“How is it?” Asked Syrus.

To his question, I clenched my right fist with all my might and assumed a boxing stance. I sent a punch in the air while mimicking the punching sound with my mouth.

“As you can see, it has completely healed.”

Today Syrus had removed my bandages.

It took Syrus four weeks to accept to remove my bandage.

One entire month without using my right arms.

28 hellish days without being allowed to use the library.

Today Ronandt is reborn from his ashes.

“I wouldn’t recommend using this newly healed elbow too much, Even o,n It would be sad if it were dislocated again, And If that were to happen, I doubt young Lord’s Elbow would recover before Mathilda’s return.”

That’s right it’s been eight weeks since Maa was summoned back to the castle. Leaving only one month before her return.

“Okay Okay. I stop it.” I said while putting my hands up.” Speaking of which, Could you not tell Maa that I had an accident?”

“Are you asking me to lie, Young Lord ?”

“Oh dear, of course, no. I just asked if you could avoid mentioning the accident to Maa. After all behind us now. We must let go of the past and focus on the bright future that awaits us.”

“I can certainly do that but what about the other residents ?.”

Only then that I remembered that everyone in this house knew about my accident. New flew fast in this house, after all despite not being a very outdoor person and almost never interacting with people other Maa and Syrus I received four weeks ago a visit from the ponytailed gardener, he came to wish a speedy recovery.

By the way, I’ve learned that his name was Roger, a very fitting name for a brawny ponytailed old man.

So there was no way that the fact that I had an accident wouldn’t reach Mathilda’s ears when she’ll get back.

“You know what? Forget about what I just said. Syrus!”

“Yes, Young Lord ?”

“We must let go of the past and-”

“Focus on the bright future that awaits us.”

“Perfect.”

***

Huuuuuuuphhhhhhhhhhhhhhh aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah.

I took the deepest inspiration my lungs could provide.

I really missed this place smell lately.

The old book's sweet smell.

After one entire month, I was finally allowed to access the library.

I walked toward the spot where I injured myself. I have never used aina since that day.

It felt like an eternity since that day.

“Today I’m here for my revanche.”

Yeah, I’m back bitch.

As if a little injury like that would stop me.

In fact, I should be thankful for it.

Thanks to my injury, I’ve gained a new ally and on the same occasion a valuable source of information about aina.

Of course, I haven’t told Syrus that I have used aina but as long as I asked innocently about how he and his comrades were using their aina against monsters, I could collect a lot of precious information.

There were times where he was suspicious about why I wanted so many details. To his question, all I had to do was to pretend that it was for the sake of immersion.

“So here I am. Not stronger but wiser than before.”

I’ve spent many days pondering about what caused my injury, after all, it only happened on my second try.

My method wasn’t wrong after all it worked fine on my first, it was just flawed and these flaws cost me one month of being stuck with only one usable hand.

In the end, I came up with one theory.

As I once said, commoners discover their ability to use aina pretty randomly.

Some were doing their everyday chore, some were running and there were cases where they discovered it while fighting.

In Syrus' case, He discovered his ability to use aina while playing hide and seek. To be more precise he discovered it when he fell from a tree,

Pretty stupid isn’t it?

When he fell on the ground, he was completely unarmed and he even felt strangely more energetic than before.

To confirm the theory I had that day I asked Syrus if he or any of his friends were once harmed by their own aina, a question at which he responded no.

Little by little the data collected from Syrus’s Stories slowly confirmed my theory.

The “It just works” I’ve read back then in one of the library’s books might not be that stupid as I thought it would be.

My initial theory about aina from one month ago was that, unlike mana which was produced by a noble body, the aina is an external force.

I do still think that my theory is right but there is a slight change.

A noble’s body produces internally the energy known as the mana, and that mana allows them to use magic. For the aina-users on the other hand they absorb the surrounding aina and infuse it on their body.

My point is that aina-users (commoners) absorb the surrounding aina innately. In short their body does it naturally with just thinking of it would be enough to make it.

In my case, I have to manually suck up the aina and infuse it onto the part of my body I wanted to enhance.

What’s the difference?

I don’t know what my limits are. For aina-users, their body basically does most of the job.

I still don’t know the reason for it but I think it’s due to the fact that I’m deliberately trying to use aina or because I’m too young to use aina after all most of Syrus’s comrades had their first interaction with mana at 10.

If I were to compare to using aina to breathing

Aina-users would be the normal human who breathes naturally.

Meanwhile, I would be a human who basically has to manually exhale and inhale without even knowing the quantity of air I have to exhale or inhale.

What happened the first time one month ago was most likely just a stroke of luck.

Hahaha in the worst I actually could have entirely blown away my right arm.

For the time being, I have to put down the idea of sending a punch like I did last time, and instead focusing on things like perceiving the surrounding aina.

It was safer that way.

If I were to injure myself once, Maa and Syrus will link my activity in this room with my injury.

Better safe than sorry, beside aina, couldn’t just be about violence and strength, right?.

So what do I do now?

The last time I used aina, all I needed to do was take a fighting stance and absorb the surrounding aina.

But this time the objective wasn’t to use aina but rather to perceive it.

So no need for a fighting stance I guess.

I sat down on the floor in a cross-legged position and closed my eyes.

Let’s begin by clearing my mind from any fleeting thoughts

I executed myself, I wouldn’t say that I cleared my mind but it did feel empty so I guess it should be okay then.

A few minutes later, progressively from the dark, three faint light points no bigger than a small soap bubble appeared next to me.

Obviously, I couldn’t see it since I had my eyes closed.

It was more like feeling rather than seeing.

The light balls were aimlessly floating around me.

Suddenly one light ball flew toward my face. Maybe it was due to its appearance but I felt that the light balls would burst or disappear if a waft of air were to escape from my nose.

So I decided to hold my breath.

As if feeling what I was up to, the light ball flew to my face and landed on my nose.

I didn’t feel anything physically from its landing.

After several seconds, I began to feel the need to breathe.

Not being able to hold my breath any longer I began to gasp loudly for air.

My reaction has not only made the light balls on my nose disappear but the other two as well.

Not being done with it, I retried to access the same meditative state but to no avail.

After spending around half an hour cross-legged here, my butt began to hurt.

“I was done sitting on the floor, this should still work even if I were on something comfortable right?”

I stood up and threw myself lazily on the sofa. I then began to take the most comfortable position I could think of: laying face against the cushion.

Like I did earlier, I closed my eyes and after a short while I began to feel the light balls once again but this time unlike earlier there were only one of them.

Suddenly a stupid came to me.

What if I absorbed these light balls but I won’t infuse them on my arm or anywhere else on my body.

While I was still this stupid idea, my body has somehow already absorbed the two light balls.

I soon began to feel a warm sensation in my chest but it didn’t take long for that sensation to turn into a burning one.

“Holy shit.” I thought back then, I knew this burning sensation.

Knowing that panicking wouldn’t help at all, I began to focus on my new objective, since it was possible to absorb the light ball then it should be possible to exude it from my body.

Right?

I hope.

Slowly but surely, the burning sensation in my chest began to fade and as soon as it did I felt that two small light balls emerged from my chest.

They were once again floating as they were doing earlier. But this time two things were different from these two light balls.

The first big change lies in its colors, well I couldn’t really see the light ball so it’s more like the way I perceived it, that has changed. It has turned darker yet it felt strangely brighter than it ever was.

The second update is the light ball movements, they are no longer floating aimlessly they were moving according to my will.

I could make them race against each oth-

What I was doing was interrupted by the rumbling noise coming from my stomach.

I opened my eyes, stood up, and went toward the spot I injured myself.

“Who is the best hunh, tell me who’s the best hunh.”

Not being able to hold any longer, I let my joy take over.

To be honest, I was scared to death when I began to feel the burning sensation on my chest. It’s only when I felt the burning sensation that I remembered it but I had once felt it on my elbow before that accident happened.

What if I had burst into minced meat?

Thinking back, it clearly could have happened.

“Ouh scary.”

But it was worth the risk.

What I have experienced today has proved my previous theory.

The light ball was most likely what was referred to as aina.

Syrus never mentioned any light balls in his story.

So I guess it is because he never needed to, after all his body would automatically provide the right amount of aina he needed.

Isn’t that a little bit unfair?

Maybe not, after all, it’s also my fault for wanting a head start on using aina.

Who cares anyway, as long as I train it long enough, I’m sure I can catch up with them.

“But for the time being, I have more pressing matters to attend to.” I said while hugging my aching stomach.