- Age Eleven -

A few weeks after the Harvest Festival, Daerin Academy had already finished welcoming a batch of fresh students. Last year's batch had all successfully moved on to their 2nd year, and among them were three children enrolled with special recommendations.

The third son of Loeth; the daughter of the current Perid; and the adopted daughter of Vinney. Although the three did attend a few of the same classes as the other 1st year students during this past year—as per instructions of the headmaster—a majority of their time was spent in individual practice.

—Bah! It's been a year, yet how am I still struggling with mana circulation! How vexing!

As the light of the early morning reached out to him inside of his shallow cave imprint, the ashen-haired young boy wore frustration on his charming face. Though rather than a cave— with him emitting intense heat and the occasional flickering flame—Urie sometimes felt as if he were being used as fuel for a large furnace or oven. In fact, placed at the mouth of the cave even were four skewers of medium-sized fish, freshly caught from the freshwater lake outside.

“Ya, that's enough!” a boisterous voice acting as an hourglass timer for the oven called out.

Exhibiting an apparent improvement, Urie naturally reeled in the flames used to roast the fish before stepping outside to check on whether they were properly cooked. The sad appearance of four charred fish, however, caused him to utter a sigh of defeat, “Ah, it happened again...”

“Ya, again? Did you burn them!?” Chestnut-amber eyes arrived and stared regretfully at the skewers and behind, a timid voice from a head of crimson followed, “A-Are they cooked...?”

Celeste's expectant inquiry made Urie all the more unwilling to disappoint. “T-They're only black on one side! Here, these aren't that burnt!” he said, and handed two of the better-looking skewers over to the two girls.

“—Ah!?” Urie was taken aback by a hand that previously wasn't there. Demanding a skewer, it was the headmaster picking his nose in a nonchalant manner. Urie immediately handed over the blackest-looking fish.

“Keh! Don't you know how to properly roast fish? Such a shame... Shame!” the headmaster berated, but still bit into the charred skewer. Urie replied to the headmaster's taunt with a wry smile.

—I don't know even know how to cook, and neither do Celeste and Elicia.

In the first place, it was this scruffy old man that had started to occasionally cook fish in front of the cave during the past few months. Urie would always return home with a pungent odor of roasted fish clinging to his clothing.

It was only with the effort of the three the previous day that they had somehow managed to corral some fish beside the lake. And today, they had decided to imitate the headmaster and cook them in front of Urie's oven.

—Contrary to what I first thought, this cave had become my den for the past year.

When the headmaster introduced them to this location, Urie believed this cave more suiting to Elicia, as she had awoken with an innate affinity to the element of earth. Instead, the headmaster had thrown him into this cave imprint and placed Elicia on the perch atop the cliff ledge—overlooking the view of the lake.

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The decision to place Elicia there was questionable at first, but eventually bore a fruit of pleasant surprise.

Accompanied with constant grumbling, Elicia followed the headmaster's program with diligence, building up a steady foundation. A few months of having her hair blown about from side to side had actually allowed her to attune herself to the element of the wind.

But that's not to say that anyone could just pick up a different element of magic. That would undermine the purpose of Daerin's Harvest Festival and having spirits awaken a child's mana seed. It also wasn't impossible to learn how to use magic different from the element your seed had manifested, but it wasn't worth the effort investing time in something one had no aptitude in.

This just meant that Elicia—other than her innate element of earth—also had an uncanny talent for managing the element of the wind.

—I wonder if the headmaster was aware of this when he assigned our posts? Then what about...

Urie glanced over at the crimson-haired Celeste. With regards to regulating her mana and being able to contain it within her body, Celeste's improvement was smooth. She no longer had to worry about involuntarily dropping the temperature in her surroundings below freezing, and could now handle a bit of water magic.

From time to time, as she practiced mana circulation beside the lake, Urie could spot a playful wisp of blue on her right shoulder. He had brought it up once with her and she explained that it was a small water spirit that would occasionally whisper in her ear, giving her pointers.

However, according to Urie's knowledge on the matter...

—The only spirits capable of speech are the greater spirits... That thing's incredibly small. It couldn't be... Maybe it was a special kind of spirit?

Urie dismissed the matter as such as he was not knowledgeable of the subject.

“Agh! Ya! It's hot! “ Elicia exclaimed with her nose wrinkled and her tongue sticking out.

“Ah, of course it's hot. It just finished cooking, you should have waited for a bit,” Urie scolded.

Celeste leaned closer and waved a hand over Elicia's fish. With a gentle hue of blue, it was cooled down enough to be eaten without burning Elicia's tongue. Then she did the same with Urie's and her own.

Their daily activities not only consisted of repetitive practice but also refining simple skills to be able to do minute tasks such as this. “Hah...” Witnessing Celeste's fine control, Urie lamented. He still couldn't acquire his desired results.

—A year of practice... Was it wasted? I still can't lessen the mana spilling out of my body. At this rate, the headmaster won't ever stop calling me a bedwetter.

Every time Urie would get the hang of regulating mana circulation, his seed would suddenly grow a size bigger, forcing him back to square one whilst flooding the cave with flames. Although each time was not as discernible as during the incident at the academy courtyard, the slight change in his mana seed was enough to throw his control out of order.

Like Celeste and Elicia, he could now also perform mana circulation without having to sit down and close his eyes. Doing so, however, would loosen his focus and unhinge the flames that so desperately want to run amok outside his body.

—That time at the courtyard, the same odd thing keeps on happening. If I'd known better, I'd say that someone's been playing a prank on me! But who would have the time...?

Urie stared dubiously at Arinndra—the scruffy old man emanating an aura of senility. Could it have been him? It was doubtful that the headmaster would take him in as a student only to play tricks on him. Or was it?

—Ah, I shouldn't blame others for this. I mean, an innate affinity to fire seems to be a fact lost to time. I'm guessing the problems I'm facing are a part of it...

“Hah...” Urie sighed and dismissed his musing.

“Keh—! Little girls and bedwetter, finish your food. Today, we'll be going on a trip outside the academy,” the scruffy old Arinndra suddenly declared while picking his nose with his smallest finger.

Elicia rejoiced, holding her half-eaten skewer up in the air, “Ya, finally! We're doing something else!”