"What is this?" Sarah asked, eyes sparkling as she leaned closer to the cradle. "It's so cute!"
Wilson smiled indulgently.
"Cute, isn't it?" he said. "That's a Horn Rabbit cub. Extremely fast runners—but with very little combat capability." He added matter-of-factly, "Their lifespan isn't particularly long either."
Mara tilted her head and peered closer, careful not to touch."But… it doesn't have a horn."
"That's because it's still very young," Wilson explained patiently. "Horn Rabbits don't develop their horns immediately. It's similar to goats or cattle—the horn grows gradually as they mature."
The girls nodded, completely captivated, eyes following the small creature as it twitched its nose and shifted in its cradle.
Kael, standing slightly apart, let out a quiet sigh.
He turned his head just in time to see Bram and Jack crouched beside another cradle. Inside sat a baby Three-Tailed Long-Tongue Monkey, its tiny tails twitching lazily as it stared at the two boys.
Bram leaned in far too close, whispering something with a grin that radiated bad intentions. The kind of grin that made you want to punch first and ask questions later.
The monkey cub blinked.
Its expression was blank.
Confused.
Kael could almost hear its thoughts.
Why are these hairless creatures staring at me?Why is the loud one smiling like that?…Should I piss on this idiot?
"…What am I even thinking," Kael muttered, rubbing his forehead.
He'd imagined this place would feel grand. Awe-inspiring. Something that would make his chest tighten with anticipation.
Instead—
A fire-breathing kitten.A hornless rabbit.Two idiots whispering at a confused monkey baby.
He glanced back at Sarah and Mara. The heavy conversation from earlier—the talk of death, war, and orphaned beasts—had vanished the moment something small and fluffy entered their vision.
They're not choosing beasts, Kael realized. They're choosing pets.
He'd expected something majestic.
A dragon egg.A phoenix chick.Something that made you feel small just by looking at it.
At one point, he'd even asked Wilson.
"Do you have anything like… dragons?" Kael had said, half-joking, half-hopeful.
Wilson had given him that same calm smile."Your imagination is quite wild."
That was all.
No dragon eggs, Kael thought. Shame.
He exhaled slowly and let his gaze wander across the Egg and Infant House once more.
Let's see if there's something actually interesting here…
As the thought settled, Kael reached inward.
His talent wasn't just a passive boost—though he didn't even know that yet. What he did know was that he'd received three skills upon awakening.
And right now, only one mattered.
[Soul Compatibility]
Kael closed his eyes.
He took a slow breath—and activated it.
Something pulled.
Not from his muscles.
From deeper.
From his mana pool.
It felt like something essential was being drawn out of him—not painfully, but unmistakably. A hollow sensation bloomed in his chest, cold and intimate, as if a part of him had been briefly scooped away.
So this is what it feels like when mana leaves the body, he thought grimly.
He opened his eyes.
For an instant, his vision wavered—and his pupils glowed faintly blue.
Then—
The world fell apart.
Not into darkness.
Into structure.
Color drained away, replaced by outlines and depth. People were no longer flesh and clothing—they became silhouettes traced in glowing lines, like figures sketched in living light. Everything else faded, reduced to background noise.
Kael froze.
This looks like something out of a horror movie.
Sarah stood nearby, her form reduced to a graceful outline filled with deep sky-blue light—clear, vivid, fluid. Like calm water under open sky.
Mara stood beside her. Her glow was lighter, softer—but denser, compressed inward, as though her soul carried weight beyond its brightness.
Bram's soul was pale and washed-out, tinged with faint blue. It felt… loose. Unfocused. Like something that hadn't quite settled into place.
Jack's was similar—but clearer. Sharper. More contained.
Then—
Kael's breath caught.
Wilson.
His outline was thicker. Heavier. His soul didn't just exist—it pressed against Kael's senses. A deep violet so dark it bordered on black, like a gravity well dragging everything inward.
Kael could feel it.
The weight.The years.The violence held in quiet restraint.
So that's the soul of a veteran…
Instinctively, Kael looked down at his own hands.
They glowed faintly.
Light violet.
But unlike Wilson's, the glow was thin. The structure was there—but the density wasn't. Like a foundation laid before the building itself.
Kael frowned.
Is this… really the soul?
The skill's description surfaced in his mind, calm and impersonal.
[ Allows the user to perceive soul structures and determine compatibility between souls. ]
Yet what he was seeing only raised more questions.
If these were souls…
Why were they so different?
Why did some feel heavier—denser, like they carried years of weight—while others felt thin and scattered? Why did some radiate sharpness, or quiet pressure, or something that felt unmistakably old?
And most of all—
Why does mine feel incomplete?
Kael slowly clenched his fingers, watching the faint violet glow around his hands ripple and distort. The light reacted to his movement, stretching and thinning like smoke caught in a current.
Unease crept in.
Before he could focus on the sensation any further, a sharp pain stabbed into his head.
His vision fractured.
Then—
The world snapped back into place.
Color returned all at once—too bright, too sudden—and Kael staggered half a step as [Soul Compatibility] shut itself off without warning.
"Ugh—"
He sucked in a breath and pressed a hand to his forehead, massaging his temples as a dull ache bloomed behind his eyes.
It hurt.
Not blinding. Not crippling.
But deep.
Persistent.
Like something inside his skull had been pulled too far, stretched past what it was meant to handle.
Then another sensation hit him.
Empty.
Kael's expression changed instantly.
What…?
His attention plunged inward, instinctively checking his internal reserves.
Almost gone.
No—mostly gone.
At least seventy percent of his mana had vanished.
Kael felt his stomach sink.
You've got to be kidding me…
He hadn't even used the skill properly. He hadn't focused on a specific target, hadn't tested compatibility, hadn't pushed it deliberately.
He'd barely activated it.
And the cost was still this high.
"That's way too expensive…" Kael muttered under his breath.
Frustration flickered through him, followed quickly by caution.
This wasn't something he could use casually.
If I overdo it even once…
He didn't finish the thought.
Exhaling slowly, Kael forced his breathing to steady. Outwardly, he straightened and shifted his attention back toward the girls, carefully masking any sign that something was wrong.
To anyone watching, it probably looked like nothing more than a brief lapse in concentration.
Unbeknownst to him—
Wilson had noticed everything.
The brief stiffness.The delayed reaction.The way Kael instinctively checked himself afterward.
Wilson's eyes narrowed slightly—not in suspicion, but interest.
A knowing smile tugged at his lips.
"Well," he murmured quietly, hands clasped behind his back, "looks like we've got a promising student this year."
----
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