange, but he wasn’t one to turn away someone who’d just done him a favor, especially someone who seemed like they were trying to be helpful. “What?” she asked when she noticed that he wasn't saying anything.

  Shaking his head in amusement, he gave her a smile, a real one, too. "Sure, I can spare a coin." He walked over to the small drawer he had in his room, reaching into it for the small pouch filled with coins. Some of them were gold, but the vast majority were just iron and copper coins. He threw it to her and said, "Have a feast and enjoy the night with your friends.”

  Brida caught the pouch with a quick motion, her smile widening as she held it in both hands, her fingers curling around it protectively. "Ye've got a good heart, lad," she said, her voice warm with appreciation. "I won't forget this." She glanced back down at the little cage in her hand, then at Tom. "Take good care of that flame construct, aye? They're rare creatures, and they have a way of bonding with those they’re assigned to.”

  He nodded, still somewhat bemused by the creature inside the cage. “I will.” After that, the two exchanged some words with one another before he finally said his farewells to her as she hastily left his room in excitement.

  “I guess it's just you and me now”