2 Coming of age.

Chapter 2: Coming of age.

After a few years of consistent mana training. Haru was now four years old and his body could now contain five months of mana usage. His training began to slow down as each time his mana supplied doubled. He wasn't sure why but this trick wasn't taught in any book. He only discovered it in his last life after accidentally using too much magic during a fight.

One day when he was still young he was practising magic in the library. He was in his own world as solid crystals of Ice gently floated around his head.

When suddenly the door to the room came open startling him. He opened his eyes to see his mom was stood in the doorway looking at him.

"What do you think you are doing!" She yelled as she saw the crystals of Ice circling his head. She began to freak out. Haru looked at her with shock. This was the first time he had heard her shout like that in the four years he had known her.

Krista looked at her son who seemed to be shocked by her raising her voice so suddenly and ran over to hug him. "I'm sorry sweetie. Mommy didn't mean to make you upset. I'm just angry that your dad has been teaching you magic at such a young age." She explained as she kissed his cheek.

Haru knew something like this would happen eventually so in an attempt to not let anyone take the blame for teaching him magic he always knew were his plan B was. He walked over to the bookcase and pulled out two old-looking books.

"No dad didn't teach me. Look I learned from here." He pointed at the book and then flipped open a few pages. He was always careful that the only magic he practised, for now, was magic that could be found inside one of the many books inside their library.

His mom bought the explanation and then hugged him once again. "My baby is so smart! Who would have thought that you would be able to learn magic on your own? That's incredible." She praised him and then devoted her spare time to make sure that he practised magic safely.

Both of his parents were from wealthy families but denounced their inheritance for some reasons. They were against sending Haru to a school because they both worked in the afternoon so they wouldn't have time to pick him up so they decided it would be more convenient to hire home tutors to teach him the basic information that school would provide children with.

Once he got a little older his parents had bought him a laptop to make research easier for the work his tutors would assign to him. But in reality, the work he was given was only simple math and Japanese history along with language.

But they skipped over teaching him anything about the military. Even though he knew that his parents were both once soldiers. It was like they didn't want him to follow in their footsteps but he was curious as to what happened to him. He knew if he wanted to find out what happened to him then he would have to join the military again.

The peaceful life that he longed for in his past life could never be for filled unless he knew what happened to cause his reincarnation. He was back in Japan so it couldn't have been an enemy attack. The only logical explanation was it was someone he knew.

For the next few years, he focused solely on increasing his mana and finishing his assignments on time. The peaceful life he asked for was starting to get boring. And like that he lived out the next ten years of his life.

Haru's fifteenth birthday was different from all of the others. He woke up and the house was silent. His parents didn't even bother to wake him up like they usually did when he overslept.

He walked downstairs to the living room and opened the door. It was dark but suddenly he was blinded by the light being switched on and there was a loud pop as confetti rained down from the ceiling onto his head. "Happy Birthday Haru!" A dozen or so voices said in unison.

He looked around to see people he didn't recognise. Although there was a certain woman who stood out. She looked vaguely familiar. All of the people seemed to be old work colleagues of his parents so that kind of set in stone the identity of the women he had recognised.

She worked as a junior nurse at the military training grounds. And she was the first one to make the comment. "Say, Krista. You never told us how handsome your son was becoming. I bet he's going to be a real ladies man when he's older." She said with a laugh.

Krista laughed along with her. "Yeah, you would never believe that Luke is his father, would you? She joked Luke hung his head in shame. "I can't be that ugly if I have managed to keep a hold of you for this long." He replied.

"Aww, I never said you were ugly. You are still my handsome man. It's just that my handsome boy is more handsome" She laughed and then kissed him to reassure him in a mocking manner,

The woman added another comment that took Haru by surprise. "I'm not sure why but he kind of reminds me of the great mage." He hadn't heard anyone mention that name since being reincarnated.

Krista stared at Haru for a few moments. "Hmm. I don't see it." She said. And then turned to face the woman who was intensely staring at Haru.

"I must be seeing things. It really doesn't seem like that long ago. But it's been twenty-five years already." She muttered. Krista put her hand on the woman's shoulder.

Haru's attention was then taken by the piles of gifts on top of the couch in the corner of the room. They were either wrapped in paper or in colourful gift bags. Krista saw the look on Haru's face as he inspected the pile of gifts and looked over toward his Luke. "What do you say? Can he open them?" She asked him.

"Sure why not." He replied as a few people gathered around and asked for Haru to open their gifts first but he decided to just go from the top to bottom to spare their feelings.

They were all the average things you would buy for a fifteen-year-old. There were a few books among them and a few envelopes with a bit of money in. Haru finally got down to the last gift and opened it. It was a magic for children book. He looked at the inside cover and then realised that it was the exact book that he had used to trick his mom.

It is the thought that counts he said to himself before he thanked everyone with sincerity even though he felt a little bit of disappointment.

Hours passed before the people his parents were acquainted with gathered their things before saying goodbye to the birthday boy and his family. Eventually, everyone had left, Apart from one man who looked to be in his early sixties with a long bushy beard and hair that had long since started to grey.

"I wasn't sure what to get you. So I had a talk with an old friend of mine. And I managed to secure you a place at the Royal Institute of military arts. You don't have to go if you don't want to. But there is always an open place for you." Haru looked over to his parents. They both looked rather concerned for a moment before they both forced a smile as they noticed him looking.

The man then looked toward to his parents and then back at Haru. "Just think about it okay?" He looked back at his parents once again. And then down at his watch.

"Wow, that time already? I guess I had best get going." He put on his coat and walked over to the door. He stopped for a moment.

"Well, it was great to see you guys again." He looked back at Haru.

"And it was nice to meet you Haru." He said before leaving.

Haru sat on the couch and read through all of the papers he had been handed. They were just the average school enrollment papers. His parents came back in a few minutes later.

His mom sat down next to him and looked over his shoulder at the papers. "So I guess there is no way to talk you out of it? I know we told you it will be okay when you are older but we will still worry about you." She put her arm around him and learned her head against his shoulder.

It's like she read his mind. There was no way he would pass up the chance to go to school. Especially since his reincarnation. In the past life school was just a distant dream to the military dog known as the great mage. But now he had a chance to relive his childhood and he wasn't going to pass up on the chance.

He didn't answer her question as he flipped another page.

"Thought so. Well, we have one last birthday gift for you." Luke then walked into the room with a small black box. He then put it down on top of the stack of papers.

"Well go on open it." He said as Krista stood up and stood beside him. Haru put the papers down and picked up the box before slowly opening it.

Inside the box, there was a black wristband that had a slight tint of purple to it as it reflected the light from the moon outside the window.

"Wow, you got me a Lux!?" Haru got up and hugged them both. He had been waiting for years for this to happen.

"Well, I did say we would get you one eventually," Krista said before resting her head on his shoulder once again. He had grown taller within this last year and she was just now seeing how much he had matured. He was always a strange child but she no longer feared that he wouldn't be able to make friends.

It was already quite late by this point and Haru had to finish his enrollment paperwork.

"Ok, we will leave you to have your fun. But try not to wreck the house." His dad said with a slight chuckle before they both went upstairs to bed.

Haru finished all of the paperwork relatively quickly; it was just the basic info they needed. His name, age, parents names, emergency contact info and so on.

When he finished he took a few minutes to look at his Lux. 'Really? An S ranked Lux? How did they get their hands on this thing? I thought the government had banned commercial sales...' He thought

It looked like it had just been shipped from the factory as it was still in the box. He guessed that his parents knew some people who still made them, despite the restrictions. He looked up at the clock hanging from the wall to see what time it was and realised he had been sat there for almost three hours. 

'I should probably head to bed' He thought before making his way up to his room and finding space on his desk to place the stack of papers.

A few more weeks passed before his enrolment papers were sent off for the administration to check. They heard no word from the school for a few weeks until they received a phone call telling them that he had been accepted as a student. 

Haru had to wait until the start of the term before he could start but that wasn't too far away. Time passed within the blink of an eye and he awoke to Luke shaking his bed. 

"Come on. You're going to be late. Don't make me drag you out of bed!" He shouted as he pulled the bed sheets off him.