“I don’t quite understand…” Kael’s father muttered.

The old woman sighed, getting tired of the conversation.

“Well, you don’t have to understand. All you need to know is that your son has a special body that has a good aptitude for magic. Because of this, I would recommend he learns it, as he could become a great mage. And I am willing to take him as an apprentice.”

Kael was shocked. He was honestly impressed at this old woman’s ability to spew convincing bullshit. There was no such thing as bodies having any sort of aptitude for magic. Sure, talent was a thing that existed, but your body had nothing to do with it. His father wouldn’t know that.

“A healer’s apprentice…” his father continued to mutter. He seemed completely lost in this situation. Kael decided to push a bit more.

“Dad, what could be cooler than healing people? And you weren’t able to find anyone for me to work with right? This is a great opportunity!”

“Well, yeah… but… it’s so far…” his father seemed to get anxious as the conversation drew on.

“It’s not as far as I would have to go to be a knight, right?” Kael said, delivering the final blow. He knew the last thing his father wanted was for his children to go off fighting.

“Yeah. Well… I need to think about it. I have to talk to your mom about it too.” He turned back to the healer. “How much do I owe you for fixing him up?” He was obviously anxious about how much it would cost.

“Don’t worry about it. Just bring my apprentice back quickly. Now begone. I have to prepare to go check on a pregnant woman. Don’t take too long to make up your mind. You know there’s a right answer. Shoo, shoo.” Once again the woman began to push him out the door.

Once she got them outside, she slammed and locked the door. His father just stood there with a blank expression on his face for a moment before saying “Well… I guess we should return Mr. Miller’s cart.”

The atmosphere after they returned home was strange. His mother immediately checked his condition, and seemed satisfied with the result, but still anxious. After his father told her about the apprenticeship offer, she got really happy and proud. But that quickly faded to doubt and concern once she realized it would mean he would have to stay in another village, away from them.

“He’s too young to go off on his own! We should wait a few years…” She argued. Of course, Kael couldn’t let his parents talk themselves out of this opportunity for him, so he countered their arguments with logic.

“What? Why? What if she doesn’t wait for me? What if she gets another apprentice before then?” He said with a panicked tone.

“But still… to leave the village… we won’t be able to see you…”

“I’ll make sure to come and visit often!”

The back and forth continued for a while before his parents just simply told him that they’d think about it. While they were gone, Tristan took care of his portion of the chores. Despite being a young, rambunctious, and slightly annoying child, he was surprisingly responsible. With nothing to do, Kael decided he would train since his body was recovered. Since he couldn’t go in the forest, he decided to do what he could while hiding behind the chicken coop, hoping that Tristan wouldn’t come to find him.

He decided to hold off on anything magic related for now. As rude as she was, the healer was right. Experimenting with things he didn’t understand was stupid. And he’d be taught soon enough.

A few days went by normally, with him doing his chores and training. Since he couldn’t practice magic, he decided to train his mana sense more to try to get more detailed information out of it. He was also curious about his body. After he was healed, he realized he didn’t really know much about how the body worked, so he used his internal mana sense to try to get more information about it.

Neither him nor his parents brought up the proposed apprenticeship. He didn’t want to bother them about it, he knew it was already hard enough for them. He also wasn’t worried about them not accepting it. After all, the only real issue with it was that he would be a little far away. The odds of a poor commoner having an opportunity to be formally taught magic was… well, it hadn’t ever happened before that he knew of. No one would be stupid enough to turn down such an opportunity for their child.

Now that he thought about it, it made that old woman even more strange. She had to have come from either nobility or some rich family. What was she doing in a village healing farmers? Typically mages her age either worked in the magic tower or get paid a ton of money teaching rich kids. Although thinking about her personality, she would probably get in trouble trying the latter. Although with her skills, she could easily be the personal healer for a king or other important figure. It just didn’t make sense. Well, this was another thing that could be learned when he was learning under her.

One the fourth day, as he predicted, his parents told him they decided he should take the apprenticeship. When he and his father arrived back at the clinic, he bombarded her with questions. She raised her hand to silence him.

“The terms of the apprenticeship are simple. I have a spare room that’s not used for patients, he will stay there. He will also get three meals a day, which is probably more than he gets now. I will teach him healing and general magic to the best of my ability. He will be responsible for learning to the best of his ability, as well as some chores. That is the extent of it. Nothing more, nothing less.”

“He has to be able to visit every week!” His father countered.

“That’s ridiculous. He can go to visit you guys every other month. If you smother him he won’t be able to grow. Also, I won’t be providing him any sort of escort. If you want him to have one, you can come pick him up yourself. Although I personally believe he’s capable of making the short journey on his own.”

This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

“What? That’s ridiculous. I’ll come get him once a month.”

“Fine. Now, are you satisfied? I have more to worry about than just your son, there are people that need to be tended to.”

“That’s… yes that’s acceptable. Just, please take care of him.”

“Yes yes. Now say goodbye.” She said as she left into the right door from the waiting room. Kael could only assume that the door led to her private quarters.

Kael’s father bent down to one knee and put his hand on Kael’s shoulder, looking him in the eyes. “Now Kael, make sure you listen to her, okay? And don’t get into any trouble. Be safe. And always remember that your family loves you.” He struggled with the last few words, and his eyes became glossy as he held back tears.

“I will” he simply replied, and his father pulled him into a tight and very long hug. He then sighed, got up, and patted Kael’s head. “Well, waiting won’t make it any easier. I should get home now. Be good son, I’ll see you soon.”

“Bye dad! I’ll be much smarter the next time you see me!” Kael responded. At that, his dad chuckled.

“I’m sure you will be, son. I’m sure you will be.” He gave a sad looking smile, then headed out the door.

As soon as the door closed, the old woman came out.

“Finally. I thought he would never leave. Alright, follow me. I’m going to show you your room and tell you your responsibilities.”

“Wow.” Kael responded. Somehow not shocked by her abrupt behavior. He also decided there was no reason to hold back any information or deceive the woman. She basically already knew all the important stuff, and he hated acting like a child. It would actually be pretty nice to be able to be himself. “Do you have no respect for sad, heartfelt goodbyes?”

“Heartfelt? My heart hasn’t felt anything for decades boy. Quit babbling nonsense and get over here.”

Kael just sighed before obeying her. This was going to be one long apprenticeship.

His suspicion was correct, and when they went through the right door, he found himself in a room with a small kitchen and a table with two chairs. He was honestly surprised to find there was a second chair considering how antisocial the woman seemed to be.

“This is the kitchen. And common area I guess, not that anything ever happens here aside from cooking and eating”.

There were three other doors in this room. Two next to each other straight ahead, across from where the waiting room was, and one to the right. She opened the door all the way to the left, and gestured for him to enter the room. When he did, he saw that the room was very plain and small. It had a bed, a small table and chair, a lamp, and a chest. That was all there was, no decorations, just four white walls and the most simple of furnishings.

“This is your room. What, you didn’t expect anything fancy did you?” She said with a mischievous grin. Was this woman some sort of sadist?

“Hmph. It’s better than most barracks.” Kael retorted.

“Hmm… I suppose that’s true. The room next to yours is mine. It should go without saying, but don’t go in my room. Next, the library.” She headed towards the remaining door. When she opened it, Kael’s eyes went wide.

The room was quite large, and there were giant bookshelves that went from the floor to the ceiling everywhere, full of a large variety of books of every size and color. You couldn’t see the walls since every inch of wall was covered by a bookshelf. In the front area of the library was a long table with four chairs, two on either side. On the table laid a small stack of books, with a lone book open next to the stack. Behind the table was an extra row of bookshelves that stood free from a wall. These free-standing shelves weren’t as tall as the ones on the walls, so he was able to see the bookshelves that laid beyond them. Light seemed to be coming out of the ceiling despite there not being any sort of light source. Kael could only assume it was some sort of magic. It would make sense you wouldn’t want a flame in a precious library.

“This… this is… This must have cost a fortune.” he muttered, mostly to himself.

“Yes, it’s not cheap, that's for sure. Naturally you should know that if anything happens to my precious library… well… it certainly won’t be good for you and your family.”

Kael nodded in agreement, even though she was technically threatening him. It was understandable. The value of the books in this room was probably enough to buy a city. Books were already expensive as they were hard to make and the materials were expensive. But when you add the value of the information contained in books that were about magic… well, the price quickly rose to something Kael could have never afforded in his previous life, even though he was considered a particularly strong and valuable warrior.

She then gestured to the shelves on the right side of the room. “These books here have seals on them, and if you attempt to open them before properly releasing the seal, they’ll destroy themselves. So, don’t try to open them. There’s no particular reason to ban you from those books, since you’re not really a child anyways, but there’s also no reason for you to read them yet. They’re too advanced for you to understand, so you would just be wasting your time. Every other book can be opened without any worry however. Oh, and magic is banned inside. I can’t have you blowing up my house.”

Kael simply nodded at her explanation. So far, he was pleasantly surprised at how reasonable she was.

“There’s plenty of room for magic practice behind the house, once I allow you to practice.” she continued. “Oh, there’s also a building with some separate rooms for patients. There’s currently no one staying there, but you’ll be in charge of disinfecting and cleaning them whenever a patient leaves.”

“Disinfecting?” Kael questioned.

“Don’t worry about it, I’ll teach you that later. Speaking of cleaning, you’ll be in charge of cleaning the clinic, the waiting room, your room, the library, and the kitchen common area every day. Also, you’ll be in charge of making sure the outside entrance is tidy. And you’ll be in charge of purchasing the daily necessities. I’ll give you the money of course, but you’ll have to actually go out and get them. And again, you can’t use magic for any of this. I like this house, I won’t let you accidentally destroy it. Can you read?” She asked him.

Kael frowned at her long list of chores he would be in charge of. It was a lot for one child, but, it wasn’t too much for him considering what he was gaining from her. “Yes, I can read and write. Although my handwriting isn’t the neatest.”

“Oh good, you’re a lot better than I thought then. The first thing we’ll work on is your handwriting, it has to be nice and neat. You’ll be in charge of greeting patients, and recording all transactions. I have a logbook with everyone that visits, who gets what done, how much they pay, and all of that. That will be your job from now on. You’ll also be in charge of preparing all of the meals and cleaning the dishes. And the laundry. And…” she continued rambling off different roles and chores that he would be responsible for. Once she finally seemed to finish, Kael decided to speak up.

“That’s… that’s too much! There won’t even be time for me to study anything! I’m just a poor kid, how could you treat me like this!”

“Hah. Kid my foot. If you want more time to study and train, then I suggest you do your chores quickly. And don’t make any mistakes, if it’s not up to my standards I’ll make you do everything again. Now, it’s getting late. I left some ingredients out in the kitchen for a stew. Go ahead and make it and get me when you’re done. After we eat you can wash the dishes and we can go to bed.”

And thus started Kael’s apprenticeship/servitude to the area’s lone healer and mage.