I was trapped in a fragile body. The first thing I did was acquire some knowledge beyond what I already had in this current body. I went to the house library. Observing the dust, I could tell that this place was not visited often.
I was calm. Everything was unexpected. I did not expect to be reincarnated into another body. The information I had was that Cal had created some bodies to be our receptacles, and they would be identical to our old bodies. That was a big mistake, perhaps what people call divine punishment, or something like that.
Although my family was considered poor, I was not starving and there was some comfort in the house. It was not great comfort, not like in my previous life, but strangely, I was used to this house and to the customs of this family. My memories were layered, and that confused me a lot.
Books helped me a lot. I managed to obtain some important information. In this world there is a system called magic, which is different from the system of my world, where we use spiritual energy to create supernatural phenomena. Here they use the energy that is in all living beings and in the atmosphere itself, this energy is called mana.
Mana flows through the body as if it were blood running through the veins. The more you train, the greater the amount of mana in the body, which in turn allows for larger and stronger spells. It is different from my world, where we trained and strengthened an energy core. It is like an organ that we care for and improve, a distinct muscle.
From what I understood, some humans begin to manifest control of mana around ten years old, some take longer and rare cases happen earlier. But those people are a minority, since not everyone is capable of using mana. Another difference in the system, because in my world a person just had to train and they could use spiritual energy. Even more so because I did not know if I could use spiritual energy at all, much less magic. Not knowing things irritated me, but it was not as if I could not discover them on my own.
With that, I became certain that I was in another world. Which is strange, since, as a human, I could destroy the humans from within, but apparently here there was no problem similar to my world.
My calm followed by irritation bothered me. I was supposed to be nervous or scared, but I did not know how I should react and, at the same time, I felt a certain naturalness, perhaps because of the memories I had received, or acquired, from this world.
I kept the same routine I was supposed to have in this world, but I always went into the library and read some books. I started with the basics: I read history books and understood the political division, I also learned about the geography of this world. Then, I decided to learn a bit about magic and military tactics.
Military tactics were practically the same as in my world, with few differences. The weapons were also the same, but the names changed only because I was reading in another language. But the magic was very different. Some concepts I did not understand, no matter how hard I tried to do the exercises. The most I managed was a small flame of fire, which did not last more than two seconds. I kept studying, but I did not feel I was making progress. It made some sense that I had failed, because the books said that only after ten years old people could manipulate mana, but even so it was frustrating.
That was when I remembered: at no point had I tried to use my spiritual energy, which was strange, because that had bothered me at the beginning, but for some reason I had simply ignored it. I had only tried to learn something new and forgotten that I was already a master in spiritual practices, with my energy core at the most advanced level.
I also failed when I tried to make a fireball. Only a small spark came out, but it was able to burn some dry leaves. I was quick and managed to contain the possible fire. From what I perceived, I could be better at magic than at something I had already been an expert in. This body is truly a prison.
The books were wrong about the age at which we begin to manipulate mana, or it was just my knowledge about spiritual energy that had facilitated my progress. But I was not able to manipulate mana the way I used to with spiritual energy. Maybe it was just a matter of time, or this body had some factory defect, which would not be hard, since it was now human. But still, I was evolving in some way, which was good.
I continued training for a few more weeks. I did this hidden from my parents and siblings, because having a mage in the family could alter the line of succession. Even being from a poor family of fallen nobles, this could cause me trouble. My brothers were not dangerous, but Caldor, my older brother, could feel offended at losing his position to the younger brother, so great care was needed. Maybe I was being overly cautious, but I did not want to take any risks.
I could already make small fireballs with both magic and spiritual energy, but it was stronger using magic, which made me curious.
My routine was regimented: I would get up, have breakfast with my family, then go to a clearing and train until lunch. In the afternoon, I read some books and meditated, which helped me have more control of mana and strengthened my spiritual power.
It was also part of the routine to ignore the people who came to collect my father's debts. I did not understand how he could be considered noble, since he owed many people.
At a certain moment, I felt this was redundant. I was training two distinct things that would be used in the same way, so I stopped studying magic and focused only on strengthening my spiritual power. Progress was smaller compared to studying magic, but I felt more affinity with it.
In two months, I became frustrated and decided to return to my studies in magic, giving up my spiritual practices. My lack of progress left me demotivated. So I decided I would become a mage of magic.
In my world we also used the term mage, but here I felt there was some difference, since the system was different.
I was training in secret to become strong and, one day, go out to explore this world and, who knows, find a way to return to my world. Staying in this house would get me nowhere, since nothing would be left for me. Therefore, I should become strong and conquer what I wanted.
Besides, I needed to learn more about this world. Knowledge is a great weapon.
In my free time, I spent time with some children my age, but I did not make friends, not because of me. My father was ill-regarded, and that caused some discomfort. It is not easy being the son of a fallen noble.
My sixth birthday arrived. I did not have a party or anything like that, not that I felt like celebrating. I had already had many birthdays in my previous world, so I was satisfied with that.
Caldor was acting strange. It seemed he was watching me, and he could not pretend. I knew he was watching me. I did not know the reason, except that he might have seen me doing something he did not like and simply wanted to scold me.
I waited a few days, but he kept watching me while I was at home. When I wasn't, he asked about me from my other brothers. I learned this when Luna asked what I was doing hiding. This insistence on watching me ended at some point. He simply gave up, and that made me feel calmer. Little by little, I stopped thinking about why he would have been after me.
Days passed, and I grew accustomed to the presence of my whole family. My father was a bit strict. He was not a man who talked with his children, he only paid attention to the first two. But my mother was kind. I would say she was almost an angel, she was sweet and always calm. I wonder what made her marry my father.
In that relationship only my father came out ahead, my mother was very beautiful and had a very attractive figure. Even having several children, she never lost her sensuality. Or maybe she had won because of that, since her breasts were enormous and, without a doubt, must have been beautiful. That thought was a little strange, she was my mother, but I felt an overwhelming sexual attraction to her.
My older brother was a copy of our father, he lived training with swords. My father was once a royal knight and rose to the title of nobility when he protected a duke from an attack, but he remained poor. He ended up with more bureaucratic responsibilities and fewer fights, so he only lost out with this promotion.
My second brother was also difficult to deal with. He always stayed in his corner and only socialized with Caldor, who helped him with sword training. Then came my sister and my other brother. The age difference was three and two years, which made our coexistence easier, even though I was being a terrible brother, since I kept hiding in some corner to train and left them alone.
My training was yielding results, but I was still weak, which was expected of a six-year-old child. Even so, I would at least be able to try to defend myself from an attack or someone who tried to do something against me. At least, I thought I had the necessary strength to protect myself or someone, although Caldor could already handle anyone who tried to attack us.
"Liam, do you want to practice swords with me tomorrow?"
That was unexpected. He rarely spoke to me and still had other siblings before me.
But I accepted. In my other life, I was an excellent swordsman, perhaps even better than the great hero, although I never had the desire to test our strengths. Not out of fear, I just didn't want to, I could be content with the doubt.
It would be good to train my body to be able to use swords, since it would be another way to defend myself. During my magic training, I took small breaks and did exercises, although it did not seem like it.
I woke up early, and my brother was already sitting at the table. We had breakfast and went outside the house, but he wanted us to train somewhere else. He carried me and put me on a horse, then he mounted. He did it so quickly I barely noticed.
It took us a few hours to reach a mountain. At first, I did not understand the reason, but after seeing the view, I understood. The mountain was beautiful, and the air felt purer. The vegetation of the place brought me a certain peace, and I liked it, even though I felt some discomfort with that feeling.
I felt a hand on my back. The shock made me take two steps forward and, when I turned, I saw a sadistic smile coming from my brother. He threw me off the mountain.