No Pressure

"Huh? Why is he sleeping like that?" Jennette asked herself, Edward had slept in a lotus position last night, he had slept like that untill the morning when it was time for his breakfast.

Jennette walked into the room and found some of the papers that she had left on the table in the room, messy and scattered on the ground like someone had messed with them. She paid no attention to them and walked to Edward to wake Him up.

"Oh my cute little Charley, it's time for breakfast, wakey wakey." She pinched his nose playfully as she outstretched her hand to carry him.

'how did I sleep yesterday night? Well, not that it matters, what matters right now is that I can feel the strange energy in me now, it's like it's become part of me, is this is the result of the breathing technique? It's simply amazing.' He thought to himself all the while being forced to eat some pudding that Jennette had brought.

"Eaa!" Edward hated pudding, he didn't like the way it tasted like soggy noodles without spices.

"Aww, you're so cute Charley... Now eat it, I can't make you something else today." Her tone immediately changed from cheerful and bubbly to commanding and aggressive.

Edward hated pudding, he had been using the "Eaa" hack to escape from eating it because Jennette was weak to his babyish rantings, she had always quickly rushed to find another food to give him. He was shocked at how she refused today but he still ate it.

'Charley? Oh! I always forget that I'm now Charles Liam Flameworth, or something like that. It really is an odd name, nobody on earth was named like that, oh, except the royal family of England. It's so funny, their language sounds like Chinese, it's almost like Mandarin, I learnt Mandarin so that's why I was able to learn their language so fast, but it's not exactly like Mandarin, it's... Different, that's why it's taking a lot of time to fully learn their language.

'I mean, the language is like Chinese and now I find out their names are also like the British people, ha! What a crazy world I've found myself in. Speaking about crazy-'

"Open your mouth!" His thought was interrupted by Jennette who was already red with annoyance at how Charles was frozen in thought, looking like he was thinking about how to pay the bills and feed his family, she thought he didn't want to eat the pudding.

'why is she yelling? I'm eating!' Charles knew he couldn't talk or argue so he just silently ate the pudding.

'wait! I can do something about it, can't I use magic? To fuck her up, yes! I can use her 'Vlatu' or whatever she called it against her! I can use mana now!' He came up with an idea that he thought was genius.

"Fla!" He shouted out loud, hoping to see some kind of reaction, but nothing happened.

"Hmm? What was that? I swear I felt mana just now." Jennette who was at her usual spot, writing, rewriting, reading and murmuring to herself suddenly said, her face was filled with surprise as she jolted reflexively "must have been a mistake." And she continued writing as she felt like she made a mistake.

'Mana? Is that what they call it? The name of this magical energy that I can feel in my body? It's in my body, I feel like I can do anything with it, but I can't even control it, and it feels like something else is missing, I just can't figure it out. But for now I'll just keep absorbing the mana at night and stacking it in my body before I learn of a way to emit it and actually use it as magic. It doesn't hurt to have more mana.'

And so Charles started Absorbing the mana with his technique that he named 'Mana absorption technique.' He did it every night before he slept and gathered a lot of mana from it.

By the time of his first birthday, he had a lot of mana In his body, higher than that of the average human but not the lowest mage, but he couldn't apply it or use it to perform magic and he was burdened by that.

But the opportunity arose on his First birthday, when he was to meet his father for the first time and done with him.

Charles had started speaking few words now, he could communicate his basic thoughts and feelings and Jennette could understand him completely now, she was like his mother, she was the only one he talked to along with a couple of maids that came to cleanup his room from time to time, they were always so happy to play and hear words from Charles, even Jennette was surprised at how fast Charles started talking, he started using words like "Aunty" and "Food" by the time he was just five months old.

He would sometimes go on a walk with Jennette and stroll around visitors building and the garden sight for visitors before coming back home.

He never complained for a day about not seeing his mother or father or anybody else his age or to play with anybody in fact, To Jennette, it looked like Charles loved and Enjoyed being alone, he never even played with the wooden toys that she'd drop for him, he was an odd kid. She didn't know that he was a thirty five year old man with years of experience and has lived through a lonely childhood before.

It was on the day of his birthday, Jennette had woken up early that day. She dressed Charles up in his finest cloth, one that she paid a tailore to make with her own money.

She made sure that Charles wasn't looking bad or unwell.

It was time for the Flameworth ritual, a ritual that every child born to the Flameworth house hold after twelve months, underwent, he/she shall have a dinner with the patriarch and shall be baptized in the pool of talents.

A pool filled with raw mana that is poisonous to non-Flameworths, but it can kill a Flameworth with low mana tolerance.

The survival of this ritual makes one recognized as a true Flameworth and legible for training once they reach the age of three, training to create their first mana circle.

"I believe you would succeed... Charles." Jennette cheered for Charles as he prepared to go for his dinner with his father, the patriarch. The Worry and Anxiousness in her tone couldn't be missed and her eyes were filled with concern, she didn't want to lose the boy she has become attached to, one who she had started to see as her son.

'i still believe you can do it Charles.' She said to herself.

"Go get them."

Charles nodded as she held his hands for him to walk on his own feet, to open the dining room of the Patriarch and the Matriarch of Flameworth. To meet his father for the first time.

Charles was intrigued.

'just who is this man that they call the patriarch? Someone capable of making Jennette, someone who knows magic, to be so scared. I can't waitf to see him.'