Here, I'm about to have my second fight ever after finally reaching the level of Master. It's been 10 years since my first fight against those monsters, which was unfair. It turns out their species is named "the crimson wolves." Anyway, the person I'm fighting is the one who saved me from dying in that battle; he barely managed to make it out alive afterward, thankfully only sustaining a scar on his back.
The fight against him is friendly, more like training. He obtained the level of Master a couple of months before I did, so I'm quite at a disadvantage right now, as he is indeed superior to me in raw power. He's truly amazing; my brother is truly amazing. So, the only way I could win is through intelligence and experience.
As I'm going to the forest—the place where we trained for years—and thinking about a good strategy to win against him, I hear the soft voice that always surprises me with its beauty, speaking to both me and Edward. This voice belongs to my mother, Charlotte, as she says:
"So, you two need to know that this is just a friendly training without any type of magic, except for reinforcement magic, and with just a wooden sword. Nothing to be too excited about…" She stops for a second, looking like she just remembered something she shouldn't have forgotten. I've spent enough time with her to understand her expressions. She pulls out a sword—a real one—and just one look at it makes me realize how strong it really is. My brother is impressed by it as well; we both learned swordsmanship, and I'm actually great at it. But this sword is way more than strong; I know it could be used even by an actual grandmaster. I can't imagine how much mana I could actually put into it because the more mana I put into a sword, the stronger it is, but every sword has a limit. Most normal swords break or explode when I use them.
Then she completes what she was saying:
"Actually, there is something to be super excited about. As you two know, you're gonna fight with wooden swords, and that's a fact. I'm not trying to have anyone get seriously injured, but the thing here is that whoever wins will get a reward, and this reward is…"
My mother reveals the name of this weapon after a moment of silence, completing what she was saying:
"The Call of Death.Yes, it's a scary name, I know. It's good enough to be used by you, and don't worry, even the one who loses will get this sword…" She pulls out another sword; it's very impressive as well, looking similar to the last one, but probably strong enough to be used by me.
The sword isn't actually that big; it's around one meter tall and looks light enough to be held by me without any mana. It looks like your average sword, but it's still too big for me to use, knowing my small height. I look more like I'm 8, not 13.
Then she starts explaining how great these swords are, but knowing my family's stable financial situation, she can probably afford both swords, but they are still expensive. I'm truly thankful for that. After a lot of explaining, she gives us two wooden swords and then says, "Don't put any mana in them; they'll just break."
I get into a fighting position, and Edward does the same. When I hear my mom say "start," the battle begins. I rush at him as fast as I can, and he does the same. Thankfully, he's as fast as I am, and then we exchange a few slashes. His attacks are fast—unbelievably fast. I barely manage to avoid them without getting hurt.
I back down a little, and he chases after me with the same momentum. I slow my pace a bit, and he is already about to hit me. Scary speed, but that was one of the strategies I devised to win against him. Just as I expected, he is in a position where I easily attack the side of his stomach, and I do. I make sure it's hurtful, but it doesn't slow him down even a bit. He tries to hit the top of my head. If this attack connects, I'm going to lose for sure, and blocking it isn't an option since my hands are down. The only choice is to dodge, and I try to do it as fast as I can, but I still get hit. It's painful—so painful. I want to scream as hard as I can, but this isn't the time for that.
The fight isn't over. I managed to only get hit in my left shoulder, at least I hold my sword in my right hand, so I'm okay—way more okay than he is. The attack I landed on him seems to have taken effect. I'm faster than him now, but he's still way stronger than me, so I'm going to use my speed to my advantage. I start getting closer to him, dodging all the attacks he tries to land on me. I focus even more on my speed; he definitely doesn't have the ability to land a single hit on me, so I keep hitting him with small attacks while avoiding counterattacks.
He is definitely losing, but then he does something I didn't expect. I'm quite dumb for not thinking about it; he focuses on his speed more than I do a lot for a second and now, he's out of my sight. Then i felt his presence behind me trying to strike me. I can't dodge this. He focuses on his strength again and is so close to hitting me, and I actually do get hit; he strikes me straight in the stomach. I feel a lot of pain—indescribable pain, like my organs are crushed—and I'm sent a couple of meters away from him. When I stop moving, I feel the actual pain; it's intense, but it's just physical pain, a temporary bad feeling. He stops moving when he sees that I've stopped moving as well, and he says in a playful way:
"Ohhh! Did you hit your limits already?"
"Who knows?" I respond weakly. It's a fake weakness because just as he tries to land the final blow, I use all the mana I have left to rush at him. I'm right in front of him, but he can dodge. He's in a position where he can move freely, and as I land the hit he could easily avoid, he just stays still. He remains motionless, with a blank expression. Why did he do that? He did it in a way that Mom won't see he did it on purpose, and I land the hit that could be the final blow.
I sit on the ground—not because I want to, but because of how tired I am and all the effort I put into this fight. I truly want that sword after all. Edward sits in front of me as well; he's more injured than I am, but still nothing too serious—just some simple scratches. I still question why he gave me the chance to win; he could've easily won if he'd dodged that final attack. As I'm still deep in thought, I hear someone clapping. It's obvious who it is—my mother—and who else would it be? She has a wide smile on her face, and I guess our combat level was enough to impress her.
Even though she's quite easy to impress in normal things, she is hard to impress when it comes to anything related to magic. Or maybe she just acts like she's not impressed; she doesn't want us to become egotistical. She's truly a good person who wishes the best for her daughter and son. Sometimes.
I think that maybe—just maybe—the world isn't all that bad. Maybe it was just the environment I grew up in the last world that was a bad place. I learned this over the 13 years I've spent in this world; no one was really unfriendly or evil. I've managed to communicate with different kind of people excluding my family, like neighbors and people in the village I'm in. They all seem like kind people.
My mom casts a healing magic on me and my brother; the pain stops, and my wounds start healing. Then she says with a proud voice:
"What an incredible fight!! I can proudly say you two surpassed me. You see, I've started feeling this lately about what I should do when you reach a level where I can't teach you anything. Now I've got to think seriously about this…" She giggles and happily completes what she is saying:
"Well, I'm going to give you what I promised to give, but there is another reward in my mind. It's the chance to learn a type of magic—a type that I personally don't know anything about, but it's powerful—too powerful. Yes, that's right—barrier magic—and what's a better place to learn it than a place that has a top-tier barrier? Yes, the one surrounding us to stop demons from entering our country, Valoria!"
I'm shocked, and this is probably what my face is expressing as well. The ability to study that barrier is something unbelievable, but I only have one question in my mind:
"How?" Edward and I say this at the same time, but her smile grows even wider as she says:
"It's a secret." She puts her finger on her lips, her long blonde hair moving with the wind. Well, I guess she doesn't want to tell us, or maybe she can't, so I decide not to intrude any further. We return home and plan to go to the hidden dungeon that contains the core of the barrier after a couple of days.
The promised day arrives, and we decide to get going; surprisingly, my father decides to come with us as well. The more I grow up, the more I realize he isn't just a regular peasant, his mysterious background is quite weird.
Our destination, as my mother said, is around 2 kilometers from the village. As we're walking and talking about random things, I decide to ask my mom about something that's been on my mind for quite a long time since I came to this world: "Mom, can I ask you a question?"
"Of course, honey!" she replies with her usual playful voice.
"Um, actually, what is our family's name? You know, my last name."
"I always thought you knew it, but it doesn't matter. It's Lockhart. I hope you like it."
"Oh! I do like it, don't worry, Mom."
I wasn't lying; this name looks very prestigious. My last life's name wasn't great; it was just your average last name. We continue on our way to the core of the barrier.
After a few minutes, we reach it. It's not what I thought it would be; it's an old gray building, one floor, and around 70 square meters—nothing too special. It looks like a regular abandoned house, so I can say it's hidden. This fact makes me just more thankful for my mother because she most likely worked as hard as she could to give us this opportunity for the research we're about to conduct.
We enter through the door, and the inside is pure darkness. I conjure a fire in my hand with my magic—just enough to light up the area.
My surroundings aren't anything special, but they are clean and too good to be in a place normally supposed to be like this. We keep going silently deeper and deeper into this small building until a small light appears in our vision. Its source is a small circular thing; it has some weird red light inside of it, it is probably a magical item, These things are in general some items that are capable of producing magic, but a magical item that has the ability to create a barrier this strong and wide is something impossibly rare.
We keep getting closer until we're in front of it. I can sense the core's mana; it is unbelievable. My brother is behind us for some reason, but I don't really care.
Suddenly, I get a headache—a bad one. My head hurts so much, and the headache gets even worse. Then something starts happening—a voice, a voice in my head, repeating itself over and over again, telling me, "Look behind you," urging me to do so incessantly. It's a scary voice, it makes me terrified, it wasn't from my head or something I'm imagining, it's something external that is engraving this in my head. I'm so I decide to finally look behind me to see what it's talking about. As I turn, I start seeing a blue light. I know its source; it's electricity, and the only person in my area right now who can create electricity is him—Edward—because of his electricity elemental magic. There's no reason to create electricity unless you want to harm someone, and I can sense the mana is strong—strong enough to end the life of multiple people if they're not reinforced with mana.
As I keep turning, I see my brother, my clumsy brother, smiling a weird smile. I don't understand the meaning of it, or maybe I just don't want to understand. In that second, he throws the dangerous attack, and his target is obvious—he's planning on hitting three people: Emilia, Louis, Charlotte. Yes, his family. I can try warning my parents, but Edward could kill us before we run away. I can't push them either; my only choice is to run away myself and leave them to die. And that's exactly what I do. I dash as fast as I can, and he throws his attack at them. My dash causes me to end up on the ground. I open my eyes again and look at them; both of my parents are on the ground, lying down unconsciously. I look at Edward again, and he still has the same devious smile. I rush as fast as I can to my mother first to see if she's alive, and she isn't.
She's dead.
I check my father as well; he shows no sign of life. No one can survive that attack.
They're both dead.
What a bad prank they're pulling—a harmful prank, i don't think it's actually funny, this little joke is making me feel not well, i feel sick.
Then Edward says in a cold voice:
"Do you seriously think any human who's not reinforced can survive this attack?"He laughs an emotionless laugh and completes:
"You have to be delusional to think that they survived or that I'm just joking."
I'm sure he is not joking, and this isn't a prank. He has now just killed the two people who gave me hope in this world for some unknown reason.