4 Can't I use any sort of magic?

It's still my story. My name's Kaff by the way.

Long story short: I wanted to read, a girl comes by and gives me opportunity to read, but my door gets disintegrated. Next day suspicious dad's friend comes and I discover he's missing. Starved. Mom goes home, fixes me up. I tell her about the door... And the girl. Girl brings me to her base, gets inspected by the big boss.

I bet this short converted story has joggled up your memories up to this point until the last part of the previous chapter.

This morning, I asked my mom about the source spirit.

"Oh. The school knows more about it, but what I know is that that's the most important thing for the Vates."

Judging from her tone and from my assumptions based from previous games and novels... it seems to be the mana source for mages. Without it then...

I was reborn here as an ordinary person?

No magic?

Was it just bad luck?

Of course I don't blame my parents but...

***

"Hey?! Say something!" Mom was slapping me and I snapped back to reality. I guess having no mana source is really a depressing thing. It seems like it was why those people felt sad about me.

"I understand now mom. I can't be a Vates then, or, I can't do their glowing thingy."

"... Yes. Sorry Kaff. Both your dad and I have no source spirit too..."

For such a good morning, there was a cold wind that passed by our table, and we both had lost appetite for breakfast.

***

After such a gloomy topic, mom told me that Dorother would pick me up again, until next day or when I already know how to go to the Vates' place. She arrived an hour later, and we walked towards the school again.

"What is the place called?"

"I seem to forget that you're just a child, and a newcomer at that. We Vates reside at Borollo. I'm a niece of the grandmaster so I was able to talk to him about you. Rarely do people want to study, nor do they have a source spirit, that's why your initiative was quite baffling at the time. Most of them don't even know what a book looked like, yet you mentioned wanting to read."

"That was quite a favor. I will definitely repay you someday for letting me in."

"Hahah! It's nothing. Just privilege and a few hairs to pull."

"Hairs?"

"Nevermind that. We've arrived. Your classes will start at noon, and end before dusk. We eat at the other side of the rooms that we went before going to the grandmaster. Anyway if you get lost, just ask anyone."

She was about to go and returned when I asked about my class and if I should wear some kind of uniform, and then pulled me running towards the right side of the school.

There were a few clothes there, but a lot of them were bigger than my size but it will do if I tied them tight enough. I can't change my hair or my footwear though. Let's just hope that there would be no bullies here against slum people like me.....

***

Dorother delivered me to my class, introduced me, and gave me some sort of token and bade goodbye after greeting the teacher. The teacher introduced me to the class, and gave me a seat at the very front. It seems they were given a task to take care of me I guess?

The lessons were about alphabets, and there were various kids and a kids that were a few years older than me. It seems that age doesn't need to be a factor to be in here. After a few examples of letters and words I could understand the language better now. There were a few vowels that were quite confusing though, so I could probably study more and read and write with it within a few weeks.

After two hours we were told to go have our meals, so we kids filed and lined up going to the cafeteria, or what it was called. We were given a tube of cheese, a loaf of bread, and some kind of weird tea which a lot of the kids didn't want to drink too. I didn't had friends so I sat on an inconspicuous location and ate quietly.

I forgot that these kinds of environment was what invited unwanted trouble though, so the very first day that I had in here...

"Haaaaak...ptoooey!"

A hard sounding spit almost hit me as it was fired just below my seat. I'm safe from disgust at least. Seeing what was about to happen, why would I stay here? I could even stand from pressure from the grandmaster so why wouldn't I run from these kids?

Sad to say, reality kicked in, after I stood, I felt an unseen force and unknowingly landed on my butt... In which I almost stepped on the spit the kid launched at me.

Freaking Vates ability. Just because I don't have a source spirit they dare do this to me? Who am I kidding... I can't retaliate here.

"Why do I keep missing?"

"Fatboy, do your math properly!"

"Bullying the weak yet can't hit a stationary target..."

All sorts of badmouthing went for the boy that tried to spit at me, getting him distracted, so I ran away at the moment, bringing my unstained half bread and cheese. As for that tea..... Yuck.

Before I could get out from the cafeteria, this time I felt a bit cold on the back of my neck though, and it was probably bad news. It wasn't spit but I tried to get out of the way fast as a breeze went past the side of my neck, and almost grazed me.

"Huh?"

The kids were confused, as if finding it impossible for me to have dodged that... something. Was that Vates power again? It felt as cold as ice, I almost felt like a steel hand had gripped me.

"STOP!"

A familiar voice could be heard, and Dorother came walking while munching a bread in hand.

She stomped her foot, and all of the kids ran away before the circling light hit them, and she sighed and walked near me.

"Come with me."

***

"When doing source magic, the target would also feel the intent of the opponent. That was that cold sensation back then. It can only be felt before a second elapses though. It must have something to do with your math."

"That's what I suspected, but I don't see why magic has something to do with numbers."

"Hah! Can you read already? With your genius I bet you could make an essay within weeks."

Genius? Barely.

Dorother and I sat on the outer benches outside the canteen. She said it was a canteen, not a cafeteria. She suddenly just opened a conversation and I happened to go along...of course.

I just smiled at what she said, and a slight frown appeared on her face.

"What a monster."

Well, I'm actually 27 right now though but yeah, the IQ of a child that can do trigonometry at four years old and dodge an incoming fast attack was... quite abnormal.

"There is actually a separate class for those that have a source spirit, but you haven't been assigned there. It's called the study of source spirit with numbers... called Gemmatria."

Gematria? That same Kabbalistic study from my world? Things seem dark.

As far as I knew, Gematria was the calculation of names, and not actually numbers. They took off letters of a name, then did a few tinkering here and there to arrive at a final value. It's awfully similar in pronunciation, yet probably different in their usage here.

"The magic we Vates use are based from studying Gemmatria, and is heavily based for controlling the output of source power. Source power is needed for every magic cast via Gemmatria, that's why..." she paused for a while and sighed before continuing.

"...the source spirit is important."

I knew it already, stop with the depressing stuff and get on with what I can do instead!!

"But! If the math is complete even for the one that has no source..."

"You mean based on my math abilities, I could feel source power?"

"That seems to be the case, but maybe there's some other reason though. I know a student that can also feel source that has no source spirit, but there are a lot that really just can't. Both of you know good math though, so I think that's probably the reason. It's not yet officially in our books yet but who knows? That might really be the case."

The bells rung and classes had to resume so we went our ways, and told me to go back to this place after the final lessons.

***

After the lessons ended, I directly went back to the canteen and found Dorother sitting while sipping the tea the canteen served.

"How can you drink that? It smells and tastes funny."

"I guess you're still a kid! Anyway, let's go meet this other student I mentioned earlier."

The school was already a big place, yet we went behind it, and there was another set of buildings that expanded wide until the ends couldn't be seen. We passed by a lot of students that gave us different sorts of glances as they parted while we walked. There were signs that hung every once in a while so I knew which way we were to go just in case, and finally after walking maybe five hundred steps we reached a sign that said "Number Laws" and had numbers plastered on the wall. The area actually looked like a kindergarten's room because of the numbers there.

We entered and the room was quite small, scattered on a desk nearby were a few books, but it was probably considered a lot for this world since books were rare here. Beyond the room was another desk, and a guy with a tied gray long hair seated there. He had a few baby beards on his chin, thin yet a bit lean, his face overall a bit hardened. His demeanor seemed bored, yet he was reading through a book with such focus that he probably hadn't noticed us coming in.

Dorother then pointed her finger at him, and yellow light flashed and condensed at the tip of her finger, and receded slowly. The guy was standing by then, staring at us and asked, 'is he that student?' which Dorother confirmed. His brows raised and a slight amazement could be seen from his face. He took some paper beside him and wrote something, then walked towards us and showed that same paper.

"Solve this?"

It was a basic question regarding finding the slope of a graph, so it took me more than a minute to solve. Not your genius, but just your average solving speed. I couldn't see her face, but I felt Dorother tighten her grip on the back of the chair that I sat on, which was probably in disbelief.

"If you could do it a second more faster, the girl would probably faint. My name's Skip. Welcome to my lab."

Lab? Looks like a study room to me.

Along with an introduction, his hands clapped for a while and smiled faintly. I also introduced myself.

"I can't believe someone from the slums area would be this good in math. But seeing as it's already time to go home, why don't we all excuse ourselves for the day instead? Kaff kiddo, go early in the morning will ya? So we could discuss some things, and the princess could also go if she likes."

"Seeing as you're inviting this princess, I shall also attend. Nevermind that, let's just go!"

We all went out the school at the same time and bid our farewells and agreed to meet at the same place at a set time.

Before I set off though, Skip whispered me something that caught my attention.

I quickly turned but he was already a few meters away and went off.

I was in a daze and thought to myself for a bit before finally stroding towards home.

Mom scolded me for being late due to worry. It was an uneventful evening, we had dinner, and Dad was still nowhere to be found.

"If there is a way to get a spirit source, would you go and do it?"

The same phrase repeated itself a few times over before I finally got knocked out in bed.