A couple of minutes later, Dad and Sam brought out three dummies made of logs arranged into human-like figures that the former used for his hunting classes and my training. One could see how much they had been through from the cuts, scrapes, and marks from a variety of spells and weapons. Speaking of weapons, Seal took the privilege of bringing Agnes’ practice sword she left behind back inside someplace for her to pick it up after she was done settling down and cleaning her ‘mess.’

Since this would be the first time Fila would be casting magic and learning her affinity, she was going first. She and I stood a couple of yards away from the dummies in front of us. Onelri and the adults were watching from behind.

“All right, Fila, first we’ll see what affinity you have. Do you know what the existing elements in magic are?” I asked while I was next to her.

“They sort of represent colors to a rainbow: fire for red, earth for orange, light for yellow, wind for green, water for blue, and darkness for purple.”

“Very good. Have you ever attempted to cast magic before?”

“I tried saying exactly what Mama chanted with her light magic once for the Illumination spell, but nothing happened.”

“All right, that rules out Light Magic, then. Chanting may play some part in how spells are cast, but when you just say the words without thinking of anything, you won’t get much output if you have an affinity with it. If nothing appeared, that just means that element isn’t what you’re capable to pull off.”

“I think I get it …”

“Now, we could say whatever words come to mind that’s related to a specific element and see if something happens, that’s usually how people find out what their affinity is, but if you don’t know what you’re thinking of along with the meaning of your words, the result might not even be distinguishable to the eyes. Not to mention, some have even injured themselves because they couldn’t focus clearly.”

“P-People can even hurt themselves with their own magic? I don’t really want that …” Fila shivered a little at the thought.

“Definitely, so we’re going to try something different without causing any injury. Are you ready?”

“I’ll follow whatever you say, Soar,” she answered with a firm nod.

“First, close your eyes. Take slow, deep breaths. In through the nose, and out of the mouth. Think of filling your stomach with air like a paper bag before blowing it all out, relax your shoulders and try not to let it rise to a shrug. Just focus on breathing for a bit. Now, take notice of what’s happening in your body. Do you feel tense or stiff in some places? Lightly shake them off until you feel your whole body is relaxed and loose with no distractions.”

“This feels really … nice. I can almost feel the wind kissing my cheek, and I can even hear our hearts in sync.”

“Good. Focus on your own heartbeat and follow its beats inside yourself, like you’re walking in a dark hallway and tracking the sound of whispers. Keep the breathing steady and in rhythm. Even though it’s dark and you can’t see, you’re not alone, because your heart is your guide. You’re following its beat to the light that shines in your chest. Keep your breathing steady. Can you see the light?”

“I … think so.”

Hushed whispers were heard in the background.

“Can you describe it to me? What do you see in that light? Can you feel anything from it?”

“It’s … orange. I can feel warmth in my chest. I’m not tensing anything in my body, but the more this orange light surrounds me, I feel … strong, like even if something dangerous approaches me, I can keep calm, because the light wants to help me protect Mama and those dear to me.”

“Fila … hold onto that feeling, slowly open your eyes, and look at yourself.”

“… ?!” Fila complied and was startled at what she saw. Everyone around us was in shock as they saw the young bunny girl in front of me glowing a radiant orange. “Um … Soar?”

“This is it, without a shadow of a doubt. Fila, with this glow and the feelings you felt from that light, it’s now clear. You have an affinity to earth. Your specialty is Earth Magic.”

“My affinity … is earth?”

“Yes. Now, while your magic is drawn out to this extent, let’s have you cast your first spell.”

“But I don’t know any Earth Spells, or what chants to follow them.”

“You honestly don’t need to know a lot if we’re doing something basic. My dad’s specialty is Earth Magic as well, so I know a few spells from watching him alone. You ready?”

“Y-Yes! Definitely!”

“We’re going to try the basic Earth Magic spell, Rock Shot. To put it simply, you’re really conjuring a rock to hit your target.”

“… Couldn’t I just pick up a rock and throw at it on my own without magic?” she asked with a quirked brow.

“You could, but since you’ll be making the rock yourself with magic, you will throw it at harder forces with more oomph than just using your arm alone.”

“I guess it sounds better when you put it that way.”

“Now, rocks are really tightly packed, condensed bunches of sand, so we want to take some sand and really squeeze it all nice and hard.”

“Like a snowball, but with sand?”

“Right! I want you to make an image of that in your mind as you set your eyes on that dummy over there. Call it out in your mind that you want to make a rock as tight, hard, and tough as steel.”

Fila nodded and concentrated with both hands in front of her. Within seconds, many grains of sand and earth appear and swirl together until it made a jagged, misshapen rock that hovers in place.

“Good! Now, when you’re ready, focus your aim at that dummy and scream ‘Rock Shot’ in your head!”

Not a second later the misshapen rock hurtled toward the dummy in the middle at an incredible speed, striking towards the head before the projectile practically exploded to pieces on impact, leaving a small indent in the wood. The orange glow that was surrounding her body faded away immediately afterward.

“You did it, Fila! You just cast Rock Shot without chanting it aloud!”

“… I did?”

“You did!”

“I cast it without voicing it like you have?”

“You did!”

“I did it … I really did it,” Fila repeated before her eyes got sparkly when the realization hit her. To my surprise, she wrapped her arms around me hopped in place like an excited rabbit. “I did it, Soar! I can cast magic! Mama! Did you see that?! I used magic!”

“I saw! I saw!” Flomi exclaimed as she rushed over and suddenly wrapped both of us in her arms. “I’m so proud and happy for you, Fila! And Soar, thank you so much for helping her! You’re a wonderful teacher!”

“Um … my pleasure.” I was a bit distracted by Flomi’s chest that trumped Lilia’s and Ms. Renne’s pressing against me. Being small really did have its own perks for me, for sure. Off of my peripheral, I saw one of the few passing Earth Fairies staring at Fila in awe. She looked to have watched the whole thing herself.

Looks like you might have a Fairy Companion soon, Fila. Good for you, I thought as the feeling of accomplishment as a teacher for a brief time filled me with content. Next to that Earth Fairy, however, was another one who was staring at me, but I didn’t notice her gaze at that time.

“For her first time, too. It could still use some work, but it was definitely impressive. Wouldn’t you say, Gullivan?” Lilia asked Dad.

“Aye. Speaking as an Earth Magic specialist myself, not even I was that good when I was around her age. If a teacher like Soar continued to supervise her growth, I have a feeling she may surpass me at some point in the near future.”

“Soar! Could you teach me more magic, please?!” Fila asked with sparkling eyes filled with hope.

“Uh … well—”

“Hold it,” Onelri said, cutting into the moment. “I hope nobody forgot that I was appointed as Soar’s disciple first.”

“I never agreed to that.”

“Regardless, if Soar really is offering to teach magic, then I have as much right and am even more qualified to receive his teachings and I will prove it to you all right now. Please, step aside and observe.”

Flomi, Fila, and I looked at each other and shrugged before obliging.

Onelri took our spot and cleared her throat. “First, some things about me. It is true that my aptitude is A rank, and if you know a little of us dark elves already, you know that Darkness Magic is one of our stronger points in magic, that much is true. I am also capable of Water Magic, both of which I will now demonstrate to you … taking what I heard from Soar’s explanation in mind.”

Like Fila, Onelri followed the procedures down to the letter, the breathing, the loosening of joints, and the concentration. Soon enough, her body radiated with purple and blue-colored lights, and moments later, a head-sized ball of purplish-black matter appeared on her left, a Dark Ball, one of the basic Darkness Magic spells, that she quickly shot at the leftmost dummy, hitting it with such force that it gets knocked over while the spell followed through its trajectory.

The audience was in awe at the display and the parents of the caster applauded. From the look of Onelri’s surprised face, even she didn’t expect how effective that was, but shook herself off and continued the demonstration. She conjured a condensed, perfect sphere of water the size of a fist that hovered in place on her right. That was the basic Water Magic spell called Bubble Blast, which I must formally complain that the name is inaccurate to what it actually was, but I digress.

Onelri then hurtled that ball of water toward the rightmost dummy’s head, splashing on impact with such a powerful force that the inanimate target also got knocked over like her first spell. The audience’s reaction at that time was about the same.

“Very impressive, Onelri! It looks like listening to Soar’s explanation was quite the payoff, huh?” Lilia asked.

“I only took the visualization of condensing my spells into consideration as I chanted them in my mind, but as you can see, I have a lot more control with my magic than most other dark elves around the same age, and I have not even made a contract yet. What do you think, Soar?”

“I thought it was great! Compared to Rock Shot, Dark Ball and Bubble Blast are a little more difficult trying to think about what makes them up as a whole, so being able to do that much after making whatever changes you had to make from before was amazing. Plus, casting those spells at such speeds without chanting it aloud is also an impressive feat.”

“You were really cool, Onelri! You looked like a real magic specialist back there! A professional Magician, and with Soar’s help, who knows how much better you’ll be?! I’m sure you’ll make a contract with a fairy soon enough, too!” Fila exclaimed in excitement.

It looked like Onelri was not used to receiving such praises, more so from Fila than me, and so she averted her gaze and scratched her reddened cheek. “Um … thanks.”

Dad and Sam took a few moments to set the knocked down dummies back up as Lilia approached me. “Well, Soar, I guess that leaves you—”

“Hold it!”

Oh, god, what does she want now? I thought as we all turned back to the source of that annoying voice. Her scarlet eyes were puffy and reddened in the scleras from the bawling a while ago, and at a glance downward, the stain that was between her legs was gone. Agnes had not only calmed down, but it was likely she changed into a clean pair of trousers and underwear provided by Melissa who stood behind her.

“We have not settled our match yet! I did not admit defeat! I was just … in a state of emergency to put our match on hold!” Agnes argued.

“Quite the messy emergency from what we saw,” Onelri whispered to Fila before both of them snickered. Agnes’ glare didn’t really faze them at all.

“We will continue where we left off, but before that, since everyone is playing with their weak spells, I thought I should show you all what real magic is. As a noble with S rank aptitude, it is a given that my magic would be superior.”

“S rank, huh …” Lilia said while not sounding impressed before she glanced my way. She didn’t explicitly ask me, but her eyes spoke enough already.

I only shrugged and shook my head in response. “Might as well humor her, I don’t think she’d let up, otherwise,” I answered.

Agnes wasn’t lying, though. I saw it the moment I first saw her mana aura at the front door that she had the same aptitude rank as me. I was just too peeved at her to really pay that much attention, and after winning the first round in the sword spar with such fashion, she wouldn’t stand out to me even if her rank was somehow higher than mine.

Regardless, we all stepped aside and made room for Agnes to take the stage next, whether or not we asked for it.

“My affinity is fire, by the way. I had formed a contract with a Fire Fairy I named Flicker 1 year ago, and so my power may be affected because of that. I will now cast Ember Flare for my demonstration.”

She took a deep breath and closed her eyes while her Fire Fairy whispered some things in her ear. “Breaths. Loose joints. Sound of heartbeats …” Agnes muttered.

It seemed while Agnes was absent, her fairy stood in for her to watch the earlier demonstrations before relaying what she observed to her Chaperone. Since I was paying attention to Fila, I didn’t even notice she was there.

Agnes must have picked it up quickly as her body started glowing a bright red, but it was more brilliant than the other girls’. The moment of surprise on her face confirmed that suspicion more so, but she relaxed quick enough to not let it dwell long enough to show. She stuck a hand out in front of her to prepare her spell, and what appeared surprised us, even me.

“A yellow flame?” Mom asked.

“The average Fire Magician’s flame in their spells is usually red. One having a yellow flame instead means this is Advanced Fire Magic, upping the heat power in the caster’s usual spells,” Lilia explained.

What she said was true. There are advanced forms in the 6 existing elements of magic that make each of them stand out as their own power. Casting ice of any form, for example, is referred as Advanced Water Magic, which showed how capable Lilia was in casting Ice Prison, and Dad would use Advanced Earth Magic by bending and manipulating metal and steel. I think I mentioned Dark Gate was an advanced spell, too, but I like to think that is one of the lower tiers of Advanced Darkness Magic one is capable to pull off compared to other things one can also do with it, such as reducing the force of gravity acting on an object to make it lighter than it appeared.

With Agnes’ yellow flame, she cast her basic Fire Magic spell, Ember Flare, at the rightmost dummy that Onelri hit with her Bubble Blast earlier. The water that soaked the wood would’ve dampened the spell’s effects. Since yellow flames are hotter than red ones, though, either the liquid didn’t get deep into the wood enough or it evaporated quickly, because the dummy spontaneously combusted with a great pillar of fire for a brief moment. It sent a heatwave that passed us before the dummy was getting burnt with an orangish-yellow flame.

“Whoa …” Onelri said as she and the others looked at the burning dummy with awe.

Only Seal, Agnes, and her butler Wilfred were unfazed at the development out of everyone else. Instead of watching her own work though, Agnes turned her eyes to lock on mine.

“…”

“…”

I could practically hear the ‘jiiii’ in Agnes’ stare as that along with the silence was starting to annoy me.

Was she expecting me to say something like I had with the other two? Well, there was something I needed to bring up, anyway. “First off, someone should put out that fire before it spreads,” I pointed out.

“Oh! Right! I’m on it!” Lilia made quick work of putting it out with her Water Magic.

“Agnes, may I ask you a few things?”

“Lady Agnes, but what do you want to ask?”

“Do you know what fire is and why it burns? Like how it was with that dummy, for example?”

Agnes expressed confusion as she tilted her head to the side.

Right, should’ve expected that. Even Ms. Renne was stumped when I asked her those same questions. “Let me ask a different question, then. Do you know how people made fire if they didn’t have its magic or a fairy helping them?”

“Da—… I mean, Father taught me once during my training in the outdoors, should I not have efficient enough mana to make a fire with magic. We set up a circle of rocks, he piled some dry sticks and wood in the middle along with some grass and leaves. He took flint rocks and made sparks with them until they lit the leaves, which later grew to set the sticks aflame.”

“Do you know why that happened?”

“… Of course, I do. It is just so easy that I would rather not waste my breath on an uneducated commoner who would not understand something so simple, anyway.”

“Which means she actually does not know why,” Onelri rebutted. Agnes stiffened up from Onelri’s on-point accusation.

“I don’t know what Soar meant by that question, either. Do you, Onelri?” Fila asked.

“Not a clue. Compared to Agnes, I can admit that much, at least.”

“Lady Agnes! Refer to nobility properly!”

Is it possible she just made the flames yellow by forming it differently from others by coincidence? Is there a gift that might boost one’s Fire Magic enough to make that effect easier for the caster? Well, I’m only speculating. At this point, even if they’re one of nobility, I should assume the majority if not everyone in this world doesn’t know as much about the basics of science as I could fathom. Sure, they’re able to craft weapons, build ships that float on waters, and even have a sort of plumbing system, but if it weren’t for the assistance of fairies and magic, civilization may have had come across those things on happenstance and accident, made use of it to their fullest extent, and tried to improve them with trial and error. That was my theory on how some of the things in Manara’s civilization came to be as I observed everything with a scientific perspective over the eleven years of my new life in that world.

That was before I had my Great Sage gift, though, which brought me to asking Mona that same question.

Mona, can you tell me how fire is made and why it burns?

Yes! That’s just what I wanted to hear! A bit oversimplified, but definitely a start! Oh, Mona, I could kiss you for how much I love you right now!

“Th-That doesn’t matter, anyway! More importantly, what do you think, Soar? Are you in awe of a noble’s magical prowess?” Agnes asked while puffing her chest.

“Huh? Oh, right.” Agnes’ question snapped me out of my train of thought and I cleared my throat. “Uh, yeah, your Ember Flare was very nice and powerful. I’m impressed.”

“… Is that it?”

“That’s it.”

“Nothing else to say?”

“What else were you even expecting?”

“W-Whatever! Just try and top that performance and realize why I am superior!” Agnes then turned herself away but I didn’t help but notice she looked to be sulking a little. Her Fire Fairy, Flicker, looked to have known what she was going through and patted her back in comfort.

… Sheesh, no matter their background, I could never understand kids.

After Lilia extinguished the fire, leaving the dummy blackened in some parts, I was the last to showcase my own demonstration, showing how far I had gone in my magic training, which was the main point of this test before the girls decided to try it out at the last minute. I stood by myself some yards away from the dummies while the rest kept their distance in the audience. I couldn’t help but feel Agnes really judging me with her eyes from behind.

Ms. Renne was the first to know of my S Rank magic aptitude before Mom and Dad followed. They were also the first to know of me being able to use three magic elements, but Dad advised I should only reveal two of those three, my Wind and Darkness Magic, to his former hunter party and public. Unless one or all of them leaked any of that info to anybody, Fila, Onelri, and their families came along and had become the first to know of my aptitude rank, three magic elements, and contract with three fairies before the latter two became four by the end of last night. Not only that, even when I only used the Wind Needle spell to attack the bandits last night before switching to blades, it was drastically different when my Sage gift evolved to Great Sage. Then there was Breezy along with my other Companions who had received the power of the fairies after their bandit Chaperones died. Let’s not forget my increased rank in intelligence and magic in my Status Card from S to EX, too. That would mean my Wind Needle along with all other Wind spells, heck, the entirety of my magic arsenal had received one hell of a boost. Other than conjuring Dark Gate with better ease to drop off the girls’ families at Brightlas last night, I had yet to try it out before the next morning.

I wanted to avoid receiving suspicion. Avoid the possibility of Melissa relaying what she saw that day to the knight general of the Reskondant Kingdom’s guard and attract the wrong attention, but the stress that I endured the night before, the verbal abuse I received from an ignorant, spoiled brat, trying to keep all of those secrets about my magic and fairies to myself all of that time, they were pushing me to the brink of the edge.

This is starting to get ridiculous. Just how far will she go to try and show me up? Why doesn’t she see I don’t want anything to do with her? I thought that duel would be enough to scare her off but she’s grasping straws at what she could beat me in at this point. I’m getting tired of it. Tired of putting up with this spoiled brat messing up my day. Tired of all the damn labels slapped on me for not wanting to participate in their pointless shit. Tired of needing to hold back just because I’m worried about how people would see and treat me. Would it be any different as it is right now? Would they leave me alone if I shut them up by showing them what I could really do?

… I have yet to try out my powered-up magic after all of the boosts I gained from last night. Perhaps I’ll take this opportunity to let loose a little and really blow them all away.

From that, a decision was made, not realizing how powerful my EX rank magic from my Status Card really was.

First, I asked my Companions telepathically to move away from my location as far as possible while still being able to see me. This is because a fairy’s influence can increase a Chaperone’s magic output just from their proximity. Even then, I was told that 10% of a Companion’s full power is shared with their Chaperone if they aren’t actively lending it to them no matter how far they are from each other, so that much couldn’t be helped.

The other was how I had cast magic in these tests up to then. To prove I was getting better, I only used the same percentage of my full power in my demonstrations: 50%. That’s what it was from the start, but then I started noticing how much I was improving and how ridiculous my power output was, and so I had to decrease how much I’d put into it more and more over time while still being able to produce results of training as expected of a kid like myself.

Last night, I had only used 30% to take out those bandits with Wind Needle after my gift upgraded to Great Sage. That was the same I used to take out the game yesterday. With how much of a boost I got last night, I can’t imagine how strong I am now with that same percentage.

… I’m tired of holding myself back. 100% full power, coming up, I decided, along with how I’d present myself to those in my audience, old and new.

I turned to everyone behind me and stood with good posture and formality. “My name is Soar Osmis … my aptitude is ranked S. I will now demonstrate my Wind Needle.”

“What?!” “Rank S?!” Agnes and Melissa exclaimed, but I ignored them and turn back to my target, the dummy in the middle. I took a deep breath and limbered myself up.

Magic. I had done it many times since I came to Manara without chanting to where it had become an extension of myself, more so than when I started getting assistance from my Great Sage gift. That aside, I wouldn’t have gotten close to how I was up to the time before I got it if I hadn’t trained myself every day with my Sage gift and the knowledge I remembered in my past life. Ms. Renne was also helpful in giving the guidance I needed for the magic that’s applied in Manara. As I trained, I thought time and again what I wanted to do with my new life, what I could do with my gifts to make living it easier. I still had no idea as there was so little of the new world I explored so far, but I knew of one thing.

I wanted to be the best I could be in magic, to make something of myself with it and not have my decisions be influenced by outside forces. I wasn’t going to do that just to prove a point, or even for the sake of my new parents who had raised me up to then since my rebirth. I wanted to do it out of my own volitions, and thanks to my Companions, I wanted them to watch and see how much they meant to me as I gave everything I had up to that point.

The next step of my new life will begin from this moment … After that thought passed, I effortlessly conjured 100% of power I can put in my Wind Needle towards the middle wood dummy without much prep time like the girls before me, not even being showy with the light show, either. It’s one thing if you’re focusing more mana and power than usual in a basic spell like Wind Needle, to show your efforts through the magic aura radiating from your body, but in the end, it was still a ‘basic spell.’ Depending on how you control your mana for the input, you could achieve much with less of it than one may think.

Wind Needle is similar to using a blow dart used by hunters from Earth, except building air pressure in the ‘tube’ and the surrounding object—in this case, a compressed, dense piece of ‘air’ shaped into a needle with magic—before creating an opening to release that pressure all at once, sending the object flying.

I practiced those procedures enough over the years to make it all happen instantaneously, and with more mana and power applied to it than normal, one may have seen the ‘flash’ of my magic aura to appear for a brief moment. It was too quick for everyone to even catch a glimpse of what the colors of my magic aura comprised.

A low whistle, then a powerful explosion followed along. I made out some collective screams, but the noise from the explosion was loud enough to drown all of that out.

““…””

Dead silence filled the yard, everyone tried to collect what had just transpired.

… The dummy, and half of the other two, where did it all go? That was the first thing that came to mind as I saw the aftermath of my target. Many shreds and pieces of bark, wood chips, and residue were falling from the air like snow behind where the middle dummy once stood, completely gone after the spell was done. The other two on each side of it had half of their bodies cleaned off. Even the grass as I looked down was wiped out in a wide, straight path with only the dirt and soil from the ground remained. The path of destruction continued until it stopped at a rising hill much further behind the backyard, leaving a crater blown away as it stopped the spell’s onslaught.

The total distance looked to be about 100 feet (~30.5 meters), and the width of the path was about a couple inches short to the inner lines of a tennis court.

When I turned back around, everyone stared at the scene of destruction with awe and other various expressions. That was when I realized I had really done it then. We were at a distance from town, but it was possible some passerby heard the noise as well. Soon, everyone would come to the scene, see what happened, and ask many questions, leading to how strong I had really become to pose a big threat to the town, and I would surely have to face the consequences. That was what I thought, but I wouldn’t run away, not until I knew what my fate would be, but at the moment, I really didn’t want to speak or talk to anyone then.

“… I’ll be in my room.” I could only utter that much before I made my way back inside, ignoring some voices from others to stop me. I invaded Agnes’ personal space along the way as I stopped and slapped a hand on her tiny frail shoulder, giving it enough of a squeeze to make her flinch a little. My eyes must have been filled with disillusion and coldness like dry ice as they locked onto hers.

With that display of power, no matter her age, I wanted her to know what true despair was, to know how I really felt about her with nothing holding me back, to know her place in my eyes no matter if she was a noble or even royalty. Even if she was right in front of me, I would only see her the same as everyone else with similar thoughts as her, and so I whispered …

“You … are nothing to me.”

With that, I lightly shoved Agnes and went inside, the weight of loneliness on my shoulders was ever great as I stepped out from my world of ‘normalcy’ up to that point with no way of ever getting back in it.