Nathan listened to and absorbed every word that he had heard from his mother. It all seemed fascinating and new. Although he knew his mother was a mage, he did not know what it took for her to be a mage.
Although his eyes looked the same to an outsider, Natalie could see the bright look in them. As if he was a child who had just been read their favorite story or eaten a delicious snack.
"I'm glad you enjoyed learning about these. I was planning on giving this to you later with the rest of your gifts, but I guess it is ok to give it to you now."
Natalie raised her left hand that had a ring on it. Out of nowhere, a thin book appeared on her palm before she passed it over to Nathan.
"This book goes over everything I said to you as well as a few other pieces of information. It will be good for you."
Nathan looked at the book in his hands with renewed interest. Even though he had heard it all from his mother, he was happy to be able to read it and study it properly on his own.
Seeing her son look so happy with the book and ready to run back into his room, she grabbed him by the shoulder before he could escape.
She gave him a 'mother' look and he knew exactly what she meant. Nathan had to put the dishes in the sink and wash them before going outside for his mandatory outdoor time.
His mother required him to spend his time outdoors, except for if the weather was bad, for at least 5 hours of the day. She at first wanted him to use that as a chance to make friends. But after having the other kids avoid him so much, she no longer wanted her child to have his feelings hurt by that.
Therefore, his outdoor time could be spent doing whatever as long as he was within the village. Nathan thought this was just because his mother believed the village was safe. Thinking her thoughts were thought as he thought, he thought she was being an irresponsible parent.
What Nathan did not know was that the entire village and several kilometers of the surrounding area and forest were able to be monitored by her due to a magic item in her position.
Nathan did not mind her being irresponsible though. He felt it was weird behaving like a child in front of an adult, especially his mom when he had the mind of an adult, was annoying and troublesome. Therefore, he enjoyed his free time.
He would usually be in one of 3 spots. In the tree outside of his house where he would be napping or practicing and training his Esper abilities. The town library where he would read as much as he could to gain further understanding of the world they were in. He had wanted some books about magic for years but those are strictly controlled so a small town like theirs only had a few and none were as detailed as what his mother had told him.
The last place he would be was the garrison. This was one of the newest buildings in the town and was only built the previous year when Nathan was 3.
Even though the town had several thousand people, it had very few with combat training and did not even have blacksmiths who made weapons consistently. At most, they would make knives for cooks and housewives. Most of the hunters maintained and repaired their own weapons or used simple bows.
This was due to the central location of the town and how little danger it actually faced. In fact, many towns and villages around the kingdom were like this. Due to the presence of magic and ki users, adventurers, and national peace, the nobles were not worried about town and village protection.
But after many random bandit attacks on various towns, security had to be stepped up. Therefore, many towns had garrisons where active soldiers would reside and be able to protect towns. This created a boost in jobs among young males and femlaes as well as security for the towns.
And this is exactly where Nathan went for his 4th birthday. He had been studying the fighting style of the djinn who ruled the nation he lived in. And his conclusion was
They are terrible!
He had seen hundreds or even thousands on close-range weapon fighting styles or techniques. There were some that were useless, some that had specific applications, and some that outperformed any that did not specifically counter their weakness.
And the style of the Rouli military was just plain useless in his eyes. The men wasted so many moves or did fancy techniques that had no practical use. He no longer visited to try and learn from them but instead went for entertainment.
To Nathan, it was like watching children put on a play or comedians do a set. They were so funny because they bad.
He sat in the spectator area and looked down at the young men and women training in the center. But after 30 minutes, a surprise occurred.