“Ow. Ow. Owowowow,” said Demund.

“Stay still,” scolded the girl gently.

They were currently inside the girl’s house after Demund’s little trip to the ground happened. While he was falling, his body had reflexively brought his arms forward to guard his face, causing him to land on them then proceed to roll through the road. The girl had magnificently leapt over his body to evade falling herself.

“I’m really sorry about this,” she added. “I thought I controlled my strength. And please stay quiet. My dad will kill me if he finds out I hurt someone again.”

Again?

Demund swallowed his screams and clenched his jaws tightly as the girl patted his scraped arms and hands with a cotton wad dipped in disinfectant. She was surprisingly delicate with her hands, but the wounds still hurt like hell.

He looked around to restrict himself from gazing at the girl too much. She had led him through the front door and into the living room where premium leather sofas and a giant curved TV were stationed. Expensive-looking paintings hung on the walls along with other photos. The girl was in many of them, as well as the man with the neatly-cut hair and beard.

He sat on the sofa while the girl treated his scrape with contents from an emergency box she had retrieved from somewhere. A bead of sweat rolled down her cheek. She was trying very hard.

Act natural, Demund, act natural.

“So…what’s your name?” asked Demund after some contemplation.

The girl raised her head and looked Demund in the eyes. Her iris glistened like dark rubies below the dull light. Demund felt time slow down as his heart beat faster. Was he dreaming?

“My name? I’m Enariss.”

“Nice. That’s a nice name.”

Enariss packed the medical supplies back into the box and fastened the lid. She stood up.

“Well? Aren’t you going to tell me yours?” she asked, her hands on her hips.

“Oh? Me? I’m Shaden. Nice to meet you.”

“Shaden? Well, it was nice to run with you. You were pretty fast, I guess.”

Enariss untied her hair and let it flow down. She shook her hair to the side as if to emphasize its beauty, and the luxurious crimson hair unraveled all the way down to her lower back. It was quite a sight for Demund and he pinched himself to prevent himself from letting any weird noise out.

Keep calm. Keep calm, he told himself over and over again.

“I’m sorry again for what happened.”

“It’s fine, it’s fine.”

Demund realized that they probably didn’t have anything else to talk about. Sensing that the mood was about to become awkward, he rose from the sofa and inspected his arms. Clot was already forming on the wounds, and the sting felt number now.

“Thanks for the treatment. I should get going now.”

Demund started walking towards the exit. Enariss followed behind him with her arms behind her back.

Seriously, how could a girl be this cute? Even her walking was cute. Maybe he was just desperate, but her light footsteps and flowing hair made his heart badum-ta-da-kaboom-tss.

Act cool. Act natural.

He hastily put on his shoes and Enariss opened the front door for him.

“Will you be running tomorrow too?” she asked as Demund neared the gate. Was that hopefulness in her voice?

“You’ve seen me run. It’s every day,” replied Demund with a tinge of pride. Indeed, he was planning to continue to run while he resumed school. There was no point in it if he didn’t.

“Okay.”

Demund was feeling fatigued, but he still had some energy left to jog. He squeezed by the gate and waved towards Enariss.

“See you around!” yelled Enariss as Demund started jogging towards his house.

“Yeah! You too!” yelled Demund back at her.

He wanted to get away from that place as fast as possible to hide the blush that was forming on his face. Had he made a friend? And a female one at that? He never had talked to any girls outside of schoolwork, so this experience was exhilarating and new at the same time.

It was a short encounter, but one of the most memorable ones he ever had. He should have asked more things about her. Oh well. Maybe he might get a chance tomorrow.

Demund abruptly stopped in his tracks and looked back, remembering something. Had he introduced himself as Shaden?

〄 〄 〄

“Darn it, darn it, darn it!”

Shaden pounded his fists into his pillow as he remembered his mistake over and over. His mind always became clearer when he entered his dream world, so he could recall that name-exchange moment vividly. He had introduced himself as Shaden, not Demund. What would Enariss think if she found out he hadn’t told her his real name? He had been so caught in the moment to even realize that he had made a mistake. How would he tell her? He didn’t know how to interact with girls that well.

Shaden ruffled his hands through his short hair. What happened has happened. Now was the time to improve his magic again.

Over the past few months, he had come up with a trick to get out of his crib by himself. Now that he was older, his parents would sometimes leave him with his brother at home to enjoy a date. His brother would also go outside to play with his friends. That meant he was alone in the house.

And being alone meant experimenting without restraint.

He focused on a wooden bar of the crib and imagined that the atoms were disconnecting from each other. He didn’t need to know wood’s molecular structure—just being aware that it was made of atoms was enough. Creating wood took understanding, though.

The wooden bar neatly came apart at the middle like a laser had cut through it. Shaden repeated this process for the bottom of the wood and two more bars. By the end of it, he had an opening to the side of the crib that allowed him to crawl through it.

By using telekinetic magic, he pulled his parents’ pillow to the side of the crib. Slowly and carefully, he lowered his legs to the pillow and dropped off from the crib. When he was on the floor, he levitated the wooden bars to fit where they once were and combined their atoms together. That was pretty simple; he just had to imagine that the electrons would become shared between the two disconnected poles.

All the preparations were done. His parents always thought his brother had let him out. Since they knew Shaden the baby never cried or hurt himself, they didn’t question Rother why he had let him out, much to Shaden’s convenience.

Shaden stood up on his feet and waddled to the back door as fast as his little legs could carry him. No one would see him if he practiced magic in the backyard.

He would definitely try to succeed in casting a fireball.

〄 〄 〄

Shaden lay on the grass as a cool breeze washed over him. The clouds hung on the skies like cotton candy and the birds softly tweeted in the air. If this was a dream, it would be a very relaxing and sweet one.

That is, if Shaden wasn’t sulking and running his head for possible ways to create a fireball.

It had been three days since he fell asleep and three days since he started practicing fireball vigorously.

For three days he had casted flamethrower, ignite, blaze, etc. They were simple; it was just producing fire through his mana which he used as a substitute for fuel for oxygen. It just worked. Mana was convenient.

But fireball? Fireball always dispersed. Fireball always faded out. Fireball was not fireball—it was more like fire deflating-balloon. The flames always died out before they even traveled a meter. He couldn’t constantly supply it with mana either. If he did, fireball would not be fireball, but flamethrowerball. It just wasn’t right.

Shaden stared at the moving clouds in the sky and let out a deep sigh. According to games, fireball was supposed to be a simple spell. Why was he having so much trouble?

He focused once more on the air and poured his mana in to create a blaze of fire in midair. He put three times more mana in than usual, making his face feel the heat waves from his magic. The flames grew slightly whiter and brighter. Then he released it into the air and flung it with his mana in a swinging motion.

The intense mass of fire soared through the air and disappeared in three seconds. Another failure.

“I CAN’T DO DIIISS!!” Shaden shouted into the air. He could speak, but he never did to his family. It was too weird to. He was afraid he would let himself slip one of these days. Acting like a baby by saying only “Mama” and “Dada” and “Broda” felt a little weird, but it was either him of his family. Plus, his teeth were absent making his pronunciation horrible.

Shaden plopped his arms on the ground and closed his eyes.

He wished he could go to school to learn more about magic.

〄 〄 〄

Shaden awoke to his last day before school. After thinking about it, he decided he would laze around today. Just the thought of homework and long class periods made him lazy. He lay in bed and stared at the ceiling.

It was boring.

His mother came to pick him up for breakfast, and after eating bland gruel, (It was a little flavored now thanks to carrots and mushrooms), sleeping lazily through the day, he woke up to the sound of wooden swords hacking at each other. He followed the noise to the front yard and saw the usual training going on.

Garthan was still leagues in front of Rother, but his brother had gotten faster. He now evaded two or three strikes more before he got thwacked. The spar had increased to around fifteen minutes. Shaden watched their muscles move in the sunlight, and seven-year-old Rother was still more muscular than his fifteen-year-old Demund.

It was amazing to see Rother’s small body dart around. If he came to the real world, he would definitely be the strongest kid alive. Shaden sometimes seriously thought that the world was too hardcore. He winced as another *thwack* resounded through the air. How did Rother endure this?

It was a dream. Nothing real.

Would he have to go through that training too? He always wanted a cute little sister, but his parents had mentioned that boys would only get to learn magic if there were no daughters in the family. Maybe if he begged his parents to let him learn magic, they’d allow it. Fighting with swords was cool, but it looked painful.

After some watching, he headed back inside and smelled something delicious and familiar. He waddled to the kitchen and saw his mother taking some cookie-like items from the oven which she then placed on the window.

Melsei noticed Shaden starting at the food and squished his cheeks. Her son was so cute and smart that he had come to see the special traditionary food.

She picked Shaden up and let him view the cookie-like items on the oven tray. They were thicker than he had thought now that he had gotten a closer look.

“Shaden~ Guess what’s for dinner~”

“Mada?” said Shaden.

“Exactly Shaden! You are soooo smart. I’m making a dish passed on since the age of heros and sages.”

Now that was interesting. If only his mother would give him some of it.

“Dinner will be burgers~”

…………..? Say what?