Chapter 04: Awekened

Reynolds Leywin's point of view:

I never thought being a dad would be so nice!

Both of my children make me proud, and not just because they are my children, but because they are both extremely intelligent! The only thing I regret is that Arthur said 'Mom' first, and Kiyotaka said 'Who knows?' What made him say that? I simply asked him if he preferred Alice or me, and he replied that. It was strange, but 'dad' was the second word he said, so it's a win.

I couldn't wait for the day when they would both wake up, despite the fact that they are only a little over two years old. They were both born to mage parents, so their chances of awakening were higher, but only one in every hundred children can sense mana. I had no idea what I would do if neither of them awoke. Obviously, I'd never stop loving them, but it had always been my ambition to teach my own son to fight. I would have started sooner if Alice hadn't stopped me every time I tried to teach them.

Even if only one of them awake, that doesn't mean he'll be my favorite. I'll love them both equally. That's what I was saying to Alice just now.

"Alice, honey, imagine the two of them awaken and being augmenters; wouldn't that be fantastic?"

"There you go again, Reynolds; they're only three years old!" She snarled.

I burst out laughing. "Isn't it reasonable to consider the future?"

Alice simply shook her head, continuing to check the garden for weeds; it was a peaceful and reflective environment. I wanted to keep it that way, but nothing ever goes according to plan.

An explosion... the blast sling was so powerful that I had to cover Alice with my mana-enhanced body. I looked up as much as the blizzad carrying wooden parts would allow. Our house... but that wasn't important. were in that house.

"Kiyo! Art!" I shouted.

I reinforced my body with mana and began to run towards our house, but before I could take a few steps, another explosion erupted, this time louder than the last. The ground beneath my feet shook, and dust blew in from the distance. Our house had now been completely destroyed. Despite the fact that I couldn't see anything due to the dust, I ran, a sinking feeling in my chest.

"Art! Kiyo!" As I looked around, I repeated. I was also on high alert. This could be the starting point for an attack. I couldn't let my two children die in this place.

I made my way through the misty layer of brown dust that made breathing difficult. When I began despair, I noticed a faint white and sacred light fading through the tender mist. I moved towards it instinctively, like a moth attracted to light. As I got closer, my vision improved and I could see more clearly; what I saw stunned me.

"Art?" I asked, perplexed, as I watched the little boy levitate as a force repelled everything around him.

However, it was not over. Another white light came from his left, further away from the house. I dashed forward, ready for any attack, but once again I found myself speechless. This time, I fell to my knees, lightly laughing, because my brain couldn't come up with an appropriate response to the situation.

Kiyo was also levitating, this time over a massive crater, while the repelling force was so strong that a normal human who couldn't use magic would be sent flying. His dark brown hair fluttered as he slept, and his sleeping face was serene. It didn't seem possible that someone with such a sweet face could cause such a disaster.

"Honey! Art?! What's going on?" Alice arrived shortly thereafter, watching in terror as Arthur levitated.

I went over to her and comforted her by placing a hand on her shoulder. "It's okay."

"What's okay? Take a look at everything! What exactly happened here?" Alice screamed, her gaze wandering the desolate wasteland where our house once stood.

"They, our children, just awoke as mages," I explained, with an awkward smile that belied my confusion.

"What?" Said Alice incredulously.

"Yes..." I sighed. Who knew our children would turn out to be such geniuses?

(***)

Kiyotaka's point of view:

Invigorating. That's the best way to put how I'm feeling right now. That energy is concentrated in my sternum and is soothing and warm. That's the only way I can put it. However, I was aware that my efforts to remain unnoticed had been futile. I could only lament my lack of preparation. Even so, with an explosion of this magnitude, it would have been nearly impossible to go unnoticed.

I opened my eyes, only to have to close them again. As soon as I tried to open my eyes, my vision was filled with brightness and a plethora of colors. I tried again, enduring the excruciating pain and my body's conditioned reflex to close my eyes. It could be risky, but something inside me told me I had to give it a shot.

It was similar to when I was born, but this time there were many different colors. These were sharper than the misty calendoscope I saw when I first opened my eyes, almost like little particles floating around me. My eyes began to burn. An intense heat lashed both my retina and the area around my eyes, but my vision was sharpening. Particles, I saw some yellow, some red, some blue, and some green. It was strange, and I thought my vision had gone bad for a moment. These tiny particles floated around me and everywhere, as if the world had been painted with the famous pointillism technique.

"Kiyo!"

However, they vanished as quickly as they appeared, leaving me alone with the translucent barrier that acted like a cocoon, preventing me from moving.

Because my vision was no longer obstructed by a sea of colored particles, I directed it downward. Reynolds was laughing and looking down at me from his knees, as if he was witnessing something incredible.

After a while, the barrier that was repelling everything around me vanished, and I fell to the ground. I wobbled on my tiny feet until I felt secure. In my sternum, I could feel a power waiting to be used, as if it was eager to show what it was capable of.

My awakening wreaked more havoc than I had anticipated. The house vanished completely. I was standing on a tens of square meters crater. The pushing pressure exerted by my barrier solidified the earth beneath my feet. Arthur had also completed his awakening and was so perplexed that the question marks were almost visible above his head.

"Am I in trouble?" Asked Arthur, after Reynolds carried me over and left me untouched to him.

"Of course not, honey." Alice responded. Then she looked at the desolate location where our house once stood. "That our children would awaken at such a young age..."

"My kids are geniuses!" Reynolds exclaimed, a huge grin on his face.

"What the hell!" shouted a passing villager.

"We'd better get going." Spoke Reynolds with an awkward smile.

(***)

The weeks passed normally after awakening. Our parents made the decision to keep our awakening a secret. In that land, it is quite unusual for a pair of twins to awaken at such a young age, and to my dismay, I was now considered a genius, which was extremely problematic.

I couldn't deny it, so when Alice taught Arthur and me, I pretended to learn at the same rapid pace as Arthur. This was done to avoid future issues. Still, I knew Alice was teaching us this out of pure love, because there was no established educational system here, and most children in villages like this only knew the fundamentals of writing and mathematics.

Neither had I experienced the previously rare vision of colorful particles; it appeared to be a side effect of forming my mana core in that moment. We also began training to be augmenters. Our father was so eager to teach us that the first time we went for a mana lesson, he insisted on a two-on-one sparring session. However, because we were still inexperienced in controlling our mana to strengthen our bodies, all he could do in the meantime was teach us basic exercises to strengthen us.

I wasn't completely against it; I wanted to regain even a fraction of my previous physical condition, and while I believe that having a good physique isn't too important with this new type of energy known as mana, it's always better to be prepared.

Everything was going swimmingly, and I was beginning to enjoy myself until...

"I think it's time to find Kiyo and Art suitable tutors, honey."