EPISODE 12 - Confidence

"Let's call it a draw," she declared as it is shown that her sword is pointed to his neck.

"I can be satisfied with that."

"I ACTUALLY DID IT!" he celebrated.

"That was a beautiful use of magic, Phize, I'm sure I haven't taught those spells yet, but nevertheless, quite impressive," she praised him.

"For a kid, he's pretty cunning, I never expected him to do that. I let my guard down," her thoughts lingering.

"You may now put back your sword," she commands.

He places his sword back into the sword stand and then proceeds to go back in line.

Pallitra approaches him and whispers.

"You were awesome!"

"You have a knack for magic, I have to commend you for that," Hasha compliments.

"CAN'T WAIT TO TELL THESE TO MOM AND DAD!" he daydreams.

Class finished after a few hours, and upon Vhint and Phize arriving home...

"MOM, MOM, GUESS WHAT?"

"Hm?"

"I fought Ms. Hasha at our school today."

Vhint and Lexia look at him with surprised faces due to understanding his words a little differently from what was intended.

"WHA-" Vhint pauses in shock.

Lexia asks to confirm her suspicions, "YOU FOUGHT HER?"

"Yeah, mom! I used a sword."

"A SWORD?! A S-SWORD?!"

She faints and Vhint swiftly runs to her aid.

"WHA- WHEN DID THIS HAPPEN? WE WILL TALK ABOUT THIS DURING DINNER!" he says nervously.

"Hm? Why?"

"It only occurred to me later that due to my wording,  I had caused a misunderstanding that was resolved with a lengthy talk at dinner," he recalled.

After dinner...

"THAT'S MY SONNY!" Vhint boasts.

"Phew, I thought you hit her, you should've told me it was sword practice... Of course, my son would never do a thing such as hurt his teacher."

He smiles in response.

"Oh, wait. I have an idea," it lingers in his mind.

"Mom, I'll be going out for a while!"

Vhint gives him a thumbs-up, "Okay, then, Phize! Stay safe and don't stay out for too long!"

He goes outside the door, outside the hotel, and passes through the buildings. Upon passing the buildings, he stumbles upon a dark corner.

"I'm back! Now that I've learned more magic, I should be able to decipher and understand what I saw last time."

"Let's start with a simple spell," he thought.

He chants, "WATER!"

A magic circle appears with faint lines almost invisible to the eye, known as magic lines.

There it is! I see them!

"Let me try reading them," he pondered.

A few minutes later upon examining the spell, he found something.

"Its format, I can tell, it's something similar to a program! But how can I manually change its values?" he questions.

He tinkers more into it but all efforts proved to be worthless.

"I can't seem to get it. It could be useful but I can't always reach it using my left hand during battle..." he complains.

"Wait... I have an idea."

He thinks very deeply, "If mana has something to do with this, and since by flowing my mana, I can produce magic, then perhaps if I change the flow of energy inside me..."

"But how do I know which value I should change?"

"Whenever I conjure something up, I use my imagination and the magic output is usually almost always the same if I manage to flow the mana in my body correctly," he concludes.

"Nothing hurts to try..." he chants, "WATER!"

"Let me try... INCREASING ITS SPEED. NOW THINK! IMAGINE THE WATER FLOWING VERY FAST, INCREASE THE SPEED OF THE FLOW OF MANA! AND THEN..." he apprehends.

Water spouts from the magic circle at a faster rate.

He smiles upon seeing his efforts.

"IT WORKED! That's practice."

"Hold up. With the information that magic can work similarly to programs, then I can also cause them to stop..." he concludes.

"With one error, a program can stop running or not run at all, such as adding a little unnecessary comma or dot."

He motivates himself, "Let me try."

"But how do I do something like that?"

"I have an idea. Maybe a sudden burst in the flow of mana, wait no. Maybe, if I try to add a little extra something... an unnecessary part for mana to flow in for a second. But where? With the knowledge that mana flows with blood, it would be logical to make it flow where blood doesn't flow... Hair? I should try that," he perceives.

"WATER!"

He tries to recall what he has just stated, "Now, I'll try to make it flow to my hair, and then..."

Another magic circle forms from his right hand but it instantly breaks and disappears upon forming.

"IT WORKED!" he celebrates.

"That should be enough for my little experiment. Time to head back."

"With this, I've gotten a lot stronger," he confidently relays to his mind while forming a smile on his face.

Another day goes by, while in school...

8:05 AM

"I'm so happy today!" Phize declares.

"Hm? Why?" she asks out of curiosity.

"Oops, she overhead me," he thought.

"I just found out something yesterday."

"Oh, can you tell me? I wanna know!"

He says something in mind, "Before, I didn't want to share that I knew these things, but that was because I was unable to trust anyone or the thought of this power spreading would be dangerous. But now that I've gotten a new friend, no, a new best friend. I feel like I can open up a bit."

"Sure, but you have to keep it a secret."

"YAY! I'M SO EXCITED!" she gleefully states.

"I'll tell you later at lunch."

12:01 PM

Pallitra confronts him, "Finally! Now, about that discovery..."

"Shouldn't we eat our lunches first?"

"But I wanna know! Or would telling it take long?"

"Hmm..." he gives some thought.

"No, no. It won't take too long."

"See?"

"But let's go to a place where no one can see us."

"Hmm... I think I know just the place where we can go. Follow me."

She stands up and then he follows after her.

"Where are we going?"

"Come! Come!"

He follows her up the stairs. When they reached the top floor, they both stumble upon a door.

"Um, I don't think we should be here," he worriedly says.

"Just follow me!"

She grabs his hand and they both open the door.

The moment the door opened, a whole new world was seen from up above. The wind blew nicely giving a nice breeze with the sun giving enough sunlight to warm them.

"WOAH! This... THIS IS A BEAUTIFUL VIEW! I CAN SEE EVERYTHING FROM HERE!" he shouts in excitement upon reaching the edge of the top building.

"This is amazing."

"I promise to keep what you will tell me a secret."

He nods.

"Okay, it has something to do with magic. Here, let's use water magic."

"Here we go."

He chants, "WATER!" he calls out to her, "Pallitra! Come here. Look at these."

He points to the magic lines that are faintly visible to the naked eye.

"Wait, I don't see anything."

"Try to look closely."

She inspects the line he was pointing.

"OH! YOU'RE RIGHT! THERE IS!" she points to the line.

"I discovered it when I was tinkering with magic even before I started school. I tried experimenting on it, and I noticed that there were values like these but I couldn't understand the words yet because I haven't gone to school. But..."

He stops himself and argues with miself, "Wait... am I sure... that she's interested in these things? What is she's just trying to be considerate... Maybe, she'll be weirded out. Just like last time..."

Before reincarnation...

At this moment in time, he was still a young child around 11 years old of age.

"MOM! DAD! LOOK!" the little boy points to his computer.

His mother asks him, "What is it?"

"I MADE A PROGRAM THAT CAN TALK TO YOU! AREN'T YOU AMAZED?"

"Isn't it time, that you let go of that?" his father suggests.

"Huh? But... look!" he types in his computer, "It's amazing isn't it?"

"And so? What are you going to do with it? You'll fail at it eventually. Gosh, I'm worried about your future," she proclaims.

"You should just take engineering or even architecture. I heard they give high salaries," his father states.

"Maybe even a lawyer would fit you better," she insists.

"But..."

He was in utter disappointment from hearing his parents' reactions. His eyes started swelling.

A tear comes from his right eye and it drops to the ground.

"They didn't accept my hobbies, the ones I love," he thought to himself.

At 15 years old...

He is in class talking with a girl.

"Look at this," he shows his computer, "I actually plan to be a programmer, it's just exciting to see to be able to control, and to be able to control its outpu-"

"Stop," the girl commanded.

"Huh? B-But... I thought..."

"You're creepy. Don't talk to me."

He goes back to his seat and slowly closes his laptop.

The young student felt pity for himself, he starts crying with the drops from the left eye dropping first onto the tiles of the school.

"They thought I was weird, and it eventually took its toll and I had no more confidence in myself. Which probably explains why no company ever took me in," he explains in mind.

At 19 years old...

He is on a chair in front of a man in an office.

"U-Uh. G-Good Morning!" he stutters, "S-So, I have planned to w-work for you for a long time. I-I know how to program with JavaScript, Python, a-and, wait... M-My name is..."

"And you can stop right there. NEXT!" the man sitting in front of him stops him.

"But, I-I haven't even-"

"Sir."

"Huh?"

"Just leave."

"B-But, w-why? I c-can be of use to your company! P-Please... PLEASE! I HAVE TO FIND A JOB!"

"Sir, let me tell it to you straight. W e  a r e n ' t  i n t e r e s t e d  i n  y o u ."

Both eyes release tears as the tear drops fall to the ground.

"Maybe, I should just cut it out. She's not interested in these kinds of things," he said to himself.

Phize tries to stop himself, "A-Actually, never mi-"

"AMAZING!"

"Huh? What did she just say?"

"I never knew you could do these kinds of things! Phize, you're so amazing and smart! Please teach me more."

"A-Are you sure?"

"SURE!"

He smiles.

"So this is how it goes..."

"And this is when I first noticed that talking to Pallitra ultimately calmed my mind and heart. I want to stay by her side," he happily thought.

END OF EPISODE 12