[For the speedy reader.] While this novel has good sides, it is filled with a lot of talk about food. Filling whole chapters about their existence and even more chapters preparing his "ingenious/ miraculous" food. Which may bore or even annoy you. Further more a big percentile of reader will consider the treatment of the child as ab*se and additionally his mental responses as absurdly insufficient. But be assured it is all done as a "funny joke" a trope as they say. If you can ignore all that you may find joy in the slice of life which conquers social events like "Fests" and noble gatherings at a slow pace without the need to have an all-knowing Mary Sue protagonist. Well here in lies the crux. First "The pacing"! Better prepare years of your own life as a buffer if you ever caught up to the author and wait for a meaningful development. Second "His Idiocy"! But for that you should read the remaining review.
[Speedy reader exit at this point]
As many other reviewer stated the plot does indeed not speed up at any point in time.
The only big time-skips occur at the early chapters when he skips twice.
- Baby / Toddler -> 3 year old
After those he slowly ages as the plot continues for the next two years.
Which is a shame as a lot of times his inner thoughts stay the same and are basically recycled each year.
As such it can be quite annoying as he always whines about the temperature even though he can freely manipulate it. Furthermore he considers the possibility to invoke magic while sleeping several times without ever trying it because this would mean in turn mean that the child gains a powerful tool which sets him free of the ab*se. All while preserving his previous luxury of a warm and secure home. As he could just use one of the many houses he build with earth magic. But living in those far away from his ill tempered sister is not funny I guess. All the while his sister slowly imprints herself with classical conditioning. The "good" treatment being that he doesn't get hit.
But that is only one of his myriad of bad decisions. He gets robbed of his candy by a maid because he tries to bribe a maid even though it is obvious that he will be betrayed later on. At the same time he forgets that there was not even a reason to use the bribe. Because he was innocent.
The thoughtlessness of his sister was the cause of the accident which he tries to cover up. But well he is in such a traumatized state of mind. As a god damn 33-35 year old. His mind immediately escapes reality and abandoned all reason.
Those kind of tropes may work a few times. But it tires out quickly in my uneducated opinion. Heck! He doesn't need to be a genius or the world doesn't need to bow towards him. A common trope in many isekais. But he should still exercise more knowledge then an infant.
YET his escapism and inability to face reality and reason denies any attempt to establish a healthy mind. His inability in common sense would make him a tactical weapon the moment he finds himself at the wheel of a modern car.
At other occasions he gets punished "without" reason. Or that is his version of the story. At the same time even a "real" child would see his wrongdoing. He shows little to no understanding of the untold truth. For one he knows for a fact that he is considered a prodigy with an insane mana/magic capacity. Secondly he knows that his parents are really sensitive towards the usage of mana. He noticed that his parents feel even the tiniest magic manipulation he tries in their presence. Yet the moment they leave the room he never considers their existence. Like a toddler which is left baffled by "peek-a-boo".
Fully aware of his amazing capable parents he goes to the nearby field which takes him only a couple of minutes to use an ancient magic. A magic which could only be invoked by an astounding amount of mana to teleport himself a couple hundred kilometre to another country. He should know that he that the amount of mana used rivaled a fuc**ng dragon. But NO! He walked maybe 5 minutes at a leisurely pace which equals around 400-500 meter and believes that it would suffice! What kind of dimwit thinks that he would not be noticed by a couple of legendary adventures at this point.
To make it even worse at one time he barely gets back in time from his trip to the capital of the foreign country. Which obviously caused his parents to worry and talk about it inside the living room. That in turn ruffled the feather of his "beloved" sister. ALL of this is not explicitly told by the author but still undeniable true. As the protagonist enters the house oblivious to these kind of development sullied from head to toe by sand in the middle of winter. Which just underlines that he was thrown into the dirt by an unknown assailant he gets greeted by the "loving" fist of his his "bro-con-sadistic" sister. She questioned him about the sand as an representative of the family. But just like any other shounen brat he can't read the room and replies with the most blatantly obvious lie possible. That this guy should be 35 years at this point in time could not be explained. Maybe his mind regressed by his child body. If not this guy should NEVER take on a serious responsibility. A three year old could steal his candy and he would be confused while mumbling "How did he do it? How did that happen?"
If that is not enough he was even questioned about his magic usage previously. At one time his sister again as a representative asked him why his footprints just stopped in the middle of nowhere. And he doesn't even consider the fact that he revealed his ability to fly. Which in itself is an extremely rare and ancient magic. No! he just tries to hide behind some bullsh*t reason which established his undeniable usage of magic which is far more advanced then flying. An absolute pushover not just to his family which tries to teach him with their ill-chosen ab*se but to the whole world. The only reason he doesn't have a (s*ave-) collar of a powerful noble or someone similar at this point in time is that he is shielded. His father takes it upon himself to guard him with great effort. And even warns his abnormal child to be more cautious. But said child in turn does not understand even the basis of the concern. Again we are talking about someone who peaked at 27 years and was then reborn.
And last but not least the fate of the story. In the latest chapter he used Gravity magic. Something which clearly screams ancient magic as a simple change of the applied vector would result in an advanced form of flying. But no he doesn't figure that out even though he once got to know that the hidden ace of a dukes daughter is that she can use such magic. And this circumstance should not be disclosed. Well anyway.
He uses this magic which was only introduced in this chapter (505) and the author seem to have noticed his mistake. Because the next logical step would be the defeats of (demonic-) sister. An absolute NO NO. At least in this novel. As the sister is the physical reincarnation of the Amazon Goddess. A conundrum which stifled the progress of the author causing him to not release a chapter for several weeks. Closing in to the good ol' month. Well here come really bad news. The author has a track record to just drop his works at one point and never go back.
Furthermore the author found a new piece for himself. His newest work revolves around a 35 year old aristocrat who will always stay single [...]. Yep a guy close to the age of the author who will NEVER engage in a romantic relation ship and will always sails past all the attractive interested females (even though all of them a smitten by the protagonist) as such an endeavor would not fit the character. I don't know if the author considers his interpersonal experience insufficient to write the least bit romantic story line or if he just outright refuses such work. But at the end of the day it explains that the protagonist of this novel never grew beyond eight years old and never meet the ice princess. And to top it of he can recycle all the different dishes to prepare in daily life in his new works. [...].
A shame. Truly as I enjoyed several acts of the novel quite a bit. His visit of another barony. His visit of the equivalent of japan. His adventures in the snow where he stood up against his sister and made serious progress.
But as always. All must end. And this novel will not end at a positive note it seems.
