“So… what do you think?”

“Hmm… let me think for a second if I got this right,"

Zach raised his eyes and reached for his chin, mock thinking, both of us are in my bedroom late at night. He has to stay the night on Freesia’s order since something could happen to him. However, I wasn’t paying attention.

I thought this is a good opportunity to discuss my plan with someone.

“You don’t really want to be village chief,”

I shake my head

“You want to be an adventurer,"

I nod

“Makes sense. If I could, I would also want to be an adventurer and travel around the world,”

I nod again

“What I don’t get is why you want to beat your brother, isn’t he already insanely strong? Quin got beaten up by him a few months ago, right?”

“Because they won’t let me become one if I don’t prove I’m strong enough. If I can show everyone my talents are wasted here, they won’t oppose to me becoming an adventurer,”

I’m meant for greater things.

But first I have to prove I can back up my words with actions.

“And how exactly do you plan to win?”

“I have a few ideas, let me tell you,”

After speaking to Zach, I fell asleep. By the time I woke up, he was still sleeping. Maybe he’s not used to waking up as early as me, or he’s just tired.

As I got ready to put my plan in motion, Freesia entered the room. I was mind-changing but she didn’t seem to care, as she sauntered closer to Zach.

She looked at him long and hard, lifting a hand over his head chanting short spells in a soft voice. Guess she doesn’t want to wake him up.

“Once he wakes up he will be fine if you wanted to know… sometimes a good rest is imperative after a healing spell,”

“So, there is nothing wrong with him?”

“No, but the magic I used forces the body to heal itself very fast with magical aid, but still… it can be very exhausting,”

“Thank you for helping him,”

“You’re welcome, Ran, you seemed really shocked yesterday, I hope you feel better today,”

“Yes!”

You have no idea, today, things will change around here! After saying my thanks, I left the room, can’t be late.

Sadly, I was. I didn’t know Miss Joanne and Lucius trained this early... that’s scary. But this is even better; I have more time to prepare for the fight.

I spent my time during the sunrise digging holes in the front yard with a small shovel and some mana to make the earth easier to remove. I’m so smart!

“Done” I cleaned the sweat from my drenching forehead.

A day’s work done.

The final product is a trap field, filled to the brim with fake holes I learned from Lan. They’re not perfect but I hope they’ll do, I hope the surprise factor catches him off guard.

After this, there is only one last thing to prepare.

I take a sit close to the fence door, looking straight to the road leading out of town.

If they left for training, they have to come back using that path.

I waited for a while. I could hear the house coming alive behind me, Freesia leaving for her study with Lan in tow. Grandma Madi prepares breakfast and cleans the house, all while talking to Mom. All in all, it’s a normal morning.

I should have gone and told grandad about my decision, he will probably get sad, but I bet he will support me.

He might have to look for another successor, but that can’t be too hard.

It was closer to midday that I detected two vaguely familiar shapes, not many people in town with white hair, even fewer ones that aren’t old ladies.

Blonde hair is actually fairly common, but the elven ears are quite the unique addition.

So, I will go on a limb and say they’re finished with training.

I ran inside, turned left, ran past the living room and the diner, straight towards the kitchen where Mom was.

She had her back towards me, sipping on a cup of tea, laying over the kitchen counter.

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Her long brown hair fell backward on her shoulders and back.

“Mom!” I called after her.

She turns her tired, light green eyes on me.

She always looks just a bit sad, sleepy. Maybe she doesn’t sleep well without dad.

“Come! Look! there’s something I want to show you!” I grab her hand and lead her towards the front yard.

She laughs “What is it, honey?”

“I’m going to fight Lucius and win!”

My declaration must have surprised her because she stopped dead in her tracks as soon as she heard that.

“Oh… I see…”

“Yes! I decided that I need to beat him,"

By the time we got outside, miss Joanne and Lucius had already arrived.

“Stop there Lucius!”

Surprisingly, he did stop. That was easier than I thought, but he looked at me as if staring at a pest.

“What do you want, twerp? I don’t have time to waste with you,”

“I want a fight!”

Now it’s as if he was staring at a weird creature, don’t look at me like that! I don’t have horns and dark skin!

“Did you hit your head or something? Maybe stop playing with those friends if they hit you like that,”

“Don’t worry, I’m great today, thank you for your concern brother,”

“Who’s worrying for you? Just spare me from whatever you have in mind. I won’t play your games; besides why would you want to fight against someone you know you have zero chances of winning against?”

“Yeah-well, that might end today, you never know,”

His temper is starting to show off now. He’s clearly angry.

“Get out of my way, this is the last time I’m going to say it,"

Aah big brother, you do know I’m your family, right? You shouldn’t look at your family in such a hateful way. I could die from the sheer anger in his eyes…

I wonder if Lan would say anything? He never loses his cool with her. It's only with me.

Just when he was about to hit me, miss Joanne stopped him.

“Why don’t you give him what he wants? If you want to hit them that hard, then do it in a spar. That way, at least that way, you both get something out besides new bruises,” she’s staring daggers at him, so cool! I’ve never seen someone defusing Lucius like that.

“Whatever! As if I have something to learn from him,”

She let out a small chuckle, glanced at the yard, and then back at me.

“You never know,"

“Hear me out, I’m going to be acting as the referee so that neither of you gets too banged up, besides, Freesia is a small run away so she can patch you two up if need be,” She clapped “Now, you start when I say so, Ran, you can use magic if you want”

“What?!” Lucius screamed, “how is that fair?!”

"what’s the problem? are you afraid of your little brother? just because he’s learned some tricks? The real world is wider than your tantrums, so get used to it, you never know what you’re going up against… besides… in a battle like this, even with magic he’s still at a disadvantage, is Lucius Donn so much of a wuss he won’t fight a kid half his size if he can try to protect himself?”

Lucius just looks at her. I can tell what he’s probably thinking. Definitely something naughty with a lot of bad words.

Either way, I’m staring at him, and at all the traps I laid in advance, he doesn’t seem to have noticed, I only know how to make holes and hide them but if it was up to Lan, she would turn this into an obstacle course if given time.

But this will have to do.

I raise my guard like I always do.

I sigh.

This is bad. He’s really glaring. I’m one hundred percent sure he wants to kill me. But I will prove him wrong. I’m going to win.

“Start!”

As soon as she gives the call, Lucius runs at me, so fast I got scared for a second. He reminded me of the monster from before.

Thankfully, he fell on one of the holes, headfirst into the dirt.

Miss Joanne smirked.

"oh ho ho ho” why is he laughing? I don’t think I ever saw him laugh.

I’ll start my attack while his guard is down.

I close down the distance between us as fast as my legs allow.

My attack heads straight for the back of his head, but he manages to block it just at the last second before it makes contact.

Normally when he blocks one of my attacks, he kicks me in the stomach. This time he just stood up while holding against my strikes.

“You did it know, you little shit,” he said, his voice almost a whisper, loud enough for me to hear.

“I’m going to win!” I declare again. At this point, is to reassure me... more than anything else.

My plan doesn’t end yet. There is still something left so you can put as many scary faces as you want.

“No, no you won’t” His attacks seem to be even faster now. He slashed downwards.

Since long ago I learned I can’t really guard or deflect against him, I’m not strong nor good enough to do either of those things, so it’s better for me to avoid his strikes.

I dodge to his right. He reacted really fast and launched a low kick heading straight for my stomach. Thank the deep one, I managed to block it with both of my arms.

My sword flew off in the opposite direction. I got launched backward and fell to the ground a meter or so away from him. The sheer force made me roll like a small powerful barrel down a slope.

But this is just what I wanted, a lot more violent, but it was within my expectations.

Now I’m protected by most of my traps.

I got up a bit dizzy and disoriented, ran in the opposite direction in a hurry to gain some distance between us.

As I thought, he’s mad but Lucius has a good head. He doesn’t know where my traps are so he’s a lot slower.

I feel like Xaquin the vicious. From the books, I’m luring my enemies into my traps and beating them with my superior intellect.

“Hope your pride isn’t too hurt when you lose Luc,"

Now that I have both time and distance. I’ll prepare my spell.

I don’t have that much confidence in my stone cannon; besides, I want to knock him out, not kill him.

Not many choices besides water ball.

I begin chanting. It’s no less embarrassing.

The image materializes in my mind. It needs to be big but not too much.

The size of the ball we used to play with before with Lan, the same one that disappeared, it has to have a lot of speed if It’s going to do more than splashing him.

Besides that, I picture the trajectory.

The spell I had in my mind begins to form in front of my eyes as expected. I’m getting better and better at this. It’s fascinating to see something like this. It’s so fun!

The spell is using the water I left in some of the holes so the water ball is a lot dirtier than usual. It could be called a “dirty mudball” So sorry you’re going to get hit by this!

“[water ball]!” I finish casting, the sphere gets launched at a scary speed, I might have overdone it.

Sorry

“Using traps and magic, what I expect from a weak little shit like you”

Lucius didn’t try to avoid it. He instead grabbed the sword with both hands, readied his stance. He seemed to have taken a quick breath and slashed.

My water ball broke as if hitting a wall, splashing in every direction.

It wasn’t completely useless since Lucius's sword broke almost in half, and he got dragged a few centimeters back. Also, Madi is probably going to be happy not having to water the plants in the front yard.

“Wha-?” How did he do it? Did he become a monster while I was looking away? Well, even more of a monster.

Miss Joanne has a small smirk on her face. What have you done to him? Do you realize he’s getting stronger?

Was she expecting this to happen?

Either way, he doesn’t have a weapon and we still have some distance left. It should be enough for me to cast again, and he can still fall in a hole. There is no reason for me to get this down.

I can still win.

Look at me mo-

Why are you looking at me like that? Is this the way you always look at me?