Great Wise Man's Beloved Pupil - Chapter 0

My name is Reese, a healthy child from a small town, which is little more than a week’s ride away from the royal capital. Turning fifteen this year. My specialty is [Defense Magic], it’s a type of magic that prevents attacks from enemies.

…actually, let me correct that statement a little bit. The only magic I can wield is Defense Magic. As it seems, I’m fatally lacking in terms of other magical talents.

Apparently, most people aside from me can learn to wield a kind of magic with [Attributes]. They could light flames at their fingertips, summon wind, form water, move the ground at will, and so on and so forth. But Defense Magic, on the other hand, happened to be a very basic type of magic that anyone who was born with magical power could wield easily, even more so for beginners who were starting to learn about magic.

I have an amazing friend who was born just a few days before me.

Usually, a person could only possess a single attribute. However, that childhood friend of mine is so extraordinary that he holds four attributes altogether. There may be extremely rare cases of people with two attributes heard of from time to time but as far as the records go, there were only a handful of people who were able to handle four attributes at the same time.

And this guy had always been strangely smart. Among the children that were born in the same year in our hometown, he was the fastest to pick up the language skills and also the fastest to be able to walk around by himself… or so they said.

There’s no way I would remember the times when I was going blubbabubba while crawling all over the place. Honestly, I don’t even want to have memories of those times. Imagine being able to remember the times you spent as a baby sucking on your mother’s breasts every day! That would make me go crazy! I’d rather imagine doing it with some young and pretty Nee-chan instead.

Anyway, the conversation went off the rails for a bit.

So this childhood friend of mine is called Alfie. By the time we were barely 6 years old, Alfie was already needlessly calm, composed, and full of charisma for no reason at all. Before even I knew it, he had become the ringleader of the kids around our neighborhood.

 As far as I remember, Alfie was always the center of attention no matter where he went. What about me, you ask? I was busy trying to figure out how to covertly flip a girl’s skirt and got slapped on the cheeks a couple of times in return.

I was just too young and naive back then. Now I fully understand that the inside matters more than the outside. Ahh~ I really want a girlfriend.

Oh, I went off track again.

Alfie was always popular with the ladies. He was probably one of the most handsome guys among the kids, and he was also very athletic as well. He never lost a fight between kids, well except for that one time. He always kept a refreshing smile on his face even while knocking out the youngsters who dared to pick a fight with him. And whenever that happened, the shrill cheers of the girls would always follow soon. What about me again? Well I was just trying to take a peek at my neighboring Nee-san in the bathroom but I got caught in the end, and a washbasin flew at me with a loud shriek.

The tip of the ‘mountains’ was almost within my very sight. It’s such a shame.

Ah. I have digressed again.

So he was good at studying as well. Most people who were gifted in magic also seemed to possess brilliant minds at the same time and Alfie, with his excellent grades at school, was no exception to this premise. It was such a common everyday spectacle to see him being praised by the teacher every time we were given a test. 

As for me? The sight of me just standing outside in the hallway with buckets in each hand was also pretty common in that sense. I just got caught drawing the most alluring female figure I could imagine on the blackboard. All of my friends highly commended my drawings too. But wait! Don’t get me wrong, I was still fairly good at studies too. It’s just that they couldn’t understand my meaningful actions very well.

Again, I trailed off. 

But rest assured. It is the real story from now on.

So this guy called Alfie was honestly, way too talented and way too good-looking that most bastards in my class would collectively wish for him to just explode (death by explosion) on the spot. But, even someone like Alfie has some funny sides to him.

One time, he was suddenly groaning while holding his eyes, “Kuh, my left eye is finally awakening.” I wonder what kind of rubbish got inside that place?

Another time, he groaned while holding his arm, “My right hand won’t listen to what I say.” Maybe he hit a sore spot on his elbow?

Then on another day, he was again randomly screaming out of the blue, “My right hand is burning bright red!?” It’s obviously going to burn if you use fire magic!

All in all, Alfie was a rather amusing guy who would occasionally display this kind of weirdly suspicious behavior. He was also kind of a good friend for what it’s worth.

Well, that should be enough for the introduction.

The story begins shortly after a certain individual who had heard rumors about Alfie, paid a visit to our hometown. That’s when I was about fifteen years old.

So far, I’ve only been introducing my friends to everyone. But you see, this is also the story of my rise to prominence, and it had just begun.