Ten.

'Can I even blame myself for losing that fast to the bear, I indeed had a bad feeling in the moment of the attack, but yet... I went for it.' Alkan thought, the whole family was sitting at the table with Emy, his mother, releasing some sighs while talking to them.

He continued his thoughts as muffled sounds ran in the background, however, he felt someone tap his shoulder and the sounds became clear as he focused outside again.

The three of them were eating dinner and not letting this family time get on the way Emy started the conversation about how irresponsible was Urian, how could he put his own son in danger and sometimes even placing herself on his place to fix the errors her husband did.

'At least she has a mother side to her.' While that came in mind his mother that touched his shoulder looked at him and said - "Is that clear?"

"Uh, y-yeah." Pretending to understand everything Alkan could only agree as he was ablivious to the situation or the deal they made.

Squinting her eyes at him, she ignored the strange son of hers and sat down beside him again.

The pressure of having her beside him was kind of nerve wrecking since he knew her true nature, sometimes she was a 'M' and sometimes pure 'S'.

'What now?' Alkan said in his mind confused. They kept eating.

...

A few days later the old man in a kid's body finally decide to ask about magic to his mother because of the woman's mood, this last days he had a feeling that if he asked something akin she would 100% reject. Emy was rather mad about his father's doing.

But that's what the male parent does. Always screwing up or at least it's more likely.

Alkan entered his parents' room finding what he expected, his mother lying there alone while reading some book she took from the library a little earlier.

'Father went to do what..? Oh, right, hunt another strange deer meat for us.' Alkan thought as his mother sat on the bed and looked at him.

"Alkan? Do you need something?" She said.

"Yeah... I came here to talk about magic." As she was about to look into her book again she raised an eyebrown and locked eyes with him.

"No."

"..."

"..."

"What? Why!" He moved his entire body showing his surprise.

"What? You kept reading books but couldn't find that information?" Making a smug face she said to her surprise son.

With Alkan frozen there, she continued - "The general rule is to teach the kids when they reach the age of 10. This can't be bargained, sorry." He didn't know why that was a rule, or maybe a culture related regulation but he could only sadly guess it was because of the danger that mana could pose against weak bodies.

"Hu~" He made the weird sound and left the room dejectedly, however, his mother didn't even flinch.

'Nevertheless, I still have my father, I'll make him teach me in... secret?

[Time Skip of almost 6 years.]

In their famiily yard, Alkan was there practicing his swords skills alone, he knew that both of his parents were at the same time eating lunch.

It was a couple of years back that his secret training, almost none, was found out by his mother and she of course was mad as they had at that moment, decided to tell everything they have done this past years.

It was hard for her to let them out of her sight but with a good word skills, after a while she gave up and Alkan was free to receive training from his Urian, her husband.

However, that persuasion skill wasn't enough to make her teach the child some magic or the wonderful abilities she had. Only when you are 10.

And so, Alkan had finally a good schedule for training, previously the teaching would only come when his mother wasn't home, a rare occasion.

In today's time, he would be turning 10 tomorrow, having that in mind, he had a good day of doing nothing and when his parents weren't home, probably going to buy him some kind of gift, he tried training his mana, which again like always, nothing amazing happened.

His hope lied in his mother, that after tomorrow, would teach him and hopefully allow himself to breakthrough in some way.

So far what Alkan was able to do with the energy that lied inside him was to strengthen some parts of his body, there was places that he couldn't reach, it felt weird, but he was almost sure that Emy would do the trick for his mage path.

Remembering what he would do in his first life when his family wasn't home made him chuckle, after going through this type of situation, when it appeared again, the difficult had decreased since he died before his thirties.

However now, he had better things to do.

While he removed his shirt, his developed muscles appeared, over the years they kept growing and with his training, everyday his appearance was getting better and more defined. Even if he wasn't the super handsome guy, with his trained body, he looked good.

He started his daily body exercise while wearing only his shorts.

...

After some time, Emy and Urian still didn't arrive, yet Alkan continued and after finally stopping, his whole body was soaked with sweat and his short brown hair was heavy with all the liquid, just like when he took a bath, which he would take one now.

It didn't last long, since as the memories showed, he had better things to do, together with not hitting that age yet. Maybe it was late for him.

Exiting the bathroom the corridor welcomed Alkan that was wearing his black pants together with a grey long sleeve shirt, not to forget his cute grey slippers. Furry.

Luckily, only a couple of seconds passed by and the front door opened showing Emy and Urian.

"Hey Alkan, how long was you inside that bath?" The father spoke giving a knowing smile to his son.

"Ouch." The same man received an elbow to his side from his wife - "What are you insinuating! He's not like that!"

"Mhmm, 'not like that', he's a boy Honey!" He said only to get hit again.

"Enough!"

"Tomorrow as you know is the day you'll be turning 10 and I called some friends of mine and your fathers' to come, also..." She smile and continued - "Alina will be here, and of course James too..." On the latter, she smiled wryly since it was obvious she wanted Alkan to be together with her friend's daughter, Alina in this case, which turned 10 last month making her older than Alkan.

Just because he lives in a rather secluded it doesn't mean his family doesn't have friends, imagine not going out to see them.

So Alina's birthday was pretty nice, they enjoyed themselfs and all... standard.

Now for James, he's achieving 10 in two months.

Pretty shit situation as they will need to buy too much stuff to give out for all the kids.

At the same time, all of the children will be going to the academy together when they reach the age of 12.

"Sure, it will be nice." With a simple answer, Alkan walked back to his room like always.

"Why is he so cold to us." Urian said with fake tears - "Maybe because you almost killed him that time." He heard that from his wife and couldn't help but groan.

"..."

"..."

After some seconds of silence, they went to their bedroom while Urian kept a hold of Emy's waist.

...

In his bedroom, Alkan kept his mind on his mana and he was happy that his teacher would appear tomorrow. His mother.

Something to keep notice is that he didn't train his mana afraid that this would catch her attention since she's a mage.

However, that train of thought stopped as he heard a yelp on the other side of the corridor.

''Sigh', not again.' This came in mind as he tried to sleep.