Before Kael and Earl Gideon leave, the Earl called his remaining servants. He summoned them to the underground chamber. His objective was to give each of his servants their new tasks.

First was Cadell. The Earl commanded him to return on being the Earl’s gold medal, a position he held before Osbert came. He obeyed the Earl’s command without resistance.

The Earl gave Cadell a new role. Aside from being the executioner for him, Cadell was tasked to become the Earl’s representative. Cadell could assign any person he deemed worthy to be the Earl’s servants.

Next was Seqina. She retained her position as the gatherer of information. Aside from that, she was assigned to become an overseer of the village of Lucien faithfuls, assigning some trustworthy people to tend to the old villagers, as well as supply them with their needs. Although she was surprised that the Earl commanded something like that, she obeyed the Earl’s commands.

The last one was Elalios. Hearing the commands of the Earl to the first two, he couldn’t think of anything that the Earl might command him to do. He was surprised when he heard what was for him.

“You will not serve me anymore”, the Earl said to Elalios.

Elalios was silent. He thought that the Earl will return him to Edrei, back to his father. Immediately he accepted his thought as the truth, as he felt that he was a burden to the Earl. But the Earl has another plan for him.

The Earl knew that Elalios didn’t want to go back to the Duke, and he didn’t want to force Elalios to do that. Instead, he wanted Elalios to be Kael’s servant, a companion for the child. He couldn’t stay with Kael, as he was a busy man, governing a town and fulfilling his service to the Divine Emperor. He trusted Elalios enough to accompany Kael, and report to him the child’s condition once in a while. Besides, he felt that somehow, Kael liked Elalios.

Hearing the opposite of his gloomy thoughts, Elalios became glad, relieved, and a little surprised. Of course, he wholeheartedly accepted the Earl’s offer, looking forward to his new task.

After the day that Earl Gideon gather his servants, it was time to leave Cleron. They must hurry, the town of Deyrem, where the kingdom’s academy was built, was farther than the town of Edrei. If they get there in two months, Kael could have a leeway to explore the town for a week.

Kael said his goodbye to the people of his village. He also bid farewell to Cadell and Seqina, remembering the help he got from them. After all the sad farewells, they started the journey to Deyrem.

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A month before Kael, Earl Gideon, and Elalios arrived to Deyrem, inside the Academy of Ucar, two of the would be instructors of the academy’s future students were having a conversation.

“Fifty four”, a woman said. She just finished counting the papers she has in her hands.

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“That’s almost double of what we had last year”, a man said.

The woman agreed, and she added that there are more papers that she expected to receive.

The man was surprised at the woman’s claim. It was indeed a rare thing for the academy to receive more than thirty, and that was just for potential students. The academy generally teach about five students per year.

“They probably knew that Lord Lucius will come back”, the woman remarked.

The man agreed to the woman’s guess. It was indeed a great opportunity for the nobles’ children to be taught by a grandmaster mage like the renowned Lord Lucius. Even the two instructors were excited to teach along with the grandmaster mage.

Their discussion shifted to their fellow instructors after that. They talked about the grandmaster mage for a while, praising the mage for the glory he brought to the kingdom. Lord Lucius was the only person from Ucar who managed to gain magical prowess to reach grandmaster grade. It was clear in their discussion that the celebrated mage is the pride of the kingdom.

They also talked about a new instructor that’s about to come to them. They claimed that the instructor was new, and he has an unknown background. It was a suspicious thing that they didn’t have much information about him, but the king appointed the suspicious instructor, so they have no choice but to accept him.

Their discussion then brought them to talk about the children of notable people that they thought will pass. They stumbled on Kael’s name.

“Kael…”

The woman looked at the name of the person that Kael was associated to. Of course, it was Earl Gideon, one of the people that holds the title “Sword of the Divine Emperor”.

“This one.. this one might be interesting”, the woman said.

The man looked at the paper, and was shocked to see the Earl’s name. He quickly agreed to the woman, recalling what he knew about the Earl. But then, he became confused.

“Wait, Lord Gideon has another child? I thought…”, the man didn’t continue what he was about to say. “Right?”

The woman thought for a second. “Maybe Lord Gideon hid this one after what happened”

They said their sympathies for the Earl. The discussion turned gloomy after that, which gave an uncomfortable feeling for them, but then, the new instructor that they were just talking about not long ago, appeared before them.

“Greetings”, the newly arrived said.

The two instructors were startled. They didn’t know how the new instructor got near them without their awareness, which gave them a little fright.

“I’m Zahe”, the new instructor stated, without paying attention to the two instructors’ confusion.

The two instructors collected their minds, and greeted in return. Then, they noticed that Zahe was not alone. Beside him was another man, but not a new instructor. They looked at Zahe, wanting to know who is the other person.

“Oh, I apologize”, Zahe said, realizing that the instructors wanted him to introduce his companion. “This is my assistant. Call him Talzer”.