It was after dinner, and Demund was jogging energetically under the fading sunlight. The pain was duller now, and he felt his lungs expand and contract, expand and contract with the rhythm of his footsteps. One two, one two, one two…Demund kept this song repeating inside his mind as he ran past the cars, the walls, across the street, past some dog-walkers…

The sun was almost over the horizon and the sky was painted with streaks of gold and orange. It was as if Summer was finally saying goodbye to all the students and was wishing them good luck on their reentry to education. Masses of birds flew distantly in the skies in formation, like jet-planes celebrating the return of a hero after a long battle.

Demund felt like nature really was celebrating his return. After a year in his dreams, reality felt distant and even more so because he did nothing but read, eat, exercise, and sleep. He never met other people besides his parents. Because he spent less time in it, he noticed more things every time he returned, like the way his mother furrowed her brows while she was cooking or the way his father chuckled softly while reading a news article on camels.

Maybe if he had a friend, things would have felt better. Oh well, school was finally starting tomorrow and he was planning to make the most out of it. He craved for human interaction. For a year he had been treated as a baby. He really needed someone to talk to besides his parents.

Over the second half of the break, he had continuously read scientific articles and online textbooks, mainly on physics. The law of the world, as he confirmed through multiple magic experiment sessions, was indeed the laws of physics and chemistry, biology and all the science-related things. Still, reading things alone posed a limit to his understanding. And was very boring too. School would change that.

His skill over magic had seen tremendous growth over the six months. He could now create fire, water, and ice out of thin air and even managed to produce liquid nitrogen (or so he imagined) by compressing and slowing a huge mass of air down. But the more energy it took for something to occur by the laws of physics, the more magic that spell would require.

Sometimes he was scared he would break his mana pool accidentally. That hadn’t happened yet, thankfully.

He still didn’t know any chantable spells though. Nor did he know how to create magic circles, if they existed. Accelerating projectiles was hard too. He could throw them (it was the easiest to imagine) with a swing of his arm, but it was far too slow for his satisfaction. He wanted something like a bullet.

Fireballs were still impossible. They always dispersed the moment they left his hand. The best fire attack skill he could produce was setting something on fire instantly instead of throwing a fireball at it.

He had been too scared to try out gravity magic. He had succeeded in pulling a pillow towards him from his parents’ bed, and with enough effort, it had levitated and stuck to his hand like a magnet. But that act had used what he thought was a great amount of magical power, leaving him sweating and feeling light-headed. Who knew what would happen if he put in too much magic power into a spell accidentally.

Additionally, the farther away he concentrated his magic, the more mana it used. He had tried to freeze the clouds to make it snow as a joke one time. Suddenly, he could physically feel the mana being drained out of him at a tremendous pace. He panicked and immediately stopped his imagination from manifesting. It was a sort of trauma.

Though after any mana use, he never really felt exhausted. No matter how many times he experimented, he didn’t feel like he was running low. He always recovered in seconds. Hmmm. Perhaps he just had great potential.

“Hey! You there! Why do you always run so slowly! It makes me want to push you from the back!”

Demund halted his jogging at the sudden interruption and looked around for the source of the noise. Slow? Sure, he wasn’t as fast as athletes, but he was by no means slow. He had been running two times every day for over a month!

“Over here, dummy! Up here!” said the sudden voice.

Demund turned his head upward towards the sound. A girl’s head was sticking out of the window of a giant house. He focused on the face and said,

“Woah.”

The girl was so pretty. Her crimson red hair hung down in an elegant wave from her head and her dark, red eyes pierced his black ones. A slightly dissatisfied expression hung on her face, which was delicately placed on her small hand. Her elbow was leaning against the bottom of the window, and her skin was smooth and beautiful like polished ivory. The way she breathed reminded him of a cat, and her fingertips—

“Hello? Say something!” said the girl.

“Oh. Oh yeah. Hi!” replied Demund.

Wait. Wait a sec. What the heck had he just said? This girl just teased him for being slow, and now he was acting like a boy who hadn’t had female contact in years. Well…that part was slightly true, but his mother was also a tremendous beauty. He wouldn’t be flustered here.

He stared at the girl once more. Hold on…wasn’t she too high up? He glanced below her and around him and realized where he was. This was the rich house he had seen people move in a while back. The man with the clean beard and hair who looked rich. All the rich looking furniture. A rich car, a rich gate. Everything about this place smelled of money. The house practically screamed ‘RICH!’ with its giant frame and lofty roof.

This girl was rich. And haughty.

Demund cleared his throat loudly so the girl could hear it.

“Madame, I apologize for being sooo slow,” said Demund sarcastically while posing an exaggerated bow. “But as I am such a slow runner who runs every day without improving, it is only natural that a great person like you would show me a demonstration.”

Then Demund placed his hands on his hips and stared at the girl in the eyes. Who was she to belittle his hard work? She would never come down. He guessed that rich people never did. Maybe the manga was still lurking inside his head, or maybe it was his other father going, ‘noble this’ and ‘noble that’ that made him have this thought. But he couldn’t just stand there and ignore her words.

The girl stared back at him and pursed her lips. Dang, she was pretty. He couldn’t deny that.

“Wait there! I’m coming down right now!” shouted the girl as her head disappeared from the window.

Wait what? She was coming down? HERE? Demund suddenly felt his heart beat faster. He hadn’t expected this. A pretty girl was literally coming down to meet him. He panicked inside. Would she really come out? Maybe she was bluffing. Did he smell? He sniffed himself. Not really. But what if he smelled to her?

The worries filled Demund. His high school mind raced inside and out trying to find solutions for dealing with a girl he never met before. Could he rely on his other father? No, he was to touchy-feely. How about his actual father? He only talked about necessary things. It was his mother who was initiating all the time. Should he stay silent?

Then he remembered his old memories of manga and popular main characters. They had always stayed cool but not silent, teasing their harem a little bit but never overextending it. They were natural to their women like they were to their friends.

Demund slapped his face with both hands. Act natural. This is just a human who is coming to show you how to run. She has no feelings for you but pity. Stay calm.

Nothing but pity.

Yep.

Demund snapped out of his thoughts when the front door of the giant house swung open. “I’ll be back soon!” the girl shouted as she hurriedly put on her expensive premium-brand shoes. Demund eyed the shoes. They were very nice.

The pretty girl unlocked the gate and pushed it to the side. She came out and closed it behind her.

Demund stared at her blankly (his heart beating like crazy) and crossed his arms together. Like a cool person would.

“Well?” He asked, the blood rushing away from his face, making him light-headed. He almost tripped backwards but his legs, stronger from the training, held him firm and still. “How am I slow?”

“I’ve seen you almost every day at this hour running,” said the girl while tying her hair up, “so I know that you exercise. But still, you won’t get anywhere if you run that slowly, you know?”

She stretched her legs in a magnificent way and cracked her head to the sides.

“My father always taught me to help out people in need. So when I heard you ask for a demonstration, I couldn’t refuse.”

Does this girl not know sarcasm!?

“Well, I’m glad, I mean I’m thankful that you came to help,” stuttered Demund slightly (he hated himself for doing that), “but how exactly will you help?”

The pretty girl brushed her crimson hair to the side and placed her hands on her slender hips. Now that Demund had gotten a closer look, she was about a head shorter than he was. Gosh, she was cute.

“Just run after me. If you slow down, I’ll push you from the back. Get used to the pace.”

“Okay,” said Demund without thinking anything.

The girl started running down the road, her red, silky hair flowing behind her. Demund felt pretty confident now that he had rested while he waited for the girl. His stamina was around 60% recharged, so he could probably run at max speed for slightly less than thirty seconds. He genuinely hoped that would show her.

He ran behind the girl and caught up next to her. She was currently going a little slower than his sprinting pace, so he could manage it for around five minutes. If this was the speed she was satisfied with, then he had no regrets. At full stamina, he could keep it up for twenty minutes. Hmph. I’m pretty fast you know. Demund smiled to himself.

“Alright, we’ve warmed up now, so let’s start sprinting,” stated the girl.

Hmm. Maybe she wasn’t bluffing, thought Demund. Maybe she is fast.

The girl started accelerating and Demund tried to keep up with her. They ran faster and faster. The trees and electric poles zoomed by and Demund felt the pain increase in his chest and legs. He started feeling exhausted.

Wait, wasn’t this faster than his max speed? Spit began to accumulate in his mouth, but he dared not swallow it. One breath missed would have dire consequences. He turned his head painfully to the girl. She wasn’t even breathing hard. She was relaxed and moving as gracefully as the morning breeze.

Oh no. This is bad. This is very bad.

He wasn’t even counting anymore. His pride was the only thing that was keeping him moving and pushing forward. The adrenaline from running next to the girl helped a lot, but even that was starting to reach its limit. Sweat covered his eyes and he blinked furiously to get the salty liquid out. The girl was going even faster. Ah damn it, Demund thought.

“Hey, you’re slowing down!” yelled the girl. “Keep the pace!”

“I…can’t…CAN’T…huff…too…fast!”

“Here! Let me push you!”

“Wait…if…you…huff…this…spe—oomph!”

Demund felt the girl’s hands touch his back as he was pushed forward with great momentum. The girl had obviously put more force into the push than she intended to, and Demund felt his body lift up from the ground. His body propelled forward. Everything went into slow motion as he saw the ground close upon his vision.

I wonder what went wrong, he thought as pain filled his mind.