Two and a half years passed. I was now five years old. My younger sister, Talia, was three. She was beginning to learn how to talk. I’d been curious if she was reincarnated like myself and tried speaking to her in English. She had looked at me with big eyes and clearly didn’t understand what I was saying. It would have been nice if she’d been reincarnated with her memories like me. Sometimes, it was hard to hide that I wasn’t really a child.

  During the past couple of years, I mastered all the beginner spells in the magic book. Not that there were that many, which presented my next problem. How do I go further? My parents didn’t know I could use magic and there were no more books to teach me.

  Once I turned four years old, Damon gave me a wooden sword to swing around. Every day, after lunch I would go outside and swing the sword until I couldn’t raise it anymore. It was exhausting, though I could feel my strength increasing. I used magic at night, that way I could put all my energy into sword practice and be able to practice magic without being physically tired. At this point, I could cast a lot of water balls. I’d stopped counting how many after thirty. It seemed training every day with magic had caused my mana to grow exponentially. The downside was that it made it harder for me to use all my mana. I needed to learn more advanced magic.

  “Thorian, lunch is ready!” Zena hollered.

  “Coming!”

  I ran to the living room, where the food was prepared. There was a small portion of fish and bread on my plate. My stomach growled. In my old life, I wasn’t a fan of seafood. This body loved fish. My mouth began to water at the prospect of biting into it. I sat down and waited for Damon to appear. The rule in this household was not to eat until everyone was at the table.

  “Mother, father, how did the two of you meet?”

  Zena and Damon looked at one another and laughed. “Well, I’d say I first noticed your father when I went into a dungeon with a party. We were in way over our heads and your father saved my life,” Zena put her hand on Damon’s. “I wouldn’t call it love at first sight, but it didn’t take long for me to fall for him once I joined his party. Then we moved here, and you know the rest.”

  “What’s a party?” Talia asked.

  “Think of it as a group of people going into dangerous areas together, getting treasure or killing monsters,” Zena said.

  “Oh.”

  Oh, is right. I hadn’t thought about parties being formed. It made perfect sense. If there were monsters, it only made sense to fight them with other people.

  “Mother, what kind of magic can you use?” I asked.

  “I was a healer.”

  “Do you know any offensive spells?”

  “I can do a basic fireball and water attack. I prefer healing to fighting.”

  “And it’s saved mine and many other lives many times,” Damon added.

  “Wow, can you show me magic?” Talia asked.

  “Of course, once you’re older,” Zena said.

  “Yay!”

  I wondered how good Zena’s healing magic was. My healing magic was weak. It was unfortunate the book didn’t go more into it. Was it possible to be strong at healing and fighting? I didn’t want to mainly heal but having the ability would be useful.

  It sounded like adventuring was dangerous, which wasn’t a surprise and I’ll be honest, I’m not sure I have much of a desire to go and fight monsters. I fought enough in my old life. However, I was reincarnated with my memories. What if there was a reason for that? It was something I thought about recently. What if there was a grand reason I was reincarnated with my memories, and it wasn’t a mistake? I hoped I was being paranoid about that.

  Damon went out to fight monsters every week. Supposedly they were weak and stood no chance against him. He told me if they left the monsters alone, they’d eventually grow to a number that would threaten the village and it paid well, since he was one of the few fighters in the entire village.

  I hadn’t explored much of the village, which I had recently learned was called Alcion. It was something I wanted to do, though that would require me to be a bit older. I’d thought about showing my parents magic and decided against it.

  The rest of the lunch was relatively uneventful. We ate and once I was done, I got up and grabbed my wooden sword. It was time to burn some calories and swing this thing.

  “Hold it sport,” Damon said, stopping me as I went to the door.

  “Oh, today’s the day, isn’t it?” Zena said.

  “Todays what day?” I asked. Talia looked at us all with a confused expression. At least I wasn’t the only one unaware of what today was.

  “Take that wooden sword of yours outside. Don’t start swinging until I get out there.”

  “Alright.”

  I’m guessing Damon was going to show me how to properly swing a sword or teach me some technique. I knew next to nothing about swords. I recalled learning hand-to-hand combat in bootcamp before shipping out to Vietnam, but a sword was different. I didn’t think anything from my old life would help me here. The way I thought about it, magic users should outmatch any sword user. Logically that’s how I thought about it. I doubted that was how things worked in practice.

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

  I walked to my normal training spot and stood there. The spring air felt refreshing. This was the perfect weather to train. Though it wouldn’t be long until I would be wishing it was cooler. What was taking Damon so long anyway?

  A minute later, Damon came out of the house and was holding a wooden sword in his left hand. Odd. Why would he need a wooden sword to demonstrate a skill? Wait, I think I know why. It would be easier for me to replicate whatever he’s going to show me if he uses a wooden sword. That’s when I noticed Zena was with Damon and she looked a bit more serious.

  Damon walked out in front of me and planted the tip of his wooden sword into the ground. His expression turned serious. What the hell? At lunch he was laughing and now he looked like he was about to do something bad.

  “Thorian, it’s time for our first sparring session,” Damon said.

  “Huh?” I couldn’t stop myself from blurting out. “You haven’t taught me a single thing about using a sword!” Look, I wasn’t proud of myself here, but I really didn’t want to spar my father. From his expression, it sounded like this was going to hurt.

  “I know,” Damon said and lifted the wooden sword.

  His stance was odd, though it looked like a defensive stance? I could only guess based on movies I’d seen in my world. Ug, Whatever, I have no choice. I raised my sword, knowing full well I looked ridiculous.

  “Give me everything you’ve got.”

  Yeah, my five-year-old body has a lot to show off!

  Well, no point in wasting time. I bolted toward Damon with my sword held high. I swung with all the might I had. Damon easily blocked the blow. Not that I was surprised. Still, I couldn’t quit now. I pressed my attack, trying my best to surprise him.

  As I raised my sword to strike once more, Damon moved. His entire body appeared to blur for a second. That’s when I felt something hard strike my stomach. This was not a soft blow. I keeled over, gasping as the pain expanded. I’m pretty sure I had a broken rib, my lord does this hurt!

  Since my body wasn’t used to pain like this, it made it that much harder to move. Every breath only brought pain. What the hell was Damon’s problem? This wasn’t the way to teach someone how to use a sword!

  Suddenly, my pain started to disappear. It felt like something was entering my body. The broken rib healed itself and the pain disappeared completely. I looked up to see Zena standing over me with her hands stretched out. That explained why she came out here to watch, she knew Damon was going to hurt me.

  “Isn’t this a bit too rough?” Zena asked Damon.

  “No. Thorian needs to understand pain to become a great warrior,” Damon said.

  “Zena, I need you to wait until I tell you to heal Thorian next time.”

  “Are you crazy?” I shouted. Damon looked at me. I saw no remorse in his expression. Did he enjoy this? No, surely, he didn’t. I refused to believe he did. “I’m five years old! You shouldn’t be hitting me like this!”

  “I said similar things when I was your age, though I was also crying,” Damon said. He put himself back into a defensive stance. “You’ll thank me for this when you’re older.”

  The hell I would. There was no way I would thank anyone for hurting a child like this. I could only imagine the trauma a child could endure. Imagining Damon doing this to Talia would piss me off.

  “Come at me again,” Damon said.

  “And if I refuse?”

  “Then I’ll come to you.”

  “Fine,” I ran at him and attacked. The result was no different than before. Damon let me swing a few times, then he moved so fast I couldn’t see. Next thing I knew, I was on the ground, wheezing as my rib was once again broken. Why did he have to break a rib? This hurts like hell!

  “Get up, you aren’t done yet.”

  My only response was coughing. I couldn’t get myself to stand. I felt pathetic, even if there was nothing I could do about this situation.

  I heard someone walk over to me. I hoped it was Zena. A foot connected with the side where my rib was broken. Nope, not Zena! “You can’t sit there and hope I go away. Fight me.”

  “This is so stupid!” I yelled. Despite that, I was able to get back on my feet. Damon motioned with his hand for me to attack. I walked over, very slowly, I might add and swung with the little strength I had left.

  Damon dodged the strike and countered. I couldn’t see the attack. All I knew was the wooden sword was knocked out of my hand and my elbow was facing the wrong direction. It took me a moment to realize my father had broken my arm. Then the pain came, and I couldn’t stop myself from screaming. Something hit me in the back, and I landed face-first into the dirt.

  Next thing I knew, I was staring at the sky and my pain was gone. Zena was standing over me, looking relieved as I sat up. For a moment I didn’t know what happened. It didn’t take me long to realize I’d blacked out. I hoped Zena’s healing was enough to counteract any brain damage I could have endured after such an attack.

  “What is wrong with you, father?” I stood up and glared at Damon. There was no world in which I would accept this. “Do you find this fun? Have I done something to deserve this?”

  “I’m doing what’s best for you.”

  “The hell you are!” In my anger, I raised my hand and launched a fireball at Damon. Despite being a few feet in front of me, Damon was able to deflect the attack. There was genuine surprise on his and Zena’s face. I didn’t care that I blew my cover, not anymore. “I’d rather continue my magic lessons than learn how to swing a sword!”

  “H-how… When did you learn how to do this? Zena, did you know?” Damon asked.

  My mother had a large smile on her face. The best way to describe her expression was pride. “I didn’t. Wow, Thorian, you’re able to use magic already? I’m so proud of you!”

  “I don’t understand, who taught you magic?” Damon asked.

  My earlier anger was beginning to subside. I wasn’t going to complain, I’d rather talk than get beaten with a wooden sword again. “I taught myself. I saw the beginners magic book and practiced in secret to surprise you both.”

  “That doesn’t make sense. How were you able to read the book?” Damon pushed.

  Ah, this was one of the reasons I had hid magic for this long. There was no reasonable way for me to explain. Oh well, whatever I said they’d have to believe, at least I hoped. “I taught myself. It wasn’t easy.”

  “Is that where you were running off to while we were dealing with your sister?” Zena asked.

  “Uh-huh.”

  “Wow, you really are a genius! I always had a feeling with how you learn everything so fast,” Zena said.

  Yeah, I wasn’t going to respond to that. It may seem like I’m a genius, but that’s only because of my memories. If I had been reincarnated properly, I would be nothing more than a silly five-year-old who would have been traumatized by his father with sword practice.

  “Well, if you thought using magic was going to get you out of sword practice, you’d be wrong,” Damon said.

  Of course. Why did I think I could get out of this so easily? My entire body began to shake. This was the dumbest thing I’d ever heard in my life. What kind of parent teaches a kid to use a sword this way? Clearly my dumbass father!

  I slammed my wooden sword into the ground and ran back into the house. There was nothing I could do to get out of training. That was the downside to being a kid. My parents would always get the final say, what a pain!

  Thankfully, Damon didn’t follow me. I walked into the room where the books were. Somehow I was able to stop myself from slamming the door. There was no point in showing that kind of anger, it would only get me in more trouble.

  If Damon was going to hit me like that every day from now on… Well, I wasn’t sure what to do. It’s not like I have anywhere else to go. I can’t call another family member and ask to live with them. I’m stuck here. Any joy I thought I might have at learning the sword was gone. A part of me considered running away, only for the logical side of me to realize it would only get me killed. I couldn’t recall the last time I felt this helpless.