A week had passed, and my first birthday had arrived.

When I woke up mom wasn’t the one besides me on the bed, but Maia.

“Good morning, and happy birthday! Today my little brother is finally a year old, you’re growing so fast!”

She then started hugging me, but it wasn’t anything unusual, so I didn’t resist while scratching my eyes.

“Morning”

Even if I wasn’t able to hold conversations for obvious reasons, I could at least say most single words, which came in pretty useful.

I guess mom is downstairs huh?

I yawned as Maia started let go and took some clothes from a chair, which mom had probably prepared in advance for me.

“Mommy said to dress you up after you wake up and go downstairs, so let’s not waste any time, today is a special day after all!”

Seeing her this excited almost made me forget that she’s an archery prodigy, and is way too strong for her age.

After dressing me up, we went downstairs where mom had just finished making breakfast for us, and surprisingly or not dad was also already home, which would’ve been unusual on a regular day, but it was a Saturday, and not even he worked on weekends.

“Good morning, my baby boy is finally awake! Happy birthday”

Mom then took me in her arms instead while Maia sat at the table, which had just been prepared.

“You’re already a year old, huh? Time sure flies doesn’t it”

Dad wasn’t as excited visibly at least, but I could tell that he was maybe even happier than mom and Maia, and they could too. Why? Because from the moment we came downstairs, and probably even before that, he kept tapping his feet on the ground. He was probably trying to keep the cool dad act going on, which did suit him more or less to be fair.

that reminded me… mom should be around 7 or 8 months pregnant, but she still cooked breakfast and doesn’t even seem troubled… she’s way more durable than I thought

They probably noticed that I was staring at her belly while thinking that, and they all started chuckling a bit.

“Of course as you know Lyanna has been helping me with my pregnancy, but I’m not that weak to not be able to cook for my boy’s birthday, you know?”

“That’s right Cael, even when she was pregnant with you, Isolde had Lyanna’s help but I still had to convince her to let me do the chores around. Your mother is scarily strong-“

I was looking at dad, but I started shivering when I felt mom’s glare towards dad coming from behind me. I did not dare to turn around.

“Of course, I meant it in a good way! Hahahahaha”

his laugh is so clearly forced…

I think Maia was thinking the same thing, since we had the same “are you okay?” face while looking at him, but he was probably fine.

After we all ate, we spent most of the time lazing around, playing a few games among each other and such things.

Aldric and Lyanna were also coming later, since they planned on having a barbecue for lunch, and at around 11 am they arrived.

“Happy birthday Cael!”

Both him and Lyanna said it at the same time, then handed over a pack to mom, which I assume was my present.

“It’s not much, but we did get him some clothes to wear, hope he’ll like them”

“Awh, you didn’t have to! We’ve known each other for decades, there was no need for any gifts, but we’ll gladly take them. Maia take Cael and let’s go upstairs and try them on him!”

Dad and Aldric started preparing the fire and meat in the meaning, while I was upstairs with the girls to try the clothes I had gotten.

It took about an hour before we finally went back downstairs, but dad and Aldric were already outside, so we also went towards them.

“You finally done? Took y’all an hour you know?”

Dad sighed as he was probably sick of waiting for us at that point, which I related to to be honest.

“What’s the big deal, there’s no rush is there?”

Aldric had rested his arm on dad’s shoulder while talking.

“That might be the case, but aren’t you a bit too relaxed?”

“I have no idea what you’re yapping about”

Dad was glaring at him at that point, but he kept his usual relaxed grin and kept using dad’s shoulder to rest on, which he didn’t reject either.

That’s probably how the 2 of them are together, ones the grumpy and serious dog, and the other is the smug and chill cat.

But analogies aside, we had actually finished just in time, since the grill was now ready, and they got to it right away.

After we ate lunch, we again kinda just lazed around, since there wasn’t really much to do at a toddler’s birthday.

And so the day passed by pretty quickly, and after eating dinner and my cake which mom had baked just like for Maia, things were again pretty quiet.

It was around 11 pm, Maia was sleepy so she had already went upstairs, while Mom was getting tired and Lyanna went with her upstairs just in case, leaving me alone downstairs with dad and Aldric who were now having some drinks.

“Here you go”

“Thanks”

Aldric was the one holding me for now since dad was pouring the drinks for both of them.

“By the way”

“What?”

“Are you sure about it? Bartholomew.”

“What are you talking about?”

Both of them were pretty calm, but I could feel the tension growing slightly.

“Lying to her..”

“I didn’t lie technically, did I?”

“I guess you didn’t lie entirely, but you still left out way too much.”

what are they talking about..? And who’s her? Who is he lying to?

My mind was honestly thinking of the worst outcomes at that point, which all eventually lead to the possibility of dad cheating on mom, and I started praying it wasn’t the case.

“Aldric. You saw that first arrow as well.”

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thanks god! They’re talking about Maia…

I sighed in relief, but then the other realization hit me.

*wait, what are they talking about?*

“I did see it. And I understand why you did it but I’m asking you if you’re sure. You left out way too much information that she might eventually find out.”

“Maia is too strong for her age. If I had told her that everyone can learn all elements, and there’s more than just fire, water, wind and earth she might’ve had asked us to teach her. You know what that would lead up to, right?”

“The Sentinels of ascendancy…”

wait… there’s more to what he said about magic? I don’t get it… why did he hide it from her, isn’t getting in the sentinels a great honor?

They might’ve had noticed my clear confusion, because they switched their attention to me for a second.

“You think your little dude is understanding what we’re saying?”

“Might be? He is Maia’s little brother after all haha, but he does seem pretty confused”

“Should we explain what exactly we’re talking about to your infant son?”

Both him and dad were smirking while talking, it was pretty obvious that they did think I was able to understand, so at that point I was just waiting to see their answers.

“Sure, Why not?”

Both of them looked once at me, then drank their shots. Aldric kept holding me while dad poured a second run, then they finally started talking.

“This will be a secret between us men, got it Cael?”

I nodded in response, and my curiosity at that point was too large to hold back, so I kept staring at him until he spoke.

“Remember that I told Maia the element you can use depends on which affinity is higher for you, right?”

I nodded again, then Aldric was the one to continue what dad started.

“That’s not entirely true. First things first, there’s plenty of types of magic, and someone having a non elemental type on top of it isn’t rare.”

but didn’t Maia say she can’t feel any special type of magic?

Dad then took back the lead of the explanation to answer what I was thinking.

“You’re probably wondering why Maia wasn’t able to feel any “special” type of magic, right? But the answer is very simple. It’s because she actually doesn’t have one. While it isn’t necessarily rare, it also isn’t something everyone has, but unlike those, every single human can learn to use not just all elemental types of magic, but also Ice, lava, or even lighting magic.”

wait, if she doesn’t have any special type of magic then why are they hiding it from her?

Aldric then continued.

“There’s also more to it though. For example, by drawing a magic circle with your mana, it can activate different spells, and there’s also other types of magic, like what elves are naturally born with, spirit magic.”

spirit magic? So spirits also exist in this world?!

Aldric then kept on explaining.

“Spirits live among elves in the Elf kingdom Teryades. Elves can absorb their power, adding up to their own mana, and being able to increase their damage output significantly. Elves can also use the mana in their surroundings and absorb it into their bodies, giving them an increase in power, and they have also the best magic mastery out of all the races in this continent.”

that’s definitely interesting, but what’s the point of hiding that from Maia?

Dad then took back the lead in the explanation.

“You might not be able to feel it yet, but we all can tell. Maia’s mana is on pair to that of an average elf already, and she’s only 8 years old. There might not be any point in hiding spirit magic from her specifically, but we’re trying to hide as much magic information as possible from her, because she might end up becoming way too strong, to the point where she’ll inevitably join the sentinels.”

again… why are they against Maia joining them?

“Your dad and honestly me too, would rather not have Maia go join them. The Sentinels are all prideful monsters that believe in power supremacy. And above all, they hate nobility, no matter how low ranked they might be. It would be especially hard for Maia to stay with them, because she inherited Isolde’s Golden eyes after all..”

is he implying what I think he is..?!

Dad then continued.

“Listen carefully Cael. I don’t know how much you understand, and you don’t need to try and let me know either. I’ll eventually explain it to you well, but there’s also some other things that I left out for the other system which is different from magic, so should we explain more? You seemed interested”

I nodded quickly, and stopped thinking about what they said previously.

“While it is definitely harder, since you have more control over materialized magic, rather than raw energy, it isn’t exactly too hard. What makes a difference is the amount of energy you either strengthen your weapon with, or the amount you release. It’s all about output ratios.”

Aldric then continued what dad started

“Let’s make a simple example. Let’s say you’re fighting using energy release from your blade, and your opponent is an user of magic, let’s say lighting in this case. He makes a blade out of pure magic, and you fight with a strengthened sword but at long range. Let’s say you release a blast of energy from your sword, and he releases a blast of lighting magic in response. If your energy output is lower than the base output he used for his lighting, then his blast would win.”

wait, wasn’t pure energy stronger to begin with? And it should be something hard to use anyways no?

Dad then continued following Aldric’s example.

“Generally speaking, raw energy does more damage, but you can also intensify the damage of your magic by simply condensing more mana into the materialization, and that total amount can be higher than your blast of energy. And that’s where the hard or perhaps unfair part comes in.”

oh… I think I understand where’s he’s headed now

“You need tons of mana even just to release a blast of energy to begin with. I’m making it sound easy, but it really is something hard to achieve. Technically speaking, you could also use less mana but condense it to the point where it does more damage, but that’s the hardest thing to do with it. You can increase your own natural mana amount by strengthening your body and mind, since a stronger body can hold more energy, but it’s a long process.”

I see… so technically speaking, Maia could win even against raw energy blasts because of her massive mana amount, hence why they’re hiding information about magic to her… and they’re also hiding this from her because she could probably pull it off as a prodigy..

“To put it into prospective. Adventurers still exists, they take care of dungeons, labyrinths and any monster that they can. The strongest rank for an adventurer is S, and the average S tier adventurer is equivalent to the strength of 10000 average men. Then you have the average Sentinel recruit, which is about 100 times stronger than an S rank adventurer, and they take care of monsters that are above S rank of strength.”

you gotta be kidding… right? You mean the average Sentinel Recruit is already 1 million times stronger than an average man? And there’s monsters that strong?

Aldric then continued

“Every single Lieutenant of the Sentinels captains besides the Lieutenant of their commander’s strength is equivalent to 10000 Recruits. And a captain is equivalent to 100 Lieutenants in strength. But those numbers don’t apply to their Commander and it’s lieutenant.”

the difference between an S rank and a lieutenant is like an ant and a dragon… and even worse for a captain? Just how strong is their commander?!

“The commander’s lieutenant is stronger than all of the captains combined. It’s strength is equivalent to at bare minimum 10 captains.”

10 captains would be needed to take down a single person… at this point I don’t even know how to react anymore..

“And finally… The Commander of the 7 Sentinels of Ascendancy. The 7th captain and the person with the highest authority in the entire continent. His strength is equivalent to…”

Both dad and Aldric were saying it at the same time, and paused before revealing the number for a second, looked at each other then said it at the same time.

“1 Million Captains. But that number could depend on each commander. Usually if a monster cannot be dealt by a couple recruits then a lieutenant is needed, and if not even a lieutenant can, a captain will. But if the commander has to step in the battle, then you might as well assume that it’s a battle with the fate of the world on the line.”

hahaha… I’m laughing internally so I won’t pass out from this terrifying information.. but at the same time, there shouldn’t be monsters that strong… right?

As if knowing exactly what I was thinking then, dad continued.

“The dragon king Vorathar has been sending waves of monsters from his continent for a century now, and usually at least 10 recruits are needed for individual ones of the weakest branch. But the troupes he sends are usually so large that a captain is guarantee to go and handle it. Oh and by the way, those kind of monsters do exist on our continent as well, they could even be near us, but we kinda have no way to know until they attack”

how are you so calm while saying this…

“Well, the point is… we don’t wan’t Maia to join those monsters in human skin. And while getting attacked by a sentinel level monster is possible, it’s unlikely for them to even exist in remote areas like this, since they feed on people and mana. So rest assured haha”

I get it now… but it’s still scary to think about that’s for sure..

“Well, either ways it’s quite late buddy, so it’s time for you to go to bed. Isolde and Lyanna are probably not asleep yet, but we’d rather not disturb them, so I’ll take you to Maia’s room tonight”

Aldric then handed me over, and dad started walking upstairs.

“Remember Cael, as I said I have no idea how much you understood, but no matter what, you have to keep this secret from Maia. I want her to live a normal life, not one where she might be respected, but out of fear. And as we said, because of Isolde’s golden eyes… she might have some trouble, which will apply to you as well once your hair becomes fully white haha, but I’m sure you’ll be fine. You’re my son after all.”

as I thought… mom is probably from some noble household, and her Silver whiteish hair and golden eyes are proof of it, huh?

After getting upstairs he opened the door to Maia’s room, where she was already sleeping, then put me next to her on the bed. She didn’t wake up, but probably felt me next to her since she started holding me after dad did that.

“Good night to both of you, and happy birthday, Cael.”

i thought dad was just a goofball, but I guess… he might be quite the opposite. Either ways, I guess there’s no point in thinking about it now…

It might’ve not have been the most fun or special birthday, but I found out the most valuable information so far ever since I got reincarnated, so I was satisfied.

The adrenaline from the intense conversation from earlier wore off as soon as Maia started holding me, and frankly speaking it was so comfortable that I was barely staying awake, so I then just gave in and went to sleep.