15th Birthday

Linri got up as usual but compared to previous days he was worried. Today was his 15th birthday. In other words the little immunity time he had was finally over. Somewhere between today and till the start of the semester he was going to meet one of the most scariest in this world, Gods. He did not know how the meeting was gonna play out as he was not the original Linri so they might deem him as useless and outright kill him. Still this was the least of his worries.

What he worried the most was actually not meeting them at all. Without abilities he was sure to be stuck in this world. Let alone going back it was even questionable whether he would be able to survive at all. When his thoughts were getting darker and darker Linri suddenly stopped thinking about it. There was nothing he could do about this right now so it was better to leave it to his future self to solve it instead of beating his head over it right now.

As usual his parents and Jaime were having breakfast and he was last to arrive.

"Morning" said Linri while yawning and started to eat his toast.

"Morning Birthday boy!" said his father merrily. He and Lyra was especially spoiled their son in every chance they got so this was something expected.

"Birthday? Was it today? I had completely forgotten about it." said Linri unenthusiastically.

"How can you forget such an important day. It's your birthday nonetheless. So where should we go? A water park? Amusement Park? Just a normal park and have a picnic? Come on kiddo it's your birthday you can do whatever you want as long as it's within our means, the money is not a problem." said Arkady with a gleeful voice. If an onlooker were to see this they would have thought it was his birthday instead.

Once Linri heard money was not a problem he scoffed inside. Of course money was not a problem. Arkady was an ex-mercenary he had loads of money overseas and his multiple bank accounts. He just did not spend much as they wanted Linri to have a normal life but Linri was sure that if he were to ask for anything Arkady would buy it without any argument or a problem.

"How about we just continue training at home and don't go out or you just leave me to my own devices and we can celebrate at night with a little cake?"

"Nonsense! This is your birthday! Of course we are going to celebrate it as a family." said Arkady.

"Dear, why don't you just let him do what he wants. It's not like he can be considered a little kid any more. If he wants to celebrate with his friends outside he should" said Lyra trying to help his son.

"Well, Dad. How about this? We still train after breakfast but we stop around 2 pm and we go to a book shop. You know that I like books and being able to buy as many books as I want can be considered your gift. After that we can just go somewhere for dinner and have a little celebration while talking? Training today is a must as my muscles are quite sore if I were to stop now it would not be as effective tomorrow." offered Linri. Honestly he did not want to do aside training but going to a book shop might not be so bad after all.

"But it's your birthday. Training is boring. Don't you wanna go for somewhere more fun?" said Arkady unwilling to accept it.

"Dad when have you seen me going outside to have fun? I rarely even leave home aside from occasional running." countered Linri.

"Hmm, you were always kind of unsocial. Book store might not be so bad." Arkady said unhappily.

At the time though Linri was thinking unsocial my *ss. He had clearly written in his background that Linri was a cheerful guy with lots of friends. The problem was Linri did not know who they were. Because of that he had to ignore most of the messages in his phone as he did not know how to answer them fearing his cover would be blown.

"Anyway it's settled then. No one has any problems with book store right? Jaime?" said Linri

"Hm? No." said Jaime dazedly and kept eating her breakfast. It seemed like something was on her mind but Linri was not with it. His relationship with Jaime was already strained as is. He was not going to ask her anything unless she herself talked about it.

After they were done eating Linri went backyard with Arkady as usual and they started to work on the two basic stances Arkady thought before. When Linri asked why there was no stance today Arkady answered two was enough as it is and he should focus on them for now.

While he was still in the Mountain stance Linri saw Jaime walking with her sword in her hand. It seemed like she wanted to train as well.

"Can I also train here?" asked Jaime. As Linri expected she was here to train with her sword.

"Suit yourself" answered Arkady. He saw that Linri broke his stance so he whipped him with the branch. Linri immediately went back to the perfect stance after the quick 'reminder'.

"Wait a minute sweetie! I think we had a wooden sword somewhere in the house. It might be dangerous to swing the real thing so soon. Let me get it for you." shouted Lyra from the veranda.

"When did we have a wooden sword in the house? Why don't I remember seeing it?" asked Linri puzzledly while talking his back became slouched a little so he whipped Linri with the branch again.

"We always had them. It's just that they have no use so your mother must have stored them somewhere in the house." answered Arkady.

After Lyra returned with the sword Jaime started to practice the sword moves of the Book of Silver Sword. Linri saw nothing special about them. They just looked like any random sword strike. Some moves even looked unnecessary. Then again it was better than nothing.

After the training was done they went to a book store together. Once Linri inhaled the smell of the newly printed books he became nostalgic and excited at the same time. He bought several books including a World History Encyclopaedia and a World Atlas. He had bought so much books that when they left everyone was carrying two bags of book. Then they went to a local pub. They ate some cake talked Arkady got drunk. Overall it was an enjoyable evening. It was such a shame that peaceful days like this would not last long.