"Von?" I uttered in surprise, from afar I saw him, my older brother back home… Something seems different.
He wasn't in school uniform? That's a surprise, everytime he came back before, he always rocked the white shirt and red coat combo… Why wasn't he wearing it? He couldn't have dropped out or gotten himself expelled, right? To what I have heard, he was the type to get perfect scores in every subject, a perfect student.
"Oh Gryne," Von said, waving his hand at me, "fancy seeing you out here."
Man, what are you even talking about, big bro… I'm always sitting out here, you are the one that's out of position.
"Yeah…" I awkwardly replied.
Okay so… How did we end up here in the first place? My name is Gryne Notros Farion, second son of the Farion family's main branch… Currently I'm seven years of age… Is this weird to say? But I'm a proud handsome young boy with ashy brown hair, and a pair of gleaming misty rainbow coloured eyes… This is me now, in my past life I was a bum, the bummiest of the bums, the trashiest amidst the junkyard.
In that old world, I was a failure in all ways. When I had good looks I chose to waste it on bullying, then when I got bullied… I never stood back up. In the end I accomplished nothing, I was then kicked out of the house by some masked randoms, they were probably hired by the landlord, I walked on the streets and in my state of emptiness, I got smashed and ran over by a truck…
After that I died…
By some crazy isekai anime trope, truck-kun brought me to another world… I was reincarnated, once again a baby, but somehow in some twisted fate or logic, I had retained my memories… I was a thirty plus year old baby.
I was a little better than who I was in my past life, I saw the wrongs I did, I tried to not fall or even drip my foot into those potholes, throughout the past seven years I have been successful, I worked hard. I've learned the language they use here, practiced magic and swordplay. I knew my parents this time although adoptive, I had a good relationship going on. I even made a childhood friend along the way whose name is Rias. Recently the news was that my mother Ava is bearing another baby.
That's the story so far, come to think of it, my life doesn't really have a lot of drama, huh? It isn't your typical action isekai, I guess when I'm starting off as a baby while they just get summoned as high schoolers, it makes sense.
Now then, wait— Where were we before? Ah— Right… Von just came back.
"So what brings you back this time? You are awfully early if you wanted to say little bro or sis' birth."
"Yeah— Nah. That's just part of it. Don't you see there's a difference in my attire?"
"Yeah, you aren't wearing your school uniform. Wait— Don't tell me you dropped out of school."
"No way!" Von rebuked, "If I ever did that dad would kill me… I graduated and am going to move back now."
"…"
//
I never would have thought I'd ever say this but it feels like the mansion is getting smaller everyday.
There's still a month or two left before the predicted birthday, even now the preparations are already going on… I finally got a break from Iris' training.
Iris is my sword tutor, she was a hot dark elf with silver hair, she was a really good swordswoman, to put on the scale she was middle of the pack in the advanced class. Also did I mention that she's a work horse, one that would train all day if had the time…
I flopped back down on my bed after the knocks on my door never came, it's always a good day when I get to take a break.
"Ahhh—" I sighed, my body loosening up as I laid back down on my bed, I tried closing my eyes to return to sleep… It didn't work—
I tried turning over to sleep in a different position… It didn't work—
I tried to force myself to sleep… It didn't work—
I laid there bedrotting…
I pulled my hair, "Aghhh—" I groaned, "why can't I sleep…" I was never the type to wake up early and have a productive morning… At least I never thought of myself as one… Maybe this just became the norm for me, after all Iris would nag me if I don't wake up and practice… Sigh—
If I can't sleep, I guess I better be productive, I'll just do some practice swings, it would be better than staying in bed all day just to rot on the spot.
I stood back up… I did my normal morning routine, I brushed my teeth, my hair, fixed a small braid at the back of my hair…
I looked in the mirror… Life was much the same, come to think of it. I haven't changed much since I got to this world, I grew a little taller and my hair grew a little longer, that was about it.
I spat out the water back into the sink…
I headed right back down to the dirt yard, the birds chirped happily and the sunlight of dawn lit up the patches of sand and dirt… I positioned myself under the shadows of a tree, small rays of sunlight shining through the leaves as I began swinging my sword.
Hyah— Heyah— Hah—
I haven't gotten much better at swordplay, still an intermediate swordsman, even with all those practice swings I did, all the effort I put in I still seem to be the same, could it be that this is as high as I can go, maybe this was the most my body can handle… In other words I reached the peak and now I have plateaued.
Lately I could tell pretty clearly that I wasn't improving, I wasn't improving at all, not even the slightest. Still everyday I went on, I practiced… I told myself over and over that I definitely wasn't going to get better if I stopped trying…
Practice never hurts, right?
Besides this much exercise is sure to pay off in some way. Even if I don't feel that sense of improvement, I'm sure that my body and muscles are growing after so much repeated movement.
As I stood there silent, my sword leaned against the ground, I mulled that over, a voice broke the silence…
"Hey Gryne—" The voice said sleepily, "Try swinging stronger and move your whole body along with the swing of your sword."
It was Von, I looked over, he sat at the edge of the doorway, his legs spread wide, his hand perched atop a rolled up fist.
I knew that Von was a really strong swordsman, in fact he was probably one of the strongest… He owned the title of the prodigy after all, I was sure that he was giving me good advice, but something doesn't line up… Move my whole body along with the swing of my sword? Doesn't that contradict with what Iris is teaching me, according to her I'm supposed to stay versatile so I can keep up a defensive stance…
Something wasn't right…
I followed Von's instructions…
I swing my sword, shifting my footing and hips to go along with the attack… The power of the swing dragged me forward as it came smashing back down into the rough dirt surface. That sure was stronger than before, I thought, in fact it could've been the strongest swing I have ever done.
Even still I thought it was weird, it wasn't following any of Iris' normal teachings, the way Von told me to swing was the complete opposite…
"You picked that up quite well, I see," Von said, cutting off my train of thought, "You are a quick learner aren't you? That was the basic swimming of the Rampage style." He explained.
It all started to make sense now, Von was a Rampage style swordsman, of course he would teach differently, Iris was a Sword saint style user.
Von was strong, it was a fact no one in the household could deny… Even without knowing his actual class I could feel that he was strong, very strong, from the aura he emitted to the confidence he shows whenever…
There wasn't much more to say about Von, I didn't know him all that well to be completely honest, even still I respected him a lot.
One thing led to another, and this quickly spiralled into another interesting turn of events. It was quite unexpected, but I guess I have a substitute sword tutor now.
//
Von was much less harsh on me, his training went on a different route compared to Iris' as expected… Normally we would start after lunch, there isn't a fixed schedule, he noted down that on some days I would go out to play with Rias so would free up some time to teach me earlier.
Von was a pretty good tutor to be honest, I didn't expect all this much insight, he was pointing out the explicit mistakes I made during each swing, he would nag me for the slightest miss, it was repetitive but I felt that I was getting better again.
"Gryne move your feet more, there is no way in hell you would be able to push back their defensive stance like this, you should emphasize your feet more, remember your footing is your strongest form of strength." Von said.
I swung again.
"Good. But this time you were stable enough, you gotta stay on your feet, okay? If you don't, people could just dodge out of your way without worrying about a follow up attack." Von commented on my second swing.
After a while I finished up my practice swings, I was gassed out, the swing took more out of me than expected, the emphasis on strength and power really brings out the tiredness, doesn't it.
"Now let's start doing strength training" Von enthusiastically said, positioning his arm on the ground and started doing one armed push ups like it was nothing.
Every training ended like that, it wasn't what I was used to and it took some time before I was able to get used to it… There was more strength training like push ups and squats rather than a focus on technique and theory, actually there was basically none, there was like three techniques in total and there weren't any theory at all, it was a lot of the time just short comments on how to rush in with follow up attacks.
//
A few weeks went by, it was unexpected but Von told me to follow him on a monster slaying mission issued by the local village, it wasn't that I didn't know about the mission, at dinner time yesterday Father was the one who told Von to carry out the mission, but the unexpected part was that he was bringing me with him.
Also during the same dinner I also finally learned Von's class, he was a master class rampage style swordsman, no wonder Iris doesn't bump heads with him even when he's teaching me something that it was clear that she doesn't approve of.
Being strong really lets you get away with anything, huh?
Let's dive a little deeper to talk about how being a master class swordsman scales, before Von the strongest swordsman I have seen was Iris, and she was advanced class, still way below master class. To put it in perspective to show how insane his feat is, they say it takes around 50 years of full dedication for a talented individual to reach imperial class in a given style, some styles might take longer and shorter but 50 years was the average. If I expand further, it would be like becoming a black belt in karate in a year or two, green belt scales to around the intermediate class which are where most higher level knights and nobles are.
He was really one to look up to in terms of strength, the man was impressive to say the very least. Just to butter him up even more, he also graduated top of the class in the Royal Knights Academy and has real world combat experience, which can't be taken lightly.
Real world combat was a intuitive thing, you can't really tell how strong you are, even when you might be an advanced class swordsman, you might be horrible in adapting in real life or death scenarios, for someone who has never fought anyone in this world I can't really make sense of it, but anyhow I could tell that Von was the real deal, he wasn't just that guy who takes the glaze without backing.
I guess I'm going on a little camping trip with big bro now. His excuse was really kind of lacking, saying that "seeing a real fight would give a good experience and might even give you some more insight into how to adapt to situations."
We made the preparations quickly and headed out the next day. It has been some time since I have gone further than the Crying tree.
Let me be honest, the battle was awesome, if you can call it a battle that is… He was against eight monsters if I counted correctly, six of the monsters were some known as Shadow Wolves, canine-like monsters with black fur and moved in packs of four to ten, the are ranked as low intermediate class monsters. The remaining two were orcs, big green monsters with an ugly face and long tusks hooked up, they held leashes on the wolves in one hand and had crudely made axes on the other, their aura was menacing and as Von said "these are low advanced class monsters, if you ever see a group of them, never engage in combat as they have hunting formations that are pretty damn tricky to handle by yourself."
Even after giving me the warning, Von handled the whole pack with ease, his huge sword dancing around the monsters, beheading them and the blade twists and twirls around the monsters' necks. He was able to kill all the Shadow Wolves with no difficulties, the Orcs were a little tougher, the two combined were able to block a few of Von's swings, but in the end they were no match, after a few more hits, the two big bodies of the Orcs' collapse onto the floor— Headless.
Let me say it again and again, the fight was incredible.
There was a certain flow to it, with his ginormous sword flinging around the place, I could see a line, it was like he was dancing… His movements were silky smooth, his steps were fluid… There was a rhythm to each and every swing, each and every step. It's hard to explain how he fights, it just seemed all that natural, all that powerful… If I had to boil it down to one word, it would be strength, overwhelming amounts of it.
There was not the slightest hint of defense throughout the whole fight, it was just Von rushing head on at the monsters, like a rampaging bull, an unstoppable one, "Let me give you some advice," he said as he rushed forth towards the two Orcs, "Remember that offense is the best form of defence, be greedy with your attacks if you want to win the fight, you have to take risks, right? I'm sure that Iris taught you that already."
All that aside— I'm grateful that someone is teaching me, at least I get to experience what strength is, having people around me be stronger than me… I thank the world for that, I might have turned into that one arrogant brat I was in my previous life again. I might have let my skills in magic convince myself that I am all powerful, I'm sure that I can handle a few Shadow Wolves, but I would literally get torn into pieces then boiled in a pot as Orc food if I ever faced them. I was sure of that.
//
About a month and a half went by within a blink of an eye, nothing big happened in these past days either, I continued to train under Von's guidance and that was about it…
I realised that Von wasn't what I'm expecting, I always thought of him as this picture perfect child, one that has the seriousness of Father (when he's not with mother of course). Turns out I was completely wrong, at afar he may seem to be that person I described, but getting to know him better shows his flaws…
My opinion of him dropped day by day, I still respected him to the fullest… But—
He's a dirtbag… A horny one…
About a week ago, I spotted him sneaking around the house at night, I became interested and followed him.
Man, this guy really has the nerves, in broad daylight also… I guess it's not the morning, but still, you know that I have eyes right? You are lucky that this isn't father, if it was him, you are sure to get a whooping.
Von didn't notice me one bit throughout the whole time I was watching, I guess I'm decent with the Conceal spell… Von stared through a small hole in the wall, behind that wall the bathhouse, the sound of showers ringing inside… Come to think of it, the maids should be taking a bath at around this time of day.''
Hey I don't blame him in any way, all the women around the mansion are certified beauties.
//
Let's switch the topic now, I don't want your image of Von to go too low, after all he's one that everyone should respect, not for his actions but for his strength.
Rias was growing quickly, before long I didn't have anything to teach her. First things first, she is now able to cast advanced class healing magic, that was already more than I can manage, I'm still only stuck at the low to middle intermediate tier…
Maybe I should ask Mother to teach her the remainder, nah that wouldn't work, she's not the kind to be able to explain stuff…
Okay, let me make this simpler, so my magic classes are around here:
Fire Magic: Advanced
Water Magic: Intermediate
Earth Magic: Intermediate
Wind Magic: Elementary
Support Magic: Advanced
Lugecia Magic (Ashak): Imperial
Healing Magic: Intermediate
Detoxification Magic: Beginner
This is Rias':
Fire Magic: Intermediate
Water Magic: Intermediate
Earth Magic: Elementary
Wind Magic: Elementary
Healing Magic: Advanced
I figured that I should stall for some time since I started running out of things to teach her, "How about let's learn about casting spells without incantations?" I asked.
"Can you do that? There isn't anything talking about that in the textbook…" Rias said as she flipped the pages of the Textbook of Magic over.
"Yeah it's actually pretty easy, you just have to learn the theory behind each spell and imagine the result in your head."
That's how it started… I began walking through the basics and maths and science with her, giving her the basics to theory crafting and diving deeper into each part of an element. This was the only method I could think of, it did seem to be the quickest way to help her understand that concept of incantation less casting in detail.
Even still there's a limit to what I can teach her, I knew the very basics… I was never the type to focus in school, I was more of the club's people, I was popular because of that rather than my grades… I wouldn't say that I'm horrible in school, I mean I'm sure that plenty of students failed when I never did.
To be honest, thinking back I'm actually not that bad at languages and science, maybe I could've actually gotten something done if I hadn't dropped out the instant I could… For sure, school and results weren't everything in life, but I'm sure that if I had taken my studies more seriously I would have had less regrets by the end of it. In all seriousness… What was I thinking back then…
Rias was a smart girl. Throughout the two weeks I have been teaching her, she has already gotten a hang of most of the simple stuff like writing and basic addition… In my mind I was impressed at how fast she was picking all this up, she's not a cheater like me, where I already have all this stuff in my memory once I was born.
Today I'm starting to go through fundamental science. This was one of the most important concepts to learn in terms of being able to use silent casting. It makes a lot of sense since magic in this world is just science, scientific phenomenons produced using an energy— Mana.
"So… Why does ice melt and become water?"
"Well… Ice is just water as a solid where the particles are condensed together, when ice is heated up those bonds between the particles break up…"
"..."
From the look on her face, I'm guessing that she doesn't understand what I'm saying, I'm not the observative type but her expression made it pretty obvious. Still, this is a hard concept to learn, I don't expect her to know all of this from a single explanation…
She was already doing quite well in general, she was a quick learner, it was probably because of her traits to consistently pay attention and always tried her best.
"Maybe you'll understand it if I put it like this… Umm… So basically anything can melt if it gets hot enough… And when it gets cold again it becomes a solid…" This was the best I could manage. I was never a good teacher… I can't even teach the things that I'm good at let alone this…
Thanks to magic now I could demonstrate instead of just yap my way around… "So," I continued, creating an orb of water in my hand, "it's a liquid right now, right? When I make it cold…" I used Frozen blast to freeze the orb of water, "It turns hard into ice… Then when I apply heat," I used Torch turned to maximum heat to melt the floating orb of ice, "it melts."
The liquid splashed onto the floor.
Rias reached over touching the puddle, surprised, she spoke, "It really did turn back to water!"
"Can everything melt?" Rias asked, gazing up at me with curiosity.
"Yeah, everything can, but some stuff you would have to apply a lot of heat."
Right now, I could somewhat separate the elements in the air, it isn't like manipulating it, more like distinguishing the elements. If I focused enough I could feel the hydrogens, nitrogens and oxygens flow around in the air…
This is a rather random time to explain this, but I found out that there are multiple more ways to increase a spells fire power, other than the ones already mentioned in the textbook. First was to pump overwhelming amounts of mana, but that is an option that will drain out anyone within a few casts. Second was to combine science with magic even more, pulling the combustible gas or fuel to further power up the spell. It would work in some scenarios but in others it's lacking…
I figured all of this out by now, there wasn't really anything hard when you have a whole stash of information behind your mind at all times… Still my skill as a mage hasn't improved by a lot since Rena left to adventure again… I haven't even gone up a single tier yet, I have in healing magic but that doesn't really count since Rena never really taught me that before anyways.
At a far glance, I would seem stronger than before, it has no relation to my raw skill whatsoever, it could be from my still growing mana pool or the new ways I learned how to use spells I already knew… Combining them to create new variations and increasing the spells overall power with the power of science.
Given my knowledge and skill, I won't ever be able to manage anything harder than what I can do now…
I wouldn't say my growth is stunted but I have hit a point where improvement seems so slow and minor that it doesn't really affect anything at all… Back then when I needed anything I could just go on my laptop or google it would figure out everything and tell me the answer… Where is this information when I need it most…
Sigh— Maybe I have reached a dead end…
//
Summertime ended and slowly the cooler weather started to settle in once again… Autumn came by, the leaves turned red or yellow, the grass in the fields dried…
Today was once again a special day for me, my eighth birthday… Normally not much would
happen during these random birthdays that didn't really mean anything, maybe you would get a gift or two, but that was basically it, no big parties, no over the top celebrations.
The day passed by like any other day. By the end of it I got a parcel from Rena and a small gift wrapped in brown paper from Rias…
I was used to it by now, back then in my past life, I never received presents let alone celebrated, I was always alone… Shut in my room, maybe I was playing video games, maybe I was watching some eechi anime, or maybe I was just jerking off… To be honest I don't think back then on those days I ever figured that it was my birthday… It had been quite a long time since I celebrated with someone next to me.
Even before Gramps might occasionally buy a cake or two to celebrate, I forgot that feeling and totally forgot that sense of warmth until I got here…
"Now then," I muttered, "Let's see what they got me… I guess I'll open the small one first."
I held up the tightly wrapped gift, the brown paper wrapper glistening with a slight oily shine under the moonlight shining through the window sill. I took off the wrapping piece by piece, there were lots of layers…
I think I see it now, I peel off another piece of the wrapping… In my hands was a small metal ring, crudely made… Even still something about this feels unusually lovely, something that felt close… I put on the ring, the rough metal insides scratching the surface of my skin.
I hold my hand up high, the polished metal reflecting the candle light from the sides of my bed.
"Let's open this one now," I mumbled again, reaching down to lift the sizable package onto my bed. There was a wooden box, on top stuck a piece of rolled up parchment.
I ripped the parchment off the box, unravelling it before using torch to create some lighting, on the parchment it wrote:
[Dear Gryne,
It's been a while since I have written to you, haven't it? I predict when this parcel reaches you it would be about the time of your eighth birthday. Firstly I would like to just say happy birthday, I know it's not really a tradition to send gifts on random birthdays but since I haven't talked with you in a while, here's your compensation. Secondly, I haven't heard from you in a while, how have you been… Currently I'm travelling to the Magic Continent North Ether to see if I could enroll into any of the large magic schools. I have already achieved the rank of a full fledged Imperial class mage, but I still have a long way to go before I can be a worthy master to you. I'm thinking of joining the Asta school of magic for its history and more respected magic. I think I have told you before, Asta is the original school of magic and is also the most well respected amongst the three schools. Lastly, I don't have much space on the letter anymore, so let me keep this short and simple. If you have anything you need, just send me a letter, I will do my best to help you.
Inside the box are just some things I think you would like, I have gathered these from my travels, still I don't know how much you have grown up by now.
Yours,
Rena Ristalia]
"Something she gathered from her travels, huh?"
I opened the lid of the wooden box, there were a variety of items, from necklaces to books to other random stuff, she wasn't joking about the 'some things'... In fact there are quite a collection of things, let me form a list real quick.
In total there are 13 items…
Midnight came by…
Ding— Ding—
The bell in the lounge room rang, a shower of rain poured from outside… Gusts of strong wind blow the rain water into my bedroom through the opened window.
"Shit—" I walked over to the window, holding my hand out to close it.
//
Knocks came from my door as I reached to close the windows…
A voice spoke behind the door, "Young Master Gryne… Mistress just went into labour, please some down to the second block."
"..."