Chapter 5 – Magic Books

This is it. This is the day. Today I will make history.

I check where mother ad farther are. Mother is preparing supper in the kitchen and father is reading a book at the dining table. Winter is almost over but days are still short so father is home early.

I prepare myself and stand up quietly. Alright. Now I only have to make a few steps and surprise them. Mufufuu. I can already see theirs shocked faces. I start walking and call mom.

“Mom”

She turns to me and make a surprised face. I was hoping for something more dramatic but whatever.

“Honey look, Kris is walking.”

Father finally put his book on the table and looks at me.

“Oh, you’re right. He’s finally walking. I was starting to think that he may be a bit retarded but he’s just slow I guess.”

With these words he resume to read.

Ehhhhhhhhhhhhhh!? Just that!? What’s with this reaction? And did he just said I’m retarded!? Why I was holding back until I’m fifteen months old!? I tried to act like a child so they won’t think I’m some kind of demon but it looks like I overdid it. Haaaaaa. I feel tired for some reason.

“Oh don’t listen to him Kris. Show me how you walk and come to me.”

She wiped her hand on her apron and reach to me.

I’m still a bit downhearted but I walk to her and she picks me up. She gives father a sharp glare.

“Let’s ignore that jerk at the table and prepare supper together. Today I will make your favorite dish.”

She seats me on the sideboard and start peeling some green vegetables. I hope it’s not what I think it is. But damn it, it looks like I was wrong about baby growth. I always thought that babies start to walk and talk when they are around two years old. It’s clearly wrong. At least in this world. So, if walking was ok then talking should be ok too right? Let’s give it a try.

“Papa is an idiot.”

Just as these words leave my mouth I hear a thud of a book falling on the table. Hohhoo. Nice effect.

“S- Sonny?”

Should I give him another push?

“I hate papa.”

He stand up with such a force that the chair he was sitting on topple over. He rush to me with tears in his eyes and grab my hand.

“Papa didn’t want to say are retarded.”

I try to make a puppy eyes with an sad expression.

“Really?”

“Really, really.”

He nod a few time as he say this.

I maintain my puppy eyes. I can’t waste such an occasion.

“So will papa show me his workroom?”

“Of course I will! Let’s go immediately.”

He pick me up and we go to the workroom. Somehow the fact that I can speak so fluently out of nowhere went unnoticed. Ok, maybe not so unnoticed. Mother was staring at us with her eyes wide open all this time.

Father go up the stairs and we enter his workroom. In the room there’s only a small desk and bookshelves full of books. Finally! Finally I will read books about magic. Father talk about what he usually do here but I don’t listen to him. All I can think about right now is magic so I ask him.

“Where are magic books?”

“Magic books? I don’t have any magic books here. There are only accounting books.”

Whaaaaaaaaaaaaat!? There’s no magic books here? Why!? No, wait. In the first place why did I even assumed that there are magic books here? No one in our family is a mage so there’s no reason for us to have magic books. I’m an idiot. Energy leaves my body as I wonder what to do now. Father notice it and ask me.

“Do you want a magic book Kris?”

“…. Yeah….”

“Then papa will bring you the most colorful magic book he can find tomorrow.”

That’s it! How could I forget. My family deal in book industry. He probably thinks I want to see magic pictures but whatever, even magic books for kids should have some information about magic.

“Really!?”

“Really. Everything for my little sonny.”

“Papa, amazing.”

“HaHa. Of course your papa is amazing.”

We look around the workroom some more and head to the kitchen because it’s time for supper. As we eat mother look at me from time to time. I guess she’s still thinking about how that’s possible I can talk so good out of nowhere. I hope she’ll get over it soon.

Next day father brings me my promised magic book. There are three actually. I take them to my corner of the living room.

Let’s see what we got here.

Book one. ‘Basic magic spells’. Fuck yeah! Looks like I hit a jackpot.

I open the book and see a picture of a fireball and a description below. I stare for a while at the vividly colored fireball and read the description.

‘Fireball, one of the most basic and yet powerful spell beside a simple elemental conversion. The simplest one is created by compressing fire mana into a small ball and surrounding such ball in a thin veil of wind mana so the fire mana won’t disperse when the spell is released. There are as many variations of this basic spell as mages that learns it. Ten words chant is considered an average proficiency.’

I check rest of the book but there’s nothing new. On every page is the same thing. Spell picture, name, theory and what’s considered average proficiency. Useful book if I only knew how to use mana. I put it away for now and take the second book.

‘Bestiary of Reiran magic beasts’. Hmmm. Not exactly a book about magic but whatever. I open it at random page and see a picture of some kind of mutated dog.

‘Howling Wolf. The most common magic beast found in howling forest. Adult males can grow five meters long and two meters tall. Good wind affinity. Its most characteristic trait is a hollow horn on its forehead that produce a howling sound when it run. Then it attacks it will stab the victim with its horn and quickly retreat. Dangerous in packs.’

That’s some nasty wolf. Overall interesting book when you want to have nightmares at night. Seriously father, how can you give me such a book? I retort to father in my mind as I close this book and open third book.

‘Mana’ That’s short. I hope it will tell me how to use it. This time there’s almost no pictures.

‘Mana is an omnipresent force that exist everywhere in the world. We can distinguish two major types of mana. Nature mana and personal mana. Nature mana is present in every non-living thing in the world, also in the air. It’s composed of every possible elemental mana but in some places one element can be stronger than others. Personal mana on the other hand is present only in living beings. It’s non-elemental but can be easily converted into any kind of elemental mana and also can convert nature mana into desired element if released beyond one’s body. Efficiency of conversion highly depends on one’s elemental affinity. Personal mana is located in the mana core that is strongly bound to one’s soul.’

So far so good. The only problem is that I don’t feel that mana at all. I hope there’s more on the other page. I shift the page and start reading again.

‘Mana can be only sensed and used when one’s soul is completely settle in one’s body. For most of the sentient races it’s at the age of five.’

Damn it. I jinxed it. It looks like I won’t be able to use magic at all until I’m five years old. I skim through the rest of the book but there’s only a list of known elements and their short descriptions.

Looks like my days as a powerful mage are still far in the future.