Why is there always a festival on my birthday? I hate this, festivals are no place for a slums kid. I mean, there's a better chance of stealing food during a festival, but also a better chance of getting caught and chased by guards. Security always gets bolstered during festivals.

Bolstered. Thomas taught me that word yesterday during the spelling lessons. I like the word. It's similar to both 'bold' and 'bolt'. Ambidextrous is a rather terrible word, though. Too many letters, but at least I learned it. Thomas made sure to teach me on Tuesday, my next lesson after I messed it up.

He also taught me some better tricks for making stew on Tuesday. Mine wasn't terrible, but it could have definitely used some improvement.

So could this crowd. They're all in my way and I just want to get to the fields so I can train. Why couldn't the slums be outside of the city walls, so that I don't have to deal with this?

What even is the festival for? I never paid attention to that, just that it happens on my birthday every year. There's a festival almost every two or three months, and the only part of them that has mattered to me in the past was the food.

This festival, I could actually buy food, so I have some in my pack that was properly acquired. It took a lot of effort to buy the apple instead of steal it.

Hailey and her crew decided to try to enjoy the festival this year. They're using some of their hard-earned money to buy snacks and probably trinkets, but Hailey said she's going to make sure they stick to the amount they agreed on so that they don't use up their earnings. I'm sure they'll be out in the fields after lunch, is there really much to do in a festival other than buy food and trinkets?

Eventually, I manage to get through the crowd, and when I arrive at the gates, I find Colt and Thomas already waiting for me. Rather than his usual dark green tunic, Colt's wearing a dark purple one today. I've never seen him in a different outfit before, and he looks as cute as ever even in a different outfit.

Why is he here? I thought the reason he took so long to come out in the mornings was because of lessons at his home or something. Or maybe stuff related to the family business. Thomas has his pack on, so that implies they're going out of the city today.

"Something wrong?" I ask. "Ya are never at the gate this early."

"Because of the festival," Colt says. "I didn't have any obligations this morning. I always have the day off on festival days. Father thought I was going to participate in the festival, but I told him you were probably going to go outside the city and train some more, and I wanted to spend your birthday with you so you're not alone."

"Why?" I ask. "Birthdays are nothing special. It just means I didn't die for another year."

"What?" Colt looks horrified. "Birthdays are celebrations of your life! They're meant to be spent with people you like and just having fun and eating a lot of food and playing games and getting thoughtful gifts and stuff!"

"Colton," Thomas coughs into his fist. "Remember that Max is an orphan from the slums. How things work there is vastly different from how things work out of the slums. We went over this yesterday, remember? Even common folk handle birthdays differently. They might get a better meal and a gift or two from their family and maybe a friend, but treat the day like any other day otherwise."

"Right," Colt's face flushes. "Sorry, Max. It's still hard for me to wrap my head around what it's like in the slums. You were just going to train and then hunt today, weren't you?"

"Yeah," I nod. "It's just another day. Other than the festival. I hate that there's always one on my birthday and wish the king would move it. Getting here was hard 'cause o' the crowd."

Thomas lets out a laugh at that.

"The king's not going to move this festival," Thomas tells me. "It's celebrating an event that occurred on this day in the past. The anniversary of an event, more precisely. So it will always take place on this day."

"Anniversary," I mumble. "That's the day of the year that an event happened, but in future years, right?"

"Correct," Thomas says. "And Colton wanted to celebrate your birthday with you more than he wanted to celebrate this festival. Are you okay with that?"

"What do celebrations have?" I ask.

This kind of makes me nervous. He wants me to go back into the city, doesn't he?

"Let's go to the boulder first!" Colt says.

That's a little more relieving, but maybe he has stuff and people there already?

"Okay."

The boulder is a few miles away from the city, and since we're walking, it takes us awhile to reach it. A little more than an hour, partly because we have go uphill and that makes us walk a little slower.

Thankfully, no one is here.

"Did you eat breakfast yet?" Colt asks.

"I had a blueberry skull on my way here."

"A what?"

"Scone, probably," Thomas says.

"Yeah, that," I say. "I have more food in my pack."

"Okay!" Colt says. "I had Thomas bring some stuff! Thomas! Let's make him breakfast!"

Thomas gets a fire going (he had wood in his pack for some reason), then puts a skillet on the fire. The breakfast he makes consists of eggs that he cooked and folded over, some veggies and herbs cooked into it. He also cooked up some sort of sausage and sliced that into pieces and placed it on the side as the eggs finished, and some berries on the side of all of that.

Colt and Thomas wait for me to take my first bite before they eat, and I do. This is… really good. I'm not a fan of the eggs, but the sausage is amazing. It's better than any I've ever eaten and I kind of want more, and Thomas has more and makes it!

"That is def'nitely the best breakfast I've ever had," I tell Thomas. "Thanks."

"You're welcome," he chuckles. "Colt has some gifts for you, but I want to tell you some stuff first."

Tell me stuff? That weird Elm boy said that he would. I didn't really focus on improving my abilities with water magic like he suggested a few days ago, but this is two things, now. If whatever Thomas says does give me more information about my amulet… then I'll start focusing on my water magics.

This would act as proof that the boy knew something and had a reason for telling me to actually work on them.

"Okay," I say.

"It took me awhile," Thomas tells me. "But I found a record of your family name."

It's directly related to my amulet… considering the amulet is my family's emblem.

"I've actually known for about a week," Thomas tells me. "But I thought I'd tell you today, as a birthday gift."

"It was only a record?" I ask. "Not my family?"

"No," he says. "It wasn't a reference to your family itself, but to a land. More specifically, the Kingdom of Zanroval."

"What?" Colt looks at Thomas in shock. "I've never heard of-"

"That's because it's not within the realms," Thomas shakes his head. "Which is why it took me so long to find the name. In ancient times, there were ways to quickly cross vast distances, even communicate across them in less time than it takes us to send a message to a neighboring kingdom. Something happened – history records are not clear on what – and those abilities were lost. We've been unable to look for the other realms ever since, unable to find out if those nations still exist or if they've fallen to monsters or something else. Only exceptionally powerful people can cross the wilds."

"And Zanroval was one of those kingdoms?" I ask.

"Yes," Thomas nods. "You know how we have a mountain range not far to the west?" I nod. "According to the record, the Kingdom of Zanroval was beside a mountain range to the east – roughly fifteen hundred miles away from here."

"So… I'm a prince of a really distant kingdom?" I ask. "How did I get here? You said travel is impossible. Now I'm confused."

Especially since I somehow have an amulet with my family's emblem, which was in a temporary [Inventory] that some random, weird kid knew about. Not only that, but Thomas has mentioned a few times that I am still considered a part of my family. Just yesterday, he'd said that if my parents had given me up, I would have lost the name…

Wait. He said that yesterday? Which means he probably said it as part of preparation for today.

"I think I can explain that," Thomas nods. "How old is Hailey?"

"Thirteen," I answer. "Her birthday is about five months ago, I think."

"And she's a three-affinity, so she was safe," Thomas nods.

"Huh?"

"What does the Arcane Convergence have to do with things?" Colt asks.

"What's the Arcane Convergence?" I ask.

"Thirteen years ago today," Thomas tells me. "There was a convergence of arcane energies lasting around half an hour, starting here in just a few minutes. The very air of the world became thick with it. Every single unborn child was killed during those three hours, every pregnant woman lost her baby. Every baby under three months died except for one, and every single-affinity under six months died as well. Many two-affinities under four months died. That's why you'll be hard-pressed to find someone born in the one-year period starting a few months ago."

"Most born in the months before my birthday died," I say. "And the babies that were conceived after wouldn't have been healthy enough to be born for several months."

"Exactly," Thomas nods. "And the only baby born within a month of it who survived was Colton here. His birthday was last month. The Arcane Convergence was simply too powerful for infants and unborn children. A fair few toddlers died as well."

"That's what the festival is for," Colt tells me. "It's… basically a prayer to the gods to never allow such an event to happen again. Within our kingdom, it's also a celebration of my life."

"Uh… why?"

"You'd probably be able to guess if you knew our kingdom's name."

"Why do ya think I ain't knowing it?"

"Did you know it's easy to guess how offended you are by how you speak, even as you try to speak more formally?"

"I's not offended!"

Colt stares at me.

"Maybe a little."

"It was obvious," Colt says. "Because you didn't react to my name."

"What's your name have to do with it?"

"Because this is the Kingdom of Kedridal," Colt says.

"Kedridal?" I ask. "Isn't that your last-oh! You're a prince? And I've been so informal of ya! And so, um… I ain't know the word! Um. Why have you-I mean you-"

"Max," Colt holds up a hand. "I initiated stuff with you, and I'm also an illegitimate child. My mother isn't the queen. I also asked Elise not to reveal it to you, I knew you'd try to get formal with me once you did and it's nice having a friend-"

"We ain't friends!"

"-who doesn't treat me like a prince but like a friend when we're in an informal setting," Colt ignores my protest. "It's also why Thomas won't call me by my nickname no matter how many times I tell him to."

"But I am of too low of a station!" I say. "We ain't supposed to be around each other!"

"And this is why I didn't want you to know," Colt says. "I enjoy being around you. I knew you'd want to stiffen up if you knew who I was. Don't let knowing I'm a prince change things. And besides, according to Thomas, you're a prince, too."

"Which brings us back to the Arcane Convergence," Thomas says. "A lot of people disliked Colton because he was an illegitimate child, but he survived the event. That changed the opinion of him, with people believing the gods protected him from dying from it.

"There was more to it than just babies dying," Thomas tells me. "Much, much more. Since ancient times, it has been known that there are magics which we cannot use. Dragons have been known to be in one spot one moment, then another the next. Teleportation, it is called. There are creatures which defy the weight of the world without using air magic to float. There are even magic items and devices which can use these effects, though the art of crafting them is lost."

"Like the Viewing Stone?" Colt asks.

"The Viewing Stone?" I ask.

"That's not its name," Thomas says. "It's the Scrying Orb, and yes, that is one of them. When Mana is put into it, it can allow the user to view places they have been before. The further the location, the more Mana they need to use. The orb has been broken for centuries, however. Intentionally so, to avoid it being taken advantage of to destroy one's enemies. There is, however, a fragment of it that still works. That fragment constantly shows the same location, however, so it is not of much use."

The ability to look elsewhere in the world, and Thomas says it actually works, just that it's broken.

"During the Arcane Convergence," Thomas says. "Magic became much cheaper, reduced down to only a tenth of the cost. It also became ten times as potent for that short window of time. If someone with only 10 Magic cast a spell that cost 2 Magic, they would spend 0.2 Magic to cast a spell worth 100 Magic."

"That is… absurd."

"Indeed," he nods. "Fortunately, the window of time was too small to take advantage of, but this bonus extended even to magic items. I am thinking, Max, that your parents had tried to teleport you using an ancient device capable of it – and that the Arcane Convergence amplified the teleportation, sending you here instead. Why they would have teleported you alone, I do not know, but that is my best guess."

If Thomas's theory is right, then my parents didn't abandon me, which is why I still have my family name. No, they tried sending me somewhere, only for the spell to be bolstered by a much more powerful event.

Happy Birthday, Maxwell Zanroval! You are now thirteen years old!

It's that time already? I dismiss the notification, then notice Thomas and Colt giving me a curious look.

"You were just looking at something," Colt says.

"Just the normal birthday notification," I say.

"Oh," he says. "I find those annoying, but at least they only happen once a year."

"You just turned thirteen?" Thomas asks.

"Yeah," I say. "You knew today's my birthday."

"No," Thomas shakes his head. "I mean, you just turned thirteen? A few moments ago? The Arcane Convergence started only a couple of minutes before you were born, Max. You were born during the Arcane Convergence."

"Is that significant?" I ask.

"Yeah," Colt says. "Is that significant?"

"It's… curious, to say the least," Thomas says. "You don't seem to have any benefit from it. No Titles, and your Attribute gains are the same as Colt's. The only reason you're growing faster than he is in magic and Levels is because you're putting in more work, I'm sure."

"Okay," I say. "Is that all, or do ya have more?"

"That is all I wanted to tell you," Thomas informs me. "Colton can give you the gifts from him now."

"Okay."