Unexpected Continuation

In the year when I would make 7 years my parents decided that was time for me to start going to the village teacher. That was a dangerous proposition, I was aware, but I saw no chance to escape without attract even more unwanted attention. I was hiding the fact that I had memories from my past life on Planet Earth, and absurdly powerful talent to magic.

Because in this world they recognize people with those characteristics as Evil demons who need to be killed immediately.

I had the experience of die once and find myself reborn in this fantastic Medieval Fantasy world. I was lot interested in die again, this time as a child. I had plans to grow adult, start a family and had children. Then, all things going well, live long enough to raise my children and see them reach adulthood. After that point, I could very well die, and count myself happy with this life, but not before.

I had no way to know if that reincarnation thing was one time thing or I would keep getting infinite new opportunities to fulfil what was missing in life, to me. I could not take chances with that.

So, I was **** to reconsider my priorities with definitive purpose.

During my first 6 years I searched all the spells I could find. Practiced as often as possible. I was lucky to not make any irreversible mistake. No one ever saw me doing magic, or if someone saw me, those people decided to keep my secret.

Mom and dad had to suspect something. I was their firstborn, but still, of course, there was no way for me to convincingly fake the behaviour expected from a small baby, a toddler and keep adjusting as the years passed. If no one had ever heard anything about children like me, perhaps! I would be strange, but without frame of reference that could be dismissed as personal eccentricity. Unfortunately to me those Evil Demons where everywhere in children’s stories.

After three days going to school I realized that would be impossible. The village teacher was a kind young practitioner of magic, about the same age of my mom in this life. She was cute, smart and discreet. No old own half blind, too tired to bother paying attention. No ignorant farmer posing as a scholar to make some easy money without have to work the fields under the sun. A properly trained academic, with eyes trained to identify discrepancies.

By the end of first day I gave up my original plan to pretend to be an idiot. Too risky. I would fail and the fact that I was desperately trying to hide something about myself would became evident. I had to fake for 5 years, the closest my lie could be from reality better my chances would be.

After I reach 12 I would need to fail the test of trying to perform a basic spell. That much I needed to hold at any cost. Or they would easily find out that I have immense and growing reserves of mana.

Was a huge sacrifice, but was matter of survival. I stopped doing spells, completely. My only exercise now was how to fake a failure in the first magic exercise I had dominated. Create water.

I decided to dedicate myself to everything else in class. Show interest for magic, every child in this world has some curiosity about. Everyone dreams about finding out a exceptionally high mana pool, and growing to be a battle-mage. Most exciting occupation that exists. I would study the history and the theory, like in any other field, but would fail the practice.

Feels plausible enough. Every field of human activity has those people who get the idea but cannot go from this to the most basic steps of practice. Every fiend except Philosophy, since that is pure theory anyway, the fine aspects of theory itself amount all the practice you ever get. Spell-casting does not follow that paradigm at all.

Stop casting spells gave me fever and caused me pain. I had to find something to burn all that arcane energy my body was used to channel. I needed to find a solution fast, immediately would be better.

Was not on purpose, I didn’t planned , but somehow I got myself into a fight with 4 boys, the smaller of them twice my size. The reason was hardly any reason at all, some stupid discussion about territorial limits between farms, I didn’t even understood how was supporting what, I just made a gestion that gave someone the impression that I was taking one side that they didn’t liked, someone said something unkind about how my mother supposedly smell. Untrue, but not clearly not intended to be taken literally.

I didn’t attacked the boy with my empty hands, that would have been stupid but in character for a child. I hit his face with a stone, so unexpectedly that it actually hit the target.

He was angry, bleeding, in pain, almost blind for a moment, but not afraid. I can say day in his defence.

So, he missed two punches, and then managed to hit me in the ribs with his knee. I don’t know how, but I managed to pierce his leg with a pointy stick that was nearby. That was when his friends decided to help him. I kept kicking and biting and trying to punch or grab something to throw at them. I was angry, furious, and mad, but in a strange way also somewhat happy. Extatic, with the discharge of energy, and blood lost perhaps.

A large part of me was holding back, not to not hurt or to not end up dead in that stupid altercation, but to not let any spell slip through my mind.

I don’t know when exactly, or how long it took, was probably faster than it felt to me. Some adult got the impression that things were going beyond the acceptable broken nose in a fight between children. Possible this adult recognized me and realized how young I was, still.

This experience got me my first harsh conversation with my parents. My mother was furious.

Father, on the other hand, said that was too familiar. His uncle was infamous for start stupid fights for no good reason, and was a decent scoundrel and half time bandit until he managed to enter the fight he didn’t left alive. Raised six boys though, and only two of them followed his worse examples. His father had angry issues too, and he, himself, only escaped his hot temper by learning to control it. In sword-fighting and marshman practice.

This incident got me into a serious routine of training. No more the light exercises with my father. Now, I would be accompanying his training and following him in the hunt.

I was terrible at all that, but I do had the energy to burn. The chance to turn as much of that as possible into stamina and melee fighting skills was exactly what I needed.

Maybe some of that hate was really inherited from my father and his descendants. I was never short-tempered on Earth. Not particularly.

My family was going through economic difficulties now. I had two younger siblings, a brother and a sister. Economy was deteriorating, even with the activity of magical monsters intensifying, along with the activity of bands of criminals. Former mercenary or low soldiers, deserters of wars in nearby countries. As a guard my father had more opportunities to make extra money than ever.

Unfortunately prices where high, taxes raising due to the troubles faced by our nation and the entire continent.

Far in the North-East there was a land covert by heavy snow all the year. Somewhere up there, in a territory hard to reach due to the **** cold and high mountains, there was a land named Bloody Cunt. Because supposedly the long valley between mountains look like the feminine sexual organ when watched from distance from a certain angle.

In the middle of that crevasse there is a red line of burning rocks. The metaphorical blood.

The face on the side of the active volcano is black and dry, but the second valley surrounding that one is green and extremely fertile. Rich in mines of high value and prosperous farms. Hot lakes and rivers.

Due to their isolation the 11 realms in this region are considered barbarians. The trade between them and the rest of humanity is difficult, except for precious metals and magic texts few goods are valuable enough to compensate the adventure of transport them through the **** Mountains.

In this place, according to rumours, a band of Demons is hiding. They made their stronghold somewhere in those fertile valleys. Some say they are 20, 30, some say they cannot be more than 3. The oldest is said to be a half-waarg boy 15 years old, their leader. Monstrously powerful mage. The most powerful authorities in the magical world know they must join forces to move against those monsters while that is still possible. However, decades of war between the largest nations in the civilization left much distrust between the mages, and not nearly enough resources to commit to such huge task.

I was 9 years old when I heard about this for the first time.

I had managed to hold to my plan of never cast any spell. Except to learn how to fail convincingly the only spell I was supposed to be learning how to cast.

However, if that was true. I didn’t believed those people could have managed to survive and find each other by blind luck. Someone was seeking and recruiting people like me.

Again, could be just empty gossip. However, if that was true, I had to wonder why this band had ignored me. They could not find me, for some reason? Or maybe they knew each other from their past life, and had only reunited their former companions, somehow? Maybe I was under vigilance? They had tested me from the shadows and I had failed their criteria for admission?

Not that I wanted to be part of something like that.

A huge **** has being prepared to move against those people in a couple of years. Assassins and spies most certainly were looking for them already. Mage-hunters, Demon-Hunters. This looked like the exact sort of confusion I was determined to avoid, and not get involved in.

On the bright side, I was finally learning how to move in a fight. With or without a sword, or a sword and a shield. And I was almost half decent with a hunting bow now. For someone of my age. Not my real age, I mean, the age I was supposed to have, in this world.

I had the discipline, the energy and the will to practice. Despite all that, the arrow didn’t liked me, and refused to cooperate with my efforts most the time.

Fortunately the sword was more friendly.

I as also learning to climb trees and rocks. Great exercise! I was not competent at that, yet, but was starting to feel proud about my skills. Since I realized they had reached a point I never had managed to reach as a children, adolescent or adult on Planet Earth.

In my tenth birthday my teacher told mother that I was the best student she ever had in Math. They practically only use Arithmetic here for the simples operations. Everything a bit more complex than ad and subtract apples and cows is done with Geometry. I have the mind of an adult, but I know some children are practically born doing advanced mathematics. Is a talent that one can have and not look suspicious.

Mathematics and fighting skills. Hunting and History. I am starting to see my potential future profession. Those are the skills logically demanded for a military commandant. Some sort of official.

Without noble birth or magic talent to show I doubt my chances of reach the higher ranks would be great. Not a problem, I don’t need to be general or Minister of War in the capital. I would gladly settle for captain of city guard in a city a little larger than mine. Or instructor in some military academy.

Honest job, strategically positioned to allow me privileged access to information about mage-hunters and other magic-related subjects. Without attract too much attention to my person.

Ten years, and I had most my life figured out. In very general lines, true. Still, that gave me a nice and warm feeling.