Mael sat at his desk in the gloomy, dimly lit room that was his, his mind in a semi-trance-like state. Atop the table in front of him were countless little flasks of red liquid, which anyone would recognize as blood by its metallic smell. Some of that blood was floating in middair, just in front of Mael, but the latter seemed rather unconcerned by it, as all his attention was to the dagger in his hands, along with a book he was so intensely focusing on.

His gaze alternated between the book open to his left, whose contents he silently read, and the dagger, whose "runic inscriptions" he was attempting to decipher.

Magecraft.

To most people, "magecraft" is what is commonly known as the art of creating, crafting objects with magical properties, also known as magical items and artifacts. To a common man and a non-adept of the particular art, there would be no difference between the former and the latter, but to an adept of the field like Mael, the difference between the two would be obvious.

A magic item is an object embedded with mana, which makes it capable of producing a magical reaction.

Artifacts are just like magic items; they are objects embedded with mana, but with the difference that an artifact does not possess the experative nature of a magic item, which can be rendered useless after a certain period of time, as is the case with what most people call generally "a magic item." Artifacts do not deteriorate over time, but this often comes at the cost of being one-time-use items that can be wielded by almost anyone.

However, with the exception of artifacts created specifically for their owner and his personal mana and magic, this comes at the cost of these types of artifacts being able to be wielded perfectly by only the intended wielder or a person of similar magic affinities with the intended wielder. The most common artifacts are probably elementally embedded weapons.

With these few generalizations established, it can be asserted that magical items and artifacts, in their various forms, can be of great utility to anyone who possesses them. Each serves an important function among the nobility who primarily wield it, but, contrary to popular belief, the art of magic cannot be learned by just any noble.

Magecraft is an art that requires certain predispositions, both physical and magical. And very rare are those born with the two, thus making magecraft an art sought and envied due to its actual practitioner's rareness.

It was after realizing he was one of the few rare ones that Mael developed a keen and vivid interest in magecraft.

At the Aurora Academy, whenever he would have free time between his usual hectic schedule, juggling between his actual studies in the art of medicine, his duties as second-in-command of the Great Faction, and his scholarly studies at the academy, Mael would devote part of his time to craftsmanship.

Being born an Edouard, Mael was born gifted with the art of healing, or, to be exact, blood-healing magic, a quite unconventional and unique magic that is wielded by him and him alone across the continent.

Acknowledged at his birth by his family as a wielder of the Edouards' healing magic, Mael, from a very young age, had already prepared himself to solely focus on the path that lay ahead of him. But a series of events led Mael to veer off that path. A new path along which he came to discover more about himself and his magic.

Other than being born with blood healing, Mael happened to be born with the magical talent required to practice magecraft: the ability to externally store and imbue mana through blood.

Though Mael rarely, if ever, boasted about this actual talent of his, he came to call it "bloodcraft," for that is what it really was.

While magecraft mostly consists of embedding or carving a specific object with magic that is supposed to produce a phenomenon by itself or through a power source, Mael's art allowed him to retain the mana he previously produced through a medium that was his blood.

Unlike most magecraft artists, who could use their art to create and therefore sell magic items and artifacts, Mael's magecraft, due to its peculiar nature, couldn't be exploited to make a financial profit since his "bloodcraft," as the name implied, solely involved blood. Blood, which only Mael has the predisposition to make use of. Which meant that his Magecraft was useless to anyone but himself; This truth prompted Mael to keep his talent for bloodcraft to himself and to the people to whom he was closest, namely Ramia, his grandfather Emilien, and Matthew.

He kept the existence of this peculiar talent a secret. One that he had diligently held onto from the day he discovered it to this very day.

Mael, who had always conducted his experiments far from curious eyes. Today, having found himself with some free time, he chose to conduct his bloodcraft-related experiments holed up in his room for the past three days since it was the last place he thought he would be disturbed, interrupted, or spied on.

But that was until a series of knocks on his door reverberated vividly across the room.

Having given his attendants the proper instruction of not being disturbed under any circumstance, Mael tried for a moment not to pay attention to the knocking, but as it got louder and louder, he was left with no other choice but to give up on what he had been up to and ask, "What is it?"

From across the door, he received no verbal answer; instead, the door just flung open.

Mael was ready to leash upon whoever it was that dared interrupt him when he gave clear instructions to not be, but seeing the face of the one entering the room, he already gave up the idea to instead ask Ramia, the one closing the door with a loud thud behind her and walking with a hastened pace toward his desk, "Did something happen?"

"Yes, something happened." Ramia announced, looking around until her gaze stumbled upon a basket in a corner of the desk.

The said basket contained yet unread letters Mael had received in the span of the two days he had been holed up in his room.

The three previous days had been the first three days of a two-week holiday for the students of Academia. Thus, knowing that the majority of these letters were invitations to ceremonial or private events to which he knew he would respond negatively, Maël let them pile up, planning to read them later once his experiments were over.

She quickly skimmed through Mael's unread letters, retrieved one, and handed it to him.

"Since you specifically requested not to be disturbed and that this matter does not personally concern me, and that I was in fact advised to get away from this, I thought passing over the letter would've sufficed.... I didn't expect you wouldn't read it."

"What is it?"

"It's about them… or, to be exact, him. Your cousin."

***

"Good morning, Lord Mael," greeted some flowers; "Good morning, Lord doctor," greeted others upon seeing Mael striding through the "Rose Blanche" main structure.

Under normal circumstances, Mael would have returned their greeting, but he didn't have the time, nor was he in the mood for friendly interaction. Soon reaching the highest floor of the structure, he arrived at a corridor at the end of which was a large door leading to the room that was his destination.

"Lord Mael," A tall woman guarding the entrance greeted, "What bring-"

"Is he here?"

Though the woman was confused by Mael's sudden and cutting question, she nodded. Her confirmation prompted Mael to, without warning, walk past the guard and enter the room.

"Lord Mael!"

Upon entering the room, Mael was greeted with the sight of, at first, three people, two men and a woman, all looking at him with a confused look on their faces, but as he looked closely, he saw that there were in fact more than three people in the room, four in fact, each of whom was, to some extent, familiar to him, but it was only one of them that his sole focus went onto.

He approached the person, a man.

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

"Mael." mumbled Damien, one of the two men.

He was also Mael's uncle, but Mael paid no heed to his words, as his sole focus was on the white-haired man sitting comfortably on the armchair in a corner of the room.

"What's the meaning of this? Explain yourself." Mael demanded, approaching the man.

"What is the meaning of what?" calmly asked the white-haired man.

"Arte, the son of Barbosse and Aunt. My cousin. You recruited him into your paladin order."

One could clearly discern the reproaching tone in which Mael spoke these words.

"Oh, him. Indeed. I recruited the young Barbosse among us."

"Tsk, you…" before Mael could add anything, a hand reached out to his shoulder.

"Mael, calm down."

Looking at the one to whom that hand belonged, he saw his uncle's face. "I don't know what you expect to have happened, but it's not what you think." His voice getting stricter and stricter, Damian went on, "Beside, I think you should not forget you are talking to one of the fourteen. Regardless of your personal opinion of them, you still owe him your most sincere respect."

Hearing his uncle, Mael finally came to the realization that he might have overreacted, yet before he could voice out a semblance of an apology, the Holy Paladin Gunther took the speech over.

"Now then, take it easy, Damian. His wariness toward me and my fellow fourteen is very understandable."

"But Master-"

"It's nothing, Damian." The Holy Paladin reassured, before going on, "He came here for an explanation; I believe we should give him that." He then suggested Mael take a seat beside the place where Damian was earlier seated.

"Thanks," Mael answered, accepting the offer, but before he sat down, he approached three other people in the room.

Two women and a young girl. One of the women was a middle-aged woman, and the other was an elderly woman with bleached white hair.

"Greetings, Lady Blanche," Mael said to the elderly lady."I apologize for what just happened."

"Greetings, Mael, it was nothing," she said, gently caressing the sleeping young girl, whose head was pillowed in her lap.

Mael knew very well that the girl was thirteen or at most fourteen years old, yet with how petite she overall looked, it was complicated to not see her as much younger than she actually was.

"Is she alright?" Mael asked.

Being something of a personal doctor to her, Mael's concern for the sleeping girl wasn't baseless, as he knew very well how easily she could get ill.

"Yes, nothing to worry about. She's been doing fine as of late. She's just sleeping, dozing off from Gunther and Mother's earlier conversation," the middle-aged woman explained.

"I see." Mael mumbled, reassured by her words, which prompted him to finally take the seat he was offered.

Finally giving his attention back to the Holy Paladin, he ventured once again his question, "Holy Paladin Freshet, Uncle, can someone now explain to me what exactly happened?"

***

It happened during the first day Mael spent in seclusion. One of his two cousins on the maternal side, the eldest one, along with his little brother, showed up at the Paladin Order in the holy capital to enroll as an apprentice paladin for a standard duration of three months.

"So you're telling me you've accepted him for that?" Mael asked.

"Yes, only for that." Confirmed Damian

"He and his brother approached our base to enlist as an apprentice Paladin. I took notice of him and simply made things easier for him. I never took his background into account, only his capabilities, which I was given the opportunity to ascertain to be quite potent," the Holy Paladin Freshet explained. "Only that, and nothing else."

"... Is that so?"

"You don't seem convinced," the Holy Paladin remarked.

"I have my reason not to," Mael voiced out honestly, which earned him a stabbing stare from his uncle.

"Come on, Damian; chill up a little bit. Can we blame him? He is just being protective of his cousin; that's quite respectable, don't you think?"

"Yes." Damian hesitantly mumbled.

A strange silence sat in the room before Mael ventured out the question, rather suggestively, "Can't you two... simply refuse him his enrollment?"

The suggestion took both Damian and Gunther aback, so much so that the two of them were left speechless for several long seconds.

"You want us… to refuse him his enrollment?"

"Yes," Mael firmly confirmed.

From the moment both his cousins reached the age to attend the academy, Mael had made local preparations for them so that they wouldn't lack anything without having him appear to be personally involved in any of it, as he didn't want a link to be made between him and his cousins and whatever he was up to. Even before meeting them for the first time, Mael was overprotective of them; this overprotectiveness and sense of duty toward them only increased when he learned of his cousin's father's death and the things they did as a direct result, which ultimately led them to run away from the place that was once their home.

Mael was well aware that he was overstepping his bounds with this request, but since it involved his cousin's safety, he held no regrets about making this audacious request.

"Their father died… Though undisclosed, I can guess this has something to do with the church. I understand that you do not want to explain what happened to their father, but it is precisely because of this that I refuse to allow the two of them to join the church, even if temporarily. He and his brother have already got enough problems on their hands to deal with."

"Are you talking about Medvedik?" The Holy Paladin asked, seeking confirmation.

Though reluctant at first, Mael nodded.

His cousins were related to the Medvediks. The Archbishop's Medvedik daughter, Carola Medvedik, married Barbosse, Mael's two cousins' father, years ago, making Mael's two cousins Gregor Medvedik's step grandchildren. And it was no secret to Mael under what circumstances the brothers left their home and what feelings they harbored toward the Medvediks—they were everything but convivial.

At their father's death, the custody of the brothers fell to the Medvedik family, with whom the two have had a hostile relationship since the days when their father was still alive. Needless to say, the situation only worsened upon Baborsse's death.

While the Medvedik family never publicly acknowledged it, the two brothers ran away and found refuge at Aurora Academy, with it being the only place they were free of the ties that that family had over them.

But even so, to make sure his brothers were never involved with that family, Mael took matters into his own hands and made several preparations for their stay at the academy, among which was settling a new place for them to live in.

It wasn't something Mael was hiding from: he hated the church with a burning passion, which is why, whatever pushed him to make that decision, he couldn't let his cousin join the paladin order under any circumstances because, while it wasn't an organization Gregor Medvedik had dominion over, it was still a part of the church, of which he was an important member.

"If it is Medvedik that you worry about, worry not."

"Huh?"

"I doubt he will have time to worry about your little cousins, as he has bigger, way bigger fish to deal with," he said with a derisive smile that everyone in the room couldn't help but notice.

"What do you mean by that, Lord Freshet?"

"Nothing, nothing," he repeated, changing the subject, "just that you won't have to worry about your cousin's safety; it's not like he will join the Paladin Order for life." Glances in the room drifted toward Damian before Freshet pursued, "He's just joining us, the paladin order, under my command for the duration of one full season as an apprentice paladin. After that, he will return to the academy like any other apprentice paladin."

Despite the Holy Paladin's words, Mael asked, "Can't you just refuse his enrollment?"

"I have personally given him my words, so no, I cannot refuse his enrollment as an apprentice paladin as he is already one." The holy Paladin declared emphatically.

Seeing his stance on the matter, Mael realized that insisting further was useless, which prompted Mael to defeatingly announce, "Then... I suppose he'll be in your care."

"Aye, what are you afraid of?" With me around, I doubt Medvedik would dare do anything to him; in fact, I doubt anyone would. I mean, look at your uncle."

"My uncle?" Mael asked, glancing at Damian.

As if realizing that he said something he shouldn't have, the holy Paladin immediately tried to change the subject, saying, "Just forget about that." "And about your cousin, don't worry about him; he'll be fine; you have my words."

"Mine, too," Damian interjected, "they may be your cousins, but they are the sons of two former good friends of mine; nothing will happen to them. Not on my watch."

Hearing words from both, Mael finally succumbed and said, "Fine. He will be in your care then."

Nodding, "I guess this is settled then," announced Freshet.

"Yes," answered Mael, standing up and already preparing to take his leave, only to be interrupted by the Holy Paladin.

"Mael, wait. The matter from earlier put aside, it is a great coincidence that you came to the Rose Blanche today. Mother, Sister, and I were just thinking of summoning you over when you arrived.

Throwing a glance at both women who had been completely silent so far, Mael saw them nod confirming Gunther's previous statement.

Sitting back and venturing a worried glance at the girl sleeping on the couch, he asked, "Is there a problem?"

"Not really a problem. But we need to talk to you about something. It's about the establishment."

"Something about... Is it about me?" Venturing a guess, Mael asked, "Is it about my work for the Rose Blanche?" as it was the only thing he could think of.

Of the many activities he led from the sidelines, providing medical assistance was something Mael did for the establishment known as the Rose Blanche. It began not long after the seven calamities, and it was through that same activity that he came to meet and be introduced to Lord Freshet, a Holy Paladin of the church.

Instead of Freshet, the one who gave the speech to explain things to Mael was not the archbishop but rather Lady Blanche.

The old lady was not just anyone; she was Blanche. She was, along with the Douglas family, one of the handful of commoners who gained the status of noble. She was also a commoner who, years ago, gave birth to a child of light who would become one of the seven Holy Paladins and one of the fourteen.

"No at all, Lord Mael, we are thankful for the services you provide for our establishment; we have no complaints nor problems with it. In fact, what we want to talk about is more about what you do not do."