"What kind of waves do you mean? Explain to us in detail what the waves you saw were like!"
"I see it like when my index finger touches the surface of still water," I explained from my perspective, because I didn't know much about it myself.
"Quiet water surface...."
Margaretha and Einar looked at each other, nodding their faces simultaneously. I didn't know what he meant, but Donovan suddenly lifted my body onto his back, "Our country has given birth to a genius!" along with the other adventurers who began to surround me with joyful cheers. "Cheers to the birth of a new genius in our country!"
"Teach him about magic, Margaretha!"
"Why should I?"
"I don't understand much about magic, and you're the only person here who even slightly understands the concept of magic!" Einar took a glass of wine and drank it slowly. "After all, it would be a shame if we wasted a talented child like him. Great children will make a great country, children are the ones who look after–"
"–The future of our country," Margaretha interrupted Einar's words while putting on a weary face. He refilled his glass with wine, drank it, then looked at me who was still on top of Donovan. "Yeah, okay, besides, I'm free too."
"Pleased to hear it!"
"Come here kid!" I immediately got off Donovan's back as soon as Margaretha called me. "Show me how to use magic!"
I let out a small flame from my index finger.
"Make it bigger!"
I made a fire that was originally only the size of the flame that came out of a wooden match, now turned into the size of the flame from a torch. I can't make it any bigger than this.
"Is that all there is?"
I just nodded.
"How do you do it?"
"I just felt like something was flowing out from all over my arm and as soon as I thought of fire, flames came out of my fingertips." The same explanation as I told Einar before. "Why?"
"It's okay, I just wanted to know whether you did it by chance or not... come sit near me!" I followed his orders. "Listen Isaac before I teach you how to use magic, first you yourself have to know the concept of magic itself. What is magic? What is mana? Why does magic exist? What is magic used for? And most importantly why do we all exist?"
Margaretha is bad at explaining. Einar agreed and reprimanded Margaretha by saying, "What are you explaining to an eight year old child? You're crazy!"
"You asked me to teach it, so don't protest too much!"
"Yes, but I told you to teach how to use magic, not the philosophy of magic!" I've never seen Einar this angry. "Do you want to make him crazy like Wilhelm!"
Wilhelm? who's that? Was he once part of Einar's group?
"Wilhelm is not crazy, in fact he is the one who brought us the truth. Don't you think that all this time we were being deceived by a powerful entity?"
"Stop screaming! What if someone hears you and everything goes wrong?"
"Wouldn't it be good if someone heard it? At least they know the reality they have to accept."
"Not everyone can accept that fact, Margaret!" they stared at each other sharply. "You too... we all couldn't accept it, until the truth happened before our eyes and everything became very messy."
Donovan and the other adventurers didn't seem to care about Einar and Margaretha's feud, and instead shouted toasts to something unknown, they celebrated whatever they could celebrate, while Margaretha, who was annoyed because Einar commented too much, sighed. She looked a bit lazy, but even so she continued her explanation, even though several times Einar always returned to comment on her explanation.
Margaretha said that in the world there is a mysterious energy which we call Mana. Humans absorb Mana into their bodies as energy, then expel it back out as a different energy. Some people argue that Mana generally takes the form of waves, and after feeling it for the first time the human body will adapt and absorb the waves automatically.
And in my case, Margaretha said that if I was only able to absorb Mana when I wasn't using magic, after using magic I couldn't absorb Mana which meant I couldn't increase the magic I released. Just like before where I couldn't enlarge the fire I made. Yes, although slowly, with a lot of practice she said maybe in the future I could absorb Mana and cast magic at the same time. It's just a basic technique, it's just that most people don't realize it, and among them it's difficult for most of them to improve.
That was the reason why Margaretha explained the concept of Mana to me first, before teaching me how to use magic.
Every day at night I always go to study magic with Margaretha, occasionally Einar also teaches me northern sword techniques. Then, in the afternoon I help Mom work as usual and go play with my friends or read a book afterward. Thanks to training from Einar and Margaretha, I have felt different developments in myself. I can already use some basic Northern magic and sword techniques.
Then, because I hung out with them a lot, I also found out that the world I lived in was on the verge of a big war. According to Einar, the many wars that occur in various parts of the world will make this world give rise to a new world war again. He estimated that the scale of destruction and casualties from the war would be about double the total casualties and destruction that occurred in the previous world war.
"As long as humans still have the seven major sins within themselves, war conflicts like this will never end forever," said Margaretha. Her eyes glazed over as soon as Einar brought up the topic of war. "I don't care which person or country started this war, I just feel sorry for those who have to pay for it."
"Is war so terrible?" I asked so innocently.
"Very... even I agree when someone compares war to hell. Children, the elderly, and civilians who have nothing to do with the military will be killed indiscriminately. Even when we have Midpoint of the World which making the rules of war to be useless."