After getting over the fact that he is indeed talentless in magic, Hiro didn't gave up on it. 'If This King gave up, who would give hope to the talentless?' Were his thoughts. So he studied. And studied and studied and studied some more. He was sure there had to be a way to progress in magic regardless of talent. After all, he was the one who disdained talent at the karmic shop. Talent is just a word those who can't achieve something use to justify their incapability.

As he studied, he came across an interesting theory of magic. It said that mana isn't naturally aligned to any branch of magic. So it didn't matter if you had 1 or 6 sources in your core, as long as you learned to manipulate it correctly to do what you wanted. The only difference was the potency of your magic. The lower the number of sources, the less mana you had. That also made sense to him, since his blood couldn't be aligned to any branch of magic naturally and could be used in all of them. So the theory was probably true.

However, since the split of sources was a natural evolution path of humans, it was, in fact, disciplined to act that way. Like your heart is disciplined to beat in a certain speed. If you could control the rate at which your heart beats, wouldn't that make you able to go into an adrenaline-like frenzy and back to normal whenever you wanted? Come to think of it, isn't there some stories in Earth that some people could slow down their heartbeat at will?

That meant it was possible to discipline his mana. And even if it wasn't, a king is a person who can create miracles. So as he readed the book of magic theory, he started to laugh loudly with a hand covering his face.

Meditating was hard. He couldn't stay still for long or keep his thoughts in control. His chuunibyou imagination worked against him, so it took days before he could get in a meditative trance.

Even though he managed to do it, all he could do is watch his mana flowing, no matter what he did, he couldn't make it flow one way or the other. So he kept watching, memorizing with dilligency the paths of mana in his body.

While he focused, he realized that the speed at which mana flowed was directly connected to his thoughts. When he was thinking, it slowed down, and while he just watched it with a blank mind, it sped up.

As the days and months passed by, Hiro dilligently trained swordplay in the morning until lunch, after lunch he practiced his meditation and mana control until evening, where he studied magic theory and learned ettiquete with an old lady that was hired by his mother.

As days became weeks and weeks became months, the young boy slowly but steadily progressed in his magic. He could already use mana of two different sources of light to flow in any one path. Which meant he could precisely control the mana in the spell and compensate for his lack of talent with control.

What he didn't know, was that a person was never born without talents. It doesn't matter if you chose yours or not in the karmic shop, a person was always born with random talents. His talent, unknown by him, was exceptionally big in control. Be controlling his body, his mind or his energy, he was a prodigy, and what he did in months, would take a talentless person years to master.

Talent added an instinct. People talented in a branch of magic, had the instinct of knowing how to control the mana in a way it had the desired effect. Be it healing people or protecting for restoration, or becoming forces of nature like flames for destruction. It was natural and easy. But that was only control. Instinctive control, but control nonetheless.

And as a prodigy in control, he could be considered a prodigy in all branchs of magic!

The downside, however, was that he took longer to cast a spell. That was because the control wasn't instinctive. It was conscious control, he had to think in what he wanted to do and the desired outcome. So he was slower in casting.

But he couldn't have known that. He kept training as hard as he could, thinking that other kids with talent were easily above him. And he couldn't tolerate that. So he kept training and training. His magic progress was not faster than a prodigy, but it wasn't slower either.

He managed to learn the apprentice spells of all branchs of magic by the age of 6.

And of course, his sword training also progressed spetacularly. He was a born swordsman. His talent in swordplay far surpassed his talent in magic. It made the servants in the house sigh with pity. "If only he had this talent in magic. Ai, looks like the Fuji family will keep falling."

As his training progressed, so did time, and soon, it was his seventh birthday. He refused all festivities and stood by his mother's side in bed. Steeling his resolve and preparing mentally for the Five Stars School. The school year would start in a month. His mother smiled gently at him, as he returned with a soft smile of his own.

"Mother, This King won't disappoint you. I will be the most powerful mage in the history of the Five Stars School by the time i get back. Please wait for me." His mother kept her gentle smile as her eyes watered a bit. She nodded and embraced him.

"Make mother proud, my little king."

The next day, he started his travel. If he wanted to get there in time, he had to leave soon. The Five Stars School was located in the capital of the empire. It was a neighbour city, called Magehold. It was a 2-week travel by feet and half-a-week by horse. The reason why he had to leave so early, is because the school will have an entrance test, so that only those qualified can enter.

As he readied his carriage in the west gates of Blue Iron City, his home town, he grabbed his face and a small smile graced his lips.

"Prepare for This King's greatness, Magehold! This King will shake your foundations with its power!"

It was an interesting scene if there were someone to see it. A 7 year old child wearing noble clothes and a short sword strapped in his hip covering his face with a hand, his eyes between his fingers, laughing loudly.

His bodyguard for the travel, Kira, wondered if the kid might be crazy.