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I believe that it's been about twelve years since I came into this world
And during that time I've been honing my skills in order to fulfill my role of being this world's big bad villain. And of course, an obvious thing that is required for any antagonist is power and influence. I can deal with the 'influence' part as time goes on, which means I've been mostly focusing on gaining enough power...
Or maybe it would be more accurate to say that I've been training myself when it comes to magic. And speaking of magic, this is really something else...
With this, I could do all sorts of supernatural things like gaining superhuman strength and speed or doing powerful and destructive spells capable of leveling a mountain or splitting an ocean in two
So basically, normal human limitations don't really apply because of magic
And I am loving every single bit of it
In this world, magic spells are strictly monopolized to those with higher standing, ergo, the rich and all that. The reason for this was painfully simple. Knowledge is power, and It's far better with only a select few would have it.
That doesn't exactly mean that commoners and peasants can't learn any spells, but out of the nine rankings of magic spells, most of them could only learn ones that are up to level-3 at most. Which isn't really bad per se, but it isn't really that useful either
Luckily for me, I encountered no such problem. Because I was born rich
Though my first name is the same, my last name is that of the Lenington family. Our ancestors were apparently powerful mages that have served the Empire that I am living in right now. In fact, my old man was the current council mage, while my mother was the daughter of a big-wig merchant group that dabbles in trading magic items
And my sister is a prodigy of magic and is considered to be a rising star in the industry
Which basically means we have access to plenty of grimoires, they were basically books containing instructions and specific details as to how to cast spells. They were all in our library, which was a singular room that was bigger than my entire mansion back in my old world...
Each of these books would probably be a heirloom of some commoner family, which really spoke volumes as to how rich we are...
And just as they say around these parts; If life gives you a single copper, turn it into a sack of gold
I spent most of my days shutting myself off in the library and reading every grimoire that my grubby hands could get so as to make myself stronger
It seemed to be extremely boring at first. After all, the moment you open a grimoire your eyes would immediately assault by letters and figures that seemed to make no sense. If I had to compare it with something, I'd say that it's something very akin to math equations...Yeah, that's right...No wonder I hated it...
And the fact that I didn't understand the language made it any better
But with a bit of effort and passion from my end, I was soon able to master our language as well as learn how to cast a few spells.
And a few years passed by in the blink of an eye, and before you know it, I was able to master read every single grimoire in our household as well as confidently master every single spell that was in it.
I wouldn't say that I was able to learn all of the spells out there, but considering how many grimoires there are here, I'd say that I mastered most of them. Now then, most mages would spend years of their lives and only learn like twenty spells, so how exactly was I able to do it in such a short amount of time?
...The secret is dedication and hard work...
...Nah, I'm just kidding. I drug myself to stay awake most of the time...
And by 'drug' I mean I pump my brain with mana so as to enhance my brainpower along with my memorization skills. During this state, my brain releases so much Dopamine that I constantly feel like I can do a hundred things
Screw coffee man, this one is a hundred times better
And it may sound complex, but it was honestly really easy. All you have to do is regulate the flow of mana in your head and all is good. One time I asked my old man why no one else was doing this, and apparently, it can cause your brain to explode if you mess up
But the fact that I'm alive tells me that they're probably just scared to do it...
Doesn't really matter though. Thanks to this, I was able to memorize everything in our library, including spells that my parents called 'forbidden'. That sign in our library didn't really stop me back then considering I didn't know how to read.
So now, I have over a thousand spells under my repertoire, that's great and all. But I need more. A thousand spells aren't enough to destroy this world, so I needed to really search deep for more power. Unfortunately, this was where I seem to be having a bit of a problem...
I've already learned most of the powerful spells out there, and even if there were more, they're probably sealed deep within a secured area. I, of course, tried to look for those, but I was yielding no results so far...
However, for the first twelve years, I would say that my progress isn't all that bad
All I have to do now is keep the ball rolling and set up the stage, and the first act of the show can begin. But for now, I decided to keep a low profile for the sake of caution. I still don't know much about this world so I need to prevent myself from being the nail that sticks out unless I want to be hammered down
Which means, for now, I'm just the usual black sheep of a prestigious family. I didn't reveal to them my entire knowledge of magic, and most of the time I would suppress my mana down to the bare minimum. Needless to say, this led to my parents being a bit disappointed in me...
And my sister was EXTREMELY pissed at me. Which leads to her dragging me out of my room and doing mock magic battles, like the one happening right now
*BOOM*
A loud explosion rang out within the garden of our manor. And I could be seen running for my dear life, while my sister was flying in the sky, raining down one magic spell after another as she screamed at the top of her lungs
"What the hell are you doing you damn maggot! You call that a magic barrier? Aren't you embarrassed?! Focus up and get a feel for it, then make sure you slowly control your mana so as to make it harder!"
"I can't exactly do all of that while you bombarded me with spells like this!"
For the record, she was mainly firing down high-tier level 5 spells, which is more than enough to kill me if I wasn't as weak as I pretend to be...
"You're talking back to me you cheeky cunt?! If you have time to complain then counterattack! You have the blood of Lenington in your veins but you're bouncing like a damn rabbit! Come on, show me what you got you wussy!"
"Tsk"
I purposefully clicked my tongue as I hid behind a tree and fired off a level 4 spell known as [Firebullet]. It was a deadly projectile that traveled at speeds close to mach one, and it would explode upon contact. But it didn't even graze the magic barrier that my sister put up
I was toning it down by a lot...But it was honestly impressive how good she is. She really is a prodigy...
As the dust settles I was greeted by the sight of my sister looking more furious than ever
"What in the hell was that?! Are you even trying?! Alright, I've had it with you motherfu- You better start hopping faster you damn rabbit because I'm gotta blow you into bits! I'm gonna make sure to wipe a piss-stain like you off our legacy!"
"Eek! Come on cut me some slack, sis! I'm trying my best here!"
"You better try harder unless you wanna live another day!"
"Mercy please!"
My pleas fell on deaf ears as my sister continued to torture me relentlessly until the sun went down. I may be pretending, but this doesn't really make it any less exhausting. I could only lie my back on the cold grass as my sister floats down from the sky
"Haaaaa...Could I please ask you to stop kicking my ass for a bit?"
"Could I ask you to be a better mage and stop being an absolute embarrassment?...That's what I thought. But don't worry, I still sense some potential in you, so until I go to the academy in the capital I'll continue to make your life a living hell to make you a better mage. Prepare yourself, rabbit boy"
My sister let out an evil smirk as she reached out her hands to me. I generously took her offer, only for her to push me back down to the ground
"Don't touch me, your hands are sweaty as hell"
"...You really are an ass sometimes, Gemma"
"Hah?!"
"N-Nothing, I mean to say that you truly are a kind and benevolent being" I tried to force the words out of my mouth with a strained smile
"You got that right. Anyways, that's all for today. Make sure you rest up, 'cause I'm gonna make things worse tomorrow" My sister then gestured towards the nearby servants to come along and patch me up
But as she walked back to the manor she stopped in her tracks and turned back to me
"That reminds me, the old man wanted me to warn you about something. There's a ferocious dragon that was discovered at some ancient ruins in Elgior forest. It has already destroyed the nearby villages as well as an elite squadron that was sent after it"
My sister then drew her white sword out of her sheath and pointed it toward me
"We don't really expect it to attack us yet, and I can't see you waddling about all the way out there. But I know how much of a klutz you are so make sure you behave like a good boy while we fix this up. You understand?"
"Aye, ma'am!"