The next day, just before sunrise, I was resting peacefully in my new room when I think I heard someone come in. I didn't care, though. I had never slept in an actual bed before. It was amazing and I didn't want to leave.

"...Get up..." I head a voice say. Nah, I want to sleep some more.

"Get up," it said again. Just go away already...

"GET UP!" *THWACK!*

"OWW!" I yelled in pain. "That hurt!"

I quickly sat up rubbing a new lump on my head. Roland was standing there with a wooden sword in his hand. That must be what he hit me with. He wasn't wearing his usual royal guard uniform either. It looked like some kind of leather thing with pads sewn in all over it. The maid was carrying a wooden sword, too. She also had another set of that leather clothing stuff... a much smaller set.

… Yeah, that's not happening.

I quickly got up, ran to the open window and tried to dive through. But Roland grabbed my collar from behind right as I jumped.

"Damn your reflexes!" I cursed at him.

Roland completely ignored my outburst and started dragging me out of the room against my will.

"I was thinking-," he began.

"Hope you didn't hurt yourself," I said. I thought it was funny, but he whacked me on the head with the sword again for that.

He started back up again like nothing happened and said, "Your swordsmanship when you fought that basilisk was awful."

"Of course it was, I'm ten!" I complained. That earned me another whack.

"That's not an excuse. Monsters in this world don't care what your age is and neither do I," he said.

"I don't care that you don't care..." I grumbled quietly. He whacked me one more time and forced me into that weird leather suit. After that he shoved me outside into the garden. There was some light, but the sun wasn't completely up yet and standing in the shadow of the mansion was freezing cold.

"So, why are we doing this?" I asked.

"If you're going to live in my house that means you're going to be associated with my name. Therefore, I will not have you embarrass me with that horrible swordsmanship," he said with a glare.

"This coming from the guy who had his sword knocked out of his hands at the beginning of the fight," I said. Yup, another whack. He didn't try to deny it, though. He tossed the other sword to me and I fumbled to grab it with my freezing cold hands.

"First, let's see what you're capable of. Although, I'm sure it's worthless," he said, mocking me.

I wasn't going to let him make me angry. But I still took a swing at him anyway. I tried to hit him in the gut, but he just knocked the sword away easily and looked at me like I had insulted him somehow.

"Is that your best? Really? I didn't think you were this pathetic," he said as he shook his head.

Okay, that pissed me off. I was going to hit him even if it took me all day. I swung from the left, the right, above, below and everything in between. Again and again, I struck, but every single time, he knocked it away like it was nothing. And that smug grin on his face. He was making a fool out of me. It really pissed me off!

I started putting my whole body into it and swinging as hard as I could. I wasn't even thinking anymore; I just wanted to crush him! Stab, chop, slash, chop, I tried everything I could and nothing was working. It was infuriating!

"HAAAAAAH!" I yelled as I took the biggest swing yet and I heard a huge crack! But I still didn't hit him. All I did was break my sword. His didn't even look all that damaged!

He started talking but I didn't listen to what he was about to say. I jumped right into him and slammed my fist into his gut. He went flying backwards a bit and landed flat on his back. His sword flew into the air, then stabbed into the ground next to him.

"Just because my sword broke doesn't mean the fight is over!" I yelled at him.

"Okay, fine! I don't need a sword to beat you!" he yelled back as he stood up and charged.

"Bring it on, old man!" I challenged as I ran up to him and we flew into fist fight.

"Hey Daddy! Fen! Breakfast is ready and-" Milena called but stopped short when she saw us fighting.

Both of us weren't paying attention at all and were completely focused on beating the crap out of each other.

"U-um... Daddy? Fen? Guys?" she called again trying to get our attention. Still no luck.

I rushed underneath his arms and punched him in the chin with a jumping uppercut. He responded by gripping both his hands together and slamming them down on my head! As soon as I regained my balance, I kicked him in the shin. So he punched me in the face. There were kicks, punches, low blows... I even bit him at one point. It was an all out brawl.

Milena got fed up at this point and yelled, "WILL YOU TWO IDIOTS STOP IT!?"

Right at that moment, our whole world turned white. Or at least it looked that way. Both Roland and I were completely frozen in place. If you could freeze an explosion solid, that's probably what it would look like.

"Hmph... boys are stupid. I thought you were better than that, Daddy. You too, Fen," she said with a huff. Then she started walking off!

"W-w-w-wait! Milena! S-s-sweetie? C-c-come on, g-g-get us out of here!" Roland called after her.

I couldn't say anything because my mouth was still chomped down on his leg. Roland could get us out himself, but he had to use a really weak spell in order to keep from burning us both. It took a while, but we eventually got out. After we managed to get ourselves thawed out, we went inside and had breakfast.

It was really quiet and no one talked. Roland seemed really embarrassed and Milena was still mad at him. I didn't think I did anything wrong, though. So, I just shoveled the food down without a word.

After breakfast, Roland went off to work. But just as I thought of it, I realized I had no idea what the Captain of the Royal Guard actually does. As far as I knew all he really did was chase me around all day. With me under house arrest, what'll he do now? I also started to wonder what the guys back in the slums were doing.

Milena broke me out of my thoughts and brought me to the living room. She opened a box on the dresser and took out a really small stone. It was round and crystal clear. I held it up to my eye and tried to look through it, but was surprised to find out that I couldn't. It was really weird.

"What's this thing?" I asked.

"It's a mana stone. Normally you'd use mana manipulation to store extra mana in it for emergencies," she said. "But tiny ones like this can't store much, so we use it for something else."

I was pretty interested when she said it was a mana stone. Is she going to teach me something about magic?

"So... what do you use it for then?" I asked.

"You can use it to find out what your affinity is. Small ones like this get filled up really quickly. When you try to keep filling it when it's already full, it will overflow and start glowing and letting off energy related to your affinity. Daddy's is fire and mine..." she said, hesitating at the last part.

I was polite and let her finish when she was ready.

"Mine is ice, just like my mother. I was two when she died, so I don't know much about her. I can't even remember her face. But... but having the same affinity as my mother helps me keep a small part of her with me all the time," she said with a smile. But it was one of those fake smiles that people make when they're trying to hide that they're hurting inside. I hate those kinds of smiles.

I didn't know what I could say to her. So I just said whatever popped into my head at the moment.

"I have no idea who my parents were," I started. "I was just dumped here in this city when I was somewhere around four years old. I can't remember anything before that. So, I can't say that I know what you're feeling when you say you've forgotten your mother. But I do know what it's like knowing that there's someone who should be there, but isn't."

There's that fuzzy feeling again. Seriously, what is that? But what I said seemed to help because she gave a real smile this time.

"Thanks, Fen," she said.

"I didn't really do anything, though," I replied while confused.

She giggled at that, even though I have no idea what's so funny. Girls are confusing.

"Well, anyway, I used this to figure out my affinity. Just keep using it to practice mana manipulation until you can manage to make it glow. After that, Daddy can teach you some basic spells. But since his affinity and mine don't match, he couldn't teach me anything advanced," she explained.

"So if it's not fire, then I'll have to wait until we go to the academy to learn the big stuff, right?" I asked.

"That's right!" she answered. "Although there are some spells you can use where it doesn't matter what affinity you are. Like shield spells. So we can learn those just fine. But right now, you just need to learn mana manipulation, so practice, practice, practice," she said.

"How long did it take you to make it glow?" I asked.

"About three months," she replied.

Ugh... this is going to suck. But that's what my first day was like. This became the pattern I would follow for the next two years. Early in the morning I'd have sword practice with Roland. Then breakfast, followed by magic practice with Milena. I say it was with her, but it was actually just me staring at that rock, trying to make it glow. Meanwhile, all she did was grab my tail every time I wasn't paying attention to her. Wait a sec... wasn't she supposed to be practicing her reading? Eventually, I gave up trying to stop her and ignored her so I could focus on the stone.

Three months went by and I still couldn't make that thing glow. I was getting better with swords. (Not that Roland would ever admit it). But I just wasn't making progress with magic. Milena reassured me saying that she was an exception with the three month thing. Most kids take much longer than that. So I kept at it. It wasn't much longer after that when Roland totally ruined my day with one little tidbit of information.

"There's no guarantee that wulvari even can use magic in the first place, you know," he said. I punched him in the face immediately after that and it wasn't long until we were stuck in a large ice crystal again.

I'm not going to give up just because of something he said. It's just because no wulvari has done it before, that's all! I'm sure of it! I kept at it every single day after that. Every moment I was awake I was concentrating on that thing whenever I could. I even took it to bed with me. I tried everything.

Time flew by and eventually it was time for Milena and I to go to the academy. Great. Not only am I the first wulvari to attend the academy. I'm also the first kid to go who has no idea what his affinity is... If I have one at all.