0.1

"Ten thousand years ago, when our kingdom was weak and unaware of the existence of magic, a man from another world descended into ours to help us in our time of need.

He was as strong as ten thousand knights, or so I heard. His name was Nathaniel, and he helped our kingdom stand against a war with the Demon race.

He lifted his hand, and a strong gust of wind would appear and blow an entire army of demons miles away. His presence and arrival in the battlefield helped us turn the tables and get the upper hand.

After we won the war with the help of our hero, he imparted with us the knowledge of magic. He taught us how we could weild the elements to our will and how we could use this to our advantage.

That is how we named him 'The Father of Magic'.

He left to return to his world after he taught us everything we needed to know about magic, but before he did, he also left us with a few words that would ensure his return.

Although it could've just been an empty promise, thousands of prophets had the same vision that showed Nathaniel's soul would indeed return. He said;

'In the distant future, I will return. However, I won't be some stranger that would descend again from another world. Instead, my soul shall be born into this world, the world of Niafel. Whether I become friend or foe in that lifetime is undecided. Until then, treat everyone kindly. You do not know how much harm a single person can bring upon you when you decide to insult them.'

Although each vision that the prophets saw was somewhat different from each other, one thing remained the same in all of them; Nathaniel would return and be born into a child with bright red hair, golden eyes, and a powerful magical prowess.

Some of these visions say this child would be our friend, others say our foe. One thing is for sure, the future of this child is not set in stone."

~ ~ ~ ~

"Stop! Theif!" an angry Baker yelled out.

A young girl around the age of fourteen was running away from the direction of the bakery. She had four loaves on her hand, and a grin on her face. She looked very poor with her ragged clothes and messy red hair that looked like it hadn't been combed in months.

The girl sneaked into an alley to hide from the Baker. A soft glow came from the alley the red-headed girl ran into and then disappeared in an instant.

Instead of a poor girl who looked like a beggar, a blond boy who looked like the son of a noble walked out of the alley with the four loaves in one of his hands.

He looked back at the distressed Baker that was inconveniencing each passerby by asking them if they had seen a redheaded girl with four loaves of bread. The blond boy smirked.

'Illusion magic is quite hard and drains a lot of mana. It doesn't matter though, Miriam will make me feel better once I go see her.' the boy smiled. Even though everyone else can see a rich, handsome boy, it was all an illusion. Under the guise of a noble's son was the redhead who stole bread from the bakery earlier.

They boy wasn't paying attention to his surroundings when he collided with someone else, making him drop his bread.

"Watch where you're going!" the boy grumbled as he bent down to pick the loaves. He lifted his head and saw a middle aged man wearing silver rimmed glasses staring back at him.

His long, white robe with golden highlights and gold cross logo on his chest indicated that he was a priest from the church.

"Ah- Father, I apologise for my rudeness." The boy stood up and bowed down to the priest. The man just looked at the boy with amusement.

"I wonder what a girl like you is trying to achieve by using an illusion to make you look like a noble's son?" the priest asked, provoking the boy.

The boy looked back at the man in front of him warily as he hovered his hand over the side of his pants. It may only look like his hands are hovering over his thighs, but underneath the illusion, there was a dagger just underneath the redhead's hand.

The man just laughed at the child, "Don't worry, child. I am a priest, demons commonly use illusion magic to lure their prey. It is only natural that a holy man like me is taught to see past these illusions." he explained.

Still, the child didn't lower his guard. 'My time's almost up. I need to get away from this man and the Baker while I can still hold this image.'

"I can see that you're quite busy," the priest looked over the boy's shoulder and glanced at the distressed Baker behind him, "and I'm sure that you're almost out of time and mana. Why don't you come with me to the church, hm?"

The child was cautious of the adult in front of him. Since the man knows he's a girl, he couldn't lower his guard even if the man was a priest.

No matter how society paints the church in a holy light, there are still stories of how priests took advantage of young children and shamelessly told their families that 'it was in the name of the lord'. What a bunch of b*llshit.

The boy looked behind him towards the Baker, and back to the priest in front of him. His time was running out.

He stared at the priest as if the man has murdered his entire family. "You know what, f*ck you." the boy cursed under his breath as he darted to his right and ran in that direction. The boy ran into an alleyway and disappeared behind a building.

The priest heard the boy's words although very vaguely. 'She's quite interesting. I can sense some sort of familiarity towards her, which is odd.'

The man turned his back and headed towards the diraction of the church. 'I'll have to ask the head priest to have that girl's soul checked. Not many people have an affinity for Light magic, much more have the ability to master it at such a young age to use for illusion magic.'

~ ~ ~ ~

Once the boy was far away from the crowd did he finally break his illusion. The image of a noble's son soon faded as particles of light floated in the air, revealing the image of a ragged peasant girl.

She panted, out of breath from running away and draining her mana. She sat down and leaned her head on the wall. She looked at the sky, exhausted.

"Who in the f*ck was that priest?"