Chapter 4: Growing Up

It's been four years since the birth of Ezra, and the blue crystal kept at its job, as Ezra's soul was being continuously transferred, although in small amounts into the child's, all year round.

But as they say, small drops make an ocean, the souls were beginning to intertwine and combine, a phenomenon which would not have occurred had the vessel matured. But being the fragile baby that it was, the soul was still very unstable, but also very suggestive to change's, as it does not have a fixed form, hence the current situation.

Because the vessel hadn't gained a sufficient level of sentience, it didn't know how to differentiate friend from foe, except when hurt, which the crystal had taken care of.

And unlike a virus, the souls aren't damaging but overwriting and adding to each other.

Like water and seawater, they aren't the same, but are also not that different, for their origins are the same, and so, in cases like this, the larger one automatically absorbs the smaller one.

To take it further, when you empty table water into the sea, it is instantly eroded, becoming sea water. Likewise, when a bottle of seawater is poured into a tank of drinking water, you find that the external attribute (salt) is wiped away, only to be found at the tank's bottom, but the level of water increases.

Such was the current phenomenon, with Kevin's soul constantly eroding and absorbing the baby's soul, which in turn, shapes the boy's character after Kevin's.

This in turn made Ezra gain awareness faster than his peers, including astounding cognitive abilities. He could think faster, read faster, and rarely forgets things.

His most prominent feature would be his size, for physique and age were disproportionate. He was only three years old but looked like a seven year old.

He learned a lot of things as he grew up, first of them, he is the son of Emperor Andrew Miller, with three older siblings, all of which are boys. He lives in the miller castle, a four story-building with a lot of hidden doors, as well as magical artifacts, which is located in miller city, which is also the capital of the empire.

The most notable would be that he is the son of a maid, though of a fallen noble house, because the people say it a lot, like, a lot!

He is the fourth prince of the Niton Empire, the largest empire in the three known continents. Of course, bigger doesn't always equate with better.

The names of the three continents are, the Puton continent, the Lexon continent and the Hellison continent. The Niton Empire along with few other kingdoms were in the Lexon continent.

It had to be known that he had been poisoned thrice since age 1 and grown to be cautious around others, except his mom.

With his peculiar characteristics and behavior, his mother had become the object of envy to many, both wives and children of noble birth.

And so, multiple time's had the maids witnessed the baby doing strange things, but also the fact that he was becoming smarter than most his age.

At three months, he had begun to crawl.

At eight months, he said his first words.

At fourteen months, he started walking.

At sixteen months, he started to clean himself, while hadn't been potty trained.

At his 20th month, he said a completely correct sentence, which was: "My mom is the best in the world". This in particular drove many moms mad, especially the king's other wives.

As for the king himself, he had never taken action toward this son of his, whom most called mana's child, so whether he hated or adored him was still up in the air.

At his 23rd month, he wrote his first word.

At his 26th month, he wrote a page full of words.

At his 30th month, he could read (though slowly).

At his 33rd month, he could hold simple conversations.

And by his 36th month, which was the most notable, he began to feel mana.

Actually, he had been absorbing mana since he was born because of the blue gem that had been absorbing mana to function. It had naturally opened Ezra's mana pathways, or meridians for short, giving him a mana enriched physique, which is mostly the reason for his growth spurt. And with a mental age of 55, his cognitive ability wasn't lacking at all. But the best royal magician could only sense it when he grew up, and this was because he had the physique of a seven years child.

One should know that the fastest known age to ever begin to feel mana was six years, which signified the birth of a super genius, most people feeling it when 9-13 years old.

Do note that these were just the most notable circumstances, and many others also happened.

Like he saved his mother from being poisoned multiple times, or that he learned basic etiquette, or that he was very handsome.

But from fame and fortune, came hatred and envy. His three brothers in particular, Triton, Connor and Jordan, were at the forefront. For them, Ezra was becoming an eyesore, and more than once, had they tried to harm him. At a point, Ezra's mother refused to let Ezra out her sights, also had someone taste her food before she could eat it, for she knew that many were after hers and her son's life.

Luckily, she was assigned an Expert-rank knight and her room was magically fortified from all sorts of things ever since she was almost killed in a failed assassination. As for the perpetrator, the assassin killed himself to avoid questioning after being caught, so they were never found.

Every week a new poison or a maid would be caught and executed, for sometimes trying to harm Ezra. Most times though, the maids die when the other queens are furious or in a bad mood.

But with every attempt to kill Kiara Miller, which was the name of Ezra's mother, she grew cautious and her sunny demeanor had changed to a cold one. She had accustomed herself to the attitude of other Nobles, hiding devilish intent behind a radiant smile.

So did things go, for the first years of Ezra's life, as he noted down his enemies, for when he became strong enough, they would be paid back their kindness in full. And with a little bit of interest added.

He began to recover his past-life memories in bits and pieces when he was three months old.

At first he had been spooked by it, thinking that it was a curse, but as time went on, he figured that it wasn't a curse. And as the bits and pieces came, it filled Ezra with the curiosity to know more.

He developed a reading habit, though he didn't exactly love reading books, but grew to like it because it filled a lot of gaps for him, evolving his brain in many ways.

Especially when his past-life memories assisted him greatly, and without anybody telling him, he grew aware of situations around him and the dark side of humans that parents hide from their children.

His last memory in particular, where he gained enlightenment was constantly refreshed in his mind, all those mixed up emotions, anger, relief, sadness, regret and most vivid was hatred.

Like so, a boy no more than three years of age had begun to grow into a man, mentally.

As he recovered more bits of his memory, his demeanor kept changing, but since he was just a three years old kid, and since he hadn't been talking to people much, his mother was the only one who noticed these little changes in habit, and like all mothers, she became worried.

Ezra began to talk less and less, mostly reading books in the castle's library day-in and day-out in utmost silence.

He stopped playing games, like others his age, and actively sought a tutor to teach him things of which he didn't understand and another teacher to teach him noble etiquette.

At first, she thought someone might have cursed him, and panicked, as she didn't know who to tell, and Ezra seeing this genuine act of care was deeply touched, because most of his memories didn't have anyone like her.

He reassured her multiple times to get her to calm down, and explained that her son (him) was all right, before she could sleep with peace of mind.

Such an attitude was out of place and very abnormal, but she had always known that he was different from his peers, and seeing him mature faster left a bittersweet taste in her mouth.

She was happy that he was growing into a very capable man, but sad that she hadn't spent enough time with her little boy before he grew up.

Like before, his actions had put his brothers on edge. Because they sought to inherit the throne, they could not allow Ezra to have an overwhelming gap, which in turn caused them to become more serious regarding books, which made them mature faster than their peers, though not as exaggerated as Ezra.

Like so did things go for another two years, with Ezra becoming five years old.

Kevin's soul had fully merged with his new body, the blue gem finally completed its mission, and dissipated while he was sleeping.