In Mushoku Tensei with an A.I. Chip

Chapter 9: Three Years



"Young master, it is time to wake up." 

Luke stirred awake from the melodious, feminine voice waking him up. How embarrassing. He usually woke before even the servants to practice his breathing technique. He must have pushed it a little too hard last night training his mana reserves. 

His eyelids fluttered open, the pale brown strands of his long lashes parted to reveal his pale blue pupils that turned to focus on the servant by his bedside. She was a young girl in her early teens, with pale blonde hair. She was a little taller than most girls her age, and her figure was that of a budding flower yet to bloom into maturity. 

Kiara and her sister were his personal maids, assigned to him a few years ago after they had completed their training. Their father was the stablemaster for house Notos, and his wife one of the cooks in the Keep. 

Kiara was five years older than him, while her sister Clara was two years older than her. Both had entered into Notos service at the same time, and were assigned to Luke as his personal servants as a reward for their parents' long years of service. 

In Asuran nobility, personal servants were trained to serve their masters more… intimately than other servants. Indeed, Kiara and Clara's parents were rewarded for their long years of service with their daughters trained to serve Luke in every way. 

Naturally, their parents were aware of those expectations and had gratefully thanked Amarant for his generosity. The salary, benefits and prestige of a personal servant for a noble scion of house Notos was worlds apart from other lowborn careers. 

And naturally, any bastards born from their intimacy would be well taken care of seeing as they would still be half-blue blood. 

Nonetheless, Luke was still a little too young to be indulging in such gratifications, and neither did he have the desire to do so. His priority was, has been, and always will be in the improvement of his magic. 

Luke sat up in his bed, taking the hot towel offered by the maid to clean his face. There was a faint smell of lavender on the hot towel, Kiara's signature. 

He gave her back the towel with a nod, "Thanks, Kiara. What time is it now?"

[Beep! The time now is 7:43am.]

"Breakfast has already been served, young master. Your parents asked me to wake you up so you could join them for breakfast. She has also bade me to remind you that magic can't fill your stomach." Kiara answered with a smile. 

"Hm." Luke hummed in amusement. "Alright."

He then stood up and spread his arms. Kiara began removing his pajamas with practiced ease. 

Even as she removed his pants to reveal his nude form, he wasn't bothered, already having gotten used to this occasional morning ritual. When he woke by himself, he naturally wouldn't need anyone to wash him and help put on his clothes for him. But it was apparently important for his two personal maids that he let them do so whenever he overslept on occasion, so he was willing to indulge them. 

He also ignored the excited breathing that came from the young girl five years older than him when she started wiping his body with hot towels, staying a little longer than was necessary when cleaning his genitals. 

A simple spell could perform the same role as letting his personal maids wipe him down themselves, but again, he indulged them on occasion. 

Having turned eight a few months ago, it had already been more than three years since he became Anthony's apprentice. Today was actually the 3 year anniversary since the split soul woke from its hibernation. 

He had reached Advanced rank within a year of his apprenticeship, and had stagnated on this realm ever since. His knowledge was not the issue, it was his mana capacity that held him back. 

It had swelled rapidly when he first started training, but his growth was slowing down now. He was nearing the limits enforced by biological constraints. His body's natural talent for magic, i.e. his mana capacity, just wasn't that impressive. 

It was why he pushed himself so hard everyday. It wasn't possible for his mana capacity to keep growing indefinitely. There was a hard cap that was puberty. Once he hit puberty, his magic power reserves would hit its natural limit, and would henceforth be fixed at that amount.

Was it disappointing that he was already nearing his natural limits at Advanced-rank? Of course it was. Was he going to give up without a fight? 

Luke smiled, a sinister appearance that was thankfully not seen by Kiara who was focused on wiping down his lithe back. 

Fuck no. 

If the Original had given up so easily in the Magus World, the split soul would not have existed in the first place. When there was a will, there was a way. And with the help of the A.I. Chip, Luke had one hell of a will. 

He glanced at his stats, which the A.I. Chip would present in Augmented Reality format every morning as he had requested, to see how much his Magic Power had increased every day. 

[Luke Notos Greyrat (Split Soul)]

Strength: 2.13

Agility: 2.36

Vitality: 2.52

Spiritual Force: 343.1

Magic Power: 248.7

[Status: Healthy]

After three years, his soul was gradually recovering from the initial damage incurred from the split soul's journey across the Astral Plane. With the recovery of his soul, his Spiritual Force had also gradually improved even without using Meditation Techniques that did not seem to be effective in this world. 

He had also made considerable progress in raising his physical stats. Despite only being eight years old, his strength, agility and vitality was more than double the average untrained human. 

It was mostly thanks to the breathing technique of the Knight Training Manual, Pentabolt Vajra, as well as the natural muscle growth from his swordsmanship training that he still persisted in learning. 

Swordsmanship, compared to magic, was nowhere near as universally useful or versatile. But Luke's physical stats would, in time, be augmented sharply from his breathing technique and subsequent training in the Multilimb Strengthening Art. Not knowing how to fight physically with his eventual enhanced physique would be a waste. 

Of course, physical combat still took a backseat to his main priority. He barely gave it the time of day, resulting in his swordsmanship only reaching Intermediate Water God and Elementary rank in the Sword God and North God styles. His personality was, after all, more suited for the defensive fencing style that required patience and restraint. 

The stat growth accumulated after three years was actually miniscule as compared to what he could achieve with the breathing technique. The A.I. Chip had calculated that at the apex, his physical stats would reach upwards of 20 or 30, yet he was only around 2 now. 

It was because of his prepubescent body, of course. The Knight Training Manual was meant for someone older, having enough testosterone in their body necessary to facilitate the development of his physique. It was why this specific Knight Training Manual was designed only for men. 

Once he hit puberty, which Luke hoped would be years from now as his mana reserves would thus stop developing, the growth in his physical stats from the breathing technique would see significant improvements in order of magnitudes. 

Sure, he could use Healing Magic, a school of magic meant to heal, to alter the chemical makeup of his body by creating testosterone and growth hormones. But that would only accelerate his coming-of-age and reduce his already dwindling time left to grow his mana capacity. 

His Magic Power had slowed to a crawl once he hit 200. 300 Magic Power was the cutoff mana needed for a Saint-rank spell, the A.I. Chip had determined, and that was for the weakest Saint-rank spell in his Master's repertoire as well as an energy efficiency coefficient close to 1, meaning near 0% wastage of mana when casting the spell. 

One could only hope that his mana grew enough to meet the minimum requirements to cast a Saint-rank spell. But Luke wasn't someone who just hoped. Hope is pouting in advance. Hope is faith's richer, bitchier sister. Hope is the deformed attic bound incest monster offspring of entitlement and fear. 

No, Luke wasn't one who merely hoped. If he had to take fate by her gyatt damn cheeks and pound it into submission to get his way, he would do so with a smile on his face.

…His thoughts have been startlingly crass as of late. It better not be a sign of precocious puberty. 

"A-all done, young master." Kiara stood up with a flush on her face, having already dressed him in freshly laundered clothes, while holding the pajamas he had worn to bed in her hands. 

"Thank you, Kiara." Luke began walking off to break fast with his family, ignoring the heavy breathing and sniffing that came from behind him.

______________________________

Breakfast at the Notos dining table was usually a monotonous affair. 

Amarant spent most of his time in the capital city Ars due to the nature of his status, accompanied by Valentina most of the time. 

This left Pilemon acting as the regent, or steward of the house while his father was off politicking in the Silver Palace. 

While half of him wanted to be there, next to his father and learning the ropes of realpolitik, establishing his place as the next lord of Notos amongst the other Asuran nobility, the other half was satisfied to be here in his ancestral keep. Ruling, in the absence of his father. 

Because of his young age, and his father's hale and hearty health, nobody really took him seriously as the next lord of Notos Greyrat. They all presumed that it would be decades more before Pilemon Notos Greyrat became anyone significant. 

He had seen it in their eyes during his national tour 3 years ago. The nobles looked more towards his father as the voice of authority during those talks despite Amarant having let Pilemon take the reins. 

But here, in Notos Keep, as the regent acting on behalf of his father in the capital, he was the lord of the Milbots Region in all but name. The servants obeyed and hung on to his every word. 

The only one who would seemingly only pay lip service to his authority was, ironically, his own son. 

Sure, Luke was perfectly courteous and polite. But he just wasn't as… deferential, as Pilemon would prefer. 

Ever since he went on his National tour and returned to find his son a magical prodigy out of nowhere, he realized that his son had changed. 

The boy no longer saw Pilemon as his personal hero and adored father. He became a little colder and impersonal, putting a noticeable distance between father and son. 

Luke stopped asking Pilemon to play with him, choosing instead to bury his head in books, and training with his magic and sword all day, as though the boy was suddenly too good and uppity to spend time with his father. 

The last time Pilemon asked his son to go out with him for a horse ride around the estate, to rekindle their father-son bond, was two years ago. Luke had let out a soft sigh before turning him down! With perfect courtesy and etiquette at that! 

Pilemon stopped trying after that. 

Which was why he had been just a little thrilled to find out that Luke's supposed monstrous talent for magic wasn't that monstrous after all. Something about lacking mana reserves limiting him from reaching Saint rank, not to mention meeting the expectations Anthony had placed on him. 

Pilemon scoffed when he heard it. The second coming of Laplace, the old man had claimed. How ridiculous. It was fortunate that neither Pilemon nor his father had chosen to go around bragging about Luke to the rest of the nobles or they would have been humiliated if word got around. Prudence was always wise.

Others might have thought it strange that Pilemon not so secretly felt schadenfreude at his own son's failings. 

After all, what parent did not wish only the best for their child? 

Perhaps that was so for lowborn commoners, for they had nowhere to go but up after all. But nobles had way more to lose than just their lives. Their reputation, their lands, their noble status, their wealth, their very legacy!

As upper class nobles, the Notos Greyrats were at the top of the food chain in the hierarchy of aristocrats in the Asura Kingdom. There were only a handful of noble families that could arguably contend with them and nearly all of those were Greyrat branch families. 

And these upper noble houses were intentionally kept of roughly equal standings by the Asura Royal Family by design. Because if any one family gained power over the others, they would then be a threat to the royal family. 

To have avarice for even more authority, land and wealth would thus be tantamount to directly challenging the Asura royal family. In other words, treason. 

Sure, politicking to gain slight advantages and minor benefits here and there was perfectly fine. But trying to cross the line would be dangerous. 

The best thing a lord of house Notos Greyrat could do for their family would thus be to stay the course and maintain the status quo. 

Having an Emperor-rank magician as the next in line for the Notos lordship was fine, but what happens if he starts getting some ideas? Ideas that led to plans, plans that led to action. Action that would truly rouse the wrath of a royal family that had reigned for centuries. 

The Asura Kingdom was a country that held the world's greatest national power in the Central Continent, and is arguably the most abundant and richest region in the world. 

While they might lack the sheer number of magicians and high level of magical expertise of the Magic Triumvirate in the north, what the Asura Kingdom and her Royal Family had in abundance was gold. 

What was one Emperor-ranked magician, even with the backing of a single upper class noble house, compared to the titanic wealth of an entire kingdom? The Anemoi Asuras could just casually place a million-gold bounty on Luke's head and a dozen Emperors would happily hunt him down with all their might. 

Indeed, it was not practical for the Notos Greyrats to have an ambitious and monstrously talented lord. Someone like Pilemon, who knew how to bend and compromise when necessary while remaining opportunistic when realistic, was what their noble house needed. 

Which was why Pilemon couldn't help but make a snide comment during breakfast. 

"You're not training with Anthony today? How rare. Has he gotten frustrated already?" 

His wife threw a warning glance at him, but held her tongue. 

Luke merely smiled faintly, "I have requested for a day off from Master." 

Pilemon raised an eyebrow, "A day off? That might be the first time I have heard of you taking a day off, son. What's wrong, are you stressed?"

His son laughed amiably, "Not at all. I requested a day off because I have something else to take care of." 

The Notos heir apparent nodded in understanding. A day off that wasn't really a day off sounded much more like his son who was the epitome of diligence. 

"What do you need taken care of? I'm sure the servants are enough for some errands. You should instead restart your etiquette lessons today. You're almost 10 years old after all and father has personally made sure that almost all nobles of fine Asuran lineage will be attending your birthday celebration." 

Birthdays were celebrated in intervals of five in this world, and for nobles their 10th birthday would also serve as their debut to the Kingdom's aristocracy. It would be a day where the other nobles would be officially introduced to the young lordling for the first time. 

First impressions mattered. Especially when matters of marriage would also start to be discussed at this very birthday celebration. For the heir of a prestigious and influential house like Notos Greyrat it was doubly important. 

Pilemon had unfortunately been forced to skip that part of his noble debut, since he had already married Selena at 9 years old and sired Luke at 10. Though that had almost purely been a reactionary move on Amarant's part to the departure of Paul. 

Luke's smile turned wry, "Is my etiquette not up to par? How strange, I was assured that my manners and etiquette was most excellent. Flawless, the etiquette teacher had put it." 

Pilemon's face strained awkwardly. Yes, Luke's manners and courtesies were all perfect. But he didn't have to be smug about it. 

"Well, a refresher can only be good for you. Besides, what else would you be busy with other than magic." 

Luke's smile became even more inscrutable at the question.

"Alchemy." 


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