2. One Year Old

When I was thinking about the 【Appraisal】 results, the man named Dan spoke to me.

Dan has a muscular body that gives the feeling of him being macho. He has red, short hair, and an enviable handsome face.

「O, It looks like you are up Louis, It’s papa. Have you slept for a long time? Did you hear about it from Sarah? You have your Mama’s cute face. Though I hope you inherit my strength, don’t you?」
「Louis-chan, good morning. You finally got up? I was a little worried? However I thought it best to let you sleep, you had a relaxed look on your face and gentle steady breaths. However, Dan, I hope he inherits my strengths instead.」

Aaah, I was sleeping all day because I was unconscious, I worried them. I can only say sorry in my head.

Even so, I know now that these two are my parents, but who is that Airi girl who is about ten years old?

My parents started to chat a lot about various things but the information I was after did not come so easily.

After a while Dan left the room.

I heard a knock on the door then Airi entered the room, I decided to use 【Appraisal】 on her.

Name : Airi
Gender : Female Race : Human Age : 9
Level : 6 Title : Maid
HP : 255/255 MP : 275/275
Strength : 53 Resistance: 51 Agility : 52 Dexterity : 68 Magic : 50 Spirit : 55
Skills
Service Lv5 ・ Life Magic

Her service level is quite high.

I wonder if that’s why she is working as a maid? Or is it because she has been working as a maid that her service level got that high?

I wonder 『Which came first, the chicken or the egg?』, honestly, I don’t know.

〈Life Magic〉 that’s a magic that everyone has and Airi was probably born with the 〈Service〉 skill.

Un, what skill should I create next with 〈Creation〉?

As it takes a lot of MP to create a strong skill, it is necessary for me to build a strong foundation for MP growth first.

In relation to MP… It would be good to raise my maximum MP or speed up the rate of MP recovery.

Once I’m done with that, I would like to do something about a growth skill.

While I think about it, two people change my diapers and I got breastfed, so I just gave myself up to it.

For the time being, my top priority would be to create a skill. I need to think about what kind of skill I should actually create.

My parents are adventurers and this is a world of magic……

I can expect that this world is not as peaceful as Japan.

If so, it would be better to create a skill to raise various martial skills early and maybe a skill to defend myself, maybe?

What sort of skill should I create? I’m not very good at thinking about such things……

Well, apart from that, there is much that I don’t know about this world, so I want to know more… How should I do this?

However, due to being in a body of a baby, I get tired easily. I will start to feel sleepy due to that.

As I was thinking about that, I was assailed by a strong sense of drowsiness.

I decided to quickly create a skill before drifting to the land of nod.

Alright! Let’s create a skill now!

【Do you wish to acquire 〈Raise Maximum MP〉?】
【Skill 〈Raise Maximum MP〉 has been acquired】

【Raise Maximum MP】
Maximum MP increases. The amount of increase is skill level × 10%

Then, my consciousness faded to black again――

《5 One Year Old》

One year has quickly passed since I died on Earth and have been reincarnated in this world.

Though I’m finally able to walk, I’ve not been allowed out of the house.

Sarah is immensely overprotective, she continuously says『It is dangerous outside, your first outing will be with your Mama, ok?』, but it is natural for me to want to see the townscape of a parallel world……

When I try to stealthily sneak out, without fail, Sarah or Airi would tell me off.

It is a mystery how the two of them seem to sense it. Our house has 5 rooms including the dining room. It’s not a very large house and it can’t be helped that there is no backdoor.

My father, Dan, still continues to work as an adventurer. Well, that’s his occupation, so I guess that’s natural.

As a consequence of that, he goes out almost every day. Depending on the quest, he might be gone for days at a time.

I don’t know if my mother, Sarah, has retired as an adventurer because even if she goes out, she is back within the day, usually at the latest, in the evening.

There is a calendar made of wood in the house.

From what I can understand from the calendar, this world has 360 days. A month is 30 days, there are 6 days in the week and a day consists of 24 hours. The week consists of Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday.

There are usually no visitors in the house though Dan and Sarah’s adventurer companions come to play once a month.

Galwin, who is a friend of Dan and Sarah’s, is a man with a tough-looking face and body and he has a scar of about 5cm in the upper right of his right eye.

His intimidating presence is so great that when I first saw him, I thought he was a burglar. He has a loud voice and he is told time and time again to turn it down.

In addition to him, a woman named Lisa comes to visit too. She’s an elf with pointy ears, a doll-like face, beautiful blonde hair, slender body, she is an extremely glamorous woman.

Though she has a bit of an uptight personality and she is always telling off Dan and Galwin due to Dan being too merry and Galwin’s personality being too rough, but her remonstrations seem to have not much effect.

My mother, Sarah is usually calm and gentle but in this situation, she often tells Dan, Galwin, and Lisa off like she would younger siblings.

I learned that Airi was the daughter of a senior adventurer who took care of Dan when he was a rookie.

However, said adventurer and his wife didn’t come home one day around 2 years ago and left Airi behind, an orphan without parents.

Then Dan took her in to live with us and due to Airi’s skill and the wish of the person herself, it was arranged for her to work and live as our maid.

Dan and the rest of them told me that the city we are living in is called Dallas and the name of the country is Ustenia.

As it is the royal capital, Dallas is a little larger than your average city, it is a large metropolis when Ustenia is concerned.

Apart from that, I’m finally turned 1 year old and though I can move my mouth and tongue with some degree of dexterity, I still can’t speak fluently. To be honest, my faltering tone is embarrassing…….

Even then, I’m able to speak a little, so I’ll be able to continue steadily building up my knowledge.

I’m recognized as a very docile child as I only cry when I’m hungry or need a change of my diapers.

I had a look at my status again today.

Name : Louis
Gender : Male Race : Human
Age : 1 Level : 1 Title : Heaven sent child of creation
ＨＰ：80/80 ＭＰ：1100/1100
Strength : 9 Resistance : 10 Agility : 8 Dexterity : 12 Magic : 120 Spirit : 125
Skills
Creation Lv1・Status Enhancement Lv1・Raise Maximum MP Lv2・Accelerated MP Recovery Lv1・Accelerated Skill Growth Lv1

【Concealed Skills】
Appraisal Lv2・Concealment Lv3・All Language Comprehension

This is what my newly created skills look like.

【Status Enhancement】
Skill can be used once a day × skill level.
By consuming 500 MP, one can increase the ability value of either strength, resistance, agility, dexterity, magic or spirit.

【Accelerated MP Recovery】
Increases the natural recovery speed of MP.

【Accelerated Skill Growth】
Increases the growth speed of skill proficiency.
The increase is 10% × skill level.

【Concealment】
I can hide the status and skills I have specified.
I can invalidate 〈Appraisal〉 up to the level of the skill.

Due to me fainting often or becoming unwell when using 〈Creation〉, I use it sparingly.

I have to do it behind my parents and Airi’s backs as much as possible…… I’ve realised that I’m starting to worry them about the condition of my health.

As my maximum MP level has risen considerably, I think it is time to increase the frequency of 〈Status Enhancement〉.

Having acquired 〈Concealment〉, I decide to hide 〈Appraisal〉 and 〈All Language Comprehension〉 due to me having a hunch that revealing it would be unpleasant to say the least.

Due to the state of 〈Concealment〉 being always on, the skill level has obviously risen.

As it seems I will be appraised at one year of age, shouldn’t I at least hide 〈Appraisal〉? I think it is at least prudent to do so.

Moreover, I want to learn the skills that my parents and Airi have, I have to put that on hold as I have no opportunity to use them yet. I am tempted by the desire to try and use magic, but when I think about using magic in the house, it’s a scary thought ……

As such, there is one thing I want the most now is books to gain more knowledge……

On my first birthday, I thought that I would get books. Though in this world, it seems that it isn’t a custom to celebrate birthdays, so my wish did not come true after all.

While I was thinking about various things, Sarah and Airi entered the room, smiling.

「Louis, today is the day that we go to church and get your appraisal. The church is close by, so let’s take a walk.」

《6 Appraisal at the Church》

「Airi, please change Louis’ clothes.」

Sarah smiled at Airi while asking her to change me.

「Yes, certainly Sarah-sama.」

Airi answered with an immensely delighted grin on her face.

In her hand, she had my change of clothes.

As soon as she replied to Sarah, she came over and started getting ready to get me dressed, so I took the clothes from Airi’s hands and tried to change myself. ……

「Louis-sama, please stay still while I change you please.」

Airi gently brushed my hand away.

「Heyー」

I shake my head childishly but I was completely ignored.

Even though I’m only a year old, it’s still too embarrassing for me to have people staring at me while I get dressed, however?!

What’s more, although this girl still has some innocence left in her, she has a well-developed face that could be called a beautiful girl. I don’t care how old you are, you’re only 10 years old, but I honestly wish you wouldn’t do that.

Everyone thinks I’m quiet, so I guess they don’t understand that I really don’t like it when I say 「no」.

That’s how I was forced to change my clothes.

Finally, it was time to leave for church and go out for the first time.

You said we were going for a walk, so I wanted to walk there, but ……

It’s a shame Sarah had to pick me up and carry me.

「Well then, I’m off to the church, Airi please take care of the place.」
「Yes, I understand. O, be careful and have a safe trip」

She was saying her goodbyes, but I think she actually wanted to go too, it’s written on her face, 『I wanted to go too.』

Still, it looks like Airi is staying home after all, and I’m going with Sarah.

There is a large garden outside the house. We walked past it and through the deserted streets, and after a while we reached a busy street.

「Louis, how is your first time in Dallas? Were you surprised to see so many people?」

Sarah is bragging about it for some reason.

「Mama, out there, people, lots of people!」

The truth is, I’m embarrassed to call her Mum. However, when I first started to speak and said 『Mother』 in a faltering voice, she said adamantly, 『Its Mama! Mama! You have to call me Mama, OK?』, so now I have to call her that out of obligation……

Whilst dealing with such a shame play, I looked around and saw that science had not developed as it had on Earth, and the city looked like medieval Europe.

I’ve never experienced this kind of chaos before, but somehow everyone seems to be enjoying themselves, and I feel deeply glad to have been reincarnated.

However, unlike on Earth, the people passing by often carry weapons.

I don’t know about the city, but I still think that this world is not safe. Sarah is also carrying a staff on her back.

What’s the point of taking a weapon to go to church? I have to wonder.

After a while, with her still carrying me, I saw a white building.

「Louis, that’s the church. I hope you have good skills, but if you don’t have good skills, you don’t have to worry about it! No matter what kind of Skill you have, Mama will always be on your side, Louis-chan.」

I already know my skills, but I’ll just nod my head and pretend I don’t know.

The reason why I’m not saying anything about it is because I got the 〈Appraisal〉 skill not too long after I was born. As expected, it would be too suspicious if I told them I remembered that period.

When we entered the church, Sarah finally stopped carrying me and let me down.

And soon, someone who appears to be a Sister appears.

Sarah says,「I’m here for this child’s one-year appraisal」and hands the person a jangling little bag. She was handed a small bag, and after checking the contents, she said,「Please follow me here」and started walking. The sachet probably had some money in it?

Sarah and I followed the sister to a small room that looked like a confessional on Earth.

The sister urged me,「Please enter the Appraisal room and wait.」

Sarah took me by the hand and we walked into the Appraisal room, and the Sister said,「Please wait a little longer」 and left.

After waiting for a while with Sarah, we heard footsteps coming towards us and stopped in front of the Appraisal room.

The next thing I heard was a voice that sounded like a middle-aged man.

「I’m sorry for the delay. I’m going to put on the 〈Appraisal〉 now. This 〈Appraisal〉 will be the type that appears only in the Appraisal room. I will leave this place after I apply the 〈Appraisal〉, so you may leave as soon as you have finished checking the results.」

As soon as the man’s voice ceased, my status details appeared in the form of a plate in the air.

Seeing this, Sarah looked shocked for a moment, but quickly returned to her original smile. After a while, he asked me, 「Have you finished looking at it yet, Louis?」 I nodded my head.

「Well, Louis-chan, let’s go home. We’ll talk about skills with Dan when we get back.」

Sarah said with a big smile on her face and I nodded with a big smile on my face.

When I got home, Dan was already home, and he and Airi greeted me at the door.

When Sarah saw Dan, she ran to him and hugged him,

「Daan! Louis-chan has amazing skills!」

She said, smiling.

Dan was also happily hugging his wife.

Then we all moved to the dining room.

Sarah held me in her arms and placed me on her lap.

She was ecstatic and told Dan and Airi about the skills and status she had seen in the church.

「I’ve never heard of 〈Creation〉, but it’s a great Skill! 〈Status Enhancement〉 is awesome too, but …… maybe Louis thought of it himself and created another Skill?」
「Un! I made it! Look!」
「AAa! This guy is a genius, just like my kid! He’s even better than I was when I was one!!」
「Louis-sama, you’re awesome!」
「Louis-chan is a genius, isn’t he? I’d rather write “genius” and read “Louis-chan” too!」

To be honest, I’m getting more and more embarrassed as I’ve been subject to this for a while now.

But I’m also very happy that they’re so happy.

Dan isn’t home most of the time, but I’m still grateful for the two people who are my parents now, and I’m extremely grateful to Airi for taking care of me.

「Louis’ life and skills are Louis’ own. As for your skills, you can use them as you see fit. Just don’t do anything dangerous. If you need any advice, I’m here for you.」

We all continued to talk about various things noisily, and eventually, evening came. After dinner, I felt sleepy and went straight to bed and closed my eyelids.