HAZEL VELOR

Raising our first child, Elise, had been nothing but stressor after stressor. After only getting to spend six years with her, she was “chosen” by the royal government to be trained extensively in the central academy of Camidinne, the most prestigious academy in the nation. In truth, there wasn’t much choice in the matter. I wanted to spend more time with my daughter, but after she came back from the academy, she had changed. I mean, of course she had, it had been four years after all, but she was constantly away on “important matters” that she couldn’t even tell her own mother about.

That’s why all I want is to spend as much time as possible with Ikarus. I don’t want him to be some crazy skilled, adventurous hoodlum who never talks to his mom. I don’t want another “prodigy.”

So as of now I’m very happy to be spending my time lazing about with my boy. But ever since Elise went and talked to him one night, he’s constantly sitting in his room silently while making weird facial expressions, and I’m starting to wonder If I should be concerned.

Ikarus is a very curious child. He’s seemed like he's been bored since the day he was born, always crawling somewhere or other. It’s hard to tell what’s going on in that little mind of his. Though that’s not always the truth. That time I healed him from the boo-boo he got on his head, his eyes went wider than a planet! The cute little fascinated expression he had on was absolutely adorable!

He is especially curious when it comes to Elise. (Which makes me a little bit jealous to be frank). He watches intently at any use of her magic with wide eyes. His attention was only subverted from Elise when his father would train with his axe in the backyard, a habit that frankly I could do without, with all the racket that it caused.

Cedric and I were a nifty team back in our adventuring days, with him and his waraxe being the brute force to take down any powerful monsters, and me and my rapier being the speed and agility necessary for more nimble opponents. Not to mention my healing magic coming in handy more than frequently. Cedric didn’t seem to be as hurt by the situation with Elise’s childhood as I was. I suppose he took pride in all that our daughter had accomplished, which of course I did too, but I just couldn’t be as happy with it as him.

I was hoping this time around, my husband would understand where I was coming from and want to spend as much time as possible with Ikarus. But for some odd reason, he’s being unreasonably distant towards our new child. I wonder what he’s thinking?

CEDRIC VELOR

What the hell is wrong with this boy?

Sorry—- that was harsh. It’s not like I have any particular reason to be perturbed by him, but just something about everything he does irks me. His chocolate colored brown eyes have always seemed almost intelligent, and the things he does, it’s like he does them with purpose. I should be adjusted to raising unusual children by now, especially after our great success with Elise, but Ikarus is different.

I can say at least that I have done a good job hiding my botherdness, as opposed to Elise, who’s expressions were much more telling regarding her thoughts on the boy. Though even Elise seems to have come around to him, which makes me think I might just be overthinking this whole thing.

You know what? From today on, I’m gonna spend more time with Ikarus. After all, he’s my son, so whatever strangeness he has came from either myself or the woman I married. Standing up from my chair, I walked up the stairs towards Ikarus’s room. Maybe I’ll tell him some of my old adventuring stories…

I reached his room, but standing at his door, eyes wide with panic, was Elise. Before I could ask what was going on, she disappeared with a flash of light, and I heard her frantically shouting something along the lines of “throw it”.

I felt a draining sensation pulling at every inch of my body. My mana was being ripped from out of me and pulled through the door. But then the sensation abruptly stopped. Relief washed over me as I heaved out a sigh.

Suddenly, an ear-piercing boom echoed from the neighboring room. A bright light filled my vision as I felt myself slam against the wall. My entire body ached as it felt like I was being torn apart at the seams. Were we attacked? No, what reason would someone have to attack us? Is this it for me? After the years I spent essentially neglecting my son, I die right before I can fix it?

What a cruel joke.

As desperately as I wanted to push myself up and search for Ikarus and Elise, I couldn’t move an inch under the immense pressure of this wave of mana. I forced whatever scraps of mana I had into forming a protective barrier around myself, a skill I had learned to protect myself in fights during my adventuring days, only able to focus on my own survival for now.

IKARUS VELOR

“–arus!” “Ikarus!” I heard a faint voice calling out to me. Where am I? My head was hazy, and my vision blurred, but I still managed to pick myself up off the ground.

What happened?

I was surrounded by wreckage. Split wooden planks and flames ravaged the scene around me. I stood in our house, or at least what was left of it. As I blinked open my eyes, I saw my father with his arms around me, a few tears streaming down his face. I wasn’t all that close to him, so this was surprising. Not bad though.

“Oh thank god!’ my mother exhaled with relief, wrapping her arms around me and my father, leaving me sandwiched between the two. “What happened?” I asked, struggling to piece together my memories through the haze in my brain.

“I- I heard an explosion” my mom said, stumbling over her words, “I rushed toward the noise, and I found all this–”

That's right.

My mothers gaze shifted towards my sister, who was rubbing her wrist nervously.

“You.” my mother stammered angrily. “This was your doing wasn’t it!” a clear animosity in her voice. “You recklessly endanger yourself all your life, and now Ikarus as well!”

I had noticed that my mother was not as proud of her daughter's power as much as she was afraid of it. It seemed like she was just lashing out without reason, but I realized I could turn this situation to my advantage. For a while now, I had been wanting to officially ask Elise to mentor me in magic. But I knew that my mother wouldn’t be so fond of the idea, with her misgivings regarding Elise’s power. This situation might just give me the opportunity to change that.

“Honey calm dow—-” my father started before being cut off. “Well I’ve had enough!” my mother shouted. “You will bring no more harm to this family!”

“Mom,” I interjected, “it wasn't her fault.”

My mom turned to me, disbelief in her eyes. “If it wasn’t for her,” I paused for a moment to emphasize my following words, “I don’t believe I would be alive right now.”

My mother looked me in the eyes, slowly considering what I said. “And how do you figure that,” she asked doubtfully. “Somehow, I ended up conjuring a ball of powerful condensed mana.” I stated calmly, evoking gasps from both of my parents.

To tell the truth, I have no idea how I managed to create such a powerful ball of destruction. I would need to ask Elise about that later, but I wasn’t sure if she would even know.

“I lost control of it—- if I ever had control in the first place, but was saved by Elise.”

My mothers expression transitioned from anger into regret, tears welling up in her eyes as she realized her mistake. “I'm so sorry honey,” she sobbed, “I was just so overwhelmed and—--” “It's fine” responded my sister, who looked like she too was trying her absolute hardest to avoid tearing up.

This was my chance.

“To avoid any more inci—- problems like this in the future” I said, fruitlessly attempting to dumb down my speech a little as I had forgotten to in previous, “can Elise be my mentor?”

THREE YEARS LATER

The sun was setting over the forested area I stood in. I locked eyes with the wolf-like beast in front of me. It was larger than a bear, with rough, black fur and sharp claws. Its intense red eyes shone with mercilessness. The beast gave off an oppressive atmosphere, unusual for monsters that I had fought before. It had two large tusks protruding downwards and outwards from its mouth, each one sharp enough to cut through a tree like butter. Yowch. I don’t wanna touch those.

The beast reared its ugly head and began to charge at me, each stomp shaking the ground below me. With plenty of time to react, I side-stepped the wolf’s charge, jabbing a knife into its side. It’s too easy— huh? Instead of hitting flesh, my dagger ran into a barrier of mana that the monster had coalesced in defense. Knocked off balance by the rejection of my attack, I stumbled, giving it an opportunity to strike.

The beast swung its head around faster than I could react, slamming the side of its large tusks into my chest. The force was enough to throw me into a nearby tree, my back slamming against the wood as my breath left me. The beast turned around to face me, preparing another charge as it swiped its paws against the ground like a horse. Okay. Not looking good. Regaining my breath just in time, ignoring the aching from my ribs, I managed to roll out of the way of the wolves second charge as it slammed into and through the tree I had just been leaning against. Scary! But wait a second, It had too much momentum to stop itself before slamming into the tree behind me. Which means…

As the beast was momentarily disgruntled by its head first collision with the tree, I made a mad dash for a large boulder that was nearby. The monster, further enraged by my movement, once again charged towards me. I channeled mana into my palm and aimed it at the ground, releasing a blast of wind that propelled me upwards into the air. The beast, unable to stop its momentum, slammed headfirst into the boulder I had positioned myself in front of. Dazed and immobile, the monster could do nothing to defend itself as my flame-coated dagger plunged into its nape.

Haha! I did it! I dropped to the ground next to the beast’s corpse, but I guess my descent was a little too rough because I heard a small snap coming from my injured rib cage. “Ack!” I yelped.

Suddenly, a warm green light began glowing at my side. I yelped again, but this time only in surprise. “Ah, It’s just you.”

“Not too shabby! You must’ve had a hell of a teacher to be able to do all that at six!” Elise exclaimed with a cheeky grin while healing my rib injury.

Healing magic does not depend on an elemental affinity, instead it only takes a lot of time and dedication to master. I wasn’t exactly dedicated enough to learn it all that well, though. Of course, there were some with a natural born talent for it. I myself could maybe heal a gash, but nothing compared to what Elise was doing right now.

“No, no one special,” I replied nonchalantly.

“No one special huh?” she repeated mockingly while pulling me in for a noogie.

For the last three years, I had been almost exclusively learning about magic and training my combat abilities with Elise. I wasn’t training excruciatingly for the sake of some grand goal or anything, rather I just truly enjoyed spending time exploring the capabilities of mana with Elise. Now that I think about it, I haven’t really made any friends. Then again, I wasn’t too keen on spending my time bumbling around with four year olds.

Under Elise’s tutelage, I had grown at a remarkable rate. Once she discovered I had an affinity for three elements, she was very insistent on my focusing on perfecting the basics, and creating a “solid foundation.” So I have grown quite competent with each element I can use well, being wind, water, and fire. I was a tad irritated by my ineptitude in the department of earth magic, though I figured three out of four wasn’t all that bad. When I wasn’t working on magic, which was rare, Elise trained me in swordsmanship as well. She believed that one shouldn’t grow complacent with only magical power, and that combining it with the use of a weapon was optimal. I was already somewhat skilled with the sword in my past life, which allowed me to pick it up very quickly and improve easily. Not to mention my young body was great at learning.

Elise herself was truly amazing. Though she only has an affinity towards water, she is able to masterfully manipulate it in ways that I would've never imagined, like liquifying parts of her body to allow attacks to pass through. I have repeatedly asked her to teach me that trick, but she just brushes me off with “it’s too advanced for you.” Well no duh, that doesn’t mean I don’t wanna try! She has some abilities that even now I fail to understand, such as her speed on the day I accidentally absorbed her mana and utilized it to destroy our house. I refuse to believe that speed could've been achieved by simply imbuing mana into her legs. But then what was it?

But yeah, it turned out that on the day I exploded our home, I had utilized a large amount of mana that I had absorbed from Elise when she went all berserk on the guy who called her “whorish.” I was only able to absorb her mana because of our genetic similarities though, so it wasn’t like you could just go around stealing other people's power. What was weird though, was how she insisted I keep quiet about the whole thing.

“Ikarus?” She said, knocking on my skull, “anyone home?”

“Yeah, yeah,” I replied, realizing I had been spacing out.

“So! You just took down a C class monster!” Elise said happily. “That makes you an official graduate of Elise university,” she said, feigning tearing up, “How far my little Ikarus has come.”

Monsters were ranked by an organization known as the Adventurers Association, which was necessary because in this world, adventuring was a rather common profession. Selling wares from monsters, or discovering treasure hidden in dungeons and caves could be very profitable.

Monsters are ranked on a scale from E to S, though S ranked monsters have only been reported to be even seen once or twice, so despite their reported ability to level buildings, there isn’t too much concern around them. The monster I had just killed had been C rank, largely due to its ability to manipulate mana. That factor is what sets apart your average violent animal in E rank, from beasts ranked D and above.

“He has indeed progressed smoothly,” the white fox-like creature remarked, materializing in a sitting position on Elise’s shoulder. The little guy was named Soleis, and his voice sounded less like a person speaking and more like a projection, almost like one of my own thoughts. To be honest, despite growing somewhat familiar with Soleis over the years, he still unnerved me. His bright, golden eyes seemed to see through me, into my soul.

Soleis was Elise’s familiar, which is basically a magical creature that chooses a human to lend its power to. Familiars are not all that uncommon among mages, but it was still rather impressive to have one, as the bond must choose the mage as well, making it a mutual partnership. I haven’t actually witnessed any of Soleis’s powers though, so I don’t know much about what kind of familiar he is. He was quite unique in the fact that he could communicate though, which was apparently unheard of so Elise told me to keep quiet about that fact. Suspicious.

“I remember it like it was just yesterday when you were a stupid little baby!”

“The stupid was hardly neccescary.”

“I like to remain as factually accurate as possible.”

Oh, I see how it is. I concentrated mana into the palm of my hand, creating a sphere of water behind my back. “Look out behind you!” I shouted. Elise looked over her shoulder turning back to me as she said “Hmm? What are you talking about? There’s nothing ther—-”

I blasted her in the face with the water sphere I had created, and dashed off laughing in the direction of our house. “You little—-” Elise, now completely soaked, began chasing after me muttering swears under her breath.

After running full speed for a solid five minutes, my sister hot on my trail, I burst through the door of my family’s house, eliciting gasps from my mother and father. “Oh, It’s just you two,” my mom said, letting out a sigh of relief. “So, how’d it go?” my father asked excitedly, grabbing my shoulder.

“He killed it alright,” Elise said as she walked in, dripping water all over the floor.

“And what exactly happened to you?” My mother asked, stifling back a laugh.

“This little brat,” Elise responded, flicking me in the head.

“So he passed then?” my father asked again. “Yup, he passed.” Killing the C-rank monster had been a test Elise assigned to me to measure if I was ready to “graduate” from Elise university. Since I had passed, one would think my family would rejoice. Instead however, a palpable tension hung in the air. Everyone in the room knew the topic that needed to be discussed, but no one could make themselves bring it up.

What comes next for me?