“There is really something there…I can’t tell what it does either.” Yvette tried not to frown, she didn’t want to get wrinkles. She was more excited than worried.

Ebony didn’t have to guess that the Life Queen scanned his body the moment he was close by and that she knew he was made of mana. He felt like she wanted to dissect him and research the properties of his body but he was just imagining things. The Life Queen was like any old caring mother, he didn’t know what grandmothers were like or he would have to reevaluate.

“Riiight~” Muse took another bite of her cake when the Queen had a similar assessment.

Navin and Koawe were out, apparently working on Tidal’s barriers together. It should’ve been a secret but the Queen didn’t seem to care. If what Ning Xin said was true then some curses were being weaved as they ate dessert.

Dinner was good, he could taste the similarities that Ning Xin picked up in her cooking.

Yvette was like a neighbourhood mom.

This wasn’t the palace, just the King and Queen’s residence. Their children all lived at different mansions with their own families and Yvette complained more than once about the infrequent visits and her own busy schedule. Ebony never figured out Muse’s relation with Yvette and didn’t think it was his place to ask. Not that he really cared. Yvette left immediately after dinner, duty called. They were left to their own devices after they were shown their guest rooms. Muse pulled him out to the yard and played her string instrument for him.

It was very bright and energetic, like the musician herself.

“See! Music strikes the soul, not just the mind and definitely not the body.” Muse danced as she strummed her flat board guitar.

“I don’t see.” Ebony said expressionlessly.

“Sing along with me!” Muse pinched his cheeks upwards but was irritated at how stiff his facial muscles were.

She regretted her words.

“Never have I seen a tone-deaf bard or sound mage…your music isn’t that bad though. How…” Muse rolled up into a ball and covered her ears. She had been right, his voice was dead rather than tone-deaf, he didn’t have any tone at all!

She ran into her room and jumped onto the soft bed, falling asleep soon enough.

“Was it so bad?” Ebony asked the two older guards standing not too far away.

“Like my dying horse when I fought on the front lines.” The man with patches of white hair scratched his beard, they didn’t appear to have helmets.

“I rather listen to my drill instructors scream for a year than listen to your singing for another second.” The other man didn’t look young either.

“...Sorry for that.” Ebony retreated, he hummed along to tunes and was pretty sure he wasn’t tone-deaf many people hummed along with him. Singing out loud was a first.

“Sir! Welcome back.”

With his mana sense obscured again, he knew Navin was behind him even without the guard’s greeting. He was too busy talking to Koawe and all he got were nods of acknowledgement from them both before they disappeared somewhere in the house. He had been feeling sleepier and sleepier after the nose bled from Muse’s ‘healing’ and was knocked out when he hit the bed. The beds were soft and the frames were more than capable of handling his weight.

Ebony didn’t notice Muse entering his room after he slept and his body didn’t sense any hostility. He might have heard jarring words and a soft tune in his ears.

❅❅❅

“This boy. Duller than a rock, worse than a child. Never have you faced a problem because you push them aside to some corner due to your stupid meditation. That dullness must be from your meditation. Stop using that nonsense and see the world with open eyes. Face the world, not chuck it aside. Then, you can grow up into a man. Despite your apparent age, you seem to have less life experience than a 7 year old.” Muse patted the sleeping boy’s forehead, she didn’t know if he heard her. An old woman like her wasn’t shy from her own cringy words.

“Start asking questions.”

Muse played her trusty partner as she sang softly.

❅❅❅

Ebony stretched his body to relieve the stiffness caused by the constant combat. He smelled blood.

“Muse?” He saw Muse lying down on the floor, her face in a small pool of her own blood. He sensed her heart beating weakly so he remained calm. It didn’t appear to be some kind of prank though.

He carried her out, hoping to find help. Yvette wasn’t around, the maid told him that she should be at the healer’s academy at this time. He must have slept for quite a while. Ning Xin took Muse off his hands and went to clean her face up and set her on a soft bed. There was little they could do and Muse looked just like she was sleeping.

“Koawe will be helping for two or three days. I’ll be busy dri..hem, absorbing the blood in the meantime.” Ning Xin returned to her room.

“So I’m free? What should I do?” Ebony didn’t think for too long, one of the maids gave him a short tour. The mansion had a training room that was more fortified than any Quest Hall so he didn’t have to look for a branch.

After 6 hours of physical conditioning. He had little to do. He could reread his books that he already completely copied down but didn’t feel purpose in that. He could continue training but other than conditioning the other skill training just wasn’t fruitful at all. He could train those skills at a highly accelerated rate when hunting. He tended to reinforce his mana chassis whenever he wasn’t fighting since he would have no real use for his mana in a city. It was hard to train it when he fought, which slowed its levelling.

“Oh yeah, mage tower.” Ebony recalled spotting one of the tallest buildings in Tidal. It was a good chance but he knew they wouldn’t let a random guy read most of their stuff. Join them officially and do work for them to gain access? He didn’t see that happening any time soon.

He went to the parking spot but there wasn't any flying transport. He took a normal carriage instead. Drawn by a level 230 six-legged horse, it didn’t take more than half an hour but the driver must have misunderstood him. They brought him to the defensive magic towers which didn’t let him in. It wasn’t a library.

He tried to find the main street and just took a walk instead. Picking up some street food he had never seen for Ning Xin. He had no idea where he was.

In his trance of taking a walk, he didn’t realise the crowd moved aside for someone walking in his direction. A man dressed in more jewels and ornaments than ever necessary. He had his own entourage of bodyguards but the crowd voluntarily stepped aside without the entourage’s interference. They didn’t stop or get Ebony to step aside when his path was about to collide with the man they were following around.

Ebony’s body probably thought there was more than enough space for them to walk past each other and didn’t react to the man walking too closely. The man with his own entourage smiled at the obvious non-local, he put strength and mana into his waist, hips and shoulders. He twisted forcefully at the very last second, aiming to smash his shoulders into Ebony’s to knock him out of his path.

Ebony woke up from his trance when there were sharp pointy sticks on his neck. He saw dust and debris rising in the corner of his sight. Someone was crawling out from the debris and shouting something at him.

‘Did I attack him? No, I think he bumped into me. My repulsion shouldn’t push anything away if it was just a normal bump. Maybe someone pushed him towards me really hard and he dug into my membrane, sending him flying. He’s even bleeding…Did he bump into me so hard that he managed to touch me? Yes, some of my mana residue is on him.’ Ebony felt bad, he really had to ground his mentality and not let it slip.

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

Touching his membrane is not any different from touching something physical but the deeper you try to push through his membrane the more forceful the repulsion. He must have unconsciously rebounded the physical force with mana but there was no drop in his mana pool so he must not have hit hard.

“Catch him! He assaulted me!”

‘Mmm, he shouldn’t be badly injured.’ Ebony felt bad for the house that had a new hole in their walls. The man seemed energetic enough.

“Don’t resist!” One of the armoured knights yelled as if he saw Ebony resisting.

‘Ooo. Even bodyguard knights are all Grandmasters. I wonder how well they fortified their classes before they evolved. Their standards should be much higher than the people I’ve seen. I did somewhat commit assault.’

There were witnesses and his mana residues on the man, Ebony saw no reason to resist. He was still somewhat confident that he wouldn’t be harmed and that he could resist if he wanted to. Even though he no longer cared about levels much, his instincts were sleeping. He wasn’t in danger.

They pulled out those wooden cuffs with yellow and blue ores, they seemed like professionals that did this hundred of times with how fluent they were. The wooden plank laid over his bracelet and he couldn’t sense the connection with the ores he had on them, including his trailer. Three pointed ends stabbed into his neck when the other got him to put his arms behind his back.

After he was cuffed and he felt the drain on his stamina and mana, they waited for about half a minute awkwardly before they put their swords away and he was pushed to walk. Ebony was calculating how much of his energy was being drained but then he cocked his head. The drain suddenly stopped and his stamina and mana pools both didn’t budge from their full state at all.

“Why did you stop?” The knight frowned.

“Oh, my apologies. The drain on my stamina and mana stopped.” He replied without thought.

The knight whispered to himself, something about slotting in almost full gems instead. They saw his compliance and seemed to be at ease at bringing him away. The man who bumped into him didn’t follow, he had more entourage and continued going off somewhere. He seemed to be in a rush or Ebony got a feeling he wouldn’t be gently escorted. The knight swapped out the ores and they continued walking for a few minutes before Ebony got a little embarrassed and told them it was probably full again.

Two of the knights didn’t like his attitude but the other two sympathised with him as a victim. He was in an inconspicuous alley.

“Don’t play games with us!” They assumed Ebony had a huge mana and stamina pool and was forcefully pushing them into the cuffs but couldn’t tell why he bothered informing them.

One of them threw him onto their shoulders and he was carried away at high speeds. They blindfolded him but didn’t shut all his other senses off. He knew they stopped by a mansion many times larger than Navin’s humble abode with his gravitational sense. Then he was brought underground, his mana sense was interrupted as there was no mana in the area but he could still ‘see’.

‘Is it common to build a prison under your house?’ He was guessing the mansion was filled with people.

“Hey there! Another poor old louse? Welcome to your new home!” A scrawny, dirt-covered man greeted from his cell.

‘Woah. This prison is almost completely filled, no wonder these guys were so familiar with handcuffing.’

All the prisoners were in different states. Other than the first guy who greeted him the others were mostly in terrible condition and the prison smelled of dried blood, iron and burnt flesh.

“No trial?” He asked when he heard the metal gates creaked open.

“There was. You were already judged.” The knight who carried him called the patrolling men to take his belongings away.

Ebony sensed that they had weaker auras or overflowing essence, probably Masters.

‘Already judged huh…’ Ebony wasn’t going to play along anymore. He would admit his wrongs but he knew this wasn’t the Empire’s style. He didn’t want to deal with this farce for too long.

The four Grandmasters were still following him closely and they were probably troublesome. The bigger problem was that he passed by many strong auras before he came underground. If he were to cause a fuss they would definitely come up with some kind of measures against him other than simple reinforcement.

Before they could attach him to the cuffs that connect to the walls they had to remove his stuff and he wasn’t planning to make it easy for them.

Two of the knights grabbed his arm tightly when the other uncuffed his current cuffs. The new men tried to take his greatsword out first but they couldn’t carry it out which annoyed the Grand Knights. Icicle was currently a little more than twice as heavy as compared to the first time he wielded it.

“Useless fools! Step aside.”

The Grand Knight grabbed Icicle and pulled it out from his robe, Icicle froze its grip to the knight but the knight’s gloves or gauntlets protected him. He tossed it to the side.

‘I have to do something quick. How do I knock them all out quietly? Even if I knock them all out, how can I leave?’ This wasn’t a shophouse without guards, this place was heavily fortified. Even if he wore their armour and replicate their voice he can easily be Identified which would bring his disguise useless. Ebony felt extremely stupid for playing along when power talks. He wouldn’t be in this predicament if he just fought back as any other man would from the start. What a massive fool he was.

‘I need to stop being so passive. There’s no merit.’ Is what he told himself but he didn’t think he could change his personality so easily.

His body burst into flames and the entire cell froze. He spread his domain within the small cell itself to silence the noise but he consciously made sure no ice mist was cast. He made sure to focus on their mouths to shut them up, the Masters were fully frozen and they could feel something digging into their flesh but they couldn’t even cry out.

‘Damn their armour and reflexes. Odd. I’m getting irritable so easily…’

The Grandmaster knights were protected by a thick layer of their own mana and their armour glowed in response to his flames. The good thing was that they were completely held back by dozens of ice arms.

‘Oh…I am so smart.’ Ebony thought of a good idea. He temporarily deluded himself of what a good idea was and called himself smart. He knocked out the Masters without even taking his blindfold off.

Ice mana seeped into every corner of the knight's armour but there was no ice on the outer layer. He tried his best to knock them out but all he got was a glare so he put their helmets back on after freezing their mouths shut. The knights noticed that when they moved, their mana decreased. Unless he consciously made it not to, his domain attacked anything that moves with vibrations other than him.

Ebony put the cuffs back onto him and controlled the ice mana in the knights armour to move. It was troublesome that they had such high physical stats. He got his flames to dig harder through their mana in response. They started to feel fear and didn’t resist as much.

Ebony didn’t know this. He was just glad that their resistance suddenly dropped.

The Grand Knights put their hands on him by his mental control and brought him out step by step after he removed the ice in his cell. He had one of them carry Icicle.

The prisoner who greeted him was confused when Ebony was brought in only to be brought out again. They climbed the stairs and were questioned by the door guards.

“We got a call to bring him out.” Ebony replicated one of their voices with ease. He tried to be as vague as possible so that he didn’t give any wrong clues.

He was lucky the door guards had a weaker aura, the Grand Knights seemed to be their superiors and didn’t question too much. The knights were weaker than he assumed which really helped. Just like that, Ebony walked out the same way he entered.

‘Prison breaks are so simple. I bet this is an illegal prison.’

To continue his ‘good’ idea. He made the knights hail a carriage after they left the mansion for a distance and used their voice to get them to Navin’s mansion.

Then Ebony felt resistance again.

Their seats froze as flames under their armour burned brighter. He sat silently between the two of them while the other two were in front of him. The driver noticed nothing.

The knights were desperately resisting despite the increase in freezing and their diminishing mana pool. They had the most unpleasant ride in their lives and the roads were congested so their journey was taking longer than it should.

‘It’s almost time for dinner. The chefs are good but I wanna have her cooking instead.’

When they finally arrived, the knights were faced with a stare-down by two old men.

“Boy?” One of the old men questioned as they saw the cuffed and blindfolded Ebony.

“I’m back for dinner.”

“That’s a weird hobby, is this how you like to be escorted?” It was the same old man that said that Ebony sang like a dying horse.

Ebony released the cuffs and blindfold and walked into the compounds with the knights. His flames were already extinguished for a while but he sensed that he could no longer dig into their flesh and they were getting healed faster than he could heal a deep cut.

He knew the old men were also Grand Knights like his 'escorts' but their aura was so different, they were a different beast altogether.

“I bumped into someone. I thought I accidentally injured them and followed them when they said I assaulted him but they just brought me to some prison without even telling me my sentence. Even the towns that catch thieves had better procedures. I didn’t think it was the real prison so I got them to bring me out.

“Oh? Interesting.” Navin’s voice reached their ears from behind them. He was also on the way back for dinner with his wife. They tried to make time for each other as much as possible as long as they were both in the same region.

“Mind if I take them?” He asked as if that wasn’t what Ebony brought them here for.

He entered with Koawe after Navin flew away with the four Grand Knights.