Leonhardt and Althea sat in the living room, resting their weary souls—Metaphorically, of course, unlike Max.

Enlightenment being taxing on the soul was a given. It was the equivalent of pushing someone underwater until they nearly drowned. The soul's "habitat" was the fourth dimension, where it sustained itself on the perfect form of mana. So taking it into the third dimension briefly was like taking its air—suffocating it.

So now it needed to catch its breath.

Though Leonhardt was doing other things to calm down.

Max is sleeping in that small bed, in our room, though we rarely ever used it. It's probably the only part of the house with actual fur, as we—for lack of a better term—ravaged the wildlife nearby, especially the innocent, soft… pieces of fur.

Ah! Enough about killing those small critters.

My hands, still shaking from seeing my son so… strong. Yes, I love knowing I won't have to worry about him but still! Foresight for gods' sake! I swear, I can only imagine the benefits of foresight in swordsmanship! Hindsight is 20/20, is his foresight also 20/20?

This caused Leonhardt to chuckle, though it alerted Althea, and snapped him out of his reverie.

Still, he had to think a little, any findings he had could benefit Max, although time-based swordsmanship was a little out of his league.

Yet there were some concerns.

"Althea… Will Max even be able to have a sibling?" Leonhardt asked this, with a somber tone, showing his opinion.

"Hmm?" Althea needed to know what the problem was.

"Well, He's just too damn strong. Any sibling he has is going to be worse off, they'll feel inferior. I don't want to have a child that's going to have problems, I want them to be happy." Althea recognized the points, and sadly, she sympathized.

"Yeah. And we need to take special care of Max, the other child will be neglected, no matter what." A somber mood was set, as the parents had to abandon their dreams of having a large family. Though they didn't love Max any less for that, it was only chance… fate, even.

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Yet they moved on quickly. It wasn't a good idea to ruminate on things that couldn't be saved.

"How are we gonna train Max?" Althea mused, thinking hard, her eyes flashing with a deeply intelligent glow.

"True. First to hide his affinities right? Then we need to teach him how to be safe with time mana." Leonhardt emphasized the last part, and for good reason.

Time mana was rare for a reason: It was dangerous—and strong. Time mana, if used incorrectly, could quite literally alter a person's life. Past, and present.

Time mana had many uses, such as reversing wounds, reversing healing, and aging the enemy, It was strong in every aspect, though its esoteric nature made it difficult to comprehend, at least to the levels of other affinities; Yet its overpowering strength more than made up for that.

Space. Efficient portals, the fastest element, had its roots in speed and strength. Having half your body teleported away was certainly a surefire way to kill.

Life was likely one of the most sought-after elements. It boasted faster recovery, and a compassionate soul for the user, yet its incredibly powerful boosts were the star of the show. Things like increasing the strength of your synapses were a godsend to mages.

Frostflame was also quite good, though it did get overshadowed by the other affinities, it was a good blend of attack and defense and was quite versatile.

Finally, Fate. A gatekept affinity, the only family with normal access to it being the leader of the Grand Mage Coalition, the Parcae family. Though, since the Chimrean religion wasn't bound by these rules, it had some information.

Fate was… odd. One could assume it could be used in a covert way, insidious or benevolent. Subtly moving the strings from the shadows—whether they were the strings of fate or the strings of a puppet, only the user could decide.

Once Althea and Leonhardt had come to this list, they realized that the work… would be a lot more than they thought.

First, they could address the frostflame affinity. It wasn't much to do, and with their respective affinities, it would be all too easy.

Then, the life affinity could be handled by Althea, as she also had a life affinity. Luckily, Life was a benevolent element, which was reflected in its ease of training. So far, the training would have been somewhat easy.

Then the space affinity. This was the start of the trouble and the end of the actual training. Leonhardt didn't have a space affinity, but he was well versed in it, due to using it to supplement his icy philosophy. He planned on just teaching Max the basics, as he trusted Max enough to be able to go on the right path—with some guidance, of course.

Then, the time came… For Time. Althea and Leonhardt had to pool their knowledge together, for a few hours, and devise a hopefully-good training path, for the basics.

For the fate affinity… They had to pray.

And… that was a plan!

Though, Max had slept through all of this. And maybe the parents could take a nap.

So Max, Althea, and Leonhardt all fell asleep—even through Leonhardt's snores.