It had been almost three years since Jingzi had been reincarnated, he could now understand the language that everyone in this world spoke. Or at the very least, according to his knowledge, everyone did. He had been itching to test out this new body physically, but the best he could manage was that he could run again. It was safe to say that his physical abilities here didn't scratch even the surface of the physical might his old body had before he died. If anybody older than him would have to make a comment they would probably say that it was quite the shame he died at the age of 16, in a betrayal nonetheless. But, he was contempt with his death, at least he didn't die while in shame. He was in his small bed, recollecting all the important information he knew about the world.
The race he had been born as was a smaller section of the beast race called the foxlike clan, they are a part of the beast race that resemble foxes. His particular family did not live in the great forest. Instead, his new family lived on the side of a hill nearby the small village of Starenbles.
The society of the world was based on how much power each individual had. Whether it be magical or physical the rule was still that the weak died, the strong prospered, it was kill or be killed. Life for him had been much simpler personally, but he had gathered this much information of the world from his parent's education and the books around him. Even the cookbook he read had stated such things.
His parents had the birth of 3 children including him, but his two brothers died during the birth. Leaving him to be the eldest child of his two parents. His parents' names being Nori for his mother, and Sen for his father. He also had 2 younger siblings, both being girls. Each being a year younger than him as they were born on the same day. His name in this world was Biyu, apparently named after a foreign gemstone of sorts.
That was all the important information Jingzi could recall about the world, he was only around a minute away from drifting into unconsciousness. If only I knew more about this world's power, 'magic' was it? Whatever it is, it's definitely something I must understand. He reached his small hand into the air. I couldn't have asked for a different type of world to have been born into. It's not too different from my own world being so based around power. He gave a light chuckle, his hand falling back onto the bed. He did not have much time until he fell asleep.
He would have to gather more information about the world tomorrow. But for now, Jingzi had fallen into unconsciousness.
"Biyu, Biyu." Said the voice of Jingzi's, or rather Biyu's mother Nori calling him by his given name to wake him up, shaking him awake at the same time. He stirred awake slowly.
"I'm up, mother," Biyu said, jumping up from the bed. Nori sighed in relief, glad he was awake.
"Your breakfast is ready downstairs, today is a very special day for you," Nori said with a smile. He got himself dressed into more suitable clothing than his sleeping attire.
He was hungry, so he wandered down the stairs of the home, heading towards the kitchen. Sitting at the table, he saw his father, Sen, eating his breakfast in silence. Biyu jumped up to his chair. The chair he used was higher than the others due to his small size being unable to reach the table with a normal chair. His food was sitting on the table just waiting for him, not bothering to inspect it further, he ate it all like there was no tomorrow.
"One of these days, maybe I will teach you a proper set of manners." Sen, his father, said. Yet he continued to eat, not bothering to change his son's behavior.
"That would be quite the day," Biyu said in between mouthfuls.
"Today is the day you turn three years old. Congratulations." Sen said to Biyu, who had just finished his meal.
"Yeah." Biyu simply said. He said, knowing it to be nothing of importance.
"I thought you would be a bit happier about that. It's not every day you turn 3 you know." Said Sen. Trying to change the subject, Biyu spoke about something that had been on his mind for a while.
"Say, father. Do you have any books about magic?" Asked Biyu to Sen, who just looked at the empty seat his mother was supposed to occupy. His mother was too busy attending to his younger sisters to come out and eat, so it was just the two of them. Biyu had recently learned to read from the other books that the family had, he even read one about cooking.
"Sure, I have a couple of them you can read, though I doubt you could understand the contents of them, but go ahead." Said Sen, causing Biyu to smile. The smile slowly turned back to a neutral expression though.
"Father, what is magic?" He asked Sen, his father just chuckled.
"I will let you find out yourself," Sen explained, causing Biyu to nod his head. Sen smiled at the action. "I'll put the books in your room while you sleep, go and get some rest now." Biyu smiled, and then he proceeded to nod. He jumped down from his chair, then he climbed the stairs back to his room. He fell asleep practically the moment he touched his bed, being eager to sleep knowing that one of his requests had been heard.
The next morning he got up early, noticing the books by his bed, he immediately began to read the books in hopes of learning more about this mysterious energy known as magic.
'Beginner magic, section 1...' After reading through the book for a while, he understood that there were two ways to cast a spell. Drawing a magic circle, or using an incantation. Incantations being the more common way to do spells, though creating a magic circle had its benefits. It said that magical power was determined at birth, so considering his young age he guessed that it may be wise to do a measurement of his own magical power. He looked over the spells, trying to find one that would best measure his power and damage the house the least. Finally, he came to the conclusion to use water magic, it seemed like the safest thing, next to wind, to cast compared to the other beginner spells.
He snuck down the stairs of the house, with the book in his arms. He was going to cast his very first spell and keep casting it until he met his limit. And this would let him determine just how powerful he was.
Biyu opened the front door to the house. The sun was just over the horizon, the sunrise casting an orange glow over the farmlands around his home. He placed the book on the ground. He began to read the incantation aloud from the book, carefully saying each word off the page.
When he had finished the incantation he felt a strange feeling from places beneath his skin. He could feel the places vividly, and the feeling of 'activating' all those places in a sense. A ball of water formed at his palm after the incantation. It was a pitiful excuse for a water ball, the ball fell to the ground helplessly.
Biyu tried to replicate the exact sensation he felt from chanting the incantation, he almost began to feel something. He read the incantation out loud, hoping for more of a reaction.
Biyu had created a water ball using the same incantation, though this time it had taken much more of a toll on his body. Unfortunately, though, the ball was just as pitiful as the last. He felt tired, 'This is my limit, is it? It's quite the shame that I have so little talent for this magic stuff.', he thought. Lucky for him, he still had enough energy to walk and carry the book back to his room easily enough.
Biyu walked back into the house, he looked around and did not see any of his family awake yet. He sighed in relief, he had worried earlier that someone would be up to see him going out. But it seemed that everyone was still asleep.
The rest of the day was uneventful, so Biyu spent the rest of the day reading through the book about magic. He felt lonely today but overall was happy. So he fell asleep without troubles that night.
Just like yesterday, Biyu woke up with motivation in his eyes. He strode down the stairs and made his way out of the house with the book in his hand, and with confidence exerted in his posture. He recited the same spell as yesterday from the book, he wanted to measure his power once more to be absolutely sure what his limits were.
He cast the first one, he had no issues during the spell. He then cast the second spell, this time there was a bit more of a toll on his body from casting the spell. But he noticed the energy it took was less than yesterday. Biyu grinned, wondering if he could cast a third spell.
When he had finished reading the incantation out loud, he immediately collapsed to his feet. 'So this is what happens when I do it a third time... So three is my limit?' He wondered as he tried to muster up the energy to get to his feet.
Biyu began to realize that the situation he was in was worse than he anticipated. If he did not make it back to his room in time, he was sure to be in trouble. He tried his best to stand, but the best he could do was crawl, so he slowly crawled his way to the book and placed it on his back. Luckily he had his tail to make sure that the book stayed on there, though, this was one of the first times he had used his tail in any capacity, so he was a bit clumsy, to say the least.
After quite a bit of trial and error, he had made it to the door successfully with the book on his back. He propped the book up against the door so he could reach the door handle, promptly opening the door and falling to the floor. Annoyed, Biyu grabbed the book and pulled it past the door.
He closed the door behind him, trying to be as quiet as possible for a 3-year-old child. He then realized his next obstacle was going to be a bit of an issue. Looking at the stairs he realized he wouldn't be able to get the book up the stairs with the book on his back. However, he had an idea to circumvent that issue. He was going to have to climb the stairs one at a time, lifting the book up each individual step.
He finally made his way up the stairs when his arms began to give up, he was barely able to lift the book at this point. So he was going to have to drag it all the way to his room.
Biyu felt helpless, he was hoping to get to his room before his parents awoke, but he knew he was pushing his luck and that there was the real possibility of being discovered. He feared that he would be found out, he feared that the book would be taken from him. Oh no, please let me escape from this scenario. I don't wanna be found out here!
He began to hear a thumping sound from the hallway just ahead of him on his left. What is that? He thought. He quickly realized that it was the sound of footsteps, and they were coming in his direction. There was an open door to his left, he would not have been able to make it while holding the book, so he left it behind in hopes that whoever was walking by him would be too tired to notice the book.
He heard his parent turn the corner and begin to walk by the door when suddenly they stopped walking. Please don't look in here. He thought.
Whoever it was started moving again, causing him to sigh in relief. Once they were down the stairs, Biyu crawled as fast as he could towards his room. Moving his book would be too suspicious, so he just left it there for the time being.
He made it into his room and after a little bit of struggling, climbed into the bed. He was going to get some rest.
When Biyu woke up again that morning, he noticed the book about magic, which he had left out in the hallway, was back by his bedside. The day was mostly uneventful, except for later in the evening, at dinnertime, he had caught Sen staring at him as he walked back to his room. Though, he chalked it up to him just being a responsible father keeping an eye on his 3-year-old child. He went to bed a little early that night so he could get more time in the morning to get back to his room in case he became exhausted like yesterday.
Biyu woke up from his sleep. Just like yesterday he grabbed the book about magic and headed downstairs, and then opening the door and walking outside. Closing the door behind him, he placed the book down on the ground like usual and turned to the page about the beginner water spell. He read the incantation aloud until he achieved the desired effect of creating a ball of water. He read it aloud a second time, creating another ball of water. He did not wish to collapse like yesterday, so he picked up the book and began heading back inside of the home.
That's when Biyu noticed that the door was slightly opened. Wait, did I not close the door? he could not remember if he closed the door or not, Did I forget to close the door behind me? Or could somebody have been watching me... He thought to himself, entering the home and heading back to his room. He did not see any evidence of anybody waking up, putting him at ease. He climbed back into his bed to go back to sleep again.
When Biyu woke up again, he walked downstairs for some food and noticed that Sen was not eating at the table like most mornings, but was in fact missing. His food was at the table, but he decided it could wait, he needed answers. He looked around for Nori, his mother, and eventually found her in the room where his sisters were asleep. He never saw Sen in his search though, which was rather worrisome. Nori noticed him as he walked into the room, and smiled at him. "Do you need anything dear?" Nori said quietly with a smile.
"Where is Father?" Biyu asked quietly, returning the smile to his mother.
"Sen? He went out to town, he should be back sometime this afternoon." Nori promptly responded. Now that Biyu had nothing more to ask, he walked out of the room to go finish his breakfast.
Biyu looked out the window that viewed the front of the home, he had finished the book about magic about an hour ago and did not know what he should do. So all he did was reach his hands out the window, it was a nice and sunny day with absolutely no signs of rain. He liked the feel of the breeze on his arms and face, he could hear the birds in the sky much better with this body's new ears. This is nice... He told himself. He got down from the window and then stood in the middle of the room. He closed his eyes, and he stretched out his arm. He imagined the feeling of using his magic, he would be lying if he said that he did not enjoy the feeling of using it. In fact, he almost craved the feeling. A smile formed on his lips as he imagined the feeling.
Biyu's thoughts were interrupted when he heard a sound coming from outside. He opened his eyes and ran to the window, he looked out and saw a carriage on the road towards his home, if he had to guess he would say that it would only be a couple of minutes before it arrived. Sen is back! What did he bring from the village? He thought. I guess I could go and greet him at least. He got down from the window and opened his door, walking down the stairs and going to the front door of the home.
Biyu saw the door opening from the stairs and he froze. Walking alongside Sen into the house was a green-haired woman in her late teens/early twenties. Sen noticed him standing at the steps and he motioned for the woman to stop walking, Sen began to smile. The woman also turned to see him.
"Biyu, this is your new magic teacher, her name is Sylphiette." Said Sen with a smile.
"Nice to meet you Biyu, you can call me Sylphie." Sylphiette bowed to him, Biyu being frozen in shock still. He unfroze a little bit for a moment.
"Nice to meet you as well, Sylphie." Biyu said as he tried to mimic the bow, though the way he did it came out as awkward. Damn you Sen! You went and made this important decision without me... What a pain. He thought to himself.
