The word examined and hung in the air.

  I blinked.

  “... Examined?”

  Of course, I knew what Cromer was. I'd heard its name enough to deduce that it was probably the closest, and only, city of this region.

  The question on my mind, and it was really just one question, was what exactly do you mean by “examined”.

  “Yeah. Ari’s one thing, but with you Awakening too, we can't afford to delay any longer,” Aaron replied, his tone still a forced-casual.

  Ariane looked over, her interest piqued by the mention of her name.

  “Henry's got someone really experienced in this kind of thing. I'll finally get to cash in that favour he owes me.”

  Henry?

  “And, we'd much rather the wider world not know of you two just yet,” Elise added. “It would bring an unseemly number of complications otherwise.”

  “Dad, mom! Who is this Henry?” Ariane blurted out, back to her usual speaking pattern.

  “Yeah! What sis said! Who's Henry?” I blurted out.

  Aaron and Elise looked at us, then each other, and then back at us.

  “Ah, right! You two haven't met Henry!”

  “Henry’s a friend of ours, and his residence is in Cromer. We'll be going to see him, specifically, since he's got someone who’d do this examination, for very little.”

  “And, he would also restrain himself from leaking any information.”

  “Ooooh.”

  That did sound good. I would prefer for my existence to be kept on the down low.

  If that's all, then… I don't have a problem with it.

  Not that I could've said no even if I wanted to, though.

  “Okay then!”

  Wait. I still have something to ask.

  “Dad, what's the examiner going to find?”

  “Oh, normal stuff, really. Your affinities, circulation rate, output and input stability, diffusion and condensation of—”

  Wow, throwing a lot of terminology at me there.

  “Aaron, dear. Do you honestly think that Cae understood a single word you just said?”

  “Oh! I forgot you haven't learnt that yet! Sorry, sorry.”

  Yeah, I definitely hadn't learnt any of that. It seems Ariane had though. I didn't see a lick of confusion on her face.

  Output and input stability are pretty easy to guess, though, and circulation rate isn't hard either.

  Affinities, though…

  I wonder what that meant?

  Was it about elements?

  Whether someone fought close-up or from a distance?

  Could it have been someone's weapon of choice?

  It could be all of them, or it could be neither.

  As for diffusion and condensation…

  It has to be of mana, right?

  But how does—

  “When are we going to set out?!” interjected Ariane, cutting off my thoughts.

  For the better, probably. I'd gotten caught up on something I could easily find out from a few questions.

  “Yeah! When are we going? I think that's an important thing to know!” I asked, so as to back up Ariane.

  It was the more relevant topic, after all.

  “About… tomorrow-ish… I'd reckon? Maybe the day after?” answered Aaron.

  “Most likely the day after tomorrow. We do need to arrange for a replacement while we're away,” Elise followed up.

  “Ah, yeah. There is that. You think Elis’ll agree to cover for us?”

  “He would, I'd assume. He still owes me that one time.”

  “Okay, that's decided!” Aaron said, turning to face us. “Kids, you heard your mother! We're off the day after tomorrow!”

  “Aaron, don't forget we need to do a thorough sweep through the Near Forest before leaving. It's part of our contract.”

  “What!?? I didn't know that!?”

  “You did, dear. Henry explicitly told you of every point. You've just forgotten, due to our lack of proper time away.”

  Contract, huh. Interesting.

  Okay.

  Probably in a few days then, huh?

  “Augh!! Damn you Henry, you slick bastard!”

  “We should probably begin now. Better to have it properly settled quickly. Ari, you can self-study while we're busy.”

  “Does that mean I can use any spell I want…?”

  “...”

  Elise shook her head, a slight smile on her face, before she answered. “Sure, dear, sure. Just make sure you don't damage anything,”

  “At least, not too much.”

  “Yay! Thank—I mean, I'm grateful, mom!”

  “And, Cae.”

  “Are you planning to get up from the floor anytime soon?

  “Huh?”

  “Your clothes will be beyond soaked if you stay any longer.”

  “I'm getting up!”

  “Since you’ve just had quite the shock to your body, and considering the journey ahead of us, I think you should get some rest, dear.”

  “Yeah! I was thinking that as well! So, I'll be going now!”

  Good for me. I can check out what's changed now that I've Awakened.

  I sat up as fast as I could, and then ran out the room as fast I could. Ariane followed behind me, the pitter-patter of her feet sounding against the floor.

  As I left, I heard the last bits of Elise saying something.

  “... learnt such advanced language? I've never heard of children speaking like that.”

  Yikes. That's worrying.

  …

  “That seems to be everything” Grace muttered, as she patted me down.

  “Yup!”

  Grace then looked over at Ariane, giving her a brief look again, as if to check if anything new would appear.

  It seems it hadn't, since she looked away soon enough.

  “That is good,” she said, standing up from where she'd been kneeling. “I’d been concerned for no reason, then.”

  “Of course you had! I checked properly, and got everything necessary.” replied Aaron, a “told-you-so” expression on his face.

  “As did I.” Elise followed up.

  It was true. They'd looked everything over, Ariane, me and themselves as well, to see if we were missing anything.

  Though we'd only be travelling for three days, those were three days we'd have to spend again if we missed anything.

  If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

  Citing that as her reason, Grace had some checked all of us over again.

  “That you have, sir. Still, there isn't any issue with another pair of eyes to check, is there?”

  “It'd be terrible to find yourself lacking anything while, after all,” she said, smiling slightly at them.

  Even with her formal language and honorifics, it seems like Grace is pretty close to Aaron and Elise.

  Most servants didn't talk to their employers like that.

  “Yeah, yeah, whatever. Is that everything, Grace?”

  Giving all of us a once-over for the last time, she nodded slightly

  “Then, sir, madam, I hope you and the children have a safe and uneventful trip. Please give Lord Calsted and Mr. Heinrich my greetings.”

  She then curtsied and bowed, before turning around and returning into the house.

  Lord Calsted and Mr. Heinrich…

  Who were they, and how did Grace know them?

  Aaron and Elise must know them too since she asked them to pass on her greeting.

  Maybe this lord's their employer?

  I should ask later.

  I then looked at Ariane, who’d already made her way behind her parents, and was looking at where we'd be getting our horses.

  To be more specific, it was the house on the other side of the village from ours. The big one I'd seen perched on the small hill, with fencing.

  Elise and Aaron didn't travel much, so they didn't have personal horses, and as such, were being lent two.

  She gave me a sidelong glance then, and wordlessly asked me a question.

  Wanna race?

  Of course, I replied, equally as wordlessly.

  With a single deep breath, I pulled mana out of my core, and dispersed it equally across my lower and upper body.

  I got into a running posture, before even Ariane had.

  “Alright, off to the stables then. Kids, don't—”

  Before he could finish, I shot off in front, not willing to give Ariane even the slightest bit of a fair race.

  “What!? Hey! That's not fair! Caeluuuuum!”

  She was, after all, older and far more experienced in this kind of thing than me. An equal race was a race I would lose.

  “There they go again...” I heard Aaron say, his voice trailing off.

  I took one last look behind me, sticking out my tongue at Ariane, who'd only just begun reinforcing her legs, if the mana I felt was any indication.

  I'd read of siblings interacting this way in the past eras of Earth. So, I saw no harm in messing with her a bit.

  Wind whipped past my face, as I brushed and navigated through the groups of people scattered around.

  My feet bounced off the ground with ease, and I was perfectly balanced, with not tipping forward or back.

  Which wasn't surprising. I had been practicing constantly over the last two days since I'd Awakened.

  It hadn't been hard to do it at first. I did have three whole people to ask for help when I got confused.

  Alright, now, let me try this out.

  I gathered numerous tiny clumps of mana down to my lower body again.

  My left foot hit the ground and the exact moment it had, I sent one clump into it and made it disperse along the direction of my leg.

  As my left foot pushed off the ground, I sent another clump of mana up to my right arm, creating a proper counter-swing.

  With that, my distance covered doubled from what it was before.

  Then, I reinforced my right leg even more and thanks to that, I landed completely stable.

  Let's goooo! Finally!

  I didn't wait to repeat the same process on my right leg this time and wonderfully, it was the same this time as well.

  This was an improved version of mana reinforcement, which enhanced strength even more and created even greater outputs of force.

  After being utterly trounced multiple times in races by Ariane the last two days, I'd figured out that she was holding out on me.

  Now, sure, her being double my age probably played a part in that, and I understood that.

  However, that she was so utterly ahead of me made me a bit suspicious.

  So, instead of trying in vain to win against her, I observed what she was doing.

  You know, an interesting thing about being Awakened, other than the circulation control, was that I could now feel when mana was being used..

  Through this, I was able to notice that every time Ariane's feet hit the ground, a wave of mana pulsed out, reflecting off surfaces.

  And was because of that, alongside what I remembered of Aaron's movements from the Axehead hunt, that I'd figured it out.

  She was, in some way or other, consciously using mana to boost the force produced by her legs.

  After that, it was simple enough to figure out how to do it myself. Not only was it not particularly difficult, I also had Aaron and Elise to ask about.

  They'd agreed readily when I told them I wanted to beat Ariane in a race, and enthusiastically took me through the entire process.

  It was nice of them. My previous parents probably hadn't ever done anything like that.

  Aaron was helpful, but it was Elise's advice that really stuck with me.

  Her descriptions of how I should move my body, about the exact way I should direct mana into my limbs, etc. were all so detailed, I immediately got what I had to do.

  And, because of that, I had a lot of fun learning how to pull it off, even with the many, many meetings my face had with the ground.

  Now, after a solid minute of using it, I could say with a hundred percent confidence that I had pulled it off.

  Magic, you truly are amazing.

  Even with the increased cost and attention demand, this method outclassed the usual method by more than a few paces.

  From what I remembered from Earth, this was about similar to my movements in my previous body.

  Of course, I'd been doing that mostly unconsciously, since I hadn't known I was using any supernatural force at all.

  But enough of that. Soon enough, I'd be doing even more than what I'd been capable of on Earth.

  I'll be learning swordsmanship, spells, and so much more.

  And this time, I'd know what I was doing.

  Ah, man! I can't wait—

  “OOF!”

  Someone fell over in front of me, and I fell alongside him.

  Luckily, I had been able to shift to the side at the last moment, so I didn't land on him.

  “Sorry! I wasn't paying attention to my surroundings! You're not hurt, are you!?”

  I got up as fast as I could, very cognizant of the older sister that was approaching, as an apology spilled out of my mouth.

  I reached out a hand to help up the kid I'd knocked over. He was a kid, after all.

  One who was about my age, I'd reckon.

  He was fair-skinned, strange considering the amount of sun this place got, and had shaggy, dark hair that spilled over his eyes, nearly covering them from view.

  Like jades, the thought came to see unconsciously. His eyes were like round-cut jade stones.

  He was wearing the same long, loose gown that every other boy, including me, in the village wore, which was the only thing not odd about him.

  “.......”

  The boy said nothing, and just stared at me, a befuddled look on his face.

  He was still lying on the paved road, making no attempt to take my hand.

  Oh. He's got a basket of fruit, I noticed.

  It was besides him, most likely having fallen out of his hands when I'd collided with him.

  Eventually, I was no longer willing to wait, and grabbed his hand and pulled him up anyway.

  After he was up on his feet, I began picking up his fruits and basket.

  “Are you alright? I hope I didn't hurt you?”

  “... Ah! Um, no. I'm not hurt!”

  “That's good!” I said, before finishing up gathering the fruit that had fallen over. “Here, your basket. I picked it up for you.”

  “Oh! You didn't have to do that!”

  Hmm?

  “Why not? I made you fall over, it's only natural that—”

  “Caelum! You cheaaaater!”

  Uh-oh. Looks like Ariane's catching up to me.

  “Anyways, take it. I need to run. Bye!”

  I shoved the basket into his hands and ran past, not making the silly mistake of looking behind me, though.

  “Ah, um, thank you!” I heard him mumble from behind me.

  Real pushover, this one.

  What's he thanking me, the guy that pushed him over, for?

  Shaking the thought of the odd looking kid from my head, I ran harder up. As hard as a four year old could anyway.

  My destination, the estate on the small hill, was already in sight and I had full faith that I'd gotten enough of a headstart to make it.

  At least I hoped I did, since I could hear the wind along Ariane's steps, which were getting closer and closer scarily fast.

  Can't beat the limits of my body, can I?

  When I was only a few metres away Bracing myself, I jumped with all my might, and landed right on the front lawn of the estate, blades of grass poking my face.

  As soon as I had, Ariane had also done the same and landed

  She immediately pushed herself up and began rapidly approaching me.

  I'd gotten up as well, knowing what was going to happen if I didn't, but it hadn't been fast enough.

  She then began pulling my cheeks, using her reinforcement enhanced strength and that really hurt!

  “Hehe, looks like I won this time, sis.” I said through gritted teeth, still eager to gloat.

  “Yeah! Cause you cheated!”

  “But, I wouldn't have a chance otherwise!”

  Even if I was technically in the wrong here, I'd still defend myself. After all, I did get a win against someone almost double my physical age.

  “You little—”

  “Now, now, settle down, you two. Don't tire yourselves out this early.”

  And suddenly, Aaron and Elise had arrived. Which neither of us had noticed.

  I knew they were fast. Way faster than both of us. But how quiet they could be along with that still shocked me.

  “But, but!” Ariane protested, still holding onto my cheeks.

  Come on! Let go already!

  This is really starting to hurt!

  “No buts, Ari. You can get your brother back for this after we're done travelling.”

  “Okaaay…”

  She relented, finally letting go of me.

  My poor, poor cheeks were relieved from their torment. I rubbed them, sore as they were, before following them to beyond the small hill.

  As we passed over it, the stable I'd been imagining would be there wasn't there.

  Instead, I saw an older man, about middle aged, standing with two horses by him, already properly outfitted for riding, and who were calmly standing around.

  Beyond him was nothing but grasslands as far as the eye could see. Running through said grassland was an immensely long stretch of cleared dirt road.

  Its name was simply Cromer Road, and it was the main route to the city that we'd be taking.

  To my left, far off in the distance, I saw the sides of the Arm of Wintra, as well as tall pine and oak-like trees, peaking out from the clouds of mist surrounding it.

  Apparently, the straightest path to the city of Cromer was from here, and it'd be about three or so days, including the time to camp and sleep.

  Elise approached him, while Aaron went to meet the horses.

  “So, you'll be leaving now, will you? When'll you be back, you reckon?”

  “If nothing goes wrong, then we will return by next week, Chief Alden. Is there anything you'd like for us to tell Lord Calsted? We'll make the report if need be.”

  So he's the village chief.

  Alden paused for a while, scratching at his beard as he thought, before shaking his head sideways.

  “No need for that. There’s nothing that I know of that needs to be brought to his attention.”

  “I had thought as much.”

  “Well, then, you four, safe travels.”

  With a final nod, Alden began walking away. Elise turned around as well and called out to us.

  “Ari, you'll be riding with me. Cae, you'll be with your father.”

  “Okay!”

  I approached Aaron, who was already standing by his horse.

  He picked me up, an action which he did as effortlessly as ever, and placed me on the saddle, before getting on himself.

  Immediately, I felt the horse’s body heat radiating into me, a warm persistent heat. The smell of the saddle's oiled leather and horse wafted into my nose.

  This was the first time I'd ride a horse. Hells, it was the first time I'd ever touched a horse.

  On Earth, being able to take care of a pet at all was costly and expensive, not to mention an animal like a horse.

  Only the wealthier households, who had both the resources and time, could manage such a thing.

  Hehehe.

  Who would've thought that it would be me, of all people, who'd get to ride a horse first.

  Oh, if only she was here to see this. She'd—

  Wait.

  Who's “she”?

  For some reason or other, despite the thought having come up unconsciously, when I tried to remember whoever “she” was, I found my memories blank.

  Who is this? How did I know her?

  At least with my past life's family, I could remember that they were my family, lack of faces, voices and all.

  This person, on the other hand, was a complete void in my head.

  “Tch.”

  What's causing this? Did getting reincarnated drain me of memories?

  But why would it be only the memories of people I knew?

  Could it have been that bridge of light? Maybe it was draining—

  “Something wrong, Cae?”

  “Huh? Oh, no, it's nothing, dad.”

  Aaron let out a low hmm, like he didn't quite believe me, before dropping it.

  Whatever, not like I could do anything about it right now. I'd just have to investigate it in the future.

  Surely there's some magic that could help me here?

  “Right then, since this is your first time riding, I want you to carefully observe me, alright?” He paused for a moment, before ruffling my hair. “When you're learning in the future, it'll help to have some experience beforehand.”

  You didn't need to tell me that, I thought, as I nodded at him.

  “I'll squeeze with my legs first, and that'll signal this guy to start walking. Then, I'll make a soft cluck as another signal. Most mounts are trained like this.”

  After explaining what he was going to do, and then doing them, the horse began to take small steps forward.

  It was strange, being so high up suddenly. Instead of being eye-level with the road, I was looking down at it.

  I looked to the side, and saw Elise and Ariane doing the same.

  “Get ready, Cae. We'll be setting off properly now.”

  Aaron did something behind me, making a different sound this time, and the horse began to speed up.

  Slowly, it went from walking to trotting, I think it was called.

  And as it did, I felt the full force of its body moving beneath me. Hundreds of kilos of muscles shifting me left, right, down and up, again and again.

  Isn't this weird!

  If I didn't remember being jerked around by even rougher transport, I'd definitely be panicking.

  Hell, even with that, I still felt a jolt down my spine when it first started.

  I could feel its shoulder blades moving beneath me, and I quickly understood that, in just a bit of time, my lower body would be feeling quite sore.

  It was weird in a good way, mind you. But for someone who'd never ridden before, it was very shocking.

  As we travelled, wind brushing against my face and blowing around my hair, I thought to myself, I could definitely get used to this.

  Aaron kept quiet mostly, focused on settling into the proper rhythm for the long ride ahead of us. I kept quiet as well, feeling no particular need to be talking.

  I was more focused on the experience.

  Looking all around, I saw the village fade into the horizon bit by bit, being left behind by us. Eventually, I couldn't see even the barest trace of it.

  The Arm of Wintra, alongside its misty forestry, was still there, in the corner of my eye.

  Seeing it while moving truly did hammer just how massive this mountain range, which spanned half-a-continent, was.

  I looked to my side, and saw Elise and Ariane in a similar enough position as us. Elise had, however, already relaxed herself, reins held in a loose grip.

  A marked difference from Aaron, who was still adjusting the horse's speed.

  An interesting reversal between the two, since Elise was usually the more vigilant one.

  Who knows, maybe she’s better with animals.

  Ariane, on the other hand, wasn't in any different of a state than me, which made me realise that I was as equally wonder-struck as a not even ten year old girl.

  Kinda funny, that.

  She looked over to me then, and began vividly expressing her excitement with her eyes. It was impressive, and also very adorable.

  I tried my best to show my feelings as well, even though honest emotional expression had never been my strong suit.

  Thankfully, it seemed to work, as she grinned back at me, one I returned.

  Then, I felt Aaron relax behind me, a sigh leaving his lips as his grip on the reins loosened.

  As I'd expected, my lower body had begun to protest the constant pushing and shoving it was experiencing.

  By now, the novelty of riding a horse had totally worn off, and I couldn't ignore the building soreness any longer.

  I shifted around on the saddle, attempting to lessen the soreness by repositioning myself.

  It didn't help much.

  Having nothing in particular to occupy me, my thoughts drifted and found their way back, naturally, inevitably, to where they'd been two days ago.

  To why I was here in the first place.

  Examination…

  Affinities. Circulation Rate. Input and Output stability.

  What did they mean, exactly, was still something I didn't know. I could guess, sure, but that's all I could do. And guessing definitely wasn't knowing.

  The chance that I was stupidly wrong was always there.

  That someone else, an entire stranger, would be finding out what I was capable of, at the same I would be?

  That… is off-putting.

  Not sure why, exactly.

  It wasn't like I, or anyone in this family, would be able to. Otherwise, this entire trip wouldn't even be happening.

  Maybe that was why?

  That even Aaron and Elise, who were so much more capable than me, couldn't do this.

  “Thinking about something, Cae? You've been quiet for a while,” Aaron started from behind me.

  “Yeah. Riding a horse is weird.”

  “That it is, that it is. I'd thought the same thing when I'd first ridden.”

  “My legs feel sore, too.”

  He let out a laugh.

  “Haha, yeah, I bet they do,” he said, letting out a laugh. “Try reinforcing just a little bit, otherwise you'll be feeling more than just sore in a few hours.”

  Oh. I didn't know that.

  That doesn't sound nice. Not nice at all.

  “Your father's right, dear. Ari, you should as well.” Elise said, joining the conversation. She'd come closer to us, only a meter or so away now.

  “I already have, mom!” Ariane replied.

  I followed his advice, and immediately reinforced my entire body. I was still sore, but hopefully it won't get any worse now.

  Aaron stopped talking for a while, before Elise spoke again.

  “That's not everything, is it, Cae?”

  Oh wow, how observant.

  “Is it that obvious, mom?”

  “I'm your mother, after all. Of course I can tell what you're thinking.”

  “Is it about Cromer?” Aaron followed up.

  “...Yeah.”

  Aaron let out a low sound, something between a hum and a laugh, before responding.

  “You'll be fine. Heinrich's good at what he does. The best around, even.”

  So that's who Heinrich is. I was wondering about it ever since Grace mentioned his name.

  “Yeah, Caelum. Don't be so worried. I'm also going to do it and look at me, I'm fine!”

  I nodded at her, and didn't say anything else.

  Being fine, or even this Mr. Heinrich's skill wasn't what I was worried about. I'd say I wasn't even worried, actually.

  I'm just…

  Haranguing over nothing important.