"Oh! It's the young master!"

"Hi there!"

"Greetings, young master!"

I smiled and waved at the villagers I passed. Most of them were people I became acquainted with after helping Roxy out, but there were some new people who called out to me as well.

It seemed like I was starting to get a reputation for myself. Though, being called young master...

It wasn't wrong, but it felt weird. I mean, Dad was technically a knight so it was accurate. But...

"Social classes are weird." I muttered under my breath and kept walking.

It was always a thing. I mean, it was hard to not notice how our house was the nicest. Not only that, but then there was the fact that I could have a magic teacher personally instruct me for over two years... and that there was Miss Lilia there as well...

But seeing it first hand...

The village wasn't terrible. The houses were well constructed and nobody looked underfed or in bad shape. But everyone around looked used to the sun and hard work. Even the kids were tanned.

They were happy, but it was also a stark difference.

I nodded to myself and said, "You were lucky. Don't forget."

I somehow got a second chance at life. Not only that, but it was a second chance in a recently well-off family with loving parents. One where they supported me and gave me the resources I asked for to help me go along.

I had to remember. This was a world similar to medieval times. Nobility existed and was a real thing. Not only that, reading was a privelege of the elite. Books were expensive.

So I shouldn't waste it.

"...I'll need to look into it later."

Right now, magic was just used for combat. Not only that, but it was largely determined by luck whether a person would have the potential for magic

At least, according to common sense.

But I doubted that common sense. Not only that... but magic would be an equalizer.

If it could be systematically distilled and granted to everyone-

Ah. Wait. That would immediately cause a power struggle.

...Let's leave this issue aside for later. Democracy and republics had their fair share of issues.

Not to mention complicated.

I was already sick of politics in my last life. I really didn't want to get involved in it in this one.

I stretched and took a look around. I was passing through the village on my way to the forest. Since I had a book of healing spells to play with, I needed things to test it out on.

From what I knew, healing spells also worked on plants. We had a few trees and flowers back at home, but those were plants that Mom carefully cultivated for these past five years. She'd be really sad if they got hurt, so I didn't want to mess with them.

Forest it was. Not only that, but there should be some animals and monsters to experiment on too.

I wouldn't be cruel, of course. It wasn't like I was going to catch a squirrel and dissect it.

But if say a wild boar or wolf attacked me... it was fair game for what happened to them afterwards, right?

Right.

I wasn't a psychopath, I swear. Or a serial killer. Or a sociopath.

Maybe.

Probably?

Well... I didn't have any voices in my head telling me to murder anything and I didn't particularly want to go kill things... so it should be fine.

Anyway, adventuring.

After walking some more and greeting the farmers along the way, I arrived at the forest. And when I did...

"Huh?"

I blinked and looked around.

"That's... weird?"

The air was dense and covered in mist. At least, it looked like it was covered in mist. But that 'mist' felt too energetic to be simply 'mist.' And it also felt like someone was watching me.

I frowned and then placed my right hand over my eyes. After that, I muttered, "Barrier, seal my gaze."

A faint flicker of dark violet mana, followed by a pair of magic formations blinking into existence.

It wasn't really a spell. At least, not anything official. I still needed to work out the kinks on making it a real spell by fixing up the magic circles so that anyone could replicate it, but right now it worked.

...Maybe I should compile my notes and send them off to Master Roxy. She would definitely be able to come up with something useful out of it.

Ah. And I should probably send her it anyways so that she could figure out what I gave her...

Wait, I was getting sidetracked again.

I lowered my hand and then opened my eyes.

I could see a faint violet magic circle overlapping my vision. The inevitable result of that barrier spell sealing my mage... mana... or whatever sight.

But I couldn't see anything else. The forest was just beautiful greenery. Trees softly swaying in the wind, birds chirping in the distance, sunlight filtering down through the foliage...

I frowned and dissipated the barrier spell. And the moment I did that, the surroundings turned misty again.

"...Is it a monster?"

I frowned and made a makeshift stone backpack to hold my book. After placing it there and securing it, I pulled out my wand, quickly tracing out basic magic circles for each of the magic stones. Fire, water, wind, earth... and for good measure, lightning and healing.

With those up and running, I could instacast anything Advanced-Rank and below, as well as Cumulonimbus in a pinch.

For good measure though, I traced out the basic <Magic Barrier> spell in my left hand and formed a magic circle to keep it in place.

Whatever the source of this mana was, I could tell that it wasn't friendly. Not only that, but it seemed... slippery. As if it was trying to pretend it wasn't here.

And it was doing that pretty well. If I couldn't see it, I would have just thought that there was a bunch of mana in the area.

But I could, so I had to handle it.

Dad said that he, Mom, and Master Roxy went to go check out the forest, but they didn't find anything other than monsters. But they couldn't see mana like I could so they probably just took out a strong monster and thought that was the end of it.

But if the mana was this thick already... and if it had been growing denser like my dad said, I had a feeling things would get out of hand soon if no one resolved it.

"...Well. I suppose I did want to experiment with barrier spells..."

I was fairly confident. Even if it was a powerful monster, I could run away.

In the worst case scenario, I could just swap over all my magic circles in my wand to barrier magic and do a times six magic barrier.

In theory.

"I'd rather not have to test that theory though..." I muttered.

Dammit. Maybe I should have just got over myself and told Master Roxy about me seeing mana earlier. I'd been scared of her treating me differently, but knowing her she would have just accepted it and help me research it.

...Actually, she probably would have been ecstatic.

And probably stick around longer.

And then... maybe...

"Ugh." I shook my head and started walking into the forest. "Dad's such a bad influence."

Got me thinking about Master Roxy like that... There was too much of an age difference anyway.

...But maybe a few years later...

'Why don't you just go on an adventure then? I bet if you become an S-ranked adventurer or conquer a few magical labyrinths, she'd be pretty interested you know?'

I flinched and spun around. "...What the hell?"

It was a clear voice in my head. It sounded like mine too. If I hadn't been paying attention, I might even have thought it was.

But it wasn't.

I frowned and kept walking, slowly keeping an eye out. And as I did, I started thinking.

I wasn't a genius anyway. I worked hard, but there was a wall I couldn't surpass. Like Roxy, like my dad... No matter how hard I worked, there'd be a limit I'd face one day. If both of them worked as hard as I did, I'd never be able to catch up.

'So then why not just live it up? You're a Saint-ranked magician and you're young. Even if you can't catch up to them, you'd live a pretty good life anyway, wouldn't-'

"Got you."

I swiped my left hand through the air. At the same time, I swept my wand up, swapping out the magic circles for six barrier spells.

Like a fishing reel being unspun by a giant fish, my crimson mana poured out of me to fuel the magic circles. But at the same time, that misty mana started to converge on the barrier spell.

'There you are.'

A voice. Not mine, but someone else's. A greasy male voice that sounded like a used car salesman. Charming too. Enough to where a person might get caught unaware if they weren't already suspicious.

And one that responded to my words with similar ones.

My eyes widened and I quickly finished my barrier spell.

But it didn't matter.

As soon as the voice said it found me, the white mana vanished. Completely dispersed like it wasn't there.

I squinted to make sure it wasn't just playing any tricks.

That... thing was slippery. It was possible that it was just hiding from me and biding its time.

So I waited.

Carefully scanning the surroundings, constantly keeping up a barrier spell...

But nothing.

"...A ghost?"

I muttered and took a look around.

It was possible. That mana certainly felt like a malevolent spirit.

But to vanish so suddenly...

I frowned and grabbed my book again. It was a healing magic primer, but there were other spells in there too. I remembered something about 'Divine Attack', right? Spells meant to target spiritual beings?

...Ah. There it is.

"Oh holy spirits of light and fortune, heed my prayer and slay the evil before me. <Light Ball>."

A flash of white light. Similar color to the mist that just attacked me, but more pure. Not sinister like the mist I saw earlier, but 'holy.'

I carefully observed the flow and the way it converted my mana. And then after that, I pulled back my mana from the barrier spell.

Almost immediately, the sinister white mist came back, as if it was waiting for that chance.

But I acted first.

Taking about half of my total mana, I converted it into that holy mana and spread it out, wreathing my body with my own personal white mist.

The moment I did, I heard a voice talking. But it was covered in static, like I was hearing it off a distorted radio.

'You... Laplace? ...possible! ...can't see... Future...?! ...Have to...!'

That white mist vanished again. This time though, instead of disappearing it flew up into the air and shot off somewhere.

I frowned and then pulled my mana back. This time though, the white mist didn't return.

"What was that about...?"

The voice said a bunch of random stuff and then left. Did I spoil its plan or something? It mentioned something being possible, Laplace, and then the future...

I frowned.

...Maybe it would be a good idea to place down some self-perpetuating barrier magic circles in the area.

Just in case.