An old man sat by a fire in an inn, in front of a crowd.

"Let me tell you a story.." He said while his eyes were glowing. "However, this story is not just a story. What I am about to tell you, is real. As real as we all are, sitting here by the fire." He continued.

"The story begins in a village in the north. Have you been to the north, my friends?" He asked. Some who were listening nodded, and the old man continued: "Yes, I see.." He coughed couple times.

"In the village, a woman was pregnant and she was waiting for her first baby. She was very beautiful, just like you, the beautiful lady there." The old man pointed a young lady in front of him with a cane. The woman blushed and tried to hide her embarrassment by hiding her face with her hands. Some women close to her started giggling and even some of the men were unable to to hold back their laughter. The woman.. the old man pointed at was easily the ugliest thing that any of them had ever seen, but that is enough about that.

The old man continued his story: "Ah, yes, where was I? Finally the time came when the baby would born. She was finally giving birth. Her husband was terribly nervous as he heard the screaming and groaning from his wife." The old man raised his mug of beer and chugged down a good amount, a small red tint could be seen from his cheeks. After putting the mug down, he continued the story: "The woman had helped her older sisters when they had given birth to their children, so she knew how it would work. As we all know, there is usually a surge of mana into the newborn baby. However, what happened terrified herself and the older sister that was helping her with her birth..." The old man paused for a moment.

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"Yes... There was no surge of mana this time, the woman was shocked, truly shocked. She could not believe that her first son was a stillborn. Her husband rushed into the room and was about to congratulate her wife with a huge smile on his face." The old man looked around, some of the women started tearing up a bit. Only those who had undergone such would and could imagine the horrible, oh so horrible event.

Without pause, the old man continued his story and not being attention to the crowd listening: "The man stopped and he was as shocked as his wife was. Their son... dead? There was no surge of mana this time. It meant that the baby was a stillborn. All of a sudden the baby boy who had his eyes closed without crying or moving opened his small eyes and looked around. His eyes had a peculiar violet glow in them, and then he started crying." This time the crowd started to weep even harder, even some of the burlier and tougher men were shedding small tears. Of course, nobody would ever mention such happening, who knows what would happen if they did.

The old man continued his story: "The couple both started crying when they realized their son had not been a stillborn. Even if the boy did not have magic like others, at least he was alive, they would surely spoil their son and they would do all in their power that he could live in a world with magic... even if he himself did not have any."

The old man sitting on his chair looked at his crowd, he had clearly managed to captivate them with his story. Now he wondered if he should continue or head to bed. It was already getting late, but it seemed like the crowd was waiting for him to continue...

The old man coughed couple times waiting for the crowd to quiet down and then he started to continue his story: "Khrm.. Indeed, the boy was fine but without mana. I doubt that any of us could imagine the hardships the boy would go through. Imagine your lives without magic, what would that be like?" Whispering could be heard from the crowd while the old man took another good chug from his mug.

"This is the story of a boy who had no mana..."