"How is it?" Syrus asked.

In response to his question, I clenched my right fist and assumed a boxing stance. I punched the air while producing a swooshing sound with my mouth.

"As you can see, it has completely healed."

Syrus had taken off my bandages today.

It took Syrus four weeks to finally agree to remove my bandage.

One entire month without using my right arms.

Twenty-eight agonizing days without being able to use the library.

Today, I, Ronandt have been reborn from his ashes.

"I wouldn't recommend using this newly healed elbow too much. It would be sad if it were to get dislocated again, and if that were to happen, I doubt the Young Lord's Elbow would recover before Mathilda's return."

That's right, Maa has been summoned to the castle for eight weeks. She's only gone for a month, and she'll be back in a month.

"All right. "I'll put a stop to it." I said this while raising my hands. " Speaking of which, could you not tell Maa about the accident?"

"Are you asking me to lie, Young Lord ?"

"Oh no, of course not. I simply asked if you could refrain from telling Maa about the accident. After all, it's all behind us now. We must let go of the past and look forward to a bright future."

"I can certainly do that, but what about the other residents of the manor?"

Only then did I remember that everyone in this house was aware of my accident. After all, despite not being a particularly outdoorsy person and rarely interacting with people other than Maa and lately Syrus, four weeks ago, I received a visit from the ponytailed gardener who came to wish me a speedy recovery.

By the way, I found out his name was Roger, which sounded like a rather fitting name for a brawny ponytailed old man.

So there was no way the fact that I'd been in an accident wouldn't reach Mathilda's ears when she returned.

"You know what? Forget what I just said. Syrus? "

"Yes, Young Lord?"

"We must let go of the past and-"

"Focus solely on the bright future that awaits us."

"Perfect."

❀⊱┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄⊰❀

"Aaaaaaaaaaaah."

I took the deepest breaths my lungs could muster.

It's strange to say, but I've been really missing the smell of this place lately.

The sweet aroma of old books.

After a month of waiting, I was finally allowed to use the library.

I took a step toward the spot where I had hurt myself. I've never used Aina again since that day. I’ve been avoiding it.

It felt like an eternity had passed since that day.

"I'm here today for my revanche."

As if a minor injury would put a stop to me.

Actually, I should be grateful for it.

Thanks to it, I've gained a new ally as well as a valuable source of information about aina.

Of course, I haven't told Syrus that I've used aina, but if I asked him innocently about how he and his comrades were using their aina against monsters, I could still get a lot of valuable information from him.

He was suspicious at times about why I wanted so many details. All I had to do in response to his question was pretend it was for the sake of immersion.

"So here I am. Perhaps not stronger, but definitely wiser. "

I've spent several days pondering what might have caused my injury during my recuperation time frame; after all, it only happened on my second try.

My method wasn't incorrect; after all, it worked perfectly on my first attempt; it must have been simply flawed, and these flaws cost me a month of being stuck with only one usable hand.

In the end, I came up with one theory.

As I previously stated, commoners discover their ability to use aina fairly randomly.

Some were doing their daily chores, others were running, and in some cases, they discovered it while fighting.

In Syrus' case, while playing hide and seek, he discovered his ability to use aina. To be more specific, he discovered it after falling from a tree.

Pretty stupid, isn’t it?

He was completely unarmed when he fell to the ground, and he felt strangely more energetic than before.

To back up my theory, I asked Syrus if he or any of his friends had ever been harmed by their own aina, to which he said no.

The information gathered from Syrus's stories gradually confirmed my theory.

The "It just works" I read in one of the library's books back then might not be as stupid as I thought it would be.

My original theory about aina was that, unlike mana, which is produced by a noble body, aina is an external force.

I still believe my theory is correct, but there has been a minor change.

A noble's body produces internal energy known as mana, which allows them to use magic. Aina users, on the other hand, absorb the surrounding aina and infuse it into their bodies.

My point is that aina-users (commoners) naturally absorb the aina around them. In short, their bodies do it naturally, and just thinking about it is enough to make it happen.

Since I have no noble to ask how he lives and goes through with aina wielding, I have absolutely no idea of what their perspective on aina wielding is like.

In my case, however, I have to manually suck up the aina and infuse it onto the part of my body that I want to enhance.

What's the distinction?

I'm not sure what my boundaries are. Aina users' bodies do the majority of the work.

I'm still not sure why, but I believe it's because I'm deliberately attempting to use aina or because I'm too young to use aina; after all, most of Syrus's comrades had their first encounter with mana when they were 10 years old.

If I were to compare it to something easily relatable, using it would be like going in apnée.

Aina-users (at least the ones I've heard about from Syrus) would be normal people who know when to get out of the water to avoid drowning. Getting out of the water is something that the body does automatically.

In my case, however, I would be someone who has no sense of drowning, someone who is unaware of the limits of their own small lungs.

The fact that I was completely unarmed on my first attempt at Aina one month ago was most likely a mere coincidence.

Who knows, in the worst-case scenario, I could have completely blown away my right arm.

For the time being, I must abandon the idea of sending a super Ronandt punch, like I did the last time, and instead concentrate on things like perceiving the surrounding aina.

It didn’t sound great or as epic as throwing mighty punches at a nonexistent foe, but it was safer that way.

If I were to injure myself again, Maa and Syrus would eventually make the connection between my activity in this room and my injury.

It's better to be safe than sorry, and besides, aina couldn't just be about violence and strength, could it?

So, what should I do now?

When I last used aina, all I had to do was take a fighting stance and absorb the aina around me.

However, the goal this time was to perceive aina rather than to use it.

So there's no need for a fighting stance, I suppose.

I sat in a cross-legged position on the floor and closed my eyes.

Let me start by clearing my mind of any fleeting thoughts I had. I wouldn't say I cleared my mind, but it did feel empty, so I guess it should be fine.

A few minutes later, three faint light points no bigger than a small soap bubble appeared next to me, gradually emerging from the darkness.

I couldn't see it because I had my eyes closed.

In fact, it was more like a feeling than seeing.

The light balls were orbiting around me aimlessly.

One light ball suddenly flew toward my face. Perhaps it was because of their appearance, but I had the impression that if a puff of air escaped from my nose, the light balls would burst or disappear.

So I decided to take a deep breath.

The light ball flew to my face and landed on my nose, as if it sensed what I was up to.

I didn't feel anything physical as a result of its landing.

After a few seconds, I felt the need to breathe.

I couldn't hold my breath any longer and began to gasp for air.

Not only have the light balls on my nose vanished as a result of my reaction, but so have the other two.

I tried again and again to enter the same meditative state, but to no avail.

After spending around half an hour cross-legged here, my butt began to hurt.

"I was tired of sitting on the floor; this should work even if I were sitting on something more comfortable, right?"

I stood up and plopped myself on the sofa. I then took the most comfortable position I could think of: laying face down on the cushion.

I closed my eyes again, and after a short while, I began to feel the light balls again, but this time, unlike before, there was only one of them.

Suddenly, a stupid thought occurred to me.

What if I absorb these light balls but do not inject them into my arm or anywhere else on my body?

My body had somehow absorbed the two light balls while I was still pondering that stupid idea.

I soon felt a warm sensation in my chest, but it didn't take long for that to turn into a burning sensation.

"Oh, no." I pondered.

This burning sensation was familiar to me.

That day, right before the incident that caused my right arm to end up like it was, I felt that same burning sensation.

Knowing that panicking would not help, I began to concentrate on my new goal: if I could absorb the light ball, I should be able to expel it from my body.

Right?

I hope so, because if it doesn’t then I will be in really big trouble.

The burning sensation in my chest faded slowly but steadily, and as it did, two small light balls emerged from my chest.

They were floating again, as they had been before. But there were two differences between these two light balls this time.

The first major difference is in its colors; well, I couldn't really see the light ball, so it's more like how I perceived it has changed. It had darkened, but it felt strangely brighter than it had ever been.

The second update concerns the light ball movements; they are no longer floating aimlessly; instead, they are moving in accordance with my commands.

I could easily get them to race against each other—

What I was doing was cut short by a rumbling noise from my stomach.

I opened my eyes, stood up, and proceeded to the spot where I had injured myself.

"Who's the best, huh?" Who? Uh, tell me who is the best. Who? "

I couldn't hold it any longer, so I let my joy take over.

To be honest, I was terrified when I first felt the burning sensation in my chest. It wasn't until I felt the burning sensation that I remembered it, but I had felt it on my elbow before the accident.

What if I'd exploded into minced meat?

Looking back, it's clear that it could have happened.

"Wow, scary."

But the risk was well worth it.

What I saw today confirmed my previous theory.

The light ball was most likely what was known as the aina.

In his story, Syrus never mentioned any light balls.

So I guess it's because he never needed to because his body would always provide the right amount of aina he required.

Isn't that a little unjust?

Perhaps not. After all, it's my fault for wanting to get a head start on using aina.

As long as I train it long enough, I'm sure I'll be able to catch up to them.

"However, I have more pressing matters to attend to for the time being, " I said while clutching my hungry stomach."