"Hey Lucik, are you awake?" a girl named Magenta asked quietly.
"No," the boy replied.
"Okay." Magenta went back to staring out the bumpy carriage window. "Hey, wait a second!" she snapped back.
"Hehehe, you two rascals never fail to give this old man a laugh. Say, Lucik, you don't seem very keen on going to see your folks," the old man sitting in front of them said as the carriage hit another bump in the road.
"I don't really have much to say; my parents are good people, and I've stayed in touch with them through the monitored letters," Lucik admitted.
"Don't you have an older brother? What was his name? Oh yes, Pro named after the angel Prometheus, who was sent by god to teach Adam and Eve how to light a fire for warmth their first winter outside the Garden of Eden. It is a common name during hard times." The old man rambled.
"I don't know, we've never been very close, we only exchanged letters briefly when I went to the capital," Lucik remarked.
Just then, a horseman rode up beside them from the other direction. "Hey, are you young master Lucik?" the man yelled.
"Yes, how did you know I was coming?" Lucik asked.
"What do you mean everybody knew you were. That's not important; the young master Pro has gone to the den of a dragon, hoping to kill it before you arrive." The man spoke frantically.
"This is why I didn't want to come here." Lucik stepped out of the carriage. "I call on the sage's wisdom before me stands a vast sea of space that I shall travel in a single step 'voyage'." With a sound that resembles a drop of water hitting a lake, Lucik disappears.
"He's getting the hang of it, 'voyage'." With a tap of his staff, the carriage horseman and everyone around him disappear and are transported to the village.
"Which way to the dragon mountain?" the old man asked the horsman.
"That way," the horseman pointed toward a nearby mountain.
"Wind stride," Lucik takes off running in the direction he was directed.
"Oh ho ho, time to stretch these old legs," the man said before jumping out of the carriage with enough force to send it skidding back a bit. "I see you're using wind stride," the old man said as he effortlessly caught up to Lucik.
"And I see you're using magic items." Lucik retorted,
"Ah, well, you have me there. Why don't you try making magic items? They're very helpful?" the old man questioned.
"There's the nest," Lucik quickly changed the subject.
In front of the two was a battle between human soldiers and a green dragon with the head of a chameleon as it shifted between visible and invisible. And off to the side are two men, one hunched over the other bandaging their wounds.
"Fredric! What happened? What's the situation?" Lucik shouted as he approached, only to stop with a face full of horror. "What happened?" he said, staring at a man he vagely recognised as his brother, whose entire left side had been burnt black. His left arm was gone, removed at his shoulder, but somehow he was still alive.
"He was about to finish off the dragon when another apeared. It can turn invisible; we couldn't see it coming." Past the green dragon was an orange-bronze colored dragon with the face of a man. The bronze dragon wasn't moving, staying still to minimize its injuries.
"I see, master Glan, can you handle the weaker one? I can take on the green one." Lucik asked, and Glan nodded in agreement as the unconscious Pro stirred.
"What, is going, on? What, happened?" Pro looked around, dazed. "The men, if this keeps up, they'll... I have to do something." Pro tries to stand back up.
"'Sleep!' You've done quite enough already, brother," Lucik says as he casts a spell, making Pro fall unconscious again. Lucik and Glan give each other a nod, and Lucik begins chanting. "I envoke the power of the biting cold to wrap my foes in your cold embrace and trap them in a coffin of ice 'snow burial'!"
The green dragon freezes in place both figuratively and literally. A thin layer of frost grew on its scales as it was frozen through. Lucik walks over to the bronze dragon, but before he can cast a spell, Glan stops him.
"It's already dead as soon as it saw you kill the other dragon, it lost what little will was keeping it alive." The dragon's body takes a moment before losing its balance and falls dead.
After the dragons were slain, the uninjured carried the injured back to town. "Young master Lucik, could you spare a moment?" Fredric asked,
"Sure, what is it?"
"Master Pro wanted me to give you these in case he didn't make it. He is recovering well, but I think you should have this anyway."
"ok, then what is it?"
"The first are the funds for your welcome home party." Fredric gestures to an incredibly large chest filled neatly with gold coins, stacked to maximize the amount of coins that would fit. "If this isn't enough, we have a couple of dozen more chests like it. We actually ran out of chests and were in the process of getting more." Fredric bowed politely.
"How much would that weigh?" Maginta asked,
"Just under six tons, not including the chests."
"How did you get so much money in such a short time?" Lucik queared.
"Well, we have been saving since the young master Pro received your first letter from the capital."
"So are you saying you're the ones responsible for the gold shortage?"
"There's a gold shortage? I mean, my apologies."
"What else do you have?" Lucik asked,
"The young master's diary."
"I don't need that."
"Why not if your brother had died, it would have been the last thing you'd have had to remember him by."
"Why would I care? We're brothers, and yet we hardly know each other." Lucik grabbed the diary and began flipping through it.
diary
Dear Diary, it finally happened after what felt like ages, my mother has finally given birth to my younger brother. When I look at him, his small form is so fragile and precious that I feel the need to protect him. Tomorrow I'll ask Fredric to increase my sword training. I make this vow: I will renew our family's nobility so my new brother will have a life free of worry.
Dear Diary, my younger brother has finally taken his first steps. I was worried since he always looked so frail to me, but Fredric has used his power and told me that he will grow into a capable man, which has put my mind at ease.
Dear Diary, my brother has turned one year old, and my parents have finally chosen a name for him, Lucik. Apparently, it meant loved one or blessed one in the ancient tongue. I hope that when he grows older, we can make good memories together, but while he's still young, I'll do all I can to grow stronger. It's been getting harder to feel my strength increasing, and my swordsmanship progress has been slowing down considerably. I've already bested all of the knights serving my family. I plan to start going on moster hunts with a small group soon.
Dear Diary, something went wrong. I was on another monster hunt and let my guard down. As I was clearing out some weak insect monsters, a giant centipede fell from the ceiling and bit an archer. Thankfully, most giant animals lack poison, but he'll still be in the medical wing for three days until his arm is healed. I can't stop thinking about it. How could I let one pass me? What if it had been worse? What if that had been Lucik? He's only two years old. How did I think I could protect him if I made such blunders? I can't even bring myself to look at him anymore.
Dear Diary, Lucik is turning five years old soon, and I'm already ten. I've been going around trying to get a better grasp on the daily lives of the commoners. I've been to the market looking for a gift for Lucik's birthday, but so far I've found nothing good enough. Fredric recommended that I give him a book on magic engineering; it's the only type of magic that can be used without any affinity. I've also noticed I've hit a plateau in my swordsmanship and can't seem to get much higher. I'll look for something to help with my growth.
Dear Diary, something wonderful has happened. I gave Lucik the book on magic engineering, and he was overjoyed. He flipped to the first chapter, which had a brief segment about how only one in every hundred people is considered to have magic, and it contained a small test to determine if you have an affinity for magic. Lucik tested positive, meaning he has a magic talent! We still don't know what affinity he has, but I did a bit of research, and apparently, people with magic affinity have one or more of the four basic elements, and three to five sub-schools per basic element. Sub-schools are more akin to spells that don't fit into any of the basic elements or non-elemental magic, like shape shifting, a rarer sub-school that focuses on changing one thing into another. It has a couple of different spells, ranging from simply disguising yourself to look like something else to completely changing your own anatomy and internal structure. Unfortunately, afterwards, I tried using the same test, and it failed, meaning I have no magic affinity. Nonetheless, I plan on buying Lucik as many magic books as I can afford with my allowance.
Dear Diary, I have news even better than what I wrote about two weeks ago. After the mage from the imperial capital arrived, Lucik took the more precise magic test, and we learned that he was this generation's sage. A sage is a mage, said to be born once or twice every generation. They have the power of all four basic elements, as well as the ability to use every sub-school of magic. Normally, sages create a new sub-school of magic, and the sage of the previous generation passes the accumulated knowledge of all the sages down to the next generation. This knowledge is called the sage's wisdom. Sages are also the only people allowed to study and use forbidden magic because it is their responsibility to fight against it. Apparently, the sage is as strong as an entire legion and has political power on par with the saint and the emperor himself. This does mean he'll be sent to the imperial capital to receive the sage's wisdom. I know I'll miss him, but he was allowed to send and receive letters as long as they were monitored so as not to let forbidden magic spread across the empire. However, they also informed me that they would be paying the cost of Lucik's tutelage even after I asked if they really would cover everything from his lodging to his meals; they assured me it was covered. I felt a little disappointed not being able to help in that regard.
Dear Diary, I've just sent Lucik my first letter back after receiving his confirmation of having arrived at the imperial capital. I doubt my letters can convey how proud and happy I am of him. I made up my mind that when he finishes his education, I'm going to throw him a massive welcome home party. I'll cut my allowance in half each month to save up for it.
Dear Diary, after sending letters back and forth for a while, Lucik sent me a letter that spoke of a magic sub-school called Aura. It was originally designed to make soldiers without magic more powerful in combat. By completely rejecting the ability to use other forms of magic, you can empower both your body and weapon. However, although it can be learned and used without mana affinity, it puts considerable strain on the body and requires your weapon to be strong enough to handle the power. It became too costly to arm the empire's army with weapons strong enough to withstand arua. But for a small knight order like ours, it might be doable. Of course, following my advice to refrain from saying anything but names and brief descriptions of the magic held in the sage's wisdom means I'll have to find sources on this discarded magic myself.
Dear Diary, Lucik has stopped sending back letters. I suppose it was only a matter of time. I can't say my letters had much substance; it's probably better for him to focus on his studies anyway. From what his last few letters said, he's halfway through his studies in just two years. It pains me to not be able to celebrate his birthday with him here, but I do anyway, even if it's pointless. I have the servants bake a cake for everyone to share, and leave one slice for Lucik, even if it rots, I feel like he'll show up at any moment, defying the laws of space and time, so we can have one day where I can tell him how proud I am to his face without the need for written letters that don't let me show the enthusiasum, the joy, the pride I feel for him being my little brother.
Dear Diary, I've found it! After three and a half years of searching, a wandering merchant had a book on the magic sub-school of Aura, and it's even more amazing than I thought. Lucik's letter was the only clue I had for a long time, but now I have the full book. While most sub-schools are broken into three spells of increasing power, in Aura, there are three stages. The first is 'enhancement', where your physical attributes are increased. This is the only stage that doesn't have any drawbacks, and it can be increased to give someone the strength of two additional men. The second is 'mana refinement,' where you condense your mana into an aura. The more mana you condense, the more potent the aura becomes. The reason you can't use other magic after learning Aura is that it would use the Aura like mana and would reset the 'mana refinement' stage. The third stage was the most shocking 'aura synchronizing', which makes your aura take on qualities unique to each aura user. With this, I'll finally be able to get out of this plateau I've been stuck on for so long.
The sound of footsteps can be heard as the young lord Pro walked down the halls of his house, his most trusted friend and butler, Fredric, by his side as he takes a stroll through his home to calm down. He is about to reach the age of fifteen when he is required by imperial law to make a significant contribution to the empire or give up his family's nobility.
Suddenly, he hears two servants talking." Hey, have you heard?" a girl said to her friend.
"Heard what?" the friend replied.
"Apparently, the young master Lucik has finished his studies and is heading back from the capital."
"What I've never heard of this," Pro thought to himself as he stepped closer to listen.
"Oh, you mean the sage? hard to believe he's from this dump." The man retorted,
"Hey, this place isn't a dump, I mean, look at this place." The woman raised her arms to show the grandeur of the hall they were in.
"Well, ya, it looks fancy and all, but it's funded by taxes, right? The family's about to lose their nobility status soon, and then they will be on the streets looking for work," the man stated.
"What about the eldest son? Can't he just renew his nobility?" the woman questioned.
"Ya right, do you really think a swordsman could find something to 'make a significant contribution to the empire'? Chances like that aren't common. The only thing that comes to mind is the black dragon," He stated,
"Black dragon?" the woman questioned.
"Ya, this family was originally formed when the first head drove off a dragon that was terrorizing the village," the man explained.
"Drove off, so it's still alive?" the woman asked.
"Ya, if they somehow managed to finish it off, then they might have a shot. Donating dragon materials is something I'd say should be considered a significant contribution."
... Pro walked away with Fredric right behind him. "Should I fire those two?" Fredric asked.
"No, leave them be, they're only acting like this because I'm weak." Pro reasons.
"Please don't tell me you're going to go after that dragon?" Fredric pleads, "It's simply not worth it." Fredric states,
"This isn't about my nobility right now," Pro responds.
As Pro and Fredric leave, the two servants go limp, falling a little but being held up by strings that the two never saw because they never turned the corner. "At last, that horrid elder brother took the bait. Now it's time for Lucik to take center stage and everything rightfully his." Magenta {Magic Puppeteer}
Dear Diary, this will be the last entry I write in you. With every passing day, I feel more dreadful. I've managed to transfer most of the family's income from taxes to businesses we will keep even after losing the title, but I feel useless; all I've ever wanted to do was protect Lucik, but I can't help how I am now. I need to prove myself, not for the empire but to myself that I'm strong enough to, if not protect, then to support Lucik. If I die, so be it. All that means is that I was too weak to keep my vow I made to myself. If I defeat this dragon, then I'll be able to go to the welcome home party without this on my mind. The money I saved through a mix of my business ventures and half my monthly allowance should go to Lucik to do with as he sees fit, as I may not be around to throw his welcome home party. Give this book to Lucik and tell him... I love him.
"Oh god, what have I done?" Magenta {Regretful Puppeteer}.