Once again the room is plunged into utter silence. Then a voice asks tentatively. “What exactly do you mean wishes?”

Willos snorts, quite ungentlemanly, but then again he never particularly cared how others see him. “I meant the kind of wish where you are sitting in the toilet and you stare into space and say with all your heart: ‘Do I wish I had that.’ What do think I meant? ”

“Be serious, Willos.”

“I am,” Willos says, his voice stern. “It all started with Arell. When he was still a student, before getting his abilities, he once came to me and told me how he wished he could be able to see the future. But that was foolish, and I told him so. It is one of the forbidden abilities after all. So I told him: ‘You have no idea what ability you’ll eventually get, why don’t you join a House and get their methods instead? If you still want to try and develop your own method, however, don’t try getting the ability to see the future unless you want to die young. Think outside the box and figure out an acceptable workaround instead.’ And now, well, you all know how that ended.”

I keep my face carefully blank and dozens of gazes land on my face before moving back to Willos.

“After that, a few years ago, I was fortunate to come into contact with a few newly admitted students of the Imperial Academy. Normally I wouldn’t pay attention to kids like that, but these students were… different. They all had the opportunity to confide in me about the abilities they wished to get when they finally got one. The funny thing is, they all got exactly what they wished they had. One of them is even currently training to become a Shadow, despite never having had access to the Royal method. That’s when I noticed the pattern.”

“But you don’t have to believe my silly, little stories. Why don’t you see the evidence instead.” Willos finally opens the parcel he had been holding. Within it is a sheaf of parchment, each covered with dense letters. He then begins passing it around as he speaks. “These are records of twenty newly awakened Sadabi whose abilities I practically picked. A year ago, I worked up the courage and met the King, asking his permission to perform an experiment. He gave me twelve newly awakened and I did my best to convince them that they should all sincerely wish for different abilities. They all eventually got exactly what I told them to have. You even know one of them, Mattias.”

I glanced down at the piece of parchment, noting that it was talking about a student in particular, before looking back up at Willos. Despite my calm facade, I know I am anything but calm at the moment. The implications of what Willos is saying, even I can’t fully comprehend. The methods of the Noble Houses are useless? Anyone can have any ability they want so long as they wished for it. This… is too important for the King to be sharing so easily like this. This kind of knowledge is something meant to be kept secret. If it gets out, who knows the chaos that will follow? At the same time, some part of me is beginning to grasp why the King wants to start a war with Bosinwa.

“This can’t be real,” Thunder says, staring at the parchment in his hands.

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Willos smiles in reply. “I trust you are familiar with my abilities, yes?” He walks over to Mattias Ordis and holds out his hand. “Please, give me your hand, Mattias.”

Mattias does so without any hesitation. A moment later, my ability activates, in a way that it only does when I am around Sadabi using their yui. Willos then lets go and takes some steps back. He looks up and roars, red-hot flames spewing out of his mouth. And at that moment, I feel some part of my mind break as things I had thought to be true before now becomes false.

Back in the academy, one of the few lessons we had learned that stayed stuck in my head were the warnings. That day, our class had been interrupted by Thunder and then we were shown a pretty disgusting sight before he proceeded to tell us the warnings. Things, that all Sadabi should avoid. While he mentioned a lot of things that day, two, in particular, stuck with me: first was that no Sadabi should attempt to gain more than three abilities, and second was that there are abilities that Sadabi should never attempt to form a method for or even gain. Failing to abide by either of these rules was a one-way ticket to either becoming a monster or dying.

When I had first been taught, I didn’t immediately realize the brutal truth of those warnings until a few years later when I had come across four Sadabi who killed themselves by breaking them. After that, though rare, I still occasionally came across Sadabi who died by violating those rules. And yet, Willos had just broken those rules… and lived?

Willos undoubtedly had three abilities when I left the capital years ago, and now he seems to have a new one. One that looks like it allows him to copy the abilities of others. One of the taboo abilities. And still, he is alive. If I could find out why?

Trying my best to suppress the feelings in my heart, I take a quick look around the room. Everyone seems to share the same expression: shock, excitement, and in some, wariness. This kind of revelation is not something to be revealed carelessly. For the King to decide to trust us with truth of this magnitude, there must be something else going on that we are not aware of.

Jordia Moreal seems to share the same opinion as me. He turns to the King and asks the question on all our minds. “My King. Why, are you telling us this?”

“In a few years, we won’t be the only ones to know this. Better to take advantage of the knowledge now than to struggle to stay afloat when everyone else knows about it.”

The King's words enlighten and at the same time confuse us. From what Willos said earlier, this is a relatively new discovery; so why wouldn’t we be the only ones to know this in a few years? Was the discovery leaked beforehand? No, it couldn’t have been. If it were I doubt the King would be this calm. So what was it then?

Willos quickly clarifies our doubts. “What the King means is that in a few years others would have made the same discovery.”

“How?” someone asks. “You just made the discovery right? If we all keep this secret, the discovery could be ours exclusively for more than just a few years.”

“That would be true, if not for the fact that I have very good reason to believe that Limme Horth is about to make the same discovery.”

Once again silence reigns as Willos’ words sink in. No one bothers to as for proof, after all the King clearly believed him, and there is no way the King wouldn’t confirm the information before making such a drastic decision. At the same time, we all finally understand the King’s decision to wage war.

Limme Horth. He is the Head Yui Researcher of Bosinwa. A man famous for his terrifying intellect. One almost on par with that of Willos. Should he make the same discovery as Willos then things could prove disastrous for our country.

Currently, the only reason for our slight military dominance over Bosinwa is because of our Sadabi and the many useful and unique abilities we have. The Ordis and their Flame Incarnations, The Shadows, and others. If Bosinwa realized that they didn’t need methods and could just wish for these abilities, or others even better, then the gap between us would rapidly close, and who knows what would happen at that point.

But, if we start and win a war, finally merging the two countries, then we would be in a position far stronger than we ever were before.

“Alright,” Mattias says, “I still have some questions about your discoveries.”

“Ask,” Willos says.

“First, how did you manage to… wish for a forbidden ability without dying?”

Willos gives him a wolfish grin. “Nice try old man, but that is classified. Ask something else.”