Reincarnated Prince just wants a quiet life

Part 17: The Fires of Innovation

After telling my mother that I had met with the gods, and that they have chosen me as their champion against the Dark One my mother sat in silence for a long time. She wore an unreadable mask of emotions equal parts confused and afraid. I chose to omit the part about me being a reincarnated individual though. I thought that that information at the very least should still remain a secret.

"Ivan..." My mother said in a shaky voice that seemed out of place coming from her, "Ivan, is this the burden that you have been carrying all this time?"

Nodding, "Yes, mother. Unfortunately that is the case." I said with a flat tone. "The goddess gave me a second chance on life, and even gave me her divine protection. However, the Dark One used the power of my revival as a source of power to weaken his seals even further. Now she has asked me to be her champion and lead the charge against his armies. The gods have given me an impossibly terrifying task, and I have no choice but to take it on."

"Then everything you've done was to prepare us for this war with the Dark One?" she asked.

"Yes." I said flatly before adding, "This division of elite troops, the new weapons I am creating, this ." I pointed to the schematic laying open on my desk, "All of it is to better our chances against his armies."

My mother looked over the table at me with sad eyes before standing up and walking over to me to embrace me in a hug. We sat in silence like this for some time before she said in a soft voice, "I am sorry Ivan. I am sorry that you must carry this burden but you needn't carry it alone. I'm not sure what I can do to help you but I will do what I must to protect you and your happiness."

"Thank you, mother. It feels a bit better to not be the only one with this knowledge. Although Darcia knows, it still weighed heavy on my mind. I had thought that perhaps the goddess had made a mistake in choosing me." I said still embracing her in a hug.

"The Goddess would not make such a mistake." she said before pulling back to look me in the eyes, "Now, what can I do to help?"

Taking a step back I stopped and looked at the blueprint laid out on my desk. Following my lead my mother stood next to me and looked over the blueprint in silence before asking, "What in the world is this Ivan?"

"If it works, it will be the new flagship and home base of the Emerald Guard." I said flatly as I grabbed a pen and made some minor adjustments.

"Flagship? You mean to operate from the sea? What of your missions inland? Surely you can't just anchor off shore and march inward." she said.

"Not the sea, but the sky" I said looking up to her with a large grin.

"The sky! This ship? How?" she asked in disbelief as she looked at the blueprint from what clearly looked like an ordinary ship.

"Magics of course." I said, still grinning, "The idea is to use large wind crystals as an engine to propel the ship and keep it afloat in the sky"

"That's an ingenious idea Ivan!" she shouted in excitement before frowning, "But how will you replenish such crystals? Surely keeping something so large afloat would require a great deal of power and mana. It would take weeks to fill even one of those crystals and the amount of mana would be depleted far too quickly would it not?"

"That is a great point mother," I said reaching for another blueprint, "But that's where these come in." The new blueprint I rolled out on the table looked like a normal set of air vents that you could find anywhere on earth. The only difference was the thousands of small magical circles drawn onto the blades of the vent. "While studying magic with Luna I came across an ancient text that spoke of the origins of magic and learned that long before the age of the gods magic was a much more difficult thing to harness. All species lacked a certain trait or ability to tap into the magical world without the help of something acting as a go between. Grimoires, staves, wands, chanting and even magic circles were widely used and for many the only way to tap into the magical world." I took a pause to make sure she was following along before continuing, "That all changed when the Dark Ones armies descended upon the world and the gods gave us the leveling system, including skills and abilities. With these the need for those go betweens became pointless save for the need to channel a greater deal of mana than normally possible or for those not adept in the arcane arts. Now these methods of tapping into the magical world didn't disappear, just became obsolete. But they still have their purposes if you use a little imagination."