???: “You must know that there are three fundamental rules that determine one’s place in the world. Those being, wealth, power and status. As you know, you hold only small amounts of these fundamentals compared to the other nobles, your lands are small, your army is weak, and your gold coffers are tiny. Even so, this does not prevent you from gaining more in this world.”

Our tutor continued to drone on about various political advances and positions that could better my family’s name. I sat silently, tuning out the lecture that was repeated for the past week. I could only stare out the window, watching the birds fly. My siblings on the other hand were thoroughly engulfed by the lesson, despite the tutor’s monotonous tones.

Tutor: “As such, the best positions you can hope for are ministers serving directly under the royal crest or perhaps a high-class military position preferably commanding large swaths of men to their deaths, however, you’d need to exercise your magical abilities to at least mediocre levels in order for that position. All right, that’s it for now, remember you have a test tomorrow so make sure you go over the material I assigned make sure you study, the material will mirror that on the entrance exams for the MCBA. Oh, and Aenios, meet me in the gardens when you can.”

With that, the tutor collected his papers, stuffed them in his bag and walked out, forced grace in his steps. I dislike his attitude, his arrogance towards the name of a noble. Despite his awful manners, he’s very well off with many heirs to rich merchants and nobles begging for his guidance. He’s only here due to my father’s connections, otherwise, he wouldn’t bother with a family as small as ours.

I’m Aenios Lumos, and I hate the way my life is currently. To the common folk, we live worlds apart, never having to work. Yet in the upper-class society, we are nothing more than bottom feeders, picking up lands and titles wherever we can. Our land only covers 10 meager villages, no full-fledged towns, no trade routes and no valuable resources. Because of this, the amount of gold we have is minuscule compared to the other houses. Like our tutor said, our army is dismal, just a few villagers with armor strapped on to them, no training and no discipline.

Our only redeeming factor is the name we carry. It comes from our mother, the second daughter of a powerful line of mages. Our father was only a savvy business man before he met her, with no name or magic to speak of. He only had wealth, something the Lumos line needed.

My brother’s and sister’s don’t seem to understand the fate of our family, its course straight down into the underlands. I don’t think my parents understand either, out of the seven of us, only I have enough foresight to see our inevitable doom.

Sighing I grab my materials and leave the room. My aforementioned brothers and sisters working away at the texts handed out by our tutor. I close the gaudy wooden door behind me. It’s become a habit, closing doors. I don’t know where it stemmed from though.

I started to walk down the stone halls, curtains full of dust, corners filled with cobwebs. Seriously, the maids don’t try at all. It infuriates me, all of this. The only thing I can admire about my birthplace is its construction. It was built similarly to a fortress, perhaps that was its original purpose, nevertheless, its defense capabilities and strategic positioning inside a mountain pass won my admiration.

It still doesn’t do anything to help the problems that will arrive in the future, although, it might be useful if a war breaks out. Thankfully, tensions between our kingdom, the kingdom of Gan and the kingdom of Cat have been rising. A war would certainly get rid some of the nobles that have been infatuated with peace for a long 57 years.

I move quickly down the corridors, making tight turns that don’t waste time. I pride myself in being efficient, even in the way I walk. The only decorations in the inner walls are pots with common flowers growing from them and paintings of great men and women from my mother’s side of the family. I had never asked but I’m pretty sure father was orphaned, as such, I don’t think I’ll be finding any pictures of my ancestors from that side of the family.

The walk to the gardens from the library is possibly the longest walk throughout the building. My tutor knows this and specifically chose the gardens as its mostly empty except for the gardener who appears every few days. He must be preparing some bothersome lecture about my future. I understand he pities me, but this special treatment is exhausting. If it weren’t for father, I wouldn’t even show up at his classes.

I begin to near my destination as I can see light pour through the doorway. The garden doesn’t have a door, another annoyance as it provides assassins an easy entrance into our home. Though, it doesn’t matter currently as our family barely qualifies as a target for assassination.

There, standing in the middle of the garden is my tutor. Wistfully looking at the flowers, smiling. He raises his head when he realizes I was there. Taking off his glasses and revealing his blood red eyes.

Tutor: “Aenios…”

Aenios: “Why did you call me?”

I cut straight to the point. He often draws out difficult and heavy conversations by preluding to his topic before actually expressing his opinion. My dialogue showed an immediate reaction. He turned around, his hands folded behind his back, glasses clutched tightly.

Tutor: “Aenios, do you know my name?”

Unfortunately, it proved ineffective in advancing this talk.

Aenios: “Ignial.”

I reply with a single word, brief, efficient but not what he was looking for.

Ignial: “My full name Aenios.”

He turned around again, those red eyes boring into my soul. I could sense the regrets he’s built up over his life, and I could feel how he could see his younger self in my person. I guess I have to finish this conversation if I want to continue today.

Aenios: “Ignial of the family Infernus.”

The name made him tense up despite him asking me to say it. What an obvious immaturity present in an adult. The name still holds meaning for him, despite his attempts to build an immunity to it. He sighed, I could feel the depression.

Ignial: “Yes. Infernus… I assume you know of my past. You are a careful young boy after all, I remember you investigating my background. You wouldn’t let a man you never knew before waltz right into your home. That’s just how you are.”

I purposely revealed information about my investigation to give you a clear message. ‘I don’t trust you.’ I thought the offense would drive you away in a fit of anger, all it did though was win your respect.

Ignial: “Then you know of how I was banished from my family, and my name taken from me? You know of my ambitions and how I drove my family to greatness only to give them enough power to kick me out.”

I nod. Of course I know, it was the most amusing thing I had heard of in ages. A young boy finds his family name in ruins, then sets out to fix it but in doing so, earned the distrust of his friends and family who eventually couldn’t tolerate his aspirations anymore and banished him. His mistake was giving his family the power he accumulated without having them realize what he was doing.

Ignial took a few steps closer.

Ignial: “You’re a brilliant boy, with a mind that could challenge even the greatest intellectual pioneers of our time but in you I see the same man I once was. Full of hopes for your family and with the capabilities for making those dreams come true. I know you must think that this talk is useless, but I can only redeem my past mistakes by preventing you from making the same ones. I’m not asking that you give up, I’m only telling you to be careful.”

One, I do think this talk is useless. Two, I definitely won’t make the same mistakes as you did and Three, you brought me out to the gardens and waste ten minutes in a repetitive conversation only to tell me to ‘be careful’?! This is why I dislike this man. Who does he think he’s talking to? I’m Aenios Lumos, the most capable person in the continent and he treats me as a child who needs to be taught what is right and what is wrong.

I smile. “Don’t worry Ignial, as your student I’ve learned not only about our world, but lessons about life. At least enough to keep me from making drastic decisions too soon.

Ignial chuckles, the smile on his face no longer being forced and the regret in his eyes disappearing.

Ignial: “Of course, I should have expected as much from a boy as intelligent as you. Oh, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t study for the test tomorrow, your entrance exams into the MCBA are next week and despite your overwhelming amount of brainpower, even you can’t slack off!”

His previous, standoffish attitude returned. Honestly, I prefer this one over the gloomy teacher. He wastes less time.

Aenios: “I’ve already reviewed all the content you’ve given me and I’m preparing to go over the material from today. I’ll be fine. There’s no way I’ll mess up my studies for the exam.”

This was one thing I wasn’t lying about. The MCBA is where my journey to improve my social standing in the world starts. It’s the most prestigious school in the kingdom and perhaps the country. Its famous for its courses that cover and extend on almost every position in upper-class society. Princes and princesses from other kingdoms travel to ours just to enter. As such, its an unspoken rule to send your children to the MCBA unless you want your family name to decline into poverty. If I fail at the entrance exam, my life would subsequently right then and there.

Ignial: “I wasn’t talking about the material Aenios.”

Ignial’s sudden dialogue broke my train of thought.

Ignial: “You are undoubtedly one of the most god-blessed beings to come into existence.”

Thank you.

Ignial: “Having the light element, being gifted with enormous intelligence and vast amounts of mana… even being blessed by an angel!”

I know I’m intelligent. I feel as if you’ve repeated it five times in the last 15 minutes.

Ignial: “But, we both know that won’t be enough. Your strange magical condition, its detrimental to your success. Not being able to cast offensive magic has never been heard of before and being able to swing a sword well won’t be enough to help you. Once the second part begins, the practical exam, every student there that knows of your condition will jump on you straight away. For them, your easy points. You need something else other than your natural gifts in order to pass.”

Despite his repetitive form of teaching from before, this is the first time he’s actually given advice that’s correct. Of course, I already knew of the trouble I would face in the second part of the exam. Yes, the great Aenios Lumos, despite all my perfections, cannot cast offensive magic. Why? The reason is unknown, but because of that, my supportive spells have become tenfold stronger, its also granted me new abilities, ones that haven’t been seen in this world yet. In some ways, it’s a great advantage, which is how I like to see it. Other people though can only look at me with pity or a plan that can be used to take advantage of me.

Why Ignial thinks this is a problem? Well, the second-half of the exam is mostly an all-out brawl where future students have to pummel each other for points, each student you beat senseless awards you ten points, in order to pass, you must have at least 50 points. Other than that, you gain points for each second you’re not knocked out. The brawl lasts for 2 minutes, killing is obviously not allowed. Oh and almost every major diplomatic power in our country will be watching, just to let the students relax with the knowledge that their parents are there.

My elder brother and sister have already passed the exam with apparently amazing results and have been living in the school dormitory ever since. We barely hear from them. Their excuse? ‘There’s too much schoolwork.’ Something in which I seriously doubt. This year is my turn.

Honestly, if it was so easy for my siblings, it shouldn’t be too hard for me either. Compared to mine, their mana pools are tiny ponds in front of a vast ocean. While my ability to combat enemies is still abysmal, I always have a trick up my sleeve. That trick being the ability to pair up with one of the other contestants. I just need to find someone with powerful offensive capabilities where in which, I can support them from behind. All I need to do is get 50 points after all, just 50 seconds of survival.

Even if that doesn’t work, if somehow, I can’t win over someone with my charisma or in the unbelievable situation where someone is able to beat someone who I am supporting, I always have my trump card, although, I would prefer not to use it so easily during the exam. My goal is to stand out as little as possible, and to remain invisible inside the school to allow me to carry out my plans in private.

Besides, I’m not totally defenseless. I assume a demonstration is in order.

I extend my hand outward, and a chain of light, coil bound to coil emerged from my palm, wrapping around a nearby tree.

Aenios: “I’ll be fine Ignial. I promise that I’ll get through the exam. I don’t need a brilliant score, I just need to survive 50 seconds.”

I talk with confidence in my voice, reassuring Ignial. Relief washed over his face. Just being around me is like a therapeutic session, my natural charisma can win and calm anyone, and reading the mood is too easy. I know when to speak and when to listen. Truly, I could not get more perfect.

Ignial: “Alright. I can tell that you believe in yourself, and that in turn, allows me to believe in you. However, I still want to do something to help…”

He reached into his back pocket, pulling out a marble-sized orb with almost perfect-spherical properties. It glowed brightly, almost like a miniature sun. I recognized it on sight.

Aenios: “Is that?”

I was stopped short by the lack of words in my brain, my mouth agape. Unbelievable, how did he get this?

Ignial: “Yes, a sunstone. I heard legends of how these things fall from the sky and of how they can greatly increase the magical prowess of a light user. I found it on the way to your estate. It was like destiny was calling out to me… and you.”

He put the sunstone in my hands, I felt a warm heat radiate from its core. I could already feel its power coursing through me, as if Lumios himself was watching me. I severely doubted this man before. Perhaps he still has use to me. Even if I’m corrupt on the inside, I still have certain morals. This means I’m debt to him, something I can payback when I wish. For now, I won’t harm him. For now…

Aenios: “Thank you… so much! This is an amazing gift!”

I bow in a respectful manner. This was usually how one would show gratitude towards an elder. If I had done anything less, my image that I worked to build over years would shatter.

Ignial: “Now, relax. Enjoy the rest of today. If you need help on the test, or perhaps with your exam, I’ll be in the library, your siblings still need a little more help. Otherwise, I suggest testing your newfound strength in the forest. Around this time of year, the monsters that usually inhabit it are dormant, so it should be safe. Do take some guards along though, it would be trouble some if the son of my good friend got injured because of me.”

He winked before returning inside. I exhale loudly after confirming he wasn't nearby.

Finally... he’s gone. I hold up the sunstone, it shimmered in the rays of the actual sun. Though, waiting through that conversation was definitely worth it. I seems I’ve acquired a rare item. One that will probably help me for a long time coming, or perhaps I pawn it off at the nearest jeweler for a good sum of money. Who knows?

I’ll do what I must in order to make my plans succeed.

No matter the cost. No matter the pain.

I will prevail.