Chapter 1: Once Ordinary, Stay Ordinary

Chapter 1: Once Ordinary, Stay Ordinary

If you could wish for one thing after death, what would it be?

For me, I wanted to be reincarnated into a bad-ass, overpowered main character surrounded by a harem of beautiful women.

I didn't take much thought into it, as it only crossed my mind every now and then, but in that one moment… I wished…

Every detail of my death burned itself into my brain, especially my final seconds, hoping for something new.

It was just a normal day- well, until the whole dying thing.

I woke up that morning as JIro Nakajima, a high school student with great grades. Oh- and no friends.

However, I was fine with no friends. You could say I didn't want friends. They took up too much of my valuable time that I could use playing games and studying.

Even though I had no friends, I still considered myself average.

My life was boring. At least, I thought it was.

I was too scared to try and go big, knowing that the chance of failure was significantly high.

And so, I decided to just stay average.

I always contemplate how insignificant I was, especially on walks from school to home.

(I'm just another kid in this world, what difference would it make if I died?)

With who I was then, I knew there would be no difference, and so I just came to terms with it.

Unfortunately, I came to experience that question myself, although I wouldn't really get to know if the world changed at all because 𝑰 𝒅𝒊𝒆𝒅.

I was contemplating my life when a car turned and bolted down on the street I was crossing, ultimately hitting me.

I had little time to get out of the way, but even still…

It was enough time, but I froze and gazed at the car with a stupefied expression on my face.

Shortly after I would find myself sprawled against the windshield, sliding off the top of the car, flying and rolling in the air, and finally landing on the ground head first. I went from sliding on the road face down to my body violently rolling on the somewhat-soft, blistering hot concrete.

The car didn't stop or anything, it just kept bolting down the long road, and after a few seconds, my body came to a stop.

I found myself alone on that street, with no one around me to help.

The excruciating pain lasted for only a while, fading away a few seconds later after my body went numb and shot cold.

Somewhere deep in my mind I was curious to what would happen next or what to expect, but one thing was for certain, I wasn't afraid.

Sure, I felt homesick along with my numbness after subconsciously thinking about my loving parents and how I'd never get to see them again, but I thought to myself how it would all be over soon.

Those few seconds felt like a whole minute, but my eyes finally rolled up into my head, and I was dead.

Everything was so dark and quiet…

.

.

.

"Ivaa!" a scrawny male voice had found itself into the darkness, it's words being unintelligible.

𝑾𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕?

Then, I heard another voice, a husky voice.

"Ceday, ivaa!"

It sounded as if two men were urging someone.

"Ivaa! I-Ivaa!" Both of the voices shouted, and then, it happened.

My eyes opened against its will, and in came a vicious, blinding light.

"Ju…"

"Poven tet!" shouted the husky voice

To add to my overwhelming curiosity and the room's silence, I began bawling my eyes out.

𝑰'𝒎 𝒄𝒓𝒚𝒊𝒏𝒈? 𝑾𝒉𝒚 𝒂𝒎 𝑰 𝒄𝒓𝒚𝒊𝒏𝒈?

It took a while for my eyes to adjust to this new brightness, but I could barely make out anything unless I focused hard enough, and even then it'd still be blurry. In front of me I could make out a tall, thin, quirky-looking man with a large chunky mustache and lopsided glasses just ahead of me.

"Ju…" The husky voice sounded from the left of me, breaking the silence between the two men.

I wanted to analyze whose voice it was, but I couldn't. I had no control over my head.

𝑾𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒉𝒆𝒍𝒍 𝒊𝒔 𝒉𝒂𝒑𝒑𝒆𝒏𝒊𝒏𝒈?

The more I panicked about this strange situation, the more vicious my cries became.

𝑰 𝒄𝒂𝒏'𝒕 𝒎𝒐𝒗𝒆!

It probably would've been common sense to consider that I couldn't move because I was just hit by a speeding car, but I let the overwhelming moment take hold of me.

My confusion came to a temporary halt as a woman held me to her face. This woman had a funny shrub nose and soft brown eyes.

"Li fama…"

I didn't notice her long hair, but I did notice her puckering lips as it embraced my forehead.

Then, I had this one thought that struck my body cold.

𝑨𝒎 𝑰 𝒂 𝒃𝒂𝒃𝒚?

__________

9 months have passed since I was conceived, and my vision significantly improved.

I could only crawl, but it gave me slight relief that I could finally move around on my own rather than being confined in my mothers arms all day.

My chubby belly scraping the ground as I crawl around the house brings slight discomfort, but I let my curiosity get the best of me.

As I was recklessly crawling around the floor, I ran into something or someone.

That someone was my mother, Cedar Grimald.

Although she wasn't strikingly pretty, she was fairly cute.

Fairly cute, yet her small shrub nose grew funnier to me everytime it scrunched or wiggled.

She was fairly thin, and had sandy blonde hair that went as far as her waist.

The lucky man that caused her problems was my father, Otis Grimald, a strikingly handsome, masculine man.

He wasn't exactly tall, but he appeared to be about 5'11.

His most striking feature was his majestic blonde braided beard with a beard-stache and his hair, which was almost as long as Cedar's, went as far as his shoulders.

I always thought about how he was nearly built like a Greek God.

He was nearly perfect.

I say nearly because he's an idiot, sometimes (All the time).

I couldn't understand what my Ceday and Otis were saying, but most of their conversations were quite clearly Ceday scolding Otis, giving me an indication that he was reckless.

And speaking about understanding, I've learned a few things in the span of those 9 months.

The most important thing I've learned is that I was just born into a little something called…

𝑴𝑨𝑮𝑰𝑪?

At first, I thought I was reincarnated into some beat up family in a different country, but I was terribly mistaken.

This theory came to a swift conclusion when my mom walked me around the town, holding me in her arms.

And on that walk I witnessed kids manifesting magic!

Most of the kids had small orbs of water between their two palms which would collapse and fall back into the pond in mere seconds. Some of them were just holding their hands in the air together, their veins protruding from their forehead as their grunts grew louder until they finally gave up, looking utterly defeated.

I would have laughed if I could, but the only thing I could let out was a "Aah! Aaah!" And in return, Ceday would caress the little hair I had on my tiny head.

Another thing I've learned was that we live in a fairly-sized, rough town. MOst houses were made of straw, manure, and mud. Some houses were just straight up dome huts put together by sticks, mud and straw.

There were also animal pens and small barns that reckless clouds would go into to mess around.

Looking at this brought my sincere disappointment.

Not only because I would have to find my own entertainment, but because I was born into a poor town.

Besides the buildings, the environment was beautiful. There was a chunky forest nearby surrounding our town, a big, periwinkle blue lake, patches of mud which were constantly occupied by older boys wrestling each other, and a large flowerfield beneath a steep hill down the road from our house.

On our walks, I notice Otis working in the forest, primarily chopping trees.

Ceday wouldn't take me further into the forest where they worked, and I concluded it was because they hunted there frequently as a Otis few other men came from the forests with bloodstained tools and small dead animals.

As for Ceday, she usually does house chores, but when she's finished with them, she'd invite her friends over who would bring their children who were near my age who were extremely annoying.

*Deep inhale*

I hated every moment of being forced to play with those toddlers.

I crawled away to find solace, but I couldn't find anywhere remotely comfortable or out of reach from those toddlers who kept chasing me around because our house was so small.

And because our house was so small, I had to endure another problem.

There were no rooms, and we had fairly uncomfortable mattresses stuffed with straw.

It wasn't entirely bad until I started hearing small noises at night. Unpleasant noises at that.

Noises that come from both Ceday and Otis that I wished I could sleep over, but I really couldn't.

Thankfully, they had another bed.

I feared that my days of being an only child may be coming to an end.

I grew to not really dislike the whole thing though.

I didn't really think of them as my parents, and it felt like a new type of relationship.

Call me weird all you want, I grew into liking this type of fantasy.

Is it illegal to be perverted?

I don't know.

Does this make me perverted?

I want to move on.

__________

Time had passed yet again, except this time, it was 6 months.

My curiosity had grown exponentially.

I could also sort've speak and understand this new language which was called Nimati.

Ceday, to my surprise, had just bought me a kids book to learn Nimati.

My questions on how she got it were overshadowed by my excitement.

"It's very expensive, so make the most out of it, Alaric" Ceday said, looking as if she forced a smile.

The book she brought me was a large leather book with the words 'Learning Nimati: For kids!' engraved on the front.

I was eager to read this as it would be the first thing that I could do that I actually enjoyed in my previous life.

It wasn't like reading a light novel, but it was reading and learning something new, and that piqued my interest.

WIth enough strength to at least waddle, I made my way outside, plopping the book onto a small, round wooden table.

*thud*

The table shook.

I plopped down on a stool I pulled from under the table and was off to the races.

I skimmed through the pages, my eyes burning with passion to learn more about this new world.

*shh*

"Le. Du. Me. Fu. Be"

*shh*

*shh*

*shh*

Although all the information I was skipping was valuable information, I had set my target for one thing, and one thing only.

𝑴𝑨𝑮𝑰𝑪!

I found a page labeled:

[𝑰𝒏𝒕𝒓𝒐𝒅𝒖𝒄𝒕𝒐𝒓𝒚 𝒕𝒐 𝑴𝒂𝒈𝒊𝒄…]

The thing I wanted to learn and understand the most about this world was its magic.

I wanted to learn about it, I felt compelled to understand it.

Maybe it's like the games I've played at home! Maybe it's like the anime I've watched where the protagonist has some overpowered ability and a harem of hot women!

Before I dug into the information listed below, my head shot up, my mouth gaping in awe.

I had wanted, which was something I lacked in my previous life.

Sure, I wanted to have a decent job when I got older, but it wasn't really genuine.

Celie watched me from the doorway, shooting me concerning looks.

Before she could say anything, I planted my face into the book reading the section's fillings.

[𝐸𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑦 𝑐ℎ𝑖𝑙𝑑 𝑖𝑠 𝑏𝑜𝑟𝑛 𝑤𝑖𝑡ℎ 𝑚𝑎𝑛𝑎 𝑝𝑜𝑡𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑖𝑎𝑙. 𝑀𝑎𝑛𝑎 𝑝𝑜𝑡𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑖𝑎𝑙 𝑑𝑒𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑚𝑖𝑛𝑒𝑠 ℎ𝑜𝑤 𝑝𝑜𝑤𝑒𝑟𝑓𝑢𝑙 𝑦𝑜𝑢𝑟 𝑚𝑎𝑛𝑎 𝑐𝑎𝑛 𝑏𝑒𝑐𝑜𝑚𝑒. 𝑇𝑜 𝑑𝑒𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑚𝑖𝑛𝑒 𝑦𝑜𝑢𝑟 𝑚𝑎𝑛𝑎 𝑝𝑜𝑡𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑖𝑎𝑙, 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑚𝑢𝑠𝑡 𝑝𝑙𝑎𝑐𝑒 𝑏𝑜𝑡ℎ 𝑜𝑓 𝑦𝑜𝑢𝑟 ℎ𝑎𝑛𝑑𝑠 𝑜𝑛 𝑎 𝑇𝑎𝑣𝑒𝑙 𝑆𝑡𝑜𝑛𝑒.]

𝑰 𝒅𝒐𝒏'𝒕 𝒌𝒏𝒐𝒘 𝒘𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒂 𝑻𝒂𝒗𝒆𝒍 𝑺𝒕𝒐𝒏𝒆 𝒊𝒔, 𝒃𝒖𝒕 𝒘𝒆 𝒅𝒆𝒇𝒊𝒏𝒊𝒕𝒆𝒍𝒚 𝒅𝒐𝒏'𝒕 𝒉𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝒐𝒏𝒆.

[𝑀𝑎𝑛𝑎 𝑝𝑜𝑡𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑖𝑎𝑙 𝑖𝑠 𝑑𝑒𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑚𝑖𝑛𝑒𝑑 𝑏𝑦 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑢𝑠𝑒𝑟'𝑠 𝑚𝑎𝑛𝑎 𝑐𝑎𝑝𝑎𝑐𝑖𝑡𝑦, 𝑚𝑎𝑛𝑎 𝑖𝑛𝑡𝑒𝑛𝑠𝑖𝑡𝑦, 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑚𝑎𝑛𝑎 𝑐𝑎𝑝𝑎𝑏𝑖𝑙𝑖𝑡𝑦. 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝑎𝑚𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑡 𝑜𝑓 𝑚𝑎𝑛𝑎 𝑝𝑜𝑡𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑖𝑎𝑙 𝑎 𝑐ℎ𝑖𝑙𝑑 𝑐𝑎𝑛 ℎ𝑎𝑣𝑒 𝑖𝑠 𝑖𝑛ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑖𝑡𝑒𝑑 𝑓𝑟𝑜𝑚 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑖𝑟 𝑝𝑎𝑟𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑠. 𝐴𝑙𝑡ℎ𝑜𝑢𝑔ℎ 𝑚𝑎𝑛𝑎 𝑝𝑜𝑡𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑖𝑎𝑙 𝑖𝑠 𝑖𝑛ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑖𝑡𝑒𝑑, 𝑖𝑡 𝑐𝑎𝑛 𝑐ℎ𝑎𝑛𝑔𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑟𝑜𝑢𝑔ℎ 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑒𝑛𝑣𝑖𝑟𝑜𝑛𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑡 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑒𝑥𝑝𝑜𝑠𝑢𝑟𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑟𝑜𝑢𝑔ℎ 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑐ℎ𝑖𝑙𝑑'𝑠 𝑔𝑟𝑜𝑤𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑝ℎ𝑎𝑠𝑒𝑠. 𝑇ℎ𝑖𝑠 𝑐𝑎𝑛 𝑙𝑒𝑎𝑑 𝑡𝑜 𝑎 𝑛𝑒𝑔𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑣𝑒 𝑜𝑟 𝑝𝑜𝑠𝑖𝑡𝑖𝑣𝑒 𝑐ℎ𝑎𝑛𝑔𝑒.]

𝑫𝒐𝒆𝒔 𝑪𝒆𝒅𝒂𝒚 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝑶𝒕𝒊𝒔 𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒏 𝒉𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝒂𝒏𝒚 𝒎𝒂𝒏𝒂 𝒑𝒐𝒕𝒆𝒏𝒕𝒊𝒂𝒍? 𝑰 𝒉𝒂𝒗𝒆𝒏'𝒕 𝒔𝒆𝒆𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒎 𝒅𝒐 𝒂𝒏𝒚 𝒎𝒂𝒈𝒊𝒄…

My eyes fixed onto the next page.

[𝑀𝑎𝑛𝑎 𝑐𝑎𝑝𝑎𝑐𝑖𝑡𝑦 𝑖𝑠 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑎𝑚𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑡 𝑜𝑓 𝑚𝑎𝑛𝑎 𝑎 𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑠𝑜𝑛 ℎ𝑎𝑠. 𝑀𝑎𝑛𝑎 𝑐𝑎𝑝𝑎𝑐𝑖𝑡𝑦, 𝑜𝑓 𝑐𝑜𝑢𝑟𝑠𝑒, 𝑐𝑎𝑛 𝑔𝑟𝑜𝑤 𝑡ℎ𝑟𝑜𝑢𝑔ℎ 𝑡𝑟𝑎𝑖𝑛𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑒𝑥𝑒𝑟𝑐𝑖𝑠𝑒𝑠 𝑢𝑛𝑡𝑖𝑙 𝑖𝑡 ℎ𝑖𝑡𝑠 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑠𝑜𝑛'𝑠 𝑚𝑎𝑛𝑎 𝑐𝑎𝑝𝑎𝑐𝑖𝑡𝑦 𝑝𝑜𝑡𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑖𝑎𝑙

𝑀𝑎𝑛𝑎 𝑐𝑎𝑝𝑎𝑐𝑖𝑡𝑦 𝑝𝑜𝑡𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑖𝑎𝑙 𝑖𝑠 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑚𝑎𝑥𝑖𝑚𝑢𝑚 𝑎𝑚𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑡 𝑎 𝑢𝑠𝑒𝑟 𝑐𝑎𝑛 𝑛𝑎𝑡𝑢𝑟𝑎𝑙𝑙𝑦 ℎ𝑎𝑣𝑒 𝑖𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑖𝑟 𝑙𝑖𝑓𝑒𝑡𝑖𝑚𝑒. 𝑇ℎ𝑖𝑠 𝑖𝑠 𝑎𝑙𝑠𝑜 𝑖𝑛ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑖𝑡𝑒𝑑

𝑀𝑎𝑛𝑎 𝑖𝑛𝑡𝑒𝑛𝑠𝑖𝑡𝑦 𝑖𝑠 ℎ𝑜𝑤 𝑠𝑡𝑟𝑜𝑛𝑔 𝑦𝑜𝑢𝑟 𝑚𝑎𝑛𝑎 𝑐𝑎𝑛 𝑏𝑒𝑐𝑜𝑚𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑒 ℎ𝑎𝑟𝑑𝑒𝑟 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑒𝑥𝑒𝑟𝑡 𝑖𝑡. 𝑀𝑎𝑛𝑎 𝑖𝑛𝑡𝑒𝑛𝑠𝑖𝑡𝑦 𝑠𝑖𝑔𝑛𝑖𝑓𝑖𝑐𝑎𝑛𝑡𝑙𝑦 𝑎𝑓𝑓𝑒𝑐𝑡𝑠 𝑎 𝑢𝑠𝑒𝑟'𝑠 𝑚𝑎𝑛𝑎 𝑝𝑜𝑡𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑖𝑎𝑙.]

𝑬𝒂𝒔𝒊𝒍𝒚 𝒆𝒙𝒑𝒍𝒂𝒊𝒏𝒆𝒅. 𝑰'𝒎 𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒚 𝒇𝒐𝒓𝒕𝒖𝒏𝒂𝒕𝒆 𝒕𝒐 𝒉𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒊𝒏 𝒂 𝒌𝒊𝒅'𝒔 𝒃𝒐𝒐𝒌 𝒆𝒙𝒑𝒍𝒂𝒊𝒏𝒆𝒅 𝒔𝒐 𝒕𝒉𝒐𝒓𝒐𝒖𝒈𝒉𝒍𝒚.

[𝑀𝑎𝑛𝑎 𝑐𝑎𝑝𝑎𝑏𝑖𝑙𝑖𝑡𝑦 𝑖𝑠 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑢𝑠𝑒𝑟'𝑠 𝑎𝑓𝑓𝑖𝑛𝑖𝑡𝑦 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑚𝑎𝑔𝑖𝑐. 𝑇ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑒 𝑎𝑟𝑒 ℎ𝑢𝑛𝑑𝑟𝑒𝑑 𝑜𝑓 𝑚𝑎𝑛𝑎 𝑐𝑎𝑝𝑎𝑏𝑖𝑙𝑖𝑡𝑖𝑒𝑠 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑎 𝑐ℎ𝑖𝑙𝑑 𝑐𝑜𝑢𝑙𝑑 𝑜𝑏𝑡𝑎𝑖𝑛, 𝑏𝑢𝑡 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑦'𝑟𝑒 𝑢𝑠𝑢𝑎𝑙𝑙𝑦 𝑖𝑛ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑖𝑡𝑒𝑑]

It seemed as if the book was nearly comically emphasizing how nearly everything is inherited, and it greatly dispirited me.

Otis and Ceday never did any magic around me, so couldn't even take a guess at what I could have.

__________

A whole year flew by very quickly.

Ceday turned out to be pretty useful. She brings me books every month or so, feeding me with new knowledge.

One book she gave me taught me exercises for children to build up mana capacity and mana intensity.

All of the exercises were so easy that I even made a few of my own that required much more focus and intensity, one of them being to control the flow of mana throughout one part of my body instead of just controlling the flow throughout my whole body.

As much as these exercises have been working, I haven't been able to manifest any magic yet.

Thankfully, no other kid my age had done so, either.

𝑩𝒖𝒕 𝒔𝒕𝒊𝒍𝒍, 𝒔𝒉𝒐𝒖𝒍𝒅𝒏'𝒕 𝑰 𝒉𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒖𝒑𝒑𝒆𝒓𝒉𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒃𝒆𝒄𝒂𝒖𝒔𝒆 𝑰 𝒈𝒐𝒕 𝒓𝒆𝒊𝒏𝒄𝒂𝒓𝒏𝒂𝒕𝒆𝒅? 𝑰𝒕'𝒔 𝒃𝒆𝒆𝒏 𝒂 𝒘𝒉𝒐𝒍𝒆 𝒚𝒆𝒂𝒓 𝒐𝒇 𝒎𝒆 𝒆𝒙𝒆𝒓𝒄𝒊𝒔𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒎𝒚 𝒎𝒂𝒏𝒂, 𝒔𝒐 𝑰 𝒔𝒉𝒐𝒖𝒍𝒅'𝒗𝒆 𝒔𝒆𝒆𝒏 𝒔𝒐𝒎𝒆𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒈… 𝒓𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕?

Ceday was outside spreading our clothes on bushes and hanging some on the windows to dry them out.

𝑴𝒂𝒚𝒃𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆'𝒔 𝒂 𝒎𝒊𝒏𝒊𝒎𝒖𝒎 𝒂𝒈𝒆 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒚𝒐𝒏𝒆 𝒕𝒐 𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒏 𝒎𝒂𝒏𝒊𝒇𝒆𝒔𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒊𝒓 𝒎𝒂𝒈𝒊𝒄.

I sprawled on my mattress stuffed with straw when suddenly a thought struck my mind.

𝑾𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒊𝒇 𝑰 𝒋𝒖𝒔𝒕 𝒆𝒙𝒆𝒓𝒕𝒆𝒅 𝒎𝒚 𝒎𝒂𝒏𝒂?

I didn't know how everyone was supposed to manifest their mana capability, and I assumed that it would just happen randomly up until this point. I thought that maybe I had to find my own way to use my magic.

I sat up and focused my mana in my hands, exerting it through my palms, and I caught a swift wind on the sides of my waist below my open hand.

I jumped off the mattress, raised my hands to the level of my chest, and showed my palms to the wall.

*woosh*

*swish*

I kept exerting my mana through my hands everywhere, and everytime, I felt the wind push out from my hands and gently brush the walls.

My grin reached both ends of my face.

Ceday walked in with a basket of clothes and a curious eyebrow to all my mischievous laughing.

As soon as she fell into my sight, I tried showing off.

I pointed my palms towards Ceday and exerted my mana.

Some of the clothes flew out of the basket, and Ceday gawked at me as I gazed at her, waiting for a response.

My gentle gust of wind blew her hair as she squinted her eyes.

"What the hell?" She raised her arms to cover her face.

My grin grew larger.

"Are you OK, mom?"

𝑺𝒉𝒆 𝒎𝒖𝒔𝒕 𝒃𝒆 𝒐𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒘𝒉𝒆𝒍𝒎𝒆𝒅.

"Alaric-" I cut off Ceday before she could finish her concerning question

"You see, I exerted my mana through the palm of my hands. I must have excellent wind magic." I said with my chest proudly sticking out.

"Honey… I'm sorry-"

𝑺𝒐𝒓𝒓𝒚?

"That's not wind magic… everyone- er- everyone can do that…"

Ouch.

She went on to explain that exerting mana isn't enough to actually produce magic, and the only result is just harmless wind.

I slumped the whole day, disappointed and embarrassed with myself.

To make things worse, something I had least wished for happened.

Ceday was cleaning dishes when Otis walked in with a fat smirk on his face.

"Alaric! You're probably of age now! I can start training you now, so how bout' that?"

Ceday and I gaze at Otis, both of our noses scrunching and our foreheads wrinkling in awe at such a wild question.

𝒀𝒐𝒖'𝒗𝒆 𝒈𝒐𝒕 𝒕𝒐 𝒃𝒆 𝒌𝒊𝒅𝒅𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒎𝒆…