Rats scuttered away from the sudden light once the doors were open. Inside of the mansion was a dark atmosphere, the clouding of the windows made the inside dark enough to trip over anything. Garbage and trash littered the ground all around exhibiting a sour smell that coalesced with the stuffy air inside. It was clear it had been years, decades since this mansion was last visited.

“Sir Leonard I thought you told me Lord Idicium sent people here to check everything out before us!” Viran couldn’t help but tremble in irritation. Upon receiving no titular groan or response from his teacher Viran looks around in confusion. “Where’s Sir Leonard?”

Viran was alone in the entry hall with only the Elder and his Knights with him.

“Ah, Sir Leonard was checking other premises. He hadn’t excused himself, Lord Viran.” A stone-faced Knight answered.

‘Why’d he leave without even saying anything to me…?’ Viran thought before clicking his tongue.

“Hah, oh well. Doesn’t change anything from the fact that this entire estate is trashed.” Viran nodded to himself. “As everything stands I don’t feel comfortable living in an environment like this, especially considering everything else around here is almost about to collapse.”

Saying those words Viran turns and looks towards Elder Nichols.

“Considering the entire estate, we may need to ask for your villagers' help. We’ll need a steady supply of stone and wood to repair everything and help to carry it all, not to mention none of us here know the way of the land so we’ll have to rely on you for all of this Elder Nichols.”

The grim eyes of Elder Nichols brighten upon hearing those words, albeit a small amount.

“Yes, yes of course. We have plenty of free hands to help you. Though not all of them are experts in repairing, they can certainly mine you a supply of stone and cut down the trees.” Elder Nichols went on. “As for me, I can tell you everything about the land we stand on. I’ve lived here my whole life and I can guarantee no one knows these parts better than me.”

The seemingly audacious claim only eased Viran’s worries as he felt the confidence within Elder Nichols' voice. The young boy was feeling very lost when he first looked at the state of his new home, but the Elder’s words brought some calm to his heart.

“Very well… I’ll send someone to escort you back down to the village and I hope you’ll be able to receive volunteers. Of course we will pay as well as we can.” Viran said. “In the meantime I’ll make sure we’ll figure out everything wrong with this damned estate, then we’ll set up accomodations for the night.”

“Yes, m’lord.” Elder Nichols said before leaving. His white hair swept all around as he walked back out into the harsh wind.

“Just… What are you doing?” Viran asked incredulously once he finally found Sir Leonard.

Viran stood a foot apart from his respectable and prestigious teacher, who now had his face facing directly into the wall as he laid on the dirt floor. They were currently in the back of the mansion and away from prying eyes, yet Viran could not help but feel embarrassed for his lackadaisical teacher.

Sir Leonard’s face turned towards Viran revealing his white beard to be caked completely in mud and pieces of weeds and sticks stuck in his hair. His teacher’s hand shook as he said excitedly.

“Runes! Runes! There are runes put down by the base of the mansion and even as high up as the roof!” Sir Leonard said in an exciting tone, his annoying groan had also disappeared suddenly.

“Ok so what?” Viran asked as he squatted down to look at the runes inscribed in the stone. The runes were much different compared to the ones he had seen before, these runes were completely devoid of straight lines and were filled with swirling lines that twisted and turned.

“These runes have never been seen before! Somehow when the Empire conquered this land they hadn’t found the runes here… But these runes here are still alive as well!”

Viran’s eyebrows went up in surprise, this was indeed an interesting discovery. It was one thing if they had just found some old and dead runes, but no, these were bonafide fully functional runes. Runes that had survived decades and possibly centuries of weathering, such a reliability was unknown in the current world of Runecraft.

It had to be known that the effect runes had on society were still large, and yet the profession was still in the process of almost dying out completely. Due to the rarity and chance of wealth in the profession the actual insider information was kept confidential between the Runemaster and their protege. Oftentimes due to the lack of knowledge on runes the Runemaster would charge exorbitant prices on their goods and instead opt to simply make the runes look amazing at the expense of its actual proficiency. Runemasters themselves are exceedingly weak compared to the normal magic user, making accidents with the wildlife or problems with other magic users also a problem for the profession. It wasn’t unheard of for Runemasters to die without someone to pass on their legacy to.

“Hrm. But still, it’s best we keep this secret.” Sir Leonard groaned as he got up from the ground.

“Wait why?” Viran asked while cocking his head to the side. If they were to report this to his Father they could at least hope he’ll look upon his situation and send more help and materials for them. Since as it stood now, Viran wasn’t sure if the man known as Robert Idicium would be that kind hearted to the son he had exiled.

“ Hrm, well… Having Lord Idicium’s eyes upon us would be troublesome, considering I will be doing something quite illegal soon. Haha!” Sir Leonard laughed in a serene matter, yet his words still struck Viran hard.

“Wait, illegal? What, illegal? What do you mean?” Viran asked in a fast paced tone.

Just the thought of Sir Leonard doing something illegal shocked Viran. But Viran was sure his teacher would have a good reason for it, even if Sir Leonard was more self-centered than some people he was sure he wasn’t malicious enough to do anything wrong. Right?

“Hrm. Well it’s more like a gift for you, though if I’m caught… Nevermind that I won’t get caught.” Sir Leonard spoke while casually swiping sticks and weeds from his hair. “Hrm. After we get everything situated here in the estate you’ll receive your gift. In the meantime, however, we need to keep these runes a secret. If these become known to anyone we’ll need to use your authority to shut them up.”

Sir Leonard finally throws the last stick behind him and kicks dirt up into the small trench he had made to get a good view at the runes. The old man places his hands into his pockets, and says lightly.

“Hrm, though I don’t understand runes all too well, I do believe these runes here helped the mansion stay in such good condition despite the wear and tear that surrounds us now. The only problem is that I am most likely wrong…” Sir Leonard smiled a small bit before his hand lifted up slightly towards the wall. “Let’s do a small test.”

Viran could vaguely feel the spurring of mana throughout the body of Sir Leonard until finally it began to roar. Viran’s heart thumped as he saw a small bolt form directly in front of his teacher’s hands, electricity bounced and rebounded all around the bolt in a frenzy. Then with a light snap of his fingers the bolt is sent directly into the wall and dust is, once more, shot directly into Viran’s eyes and nose.

‘“Puh!” Viran spit loudly on the ground as he cursed his own luck.

“Hrm. It seems I was right.” Sir Leonard murmured in front of Viran.

Walking closer, Viran was finally able to peer through the dust cloud lingered in the air still, and directly on the stone that Sir Leonard shot was a large gaping hole. This much was what Viran had expected, but what he hadn’t expected was for the stone to slowly begin to build itself back together.

“It can rebuild itself? How has this place been hidden for so long?” Viran exclaimed loudly.

Sir Leonard only ignored Viran’s exclamations and instead began to trace his fingers repeatedly on the stone in front of him only for his hands to stop in place within a moment, his teacher’s ears twitched.

“Tsk. Of course they would have heard that… Hrm, I’ll need to research this later.” Sir Leonard said quietly. “Viran I need you to go to them and assuage them. If they see the wall here rebuilding itself it’ll quickly become a problem.”

“Uh, yes!” Viran nodded before running off.

Sir Leonard hastily took out a journal and his hand scribbled all around the page in a frenzy. Then with a loud bang the journal closed and he breathed out heavily.

“Hrm, what dumbshit luck… If anyone destroys even a little bit of this mansion it almost definitely repairs itself in front of their eyes. We really don’t need that bastard's eyes set on this mansion, tsk.” Sir Leonard’s eyes crossed in anger as he clicked his tongue in spite.

His anger was rightfully so though, after all accidents may happen to the walls of the mansion and where the walls repair themselves directly in front of their Knight’s eyes it’ll cause a stir in the estate. Were the runes dead maybe Lord Idicium wouldn’t care much, but one thing particular to note was the fact that these runes still lived. After all profit could be found within these runes due to the fact they may still be salvageable.

“Hrm. Better go see how the kid is doing.” Sir Leonard muttered to himself before walking around the corner again, only to hit walk into something in front of him. “Huh?”

Sir Leonard stared wide-eyed at his pupil in front of him except something was far too different… Viran instead of stalling the knights and servants that were on their way here was only standing still with his hands at his side, his eyes just stared in front of him. The young boy hadn’t even blinked in minutes it seemed, the whites of his eyes had already begun to turn red from the wind that blew directly into them.

Sir Leonard waved his hand in front of the eyes of his pupil, and a single utterance reached his ears. An unknown name, a name that seemed insignificant to the old man that was instead a huge ordeal for his pupil, not that he would know that.

“...Ry…”

Viran unconsciously murmured a name he wouldn’t forget for years to come, the name of a benefactor, an unknown and dangerous benefactor at that.