Looking at myself in the mirror I saw my face and knuckles were bloodstained while having several bruises on both my body and face. Dammit, what am I going to do? Everyone's going to notice this?

And I can't even heal myself because of the promise I made of using no magic. I thought as I paced around. I guess I'll get myself cleaned up first After stepping out of the shower, the little blood that stained my body washed off along with the sweat and dirt.

Sure I looked cleaner but it didn't do anything to hide my bruises. Looking at it now it's not that bad. "Arata!!!" I heard a familiar voice call. "Are you in here?"

Quickly panicking I put on a long hood to hide my face. "Y-Yes!" I replied, recognizing the voice as Emma's.

"Breakfast is ready," she said walking into the shower room. Turning away from her I only gave her a nod. "Well, hurry it up so you can join us."

"A-Actually," I spoke, stopping her from leaving. "I want to eat in my room today."

"Why? Is something wrong?" she asked, sounding concerned as I heard her take a few steps toward me.

"N-No! Nothing is wrong!" I answered in a panic, feeling my body stiffen as her footsteps drew nearer but ultimately came to a stop.

I couldn't see her face but due to her small moment of silence, I guessed she must have thought something over. "All right," she finally spoke. "I'll have Lize bring the plate up to your room."

"Oh? And also," she added before walking out of the room. "Your father will be arriving any minute now so make sure to come down and give him a warm welcome once he does."

"Got it," was the only thing I said. Wow dad, what a great time for you to come home. I thought as I noticed Emma had walked out of the showers.

Making my way back to my room I made sure no one was around to see me. Sometime later, Lize had delivered my breakfast plate straight to my room.

I quickly devoured every single piece of food that was brought to me and then grabbing my pouch of money I snuck my way out of the house once more. Running through the streets I made my way to a particular store that was nearby. It was already late morning so mostly all the stores were already open.

Entering my desired store I began to look around. This place was sort of like a party store and it was one of the few spots that caught my eye. Especially, because there are masks that cover your entire face.

But. . . Why are they all so expensive? I thought in despair knowing I didn't have much money in my savings pouch. All right! Here's one that I can actually afford! I noted looking at the price but. . . It looks so ridiculous! No matter, desperate times call for desperate measures!

The mask itself was yellow and resembled some kind of bird. With a wide beak and cross-eyed placed pupils, it thought it looked sort of like a duck. After paying for the mask I then made my way back only to notice a carriage departing. Dammit, Leon's here!

If only I could use mana I would have made it back in time. No, if I could use mana I wouldn't even be in this mess.

Leon's Perspective

"What!? What do you mean he doesn't want to come out of his room?" my lovely wife, whom I just reunited with, spoke sounding angry at our son's absence. "I specifically told him to be here once you arrived."

"Calm down, honey," I told her. "You know how he is. . . Maybe he's busy working on some no-name form of magic," I said, noticing that Hanna and Mia were a bit too frightened to speak up.

"I'm sorry, ma'am," spoke lize. "No matter how many times I called for him he wouldn't come out nor respond, perhaps he isn't in there."

"What! He's not in his room!" Emma repeated, growing angrier by the second. "I'm gonna go up there myself!" was the last thing she said before storming out of the room. Mia, Hanna, and I followed nervously behind after a moment of hesitation.

On the way there our behavior caught the attention of Cron and his two kids who then followed us. "Arata!" Emma called out, knocking on the door. "Open the door!" hearing no movement from the other side she only grew more irritated. "I'm coming in!"

Slamming open the door we walked inside. And there, standing at the end of the room, looking out the window was a small figure whose head looked to be wrapped around some kind of rag. "There you are, Arata!" Emma said, her tone unchanging.

In response, Arata just stood there unmoving, not even a muscle. "Arata! What did I tell you earlier!?" Emma said as we all stepped inside his room.

"Sorry," was the only thing Arata said without any change in movement.

"A simple sorry will not be enough! Now turn around and do what I asked you to do," doing as Emma said he turn around. "Take that off your face," she demanded, signaling to the rag that covered his whole head.

Again, he did as he said. Slowly unwrapping the cloth he revealed a ridiculous-looking mask. "Pfft!" having witnessed this Hanna broke into a fit of laughter. "Hahaha!!!! What is that, brother!? You look so stupid!!!" Seeing her reaction even Theodore and Nina had to force back their laughter, as well as Creon and I.

"Listen, Arata," Emma spoke, her voice more gentle as she pinched the space between her eyes in an attempt to hide back her amusement and keep up the angry mom facade. "You're not the type of kid to disobey me like this," she said sincerely while looking at him. "If something happened, you can always come talk to me about it."

"Look, mom. . . Nothing happened, alright," Arata replied. Then, making his way around her, he walked closer to me. "It's good to see you again father," He said, running up to me with open arms.

Returning the hug I then looked at him where I thought his eyes would normally be. "What's with the stupid mask?" I asked, poking at the wide rubber beak.

"I made a bet," He said, his voice muffled behind the mask.

"You did, huh?" I asked, knowing he was lying. Arata has always been an honest child so it's easy to tell when he has something to hide. "With who?"

"With. . . Uh. . ?" he let out, circling his way around the room, stopping beside Theodore as he then put a hand on his shoulder. "Theodore!"

"You did?" Theodore asked, looking visibly confused.

"I did!" Arata spoke quickly forcing Theodore's mouth shut. "No more questions," he said holding up a finger before any of us were able to get a word in. "Now, Let's head elsewhere," turning around he began to walk away with his hands behind his back.

"So? Why do you guys think he's hiding his face for?" Creon was the first to ask as Arata and the other kids left the room. "Oh! Maybe he has kiss marks all over."

"If that were the case don't you think he'd just wash them off," I said as if stating the obvious.

"Maybe it's those lipsticks that take weeks to wash off. Or what if he has some kind of hickey," he guessed.

"Don't make up such ridiculous assumptions," I told him. "Arata is way too young to be diving into that kind of stuff."

"Look, what I'm trying to say is, that he's hiding something," Creon replied.

"That much is obvious," I pointed out as I then began to walk out of the room. "I'll get that mask off one way or another."

I wasn't really all that hungry so I decided to sit down in the living room with the rest of the family. As my gaze wandered around the room it once again landed on that mask that Arata was wearing.

Noticing my gaze his head slowly swiveled my way. For some time we just stared at each other. As I tried to force back the urge to laugh my thoughts wandered back to my time in the training camp and I felt my expression soften if only a little. "What's wrong father?" asked Arata, having caught a glimpse of my brief expression.

"It's just that. . ." I spoke, letting out a sigh as I turned my head up to look at him. "I'm sorry Arata," I told him, the unpleasant feeling that I had was completely erased as I laid eyes on the foolish mask once more. "With that mask, I can't take you seriously."

"Just pretend that I don't have it on," he said.

"Then just take it off," I told him.

"I can't do that,"

After another long pause of us just staring at each other I let out a sigh and stood up. "Alright, this has gone on for long enough," I said walking closer to him. "Time to see what you're hiding."

"N-No!" he said backing away with each step I took. Using mana to enhance my speed I was immediately in front of him. "Whoa!" he let out falling to the floor.

As I reached to take the mask off I noticed he didn't struggle all that much. He could have used his magic to put up more of a resistance but. . . He didn't. "Here it goes. . . Huh?" I said as I removed the mask. In turn, he brought his hands up to cover his face but I could still see a few bumps and bruises on it. "Ha!" I chuckled. "Did somebody beat you up, is that why you had your face."

"Arata, what happened to you?" Emma spoke, sounding concerned as she made her way to him. "Let me fix you up."

"No!" Arata said quickly, moving her hand away.

"Arata, what is up with you, today?" Emma asked, her tone suggesting that she'd get upset if Arata gave another roundabout answer.

"Well. . . It's, uh. . . A part of this new training that I'm doing," he answered.

"What training?" I asked, stepping in front of Emma. Hearing that Arata found a new training regimen had caught my attention due to the fact that I. . . Have been making little to no progress at all in my own training.

Arata's Perspective

After Leon exposed my face. . . That jerk!! I had to give him and Emma a full explanation of what I was doing and what I planned to do. Going into full detail on my little theory of how mana would work better to integrate with the body, if you worked on strengthening it.

"No magic!!!" Leon said as if realizing something. "That's what I've been missing! The reason I don't grow in strength is because my muscles can't handle the amount of mana I'm trying to feed them! So instead of training in mana control, I should be strengthening my body! Arata! You're a genius," he spoke, sounding excited as he picked me up and gave me a tight bear hug.

Huh? Well, he's certainly excited. I thought while he picked me up in the air. "Nothing has been confirmed," I told him in a struggle as I tried to pull myself away from him. "But based on others I've seen and stories I've read. They all come back to support the idea."

"Even if you're not certain it still makes sense," he said, setting me back down on the ground. "Now tell me, what are you doing at the moment to strengthen your body?"

"Well. . . I do a lot of exercise and I have a sparring partner who beats me constantly to boost up my body's endurance," I answered. "And the most important part is to not use any mana not even for healing."

"I see. . ." he spoke, thinking something over. "Wait! Whose this sparring partner you mentioned?"

"Um. . . Well. . . A friend," I answered, a bit embarrassed to mention that she was a girl due to their wild imaginations.

"Friend, huh?" Leon repeated. "Last time you made a friend it was a horned demon and now what?"

I felt a faint sting in my chest at the mention of Nia but quickly disregarded it as I looked back at Leon. "W-Well. . . She happens to be from the Avalon tribe."

"She?" Creon said. Why is he even here? "And a cat girl at that. . . You know beast people don't take good care of their hygiene so I bet she has a very smelly-"

"Creon!!!" both Emma and Leon quickly slapped his mouth shut. "Just what are you thinking saying stuff like that in front of the kids!" said Emma a bit angry.

"She's right, brother," Leon agreed, letting out a sigh. "You should just leave."

"Very well," replied Creon with no complaints. Even without having finished the sentence, I could tell what he was going to say.

"Listen, Arata," Emma spoke with a serious expression as she looked down at me. "I know how much you yearn for an experiment like this. So I will allow it. But know that I trust you to keep yourself out of trouble," she said then turned to Leon. "Right, honey."

"Uh? Yeah, yeah. Shat she said," was the only thing that he said as his attention turned somewhere else.

"Got it," I told her with confidence. "When have I ever disappointed you?"