Teacher

I turned three.

Before I knew it, three years had passed since I came to this world.

This year, I finally learned my father and mother's full names.

Paul Greyrat, Zenith Greyrat, Lilia... I was not sure about hers. Maybe it had something to do with her status? In any case, Lilia's full name had never been mentioned.

You could say it really had that medieval noble feel...

One afternoon, I was training my magic as usual.

After a year of practicing beginner-tier magic, I realized something.

Maybe it was not that my way of using magic was wrong. Maybe beginner-tier water bullets were just that weak.

After all, they were beginner-tier.

So I began trying intermediate-tier magic.

"For the first time, I'll chant it first."

After I finished chanting, a huge water bullet appeared before my eyes.

I had originally thought it would only be a little bigger than a beginner-tier spell, but I never expected it to be this large.

No... If this thing was fired, it simply could not be compared to those water bullets.

I tried hard to control myself, but my mana kept being sucked into that enormous water bullet.

"Damn it..."

What should I do? I, who had never made a mistake until now, would definitely be able to think of something.

After thinking for a few seconds, I braced my left hand against the wooden floor and activated magic.

The wooden floor in the room twisted under my power and wrapped toward that water sphere.

"Just a little more..."

But the water sphere burst without warning.

Like a pillar of water, it shot out through the window.

My original idea of using the wooden floor of the house to wrap up the water sphere had clearly been wrong.

That water pillar pierced through both my magic and the wall of the house.

Thank goodness... it had fired toward the sky.

"So this is... intermediate-tier magic..."

I stared blankly at the water droplets dripping one by one from the edge of the huge hole.

Calm down. Calm down.

The next thing to do was use magic to repair the wall.

It was not hard. It was just a wooden house; I only had to use magic of the same element to slowly restore it.

I reached out and touched the pierced edges, making them slowly return to normal.

Good thing it's a wooden house... I sighed to myself.

"What happened?! Whoa..."

The first person to rush in was Paul.

When he saw the huge hole in the wall, his mouth fell open in shock.

And his son was using magic to repair that wall, though very slowly.

"Huh... This... How did this... Rudy, are you okay...?"

Paul really was a good person.

No matter how you looked at me, I was clearly fine, yet he still cared about me.

After walking over beside me, he was still muttering things like, "Was it a monster...? No, there shouldn't be any around here..." while carefully staying on guard.

Fine, Paul was an idiot.

"Oh my."

Zenith also entered the room.

She was much calmer than Paul.

First, she checked the damaged wall and the water pooled on the floor in order, then saw me trying to restore the wall with magic.

She did not say anything. She walked straight up to me, crouched down, and looked into my eyes with a gentle expression.

It was a little scary...

There was no smile in her eyes at all.

Also, your son is working hard to use magic to restore this wall, you know. Aren't you going to help, Mother?

I thought that, but I couldn't say it.

I had to bear the consequences of my own mistakes.

So I didn't keep meeting Zenith's eyes. Instead, I focused wholeheartedly on controlling my magic to restore the wall.

"Rudy, you can already use magic?" Zenith's eyes were filled with smiles.

"Yes."

I nodded and admitted it.

Magic probably wasn't all that rare in this world.

After all, they even had textbooks for it.

Paul, though, scratched his head.

"No, but I mean... this is intermediate magic..."

"Wow! Dear, did you hear that? Our child really is a genius!"

Zenith's shout drowned out Paul's words.

She clasped her hands together and seemed so happy she was hopping up and down.

She really was full of energy...

While she was still rejoicing, I more or less finished restoring the wall.

Mothers were truly optimistic creatures. No matter what their children did, even if it was nothing worth making a fuss over, they would brag, "This child might just be a genius."

Once the repairs were finished, I sat down, drained of mana.

I listened to my mother's excited voice.

"Dear, let's go to the town of Roa tomorrow and put up a notice for talent! We have to properly nurture our child's abilities!"

"But you promised... if it was a boy, he'd learn swordsmanship."

"Dear! We need to find a private tutor! We'll definitely be able to find an excellent magic teacher in Roa!" Zenith once again drowned out Paul's words.

"But..."

"Dear, our child can use intermediate magic at three years old. Are we supposed to let a talent like that go to waste?"

"But..."

"Besides, it's not as if he can't practice both magic and swordsmanship. Rudy, what do you think?" Zenith turned to look at me.

I nodded and said, "I want to practice both."

No matter how many times I started over, I was still the same. When it came to my mother's expectations, I wanted to answer them no matter what.

I really hadn't changed at all...

Zenith pulled me straight into a hug.

"See, dear? Even Rudy agrees~"

"All right..." Paul finally gave in.

And just like that, Zenith and Paul decided to find a magician to serve as my private tutor.