Adventure Awaits! Huzzah! 02

Magic was kind of crazy. Maybe even a bit too crazy.

Not only because fireballs were super cool, but also because magic could do so much more. Healing, making illusions, teleportation, draining an enemy's life force... all of those and more were possible.

Naturally, Himmel had to become a master at it, even if he obviously didn't have much talent and was a bit too young for the craft. So even though he was getting scolded right now, he didn't mind it one bit.

"Do I have to keep constant watch over you, Himmel?" Kris sounded pissed. Understandable, he supposed. "You're so lucky you passed out in the house and not in the middle of the village." Eh, what's the worst that could happen?

A stranger taking advantage of his young, defenseless body or something? That would probably just be karma.

Himmel knew it was extremely childish of him, but he ended up pouting. "Geez, you weren't this mad about it a few minutes ago." Or hours. He didn't know how much time had passed. "Can't we go back to normal grounding?"

He was immediately rebuked. "No, you fool. You passed out, that isn't something to be taken lightly." Wow, he called a five-year-old a fool. "Why can't you be interested in swords like all boys your age...?"

"I am interested in swords, they're pretty cool too." He planned on training with them once his body developed a bit more.

It would always be his second priority, since swords... since most swords didn't let you throw around lightning, but it would be a useful skill nonetheless. Even more so when one considered that due to the cost of magic, one was incentivized to train their bodies too.

Kris sighed. "Then focus on it. If you truly feel the need to... train until exhaustion, then that would be far better."

Himmel raised an eyebrow. "Why would swinging a piece of metal around be any safer?" People did say to not run around with a pair of scissors. A sword was far more dangerous than that.

"Because you wouldn't be swinging a piece of metal. You would be swinging a stick or something..." Ah.

He hadn't really thought about that, but he supposed it would be the physical equivalent of his magical training. That is to say, just as blind and just as idiotic. Huh, did that mean playing knight counted as training?

He had technically... sort of... sparred with a bunch of people around his skill level. Sure, he probably... definitely didn't improve at all, but maybe he should encourage playing knight more.

Kris let out a frustrated groan. "Why can't you just understand...? What kid keeps training even when he feels sick?" At that moment, something clicked in Himmel's mind.

Kids learn by being stupid and hurting themselves, at least most of the time. If a kid was told to not play with fire, there was a big chance he would still play with fire and then get hurt. Since getting hurt sucked, he wouldn't play with fire anymore. That's it, lesson learned.

And so, even though most kids were stupid, suicidal brats, they would beat the idiocy out of themselves with time.

In this case, Himmel was akin to a kid who got burned and then immediately put his hand on the fire again. So to Kris he must look like an absolute buffoon...

And he would keep looking like one, for he had no intentions of stopping his magic training!

But he should at least try to justify himself. "Look, sir... I have to keep training, or else I will definitely stay behind." He clenched his fists. "I really like magic... but I have no talent in it. The most I can do is make a small spark..." If he didn't start training right now, then he would never get to do the cool stuff.

Just thinking about someone like Alm picking up magic and making a fireball in a day, while Himmel had been stuck for months, made his heart ache.

Kris's eye twitched. "By what standard is that a lack of talent?" A common one?

Kris probably just didn't understand how frustrating it was to have zero progress for months. Especially when Himmel intellectually knew he should be progressing very fast due to being a child. Kids learned faster than adults, after all.

His guardian crossed his arms. "Am I to assume you shall not stop your training then?" He sighed. "No, there's no reason to even ask. You would probably not answer truthfully anyways." He got him there.

He mumbled to himself. "Look at me, scolding a boy for trying to do too much for his age. Oh, how the tables flip." Himmel had a feeling he was about to lose his magic privileges, this wasn't good.

"Very well, Himmel, since you refuse to comply... I'll force you to. From tomorrow onwards, your studies begin. And not of magic, of course, but of things a boy your age should actually be learning. Mathematics. History. Geography. Things of that sort." Ah. Shit.

Not that Himmel was against that... in fact, he really needed to learn how to write, but still...

Kris continued. "Normally I planned on being light during your education, to let you move at your own pace... but no more. I will give you so much work that you won't have time to even think about magic."

"Not to say you won't have time to play and rest, of course... but you will actually use that time to play and rest. I will ask that Alm boy to keep an eye on you. If you do anything magical, he will tell me." He was going to turn Alm into a snitch!? How deplorable...

Himmel scowled. "So what, I'm forever forbidden from learning magic? Is that it?"

Kris shook his head. "No... I want you to get strong. It's just that I want you to not kill yourself as well." A weak smile appeared on his face. "And that's why, a few years from now, I shall find a magical teacher for you."

Huh... that didn't sound too bad. Not all.



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"So... Mila and Duma... finally made...  the Divine Accord, separating the... continent in two." Currently Himmel was struggling to read a book to his brat friends.

This world was a bit funny. While almost everyone in the world spoke the common tongue, actual writing differed a lot from place to place. Valentia, however, thankfully only had one type of writing.

Oh, and this wasn't to say there weren't other languages, of course... they were just very uncommon.

Himmel had wondered for a while how such a crazy thing had come to happen, a world where almost everyone spoke the same language... and it was apparently the fault of dragons.

Pretty much every continent of this world worshipped dragons of some sort. Valentia had Mila and Duma. The continent of Archanea had Naga and divine dragons in general. And finally, the continent of Jugdral had its legendary crusaders blessed by dragons. Well, Jugdral and Archanea had some shared divinities, Himmel chalked it up to a Rome/Greek sort of thing.

Basically, dragons were all the rage, and they had presumably spread their language around.

Welp, Mila and Duma weren't always on Valentia, so the population of three thousand years ago had their own language, which was now lost to time. It was a shame, but it couldn't be helped. Shit was older than the Roman Empire, after all.

Alm sighed. "Man, why couldn't they just say sorry to each other? Three thousand years of war... sounds like way too much." You know it was bad when even angry little Alm thought it was wrong.

Himmel smirked. "Because their ideologies clashed." Hah, cultural differences. "Both of their worlds simply couldn't combine with each other... Duma wanted a conquering empire, and Mila wanted an actual prospering nation."

It went without saying that Himmel was completely on the side of his nation's goddess. He had no interest in the whole only the strong live mentality... well, he could sort of understand it... but not when a goddess coddled the continent.

Who cares if Zofia had a pretty outdated military force? Mila was a fucking goddess. If Archanea, Jugdral, or some other dumbass continent tried invading, they would get smited to oblivion. And hey, Zofia had pretty much never experienced a plague or a famine.

Not to mention that Mila and Duma worked together against outside threats anyways, such as when they helped in the war against the pirate nation.

And besides, those Rigel chumps hadn't actually conquered shit anyways. Bunch of losers.

Alm sighed. "But couldn't they... have come to a compromise or something?" He pouted. "Aren't they family?" Eh, gods hated their families. Or at least that's what the religions of his old world taught him.

Himmel shrugged. "They did come to a compromise. They made the Divine Accord." It was a simple deal.

Mila and Duma both picked the half of the continent that they liked and told the other to stay away unless it was an emergency... Funnily enough, this accord had probably happened due to a medieval form of M.A.D.

Sure, Rigel was theoretically stronger than Zofia, but when Mila could turn into a war criminal and explode their capital or something, did that really matter? It would be quite a pyrrhic victory for the warmongering god.

Alm looked down. "I guess..."

Faye waved him off. "Forget about that, I want to hear more about Mila!" She clasped her hands together. "Mom said she's the most beautiful and elegant woman in the world." Well, Faye's mom probably worshipped her.

Himmel snorted. "Well, they do say she is beautiful. Not many people have seen her, however." But her location was public knowledge for those willing to undertake a pilgrimage.

And wasn't that crazy? People could just... walk up to their god and ask for blessings and the like...

Which sounded wonderful, but Himmel would never go see the goddess, nor would he pray for her. Mostly out of the fear of her realizing this was his second attempt at life and then promptly snapping him out of existence for being a baby-killing parasite.

Sorry, lil' actual Himmel. He didn't mean to screw him over like that.

Tobin put a hand on his chin. "I hope I get to see her one day..." Doubtful. He was no religious figure, nor did he have the means to reliably adventure through a continent.

Gray nodded. "I wanna see her too!" A little more likely than Tobin, at least if Gray followed in his family's footsteps. Still very unlikely, however.

Faye blushed. "Well, naturally, if everyone wants to see her... I want to see her too." No way would a common village girl ever visit a damned goddess. She was in the same boat as Tobin. Perhaps even worse, since she was a woman and probably wouldn't be taught any combat to defend herself.

Alm gritted his teeth. "Yeah, I wanna see her too... I have some stuff I want to talk with her about." Was this little chad junior thinking about scolding the goddess for her family issues?

Based. Even if Himmel really liked the Divine Accord and all it brought to Zofia.

"You guys sure are feeling faithful today..." He had picked a good book to read to them. It also helped that the words weren't really that complicated.

Hey, Himmel was still learning.

Alm tilted his head. "So... Himmel, do you wanna see the goddess too?" No way. Soul erasure sounded scary.

But if he outright said that, he was pretty sure he would be dubbed a Duma faithful and burned at the stake or something. "Her visage is far too much for my unworthy eyes..." So he had to come up with some bullshit excuse.

Gray raised an eyebrow. "If you aren't good enough to see her, who is?" Surprisingly enough, he received a couple of nods... mostly from Faye, who nodded multiple times in quick succession.

Adorable.

Himmel ended up blushing and muttering to himself. "Aren't the kids from this village way too nice...?" Well, he had read a cool story to them! He deserved praise!

Ah, blushing from being praised by kids was a new low for him... Then again, he had done... was doing worse. Sorry, Faye!

A sigh escaped his mouth. "Fair enough, Gray. I suppose all humans of Zofia are worthy of gazing at the Mother." That was what she was called. Duma was naturally the father.

Though, funnily enough, he was disrespected a lot. Probably due to the whole being a patron deity of another nation.

Himmel wasn't an idiot. He knew a lot of the information he had received about Duma was probably propaganda to portray Zofia and the Mother as the legendary chads and Rigel and the Father as the lame soyjaks.

Alm grinned. "Then why don't we all make a promise? Let's go see the goddess one day! Together!" Oh boy.

"Yeah! That sounds great, Alm! For once you had a good idea." Welp, Tobin sounded enthusiastic about it.

And so did Gray. "Yeah, it will be an adventure!" Sorry, but for Himmel it would be a horror type one.

In the end even Faye jumped onto the bandwagon. "That sounds... nice." And now they were all naturally looking at Himmel. Awaiting his confirmation.

How troublesome. If he outright rejected them, he would lose a lot of street cred. And street cred with kids was very important! "Sure, it's a promise." Kris would definitely scold him for this if he knew about it.

It was an oath he had no intention of fulfilling after all, but eh. This world wasn't anime land, even if it had magic, this little promise would probably be forgotten one day. Hell, Himmel would probably forget it by tomorrow.

Tobin smirked. "Okay then... now that we all agreed on this... Can we talk about how Himmel already learned how to read, but Alm didn't?" Himmel struggled to call what he did reading, but aight.

"H-hey, I just started learning! And Grandpa said I'm great at it! I can even read his name already!" Since Alm was the grandchild of a knight, he was naturally receiving an education.

The same did not apply to Faye and Tobin.

But it did for Himmel. How strange.

Gray was the son of a merchant family, however, so he was learning too. The boy would need to know his numbers so that one day he could scam people all over Zofia. What an amazing destiny awaited this prince of light!

Tobin snorted. "Whatever you say, slowpoke." Some people just naturally disliked each other, huh? Well, it was more like a rivalry.

Alm glared at Tobin, as expected. "I'm saying it alright! A-and..." He pointed at him. "You're just jealous because you don't know how to read at all!" It was a bit ironic to hear envy talk from a green-haired boy.

Tobin pouted. "S-shut up. My mom actually taught me how to write my name, ya know? S-so I can do something!" Not surprising.

While Tobin and Faye would not actually learn how to read, they needed to at least learn to write their names in case they needed to sign a document for tax collection or something. The truth was... it was unfair to say they would receive no education.

It was just a very inferior education compared to Alm, Himmel, and Gray. They would learn whatever their parents could teach them so they could one day inherit their professions. That's how little villages like this worked.

Alm smirked. "Dumb. You're dumb." As far as Himmel was concerned, Alm wasn't much superior...

While Tobin raged against the injustices of this world, Faye looked down. "Hey Alm, I also only know how to write my own name... Am I dumb?" Yes, but all village kids were. It was in their fodder nature.

Alm's rage immediately disappeared. Now replaced with regret. "O-of course not, I just...!" Oh, Faye looked like she was about to sob. How sensitive of her.

Though really, all kids had the ability to suddenly start crying out of nowhere.

Letting his future wife cry would be pretty callous of Himmel however, so he decided to step up. "You're not an idiot at all, Faye. Alm, Gray, and I are just lucky. Very lucky." There was no denying that.

Finally, Himmel put down the book he was reading. "There is a difference between intelligence and lack of knowledge after all... you simply lack the latter. So why don't we remedy that?" He was about to give himself a lot of work...

He smiled. "Let me teach you. And also..." He looked at the grumpy Tobin. "I'll teach you too." Himmel nodded to himself. "I shall pass the knowledge I gain from my guardian to you two." Who knows, maybe Tobin could help his family out of poverty one day with such knowledge.

Reading was a prized skill. He was sure it would give some job opportunities... but not really, since nobles would probably take the spot instead. Still, it was better than nothing.

Faye's sobbing immediately stopped. "I would love that, Himmel!" Awesome, he obtained a couple of Faye affection points!

Tobin hesitantly nodded his head. "I want to learn too... So, thank you, Himmel." He had a feeling the prideful boy would not have accepted his offering were it not for Faye taking it up first.

And naturally, Alm would not let Himmel do all the work by himself. "Hey, I can help teach too! I'm way behind Himmel, but I can be useful!" He gazed at Gray. "A-and you can help too, right?"

Gray looked away. "What a pain..." Understandable. "Sure, I'll try to help." Both of them probably wouldn't be of much use.

They were just children after all. Surprisingly smart, kind, and wise kids, but kids nonetheless. Still, Himmel could pick up the slack as an adult.

This would definitely be a pain though. Hopefully it would pay off one day.



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Year 391, Zofia.

Himmel slowly opened his eyes. A yawn left his mouth. "Man... I did not sleep eight hours today." He had woken up too early.

It couldn't be helped. He was extremely anxious about today. For you see, it was not just any day! It was his birthday!

His seventh birthday, to be more specific. Quite a bit of time had passed after his promise of one day seeing the Mother with all of his friends. It was a bit funny... he ended up remembering the promise, even if they had all forgotten it.

Mostly because the thought of meeting Mila was still just as terrifying as it had ever been. Especially as he began perusing a few older and more complicated books and, as a consequence, learned her history of war against Duma in more detail.

She could be quite ruthless. As in, eating people and burning down castles full of innocent people with breaths of flame ruthless. Scary.

But none of that mattered today.

Himmel basically jumped out of the bed. "He better not have been lying...!" Kris had promised something special for his birthday. And while it may just be Himmel hoping for the impossible... Maybe...

Just maybe Kris had finally hired him a magic teacher!