Five years have past since my reincarnation into this world and in those years I experienced many things that seemed foreign to someone like me, who had come from an entirely different one.
Enigma, thank you. I would have never gotten this chance to start my life from the beginning of it weren't for you.
"Hah... Good morning to you, my new life~!" I muttered to myself after opening my eyes. The world around me looked fresh and vivid, something that probably has to do with my young age.
This feels so great~ I feel like my heart and soul has been reborn as well~
Though I feel the greatest change in my body was the strange energy of Mana that was coursing through my veins. I might not understand how to utilise this power just yet but just knowing that I'll one day be able to use this alternate world's 'Magic' is enough to make me anticipate my future!
Isn't Sphera really wonderful? The clearness of the air around me makes me feel exhilarated even now. I focused my concentration and looked at the small bedroom I was in, then make my way to a towering wardrobe to get my clothes. My small body stature made it harder for me to reach the pegs, but through toiling effort, I was able to succeed in grabbing it's edge!
"Simon, the closet is too big so stop forcefully trying to grab them by yourself." The effort I put was into my independence became meaningless as my mother walked into my room door and pulled the peg off the clothes rack. I pouted my lips and looked at her in dissatisfaction before turning my head away from her. I hate being treated like a kid! I'm definitely the older one here!
"Don't pout, big boys don't pout. Where has the usual 'mature' look you have on run off to~?" My mother comforted before handing me my clothes.
The weird thing about reincarnation is that the past life one had experienced is like a long dream, or in my case, a long nightmare. I accepted even in the deepest parts of my heart that this woman named Samantha was my new mother in order to truly become part of this world. This is my new start and beginning, so feeling melancholic about my failures in my past life would be meaningless. It's best to just allow my mindset to change and become similar to an ordinary to child my current age.
Hmm... Why do I feel like I don't have a choice when it comes to that matter?
"Mother, stop teasing me and tell me why you're even here. Shouldn't Mark and Anna be the ones taking care of us?" I snatched the clothes out of her hands and asked. A smile was etched on her face as she giggled in response.
"On a normal day that would be the routine, but today's special." She said mysteriously before leaving me in my room with a puzzled expression.
"Special...?" I murmured to myself due to a force of habit. In my past life, I spent too much time talking to myself as a retired soldier since an old man like me couldn't really find anyone to talk to after retirement. I had no friends or relatives to take care of me in my old age so most of my last moments was wasted musing about the past.
I walked out my room door after changing my clothes and followed my mother who was waiting outside to the Training Grounds of the Swordwick Household. The Swordwick Household is kinda unique within the Drakeyol Kingdom.
Even the King of Drakeyol Kingdom would be respectful to Swordwick Household due to the Duke's tradition in grooming powerful Grandmaster Swordsman in every generation of his bloodline.
Duke Swordwick values strength to the point that every servant he recruits always turns out to have a background of a mercenary. I have always watched as the servants of the household train their martial arts everyday from a distance. This wasn't due to me being interested in swordsmanship nor was it because of my interest in battles themselves. It was only my curiosity to this world's style of combat kicking in.
"So you're finally here." The voice of my father could be heard from the unusually quiet Training Ground that seemed to have been cleared out.
It seems that the other butlers and maids who periodically trained here on a routined basis all left to complete their chores. How suspicious...!
"Pick up a wooden sword, today's your fifth birthday so you have to train your bodily coordination to create a foundation for future development in actual swordsmanship." As I heard these words, my eyes almost shot out of their sockets as my mouth fell agape.
What the hell is this idiot saying?!
"I refuse. I'm merely a five year old! A young and immature five year old! Not an adult! There's no way for me to train my undeveloped body!" I shouted towards my father. Fredrick, who was a strong bodied, average faced, brown-haired man, didn't retort immediately.
He looked at me closely with a smile that didn't quite reach his eyes...
"No excuses. I'm not telling you to train your body. I already know that it's impossible at your age. However, make no mistake that I'll definitely train you to be familiarised with the sword in these five more years to come." I frowned at my fathers words and gave him a glare to show my stance in this.
What's the point in learning swordsmanship? It's not like I'm ever going to get into a fight in the future. A peace loving pacifist like me is unlikely to make enemies or cause himself to be harmed.
"Tell me the true reason for this." My eyes were stern as I gazed directly at the similarly stubborn look on his face. He glared back in order to scare me but failed after a few attempts. Well... it's not like a person like me who had stared death in the face multiple times in my past life would be scared by a mere glare...
Hahahaha! Others might find my father's current expression as extremely scary. I on the other hand can only see that face as hilarious!
My father sighed helplessly before lowering his sword and starting to explain the reason he wanted me to go through spartan training slowly.
"If you were a normal and ignorant child, there would have been no reason for me to force you into this. However, your high intelligence at a young age made things different.
I know the amount of Mana your body possesses thanks to the measurements that were done on the day you were born, and do you know what was the result?
The result was that you were diagnosed with Rank F Magical Talent! A so-called 'Failure' that has no right to become someone with a combat-orientated profession. The amount of magical energy within you is so scarce that you can barely cover your physique using the basics of the Aura Manifestation technique." My father said grimly. His eyes seemed both determined and desperate. It at this moment that I understood just how important strength was to the world outside the Swordwick Household.
I already knew long ago that the amount of Mana within my body was negligible compared to others through my own secret experiments. I stealthily copied the other servants training their Aura Manifestation techniques and was amazed at how their movements were similar to the martial arts of Earth, but after copying and repeating their actions every day I was able to pinpoint the difference between me and them.
The martial arts on Earth mostly focused on the physical body, but this Aura Manifestation technique changed many aspects of martial arts as a whole.
How to use Aura Manifestation was simple: All I needed to do was release my Mana as an Aura that would increase its density with simple mastery garnered over time.
The amount of Aura a person could release depended on how much Mana they had within them after they were born. I spared no effort in trying to sense the 'magical energy' within me but was disappointed to find that the result was just as my father had predicted. I had a feeling like there was some kind of ethereal existence that was neither hot or cold within the centre of my body, yet whenever I tried to expand and release it, I always found myself coming short when trying to cover the entirety of my physique.
After feeling that Mana within my body, I released it as an Aura that focused to one part of my body after I'd experimented with cladding myself completely in Mana. However, the results found was that logic still applied to magic and I couldn't pick up heavy objects without covering all the places that needed to be enhanced by the manifested flame-like Aura.
The disproportionate balance of enhancement when using Aura could lead to F Ranked Magical Talent breaking themselves if they were to enhance the wrong parts.
At that time when I was training alone and looking at the servants who were training their Aura Manifestation with such vigour, I found that was no one who WASN'T at least able to cover their entire physique with Aura. I wasn't depressed though as I tested many unusual applications of Aura myself.
From what I overheard, magical talent wasn't the only factor when training Aura Manifestation. The second factor of the technique was 'mastering' it.
Once the mastery of the technique increased, the power it would display would improve as well. This would allow even someone as untalented as me to take on opponents with higher Magical Talents. The reason for this was simple really, Aura Manifestation treated Mana like a weapon, and the density of Aura improves with mastery.
What was improving mastery? When using one's Mana to use techniques like Aura Manifestation, a person would normally use a lot of concentration as well as other parts of their mentality.
It was easy to create a dense Aura if one was to sit down and concentrate long enough. However, how is a person able to have the same concentration in the midst of battle? The distractions caused by uncontrollable variables in battle isn't something users who manipulate their Aura can ignore.
This is why mastery over Aura Manifestation means being able to subconsciously cover oneself in dense magical Aura rather than consciously controlling it.
Willpower and Visualisation are the most prominent factors when mastering to control not only one's Aura, but also over Mana itself!
A castor's intentions can even change whether a Fireball Spell would be lethal or not. In the end, discipline is needed to control and manipulate Mana, and it's a good thing I have a lot of that~
The servants of the Swordwick Household had the lowest magical talents of D Rank (who were considered as those with average aptitude for Magic) and were able to easily subconsciously focus their manifested Auras into their swords in order to create energy waves that could cut apart objects from afar.
I too tried sending a shockwave through my fist using my limited amount of Aura, but the feeling of exhaustion I felt straight after made me feel suspicious of why Enigma had given me this Magical Talent...
Enigma, although I don't usually believe in Gods, let me make a prayer to ask one question: 'Where has my promised overflowing magical talent run off to?!'
Looks like I'm going to have to put my annoyance to the side for now. I have to focus on my current circumstances and talk my parents about this.
"So what if I can't use a strong Aura Manifestation?" I asked my father curiously as I didn't understand what not being able to use Aura Clad meant.
Although having the the most basic form of Aura Manifestation called Aura Clad was essential for Warriors. I wasn't one who'd care about something like that. The reason I reincarnated into this magical world was to have a peaceful and interesting life! It had nothing to do with me trying to seek out battle and conflicts once again...!
Enigma, this is all your fault! If you could've reincarnated me as any child on Sphera, then why didn't you choose to reincarnate me as someone who didn't have the fate of getting into conflicts instead? I've already lived in this place long enough to know that although the Swordwick Household looks safe, the reality is that there should be a good reason for the Swordwick Duke to hire so many Mercenaries as his servants!
What exactly is he trying to defend against with all these strong warriors?
Forget it. It has nothing to do with me.
It's not like I have to fight anyway. Less dangerous jobs should still exist in this magical world. Perhaps I could become a normal farmer, or maybe I could just stay as a Butler in the Swordwick Household instead? There are a lot of benefits from such a position as safety is guaranteed to all who join.
Even if I have the worst rank of magical talent, there should be no reason for me to go through this sort of desperate training regimen. Looking at the sword in my father's hand, I can't help but feel there is a chance I'll become crippled by this training's intense difficulty.