That day wasn't life changing for me alone. Rosine had apparently developed magical abilities out of nowhere. The mere fact that she'd survived consuming the mana crystal at her age alone was something.

However, that was cleared up. According to Lola, Rosine was a half-giant. That was something I wasn't expecting to hear, considering the current state of affairs of the world.

Currently, humans were at war against creatures called demi-humans. These were your usual elves, dwarves, beast men and any other humanoid creatures that weren't human. Naturally, I expected this to include giants. But according to Lola, giants weren't seen as demi-humans.

Some of them even apparently lived in this continent. An example would be the 'Red Ogre' clan that lived to the North of the Neutral Ground, really close to the Stellar Gates.

Anyway, the point was, giants, unlike humans, were completely unable to use mana in any form. Giants were people that rather than processing mana, just consumed it and grew bigger in size. The benefits of that were skin as hard as iron and strength matching over 10 men. They were even resistant to magic to some extent.

What did that mean for Rosine who was half-giant?

Well, Lola wasn't certain, but she believed this rule would apply to Rosine as well, which was why she said Rosine would never be an emitter or enhancer. Then again, seeing as she couldn't be a hundred percent certain of this, she refrained from giving Rosine a mana crystal till she turned at least 15.

She had already explained all of this to the brat, but Rosine was too stubborn to understand.

And for once, her stubbornness rewarded her.

After consuming the crystal, she suddenly developed the ability to create fire. This wasn't like the fire I created where I could control it, but rather it simply burnt. We couldn't even confirm the source of the fire, so Lola just assumed Rosine had developed an odd mana core.

For now, we just labelled her an aberrant.

Aberrants were the term given to people who displayed odd, unexplained abilities.

And as for me, Lola was tempted to give me the title of aberrant as well, but she decided against it. It would seem I wasn't the only 4-year-old in the world capable of doing such a thing.

The 7th prince of the Xander Kingdom was just about my age, but he was labelled a magic genius. He had displayed the capability to use all the 4 basic elements about a year ago and was now under tutelage of some of the world's best professors.

Lola wanted to be a part of that, but couldn't go, she settled for me. Kind of harsh of her to admit, but knowing Lola, she didn't mean anything bad by it.

After I explained what I saw, we performed a few more experiments, trying to get me to see it. We'd come to realise that whenever I casted a spell, I could see coloured orbs coming to form. Unfortunately, they only came one at a time.

The red orbs created a fireball when they came into contact with my mana. The green ones created wind, blue was water and yellow was earth. They were particular elemental attributes depending on their colour. So far, these were the only colours I'd seen.

The effect this had on my magic? Well, creating fireballs felt way easier and faster than when I was using chants or even silent casting. They flowed faster and had more mass to them. Fire and Wind were by far the easiest to control. Water and Earth were a bit out of my depth, but I had no doubts in my mind that with time I could master them.

I was curious about it. So I practiced some more. The the element I went in depth with the most was wind. Unlike the other elements, wind didn't take much for me. Whenever I tried to use it, I gathered the orbs into my palm. Mana would forcefully escape my body, then ignite the elements that I had gathered, causing some sort of elemental explosion. I didn't notice the purple energy that was leaving my body till after I saw entering my body.

I had a thought back then. What would happen if I tried to keep this energy in my body? Of course, that was a silly idea. If I kept the energy from moving in my surroundings, then there was no elemental explosion. But that didn't stop my experiments. I mean, I had nothing to do most of the time.

I tried limiting the amount that went into the explosions, but either I gave too much or didn't give enough for sparking it. In no time, I soon learned to control it. About a week or so. When I was relatively decent at it, I started to question the origin of these purple lights.

Did my body generate it? If not, how did I get it then? That was when I started to use it up to the bare-minimum I needed in order to move. Like squeezing a sponge dry, I rendered myself in a wretched state – barely capable of movement. While in my pseudo-paralysed state, I was able to sense things better.

The most interesting thing was what I felt entering my body. At first, it was like a hot liquid forcefully being poured into the pores of my body. Painful and gut wrenching, but I pulled through. Whenever it filled my body to an extent, I could feel my sense of touch and ability to properly move return to me, but I would lose the ability to sense whatever that thing was.

It was about 2 months since I started practicing that I noticed I could finally sense it even when I was out of a state of paralysis. In the end, we concluded that this purple light was mana. Somehow, I had developed the ability to see mana and the elements in their basic form.

In the previous lives I had lived, I didn't have to particularly absorb such things. I was always blessed with an abundance of mana, so to say, so it was a bit odd being able to actually sense these tiny attributes pouring into my body.

Aside that, the past 2 months had been kind of slow. It was the 2nd day of Scorching Blaze and Lola decided to cancel all classes for the day. Normally, a cancelled day meant I was free to do my own experiments, but today, I was at the behest of Rosine and mother.

"Come one, come all! Observe all these magical artefacts from the Great Ahmar Empire!"

A slender, tanned man with a pencil moustache said, attracting a crowd of villagers.

To my surprise, the market was loud. Especially for me who had most of my senses, including my hearing, heightened to above average standards. Even though roaming merchants tended to do business for a few days here, it wasn't a particularly bustling place, I didn't expect there to be so many stalls or people of unique origins here.

Today was special though. A massive organisation had set up four days ago and today was going to be their last day. Turns out loads of merchants had been searching for this organisation for a while now and finally found them.

"Come for fresh fruit! Kept cold and juicy!"

Another person yelled, calling for attention. My eyes darted to the fruit and truly, it was cold. Men of varying sizes were moving about on a unicycle, juggling some torches. The sound of the upbeat music hit my ears like a storm, surprising me.

A short man in a black vest, wearing grey pants and a top hat, came over to me and handed me a piece of paper. He looked at me with his eyes full of cheer and hidden greed then said in a loud voice,

"Come one, come all, to the Merchant Express! Today's our last day here kid, so go bring all your friends for the big show tonight!"

For the past few days, that's all I'd heard. The Merchant Express. For some reason, it sounded familiar to me, but since I couldn't figure it out, I chose to push it aside as simply a matter of déjà vu.

I pretended not to hear a single word and kept on going my way. In no time, I arrived at the village market where there were several stalls set up. The scent of freshly baked bread tickled my nose, as did the wonderous tools put on display that lit a fire in my eyes.

Once he was done, he dashed off to go hound other people. I took a look at the paper. It was a poster that appeared to have been printed, but there was no way to print in this kind of world, right?

"Those apples are covered in honey! I want some!", Rosine demanded, pointing at a candy stand. The merchant, seeing an opportunity took one out and waved it in front of her, enticing her to use money on him.

"N-", Just as I was about to turn down her request, I decided against it. Today was all about relaxing and enjoying myself. No harm in spending money childishly. "Sure. Get one for me too."

Saying this, I picked out two copper coins from my pocket and exchanged them for the candy apples. The sweet flavour sent a wave of ecstasy through my body and for a moment, I forgot about any worries in the world.

'Aah~ So this is what heaven tastes like.'

That was only for a moment though. Some bugs had to come ruin my day.

"Oh look, it's Rosine and lil Belfry.", An annoying voice said.

Rosine and I both turned around immediately, only to face a handful of snot-nosed kids. At the centre of the kids was their leader, a brat with a missing tooth, dirty clothes and messy hair, smirking at us.

The kid's name was Geoffrey. I'd had an altercation or two with him before, during Rosine's rebellious phase. During that time she'd always be playing around with them instead, and naturally, them being protective of a friend, they'd always try to send me running. Of course, I didn't even bother fighting them, but still the kid was really annoying.

Geoffrey grinned at us and puffed out his chest.

But something was off. It took me a few seconds of watching the group to finally realise, but one more member of this group was missing. Geoffrey's younger brother who always went everywhere with him. Lesley, I believe he was called. Did he finally learn the importance of independence? Good for him.

I took another bite of my apple and looked at Rosine from the corner of my eye, wondering what she'd do, but clearly, she was too engrossed in her apple to care about what was going on. Her eyes shone brightly as she took in multiple bites.

Seeing that she wasn't going to handle it, I decided to speak first.

"What do you want, Geoffrey?", I asked in a flat tone.

"Tch. At least pretend you want to know!", He yelled at me.

Somehow, he'd caught me. I averted my gaze from his and kept eating my apple, hoping that he'd hurry up and get lost.

"Tch, whatever.", He cleared his throat, then began anew. "The hell are you two doing here?"

"Are we supposed to not be here?", I looked around, trying to see if there was a warning for us to not be around or something.

"Of course. Today's my birthday, meaning I get to do whatever the hell I want to do. So, for today, I didn't want to see any of your faces. Although, I can make an excuse for Rosine."

Oh… that was right. This kid had a thing for Rosine. He was year or two younger than her and clearly respected her a great deal.

Can't say he had great taste though. Rosine may be cute, but she was in no way or form a decent significant other. She'd beat the crap out of you for not feeding her ego, she'd never admit to being wrong and she'd always refuse to do something in any way other than hers.

Well, maybe I was being harsh considering she was only 11, and still had more time to grow as a person, but still, falling for the current Rosine was definitely absurd. Geoffrey definitely had a screw or two loose in his head.

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.

Also…

"Ew, we share the same birthday? Kill me now."

Of all the people, this kid?

"The hell's that supposed ta mean, ya brat?", He growled.

Oops. Turns out I'd said that part out loud accidentally. There was no way this would end well now.

"Uh, I didn't mean anything by th-", Mid-sentence, he grabbed me by the collar and raised his fist to intimidate me.

"Imma punch that smug grin of ya dainty face, ya bastard brat.", He pulled his arm back, creating some distance to strike, but just then the sound of knuckles cracking entered my ears.

"Alright. I'm done, now who wants to get punched first.", From the corner of my eye, Rosine was cracking her knuckles and getting ready to jump in.

Suddenly, purple orbs started to gather around her body and I could tell that she was about to do something stupid. The chances of her readying to use her fire was extremely high, and considering just how rare mages were in this world, exposing herself to a bunch of roaming merchants who engaged in all manners of businesses would be troublesome.

To prevent this, I kicked Geoffrey in his proverbial family jewels, making the child crumble to floor, releasing me. Quickly, I grabbed Rosine by the hand and set off.

I would apologise to him later, when I was certain none of us would get into any real problems.

After a few minutes, I jumped behind a pile of boxes.

"Hey! I could've beaten him there!", She complained, while getting dragged along.

Sneakily I took a peak from behind the boxes.

"You were going to use your fire, weren't you?"

"I- uh, n-no.", She lied, averting her eyes from mine.

I ignored her silliness then took a look back to see if we were safe. Satisfied, I decided to return and berate Rosine for her carelessness, but then I noticed something weird.

White coloured orbs had swarmed a certain tent. Naturally, it being a new colour, I was curious about why it was moving about such a place in large droves. I could not contain my urge to investigate the matter.

I found only one table stationed perfectly in the centre of the eerily empty tent. It was illuminated by the white elementals that swarmed it, humming with enough power that even when I wasn't focusing, I could feel it.

Cautiously, I approached the table and saw a blade on the table. It was a long sword, sheathed in a scabbard twice my size. It had a white hilt with a golden lion head as its pommel and what looked like bird claws for its quillon. The golden blade was held up by two poles and had a glass case covering it, but something about it called to me.

I reached out to grab it, then a hand caught mine. The owner, a wretched old man with one bulging eye, strings of grey hair falling messily over his face and wrinkly skin that drooped so low I thought it was melting off, pulled me in closer with his bony hand and took a look at me with his eye.

No, rather than an eye, it was a golden ball. Meaning, he had no eyes.

"Did you sense the sword?", he asked with a wretched howl. His breath was worse than Roland's body odour, making me wince. I focused on freeing myself, but his grip was beyond what I thought an old man could muster.

"Answer me, boy!", he howled at me. I was tempted to burn him, but my flames weren't strong enough to do such a thing and even if they were, I got the sense that it would be best not to try. Reluctantly, I responded to his question.

"Yes. I-I'm sorry! Please let go of me.", I pleaded innocently, but failed. This only made him lift me off the ground. He scanned my body like I was some sort of item. He took especial care when looking into my eyes, muttering some incomprehensible nonsense. When he was done, he dropped me on the ground, making me land on my butt.

"Ow!" I complained as I slowly got off the ground, rubbing my butt.

"What's your name, boy?"

I was rather wary about giving my name to a total stranger, but decided to do so anyway.

"Rolan-"

"If you're going to lie, you might as well tell me you're an eight-foot dragon with wooden fangs.", Exasperated, the old man called out my lie with a glare.

"Belfry. My name is Belfry.", I was going to use Roland's name in case this old man was some sort of witch doctor and was planning on cursing me using my name, but somehow, that failed.

"No last name? Interesting. So you're a commoner then?", he concluded. In this world, most commoners and lesser nobles didn't possess a surname. At least that's what mother said when I asked her. "You can have the sword for 500,000 gold coins."

"Huh!? If I had that kind of money, do you think I'd be living here!?", I questioned his common sense. The old man scratched his chin with his untrimmed nails and shrugged.

"If you can't pay for it, buy something else or leave."

"Something else? This place is empty!", at my hasty retort, he grinned at me then waved his hand. My surroundings changed and I got to see that there were multiple tables filled with various ornaments, blades, armour and so on.

"How?" the word escaped my mouth as I looked on in disbelief.

'The elemental attributes…!?'

The room was suddenly filled with various elemental orbs other than white, making me question every single thing I once presumed I knew.

"Tis but a simple trick of light, my boy.", clearly happy that he managed to get such a reaction out of me, he snickered to himself.

I on the other hand was amazed. Because of my 6 months of training, I had fallen under the presumption that the magic in this world was only capable of altering the elements. It would seem there was much more that I was not aware of. I needed more information about magic. Lola was definitely holding out on me.

Reflexively, I turned to the man and asked, "Do you have anything that can help with magic?"

"Magic? I suppose I do. Maybe even a broke kid like you can afford it."

He said, then dug into a pile of jewelleries. After a few thuds and clanks he pulled out a large wooden box. He snapped off the padlock then opened it to reveal a catalogue of wands.

"I have the entire sets of wands from a master craftsmen. Pick your choice.'

"Eh? How much does one cost?", I asked with dazzling eyes, craving for the tools to improve myself.

"The cheapest should be about 48 silvers, but for you, I'll make it 20 silvers."

I could feel all colour drain from the world.

"I even added a discount, so I bet you're happy.", The wretched old man gloated about his generosity, causing his nose to grow as tall as the sky. "What's with that deadpan expression?"

He asked, completely oblivious to what it meant to be a poor commoner.

"Ah yes, the life of a rich merchant. Maybe I should sell my parents for the wands?", depressed and out of life, I sarcastically said while walking out of the room.

This one old man had single-handedly put me in a slump with just a few words. They always say "An experienced merchant's tongue is as sharp as a master swordsman's blade". I guess I finally understood that phrase.

"Wait up, child.", the merchant called out to me.

"Oi, I wasn't serious about selling my parents. Wait… can I sell you Roland?", I instantly rejected any weird offers he was going to make.

"I have no need for your filthy parents, child."

Contrary to my expectations, when I turned around to look at him, the merchant was holding up a necklace. It had a small crystal-clear fang shaped jewel on it.

"Take it. Consider it on the house.", he threw it at me and I struggled to keep it from falling.

"Huh? I can't accept this."

"Why not?"

"Because I didn't pay for it."

"Like I said, it's free."

I tried throwing it back, but he glared at me.

"If you don't take it, I'll kidnap you and your parents and throw you deep into a dungeon. Maybe the Serpent's Abyss?", he threatened.

"Make it Roland alone and you've got yourself a deal.", Seeing an opportunity, I tried to broker a deal.

"I'll take your mother too.", he added, making me gulp. I put the necklace into my pocket, bowed then ran out of there.

The moment I got out though, I slowed down then took a better look at the necklace. I couldn't find anything obviously special about it and even my eyes weren't able to track any orbs around it. Yet, I couldn't shake the feeling that there was something powerful about it.

'What the heck is this?', I thought as I looked back, hoping to get an answer from the old man. However, the tent was gone, almost as if it was never there. 'Wha-?'

"That's where you were!", Rosine's thunderous roar pried me from my thoughts. She ran towards me. "I've been looking for you everywhere."

"Not now, Rosine. I'm looking for something-ow!", She knocked me on the head.

"No time. Come help me with something.", She grabbed me and pulled me along in whatever direction she felt like.

"Hey! I'm also busy with stuff."

"No time!", Without a care for my own schedule, she'd completely hijacked my plans.

Well, then again, it's not like I could suddenly find a magical tent that disappeared the moment I walked out of it. In the first place, that old man was very obviously not normal. He had no eyes, yet he saw me perfectly. Earlier he'd casted a spell in the tent that made me see the sword alone.

What was it that he said? 'A trick of light?' There was a way to use magic to do that, huh? I wonder what element that was. Or if it was even an element at all. Maybe just a whole new form of magic Lola would teach me when I grew stronger.

'If magic other than the elements exists in this world too, then maybe, there's magic that can directly affect the soul.'

If that was the case, hopefully, I would be able to find a way to permanently destroy my soul. That way, I would be a hundred percent assured that I will never be reborn ever again.

Out of nowhere, I felt my body being lifted off the ground. At some point, I was simply suspended in the air, then found myself plummeting quickly. Where it not for my quick reflexes, I'd have landed head first on the ground.

"What the hell!? Huh? Ah!", At the flash of panties, I knew I quickly had to jump out of the way. Rosine landed right next to me then jolted off again.

Behind her, a wired fence that was clearly twice her size had been placed there. She'd thrown me and jumped over it so easily it felt like it was pointless placing those there. Of course, Rosine was an exception to this rule.

Come to think of it, Rosine could use mana both like an emitter and enhancer. What in the world? Was it due to her half-giant abnormalities or was there a way to replicate this?

"No. That's not important right now!", Realising my situation, I chased after her at full speed. Thanks to early morning practice with Lola, stamina was of no issue to me. Then again, this applied to Rosine. "What the hell are you do-ing?"

I slowed to a halt, confused by the scene before me. There were a bunch of cages, covered in cloths placed in front of me. Next to those cages was a boy, a little bit bigger than me, dusty brown hair and emerald green eyes. He was picking the lock of one of these cages.

Rosine walked next to him and whispered to the boy, "Hey, have you made any progress?"

Lesley looked back at her then shook his head. That's when he noticed me and stood up.

"Ya found 'im, huh? So why'd ya come back?", He asked her.

"I want to help. Belfry will help too." There she went, suddenly deciding things for me. It was at times like these that I had to stand up for myself.

"No, I won't help.", I declared, moving forward. "The hell are you brats doing anyw-agh! That's a-"

Rosine tackled me to the ground, placing her hand over my mouth. A completely unnecessary overreaction.

"Ssh. Don't make any noise.", Slowly, she removed her hand.

"That's a beast man.", I whispered, hoping she wouldn't punch me or anything.

Inside the cage, I saw a little boy, with slitted pupils and cat ears standing. He was clothed in dirty rags and had his hands bound by chains. He was standing at the cage close to the entrance, very clearly anticipating his release by the kid.

"Yeah."

"W-What's a beast man doing here?"

"Cause he's a slave.", Rosine answered with a straight face.

I asked, but I knew the answer to that. Even if they were being kept on the other side of the Stellar Gates, that didn't mean some of them weren't being brought in as 'rare animals'. Slavery is a very common thing in this world, after all. I remember the only nation that abolished this being the Holy Flame Theocracy.

"We're going to free him."

"Free him? That's a bad idea."

"No. Papa says all people deserve to be free. Including demi-humans, so I'm freeing him."

Rosine's father, huh? I hadn't heard much about him other than him being a giant. According to Rosine, he was around some months back, but I never saw him. I didn't know he was such the idealist. Maybe the fact that he wasn't completely human played a factor in this.

However, as a person who'd lived through such things, I knew there was no making this situation better.

"You free him, then what? You'll feed him? Sneak him back home?"

I wasn't against freeing him. In fact, I'd be willing to help, if there was a solid plan in place. Freeing him right now, only to let him get captured couldn't end well for him. He wasn't in his homeland, but in a strange place. Give or take, in a week, he'd be found out by some prejudiced people and end up back. Even worse, he could be beaten to death. And that was the bad possibility for the beast man alone. We could end up in serious trouble.

"Sure."

"Huh?"

"I'll free him. Take him back home. Mama will help take care of him, then papa will sneak him back home."

She crossed her arms, answering with all seriousness.

I knew that face of hers. Once she got it, there was no convincing her otherwise. She walked away from me and went back to helping Lesley.

"Hm, maybe I can melt the lock off?"

"Melt it?", Lesley asked, looking at her.

She grinned then moved him to the side. Purple orbs started to gather at her hands and I could tell she was about to burn herself once again.

Quickly, I pushed her aside.

"Fine. I'll do it. Don't go burning yourself for this.", I advised, placing my hand over it.

"H-Hey! Don't pu-", Lesley put his hand over her mouth, muffling her voice. She was creating too much noise.

Now that there was silence, I could concentrate on the lock.

Rosine's idea to melt the lock was good, but impractical for two reasons. First being, she would burn herself before the lock melted. And the second, I highly doubted she could produce flames hot enough to melt steel. Hell, I doubted I could produce flames that hot, but it was worth a shot.

I activated the mana in my body, and thought of fire. Red orbs started to appear before me, and this time, I called for more. I compressed the orbs together and made them spin. Faster and faster, I forced the orbs to spin at the max that I could.

When it reached the limit of my abilities, then I let my mana collide with the orbs, creating a burst of flames that burned bright yellow. After a few seconds, this only left a scorch mark on the metal.

'Come on!'

I tried calling for more red orbs to add to the equation, as well as pouring more of my mana into it. The goal wasn't to make a big flame, but to compress all the heat to one point. Rather than my palm, I had to force it all into my finger. I had to make the orbs spin faster for greater explosion.

I took in a deep breath, then continued. I could feel my right thigh burning up, but I didn't focus on it. I simply pressed on.

Paced breaths, higher concentration and greater revolution of the orbs. Pushing all of these to the max resulted in a blue flame.

KINK!

The padlock fell to the ground and the metal cage swung open. I fell back, looking at my right finger, as the flame slowly died out.

"I… I did it. Haha! I did it!"

"Quiet! Or they'll catch us.", Lesley said, shushing me.

He then put his hand out for the beast boy. The boy sniffed Lesley's hand hesitantly, before jumping out onto him, hugging him tightly.

"Alright, let's go.", Now that I was brought back to reality, I realised just what kind of stupid situation we were in.

RIP!

Just as we were about to move, I heard the cloth covering the cage tearing apart. Behind me, Rosine was ripping apart a bit of the cloth.

"What are you doing?"

"We can't just send him out like that. He'll need a cover."

I was left dumbfounded. She was actually using her head and saw something that I wasn't even thinking about. Maybe, she did have this stuff figured out.

Maybe.