Chapter 5 : A Birthday Gift

The 5 leaf clover Grimoire in front of him shone with green energy, as Zakai gulped.

He was scared.

But the book called out to him.

Touching the book, he expected to be sent back to the library when he opened it, but he didn't in this case.

He opened the book, where symbols and text in a language he couldn't read were present.

But something was at the bottom of the page.

2 things were written at the bottom of the page, causing Zakai to raise his eyebrow.

What he would suspect was that the language of a demon was replaced by archaic clover, a language the people in the clover kindgom used.

"[Wind blade]"

"[Tracking wind]"

These were both the spells Selek had used in his life!

so why did they show up in his book? and why now?

the book had fully turned into a grimoire, as it floated around, meaning that Zakai didn't need to turn the pages himself, even though there was only one right now.

Touching "[Wind blade]" memories floated into Zakai's mind.

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A 15-year-old Sekel laid down on the grass bank, looking down at his Grimoire.

"I can become a magic knight with this!"

"Dream on." A feminine voice came behind him, as Sekel turned around.

"Serena."

"What do you hope of achieving with that pitiful mana pool of yours?"

"You say that like yours isn't lower than your families." Sekel snorted back. "After all, you are just an illegitimate child and a bastard child at that."

Serena stood silently at his side.

"So, what do you plan on doing with your Grimoire?"

"Learn new spells, of course."

The scene shifted to a shirtless Sekel with a flood of wind magic at his side.

Zakai could read his mind easily as Sekel was flooded with feelings of bitterness and hatred, as the pages of his Grimoire fluttered.

"Wind blade!"

A 3-inch crescent of condensed wind flaoted at his hand, but Sekel didn't look too happy with the result.

Bitterness was present on his face as he slowly started to cry in his hands.

Yes.

He had realised that he wasn't good enough, and he was just a mere side character in his own story.

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Zakai woke up.

He looked at his hands, before breathing in and breathing out.

He felt the tiredness Sekai felt, he felt the soreness of the muscles, he felt the hatred, and most importantly , the experience of using wind magic.

His wind magic seemed stronger than before, as memories of how to manipulate it popped up in his head.

That was merely young Sekel however, as Zakai saw the older Sekel make wind blades bigger than a measly 3 inches.

However, he didn't have the power of a "chant" yet, since he didn't have his own Grimoire...

Unless..

"[Wind blade]" Zakai called out before nothing happened.

Zakai felt embarrassed for a moment, expecting at least a little gust of wind to come out of the book.

But alas , it disappointed him.

Looking towards the body, Zakai bowed once more, before getting Serena.

Now, it was a waiting game.

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100....101....102...

Zakai pushed himself from the ground, before briefly wiping his sweat.

Using some wind magic to clean himself off, he looked directly in the mirror.

A lot of things had happened in the 8 or 9 years since Sekel died.

First, he had trouble trying to provide meat and pelts to the Uniquas family.

Oh, and the Uniquas family.

Some dumbass peasants wanted to overthrow them, led by the unloved daughter herself, Serena.

What happened to them?

they died.

Zakai watched it first hand.

Water magic slowly drowned them, only sparing Serena and her child, which was in a nanny's arms, watching the battle itself.

Speak about great parenting.

Serena settled down with a peasent man, causing her to get kicked out of the family, but since he's dead from the strike, she now lives in the cabin in the spare room with her child.

That was 4 years ago.

Unfortunately for Zakai, this meant that the contract was... changed, for the worse.

He would get paid less and had to provide more.

If not for the book, he probably would be starved and dead by now.

In a week or so, he needed to go collect his Grimoire from the Grimoire tower.

Nothing had changed since he got the book, except for the weird reaction when everyone died.

It was hungry.

Unfortautnley for him, he couldn't go any closer, unless he wanted to get waterboarded by those nobles.

The smiles on their face still terrified him to this day, not to mention Serena.

She seems to have developed some Psychological issues, different from the humourous personality she had so many years ago.

Gulping, Zakai looked over to the book at his side.

What was it?

He had managed to create an artificial wind blade, one a lot weaker than that of a spell due to the fact that the chanting and the Grimoire provided it with power.

But this book didn't help him!

only gave him Sekel's memories, which he scoured time and time after again and again, hoping to find some new insight, to be let down with absolutely nothing.

Hearing a knock on the door, Zakai muttered.

"Come in."

A small child waddled through the doorway, before looking straight at Zakai.

"Where is Mommy?"

"Is she not in the cabin?" Zakai muttered. Now that he thought of it, he hasn't seen her today.

"Are you hungry, Zek?" The young boy was named after a fairy-tale about hopes and dreams.

"Ye..yes..." The boy stumbled, as he seemed a little bit afraid of Zakai.

Zakai was incredibly tall and well-built to the fact he had to hunt for a living.

He was around 6"1, and his eyes looked intimidating, not to mention the bronze skin he had.

Many people had tried to throw shit at him for his skin because his bronze skin stood out from the rest.

Zakai walked over to the boy, before going into the pantry and getting some type of meat and putting it over the fire to cook.

In minutes, a small piece of meat and some Nomatoes were present near the young boy, as Zakai muttered to him.

"I'll go find your mother."

Zeke looked toward Zakai with a big pair of beady eyes, which made Zakai feel a little bit less cold.

It was the middle of spring, and the small town that didn't even have a name was starting to grow crops.

Every now and then he saw Sister Lilly make the soil more fertile, but she didn't even look him in the eyes.

Oh well, that boat had already sailed.

Zeke was a polite boy, and every time he got bullied by his peers, they quickly stopped, because of a certain.... someone.

Zakai smirked as he walked down the store, past the butchers he sold meat he didn't want and past the small general store that sealed vegetables, and that store could be considered the only set of merchants in this town.

Zakai thought of how grand the capital was, as he slowly went into the store and brought some vegetables.

Looking towards the store owner, Zakai looked towards a glass bottle, something that was rare.

But something was rarer.

Inside.

"Milk?" Zakai muttered, looking towards the bottle, where did you get this?

"Ay?" The store owner was a fat-jolly man with an accent that came from the north.

"O- that." He said, "Was planning in' to move out of this shithole" Zakai paid while listening to the man's story. "Brought a cow from the next city down', planned on making me' wife a cake, found out she didn't respond well to milk', fought I could get a profit out of it."

The price was 120 yul, which since a whole loaf of bread was 45 yul, was quite expensive.

"What's a cake?" Zakai asked the man.

"Big round loaf, imagine a bread, but several times sweeter, and has a soft centre, unlike the hard grainy shite you folks eat." The man received the money, before scratching it down on a note.

"Ere."

Zakai looked at the recipe for the cake and felt intrigued. Zek's birthday was coming up, so he might want to bake him on-

The book at his side started vibrating, before trying to get out of his pocket.

"Hm?" Zakai looked down at the book, before rapidly collecting his goods and running out of the shop.

The book burst out the moment he got out of the shop and rapidly went ahead of him.

He was lucky most residents wanted to stay in from the even heat, as he slowly ran after the book.

"It has never acted like this!" Zakai gritted his teeth as he ran over to the book.

After roughly running two miles, he looked at the Book, which had finally stopped moving.

It stopped near a big tree, as Zakai panted and took a breather.

And then he looked up.

Zakai dropped his bags, causing the milk to splatter, and roll down the grassy bank behind him.

He had found Selena alright.

Hung up by a noose connected to the tree's branch.

Her body fluttered when in contact with the wind, and Zakai immediately threw up.

The corpse didn't handle the spring heat, leaving a decomposing smell that made Zakai gag.

Fuck....

she couldn't have handled all that pressure.

She needed to find a way to relieve the pressure.

And she did.

4 years.