A New Resolve

Charles woke up to find himself in somewhere familiar. It was his bed, his body was covered in bandages, Jennette was sleeping beside him, she sat on the floor, her head rested on his bed.

Charles smiled a warm smile as he caressed her head.

'she truly is like a big sister to me.' He thought to himself, he had grown fond of Jennette, as she was the only one that had taken care of him since he was newly born.

~yaaawwn

Jennette yawned and stretched her body as she woke up, feeling the touch of someone on her head, her eyes opened to meet with the warm look that Charles was giving her, her eyes widened, but she quickly narrowed it back.

"You're finally awake." She said in a low, sleepy tone, as someone who just woke up from sleep would sound.

"Yeah." Charles said, he sat up on his bed, the bright warm smile still plastered on his face.

It happened, she tried to stop it but it happened, she didn't want to look uncool in front of the child, but how could she stop the tears? She was genuinely worried and afraid, thinking he was dead because he had not come out for a month, she feared that she'll lose him. He was like a child to her, she had practically watched him grow to this age.

"I thought- I thought you were go- hic" she couldn't complete her sentence, the tears were entering her mouth.

Charles hugged her, putting her head on his shoulder as he patted her back.

"I'm not dead, don't worry, how can I leave you like that? Who's going to bother and annoy you then?" Charles consoled her.

He consoled her as she cried nonstop for about five minutes.

'i swear she's the baby not me.' Charles thought to himself.

"Sometimes you feel like an old man who's lived for at least three decades." Jennette said as she smiled brightly, sniffing and cleaning her tears.

"Haha" Charles laughed an awkward laugh

"I was in my last life." He said with a bright smile on his face, going ear to ear.

"You and your jokes." Jennette said as she stood up to go bring breakfast for him.

'if only you knew.' Charles chuckled softly as he thought to himself.

"How long was I out?" He asked her with a serious tone, changing from the playful tone he had been speaking with.

"Three days, why?" Jennette replied as she tilted her head.

"Nothing, I just wanted to know." Charles folded his arms and started pondering, stroking his chin.

'i always forget that I have no beard in this life, I'm a child.' he removed his hands from his jaw

'three days huh? The Phoenix said something.. it said I should find a way to leave the Flameworth household and go to Ludia, it said my destiny was there. I hate that damn bird, can't explain things well.'

He immediately got swept up in his thoughts.

'There he goes again, thinking about god knows what.' Jennette smiled.

'But something about him seems different? Or is it because of the ritual? He gives off a different vibe.' She Thought to herself as she headed to the door.

"I'll be back Charley, I wanna go make you breakfast!"

"Oh! Okay, I'll be right here waiting for you!" He replied to her as she left, closing the door on her way.

"Finally, she's gone. I have to find information about this Ludia place quick and I also need to find a way to leave this house." He said as he sat in a lotus position.

"But before that, let me check what the damn phoenix did to my body."

He closed his eyes, trying to meditate and reach the state that he called 'mana equity' a state that he reached after careful focus and concentration, in this state, his body is one with his mind and mana and he can view his own entire body system. He can view down to the tiniest details, including his body cells.

"Hmmm, this isn't bad at all, I feel a foreign fiery energy hovering along with the mana in my body. It's a pure fire energy, it's unlike anything I've ever seen, this must be the Phoenix's gift to me." He sat normally as he had finished meditating.

He folded his hands into a fist and unfolded it again, looking at it with a smirk.

"I can feel that I've gotten stronger."

"All I need to do now is to find a way to contain this mana rampaging in my body, and this foreign flame too, that's why I'm going to stay longer in here, to train with them and get that thing called a 'circle'. I read in one of Jennette's book that I stole, a circle is what a mage uses to appropriately contain the mana in their body and perform magic. It's like the CPU for the mana." He stood up and started bouncing on his bed.

"That's why for the next three years, I'd focus on expanding my mana, to increase the amount of mana that I'll put in my first circle, and then I'd train my control over mana and my mana sensitivity and also try to mix physics and science with magic." He was jumping on his bed as he said this, the bed was just too bouncy to ignore.

"And after three years, the ceremony where all the branch families and every three year old child in our family comes to our manor to get their class and affinity measured, that's where training positions in the family start, and I'd join the ceremony too so I can train with the family for a few years before running away to Ludia." He finally stopped bouncing, he sensed Jennette's presence approaching with his food from afar and acted gracefully, to avoided getting scolded.

"I'm acting like I know where Ludia is, I still have a lot of work to do, I can feel the mana inside of Jennette now, I wasn't sure of it before, but now I'm sure, she's a second circle mage. I wonder why she's working as a maid here when she can be living her life freely. I'll ask her one day. I need to asked her only the important questions about where the f*ck Ludia is." He said to himself.

'now I can get stronger, stronger and more powerful so that I can see you again, Marcelle.' He outstretched his hands to caress the air, imagining it to be Marcelle's face, he still yearned for her.

Jennette walked in to see Charles lying down on his bed and staring at the chandelier up in his room quietly.

'Thats my good boy.' She thought to herself, falling into Charles trap of endless questions that day.

END OF CHAPTER