And not just that—I have to save the world in this state?! How the hell am I supposed to do that in the first place, man?!
I don't know what I can do now... It's not like anything will change just by sitting here. I have to figure it out somehow.
Judging by the sky outside, it's nighttime. According to Zephiel's memories, I live alone in this servant's quarter, and no one usually comes here except to bring me food. But what can I even do first?
Maybe I should start by gathering information about this world. I do have some memories from Zephiel's past, but a three-year-old doesn't exactly hold much valuable information. The story Zephiel told me in the afterlife mostly focused on his siblings, parents, nobles, and a few other things—not really helpful right now.
So... perhaps the first step should be understanding and learning how to use my Creation Magic. As for my job, I should probably avoid using it for now.
That said, I do have infinite mana, so at least I can experiment freely.
So how does this magic work?
Let's consider some possibilities:
I need actual materials to create things.
I can create objects purely from imagination.
A mix of both: first create materials, then shape them.
To test this, I need to try creating something. What do I have here in this room? A table, a chair, a bed, a glass... and food—wait.
Why is food already here?
Wait—I remember now. The last memory Zephiel had was of him eating and then collapsing.
Was it... poisoned?
Are they seriously trying to kill a three-year-old now?!
What the hell should I do?
No, wait—I'm getting distracted. Focus. First, I need to learn how to use my magic. Then, I'll figure out the next step.
Let's start small. Can I use the chair?
Maybe I should try changing its form by touching it and imagining something. Hmm… nothing's happening. Maybe I need to channel my mana into it.
Okay. I'll try visualizing a cube and channeling mana through the chair.
It worked! ...Well, sort of. It changed, but it's not a perfect cube.
Looks like I need to improve my imagination and visualization. After some more attempts, I finally succeeded in making a proper cube.
It's not easy—but it's a success. Still, I'd better return it to its original form. I can't trust the people who tried to poison a child.
I'm exhausted. This isn't going to be easy.
Next Morning:
I didn't sleep much. I noticed a few things, though.
This place is located at the farthest corner of the palace, completely isolated. Some maids came to collect the plates and left a piece of bread for breakfast.
Old, dry, maybe even spoiled bread.
I can't eat this. It might give me a stomach ache.
Seriously—who does this to a three-year-old?
Maybe… I already understand why this world was on the path to destruction.
I also noticed something else in the Self-Appraisal Window. Under my Magic Affinity, inside the hidden menu, there are several locked affinities marked with question marks.
Could it be… they unlock under certain conditions?
Does it have something to do with my job, Ego Architect?
Should I try creating a new personality?
While I was thinking that, a new window appeared in front of me.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
✦ EGO ARCHITECT INTERFACE ✦
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
⫸ Magic Affinities:
▸ Creation Magic (Passive)
▸ Dark Magic
▸ Invisibility
▸ Teleportation
▸ Enhanced Senses
▸ Homunculus Creation – [Locked: Create a homunculus for your personas]
▸ ??? – [Locked]
▸ ??? – [Locked]
▸ ??? – [Locked]
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
⫸ Job Paths:
▸ Spy
▸ Assassin
▸ Shadow Crafter
▸ ??? – [Locked]
▸ ??? – [Locked]
▸ ??? – [Locked]
▸ ??? – [Locked]
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
⫸ Active Persona Slots:
▸ Slot 01: [Empty – Ready for Manifestation]
▸ Slot 02: [Empty – Ready for Manifestation]
▸ Slot 03: [Empty – Ready for Manifestation]
▸ Slot 04: [Locked]
▸ Slot 05: [Locked]
▸ Slot 06: [Locked]
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
◈ System Prompt:
"You may use the abilities of your personas…
However, not to the fullest.
Initially, only 60% of their power can be accessed.
The true extent of their strength will grow as your bond deepens."
→ [Initiate Persona Creation]
→ [Return to Observation Mode]
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Woah… what is this?
So I can actually choose how my alternate personalities will be? But… Zephiel never mentioned anything like this. Could it be because he didn't have Self-Appraisal?No, that can't be it—he already had this job from the gods, as a blessing.
Still… is it just me, or is this job kind of broken in a way?
Well, whatever. The ability to assign specific jobs and magical affinities to personas is a huge advantage. And wait—Homunculus Creation? Does that mean… at some point, I can create a physical body for my personas? If I'm understanding this correctly, I'm not just assigning personalities—I might literally be giving them life.
But... not many jobs or affinities are unlocked right now. So what should I do first?
Also—why is my Creation Magic still labeled as Passive? What does that even mean? I get that I can use my personas' abilities at 60% output and the power increases as our bond strengthens...But then, does that mean they can also use my abilities?
Is that why Creation Magic is marked passive? Shared access?
Hmm… well, whatever. Let's see:There's Dark Magic, Teleportation, Invisibility, and Enhanced Senses—Sounds like the skillset of a spy. Or maybe even an assassin.But what exactly is a Shadow Crafter…? I'll figure that out later.
For now, let's create a Spy Persona.I need information more than anything right now. Recon, stealth, observation—yeah, this fits.
→ Job: Spy→ Affinities: Invisibility, Enhanced Senses, TeleportationWait… should a spy even have all of these? Well, it's not like I'm limited. If the persona can use them—and I can too—then what's the harm?
Should I also give it Dark Magic…?That one's tricky. What if the persona ends up doing something dangerous… something that might even harm me?
Ding.Another window appeared in front of me:
◈ System Notice:"Note: Personas created through the Ego Architect are unable to cause harm to their creator.They are designed solely to assist and empower the user."
Ah… good. That settles that.
Then, I continued.
Focused and determined, I began the process of shaping my first persona.
"…Done."
Huh? Nothing happened?
"Where am I? …What do you need?"
—Woah. I can hear a voice… inside my head?It… sounds oddly familiar. It reminds me of my past life.
Well… I'm kind of used to it at this point.
"I've just created you," I said calmly. "You're my persona. I needed someone skilled in stealth and intelligence gathering."
"I see… Can you share some of your memories with me? It will help me understand the situation better."
"My memories?"
"Yes. Just enough for context. I don't need everything—just what will help me do my job."
"…Alright."I hesitated for a moment, then shared select memories—only the useful ones. My past life. The current world. Zephiel's fragmented childhood. The situation with the kingdom. Enough to give him footing.
"…Hmm. I understand now," he said after a pause. "So… you need information. About this world and, more specifically, the kingdom, right?"
"Exactly. Can you do it?"
"I can. But it won't be free, you know."
"…You need money?"
"Well, yeah. I'm a spy, not a volunteer. But seeing that you're completely broke right now," he added, voice dry and amused, "I'll write down the cost and collect payment later."
"…Man. Saying I'm broke like that hurts."
He chuckled. "Truth stings. Anyway, I'll begin gathering information at night, while you sleep. It'll take time to build networks and learn the lay of the land."
"Fine. I'll grant you access to my body when I'm asleep. But no funny business. Don't cause trouble."
"Relax. I'm a professional."
"Yeah, right—a professional spy who's only been alive for, what, five minutes?"
"Says the guy currently living in the body of a three-year-old."
"…Touché."
While talking to him, I discovered something interesting—I could put him to sleep at will.
With a simple thought, he faded into silence.
"Useful," I muttered, watching the mental interface vanish. "I'll switch him off for now."
Now that I was alone again, hunger crept in.
Maybe I should try to get something to eat… fruits, perhaps.
I activated Invisibility, my form shimmering briefly before vanishing, then used Teleportation to quietly slip out of the servant quarters.
Outside, the air was fresh with the scent of dew, and the golden morning sunlight filtered softly through the trees. Birds chirped somewhere overhead as the estate slowly stirred to life. I stayed low, sticking close to walls and hedges, until I reached what looked like a garden.
There were rows of fruit trees—berries, apples, and a few others I didn't recognize—all shining in the early light.
But there was a problem.I'm in the body of a three-year-old. I can't climb trees like this.
"Can I just teleport the fruit?" I focused on a ripe red apple, willing it into my hand.
Pop.Success.
But I couldn't carry much. My small hands could barely hold two apples.
Sigh… I guess I'll just eat them here.
I sat under one of the trees, cross-legged, biting into the apple. It was fresh, crisp, and sweet—infinitely better than the stale bread they left earlier.
While eating, I glanced across the garden. Beyond the hedges was an open courtyard. From the setup, it looked like a training ground—probably where knights or guards practiced.
Should I go look…?
I paused.
No, not now. Too risky during the day.
After finishing my apples, I wiped my hands on the grass and teleported back to my room.
The plate of breakfast had been cleared.
So the maids had come by. Maybe just to clean, or maybe to check if I ate the bread.
Either way, I was full now.