In the stillness of the night, the moon's gentle radiance seeped through the window, casting a delicate glow upon Voltaire's room.
Its delicate light danced upon his crib, creating a serene and peaceful atmosphere that lulled the little one into a tranquil slumber.
Except, Voltaire is wide awake right now. He slept quite early to wake up at midnight.
To avoid constant surveillance, he established a routine of going to bed early and rising at midnight, knowing that it was the time when his butler kept the least watchful eye on him.
During this time, utilizing the two-hour span to engage in rigorous practice before drowsiness crept back into his tiny form.
Since he couldn't practice all his abilities at once, he opted to devote each night to practicing a single ability at a time.
Having trained his katana creation technique yesterday, it was now the time towards mastering his Bullet technique.
With the window wide open, he had a clear path to shoot his bullet outside, as long as he steered clear of the swirling curtain.
His target is the tall tree a few meters away from his window, or more precisely, the leaves of that tree.
If he targets the tree itself, there is a high chance of him leaving a noticeable mark on it, which could trigger suspicion from his cunning butler, Clemton.
Fortunately, If he aims at the leaves of that tree then there wouldn't be any problems.
It is known as the Winden Tree, it's a tree that can only be found in this world.
To this day, Voltaire remains baffled by the two unique traits of the Winden Tree, but he also appreciative of them.
One of the unique characteristics of this tree is its ability to generate a breeze that corresponds to the prevailing weather. On hot summer days, it provides a refreshing, cool breeze, while during cold weather, it offers a comforting, warm breeze.
It's the main reason why his window is opened widely despite the 'threats' of an assassin.
Well, there's no assassin whatsoever but his safety still lies on Clemton.
In this world without technology comparable to Earth, the Winden Tree serves as an air conditioning system, providing natural cooling and comfort.
Although, this trait is already good enough to make someone from earth to be thankful for, this is not Voltaire's favorite part of this tree.
The second feature, which is exceedingly convenient for him, is that the leaves of the Winden Tree disappear completely when they receive the tiniest amount of damage, and fresh leaves appear in their place without delay.
The cycle will persist until the tree reaches the age of hundreds of years.
(How does Voltaire know it you ask?)
It's because of his maid, Julia. A cheat code when it comes to being absurdly capable.
Given Julia's fondness for exploring diverse genres of literature, she developed a habit of reading them aloud to lull Voltaire to sleep.
One of the books that Julia read to Voltaire, and that stayed in his memory, was the one about the Winden Tree.
Without further ado, Voltaire changed position and sit so he could aim at the leaves with more accuracy.
(Voltaire is now 10 months old and can sit and crawl, although he still can't escape the crib.)
'Now then, let's aim for the nearest leaf for a warm up.'
After saying so, a small ball of purple with the size of a coin appears on the air.
Its purple color blended with the moonlight, making it difficult for most people to see.
As far as Voltaire is concerned, it's his own ability; he can see it without any trouble, and he can even sense it involuntarily.
As it continues to bobble up and down, Voltaire imagines firing it towards the leaf he considers his target.
The bullet is propelled forward, it swiftly follows a linear trajectory, accurately hitting its intended target.
And as expected, the leaf of the Winden Tree disappeared upon getting hit.
However, Voltaire was not satisfied as his face seems to be sulking.
'Damn it! I had envisioned the bullet piercing through the leaf and continuing its trajectory, hitting the subsequent leaves behind it, yet it disappeared abruptly upon impact with the intended leaf.
'Like I thought, if I focused on control then it will lack the power and vise versa... It's been months already, why am I still stuck with this problem?!'
Voltaire's face contorted slightly in irritation which came back to normal just a seconds later.
'Even though my weapon creation training was already challenging, this ranger training is also on par with it. I need to stay focused and give it another try so I would be able to try 'that' and if I don't, there's a chance I will forever be stuck with this annoying problem.'
Encouraging himself to regain composure, additional purple sphere start materializing in the air.
Voltaire aims to fires it one by one alternating between modifying the control and power output.
It was the solution he came up with a long time ago, but couldn't put into action as he was still lacking in almost everything regarding his own ability.
But this time, things are different; he has shown remarkable progress in the last four months and now has the confidence that he can finally do it.
'As I am now, it proves to be quite arduous to handle both the bullet's trajectory and its power in unison, so I have no choice but to rely on this method. I can only hope that I can develop a better grasp with continued practice.'
The curtains on the window continue to swirl around blocking the path of his bullet.
Voltaire waited for the curtain to give him an open look and then...
When the chance show itself, Voltaire only move his right hand forward and immediately fires two bullet with only a second differential outside the window before the curtain blocks his sight once again.
The first bullet hits its target leaf like he intended but it vanished immediately just like the bullet earlier.
His focused was on the bullet's control that it lacks the power.
He can only apply a small amount of his mana to it to have control over it.
Meanwhile, the second bullet travel faster than the first one despite being fired last.
However, it didn't hit the intended leaf and instead continue to travel further passing the tree until he can't see it anymore.
This is what happens when he ignored the control and focus on its firepower instead.
In this case, more and condensed mana is required to increase the bullet firepower causing him to have a hard time controlling it.
'It is not the result I want. Oh well, let's try again and again until I get drowsy since it's all I can do.
'This is the first night I'm doing this so I doubt I will get something noteworthy of it. Although, it's not a problem at all since I already had a headstart compare to my peers.'
After saying so, Voltaire fires his bullet like he did the previous ones.
When all the bullet spheres on the air is gone, a new batch appears replacing it.
Voltaire spent his night repeating the same thing over and over again until he fell asleep.