An Unexpected Situation

Time flew by quickly, and five years passed before I realized it. I spent time with my family and did everything I couldn't in my previous life. I did everything a normal family should. After all, I didn't want things to end the way they did before.

And while this may seem surprising to you, I was able to get attached to Ron, Ainge, and Anya better than I thought I would, considering they were total strangers not long ago. I guess that's how things worked. Although I still didn't call them "father' or "mother'; he felt weird. 

I'd thought they would pick up on this, and then I'll have to call them that no matter how weird it felt. But for some reason, no one object. Leave objecting aside, it was as if they didn't even notice. 

Anyway, my relationship with Anya was proceeding smoother than expected. She was the one I opened up the most to. Perhaps it was because we didn't have the "parental restrictions" I had with Ainge and Ron. Whatever it was, my instincts marked her as absolutely harmless. Which was a strange thing in itself as it never really happened.

All this time I practiced magic by myself and sword arts with Anya. I wanted to go to the magic academy for learning magic but our family was not rich enough to afford the enrollment fee.

Apparently, practicing sword arts was more difficult than practicing magic, the reason being that while practicing sword arts I had to physically use my body instead of imagining a simulation in my mind.

I also did a bit of research about sword arts since I wanted to know exactly what I was learning and what use will it be for me. And here's what I found; Sword arts were the most common yet difficult way of combat in this world.

If you are born into a noble's family then it was almost compulsory for you to learn them—almost because the final decision was on the individual in question.

My father knew sword arts and Anya had finished her training a year ago. I was learning from Anya hence I was a year late in completing my training but it was going to end today, as today was the day I was going to give a type of graduation exam.

I was also practicing magic continuously and by now, I was able to use elemental magic pretty easily now. I passed out several times due to running out of mana but it was worth it since it increased my mana capacity.

And not only mana capacity, from these 5 years of training magic and sword arts, but my status had also increased and I leveled up. However, it still didn't solve the mystery of my rank being one step ahead of other attributes.

When all of my stats reached C I got a level-up notification and my rank changed to B. In short, even after leveling up the situation at hand was the same.

But despite all this, I was enjoying my life in this new world. At first, I was hesitating a bit because I had my doubts.

What if I never really died after falling from the stairs that day? What if I just hit my head hard and now I was in a comma? What if this was all just a dream?

I was a little scared, to be honest, scared of losing everything again. But then I realized, that if there was even a one percent chance of losing all this then I should enjoy it as much as I can. Hence from that day onwards, I decided to live this life to its fullest. Even if this was all a dream I decided to make this my best dream ever.

"Hey Zero, are you alright?" said Ainge, my mom, snapping me back to reality.

"Yeah, I'm fine," I replied with a smile. I was lost in thought again I guess. Right now I was having dinner with my family and it would be better if I focused on that.

"How's your training going?" she asked. Unlike Ron, my father, she was not the type to overreact to little things and that was why I felt more "normal" while talking to her.

"It's going well, along with sword arts sis is also very good at teaching me."

"Stop exaggerating, I'm not that good. It's just that you are a fast learner," said Anya. She was sitting on the other side of the table in front of me.

"I'm so happy to see you all grow, really," Ron exclaimed, the person I wanted to avoid at all costs. He really let his emotions get the best of him.

But well, there was a reason for that too. One day I was irritated by him because of this behavior, I didn't say anything to him but I went and talked to Anya.

It was then she told me the reason behind his behavior. Anya and I were their fourth and fifth child. Before us all the children Ainge gave birth to died within a month and Ron was heavily depressed by this. Then when Anya was born and didn't die after a month, he was relieved.

Then when I was born, tension took over him again. I was—no, Zero Blanks was a very weak child ever since he was born, he was always sick and didn't go outside that much.

This worried Ron as he was scared of losing another child but when the original Zero died after struggling for 10 years the thing with my reincarnation happened and in his eyes, Zero's condition got better. This lifted the weight from Ron and became the reason for the "special treatment" I get.

Complicated stuff I know. Asking Anya about my own past was even harder than this, and I barely got away by giving the excuse that after the incident my memories of the past are fuzzy and unclear.

Not having the memories of your predecessor in this reincarnation thing was a huge pain.

"Oh, Zero! I forgot to tell you before but I will be taking your graduation exam tomorrow," Anya mentioned, dropping a bombshell out of nowhere.

"W-Wait what! You said it will be at the end of this month," I reasoned hurriedly and stopped eating.

"Yes I know but, well, it's a thing that's not in my control," she confessed, lowering her eyebrows.

"What do you mean by 'not in my control'? Can you explain please?"

"Well, it's… it's none of your business. Whatever, be prepared tomorrow morning," saying that she got up and left; she didn't even finish her food.

There I was left wondering what the hell just happened.

Too stunned to even speak, I shifted my gaze at Ron in the hope to get an answer, "Will you tell me? You know what's going on right?"

"It's not a thing kids should get involved in," Ainge interjected, she spoke in a hard tone that was completely unlike her.

"First, I'm not a KID anymore. And second, she's my sister and if something's happening then I have full rights to get myself involved," I replied instantly. If this was going to be a family argument then they should back down now.

After all, I never lost an argument in my previous life and.....leave it, I don't want to remember all that now.

More importantly, Anya was my family, if something is troubling her then I'll help her. That's like super obvious.

I again glared at Ron as I narrowed my eyes; fortunately, this man was easy to deal with.

"I'm never ever going to talk to you if you don't tell me what's going on," I insisted, this should be enough to make him talk.

Surprisingly I was wrong. He averted his gaze as he stood up and left. Ainge followed him afterward.

'...Okay, I guess?'

This came as quite a shock. But I found another proof that reality is often different from novels. If this was a novel then he would have spilled the beans right then.

"This is a drag," I sighed as I finished my dinner. Obviously, I was not going to waste food like them.

But about this situation, I'll have to somehow ask Anya about this. She said that she'll take my graduation exam tomorrow; it will be her way of testing what I have learned in these past few years.

'Will she tell me if I defeat her?' I thought. I suppose so, that'd be for the best.

"Sigh! And here I thought I will be living a peaceful slow life," I said to myself as I sighed.