A few minutes later, Kayden was led to a room he had never entered, in the basement.
"This is where my library is, Kayden," the old man said with a devilish smile. "From today onwards, you can come here whenever you want, all your questions can be answered here."
"I don't understand, old man?" - Kayden, at first, was happy with his answer, but then he thought about a big problem: he didn't know how to read. He always tried to speak as little as possible and slowly, to try to match his age. How would he know a baby's way of communicating???
"Listen well, little one, I won't repeat it. We live in a kingdom where it is forbidden to teach any knowledge before the child turns 4, that..."
"Why, uncle?" - Kayden asked quickly, just like a curious child would. This earned him a quick slap on the head from the old man.
"Don't interrupt me! As I was saying, in the past there were several experiments on children to make them grow faster on the path of magic. Unfortunately, this broke their minds, and since then the government has prohibited any knowledge from being taught or tested on children. under 4 years old." With the same devilish smile on his face, the old man said: "Therefore, I will give you access to this library, as long as you promise not to fill me with questions again, agreed?"
"Yes, uncle," Kayden responded hastily. Even if I didn't know how to read yet, I was sure that, with time and learning the syllables, I would be able to. Unbeknownst to the old man, he was setting a trap for him so that he would stop chasing him for answers. Where have you ever seen a two-year-old read? He laughed to himself thinking he made a good ruse.
"You can come whenever you want, but only alone. Here's the key." The old man gave Kayden a necklace. "Just open the door when you have that necklace. Now, I'm going, good reading, Kayden."
As soon as the old man walked out the door, Kayden ran to the first book he saw and... didn't understand a word of the book. After thinking for a few minutes, Kayden had a brilliant idea: what if he asked about the other kids' homework? Certainly, in some of them, there was something about literacy.
Running to the study room, he sat down on a chair and watched the residents. Minutes passed and... nothing. Absolutely nothing. Kayden saw that this was going to be an arduous task, learning to read on his own was not easy.
After a few weeks camping in the study room, he learned a few things, like how to pronounce the syllables and what they mean. His progress was slow but steady; In a few months, he would be able to read everything that old hack, Kayden, had thought for himself.
Out of his knowledge, the old man had accompanied Kayden since the first day and was surprised by the child's thinking. He never imagined that Kayden's desire to learn was so great. He knew that this 4-year government restriction was pure bullshit; he just didn't want to accelerate the child's development and hoped he could have a normal childhood, picking up snot and eating sand.
In his head, the child would give up in the first few days or even the first few hours, but Kayden stayed for weeks doing the same thing. The old man knew that at one time or another, he would learn to read on his own. Furthermore, the old man refused to take a step back, his tsundere personality did not allow him to do so under any circumstances. Over the next few days, he was busy altering the library's magic so that certain books were blank when opened.
After 6 months
That's how long it took Kayden to teach himself how to read and write. Without a doubt, he had to make a great effort to achieve basic understanding. He was never a genius, neither in this life nor in the previous one, but if there is something that his last life taught him, or rather, burned iron into his flesh, it was to pursue his goals, whatever the cost.
Today was the day he was going to go to the library. Kayden had been there before, but he had a lot of words and grammar rules that prevented him from having a correct progression of ideas in the books. Therefore, he preferred to learn as much as possible before really delving into reading the books.
Going down the stairs, he stopped in front of the door. He checked to see if he had the necklace on and then gently opened the door. Without wasting time, he went to what had occupied most of his thoughts in recent years: where was he? And what was the history of this world?
The first book he picked up was called "A Brief History of Our History". What soon had nothing, easily reached thousands of pages. However, this did not discourage the boy, he was prepared to get the answers he always wanted. He remained in that isolated room for a few hours and, without realizing it, a boy walked in the door and was surprised to see another person there.
The new member of the room was called Heimer, he had shoulder-length curly hair and wore small glasses, which resembled many diving glasses. I rarely saw other children in the library; most were more concerned with playing or practicing magic, and theoretical study was, for the most part, too boring for their age.
"Hello?" That simple word made Kayden jump from his seat. Hours of silence broken without warning could scare more than a horror movie.
"Ah!! Hi, who are you?" Talking to other children, Kayden wasn't afraid of appearing more mature, they didn't care much and wouldn't care about it.
"My name is Heimer, I don't think I've ever seen you in the library before."
"I learned to read so recently, I wasn't able to come here before. My name is Kayden." Kayden responded embarrassedly, seeing children younger than him knowing how to read left a bad impression on him.
"I see, you must be in the second year of the mandatory basic course now, right? I remember that only during this period was I able to go down and understand something from the books here." Kayden had never heard of foundation course levels but quickly understood that it should be the equivalent of elementary school.
"Actually, no, I haven't started school yet." This information left Heimer frozen for a moment, not knowing what to do.
"Yeah... but... So, I get it. Wait, how were you able to read then? Did the old man teach you? That pickaxe never teaches me anything, I have to beg him for any scrap of knowledge." That seemed like the most logical answer in Heimer's mind.
"I taught myself by watching other kids do their homework." Heimer was recognized as the orphanage's little genius and hearing this from Kayden made him rethink what he was doing with his life.
"That's... impressive. How old are you now? I'm 8 years old and I want to be a wizard specializing in arrays." A small feeling of recognition began to well up in Heimer at that moment, at the orphanage he normally felt alone, because, while the path of magic was his greatest interest, for the other children, it still didn't make much sense. Without a doubt, genius had a price.
"I... ah... I haven't decided what I want to do yet, I'm 3 years old at the moment, but I want to keep learning about the magical world." Kayden noticed that this child was different from the others. "What level are you?"
"I see you don't have much knowledge. I can help you with that, but first, you must take a brotherly oath with me." Heimer would accept no answer other than yes to that offer. The old man taught him when he was little that if you find someone who should be tied to you, you must love him in such a way that it is impossible to untie the knot.
This proposal surprised Kayden, children that age shouldn't even know very well about brotherhood and other topics like that. Regardless of his surprise, Kayden would not pass up an opportunity to improve himself.
"Alright, I accept. From today onwards, we are brothers." His acceptance was quickly matched by a request and oath from Heimer.
"Very well, first let me make it clear that it is extremely rude to ask a mage's level, it is almost insulting. But as I am your brother, I can tell you, I am at the 5th level of apprentice." Heimer said proudly, his level surprised Kayden, he had only seen residents with a level between 1 and 2 under 10 years old. If before he had a hunch, now he was sure, Kayden was facing a genius, a true genius. Well, by your standards, of course.
"I can't tell you much yet, just little things. If I try to tell you too much, the old man will appear to fight me. I've already tried to influence other children on the path of magic and that earned me a beating from the old man. So we have to wait for you to enter school, then we can say that your knowledge comes from there."
"Is that a promise, Heimer?" Kayden tried to tie the child with his word, he already knew that the old man didn't like to introduce children too early in life, especially because of the law (a few pages ago I talked about the 4-year-old law that the old man invented).
"It's a promise, Kayden."
Author's note: thanks to gameking_fedde for pointing out a crucial error in this chapter