IWBTP 08

Chapter 8 —

I Made Ice and Was Officially Declared a Research Subject

Morning.

I could hear the chirping of little birds.

The air was fresh and crisp.

Under normal circumstances, it should have been a pleasant awakening.

“Rainid, wake up. It’s time for research.”

“Mother?”

I opened my eyes halfway. It was still dim outside the window.

“Isn’t it still nighttime?”

“No, it isn’t. Sunrise is almost here.”

“Wouldn’t most people call this ‘before dawn’? It’s not morning yet. Let me sleep a little longer.”

“Forget the little details! Get up already.”

“No. Children who sleep grow bigger.”

“Who told you that?”

“It’s common wisdom.”

“Oh, never mind that! Come on, we have research to do!”

“What kind?”

“An experiment to see if water can become ice.”

“We can do that later. We can do it anytime.”

“The day you think of something is the best day to do it!”

Mother pulled the blanket off me, and I reluctantly got up.

It was still dark outside. Even the chickens were asleep.

“Mother… I’m sleepy.”

“Wake up! Come on, perk up!”

My mother was making unreasonable demands of a five-year-old.

In my previous life, someone would have reported her to the authorities for this.

Not that there was any such authority here.

“Come to think of it, what about my training?”

“You’re taking the day off.”

“Y-Yes! No training today!”

“We’re prioritizing magic experiments today.”

“Huh?”

“We’re going to research magic all day!”

“I want to go to training.”

“No. Today is magic day!”

“Mother, did Grandfather really approve this?”

“Of course. He was more than happy to approve it.”

Reluctantly, I followed behind Mother.

I probably had an air of profound sadness hanging over my back.

Rubbing my sleepy eyes, I ate breakfast.

Honestly, I barely remember what I ate.

“All right, Rainid. Let’s conduct our experiment to turn water into ice.”

“Okay…”

“You’re so low-energy! Come on, let’s get started!”

Mother was just way too energetic.

“First, make a water sphere.”

“Yes.”

Pop.

A sphere of water floated above my palm.

“Good. Keep it there.”

“Maintain it, right?”

“Rainid, what are you going to do next?”

“Cool it.”

“And how are you going to do that?”

“By imagining it becoming cold. I’ll think about the ice cream we ate in the carriage.”

“You’re being way too vague.”

“Imagery is important, Mother.”

I was serious.

Shaved ice on a hot summer day.

That moment when your head suddenly freezes from the cold.

A freezer.

Ice cream.

I pictured all sorts of cold things.

Then the surface of the water sphere began turning white and cloudy.

“Hmm?”

“Huh?”

Crack.

A tiny sound rang out.

The surface of the water sphere turned white, and the next moment, it had transformed into a transparent ball of ice.

Silence.

“Mother?”

Huh?

No reaction.

“Mother?”

“Do it again.”

“Huh?”

“Do exactly what you just did again.”

And so, I did it a second time.

This time, I imagined cooling it even more intensely.

The water sphere froze in an instant, transforming into a transparent sphere of ice.

It happened in a split second.

Ooh, what a beautiful spherical piece of ice.

In my previous life, it would have looked great in a tumbler with some brandy.

…Well, there wasn’t any brandy in this world.

“Mother, I did it. Here.”

Mother accepted the ice sphere with trembling hands.

Was Mother okay?

If she kept holding ice like that, her hands were going to hurt.

“Ouch! It’s cold!”

“It’s real! Father-in-law—Aaaaaah!”

Suddenly, her scream echoed throughout the entire mansion.

Wasn’t everyone going to come running because of that?

And—

Yep. Here they came.

“Lillis! What’s the matter, shouting at the top of your lungs first thing in the morning?!”

“Rainid—”

Mother, don’t stop there!

You’re making it sound like I did something wrong.

Grandfather looked at me and asked,

“What happened to Rainid?”

“Rainid made ice!”

“Huh?”

Everyone stared blankly at me.

With everyone looking at me like that, I was getting embarrassed.

No, wait! This wasn’t something to be embarrassed about!

“Rainid, can you do it in front of everyone?”

“Ah, yes!”

I created a sphere of water in my palm and imagined it becoming cold.

An ice sphere was complete.

“I did it!”

Nobody said anything.

They simply stared at the sphere of ice in my palm.

“Is it really frozen?”

“Would you like to touch it, Grandfather?”

I placed the ice sphere in Grandfather’s palm.

“It’s cold. It really is ice.”

“We have to write a paper about this!”

“Lillis, wait. You’re moving too fast. We still need to verify it.”

“But he made it right here!”

“It may be something Rainid alone can do. Until we confirm whether another person with the water attribute can reproduce this, we need to keep it confidential.”

Everyone looked at me.

“Hmm? I’m a perfectly normal person, you know.”

“How are you normal?!”

“You have the nerve to say that?!”

“What kind of normal person is a five-year-old who can make ice?!”

Everyone piled on me at once.

I don’t understand.

“Rainid, make more!”

“Ehh? Nooo.”

“It’s for research.”

“What about my human rights?”

Mother’s eyes had completely transformed into those of a researcher.

I had a feeling I should run.

Just as I thought that—

“Wait, Rainid.”

This time, Grandfather called out to me.

“Ice is certainly impressive, but what I’m really interested in is the space attribute.”

“Huh?”

“Let’s test it.”

Mother’s eyes lit up again.

“Father, you say something useful once in a while.”

“The ‘once in a while’ part was unnecessary.”

I realized something.

It seemed I wasn’t going to escape today.

After that, at Mother’s insistence, I ended up freezing water spheres of all different sizes.

Small ice.

Large ice.

Ice that froze slowly.

Ice that froze all at once.

Each time, Mother wrote something down on a sheet of paper.

…Is research always this relentless?

Before I knew it, noon had long since passed.

The ice we’d made was carried straight to the kitchen.

The head chef was holding the ice with sparkling eyes.

“We might be able to use this to preserve fish and meat.”

“Oh!”

While all the adults were getting excited, I was thinking about something else.

Making ice every time was going to be a hassle.

Couldn’t I make a box that cooled things automatically?

Wait.

Wasn’t that basically a refrigerator?

Could I make one through Alchemy?

Well, I’d think about that eventually.

In the end, we never got around to testing the space attribute that day.

Mother had been far too excited about the ice experiment.

Maybe this was Mother’s true nature after all.