King Inglis really had reincarnated due to the miracle of the Goddess but being in the body of a baby had its fair share of trouble. Not only was it difficult to operate, moving around even a little bit would tire her to sleep. For him—her who hadn’t even reached one year old, it was a concern that she perhaps had no other choice but to spend the days like ordinary babies.
The family Inglis reincarnated into was the Eux household, the household of Knights. It seemed like her father, Ryuk Eux, was the head of the feudal lord’s chivalry order while her mother, Selena, was a knight under him when she was on duty, though she had now retired.
Since Inglis still couldn’t speak, she decided to just listen to her parents’ conversation and that was how she learned all of it.
There was the element of surprise that she was reborn as a female but the inconvenience of having an infant body superseded it. In the first place, Inglis didn’t really concern herself about genders.1 Just how long had it been since then; since the time she was alive? What happened to the Kingdom of Sylvair that he had built and loved with all his being? Even if Inglis was dying to know, it was impossible to learn any of it when she could neither speak nor move on her own.
This day, too, Inglis was still in a cradle by her mother’s care, Selena. Apparently, it was about time for a nap, she pretended to be asleep. When her mother thought she had fallen asleep, she went to do the house chores and Inglis made a window of time for herself for practices. But it wouldn’t be long before she actually fell asleep from the drowsiness… That had been Inglis’ routine recently. However, she fully devoted herself to train within that short interval of time before sleep took her over. She couldn’t hope to hold a sword with her baby hands but there were other things she could do.2
Even with her being a baby after reincarnation, the Goddess Alistair’s blessing was still alive within her. An existence shrouded with the spirit of the Gods — half-man half-god — the Divine Knight. She knew that blessing was still there because she could clearly feel the presence of ether.
Ether was the root of everything for every matter in this world was made of ether. The difference between one matter to another was the amount of ether they possessed. Even mana, the so-called source of sorcery, was originated from ether fusing with each other. Manipulating ether meant manipulating the world as you will it, manipulating the law of cause and effect as you want it. In other words, the power of Gods.
Whereas, manipulating mana could shape supernatural phenomenon through sorcery. However, manipulating ether was nothing like manipulating mana, it was overwhelmingly more difficult and the miracle brought forth was also more staggering — far exceeding that of mana. Inglis, in her previous iteration as a King, was blessed by the goddess and awakened as the Divine Knight only after she had reached adulthood. Ultimately, all she managed to learn after that till the day she died was just the fundamentals of ether control.
With that level of mastery, she had achieved enhanced strength and was referred to as a hero and a superhuman to the commoners, gaining her the title of the King of Sylvair. However, this meagre level of mastery was possibly akin to a baby flailing around in the eyes of actual superhumans and Gods. Inglis was just collecting years under her belt without the time to actually improve herself.
In her current life as Inglis Eux, she wanted to start her ether manipulation training from an early age and she wished she would reach a new height her previous life couldn’t achieve. Her dream was to master the ether manipulation to a level surpassing the Gods. She wondered how that might feel like and with no way of obtaining that answer, she could only reach it to find out. 3
Now that she had been reborn to master her own art of war, there was no time to waste. Even if she couldn’t move her body, she could still knead ether around. And that was what she did, by sharpening her mind and focused on the ether around her.
As weak as it was, the ether she controlled was able to lift her infant body softly into the air. As a newborn, she considered it to be an excellent performance. All she needed to do was to keep this pace of practice. At least that was how it was supposed to go down but things never went that smooth in life.
「Magic Stone Beast! Everyone, take shelter! Evacuate to the castle!」
The shout of a dying person was heard outside the mansion. Just what is a magic stone beast? She heard it quite often from her parents’ talk but she never witnessed it in person. There was nothing like that in her previous life. She wondered if it was something like a variation of a dreadful demon beast. ᴜᴘᴅᴀᴛᴇ ꜰʀᴏᴍ novel·fire·net
「Lil’ Glis! We have to——WHAAAaa!?!? My child’s f-, floating…!?」
In her panic, her mother Selena rushed into the nursery. …Did she see me!? Inglis immediately went back to her cradle and cried, trying to deceive her mother. 4
「Waah! Waah!」 「N-, no, I must be seeing things! We still have to evacuate! I can’t face that person if something ever happened to this child! It’s okay, Inglis. Let’s take shelter with mom!」
Selena picked Inglis up and left the room hastily. Now then, I wonder if this would present me with an opportunity to see this magic stone beast fella. Even if she had acquired power exceeding her previous life, it would be pointless if she didn’t have anyone to test it on. Hopefully, it’s an atrocious monster worth defeating! Baby Inglis swayed in her mother’s embrace, hoping desperately in her heart. 5