Vol. 1: Chapter 03 – Land’s a Ball

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Translated and edited by Tianic

Note: ‘maester’ is a word I stole from Game of Thrones

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[dropcap]T[/dropcap]he name of this continent was Peace, a magnificent place full of glory and legends. This place has been the battlefield of the Protoss and the Asmodians since the beginning of time. The Protoss lived on a giant island north of Peace called Heaven. The Asmodians created their giant island to the south and named it Hell. The eternal fight between them had forced the people in the middle into two allies. In order to be protected, human beings had to choose one of the supreme races as their god. Our hero, Cohen Kheda lived in an empire called Swabia, which worshiped the God of Light, namely the Protoss. Most of its residents were human beings. The Darkmoon City which Cohen settled in was to the west. Beside it are the Black Forests and a dessert called the Ocean of Death. There were lots of alien races who lived in these two places. Although Swabia was a peaceful empire, policing these two places has been a problem for the government because of the complexity of the races, and the sad reality of the riots and bandits there.

“Lord Visual Kheda, apologies. I can’t be of any help with Cohen’s studies.”

“But maester, could you tell me why? Did Cohen disrespect you?”

“No…No, he was not, Cohen respects me a lot. It’s just… my knowledge is not enough to understand his bizarre ideas. Speaking of which… gosh, my heart…”

“Ah, let me help you, Maester Cisco.” Visual Kheda then pondered, “We’ll find someone else for Cohen, but what do you think about Rick and Swift?”

“Your other two kids? They are doing excellently on both martial and magic skills.”.

“Then I would have to ask you to continue your excellent work for them, will you?”

“Will I? Of course, would you allow me to be their mentor?”

“Sure thing, you are the best maester in the city.”

“It’s such a pity people worship wands and swords over knowledge.” Maester Cisco said gloomily.

“Don’t overthink it, maester, I’m not from the army, remember?” Visual said with a smile and tapped Cisco’s shoulder, “To be a nobleman, force and magic are surely not enough.”

“I promise you I’ll do everything possible to pass my knowledge onto your children.” Maester Cisco bowed, “But please tell Cohen that he should not say those words anymore. If the priests from the temple know, you’ll be in trouble.”

Visual Kheda was stunned, “What did he say?”

“You’d better ask him yourself, excuse me…”

Visual watched Maester Cisco left and sighed, then fell into distress. Since the birth of his third child, the kid had never seized to give him trouble.

In the beginning, it appeared to be a big deal that Cohen laughed at birth and possessed no magic power within.

(Hold that thought)

Compared to what followed next, those birthday events had become minor issues.

First, he grew black hair which no one had on this continent. Soon everyone in the Swabia knew about the Viceroy’s third child.

Even the king was concerned. He quickly sent the High Priest overnight.

On his arrival, the High Priest started his work right away. He put a saint fruit and a scarab, which symbolized light and dark, in front of toddler Cohen Then he bagan preparing to release the identifying charm. Before he could do it, the little devil grabbed and ate the saint fruit then stamped on the scarab. Lucky for him, the priest was unable to discover the hidden tendency for dark magic within Cohen’s body, or the baby will be tied to a post and burned.

Identify spell: By putting the saint fruit and the scarab in front of the subject, the spell caster releases the identify spell. If the subject is inclined to light magic, then the scarab will crawl away. If the subject is inclined to dark magic, the white saint fruit will turn black. Subjects who tended towards dark magic will be burned. The Asmodian allied countries will riprap the light carriers.

As Cohen had grown old enough to go to school. His parents had found that this boy refused to touch weapons. The boy would cry even near a sharp edge. Therefore Visual and Katherine had abandoned to raise Cohen as a warrior. Naturally, they went for magic. But quickly they had discovered that Cohen had no magic power at all within his tiny body, which was odd because every human being, even alien race people had magic. As a result, Cohen’s parents were forced to let him study other things, hoping he would assume a civic position in the future. But nobody could anticipate what was in his tiny brain. Every of his maester was scared off. It was the ninth including Maester Cisco.

“My child…” Visual Kheda sighed.

“What’s going on, darling?” His wife, Katherine came into the chamber quietly, “Why are you sighing again?”

“Your dear son scared off another maester!”

“Again? Haha, the 8th, 9th?”

“How could you be laughing… this is the ninth.” Visual spoke bitterly, “Cisco is the last maester I could find in the city.”

“Don’t you worry too much, Cohen may be a little unordinary, but he’s a good boy. See, he made this today.” Katherine handed over a blue belt with silver stripes on it.

It was evident that Cohen put a lot of work into this belt. It was handmade, and under the blue background, several silver laces crossed together to make a lively phoenix.

Looking at the belt, Visual Kheda could feel the love from his child, but he couldn’t help but feel gloomy once again.

“Katherine, you don’t expect your child to make belts all his life, do you? Cohen is indeed a good boy, but a good kid can’t survive this dangerous world.”

“What could we do?” Katherine could feel the seriousness of her husband.

“Where’s Cohen?”

“Outside, might come back by nightfall.”

“Let’s talk with him over dinner. Oh, by the way, I’m off to DC for a couple of days, you want anything?”

“No, I’m good. Say hi to Tennessee, Webster, and Bellerina for me.”

“I will, I miss them too.”

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DC, the Divine City, capital of Swabia

I was a 6-year boy! I lived happily! There was no class today! Humph, my maesters were all old enough to be my grandpas. They wore sleeping robes and talked stuff that had no meaning. Father said those were knowledge, but I think they were all wrong!

Like today, Maester Cisco told me the ground under my feet was flat.

And I didn’t think it’s flat. If it were flat, then why did we first see the top of a ship sailing back from far away? Clearly, it was a ball. But when I said this, Maester Cisco’s look was so frightened. I didn’t get it. I didn’t mean to scare him. Anyway, now he was gone, I had time to play!

You had no idea of who I was, right? Let me tell you. My name was Cohen Kheda. If you wanted to be my friend, just call me Cohen. I had no magic, not at all. It was impossible for anyone on this continent called Peace to not possess any magic power, but here I was. I had no idea why. My mother said I was born this way. So I didn’t have to use magic. But papa had someone taught me a bunch of magic knowledge, for what?

One more thing, I, Cohen Kheda, hated, hated weapons of any kind! As long as it was anything that will bring wound and death, I detested them. I would vomit and scream and throw them far far away! So I couldn’t learn martial skills either.

Although I was such a child, everybody loved me. Because I liked to help everybody! I had a lot of friends who watched me grow up. I liked them too!

“Uncle Sam! How much are those fruits?”

“Cohen, it’s free, take one.”

“I’ll make a hairband for Uncle Sam!”

Habitats, male or female, in this continent grow long hair.

“Big sister, can I play with this?”

“Cohen, you like it? Take one.”

“I can’t take it. My mother said I can’t take things from others. Can I trade with these three-colored flower seeds?”

“Granny, can I read your book?”

“Sure, take it, little Cohen.”

“Thank you! Granny, I’ll return it in a few days!”

With the book in hand, I saw the name of the book was Continent Chronicle. It’s a book about history! I didn’t like history. Why, if I returned it now, Granny would be upset. I’ll keep for a few days, and then I’ll return it, that’s right.

(… guru…)

“What is it?” I looked at the dark sky and discovered it was dinner time! I had to go back home. I dashed because I had things to do after dinner!