As the door clicked shut behind Kael, silence settled over the office like a heavy curtain.
Sir Raleigh remained standing, arms folded behind his back, eyes fixed on the faint shimmer of dust floating in the shafts of morning light slicing through the window. His thoughts turned inward, gnawing at the loose ends of logic and reason.
A Tier 2 summoned creature… devours mana like air… claws that could shred steel… no discipline, only primal wrath…
He shook his head slowly. "It doesn't make sense," he muttered aloud. "Not unless… something else intervened."
He turned back to his chair, sinking into it with a faint creak as he reached for the village head's personal report again. His fingers traced the margins idly, but he wasn't truly reading anymore. He already knew the report line by line.
Walter Grefen had been clear: when they found Kael, he was the only living soul near the site of the monster's last known location. His clothes had been shredded by what looked like claws, but there wasn't a single wound on his body. And the magical residue clinging to the boy—it was a polluted chaos. It wasn't just Tier 0 magic. It was something much more stronger and volatile. A flavor Raleigh couldn't identify, and that alone disturbed him.
The boy survived what I wouldn't have… against something I'd run from.
Sir Raleigh rubbed his temples slowly. His own power might've placed him among the elite in Thornmere, but he knew his limits. A Tier 2 creature—even if crudely summoned—wasn't something a single Tier 0 mage could simply overpower through a burst of accidental magic.
Unless, of course, what erupted inside Kael wasn't Tier 0.
And that thought made Raleigh's blood run cold.
"Either that boy's lying about what happened… or something inside him isn't his alone."
He closed the report and stood again, walking to the window overlooking the quiet road. He could see Kael now—already walking down the path that led to the village's western edge. His pace was slow, thoughtful. A normal boy's gait.
Too normal.
---
Meanwhile…
Kael didn't look back as he walked.
The warmth of the sun on his face felt strange, almost unreal—like the world had resumed spinning without asking him for permission. He was free to go, but he didn't feel free. He felt watched, measured.
The way that mage stared at me…
He clenched his fists in the pockets of his coat. He didn't know what Sir Raleigh had sensed, but Kael knew something had changed inside him. He remembered the fear from last night. He remembered the thing—black, fanged, with a body that oozed hunger—grabbing him like a ragdoll.
And then… nothing.
Or no—not nothing.
Something had cracked inside him. Something vast and cold and furious. And after that, only darkness.
Kael touched his chest instinctively, where the creature had slashed. His skin was smooth. No scab, no scar. Like it never happened.
As he walked past the village bakery, he heard familiar laughter—some children playing near the well, one of them tossing a stick like a sword.
It all felt so… wrong. He should be dead. They all should be.
Why am I still alive?
His thoughts were interrupted by Sir Raleigh's last words:
> "The Thornmere Town Hall. Three weeks. Magic academy recruitment."
Kael frowned.
A magic academy. A place where people learned to control what he couldn't even name.
Was that why I survived? Am I… a mage now?
He didn't know the answer. But something told him—he wouldn't stay in Thormans for long.
---
As Kael's figure disappeared down the road, Sir Raleigh remained rooted to the spot, his gaze lingering on the boy, now just a distant shadow under the morning sun. His heart beat quicker, the pulse of excitement and curiosity gathering like a storm inside him.
Could it be?
For a moment, the world outside the window blurred as Sir Raleigh's mind spiraled into the possibilities. The more he thought about it, the clearer it became that there was something off about Kael's survival. The teenager had no business walking away from an encounter with a Tier 2 creature.
How could a kid—especially one barely awake to his own magic—survive that?
Mages, even seasoned ones, would be torn apart by such a beast. But Kael? The very same boy who described his encounter in a detached manner, who seemed… almost too calm about what should've been the most traumatic experience of his life.
What if…
Sir Raleigh's breath hitched as the thought solidified.
What if Kael wasn't just another awkward, newly awakened mage?
What if Kael had a spirit root capable of far greater power than anyone had ever seen? A rare, even legendary root.
---
Sir Raleigh began pacing slowly around his office, his thoughts spinning like gears in an ancient clock, turning with precise clicks. He muttered under his breath, his fingers tapping his chin in deep contemplation.
Spirit Roots.
It was a well-known fact among mages that every mage was born with one of seven spirit roots, the foundation of their magical prowess. Each root determined not just the quality but the limit of a mage's magical potential.
The roots were classified by color: red for Tier 1, orange for Tier 2, yellow for Tier 3, and so on, all the way to purple, which represented the pinnacle of magical power: Tier 6.
As a Tier 1 mage, Sir Raleigh was painfully aware of the limitations of his orange spirit root. His power was substantial, sure, but it would never allow him to break into the higher tiers of magic. He would never see the kind of raw destructive magic that the higher tiers were capable of.
But if Kael had awakened with something greater?
If the boy's spirit root is green, blue, or even indigo…
A green spirit root, the marker of Tier 4, would mean that Kael's potential was already far beyond Sir Raleigh's reach.
A blue or indigo spirit root? That would mark Kael as a once-in-a-lifetime mage—someone who could defy expectations, someone who could break through the veil of the magical world and challenge even the most powerful creatures and mages in the land.
If Kael had a purple root…
Impossible. But...
Sir Raleigh stopped pacing and gazed out the window once more, this time with clearer intent. His eyes narrowed.
For mages, the spirit root was everything. It was what defined the height of one's power. It was why any mage with the potential to reach Tier 2 or higher was immediately taken under the protection of powerful families or guilds. But the truly rare mages? The ones with blue, indigo, or purple spirit roots? They were sought after by nobles who saw them as tools for power—tools for political influence, for war, for anything that could tip the balance in their favor.
Kael's near-miraculous survival was no longer a mystery to Sir Raleigh; it was now a probability. There was only one explanation for how the boy had survived the creature's attack.
It wasn't luck.
It wasn't a fluke.
It was magic.
---
Sir Raleigh sat back down at his desk, rubbing the bridge of his nose in frustration. His fingers hovered over the papers before him. The recruitment campaign at Thornmere Town Hall was three weeks away.
It was a chance—a chance to see if Kael's powers could be more than just a flurry of unintentional magic. The campaign would give him the opportunity to test whether Kael's potential could be as great as Sir Raleigh suspected.
Sir Raleigh let out a quiet sigh, his expression softening with something akin to excitement. If Kael truly was what Sir Raleigh now believed—a mage with one of the higher spirit roots—then he would be the one to change everything. He would bring new power into the world, a force unlike anything seen in generations.
But would Kael even recognize his own potential?
Would Kael even want to accept the path that awaited him?
And if Sir Raleigh was right, if Kael's spirit root truly was higher than Tier 1, then it was only a matter of time before the nobles came sniffing. Thornmere's academy was only a stepping stone—there were far more lucrative offers waiting for Kael from wealthier and more powerful forces in the kingdom.
Three weeks.
The thought pulsed through Sir Raleigh's mind. He couldn't wait to see Kael at the recruitment campaign. It would be his chance to confirm everything—and, if Kael's potential was what Sir Raleigh feared, it would be the beginning of a journey that would change not just Kael's life, but the entire landscape of magic itself.
As Sir Raleigh's thoughts raced on, one final, pressing question hung in the air.
How much power had Kael truly unlocked by accident?
And would the boy even understand it?