Somehow, my days had grown far more hectic.

How so, you ask?

Well, a little nuisance whom I shall not name had intruded upon my life. She came in like a storm after 7 or 8 days, would spend 3 or 2 days with us, then disappear like she was never around.

When she did come, she made sure to let everyone know of her presence. Stealing precious mother-son bonding time, stealing all of the food in the house, exploring the nooks and cranny like a thief scouting their next big score and even worming her way into the heart of the great ass- um, provider of the house.

In case you hadn't guessed it yet, I was referring to Rosine.

That little twerp had somehow become a major force in this household. Her mother would drop her off with the excuse of venturing into the nearby forest, but I had a working theory that Rosine's parents simply needed a little bit of 'Off Time', if you catch my drift.

Taking care of a wildfire like her must have been exhausting, because I highly doubted that she even slept. Yes, she was a perpetual motion machine full of energy and questions. I can't blame them for passing her off to some neighbours when things get too stressful.

However, I absolutely couldn't forgive them for starting this annoying daily routine for me.

Today for instance, Rosine was looking to get a black eye.

"Come on, I heard babies start walking after 6 months. Try it.", She said, lifting my body up by the arms and moving me along with her.

"Hey, hey. I read that babies eyes are good enough to read after 6 months. Tell me what this says.", She shoved a book in my face.

"Say Rosie. RO-SIE. Easy, right?", She kept moving my lips like they were her toys.

"Hey, hey-", I could hear her voice echoing as I hid myself away in mother's room. Rosine had been tormenting me since the morning, having suddenly grown an interest in babies and their capabilities.

I felt like she was ready to tear me up to look at my innards. That child was maniacal.

In the end, I spent the whole morning hiding in the room. The silence eventually got to me and I fell asleep on the dirty wooden floor. Hopefully, by the time I woke up, she'd have left.

Nope.

When my eyes snapped open, there she was, sleeping right next to me. I felt her calmly breathing onto my face, her arms wrapped around me. She'd turned me into her personal teddy bear.

Seems like when I was sleeping, she found me and rather than thinking to move me, she fell asleep next to me.

It was strange though. I never thought the day this little demon would be quiet would finally come. Her graceful sleeping face and peaceful expression put my heart at ease. For the first time, I could see her for the child that she was.

Who would have thought something this small would have made me appreciate this child.

*SNORE*

My new image was suddenly ruined by her piggish snore.

"Tch, you annoying brat. You couldn't even be quiet when sleeping!", My body burned with rage like never before. If I was an immature baby, I'd have balled my fists and slugged her right here and now, but I was better than that.

"Ow! Ow!", Rosine screamed in pain. She jolted up and placed her hands over her eye.

Of course, I didn't know what had happened. In fact, I didn't even hear her screaming. I was asleep and didn't know anything had happened. The universe had chosen to punish her, by punching her in the eye, not me. Yes, let us go with that.

***

"Your writing's still terrible. I'm not even surprised an idiot like you is finding this so difficult.", Rosine ranted, grabbing my arm and helping me write out my name properly. "That's how you do it."

I looked at the paper in front of me, and saw my name written crookedly on it, Belfry. The letters in this language were already complicated enough, but with my inexperienced arms, I don't know what this demon was expecting.

Then again, considering I'd known her for 4 years now, I wasn't really surprised.

Yes, 4 whole years had passed and I was now 100 percent certain that I'd been reborn in a new world. This was the second time this had happened, but I'd assume it had something to do with the ritual. The more I grew, the more I learned about this new world. From the conversations I'd heard, we were currently in a nameless village in a place called the Neutral Ground.

Sometimes, I'd hear people say we were on the outskirts of the Xander Kingdom, but I chose to rule that out as the most common I'd heard was the Neutral Grounds. It was quite the interesting place, being a semi-arid location, bordering a massive rain forest, only separated by a river.

There were 12 months in a single year, each month consisting of 30 days, separated into 3 weeks of ten days, or more commonly called, 3 tendays. There were also 4 days not counted in the months known as the birthdays of the gods. The summer and winter solstice and spring and autumn equinoxes, meaning 364 days in a year. Shorter than the previous world which had 480 days in year.

If I remembered correctly, today would be the 5th day of Meltwinter, 484 A.H, A.H standing for Alexander HeartWood. Apparently, they'd named the years in his honour after he'd pushed back a great threat and established the greatest empire this world had ever seen.

Strangely enough, Rosine hadn't brought any history books for me to learn. Clearly, she had no interest in the lives of dead men and would rather focus on fantasy.

Back to the present, Rosine was more or less, a prodigy. She'd excelled at everything she tried and was expecting the same of me. To be honest, I myself was expecting more, but to no avail.

According to mother, I was developing at a fairly normal pace for kids my age. I still fumbled over certain words and writing was still a bit complicated. Strangely, although I could understand the language, speaking it didn't come nearly as easily to me.

Every time I opened my mouth to speak, I instinctively spoke my former world's language, which just ended up sounding like gibberish to those of this world. Mother was concerned that I was, for lack of a better term, "special".

After realising my mistake, I'd corrected it quickly and moved on normally with my life.

From the moment I turned 3, Rosine had taken it upon herself to teach me. Her mother had recommended it, as a way to ensure that Rosine at least properly understood and memorised everything she was being taught as well.

However, I had serious issues with this arrangement.

"This time, try writing this sentence 'Rosine is the greatest'.", She demanded, releasing my hand. She puffed out her chest, a smirk widespread across her cheeky face. "Make sure to do it nicely."

Rosine being a child, and a prodigy at that, had some abnormal expectations for me.

In what universe was a 4-year-old doing long division? She moved through the topics at lightning speed. Fortunately, I was well versed in math, so it was nothing more than a nuisance, but playing along with her nonsense ended up making my life more annoying.

At one point, because of this, Roland was getting feistier. There was no way a kid of his was this smart, so I definitely wasn't his, right? Well, that meant mother's life was also getting more and more hellish. Roland's antics just got more violent and you could tell by mother's swollen, baggy eyes every time.

Because of that, I'd resigned to getting dumber and acting more normal. That meant less attention on me and more berating from Rosine. She was hard headed and wasn't falling for my dumb act, but I didn't care.

As long as mother wasn't getting beat up, I'd raise as many knocks as possible. A conviction which ended up surprising me.

As soon as I was done writing what she requested of me, she scrutinised it over, then huffed disappointedly.

"Hm, your writing is still bad, but I can't wait anymore.", She said, shaking her head. Rosine then picked up a book she'd come over with.

The book had an auburn red covering, with black lacing at the edges and some words written on the front in a unique style. I assumed it was the same language I was learning, only the cursive was so thick I couldn't read it.

Rosine dropped the book down on the floor, then flipped it open.

"Even a dumb-dumb like you should be able to do this."

From the pages that flashed open, I saw various drawings, circles and writing, none of which I could decipher.

"This, Belfry, is the 'Practitioner's Guide To Understanding Mana And It's Applications, Volume 1'.", She explained, still flipping through the pages, quickly. "You see, in this world, there are people called Mages. They can do miraculous things like summon lightning, create tornadoes and control the very ground. There are a lot of them spread throughout the world and everyone has the potential to be one."

She proceeded to explain more about Mages to me.

They were classified into two different types: Enhancers and Emitters.

Enhancers were mages who generated mana to strengthen their bodies whereas Emitters could generate mana to affect their surroundings. According to her, one's type was determined right from birth. Same as their mana pool, quality and potential.

Mages, huh? Can't say I'm surprised, but still, it was at least good to know that there was magic out there.

I always was interested in magic, but never had the aptitude for it in my previous lives. Ok, saying I had no aptitude was a bit of a stretch. I could perform it, but I never really explored its limits in any of my lives. It was purely about the sword and nothing more for me, since it was the most efficient for combat.

"I brought this book here to see if you can use magic like me.", She boasted.

Again, I wasn't surprised by this child's ability anymore. At the mere age of 9, she was already using magic. Considering her boastful attitude, I was assuming that was exceptional, even for this world's standards.

"You can use magic?", I asked, playing along.

After my years of peril at the hands of this monster, I'd found that playing along and inflating her ego was the best way to go.

"O-Of course, I can! I'm the smartest! Aha! There you are.", She yelled, finally arriving at the page she'd been tirelessly searching for. "The spell for a fireball. You should be able to do it."

She pointed at the line for me to read, but the page's font style was too difficult for me.

"I can't-", Before I could finish my sentence, I heard a threatening growl from behind me. I could feel Rosine's knuckle raised to the sky, ready to deliver cruel punishment upon me.

This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

"G-Great is… the tive-, divine heat, d-divine is the holy iight, holy light-",

'Honestly, what the hell was with this font? It was so difficult on the eyes- eh?', My thoughts were interrupted by my surroundings. A gentle breeze started to spiral around my outstretched hand and I could feel something hot enter my body.

Still, I didn't stop.

"H-holy is the bl-blessed sphere,", The weird heat spread from my finger tips to the edges of my body, then dissipated like it was never there. Even the wind had stopped spinning in front of my palm and remained stationary. Still, my instincts told me that something was about to happen. If I finished this, an exciting event would occur. In a way, it felt like the calm before the storm.

"Fire ball!", I roared at the top of my lungs.

A weird heat, similar to the one from before, now reverberated throughout my body. From the tips of my toes and the crown of my head, energy surged, moving like a flood, right back into the palm of my outstretched arm.

The space in front of my palm burned bright, exploding and the creating what I could only describe as a wisp of flame that vanished the very moment, it had arrived.

Immediately, my limbs fell weak and my body collapsed to the ground.

"B-Belfry? A-Are you alright? Hey!", She yelled, but I couldn't produce a response. I felt way too weak to even think of coming up with a response.

No. Rather than even focusing on her, my mind was on the feeling from earlier. It was a rush. A jolt of an exhilarating feeling I couldn't explain. The closest thing I could relate it to was that feeling you got when after hours of holding yourself back, you finally got to pee.

That sense of relief and ease.

Before I even realised it, I had fallen asleep.

***

At the outskirts of the village, near the Bewildering Forest, there was a little cottage next to a big pond. This cottage was built of rocks, with a wooden roof. The walls were colourful, with the growing green moss and various brightly coloured flowers that bloomed beautifully, giving it a fairy esque aura.

This cottage was home to the resident doctor of the village.

There were rumours that the doctor of the village was a mad witch from the mountains in the North of the Neutral Grounds. Some said she was a beautiful fairy that had decided to help the poor folk of this big village. Some even claimed that the doctor was a scholar that had been banished from her home kingdom for performing inhumane experiments on people.

That very doctor was returning home, and trailing closely behind her, was her child. A little girl with cherry red hair and a fiery attitude to match.

"Hmm, maybe Lisa was right to be so worried about that boy.", Lola, commented, opening the door to the little cottage. "Nah, no way. This might just be pure coincidence."

She entered the cottage, still muttering to herself.

Rosine on the other hand, paused in front of the house. She looked at her palm, memories from earlier in the day flashing quickly through her mind.

Taking in a deep breath, she stretched forth her hand then yelled to the world, "Great is the divine heat, divine is the holy light, holy is the blessed sphere, Fire ball!"

As if in pure mockery of her silly shout, the universe responded with dead silence. Following a few more seconds of nothing, she squeezed her fist and frowned. She clicked her tongue then followed after her mother, slamming the door to the cottage shut.

**********

By the time I'd come to, I found myself on a soft feathered bed, staring up at the ceiling. Looking to my side, I saw her resting her head next to me, as she had knelt down by my side for what I assumed to be hours. At some point, she had picked me up and put me to bed.

Four years had gone by, and she still had to care for her useless son. I needed to start acting more like my age. Fortunately, Roland wasn't around for there to be any problems regarding this.

Turns out that Roland was actually an important cog that kept this continent running. He was a soldier at a massive group of doors called the 'Stellar Gates'. They were there to protect the boundary that separated us from the monsters outside of this continent.

Apparently, this job was so important that it required him to spend half the year away from his family. This was a bad thing for families that actually gave a damn about their fathers. On the other hand, for us, Roland's job trips felt like 6-month-long vacations. Unfortunately, he'd be back in three months, so I had to have as much fun as possible now, I guess.

Anyway, the point was that we were good at the moment.

I looked up, thinking about the feeling from before and the things I saw when I tried the chant for a fire ball.

'Magic, huh? That sounds... interesting.'

I'd reached my hand out to the ceiling, trying to replicate the same feeling.

"Great is the divine he-",

"Belfry...", Mother said sleepily, rubbing her eyes as she lifted her head up to see me. I turned my head to the side and gave her a bright smile.

"Ye-!?", Before I could finish, she grabbed me in a tight motherly hug, patting my head.

"Are you alright? Do you feel sick anywhere?", She jerked back, taking the chance to investigate my body and catch any abnormalities. I held myself back from saying anything.

Mother was as calm as a pond, but when it came to my well-being, she could turn into a raging sea. It was best to allow her to come to her own conclusion on this.

"Oh, thank the gods, you're alright.", She kissed me on the forehead and hugged me once again.

The gods she was referring to here were most likely the deities of the Six Gods Church. Mother was especially a follower of the Undying Mother branch but occasionally prayed to the other deities. At least, that's what I got from what I'd seen so far.

"Why wouldn't I be? I just tried to use some magic.", Having seen that she had calmed down, I chose to finally speak.

"Magic? You tried to do magic?", Again, she jerked backwards, now staring at me with the widest eyes I've ever seen from her.

"Um…" Uh-oh. Was that something I wasn't supposed to do? Did this world have something against 4-year-olds doing magic?

"Yes?", I cautiously responded.

"And you fainted? D-Did something happen?", She grabbed my face and stared into my eyes, her movements more erratic than before.

"I-I twied to summon a firebaw.", I freed my face from her grip to sound the most mature that I could. "It was just a wisp. Barely anything came out. I promise!"

Quickly, I tried to salvage the situation. If it was a bad thing, I could plead that it was barely enough to warrant worry.

"So you did magic, and that's why you fainted? That's… I've never heard of that before."

'Eh? That's never happened before? I'm trash that can't even make an actual fireball without passing out? Is that what I'm hearing?'

"Honestly… I thought making a fireball was basic magic for mages. Are you being completely honest with me, Bel?", she asked.

'Seriously!?', Now I was starting to wish that I actually had cast the fireball.

I was a hero with unlimited power before, damn it! I could split the sky and slay dragons with ease. The hell do you mean I'm simply trash? I refuse to believe this. Gah!

"It's late tonight, so why don't we talk to Lola tomorrow? I'm sure she can explain this better than I can.", Realising that she was out of her depth, she kissed me on the forehead and stood up. "Have a good night, Bel. May the Woman on the Moon see that you make it back tomorrow."

The Woman on the Moon, huh? I personally think that one was the creepiest of all the gods. Stealing the souls of people whenever they sleep and only allowing them back when it was time to wake up. Obviously, that wasn't what was actually happening, but whoever envisioned that god is a total horror flick enthusiast.

No, no! That wasn't even important. You can't just end the conversation after revealing that I'm trash.

***

The next day, mother had us marching off to Lola's place as early as dawn. According to both her mother and Rosine, she was an early worm who simply couldn't accept waking after the sun. It was her "rebellion against the world's norms" or something. Neither mother nor Rosine could take her seriously when it came to this particular statement.

The path to her house lay down the flowing stream, near the stone bridge. Her cottage was a 10-minute walk south if you followed the stream. This was so that no matter the time people needed her help, finding her wouldn't be much of a problem. After all, there's the saying, 'If you get lost, follow the river' or whatever waterbody is near you.

When we arrived, we found Lola performing a few warm-up exercises outside the house.

"Lola,", Mother called out to her, opening the waist-length gate to her cottage.

Pretty unnecessary defence if you asked me. Anyone could easily jump that. Even unathletic kids wouldn't find it so troublesome.

"Lisa? Is that you? At this time? Are you also choosing to rebel against nature?", She paused her exercise after noticing us.

"No thank you. I'd rather enjoy waking up like a normal person."

"Don't tell me your boy finally kicked the bucket,", she said, getting up from the ground before looking at me. "Oh good. He's awake. Just like I was expecting, haha!"

Mother was not amused. She did not even acknowledge the terrible joke.

"Belfry says he tried to cast a spell, and that's why he fainted,", she explained, pushing me forward.

"Eh? A spell? He's an emitter?", she asked, dropping to her knees before me. She observed me with her emerald eyes before looking back at my mother. "He cast just one spell, then passed out? That's… odd."

S-Seriously? So I really am trash?

"Oh well, I can take a look at him right now if you want.", Saying this, she picked up a pebble from the ground and started to make some markings on the ground. "There's two ways to cast a spell. The most popular method is incantations, since they're faster to do on the spot. The other way is through magic circles. Of the two, I'd say magic circles are the most efficient."

If incantations are faster, how's a magic circle more efficient?

"Put your palm on the circle,", she encouraged, placing my palm close to the dirt.

I looked back at my mother, and she had a worried expression. There really was nothing to be worried about, though, so I just took a deep breath and placed my arm on the ground.

The ground lit up for a second, then died down, leaving only scorch marks on the ground. The energy drain on my body was intense, but not so much so that I felt tired.

"He actually can cast magic. I'm impressed,", she said, clapping her hands in genuine awe. She then stood up and faced my mother. "I'll need some more time to figure out why he fainted the first time, but you can leave him with me for now. He'll be able to return by the evening."

"Eh? But-",

"No, buts. I don't need you prodding around and annoying me with your religious nonsense while I'm working. He'll be fine.", She went up and started to push mother out of front yard.

"I-I can't just leave my baby in there.", She reached out to me, but I turned aside, ignoring her.

I, too, was now invested. I couldn't allow her zealousness to ruin that for me.

"Belfryyyy!", she whined while being pushed. She was fighting a losing battle.

Sorry, mother, the exploration of a growing boy's body was far too interesting to let up. I hope you forgive me.

***

"See, in this world, there are 2 types of people. Those with special organs called mana cores located somewhere between the heart and the stomach, and those without. The latter vastly outnumbers the former,", Lola explained, pointing to the chalkboard.

She'd presented illustrations for me for easy digestion.

"One out of every 1000 people turns out to possess this mana core, and 1 out of every 100 of those people ever awakens it. Even then, there are two types of mana cores: the emitter and enhancer cores. Emitters release mana to affect their surroundings and create unique phenomena dubbed magic, whereas enhancers generate mana to strengthen their bodies with a substance called aura.", I had no idea how she expected a regular 4-year-old to keep up, but I chose to ignore.

Clearly, raising a daughter like Rosine didn't allow her to be self-aware about these sorts of things.

"You, young lad, belong to the class of emitters. And you're a particularly weak one at that."

Damn it!

"However, I believe you're also a special case. If my theory is right, you could possibly get stronger."

Yes! Let's go!

She then went on to explain the more technical bits of emitters.

According to her, the presence of mana could be felt everywhere in this world. It was especially thick in certain places, but there was no location that did not possess mana. At least, none that had been discovered or publicly announced as of yet.

The emitter mana core absorbed mana from the surrounding atmosphere, then converted it in the caster's body into a form of energy that the user could use to affect invisible forces in their surroundings, creating magic, all this using a circuit system called the 'Magic Circuit'.

For emitters, the mana core determined how much mana they could absorb and convert before overloading themselves.

To do this, there were two methods": incantations and magic circles.

Incantations were something like prayers sung to the creators of this world to receive permission to perform this supernatural feat. At least, that was what Lola explained to me. The same could be said for magic circles, except they consumed far less mana.

That was the basics of magic casting.

"Earlier, you said magic circles were more efficient, but incantations are used more. What did you mean by that?"

"I did?", To her question, I nodded. She shrugged, then proceeded to answer. "Oh, well, to put it simply, magic circles are the equivalent of magic circuits. They process everything themselves rather than exerting your actual mana circuit."

I tilted my head, still not quite understanding her train of thought.

"Almost any spell can be done by any person, as long as they are ready to sacrifice themselves. Hmm, let's say a person can perform a spell done two ranks higher than their capabilities, as long as they are ready to permanently destroy their mana cores."

Simply put, if I were a rank 1 mage, I could perform a rank 3 magic spell at the cost of my mana cores being permanently destroyed.

"So, the magic circles act as an external circuit that performs the spell and collapses on itself without any repercussion to the original circuit?"

"Huh. Maybe you actually are as smart as Rosie says.", She noted, grinning from ear to ear.

"Why isn't it used more then?", I asked.

"Well, using it on the ground burns up that part of the ground and ensures that it can never be used for anything magic-related. Hell, I've seen an idiot tattoo his body with magic circles, only to completely deform his skin and rupture his circuits."

Basically, magic circles are a one-time-use technique, hence less efficient than chants. But didn't that just depend on the rank of the spell used?

"It's mostly used by mages who have low mana capacity for higher-tier magic. Meaning, you."

"Oh, I see.", I was crushed. Clearly, in this new world, I was nothing special.

"Ok. Now I have two logical hypotheses on why you passed out after using magic earlier."

1. You used all of your mana to invoke the spell.

2. You accidentally cast a spell of a rank a bit too high for your mana core and ended up burning yourself out.

"Which one is it?"

"Most likely the first one. This is probably the first time I've seen someone have a mana pool this shallow. There's almost nothing separating you from a regular person."

I always wished to be normal, to have no need to grow stronger and simply pass the time reading books, playing in the plains, and working on the fields, but now that I was there, it was disappointing. Unpleasant, even.

"Listen, kid, there's something you're going to learn about me during our tenure as master and student.", Lola put her hand on my shoulder and lifted my chin up for our eyes to meet. There, I saw the grin of a mad person about to perform an absolutely insane task.

"W-What?", I stammered.

"I choose to revolt against this world's logic."

"Eh?"

She dragged me in closer for a tight hug, then pointed to the ceiling.

"If you're with me, you're rebelling against the world, too!"

I feel like I just started something I shouldn't have. Then again, if this was a chance to not be normal, I'd take it.