Volume 1: Enrollment at Magias Academy of Magical Arts

Chapter 1: There’s Something I Need to Tell You Before I Go

I was reincarnated as ______.

I’d been thinking about how to fill in that blank all morning.

Why? Because this morning, I remembered that I was a reincarnator from Earth.

As I was getting ready after waking up like usual, the memories of my previous life suddenly returned to me.

Not that there was much to remember.

I’d been born with a chronic illness and spent nearly my entire former life in a hospital room. It had been an extremely short life.

In terms of life experience, I’d already gained far more since being reincarnated. I had to be grateful to the parents who’d given me a perfectly healthy body in this world. Not that I wasn’t grateful to my parents in my previous life too.

Anyway, since I’d gone to the trouble of being reincarnated, I wanted an identity of my own—something that could complete the phrase, “I was reincarnated as ______.”

Why had I been reborn, and what was I meant to do? Maybe I sought answers to such abstract questions because my previous life had ended before I could accomplish anything.

Seven years had passed since I was born as the eldest son of the Walker family and named Brendan. My parents died young, before I was old enough to remember them, so now I lived alone with my grandfather in a countryside village where there was absolutely nothing.

Apparently, Grandpa had been a fairly renowned mage in his youth. He was teaching me the fundamentals of magic and smithing so I could someday survive on my own.

Thanks to him, my magical ability was supposedly exceptional for a seven-year-old. The old woman next door called me a prodigy and showered me with praise.

That said, this place was practically a marginal village, and there wasn’t anyone else my age, so I had no idea what the real standard was.

Grandpa was my only point of comparison, and if he was a hundred, then I was currently a one.

Apparently, even that was enough to make me a prodigy.

At best, I was a country prodigy—or maybe something even less impressive.

That seemed about right.

Looking back on it, there really wasn’t much to me yet.

Well, of course there wasn’t. I’d only been reincarnated seven years ago.

So, if I had to put it into words: I was reincarnated as a country prodigy.

The “country” part feels unnecessary.

Actually, this is practically a dying village, so I’m a prodigy of a dying village.

I’d have preferred being a normal prodigy.

“What’s wrong, Brendan?”

Perhaps he’d noticed me lost in thought, because Grandpa stopped the hammer he’d been bringing down on the anvil.

We were in the forge attached to our house.

He was forging a magic sword, and I was assisting him.

“Nothing.”

“You’ll hurt yourself if you keep daydreaming.”

“I know.”

I nodded, then swung the sledgehammer down on the spot Grandpa indicated.

Magic sword forging.

It was the Walker family’s secret art, and a branch of magic I was expected to inherit.

So far, studying magic had been fun.

Thanks to being born with a healthy body, everything I did was enjoyable, but magic was in a league of its own.

I spent every waking hour outside my lessons pursuing magical research.

For now, that was probably enough.

Why had I been reincarnated, and what was I meant to accomplish with this life?

I could take my time searching for the answer over the years ahead.

◇

And while I drifted through life thinking like that, somehow about ten years passed.

I was already seventeen.

As for what happened in those ten years—not much, really.

The village grew even more depopulated. Eventually, the only people left were Grandpa and a handful of elderly residents: old men, old women, an old woman who looked like an old man, and an old man who looked like an old woman. Seriously, there was no one else.

It was no longer “close to” a dying village. It had become one.

Even government services barely reached this area.

No beautiful childhood friend ever appeared either.

My own life hadn’t changed much.

I worked the fields for food, helped with Grandpa’s smithing jobs, and continued training in magic.

However, Grandpa’s lessons had recently come to an end.

I submitted the results of my research and earned a passing grade in a mock battle against him, officially graduating from his tutelage.

How I applied and developed what I’d learned was now up to me. In terms of my old world, it was probably like completing compulsory education.

There was another reason the lessons ended.

Grandpa’s health suddenly deteriorated, leaving him bedridden.

We called a doctor several times, but apparently his condition was critical.

Lately, I’d stayed constantly at his bedside.

I was already prepared for what was coming.

“Brendan, are you there?”

“I’m here.”

I’d been beside his bed the whole time, yet Grandpa seemed unable to tell where I was.

“I don’t have long. There’s something I need to tell you before I go.”

“What is it? Why so serious?”

“Listen carefully, Brendan.”

With a graver expression than I’d ever seen on him, Grandpa slowly said:

“I was the one who summoned your soul from another world.”

For a moment, I couldn’t understand what he’d told me.

“I created a vessel through a secret art, then used it to incarnate you in this world.”

What in the world was this man talking about?

It wasn’t as though I’d never wondered how I came to be reborn in this world, but still.

At that sudden confession, it felt as though the scenery warped around me.

“My daughter and her husband had lost their child. I couldn’t bear to see them suffer, so I committed the worst of taboos. Forgive me.”

He asked me to forgive him, but this was so sudden that my mind couldn’t keep up.

Did that mean he’d known exactly what I was all along?

“Wait. So I’m an artificial human?”

“Yep.”

“Don’t just say ‘yep’!”

“Relax. You’re not much different from an ordinary human.”

I clutched my head without thinking.

I’d assumed my mother and father had worked hard in the usual way and I’d been born normally.

I had no idea how I was supposed to process this.

Now my phrase would be, “I was reincarnated as an artificial human.”

“There’s something else I never told you. I have a daughter a little older than you, born from an affair. Your grandmother left me long ago because of it.”

“What…?”

Did I really need that awful piece of information right now?

It didn’t sound useful to me, and I hadn’t wanted to know such sordid family details.

“Another thing I haven’t told you—”

“There’s more…?”

“The calamity that once threatened this country’s peace will soon return.”

“A calamity?”

If it threatened the entire nation, this was hardly a peaceful subject.

I couldn’t verify whether it was true, but Grandpa hadn’t lived this long for nothing.

He’d apparently been an active mage in his youth, so as a citizen of Griefia, I should listen carefully.

“What exactly is this calamity?”

“The thing I defeated when I was young.”

“Anything else you can tell me?”

“The thing I defeated when I was young.”

Why did he say it twice?

“I don’t know when it will return or what form it will take. But this country will soon enter an age of chaos. Whether you run or confront it is your choice. Just keep it in mind.”

“I see…”

There was too much information. I couldn’t sort through it all.

The secret of my birth alone had already filled me up.

Before I could even decide how to face that truth, he’d piled on an old affair and a coming calamity. It was all getting muddled, and I really wished he’d stop.

“Another thing I haven’t told you—”

“That’s enough…”

“No matter how you came to be, I have always loved you as my true family. That, at least, is the honest truth.”

“Grandpa…”

“I enjoyed our time together, Brendan. I’m sorry I made you indulge this old man’s selfishness. From now on, live as you please and enjoy your life however you wish.”

Leaving those words behind, Grandpa slowly closed his eyes.

In the end, those were his last words.

◇

“Don’t hold a funeral.”

That had been Grandpa’s final instruction, so I obeyed.

It wasn’t that I felt no frustration at being unable to give my only relative a proper burial.

Still, Grandpa must have had his reasons.

Together with the old woman next door, I performed the bare minimum rites and buried his body in a grave prepared in our yard.

“What should I do now…?”

I murmured to myself in front of his grave.

Maybe this was a good opportunity to leave the village and see the outside world.

Come to think of it, I’d never even gone to school.

Grandpa had said he’d enroll me in an appropriate institution when the time came, but circumstances had overtaken that plan.

For now, I’d maintain my livelihood while taking my time to decide how I wanted to live.

Just then—

The doorbell, which almost never rang, sounded from the house.

It wasn’t the old woman next door.

I had a visitor for the first time in ages.

“Coming.”

I opened the front door while calling out a brief reply.

A red-haired woman stood there.

She wore a large pointed hat and a black cloak—the very image of a witch.

By my standards, she looked about college age: a stylish young woman.

“You’re Brendan Walker, correct?”

I slowly nodded at her question.

“I’m Coffey.”

She introduced herself briefly, then continued.

“I’m your aunt.”