Three years have passed since Valens has been brought home by Exeo. He has been taken good care of by the butler as well as his own personal maid, courtesy of Exeo.

Currently, they're eating their breakfast, with two maids at the side, and the head butler on the opposite side, just behind Valens. Both brothers are silently eating their breakfast when the boy mustered to speak and asked timidly, "B-big brother, what do I do exactly from now on?" putting down his utensils while staring for his brother to answer.

Exeo answered, "Hmm, I have already made some plans for you, but first, we need to measure your mana. So, how old are you today?"

Valens hesitantly answered, "F-fourteen."

Nox inwardly gasped at his age when he first arrived 3 years ago, given his height, he really thought he was only about 8, but to think he was already 11 at that time. He opened one of his eyes in a slit, and gazed at his master, surely having some thoughts of his brother's mana to be measured, which, they still have 4 years left to prepare to get him a license.

Exeo who heard it, lowered his hands and was about to put some food in his mouth, said, "Where have you lived before I found you?" his smile is captivating and didn't reach his eyes, but, to Nox, who has been with Exeo for the longest, knew what this smile meant.

Valens lowered his head and stared at his food, he replied, "I...I have been in an orphanage my whole life at Siklas Street, as far as they have told me."

"Who's they?" Exeo asked with a bit louder voice, which hints he might get furious from what he will hear from the lad and made the two maids flinch suddenly.

"The Orphanage director, and his assistant. They told me that I have been left there since I was a baby.", the boy replied in a low voice, noticing his brother's slight change of his voice. "T-they also told me t-that no one will adopt me and that I..I should live on the streets since I'm already old enough to fend for myself."

"They did WHAT?!" Exeo burst out in anger, which made Valens flinch and is slowly shaking uncontrollably from the sudden outburst and continued to lower his head even more. Even Nox had slightly flinched and closed his slitted eyes, even the two maids.

Exeo and his other brother knew the existence of Valens, as these were the parting words of their parents before they died. Definitely, he is this boy's big brother by blood. But, he couldn't grasp the reason why their parents had left him all alone, and who knows what the orphanage did to him. The kid might have already experienced cruelty during his early years at the orphanage, as they knew of his existence too late.

"Huuuu", Exeo exhaled, brushing his hair back up, trying to hold back his anger and the memories left by their parents. So, he asked again, in a mellow voice, "Valens, what did they do to you?". He held the boy's hand gently, saying indirectly that it was okay to tell him, his big brother, everything he experienced. 'So, he was forced out of the orphanage when we met that night 3 years ago', Exeo thought, while waiting for Valens to answer. He could see that the boy's body is shaking a bit, and he squeezed his hands gently, telling him it was fine.

Exeo let a pained expression see his brother's reaction, he decided to stop this ominous topic while eating or the kid might get indigestion. "Let's stop for now, let's continue to eat." The boy just nodded, sniffing, while eating his food.

All of a sudden, the door to the dining room burst open and another red-head guy, with stunning beauty, medium-length hair, and in his teen adult years, around 18 years old, said in a loud voice, "Welcooooooome hooooome my babyyyyyy brooother!!" He smiled all the way to his ears and spread his arms wide, waiting for his brother to greet him with a hug. But, no little brother came, instead, he could hear a coughing sound from the boy and he dramatically gasped, "Oh no! Don't die little brother! Your big brother is here!", rushing towards Val's side, gently patting his back.

Exeo could see how surprised their youngest had been which choked him when eating his food. He glanced at both of them and then at Nox, which obviously was putting up a front not to laugh at the scene.

"You know, Ember" he clasped his hands in front, his elbows on the table, with a smile (his trademark smile that doesn't reach his eyes) making the two brothers unconsciously shuddered. He continued, "Valens would have died if you suddenly barge in here with that loudmouth of yours."

"Ehe.. hehe" Ember just scratched the back of his head and said sheepishly, "You know, I was excited when I received the news from Nox that Valens is now home, though it took me a while.", he pouted as if he was a teenage girl seeing her love for the first time and is totally shy.

After all the coughing and with some water, Valens looked up and with his slightly wide eyes open, he softly gasped. Ember, the 2nd child of the Bellator family, noticed the intense gaze of Valens, and with a cool smile, he asked, "What is it, our baby brother? Is there something on my face?"

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

Valens replied with a question, he asked innocently, "Are you..are you, my brother?"

Ember gasped dramatically and felt a little insulted, he smiled a bit forcefully"W-what do you mean if am I your brother?"

Exeo was downright holding back his laughter from Valens's question.

"I'm sorry, it-it's just that, you're pretty", his eyes sparkled when he said that, he meant no harm, he was just saying it out nicely.

When Exeo heard it, he spat out some of the water, and both Ember and Valens heard of it.

Ember was slightly frowning from Exeo's reaction but gazed back down at Valens, "Well, it is my first time, baby brother to hear that I am pretty, but thank you and yes, I am your older brother too.", he smirked but his eyes went to Exeo's direction, telling him he is pretty in front of their youngest.

Exeo raised one of his eyebrows as if saying 'Oh we'll see' and held back in pinching the bridge of his nose just hearing the excuse of his own brother saying it but was inwardly happy that Ember had accepted Valens wholeheartedly. He shut his eyes closed for a moment, then looked up at Ember who is beside Valens, and said, "Have you eaten yet? If not, come join us, let's eat together."

Once they were done with their breakfast, they all went into Exeo's study room. Nox knocked on the door three times and said, "Master Exeo, you have a guest."

"Let him in.", Exeo didn't bother looking up, just continuing with his work on the table, while the other two brothers, were freely sitting on the sofa reading books of their choice.

An old man, in his fifties, with grayish-white hair and spectacles, with some wrinkles on his face walked into the room. "Good afternoon, Young Masters." He slightly bowed when he greeted the three, while slightly shutting his eyes.

"Hmm. You know why you're called here?" He glanced up at the old man, still holding some papers, waiting for the guest's answer. Both the brothers just silently looked up to the old man, and slowly walked towards the sofa to sit, when Exeo gestured him to sit.

He answered, "Yes, I believe I am here to measure the young master's mana." Both Valens and Ember gasped, and Ember said and looked at Valens, "Wow, Val, you will soon get to know your initial rank!"

The old man just smiled silently and then he took out a globe from the bag he was carrying, putting it on the center table. "Young Master Valens, you can simply touch the globe with your hand right here.", as he motioned for the lad so that he can touch it. When he was about to touch the globe, Exeo interrupted him and asked, "Wait, Val, you remember how to release your mana, right?"

The boy just nodded and continued his action to touch the globe. When he touched the globe, he scrunched his nose a bit and frowned slightly, the globe slowly started to glow. At first, it was slowly blinking grey, then, green, and while the lights on the globe are slowly changing colors, all the people inside the study room were holding their breaths. Valens was the most excited about this, his eyes are sparkling, and when they reached red, it was still slowly blinking.

The old man was surprised, he couldn't believe what he was seeing. In his entire life, he rarely has seen in all of the Ability tests he conducted where the globe was still continuing to glow red. The old man thought, 'Maybe he will be an Aurum user!'. Anticipation is shown in all the people inside, including Valens's two brothers.

As they expected, the globe glowed in gold! It was brightly shining, almost swallowing the entire room, and they still gasped! The golden light was still blinking! They soon realize that history will again be written with another powerful ability user! Sweat is slowly forming on Valen's forehead but he persisted, he still injected mana into the globe. Then, suddenly, the globe's light suddenly changed! All eyes widened in shock almost popping out from their eye sockets, when it turned purple, blinking slowly.

The old man fell off his chair when he shuddered at the sight of the globe's color emitting, purple. Although purple is not included in the Ability rankings, this means that being evaluated as unknown means the ability user is still considered highly dangerous.

'My goodness', the old man muttered, while still staring at the globe's light. He never wanted to leave his sight for even a minute, to him, this would be an important part of history!

The two brothers, were still wide in shock and slowly moved their gaze to their youngest. Valens, who is still concentrating on injecting his mana into the globe, suddenly gasped, letting out a small, "Ah!". Both the brothers whipped their heads back to the globe when they saw the globe's color change. Black. The globe slowly blinked, and it slowly faded.

All of them were now even more astonished! The Purple color had been surpassed and a Black color had appeared. What does this mean? Everyone, even Valens, didn't know what to say, all of them were in a daze, and no one spoke. A knock on the door made them realize what had really happened. All of their heads shifted to the direction of the door, when it opened, Nox popped out his head, and said, "I-" He flinched and wasn't able to even finish what he was saying as he saw that all of them were looking in his direction. He felt that he interrupted something important and decided to say, "I apologize, I'll return back, please continue Young Masters."

When the door clicked shut, the old man realized he was already on the floor sitting. He stood up and sat down to where he was sitting earlier. No one still dared to speak up, Ember, who was astonished, was holding his head with one hand, while Exeo, stared at Valens. No one knows what he was thinking, he was totally shaken by this but is happy of course.

The old man mustered his voice, still a bit shaken by the results, he coughed and said, "So..Young..Young Master Valens-".

"What does the purple color mean?" The old man was interrupted by Valens's question. The old man was sweating, and his eyes darted on the floor, from left to right, not knowing what to say. He wiped the sweat on his forehead, he was about to say when Exeo said, "I will explain it to you Valens, but, at the moment, please keep the result confidential, Mr. Lou.", gazing at him with coldness.

The old man, Mr. Lou inwardly sighed in relief.

"Of course, Master Exeo, this will not leak, and besides, no one would believe me if it was coming from me." he lowered his head but didn't speak more of it.

No one entirely expected that a Black color would give this result. No one would believe him that he had experienced this from a 14 year -old child, which is in front of him.

Exeo nodded in satisfaction and gestured for Mr. Lou that he can now go and that the three brothers, will need to entirely talk this out for quite a while.