Chapter 1: Once Ordinary, Stay Ordinary

If you could wish for one thing after death, what would it be?

For me, I wanted to be reincarnated into a bad-ass, overpowered main character surrounded by a harem of beautiful women.

I didn’t take much thought into it, as it only crossed my mind every now and then, but in that one moment… I wished…

Every detail of my death burned itself into my brain, especially my final seconds, hoping for something new.

It was just a normal day- well, until the whole dying thing.

I woke up that morning as JIro Nakajima, a high school student with great grades. Oh- and no friends.

However, I was fine with no friends. You could say I didn’t want friends. They took up too much of my valuable time that I could use playing games and studying.

Even though I had no friends, I still considered myself average.

My life was boring. At least, I thought it was.

I was too scared to try and go big, knowing that the chance of failure was significantly high.

And so, I decided to just stay average.

I always contemplate how insignificant I was, especially on walks from school to home.

(I’m just another kid in this world, what difference would it make if I died?)

With who I was then, I knew there would be no difference, and so I just came to terms with it.

Unfortunately, I came to experience that question myself, although I wouldn’t really get to know if the world changed at all because I died.

I was contemplating my life when a car turned and bolted down on the street I was crossing, ultimately hitting me.

I had little time to get out of the way, but even still…

It was enough time, but I froze and gazed at the car with a stupefied expression on my face.

Shortly after I would find myself sprawled against the windshield, sliding off the top of the car, flying and rolling in the air, and finally landing on the ground head first. I went from sliding on the road face down to my body violently rolling on the somewhat-soft, blistering hot concrete.

The car didn’t stop or anything, it just kept bolting down the long road, and after a few seconds, my body came to a stop.

I found myself alone on that street, with no one around me to help.

The excruciating pain lasted for only a while, fading away a few seconds later after my body went numb and shot cold.

Somewhere deep in my mind I was curious to what would happen next or what to expect, but one thing was for certain, I wasn’t afraid.

Sure, I felt homesick along with my numbness after subconsciously thinking about my loving parents and how I’d never get to see them again, but I thought to myself how it would all be over soon.

Those few seconds felt like a whole minute, but my eyes finally rolled up into my head, and I was dead.

Everything was so dark and quiet…

.

.

.

“Ivaa!” a scrawny male voice had found itself into the darkness, it’s words being unintelligible.

What was that?

Then, I heard another voice, a husky voice.

“Ceday, ivaa!”

It sounded as if two men were urging someone.

“Ivaa! I-Ivaa!” Both of the voices shouted, and then, it happened.

My eyes opened against its will, and in came a vicious, blinding light.

“Ju…”

“Poven tet!” shouted the husky voice

To add to my overwhelming curiosity and the room’s silence, I began bawling my eyes out.

I’m crying? Why am I crying?

It took a while for my eyes to adjust to this new brightness, but I could barely make out anything unless I focused hard enough, and even then it’d still be blurry. In front of me I could make out a tall, thin, quirky-looking man with a large chunky mustache and lopsided glasses just ahead of me.

“Ju…” The husky voice sounded from the left of me, breaking the silence between the two men.

I wanted to analyze whose voice it was, but I couldn’t. I had no control over my head.

What the hell is happening?

The more I panicked about this strange situation, the more vicious my cries became.

I can’t move!

It probably would’ve been common sense to consider that I couldn’t move because I was just hit by a speeding car, but I let the overwhelming moment take hold of me.

My confusion came to a temporary halt as a woman held me to her face. This woman had a funny shrub nose and soft brown eyes.

“Li fama…”

I didn’t notice her long hair, but I did notice her puckering lips as it embraced my forehead.

Then, I had this one thought that struck my body cold.

Am I a baby?

__________

9 months have passed since I was conceived, and my vision significantly improved.

I could only crawl, but it gave me slight relief that I could finally move around on my own rather than being confined in my mothers arms all day.

My chubby belly scraping the ground as I crawl around the house brings slight discomfort, but I let my curiosity get the best of me.

As I was recklessly crawling around the floor, I ran into something or someone.

That someone was my mother, Cedar Grimald.

Although she wasn’t strikingly pretty, she was fairly cute.

Fairly cute, yet her small shrub nose grew funnier to me everytime it scrunched or wiggled.

She was fairly thin, and had sandy blonde hair that went as far as her waist.

The lucky man that caused her problems was my father, Otis Grimald, a strikingly handsome, masculine man.

He wasn’t exactly tall, but he appeared to be about 5’11.

His most striking feature was his majestic blonde braided beard with a beard-stache and his hair, which was almost as long as Cedar’s, went as far as his shoulders.

I always thought about how he was nearly built like a Greek God.

He was nearly perfect.

I say nearly because he’s an idiot, sometimes (All the time).

I couldn’t understand what my Ceday and Otis were saying, but most of their conversations were quite clearly Ceday scolding Otis, giving me an indication that he was reckless.

And speaking about understanding, I’ve learned a few things in the span of those 9 months.

The most important thing I’ve learned is that I was just born into a little something called…

MAGIC?

At first, I thought I was reincarnated into some beat up family in a different country, but I was terribly mistaken.

This theory came to a swift conclusion when my mom walked me around the town, holding me in her arms.

And on that walk I witnessed kids manifesting magic!

Most of the kids had small orbs of water between their two palms which would collapse and fall back into the pond in mere seconds. Some of them were just holding their hands in the air together, their veins protruding from their forehead as their grunts grew louder until they finally gave up, looking utterly defeated.

I would have laughed if I could, but the only thing I could let out was a “Aah! Aaah!” And in return, Ceday would caress the little hair I had on my tiny head.

Another thing I’ve learned was that we live in a fairly-sized, rough town. MOst houses were made of straw, manure, and mud. Some houses were just straight up dome huts put together by sticks, mud and straw.

There were also animal pens and small barns that reckless clouds would go into to mess around.

Looking at this brought my sincere disappointment.

Not only because I would have to find my own entertainment, but because I was born into a poor town.

Besides the buildings, the environment was beautiful. There was a chunky forest nearby surrounding our town, a big, periwinkle blue lake, patches of mud which were constantly occupied by older boys wrestling each other, and a large flowerfield beneath a steep hill down the road from our house.

On our walks, I notice Otis working in the forest, primarily chopping trees.

Ceday wouldn’t take me further into the forest where they worked, and I concluded it was because they hunted there frequently as a Otis few other men came from the forests with bloodstained tools and small dead animals.

As for Ceday, she usually does house chores, but when she’s finished with them, she’d invite her friends over who would bring their children who were near my age who were extremely annoying.

*Deep inhale*

I hated every moment of being forced to play with those toddlers.

I crawled away to find solace, but I couldn’t find anywhere remotely comfortable or out of reach from those toddlers who kept chasing me around because our house was so small.

And because our house was so small, I had to endure another problem.

There were no rooms, and we had fairly uncomfortable mattresses stuffed with straw.

It wasn’t entirely bad until I started hearing small noises at night. Unpleasant noises at that.

Noises that come from both Ceday and Otis that I wished I could sleep over, but I really couldn’t.

Thankfully, they had another bed.

I feared that my days of being an only child may be coming to an end.

I grew to not really dislike the whole thing though.

I didn’t really think of them as my parents, and it felt like a new type of relationship.

Call me weird all you want, I grew into liking this type of fantasy.

Is it illegal to be perverted?

I don’t know.

Does this make me perverted?

I want to move on.

__________

Time had passed yet again, except this time, it was 6 months.

My curiosity had grown exponentially.

I could also sort’ve speak and understand this new language which was called Nimati.

Ceday, to my surprise, had just bought me a kids book to learn Nimati.

My questions on how she got it were overshadowed by my excitement.

“It’s very expensive, so make the most out of it, Alaric” Ceday said, looking as if she forced a smile.

The book she brought me was a large leather book with the words ‘Learning Nimati: For kids!’ engraved on the front.

I was eager to read this as it would be the first thing that I could do that I actually enjoyed in my previous life.

It wasn’t like reading a light novel, but it was reading and learning something new, and that piqued my interest.

WIth enough strength to at least waddle, I made my way outside, plopping the book onto a small, round wooden table.

*thud*

The table shook.

I plopped down on a stool I pulled from under the table and was off to the races.

I skimmed through the pages, my eyes burning with passion to learn more about this new world.

*shh*

“Le. Du. Me. Fu. Be”

*shh*

*shh*

*shh*

Although all the information I was skipping was valuable information, I had set my target for one thing, and one thing only.

Magic!

I found a page labeled:

[Introductory to Magic…]

The thing I wanted to learn and understand the most about this world was its magic.

I wanted to learn about it, I felt compelled to understand it.

Maybe it’s like the games I’ve played at home! Maybe it’s like the anime I’ve watched where the protagonist has some overpowered ability and a harem of hot women!

Before I dug into the information listed below, my head shot up, my mouth gaping in awe.

I had wanted, which was something I lacked in my previous life.

Sure, I wanted to have a decent job when I got older, but it wasn’t really genuine.

Celie watched me from the doorway, shooting me concerning looks.

Before she could say anything, I planted my face into the book reading the section’s fillings.

[Every child is born with mana potential. Mana potential determines how powerful your mana can become. To determine your mana potential, you must place both of your hands on a Tavel Stone.]

I don’t know what a Tavel Stone is, but we definitely don’t have one.

[Mana potential is determined by the user’s mana capacity, mana intensity, and mana capability. The amount of mana potential a child can have is inherited from their parents. Although mana potential is inherited, it can change through the environment and exposure through the child’s growing phases. This can lead to a negative or positive change.]

Does Ceday and Otis even have any mana potential? I haven’t seen them do any magic…

My eyes fixed onto the next page.

[Mana capacity is the amount of mana a person has. Mana capacity, of course, can grow through training and exercises until it hits the person’s mana capacity potential

Mana capacity potential is the maximum amount a user can naturally have in their lifetime. This is also inherited

Mana intensity is how strong your mana can become the harder you exert it. Mana intensity significantly affects a user’s mana potential.]

Easily explained. I’m very fortunate to have this in a kid’s book explained so thoroughly.

[Mana capability is the user’s affinity for magic. There are hundred of mana capabilities that a child could obtain, but they’re usually inherited]

It seemed as if the book was nearly comically emphasizing how nearly everything is inherited, and it greatly dispirited me.

Otis and Ceday never did any magic around me, so couldn’t even take a guess at what I could have.

__________

A whole year flew by very quickly.

Ceday turned out to be pretty useful. She brings me books every month or so, feeding me with new knowledge.

One book she gave me taught me exercises for children to build up mana capacity and mana intensity.

All of the exercises were so easy that I even made a few of my own that required much more focus and intensity, one of them being to control the flow of mana throughout one part of my body instead of just controlling the flow throughout my whole body.

As much as these exercises have been working, I haven’t been able to manifest any magic yet.

Thankfully, no other kid my age had done so, either.

But still, shouldn't I have the upperhand because I got reincarnated? It’s been a whole year of me exercising my mana, so I should’ve seen something… right?

Ceday was outside spreading our clothes on bushes and hanging some on the windows to dry them out.

Maybe there’s a minimum age for everyone to even manifest their magic.

I sprawled on my mattress stuffed with straw when suddenly a thought struck my mind.

What if I just exerted my mana?

I didn’t know how everyone was supposed to manifest their mana capability, and I assumed that it would just happen randomly up until this point. I thought that maybe I had to find my own way to use my magic.

I sat up and focused my mana in my hands, exerting it through my palms, and I caught a swift wind on the sides of my waist below my open hand.

I jumped off the mattress, raised my hands to the level of my chest, and showed my palms to the wall.

*woosh*

*swish*

I kept exerting my mana through my hands everywhere, and everytime, I felt the wind push out from my hands and gently brush the walls.

My grin reached both ends of my face.

Ceday walked in with a basket of clothes and a curious eyebrow to all my mischievous laughing.

As soon as she fell into my sight, I tried showing off.

I pointed my palms towards Ceday and exerted my mana.

Some of the clothes flew out of the basket, and Ceday gawked at me as I gazed at her, waiting for a response.

My gentle gust of wind blew her hair as she squinted her eyes.

“What the hell?” She raised her arms to cover her face.

My grin grew larger.

“Are you OK, mom?”

She must be overwhelmed.

“Alaric-” I cut off Ceday before she could finish her concerning question

“You see, I exerted my mana through the palm of my hands. I must have excellent wind magic.” I said with my chest proudly sticking out.

“Honey… I’m sorry-”

Sorry?

“That’s not wind magic… everyone- er- everyone can do that…”

Ouch.

She went on to explain that exerting mana isn’t enough to actually produce magic, and the only result is just harmless wind.

I slumped the whole day, disappointed and embarrassed with myself.

To make things worse, something I had least wished for happened.

Ceday was cleaning dishes when Otis walked in with a fat smirk on his face.

“Alaric! You’re probably of age now! I can start training you now, so how bout’ that?”

Ceday and I gaze at Otis, both of our noses scrunching and our foreheads wrinkling in awe at such a wild question.

You’ve got to be kidding me…