..... A few minutes after Arian left the church......

[Your majesty...]

In front of Killian stood an old man in black cloak and black leather armor

and looked like he was merging with the shadows around him.

This was Uruviel Kingdoms king...

Alastair Durrant Von Uruviel.

Alastair is 88 cycles old, just like Quinn.

He has a large muscular build, yellow eyes and his long wavy hair is already snow white.

[Stend up Mr.Potus, no need for formalities, it's annoying...]

Alastair hurried Killian to stand up. Father Killian wasn't really surprised by this visit,

he already detected king's presence during his conversation with Arian.

[Ha... Please, this way...]

Killian nervously showed the king into the kitchen where he could sit down on a proper chair,

in the main hall there are only benches and two stools after all...

[ ...So that was old Quinn's grandson, huh ?

I thought for a second that it was actually an granddaughter, but I guess you never know with those elves...]

Killian was surprised. It wouldn't be strange if the king knew Quinn personally,

since he was a regular member of the "Senate", but that should be it. He shouldn't know who Arian was...

Arian is a child of a man that throw away his nobility,

so nobody in a higher position should even be remotely aware of his existence...

Killian wondered why did the king know about him...

[What brings you here, your majesty? If I remember correctly, you didn't plan to come here this and next cycle...]

Killian asked nervously...

[No, I will probably only come in 3-4 cycles. The new generations are disappointing...

In 4 cycles, I will stop sending funds to schools like this, so I will only come at that time.

Well, I'm looking forward to that small tournament at that time...]

Alastair answered honestly. He had great hopes for this village,

but most children born here don't attend combat oriented classes and chose to be farmers or something similar...

It couldn't be helped, since the village needs manpower to restore itself how it was before the war.

However, because of that, there aren't much children attending 'fighter' classes, much less 'eater' classes...

[Ha...]

Killian understand what the king was saying. Most graduates from Veles school weren't really that bad,

but they weren't anything special either...

Having more competent soldiers was a good thing, but the king wasn't looking for something like that.

Many outstanding individuals that leaded those soldiers died or have gone missing during the war.

And that wasn't just an over exaggeration, even their hero Azuneel

and his companions has gone missing during the last battle near Raka city...

With the possibilities of another war, Alastair was looking for new outstanding individuals in every part of the Kingdom

and in Veles village there was none until now...

[Well, this sol I'm just sightseeing, since I got bored in the capital...]

Alastair said nonchalantly...

[Ha...ah? S...Sightseeing? I don't think there are many interesting things in this village...]

Killian was surprised by the king's words and answered without thinking.

[Hahaha, you jest Mr.Potus. Didn't I see something interesting just a moment ago ?]

Alastair answered jokingly, but his eyes weren't laughing...

Killian get nervous again. The king shouldn't know about Arian, but he somehow find out...

Since there were many tourist and travelers coming to the Veles village,

it wouldn't be strange for a rumor to spread that there lives a red soul child...

However, even the king wouldn't look into it, if he didn't know who it was beforehand...

Then, there is a big chance that the king didn't know that Arian has a red soul

and only know that he was Quinn's grandson and for some reason decided to come and see him himself...

A little bit of a stretch, but at least more believable than the king looking into rumors himself...

Coming into this conclusion, when he felt king's presence in the church during his conversation with Arian,

he quickly tried giving him a test to determine if he is dangerous of not.

If the king already know about Arian, all that Killian could do is put Arian to an test.

However, luckily, Arians answers were more humorous than serious...

With Arian safe for now, Killian needs to save his own hide for not reporting about Arian's existence to the king...

He didn't want his existence to be known so soon, but...

[I'm terribly sorry, your majesty...]

Killian apologised and kneeled down again...

[You're sorry? For what? Because you didn't report to me about that child ?!]

[Ha...]

Alastair was agitated a little, but he soon became composed again...

That's right. Killian Potus is working directly under the king as one of his personal spies.

..........

Killian was never destined to become a priest and follow his dreams.

His family is a large merchant company, one of the biggest in the Uruviel Kingdom.

Potions, weapons, armor, scrolls, grimoires, everything that soldiers, mages

and adventurer's would need in their sol to sol life.

As a second son of such family, he was supposed to support his older brother when he inherit the company.

However, Killian wasn't interested in being a merchant, supporting his brother from the shadows.

Because of one small encounter with the hero Azuneel,

Killian wanted to become a priest that helps and support people in need.

His family was obviously against Killian becoming a priest.

For generations, the first son of Potus family would always inherit the company

and the second son would support him and if something unfortunate happened to the first son, second son would replace him.

This could provide to be a little problematic if the second son was unhappy with his position

and wanted to get rid off his older brother and take over the company, but because of the way they were raised,

this never occurred.

Even if it did, it was done so well that no one noticed it...

Killian's whole future has already been decided for him from the moment he was born, his wishes didn't matter to his family...

However, even if he wanted to protest, there were other problems....

As if fate was playing with him, Killian was completely hopeless when it comes to light magic,

something everybody who wants to become a priest must be at least competent at.

Even worse, he was incredibly talented with dark magic, something that was indisairble for priests...

Because of this, his fate was sealed, he would normally never become a part of the church...

Not normally...

After many disputes with his father and brother, numerous failed attempts to improve in using light magic,

Killian finally run away from home when he turned 14 cycle old.

Escaping those that were sent after him to bring him back,

he survived the journey and somehow reached the capital city Durrant.

Around this time, Killian's father already had enough and declared him dead,

replacing Killian's position with his younger sister who was about to be married to a noble family anyway...

With this, Killian was only a Potus in name, now without a place to return to, he needed to found a new place to stay.

Luckily, he found a shelter in a small church in Durrant's relatively poorer area where somehow,

he become an apprentice of a old priest working there.

Because no other priest was thrilled to work in such a round down church,

they welcomed any help they could get and Killian showed to be perfectly fine with even small tedious tasks.

However, even when things started looking bright for Killian, he was still completely helpless when it comes to light magic.

Since at that time he didn't know the concept of attribute affinity,

he never realized that his affinity with light attribute was [Very Low], nearly nonexistent.

But, as a generally liked individual and because of his undying determination,

the old priest stick around him and tried to teach him light magic.

And slowly but surely, Killian started to show results. His usage of light magic was slowly improved, one step at the time.

However, when Killian turned 19 cycles old, he hit a wall that he couldn't overcome.

Even if he studied hard and was helpful around the church, he stopped improving in using light magic completely...

Because of this, he would never become a priest, he could only work in the church as a assistant at best.

Each attribute has their own "Archive" and light attribute has "Lumen Archive".

Most "Lumen Archive" spells are support and protection spells, with only a few attack spells.

And the most important support spells were "Healing" spells like:

[Light Cure], [Cure], [Cure All], [Cure Area], [Heal], [High Heal], [Area Heal], [High Area Heal] and [Heal All].

[Cure] is used when the patient has an illness, while [Heal] is used when a patient is physically hurt.

The more powerful spell is, more mana is required to successfully cast it and the lower the affinity is,

more skills and concentration is required to create the magic circle.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

Because of this, those with lower affinity have a harder time casting more powerful spells.

At the age of 19, Killian could barely use [Light Cure], [Cure] and [Heal] healing spells,

not to mention a limited number of times.

This would be enough for a Yellow or Red class adventurers, but not for priests working for the church.

And just like this, Killian was again stuck, unable to move forward...

Even the old priest that has made him his apprentice slowly started to give up on him.

And when even he himself has started to give up on his dream of becoming a priest,

for which he even thrown his own family for...

King Alastair accidentally found him while going on his usual secret stroll around the capital.

Alastair was an adventurer in his younger sols, before he was put on the throne because of some unfortunate circumstances,

so he hates being holed up inside the royal castle.

And as a skilled dark magician, his skills to hide his presence and his speed,

he usually run away from the royal castle to go on a night strolls.

King Alastair met Killian on one of such night strolls...

At that time, he was looking for a way to implant a spy inside the church,

but because everyone who is a part of the church is either a faithful devotee or a crazy fanatic,

that has proven to be a really hard task. Luckily, peoples like Killian weren't rare,

but still hard to find, that's why Alastair was going on his night strolls more often than usual.

And that night stroll proved to be quite fruitful as he found Killian, a troubled wannabe priest.

A perfect candidate for a spy. With Killian's agreement,

Alastair has somehow managed to make the church acknowledge him as a priest.

When someone become a priest in Uruviel kingdom, they are expected to go on a pilgrimage, seeing the world,

learning new things and helping those in need along the way.

After they return from their pilgrimage, they are assigned to manage a church in one of the villages,

assist an already assigned priest, or similar tasks where their help is needed.

After becoming one of king's eyes and ears,

Killian has gone on his 5 cycle long pilgrimage where he visited other Kingdoms and Empires.

After he returned, he was assigned to become a head Priest in Veles village which he happily accepted.

Using this chance, the king has given him the task of keeping track of children in the village

and reporting to him if any of them had a potential through secret magic art [Message].

Killian did his task perfectly, reporting about promising children and their growth,

but unfortunately most of them weren't what the king was hoping for.

That is, he never reported about Arian to the king, wanting to keep his existence a secret, at least as long as possible.

..........

[Haaah, stand up Mr.Potus. I can imagine why you would hide him, but he passed the test didn't he ?]

Alastair hurried Killian to stand up again...

[Ha...]

However, Killian was still nervous about what he will do about Arian,

usually every child born with red soul is sent to the church until they turn 15 cycles old and are considered an adult.

Many parents don't do that, but they must still report it to the church.

Arians parents and Killian decided not to do that either, since last time was a disaster when they got involved....

[Then there is no need to be so nervous, it's not like I'm going to send him to the church....]

Killian finally relaxed after king told him that he was not going to send Arian to the church.

If that happened, he would either become a priest like himself or a holy knight,

or they would send him to the "eyes of god", where he would spend the rest of his life in front of a book...

[Ha, I understand... But, if I may ask, how did you know that Arian is Marques Quinn's grandson?

Do you know him personally perchance?]

This is what's been bothering him for a while now, how did the king know that Arian was Quinn's grandson...

Marquess Derrius influence as a noble house has been in decline for a long time now,

and if Quinn's second son doesn't return to succeed him, this may be their end.

So it's weird for him to know about Arian, unless he knows Quinn personally...

[Hahahaha, do I know him ? Boy, he was my best friend back in the sols, he even took my little sister as his first wife...

But I guess youngsters these sols don't know about such things that happened so long ago....]

Killian opened his eyes so wide you may think they would fall off from his eye sockets....

(Old Quinn took kings younger sister as his first wife? But wasn't Abbey his first and only wife?

Not to mention, king Alastair's older brother and younger sister died long time ago

due to a sudden disease that spread throughout the whole Kingdom at that time...

King's sister supposedly never married...)

[Wha...]

Alastair smirked, of course Killian didn't know about something like that. Not many know about it.

(So not even "The Dark Priest" Killian Potus, who is known to investigate everything so thoughtfully, didn't know about it...

Well, thats just a old history at this point...)

[Well, we are from the same generation and were in the same class in royal academy, so of course we know each other.

We are still in contact, so of course I know that he has a grandson...]

Quinn sent him a [Message] that his son Howard was blessed with a son, he also mentioned that it was quite an unusual child.

Thats why he come here personally to see him, since Killian never mentioned him in his reports.

He never expected him to be so unique. But still, a red soul ?

This would be a second one in such a small time...

[Haa... I understand.]

Killian answered. King's answer was quite a surprise, but with this, he is sure that he is more or less on Arian's side...

[So how are the other children ? The last generation isn't anything special, but what about the new one,

they should start school right next sol if I'm not mistaken ?]

Up until now, there were a lot of talented individuals that graduated from Veles village school this past 6 cycles,

but not many of them was what the king was hoping for...

[Yes, there are a few that could become exactly what you're hoping for.

First one is "Nora Sabala", a dark elf with a dragon soul type,

second one is "Baldwin Marinus", he's a yellow soul type but he shows a lot of potential for his age.

The last one just come to this village recently, Earl Ballard Garcia's second son "Rodger Garcia".

Those three are the most unique ones among the rest...]

Killian exhaled after finishing his report.

Myla should also be among them but because she isn't going to become an "eater", she is excluded...

[Hmm, I see. I look forward listening about their growth from you.

Now then, maybe I should go visit that bag of bones Quinn ?]

[Wait, your majesty! Shouldn't you return to the Capital ?]

Killian hasty stopped the king from leaving.

He shouldn't even be here in the first place, there's probably an uproar in the royal castle...

[Don't worry, that new homunculus doppelganger is doing its job perfectly impersonating me...]

Alastair answered and disappeared like a smoke, before Killian could do anything.

Completely exhausted from a sudden visit, he returned to the statue,

sit down on the stool he was sitting previously and started drinking already warm beer...

[Haaa... That king is as unpredictable as ever...]

He deeply exhaled...

..........

Arian was sitting on his bad, he just finished preparing things for school he bought from old granny Alvarez.

He also bought a crayon and a parchment for Myla so she can write important details in school next sol.

There was also pencils and normal paper but they were insanely expensive,

so he only bought crayons and parchments since they were quite cheap.

.........

When I returned to the inn, the party has already started but Baldy decided to stay for one more night

since he wanted to bath in the hot spring one more time. I think he got addicted to it....

Well, not that I care...

I am quite exhausted, so I should go to bed early...

Surprisingly my [Appraisal] leveled up before I noticed,

so I can't wait to see what else has changed other than seeing more information when appraising a person.

During the late dinner, I heard the the duel between Calvin and Baldy ended up as a draw surprisingly.

Apparently, they were only playing around and when I headed to the church,

they suddenly got serious and nobody was able to follow their movements.

Myla and Rodger were babbling non stop about it during the late dinner.

Bernard just said: [As expected of father...] and that was it.

I think he became even more fired up about his training...

I won't be surprised if he end up going on morning jogs with me from now on...

Well, next sabb in probably going to be busy, so I better rest now while I can.

I thing that I been pushing myself a little bit more than necessary, but of well...