"~[...There are five publicly accepted major types of Attributes ranked by rarity... various forms of Mana ranked by purity... hundreds of thousands of Spells ranked by superiority...and millions of spells ranked by diversity...all of this the world recognized... as Magic...]~" i swallowed read once more.
And the contents, however tainted and sullied, remained the same.
"This is...magic."
It was a book explaining magic.
I slowly realized as my mind seemed to black out from the sudden rush of excitement and shock.
Then I jumped out of bed, full of renewed vigour, the pages of the frail book excitedly squeezed between my tightened fingers.
"This is it....this is it. This is what I've been looking for!!"
This was it.
I had only read the first opening paragraph which was partially covered in oil and dirt and chipped away at the sides, but it was a text that spoke about magic.
Finally something I could gain some insight from.
All of a sudden my door swung open and Cliff barged in all tense.
"Reo, are you okay?"
"Eh?" I stared then quickly hid the book behind me.
Then I stuttered.
"Er...y-yes? I'm alright. Sorry for alarming you."
"...Are you sure?" Cliff asked again.
"Yes. I'm fine. I only just got a bit over excited about tomorrow." I lied.
Cliff's brow raised. Then he asked:
"Tomorrow? What's happening tomorrow?"
"Well...er... we're finally going to begin learning how to properly wield our daggers." I delivered a sharp follow up and scratched the side of my face sheepishly.
Cliff's tensed atmosphere slowly began to unravel and relax.
"Oh," he voiced then smiled — "that's good."
I limited myself to a small nod.
"It's nice to be all enthusiastic about your training... you've always been like that... just don't go through the roof." He chuckled amusingly at his own joke, then coughed before turning to leave.
"A-anyway, since that's all I'll leave now," saying so, he walked out and closed the door behind him.
I instantly sighed deeply, a sign of great relief, as soon as he was gone. I fell on my back against the bed as my tensed body relaxed.
'That was close.'
I had to be careful from here on. I couldn't let Cliff, Layla...or anybody know what I was doing...or going to do.
That meant I had to hide the existence of this book closely. How would I even begin to explain how I got this from a dirty old man?
I sighed again then muttered quietly.
"I got to excited."
Taking a short brief second to relax my nerves, I quickly shot up right and pulled forward the book and turned to the next page.
"~[...The existence of Magic was only realized at a dire age of humanity....Four Hundred Years Ago.]~"
* * *
The light of dawn broke the early morning sky of the following day.
I spent the night without a wink of sleep.
I couldn't.
I had myself so deeply engrossed in the old book throughout the night, yet still couldn't get too far.
The old book was simply just too...old!
It was ragged, fragile, dirty and mostly incomprehensible to some extent.
I was forced to realize the language used in the text was something more arcane than the modern language. Which also meant this book was far older than I realized.
Far...far older.
I spent half the night trying to grasp at some paragraphs and even mere lines which where scrubbed out, turn out, sullied out, overwritten, or simply untranscribeable for my current understanding.
The book was so ancient and ragged that various pages laid tattered between its dirty covers. I had to first of all try to draw a draft and sequence from it so to eventually arrange and fit the right pages accordingly, and drafts certain lines, paragraphs and words to look up or translate later.
The further I tried to decipher of the language and read, however, I slowly began to gain in inkling of understanding.
If I had to put a valid comparison, it would be like comparing the English of the 21st century to that of the 15th.
Or worse(Shakespearean.)
It was all the same, but structurally different. I was amazed to see just how far the language of this world has evolved in only...how many years exactly?
From the drafts I was able to create during my all nighter, all I could obtain from the initial pages of the stupid old book was a vague summary and idea of the history of magic.
Or at least when it was discovered in time; that was about four centuries ago apparently.
And here I was thinking this world was aware of magic and evolved through it from the very beginning.
If I wanted to know more, I had to learn this ancient language or crack this code!
"Goddammit, my head hurts." I groaned as I rolled out of my cover.
I spenythe whole night deciphering the book but still held enough vitality to carry out the rest of the new day. Physically.
Mentally, I was frustratingly exhausted.
The universe knows I don't want to look at another page of a book again!
But I would eventually. In about a few hours from now; home lessons with Layla.
'That's even right. I have to get on with my routine before then." I turned to look back at the scattered pages of the book the winced with a frown.
I could only come back to this when I was alone and free. Which I only was at night.
'Guess I really won't be getting any sleep in this life also.'
.
.
.
"Yes. Any questions, kids?" Layla's smile was like a hot cup of coffee.
'Oh how I miss that bean beverage...Note to self: once I've made an established foothold, research coffee beans in this world.'
It was early afternoon, halfway through our daily home lessons with Layla and the rest of the gang.
"Alright. So that means, you six well understand what I just explained, right?" Layla nodded.
Leon raised his hand up then spoke innocently.
"Don doesn't."
"Oii!" Don protested.
Leon turned to him passively then shrugged.
"What? Did I lie?"
"Ugh." Don could only turn away with a face as if suffered a deep arrow to his heart.
Layla chuckled amusingly at the kids displayed then finally turned to me.
"What about you, Reo? You usually are the one to ask a lot of questions...are you sure you're okay today?" At the latter half, Layla added somberly, almost worriedly.
At the same time, Kyle perched up and voiced a word or realization.
"Now that I think about it. Reo's been strangely quiet all day throughout the lesson."
"Actually." Leon concurred with a nod.
"He's not going around throwing complicated questions that give lengthy answers today. Tsk, show off." Don pouted then folded his arms and looked away. Obviously still pained from Leon's earlier comment.
I looked at the five kids then at Layla before speaking.
"Well...I guess I'm just...a little tired?" I spoke unconvincingly and all pairs of eyes slowly widened before me.
Suddenly uncomfortable, I winced and asked.
"Wh-what?"
"Leon, write this down." Kyle sharply got up and urgently said and I watched as Leon pulled out a small notebook and began to jot something down as he muttered:
"On xxx day, xxx month, Reo Bellar admitted he was actually tired."
"Eh?" I voiced but was instantly overlapped.
"Reo, you're not sick, are you?" Swiftly, with agility shaming famous ninjas, Layla flew across the table and cradled me in her arms like a weeping baby.
"Huh?"
Then Don slammed the table and sharply rose with an urgent and stern expression.
"No! Reo can't be sick! He never is."
"But this doesn't explain why he says he's...and I quote...'tired'. Kyle interjected, with just as equal enthusiasm as Don, squinting his eyes as he galred at me.
"Indeed," Trise and Lia nodded, equally serious. "Something's wrong."
Don's Express sunk at that. His complexion paled.
"R-Reo! Is something wrong, friend? What's wrong, what is it? You know you can tell us, right? We're always here for you!" He declared passionately.
"Yes. Don is right." Leon added and nodded along with the rest.
"Reo...we promise we'll get through this all together." Lia held my hands firmly and assured with deep sympathy and passion as she looked deep into my eyes
'What the hell? I only said I was maybe a little tired.'