Awaken

"...mo..."

"...Edmo..."

"EDMOND!!"

"Aaaaah!" I screamed as I was awakened to my name being called. Crap, did I fell asleep in class again? Why didn't I drink another extra cup of coffee...

It was only then that I realized my hair and clothes are drenched wet. Looking up, I saw Mr Zheng staring at me with a concerned face. "M-Mr Zheng?"

"Oh thank goodness." I can feel his boy relaxed through his arms that were holding me up while he maintained a kneeling-squatting position. "What happened?"

My brain went blank at the question, still trying to grasp the situation. That's right, I was washing the dishes, and then the bushes, then the man...

That was when everything came rushing back to me.

"The man! What happened to the man?!" I jumped up from Mr Zheng's arm almost immediately and pulled open the bushes the man was supposed to be in.

But nobody was there.

"What man?" Mr Zheng asked as he followed behind.

"T- th- t- the man! Th- there was this man! In the bushes! He asked me if I'm Corbyn or something, and then he like smell me or something? But then he bit me! Look!" I raised my left shoulder to show him the wound, but when I touched it, there's no searing pain, no torn flesh, and certainly no blood.

Huh? Does that mean everything that just happened was all an illusion?

"Alright, alright, calm down." Mr Zheng held my shoulders and said, looking into my eyes, before eyeing my shoulder where my hand kept rubbing around in concern. "Take a couple of deep breaths, and tell me everything you remember one by one. For now, let me see your shoulder, OK?"

I took his suggestion and inhaled deeply before exhaling. Feeling the storm in my messy brain beginning to settle, I was able to think a little more rationally and nodded to him. But strange, I felt like everything is a lot less chaotic, was it just my imagination?

Seeing me nod, Mr Zheng bent down to check on my shoulder. Despite him being not that tall, standing at somewhere just below 170cm, my short height of 128cm still made it almost half a meter between our height.

I continued to let my mind settle as I waited for him, but it wasn't long before I heard him mutter. "Weird…"

"Is there a wound?" I asked.

"No, not a single, but look." He said as he pulled up a portion of my school uniform.

Looking over, I saw moonlight piercing through the gaping holes before on the piece of cloth, I probably wasn't able to notice it because I was panicking, but now I can see it crystal clear, it's definitely the shape of a row of teeth, there's no mistaking it. But then...

I pulled up my collar and sensed underneath the cloth with my fingers. Sure enough, there isn't a single place that triggers any pain, the skin underneath the cloth was completely smooth and unscathed.

"So, now that you've calmed down, would you mind telling me what happened again so that maybe we can figure this out together?" Mr Zheng said, seeing that I didn't freak out.

I nodded in return and tried to recall and explain as much of what happened to Mr Zheng as possible. Of course, I left out the part that I was about to commit suicide, I don't want to worry Mr Zheng any further after all.

"A blonde haired muscular man, with light blue eyes that turns yellow…" Mr Cheng had his hand against his chin as he contemplated.

But it was soon that he sighed and shook his head, shrugging his shoulders. "Nope, not ringing a bell. In any case, at least you're fine for now. You have no idea how worried I was when I returned only to find you laying there with your upper body half submerged in the river."

Oh... so that's why my clothes are wet...

"In any case, you said he bit you, right? Let's see, do you feel anything different compared to before? Like uncontrollable anger or something?"

...Where did that come from? But in any case, I don't feel any much different but... if I were to say, I feel like the world around me gets a lot more quiet, while being a lot more louder at the same time. It's hard to describe, but I feel like I was only capable of hearing water flowing in the river, but now... I somehow feel able to hear the water flowing in great details? It might be my imagination though, considering my ears were submerged in the water for quite some time while I passed out so it could be that too.

But even so, it all really felt a lot more quiet, like something was gone. Now, everything felt as quiet as they are whenever I'm in my dreams. But I really can't pinpoint what it was. One thing is for sure though, I'm in a great mood despite just getting involved in an accident, somehow feeling that everything will be okay.

But if I were to tell these to Mr Zheng, it's probably going to sound very weird. After thinking for a while, I decided to just reply. "Nope, everything felt just as usual, I'm still just me, and I still can't use mana-"

That was when I felt it.

The flow of the unseen energy within me.

"You've got to be kidding me..." I muttered, my voice trembling as I held my hand against my chest, feeling it coursing through my nervous system.

"Edmond, you okay?"

I held my hand out at him, needing a moment of silence.

I gulped as I walked over to the river, and dipped my finger into the water.

Uhh, let me remember... what was it again?

"Come forth to the tips, let the heat be dispelled, let it all come together, coagulate, take form." I recited the very basic frost spell, 'Sleet' as I guided the mana like the spell told me to do so.

And it did as I wished, the mana seeping out of my fingertips, forming the water nearby into small pieces of ice. Before breaking off and was washed downstream by the water flow.

An uncontrollable grin crawled on to my face, as I turned over to Mr Zheng. "It's back." Was all that I could say as I celebrated in my head, my entire body trembling from the excitement.

Mr Zheng's face wasn't exactly that of surprise, but more of a mixture of wonder and happiness. He let out a breath of air as if laughing as a lopsided smile also crept over his face. "Oh my."

"Sir, it's back?" I muttered in question, beginning to wonder if this is a dream.

Four years! It's been four years! But was it really just four years? It felt so long despite sounding so short… And I just couldn't believe it.

"It's back." Mr Zheng repeated my words, nodding as he said them.

Wait, let me test it again. It still felt really unreal despite it being real. Since I've only tested the magic I had the worst affinity with, which is frost, then how about my second weakest?

This time, I've decided to not recite the spell, there's no need for it. Instead, I imagined for the air in my palms to take in all the heat around the environment, it began vibrating vigorously, until it began combusting while mana acted as its fuel.

Immediately, an orb of fire appeared within my palms, illuminating the area while warmth radiates outward.

"It really is back!"

——

As a wise man once said: "Nothing felt better than when you accomplished something you weren't supposed to be able to accomplish."

Actually scrap that, it's something Mr Zheng came up randomly in his mind. And Mr Zheng definitely doesn't consider himself as a wise man despite his mind being through many things.

But it's true, Mr Zheng couldn't help but feel such a great sense of accomplishment, despite failing every so and often, he still did tried to help the young kid going into his teenage days before him for the past couple of years.

And to think now of all times that it came to fruition, on his last field trip of primary school, right before Mr Zheng's eyes, it also felt quite unreal to Mr Zheng too.

Mr Zheng watched with a smile as the young kid tested his manipulation of mana, casting all sorts of spells. Or more accurately, he's not casting the spells, but only causing the spells to happen however he liked, something not even Mr Zheng can say he is able to succeed.

Spells by itself isn't a necessity for casting magic after all, they're simply a tool, a procedure, a trigger, created by mankind help the widespread public to understand concepts better. Mana can't be seen after all, so all they could do is feel it. And that's what spells do, acting as a guideline on how to "feel" the mana going to the right place doing their right job. Sure, mana can practically do anything, but you need to first understand what to do, how it looks like, and how to make it work in order for your imaginations to become reality, or it will only stay imaginary.

But this kid, he was able to understand how everything works with just a look and let his imagination do whatever it likes. Things that took all the scholars and wizards generations to figure out was easily taken in with a single glance of his, and put it to practical use without knowing it.

Perhaps this is the penalty for being such a genius, by having such a gift that not even himself understands, he loses his ability to manipulate mana for four years in his childhood.

If only that was the case.

Mr Zheng thought back to his conversation with Jun Meng. If it wasn't for that kid's another gift, it probably will get unnoticed for the rest of Edmond's life.

Ah, but still, it's something neither he nor Jun Meng could solve. All they could do, is to help Edmond hold on until the day some miracle happened.

And now it happened, the miracle happened right before him.

Which begs the question, WHO was it that helped Edmond?