The twentieth of the eighth month, that’s today’s date. Tomorrow is my birthday, that means I will get some gifts. The seventh month passed without any other incidents because now people are afraid of doing something that may piss me or Kraft off. It’s not like anybody was desperate enough to break the law, the village was actually one of the few that were populated and connected to the Capital even though it was far from it.

A few days ago I finally discovered a way to control my body enchantment magic for long periods of time but I couldn’t use it on my whole body at once. For example if my hands were enchanted I would have to deactivate it and then use it on my legs. Now I was sparring with Ellen hoping I can get accustomed to the magic and then learn how to use it at full power on my whole body. Sustaining it was easy but using it on different body parts tires me out but wait there’s more, the veins on the affected body part get slightly black and my pupils turn black. The intensity of my body enchantment can be adjusted but it drains more magic that way. The minimal intensity doubles my power defense and speed so for now I don’t need to direct more magic than the minimal.

Ellen came up with a name for my technique, she called it Magic Empowering since it’s completely different from the usual technique. When someone uses enchantment the magic coats the surface of the user’s skin and clothes and produces a glow but in my case the magic empowered my body from the inside, the only noticeable changes being the veins and the pupils changing colors.

The first time I tried it I thought it was OP but it’s not. If I want to hit somebody I have to empower my hand leaving the rest of my body vulnerable and if I want to dodge I lose my attack power. I can empower either my arms or my legs but not both of them at the same time. Ellen told me to learn how to empower different parts of my body as fast as I can and then focus on extending my control.

Besides this I also use magic to permanently strengthen my body every night but I gain little power, better than nothing I suppose, at least it works. Even if my power and speed is doubled I’m still no match for Ellen. The pregnancy affected her more than I realized. Now that she has given birth her powers fully returned and her threat level rose to 7. When I tried to empower my whole body with all my magic at once her level went down to 4 but I could barely see that before I ran out of magic and passed out.

“I don’t know how you can move around in this heat.” Protested Kraft.

It was hot outside, it was summer after all and this region is hot that it rarely snows. Ellen’s body was coated in fire magic so the hot weather wasn’t affecting her and my body was strong enough to resist the heat even if I was sweating.

“I try to concentrate on avoiding getting hit, I don’t have time to pay attention to the heat.”

I hope Ellen retired from being an adventurer or I’m really going to have to ask that god about who’s the one who got reincarnated. My abilities could be detected by my scan but Ellen was simply too strong. I imagine I go and meet the demon lord only to see Ellen sitting on its throne or even better, I fight the demon lord, he beats me and I yell: “I’m telling mother” and then run home.

“Dear, if you have free time, please go and look after Lea.”

“It looks like I’m not needed here.”

Kraft went inside finally leaving me and Ellen alone. I was supposed to spar with her but I can barely dodge her attacks, jokes aside if I didn’t have the polymath ability I wouldn’t even be here right now. It’s because of polymath that I can use Empowering and I can learn Hay’tok.

After some time the mental exhaustion became too strong for me and Ellen decided to stop.

“Ali, go wash yourself.”

“Let me get a change of clothes.”

“Just pour water on you and stay outside until the clothes dry.”

“Wow that is something I didn’t expect.”

“I did that once. I was in school and after a water magic fight our clothes were soaked. Our punishment was to stay outside until our clothes dried, good thing it was summer.”

In the whole Sonne there was a human scarecrow, his name was Alexander Lowe, the kid bathing in sunlight. I don’t know about that water fight but staying like this is boring. I was lucky it was almost midday and it was hot. My clothes dried faster than I expected. When I went inside I saw Mau talking with Ellen. For some reason the baby was crying louder than usual.

“Is something wrong with Lea?”

 “She has a fever. It is not unusual for babies but it usually happens when it’s cold. Healing magic doesn’t very well on infants and your mother doesn’t want to risk using it.”

The one who answered my question was Mau.

“Ali, can you use your power on your sister?”

From what I remember dark transfer worked against wounds and curses but I will give it a try. I put my hand on Lea’s head. She caught a cold, that’s why she has a fever. It’s a good thing Ellen stopped our sparring session otherwise I wouldn’t have enough magic to transfer her cold to me. Curses, wounds and fatigue can be transferred without draining any magic but transferring a disease apparently took a lot of magic. I took Lea’s cold. After the transfer was complete I fell on one knee, I had to use almost all my available magic to transfer that cold so it makes sense I would feel weak.

“Are you alright Ali?”

“I’m just a little tired and now I have a cold.”

“She stopped crying. What did you do to her?”

I guess Ellen didn’t tell Mau about this ability either. Not that she should but this time it couldn’t be helped.

“That was one of Ali’s spells.”

“I haven’t heard of a spell that allows you to take a person’s diseases onto yourself.”

“Miss Mau, please keep this secret.” I had to tell her just to make sure she won’t tell anyone else.

“Ali, you are almost out of magic, go to your room and rest, its better if you rest. Tomorrow is your birthday, it will be disappointing to be sick tomorrow.”

“I understand.”

The cold can be cured with magic but it should be gone by tomorrow either way. If I don’t use magic to cure myself will my body develop a little resistance to common colds?

My birthday arrived, not that I’m expecting much. It couldn’t be said that Ellen and Kraft were rich, Kraft was the one who had a job as a guard and since Ellen was pregnant she stopped working as a healer. If I get to spend the day as usual is good enough for me.

Nothing unusual happened in the morning, Kraft was taking care of Lea and Ellen was sparring with me. Kraft didn’t really care about birthdays, for him it was a reminder that he was getting older. During times like these, Kraft is that kid in the corner that nobody cares about.

When lunchtime arrived Ellen took me with her to the kitchen. The table was full of food and something that looked like a fruit cake. I wish I had a mirror, because I don’t even know what kind of face I should make right now and even if I did I was too shocked to do anything.

“Surprised?” asked Kraft with a big grin on his face.

“Huh? Actually I am. I don’t understand when and how were you able to do all this. The kitchen is clean and the food is still hot.”

“Most of the food was prepared last night and I baked the cake.”

“I really want to know where did you put all this but it doesn’t matter. Can we even finish all this food?”

“Once you start eating I guarantee you won’t be able to stop until you finish all this.”

For once in his life Kraft was right. There was fried chicken, pork, fish and stirred vegetables. The vegetables were prepared by Ellen but I think that Kraft cooked the meat. The meat had a stronger taste than before and I felt I had to eat it all. I ate so much food we had to keep the cake for later.

After I ate it was time for gifts. The first gift was from Ellen, she gave me my watch back.

“I was beginning to worry about it.”

“Why don’t you open it?”

I opened the hunter case and I saw something engraved on it: “Überlebende“.

“I can feel magic coming from it, what is it?”

“I enchanted your watch with magic to increase its magic resistance. The watch isn’t very resistant to magic attacks so I engraved it with my magic. It should be almost indestructible now.”

“What about what’s engraved?”

“That means survivor. I decided that it would be a fitting title for you. You survived the fight as an infant and you survived after getting your arm bit off. You escaped death by using the watch as a shield and considering what it’s made of I thought that you might do it again in the future. If you are fast enough you can block spells with it.”

“There’s a lot of magic coming from it and I can see it can block almost all magic, how much did it cost?”

“The enchantment was made by me. I used the words engraved as a catalyst. The process usually takes a day but I worked a few months on the watch to make it better.”

“I see, thank you for the gift.”

After Ellen finished explaining how she enchanted the watch Kraft came back to the kitchen. He came back but I didn’t see him leaving. He had a jacket and a pair of pants with him.

“Here kid, my gift for you are those clothes.”

“Those are made out of demon wolf hide.”

“The clothes were made using the black wolf’s hide. Because of you I killed the wolf by slicing open his stomach so most of what we could use of it remained intact. Those clothes are almost as durable as iron, they may save you from an arrow or two.”

“Durability aside the clothes look great. The black color isn’t washed-up and they give off a nice vibe.”

“At first I wanted to get you an iron armor but with that “pretty boy” look of yours I thought I might make use of the dead wolf’s pelt. With the way you look you should think about becoming a merchant.”

“I know I’m supposed to tell Kraft to shut up but this time he’s right. You weren’t born to be feared. Even miss Mau said something similar plus the fact that your presence makes people feel safe. Just abuse these traits and you are going to find many people who would be your friends or even something more.”

“Go change your clothes.”

I went to my room and changed my clothes. The pants and jacket were lighter than I thought. They were a little longer but with my growth rate they will soon be a perfect fit.

“How do I look?”

“Like a man who scouts girls for brothels.”

“That’s supposed to be a compliment?”

“Yes it is. It means you are somebody who can attract girls very easy, in your case many girls might come to you.”

“But we need to fix your hair a little. I’m thinking something like a fade cut but a little spiky.”

Ellen has good tastes so I won’t argue with her but until I see how it looks on me I’m not voicing any opinions.

“Can you try cutting my hair, just to see how it looks?”

“With pleasure.”

We spent the time until evening by eating cake and talking about what I should do from now on. Kraft and Ellen decided to send me to a school to make it easier for me to become a scholar if I wanted. The education system in Sonne was simple. Kids between five and eight years are taught the language. After that they have to spend another eight years to complete their education and those who want to become scholars have to take an exam to enter the academy.

Not many kids begin the actual education at the age of eight. The most common age is ten. Ellen said that I may be able to start from the third or fourth year since she taught me many things, some of them being taught in the first, second and third years.

Ellen finished school in five years and immediately tried to become a scholar but couldn’t because she was too young.

“What am I supposed to do?”

“Stay in school for two or three years then ask the headmistress to let you take the graduation exams.”

“I don’t think it’s going to be that easy.”

“The headmistress of the school I’m sending you to was my teacher and I already told her about you. Everything they teach in school is taken from book, just memorise the important books in the school’s library and you will have no problem passing. I’m just telling you what I did, it took me five years to graduate because I hated reading at that time. You can figure out the rest when you get there.”

“When am I supposed to leave?”

“School begins next month so you will leave in nine days. Some apprentice knights from the village will go there and you will go with them.”

“Can you tell me more about the school?”

“It’s a private school in the woods near Cylon city. It’s far from the capital but I guarantee it’s one of the best schools in Sonne.”

“You said that the headmistress was your teacher, was she the one who taught you black magic?”

“Yes, she may know how to solve your problem with dark magic. Those who practice black magic can’t be called good people. One of her acquaintances may be a dark mage.”

“What I don’t understand is how are people supposed to know that you graduated the school?”

“When you graduate you are given a tattoo.”

Ellen showed me the tattoo she had on her arm, an owl with a quill in its mouth. I think that’s a magic tattoo, I don’t think that there are people who can make tattoo that realistic.”

“That’s a magic tattoo you get when you finish school, it’s made using magic ink so it can’t be falsified.”

“It looks nice and it’s easier to have that instead of documents.”

“That was the reason the one who built the school came up with the idea. There are ways to falsify papers but nobody found a way to falsify magic ink. That said, we have nine days to buy some new clothes and take care of your hair.”

So I have nine days left until I leave the house.