"You're amazing Mr. Hensen!" Syla cheerfully praised Hensen as she kept coming closer to him.
"Mr. Hensen! Thank you for saving us!" Syla's mom gave her thanks and bowed slightly.
"Ah.. It's really fine! Protecting both of you is my duty as an instructor, after all, we're still inside a forest, so dangerous monsters can always appear unpredictably." Mr. Hensen replied politely. "Let's end the lesson now and go back, usually if there's an orc, there will always be more, it seems like that one went too far from its group."
Following Hensen's suggestion, Syla and her mother began preparing to go back to their home, they traveled through the forest for almost an hour and made it back safely, barely avoiding another orc on their way back and touching a poisonous frog.
"Phew, today was an unlucky day for sure." Hensen said as they arrived on the village fences. "See you tomorrow, Syla, and Yulia."
"See you again Mr. Hensen!" Syla replied while waving her hand, her tail wags around unconciously.
.
.
That night, 8:30PM—
At her bedroom, Syla stared into the ceiling of her house, she was alone with her thought, and remembered Mr. Hensen's words from before.
'Orcs— Goblins, next must be– Ogre, and Elves– I remembered in one of the book i read that Ogres and Goblins are intelligent, many have been recorded living inside a human settlement, different from what i thought, it seems like there's two types of Goblins in this world, a normal goblin with human-like intelligence, and rogue goblins, which is just the normal goblin monster i've known in my previous life.'
'I've yet to see the difference between goblin and rogue goblins.. Though i assume rogue goblins would be more deformed? I mean, if its a mindless monsters, wouldn't it be scary?'
'I want to meet them one day, Goblins, Ogres, and Elves, i wonder if they're any different from what my previous world depicted them to be, atleast the orcs are similar to how i think they looked, but aren't they usually use clubs instead of an axe?—
'Eh, it's not like i care anyway..'
As Syla was wondering in her mind, something inside her body suddenly snapped, a burning sensation gradually appeared, at first it was subtle, but Syla eventually felt it growing and it became clear.
'Ugh!? W- what is this, my body– They're on fire..' She groaned.
The pain was becoming more intense as time goes on, even though her parents was at the living room, Syla wasn't able to call them for help, her voice was gone for an unknown reason, and she could only helplessly endure the burning pain.
Sweats began forming on her forehead, Syla thought she was poisoned, and that this was the effect of it. Unable to think of a way to relieve the pain or call for help, Syla almost gave up, when in an instant, her body was shocked, like a surge of electricity just coursing through her veins, when she felt the shock in her body, the unbearable burning pain was gone, it didn't gradually subsided, but rather exploded and bursting out of her body like a fireworks.
"GAHH!?" Syla screamed and gasped for air, the bed was messed up and Syla's hairs got entangled everywhere.
Soon, her parents opened the door with force, they looked at the sweating Syla and quickly approached her.
"Syla!? Are you okay!? what happened!?" Her mom said as she wiped the sweats off of her head. "Are you sick!?"
"Isn't this—" Her dad tried to think of another reason as to why her daughter became like that. "Did your mana awakened!?"
Syla looked at her father as soon as he said those words while still breathing heavily, her mother also looked at her husband in disbelief.
"Is that true!?" Syla's mom asked, her worries suddenly turned into anticipation.
"Im sure of it, Mr. Hensen said she'll most likely awakened her mana tomorrow, but it seems like she did it faster than expected." Her dad responded, remembering Mr. Hensen's words from a few days ago. "Syla! Can you use magic now?! Open your hand and imagine a spell, no matter what it is, water, fireball, or anything!"
Syla complied with her father's request and opened her palm, she then closed her eyes and imagined a magic circle before turning it into a fireball.
On the outside, her parents was stunned to see a fire forming ontop of Syla's hand, even though Syla imagined a standard size fireball, the actual magic she conjured only summoned a small fire that can't even be called a fireball, the fire lasted for a long 20 seconds before it disappeared.
"That's.. My magic?" Syla couldn't believe herself, and so does her parents too.
They celebrated Syla's awakening, congratulating her and gave her every advice they had in their mind.
"Now that you're a mage, remember to not use it for evil!"
"Syla! Help me lit the fireplace next time!"
"Whatever you do, use your power for good!"
"Do you want to join the hunting squad!?"
"Dear! What are you saying!"
"Ouch! Hey! I was just joking!"
"Do you want to learn combat too!? it'll be really badass!"
"Dear! She's a girl!"
"So what? A girl can always learn how to swing a sword–"
"Ow ow ow!!"
"Syla, don't listen to your father."
"You can help your mother cooking with that fire!"
"Im so proud of you."
Amidst the chaotic scene that was unfolding infront of her, Syla felt a sense of relief in her heart, like a chain that was broken, she felt unbounded, knowing that this is the first step for her to become stronger.
'I did it.. Huff— I can use magic! After 2 weeks.. Is it 2 weeks? The point is– I've passed the hardest stage, now all i need to do is to expand my mana storage.' Syla said to herself, her heart was racing, and for the first time ever, she felt proud of herself.
"We'll have to tell Mr. Hensen tomorrow, that means tomorrow will also be your last lesson, after that Mr. Hensen will move out from here." Syla's dad said to her, he no longer had any jokes left, so– He said one final thing.
"Good job, Syla, im really proud of you– I knew you could do it." Before leaving the room.
At the same time, Syla's mother also had something to say to her, her eyes seemed to have been holding back tears.
"Syla, mom want to ask you a question." She said.
"What is it mom?" Syla replied, waiting for her mother's question.
"What do you want to be when you grow up?" She asked.
Syla fell into silence, for a few seconds, the room was quiet, only the sound of night birds howling and the countless insects shrieking can be heard in the distance.
"I want to be— Someone that explores the world!" Syla asnwered with a smile.
Her answer was not something her mother expected, at first she thought her daughter would say a mage or a teacher, but to be someone that explores the world, means to be a wanderer.
"You want to explore the world?" Her mother asked again, trying to gain confirmation from Syla.
Syla nodded in response and said, "When i hear Mr. Hensen explaining new things to me, i thought to myself, that i want to see it for myself! I want to see magic artifacts! I want to see what a human town looks like, and i want to see many animals! When i saw the orc that morning, i thought it looked so cool– I know they're dangerous, you said i should avoid them, but i atleast want to learn about them.."
Syla's answer struck deep within her mother's heart, she almost couldn't believe that that sentence was formed by a 4 years old child, to have such desire and goals that they knew the danger of but still continues to dream.
'Ah, she looks exactly like me' Yulia thought.
'Before i got married, i also think that i could go anywhere, but– I realized that day.. That the world was full of dangers far beyond what i could've expected..' Syla's mother remembered the past where she was still a teenager.
At that time, Yulia who was living in another demi-human village, came across something that would almost costs her life.