I could not stand my parents fighting because of my actions, so I did what only a baby could do, I cried to get their attention.
And after giving them some time to settle me down, I showed affection to my parents, especially my dad.
Eventually, my dad asked his 2nd in command to go complete the mission in his stead and reinforce the subjugation mission with 20 more of the household troops.
I spent the rest of the day with my parents, and since there was no more hiding that I knew how to do the breathing exercises, I decided to try it after every feeding, and only when I am alone with my mum, don't want anyone having loose lips that could attract unwanted attention.
After doing the breathing exercises for the 4th time today, I felt a small ache in my chest.
That was a clear sign to stop, especially after Mum gave me a knowing worried look and cradled me while stroking my head and asking me to stop.
Sorry for worrying you Mum, I will try to get this over and done with ASAP.
***
After the scare I gave my parents, Mum scoured all the bookshelves in the house and locked away any and all magical literature in her personal bookcase.
Not cool, Mum, but understandable.
While waiting for my body to recover from the breathing exercise, it was back to more reading, and there was not a moment that Mum let me out of her sight.
Just like that, a week passed. Just to be safe, I decided to give myself a few days rest on top of the 1 week's recovery period before I try the breathing exercise again.
While I was taking a break from reading and doing some block stacking, luv me blocks by the way.
Dad and an older looking man with white streaks in his hair entered the room, Mum, myself, and my maid Alice were in.
“Father! You arrived.” Mum said as she for up from her seat and dismissed Alice.
It seems this is my Grandpa on my mother’s side, Baron Rowan Silverbrook, a 6th circle mage, hi Grandpa! I faced him, raised both my hands, and made a happy excited baby noise. Grandpa was trying to put on a serious face, but I saw the corner of his lips crack into a smile. Muhahaha, you are not immune to my cute powers old man!
“I left the moment I received the messenger bird, what seems to be the problem, the message sounded urgent.” Grandpa said as he turned back to Mum
The adults took a seat around a tea table and Mum poured everyone some tea, then sat me on her lap before telling Grandpa of the situation.
By the end of Mum informing Grandpa of my successful attempts at fluctuating my mana, his expression went back and forth between being excited and worried, especially about the part about me doing the exercise until the 4th time when she sensed I was stressing my mana pathways and I stopped on my own.
Grandpa stroked his long goatee as he pondered the situation, then said, “This seems like a good time for a vacation, and how better to spend this vacation than spoiling my newest grandson? We need to keep the people in the know small, so I and your mother will help babysit Luke to give you some time to rest. Your brother should be able to keep things in order while we are away, it is about time to push more responsibility of the territory to him anyway.”
Grandpa then wrote a letter and passed it to Mum, “Help send this to your mother later. Now, you said it has been a week since Luke has attempted taking the first step to magic, he should be ready to try again, do you think we can get him to try?”
Mum hugged me tight and berried me in her generous bosom, “No, it's too soon, it has just been a week”
Grandpa just waved off what Mum said, “Oh come on, we both know that is just an exaggerated estimate so the author or book publisher does not have any legal action taken against them if anyone retries the exercise too soon. It usually takes only 3 to 4 days to recover.”
The fucking liars! All the time I could have used to take my first step to magic.
Grandpa continued, “And besides, since I am here, there is no need to worry, I have prevented mana pathway rupture for many kids over the years, so this should be no problem.”
Mum was not happy, but after mulling it over with Dad, Mum came to the begrudging decision that now was as good a time as any with Grandpa around and agreed.
Grandpa clapped his hand, “Fantastic, now how do we get him to start the breathing exercise?”
The 3 adults tried to ask and prompt me to start with the breathing exercise, but I had to keep up my appearance and act baby like, so I just laughed at them and clapped at their amusing efforts.
Then Dad had an idea, he started doing a very exaggerated breathing exercise in front of me, Mum and Grandpa caught on and followed along. Well, they put effort into this, time to start playing along.
I started the breathing exercise along with them to the worry of my parents and excitement of my Grandpa. When I released my breath and image of the ball of power in my chest, I thought… I felt something. But I could not narrow down the feeling.
Obviously feeling my mana fluctuate, my Grandpa scooped me out of my Mum’s lap and spun me around while laughing, “We are going to have another mage in the family, and at such a young age, if he successfully takes his first step to magic, he may be the youngest human in recorded history!”
Wait, Grandpa… spinning… too fas- “Urrp”
I threw up on Grandpa.