Hearing the old lady’s voice startled Akash, and as he took a glance at her figure that was looming behind him, he furrowed his eyebrows.

  Who’s this? He pondered, but to no avail. The original Akash had never met her, which was a little weird, considering he had lived in this manor for quite a while.

  “My name won’t magically appear in your mind if you stare harder,” she said with a smile, then took a seat next to him, “Either way, I hope you’re not considering a grandma like me as a potential lover, right? I’ve heard some stories about you, Akash.”

  “Wait a minute, you’re jumping to conclusions too fast,” he waved his hands in front of him frantically, “It’s just the fact that I’ve never seen you before, you’re a stranger to me.”

  “Indeed, we’ve never met, and I didn’t think there’d come a day when we would. The name is Layla, but I don’t think you’d remember it, to be honest.” She shook her head while massaging her brow ridge, “You’re the type of guy to find the library too boring, opting to chase skirt and pleasure instead.”

  Shit, I guess no matter how hard I try, I’ll never pass for the original Akash. He thought. My only option is to pretend that the pressure from my family has changed me for the better.

  “Disappointing Lord Legilus isn’t something I’d ever want to do.” He tried to imagine the time when he disappointed his mom with his bad grades to make a genuine impression, “I can only try harder. I don’t have much time before the final assessment of my capacities.

  With that said, she took a glance at the two books that he was surfing through.

  “Not a bad choice for magic theory, even though better tomes can be found,” she nodded knowingly, “But history, I wonder why you chose to learn it instead of doubling down on magic, perhaps your recent failure in the preliminary assessment test made you realize how important learning from the experiences of fellow men is?”

  Layla was skeptical of Akash. She knew from personal experience that the children of nobles were spoon-fed for the majority of their lives, that’s why they never knew the worth of public libraries.

  Their parents handed them whatever knowledge they needed without having to work for it. Special grimoires and lost tomes were the norm for them.

  However, the teenager in front of her was never the son of a Baron, at least not the current Akash.

  He was a boy whose father and brother died tragically, whose mother fell into a deep state of psychosis. As young as he was, he had to support whatever remained of his family, even sacrificing furthering his university education to do so.

  “Something like that, it’s also motivating to see what some people could do in terrible circumstances.” That was a half-truth, as he searched for ways people had used in the past to acquire power in a short timeframe, but he couldn’t find anything of value.

  Finding treasures, getting the legacy of a great magician, and earning a divine blessing after overcoming a big obstacle. They were all impossible for him, as he lacked knowledge about such things.

  I know what the main character’s sword looked like, but that’s not something I can even worry about on my current level. Akash was aware of his limitations, and so, he had to play the cards he could get his hands on.

  “Surprising,” the old lady clapped once, “You’re better than I thought, but take this from me, this manor’s librarian, reading more books doesn’t translate very well to the field. If you think you’d improve by learn theory, then you’d better give up and work as a full-time heir to the Von Hoebert house.”

  At this point, Layla wanted to test his determination. She was suspicious that he went to the library just to attract some new girls. And there was no better way to test his mettle than this one.

  However, for someone like Akash, who didn’t understand how to apply any of the theory he had just read in the book, her words confirmed his made-up suspicions.

  The gears inside his head started turning, and his heart skipped a beat. He was cheerful about paving his way through the world and potentially returning to Earth, but life loved to throw curveballs at him.

  “Thing is, I’m having some trouble,” he smiled half-heartedly as he rubbed the back of his neck, “I have issues using magic skills, and I’m not sure who to ask.”

  Asking his Father is out of the question, and he’d probably be too embarrassed to talk about such a foundational problem with his brother. Layla deduced after hearing what he had to say.

  Her posture relaxed a little, and her shoulders were no longer tense.

  She felt something genuine inside the boy, and she was one to trust her intuition.

  “How bad is it?” She sighed. She had already decided to help him, if only to test his determination even further, to see whether he’d be satisfied with the low hanging.

  “I can’t cast my only skill, Airball, at all.”

  “Oh!” For a moment, Layla’s eyes opened widely, but she took control of her facial expression as soon as she realized, “Yeah, we can work on that.”

  Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

  “Is it just me, or you’re disappointed?”

  “It’s just you.”

  “Be honest, please, is it that bad?”

  “For a commoner, you’re a typical case,” she forced a chuckle out of her mouth, “It’s not unusual for a seventeen-year-old to have poor mana control.”

  “But I’m not a commoner, so?”

  “Welll,” she rubbed her hands together, “If the wrong people found out about your ineptitude, you’ll get ridiculed. Hell, I would have killed myself if I couldn’t cast such simple magic, so I can’t imagine how you must be feeling with the Baron’s expectations falling on your shoulders.”

  “Thanks for the motivational words,” he said in a monotoned voice, with a deadpanned facial expression.

  “Wait, don’t count yourself out! Look at it from the other way, this kind of problem is common amongst lower social class demographics, so people must’ve already thought of a decision.” She patted his shoulder from the side, as they’d been sitting side to side for a while, “I may not look like much, but I was a great mage in my youth! I still pack a punch, and I’ll give you a tutoring lesson. Consider it an apology for messing with you if you will.”

  “I’m starting to feel like reading this book over and over will be easier than whatever you’re planning for me.”

  “Oh, don’t worry! I’m just an old lady, what’s the worst that can happen?”

  With a huge grin on her wrinkly face, she stood up from her seat and grabbed Akash’s left hand, then took him with her.

  Akash decided not to fight his fate, as the lady’s force that she used to grab his hand was unlike anything he’s ever experienced in his previous world, so tempting his luck was out of the question.

  Go with the flow, be water, there was something like that back on Earth, right? Besides, I’ve been meaning to get some training already, so what could go wrong? He shrugged.

  After ten more minutes of walking, they reached a barren area behind the manor’s gardens.

  Many men walked around the field, some wearing heavy iron armor, while others adorned themselves with leather equipment like the one that Akash was wearing, albeit less intricate.

  There were many weight training machines in one corner of the area, and stacks of wooden training weapons in another. On the far side, there were many bullseye targets for long-range practice, perfect for magicians and sharpshooters.

  Akash was bewildered by this part of the manor, as he had no recollection of it. It seemed that his previous incarnation wasn’t a fan of training either.

  “Alright, do your best to defend against this attack.” Layla turned towards him all of a sudden, brandishing a small, intricate wand, in the shape of a thin tree branch.

  “Huh?”

  Startled, Akash turned toward the woman. He saw her pointing her wand at him, chanting the name of her skill.

  “Fireball.”

  He wasn’t ready, and the only thing he could do before the impact hit him was to cover his face with his forearms.

  Akash fell on his back, and the smell of burnt hair filled the area around him. His ears rang from the impact, and his eyes hurt from the sudden flash of bright flames.

  Layla was surprised, to say the least. She trained Akash’s older brother when she was a young, powerful woman and was also familiar with his father’s great prowess.

  That’s why the current development defied her expectations

  She thought the boy was exaggerating his ineptitude to get a training session with her, or maybe to show off.

  Can’t he sense mana? She put her wand pack in its pocket and started to walk towards Akash.

  His forearms hurt a lot; he hoped that they weren’t broken at least.

  The guards around them noticed the ruckus, and the ones who recognized Akash started laughing and mumbling among themselves.

  He couldn’t hear all that well, but the snippets that he heard weren’t positive at all.

  A useless bastard, a womanizer, and now, a laughingstock weakling. Did the original Akash get cursed by some god to have the worst reputation ever? He clicked his tongue.

  After a minute of lying on his back, feeling the pain and the misery, Layla reached the place where he fell and gave him a hand.

  “Sorry. That was the best way to know for sure whether you were as weak as you claimed,” Layla helped Akash stand up. “Your older brother Zarag could’ve easily avoided such an attack at your age.”

  “Well, guess what. I’m not Zarag,” Akash wasn’t thrilled about the nasty surprise attack that she just pulled on him and was starting to doubt the effectiveness of this impromptu training with the librarian. “If you brought me here to make fun of me in front of the guards, then I’m leaving.”

  “I haven’t seen much of your abilities, but I can tell you this. You have a poor sense of mana.”

  “What does that mean?”

  “As we were walking through the training grounds, I had already been gathering mana and preparing to cast my Fireball at you. Even the weakest initiate of magic could’ve noticed my attempt at a surprise attack; I didn’t even try to be sneaky.”

  That explains a lot…

  “Does that have anything to do with the fact that I can’t cast my magic skill?”

  “It has everything to do with it! To cast a skill, you need intent and mana. Intent is easy, so long as you have the skill in your repertoire, but I believe gathering mana is where you’re having issues.”

  That was a big obstacle for Akash.

  Her words confirmed the presence of the ambient energy known as Mana, and while his previous interactions in this world alluded to that fact, he only started to realize how different this current world was from his previous one.

  He took a deep breath and asked the formidable old lady.

  “How can I work on this?”

  “Meditate, and when you reach a point where you feel like you’re stuck, meditate even harder,” she smiled while raising her right arm’s index finger, “You know what meditation is, right? Just close your eyes, observe your thoughts, the sensations in your body, and imagine white orbs of light surrounding you. After a while, you’ll succeed in getting to the next level?”

  “That’s it?” He expected some form of endless complicated work, but this seemed too simple to be effective.

  “That’s it. Consistency is key in mana practice,” she nodded, “When you can manipulate enough mana to cast a skill, come back to the library. We’ll see what we can do at that point.”

  “Alright then, I’d better get going; the guards are giving me funny looks and I don’t want to stay here any longer.”

  “I’m sorry for the attack; consider it a lesson in keeping your guard even against old people like me.” Layla laughed at her own words, then started walking back to the library, leaving Akash behind.

  He, on the other hand, took a walk around the castle, thinking about what he had to do.

  She mentioned meditation, and he was more than familiar with such practices. He got transported to this world as he was practicing a relaxation ritual, which was a variation of meditation.

  It’s already close to sunset, so I’ll give it a go when I go back to my room.

  As he entered his room, he sat on the hard floor, took position, then closed his eyes and began.

  Stillness permeated his being, and imagining the white specks of light came easier to him in this world than what he was used to when he practiced the ritual on Earth.

  It felt amazing, and he could feel the stress leaving his body, replaced by good feelings of bliss and contentment.

  Total serenity and an empty mind. No worries, no anxiety.

  Then, a voice appeared out of nowhere, interrupting his most successful meditation sessions in his whole life.

  “It took you long enough to try the very ritual which brought you to this world,” a childish voice said, “You’re smarter than this, David.”