Chapter 2 : The Library

The book at his side suddenly fluttered open, its case being enveloped by devilish mana.

Resisting the urge to fall asleep, Zakai watched as the wounds near his body slowly started to recover and the natural mana and the wind mana from the wolf were starting to be absorbed.

Gulping, Zakai suddenly lost consciousness.

When he awoke, he was in an old-furnished libabry, with shelves and shelves.

But nothing inside of the shelf.

On the table in front of him, was a single book.

The book had depicted a wolf on the front, and it didn't have any title's on it.

Slowly reaching towards the book, it automatically flew into his hand, and Zakai looked around at the place.

"Just where am I?"

Devilish laughter filled the room, but nobody was in the spacious libabry.

Opening up the book, a feeling of power enveloped his body as he was automatically snapped into reality.

The roles were reversed.

The wolf was on the floor, and he was fine, watching as the wolf breathed its last.

He laughed. He laughed at the pitiful beast that couldn't even kill a helpless child.

His body felt light, and it was filled with foreign energy he couldn't place his hand on.

Wind magic that was not his own filled his body, as his movements and strength went through a qualitative change.

He felt stronger and lighter, the magic he had gotten from the wolf in front of him.

Something moved, and it was his book, and it eagerly scoured for the corpse of the wind wolf in front of it.

Something happened.

The Wolf corpse was gone, and so was the pool of blood around it.

His mind once again flickered into the libabry, and the book depicting the wolf got thicker.

He opened it once again, and the magical wind powers in his body grew.

His eyelids drooped, as he fell to the ground in exhaustion.

Breathing in and out, the light in his eyes faded.

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While the boy was sleeping, the book at his side suddenly disappeared, before reappearing again.

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Zakai had a dream.

A dream about a man with a human woman in his arms, blood stains around his body. Some were hits, some weren't.

Below him, were humans mocking him.

Endless grief and sadness.

Then a click happened.

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Zakai once more woke up in the warm bed of the orphanage, with a strange man and Sister Lilly looking on from the distance.

"You stupid boy!" Sister Lilly screamed, causing Zakai to shrink, "You could have ended up in the claws of a wild animal, or worse!"

Ignoring her complaints his eyes panicky looked around for the mysterious book that had oh so dearly saved his life.

It was on the nightstand, and Zakai quickly breathed in.

5 minutes later, Sister Lilly was done. She was red from panting, and it could be seen that she was worried for the boy's safety.

Slowly breathing in, she sighed.

"Sekel over here is a hunter from the village below, and he wants you to be his disciple."

"Why?" Zakai frowned, before honing into the man.

His lean body, muscular arms, and scars show his battle prowess.

Asta said scars were cool, even though he didn't understand if that was correct or not.

A fierce face, calm eyes.

"Im going to die-" The man said suddenly before Sister Lilly interrupted him.

"Pass on."

"And?" Zakai asked.

Sister Lilly looked surprised at the boy.

Was he always this sharp?

"You fit the purpose." The man groaned. "You also have Wind Magic in your body, which is why you scared any beast that attacked you off."

Sister Lilly looked at him with suspicion.

"A beast? why no bloodstains near him?" Her frown grew deeper.

"Your guess is as good as mine, but worry not." The hunter said, "Im sure that you won't complain about this, as the boy will become a stable hunter if he fails the magic knight's exam, which is more than likely."

"I believe that they can do it." Sister Lilly hid her anger behind a fake smile, which caused the man to laugh.

Laughing and laughing.

On and on.

"Funny joke." The man smiled. "We are all peasants, and the Magic Knights only except nobles with high magical power capability."

"Their abandoned." Sister Lilly's face went blank. "They could be a noble child or more when they grow up-

"We are getting ahead of it," Sekel said, with no worries about the angry Sister Lilly. His eyes gazed onto Zakai.

"You accept it, or not?"

Zakai watched as the man looked into his eyes, shivering from the intense glare.

This was a dangerous man. But an opportunity.

"Yes."

The man smiled, as Sister Lilly frowned and sighed.

"We are going to go now, we have reached a deal on the terms of the agreement?"

Sister Lilly looked Zakai in teh eyes, before turning her head away from him.

Why was she like this?

"I'll tell you on the way, boy." Sekel pulled the boy up, before giving him a set of instructions, " Go and pack your things."

"I won't be living here anymore?" Zakai looked stunned, and Sister Lilly looked away from the boy, not making eye contact.

"I will tell you later, just pack your things."

Zakai did what was instructed, immediately packing his things, including this "book" or whatever.

Something inside of him changed.

His mood shifted.

Why didn't he ask unnecessary questions like normal?

why wasn't he happy to see Sister Lilly?

he was quickly hushed out of the orphanage, and he didn't even see Yuno or Asta.

He had only been to the village once, to help Sister Lilly do childbirth.

On the road down, the hunter Sekel started laughing.

"Now, here's what happened."

"Massive swarms of insects have wrecked this year's crops in the orphanage, too many mouths to feed, so they got rid of.... you guessed it. 𝒚𝒐𝒖."

"Didn't they get new a child, couldn't they got rid of him since he was young?"

"Goes against their religion."

"So.....so... what am I?"

"Abandoned." Sekel gave a wicked smile, before passing the boy a stopwatch with a mirror on it.

He pointed to his ears, and Zakai looked towards his ears.

"People were rumouring that you were half-elf."

"Half-elf?"

"Bad for you." Sekel snorted. "You will probably be hanged."

"But why....?"

"Because of your elf."

Zakai's ears were clipped and pointy, but in a way it made his ears stick out.

"I send them money every week in return for you. It's the least I can do, im, not a bad person, I assure you."

Zakai felt betrayed.

Would Sister Lilly seriously be the one to send him away with some strange man for having pointy ears and a bit of copper?

no.

He could only think of the most vulgar words he could think of, something a drunkard on the street taught him.

"FUCK!"

Sekel couldn't hold it back anymore, as he burst out laughing.

"Dont worry, with the skills I will teach you, you can do whatever you want when im dead."

"Passed o-"

"Dead." Sekel snorted, causing Zakai to give a small snort of protest.

"The world isn't innocent enough to abide by the 15 commandments or whatever you religious folk call them." Sekel sighed, "Sometimes killing and 𝙬𝙤𝙧𝙨𝙚 can happen."

They came to a little hut on the edge of the forest, where Sekel gave a bitter sigh.

"Home sweet home."