Magic

The two made their way step by step into a room on the second floor. The spacious room held a chair and a table, and a south-facing window kept it bright.

In the farthest corner of the room sat the treasure chest they had been longing for. The wooden chest stood alone in the corner, its weathered marks showing its age. This grandpa of a wooden chest was older than their current ages combined.

"Oh! So this is the treasure chest? It looks so old-fashioned. This is my first time seeing a chest like this in real life." Radeus gazed at it, his eyes shining.

"Heh-heh, what do you think?" Rudeus raised his head, looking smug.

"Fucking awesome!"

They approached the enormous wooden chest. It was taller than either Radeus or Rudeus, and judging by its size, it could easily fit both of them inside.

"I'm opening it!"

Radeus swallowed as he spoke to Rudeus.

"Yeah!"

Rudeus's face was also filled with nervous excitement. He had no idea what might be inside.

Radeus and Rudeus used every ounce of their strength to push open the lid, then peered excitedly into the chest.

Despite its spacious interior, the wooden chest contained only five red-covered books. Each was so large that, at their current size, even picking one up would be a struggle.

"Aww, they're just books!"

Radeus sighed when he saw the contents. He had thought there would be something good inside.

Still, for them right now, these books could probably help them understand this world better, so they counted as something good too.

"Come on, isn't this pretty good too? Just the thing to pass the time when we're bored."

Rudeus did not seem disappointed. Instead, he showed a hint of excitement. Maybe the books in here could teach them magic?

This was magic!

Something that would get even a monkey excited just hearing about it!

If he learned magic, he might even be able to teach Radeus a lesson for always getting in his way.

Radeus turned to look at Rudeus.

"I heard that. You itching for a beating, brat?"

Holy shit!

Rudeus was startled. Why the hell did their telepathy have to activate on its own at a time like this?

"I was wrong, I was wrong! Forgive me, my dear big brother!"

Rudeus immediately backed down. He had absolutely no desire to test his big brother's stats.

"But you've got a point. If there's a book in there that teaches magic, we've really hit the jackpot."

Radeus was very fond of magic too. Back when he watched otherworld anime like Overlord and Frieren, all those spells had been both cool and powerful.

No one would turn down becoming a cool, powerful mage, especially one who was even stronger in close combat. Right, Gandalf?

"No time like the present. Let's open one and take a look," Radeus suggested.

They took out a book and set it on the floor.

"I can't read it!" they said in unison.

They exchanged a glance, finding that they could not understand a single thing. The writing looked a little like Greek, but also seemed somewhat different. In short, they could not read it.

"Looks like we'll have to learn to read first!"

Radeus glanced at the book on the floor as he spoke to Rudeus.

"Yeah! But there are so few books in the house. Is it because Father and Mother don't like reading, or are books themselves valuable?"

Rudeus spoke as he looked at the four remaining books in the chest.

"Who knows? Maybe both!" Radeus shook his head.

"Our first priority now is to get Father and Mother to teach us to read. We can already pronounce the words, so learning should be easier."

Hearing this, Rudeus went to Paul and Zenith's room. Fortunately, they were not doing anything out of line at the moment.

Paul smiled when he saw Rudeus approaching.

"What is it, Rudeus? Want Daddy to play with you?"

Rudeus shook his head, tugging on Paul's trouser leg and pointing outside with one hand.

"Daddy, my brother and I found some books in the room..."

Only then did Paul understand.

"Do you want me to read them to you?"

Rudeus nodded.

"All right, then! Let Daddy read them to you properly."

A year passed after that. With Paul and Zenith's help, Rudeus and Radeus could now recognize some words. At the very least, they could more or less understand the books' contents.

Just as they had guessed, one of those books was indeed a magic textbook.

According to the book, magic could be activated in two ways: incantations and magic circles. Incantations were currently the mainstream method, and a person's total mana capacity apparently was fixed at birth.

Both of them were a little worried when they read that. After all, if that was true, they had no idea whether they had much mana!

It would be awful to run dry after casting just a few spells, going straight from noble mages to Megumin with her explosion magic!

"Rudeus, let's try using magic now!"

"Let's go to that room from before, then."

They returned to the room from before, opened the magic book, and read the incantation written there for the beginner spell-Water Ball.

"Rudeus, you go first. I'll keep an eye on you and stop you right away if anything goes wrong."

As Radeus spoke to Rudeus, he backed away step by step.

Rudeus looked at his big brother, utterly speechless.

Does that look like you're standing guard for me? I don't even want to get started on you!

A coward is a coward!

"Okay!"

But Rudeus did not refuse. After all, he had been looking forward to magic for a long time.

He raised one hand toward the window and began reciting.

"Great blessing of water, appear where thou art called. Let a clear, murmuring stream manifest here-Water Ball!"

Once he finished, Rudeus felt some kind of energy activate within his body, gathering upward into his palm. Then, amid specks of white light, a ball of water appeared in front of his palm before falling to the floor.

"S-so this is magic!"

Rudeus stared blankly at the ball of water that had splashed onto the floor, his eyes filled with joy.

I successfully used magic. It wasn't quite right, but at least I did it.

"Let me try too." Radeus was itching to have a go as he spoke, and he copied Rudeus to cast Water Ball.

As he recited the incantation, a ball of water appeared in front of Radeus's palm too, though it seemed a little smaller than Rudeus's. Did this mean he had less mana than Rudeus, or was it caused by a problem with how he cast the spell?

Radeus did not dwell on it. His face was just as ecstatic as Rudeus's.

"I'm a mage now too!"

Radeus had been rather nervous just moments before, afraid he would not be able to cast magic and thus would never become a great mage.

If he could not use magic, wouldn't his journey to another world have been for nothing?

"We did it!"

The two high-fived, expressing their joy.

And with that, the journeys of two legends began!