In the forest near Starhorn border.
Instead of going to the coordinates where her men stopped, Vera went directly to the middle of the array.
The moment she arrived, she noticed the grim look on the faces of Dior’s men.
“Where’s Captain Dior?” she asked.
A man near Vera immediately saluted and answered, “Captain went to the coordinates where we fired the array. He told us to prepare for another attack and wait for his signal.”
Vera frowned, “He went alone?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“How long was that?”
“Right after we fired the array, Captain Vera.” Another man replied.
“Give me the coordinates,” Vera said, her frown deepened.
She had three ideas of what might have happened to Dior. One, he met a horde of forest beast and might be wounded. Two, he met some resistance from their target and lost consciousness. Three, and this was the worst-case scenario, the target used his magic and killed him.
The worst-case scenario, was unlikely because no matter how powerful their target’s magic was, the target was not omnipotent. Dior was a veteran officer, he was not a combat mage, but his fire magic was very powerful. On top of that, he had the Four-colored Ruin array at his disposal. Besides, the array did not activate. If the target did use his magic, the array would definitely react.
‘But Dior did not give a signal to fire the array. Which means he did not meet the target. So what happened?’ She wondered.
As soon as she received the coordinates, Vera left to find Dior.
=========================
Back at Nolan’s Domain.
Kyran silently waited for the man to react after showing his magic. So far, the man seemed to be looking at his hand intently. As if the man was trying to figure something out of it.
In truth, Nolan was dumbfounded at the purple rings. Earlier, he saw Kyran use his magic. He even thought how the array looked weird and that Kyran had no idea how to put calculations in it.
Seeing the purple rings again, Nolan realized that it was not that Kyran did not use any calculations thus making these ‘rings’ an incomplete array, but that these rings themselves were his magic! He never needed an array to activate his magic!
What concept was this?
“Kid,” Nolan finally spoke after a while.
Kyran lowered his hand and withdrew his magic. “What?”
“Tell me the truth. Did Cade groom you behind the Royal Army’s back and make you reach this level?”
“Huh?”
“Don’t ‘huh’ me!”
“But you’re not making any sense. What do you mean by my father grooming me to reach this level? What level are you talking about?”
Nolan was speechless. Was this kid an actor or simply an idiot?
“This!” Nolan stood and summoned his magic. Fog-like shadow encircled him
Kyran just stared at him blankly and Nolan had a sudden impulse to punch him.
“Argh!” Nolan growled in frustration and sat back. “You really don’t know anything? And I mean anything about magic?”
“As I said, I just knew I had magic last night. But I do know a few things… from military school.” Kyran added in a small voice.
Nolan leaned forward, “Ok listen. What did you notice when I use my magic compared to other mages you’ve met?”
“You didn’t have rings.”
“Rings…haha,” Nolan said begrudgingly. “They are not rings. They are called arrays. In order to use magic, you need the use of arrays. Once you reached a certain mastery of your magic, that’s the only time that you no longer need the use of arrays.”
“I see,” Kyran replied and looked at his left hand. He urged his magic again and looked at the purple rings. He frowned. “But why does my magic array look plain? The array formed by those men from the army has more writings on it. Is it because I don’t know how to make calculations? You mentioned that earlier.”
Kyran looked at him expectantly like a child eager to learn more things. Nolan felt cheated.
‘This kid really is…’
“Too annoying!” Nolan blurted.
“What?” Kyran looked at him in shock. He seriously could not keep up with this man’s strange behavior.
“Tell me what Cade taught you!” Nolan demanded.
“Father? Well, he taught me body-tempering techniques, combat strategies, and some defensive techniques against mages.”
“Wait, what? Are we still on the same page here?”
“I just answered your question.”
“I asked what magic he taught you!”
“He didn’t! I already told you, I didn’t know about my magic. My family hid it from me. I also… well, I felt guilty for not having magic, so I avoided reading about it. My family didn’t mind which I was very grateful for during that time… But now I know why.”
“So what, you just bummed around the Regis estate?”
“I didn’t bum around. Since I don’t have magic, I went to military school.”
Nolan stared at him in disbelief.
‘Seriously Cade, what kind of son have you raised?’
“Military school, huh? How old are you?”
“Sev-Eighteen. I just turned eighteen,” Kyran said as if to remind himself more than to answer the man. He just celebrated his birthday but because of what happened, it felt too distant.
“Then you’ve graduated.”
“Last year.”
Nolan nodded, “Show me your badges.”
In Military school, once you graduated you will receive four badges. It represented a student’s achievement for the past four years.
Unlike in magic school where a mage would be promoted to an apprentice mage automatically after graduating, at military school, the student’s rank would be determined by the colors of his badge. And once they joined the Empire’s Combat Hall, their rank would be retained.
“The badges are in there,” Kyran pointed at the pouch beside the man.
Nolan looked at the pouch. He raised his eyebrow and looked at Kyran. “Fine,” he picked up the pouch and threw it at him.
Kyran reached out for the pouch. Immediately, the man’s black mist surrounded him and parts of the mist’s edge turned into blades pointing at him.
Sweat trickled down Kyran’s face, his hand suspended a few inches above the pouch. He looked at the man, “Can you remove these things?”
“It’s for insurance. Take out your badges,” Nolan shrugged ignoring him.
Kyran heaved a sigh. This man was way too cautious compared to him. Did he really think he would do something behind his back? He tried that once and was attacked right after.
Shaking his head, Kyran opened his pouch and immediately took out a rectangular container from the inside.
When Kyran checked the items in the pouch at the cave, he also found a lot of his personal items in the containers. Most items were the ones he used when he was in military school; books, notes, weapons, certificates, maps, etc.
Kyran placed the container on the floor and pushed it toward the man.
Nolan took the container as soon as it stopped in front of him. He opened it and saw an elegant black rectangular box. The symbol on the lid was a profile of a two-headed hawk holding a sword and a shield. The eyes were made of specialized red spirit stones. This symbolizes the authenticity of the item. If the items inside were not real, the stones will have no color, if it was in the hands of a person that it did not belong to, it will turn into black. The owner had to be around for the spirit stones to stay red.
Of course, there were those who tried to replicate it but failed. After all, it was not easy to create a specialized red spirit stone.
This fact was just a small detail for Nolan. What surprised him was that this was the symbol of the Milfiore Military School that the Royal Family had direct supervision of.
‘Very Cade-like to hide his own son right under the enemy’s noses,’ Nolan thought in amusement.
Removing the box out of the container, Nolan first looked at Kyran, before he opened the lid and looked inside. Immediately after, he closed the lid with a blank expression. Then he started to sweat all over.
What did he see just now?
Supposedly, a student would receive four badges after graduating from military school, right? One for each year. Why were there five badges inside? Furthermore, the highest badge the school would give was silver. But the badges Kyran had…
Silver. White Gold. Gold. Gold. Platinum.
Normally, a military student would get a tin badge for his first year. This is the lowest badge type the military school could issue. Some talented ones would get a bronze badge in the first year. It was rare for someone to receive a silver badge. Clearly, the silver badge that Kyran had was the one he received in his first year. Then after silver was white gold, then last, gold.
There were two gold badges inside. Meaning, Kyran already received a gold badge in his third year! He received another gold for his fourth year simply because it was the highest the military, could issue.
Then what was the platinum badge for?
This was the legendary platinum badge!
The origin of this badge was actually top-secret, and Nolan found about it by accident. But that was another story.
This badge was not something that the military could give leisurely. This was an honorary badge that could only be issued by the Royal Family. No one, apart from the military school’s dean and the king of the Ylfaen Empire, would know about the student who received it. This was to ensure that the student could freely choose the path he wanted to take. After all, students at military school were normal humans, and joining the Empire’s Combat Hall was not mandatory.
Apart from that, a normal human receiving a platinum badge was equivalent to a mage receiving recognition from the empire to become a Master Mage.
‘Cade… You aren’t raising a son. You are raising a monster,’ Nolan heaved a sigh.
“Is there something wrong?” Kyran asked. He wondered why the man fell silent again and suddenly felt embarrassed.
When he received two gold badges, Kyran felt that his improvement in the military school for his last year was too minimal. He was a little disappointed in himself. He remembered the dean giving him another badge in secret because he probably saw his disappointment. Kyran felt bad about it and tried to return it, but the dean just smiled and told him he deserved it.
To Kyran, the fifth badge symbolizes the dean’s goodwill. After all, he never heard about a platinum badge before.
If Nolan knew what Kyran was thinking right now, he would probably flip.
Shaking his head, Nolan finally said, “Kid. Right now you are a walking catastrophe. Did you know?”
Kyran frowned. “If you’re worried that I would use my magic–.”
“No, idiot. That’s not it,” Nolan interrupted. “You have a bounty on your head. Mercenaries will be looking for you. If you so much as enter a town, you’ll definitely end up in a fight implicating a lot of innocent people in the process.”
“Ah, that…” Kyran sighed. The man was right.
“Okay,” Nolan stood up. “Well, we got off the wrong foot, but let’s start over, yeah?”
Kyran looked at the man who lowered his hood and finally revealed his face. He was shocked to find a much younger person under the cloak. To be honest, he was actually expecting a man around his father’s age.
“Name’s Nolan. Cade, your father, is my sworn brother. He and I go way back, and we practically grew up together.”
Kyran frowned. In his opinion, Nolan was probably in his early thirties. If he really grew up with his father, wouldn’t that mean his father was already in his teens and Nolan was just a toddler?
“But you look too young.”
Nolan grinned conceitedly, “Aren’t I? Hahaha!”
Kyran’s expression turned blank.
“….”
Nolan cleared his throat. “Once your attainments in magic reached the Magus level, retaining a younger image is a piece of cake.”
“Magus level?”
“You’ll learn about it eventually. For now, your priority is to learn the basics. You’ve jumped a few levels and if we don’t fix that, your body will not be able to keep up.”
“We?”
“That’s right. Starting today, I’ll teach you all about magic.”
