In this world, everything was different. A world not born ordinary, but forged from magic itself. Humans were born with the affinity to manipulate nature, to command the seas, the land, and all sorts of elemental forces beyond comprehension.
Each baby was born with the potential to gain such an affinity, and the world's creatures, from the smallest to the largest, were also blessed with the gift of magic, evolving to greater feats far beyond the natural limits of their original lines of evolution.
In the land of Corin, a town populated by middle-class folk, not rich and not too poor, yeah, the typical middle that no one was ever interested in. Life moved at a slow, uneventful pace.
Within this quiet town, the household of the Greyhound family had been blessed with a new son. A gift they had long hoped for, the child they had wanted for more than six years of marriage was finally within their grasp.
So it was evidently a celebrated day… or at least day five.
Greyhound, his wife, and his slave girl sat around a large wooden table covered with dozens of plates filled with various delicacies. The scent in the room was even more alluring, causing Greyhound's mouth to water at the sight alone.
Greyhound Derek was normally a man who would instantly tear into the dishes, eating his fill without wasting a moment's breath. He was tall, masculine, and muscular, and his appetite was exactly what one would expect after seeing his imposing stature.
Today, though, was different.
He stood from his seat and walked toward a small cradle placed close to the table, his heavy footfalls causing the wooden floor to creak beneath him.
Reaching the cradle, he gave a wide grin and peeked inside, seeing a baby boy with short red hair staring upward with eyes full of wonder.
Derek grinned at his son.
"How are you today, Young Ray?"
He spoke, though he clearly wasn't expecting a reply from Ray Greyhound. None came, apparently. Still, that did not mean Ray was dumbfounded by what his father had said.
Another benefit that came with the blessing of magic was the ability for even babies to gain a certain level of understanding of life shortly after being born. The higher this understanding at a young age, the greater the child's potential for magic.
So Ray could understand his father very well but he simply lacked the ability to reply. Throughout his entire time as a baby, he had enough intelligence to know that listening was better than rambling, so he did exactly that, studying his family during the very first years of his life.
Apparently, he was not born into an average-looking family.
'My father, Derek, was once a powerful adventurer. So was my mother…' Ray thought.
'Father is a hotheaded man who loves finding talent, enjoys battling, and never seems to stop being childish from what I see.'
'And Mother is rather calm, loving, and also an excitement seeker when it comes to talent.'
While Ray had been able to piece together who his parents were at a young age, he was unable to do the same for the maid. Understanding her was difficult, as she rarely spoke and always behaved exactly as a maid should.
It wasn't like she was on his list of priorities.
Ray continued striving to understand his parents and the language of this world throughout his early years, until he finally turned two and began using the words he had learned along the way.
This left his parents excited and bewildered. For a child to possess such intelligence so early meant he might as well be a very talented mage.
What they didn't know was that Ray had already possessed such complex intelligence the moment he was born.
Well, this situation brought about a few squabbles here and there as the question of what to do immediately arose.
Derek yelled senselessly, "I'll tutor the boy! He'll learn the native tongue from his papa! Won't you! Baby boy! My big boy!"
He said that last part while making the most miserable attempt at a baby face, which was deeply embarrassing.
To Ray's joy, his mother refused.
Ria grabbed Derek by the ears violently and yelled straight into his face, "The only thing you know how to do is fight! I don't want the first thing my child learns to be beating other kids! Hire a damn tutor!"
Ray's lips arched slightly at this. He loved how intense his mother was when it came to keeping his father in check. The thought of being on the receiving end of such pressure someday left a lump in his throat.
"Terrifying—" he whispered to himself.
And so, Derek hired a tutor... A male tutor with strict laws and conduct, who took Ray under his guidance for a span of two years, until he completed an education that usually took others three years to finish.
That wasn't really impressive by Ray's standards. But the villagers had much lower expectations, and soon gossip spread throughout the town, and perhaps even beyond it.
Ray had no care for such things. It was merely popularity, and as long as it didn't get in his way, it was tolerable.
Now, he was four years old, with only one year left before awakening his magic.
Ray sat in his room in the upper compartment of his home, reading from the large textbook spread across the floor before him.
It was a book called The Arcane Magic. Its pages were old and heavy, far too cumbersome for his feeble hands to easily turn, and there were hundreds of them waiting to be read.
This was a book written by old professors—men Ray imagined as crooked and unable to move without a proper walking stick for support. It was meant for children like him…
Stubborn and curious.
"I've learned the language and the entire continent in the span of two years, and I've read this textbook three times already," he sighed, letting his small head fall onto the open pages in frustration. "I still can't understand the book fully."
Ray bit his lips slightly and, with his eyes, tried reading through the words despite his face being pressed against the pages. That, unsurprisingly, did not turn out well. It was practically impossible to read something when one's head was directly on it.
This only increased Ray's frustration.
"How do I learn how to use magic, really?" he asked aloud, the single question that had been bothering him this entire time, the very reason he had pushed himself to learn about the world so quickly.
Ray had never been fascinated by many things while growing up…
But magic, this was something he yearned to grasp as soon as possible.
Given that he had to read this insane book with little to no understanding of most of its terminologies, he could only sigh once more.
"Yes… learning magic might just be harder than I thought."