Kael stabilized his innate magic after absorbing mana for several days. The life threatening fever helped him regain his memories. He remembered everything. He was Lucien, and now he is Kael. He retained the memories he had inside the castle, and he knew Elalios was at fault that he lost his memories. He wanted to be angry at Elalios, but his longing for his grandparents won over. He didn’t need to know why Elalios did what he did. All he could care about was how to return to the village.

As commanded by the Earl, Kael spent the days after his recovery lying on his bed. The Earl wanted to make sure that he was indeed healed from the fever. He was attended to by Seqina, feeding him, and making him drink healing potions she made.

However, he got into a little problem. Returning to his real self, being cleaned by a young lady was a little bit uncomfortable. Although he wanted to do it himself, he realized that a sudden change of attitude might attract suspicion from them. So he endured, and tried his best to get accustomed to it.

He didn’t get accustomed to it. His suffering went on for almost two weeks, but he endured quite well. He collected his mind, and he focused on what he should do next.

Alone with his mind, Kael realized that there are many things he needed to consider before he could escape. First, he needed to know where he was. And so, every midnight, he took the opportunity to go up to one of the four towers of the castle. He tried several times, but several times did he try with no luck. There are always guards preventing him to progress. He was frustrated, but he didn’t give up.

He tried figuring out the routine of the guards. The castle was well guarded indeed, thanks to the Earl’s proficient leadership. However, it is human nature to sometimes be neglectful, and be in need to relieve oneself. As he observe the guards one by one, there’s two guards that became notable to him. One of them regularly doze off an hour after midnight. The other one was seen leaving his spot so many times, having conversations with the other guards. He decided that he will sneak past the sleeping guard, as the chatty guard was situated closer to the castle gates, and thus, takes longer to reach.

After much deliberation, he acted on his plan. He waited for the guard to fall asleep, and was at first surprised that the guard didn’t sleep at the time he expected. But soon enough, the sleepy guard finally took a nap. He walked upstairs, and stopped midway as he heard two guards talking to each other. He couldn’t go up anymore so he decided that the height he reached was enough. He looked at the tower’s opening. What he saw was a huge relief to him. The moonlight illuminated a town he was familiar with. He is in Cleron.

Kael didn’t let himself to properly rest, and started his next move in the days that followed. He needed to get a good grasp of the castle’s layout, and so, he walked around the castle in the guise of him playing around. He spent a month doing so, revising his map of the castle everyday, filling missing details or fixing errors in his proportions. Seqina almost saw the map when she tried tidying up his bed, but he got to her before she can do anything.

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After polishing the map that he created, Kael got a good picture of where he is. He already knew the guards’ routines, so all he needed to figure out was the routines of the lord of the castle, and his four servants.

First, the Earl, who was a man that valued order. His routine was pretty straightforward whenever he stayed at the castle. In the morning, he will do combat practice uninterrupted by anyone in the castle. At noon, after eating, he will teach Kael the teachings of Rezelus church. Then, in the afternoon, he will study and do paperwork in his room, once again uninterrupted by anyone. At night, after eating, he will call his four servants: Cadell, Seqina, Elalios, and Osbert.

Kael attempted to observe the Earl at midnight, but he failed. The guards around the Earl’s room during that time were too many for him to sneak past in. He gave up trying after attempting for several weeks.

Meanwhile, the four servants vary so much on what they do. They were almost always outside, up until the Earl commanded them to do something in the castle. They do go inside every night to report to the Earl at a regular time. Kael tried so hard to see through, and establish regular routines that the servants follow. However, there’s no recognizable pattern at all, so he gave up on trying. The only important thing to note about the servants was they will not bother checking on him once it was past midnight.

After gathering every information that he might need, he pondered on how he will escape, and when will he do it. The most ideal time is at midnight, where no one monitors him. But during those times, the castle was closed shut, and no one can enter nor exit from it. The walls and towers are well guarded, and are way too high to be his viable exit points. After all the work he did, he realized a grave mistake. There’s no point of exit due to his limitations.

He was upset. All this time, he was too focused on what he thought he could use for his escape. He didn’t think for a second if he can really use any of what he gathered. He couldn’t figure out a good plan out of all the things he learned. It’s a dreadful reality. He couldn’t get out.

All was lost to Kael. Several months of work turned into nothing. At some point, he wanted to just run straight to the castle gate, not caring whether people can see him or not. The only thing preventing him from doing so is in knowing that he will get caught immediately. He can only imagine what his captors will do to him once they knew he had his memory back.

Kael distracted himself from the hopelessness. He meditated every midnight until sunrise, which warranted that he will fall asleep during the day. The people around him started to notice his unusual sleepiness. They checked on him, thinking his mysterious fever will come back. Of course, they didn’t find anything proving their thought.

‘What should I do? Why did this happen?’, Kael thought while deep in meditation. ‘I want to see them. I want to go home’

He imagined his grandparents’ faces as he meditated. But his memories were all interrupted by what he felt within his body. A warm sensation scattered within him. His innate magic was satiated, no longer hungry for mana.

Kael meditated once more, aiming to fill his mana vessel. Then, he felt the channels forming inside him, a feeling he was looking forward to all this time. He was smiling, looking at his palm. It seems like hope returned to his heart.