Author's Reincarnation in a Fantasy Setting

Years flew by quickly, it's been 5 years since I reincarnated in this body and now I was back to the age I died in my previous life—the age of 15 years.

All this time I practiced magic by myself and sword arts with Anya. I wanted to go to the magic academy for learning magic but our family was not rich enough to afford the enrollment fee.

Apparently, practicing sword arts was more difficult than practicing magic, the reason being that while practicing sword arts I had to physically use my body instead of imagining a simulation in my mind.

I also did a bit of research about sword arts as I wanted to know exactly what I was learning and what use will it be for me. And here's what I found; Sword arts are the most common yet difficult way of combat in this world.

If you are born into a noble's family then it was almost compulsory for you to learn them; almost because the final decision was on the individual in question.

My father knew sword arts and Anya had finished her training a year ago. I was learning from Anya so I was a year late in completing my training but it was going to end today as today was the day I was going to give a type of graduation exam.

I was also practicing magic and the result of that was I was able to use elemental magic pretty easily now, I also passed out several times due to running out of mana but it was worth it since it increased my mana capacity.

And not only mana capacity, but from these 5 years of training magic and sword arts my status has increased and I leveled up. But it still didn't solve the mystery of my rank being one step ahead of other attributes.

When all of my stats reached C I got a level-up notification and my rank changed to B. In short, even after leveling up the situation at hand was the same.

But even after all this I was enjoying my life in this new world, at first I was hesitating a bit because I had my doubts.

What if I never really died after falling from the stairs that day? What if I just hit my head hard and now I was in a comma? What if this was all just a dream?

I was a little scared, to be honest, scared of losing everything again. But then I realized, that if there is even one percent chance of losing all this then I should enjoy it as much as I can. From that day onward, I decided to live this life to its fullest, even if this was all a dream I decided to make this my best dream ever.

"Hey Zero, are you alright?" said Ainge, my mom, bringing me back to reality.

"Yeah, I'm fine," I replied with a smile. I was lost in thought again I guess; right now I was having dinner with my family and it's better to focus on that.

"How's your training going?" she asked. Unlike Ron, my father, she was not the type to overreact to little things and that was why I felt more "normal" while talking to her.

"It's going well, along with sword arts sis is also very good at teaching me."

"Stop exaggerating, I'm not that good. It's just that you are a fast learner," said Anya, she was sitting on the other side of the table in front of me.

"I'm so happy to see you all grow, really," exclaimed Ron, the person I wanted to avoid at all cost. He really shows his emotions get the best of him.

But well, there is a reason for that also. One day I was irritated by him because of this behavior, I didn't say anything to him but I went and talked to Anya.

It was then she told me the reason behind his behavior, I and Anya were their fourth and fifth child. Before us all the children Ainge gave birth to died within a month and Ron was heavily depressed by this. Then when Anya was born and didn't die after a month he was relieved.

Then when I was born again, tension took over him again. I was-no, Zero Blanks was a very weak child ever since he was born, he was always sick and didn't go outside that much.

This worried Ron as he was scared of losing another child but well, when the original Zero died after struggling for 10 years the thing with my reincarnation happened and in his eyes, Zero's condition got better. This lifted the weight from Ron and became the reason for the "special treatment" I get.

Complicated stuff I know, asking Anya about my own past was even harder than this, I barely got away by giving the excuse that after that incident my memories of the past are fuzzy and unclear.

Not having the memories of your predecessor in this reincarnation thing is a huge pain.

"Oh Zero, I forgot to tell you before but I will be taking your graduation exam tomorrow," Anya mentioned, dropping a bombshell out of nowhere.

"W-Wait what! You said it will be at the end of this month," I reasoned as I stopped eating.

"Yes I know but, well, it's a thing that's not in my control," she confessed, lowering her eyebrows.

"What do you mean by 'not in my control'? Can you explain please?"

"Well, it's…none of your business. Whatever, be prepared tomorrow morning," saying that she got up and left; she didn't even finish her food.

Wait for a second, what the hell just happened?

I shifted my gaze at Ron in the hope to get an answer, "Will you tell me? You know what's going on right?"

"It's not a thing kids should get involved in," Ainge interjected, she spoke in a hard tone that was completely unlike her.

"First, I'm not a *kid* anymore, and second, she's my sister and if something's happening then I have full rights to get myself involved," I replied instantly; if this was going to be a family argument then they should back down now.

After all, I never lost an argument in my previous life and.....leave it, I don't want to remember all that now.

More importantly, Anya is my family, if something is troubling her then I'll help her. That's like super obvious.

I again glared at Ron as I narrowed my eyes; fortunately, this man was easy to deal with.

"I'm never ever going to talk to you if you don't tell me what's going on," I insisted, this will be enough to make him talk.

Surprisingly I was wrong. He averted his gaze as he stood up and left. Ainge followed him afterward.

Okay, this came as quite a shock. But I found another proof that reality is often different from novels. If this was a novel then he would have spilled the beans right then.

"This is a drag," I sighed as I finished my dinner. Obviously, I was not going to waste food like them.

But about this situation, I have to somehow ask Anya about this. She said that she'll take my graduation exam tomorrow; it will be her way of testing what I have learned in these past few years.

Will she tell me if I beat her tomorrow? I suppose so, and I also wanted a chance to test this [Foresight] skill of mine so it will be a good opportunity I guess.

"Sigh~ And here I thought I will be living a peaceful slow life," I said to myself as I sighed.

----------ZERO'S CURRENT STATUS---------------

====STATUS====

Name: Zero Blanks

Rank: B

Mana capacity: C

Strength: C

Agility: C

Stamina: C

Skills-->

- [Foresight (Level 1)]

User can see 0.1 seconds in future by using this skill.

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----AUTHORS NOTE----

Hey guys it's me, moon senpai! I just wanted to ask something you all. Are you guys okay with the way this story is moving or you think the pacing should be a bit more fast? Tell me your answer in the comments.