126 Chapter 124 Answering To Mom (2/2)
”What about fighting that thing in the north?” asked his mother.
”If I didn't, everyone would be dead by now. I didn't have much choice. We made it in time before it became stronger.”
”Well you didn't need to bait that one mage to shoot lightning at you.”
”He told me he used lightning weeks earlier. I'd been planning on how to stop him since then. Even if the coins didn't work, other mages can't actually hurt me with spells like lightning or fireball unless I let them.”
His mother had obviously been talking to a lot of people to have heard about so many things. It was obvious from his dad's expression that this was entirely his mother's idea. She seemed stumped at his last comment though.
”What?”
”I control the mana around me. Anyone who attempts to use magic against me has to pretty much be superhuman.”
”You still came home soaked last night.”
”Yes. But I learned a lot about both AIR and WEATHER. Two runes I don't have many spells in yet. The lightning was multi-colored, but it was still a magical effect that I can protect myself and Stella from. The hail I couldn't, so once it started, we came home. I was careful.”
”Hail?” she asked. ”Joseph, your success is nearly unchecked. You have done far more than any eight-year-old should be capable of, and we are concerned for you.”
”Success?”
”Yes, you have succeeded in pretty much everything you have attempted, haven't you?”
”No. Not even close. The wasteland is still there and not only is it still there, I have only the barest of clues as to why it is there, and no idea how to fix it. I've never even seen the world tree to know what state it's in. The barrier around the elven forest is still there, and now I have to find gnomes because one rune has been subst.i.tuted from an elven rune for a gnomish rune.
”I have a glimmer of what it's doing but it would be like knowing Latin and trying to reconstruct Portuguese from a single letter.”
His mother was starting to look more and more lost, her whole argument and concern falling apart around her.
”We were chased out of the western kingdom, because the king was routed after I had done everything to make the barbarians free people, so that all went to waste,” he continued, but his dad jumped in.
”You were still prepared for the rout though, because you made sure one village, where the new technology was being made, was able to be burned to the ground.”
”I didn't think the king would be overthrown. I was thinking the n.o.bles would come north with spies and try and get a piece of the pie once I opened the frontier. Regicide was completely beyond my preparations. One of my students was beaten into talking which evoked the contract and killed him because I didn't keep a close enough watch on them. I had to resort to such a public thing as tricking Dominic into trying to kill me before I could kick him and his minions out. They almost rioted a half dozen times in the one month I took to save the world.
”We only made a few pieces of porcelain before we moved here, and the soil is wrong to make more.
”We need too much alcohol to extract the scents and pigments to get the paints and perfumes I want ready. It took an incredible amount of effort to just get what I gave to Stella as a present.
”I finished one spell, that I've been planning for weeks, in a day, but the next spell I spent a whole day on without any break throughs at all, and I'm likely the best magical researcher in this entire realm.
”I don't have hardly any time to study more, or teach, because a group of evil demon wors.h.i.+ppers is trying to end the world, or at least the world as we know it. I'm trying to overcome a group that has been hatching plans for over a thousand years. The only way most of this has worked out has been ridiculous amounts of effort, tons of luck, and a lot of help from people around me.
”No, mom. The most important bits of what I wanted to happen, have been going horribly wrong. I'm just not stupid enough to miss the fact that I'm making progress.”
”Oh,” she said, sitting back and looking down at her cold breakfast. His father was carefully eating small bites, so as not to draw attention to himself.
”I guess, that you've just grown up so much, and everything I've heard from people, it just seemed… I'm sorry. You may be capable of so much, but you are still my son, and I worry about you.”
”I really appreciate that, mom. But I can't stop helping out. If I do, the people who are trying to end the world, might actually succeed. And I know that I have the ability to eventually stop them. In fact, I may be the only person in the whole world.”
She nodded and picked up her fork. Joseph sighed in relief. He had thought he had ended this the other day, but apparently his mom was still trying to adjust. Picking up his own fork, he knew that this would probably happen again. She just couldn't stop her mind from worrying about him. Being so small probably didn't help either.
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