I stared at my sister with a speck of flame hovering above her right hand. I stared at her face, then the flame, and then her face again. A few moments of switching my view from the flame, to her smug look, I grinned then tackled her to the ground.

Time to reverse our positions for once.

“Gah!?” Michelle made a sound of surprise as the flame above her flickered into nothingness. The both of us tumbled into the ground due to my tackle. “Mike!”

I grinned happily at the sight of my sister pouting and looking embarrassed as she tried to pry me off of her body.

“Awesome! You can use magic? Can you teach me!? Please?” I blurted out question after question, causing Michelle to sink further into her embarrassment, as well as looking slightly smug.

“I-I-I… Okay! Okay! Stop! Stahhpp!!!” Since she was stuttering, I grabbed her sides and tickled her into submission. “Staahpp!!! I Can’t breathe! Can’t breathe!!!”

“Will you teach me magic!?” I tickled her even more ferociously. She giggled and struggled against my grip, but my physical training with Father’s training from hell made it impossible for her to escape.

“OKAY! OKAY!!! I’LL TEACH YOU!! JUST STAHP!! STAHP TICKLING MEE!!!!” I stopped just as quick as I started. I could see tears of pain and laughter pouring down her cheeks. After a few moments of catching her breath, Michelle and I stood up as she stared at me with a pout, a blush covering her cheeks.

How cute…

“You meanie! You know I don’t like the tickles!” She shrieked at me as she playfully smacked my chest over and over. “Meanie! Idiot! Sadist!”

That last word had me stiffen up. Feeling my current state, Michelle looked at me with curiosity, then it turned into fear.

“Who taught you that word…?” My blank face caused her to tremble, her feet slowly backing away from my unnerving presence.

“E-Elder Brother M-Maxim d-did…” She stuttered out her answer as she trembled.

Hearing everything I needed, I turned away from my shivering twin sister and walked.

Maxim’s days are numbered.

[][][][][][][][][][][][][][]

A few more months passed and finally… Finally, I can fight Father while getting hits on him. The GOOD, CLEAN hits he spoke about, not those that were blocked.

Also, Maxim had his due punishment for teaching the innocent Michelle the word sadist.

By giving him to my sadist older sister, of course.

Ahh… His screams were glorious that day… Shame there are no voice recorders in this world.

Anyway, my body, despite being that of a seven-year old, was now strong enough to fight against those twice my age who had no training. That included Maxim, who only had little training in the fighting department.

Most of his training… Or studies, is what I like to call, are focused on politics, economy, and management. He is the heir of the Drismond noble family, after all.

And now, here I was, taking extra studies in the department of magic, with Michelle. Our teacher was none other than Mother, who was strict as hell like father in training me with the sword.

“Now, Magic,” she opens her right palm and let a blue flame float over it, “Is a phenomenon where a person uses the magic particles stored inside his/her body to create miracles.”

She then waves her hand, turning the blue flame into clear water in a split-second.

“Ranging from the world’s natural elements; Earth, Fire, Water, Wind, and the advance elements; Space, and Time.” She let the water change into different elements as she counted each element with her mouth. “Natural elements are the basics a starting mage should go over.”

“Moreover,” she smacked the teaching stick she had on the blackboard behind her, causing us twin siblings to flinch, “A mage has his/her specialty, or affinity. Your affinity determines whether that element you are learning will be easy, or hard.”

“No magic can not be learned.” She states this with surprising force. “Only the will of the mage is essential when learning magic, talent be damned.”

Her curse brought a raied eyebrow from me.

‘Is she speaking about this from experience…? Well, she is the possibly strongest mage in the kingdom, so yes… Yes, she might be speaking from experience.’ I mentally kicked myself for that stupid thought.

“Now, to use magic, however, is more complicated than doing Mathematics.” Michelle had her jaw drop in horror upon hearing the word [Mathematics]. “Firstly, to successfully use magic, the mage must have imagination. Imagination, is the basis of all spells.”

I nod at that. Magic can’t take form if a mage can’t even imagine how would the spell would look like.

“Next, the calculations.” This got Michelle to drop her jaw even further in horror.

‘Look, twin sister of mine, I know you’re horrible at math, but at least magic isn’t dealing with numbers.’

“How far will it travel? How big would it be? How strong? Will it spin? Will it float? Or just sink? What shape? When will it release? Those are some of the questions used when using a spell.” Mother said with a cool tone.

‘… I stand corrected. Twin sister, I wish you luck.’

Sticking her in my prayers, I chuckle slightly as Michelle slowly lost her soul in the process of this lecture.

“Lastly, the magic particles, or in this case, your container.” Mother poked the stick at my chest. “Depending on the person, the container they have inside their body will either be small, average, or large. Of course, the larger your container, the better.”

Michelle bumped back up from her soulless state. Watching her go through these phases is kinda funny, actually.

“Now, this is where talent and luck come into place.” Mother said bitterly as I frowned.

‘I thought talent was not really a major part of learning magic…?’

“Now, when I said earlier talent doesn’t really help in the long run, I mean it.” Mother sat at her chair with a scowl. “Who cares if you have talent, if you’re not willing to put in the work.”

I nod at that. Talent or not, hard work will still come above. Of course, talent with hard work will always reign supreme. Screw those guys who think hard work is all that is needed to surpass a talented guy.

“Where the luck factors is how large your container is when you are born.” She said, back to her professor attitude. “Talent, however, is crucial in the enlarging process of your container.”

“Talented mages will always have larger containers than most. They will also have a better time at casting spells because they have a lot of magic particles to spare.” She stood back up and approached us two, a smile on her face. “And you, Michelle, are a lucky girl to be born with a large container.”

Michelle beamed at the thought of being able to use magic a lot of times. I chuckled at that display.

“However, Michael, you on the other hand…” Mother’s smile turned into a frown. Seeing this, I gulped, and Michelle’s beaming smile turned upside down. “Have a tiny container that would prove incredibly difficult to store magic particles in.”

My thoughts grinded to a halt…

‘So… I can’t use magic…?’

Beside me, Michelle shimmied in closer and gave me a hug.

“Don’t worry! Mike will be able to use magic! I’ll teach you everything!” Her smile reversed my frown.

“Thanks, Mich.” I patted her head and snuggled in closer. Mother had this warm look in her face the whole time me and Michelle hugged.

‘Who cares if I can’t use magic. I have my body, and I’ll be damned if I let the kidnapping incident happen again to my sister.’