Novel Battlefield Restart

Discussion in 'Community Fictions' started by Love4NovelGuy, Feb 8, 2017.

  1. Love4NovelGuy

    Love4NovelGuy [Veteran Writer] [Reaper]

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    This was the first thing I've written that ever got popular. It was just a joke at first but now I'm continuing it.

    Description: After retiring from the battlefield, my life became empty and lifeless. The regrets of my past haunt me in my sleep. Then a change occurred, a King from another world summoned me to fight for his kingdom, but I died even before I could give him my answer. Now, after a fake God allowed me to reincarnate with my memories intact, into a world filled with magic and swords.

    This is a story inspired by Mushoku Tensei and Chivalry of a Failed Knight.

    Chapter 1: My Life
    Chapter 2: God?
    Chapter 3: Enigma
    Chapter 4: The Loving Mother's Perspective
    Chapter 5: Magic Talent
    Chapter 6: Resolve
    Chapter 7: Magic Book
    Chapter 8: Common Swordsmanship
    Chapter 9: Mark's Training
    Chapter 10: The Strict Father's Perspective
    Chapter 11: Tenth Birthday
    Chapter 12: Magicians Hand
    Chapter 13: Merilin's Worries
    Chapter 14: The Challenge
    Chapter 15: Punishment
    Chapter 16: Duel
    Chapter 17: Decisive Battle!
    Chapter 18: The Swordwick Duke's Perspective
    Chapter 19: The Bet
     

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    Last edited: Feb 15, 2017
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  2. Love4NovelGuy

    Love4NovelGuy [Veteran Writer] [Reaper]

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    Chapter 1: My Life

    When I was younger, getting a job was definitely not the first thing that came to my mind, instead the first thing was how I could effectively waste my time.

    At that time, I was too self-centred and saw the world through a filter. Maybe it was because of my sh*tty Primary School life. I was born with asthma and eczema, causing other to look at me with disgust. My classmates bullied me openly when the teachers were outside the classroom doing their tasks. It was basically the mental and physical torture they gave that affected my outlook on life, causing me grow up with low self-esteem.

    My parents and siblings tried to help me, my teachers tried their best to talk it out with their students, but that only made matters worse. The bullying became more intense, to the point that they'd start beating me whenever we arrived at the playground, but that didn't mean I didn't fight back. My low self-esteemed personality became one that could easily be enraged because of it. I didn't know at the time that my rage was something fuelled by fear.

    Time passed... Many events unfolded and many people who were once my bullies turned into something close to my acquaintances. They realised their faults or they'd just decided to ignore someone as unimportant as myself.

    The time for the final school exams arrived and everything I knew from that point changed dramatically. My classmates would still mess around, yet even as they did, all of them would take the time at home to catch up with schoolwork due to the pressure exerted by their parents. I had dyslexia at that time, so I wasn't able to leave the school with high marks, but even so they were enough to pass.

    After that I went Secondary School with a blank slate. The Secondary School wasn't as good as my Primary School. However, it was still a good place to make a fresh start. It was too bad the younger me of that time was filled with paranoia, unable to put his trust in other and unable to hide the feelings that displayed on his face. I didn't have many friends in Secondary School as well in the end, and was bullied in more secretive ways than in the previous school I went to.

    The me of that time thought he was the most pitiful person in the world. It's laughable that the me of that time thought that but it was the truth. I didn't think of the good people I met in my life and I didn't try to improve my relationship with others. My grades were merely passable and I never made an effort to improve myself. Well, at least my personality improved and the illnesses I was born with were cured.

    Then came College and University, the two most important educations needed to get a high paying job. I decided to just whimsically pick anything I liked and barely passed the science course at College. I didn't even have high enough scores to get into University.

    That younger self of mine was such an idiot. I can't believe I tried to stay at home and live off my parents, refusing to find work in order to have more time to waste doing nothing. After my parents and siblings had forced me into the military, my job is that of a soldier that actually gets sent to places dangerous enough to take my life.

    As a soldier, work was extremely hard to the point of exhaustion, especially those missions in Afghanistan. My paranoia saved me more times than I could count, my perceptiveness and sensitivity to danger sharpened over time. Most would say that it was a hell on earth, but I'm not most, my opinion was that it's the best days I ever lived.

    I found brotherhood with the comrades I fought with side by side at the edge of death. They were all brothers who would take a bullet for me. They were all brothers I could rely on. But it was a shame that I wasn't the same. I was a coward that fought only for his own survival. I was a coward who could only leave those reliable brothers and run away from any danger I encountered.

    One of my brother-in-arms died right before me and all I could do was mourn at his sacrifice. Years passed, and I gained more experience with time, but the amount of brothers that were lost in battle increased in time. After years of endless battles between life and death, the army allowed me to rest.

    Now, as an eighty year old man, the regrets I feel when looking back at my life is extremely high. But all I can do sit on this armchair and lament. The world around me seems grey and lifeless, or maybe it just my eyes playing with me again. Like I said, the world looks different through such a filter, but something seems strange.

    "Oh please, Great Hero, hear and answer our calls." A voice resounded in my ear. I get up and look around, but I didn't answer reflexively. I felt that the world will cave in on me if I did.

    "Oh please, Great Hero, hear and answer our calls." The female voice I heard in my ear moments ago seemed to be accompanied this time with the voices of several old males. Their voice resounded in my ear once more but this time I felt some kind of attraction that seemed to distort the world around me. I didn't know what to do in such circumstances, but a habit that was ingrained into me by many years as a soldier acted up, allowing me to quickly arm myself for any incident that was to occur. I put on my armour and loaded my rifle, ready for anything that may try to harm me.

    "Who the hell are you?" I ask to the voices that were resounding in my head. The world around me twisted and distorted, my home suddenly became the inside of a European-like Castle. In front of me was a middle-ages man dressed in luxurious gold ornaments sitting on throne whilst looking down on me from above.

    I was completely dumbfounded by the current change of events. I never thought that I'd be kidnapped from my own home. I look at the people around me more clearly and see that everyone seemed to have dressed up in strange outfits. There's no way I'd call what they have on costumes because the swords those 'Knights' held looked very real. Under my feet was glowing patterned circular marking that many old priest-looking men held their palms towards with a look of worship.

    "Who are you? And what do you want with me?" I quickly analyse my surroundings and pointed my rifle at the most important person sitting on the throne above me. The knight-like people in luxurious armour who were protecting the clearly rich man pulled out their swords and surrounded me simultaneously as a result.

    "Oh please, Great Hero, slay the Fiend King and bring peace to the Heavenly Divine Sword Kingdom." The rich man said with an aura of superiority.
     
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  3. Love4NovelGuy

    Love4NovelGuy [Veteran Writer] [Reaper]

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    Chapter 2: God?

    It was at that moment, the scenery changed once more, the 'Knights' and 'Priests' that surrounded me turned to nothingness. A force similar to the one that pulled me over to that supposed 'Royal Castle' once again transported me somewhere else. After focusing my eyes I saw that there was a creepy faceless man in a formal suit standing respectfully in front of me. The world around me seemed both dark and bright, just like the faceless man body.

    "Who are you?" I ask curiously, it was the first time in eighty years something like this had happened to me, but I didn't feel panicked. I mean, look at me, I'm just an old man waiting for deaths call. Even if the faceless guy was dangerous, even if I might have been kidnapped by some godly being, there's no reason for me to worry about losing something other than my old life.

    "I am a God from another world is what I wanted to say but that explanation isn't quite right." The half black and half white faceless man answered in confusion. I feel his 'gaze' becoming sharpened moments before he glanced at the world around.

    "You probably have a lot of questions for me, so I'll start my story from the beginning, and please be patient with me while I'm explaining." The faceless man was polite and direct with his words, so I decided to say nothing, it wouldn't make sense for me to anger this supernatural entity anyway.

    "In a world completely different than your own. Two types of ceremonies are conducted every hundred years. One is called the 'Hero Summoning' whilst the other is called the 'Fiend Summoning'.

    I know you've read similar tales in your youth whilst you were still in your own world. Tales of a Hero defeating a Demon King and saving the world. It may seem ridiculous to you, but the truth is that you were chosen, as a candidate to be summoned into this magical world. Just look." The faceless man gestured behind me. I turned my head to see that the light and dark world there going through change, it distorted into something unexpected.

    What appeared before me was a lush world filled with forests and giant mountains. I looked down and saw civilisations similar to the ones built in my own world. This world is definitely different from my own, because I can see two suns that were both big and small shining brightly in the sky. The faceless man didn't interrupt me as I fell into a trance observing the breathtaking world around me.

    "It's a beautiful world." I praise wholeheartedly and looked back at the faceless man in deep thought. If he really is a God, why is he so respectful to me, a tool kidnapped to serve the humanity of this alternate world?

    "Please tell me more about this alternate world." I request sincerely.

    "Informing you about the difference in society and common sense of this mythological world probably won't help you adapt. Since those type of differences are stuff that can be explained merely through words.

    So I'll inform you of your current circumstances. The reason you're here in front of me, instead of in your own world, is because you died." The faceless man said seriously. His tone showed no signs of mischief or falsehood, yet deep within his voice were emotions of sorrow and regret.

    "I don't understand what you're trying to say." I said with furrowed brows. I clearly remember that the so-called 'Hero Summoning' was a success. The castle I was summoned to before being transported here is proof of that.

    "Let me clear up why these Druids and Fiends summon people from a different world through ceremonies before I tell you how you died." The faceless man sighed and waved his hand again. The world behind the man changed and seemed to illustrate a story as he continued his explanation.

    "I'll try to keep this simple enough for you to understand. Basically, the world you saw was the creation made by the joint effort of two Gods, the Dark God and Light God. Both Gods created their own children based on their image. The Light God made the Druid Race while the Dark God made the Fiend Race.

    Everything was peaceful at first, both races were respectful to each other and cared for each other's wellbeing. The Fiend Race offered their power to help the humans to build society whilst the Druid Race returned their kindness by imparting their wisdom. However, a change occurred after a long time had passed, the Dark God and Light God had a falling out due to the wars their children were starting over recourses.

    The Dark God was angered by the Druid Races greed whilst the Light God was angered by the Fiend Races gluttony. They fought, killing each other in the process, and left behind two Divine Swords that held traces of the will they decreed before death.

    The Divine Sword of Darkness held the decree to eradicate the Druid Race whilst the Divine Sword of Light held the decree to eradicate the Fiends. The Fiend Race tried to let their Demonic Kings handle the Divine Sword of Darkness, but found that none of them had the required strength to lift the Divine Sword, those who attempted to do so forcibly all died with shattered souls. The Druid Race had similar circumstances on their side, but the solution their greatest Magician came up with was shocking, and that was to summon someone from another world to wield their Divine Sword instead.

    They used the magical energy within the Divine Sword of Light to summon a warrior from alternate world, but little did they know that their Sages suggestion had been overheard by Fiend Race spies, which allowed them to duplicate the ceremony so that they can summon a wielder for the Divine Sword of their own. The summoning on each sides was a success, and a tradition was created from that day forth, so that their Divine Gods eternal will could be completely carried out.

    The wielders were always summoned from your world called Earth, and every time they appeared in this chaotic world, the war between both races would intensify. The summoned wielders would be imparted strength by their Divine Swords upon arrival to this world called Sphera, allowing them to become true invincible rulers of the race they were summoned by, but the drawback of this power was the lack of freedom brought by the Gods decree.

    Every hundred years, the summoned Hero and Demon King would lose their right to possess their Divine Swords because of the restrictions placed on them by the ones that handled their summoning, due to the fact that both races didn't want their Divine Swords wielders to weaken with age. This cycle had been repeated hundreds and thousands of times, that is until the incident where you were summoned as a wielder had taken place." The faceless man stopped their and dissipated the realistic illustrations behind him. My heart thumps rapidly as I take in what he said, not knowing how respond, my previously indifferent face becomes stern as I look at the faceless man in front of me. He said that the two Gods of this world died, if so, who is he?
     
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  4. Love4NovelGuy

    Love4NovelGuy [Veteran Writer] [Reaper]

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    Chapter 3: Enigma

    "You're contradicting what you said previously. You already said that I died in that world, and since I can only remember a moment after I was summoned, the only explanation is that I died on the spot shortly after my arrival. How could a old man who lived in that alternate world for a few seconds change anything?" I ask in disbelieving tone of voice. There's no way a old man like me could have done anything particularly important.

    "You may not believe it, but I'm telling is the truth, the fact that you existed was something which changed the entirety of Sphera. To the point that both races stopped their endless war and formed a treaty." The faceless man seemed amused by my reaction and said in a mysteriously sincere voice.

    "Just get to the point." I said in dissatisfaction. I hate it when other people beat around the bush.

    "The summoning ceremony usually picks someone from your world as a wielder randomly. If you were to have just been summoned by the side the Druid Race, it wouldn't have mattered if you were old or not, due to the fact that the Divine Sword of Light would have empowered you with enough strength to fight the wielder of the Divine Sword of Darkness. With that power given by the Divine Sword, you would have been able to live until the next summoning ceremony no problem, but the incident that happened at that time were out of the entire realms expectations.

    You were caught in both the 'Fiend Summoning' and 'Hero Summoning' ceremonies at the same time. Your entire being was split into two bodies while you were being summoned, and a weakened version of you appeared in the lands of both races as a result.

    You were already weak due to age, but after having your strength split due to the summoning ceremony, both clones of you that appeared in Sphera died straight after the ceremonies had completely ended. However, you're story doesn't end there, because there were a lot of things that happened to your soul after death as well." The faceless man stopped for a moment to glance at my shocked expression before he continuing his explanation.

    "The Divine Sword of Light decreed the protection of the Human Race and eradication of the Fiend Race, while the Divine Sword of Destruction decreed just the opposite its counterpart.

    Even after your death, the empowerment these two Divine Swords you possessed still continued, but the contradiction in the decrees that restricted your actions caused the Divine Swords to attack one another just like the Gods that created them.

    They both fought and destroyed each other yet they didn't fade into nothingness, instead the two Divine Swords merged together to create something in between both Light and Dark, something akin to a God but also close to the existence of a Devil. If you haven't already guessed, that 'something' created was me, and you can call me Enigma, the one who is known as the Colourless God." The faceless man respectfully bowed as he finally introduced himself.

    Although I don't understand anything about magic, when taking in my current circumstances, I find that there's no reason for him to lie. I have nothing of value to a God. If he wanted my soul, then from what he had just explained, he's already got it. There's no need to feel suspicious about this guy that was so straightforward when informing me of what had transpired.

    "Then what will happen to my soul now?" I ask with furrowed brows.

    "That's for you to decide. After I was 'born' due to the destruction of the Divine Swords, your soul had stayed here in this dimension to accompany me, the restriction created by those magicians came into affect a hundred years afterwards. You awoke exactly after the bond that connected us had been broken, my existence became permanent in this world, but my gratitude towards you for creating me had never faded. I want to repay you for... For... Existing?" The last words the faceless man said seemed to be filled with utter confusion. It started off as an answer but ended as a question.

    However, the message he was trying to relay was something I understood, it would be abnormal if he could be clear minded when talking about these bizarre event concerning his 'birth'.

    "If you want, I can create a race from scratch and turn you into the strongest being in existence, maybe you could occupy the position of an Apostle as well. What do you think? It is your choice what you want to do from this day forth. I will help you accomplish anything your heart might desire."

    The faceless man shook his head and sighed, it seemed that he really would want to repay me in any way he could for giving him life, this awkward relationship we have is just strange.

    I can't be called his father, but I can be called the reason he came into existence, so it seems like he respects me as someone with higher seniority.

    "Forget it, I don't want to become an outsider, so let me ponder a little."

    I think deeply and look back at the regretful life I lived. A life filled with hopelessness and agony, if I was to start over one more time, there's no way I'd live the way I did before.

    "Can you give me another chance at life?" I ask in a trembling voice, it was the first time in thirty years my heart had been so moved, the look I give the faceless man is one filled with hope.

    "No problem. I can reincarnate you with your memories easily, but is that all you want? Oh! I got an idea! Why don't I impart you with my own unique Mana Origin? It will definitely help you protect yourself in this world that's mostly dictated by strength." The faceless mans mood seems to have improved as he started to get excited.

    "What's a Mana Origin?" I couldn't help but ask as I heard the new term.

    "It's a little complex, so I'll explain it step by step, while simplifying it a bit.

    Within the Souls of every living being within this realm is a power called Mana, this power originally has no use to the living, but each God is able to give their divine protection to the Race they created in order to empower them.

    The Druids originally had a very strong Light Origin within them that allowed them to touch upon the concepts of time, but after losing their God, their magical abilities dwindled. The same could be said for the Fiends as well.

    In the time that we have slept, the world has changed, and more Gods of different colours have entered this world in our absence. The Druids became known as Humans, having less Mana than most races but still retaining their wisdom, but the Fiends had been cursed as mere Beasts as the only thing they had was their immeasurable physical power.

    Since you want to reincarnate, I can only choose a weak Human as your vessel, but please be careful as I will be unable to help you out after you've left this dimension of mine. The only thing I can give you for protection right now is the Colourless Origin that I've created by combining both the Dark Origin and Light Origin.." The faceless ma- I mean, Enigma, said with concern. I feel grateful for receiving his sincerity. Now that I think about it, weren't my brothers-in-arms the same?

    "Thank you, Enigma, for taking care of this old me whilst I was asleep." I laugh and thank him without any reservation.

    "Don't thank me when you have no idea what exactly an 'Origin' is. You don't even understand how it will significantly affect your growth.

    You, as the former wielder of both Divine Swords, are the only person who even qualifies to receive my Divine Protection, don't you want to test it?"

    "No worries, it will all be fine, I'll find out about it after reincarnating."

    "It was the least I could do. Now, just get going through that door, because I might change my mind and force you to stay here is you don't." Although his words were harsh, his voice was gentle as he laughed, a door appeared behind just as his words had ended. I turn my body around and walk towards the door casually. Then I look back to my new friend and wave my arm.

    "Thank you, for giving me this opportunity, my friend." I thank one more time before saying my last goodbyes. Then I turned around and entered the door without hesitation.

    The world around me distorted once more, but this time I felt that all my senses had been cut off, which caused me to be surrounded by a deathly silent abyssal world. Then, a light sparked as I regained my sense of sight and hearing once more, the first thing I saw with my two eyes was a woman who was holding my tiny baby body preciously like a priceless treasure.

    Her smile was warm as she kissed my forehead affectionately. I focused my eyes a little more and saw that her appearance was quite beautiful, one could think that she was merely a teenager, but the mature air that surrounded her made me feel that she wasn't someone with a simple past. If her age was actually as young as she looked, then I'll be troubled if my father is that young as well, because I know that young husbands of that age are always more lustful their wives.

    Though I think I should stop thinking such nonsense and focus on the future instead, to learn this worlds language is target number one, and the second one is to find out about magic! A smile plasters across my face as I could already visualise my future as a Mage.
     
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  5. Love4NovelGuy

    Love4NovelGuy [Veteran Writer] [Reaper]

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    Chapter 4: The Loving Mother's Perspective

    In the lands of Sphera, Mana used to be used by everyone, both by Druids and Fiends alike. However, after the 'Divine Sword Disappearance Incident', the Mana residing in the bodies of both races became more scarce. It didn't really matter much to the Fiend Race because of their strong bodies, but for the Druid Race that mostly relied on Magic, it became a fatal weakness.

    The Druid Race at the time of the incident were stronger than the Fiend Race, so they came up with a reason to resolve their conflict with the Fiend Race in order to buy time for them to heal from their loss, which was by creating a magical contract that forbid both races from starting any full-scale wars. The Fiend Race accepted the contract unwillingly, but the condition that they put forth before signing the contract was that the Druid Race were forbidden from ever entering their Holy Lands, which was accepted by the Heroic Kings at that time of the events.

    Now, after hundreds of years, society has become less reliant on Magic and more reliant on Martial Arts. A new form of manipulating Mana created by a genius Emperor of new Humans that started to replace the ancient Druids of the past, a technique known as Aura Manifestation became well known throughout the world before that Emperors death, allowing him to be recorded in history as the strongest 'Human' that had ever lived.

    In the Human Lands of Sphera, I myself am merely a servant of Duke Swordwick's noble household, a thirty year old maid who was born with a childish-looking face. My last name was Greenlock previously until I married a man named Fredrick Rainglow, the Head Butler of the Swordwick Household, and former companion in my days as a mercenary.

    In the past I had experienced many joys and sorrows on the war torn battlefields, but nothing in the past has ever made me as happy as today, the day I gave birth to my precious son. It was a painful process, but everything was well worth it, because now I can see my child's lovely smile. When I first saw my son open his eyes my heart was surprised due to the fact that he didn't fidget or cry straight after. He looked at me in wonder and opened his mouth to make cute noises. A smile was on his face as he played with my hair.

    I found his every action to be extremely adorable! Now, after he fell back asleep, there were a lot of things I found strange about his behaviour. I don't know if I was imagining it or not but I remember that deep in his eyes was a unfamiliar kind of calmness. He didn't pull my hair whilst he was playing with it, nor did he try to move his entire body to crawl out of my grasp, he just somewhat quietly laid in my arms like an obedient child.

    Maybe I'm just thinking too deep into this, it isn't like all children are full of mischievous straight after birth, so he might be just tired. I look at his sleeping face and gently kiss his forehead once more before putting him in his own little bed. I feel a warm and fluffy feeling within the deepest parts of my heart whenever I think of the bright future ahead of my child.

    "Samantha, what will you name your child?" A maid who I was most familiar with asks in curiosity. I turned back and saw a dark and rough skinned beauty waiting at the door. Her eyes filled with expectation.

    "We've decided beforehand that the name of our child will Simon if he's a boy and Merilin if she's a girl." I say happily with a blushing face.

    "My child's name will be Simon Rainglow from this day forth, it's nice name, right Anna?" I continued whilst asking the muscular maid in front of me. Whenever I look at her well-proportioned figure I can't help but let out a sigh with envy. Unlike my somewhat skinny figure, hers was strong and robust, but didn't lose any of her natural womanly charms.

    "It's a nice name." She praised wholeheartedly and smiled.

    Time passed slowly as I affectionately raised dearest son. Fredrick also made time from work to be there for Simon in these precious moments of his childhood, when Simon reached the age of three, he was blessed with a beautiful little sister. I was worried inwardly that he would be jealous due to me not giving him as attention I did when he was younger, but to my and Fredrick's surprise, he didn't complain even once. He even helped the two of us take care of Merilin by coming to inform us whenever she started to cry.

    "I want to treasure my sister and spoil her to my hearts content." Was what my son said at the age of four. His voice was so high and cute as he said something so heart moving. I couldn't help but give him a big hug for his keen perception and understanding.

    At first I thought he wasn't as smart as normal children his age because even the Dukes daughter was able to speak fluidly at the age of three. I was worried that my son wouldn't be able to keep up with the children of his age, yet it seems that those feelings of foreboding were for naught, he was able to quickly surpass those his age in terms of formal etiquette and mathematical studies.

    My child is so adorable! Yet why do I always find his actions to more mature for his age? He never argued when I asked him to help with chores. He never cried when he hurt himself after accidentally falling on the floor. I'm sure I would have thought he was a young-looking old man if I hadn't been the one to give birth him because the mature expression he always has on.

    "Merilin, you have to remember that you must walk if you can't run. Don't make me worry. Oh, and at least try to be more independent by putting on your own clothes. I don't care if you can't do it right now, practice doing it yourself for the future, you can't always have Mother helping you." Simon nags something like this to Merilin, who is only two years old, every morning. I'd think he's serious if it wasn't for that mischievous light in his eyes.

    "Simon, stop acting like an old man, it's creepy." I pretend to put on a face full of disgust and berated him while I was brushing his teeth. A luxury like brushing teeth could only be reserved for nobility like Barons and those well off like us. I mean, as a Head Maid that keeps charge of the once mercenary servants, my pay is quite good. And that's not even mentioning the pay from Fredrick's job as Head Butler.

    "Mother, can't you be more gentle? You will break my weak little heart~" Simon casually lies through his teeth after I finished brushing his teeth. This habit of his must be from his father!

    "Simon, you're almost five years old, it's almost a good time to start training swordsmanship with your father. So stop nagging Merilin and acting like an old man." I reprimand strictly. This is rare! It's the first time I found a reason to reprimand Simon twice! It must be my lucky day today. Though, I hope my luck rubs off on Simon, since the hardship he's going to experience is going to be cruel and torturous.
     
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  6. Love4NovelGuy

    Love4NovelGuy [Veteran Writer] [Reaper]

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    Chapter 5: Magical Talent

    Five years have past since my reincarnation into this world and in those years I experienced many things that seemed foreign to me who had come from another world. Enigma, thank you, I would have never gotten this chance to start my life from the beginning of it weren't for you.

    "Haaaa... Good morning to you my new life." I mutter to myself while opening my eyes. The world around me looked fresh and vivid, something that probably has to do with my young age.

    Isn't Sphera so wonderful? Even now the clearness of the air around me makes me feel exhilarated. I focus my eyes and look at the small bedroom around me, then make my way to the wardrobe. My small body stature made it harder for me to reach the pegs, but through toiling effort, I was able to succeed in grabbing it's edge.

    "Simon, the closets too big, so stop trying to do this by yourself." The effort I put was into my independence went in vain as my mother walked through my room door and pulled the peg off the clothes rack. I pout my lips and look at her in dissatisfaction before turning my head away from her.

    "Don't pout, big boys don't pout, where has the usual mature look you have on run off to." My mother comforted whilst handing my clothes to me.

    The weird thing about reincarnation is that the past life one had experienced is like a long dream, or in my case, a long nightmare. I accepted even in the deepest parts of my heart that this woman named Samantha is my new mother. I accepted the man named Fredrick as my father. This is my new start and beginning, so looking back at that failed life would be meaningless.

    "Mother, stop teasing me and tell me why you're even here. Shouldn't Mark and Anna be the ones taking care of us?" I snatch the clothes off her hands and ask blandly. A smile was etched on her face as she giggled at my response.

    "On a normal day, that would be the routine, but today's special." She says mysteriously before leaving the room.

    "Special...?" I murmured to myself due to force of habit. In my past life, I spent too much time talking to myself as a retired soldier, since an old man like me really couldn't find anyone to talk with after retirement. I had no friends or relatives to take care of me in my old age, so most of the time, I wasted my life musing about the past.

    I walked out my room door after changing my clothes and followed my mother who was waiting outside to the Training Grounds of the Swordwick Household. The Swordwick Household was kind of unique within the Drakeyol Kingdom. Even the King would be respectful to Swordwick Household due to the Duke's tradition in grooming countless Master Swordsman in every generation of his bloodline.

    Duke Swordwick values strength so much that every servant he recruits turns out to have a background of a mercenary. I have always watched as the servants of the household trained their martial arts everyday from a distance. This wasn't due to me being interested in swordsmanship, nor was it due to me being interested in fights themselves, it was only because of my curiosity to this worlds style of combat.

    "So you're finally here." The voice of my father could be heard from the unusually quiet Training Ground. It seems that the other butlers and maids who periodically trained here all suddenly left to complete their chores.

    "Pick up the wooden sword, today's your fifth birthday, so you have to train your bodily coordination to create a foundation for future development in actual swordsmanship." As I heard these words, my eyes almost fell out of their sockets as my mouth fell agape.

    "I refuse. I'm merely a five year old, a young, immature five year old! Not an adult! There's no way for me to train my undeveloped body!" I shout towards my father. Fredrick, a strong bodied but average faced brown-haired man, looked at me closely with a smile that didn't quite reach his eyes.

    "No excuses. I'm not telling you to train your body, since I already know that's impossible at your age, but make no mistake that I'll definitely train you to be familiarised with the sword in these five more years to come." I frowned at my fathers words and gave him a glare.

    "Tell me the true reason for this." My eyes were stern as I looked at the similarly stubborn look on his face. He sighed, then lowered his sword, and started to explain the reason slowly.

    "If you were a normal and ignorant child, there would have been no reason for me to force you into this. However, your high intelligence at a young age made things different. I had the amount of Mana your body possessed measured the day you were born, and do you know what was the result?

    The result was that you were diagnosed with Rank F Magical Talent. The amount of magical energy is so scarce that you can barely use Aura Manifestation to increase the strength of your attacks." My fathers said grimly. His eyes seemed both determined and desperate. It at this moment that I understood just how important strength was to the world outside the Swordwick Household.

    I already knew long ago that the amount of Mana within my body was negligible compared to others due to my own experiments. I copied the servants training their Aura Manifestation abilities in secret, and found that their movements were similar to the martial arts of Earth, but after repeating the actions continuously every day I was able to pinpoint a major difference.

    The martial arts on Earth mostly focused on the physical body but this Aura Manifestation changed many aspects of martial arts as a whole.

    How to use Aura Manifestation was simple: All I needed to do was release my Mana as an Aura that would increase its density with time.

    The amount of Aura I could release depended on how much Mana I had within the Colourless Origin I was given. So I spared no effort in trying to sense the 'energy' within me. It was a feeling like their was some kind of ethereal existence that was neither hot or cold within the centre of my body.

    After feeling that Energy within my body, I released it as an Aura, but found that I could only cover my arm with the manifested flame-like Aura.

    Looking at the servants who were training their Aura Manifestation with such vigour, I found that the average amount of Aura they were able to manifest was at least able to cover their whole bodies, but I wasn't depressed as I tested the strength of my Aura itself.

    From what I overheard, magical talent wasn't the only factor when training Aura Manifestation, the second factor of the technique was mastering it.

    Once the mastery of the technique increased, the power it would display would improve as well, allowing me to take on opponents with higher Magical Talents. The reason for this was simple really, Aura Manifestation treated Mana like a weapon, and the density of that weapon improves with mastery.

    Those of E or D Rank magical talents were able to easily focus their Auras into their swords and create sharp energy waves that could cut from afar.

    I too tried sending a shockwave through my fist using my Aura as well.

    However, the feeling of exhaustion I felt straight after made me feel suspicious. Enigma, although I don't believe in gods, let me make a prayer to ask one question: Where has my promised overflowing magical talent run off to? I don't even feel anything similar to a Gods 'Divine Protection' as well. Looks like I'm going to have to put that annoyance at the side so that I can focus on my current circumstances.

    "So what if I can't use a strong Aura Manifestation?" I still ask my father curiously as I didn't understand what not being able to use that technique meant. It's not like I have to fight. Less dangerous jobs should exist in this world. Perhaps I can become a farmer. Even if I don't have magical talent, their should be no reason to go through this sort of desperate training, since their is a chance I'll become crippled by this trainings intense difficulty.
     
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  7. Love4NovelGuy

    Love4NovelGuy [Veteran Writer] [Reaper]

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    Chapter 6: Resolve

    In my past life, the amount of people that respected my heroism were uncountable, and my military achievements I collected could make other gasp in admiration. They thought I was a hero, a valiant, selfless hero who would lay down his life to protect the entire nation. However, how could they have known that in reality that the hero they respected was only an ordinary man with a... unique talent.

    The talent I had wasn't related to killing or fighting, nor was it related to foresight or planning, instead this talent I had could only be described as having high self-awareness. The ability to understand the present rather than the future. When I was recruited into the nations special forces, my brothers would say that I was way too paranoid of my surroundings, that would always be their last words before death.

    I didn't pay attention to this talent at first and wrote it off as a strong sixth sense, but after many missions I found that such a description wasn't right. It was more accurate to say that I wasn't able to understand the situations I was in the same way as others.

    There was a time when we were sent in a team to rescue a VIP who was held hostage by terrorists. At that time I was following the Squad Leader of that time to infiltrate the hotel the terrorists were hidden in. We secretly made our way to the highest floor of the hotel and found the room door we were looking for. The Squad Leader relayed an order to us through hand signals to breach the door and rescue the VIP inside.

    We all nodded our heads in confirmation, then followed his orders and set up bomb on the door room door soundlessly. As the Squad Leader was about to detonate the bomb, an alarm rang in my head, causing me instinctively retreat back. In the very next moment, an explosion interrupted us as the concrete floor under where I stood previously had collapsed. My squad members were caught off guard, yet the terrorists within the room didn't give any time for us to recover our composure, barging out to attack.

    In the end, we managed to complete our mission and rescue the VIP. Yet none of us felt joy in doing so, the losses we sustained weren't something that could be recovered, as there were now new soldiers who were martyred for success. These kinds of events repeated, and repeated, until the day I was finally given the chance to retire.

    Now, as I look at the wooden sword my new father was placing before me, the memories of those brothers I lost due to my incompetence appear before me once more. Their ghosts appear in my heart, asking me: Why is it only you who survived? Why was only you who was given a second chance?

    I look at at the wooden sword in my fathers hand in fear and feel unwilling to walk down that path once more. The sadness, the despair, from being the only one to survive isn't something I can burden once again.

    "How are you going to protect us in the future without strength?" My father says gently. He puts the wooden sword away and pats my head. I look at his eyes and see expectations, images of me bringing respect to his name.

    "I, I want to become stronger. But what if... What if I can't protect everyone even after I becoming strong? What if my effort goes in vain? Won't you hate me? Won't you hate your incompetent son for failing his mission?" I say in an outburst that seemed to surprise my father. He looked at me a for a moment before starting to heartily laugh.

    "What's so funny?!" I shout in anger as the despair I felt was replaced with rage. This is the first time in my life I've ever confessed what I felt deep in my heart, yet father just laughs at me, like I'm some kind of foolish child.

    He then lifted me up with his arms and put me on his shoulder before walking to my mother who seemed to be moved to tears. Mother hugged me as soon as father brought me close to her. A warm feeling soothed my heart, making the anxiety fade away instantly, my eyes are filled with confusion as I look at my parents. I didn't understand what they were doing nor did I understand why just a simple hug was able to push away my despair. What is this warm feeling?

    "Simon, listen to us closely, and stop worrying too much. Forget about the that has yet to happen. Forget about this 'mission' in your heart and live more freely. The reason we wanted you to get stronger was because the world outside mansion is just unforgiving. It's a world filled with countless hardships and perilous dangers that you can't even begin to imagine." My father comforted with warm eyes. I look at my fathers bearded face and gain some clarity on regarding my feelings. Then looked at my mothers almost crying face with a apologetic expression.

    "When I first brought you here, my expectations were that you'd run away or cry, but never did it cross my mind that you would think so deeply about this training. It's true that our decision to train you was done in an act of desperation due to the fact that we know that you wouldn't be able to become independent if you were to always rely on us for protection.

    We wanted to train you from a young age, we were determined to make you stronger, but now we've changed our minds. You will train when you want to train. We won't force you, okay?" My mother said while wiping the tears of her face. Her expression became stern as she decisively made her decision.

    "Mother, Father, I'm sorry. That won't be necessary." My mind and heart cleared as I spoke up. I may have had regrets in my past, but in this new life of mine, there's no need to live in fear anymore. There's no need to waste my precious time crying in self-pity. I won't even have the chance to protect my own family if I waste my potential.

    I may not have a strong latent bodily potential. However, there are still the experience and skills I had obtained in my past life. If I can't use them to expand my horizons, then I would have lived my past eighty years in vain, it would be shameful to my brothers who have past on! This time, I won't lose anyone, those who comes to harm my family will never get through me! Never! I will not allow it!

    "Father, I've made my decision, let's train to our fullest." I jump out of their arms and pick up my wooden sword that was laying on the floor with bright eyes filled with newly found resolve.

    "Hahaha! That's my son! Let's spar to our hearts content!" My father laughs heartily and moves opposite me before readying a stance with his wooden sword. The sword pointed upwards as my fathers arms stay motionlessly stable. His whole body emitted a fighting intent as he moved forward.

    "Thank you. Mother, Father, I love you." I smile even when facing an my fathers sword and said softly.
     
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  8. Love4NovelGuy

    Love4NovelGuy [Veteran Writer] [Reaper]

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    Chapter 7: Magic Book

    "You weren't half bad. Not everyone can block one of my attacks as such an young age you know. Even if I was holding back!" My father laughed after giving me a few consecutive merciless beat downs. I tiredly lift my head in regret, because I couldn't even defend against anything after his first attack.

    "By the way, when did you learn Aura Manifestation?" My father stops his victory laugh and suddenly asks. It was because I actually used the Aura Manifestation to block his first strike.

    I thought I'd be able to follow up, but who would have thought that the moment the strike hit, my father would have been able to follow up his first strike with a second so quickly.

    "I copied the uncles who usually train here." I answer my father truthfully.

    "Amazing...! Your talent for martial arts is incredible! It's only a pity that you Rank F Magical Talent. If you had Rank D Magical Talent, or even just an ordinary Rank E Magical Talent, you would have been able to learn my Earth God-style swordsmanship.

    Today was just to test your reaction time and battle senses. I would have beat you down tomorrow as well if you failed the test and weren't able to live up to my standards." My father says ruthlessly. My mother who was watching at the side sighed towards my father and helped me up. She then let me rest for a while so that I could recuperate, when I awoke, I found myself laying on my bed.

    "That was so intense!" I mutter to myself. I feel that my life is going to be more chaotic in the future. I get up and stretch my body before walking out.

    "Oh, Simon, you're awake. Good timing, I was just about to wake you up." My mother says and grabs my hand. After dragging me to her and fathers room she showed me a book.

    "What is this 'Introduction to using Magic for Dummies'? It sounds so suspicious." I glare at her with dark eyes. Although I was excited at the prospect of learning how to use magic since birth, there's no way I'll learn from such a suspicious book that calls me a dummy, it's not gonna happen!

    "It's something that was written by a friend of mine. Although her wording is a little eccentric, there's no need to doubt its contents, let's just read it and try it out. Look, you've already found the benefits of learning the Aura Manifestation, so learning some stuff about magic won't be detrimental to your growth." My mother answers with a confident look on her face.

    I look at her with an expression of doubt. Even if I was interested, there's no way someone with a low ranked magical talent could use magic, it doesn't take a genius to figure that out.

    "Who said Rank F Magical Talents couldn't use magic?" My mother asks after seeing the doubtful expression I made no attempt to even hide. Her words shocked me for a moment, but also filled my heart with hope...

    "Then let's read it." I say in excitement and opened the book on the desk. In this world, books were scarcer than the ones Earth, especially ones related to magic. This was because of the rarity of true magicians in the lands of Sphera.

    {Hello my dear dummy readers, and congratulations. If you're reading this book, then you've just admitted to being a dummy, Haha!} My mother stops me from throwing the book on the ground and calms my anger. I have to thank you for stopping me, mother, but if I ever meet the writer of this in the future. I'll beat him half to death.

    {But let's not focus on the fact that you're a dummy. Because it's time to learn about Magic! What is magic you suddenly ask? Well, let's just say that it's different from Arts. A dummy like you probably never understood the difference between Arts and Spells, so I'll make sure to explain.} The scorn in the writers words seems to be bottomless, but I didn't react the same way as before, instead I continued so that I could learn from the writers advice. However, if I meet this guy in the future, I'll break his legs.

    {Arts are magical abilities that use Internal Energy (Mana) to effect the world around them. They are able to affect the user and in various ways in order to increase the users battle prowess. It is essential for a Martial Artist to have many kinds of Arts other than the Aura Manifestation in order to react to different kinds of situations.} I felt enlightened by the detailed explanation that came after that eccentric start. Now it seems this arrogant guy is able to get down to business when talking about something intellectual. I thank the writer by deciding to only break one his legs after giving him a light beating in future as a sign of my respect.

    {Spells are the true form of magic that only the smartest and most imaginative are able to use. They use External Energy (Ether) in their surroundings rather than Internal Energy (Mana) to start them. The types of magic one can use depends on the user Ether Affinity and Magical Talent. Even a Rank F user is able to use some degree of magic, but that doesn't mean they will be able to use Spells, since a true Spell consume a lot of Mana to manipulate Ether.} This part of the explanation made me feel disappointed, yet even so, it wasn't like I hadn't predicted such an answer to the question of if I could use magic.

    So, from what this guy was saying, ones Mana is like a wand that manipulates Ether that is always existent in the atmosphere. I remember being told about Ether before but never got around to sensing it like Spell users.

    In fact, this explanation seems to be better than the one I'd originally thought of, since it was written that smart people had a chance in using Spells. A former eighty year old soldier like myself is definitely smarter than the average youth, though in the imagination department, I wonder if I could keep up with youths my age.

    {To find out what Ether Affinities you have, the first thing you need to do is manipulate your Mana and insert it into the black ink dot on the other side of this page. Once you do, something interesting will happen, so give it a go~!} I follow the writers instructions and turn the page. Only to find that the two pages on the other side were completely blank. The only thing on the page the writer indicated to was a single tiny dot made by ink.

    "Don't worry. That person wouldn't harm others for no reason." My mother noticed my hesitation and informed. I nod my head, following the instruction written previously and focusing the energy in my body into the dot of ink.

    The dot of ink expands and turns into a colourful flame drawing that filled half the entire page while the other part of the page was a drawing of rocks and earth. On the other page next to it was a few more paragraphs of explanation.

    {Congratulations~ You have now used my own unique Spell Symbol to find out you're Ether Affinities. Have pride as it a special creation for those who read this book. If you want more specialised Spell Circles costimazed for different uses in the future. Be sure to visit Hilda's Magic Circle Workshop. The location and address are on the back. Also, to find what the picture drawn on the side represents, just match what you see with this list:

    Affinity to Earth Ether represent your love for stability and structure.

    Affinity to Wind Ether represent your free will and love for innocent tricks.

    Affinity to Fire Ether represent your love for violent battles and wars.

    Affinity to Water Ether represent your love for eternal peace and prosperity.

    Although your affinity doesn't determine your personality, some people like to use this as their horoscope, so have fun. Those who have one element affinity are ordinary but those with two are quite talented and may have high achievements in magic. However, don't get your hopes up if you're as F Rank Magical Talent because there's no way you'll have outstanding achievements in magic without high Magical Talent.} I look at the advertisement written in there and noted down the address on the back. Now I know where you are, you insufferable, crazy, eccentric magician. Get ready to be beaten and have your leg broken after I've grow up!
     
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  9. Love4NovelGuy

    Love4NovelGuy [Veteran Writer] [Reaper]

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    Chapter 8: Common Swordsmanship

    "Looks like there's no hope for me to get stronger." I sigh in disappointment as I looked at the Fire Ether and Earth Ether affinity on the page. I wouldn't have been dissatisfied if I had an average Rank D Magical Talent, but considering I don't, these two affinities still won't change that I be able to become stronger in the future. My resolve is shaken because I know the limit of where technique can stand against those of higher power.

    Even in this world, a weak martial artist can't compare to a inexperienced yet strong fighter. Even though the martial artist technique is higher, when faced against overwhelming physical strength, the effect these techniques can bring out drop dramatically. My resolve was shaken, but after remembering the promise I made my heart not long before, the despair I felt was thrown into the wind.

    This will not stop me! A weak man is a man who gives up! I shouldn't be ashamed of being weak, no, I should be ashamed of staying weak! Giving up now would shame both my little sister and parents. How could I give up without a good fight? Enigma, watch me, I'll show you that I can protect my family without your bloody help.

    "There is hope, as long as I you don't give up, there'll always be hope. Just look at those two affinities, even if you were born with less Mana, it shouldn't be that bad. " My father, who seems to have been eavesdropping the entire time, barges in and consoles. My suspicious eyes were caught by father as he let out an awkward cough in return and decided to quiet down.

    "There is always hope. There is more than one way to get stronger. I already know that. So thank you for reminding me, father." I say monotonously. My father looked at my blank expression before feeling even more awkward and embarrassed as a result.

    "I've got some important business to attend to tomorrow. So Mark will be training you the basics for a few days until I get some free time. Your mother will be busy working alongside me as well. So please get along with Mark until we're done." He says before quickly making a strategically swift retreat. I pay no attention to my fathers awkward retreat and look at my mother who was giggling to the side.

    "Mark will train me?" I ask with a doubtful expression. It wasn't as if I hated Mark, but... Isn't he the guy who gets scared of father all the time? How will that guy be able to train me?

    "Stop worrying and get to the training grounds tomorrow. Although Mark looks... A little timid... He's actually very hardworking." My mother replies after some hesitation. Yeah, mother, hesitate. Your hesitation only fuels my suspicion towards that bloody coward.

    "Then I'll try my best." I reluctantly say after thinking about it briefly. It's only till I finish learning the basics, so there's probably no need to worry...

    The very next day, I walk to the training fields to find a blonde-haired prince- No, that's not right, he's a butler. Seriously, these butlers and maids of the Swordwick Household are really colourful. If my father looks like a stern and responsible warrior-type butler, then Mark would be the naive and cowardly prince-type butler that looked way too inexperienced to be even holding a sword on his waist.

    "Simon, how are you today? Shall we get started on our basics?" Mark says with a confident smile that increased his handsomeness by tenfold. The other maids of the Swordwick Household that we're back to their regular training routines secretly glanced at him with adoring eyes, while reversely to them, the butlers fiercely glared at him with clear envy.

    "Just get on with it already, or do you want me throw an insect on you?" I say flatly. These kinds of handsome studs were extremely irritating to look at. It's not because I'm jealous... I'm definitely not jealous of his looks... Not one bit!

    "Please don't say stuff like that. You know of my fear of insects." He runs up to me and whispers in my ear. I don't understand why the Duke would even hire such a cowardly clean freak. Such a narcissistic clean freak that can be defeated by a single look of a spider should have been fired long ago.

    "Fine. Just start teaching already." I don't even try to use the manners I learned from my mother and order.

    "Your wish is my command." Rays of light fall on Mark's silhouette as he elegantly took out a wooden sword.

    "First things first. Let me teach you about the four major styles of Common Swordsmanship that are practiced even outside of kingdom." Marks says while brandishing his wooden swords in the air. He takes up a stance similar to the one used by my father yesterday and firmly swings his wooden sword.

    "This is known as the Earth God Style Swordsmanship. A form of that is able to make a sword have the strength of a hammer by using your Aura to mimic Earth. It's stable, firm and decisive when cutting foes. A swordsmanship that was a major help to the current Sword God in our times." Mark entire bodies atmosphere changed with his swordsmanship as his sword strikes whistled through the air like mallets.

    "Sword God?" The term was new to me so I couldn't help but mutter it to myself once more. Mark looked like he was waiting for my question and smiled pridefully as a result. It looks like this guy couldn't wait to show off.

    "Sword God it a title given to the Grandmaster among Grandmaster swordsman. It's a title that shows one has surpassed his peers and become a legend that will be written down for ages to come. The first Sword God, Sword Emperor Gerald Knightly was a man of great virtue that spread his teaching of the sword to strengthen the Human Race that was weakened by the 'Gods Abandonment' incident hundreds and thousands of years ago." Mark explained as he stopped demonstrating the moves of the Earth God Style Swordsmanship. A tremor ran through my heart as Mark mentioned that incident I had unwillingly become the perpetrator of.

    "Just forget about it and continue your explanation on major Common Swordmanships." I remind Mark before he accidently changes the subject. There's no need to waste my time talking about something I already know about. I try to copy the Earth God Style Swordsmanship but fail after a few attempts of clumsy sword swings.

    Since I was supposed to use my Aura to mimic Earth, I tried to increase the density of my Aura in able to improve its power, but my each attempt failed at even coming close to Mark's sword.

    "You're not doing it right! Those movements are completely amaturish! You think that you'll be able to learn how to use the sword only after a few swings? Stop practicing!" The always foolish smile on Mark's face disappears as he berrated my movements. My back stiffens up unconsciously as I find that he was extremely serious in teaching me the basics of magic swordsmanship.

    His sudden change in attitude seems to have not suprised anyone in the training grounds, but I could tell that everyone now changed the way they looked at him, it was as if they didn't want to anger him while he was teaching. This caused me to see this prince-type cowardly butler in a new light. It is no wonder father wanted me to train with Mark, because even my father can't help but go easy on while instructing me. I didn't argue with Mark and allow him to teach me the way that he think is best.
     
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  10. kuroAnsatsu

    kuroAnsatsu Realistically Stoic

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    Dude, use a spoiler on each chapter so peoples could read it more comfortable
     
  11. Love4NovelGuy

    Love4NovelGuy [Veteran Writer] [Reaper]

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    Chapter 9: Mark's Training

    I seemed to have underestimated the complexity of actual swordsmanship. Although the wooden sword I'm holding was customised to me needs in both height and weight, that doesn't mean it's easy to wield. I don't understand the principles of weilding a sword, since the only weapons I've used in my past life were fighting techniques I created on the battlefield and different kind of guns made on Earth.

    The only blade I used was a combat knife that could be taken out and attached to the muzzle of my rifle at any given moment. In this new life of mine, I don't have a body strong enough to use those savage techniques, nor any weaponry similar to the ones on Earth. I don't want to rely on knife skills I learned in my previous life because the length of a knife if too short to compare to a regular sword.

    I don't want to die without ever having the chance to even get close to my enemies, so there's no way I would rely upon on a short weapon like a combat knife, the only way to improve my strength is by learning martial arts originating within the lands of Sphera.

    "Why are your habits so weird?" Mark says with narrowed eyes. I couldn't look straight into his sharp eyes and turn my head away. Even though I know I should be learning martial arts from the beginning, my previous life's habits while fighting appear every so often, causing me to make mistakes.

    "Why is it I feel your using your sword like a combat knife? Did you train in Knife Arts like Anna? Did she ever teach you techniques before?" Mark seriously questioned in succession.

    Knife Arts were different that Sword Arts, although they both were blades that were covered in Aura Manifestation, one would use a knife differently due to its shorter length.

    "I only copied Anna's movements after I saw her train here." I say lie through my teeth. It was an acceptable explanation and Mark isn't the type to dig too deeply into the life of others.

    "You should have realised your talents regarding Knife Arts as well. So why do you insist on using a sword?" Mark asks in confusion. His thoughts were right, if I wanted to get stronger at a fast pace, then putting my previous life's training into learning Anna's Knife Arts is a more logical route. But...

    "I don't want to rely on a weapon that can't allow me control the distance between me and my opponents." Mark seemed surprised at my answer. He probably thought of praising me for my forethought, but couldn't, because it was still the time to be training. It looks like he doesn't want to boost my ego.

    "It's a rational decision to make when you think of your talent from that perspective, but Simon, burying it now won't make a difference. I know about your magical talent, so I can guess that you think having knife skills are useless considering the fact that you won't be able last for long under an normal opponents Aura Manifestation.

    However, think logically, do you think there won't ever be a time when your opponent catches you?" Mark asks as he advises me to not give up trying to improve my knife skills. Running from my opponents isn't a good strategy.

    "You misunderstand. It's not like I'm giving up on improving my skills regarding knives. It's just that Anna's Arts don't suit me." I replied truthfully.

    "What do you mean?" Mark asks again.

    "Anna's Knife Arts focus on throwing knives, it's a strong type of Art, yet I feel it just isn't suitable for me. I'm not good when it comes to doing accurate throws and I don't intend to master throwing knives because I know my talent lies in close combat.

    I know about my weakness. I know that even one hit from a Rank D magical talent using the Aura Manifestation could break my bones. So my plan to overcome this weakness is to never allow any opponent to have the time to showcase their strengths. For this, I need to be able to get close without allowing myself to sustain injuries, Anna's knife throwing style doesn't suit those requirements." I inform to Mark.

    After hearing my words, he analyses the pros and cons of my plan. Due to his experience, even if he wasn't proficient in knife skills, he could roughly guess what a person with my strengths and weaknesses would be able to do in an actual fight.

    "That plan is too reckless. Even if you were to become a Master Swordsman in the future. You wouldn't be able to keep up with a Rank C magical talent opponents continuous use of the Aura Manifestation. It's like pitting a Rank 2 Fire Tiger against a Expert Swordsman. The swordsman may have more martial skill, but a tiger has more physical strength, even a hand full of techniques can't defend against pure power." Mark explains as he looked at me deeply.

    I could understand why he wanted me to learn long range physical attacks because they were more safer than fighting up close. However, I know what I'm doing, so I return his gaze with one filled with confidence.

    Anyone else in this world would be able to learn skills like knife throwing as well, it's not something special, nor is it a good way to get rid of my weakness. A person with good magical talent could create defensive measures against throwing knives easily, so my plan of action is to get close and beat them half to death before they can show any skill.

    "You have to at least learn how to use the Basics of Knife Arts then." Mark gives up and compromises instead.

    "Okay." I agree without hesitation.

    "Here's one of the wooden training knives she uses to practice. Try to get a feel for swinging a knife first." Mark gets back into his serious mode and instructs. I wonder what expression this guy would make if I asked him how he came into possession of Anna's wooden knives. Meh, learning is more important right now, I'll just inform Anna about the stolen knives later.

    "The difference between using a Knife Art and a Sword Art lays in where you focus your Mana when using the Aura Manifestation. A normal Sword Art puts more Mana into the edge of the blade whilst a normal Knife Art focuses on the hilt and users wrists. So for now try to do as I've said." Mark instructed while pointing at my hands.

    I follow his instructions and move my Mana towards my hand. The manifested ethereal Aura that usually moves freely around my body stopped before becoming more focused towards my wrist. I didn't stop the Mana there and tried to push the energy into the hilt of the knife. A faint glow surrounded the hilt of my knife as I felt it gaining more strength.

    "What's next?" I ask curiously. Using the Aura Manifestation on my entire arm would thin the Aura but focusing it on my wrist makes it more thick.

    "A normal Aura Manifestation focuses on densifying your Mana. The higher level of the Aura Manifestation, the stronger the Mana's density, allowing you to deal stronger damage when attacking your foes. Like this." Mark says before demonstrating what he meant by showing me his Aura Manifestation up close. The faint diamond-like glow of his Mana turns into an emerald green. His wrist flickered and moved swiftly as he cut the air in front of him at a flash.

    "Amazing right? This kind of high levelled Aura Manifestation can only be done by very few. This Wind Attribute Aura Manifestation is the only one I can do. So don't be dejected if you aren't able to-" Just as he was about to give a long-winded speech filled with narcissism after showing off his Aura Manifestation. He was interrupted the incredible sight happening where I stood. If the other servants training around us were to pay attention to this scene, their jaws would drop, because glow of the Aura Manifestation on my knife was changing between opal brown, sapphire blue, emerald green and ruby red in quick succession.
     
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  12. Love4NovelGuy

    Love4NovelGuy [Veteran Writer] [Reaper]

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    I've put links on them instead.
     
  13. Love4NovelGuy

    Love4NovelGuy [Veteran Writer] [Reaper]

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    Chapter 10: The Strict Father's Perspective

    I, the Swordwick Household's Head Butler, have never been disappointed in my son since his birth. Me and wife have always lived in the servant quarters of the Swordwick Household since our employment. It is a place that is always busy and noisy but my son, Simon, had never complained.

    He was always a child who was slow to start something but unimaginably fast after he's started. For example: It only took some time to learn him how to read numbers, but after he was able to recognise them, his improvements in calculations were shocking. He was born with a a common low rank magical talent at birth, so I had no intention of making him pick up the sword, because I would protect him even if he was weaker than others.

    It is my duty as a father to protect him from any dangers. However, his talent for martial arts suddenly showed one day as I saw him learn the Aura Manifestation by himself. A normal child would figure out how to use Mana at the youngest age of 10, yet my son was able to exceed that figure by five years. This showed that he had a monstrous talent of Mana Control that even exceeded those of higher talents.

    A new hope burns in my heart as I desperately tried to force him into training martial arts. I knew that if his talent had the chance to bloom. There would be a chance that he would able to change his destiny on his own. He is my son after all, the son of Magic Swordsman Fredrick Rainglow, and the grandson of a Archmage Witch, Hilda Rainglow. I know that he will be able to rise from his hardships if he has hope.

    However, what I didn't expect, was that he still wouldn't cry or complain about my unreasonable conduct that day at the training grounds. He's always been mature at a young age, not by looks alone, but by actions. He always knew the best course of action when he wanted to avoid the troubles brought by the love of the servants. Especially Anna, who would always try to find a way to pinch his cheeks, now he would always mysteriously play the game of 'Hide and Seek' only in her presence.

    I didn't think my son would be so entertaining in that aspect. His hiding ability even seemed to be catching up to Anna, who was supposed to have been a Ninja before her employment at the Dukes Household, which made me more excited at his future prospects.

    Seeing his growth with my own eyes makes me feel wonderful, a warm feeling grows in my heart as I watch him grow stronger, as well as a strong anticipation for his future achievements. I, like any other good parent, want him to become someone the dangerous world of Sphera will respect. That's why I'll be strict with him without allowing any laziness.

    Yet even so, whenever I train him, he doesn't ever cry. He's unlike other children his age, thinking with so much forethought in his actions, how utterly distasteful. As a child, he shouldn't be worrying about the future, he should be worrying about the here and now. Though I actually felt moved by the 'mission' he made in his heart.

    Time passed... Five more years past in a flash. The anticipation I felt years before increased further. My son didn't even waste a second in these five years and improved his skills by leaps and bounds. He learnt all four types of Aura Manifestations. He created his own style of fighting using by using both a knife and a sword. These achievements were beyond even my wildest expectations, but the most ingenious skill he learnt was strategy and tactics.

    He seemed to have absorbed both mine and Mark's teachings and found more ways to use his limited Mana. I could only shake my head in silence after I found that his Mana Recovery also quite outstanding for his Rank in Magical Talent. If I was determine what path of progress he would choose in future using the information I've gathered, then he would definitely turn into a Magic Swordsman, even if he is of the weaker variety I'd still be proud.

    Although I don't expect him to become a Mage like my mother, I still want him to become a strong Master Swordsman in future, just like myself. This is due to the fact that ones emission of Mana has the most major roll in battles between mages. I hope my son will be able to overcome any hardships caused by his status as a Rank F Magical Talent.

    I've seen his determination and resolve to get up and fight even after he had experienced an endless amount of pain from our usual spars. He gets stronger and learns new ways to adapt to his circumstances everyday.

    Maybe, just maybe, he'll be able to beat that monstrous daughter the Duchess in the future. That girl who's already able to beat boys seven years older than her. Although my son can do the same due to his own monstrous talent. I have a feeling that him beating a girl with Rank B Magical Talent won't be as easy as beating those of the Rank D.

    "Father, what are you being distracted about?" My son asks as he stops his sword. I couldn't help but praise Samantha for her effort in making his suit as I focus on my son's dazzling appearance once more. His suit was both black and white but had highlights of green, which went well with his chestnut brown hair, which made his deep blue eyes stand out in contrast.

    "Oh, Simon, I was just thinking about your future." I answer while blocking his attacks using the sword style I was most skilled at, the Earth God Style Swordsmanship, and countered his using my hammer-like sword. If I was using my Aura Manifestation at full power, he wouldn't even be able to catch my shadow due to the difference in his and my own manifestation level.

    At first, Simon could only access the first manifestation level, a level most Rank F Magical Talents were able to bring out. However, over the course of five years his fighting style and manifestation level has changed due to his rapid improvement in martial arts.

    Most people are unable to bring out the full potential of their internal Mana due to laziness, but the pressure I placed on Simon seemed to have given him the chance to grow beyond what I had originally intended, he was able to switch between all four mimicked element manifestations whilst simultaneously creating his own style of fighting using swordsmanship.

    Usually, it would be rare to find a person who can use even one element manifestation, but the Swordwick Household is just monstrous because there's a lot of servants who use a elemental Aura Manifestation.

    A good example of a elemental Aura Manifestation user is Mark. Even I can't help but admire his strengths in being able to use the Wind Attribute Aura Manifestation to its highest combative potential, allowing him to gain the speed of a third level Aura Manifestation user like myself.

    As I attack Simon, he switches between his elemental Aura Manifestations in order to propel the level of his reinforcement into the second level, a level that most normal Rank D Magical Talents can use in battle. If it was just him being able to use the second level of reinforcement, he wouldn't be able to defend against my skilful sword attacks, but the real reason I'm unable to break through his tight defence is due to his control over manifestations.

    He is unable to cover his whole body in reinforcement like normal Rank D Magical Talents, but his usage of Aura Manifestation is shocking, since the he is able to coordinate the influences of his Aura Manifestation with every one of his muscle movements. This unique style of his is so precious, even I couldn't help but ask him how he was able to use such a ingenious method to divert the force of my sword strikes, it's just too bad his explanation was too complicated for me to understand.

    'When I use Aura Manifestation, the first thing I do is focus on the muscles most impacted by an opponents attack and focus my Aura towards them whilst simultaneously moving my sword in order to divert the incoming force. The result is being able to keep up with a 'normal' Level 2 Aura Manifestation user.' Although I could understand this explanation he gave, what I was unable to understand was how he was putting this into use, but since my child is a genius there's no need to worry.

    It's said that normal people are unable to understand a geniuses mindset, so I don't need to worry, because my son is a genius who will make me proud!
     
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  14. Love4NovelGuy

    Love4NovelGuy [Veteran Writer] [Reaper]

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    Chapter 11: Tenth Birthday

    Five years have been so long... It's been so hard to keep up with the regular beating I was given through my father's 'training', but at least I was able to sharpen my sword skills because of it.

    It's too bad that I can only bring out a sort of Soft Style using the skills I currently have. My father probably thinks that defending against him using the Level 1 Aura Manifestation was easy, but how is he unable to figure out that even though my use of Aura puts me on the same level as him, the difference in our physiques are only put me at a disadvantage either way.

    My father's a grown man with skills that were sharpened over the course of actual battle, causing his body is robust and covered in muscles. How could a normal ten year old even hop to stand against his physical force? This idiot!

    I know he was already suppressing his abilities to a Level 2 Aura Manifestation user's standards but such small differences still effects a persons overall battle prowess!

    Is he trying to make me do the impossible? Or is it that he seriously can't differentiate the difference in both our physical strengths? Well, at least five years didn't go down the drain because my ability to direct oncoming forces has improved a lot!

    The swordsmanship I created under such pressure was one that used my wooden knife as an inner layer of my defence and my wooden sword as the outer layer that lessens the impact.

    Every time my father swung down his wooden sword, my own sword would intercept it, then I use the wooden knife in my other hand whittle down the remaining power of the attack. My entire body would shift and throw off the force or direct it through my feet.

    "Can we stop this now? My defence has become airtight over the years." I ask my father who was still swinging his sword relentlessly in my direction.

    "It's only airtight for Level 2 Martial Swordsman, but not for even a Level 1 Magic Swordsman, you want to know why?" My father asks as he stopped attacking and gestured his hand towards the ground, a brown beam of light exits his hand before sinking into the floor beneath my feet.

    The soil beneath my feet became more soft, and my feet sunk into the ground as a result, causing me to lose balance.

    How could my father miss this chance he created? With just a single move his sword was swiftly placed in front of my neck. I really couldn't fight back now that I lost the ability to redirect force.

    "We'll stop training for today. From now on I'm going to have important business in the capital, so I won't be able to watch over your training while I'm gone. You can go ask Mark or Anna if you want to spar with someone for the time being." My father informs after fixing the ground and with Mana.

    "You're not going to give him a reward for going through with your spartan training?" My mother appears from behind me quickly grabs my father's shoulder before he could leave. A smile that didn't reach her eyes curved on her face. Well, my thoughts are exactly the same as mother's, so I didn't interfere.

    "Of course I have a reward for him, it's his tenth birthday after all, and he's at the age of nurturing. I would have been a bad father I didn't give him a present today." My father says in cold sweat, a suspicious look appeared in my eyes as I heard his nervous voice, there seems to be something my father's hiding.

    Unlike on Earth, people of Sphera only celebrated the tenth birthday and fifteenth birthday of their children. The reason was due to them being known as the start of certain periods of a child's growth, the tenth birthday is known as the age of nurturing due to the tradition of parents passing down their Arts and Spells to their children.

    A persons childhood is all the years before they become ten, after they reach the age of ten, most parents would choose to pass down their magical spells and martial arts in order to grow their children into warriors.

    "And what present did you prepare for my birthday today?" I ask blandly.

    He seemed to be close to making an excuse until someone suddenly patted his shoulder. Mark, who signalled my father with his eyes, took out a luxurious-looking glove that was covered with strange circular patterns.

    "Your father left your gift with me because he was meaning to give you it himself after he returned." Mark says reassuringly. A thankful look appeared in my father's eyes as he straightened his back, but although mother was kind of naive, she wouldn't have been able to survive as a mercenary if she didn't have keen eyes. Her glare caused father's nonchalant expression to stiffen, he tried to escape quietly, but my mother followed with a smile.

    "We both will leave for now, Mark, can you explain your gifts uses while we're gone?" My mother says as she chased father who was making a break for it.

    Just how serious is not giving a present anyway? Well, mother did remind father to buy one yesterday, but he must have forgotten due to his work.

    'I'll definitely buy something for you tomorrow!' Was my father said yesterday. Hmm, actually, he shouldn't have made a promise he couldn't keep.

    "You're father truly does get busy these days." Mark informs as he looked at the thoughtful expression on my face.

    "Doing what?" I ask in response. I thought Mark was just being father's wingman out of respect for his boss.

    "Protecting the Duke from outside dangers." Mark says with sharp glint in his eyes. He looked around the training ground for a moment, then after seeing that no one was around, he gazed into my mature-looking eyes seriously.

    "There are dangers in the world beside the Outsiders, and sometimes humans can be more dangerous than those monsters, please keep that in mind in the future." Mark continues to say helplessly. I frown upon his words, he didn't look like he was saying this to me, but looked like he was informing himself so that he wouldn't forget.

    "What happened to you in the past anyway? This present you're giving me doesn't seem to be common, and in a way, it gives off the feeling of an antique." I say as I look at the mystical-looking glove he was gifting me.

    "Can't you be more childish and say something like: 'A present? Wow, what does it do?' Though, if you did, I'd have responded by laughing at you." Mark says cheekily as put the glove on his hand, the size of the glove adjusted to his hands magically, then the patterns it had faded until it looked ordinary.

    "Mark Greenday, that was my name before my house had fallen due to the conflicts between the Dark Guild and and the Drakeyol Kingdom, my family was slaughtered by assassins because they were a major power within the kingdom that was second to Duke Swordwick." Mark reminisced sadly. I didn't interrupt him, nor did I say anything to respond to his shocking background, which explains so much.

    "If I had been stronger, maybe I could have saved my parents from their fates of burning with the Greenday Household, maybe I could have fought instead of running away. There's not a day I don't look at this glove and remorse over my weakness, because it is the only thing I had left after my family's downfall." Mark continues as he looked in a certain direction of the training ground. I could feel that in his eyes laid a certain memory of his childhood, maybe he was looking in the direction of his former home, my eyes turn cloudy after I heard his tale.

    "The why are you giving this to me? It's precious to you, so why give it to me instead of holding onto it?" I ask as I looked at his lonely figure. I had never known he had such a life before becoming a servant here, so his story really moved me, why is it he was always laughing with me even after bottling up such a tragic past?

    "Let's just call it a gamble." The atmosphere around him changed as he flicked my head. I furrowed my brows as I looked at him but he nonchalantly smiled at my glaring eyes in response.

    "When I look at you, what I see is a boy who accepted his father's unreasonable training in order to train himself, even if his talent is below others, he works hard to become someone that could protect those he wants to protect.

    You are a lot more determined than I was at your age, so why don't I help you out? Your magical talent is too low to wield a ordinary Enchanted Sword that uses Mana to sharpen its edge, but my families heirloom is different, it will at least help you overcome your weakness a little." Mark says as he showed me the gloves uses by emitting his Mana.
     
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  15. Love4NovelGuy

    Love4NovelGuy [Veteran Writer] [Reaper]

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    Chapter 12: Magicians Hand

    "The name of this glove is Magicians Hand, and the magic symbols engraved into its have many abilities. There are four abilities in total: Self-Adjustment, Mana Charge, Mana Release and Customised Spell." Mark says as his Mana caused his hand to glow brightly.

    "The first ability is as you've seen, it can both change its size and look to fit the user. The second ability stores enough Mana into it for four consecutive level two spells." Mark continues and aimed his finger towards a wooden training dummy from afar.

    "Fireball." Mark chants, in response, a ball of fire as big as a humans body shot towards the wooden training dummy used for spell practice and blew it into ash. Although I didn't understand why he had to chant, it really opened my eyes to new possibilities, at least I won't fall behind others in terms of magical firepower.

    "That's amazing! However, why so many level two spells? Can't it just create a level three spell?" At my question, he forces a smile, and looks at Magicians Hand with a complex look.

    "That's because this is actually a failed product, it doesn't have the strength to emit a terrifying level three spell, but its uses are still quite good.

    By the way, do you even know how strong a level three spell is?" Mark asks with a frown, and I respond by shaking my head. No one ever informed me of the strength of a Level 3 Magical Spell.

    "Your father is a Rank C Magical Talent, your mother is also a Rank C Magical Talent, but both of them are unable use such high level spells due to how hard it is to control such Mana.

    Those who can use Level 3 Magical Spells are nicknamed Army-Breakers.

    They are so strong that one spell of their could break down a fortress.

    They are unlike Level 1 Magical Spells that can be used by anyone and Level 2 Magical Spells used by Expert Mages.

    If someone was to be able to use such a spell, they would be able to gain the title of Archmage, and earn a lot of prestige. It's completely different from being able to use the third level of the Aura Manifestation." Mark explains.

    His explanation really helped me open my eyes to reality. Just because a person has Mana doesn't mean they will be able to use it, which sounds more reasonable, because Duke Swordwick would probably be able to rule the kingdom if he had that many people who could use such spells.

    Now that I think about it, aren't spells more useful than martial arts? I was only able to learn even Level 1 Magical Spells due to my lack of Mana, but now that I have Magicians Hand, my lack of Mana won't matter. I can finally learn true Spells! Enigma, take that, now I can learn them even without your help.

    "What does Customised Spells do?" I ask curiously like the child I am. I don't care if I'm inwardly an old man, since I've regained my youth, there's no reason for me to be mature all the time.

    "It's a magic symbol that remembers any one of your stored units of Mana and activates it by a certain gesture. Look closely as I show you how to use it." Mark narcissistically puts up a façade of high intellect.

    Look, just because I asked you nicely doesn't mean you should get so full of yourself, but at least he's gone back to normal. The seriousness he sometimes shows is way too different from his usual happy-go-luck careless antics.

    He waves his finger, and as a result, a blade of compressed wind hit another wooden dummy in the training ground.

    "That one was weaker than the one you showed me before." I say suspiciously.

    The attack he did before whilst chanting was even stronger than the one he showed right now. The wind blade that came out of Magicians Hand merely made a deep cut in the dummy.

    "The fact that it can use a Magic Spell chantlessly is something amazing in its own right. Your standards are just too high." Mark explains depressingly.

    Though, he looks a lot less pumped up now than previously, maybe I should have praised his gift instead. He gave me Magicians Hand before looking depressed after seeing my reaction.

    "Forget it. Here's your present. Don't lose it." Mark took a deep breath and says dismissively. Then his eyes brighten after seeing someone behind me. My back stiffens as I saw the laughter in his eyes. Maybe I shouldn't turn around to see who was able to evade my senses and sneak up to me.

    "I'll leave you two alone for now. It seems she wants to give you a present as well." Mark laughs before leaving.

    'Mark, you traitor! What happened to entrusting me with your hopes? Why wouldn't you warn me of danger? Have you never heard of never leaving a man behind!?' I smile as I turned around.

    "Anna, how-" Just as I was about to say something to excuse myself, two hands grasped my cheeks like lightning, my cheeks redden in pain as a result.

    "Aw~! You're so cute~ Look at the time fly, it seems like only yesterday I used to hold you in my arms, and now you've already reached the age of ten." Anna says reminiscently as she pinched my cheeks. Her words were like an old woman's, which contrasted to her actual young appearance and age.

    "Anna, act your age." I say seriously as I backed away from her, my cheeks feel swollen by her pinching, but I felt awkward after remembering about the rebuke I had just said straight faced.

    I, an eighty year old soldier who's alright about acting like a child in front of my parents, told her to act her age?

    Actually, I'm glad she pinched my cheeks, they would have turned red anyway from the embarrassment I feel.

    "Shouldn't you be tutoring Merilin right now?" I say in order to swiftly change the subject. My brothers, feel proud, because I have finally mastered the art of 'bend river to save a nation'.

    The art I learned from my quick-witted brother in the past who was always avoid getting lectured by our leader.

    "You and Merilin are going to be learning together from now on, so she doesn't need me home tutoring her anymore. Agh~! Why did your father have to be so strict? Now that he's pulled some strin- I mean, helped you apply for a spot in an academy, we won't be able to see each other that often anymore." She says in sadness.

    Anna, you're not fooling anyone, only an idiot would fall for your lie after such a major slip of tongue. How is someone as easy to read as you a Ninja? You shattered dreams of seeing a cool and bad*ss Ninja in this life.

    "Anna." My sister runs towards the training ground and calls her out.

    "What's wrong?" Anna turns around and asks in surprise, but after seeing the expression on my mother who was following behind her, she froze up.

    "Simon, here your birthday present, it's one of the favourites from my large collection. So be sure not to lose it, okay? Goodbye!" She says in dread and shot off the same way my father did.

    "What have I said about slacking when teaching? It seems we need a real thorough talk about your careless habits." My mother says with a bright smile which didn't reach her eyes.

    "I'm sorry!" She escaped in a panic which left only me and my sister standing there on the training grounds and looking at each other awkwardly.
     
  16. Love4NovelGuy

    Love4NovelGuy [Veteran Writer] [Reaper]

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    Chapter 13: Merilin's Worries

    "Big Brother... I have something I want to talk about..." Merilin says softly.

    Actually, now that I focus on her expression, I can see that she's really depressed over something.

    "Let's go somewhere else first." I say while holding her hand. I really don't want anyone to think I'm bullying her.

    On the way, I tried to comfort her by telling her about the various things that happened before as a joke, but her silence really made me worried.

    What actually happened to her? Wasn't she with Anna just moments ago?

    Hmmm, Anna is kinda dense in some areas, it's possible she said something she shouldn't have by accident.

    "Did Anna say something?" I ask after taking her to our parents room. She lifted her head and looked into my eyes with a mix of anxiety and worry.

    I knew that the worry in her heart wasn't unfounded just by looking at her eyes. She has always been a smart girl who could work her way past anything she puts her mind to, if there's something that's troubling her, there's a chance I wouldn't be able to help.

    "Anna said... my affinity is weak... she said I'll be bullied...!" Merilin pitifully cries. My mind goes blank as I inwardly panic, not knowing what to do, my thoughts race as I try to comfort her.

    "Don't cry, don't cry, I will get sad too if you start to cry." I say in panic. Wait... wasn't my words more like a threat?

    Damn! I don't want her to cry, but I have zero experience in taking care of children, what am I supposed to do?

    After hearing my words, her little shoulders tremble a little, then she wiped away the tears on her face.

    "Big Brother, don't be sad, I'm fine now." She says with a straight face.

    I felt my heart soften as I heard her words, she's such a little angel, to think she's still caring about me even though she's the one crying. How adorable.

    "Come here and sit down. You know how smart I am. Any problems you have are my problems. You have C Rank Magical Talent, so even if your affinity is weak, you'll still decimate those ordinary fellows of D and E Ranks. So have more confidence in yourself! Honestly, this brother of yours is even worse in the talent department, someone with F Rank Magical Talent like myself only counts as an ordinary person. How sad! My tears are overflowing." I jokingly console her as I led her to the seats near father's desk. My words seemed to have encouraged her as she snickered.

    "So tell me more about your affinity." I ask my sister who was still giggling uncontrollably after hearing my words.

    "Mom said I have a water affinity." She replies as her expression was full of anticipation. It seems she really trusted me when it came to magic ingenuity.

    However, affinity to Water Ether, eh? I really don't know what to answer her. I know about how this magical society views Water Ether magic users as the weakest type of Mages on land.

    Being able to manipulate Water Ether using Mana meant being able to control the element of water itself. Near the sea is where one would be in their most powerful state due to the excess amount of water that's surrounding them, but anywhere else, a Water Mage wouldn't be able to do much.

    A Water Mage would be able to manipulate water into blades and freeze them into icicles that can also be manipulated the same way.

    However, such advantages were limited compared to Earth Mages and Wind Mages that could use their abilities to their full potential anywhere above sea level. Even Fire Mages had a greater advantage than Water Mages because they could even enlarge a small spark into a raging flame using Mana.

    "Can you show me your current control of Water Ether?" I ask with curiosity.

    Merilin smiles and points her finger at a glass of water that was left on the table. A beam of blue light shoots out of her finger and enters the cup. Then the water lifted and levitated before us.

    She gestured her hand in various motions, and with every movement of her finger, the water changed shape.

    "Can you turn them into little particles of ice?" I ask again meaningfully.

    "What are these 'particles'?" She seemed confused as she asks in return.

    "Forget it, just make little balls of icicles, then start to hit them together while imagining that each ice ball is gathering electrical charge." I instruct with a serious look on my face.

    My idea may not work, and there may be other realistic ways to increase her overall power, but electricity is one of the many things I want to uncover in this world. Not to try and help the development of technology but in order to further increase my own strength.

    "I don't now if that will work." She says doubtfully but did what I said anyway.

    Merilin knew what electricity was because Lightning itself was a form of Ether that was used by an Outsider Race known as the Titans. She had studied under Anna for a long time, so something as basic as the existence of lightning was naturally something she knew, but what made lightning itself was something not even Archmages understood due to its mysteriousness.

    The ball of water above her hands turned into a plethora of small icicles that rapidly fought each other at high speeds. With her outstanding control over water, not even one part of the icicles ricocheted into our faces, the process was somewhat tiring until Merilin saw a spark within the artificial battery she created with her magic.

    "It's lightning! Wow, look, I can make lightning!" Her face was flushed red with excitement as various ideas popped into her head after seeing my experiment actually succeed.

    "Calm down, now that you've found how to generate Lightning, you can slowly experiment by yourself. No one would be able to bully you once you've got the hang of it, but just remember one thing, you can't control the lightning itself. The only method to control it would be to find a way to control where the Lightning will strike." I walk out without even letting her ask any questions after I explain to her what she needed to know.

    She wouldn't understand even if I explained everything to her, and even if she did, she wouldn't know how to put the knowledge I've given into effect.

    The most effective way to help her along would be to show a new direction to grow her abilities and allow her to slowly figure things out herself.

    Although lightning is incredible, the dangers of being unable to properly control it have turned into something that's usually used to scare kids, I'm sure her fear of it will allow her to gain better understanding regarding his to manipulate it as safely as she can.

    I look at my hand after entering my room and unleash Aura Manifestation at full power, allowing a diamond-like glow to surround me like a flame.

    Then I tried using my Aura to mimic water, causing its diamond-like glow to turn blue like a sapphire, and allowing me to increase my dexterity fivefold.

    I was not done yet as I remembered how Merilin turned the water into countless icicles and how those icicles were able to form lightning. The sapphire glow slowly turned a shade of amethyst purple before I clenched my fist. A small amount of lightning gathered around my hand to control.
     
  17. sealteam14

    sealteam14 Your friendly HI3 SEA monkey farmer

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    A little spec note: if you wish someone read your story, pls upload the Damn LINK so everyone can enjoy it( which i know you uploaded it twice on Royal Road Legend btw).
     
  18. replay

    replay ★Milk and Honey smelling Merchant★

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    hmmm my advice would be put the chapters in spoiler form to save some space because of the wall of text. . .
     
  19. Love4NovelGuy

    Love4NovelGuy [Veteran Writer] [Reaper]

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    Chapter 14: The Challenge

    I've researched many things regarding my so-called Colourless Origin. I was unable to tell the difference between other peoples Origins and my own at first, that was until I began to sense the Mana within other living beings.

    It was a unique ability only I was able to use. A power that allowed me to gain a deeper understanding of Ether and Mana as whole. I wouldn't have been able to properly use my manifested Aura to mimic the World's elements.

    In my eyes, every human except myself had a pure white 'flame' inside them, a flame that's used to control elements.

    I didn't need someone else's guidance to know that the 'flame' was Mana and what it really manipulated was Ether.

    However, that wasn't the important thing. The most vital part was that my own 'flame' wasn't like those of others.

    The flame within me might look pure white on the surface but I knew through sensing it that there was a hidden black flame underneath.

    From what I've researched over the years with the help of my parents, this black flame should be Dark Mana, the main energy source used by Beasts.

    I felt that I could switch the positions of the white flame and the black flame with just a single push of my will.

    It was so easy to do that it felt like an inborn ability, but even so, I never used the ability due to my cautiousness.

    Instead of relying on a power I'm unable to understand, my first objective would be to master my current abilities, especially when it came to the use of Aura Manifestation.

    "Lightning, Wind, Water, Earth and Fire manifestations within ones Aura are merely counterfeits of the real thing. The Ether of the world can't be copied that easily. However, being able to use them to their fullest potential shouldn't be too hard for a world traveler like myself." Although this may sound arrogant, my words are at least backed up by my previous life's scientific knowledge, so increasing my magics combat potential should be easier than creating powerful Spells.

    With a single thought, I release my Aura and use it mimic flames. The diamond-like glow of the Aura around my arm turned ruby red as a result.

    Their were many ways of mastering ones Aura Manifestation. The creator of the technique originally wanted to sharpen his Aura using it but those of higher talent than the Sword God found that adding more Mana to it was the easiest way to increase its power.

    Sharpening ones Aura to the point it could cut down those of stronger Magical Talents takes a lot of time and effort but adding more Mana into it to bring out greater effects is easier.

    The most orthodox way of increasing ones mastery over Aura Manifestation is by injecting more Mana and the most unorthodox way would be to sharpen ones Mana just like the Sword God did.

    From what I've researched, the Sword God's method of training his Mana was crazy, to the point that I too don't want to follow in that old man's footsteps.

    I punched out while focusing the ruby red light onto my fist. Then watched carefully as my fist hit empty air. A fist-sized amount of crimson flames shot out with a single punch.

    "Not enough..." Although such a punch can hurt ordinary Combatants, it wouldn't be able to even scratch those that reached the second level of Aura.

    The war between Combatants of this world and the Outsiders that have invaded this world is very dangerous.

    I don't want my fate to be decided by others. Instead, I hope to be able to protect myself with my own strength.

    This world is so beautiful, and it would be a shame to spend most of my life in this mansion as a servant, my father should be keen on letting me experience the world for myself as an Mercenary instead of a Butler.

    After strengthening my resolve, I tampered with the crimson flames of my Fire Aura and experimented different ways to put it to use.

    I used the Tetrahedron Theory I learned in my past life to create two unique moves. One that emphasised on 'Heat' while the other emphasised on the 'Explosive' chemical reaction.

    Since I was both a Fire and Earth Mage as the same time, I tried to manipulate Fire Ether the same way I did with my manifested Aura, the result was creating small fist-sized Fireball that had the power of a Level 2 Magic Spell.

    I won't mention all those failures I had where my entire body was thrown off the floor and into a wall because those failures were just embarrassing.

    The next thing I did was test my new Lightning Aura. It was the first time I was able to gain a new elemental Aura because I just wasn't able to truly believe that things like Metal Ether and Earth Ether are different concepts.

    In my opinion, everything other element originates from the four main elements, so even if I imagined them I couldn't mimic their type of Ethers.

    However, the power of Lightning was different, even scientists of my past life weren't able to understand how lightning formed in storm clouds.

    It was then that I felt I was struck by a flash of inspiration! My gaze flickered as I used the my Earth Affinity to control the floor under me and create a set of round, spherical marbles.

    Then using my Lightning Aura, I tried adding a positive charge to one marble and a negative charge to another. The result almost made me cry out loud in excitement as I found that I could use a mixture of my Affinities and my Aura to manipulate natural forces.

    My eyes opened to various new possibilities as I wanted to continue experimenting, but before I could, my thoughts were interrupted by a knocking on the door. I reluctantly stopped practicing and opened the door to who interrupting my fun!

    "Simon Rainglow, I challenge you!" A big and burly guy about my age declares straightforwardly.

    "I refuse." After answering the prick who interrupted me, I closed the door and went back to my training.

    This time I turned the spheres into cubes and tried to stick them together using magnetism I derived from the four fundamental forces of nature.

    As I continued to patiently learn the extent of my powers, someone knocked on my door once again, except this time the volume of the knocks were louder.

    "I challenge you to a duel." The same burly kid my own age declares again after I open the door to see who it is.

    "I refuse." I answered again.

    As my I about to close the door once more, the youth reached out his hand and kept the door firmly pushed open.

    "You are the Young Miss's new personal butler right? The F Rank Magical Talent that used his father's influence to worm his way to the Young Miss's side?" The giant youth asked provocatively. After hearing his questions, I didn't feel anger, because an adult like myself getting angry at a child like him would be immature.

    "I don't know who you are nor why you want to take that position off me using force, but if you're looking for someone to teach you manners, you've come to the right place. I accept your challenge." With my strong words, the youth smiled slyly as if he had anticipated my reaction, not even trying to hide his disdain. His gaze held a light of amusement as he finally backed off and let me close the door.
     
  20. Love4NovelGuy

    Love4NovelGuy [Veteran Writer] [Reaper]

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    Chapter 15: Punishment

    Not it's time to ignore that massive prick and go about my daily life as usual, the kid really is stupid if he thinks I'll keep my word and actually fight him later on this evening.

    Now, how is Merilin progressing?

    I walk back to my parents room and almost dropped my jaw in shock after seeing how burnt most the walls as target practice for her new Spell.

    Hah... I should have expected as much from a 7 year old, even if she acts mature, she's still a child in the inside.

    "Merilin, that's enough, do you want to burn the room down?" I ask my sister in order to wake her up from her trance. She blinks a few times after hearing my voice before paling in fear.

    "Big Brother.... Please help me keep this a secret from mom and dad!" She cries in tears as begs me help out.

    I don't answer her and instead used my Mana to slowly fix the walls using Earth Ether. The damage done wasn't able to be fixed with my abilities but I was still able to make it look less like she was intentionally destroying stuff.

    "Let's go inform mom about the wall together." I hold my sister's hand and decide to accompany her in to apologise to mother for my negligence.


    "It wasn't my fault. You said I could test it here." Merilin's eyes darkened as she tried to look for an excuse, but after realising that she was blaming me out of nervousness, she closed her mouth.

    "You're scared Mom will scold you?" I ignored her mumbling and ask. She didn't say anything but nodded deeply.

    "I'm scared as well." After hearing my words she stared up to me in confusion, not understanding what I meant, I smile helplessly as that look.

    "I'm the one who taught you a new Spell and irresponsibly left you to figure it out by yourself, so it's only natural that I'm the one who should be blamed for what happened." I explain patiently as we walked down the halls.

    "But it wasn't your fault." She denies seriously. Oy, weren't you the one who said I'm to blame moments ago?

    "It was." I deny her strong denial.

    "It wasn't." She says a little angrily.

    "What are you two talking about?" My mother who was cooking in the kitchen of the household with the other maids asks while managing other servants.

    "I taught Merilin a new Spell and she ended up burning a large part of your room. I'm sorry, Mother." I bow my head apolitically and inform. My mother's lips twitched as she gave her instructions to the nearby servants and followed me back to their room.

    Seeing that the only thing that was damaged were the walls, she sighed in relief, then manifested her Aura to mimic Earth before fixing the wall.

    As creating a strong Earth Aura wasn't her specialty, my mother wasted a lot of Mana fixing simple things, but mother was able to fix the wall perfectly in the end due to her high Magical Talent that far exceeded any other. I fetched mother a glass of water as she sat down on her bed tiredly.

    "What magic could cause such damage?" She asks curiously after completely fixing the wall all by herself.

    "I taught her a way to create lightning using Water Ether." As she heard my words, her eyes widened, Merilin had already preemptively prepared followed up by showing mother the process of how she formed lightning.

    In her hand was a spherical bubble that held a powerful force of blue lightning.

    "Merilin, my darling, are you able to control it?" My mother asks with a complicated expression on her face.

    "... No." Merilin paused then answered.

    Oh, I get it, she was able to use my theory to form a bolt of lightning within a bubble but she wasn't able to control the lightning itself.

    If she tried to dispel the bubble, the lightning trapped within would escape and randomly shock those near it, so the only way to dispel it in a way that would cause her harm would be by throwing it away from her. Mother realised that and was about to help her dispel it, but how couldn't I show off?

    "Don't worry, I got this!" A smile etches across my face as I manifested my new Lightning Aura and dispel Merilin's magic for her by crushing the lightning bubble with my bare hands.

    "You even learnt how to use Lightning Aura by yourself. As expected of my son." My mother looked surprised for a second before nodding her head.

    Wait... what about the expression of bewilderment I was aiming for? How can I puff up chest in pride if I'm unable to deeply shock you with talent?

    "You should have been shocked that I learned an Anti-Magic ability like Lightning Aura..." I couldn't help but mumble depressingly. Others people opinion of are nothing, all that matters is that my family knows I'm an awesome and good-natured person.

    "I don't think there's anything more shocking than the fact a ten year old already mastered the ability to change the nature of his Aura." My mother says blandly before ignoring me.

    "Merilin, come here." My mother gestured to my sister to sit on her lap.

    Merilin was overjoyed as she found that mother wasn't really angry with her. She cutely laughed and jumped into mother's arms before calming.

    "Merilin, as your punishment for destroying half my room, you are forbidden to use this magic without my permission." In response to her punishment, Merilin happily nodded her head, but why did I feel a sense of foreboding after hearing those words.

    "Simon, as punishment for neglecting Merilin after teaching her a dangerous Spell, you have to fight that boy named Jack Ironwell tomorrow." My mother slyly smiles and declares, not even giving me any room to refuse at all.

    "Why do I have to fight that massive prick? The position of the Young Miss's personal butler should be mine anyway." I say in dissatisfaction.

    "It's not about the position, it's about dignity, you won't be respected as her personal butler if you don't fight him."

    "He's just a guy who wants my position through this duel. Even if I win, the only thing I'll gain is attention, which I really don't want. I'd rather be thought of as a coward rather than fight."

    "That excuse would have worked if it was someone else." My mother's voice deepened as a sharp light appears in her eyes. It seems my duel with this prick wasn't as simple as I had hoped.

    "Jack 'was' the boy who was supposed to have earned the right to protect the House Master's daughter through his own ability. He is a C Rank Magical Talent with very high affinity with Earth and Spear Arts. As a personal butler of the House Master's precious daughter, having this much ability and talent is actually quite normal." My mother laughs humorously. It seems she really thinks I'm in a tight spot.

    "So the new butler has to earn his position by beating the old butler? I don't know why 'dignity' is so important to everyone, but if you want me to beat him, consider it done." I say confidently with a burning spirit.

    "Big Brother, don't lose, okay?" My sister cheers me on. How cute. I couldn't help but pat her on the head and smile. However, why is it I suddenly feel uneasy about this? My mind couldn't help but remember the weird smile Jack made moments ago.