4 Years Later

“Wake up! Hey Alexander, wake up!” my big brother Abrail called while shaking me. “You don’t want mom to find you like this on the first day of training, do you?”

“Urgh, what time is it? It can’t be that time already, I only just went to sleep” I replied groggily.

I woke up in a room, my room, not an excessively spacious room but as a 4-year-old I don’t really need that much either. The walls were a bright blue with wisps of white in random locations, like the sky that I remember so fondly. It was a very interesting conversation when a child that just started talking asked to have his bright orange walls repainted to something more soothing. Luckily no one asked how I knew that the walls were painted and that the paint could be changed… #whistles unsuspiciously#.

Today is the first day of my physical training in preparation for the future. It turns out, much to my own chagrin, that due to my method of transmigration, being born in a body native to my new world instead of keeping the old one, I have to wait for the natural biology of this world. The lining in my lungs that absorbs free mana from the air and the glands that process said mana to make it “your own” only develop during puberty. So, another 7 years minimum.

“Huh, enough reminiscing, time to get out of bed and do this… “I whisper to myself as I get out of bed. “Now, shower, shower shower…” I had to specifically ask my dad for this, seems that showers were not invented in this world, children used baths and adults that needed a shower could use water magic, or knew someone that could use it.

“… And dressed!” I exclaimed, in English. I started talking to myself in English shortly after I started talking in the local language. Everyone thinks it’s my out made up language, and I let them keep thinking it. English is my tie to the previous world that will remind me that doing something like it’s done here does not necessarily mean it’s the best way either. Shower is one example of that.

“Mom? Mom? I am ready, is there breakfast or a packed lunch for me?” I yelled down the stairs.

My mother, Talina, looks out of the living room all bright and preppy, ugh how much I despise naturally morning people. Or is that her time in the military showing through?

“Mom, how are you so cheerful so early in the morning? It’s not even 5 in the morning…” I call to her still a little sleepy.

“Well mother has had to get up much earlier than this during her younger days!” she replied cheerfully “Though I have been like this since childhood apparently!”

Ahh one of those people, ahhh how lucky, please let me go back to sleep… no I need to do this if I want to be ahead of the other kids in school. I am sure there are families that started training their kids from the time they could walk so I am already behind. With the ADMINISTRATION the more you can do now the better you will be after it comes into effect.

As I walk into the living room I see a set table with eggs and sausage and… is that bacon? Can’t be there aren’t any pigs here, so how?

“Okay dig in, breakfast is getting cold and we need to get to the training grounds, at this rate we will need to hurry” she commands, must be that military training peeking through again.

“Yes mother” I reply. She swats me on the back of my head after I say that “Mother huh? I see how my own children treat me now, you watch, unless you change that to Mommy dearest or at least Mom then you will get porridge for dinner” she retorts.

Ahh there she goes again, making threats and most horribly, keeping them more often than not. How she hasn’t got in trouble with the city guard yet no one knows.

“Yes, mommy dearest, you are the best mommy in the world” I drone out monotonously. She squints her eyes and peers at me and finally replies “Good there we go, we will work on your tone later”. How can she be this cheerful this early in the morning, kill me now. Wait no, I don’t need that flag this soon, is there some wood around to knock on?

“Do you need something? And don’t call me by knocking on a table, we are not in a bar and I am not a waitress.” Mom calls from the kitchen.

“Oh no… I am listening to the sound the table makes, I am almost done and we can go” I call back. How we haven’t woken up everyone else in the with all our calling I couldn’t tell you. But it could have something to do with her reputation… Yeah that’s likely it.

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I get up from the table and bring my plate and cutlery to the kitchen and place it in the dish washer, what an odd mix of technologies they have, no general electricity but dishwashers, no cars but airships, no gun powder but they… we do have guns. We walk into the hallway and get ready for the short trip to the training grounds.

As we are walking between the house and the grounds, I keep seeing people concentrating on something in the middle of the air and poking in the air. If this was back on earth I would think that augmented reality glasses have advanced to the point of contact lenses, but obviously they don’t have that here, or at least not in the same way and not really bulky too.

“Mom, is it true that I will get access to the ADMINISTRATION when I am 6?” I ask. She turns towards me with a wondering look, “How do you even know about the ADMIN anyway? Did someone tell you at home? You can tell mommy, she won’t get mad” she questions me. Mom is scary! Is this what other people see? Wow note to self – never make mother truly mad!

“Well when I was learning to walk I remember you talking to dad about getting extra skill levels in …. Physical control or something like that…” I reply sheepishly.

“You remember that? Well aren’t you full of surprises, first the walls, then the… what do you call them? Show-ers? And then you own made up language? Is my son a genius?” She asks coyly.

Ahh there she goes playing the interrogator again. This is why I haven’t brought anything else obvious into this world yet, like absorbent nappies for example. That, was a surprise, not a good one mind you but still a surprise.

“Well I shouldn’t be telling you this but I guess that cat is out of the bag. Ah there is another saying that started with you isn’t it, what exactly is a cat?” she peers at me expectantly, “Anyway, yes, the ADMIN will introduce itself to you on your 6th birthday.” She evades, ahh tricky aren’t you.

“And what exactly is it?” I ask again hoping to get an answer this time.

“You will find out, this is kind of a tradition you know?” she shuts down my questions.

We have been walking for almost ten minutes now, the streets are mostly empty, just labourers going to their jobs, bakers starting up their ovens and adventurers finally falling asleep after a night of drinking. And there are the guardsmen coming to clean these slobs from the streets, yuk.

The architecture is distinctly Victorian but the Victorians didn’t have sky scrapers for their air ships to dock to or even had a way to construct the buildings. It was a real sight the first time I came out into the city, a new city. it mostly looks normal like any other city, paved roads, clean buildings but there is no smog, the buildings are taller for the time period and they even have a sewage system and internal plumbing!

“Hey! Hey, Harrold!!! You sneaky bugger, this is my son Alexander. You better treat him well. Make sure he is home by dinner, otherwise he is all yours” she says while looking at me menacingly. I bet she though she had a loving expression. Scary!

Harrold salutes my mother with his right fist over his heart, “Sir! Blood Tyrant Sir! It is a pleasure to see you today. It is an honour for you to give me this task! I will make your son the best soldier he can be!”

“Harrold Harrold Harrold, I retired, you don’t have to salute me any more or be so uptight. The war is over, we are not in that kind of relationship any longer” she replies soothingly. “And I hope you don’t salute anyone on the battlefield like that, you know what the consequences is for anyone that gets their commanding officer killed by saluting at them do you?”

“No Sir, Yes Sir, I will take that into consideration Sir!” Harrold continues the salute.

My mother shakes her head and brings me forward to meet Harrold. How does a guy that thin have such a loud voice? Is that a Skill?

“Alexander, make sure to follow any orders that Harrold gives you, you wanted this and I agree, this is for your own good.” My mother finally transfers my hand to Harrold’s.

We walk inside and shortly we are in an open space, it’s brightly lit and already full of training cadets. There are people training with sword and shield, a ranged lance and… is that muskets in the back? It still amazes me that the people of this nation had such a good idea. Not everyone is a great magician, but you don’t need to be able to cast fireballs or ice nova’s or heal to be able to channel mana into the mechanism of the musket. The firing rate is horrible as they still need to load, and the accuracy is horrible, but how accurate do you have to be to hit a column of guys standing 100 yards away from you while the mages slog it out above and around you.

The greatest firepower may come from mages and mage knights but to hold a position, to support the supply chain, to guard the rear areas, the mage musketeers are the only option. Any mage can die to a bullet after they break through the reinforcement, and if all you are doing is reinforcing, then you can’t be attacking, can you?

“Cadet Alexander! I expect you to follow any order I give while we are in this training ground. There are other trainers that will supervise you while I am teaching the advanced classes. All trainers and people with power to command you will have a green sash…” he points at the sash stitched into the arm of his uniform, “… around their arm sewn into the uniform. You will keep away from the muskets and stay outside any area with training knights or mages. Is that understood?!”

“Sir, Yes Sir!” I squeak out while trying to emulate his salute from earlier.

“Now take off any kit you have that is not part of your training uniform and give them to me, I will store them safely in my office. That includes any food or snacks you brought from home mind you.” He says in a commanding tone.

As I start taking my outer cloths off and packing them into my back pack he continues:

“Good, now the circumference of the running track is 3.14 kilometres. You will now run the full distance as quickly as you can without stopping. If you need to walk the distance that is fine too, but you can’t stop, stopping on the battlefield is a death sentence. Now GO!” he commands me to start running.

“Ahhh … fuck ….” I whisper to myself and start running.