“I see…”

What was I supposed to even say? I don’t know how strong she’d need to be, but could I deny such a ridiculous take even after what was shown to me? The simple answer was no. I don’t know why she came back so much stronger, nor how. I don’t know if it’s a good thing or not, but at the end of the day, I could tell. As she turned around and extended her arm, healing my body instantly and completely, I knew right then and there. Even if she was substantially stronger, she was still… Maia.

“I’ll go and heal dad, Aldric and any survivors I find. You can rest here until mom and the rest are back.”

Her tone was gentle, yet had a warming feel of authority in it, which displayed her maturity and ability to remain relatively calm even in this terrible situation. No matter how much jealousy I hold for her, my admiration and love for Maia as my older sister, completely outclassed it.

I looked around a bit. The only thing I could see was just whatever was on fire, since the sun had already set, but even then it was obvious that the village wasn’t in a good shape whatsoever. A lot of people died, and a lot were probably hurt beyond what healing magic could do. It can regenerate any type of physical damage, but can’t cure illnesses, nor it can regenerate lost limbs for others. The only way someone could regenerate their lost body parts is via their own energy manipulation, but that was something that I don’t think anyone in the village could do other than Maia. The lives of not just me, but every single other person here was inevitably going to change because of this day. I knew that very well, and that’s exactly why I was out of words at the moment.

oh, right… forgot about this for a second.

The blade that was thrown next to me by a mysterious ridiculously strong girl that obliterated a few dragons… no matter how I looked at it, at this point I kinda just looked like a damsel in distress… in the end, mom and Maia were right. I did absolutely nothing, but I still don’t regret coming here, because at least I could see it with my own eyes. Saying that I never thought I'm the main character of this world because I got reincarnated would be nothing but a blatant lie. I have thought of it way more times than I could count. This was my call to wake up to reality, and understand that I was nothing but a useless child that couldn’t even use his mana. I guess I kinda did earlier actually, but I don’t even know how, so I’m not sure if it counts.

I guess I can keep it? It looks pretty weird tho, nothing like any blade I’ve seen so far in this world.

The era of this world was closer to the 19th century in our world than the average medieval era, but this blade looked awfully familiar. It was dark outside though, so I couldn’t really tell with my eyes alone, so I decided to take it out of the ground and see for myself. As I cleaned the dirt off its sheath, it was getting more and more obvious, but I didn’t want to jump to conclusions, and anyways it wasn’t like this was the only one in the world. I definitely hadn’t seen one of these yet in this world, but it could easily be the most used one in some other kingdom, so I didn’t fill in my delusions further, and instead focused on the undoubtable reality about what I was holding. This was indeed a katana.

I can’t just think it’s a complete anomaly and this is the only one in this world, but it sure does feel weird to hold one after so many years…

Its handle was pitch black, and the classic diamond shaped pattern on it was blue ish which gave it a pretty visually appealing contrast in my opinion at least.The guard was pretty standard, and there wasn’t really much left to do than check the blade, so I slowly started to unsheathe it… but of course, for some mysterious fucking reason, it had to have some kind of complication…

w-what's wrong with this thing?!

The more I unsheathed, the dizzier I felt, and it wasn’t just that. Nausea also kicked in at speeds I didn’t even think would be possible. The blade was your standard metal silver, but the more I unsheathed it, the more it glowed up, and the sicker I felt. Normally you’d just throw it out of your hands, or just sheathe it back in and never touch it again, but that wasn’t me. Despise the very obvious signs that something was going on with this blade, I still kept going until finally, it was all free from its sheath.

My head started spinning, I could feel my arms about to give up on me, and while I was still sitting, my legs also gave up. Holding the blade alone felt exhausting and as if it was sucking out the perhaps literal single drop of mana I had, it kept glowing red, with some kind of aura around it, and while it was definitely cool… I couldn’t handle it. After about 10 seconds at most, I passed out while holding it.

How long was I asleep for? I have no idea, but I did have a clue however as I could feel some sunlight get in my eyes although minimal thankfully. I opened my eyes and I saw someone I knew very well. Took me about a second to realize that I had been sleeping on mom’s lap, and as I looked around a bit, I saw that we were under a tree a bit further away from the village. I had a blanket on me, but that wasn’t the only thing that I could feel…

“You two…”

Nala and Rune were both asleep while holding on to me, and though they weren’t actually heavy, it still felt a bit uncomfortable for my 7 year old body.

“They were really worried about their older brother, you know?”

After the tantrum from last night I’d expect them to be ashamed that their older brother is as pathetic as me if anything, but I was glad when mom told me that.

“I see…”

I slowly got up, without waking them up and sat next to mom, with my back resting on the tree just like hers.

“So you also took this one with you?”

The blade that I collapsed after unsheathing last night was next to my right foot while mom was on my left side.

“You were holding it when we found you collapsed on the ground, so I assumed you either cared about it, or that was the cause for your collapse. Either way, just leaving a well shaped blade like that would’ve been a waste, no? This kind of sword isn’t common around here, it was created in the eastern side of our continent, by the dwarfs. Though they don’t really have the physical capabilities to use them properly, so they made shorter ones for themselves.”

As I thought, katanas weren’t something unseen in this world. They just weren’t common around here, which relieved and saddened me at the same time, since it would've been cool if I was the only one with a mysterious unseen blade.

“You had a pretty bad fever when we found you, though it cooled off a few hours ago. How are you feeling now?”

“Hmm, now that you mention it…”

wait a second… This is weird.

I looked down at my hands as I closed and reopened them a few times, and I could also feel it in the rest of my body. I felt stronger.

“I do feel like I have more… energy?! It can’t be?!”

I looked at her, hoping to get the answer that just crossed my mind as a possibility. She smiled back at me, but it wasn’t your average warm smile your mom would give you, it was a sly one. She was having fun in that instant, which only excited me even more.

“Well, I did notice that after your fever stopped, a new pretty average source of mana was in the area… I wonder who it was?”

If this was some kind of prank, I wanted her to tell me right away and not fuel my delusions, but as she kept her smile on and hugged me, the sense of relief that came over me was overwhelming. I started crying while she held me tight, seemingly also as happy as I was before she spoke again.

“You’ve always had an underdeveloped mana stomach, Cael. It couldn’t produce any further mana than what was necessary to keep you alive. There haven’t been many cases like you, so there wasn’t any spell or cure known for it. We don’t know what caused it, but at the very least your mana stomach and mana pool have been stimulated and filled up for you to have enough mana for an average kid your age.”

This felt like a dream. Compared to the terrible events of last night, this was undoubtedly the best news I received ever since getting reincarnated, and I had no intention of holding back my feelings. I didn’t say anything else, and just let out all the years of frustration that built up inside me, for being nothing but a pitiful kid that couldn’t produce nor use the small drop of mana that he had, until now.

When I finally calmed down, I already knew what I had to do. I got up and took the sword, then unsheathed it again. I obviously thought it was the case, considering the weird glow from yesterday night, and I just confirmed it. This time, the blade didn’t do anything when it was fully unsheathed, which only meant that it did something last time, and its effects could be why I was now “normal.” I wasn’t completely sure though, nor I wanted to complicate their situations any further, so I didn’t tell mom what I thought. She might've figured it out on her own already as well anyway.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

“I’ll go take a look around. I want to see for myself the extent of the damage… and I need to find Maia.”

She had already put Nala and Rune on her lap and covered them as they were sleeping. Without looking up at me, simply looking at the 2 sleeping kids, she replied with a satisfied and proud tone.

“Is that so? Then what are you waiting for? I’m sure they also already noticed your mana increase, and are waiting for you to go to them.”

“You’re right. See you later mom, I love you!”

“I love you too.”

The tree we were under was about a kilometer away from the village, so it took a while, but eventually I got back to where I was last night. In front of what was the main gate. There were probably a few ways to describe just this spot alone, but the most adequate was probably gruesome. Monster cadavers that didn’t magically disappear once they died like in a game. So much blood that most of the ground was red. … human remains. And the massive trail of burnt or I guess straight up obliterated ground caused by Maia’s arrow that extended towards our old training hill, which now also had a hole in it. This place was nothing like what it used to be.

I walked in, looking around my surroundings only to see the same thing over and over. More destruction, more blood, and more corpses. It was genuinely hard to not throw up, as the smell from the some decaying and some burnt corpses was everywhere. I kept walking around, with our house, or at least what I hope would still be our house as my destination, since that was probably the most likely location for me to find them, and thankfully, since I wouldn’t have wanted to wander around in this wasteland any longer, I was right. I waved my hand was I approached them.

“Oh, you finally woke up, Cael?”

“Yeah, I can’t be laying down forever after all. What about you 2? Are y’all alright?”

“Maia healed every single scratch we had, so I’d say both me and Aldric are good.”

“Yeah, I honestly still find it hard to believe, but I’m in perfect physical condition.”

I couldn’t blame their doubtfulness, after all… Maia had never used healing magic before last night. It was simply impossible to deny. Maia was in face exponentially stronger than before, and none of us knew why. If you asked me it kinda just looks like when the main character suddenly gets a power up out of nowhere to help him save everyone, you know? I guess people called it plot armor? Though If I think about it… I was able to use my mana, although close to none and I had no idea how I was doing it, then I was saved by both Maia and that random girl, then got a blade that seems to have given me back all of my mana that I should’ve of have had… wait. Doesn’t that mean I have even more plot armor than her?!

“Well, there’s no point in thinking about it too much now. We have other things to do after all. If you’re looking for Maia, she went into the forest to hunt for something to feed us and any survivors that are left.”

Thankfully, dads words had interrupted my thought process which would have resulted in some kind of breakdown probably, and with it came my new destination. I waved my hand to both dad and Aldric then turned around and started walking again.

When I arrived in the forest, I kinda had to guess where she went, frankly speaking. I heard about that thing where you observe your surroundings with your mana or something, but it's not like I could do it. Fortunately for me, I was lucky enough to find her relatively quick. While walking around I happened to see a boar in the distance, and just as I was about to get in a fighting position with my newly acquired blade, an arrow had hit it straight in the head, knocking it down with a single clean shot. There was only one person besides Aldric who could do that in the entire village, and even if there was someone else they were probably dead. I looked in the direction where the arrow came from, and there she was sitting on a tree.

“You finally woke up?”

as oblivious as usual… huh?

She jumped down from the tree, acting as if she didn’t just kill a probably around 170 Kg boar with a single arrow, with her usual gentle smile on her face.

“You don’t know how peaceful I slept without having to wake up for our training”

I replied with a rather cheeky tone, but she matched it as she took out the arrow from the boar’s head.

“Is that so? I guess my cute little brother that was saved just yesterday night, doesn’t need his devilish older sister that put him through hellish training! You’re right, ahh you’re soo right!!”

“Well… fine. I apologize, my dear Amazing, kind and sweet older sister.”

I made an overexaggerated elegant bow as I played alone.

“But do you not notice something different about me, hm?”

“Well, it's kinda as if a new person's presence came out of nowhere, so I’d say that all of us noticed. But I assume you want me to say something about it?”

“Shouldn’t a master praise their students' growth?”

“Even though that growth was due to a mysterious blade and not thanks to the master itself?”

so she did know…

“Do the others know as well?”

“It’s not really a matter of knowing or not. That blade came out of nowhere, and after you unsheathed it, your previously underdeveloped mana stomach had an exponential forced development, and your mana pool was filled to what it should've been normally. Anyone would connect the 2. Though I don’t think our parents, nor Aldric and Lyanna are primarily worried about that now.”

“You have a point…”

She then casually lifted the boar and put it on a ridiculously large carriage made out of stone (probably made by dad) she had hidden in some bushes, and while using her brute strength to carry it around, we continued talking, still looking for more animals to hunt.

“So What do you want to do now?”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean after I’m gone and become the new Lieutenant of the Sentinel’s Commander.”

it still surprises me how casually she says she’ll become the official second strongest person in the entire continent…

“There’s not much for me to do here to begin with”

“Don’t be stupid. You know very well what I’m asking you.”

not like I was trying to hide it or anything anyway

“I know that our village might get attacked again, even if not by Alduin himself. I know that you won’t be here to protect us at all times, and that dad and Aldric alone can’t do it. But even then, I still… just want to go and explore the continent. I want to become an adventurer, and frankly speaking, I just want to have fun.”

“Quite the selfish desire we got there.”

“You think so? Well… I guess it is selfish towards Nala and Rune, or I guess anyone that died last night, but I don’t want to be chained to this place for my entire life.”

“I’m not going to question your morals, at the end of the day you’re not just a regular child. You might even be smarter than me. But I’ll tell you just one thing. I don’t think I need to tell you that we will be clearing the Ashford name. And yes, I already know about that, I’ve asked mom once, but regardless. Even if we do that, there will still be people who’ll discriminate against you because you’re also an Ashford. I hope you know that.”

Maia’s concerns are more than valid. People won’t scrap away decades of resentment so easily. It would not only mean that they were fooled and brainwashed, but also make them seem weak minded if they straight up changed their entire mind on the situation just because they were told we were innocent. But I was expecting as much.

“What’s the big deal? If you told me that I was believing in something factually wrong my entire life, I would also try to deny it until I came to accept it. It’s a natural reaction. Let the people slowly accept us. And if anything goes bad, I can always use my dear sister’s name to scare people off, no?”

She gave me a puzzled look for a second, as she probably didn’t expect me to say something so childish at the end of a relatively wise sentence, and then it turned into a pretty long chuckle before she finally composed herself enough to talk.

“Is that so? Haha well, I don’t mind any of you using my name for anything as long as it doesn’t directly go against the law, but try not to overdo it, my dear younger brother.”

She then casually picked up and charged her boe once more, shooting at a deer I didn’t even see until she hit it honestly, and then quickly went to take out the arrow and put it in the carriage.

“But I assume you don’t just plan on using my name, right?”

she saw right through me…

“Well… you still have a while until you leave, right?”

“Hm… it will take a good few months until the village is properly restored, especially since we need to wait for the materials that the owner of the land will send for the repairs. I’d say roughly a few months?”

“Right, so… now that my mana pool is back to normal, I was thinking that we could continue my training?”

“Well, it might be more difficult than you think.”

“What do you mean?”

Whatever spell this blade had on should've helped my underdeveloped mana stomach go back to normal, so does that mean… the training will become even harder?!

“Just now, you imagined something scary, didn’t you?”

She let out a small sigh as I was too scared to talk, while waiting for an explanation.

“I think I can guess more or less what you were thinking, so let me get straight to the point. Your mana stomach is still terribly underdeveloped. Whatever that blade did to you, it only temporarily boosted your stomach’s productivity enough for it to fill your pool enough to make up for what you should've had till now at your age. There’s no real cure for an underdeveloped mana stomach.”

I stopped walking, as I looked at her with terror in my eyes. Was all of my earlier happiness caused by a temporary illusion? Was I actually still… useless?

“Calm down, calm down. Let me continue before you put that devastated look on your face.”

“…”

She then got on her knee in front of me, and with her hands on both of my shoulders she continued speaking.

“While there is no effective cure for it, I have a theoretical remedy for it.”

My eyes started slowly getting filled with hope once again as she got up before continuing to explain.

“Your mana stomach has gotten better from the boost, and it will never produce less than what your mana pool is filled with right now. Your stomach makes enough mana to fill your pool as fast as possible for you to be able to use your mana or magic. Since only half of that is the case for you, let’s not think about that, and focus on something else. Your mana stomach needs to produce the minimum amount that your body requires to operate. As your body grows naturally, both the amount of mana that needs to be generated to sustain it, and the amount that fits in your pool expands. But there should be a way to force both.”

This was honestly pretty confusing to listen to, but I managed to get the gist of it. Once your mana pool gets any kind of increase, your mana stomach will permanently be filling it up to match that growth. Your mana stomach also needs to produce enough mana for your body to function. Is more or less what I understood from it, but didn’t really get to whatever conclusion she had, so I let her continue.

“It’s often seen in people with great physiques that they have more mana than the average person, that’s because their body needs more to sustain itself. Building a muscular physique is definitely hard, but not necessarily painful. They need to rest enough for their micro muscular rupture to heal and grow stronger and bigger, giving time to their stomach to adapt to the growth as well. But if we forcefully keep putting you under physical training, and don’t give you time to rest, it will be painful, but your stomach will be forced to keep producing more and more mana, and your mana pool will be constantly draining itself as it uses the mana inside of it to heal your body forcefully if you don’t give it time for it to happen naturally. This should also make your mana pool grow its amount that it can fit in and the productivity of your mana stomach, to sustain you and keep you alive.”

At this point, I honestly wouldn’t expect anything less gruesome from her. The casual way in which she explained it only made me more certain of the fact that… Maia was scary. But if it all worked, I would inevitably get stronger, so I had no reason not to give up any kind of hope for a painless training, and jump right in at the opportunity in front of me.

“What do you say?”

“There’s only 1 answer here. I’m in.”

She smiled as we continued to walk, and eventually got back to the village where we continued with our duties.