The room was well-lit but despite that, it gave off an eerie sense of darkness within. It was as if each of the eight people standing within all generated their own immense gravity, sucking the light in like black holes.

A bald man spoke up first. "Another golden soul." Despite the lack of hair on his head, he had abundant facial hair with a bit of a unibrow.

"This marks what, the fourth or fifth golden soul we've seen this decade?" The one who spoke up now, was the complete opposite with a total lack of facial hair but an abundance of luscious black hair that rolled down his back. This combined with his soft voice and small frame made it easy to mistake him for a girl.

"Fifth, yes. What is the plan of action?" Fitting with his deep voice, this one had broad shoulders and a wide strong frame that couldn't be hidden by a shirt. Compounded with his chiseled features, blue eyes, and blonde hair, Lucas would call him a blonde Superman. It was exactly this perfection that made it all the more disconcerting that besides his head, his body never moved.

"Plan of action", a woman snorted. "The plan of action is we do as we've done for the last five. Ignore them. Dispose of them if they prove insane. Rope them in if they don't. As simple as can be." Her rich spider-black hair that rolled down her back, almost made her seem related to the effeminate boy from before, but their hair was where their similarities ended, with her much taller frame, richer voice, and more daring face.

"It's precisely because it's so simple that it's so ineffective. Out of those five, we had to kill two of them and another two have run away from us." The woman who spoke now seemed to be the polar opposite of the first one, with her entirely white hair, soft voice, and porcelain face.

"And what do you suggest, wise Callisto?" The dark haired woman's voice had some bite to add on to the sarcasm in her voice.

"They should still be young and weak. We should take advantage of that now by grabbing them and gradually twisting their minds." Callisto's voice remained stable and almost matter-of-factly as if her way was the only smart idea.

The dark haired woman's mocking smile distorted into a frown but before she could reply, one of the men spoke up. "That's stupid. It contradicts our principles. Shut up. We'll go with Altair's plan. Relay this to the sector that got the golden soul."

The man who spoke now, seemed perfectly normal, with an average face and short black hair that revealed his only remarkable feature, his pupil-less eyes. Even his frame and general visage was average with him standing at 1.73m(5'8)and having none of that gravity each of the others had. Despite that, though, Callisto merely nodded, her doll-like expression of serenity never changing once. Altair, though, smiled briefly in triumph.

"And tell Benra that if he doesn't show up again, I'll beat him until he can't show up. Then I'll replace him. We have no need for useless council members. This meeting is over."

Though the ending was quick and sudden, no one said a word of complaint or further debate, simply looking towards the center at an orb. They all sent a string of mana towards it, colliding in a grand spectacle, with the orb. Only one string actually entered, and diffused within it, that being Altair's.

A small sweet smile appeared on Callisto's face as she watched this scene. "Don't screw this one up as well, wise Altair."

Altair's annoyance was visible on her face. Out of the five other golden souls, the only one that had actually willingly joined their fold was Calliisto's while on Altair's track record, she'd had to kill one of them, and she'd caused one to run away.

"Altair, you regulate the golden soul." That was all the pupil-less man said before vanishing, leaving behind a bland wooden podium.

"He's so rude", Altair pouted, before starting to walk out as well. Inwardly, she thought. 'The sooner I find you, the better. Just pretty please don't do anything crazy, ok?'

'What the hell? Where am I? What-oh right, the saber! Oh right, the saber. What the fuck was up with that thing? Is it cursed or some shit?' Lucas had woken up from his sleep.

He was now completely conscious yet all he saw was darkness. He tried blinking several times only to realize he didn't have any. It took him a while to realize he didn't even have a body.

Lucas had experienced this non-physical sensation quite a few times. "No way, did I die?" Immediately, he began lamenting the lost opportunity that was his previous life, while attempting to seek out his next reincarnation.

However, upon moving, he was immediately hit with a variety of different sensations. There was light, sound, and warmth all around him. He took a few seconds to try to understand everything that was happening to him.

It wasn't with any real eyes that he was looking around but with a strange sixth sense that was essentially spatial awareness. He could 'see' his mom and dad looking over his body, worried, while Lady Etrea, the old woman who had treated him, at first, frowned, looking in his general direction. That being the direction of his soul.

Sensing immediate danger, Lucas zipped back into his body, the wonder of being able to leave his body, fading. He fused back into his body, causing it to wake up to the joy of everyone else.

Emelie and Sebastian because it meant they wouldn't be losing a son today, and Batain because it meant he wouldn't be getting punished for something he wasn't at fault for. He looked at Lucas warily. The kid was clearly also some sort of trick planted by one of his siblings. Daphne wasn't clever enough for this one. Alain, maybe?

Wait, no, what if it was Sebastian! However, a suspicious look sent his younger brother's way only caused him to return a look of unfiltered despisal. No, Sebastian was probably as much of a victim as him in this scenario.

Lucas evaluated his body, only to realize he felt fine. Better than fine, actually, he felt perfect. Better than perfect, actually, he felt outstanding! He tried to get out of bed to get a better check of his condition, but Emeliie stopped him, sending a worried expression Etrea's way.

Etrea continued to frown at the open space before returning to her usual serenity. "He's perfectly fine. It seems he just fainted from a lack of mana or a rapid usage of mana but his body has fully restored it all."

Hearing that, Emelie sighed in relief before glaring daggers at Batain who still stared warily at Lucas. "What the he-what are you teaching him?"

Lucas inwardly snickered. He didn't hold any ill will towards Batain but he'd rarely seen his mother get angry to the point of cursing.

Ignoring that spectacle though, he tried getting up but the act was extraordinarily easy. His entire body felt unnaturally powerful as if someone had linked him with a car battery or something. It wasn't to a very noticeable effect considering his age but to him, it felt like a qualitative difference.

After noticing the changes, he looked at Batain, who happened to still be shirtless though he now wore pants, noticing he had a new scar on his shoulder. It was still bright red, though it didn't bleed anymore. Judging from the messiness and heat it seemed to give off, Lucas realized the wound had been cauterized.

"Ok, calm down. I don't know what the fuck you want me to tell you. But whatever it is, ask your son instead. I don't know whatever he did to suck his mana out." Batain tried disengaging but alas, he made one crucial mistake. He was the teacher so he was supposed to have everything under control, to know everything.

Batain liked Emelie for her relatively strong will. While it wasn't uncommon for members of lower families to marry to higher ones, it was uncommon for the spouse from the lower family to remain completely unfazed in the face of the contempt they'd get for becoming public social climbers.

It was this strong will that also irritated him to no end. He wasn't a saint, far from one, instead. Because of this, if it wasn't for the presence of Lady Etrea, he would've simply knocked Emelie out before knocking Sebastian out, and leaving. He had no intention of dealing with this misplaced anger.

The only thing it did do for him was dispel thoughts of the 'incident'(Batain had no better way to describe it) being some sort of conspiracy against him. Emelie seemed to heavily monitor her son's behavior so even with all of his intelligence, he couldn't hide some sort of plot against him. Besides that, the first time he'd blacked out was also the first day they'd come to the Cazenarch household.

He looked back at Lucas, no longer in wariness but a small bit of curiosity and annoyance. In part, this was his fault. There was a lot more the kid could refine in terms of mana control, conduit magic, and amplification magic, but after giving a prostitute he'd met some "private lessons", he didn't really feel like putting in effort for his actual private lessons. Giving the kid his main sword only after two lessons was the peak of laziness.

This was partly why he was a bit surprised when the four year old spoke up. "Mom, he didn't do anything wrong. He just showed me more advanced magic, and when I tried using it, I couldn't control my mana and ended up hurting him. It's all my fault. Sorry, Uncle Batain."

With the 'confession' that came straight out of a children's cartoon, he masterfully dampened his mother's anger, inwardly remarking on how he'd truly become an excellent child.

Taking a step back, Emelie looked closely at Batain. While it was inappropriate for a married woman to look so intently at a man's naked body, it was clear that Emelie didn't care too much about Batain's physique.

It was only then that she noticed the red scarring on Batain's shoulder. Lady Etrea also piped in, glancing at Lucas briefly. "Yes, he received a somewhat deep cut on his shoulder. It's already been dealt with."

To be honest, Emelie still felt like continuing her rant but it was already quite a bit hindered by what her child had said. It sounded like Lucas had simply made a mistake that hurt no one but his teacher. In fact, looking at Lucas' current hyperactive state, she felt almost silly for assuming so badly of Batain.

Quickly, she said her goodbyes to Etrea and Batain before leaving with her son and Sebastian. It was actually somewhat late in the day now. Emelie and Sebastian hadn't simply rushed over, but had come near the end of their work period.

Lucas wasn't hungry, but they still got some food for him as he hadn't eaten the entire day. Soon enough, he would be hungry, and then he'd eat, and then he'd be sleepy and go to bed. That was their hope at least, as they laid on their bed.

It was ironically a mirror of yesterday with Emelie only having her mind on her child while Sebastian was tired beyond belief. Half sleeping, he told her about why'd he arrived quite a bit late after hearing what was up with their child. He'd only arrived about ten minutes before Lucas had woken up.

"Yeah I had to deal with another attack from the 'Brother' they're calling him." Sleep coated his voice, making it much huskier. "'tried to burn down the farms.."

Emelie didn't bother saying words of comfort, simply cuddling with him as she'd done last night. She hadn't noticed it before but he had a couple of little scars on his face. Soon enough though, they both fell asleep.

Lady Etrea walked into the dark yet spacious room, her face a perfect representation of peace as always. Once she closed the doors behind her, she walked towards and then behind the throne in the front of the room.

She reached her hands down onto the man in the throne, rubbing them up and down his back and shoulders. With each point of contact, a tiny bit of her mana seeped into the man.

His gravelly voice scraped through the room. "You always give the best massages."

"Of course I do." Etrea's face shifted into the most placid smile. The pair then remained in silence until Etrea finished her massage, now simply standing behind the throne, her face back to its usual expressionless calm.

"Your second youngest grandson is quite talented. He has a remarkable affinity for conduit magic, and possibly amplification magic, though that may just be his incredible mana sensitivity speaking. On top of that, he has the rumored golden soul. I'd assume that is what the golden pillar was indicating. He awakened it just today, and he was already able to injure your third son-"

"Batain.. correct?"

"Yes, his name is Batain. He also has remarkable intelligence, clearly able to manipulate his own mother. I think he'll be of great use to the household in the future. If he was old enough to participate in this little contest you have, I don't doubt his ability to destroy his brothers and sisters."

"His name." Despite the fact it was clearly a question, the sheer gravity of his voice made it sound like a statement.

"Lucas, he's the son of your youngest son, Sebastian. You should really pay more attention to your family's affairs, Regis. You're not being the best father, you know that."

"I try my best."

Etrea put her hand on his shoulder as a response to that before simply walking out of the throne room, leaving Regis' blue eyes and the fading light of the day as the only sources of light in this symbol of Cazenarch power.