"Where is the Ruby girl? I want to meet her!"
It's still five in the morning when I hear a little girl screeching from the gate. I open the window and see a blonde girl staring at my room. I'm creeped out by how accurately she guessed where I am.
"Ruby, what will you do?" my mother asks after entering my room.
"I'll go meet her."
I put on a robe and go outside, signaling the guard to open the gate. The little girl immediately runs to me—she's actually taller than me.
"What is it? It's still 5 AM."
"You! You! Because of you, I am banished!"
"What?" I think, bewildered. What the hell is she talking about?
"Please be responsible!"
"Wait, wait, what do you mean?" I ask, feeling oddly like a man trying to dodge responsibility.
Her stomach then makes a rumbling sound.
"I-I haven't eaten anything for days." I notice her clothes look tattered too.
"Come in first."
I open the door, signaling to my parents that I'll handle this myself. After we arrive in the kitchen, I warm up some leftover soup with my fire and serve it to her. She immediately gulps it down so fast and I pour her another spoonful.
"Can you tell me what happened?" I ask while sitting down and sipping warm tea.
"Did you really forget? Because of you, I got banished from the upper realm! My plan was completely ruined by you!" she screams at me. I notice she's used some weird magic to make this room soundproof.
"Wait, you're Anima?"
"Yes! Give me one more!" she demands, pushing the bowl towards me.
"You should stop now. You'll get a stomachache if you eat too much," I say, putting the bowl down.
"Sigh... Fine. Where's the bathroom? Can I use it?"
"Sure, just go left after that door."
About half an hour later, she returns to the kitchen. I wonder whose clothes she's wearing.
"I know you want to ask many questions, however, I'm absolutely banned from talking about cosmic-related topics. This includes my plan with Haruto, the reincarnated boy. Also, Chronos warned me not to spill anything about your identity."
"Do you want to take shelter here?" I ask her because she said 'please be responsible', though I can't imagine living under one roof with my nemesis.
"Absolutely not! I want to sell you information in exchange for currency. After this, I'll go to my destination."
"How much is the price?"
"Depends on your question."
"Where do you want to go?"
"Why are you asking that?"
"Just to make sure you won't do something dangerous."
"Who do you think I am?!"
"A god who almost threw me to hell."
"... I need to go to Rotten Doom's domain and purify it. It'll probably take 3,000 years, but at least I can return to the cosmic realm."
"Oh wow. What is Rotten Doom?"
"One of the Primordial Celestial Dragons. He's the manifestation of death, rotting infinitely."
"Sounds gross."
"It is."
"How many types of magic exist?" I asked, curious about her unusual magic.
"There are six types of magic: Basic magic you usually use, alchemy magic, dragon magic, nature magic, demon magic, and fantasia magic."
"What? So many?"
"Indeed. Humans can use Basic Magic and Alchemy magic. Dragon magic is exclusively for dragons. Monsters and beasts use nature magic. The demon clan uses demon magic, and fantasia is forbidden magic used and created by beings not from this planet."
"Is nihility one of the fantasia magics?" I asked, vividly remembering the magic cycle of that spell.
"Yes. You seem like you don't know what to ask." I blanked for a moment, then—oh!
"Is there any way to increase one's mana pool?"
"My method when I was mortal was to drain all my mana until I fainted. After waking up, I'd notice my mana pool increased... a bit."
"You were a mortal?" I asked, surprised.
"Of course. Most gods were mortals, except the primordial Gods. Anyway, that'll be 20 gold coins."
"What? That's too much!" I exclaimed, shocked that I'd only asked a few questions.
"I just told you the secrets of gods."
"But you're just lying, right? You're banned from talking about cosmic-related stuff."
"Not all gods reside in the Cosmic Realm. Also, if you pay me 20 gold coins, I'll give you a bonus."
"Fine!"
I went to my room, grabbed my coin purse, then returned to the kitchen and counted the coins in front of her.
"Thanks for your patronage. As for the bonus, if we happen to meet again in the future, I'll grant you the ability to use nature magic."
"Wait, what kind of bonus is that? Can I even survive walking into the rotten domain?"
"Think about it yourself. Bye, stupid girl."
She suddenly disintegrated into thin air.
"Damn you, Anima! Now I know why you were banished!"
How could a scammer like her be a god? What great deed did she do? What if the advice she gave me was also a scam?
I ran outside and immediately cast 10 magic cycles.
"Fire Bullet!"
I shot ten magic bullets, and suddenly my head felt nauseous. My heart ached intensely.
"There's no way this will work."
I fainted.
I woke up in the afternoon to see a woman sitting near me. I rubbed my eyes and saw her clearly: she had blue eyes and long, yellowish hair.
"Are you awake?" she asked.
"Yeah. Who are you?"
"I'm Valentina, your father's younger sister."
"Oh, hello."
I got out of my bed and prepared her some warm tea.
"Do you often faint? They don't seem worried at all," she remarked.
"Maybe they saw me shoot magic spells until I fainted."
"I heard you're already capable of using six-cycle magic."
"Yeah."
"Can you show me the magic cycle?"
I cast a fire bullet magic cycle, which she then analyzed.
"This is pure offensive magic."
"Sadly, it only lasts for 0.5 seconds and travels just 40 meters at most," I said while trying to adjust some aspects of the magic cycle.
"Has Felis taught you common sense?" she asked with a concerned tone.
"He said this was an 'okay' spell."
"Haah... he never changes."
She then pulled out a book from her bag.
"What kind of books have you been reading?"
"Principles of magic, incantation, laws of manifestation, and more."
"You've never read about template magic spells?"
"No."
She opened a page and showed me a five-cycle magic.
"What's your opinion?"
"Seems... ordinary, just a rock shooting at average speed."
"This is what 80% of earth element mages use in war and monster hunts. It only travels 10 meters per second and hurts as much as a punch from a warrior. This is enough for you to enter the magic infantry. Now, compared to your magic cycle, this consumes about 5,000 times less than your six-cycle magic."
"But Uncle Luke managed to deflect it."
"Oh, poor girl, your standards are flying high in the sky. Your uncle is Number Four; his title is 'Moving Fortress.'"
"What? Then why was he discharged if he's that important?"
"Nepotism and corruption. They don't care about the safety of the country. For your age, this amount of mana is suspicious. Don't use this spell in public, okay? Just use basic fireball. You don't need to train until you faint—you're already in the top 0.001% for your age."
"No, Aunt. I have nothing to do, so I learn magic every day."
"Oh, then do you want to come with me to a concert? The Pianist is coming to the neighboring city."
"What kind of title is that?"
"Don't underestimate based on names, Ruby. Who knows, a girl named Ruby might kill a wyvern in one shot."
What? When did I kill a wyvern?