I remembered the day I got the motivation for the course of my future.

The smell of Mom’s cooking always woke me up, but today was different. Something lurked in my body, something hot. That was what disturbed my slumber.

I wondered if it would go away, but the heat gradually got worse until I started to cry.

“Ugyaaa, Ugyaaa (Mom! I’m burning up!)”

“Al? Are you hungry?”

Hearing me cry, my mom came to get me, but she was wrong! I wasn’t hungry!

“Ugyaaaaaaa (It’s hot! Help me!)”

My crying was like screaming which even caused Mom to realize something was amiss while she held me and she looked at me intently.

“Ryan! Ryan come here! Something’s wrong with Al!”

“Mm? With Al?”

Mom’s voice as she called for Dad brought my brothers in as well, rubbing their eyes as they followed Dad into the room.

“…I’ll go get the doctor.”

Taking a look at me, Dad also felt something was wrong and called for the doctor. My brothers squeezed my hands tightly. For just a moment, it felt like the heat abated, and I hoped it was all over, but the heat suddenly became worse again.

Something hot was running rampant inside me, and I felt horrible. I felt so bad that everything started to fade away.

“Geoh, ge…”

“Al! Jörg, bring me a towel!”

The heat got so bad that I involuntarily threw up. s.h.i.+t, this is the worst. I heard the sound of Jörg taking off to get the towel, and in my heart I whispered thank you to him. You’re a good brother.

“Al! Al!”

Mom, I can still hear you. But it’s so hot, I can’t even cry anymore. I’ll just close my eyes for a bit. I’ll wake up soon, don’t worry…

[Jörg]

“Al! Al!”

Hearing Mother’s heartbroken voice, I hurried back to the room with the towel. In the room, Mother was frantically crying out for Al, and not understanding what was going on, Solis was crying too.

I handed Mother the towel, and noticed that Al wasn’t crying anymore, he was limp and unmoving. …What’ll we do, if Al dies… No, I drove away those ominous thoughts.

I stroked Solis’ head as he cried, telling him it would be all right, that he was a big brother now and shouldn’t cry, and he finally managed to stop. Truthfully, I wanted to cry too.

I heard the sound of heavy steps running through the house. Ah, Father made it back. I felt so relieved, a single tear slipped out. I was glad Solis didn’t notice.

“Meria! I brought Dr. Safi.”

Behind my vigorous Father, the tall and lithe Dr. Safi came in like the wind, his long blue hair pulled up into a ponytail on the back of his head. Whenever we came down with a cold, Dr. Safi was the one we trusted to cure us of our ails. This also set my heart at ease, or so I thought, but I was still anxious. Even though Dr. Safi was here, why was I still so nervous?

Dr. Safi whispered an incantation and a large yellow light appeared in his right hand. He then put it over Al, who was being held in Mother’s arms. I saw sweat form on Dr. Safi’s forehead.

“…This is,”

“Is Al…is Al going to be okay?!”

Everyone held their breath waiting for Dr. Safi to speak.

“Altis-kun has Hereditary Excessive Magic Disorder.”

At those words, I understood why the s.p.a.ce around Father suddenly screeched with magic.