One day, while Alex and Sophia were training in the front yard with their dad, a mysterious woman came to visit.
From the pointy hat and the long black cloak fully covering their body, it perfectly matched Alex's memory of what he imagined a mage to be.
"Sophia, come. It's time to test your magical capability." The mother waved as she opened the door for the mysterious woman.
"Yay!"
Sophia immediately dropped the sword onto the floor, running inside as Alex tried to follow her.
Unfortunately, his dad pulled him back out before handing him a bigger, heavier wooden sword straight into his hand.
"Dad, how about me? What can't I go with her?" Alex impatiently asked.
"It's not your turn yet... Your mom said you have to wait until you're six years old. Just wait two years, okay?"
"Okay..."
---
After waiting for what felt like forever, the mysterious woman once again returned to their home.
"Mom! Is it my turn?" Alex excitedly asked.
"Yes, yes. It's your turn," the mother murmured as she opened the door for the mysterious woman to come inside.
After five minutes of waiting in the living room, Alex's mother guided him into the parents' bedroom.
"Whoa..."
Alex was stunned as the bedroom had gone through a complete transformation. The bed, the ceiling, and even the floor were completely gone.
It was replaced with some sort of black void. A darkness that had no end as he tried his hardest to stare into it.
"What are you waiting for?" the mysterious woman asked, noticing Alex standing still outside the hallway.
After seeing the mysterious woman and his mom both standing in the black void perfectly fine, he finally took his first step.
The black void was surprisingly solid, with almost the same feeling and sound as the wooden floor in the actual bedroom.
Alex quickly realized everything around him was just a visual change, not actual physical changes that impacted where everything in the room was located.
"Is this magic?" Alex asked curiously.
"Yep, it's magic... Hey Katherine, where's Paul?"
The mysterious woman asked as she looked towards Alex's mom, who shrugged her shoulders.
"He had been busy dealing with the monster outbreak nearby. He should be back later in the afternoon."
Katherine replied as she gently lifted Alex to the black table, which had a crystal ball right in the middle.
"Okay, Alex, it's time for you to put your hand above the crystal ball and start imagining things," the mysterious woman whispered.
Alex quickly hovered his hand over the crystal ball, but a problem soon appeared right off the bat.
"What am I supposed to imagine?" Alex asked curiously.
"Just anything that comes to mind when your hands hover over the crystal ball. Anything works."
Despite the mysterious woman's advice, Alex couldn't feel anything after he repeatedly moved his hand over the crystal ball.
Everything just came up blank in his head. He just felt a sense of emptiness inside for some weird reason, even as he tried to think of things happening in the past.
Seeing nothing appearing, the mysterious woman suddenly pushed his hands away before putting the crystal ball inside her bag.
"Amelia, is Alex okay?" Katherine asked worryingly.
"He has zero magical capability. Is he really your son? How is he so drastically different from Sophia?"
"What? That can't be right—"
"Alex, shush. Don't question Miss Amelia like that... Is there any way for me to help him?"
Katherine quietly asked as she put Alex back down on the floor, preventing him from hearing the two of them properly.
"Let me think..."
Seeing a mother genuinely wanting to help his son, the mysterious woman decided to give her a little hope.
"When your other daughter is old enough to take the test, I'll come back to give you an answer."
As the mysterious woman snapped her fingers, she vanished right before both of their eyes, along with the black void in the room.
The bedroom was back to normal as if nothing had ever happened to it, with Alex standing on the wooden floor right next to a worried woman.
"Mom... Am I a failure?"
"No, you're not a failure, Alex. I don't want to hear you say that ever again, you hear me?"
As Katherine raised her voice in anger, Alex was immediately spooked by it before instinctively nodding his head in agreement.
But then, a surge of sadness overwhelmed Alex's brain as he thought back to what the mysterious woman had said earlier.
"Alex, you wanted to be an adventurer, just like your dad, right?" Katherine quietly asked as she lifted him to her lap.
"I... I do."
"Then you can't cry over things like this. You have to have a strong heart and be a man to become an adventurer."
After a few seconds, Alex couldn't hold back his tears as droplets ran down his cheeks. He just couldn't believe it.
The fantasy of being a mage had ended before it could even start—the reality of being a normal person was too soul-crushing for him to process.
All the waiting for nothing.
"It's okay, Alex. Just let it all out. You don't have to hold it in..."
As Katherine gently patted him on the head, Alex's sobbing slowly died back down as his mind recollected itself.
"Mom, how can I be an adventurer if Miss Amelia just said I don't have any magical capability?"
"Who told you adventurers need magic? Your dad doesn't have any magic either, and he's doing just fine as an adventurer.
Having magic or not doesn't define someone as a failure, okay? A swordsman is critical to any adventuring party."
As she wiped the tears off Alex's face, she suddenly decided to ask something to distract him.
"Hey Alex, you want to use magic and be a man, right?"
The second part of the question caught Alex a little off guard, but he nodded silently as the sobbing stopped.
"Then you're going to learn your father's sword skill and become a swordsman... And guess what?"
Alex stared back at his mother in confusion, waiting for her to reveal the cliffhanger as she gently brushed his hair.
"You'll still be able to use magic even with no magical capability. Your dream of using magic isn't over yet."
Within seconds, Alex's sadness quickly disappeared from his face as he looked back at her with hopeful eyes.
"Really? I can still use magic?" Alex asked with a hint of excitement.
"Yes, Alex, a swordsman doesn't need any magical capability to use magical scrolls... Look, let me give you one to use right now."
After running over to the drawer and digging inside for a while, Katherine finally returned with a piece of cloth bearing an unknown letter.
"Here, just imagine fire as you hold this scroll."
As Alex closed his eyes and started imagining fire in his head, he felt a burning sensation, which made him open his eyes again.
"There's fire on my finger!" Alex excitedly yelled as a small flame hung in the air on his fingertip.
"Be careful... Don't be sad about not being able to use magic now, okay?" Katherine whispered as she took the scroll away.
"Thank you, Mom! Muah! I love you!"
"I love you too, Alex."
---
Ever since the day after the crystal ball test, Alex had been working extra hard on his sword training.
He was still training alone even when his dad was off to work, forcing Sophia to be his training mate by bribing her with his share of monthly candies.
Just as Alex thought the next two years would go by until his little sister Mary took her magical test, tragedy struck the family.
It was a rainy afternoon.
Several men and women in knights' armor came into the house, soaking wet, carrying a box along with a sword inside.
"Mrs.Katherine. I'm afraid your husband, Paul, he's..."
One of the knights in front hesitated for a second after seeing Alex peeking around the corner before running away.
"He's what? Just tell me."
Katherine asked impatiently as her face started to look more and more nervous after noticing Paul's sword in their hands.
"We were fighting a monster outbreak, and he fell into one of the monsters' traps while saving us—"
"Where is he?"
"We couldn't find him. And when we came back, the only thing we found was his sword on the ground."
As soon as the knight finished talking, Katherine's face suddenly darkened. The living room fell into dead silence.
They all knew there was zero chance for him to come back, especially for a swordsman who had lost their sword on the battlefield.
"We're terribly sorry, madam... If there's anything we can do for you, please contact us."
Seeing Katherine not speaking a single word, the knight put the sword onto the table before leaving the house.
"Mom... Are you okay?" Sophia nervously asked as she and Alex finally walked out of the room.
"I'm fine... Sophia, take care of Alex and Mary, okay? I'll be right back."
Before the two of them could say anything, Katherine quickly ran back into her room. The next thing they knew, she was carrying a black bag.
Alex immediately recognized it—the same one that the mysterious woman had always carried with her in the past.
Without saying another word, Katherine locked the house door shut, not giving them a chance to ask any questions.
"Alex, what should we do now? Why did Mom look so angry and sad?" Sophia asked worryingly.
"I don't know... But Mom told us to take care of Mary. Let's go check on her first."
As the two headed back into the bedroom, Mary was almost asleep in her crib, only waking up after seeing them walk in.
"Mary, do you want to wait for Mom with us?" Alex asked.
With a nod, Alex tried to reach inside to get Mary out of the crib. But he was too short even to reach the bottom of the crib.
Fortunately, Sophia was tall enough to reach inside and carry Mary out, allowing the three to head straight back to the living room.
The two of them first helped Mary sit up on the sofa before getting up themselves, but Mary soon fell asleep underneath the warm blanket.
After waiting for who knows how long, a knocking sound finally came through.
"Wait, don't open the door yet. Mom has a key. It might be a stranger outside." Alex warned, holding Sophia back.
"You're right... But what do we do now, then?"
As the two stood in front of the door, they could hear the knocking sound becoming increasingly urgent.
They wanted to check who it was, but the peephole was way too far up—at least double their height combined.
"Wait, I got an idea."
Alex quickly moved his back and shoulder against the door. Sophia immediately understood it as she quickly crawled on top of his back.
"It's Miss Amelia!"
As Sophia jumped back down to the ground, she quickly turned the doorknob before opening the door.
"Oh, hey, Sophia and Alex, do you guys know where your mom is?"
Sophia quickly shook her head, but Alex pointed over to the sword on the table before stating what had happened earlier.
"People wearing a-armor came to the house earlier, and they dropped off Dad's sword on the table before she left the house with a b-black bag."
A frown immediately appeared on Miss Amelia's face as she quickly walked over to examine the box before going back to the door.
"You three stay inside the house, okay? Auntie is going to go find your mom."
After repeating what Katherine had said, Miss Amelia stormed out into the rain as the door closed on its own.