Whoosh!

The night air pierced and whistled through as I flew toward the mansion.

I've been going there almost every night as of late. Nowadays, I even went there alone without Renata's company, and she sure did make a fuss of it being her duty or whatnot to always be by my side...

'What a load of crap.' I told her right there and then. She was shocked, obviously, as though her sky had collapsed...Still, I didn't back down.

So, without worrying myself into humoring her weird and crazy arguments, I just told her to meet me right at the mansion from then on.

'Yeah...This is nice. It's been a while since I have a time of my own.' As a result, I could enjoy this brief time of sailing through the midnight sky all on my own.

After all, as far as I could remember, I was rarely left alone...

So, that's that...Moving on, soon before long, the outline of the big mansion could be seen in the distance while my thoughts were swimming freely, and I came down by the rounded opening connected to the roof that the Shadows opened up for me.

In all honesty, Renata's design was convenient and cool. I was not afraid to admit it. Descending from the sky into the mansion, I wondered if this was how Batman would feel whenever he entered his Batcave...

Anyway...As expected of Renata, she always overdid it at things that I never wanted her to do. It went like this...

Back then, Renata told the Shadows to stand outside on the rooftops and welcome me with spiritual mumbo-jumbo. I had to argue my case back and forth before we finally settled down on some simple greeting and not a freaking ritual.

I'm telling you for real...what she has cooking inside that brain of hers would never run dry. Believe me, I've given up hope...At this point, It is what it is...

"May the Light shine brighter!" A synchronous greeting from all the Shadows broke loudly the minute my feet landed on the ground.

"...May the Dark grow deeper," I answered back.

It was always over the top, but whether I liked it or not, this was the middle ground we had agreed upon.

The blue-haired Assassin waved her hand, and the Shadows vanished from the room within a second.

I turned around and found my seat. On the desk, there were stacks of documents waiting to be read.

Skimming them quickly, I couldn't find any signs of urgency hidden within these reports. So, I placed them and took a deep breath, gathering my thoughts. "So...what is it?"

Renata stepped forward after she bowed once. Her greenish eyes showed no ripples, calmly reflecting the hue of moonlight.

"We have all the names from Melkor. And now, we await your command, Milord." Voiced Renata.

'Names, huh? Is she asking whether I want to hunt them down or not?'

She did notice the changes in my mood back at Melkor's slave house. I may do something if it was me from back then, but thankfully, I was more clear-headed today.

"...We will stick to the plan, Assassin. The Seatholders shall discuss and decide the importance of the information you bring. I will place my trust in the Council of the House. That is all."

As much as I'd hate to admit it, any decision I took right now would be biased. Hence, I chose to ask for help instead.

"By your will, Milord." Saluted Renata.

Seeing the steadfast Renata before me, a particular thought flashed. "You have something you want to add?"

"That is all, Milord. Everything else has been written on the documents and awaits your approval." Sounded her back, signaling for the Shadows to bring in the refreshments.

"Right..." Then, I delved again into the documents more thoroughly this time. They were mostly reports of progress on what we've been doing.

The majority of them were from Trodin's side since they were growing exponentially by the day, not to mention because they took in another new batch of slaves we saved from Melkor.

Since the number has increased, Trodin...Well, he and James, his right-hand man, had been updating their division with a new selection of newcomers.

It was a complex and almost grueling task, but they've done a phenomenal job so far based on the written reports.

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

'Hm...In a way, they are still slaves with different owners...' My mind couldn't help but wander around as I read the reports.

I took a deep breath to relax my tensing nerves, reminding myself of what I must do and what I needed in order to do that.

"...I think...I'm changing, Renata..." At last, I chose to voice out the concern I had buried in my mind earlier.

"Milord...?" Asked Renata with dubiously. She appeared confused about why I suddenly called her by her name since I almost never do so whenever she wore her mask.

Brushing aside her reaction, I pushed my body and landed the back of my head on the chair's comfort.

'I can feel it...I am getting soft...I don't know when, but my thought patterns are definitely changing, albeit slowly...I keep having moral debates within my mind more often than I used to...Is this good? Or is this me, getting weak...?' I closed my eyes and traced my days so far, trying to be as objective and fair as possible.

I didn't know the answers to my questions, but one thing remained the same. "...We will save the world, Assassin."

"By your will, Milord!" Answered Renata with spirit.

'I will save this world. And that's that!'

The night went on peacefully despite my inner turmoil. I reviewed the documents and gave my approval when I found no issues.

After I was done with them, I told Renata to open the windows and let the fragrance of the night fill the room. With no one to bother me further, I opted to chase away all the troubling thoughts by doing some good ol' grinding.

And I was not talking about the vanilla kind of shit. Nah...I meant the real grinding...Limit-testing.

'Increase my mana pool and purify them.'

One thing I realized after meeting and formulating myself against so many different kinds of enemies was that I was deceptively weak.

Not because Word Magic had failed to do its intended job properly. It was because I have a ridiculously small mana pool, in contrast to what I initially believed, and we'll get on to that in just a minute.

Almost everyone who saw me use magic would always think I had a huge mana pool. And to be fair, I didn't blame them. Because of my inflated ego, I also believed that to be the case.

But the real question was, how do they determine that in the first place? It was not like they had glasses that could measure my power or something.

As It turned out, Magicians have this thing they call a Magical Aura.

This Magical Aura was basically traces of mana that was saturated into the air whenever a magician used magic. By seeing and feeling this Aura, they could judge whether a Magician has a huge mana pool or not. In simpler terms, the bigger your mana pool, the stronger your Magical Aura would be.

It was similar but in a different sense of application if we compared it to how Knights use their Aura, which surprisingly had a name of its own.

Geast was how they would call it...

Why they decided to invent a new name instead of just calling it an Aura was beyond me. Then again, the Knights and Magicians had been butting heads with each other ever since forever. It might've played a part in why they would want the name to be different...

Anyway.

Back to the Magical Aura. When they saw me using Word Magic when I was still ignorant of masking my mana trace, they also noticed my Magical Aura.

And because of that, they immediately assumed that I was a Master Class Magician based solely on that fact alone, totally skipping over some of the more essential factors to determine a Magician's rank.

It was this whole other can of worms that would hurt your head if I opened it carelessly, so I would try to break it as gently as I could...

So, here goes nothing...

Fundamentally, magicians used their mana as an intermediary between the outside and the inside whenever they conjured a spell. They needed to purify their mana to cleanse the raw, untamed mana from the world outside before it was later stored inside their own body, in this case, their mana pool. And from that stored mana, something was needed before it could be transformed as a spell, an anchor...And that Anchor was none other than our very soul.

That was by the book magic. Magic 101, in other words.

And I did nothing to follow that...

First, it was due to the way I used to train. Whenever I said to Increase my magic, I knew it had too many variables involved. But because I was ecstatic that I worked, regretfully, it totally outbalanced one key point.

The purification of mana...

Storing an untamed mana was doable, but it was akin to storing poison inside your body and letting it fester for years to come. It was also why my blessing of danger would ring subtly whenever I limit-testing, which I mistook for another complete thing.

Second, other magicians were taught to use magic by controlling their mana as an intermediary for the world's mana. Sort of like a bridge, but I wasn't doing that.

I was using the word magic. Not only did my soul function as an anchor, but it also served as an intermediary. I never learned how to move my mana. I only knew how to move it through the word magic...

In short, rather than having my own mana acting like a bridge, word magic was treating my mana like its own limbs instead. And because word magic, which was the god's blessing, was the one that operated all that, it was apparent how wild the Magical Aura would show if I left it be.

As a result, my magic was faster, stronger, and terrifyingly adaptable to boot.

The conclusion was I did pack a mean punch and had all the kits to make the show flashy, but my tank was severely small.

My mana pool was horrible, thanks to the low purity of mana it had inside.

How was I so sure about this?

It's because I checked it myself.

I was lucky every fight I've had so far had always been fast and short. And the ones that wanted to drag on and contest the long fight lacked the firepower to run me dry.

If I met, say, someone on Clara's level, then it would be a totally different tale to tell.

So, that's that. All in all, I have changed my limit-testing mantra to accommodate my growth further.

'Increase my mana pool and purify them...'

And amidst my training came Renata, "Pardon my intrusion, Milord. We have words from Spy."