Chapter 1

XXXX XXXX. 34 years old. Obese. Ugly. Virgin. NEET. Loser. Today, he was chased out of his family home by his siblings because he was too busy masturbating to loli porn to attend his parents' funeral and it was the final push they needed to decide they were done with him. Having found himself homeless, he wandered the streets of Tokyo in the rain, lamenting his poor choices which had lead to his current lot in life. While some of it was legitimately not his fault—being stripped naked and tied up to the front gate of a school while students shame a man for his weight and his penis size would be traumatizing to anyone, let alone someone just entering high school as he was at the time—what was his fault was the fact that he shut himself away from the world and became a burden to his family, and had been to this very day, well into his thirties. Upon spotting a truck whose driver had fallen asleep at the wheel barreling down on a trio of squabbling teenagers, he tried to run in and get them out of its path, when his voice, so long unused, failed to call a warning. It would have been his one redeeming act in this life. Of course, he even failed at that when he only managed to jerk one of them out of the way before running out of steam. "Move, fucker!" some American gaijin yelled in English, before someone shoulder checked him from behind, sending him sprawling into one of the teens. 

Two of them crashed into the sidewalk on the other side of the street, a bit bruised but otherwise unharmed. XXXX had just enough time to turn and see their savior before the American and the girl that had been arguing were splattered by the same truck he had saved them from. XXXX, taking this as a sign from God that he was meant for more, went back to his relatives and begged for forgiveness on his knees. He spent the rest of his life making up for the horrible way he treated everyone around him. 

Eventually, he managed to go back to school, get a job, and settle down with a nice woman. But this isn't a NEET's tale of redemption. 'Go on vacation to Japan,' they said. 'It'll be fun,' they said. Ha ha. Haa. No. BTFO'd by Truck-kun while in Japan, yeeted to what is clearly another world, and respawned as a baby. How fucking cliché is this shit?!On the one hand, I was not happy with this whole situation. 

No, 'not happy' was an understatement. I was pissed. I had finally gotten my shit straight. I had a decent job where I made enough to save up for a house and take a nice vacation out of the country every now and then. 

I'd hit the gym and stopped being a fat slob. My family probably wouldn't even have a body to bury, since I'm pretty sure that a diesel moving at the speed that truck hit me at would only leave chunky salsa behind and I didn't think Japan shipped bodies back in glass jars. Well, at least my brothers had instructions for the proper 'handling' of my computer after my death. Namely, to pull the hard drives, take them out back, and run a few rounds through the platters for target practice then give them a proper viking funeral. 

No man's family should stumble on his porn collection after his death, after all. Or worse, his unfinished writing. On the other hand, it was a reset. A redo. Not just a second chance at life, but a second chance while knowing everything I'd learned the first go around. Somehow, I'd not only been reincarnated in another world, but I'd kept all of my memories of my previous life. 

Well, as much as anyone can really remember things. Memory isn't perfect, after all. I had been reborn in a two-story home in a pastoral land that reminded me of parts of Europe as described before the advent of electricity and the combustion engine, to a handsome brown haired father and beautiful blonde mother—neither of whom could be more than twenty by my guesstimation. 

They, or we rather, had a (hot maid of approximately the same age so I assumed they were fairly well off, however there were no appliances, no electricity, no running water, no cars outside or even paved roads. In other words, while the family I was reborn to had some money, we were in a setting with nothing in the way of modern conveniences. I decided I could work with that and potentially turn it to my advantage, later on in life. It would take some study and figuring out what the locals knew, but even something as simple as crop rotation could be revolutionary if I played my cards right. Yes, that's right. Upon discovering I was in a new world and figuring out its rough tech level within the first hours of being there, my American instincts took over and I began planning to run . Sure, I had died, and that sucked. I couldn't do anything about it, though. 

I was a baby at the moment. I had no idea how to get back to Earth or if it was even possible, let alone whether I should or not. There was no point in crying, bitching, or staying angry about it, especially since it was actually kind of something I didn't mind in the first place, so I made up my mind to get over it and set about adapting to my new environment. The more difficult resolution was to let go of my ties with my previous family and embrace my new family, and I can't honestly say I would be entirely successful in that. It didn't take long before I realized that my parents and the maid were speaking an entirely different language from anything I knew or had heard before. 

The language barrier was just one more hurdle in the way of doing something with my life later on, and I took to tearing it down with everything I could muster. When they spoke, I listened. 

When they put me down for bed, I quietly began trying to repeat the words they had used and spent some time practicing English, so I wouldn't forget how to speak it. My biggest hardships in that first year were feeding time and the inevitable consequence of eating. I didn't cry at all, so my mother and the maid took turns checking me during the day. This world didn't have bottles, or if they did they didn't have rubber nipples. 

Which meant that food came one of two ways at my age: either milk straight from the source, or the French delivery method. I wasn't quite sure which was worse—being forced to suck on a titty the size of my head that I couldn't properly appreciate, or having the hot maid kiss me to force pre-chewed food into my mouth with her tongue and look entirely bored doing so. Then there was the aftermath. 

The less said about incontinence issues related to being a newborn with no muscular control, the better. I pretty much potty trained myself, but it still took time to develop those muscles and get to the point where I could physically climb up and sit on the shit box that passed as a toilet, not to mention the manual dexterity required to wipe my own ass. Let me tell you, straw is not comfortable wiping material. 

The alternative, individual rags that got washed and reused, was just plain gross so I used the straw. At least they had soap and water for hand washing after the deed was done. Not only did they not have proper toilets or running water, their idea of a bath was scrubbing down with soap and hot water from a bucket. Now, to be fair, this bucket was actually big enough for an adult to sit down in if they crossed their legs, but it was still a far cry from what I was comfortable with. 

Bath time with the maid or my new mother involved a lot of skin contact that again, I couldn't truly appreciate. Nope, I couldn't stand for it. As soon as I could hold a pencil and find some paper, I'd be drawing up designs for a water system—gravity drawn water tank, hot water heater, full sized tub, crapper, and the piping to make it all work. Hell, the Romans had working bath houses and running water—it wouldn't be too hard to put something together. I'd just be sure to skip the biggest mistake they made, namely using lead pipes. I refused to give up showers and running water. 

Time passed and as it did, I grew. In size, physical capability, and understanding. I started crawling within a month and by six months, I could scale the stairs and get the front door open if it wasn't locked. Months of full immersion in a new language had forced me to pick it up quickly, so I mostly understood what was being said around me. The only things I had problems with on the language front were proper nouns or things I needed more context for. I didn't even learn my new parents' names until I was more than six months old. Paul and Zenith Greyrat, and their maid, Lilia. 

That wasn't my fault, really. Paul and Zenith most often referred to each other as 'dear,' husband and wife, or mama and papa when they were trying to get me to talk to them. I had to pay attention to Lilia to figure that out. Lilia… didn't like me much. 

She was superstitious and I creeped her out, apparently. Either because I wouldn't cry, or I was too smart, or I occasionally talked to myself in English—especially when reading. It wasn't horrible—she didn't hate me or anything, and she never shirked her duties, but I could tell she would rather not deal with me if at all possible. 

It was a bit sad, because I actually liked her—and not just because she was hot. I caught her spying on me once or twice while I was teaching myself to read and she seemed to relax a bit after that, apparently having decided that if I was reading I wasn't doing whatever it was she was afraid I would do. 

Maybe the fear of a toddler (or toddler-sized person taking up a knife and cutting throats in the middle of a night was some sort of universal fear and not just something from the Chucky movies. As to how I became literate, my parents loved to read to me. That made the process of learning the written language fairly easy, when I could follow along and see what written words sounded like as they were spoken, then reverse engineer the sounds of individual letters, sentence structure, grammar, and so on from there. I found a cache of five books in the study upstairs one day and that sped up my reading comprehension significantly. Within a year, I was literate. 

Mostly. My vocabulary wasn't huge, but I had an alphabet and numbering system to work with. It took about six months after learning to read and reading the same five books over and over for me to actually understand what it was that I had been reading piecemeal this whole time. Two of those, Perugius's Legend and The Three Swordsmen and the Labyrinth were adventure stories. I think. Unless we were in some kind of fantasy world, in which case they could very well be accurate portrayals of history. One, Traveling Around the World, was a guidebook containing the names, characteristics, and locations of various countries in the world. It was the last two that interested me most. Fedoa's Monsters, Ecology and Weaknesses may have sounded like the Monster Manual, but it was anything but a supplemental book for a fantasy role playing game. No, apparently monsters were real in this world and broken down into a few categories. Monsters, which were wild animals that had been exposed to mana and mutated. Fiends, which were monsters that had achieved a level of sentience. 

There was no solid dividing line between the two, and monsters frequently became fiends while fiends occasionally reverted back to monsters after successive generations. A Guide to Magic was a magical textbook. It was pretty dry reading, but informative. It was only after I had a solid grasp on the language that I truly began to understand what it taught, however. I'm ashamed to admit that it took me that long to realize I was reading an actual spellbook, full of real spells. Well, accepting them as real took actually casting my first spell and seeing the results for myself, but once I did I began rereading the book voraciously in an attempt to understand this world's magic system. It seemed that my 'fantasy world' theory was right. What I gathered from the book was thus:-There are generally three types of magic: combat, healing, and summoning. They were pretty much 'name on tin' categories. -Attack magic was divided into four elements: earth, wind, fire, and water. -Healing magic was divided into five categories: healing, shielding, enhancement, poison, and detoxification. -Magic required mana to cast and there were two ways of using mana: either by using the mana your body generated naturally, or by drawing mana out from an object it had been stored within. 

That implied that I could either store mana from my body in something, or that I could somehow pull mana from the environment. The book didn't give any real information about either, unfortunately. -There were two ways of activating magic: incantations or an array. So you could either chant spells or write them out. All spells required an incantation if not written down and only very rarely was it the case that someone grew to the point of being able to cast without incanting. 

The book said that writing the spells out was better for continuous effects, or for larger spells, but I took it another way: writing them out meant that you didn't have to chant and written spells only required mana to activate—so larger spells that may require lengthy chants could be reduced to taking only seconds to cast instead, if one were clever about it and prepared beforehand. -A person's mana is set when they're born and didn't really grow beyond that, except in exceptional cases. -Spells have seven ranks: Elementary, Intermediate, Advanced, Saint, King, Emperor, and God. I called several of the fundamentals it taught into doubt within a week of practice. The first time I cast magic, I picked a water spell simply for the sake of not accidentally burning down the house or destroying something. I carried a wooden bucket up to the second floor, set it up in front of me, and recited the spell as it was written. I felt something like blood coursing through my body, a sort of heat spreading through me and gathering at my palm. A sphere of water formed in front of my hand before plopping into the bucket with a splash. 

Because I'm a munchkin and enjoy breaking the rules of game systems, even if this world wasn't some game, my first thought was, Why can't I just skip the incantation?So, for the second try, I focused on that feeling I'd had casting the first Water Ball spell. Warmth filled my veins, gathering as it had the first time, before a sphere of water formed in front of me and plopped into the bucket with another splash. 

Feeling a little winded, I sat and and contemplated what I'd done. "So," I muttered to myself in English, "what do we know? Firstly, the book is full of shit. Casting silently is no more difficult than casting with an incantation, from what I can tell. Secondly, two appears to be my limit. "That couldn't be right, though. 

If you never gained more magic, a mage who could only cast two lowest level spells would be a shit mage indeed. I refused to believe it. So, I sat and read while I caught my breath. When I didn't feel quite so tired, I cast another silent Water Ball over the bucket. 

I felt a bit dizzy afterward, but it passed quickly. "Addendum, mana seems to regen slowly over time. That, or maybe it's like a muscle—the more you exercise it, the stronger it gets. Or it's a combination of the two. "Deciding to take a break, I got up and made my way downstairs. Lilia caught me halfway into making a sandwich, but instead of stopping me she simply watched for a moment before she took the knife I was using gently from my fingers and finished slicing the tomato for me. "Want one?" I asked, sticking the tomato slices on my ham and cheese sandwich and waving it at her. She considered for a moment before shaking her head. "No, thank you, Master Rudeus. "Shrugging, I asked her for a cup of water since I couldn't reach the higher drawers. Lunch secured, I ate quickly, made my way to the bathroom to take care of business, then went back to the study. 

This time, I waited until I felt fully rested before trying again. I got off two casts back to back before feeling tired. Deciding to go for broke, I went for number three. About the time the Water Ball formed in my hand, everything went dark and I passed out. I was pretty sure Lilia found me, because when I came to I was covered in a blanket and the water bucket had been emptied. The next day, I tried again. 

This time, I was able to cast five Water Balls successively before feeling like I would probably collapse after the sixth. So, I rested and repeated the process throughout the day. The following day, my limit appeared to have gone up again. It was at that point that I decided that whoever wrote the book was full of shit, or simply didn't know. 

Alternatively, the other explanation was that I had just started so early that my limit was low and burning up my MP as I was was forcing my body to adapt and make more. Essentially, magical exercises were making my magical muscle grow. At least, that was the theory I went with. With that in mind, I spent every day blowing through as much mana as I could, in order to try to raise my limit in case it ever stopped growing or got harder to build due to aging or something, in the same way it gets harder to gain muscle as you get older. 

Over the course of the next several months it seemed to pan out, so that's the conclusion I stuck with. Eventually, I began to branch out in my casting. The book contained five Elementary level spells in the Water element: Water Ball, Water Shield, Water Arrow, Ice Strike, and Ice Weapon. As with most of the names I'd seen, they were very much 'name on the tin. ' Only Ice Strike and Ice Weapon were even remotely vague, or incorrectly named. In the first case, 'Ice Strike' should be renamed to 'Ice Pillar' or something, since it raised a column of ice from the ground. You could change its shape during the casting phase, but by default it was a pillar. In the second case, 'Ice Weapon' was the more accurate name I settled on because 'Ice Sword' was another case of misnaming. 

There was no default form for the weapon, it took whatever weapon you thought of when casting it and didn't cost more mana unless you went for something larger or smaller than a certain size range. I found that out because, on my first cast, I hadn't been thinking about any weapon and had gotten a staff, sized for my tiny self. Successive casts got: a sword, a polearm, an axe, a knife, and so on until I got bored with it. I also figured out why my Water Balls were just plopping instead of shooting away from me like they should. Apparently, there were stages to casting spells. 

Those stages went: creation set size set velocity activation. Apparently, if you don't add mana during the 'size' phase, it won't do anything in the 'velocity' phase either—meaning the spell won't go anywhere. With ice spells, there was a stage for temperature, too—which lead me to believe it'd be the same for fire spells. 

Which lead to me figuring out that temperature was a variable I could control, regardless—because I started making ice bullets. Since shape was a variable I could control with Ice Weapon, I learned how to apply that to a frozen Water Ball and changed them into icicles, bullets, and projectiles of various size and shape. In addition to those spells, the book also had spells in every other element, but not healing or summoning. So, when I was branching out, I started practicing with other elements. 

Fire, I started out with slow and small, and always outdoors and out of sight so that I wouldn't accidentally burn the house down. I managed to get the first level Fireball spell down pat, but mostly stuck to using it as a floating light to read or work at night instead of using a candle. For dexterity/control, I practiced lighting and holding fires on just a fingertip, then moved on to multiple fingertips. Wind was super easy to use outside because its effects weren't visible, but a horrible idea to use inside unless I was in my room and had the window open. 

Amazingly useful when it got warm and I wanted to make my own personal cool breeze—or to cool off after exercise. Earth magic was pretty versatile, even down to the point where I could separate out metals from dirt or manipulate metal directly—the problem was, the closer something was to pure metal, the more mana I had to spend to manipulate it. 

For Earth, I focused most of my attention on smaller and more detailed manipulation, trying to create small models. My first project there was a scale model of the water tank and pipe system I wanted to install in the house. I didn't spend all my time reading and casting myself to exhaustion, however. I'd learned from my mistakes the first time. 

A world of creature comforts, easy access to food, television, internet, and so forth had made me lazy and fat for much of my life. I didn't intend to go down that route a second time. So, I started exercising as soon as I could properly walk. And by 'exercise' in this case, I mostly meant being as active as a kid my age could get away with. My physical energy seemed boundless compared to what it had been in my old life, at times—but I was reminded that that was normal for children, since I'd had plenty of nephews and nieces who seemed to have the same sort of energy that made adults jealous, or tired just looking at them. 

The only things I really did that I'd truly qualify as exercise were stretches to make sure I was limber from a young age, and a set of basic strengthening exercises in the mornings and evenings. Beyond that, I ran around a lot, using the farm, the barn, and whatever else I could find or make nearby as obstacle courses and jungle gyms. I ran all over creation, climbed trees, swam in a creek that ran near our property when it was warm, and generally just kept myself physically busy. I think I worried Lilia a bit that I would wander off, but Paul seemed happy when I caught him watching me one day. 

When no one mentioned it beyond Zenith warning me to stay out of the woods, I took that as implicit permission to keep doing as I had been. And since they already knew, I went ahead and started incorporating some basic martial arts fundamentals. Then I went a step further, and when no one was around, pulled a page from the Avatar playbook and started throwing in magic. Let me tell you, throwing out punches that carry a blast of wind and having it punch a hole in a tree and leave the other side looking like a shotgun wound, or throwing a kick and sending out a blade of wind that spread out and cut the grass like an invisible sickle was pretty awesome. I tried using magic to reinforce my body to move like I sometimes saw Paul do when he practiced, but the results were mixed. 

Either it didn't work, it worked too well, or it only partially worked. I accidentally broke my arm when I punched a tree and had to lie to Zenith about it and claim I fell out of the tree. Needless to say, I committed her healing spell to memory and added it to my roster of things to practice, and from then on I took a slower approach with trying to use magic for physical stuff. Magic couldn't cure dead, after all—and I didn't trust myself not to break my own spine or something if I fucked up and be able to heal it. Not yet, anyway. 

After about a year of playing around with low level spells, I decided to move up a rank. At age three, almost four, I tried to cast my first Intermediate level water spell. Not because I was better at water spells or anything. I didn't seem to have any one element I favored over the others in terms of power, control, or skill that couldn't be explained by a simple matter of having started working with water first. 

No, just as with when I first started casting, water seemed the safest to try and least likely to result in burning down the house. …I accidentally destroyed the wall of the study with a Water Cannon spell. I was honestly surprised that this was the first my parents knew of the fact that I had been casting magic for the past year. A surreptitious glance at Lilia, spy that she was, gave me all the answer I needed. She had known, but she hadn't told my parents. Thanks, Lilia. I guess I earned more of your trust than I'd thought. Mom was ecstatic. Over the moon, really. 

Dad was annoyed, because he wanted to teach me the sword and had thought that with me doing the things he did (i. e. , exercising that it meant I had wanted to follow his path. Lilia, playing peacemaker, suggested I do both and that was the end of it. Or so I thought, until mom demanded we go into town and post a job for a magic instructor. That is how, on a warm spring morning, I met my future wife. There a knock on the door one morning, a couple of weeks after Zenith and Paul posted the job in town. Paul went to see who it was, before calling for us to the door. I skipped letting Zenith carry me and followed behind as we made our way to what passed as the porch. Standing there was a small vision of beauty. She wore brown robes over a white, blue, and black dress and long boots that left an attractive expanse of her thighs exposed, along with a pointed, wide-brimmed hat with the tip bent completing the image of the stereotypical female mage. 

She carried a staff in one hand and a set of luggage in the other. Her skin was deliciously pale, her hair was (naturally! blue and pulled back into twin braids, and her blue eyes looked sleepy. The only thing missing from this picture was a set of glasses. Physically, she didn't have much up top—by which I mean, she was not completely flat—but she had an attractive curve to her hips that made up for the lack. As for her age, I'd estimate her at between fourteen and seventeen, so I didn't think she was quite done growing yet… but odds were good that if she wasn't, then she wouldn't get much larger than she was now. 

On average, at least on Earth, girls stopped growing at around fourteen or fifteen—whereas boys tended to stop between fifteen and seventeen. I'm fine that that. Smol girls are nice too. Taking off her pointed hat and holding it to her chest, she introduced herself. "I'm Roxy Migurdia. Pleased to meet you. "Her tone was polite, if brusque, while her voice was light and cute in that kuudere way that reminded me of Nagato Yuki. Very much my type. Roxy was not what we were expecting. 

At all. While Paul and Zenith had expected an older man, likely in his forties, I had at least been open to my future tutor being a woman though like my parents, I was pretty sure whoever I got would be older. 

My parents may be a bit dumbstruck, but I was pleasantly surprised. While Paul and Zenith were trading confused looks, I smiled up at the bluenette who had suddenly gone bashful at their lack of response, looking away with a growing blush. "Nice to meet you, Roxy. I'm Rudeus, but you can call me Rudy. "Roxy turned back, blue eyes meeting my green, and she studied my face for a moment before a small smile pulled her lips up and she nodded. 

Yeah, she was a cutie. I'd have to find a way to wife that before someone beat me to the punch. "Are, um, are you the tutor?" Paul asked, finally getting his mouth to work. "Mm," Roxy nodded before looking between the three of us. "Where is the student I'll be teaching?""He's right here!" Zenith gushed, laying her hand on top of my head and leaning against me, forcing me against Paul. 

The look of disappointment on Roxy's face was immediate. "Ah. You do see them sometimes," she murmured, but loud enough that we could hear her plainly. "Idiot parents who think their kid has talent just because he's an early bloomer. 

Looks like this one's a dud. ""Excuse me?" Zenith asked, but I could tell from the way her eyes twitched that she was annoyed. "Nothing!" Roxy quickly snapped back. "Only, I doubt a child could understand the theory of magic. "Zenith made to say something, but I held up a hand to cut her off. "Test me. " Roxy blinked, her gaze finding mine again as surprise and curiosity flitted across her face before she smoothed her expression out. 

"Give me a day. If I don't meet or exceed your expectations in a student, we'll pay you for a month and you can go. ""Rudy!" Paul murmured, and I tilted my head up to look at him. "You can't just make decisions—""A man has to be decisive. He also has to take risks, when the prize is worth it. "Paul shut his mouth with a click of teeth, his lips twitching as he fought down a smile. "Alright then. If that's what you want," he glanced between Roxy and me and I understood he meant more than just her as my instructor. I nodded in confirmation. 

"You'll have my support. " Looking to Roxy, he asked, "Is that arrangement suitable?"The little mage hadn't taken her eyes off me this whole time, a thoughtful look on her face. "It's fine. For today, I'll do what I can. " She picked up her luggage and turned away, walking down the stairs. 

Taking that as a signal, I followed her out into the yard. As we walked, she spoke. "In broad terms, there are only three types of magic. ""Combat, healing, and summoning. Divided into seven ranks. "Roxy stumbled and she turned that beautiful blue gaze on me for a moment before shifting her attention back to where she was walking. "Yes. "Stopping in front of the shed where we kept our family's horse, Caravaggio, she set down her luggage and began to pace back and forth. I sat down at the small outdoor table and watched. "What are their names?""Honestly, it'd be easier to just refer to them as ranks one through seven. I always felt names like 'saint,' 'king,' 'emperor,' and 'god' to be kind of pretentious. "The bluenette hummed. "Their alternate names are beginner, intermediate, advanced, sacred, royal, imperial, and divine. And they're called such because a mage's rank is their casting level and the element they are most proficient in. I am a Saint-level Water Mage. 

Likewise, a swordsman is called similarly for their school, minus the 'level. ' You're probably right about them being pretentious. Would you rather be called a God-level Fire Mage, or a Seventh-level Fire Mage?""I don't need my ego stroked every time someone addresses me," I rolled my eyes. Roxy's lips twitched into a small smile at that, but she continued her questioning. "What is required to use magic?""Mana. " She looked like she wanted to ask a followup question, so I elaborated. "Either the mana within your body or stored within something. If you know how to store mana in something, please teach me. "The bluenette hummed quietly to herself. "Maybe this one isn't a dud," she muttered. "Let's move on. I'll start by demonstrating an incantation, so repeat after me. "Checking the direction her staff was pointed, I winced. "Wait!"Roxy paused. "Yes?""If you destroy those trees, mom will get mad. "The girl winced and looked around, before turning away and pointing over the wall around the yard and into the field. 

She said a quiet "Thank you," before she began her chant. I listened and, halfway through, sighed as I realized it was just the elementary level spell Water Ball. 

Well, I shouldn't have expected her to jump straight to advanced stuff since this is a test to make sure I'm worth her time. If I couldn't even demonstrate basic competence, she'd be well within her rights to leave. 

That's fine then. I made a bet, so prepare yourself little mage. I'm going to knock your socks off. "Well, what do you think?" Roxy asked, after getting off her shot. Nodding, I critiqued the spell. "Accurate. It flew straight and that had to be at least a hundred yards before it exploded. Looked pretty powerful. Probably enough to knock down a small tree. " Roxy winced as I needled her a bit. 

My lips twitched into a small smirk as I hopped down from my chair. "So slow, though. "A small frown pulled Roxy's lips down into a cute pout. "Slow?""Yeah. You're wasting so much time on that incantation. " The girl's gaze turned skeptical. I could sense I was treading thin ice here, so I cast. Silently. 

One spell after another. Three Water Balls in the span of time it had taken her to chant hers. "What?!" the bluenette yelped, her eyes going wide as her jaw dropped. "That— Do you always skip the incantation?"I nodded. "Yeah, after I get the hang of casting a spell with it first. Usually only takes once or twice, and I haven't really run across a spell I can't do that with yet. I can silently cast all the Elementary-level spells in A Guide to Magic, plus Elementary-level healing. 

I was working on an Intermediate water spell when I blew the wall of the study out. It's why my parents hired you. "Roxy turned away, partially collapsing as she leaned against her staff. "Silent casting. Already mastered Elementary-level spells. " Sighing, she straightened a little. "Well, it looks like you'll be worth training. "Turning around, Roxy bowed slightly at the waist. "It seems I've lost our bet, Rudeus. I apologize for underestimating you. 

I screwed up. ""Don't worry about it. I would have done the same if I were in your shoes. I mean, if someone told me that some kid out in BFE whose balls hadn't even dropped could silent-cast spells when the books say that's super difficult, I'd press X to doubt. " Sending her a grin, I reached out and patted the top of her head. "Don't think of it as screwing up, think of it as gaining life experience. "Thank you. "