Before beginning with the narration, he closed his eyes and took a deep breath, as old memories of that fateful day shot through his head, reminding him of what happened on that fateful day.

"My siblings and I grew up in a village deep inside the forest. It was so secluded that the only outsider visiting us was no one but the tax collector who came once a year.

That fellow also sold us a few goods such as low-quality magic weapons for a few hides and so forth." After saying that, Gab took another deep breath before continuing with his narration.

"But our villagers found some remnants of a dragon newly inhabiting the place, and we sold that information to the tax collector who rewarded anyone younger than twenty with an awakening pearl."

Before Gab could continue on, Enota chimed in.

"That was probably the worst deal of the century. That information is way more valuable than what your village got for it. For such information, one could awaken the whole townlet and even send everyone to a good magic institute for some training. You all probably could also get a tax exemption for the next 100 years. But I've got a question for you. Why were you all so isolated from the rest of the villages?"

Gab sighed: "Well, how do you expect us, people living in the middle of nowhere, to bargain with pieces of information whose true value we don't really know? We never had a deal like that in the history of our village that we could have used for cross-referencing."

A painful chuckle left Gab's mouth before he continued. "My siblings were lucky to awaken from the pearls, but I… I was the only one who couldn't awaken from it… But let me answer your question."

"There is a legend why we were living where we are. Our ancestors were the followers of a prince who ended up losing the fight for the throne, and our ancestors had to pay the price.

In the end, the losing faction made a deal with the winning prince. As long as he guaranteed that their family members wouldn't get executed, they would accept their punishment. Unfortunally, I don't know what their penalty is nor if the legend is even real. But I'm sure of one thing. They are definitely dead.

Everyone above the intermediate level got sent to the most gruesome fronts or outright executed. The family members below that threshold got banished to the middle of nowhere. They were intelligent enough to take mage books with them for future generations, but some got lost, some got damaged, and so forth."

Gab sighed loudly, stopping for a moment as images of his mother teaching him the alphabet to the best of her abilities.

「A scene in his memories」

"Moooooom, why do you teach us the alphabet? We never write here in the village!!" shouted Gab as he stared at a few letters drawn with chalk on a rough stone surface.

"Gab! How many times do I have to explain it to you," sighed his mother before grabbing the cheeks of the young Gab, who didn't want to focus on the alphabet.

"Remember Gab, It would be a shame towards our ancestors if we devolved further. Your oldest brother learned everything without even complaining. You don't want to lag behind, right.~" commented his mother with a chuckle before giving the young Gab, who was complaining about learning, a kiss on the forehead.

"I… I'll be giving my best, but for what do these letters stand?" asked Gab immediately after, pointing to a few of them.

His mother painfully chuckled before telling him: "Unfortunally, we don't know. These letters got lost via times. That is also the reason why I'm so keen on you learning the alphabet since I don't want us to devolve further.~"

After explaining it to him, she continued teaching Gab the basics of writing and so forth.

Later that night, Gab asked his mum, who was enjoying the quiet atmosphere, about magic. "Mum, what is magic? Could you explain it to me? I also want to summon fire like the village eldest," asked Gab, excited.

"Well, mages are Gods' chosen ones. They are blessed by God. Some of our villagers consider them as the children of Gods," explained his mother to Gab while hugging him tightly.

「Author note: Take that explanation with a grain of salt, since it's a theory that got created out of a misconception of living in isolation from the other parts of the village. It's wrong.^^」

The young Gab always enjoyed listening to her stories about their ancestors and fantasized how one day, he'll also be a mage like from the legends his mother stated.

'Well, hopefully, my siblings will also become mages, or else it will be a boring time, journeying through this world.' thought Gab as he stared at the night sky filled with stars. Slowly he stretched out his hand towards the sky, trying to grab the stars on the night sky.

As he made this movement, he saw a shooting star.

'I… I… wish for my siblings to become mages one day!' wished the young Gab immediately.

「Back to reality.」

"That sounds quite interesting. Continue!" commented the princess, who seem to enjoy hearing his story.

"Where did I stop?" muttered Gab before continuing with, "right. We sold the information to a tax collector called Ivan. That bastard promised us a few more things, such as we would get a part of the share, before leaving for a few weeks. If I'm being honest, I wish he never came back," narrated Gab as he became furious, thinking about the consequence of the event.

"Why?" asked Enota as she stared at Gab, feeling his rage, which he tried to suppress to the best of his abilities.

"Give me a moment to take a few breaths," stated Gab, as his anger slowly grew into sadness.

"Just take your time," Enota told him, and Gab took a deep breath before continuing.

"He… He is the reason for the destruction my village faced," stated Gab as old memories came up.

On the day of reckoning, a band of mercenaries came to the village with the tax collector Ivan. The latter was also an intermediate magician.

The village celebrated their arrival and thought that their fate would change. Their destiny did change. Just not the way they wished it.