After being healed by Caelen’s magic I was left with countless questions. What world was I in? How did magic work? Is this world so dangerous that its people need to train with weapons? Before asking him anything though, I thought for a moment. If I just asked those questions outright, it might get suspicious. I was comfortable with dropping the child act a little bit, but not completely. After all, I didn't want to just get thrown out onto the streets, especially not after learning that I was not just in a foreign country, but a foreign world entirely. But I still wanted information.

  “How did you do that, Dad? I'm all better now” I asked, trying to sound as innocent as possible.

  “Heh, heh. Well, I'm not a full fledged healer or anything but I've developed a healing spell or two on my own over the years.” Caelen declared proudly. By the way he said it, I figured that being able to heal people like that must’ve been an impressive feat. It certainly would be in my own world. Someone able to do that would become rich off that alone. Though not richer than me of course.

  I opened my mouth to ask Caelen another question but before I could get a word out, he scooped me up and placed me onto his shoulders. My brows furrowed and I fought the urge to slap him and try to get out of his grip. I hated the fact that I had to let him treat me as a part of his family, as his child. I would never accept this man as my father. I would never accept any of them as my family, but I had to be rational and take it so as not to blow my cover.

  Control yourself. He still thinks you’re his son.

  “Now, lets go see what your mother and sister are up too”

  Caelen walked back outside with me sat on his shoulders. When we came outside, we were met with the sight of Liora sitting in the grass, eyes closed and legs crossed, while Mira stood over her with her arms crossed. They seemed to be in the middle of the lesson. Caelen walked us closer but not so close as to disturb them. Mira glanced, acknowledging our presence, at us but did not say a word. Liora on the other hand did not so much as move. She seemed to be really concentrated at whatever she was doing.

  “Do you sense it? Do you sense your core Lia?” Mira asked Liora as she continued what seemed like meditation.

  Liora let the question linger for a moment before answering “I do! I can see it. It's like a small ball formed in the center of my chest.” she answered excitedly, accidentally opening her eyes in the process.

  “Focus Lia.” Mira said sternly while slightly glaring down at Liora.

  “Oh, sorry mom” Mira swiftly shut her eyes and began focusing back on what she was doing

  “Right now, since you're still young, your core is soft and not fully formed. You also only have one layer.”

  “Okay but when do I get to make myself super fast and strong like you”

  “Liora,” Mira said sternly with a glare.

  “Sorry”

  Mira sighed then continued, “since your core is so weak your mana capacity won't be high meaning you won't be able to do much. But If you keep working at it, you'll get stronger in time”

  This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

  Liora's face brightened and she opened her eyes but quickly caught herself and went back to focusing. She seemed to really want to get stronger. She had said that it was to compete with her friend but were kids really that competitive. I guess I wouldn’t know. I hadn't been a kid in a long time, at least before my reincarnation, and it wasn't like I had any friends when I was a kid either. Though that was probably for the best, kids were idiots anyways. Why would I want to befriend any.

  I did want to learn a bit more about magic also, though not for reasons as childish as Liora’s. The reason I wanted to learn magic was much more sophisticated. I wanted to learn so that the next time I got hit by Mira, I'd be able to protect myself. If that woman really thought she could hit me again and get away with it, she'd better be ready when my magic powered fist hits head.

  I grinned stupidly to myself as I thought about pummeling Mira for what she did to me but was quickly snapped out of it when Mira and Liora continued the lesson.

  “Now for today I’m just going to have you do breathing exercises and mediation”

  “Awww, but that's no fun.” Liora groaned “I wanna learn how to get stronger”

  “Well you're not going to get any stronger with the amount of mana you have now. You need to learn how to actively collect mana through meditation. The little bit of mana you’ve been passively gathering won’t do you any good. So we’ll start with the basics until your capacity and control increases.”

  So people in this world passively collected mana throughout their day to day lives? If that were true then it meant that I had to have some in me right? Though I hadn't been in this world for long. Liora was older than me and apparently had little mana so the amount that I had was probably meaningless. Still, it couldn't hurt to get some practice in early. Mira said that people could actively gather mana through meditation so maybe even at my age I could do the same. Then hopefully I could get enough to protect my body just like Mira said was possible. I just needed to know how. Though I couldn't count on Mira to teach me personally.

  Whatever. I'll just copy what she teaches liora tonight on my own.

  I knew that Liora wouldn't teach me anything. It took a lot of begging and pleading from Liora just to be taught and even then, Mira was still reluctant to teach her because of her age. There was no way she would teach a three year old kid. Not that I was itching to be taught by the woman who humiliated me anyway.

  I decided that the plan would be that I would watch their training sessions and try to memorize whatever they went over. Then at night in secret and in the privacy of my own room, I would practice it on my own. Hopefully that meant that I could make decent progress in magic in my own time, then surprise her with it the next time she went to hit me.

  With the plan fully formed, I continued to watch the rest of the lesson, which went on for about an hour or so before they called it a day. They went over the breathing exercise which was pretty much the same as what you’d see from meditation on earth. Mira also basically confirmed what I had already figured out, which was people passively collecting mana and how doing it actively yields greater results.

  After that the rest of the day went on as it usually did these past few years. Although this time, the entire day I was constantly in my own head, thinking of all that had transpired that morning and what I would be doing that night. The more I fantasized exacting my revenge on Mira, the more excited I became to learn magic. It actually helped with the boredom that I usually felt all day. I guess that having something to look forward to would do that to someone.

  The day ended up going by surprisingly fast and that night I was read a book by Mira and Caelen. This was a usual occurrence which started about a year prior. They would read me fantastical stories about warriors, monsters, and adventurers. Before that day, I passed them off as typical children's fantasy books but now I wasn't so sure.

  Usually, I would only be half paying attention as those types of stories never interested me but in tonight's story, there was something that stuck out to me. It was the story of Banal the Indulgent. I'll spare you the greater details but he was basically a man who was hated by everyone in his village because of his tendency to overindulge in less than great things. He could always be found with a drink in his hand and his second home was the village tavern. It was basically a story trying to teach children about the consequences of overindulgence.

  But that part wasn't what interested me. You see, Banal was also known to smoke on a particularly rare type of plant. One that was only grown in certain parts of the world, which was why it cost so much. Banal basically ruined his life going into debt to keep up with his habit, but the effects of it seemed worth it to me. It's said that the plant makes you see the most amazing hallucinations and the effects will last for days. If I didn't experience what I had that day, I might've written it off as just another fictional children's story, but now I saw things differently. On the chance that the story was real, I made a mental note to myself that If I ever got the chance, I had to try that plant—The Leaves of Banal.

  After finishing up the story, Mira and Caelen tucked me in, wished me sweet dreams, and left my room. I waited a few minutes, just to be safe and be sure that they were really gone, before slipping out of bed to begin my first night of training. Tonight , I would teach myself to actively gather mana.