Chapter 3: This must be a sign1Here's a small meme fitting to the title:

  HidingInTheNovels

  “Mom, I really don’t know how this happened!” I indignantly shout.

  “Yes, yes. Surely the bed and clothes moved because of the wind. And surely tonight it rained through the window, watering all the pnts. And the wall was hit by a lightning bolt at an impossible angle,” Mom responds somewhat dismissively.

  “Yes, that must be what happened!” I say with conviction.

  A fist comes crashing down on my head.

  “Like hell that happened! It didn’t rain tonight, and the window was closed! And how the hell would wind even move this bed?” Mom rebukes me.

  “Then how could I, a five-year-old, move this bed?” I whimper while rubbing my head.

  "Knowing you, you found some way to use magic!"

  "Me, a five-year-old?"

  "That's the only logical expnation for how this could have happened. If it were any other child, I would be genuinely confused. But you have always been way more mature than your peers, and a complete fanatic about magic. It wouldn't surprise me too much if you somehow found out how to cast magic."

  Dammit, why do moms always know their children so well?!

  I’m currently kneeling on the ground with my hand on my thighs, making the most pitiful expression I can muster.

  Mom looks at my face and immediately gets my message of: “Forgive me, pretty please?”

  “Haaaa, fine. Given that it’s your birthday, I suppose I can forgive you this once. However, you won’t get breakfast before you have cleaned up the room!” Sighing, Mom gives in.

  “Okay!”

  Responding, I start sorting my clothes. Half an hour ter, I’m finally done and have even used magic to regrow the wall, making it look like new. I myself am surprised by how precise my Magic already is. I did train my imagination as much as possible in preparation for today, but still. This is a bit too precise.

  Is my talent that good? Not knowing what to make of it, I leave my room and enter the living room.

  We’re a family of three, and our house is comparatively big compared to the houses of most other people living in this vilge. We have a total of two bedrooms, a rarity for us commoners, one living room, one kitchen, and a toilet.

  The living room is directly in the middle, and when coming from outside, it’s the first pce you step into. On the right, one would then find both my bedroom and the toilet, in that order. On the left, one would find the bedroom of my parents. It occupies the entire left side. The kitchen is on the wall to my parents’ bedroom in the living room. And on the complete opposite side of the entrance, there is a small door which leads to a small garden.

  All in all, the plot of nd is fifty by fifty meters.

  People always wonder why exactly we have two bedrooms. However, my parents never comment on it, and I, while I have a good guess, also never speak about it. All I can say is that it’s a wonder that I’m still an only child. I mean, I can still hear them from my room from across the house. Granted, the sound isotion in this house is shitty, but it is still a feat to be able to be heard through two doors. Sleeping next to them must be hell.

  Stepping into the living room, I see my father already sitting at the table and my mother taking out bread that has just finished baking from the oven, another luxury for commoners like us. Technology in this world is incredibly advanced in some areas, while it is extremely backwards in other areas. For example, I really wish somebody would invent good toilets already! Currently, it’s merely one deep hole that is cleaned periodically.

  Well, better toilets do exist in big cities. However, we’re living in a vilge, and there are no sewers here.

  “Come sit,” my mother tells me. Doing as I am told, I am soon presented with a steaming hot bread roll. Cutting it open, I put butter and cheese on it before taking a bite in bliss.

  Soon, the entire roll has vanished in my stomach.

  “Thanks for the meal!” I shout while running out.

  “Come back before lunchtime!” My mother shouts after me.

  Running for a bit, I soon arrive at the forest. Following its edge, I arrive at an open field. It’s where I always swing around my wooden stick in an attempt to learn swordsmanship and train my physical strength and endurance. I reckon that nobody would mind me practising my magic here.

  The first thing I try is enhancing my body without drawing anything in the air. I fail. My muscles only bulge slightly, and the increase in strength is minimal. It seems like Signless Body Strengthening Magic is actually one of the harder Signless Magics.

  After all, it is way harder to imagine being super strong than to imagine a fireball appearing in front of me. So I try something else. I visualise a waterball appearing in front of me in the air. It works, yet the water gathers at a snail’s pace. Pondering, I draw a water drop in the air while imagining water gathering, and now it gathers at a way faster speed than before. Somehow, the speed at which the water gathered through signless magic was ten times slower than when using signs.

  I try to find the difference between the two, but fail. Even after repeating the experiment several times, I still fail at finding the reason. I try to remember the settings as much as possible. Then it hits me. There was a setting in the game’s lore where the Signs also helped in controlling the Magic Power. That's why my magic was so precise in the morning. I trained those signs for a long time.

  And so, I try to control my Magic Power on my own. An utter disaster. I'm incapable of even sensing my Magic Power, let alone using it. Thankfully, every human can sense Mana in their body, so I don't need to start from scratch.

  By noon, I'm able to get a vague feeling for Magic Power. Remembering my mom’s warning, I head home. My nose immediately detects the scent of steak, and my mouth starts to water.

  “I’m home!”