In magic theory, there are a lot of types of magics. The main ones are the basic elemental magics. Fire, water, earth and air. This is what most people learn and master, unlocking next level elements like ice, magma, metal and more.

Some people tend to focus on special elements, like light, poison, darkness. These elements are hard to learn and master, so most people that learn these do not go far.

In this world, throughout it's whole history, almost all mages are born with a boon. These boons allow them to do somethings that they normally could not. Most common type of boon is an elemental affinity.

No one knows why mages get these. There are only theories, but no proof.

I was born with an affinity for mana. From what I learned at the academy, there has never been such a thing. It was never even thought of before.

So what exactly does this affinity mean for me? It means struggles for me.

Just because I have a high amount of mana. High mana sensitivity. A very fast mana absorption rate. And the quality of my mana being very high. One would think I was set for life as a mage.

But they couldn't be further from the truth.

I had to learn how to hide my mana by myself so no one would come and fight me randomly. I can't control my mana properly. I take a long time to cast spells because it's impossible to handle the small amount of mana needed for normal spells.

It's like trying to pass water through a hole from a dam. Only allowing a single drop to flow from a tap while the pressure of the dam pushes down.

I can't empower items with magic because they break from the pressure.

One of the worst thing is my mana sensitivity. Most mages learn a spell called detection. It's a spell where they send out their mana in all directions like a spider web and sense the surroundings. Allowing them to feel everything like buildings and lifeforms around them.

But I can't do that. My sensitivity is so high that using this spell almost killed me. Just sending out a tiny bit of my mana to feel around sent too much information to my brain. I've never used it since that incident.

Other people can go around doing magic however way they want. Like throwing fireballs at a waterfall, because the impact feels nice. But I can't do that because I would blow up the whole waterfall. I have to be super careful to not cause damage. And it's just so frustrating to hold back all the time.

But I'm not an evil person, so I will always hold back.

So since I couldn't use my gift, I turned to other things. Specifically recreating the lost magics and discovering new magics.

Or maybe I'm rediscovering them.

But my success has not been great. Just learning the various elements took me a decade. When I decided to research the lost magics at 21, I quickly found out it was not as easy as just researching one thing.

"Hoooaaaah!"

Walking out from my workshop/research lab. I made a big yawn. I had been busy with researching since I came back. I couldn't go to sleep.

"Ah, the sun is already up."

The time was already 7am. I quickly went to the bathroom to cleanup before the kids woke up. I heated up some water for making tea.

I was exhausted, but the tea helped. Maybe I shouldn't have stayed up all night.

"Good morning, Leaf."

A sleepy head Leaf walked out of her room with messy green hair.

"Umm...good morning, Unnie."

Leaf was shy about saying good morning.

"It's fine if you don't want to say it back."

"No, no. I just never said it before."

Leaf didn't have a home where saying good morning was a thing.

"I always woke up alone."

"Well, now you have someone to see after you wake up."

Leaf looked at me with a blank face. After a few seconds, she didn't speak so I patted her head.

"Go wash up."

Leaf still had not adjusted to this place. It's only been a few days, of course, so it's fine. She tries to do a lot of work to show her worth. And doesn't talk a lot during the day.

The most she talked was yesterday night during our walk outside. Even though the things she said were so wrong.

Me and Silas? I had zero interest in Silas, so how could she think that? Hah...

"Umm, Unnie?"

"Yeah?"

"Did you not sleep last night?"

I had been caught.

"It's nothing. Don't worry."

"Really? nothing happened?"

"Yes, nothing happened. Now go wash up before Nem wakes up."

Leaf quickly left me alone. Her face weirdly red.

While Thea sat on the table, reading a book, Leaf was having some thoughts.

'Mister Silas was here yesterday...at night...'

It was impure thoughts that a 12 year old child shouldn't be having.

After Leaf washed up, she came back out to find Thea half asleep on the table with a book in her hands. Leaf approached her quietly and stood in front of her.

Leaf looked at Thea with wide eyes. She was fascinated by Thea, the person who took her in and saved her from her doom.

Leaf looked at Thea's light blue hair dangling down her face. Slightly covering her face. Leaf lifted her hand. She wanted to poke Thea's face but stopped herself. She thought it would be rude of her to do that to Thea.

"Unnie..."

She noticed something. Thea was drooling while she was half asleep.

"Wake up, Unnie."

She shook Thea.

"Hah, wh-wha! I'm awake!"

Thea opened her eyes immediately, claiming she was not asleep.

"Unnie, you're tired..."

"No no, I just closed my eyes...for a bit..."

I realized I had fallen asleep.

"Anyways, don't mind that. We have to prepare breakfast now. Is Nem not awake yet?"

"I'll go wake him up."

Leaf said as she tried to go to Nem's room when a knock was heard on the front door.

"I'll go open the door."

Before I could stand up, Leaf was already walking fast towards the front door. She first looked out the window that was right next to the door.

"It's Su!"

Leaf liked Su because Su talked about some plants the last time she was here. And Leaf found it really interesting.

"Su? Why is she here?"

Leaf opened the door.

"Su!"

"Oh, Leaf. Is Miss Thea here?"

"Yeah, I'm right here."

I said from the table.

"Come in, Su."

"Should I let this guy in?"

Su moved aside to reveal something on the floor.

"Is that....Gwyn?"

It was the little white wolf laying in front of the door with stomach on the floor and it's legs sprawled out.

"What is he doing here?"

"I just saw him sitting here when I came by. Is he not your dog?"

Su asked.

"He's not a dog, Gwyn is a white wolf."

"Oooh."

Leaf had already went past Su and was patting Gwyn. Gwyn was lazily laying on the floor and not moving. Or rather, Gwyn seemed to be down. A bit sad?

"Bring him in."

"There was this letter in front of your door."

Su came in and handed me a letter. It was more of a note.

I'm going world-seeing. Take care of your godson.

-Maple

She just left her kid for me and ran away.

"What does it say, Unnie?"

"Oh, it's just Gwyn's mother abandoning him."

"Oh..."

Leaf looked sad. Perhaps remembering her own experience of not having a mother. Sharing the feeling of being abandoned with Gwyn.

"I meant she left him for us to take care of."

"So we can take him in?"

"Yes, we have no other choice, do we?"

"Yay!"

Leaf jumped up and down. Then she went towards Gwyn.

"Hi, Gwyn! You're gonna stay with us from now on."

Leaf leaned forward and put her hands around Gwyn. She then tried to lift him up.

"Hmp!"

She used all her strength but she only moved Gwyn a bit.

"Haha."

Me and Su laughed at the scene.

"Let me help you."

Su said as she helped lift the sad Gwyn up. She was able to easily move him indoors. Gwyn was now sprawled on the floor, still looking dejected.

"Are you sad your mother left you here?"

I asked Gwyn. He was a very smart beast. Perhaps it was the white wolf genes in him. He let out a small bark noise. Barely audible.

"It's going to be fun here, Gwyn. There's many people here you can play with."

Maybe because he heard the word 'play', Gwyn's ears perked up. And he had a slight smile at the corner of his jaw.

Looking at that, I had to play with him a bit.

"Or maybe you don't want to..."

"Woof!"

Gwyn immediately barked, indicating his rejection at my claim.

"I'm joking."

"Don't be mean, Unnie!"

"Sorry, sorry."

Leaf reprimanded me.

"Alright, go wake up Nem if he's not awake."

Leaf left this time for Nem and I asked what Su came by for.

"Oh yeah, I came to give food. And deliver a message from my boss."

"Food?"

"Yeah, boss said you might wake up late so he asked me to deliver food along with a message."

Su put down the basket she had in her hand.

"I made chicken sandwiches, I hope it's okay. And I brought iced tea to go along with it."

"Oh, thank you Su."

"It's no problem, Miss Thea."

"And what was the message?"

"Boss said that it was something serious."

"Something serious?"

"It's about the gang leader you killed. The boss remembered something about him."

"Lurana?"

"Yes, this Lurana was the son of the king of Cleovantra."

"The king of Cleovantra's son?"

"Yes, investigating their base confirmed it."

"Do you know anything about this?"

"I heard that the son died many years ago. There was a funeral and everything."

"A funeral and all? What was the reason?"

"He was a commander in the army, and died in battle."

"So it was a fake death? Or did he survive the battle?"

It could have been that he planned to fake his death in battle and run away from his duties. Or a plan by someone else to have him assassinated on the battlefield since he was the son of a king. But he miraculously survived.

"Doesn't matter now though, he is dead."

"Keep his death a secret. I feel something is not right."

"Yes."

"Did you find any information about why his gang was not dealt with earlier?"

"Sorry, there is no new information. It's really hard to dig up dirt on them."

"It's ok, keep searching."

There is no way that the king of Cleovantra didn't know about the bone hound gang.

"That king will answer for his crimes."

The king of Cleovantra let a maniac go around murdering citizens of his own kingdom for a long time. And he didn't do anything.

After delivering the information to me, Su left, saying she had work to do.

"Unnie!"

"What's wrong?"

Leaf came out from the direction of Nem's room.

"It's Nem..."

Leaf pointed to Nem's room.

'He didn't run away again did he?'

"He's not leaving his blanket."

'Phew. It's just a normal kid thing this time.'

"Alright, let's go see what's wrong."

We headed into Nem's room. Gwyn also stood up and followed behind.

Walking in, I could see a mound on the bed. Nem was wrapped up inside his white colored linen bed sheets.

"What's wrong, Nem?"

I sat down besides Nem on the bed. I could hear sniffing. Nem had been crying.

"I...it's nothing..."

Nem said softly.

"You can tell me."

I waited for Nem to speak up. After a while, Nem finally spoke.

"The...magic is gone..."

"The magic?"

Remembering it, Nem had magic cast on him that was hiding his identity as a beast-person.

"It's okay, Nem."

"But...you'll kick me out..."

"I didn't take you in because I thought you were a human, Nem."

"Really?"

"Yes, I would never lie to you. If you want, I can even put the magic on you again."

Nem peeked out his face from under the mound.

"You can do that?"

"I can, but do you really want me to?"

Nem was silent.

"Why would you want to hide your handsome little face with magic?"

I reached out and pushed away the blanket on his head. Revealing two big wolf ears on Nem's head.

Leaf gasped on the side. And Gwyn's ears perked up.

"Nobody will say anything here to you."

"Really?"

"I promise. Here."

I held out my pinky finger.

"What is that?"

"It's a pinky promise."

"A pinky promise?"

"Yes, you hold out your pinky and make a promise. You can't break a pinky promise. Come, let's make a promise."

Nem came out of his blanket. He held up his hand and pinky finger. His nails were now sharper since the magic was lifted. I put my finger around Nem's finger in a pinky promise gesture.

"I promise to always protect you."

Nem was awing at the pinky promise.

"Alright, Nem. If you're okay now, let's go outside and eat."

I stood up, ready to walk back outside.

"Umm....Noona."

Oh, I heard Nem call me Noona for the first time. I turned around to look at Nem.

"Yes?"

"Who is this?"

On Nem was Gwyn. Gwyn was pressing his body on Nem. His back was on Nem's lap and he was rubbing his face into Nem's chest.

Gwyn was slightly bigger than Nem.

"That's Gwyn. He'll be staying with us from now on. And...he seems to really like you."

I could see it on Gwyn's face. A big smile. And his tail was wagging left and right very fast. And he was panting like he was overjoyed.

"Come on, you two can play together later."

We ate the sandwiches Su brought after Nem washed up.

Morning exercise was fun. Leaf was running like normal. Nem and Gwyn had already become like best friends and were racing one another. It was quite cute to watch.

"Unnie, they're running so fast."

"They're gonna tire out very soon."

Leaf was sitting next to me after tiring out herself.

"I can't run that fast..."

She was feeling a bit dejected at the fact that those two were running laps ahead of her.

"You don't have to compare yourself to them. Remember, you're studying to become a mage not a fighter."

"You're right..."

"If you still feel inferior to them, remember that you can use magic to be faster than them in the future."

"Are you faster than them?"

"Of course, I'm much faster."

"Oooh!"

Leaf looked at me with awe.

"But you'll only be faster than them if you study hard."

"I'll study a lot!"

"Good, good."

I patted Leaf's head as she gained new motivation.

The day went by fast. After the early morning physical training, we had language lessons, magic lessons. And we went out to buy some new clothes at the silver wolf merchants store. The kids had too few clothes.

There were no design on the clothes at the silver wolf store because they mainly deal with transportation of items. So we only bought the simple white shirts they had.

Like that a week went by without anything happening.

---

Alvon, Capital of Cleovantra

A beastman in a suit was walking really fast in a direction. The man looked old and had a beard coming down to his chest. In his hand was a letter.

He came up to a door and knocked.

"Come in."

A rough voice was heard from inside the room. The door looked grand. It was a double door. Made of a white color metal with gold edges.

The man outside opened the door and walked inside. The room was clean and looked grand. Inside was a grand wooden desk. And a beastman sat at the desk. Behind him was a big window. The man wore a red shirt. At his side was a red cape with a beast symbol on it. And an enormous gold colored broadsword.

His stature was huge. He had huge muscles. A short brown beard. His hair went back and were in the shape of spikes.

"My king, I have some bad news."

King Ritiger. The king of Cleovantra. That is the name of the man that sat there with a heavy aura around him.

"What is it?"

"...Lurana is dead, my king."

The air is the room stood still. After a moment of silence, Ritiger spoke.

"Is it confirmed?"

"The second shadow arrived in the area today and has confirmed it."

Ritiger slammed his fist into the desk. It broke and shattered all over the room.

"Who was it?"

"We don't know yet."

"Then find out who it was and bring their head to me."

Ritiger said in an angry tone.

"Yes, my king."