Chapter 1 - Prologue

"Everyone get down to the ground!"

shouted the one of the gunmen, me, my sister and everyone in the store dropped to the ground I guided my sister behind me to make sure I can protect her. The gunman points the gun in the air, fires a shot and yells out.

"Now nobody move or try to be a hero and you won't get hurt."

The gunmen heads over to cash register and aims his gun at the employee and shouts at him to give him all the money, I hear my friens who was also close by and whispers to me.

"hey you and me can take this guy."

I shake my head and whisper back.

"are you crazy? he has a gun."

we both look at him and it seems he is distracted with the register, so me, my friend look at each other and I whisper reluctantly.

"what do you you want to do then?"

He whispers back.

you grab him from the back and I'll disarm him, I take a few breaths and reply with hesitation

"uh uh um ok got it."

me and my friend slowly get up and we charge towards the gunman, I didnt realize it but i ended up tackling him to ground and he drops the gun I slowly get up so I can properly secure him and then a loud pop fills the air as I feel a sharp pain hit my c.h.e.s.t, I drop to floor to my side, and I coughed out blood, I couldn't muster any strength to utter a single word, but I could see that my friend kicked his head and had him pinned down to floor he then yells out.

"someone call for help now!"

my sister comes to me crying and says to me.

"you will be okay, help is on the way."

I weakly smiled at her and then everything faded to black. I open eyes and I see two unfamiliar faces smiling at me and then a woman kisses my forehead and says.

"Hows my baby boy?"

confused I think to myself.

"baby boy? what?"

the man plants a kiss to the woman and asks.

"so do you have any ideas for his name?"

she replies as she cradles me I her arms.

"Collin."

I try to speak to them, but the only thing I can do right now is make cooing sounds, i think to myself.

"what the hell is going on, didn't I get shot and die, did I get a second chance at life or something?"

the woman carrying me seems to be my mom, she then asks the man, who I think could be my dad.

"can you tell if he has good magical potential?"

he smiles and replies.

"yeah."

he then chants.

"mana detection."

his smiles suddenly changes into a concerned and puzzled face as he says.

"I can't seem to detect any mana coming from him."

she asks fretfully.

"are you sure you can't?"

he responds obviously worried.

"Yes I'm sure."

I think to myself.

"what are they talking, what is this about mana and magic, am I not on earth or something?"

after numerous attempts of my dad using the spell mana detection, a spell in this world that can pin point a living being's mana, just like what a sonar radar can do, or at least that's how my mom explained it to me in baby talk, he then gives up and says.

"you dont need to explain to the boy on how mana detection works, he is still a baby and doesn't understand a single word and besides I don't think our son has any mana, or if he does have any I can't detect it."

my mom than cuddles me closer and says warmly.

"It's alright, even if he doesn't have any significant mana, he is still our son, and we will fulfill our duty as parents and not abandon him in some god forsaken orphanage like those other parents."

I think to myself.

"do parents in this world abandon their children if their mana is low, what kind of cruel world is this?"

my mom then says.

"Leon come here and hold your son."

my dad replies.

"Alright I'm coming Marie."

My mom then gently hands me over to my dad where he carefully cradles me, he then says to me.

"don't worry son just because I can't detect any mana from you, it doesn't mean anything, you could be a late bloomer, but even if that's not the case and you don't get accepted in the academy you can still help out around the store when you get older."

I think to myself.

"damn this sucks but I guess there is no helping it, I'll figure out something once I get mobile."

My dad then stares silently and then asks my mom.

"huh this is weird, don't newborn babies cry a lot, I mean this whole time since he's been born he hasn't cried, is this normal?"

My mom responds.

"yeah he hasn't cried at all, this is pretty wierd."

since there is not much I can do now, the only thing I can do is just enjoy this second chance at life at least until I grow older and then I can start learning everything that I can about this new world.