Everybody Gangsta Until Science Meets Magic

14 - Reminiscence

Eara noticed Aiden's demeanor turn gloomy when she asked that, and her eyebrows furrowed slightly in worry.

"I-I-- It's fine. You don't need to tell me." She took her word back, slightly flustered.

Aiden chuckled through his nose, grinned teasingly and said, "You can be really cute at times." That was the first time he muttered that praise out loud, but instead of making his heart beat faster from excitement, its rhythm changed because he was reminded of something.

Eara frowned slightly, unsure as to what Aiden was trying to do exactly. But as she saw the far look in Aiden's eyes, he seemed to be reminiscing of some things.

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A young, blonde boy was watching a young girl try and cast magic. Her little arms were raised in front of her, with a tiny orb of water floating before her palms.

'Aly, you can seriously be cute at times.' 

'E-Ehhh?' The girl's face started to flush red, before the floating orb of water fell to the ground.

∙ ∙ ∙

". . . Seriously." Aiden said in a soft voice, before realizing that Eara was sitting in front of her. "Oh-- hey. Where were we again?"

Her lips pursed into a faint frown, and she said, "We should sleep now." She then stood up and started making her way towards the ladder leading to the ground.

"No, wait, wait, wait, wait." Aiden grabbed Eara's wrists and gently pulled her down back to her seat on the floor. "I've already decided to tell you. Don't waste my resolve, you idiot." With a somehow sad smile, he let go of her.

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah. Just listen." Aiden took out a pair of barbecue skewers and gave one to Eara. "Let's begin with what happened right before I was reincarnated. Back in my world, there were lots of fantasy stories and stuff about reincarnation to worlds of magic and swordfighting."

"Wait-- really?" Eara couldn't help but smile in amusement. "They think we're fantasy?"

Aiden chuckled upon seeing her smile, "Yeah. And you know of the System trinket I made? It's inspired by various games from back there in Earth."

Eara nodded slowly, prompting Aiden to continue, "Anyway, about the stories about reincarnation, most of them had the character die before getting sent into another world."

"Have you died?"

"No." Aiden smiled, "I just slept in my room one day, then I was born as a baby. And oh-- our house is modeled after Earth-standard houses."

Once again, Eara just nodded.

"Anyway!" Aiden resolved to not stray from the topic, "I was raised normally, taught the language, and then when the time came where my parents taught me magic, I couldn't cast magic. I could control mana-- force it out of my system-- but I couldn't make it erupt into flames by just imagining fire.

"My parents were feeling bad for me, but they always cheered me up. I was the one who gave up on learning magic, though."

Aiden made a sad smile and looked up into the starry sky.

"Honestly? If I remember correctly, I think I wished for myself to be reincarnated into a world of magic and swords. But when I failed a couple of times at doing magic, I felt betrayed. Even I knew that magic was everything in this world, and without it, I'm as good as nothing.

"So, anyway, my parents were the lords of a small village full of exiled nobles, and there was this one other kid who was the same as me: she could control mana's movements, but couldn't give it any other command. We were only five that time, and we became friends because of our unfortunate quirk. But unlike my parents, her parents would probably kill her if they found her inability to control mana properly.