Chapter 6: The First Magic

I turned three years old.

It sounds so easy to put it into words, but there is a big difference between one year old and three year old.

First of all, I can now walk by myself. I can now eat proper meals by myself. And most importantly, I can go to the bathroom by myself!

What a growth.

Now I don’t have to bother my mother every time I “poop”.

I also increased the frequency of magic-eating to expand my vessel.

During this training, I realized that the larger the vessel, the more magic power it can take in. Thanks to this, I was able to expand my vessel until the last moment I turned three years old.

In the last month of my second year, I think I was causing more than 20 magic eating a day.

It was the last spurt.

So how many times more than the first time?

Isn’t it at least tens to hundreds of times larger?

I don’t remember how big my vessel was when I was 0 years old, so I’m just guessing, but I think it’s gotten at least that big.

As I was checking my magic on the futon, my mother opened the shoji (sliding door) and came in.

“Itsuki. Are you awake?”

“Mom! I’m awake!”

“Today is your 3^rd birthday, so we can go out of the house. You’ve been looking forward to it!”

Just as my mother had said, I was going outside the house for the first time since I was born. I was so excited by her words that I couldn’t help but ask.

“Outside? I can go outside?”

“That’s right. You can go outside. Come on, let’s get you changed.”

“Nn!”

I’m sleeping in my room alone, as if this is the Kisaragi family’s educational policy.

I’m three years old. Isn’t it dangerous? But I have heard somewhere that in Europe and the U.S., babies are put to sleep alone from the time they are babies, so I guess it is not strange to let babies sleep alone.

However, even though they let me sleep alone, my parents have been strangely overprotective, never letting me go out of the house since birth. The doctor comes all the way to this house for vaccinations and regular checkups. Isn’t that amazing?

When I asked my father why he did that before, he replied, “To avoid being attacked by monsters,” which made sense to me. Monsters seek out people’s magic power and attack them. Children are especially vulnerable, so they are often targeted.

“Itsuki! Are you dressed?”

“Not yet! I haven’t changed!”

What a rumor to get the word out.

The person in question came to us with great vigor.

My father, who is usually very busy, had apparently asked for a day off just for today.

For the exorcist, the significance of “Shichi-Go-San”(Rite of passage for 3 year olds to celebrate survival) must be that great.

After all, it is an event to measure a child’s magic power.

It is no exaggeration to say that this will determine the progress of the family. It’s outrageous. I never thought that at the age of three, I would have to take on the expectations of the family.

Thinking back, in my previous life, my life path became definite when I got a job.

Moreover, it was only my own life that I had to carry, and I had never carried something as heavy as the expectations of my family. I was unintentionally nervous, and I shivered.

But I tried not to let my nervousness out, and when I finished getting dressed, he said to me.

“Itsuki. Let’s go!”

“Go!!.”

I stretched out my hand.

My father, too stern for his own good, beamed.

“Breakfast is in the car.”

“Car!”

“That’s right. Boo-boo!”

“Boo-boo!”

 I was relieved that there were cars here in Japan as well.

It’s a world with magic.

If broomsticks and pumpkin carriages were the daily mode of transportation, I wouldn’t be able to call this Japan.

……The idea is too much pulled from picture books.

I put on my shoes with my father and mother at my side and headed to the front gate of my house for the first time.

I have to say, as a normal Japanese person inside, it is a very impressive gate. I wonder how much it cost.

Ah….. it’s no good for adults to think about money right away.

But I do care about what I care about.

“Listen, Itsuki.”

“What’s wrong? Papa.”

I was so excited to see the outside scenery for the first time since my reincarnation that I was flabbergasted.

I wanted to run out of the house right away, but my father stopped me in front of the gate, holding my hand.

“We are going to the “Kamiarizuki” house. Until then, no matter what happens, you stay close to your father.”

“I understand!’

“Good boy.”

I know the reason for this, and I don’t need him to explain it to me right now.

I’m not going to leave my father and get attacked by a monster and die. I would never leave him.

“You’re the Kisaragi family. We’ve been expecting you.”

When I passed through the main gate, I saw a black car parked there.

And there was an elderly man in a suit standing by the car, bowing to us. What is going on here?

“Please do us a favor today.”

My father, however, has accepted the situation without any particular rush.

Eh, the chauffeur is going to drive the car for us? Was our family that rich?

The back seat is opened while I’m still black and white from surprise.

“Itsuki, this is the car.”

“Bu-bu……”

I can’t say I know what it is, so I play along like a child. 

I was not interested in the car, I was interested in the driver.

But there was no way I could put it into words, so I sat down on the car seat that had been prepared for me with good manners. The person sitting next to me is not my mother, but my father.

“We’re leaving now.”

With a gentle acceleration, the car moves forward.

“Dear, this is for Itsuki.”

“Mm.”

My mother handed my father a bag of curry buns.

I love curry buns. And for some reason,  the first time I liked it was since I came to this world. I had no interest in it in my previous life, but reincarnation is a strange thing.

I look out the window as I eat a piece of buns handed to me by my father.

My impression was that nothing had changed from my previous life in Japan.

I thought that because there was magic, the appearance of the buildings would have stopped in the Middle Ages, or that there would be wizards on broomsticks flying around in the sky, but there was nothing like that.

It’s a perfectly normal Japan.

Maybe the existence of magic is not common.

I was thinking absent-mindedly as the car carrying me entered the main street and was about to make a left turn.

“Hey.” 

I heard a muffled female voice.

Reflexively, I looked out the car window in the direction from which I had heard the voice.

“You can see me, can’t you?』

Then, there was a creepy monster with tattered clothes and a big mouth on its face.

“Gyaaaaaaa!!!? 』

I screamed out unintentionally and the monster caught fire at the same time.

“Gyaaaaa!!!! 』

The monster peeled off from the car as it burned.

The monster, shaken off from the speed of the car, bounced a few times on the ground and writhed on the road. But the other cars show no sign of caring.

Can’t they see it……?

No, but that’s not what I’m concerned about right now.

What I’m concerned about is that the ghost from earlier suddenly burst into flames.

It’s not a mysterious ignition phenomenon……

I watched the whole thing in amazement.

A translucent thread extended from my father next to me, and the moment it enveloped the monster, it burst into flames.

There was no doubt. –It was magic.

I was transfixed by what I had never seen before in my life.

I forgot all about the monster.

“Itsuki. Are you okay?”

“Dad, that was amazing!”

“Hahaha. I know. You see, your dad a very strong exorcist even though he looks like this….”

“You were stretching the string! That’s how It got burned!”

“Hmm! You saw that?”

When I said this with a change of eye expression, the my father’s expression changed.

“Did you hear that, Kaede! Itsuki can see other people’s guide thread silvate! He has true eyes!”

“…… Itsuki, you really can see it?”

The “guiding thread silvate” is probably the thread that was just extended from my father.

It was definitely not a mistake, so I nodded.

“Yes. I saw it!”

“Hey he’s a genius! Maybe Itsuki is a genius!”

My father was getting very excited, but that was usual for him.

But what’s so great about seeing a string?

I asked my father.

“Papa, what is a guiding thread silvate?”

“Itsuki, didn’t the ghost suddenly burst into flames a little while ago?”

“Yes, it was on fire.”

“That was magic. The magic is controlled by the Silvate.”

“Can’t you see it?”

“No way! There are an abundance of exorcists who want that “true eye” so badly that they want it by the throat… However….”

“However?”

“You can’t get that eye through hard work. It’s a natural gift. Itsuki! You’re amazing!”

“Oh!”

And while pretending to be happy with my mouth….. I suddenly thought to myself.

Are these eyes really natural?

The common sense of the exorcists in this world is that the total amount of magic power doesn’t increase.

However, that’s not true, and it can be increased up to the age of three. Perhaps this “true eye” also opened up while I was training?

For example, I was thoroughly controlling the magic power of my whole body in order to intentionally cause “magi-eating. Maybe it was acquired during that time or something. I don’t know.

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