It's been a little over 4 years now since I came to this world. After the birth of my little sister. She was stuck to me. She'd never leave my side. As a newborn and now when she cries she always calms down when I'm around or I comfort her. I don't know why. Maybe in the future, once she's older, she can tell me.

I was in the front yard training. Mia was close by looking at me.

I've been doing good on increasing my magic power. I have a lot more mana than before. I can go for hours launching basic spells.

I sat down on the grass to take a break. As I listened to the sounds of nature around me. I heard a 'whoosh' sound and heavy breathing. I got curious and went to check it out. Mia followed behind me. When I got there I found out that It was Leon swinging a sword.

'what? A sword? I didn't know he was a swordsman.'

Now that I think about it he did mention once before about teaching me the sword.

Mother was sitting down and looking at him. I walked a bit closer, and couldn't take my eyes off him. The way he swung the sword, and got into different stances. Then with an impossible speed, he dashed forward and sliced a boulder in half. I was left speechless. there were many other boulders sliced in different ways too.

'where'd he get so many?'

He then relaxed. Mother went up to him and handed him a towel and a glass of water. He gulped the water down fast, and as he was wiping the sweat off his face. I spoke up.

"Wow, that was cool." I said out loud.

My speech has gotten a lot better than before.

"Ohh hey, Arata." He said barely noticing me. "What are you up to?"

"Nothing much." I paused. "Can I ask you something?"

"What is it?" he said.

"Can you teach me how to use the sword?" I said quickly.

"Hmm." He stayed quiet. "I was planning on teaching you, but I think it's still too early, I wanted to start teaching you once you turned 5."

"Well, can't we start a year early?" I said.

"Why do you want to learn now? You still have time" He asked.

"Because I've been stuck. I learned to manipulate mana two years ago. I've been training my magic ever since then. But I can only manipulate mana externally.

Now I want to learn how to manipulate it internally, But I've been unsuccessful at it.

I read in a book from your study that since swordsman fight in close combat, by controlling their mana internally, they gain greater strength and speed.

But if a beginner hopes to accomplish this. They need to learn to manipulate it subconsciously by being in constant battle. And the more they do this they'll eventually be able to control it at will."

Both mother and Leon looked at me with a blank expressions.

"You expect me to believe that a four-year-old knows how to manipulate mana." He said.

I then compressed fire magic at the tip of my finger and launched it at him. fire bullet.

But as expected he dodged it. Mother let out a gasp in surprise.

"do you believe me now?" I said

"Jeez, you didn't have to shoot me directly. I wasn't doubting you." He said. "Why didn't you tell us you learned magic?"

"I wanted it to be a surprise." I said as an excuse.

"Okay then." He looked at me for a moment, probably thinking something through "All right, I'll teach you. But it won't be easy. so prepare yourself." He paused "Wait here a moment."He said. Then started walking away.

He came back with a wooden sword.

"take this." He tossed me the sword. "swing it up and down 100 times. Put your left leg forward, with your foot straight and your right leg back. Once you're done I'll teach you the stances"

I didn't question him and did as he told me. I took a swing.

"Don't tilt the sword, keep it straight. here." he came and adjusted the sword in my hands.

After I finished the 100 swings, he was teaching me some stances. And after that.

"Okay, now charge at me." he said.

I did as he told me and swung the wooden sword at him. he blocked it and I fell over.

"Don't swing the sword thoughtlessly. You want to swing it about halfway and let the momentum do the work. Then keep yourself balanced so you don't fall over. Again." he said.

I repeatedly attacked him and he corrected me from time to time.

"Okay, now I'll be the attacker. Defend with the defensive stances I taught you."

I nodded and got ready. He came at me with repetitive strikes paired together one after another. He was holding back but it still hurt a little after each strike. We continued switching between defender and attacker, and every time, I tried to recreate the way he attacked and defended. We took small breaks in between, but after a few hours, he called it a day.

"well that's all for today" he said. He still had the strength to keep going, but I didn't. "we'll continue tomorrow."

"Alright." I said still catching my breath.

"It's time for lunch." Mother came out to tell us.

I quickly got up and went to the table. After the training today I was hungry. We sat in our usual spots. Hanna was already there, and Mia sat next to me.

"Hey Hanna, How are you doing today?" I asked

"Good I guess. Why do you look so tired?" She asked.

"Father started teaching me the sword." I said excitedly.

"You seem happy about it." she said with a bit of jealousy.

"Yeah, aren't you old enough to learn magic?" I asked.

"I need a teacher to do that." she said.

"I guess you're right."

"Hey, Arata how did you learn magic anyway? And when?" Leon asked.

"Two years ago when I snuck inside your study and borrowed one of your books" I said eating my food.

"So you learned to use magic when you were two years old? All by yourself?" he said shocked. "Wait you snuck inside my stu-"

"YOU CAN USE MAGIC?!?!" Hanna said cutting off Leon.

"yes." I said. making a fire float above my hand.

she gasped excitedly "Ohh wow. that's so cool."

"Yeah, if you want I can teach you." I said.

"REALLY!! You'd do that?" she said.

"yup." I said as I finished my food. "So, when do you want to start."

"Right now!" she grabbed my hand and took me to the living room.

"hey wait. slow down."

"come on tell me what to do!" she said excitedly as she sat down on the floor

"Okay, fine. Calm down."

I told her all the steps to follow. She should be able to follow them. She is 7 years old that's the normal age where people start to learn how to manipulate mana.

After a while of her meditating. she let out a small yell.

"hah." she said as she opened her eyes. "huh? Nothing happened." she looked at me "why did nothing happen? did I do something wrong?"

"Haha." I started laughing

"what? what's so funny!!" she said angrily as she started shaking me.

"Of course, nothing happened. Did you really expect it to work on your first try" I said as I calmed down. "Just try again"

After several tries, she got annoyed. Mother, Mia, and Leon came to sit down in the living room to watch.

"Are you sure this is the right way to do this?" she said while stretching.

"Yup. For normal kids, this takes days to achieve. probably even weeks. You have to be patient, so if you get annoyed or stressed it won't work." I said.

"Why do you talk like if you aren't a kid yourself? Anyway how long did it take you?" She asked.

"About half a day." I answered.

I heard Mother and Leon gasp in shock, but they didn't ask any questions.

"What!! but you said that this takes days." she said confused.

"That's right, there's no time to waste. So try again." I told her.

"fine." she said.

So she tried again and again. With every failed attempt she got more annoyed.

"Let's call it a day." I said

"what why?" she asked.

"Because you need to get your mind off this for a while and try again later. try again tonight and if you fail try again in the morning. Continue this process every day. okay."

"hmm yeah okay." she said as she walked out of the room.

I looked at Leon both he and Mother looked at me in surprise.

"Father is it okay if I borrow some books from your study." I asked Leon.

"It's okay, but for what" he asked curiously.

"I want to learn healing magic." I said.

"go ahead." I went to his study as soon as he said that. Mia followed.

I got to the study and looked through the books. There weren't that many. And found one on healing which is also from the capital. I opened the book and began reading.

According to the book to perform healing magic you have to use your mana to activate cells speeding up the recovery process. it takes a lot of practice and concentration to do. So the doctors in this world dedicate their lives to this profession.

For beginners like me before I start attempting to heal an injury or illness. I have to learn how to restore fatigue and sore muscles. There was no way to learn without someone to test it out on. so I went back to the living room, only Leon was there this time reading a book.

"hey, father are you tired or have any sore muscles." I asked.

He looked at me for a second before responding "No, Not at the moment."

"well okay. where's mother?"

He pointed to the back yard "Outside doing the laundry."

"well okay then. See you later."

then I made my way to the backyard. when I got there mother was hanging clothes for them to dry in the sun.

"Hey, mother are you tired or have any sore muscles." I asked the same question.

"hmm. Actually yes, my feet are kind of sore." she said

"Let me see." I bent over to get a closer look.

"Okay fine, just let me finish this real quick." She said with a smile.

After she finished we sat down on the grass and she took off her shoes.

"Okay where exactly is it sore" I asked

"Here at the back" she said pointing at her heels.

I squeezed it and she frowned in displeasure. "well here goes nothing." I said as I focused my mana on her heel. Small motes of green manifested but nothing else happened.

"Again." More motes came out this time but I failed again. I drew my mana back and took a breath.

"One more time." I tried again and then a green aura manifested from my hand and engulfed her foot. then after around ten seconds, it subsided. Then I looked at her "How does it feel"

She then squeezed her foot and began tapping it "Much better, the soreness is now gone. Thank you." She then patted my head.

"Can I go outside for a while." I asked

"Sure but let your father know." she said with a smile.

As I was making my way towards the front door I passed Leon "Hey father I'm going out for a bit."

"Okay but don't stay out too late." he said waving at me.

With better mana control I can use healing magic more often and heal bigger wounds while using less mana.

I want to get better at healing, it might help me in the future if I start now. So I'm going to look for people to practice on.

I made my way to the woods where I found a cabin. Behind the cabin were chopped logs and people resting. This is where people that chopped trees brought the logs to sell them, and also a place they rested.

About 10 people were surrounding a cooking pot. They were eating food in a group while talking and laughing. They seemed exhausted. This is the best place to practice my healing magic.

I walked up to them until one noticed me.

"hey look it's a kid." the man pointed at me, and the rest of the group looked in my direction.

I waved at them "Hello there. Can I ask you all a question?"

One of the men, probably the leader of the group, stood and said "what is it?"

"Are you tired or have any sore muscles?" I asked

"What's all this about kid?" The man asked. More

confused than anything.

"well I want to practice my healing magic, but I need people to practice on. That's all. We can both gain from this." I said

"Can you really use magic?" The man asked unconvinced.

I then made a fire float above my hand. All the men had wide eyes and some gasped in shock. I heard some whisper to each other too.

Is a kid my age that wields magic rare

"hmm well, I guess it's not a problem. so why not." The man said still shocked

"Okay then are you sore anywhere?" I asked

"yes both my shoulders have been sore for a couple of days now." he said

"all right." He sat on the floor so I could reach his shoulders. I then focused my mana and a green glow emerged. I could feel it. This time it's more efficient than last time. After finishing healing both his shoulders he got up.

"Ohh wow the soreness is gone, I can move my arms more freely now. Thanks, kid." the man said happily. "my name is jack. what's yours." he said and extended out his hand

I took his hand "I'm Arata."

"Nice to meet you kid" He said

"Yeah same here. well, that's all for today I'm almost out of mana. I'll come back soon"

Some of the men appeared to be looking forward to my treatment because some of their faces looked down after I said that.

"well okay. we'll be here waiting."

"see you later then." I said as I started walking away.

I spent too much mana on my mother and jack that I'm almost out. A lot of it seemed to leak out instead of flowing into the spell.

One morning four days later I woke up hearing my name being called

"Arata!!" the voice called

"come here quickly!" it said

"ARATA HURRY UP!!" the voice got louder

'ahh let me sleep dammit' i said quietly then I quickly got up and ran towards the yelling voice who was my older sister.

I saw my parents standing outside her room. Then I looked inside and saw her surrounded by a white aura.

"Look I did it!" she said excitedly. "I drew all the mana out"

Then the mana dispersed and she looked tired and fell backwards.

"Good job. Now keep doing that for a couple of days." I said.

"got it" she replied tiredly.

"Well then shall we get started" Leon said as mother went to congratulate Hanna.

These past few days I've been training with Leon in the mornings and healing in the afternoon with the guys in the woods. I can heal three people before running out of mana now. So that's some progress

I smiled "let's go."