***Hyperion Empire***

***Kumio Province***

Training in Kumio was an interesting experience for the three children.

When they arrived, the Kumio Clan immediately threw them into the thick of instruction. All of them having a different or new teacher every week. Each educator lecturing them on a different subject. Though everything they were taught in Kumio stemmed from the same subject.

Each lesson was based off the premise of deception and manipulation. Learning how a noble must act, how they must look, and what they must say. You are defined by your actions, and the elders at Kumio taught that each social decision one makes must be planned and calculated. In the noble world, people are judged immediately on first impressions, and each mistake will be magnified by fellow nobles. Although members of the Kumio clan rarely interacted in the public, when they did, each decision they made in front of others was flawless.

The Kumio elders were arrogant, and a specific elder with a clearly aged face showing he was well over a couple centuries old, made sure the kids knew it. Elder Urashi, as he called himself, was the definition of an overbearing old man. He preached about how the kids were far above others because of their standing and instructed them in social manipulation and continued their magic training.

Each day the kids were given an instructor on how to hold a regal bearing, how to play the emotions of others, and how to dominate in the noble arena. Each teacher different from the previous, but all supporting the notion that the kids were to be leaders in a world of followers. They were a cut above the rest, and at the end of every day the three children met with Elder Urashi to practice mana control and review what they learned throughout the day.

Although Elder Urashi was an arrogant and rather hard-headed old man, he was an effective teacher. He taught that as nobles, there are no wasted movements and actions. Every choice must be clear cut and decisive. This also ran alongside through the use of magic, Urashi taught that every spell must be controlled and those that wasted mana we’re only stunting themselves. Everything practiced were always chantless spells. Urashi claimed incantations were an abomination of true magic and were to be only used by “talentless mages.” Everyone could perform both chanted and chantless magic manipulation, but chantless spells were far more difficult compared to their chanted counterparts. Incantations were a shortcut so a caster wouldn’t need to understand how a spell is formed, while chantless spells were literally a shortcut in that they took no time to cast. Urashi personally examined each of the kids strengths and weaknesses, and prioritized mana control and chantless manipulation every night before they were released from training. Each mistake was chastened appropriately, and each success was rewarded with verbal praises and reminders of why they were prodigies.

Yes, it would be appropriate to say that Kana, Arthur, and Max were all magical prodigies.

Kana, a rather boisterous and stubborn girl, was a natural for fire manipulation and an extremely hard worker. She wore her heart on her sleeve, and her personality was very similar to that of Max’s older sister Skylar. After training or playing with her two best friends, Kana could always be found near Skylar. Skylar personally assisting her in all she was learning, thus putting her ahead in training and stunning all her teachers.

Arthur for what he cared to show, was rather reserved and lazy compared to the only female of the trio. His work ethic based off completing each task and goal the simplest and most efficient way. Elder Urashi used to scold him on his nonchalant attitude, but after he learned that Arthur could easily complete and present anything taught to him, Urashi stopped chastising him. His mana control the best out of the group, Arthur was always the first of the kids to complete the nightly review with the old Elder. He even awakened his ‘Mind’s Eyes’ rather early for his age and over the course of the training started to practice what he could with his aunt.

Max’s personality almost mimicked that of his mother's. He was an extremely confident boy who did what he said and said what he did. Although out of all three children, he let the compliments and superiority preached to them influence his personality the most. Max would attempt to mask his newfound arrogance inside, but his sister and mother both recognized it from his behavior. He truly believed himself to to be powerful, and his family elected to not say anything because he would eventually grow out of it. Although his mana control was the poorest of the group, Max still wasted little to no mana when casting spells. His raw physical power was the highest out of the three, and his practiced spells always caused the most damage. This fact only fueled his attitude and the superiority complex he held over others he considered beneath him.

Despite their varying personalities and quirks, the three children only grew closer to each other. Spending most free time just playing with each other and being the kids they were supposed to be. Often seen exploring the forest around the manor and running throughout the entire town. Though there was always a balance, and when needed each child could drop the childish persona, replacing it with the regal bearing and aura that was instilled into each of them. By the time six months passed since they arrived in Kumio, the children could almost consider themselves ready for the public arena.

~~~Maximus Soltain II POV~~~

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Elder Urashis dark brown eyes looked us over as we sat side by side on the floor. The last few months of training have been really boring and I’m starting to feel like we’re just wasting our time. We should be doing some real fighting and he should be teaching us stronger spells than what we’ve been stuck at. The old fart is holding us back instead of helping us get more powerful.

“This will be your last week until we advance to the second part of your training. You will be learning how to dance from my grandaughter to be prepared for more formal settings. Knowing how to properly dance is just another requirement in being nobles of your stature so we must prevent you from embarrassing your families.”

I bristled at his words and visibly scowled.

Learning how to dance!? What a complete waste of time.

Kana spoke up, “Mom’s teaching us?”

The door opened and a lady looking to be an older Kana walked in. I never have actually seen her mom yet but I wasn’t stupid. She was wearing some type of long-sleeved dress that was the same color as her hair. I then looked back at the old fart.

“Why do we have to learn how to dance? It seems kind of dumb.” I said.

The old fox grunted, “You’ll either learn or you won’t move to the next part of the training. Your opinion in the matter means nothing.”

Kana’s mom just smiled, “Don’t worry Max will be done before you know it.”

“If I had to do it Max then you have to do it too. Best get it over with quickly. I’ll be here to assist Lady Natsumi with her lessons.” My sister said as she walked in.

The rest of the week was spent learning all types of dances and formal etiquette “required” to be nobles. I had to dance with my sister, Kana, and even Kana’s mother. The entire time Lady Natsumi pointing out our mistakes. When we were finally finished, I was actually excited. Dancing was much easier than some of the other lessons, but I was really glad we were done.

Finally learning something cool!

At the end of the day, my friends and I sat side by side in the meeting house we always saw the old fart at. Well Arthur was actually laying down on the floor, but we were still near each other. We just sat in silence patiently waiting for the old fossil.

“Where is he?” Kana questioned.

“Who knows? Maybe he forgot about us? A day off would be nice.” Arthur replied.

“No! The old fart needs to teach us how to fight better so we can get stronger. He better show up.” I said.

Kana’s yellow eyes moved over to me and we just stared at each other.

“Why do you have to call him that Max? He may be a little grumpy but he’s my great grandpa and your pretty mean to him.”

“Huh? He’s mean to us and I’m getting tired of this “noble” this “noble” that training. I want to fight!”

I looked up to see Kana’s ears flickering around and her tail stilled. “Why is it so quiet? I can only hear the leaves moving outside. Where is everybody?”

We all closed our mouths and started listening. Neither Arthur or I had as good hearing as Kana but we still tried to pick up anything.

Suddenly, out of all the corners in the room four figures in black appeared. Each of them were holding weapons as they started charging towards us.

I looked to the one closest to me and panicked. Charging mana into my right hand I casted ‘Greater Wind Slash’. A large horizontal gale of wind shot out of my hand and towards the figure in black. The spell tore through the figure and it disappeared, but my slash didn’t stop, it only grew larger and completely destroyed the wall in the direction I aimed at. Before I could turn around there was another figure almost atop of me, but Arthur, still lying on the ground, pointed a finger and a bolt of electricity shot straight through the head of the attacker.

I then turned to see Kana had already taken care of both the other figures. Her crimson fire still burning in the middle of the room.

Before we could say anything, the old fox walked in the room with Kana’s dad. “I must commend your efforts children, for each of your flaws you work together extremely well. Arthur I would say you acted flawlessly in helping your friends if you weren’t still laying on the ground.”

Kana’s dad looked at the destroyed wall of the meeting room and the walls leading to outside of the house. “I see the young Max has inherited his mother's rather destructive magical power.” He frowned while looking at the damage and then back at me. “I suppose there's no helping that.”

The old fart spoke again, “This little test was to introduce you to the next part of your training. For the next six months while you're here you will be learning what it takes for one to survive. We will teach you all you can learn about stealth, infiltration, survivability both alone and with each other, and we will test you on your reflexes. You all will face problems that can sometimes be handled as a group and sometimes alone, we will prepare you for both.”

I grinned. We were finally going to get to the fun stuff and I couldn’t wait.

----------------

To say that the next six months were not fun would be an understatement. Like before, we had plenty of teachers each saying and helping us with different things, but we kept getting tested over and over again.

They had us learning about illusions and tricks, and were constantly measuring our reflexes. Even having my own sister attack me at dinner! She beat me until I was black and blue and then healed me again, all while having bread sticking out of her mouth.

Arthur and Kana were the only ones I could trust wouldn’t attack me so we were always near each other.

During the last month of training, the old fossil placed us in different parts of the woods surrounding the manor and casted an illusion spell so we were stuck in their. He told us to survive in the forest for a month and then they would drop the illusion. It was horrible!

It took me a whole week for me to find Arthur and we couldn’t even find Kana until two days before the illusion dropped. She said she wanted to survive on her own for as long as possible but she eventually grew bored and came to see us before the end. I had to eat gross mushrooms and it even rained a couple times. We were lucky Arthur could make a fire with his lightning and we started to pick up how to hunt. Of course my “Air Bolt’s” were perfect in taking down the animals we wanted to eat. Once I got the hang of it, surviving on my own was easy.

After that survival training we began packing to head back home. I was tired but could at least rest in the carriage.

The day after I turned seven my sister said she was leaving to become an adventurer. She wanted to explore the rest of the continent and even head to the Untamed Continent. I heard the Untamed Continent is where the strongest magical beasts were from and even that Dragons ruled there. But, I wasn’t worried. My sister was a Soltain and was really strong, she could beat anyone she wanted too.

We eventually loaded into the carriage with mom and started heading to the next part of training back at home.