Everything had gotten dark for Viran. He was on his way to stall the Knights for however long he could when suddenly he felt a dissonance in himself, and everything went dark. Viran’s sight, smell, and sound was gone; a feeling alike to when he trained Sense Severance. Though despite his experience in something like this, the feeling was still akin to torture for Viran. The boy did feel lucky, however, that he could still feel his breathing and everything around him.

‘Right! I don’t need to see.’ Viran immediately came to the conclusion to use the spell Rufus gave him, although in its current state it’s still an incomplete spell.

“Sense Severance. Space Perspective.” The boy may not be able to hear himself, but he could feel himself speaking the words. Due to Viran still not being accustomed to drawing out the mana through the right paths he felt the need to still say the name of the spell to even be able to use it, a common sight for most magic users. The names themselves are often spoken in situations where their attention cannot be put forth completely on drawing their mana through the correct roots in their bodies, or the spell itself was too outrageous that they needed the utmost concentration to even use it.

Once the spell was set Viran could feel his body warming up all over, a wildfire had been set in his gut. Viran couldn’t exactly see anything but rather he could feel everything around him. His gaze turned all around him, yet he couldn’t see anything out of the sort in the black and white that surrounded him in the spell.

“Hmph. This spell is too good for it to have been made in the Empire, just who did you meet while I was away I wonder?” An ethereal voice wasn’t heard by Viran, rather it had just found itself in his mind. A presence was felt by Viran, a calming yet domineering aura enveloped him.

“...Ry.” Viran unconsciously spoke, not noticing Sir Leonard had moved to him.

“I see you’re still alive… That’s good… Nay, it’s great.” Ry spoke to itself. “Hmph, you may need to wait a few moments while I get myself accustomed to your body. Keep the spell on for now, this will take awhile.”

As Ry spoke to Viran the boy finally became aware of Sir Leonard in front of him.

“Viran? Kid? You ok? Hrm?” Sir Leonard asked in a worried tone, he could feel his pupil’s mana roaring inside of him. That itself wasn’t weird, but what was confusing to the old sage was that he couldn’t wrap his mind around with how expertly the mana soared through his student’s roots. He could tell it was a powerful spell, but why was he using it now?

“Ah! Ah, yeah, sorry…” Viran spoke with his eyes blinking heavily, crimson mana practically shooting out of his left eye.

Sir Leonard sighed a bit in disbelief, yet his mouth couldn’t utter his question in time once the clattering of metal against metal was heard behind the two.

“Lord Viran! Sir Leonard! What happened?” One Knight asked.

Sir Leonard shook his head, he had decided to leave questions for later, and he turned back towards the Knights.

“Hrm, no there is nothing wrong here. Lord Viran had asked me about a certain spell of mine, that is all.”

The Knights were perplexed by the hastily made lie by Sir Leonard, but they found no real reason to be in disbelief.

“Eh?” The Knight looked towards Viran and he could vaguely sense something wrong. “Lord Viran is there something wrong-”

“Stop.” Viran cut off the Knight immediately. “I need to understand just how rundown this place is, and I need it fast. Quit standing around and get to work.”

The Knight felt disgruntled about being told off when he was just trying to help, and by a kid at that! However the Knight was sensible.

“Yes, m’lord.” The Knight said with a feigned upbeat tone, yet the scathing disinterest was still heard loud and clear by Sir Leonard and Viran.

Once the Knights had already turned the corner Viran sits back against the mansion and sighs.

“Idiots.” The one word perfectly exuding his mood at that moment.

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With a small grin Sir Leonard spoke.

“Hrm, can’t really blame them though. I’m sure they’re just as disappointed as you, who could’ve thought that the people Lord Idicium sent were morons.” The old man lowered his voice as he spoke further upon the matter. “Or more likely it's your Father that’s the fool.”

“Heh.” A chuckle effortlessly left Viran as he breathed out harshly.

Viran could feel his mana leaving his body at a rate that was simply too high. It wasn’t often that the boy would drain his mana completely, and for good reason, but he had many experiences where he could barely lift a finger once it was all gone. That was the one thing Viran didn’t want to happen now. But if he told Sir Leonard about Ry then…

“Don’t tell anyone about me. Trust me with this Viran. No. One. Should. Know.” Ry quickly said to Viran.

It was an unwelcome answer to Viran, but it was an answer he felt he should accept.

“Sir Leonard you go on ahead… I need to think everything over alone for now.” Viran looked towards Sir Leonard.

“Hrm.” Sir Leonard scratched his chin in thought. He didn’t feel too good with leaving Viran by himself here, and the old man also had his own questions about the spell Viran had used…

“... Very well. Hrm… Considering there’s too few people to actually manage everything I suppose my talents would be better used over there.”

Sir Leonard spoke as he left Viran to himself. The old man himself was more of the scholarly type and wasn’t much use in battles against others, the field of battle he was heading off to was one much more suited for a man of his talents.

Sir Leonard had finally left Viran alone, and the boy could not help but release a sigh. With that he finally released the spell and his mana finally became stagnate once more in his body.

‘I really need to increase my mana…’ Viran sorrowfully thought.

It was a reasonable conclusion to come up with, after all what is the use of a spell if you can’t even use it? Sadly though, despite the conclusion being an easy one to come up, it was a feat that would be hard for Viran to go through with. Cultivating your mana, for example, was something that was a slow process. Though it did replenish used mana at a fast rate. The other way to increase your mana was to use elixirs to increase it but that was still a glaring problem for the boy, he had less money than even the servants that would serve him. Viran doubted his Father would willingly dish out some money for his son, and mana cultivating was too slow of a process. Were things to stand, if Viran used both Resilient Hold and Sense Severance in succession most of his mana would be out within minutes.

By that simple fact, Viran felt even more resentment towards his Father.

While thinking about the worries of life Viran’s nose began to twitch as the scent of fresh grass began to linger around him. Whatever Ry was doing was soon to end, it seemed.

“Why exactly are my senses cut off, Ry?” Viran asked.

Viran sat against the wall for a few moments with his breath held, yet despite it all he never received an answer. With a click of his tongue Viran began to pick at the grass that laid by his feet, and after a long period of silence Ry answered.

“I am connecting myself to your consciousness.” Ry spoke within Viran’s head in an indifferent tone. “I am also dissecting your memories, your magic capabilities, and your physical capabilities.”

Viran could feel a frown fall upon him as he spoke in a harsh tone to the Spirit.

“Can you not say dissecting… Wait why are you even doing all of that?” Viran asked in an anxious voice. He wanted to tell Ry to stop, but he knew that if Ry refused he couldn’t stop the Spirit no matter how hard he tried and that might put himself on Ry’s bad side.

Viran felt it was better to play it safe with the Spirit that was ‘dissecting’ his brain.

“I need to do this to make my form more compatible with your own. I am also curious about what you have been doing all the while I have been gone.” Ry sound detached from reality, Viran only assumed the Spirit was just focusing everything on doing whatever it was doing.

“Just sit there and relax. It will not be for much longer.”

“Nn.” Viran grunted with little enthusiasm.

How could he? By what that shelled creature, Ceru Venetus, had told him it seemed that Ry was some evil being… Viran still had reservations towards his ‘benefactor’, but despite that he wasn’t completely trusting of Ceru at all as well. The world of magic was simply too vast for the young boy to understand it all and he wasn’t willing to naively completely trust one side or the other.

With his thoughts racing and his blood flowing Viran sat there silently when suddenly the complete darkness he saw changed a shade brighter, and his eyes opened to reveal the scenery once more. Moments after his ears twitched and he could hear the sounds of metal battering against each other and merry laughter.

“Wait? What’s wrong with my vision?” Viran awed in wonderment. Something was odd about his vision, but it wasn’t odd in a bad way per say. Everything just seemed clearer and brighter somehow.

“Your vision, smell, hearing, and taste were too lacking for me so I changed it. Because this was by my own wishes, I will not add more time to the contract.” Ry answered Viran’s question like he had expected it.

Viran grabbed a blade of grass off the ground and stuck it in his mouth, only to quickly spit it out a moment later. Through a small series of tests Viran quickly came to the conclusion that what Ry had said was true.

“Wait, contract?” Viran asked in bewilderment, he hadn’t remembered anything about this contract.

“I saved your life.” Ry calmly said. “I asked that if you were to live, we’ll find an agreement. That was the contract made between us.”

Viran spat on the ground as he patted dirt off of him.

“Yeah but I never agreed to anything about a contract though?”

Viran began to walk along the mansion as he waited for Ry’s response.

“... I saved your life, so whatever I wanted would go.”

Towards an answer he hated, Viran could only gape in bewilderment once more.

“Worry not, I did not take advantage of you. It’s more of a cooperation between both parties than anything.” Said Ry as he tried to alleviate Viran’s worries.

Viran’s mouth closed and opened multiple times, and quickly a conclusion was easily made for the young boy. A certain creature had given him some advice, although the meeting was short the boy still remembered the being in great detail. If only he had met that being before meeting Ry…

“I think Ceru was right, you are bad news.” Viran inadvertently blurted out to Ry.

“...” A dangerous aura was felt clearly by Viran, causing shivers to go down his back.

Viran, it seems, had made a bad call in mentioning Ceru at this moment.