The Continent of Olazha.

Region of Sevouète, northwest of the Yiras Mountain Range.

The Kingdom of Frandei.

The family mansion of the Gauthier ducal family.

1600, Fourteenth Day of the First Month, Year 667 of the Holy Era of the Great Spirit Calendar.

“Quentin-sama.”

A well-dressed uniformed woman, experienced in age and experience, opened the mahogany in one of the largest rooms of the building. The northern wall consisted of floor-to-ceiling double mahogany doors, with rectangular glass panes set throughout so one could see outside. The afternoon sun cast shadows as it flowed inside from the openings left by the glass panes, giving light to the six-year-old boy carefully poring over books as part of his studies.

“Quentin-sama,” the head maid, Blandine, repeated, this time more forcefully.

“What is it, Blandine?” the boy replied, not looking away from his paper and not stopping his writing hand. “I am busy, can’t you tell?”

“Yes, I’m sorry, Quentin-sama,” the old maid apologized, bowing even when her master couldn’t see it. “However, your mother is calling for you.”

“Mother is?” The young boy named Quentin dropped his pen and turned around. (He calls his mother using the term 母上, hahaue, which in modern Japanese, is an archaic way of calling one’s mother, most commonly used by the samurai of old. In this context, he is addressing his mother with the utmost respect.)

Chantal Larisa Flavienne la Danseuse de la Gauthier.

The wife of Duke Gratian Natan la Abel de la Gauthier and the mother of four children, the twenty-five-year-old Chantal is a woman of extreme beauty, a flower only Frandei’s Her Majesty the Queen surpasses. With intelligent green eyes and platinum blonde hair, Chantal had the charm of both a young lady as well as an experienced woman. While her husband was away, Chantal did all of her husband’s work, earning respect in a country where most work is done by the men.

Chantal’s eldest son is Tristan Armel Cyril Gauthier. Even at the tender age of ten, he attends the Riverain Royal Academy. Having the same intelligent green eyes his mother has and baby blue-hued hair, Tristan as a third-year student has kept his position as one of the top students in each grade he has been in so far, making his grades are far above average and his innate talent obvious. In this way, he followed after his mother, outshining most other ducal children of the same age as him.

The second son of the Gauthier house, Yvon Edmé Lambert Gauthier, was two years younger than Tristan. He wasn’t as talented as his big brother but he also wasn’t incompetent. He was somewhere in between the talented and untalented, although he leaned more toward the talented side. Unlike his brother, who was an academic whiz and a musclebrain, Yvon specialized in the magic arts. He had shown incredible talent in low- to mid-tier magics in the six basic elements of Fire, Water, Wind, Earth, Light, and Dark.

Then there is the third and youngest son, Quentin Stéphane Aldric Gauthier.

Despite only being six years of age, heading into his seventh year, he has already displayed skills on par with, or even surpassing his older brothers. He was currently earnestly studying the material that would be on the entrance exams of the (capital city) Royal Academy when Blandine interrupted him.

“What would Mother need me for…?” Quentin couldn’t figure it out as he walked the way from his room to the main dining hall, which Blandine had pointed to informing him that Chantal was waiting for him there. Upon arriving at the massive double doors of the dining hall, he announced himself present upon arriving, “Mother, I am here.” The first thing he saw was his mother, seated at the right of the head of the table then he saw the face of an adult that shouldn’t be there. “Father…!” (Same as above with ‘Mother’, use of 父上.)

The person Quentin saw was the head of the household, his father, Duke Gratian. He was twenty-seven years old, with gentle blue eyes, the color of the calmest seas, and silvery hair. He wore an outfit fitting of his rank; a gilt doublet and breeches, with deep slashes in the paned sleeves and upper chest along with a white lace collar to match the paleness of the chemise underneath.

His gentle expression softened some more when he saw his son. “Quentin, my son!” Opening his arms, he waited as the six-year-old boy ran from the door to his seat at the head of the table and allowed him to jump straight into his lap. “Ooh, you’re as boisterous as ever! You’re going to make your poor father’s bones creak.”

“Never mind that, Father, what are you doing home?” Quentin asked after snuggling against his father then regaining his composure to sit neatly on his lap. “I thought you were in the Ernwine Region on a military campaign.” To explain, the Ernwine Region was one of the northern regions of the Great Panacea Empire accessible via the Chelami Pass that cuts through the Yiras Mountains. This region was a gateway to eastward expansion and as such, the Kingdom of Frandei has been doing everything they can to capture the region.

“It seems King Ambroise has decided to call me back on my deployment and send Duke Cain instead,” Gratian explained.

To backtrack, the Kingdom of Frandei is the northwesternmost country on the continent of Eatruan. Situated west of the Eastern Mountains known as the Yiras Mountains that divide the western half of Eatruan, the subcontinent of Miucrax, in half, it is a rather cold country with yearly snows. Having a long history of around six hundred years, quite near to the beginning of the Holy Era itself, it has been led by a single unbroken line of monarchs since its conception. The current monarch, King Ambroise Alban-Bastien Blaise-Bernard Laurent, was the twenty-seventh monarch in the Laurent Dynasty.

The Laurent Dynasty has appointed two ducal families to serve the royal crown. The first of these is Quentin’s own House of Gauthier. They were the ducal house that focused more on military activities and conquests of the Kingdom. Essentially, they were the brawn of the kingdom as shown in the latest example with the recent bid for eastward expansion into the Panacea Empire’s Ernwine Region. The aforementioned current head of the house is Duke Gratian Natan la Abel de la Gauthier.

On the other hand, there is the wily House of Montgris. They were the diplomatic half of the duchies that serve the crown. They were known to be extremely but subtly aggressive in their diplomatic relations with other countries. As such, they were the brains of the kingdom and Quentin thought they were all just sly old foxes that would take advantage of anything to get their way. The current head of the House of Montgris is a man known as Caïn Louis Alain Montgris.

“Duke Cain…?” Chantal murmured and watched Quentin scamper out of his seat in his father’s lap to take his seat next to Yvon and furthest away from Gratian at the table. “My, what is His Majesty thinking?”

“Never mind that, Chantal my dear, let us simply enjoy my unexpected return,” Gratian said, soothing his wife’s worries. “Tristan, Yvon, how is your education going?”

This time, Gratian addressed his two other sons who were seated to his left, the eldest, Tristan, seated next to him and facing their mother, Chantal, and the middle son, Yvon, seated next to Tristan. Tristan replied, “Quite well, Father. I am second in my grade, only lower than Crown Prince Anselme.”

“I see, I see,” the father nodded sagely. “How about you, Yvon?”

“I’ve created another original magic while you were gone, Father,” Yvon explained proudly. “In the spirit-tongue, it is named Astrum Lucem Lignum. It took a while but I managed to combine Light and Dark-elemental magics into one.”

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“Oh, as expected of my son!” Gratian laughed. “Well, what does this magic do?”

“Using the Light-elemental aspect of the spell, I calculate a coordinate in the air in which the magic circle of my spell appears. The Dark-elemental aspect of the spell is the release of a spike of hardened shadow that comes out of the magic circle. I invented it with the purpose of long-range attacking from out of sight.”

“Hoh, interesting! Show us.”

“Dear, we’re at the dinner table…” Chantal groaned. “Plus, you’ll scare the girls.” Using just her eyes, Chantal pointed to the young girls seated at the dinner table with them. They were the two young princesses of the House of Gauthier, Célestine Émilienne Constance Gauthier, and Albertine Aurore Clothilde Gauthier. Célestine, the eldest, was a year younger than Quentin, and so was four months away from her sixth birthday. Albertine, the youngest, was to turn five in seven days’ time.

Célestine stopped eating as she tilted her head in confusion. “No, Mother, I would very much like to see Elder Brother’s magic.” (Same tone of high respect as seen with Mother and Father, using these kanji, 兄上.)

Chantal shook her head at her daughter’s rather morbid curiosity but did not push the matter further, giving permission to Yvon by way of nodding. “I will focus on hitting the topmost apple in that bowl.” Yvon pointed to the fruits placed some ways down the table from him, at a distance of one and one-half turon away (ninety centimeters). He closed his eyes and concentrated. Lifting up his finger, he pointed his index in the direction of the apple and whispered, “Astrum Lucem Lignum.” As Yvon explained, a white magic circle appeared in front of the apple in question before a black ray shot out and pierced the apple through. The spell then disappeared, leaving a perfect cylinder of a hole in the apple.

“ “ “ “ “ “Whoa…” ” ” ” ” ”

The collective expulsion of air from the entire family was palpable, although the one released by Tristan was less magnanimous as he was a man of little emotion. “Amazing job, Yvon, you make your father proud.”

“I am humbled for the praise, Father,” Yvon said, bowing to his father before resuming his eating.

“How goes your studies, Quentin?”

“Quite well, Father,” Quentin replied eagerly. “When the new semester begins, I will most definitely ace the entrance exam.”

“Of course you will, son,” Chantal smiled. “I know you can. Your brothers aced it too, we must keep the streak going.”

“As you wish, Mother.”

Finally getting impatient, Célestine complained, “Father, Father, focus on your daughters too.”

“Ah, sorry, sorry,” Gratian said, breaking out into a cold sweat. “How have your studies been going, girls?”

“Excellent, Father,” Célestine bragged. “I am not yet a match for Elder Brother Quentin but I will catch up sooner or later!” She then pointed to Quentin. “Elder Brother, I will also ace the entrance examination!”

“I’m looking forward to it, Célestine,” Quentin giggled as he wiped his lips with the linen napkin.

Before Gratian could address her, Albertine, who was inherently shy, mumbled, “I-I can barely manage to keep up with Oneechan, so I do-don’t think I can ace anything…”

Quentin began to move but Célestine beat him to it as she was seated next to Albertine. She ruffled Albertine’s hair and smiled, “Don’t worry, Albertine, Oneechan will score higher for both of us!”

Quentin smirked, “Oh, you can try, Célestine, my sister, but I won’t make it easy for you. What happens if I score perfectly on the entrance exam? You can’t achieve a higher score than perfect, you know?”

“Shu-Shut up!” Célestine stammered. “I-I just need to get them to give me extra points!”

“Oh~?” Quentin continued. “And how will you do that, hmm?”

“Okay, you can stop teasing your sister now, Quentin,” Chantal said, although she hid her mouth with a napkin; Quentin bet she was secretly laughing underneath that. Dinner proceeded as normal after that.

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

2230, that same evening.

As usual, Quentin was studying late into the night, preparing to burn the midnight oil in just ninety minutes. He had made it a habit to study up until the clock strikes midnight, although his plans are usually foiled by his maid, Blandine. However, tonight, she was tending to his father as she is the head maid. Tonight, I can study until midnight as planned! he thought snarkily to himself. Alright, let’s see… The Holy Era began with, uh… Quentin turned to his notes again before the door to his room opened.

Dreading the worst, he dropped his quill pen. “Are you still awake, Quentin?”

“Wha-,” Quentin wheeled around on his mahogany chair. “Father? I thought you’d be asleep by now.”

“Well, I would be were it not for a certain maid telling me to check on you.”

“Ah… it was Blandine, huh?”

“Yes. Now, tell me, what are you doing awake this late?”

“I, uh…”

Gratian sighed as he sat on the four-poster bed. He patted the section next to him, indicating his silent order of “sit next to me” to Quentin. The boy got up from his chair and sat next to his father. “Look, Quentin, I know you want to do your best but don’t destroy your health while you’re doing it.”

Quentin opened his mouth, wanting to argue but nothing came out. Instead, he nodded. “Yes… Alright, Father.”

“Good, now get in bed,” he ordered. “Your dad has an interesting story to tell you.”

Quentin listened to his father as Gratian got up from his seat and opened the blankets so Quentin could lie down. Once tucked in, he looked at his father as he sat back down on the edge of the bed. “Well, let’s see… Do you know of Duke Caïn and his House of Montgris?”

“Yes, they’re hopeless pricks beyond help, aren’t they?”

“Yeesh, Quentin, when did you get so sharp-tongued?”

“Anyone would get sharp-tongued after what I’ve found out about them…”

“Anyway, I have suspicions that Caïn managed to convince His Majesty to call me back. Knowing him, he must be trying to undermine me by taking away any achievements I can get on the battlefield while he picks up the slack in the political battle.”

“I can imagine.”

“That is why I want to pass some knowledge to you just in case he aims for you, your brothers, the girls or any combination of you. Outside the castle town, you can find the Sawston Forest. In the center, there is a teleportation circle that will take you to the Yakumo Region.”

“The Yakumo Region…?” Quentin asked, tilting his head in confusion. “Isn’t that on the other side of the continent?”

“Yes, it’s located on the Leaucrax subcontinent. I have connections with the nobility there. If anything should happen to me, you take your mother and your siblings there.”

“Uhm… Father, please, you’re scaring me.”

Gratian simply laughed heartily. “Oh, don’t worry, my son. This is just a warning. I promise I wasn’t trying to scare you. Do you need me to cast a magic spell to calm you down?”

Quentin immediately covered his head, yelping, “N-No thanks! If you do it, it’ll have the opposite effect! You’re bad at magic, Dad!”

“Hahaha!” Gratian then stopped, a warm smile emerging on his face.

Feeling the oppressive silence, Quentin peeked over his covers. “Wha-what's wrong?”

“Oh, it’s nothing,” his father replied. “I was just glad that you called me ‘Dad’ again.”

“Ah…” Quentin simply blushed.

“Good night, my boy.”

“Yes… Good night, Dad.”

Gratian planted a kiss on Quentin’s forehead before gently getting up from his seat and walking to the door. Looking back one last time, he watched his son breathe calmly as he entered into the land of dreams.

The door closed silently but that was the signal.

A sharp pain shot through Quentin’s head as images began pouring in.

Quentin saw items he did not recognize. He saw a teenage boy and a girl sitting together in what looked like a table in a building. Quentin didn’t recognize it but to the eyes of the two people Quentin saw, it was the interior of a coffee shop. He saw them with their hands joined like they were in love.

The image shifted to the same teenage boy in what looks like a study with some sort of chair that can bend back. In the eyes of the teenage boy in Quentin’s vision, this would be the examination room of a hospital. On the reclinable chair, that boy was being poked at while tied down. Quentin couldn’t hear it but he knew the boy was screaming. Whether that was in pain, anger, or some other emotion, Quentin was unsure.

The image shifted again to another scene. This time, Quentin was able to recognize it immediately. It was a cemetery. The teenage boy and the teenage girl had their heads bowed as they looked at one particular gravestone. The teenage boy was crying; there was no sign of the outburst Quentin saw in the previous image. The girl was also crying and she hugged the boy as she tried to wipe her tears.

However, before Quentin could make any sense of it, the image shifted a fourth time. This time, Quentin saw some sort of white markings on the ground that surrounded green ground. Again, Quentin was befuddled on what this box was but to the eyes of the group of ten teenagers, it was a basketball court. Quentin saw an orange ball that one teen was bouncing against the ground as he tried to avoid the girls. Quentin watched as the boy threw the ball toward what looks like an open basket attached to an orange hoop and a wooden back.

When the ball hit the rim, a second sharp jolt fired through Quentin’s brain and the images disappeared entirely. Sitting up, he grabbed his head as he tried to figure out what happened. What are those images…? Quentin continuously asked himself this even after he had fallen asleep.