The Mage

|A year later...|

...

"What?... A mage is coming? Why?"

"-Sigh...- Because your father and I thought that maybe we should hire someone to check about whether you had the latent potential to awaken magic or if you were born normal like us. Even if it is low, the possibility has never been zero. And I even heard that our neighbor, Mrs. Tara's son, awakened his magic last month. So who knows... Maybe you can awaken it too, but you just didn't know you could until now"

"Huh..."

'Well, would you look at that? And here I thought I would have to check on my own later by reading books like a madman...'

Scratching the back of his head with a surprised expression on his face, Jack could be seen standing still in front of his mother while pondering deeply about her words from just now. A bit stunned and confused at the sudden changes that his plans for the future were going through.

Originally, he had intended to gather a bit of money on his own through the years, and later on buy some books that detailed the process of wielding magic.

Considering that he had Magic Power as a stat, he never doubted that he at least possessed enough talent to control a few of the magics that existed in this world.

But, of course, considering that magic was pretty rare, such books were equally, if not even more rare... And as such, they were surely gonna be pretty expensive. Thus, he had anticipated that such a purchase was going to take a lot of effort and time on his part to gather the intended money... Especially considering the salary of a 6-year-old kid like him... Which, by the way, was almost completely nonexistent.

However, now that his parents were suddenly going to hire someone to check that detail for him, his plans for saving up money had all ended up going down the drain, and he had been absolved from having to do errands for his neighbors and avoid buying any snacks for the next years to come.

He was both happy and annoyed at the same time.

Happy for being free financially, and annoyed because his previous efforts had gone down the drain in just a mere moment.

-Sigh...-

'There goes that entire weekend that I spent detailing and perfecting my savings plan...'

However, knowing that at least he wouldn't have to go through such a troublesome regime of being as economical as possible, Jack rapidly recovered from his sadness and instead began looking at the whole situation positively.

First of all, now that someone proficient in the matter was going to look at his latent potential, there was the possibility that the mage would be able to tell him what kind of magic he was going to awaken, or, at the very least, explain to him properly how the magic system of this world worked.

He remembered that there was something like a type of magic that was determined for everyone since birth. And, as such, he was curious about whether he would also possess such a thing, or if he would need to actually learn magic through the knowledge of others.

He didn't remember if there was any remarkable difference between the magic that was learnable and the innate one, but surely, a magic that one was born with was bound to be special in one way or another.

Thus, it was normal for him to hope to have such a thing...

It was probably his last chance to get a cheat-like power... One that he hadn't gained from his system like he had hoped in a beginning.

His system had let him down already, so, he hoped that at least his innate magic wouldn't do so...

Hopefully, he would awaken some epic and legendary magic that would destroy universes with a flick of a finger, and make him the most OP existence in the world.

He wasn't asking for much.

Though, being the closet pessimist that he was, he was already prepared to receive bad news.

After all, his new life hasn't been too kind to him as far as getting super op powers that set him miles ahead of others concerned

So, at the very least, he hoped that whoever this mage was, he would give him some pointers, or at the very least explain to him how magic worked so that he could figure things out on his own later on.

That way, he could become a self-taught mage even if he didn't receive any magic automatically, and he instead would be able to train his own way to the top.

With the plan he had designed, it would be only a matter of time before he would become able of beating whoever's ass he wanted.

"... That does indeed sound good."

Imagining himself becoming a powerhouse in the future thanks to the plan that he had in his mind, Jack rapidly nodded his head with a satisfied expression on his face feeling like everything was going well for him for once.

The future seemed bright.

'Huh? Wait... a mage is coming?'

However, out of nowhere, while Jack's mind was lost in the possibilities of what having a mage look at his potential meant, a certain memory suddenly passed through his mind and made him squint his eyes almost immediately on reflex.

'A mage is coming to look at my potential... This reminds me of...!'

Then, widening his eyes in shock as his brain continued with that line of thought, Jack visibly shuddered, before he looked at his mother, who was now doing other things while he was lost in thought, and furrowed his eyebrows.

'Surely... This won't be the typical development where the guy who checks on me will actually turn out to be a kidnapper gathering kids with great potential for some sort of sick human experiment... Right?'

With those thoughts lingering in mind, Jack ended up spacing out for quite a while. Reflecting deeply on what to do if such a development were to occur, and what his course of action would be if he didn't manage to avoid such a result.

However, eventually, after a few minutes passed, it all ended up being shrugged off when he noticed that he was probably overthinking things and that at worst, the guy would be a scammer who couldn't actually see the children's potential, and was just bullshitting to get paid.

...

However, he didn't discard carrying a frying pan with him when the mage arrived... Just in case.

'If he tries to do any funny stuff, I will put all my status points in vitality in an instant and blow up his head in one strike before he can even say hocus pocus...'

...

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|A few hours later...|

...

Currently, both Jack and his mom Kaya could be seen sitting on opposite sides of the living room while glaring at each other intensely.

Kaya was squinting her eyes as she stared at Jack in front of her with furrowed eyebrows. Seemingly dissatisfied about something.

Jack, however, didn't seem perturbed by this in the slightest by his mother's intense gaze. As he, surprisingly, was meeting his mother's eyes without even flinching.

-Stare...-

-Stare...-

The contest of stares was so fierce, in fact, that even after a few minutes passed none of them showed signs of backing down in the slightest, and at some point, they even started to forget to blink.

-Stare...-

-Stare...-

In the end, it wasn't until both of them felt that their eyes were beginning to sting that the mother finally broke the silence and let out a long sigh before asking her son the question that had been bothering her all along.

"... Jack, why are you carrying that frying pan?"

Hearing her, Jack's expression didn't change. In fact, it remained impassive even after he answered her with the most nonsensical answer that one would come up with.

"Don't worry about it, dear mother. This is my frying pan of fortune. Since I'm hoping to be able to wield magic, it is natural for me to be carrying this around so that fate goes my way"

"..." Upon hearing his answer, all Kaya was able to do was watch her son with a blank expression in silence. Not knowing what to say in front of such a ridiculous answer.

But of course, such an answer didn't satisfy her. So, after a few seconds, she shrugged her bewilderment aside and continued asking.

"But why did it have to be our frying pan?"

However, unfortunately for her, Jack wasn't backing down either.

"Who knows? Destiny works in mysterious ways..." He said while closing his eyes as if in meditation.

Once Jack finished speaking, Kaya just let out a long sigh as she massaged her face with an exasperated expression on his face.

-Sigh...-

In the end, she gave up.

She would have given him a good fist to get the answers she wanted. However, knowing that the mage she and her husband had hired was coming, she decided to hold herself back for now.

Later though, Jack will see what it means to beat around the bush when she asks him a question.

So, giving up on getting answers out of him, Kaya leaned back on the couch, before she said to Jack: "Well, whatever. Just don't hit the mage with it".

She squinted her eyes threateningly as she said that last part.

However...

-Whistle~...-

"You...!"

Immediately after that, she stood up and raised her fist right above Jack's head when she saw him whistling while not avoiding her gaze. As if implicitly saying "I don't promise anything...".

However, just as she was about to hit Jack regardless of whether a mage was coming or not, someone called at the door and made her stop right in her tracks.

-Knock, knock, knock...-

"Ugh... She is already here?! Damnit..."

Leaving his kid to continue with his antics, Kaya hurriedly walked towards the door. Not wanting to keep her guest waiting.

-Click-

-Creeeeak-

Once she opened the door, the figure of the presumed mage was revealed.

Standing there, imposingly and carrying herself with evident pride in her stance, an elderly woman of pale-blond hair and long and luxurious-looking robes could be seen looking at Kaya with a raised eyebrow on her face. Seemingly scanning her from head to toe.

"..."

"..."

Eventually, after a small silence from both parties, the woman asked Kaya for her identity.

"I assume you are Mrs. Darnell?".

Kaya just nodded her head a little bit stunned in response to her question, a little bit weirded out by the woman's appearance and extravagant attitude.

After all, she was accustomed to mages looking a bit more like thugs...

... Or well, at least the mages from Fairy Tail looked and acted like ones. So she assumed that most mages were similar.

Maybe her husband's words had affected some of her perceptions about mages as well... But, she had at least expected the mage they had hired to look a little bit less... Elegant.

Now, she felt like she should have tidied up the house a little bit more.

"Yes, ahem, that's me. Please enter. Jack is waiting inside"

However, being the already somewhat honed warrior that she was, she recovered fairly quickly from her stupor, and soon enough, she shrugged her discomfort aside and invited the elderly woman inside. To which the mage simply nodded her head and headed inside.

Once inside, the woman patted her robes for a second, before she soon cleared her throat and began presenting herself to Kaya.

"My name is Sussan Corbyn. I'm a certified A-Class mage, and my magic primarily focuses on sensing the magic of others from afar, as well as allowing me to study the internal magical systems within the human body. As such, I'm able to tell if they are capable of wielding the magic power within them or not..."

After saying that, the mage called Sussan cleared her throat before she puffed up her chest in pride and continued.

"... Not many mages are capable of performing this kind of task, and as such, I hope you and your husband are aware that my services are a bit costly for most people... Normally, the price for examination is 33,000 Jewels. However, considering that the examination of the internal magical system of children is a bit easier than that of adults, the price this time will be only 25,000 Jewels..."

Hearing her, Kaya nodded her head with a surprised expression as she muttered "I see..."

After that, the mage continued explaining things related to her job, as well as mentioning a few other services she offered like checking up on the size of the Eternano container inside the body and a few other processes related to the subject. To which Kaya considered paying as well while she was at it.

She and her husband had thought that they would have to pay a much higher price than what the mage was asking them when they thought of hiring her. So, seeing that the price was going to be much less than the budget they had at their disposal, she decided to check up on a few other things since they had money to spare.

Sussan had said that she would only charge them the extra services if Jack turned out to have a talent for magic, otherwise, she would only ask for the base price. Thus, Kaya didn't have to worry about wasting money either.

-Chatter-

As both talked and discussed the details regarding the job, eventually both of them began walking in the direction of the living room where Jack was supposedly waiting, not wanting to keep him waiting any longer.

""...?""

However, when both of them arrived at the living room, they were in for quite a surprise.

Once both of them stepped into the living room, they saw Jack sitting on the sofa in a domineering and intimidating pose, looking at the elderly woman with a menacing gaze and hitting the frying palm constantly against his palm as if trying to threaten her.

-Clang, clang, clang, clang...!-

If it wasn't because he was a 5-year-old, he would have looked outright like a delinquent.

The way he talked wasn't much different from one, though.

"Wass'up, hag?"

-Bam!!-

Unfortunately for him, he ended up face-planted on the floor right away after his mother punched him fiercely in the head.

After that, Kaya smiled nervously, and she turned to look at Sussan with an apologetic expression on her face. Feeling really embarrassed about Jack's behavior.

"I'm sorry Miss Sussan... Our Jack is a bit... Special..." Kaya said while she rubbed her hands in worry. Hoping that Jack's words hadn't angered Sussan.

Fortunately for her, Sussan didn't seem to be angry, and instead, she just laughed bitterly while she shook her head and calmed down Kaya.

"It's okay, it's okay... I didn't take it to heart"

However, she couldn't help but have her eyebrow twitch briefly when she heard Jack muttering something about not being able to hit the balls or whatever.

'What's wrong with this kid...?'

...

〖To be continued...〗