“Milord Allen, I found you!”
I jumped. I was sitting near a double-arched stone bridge—fondly referred to as “Spectacles Bridge” by the villagers—with a fishing rod in hand when a girl suddenly called out to me. It was Reina, my childhood friend, clad in the usual checkered shirt and brown apron she wore for work.
“Keep it down, Reina. And drop the ‘milord’—it doesn’t suit me. Are you on your way back from deliveries?”
Reina’s family ran a small bakery. Judging by the empty basket in her hands, she was probably on her way home from selling their bread to the various inns and eateries dotting the town.
“Yes, I only just finished. And I have to call you ‘milord,’ Allen. I’m already twelve years old, and this year we’ll start advanced schooling. As forgiving as the viscount might be, I can’t be addressing his son so casually forever, you know. It’s improper.”
The “viscount” she was referring to was my father, Bellwood von Rovene, which made me part of a noble family. But to be clear, in this kingdom, viscounts and the like were a dime a dozen. On top of that, I was only the third son, and in a backwater country town to boot. It was a sure thing I’d have to leave home someday to make my own way in the world. Basically, there wasn’t much separating me from any run-of-the-mill commoner.
“‘Improper’? You sound like Auntie Lou. Also, you don’t have the right to call things improper when it was only recently we were swimming around here in just our underwear,” I said, gesturing with my chin to the stream.
Reina’s face turned bright red as she huffed indignantly. “Recently? That was years ago! And forget about that—you’re here running away from your lessons again, aren’t you, milord? Soldo has been hunting for you everywhere—with a very scary look on his face, I might add.”
Soldo was the steward and private tutor who served my family. He’d been educating the children of House Rovene since my father’s generation.
“You bet I am. Every day is studying this or studying that—I’m fed up with it. If I had known it was going to be like this, I’d have preferred not to be born into a noble family in the first place,” I said with an exasperated sigh.
“You’ll make Soldo sad if he hears you saying that again,” Reina protested, her hands on her hips. “He’s been trying so hard with you. I’ve heard people say you’ve got the most potential for Strengthening Magic out of any child ever born into your family! On top of that, you’re actually pretty smart. If you tried to study, you really could get accepted into the Royal Academy, you know? You could move to the capital and learn from the best instructors in the kingdom!”
I sighed. Certainly, as far as I could tell, I had been blessed in terms of my skill with Strengthening Magic—granted, I only had the other magic users in this backwater region to compare myself to. And like Reina had said, I wasn’t too shabby in terms of intelligence either. However...
“You might have a point, but...I’ve got no interest in going to the Royal Academy. Honestly, I’d like to take a look inside the mind of one of those guys who can just sit there and study quietly for hours on end. If you ask me, they’re the ones who are actually talented—the people who can relentlessly work toward what they want like that. But I’m not one of them, and neither are most people, right? So when you think about it, I’m not actually that talented at all.”
My eyes snapped back to the stream; I’d seen the fishing float submerge for a split second. A nibble.
I activated my Strengthening Magic just a little, adjusting and reinforcing my grip on the rod with a small, almost imperceptible movement. The next moment, the tip of the fishing rod jerked downward into the stream with a thwack—the fish had taken the bait. Immediately, it began frantically trying to swim away. I readjusted the flow of the Strengthening Magic I’d drawn upon earlier, sending it through the muscles in my arms and shoulders. With that, I was able to bring in the hooked fish with ease.
“See, Allen—I mean, milord? It’s been a while since I’ve watched you fish, but the way you use Strengthening Magic is as godlike as I remember. Everyone says it, you know? That the only person who can land a fish in this river is you. It’s no trouble for Al—no, Milord Allen, the king of slacking off! You should be working harder at studying!”
I glared at her. “Don’t give the gods the credit for my skill at fishing, Reina. This skill is the fruit of my hard work and perseverance,” I said, a serious look on my face. Reina looked at me blankly for a split second, then burst into laughter.
“Honestly, Allen, you’ve always been so passionate about the things you’re interested in. Why can’t you put that passion toward studying?”
Even I didn’t have the answer to that. The problem wasn’t that I didn’t understand why I couldn’t do it—it was that I couldn’t understand how anyone could be passionate about something like studying.
“Reina...would you honestly be happy if I got accepted into the Royal Academy?” I asked on an impulse. For a split second, a shadow crossed over her face, but the next moment, it was replaced with a somewhat awkward, frozen smile.
“O-Of course I’d be happy! You know what they call that place? The ‘Den of Demons,’ the ‘Monster’s Nest’... It’s the Royal Academy, the school only chosen geniuses get to attend! I’d boast about it to my children, and probably my grandchildren too! I’d be like, ‘The first person to attend the Royal Academy from this little country town was Allen Rovene—my childhood friend’! I might even tell them I was the one who taught you everything you know,” she said, finishing with a wink.
I averted my eyes from Reina and stood up, choosing not to respond to what had felt like a rehearsed speech. “I’m heading back. You can take the fish—your mother and sister like these, right? Besides, if I take it home with me, Soldo’ll be furious. Hide the rod in the usual spot for me, will you?” I brushed the dirt off my pants and made to head off.
“Sorry, Allen!” I’d barely taken a step when Reina called out from behind me. “To be honest...I would be a bit sad. If you did get accepted into the Royal Academy, I feel like you’d suddenly turn into someone from a whole different world. You’d definitely forget about someone as little as me.”
“But it is true I’m rooting for you,” she continued. “This town is too small for you, Allen. With your talent, I think you could spread your wings further—you’d become so famous, your name would be known not just throughout the Dragoon Region, but throughout the whole kingdom! So please just study as hard as you can so you don’t have any regrets.”
I turned back to her with a wry smile. “Well...I guess I’ll see what I can do,” I said, my voice lacking conviction. Even so, Reina responded with a carefree laugh.
Seeing her real smile, so different from the fake one she’d worn earlier, I felt just a little more motivated—not enough to loudly declare, “Don’t worry, Reina, I’ll definitely pass those exams!” or anything like that, though. But to be honest, I had already been starting to realize that it was probably time for me to try a little harder. This country town had been getting boring, especially ever since I’d learned to use magic. And with how quickly my skill in Strengthening Magic had developed, there wasn’t anyone left worth sparring with anymore.
Please... Please, someone—anyone—teach me how to study!
And then, just four hours later...