Mid Afternoon - Late Spring : Kingdom of Kaelallan

- Michael Cotorel ~

*tap-tap-tap-tap* "Haah…" -What am I doing…-

It had been about an hour since things started calming down, a whole day after the disaster.

I had been one of the leading figures of a group that carried people to medical wards, helped treat the wounded, and arrested thugs that broke into noble estates, but even though I was absolutely exhausted, I was still walking around the city.

But I wasn’t walking around to help people. Instead, I was walking around trying to solve my own mental dilemmas. -Just what am I missing… Is acknowledging it not enough?-

Deep within my mind, I was staring at a pair of broken, rusted shackles.

It all started several years ago, a few years after my progress in magic theory turned stagnant. At the time, I was unable to accept the reality that I, a man who dedicated his whole life to the pursuit of innovating and improving magic, had simply run into a roadblock.

To escape that reality, I came to convince myself that I was actually at the peak of magic, the apex of humanity. But even still, deep down I knew there was another peak within the clouds.

Regardless, the idea that I had reached the limit of mankind only further suffocated my thoughts, leaving me to mindlessly grow my reserve with no end goal in sight.

But that's when the false reality I'd created for myself came crashing down around me.

Just a few days prior, I had seen a child use spells that were unheard of and use mana to seemingly bend the rules of the world.

It was a scene that opened my eyes wider than they ever had been before, allowing me to set my sights on a peak within the clouds whilst reinvigorating my intrigue and excitement to develop magic.

But I was once again left with a conflicted feeling. -I thought I resolved my problem... Why do I still feel.. drained…-

The world in my mind steadily grew darker and darker the more I questioned myself and my choices.

But that was when a calm voice pulled me out of my mind. "Sir, are you alright?"

-Huh?- Looking up, I saw a knight donning silver armor giving me a worried look. -Oh.. I wandered to the plaza...- "Y..yes, sorry. I guess I just got lost in my thoughts."

"Haah, alright. Just be sure to pay attention to where you are walking, you could cause an accident."

His voice was oddly comforting. "Thank you, sir. I will keep that in mind." As I gave a polite gesture to the man, he moved back over to his post at the entrance to the plaza.

Unable to keep my eyes from wandering, I quickly found myself staring at the dragon lying unconscious in the middle of the plaza.

Over the days since the speech, whenever I saw her, my heart would ache, but somehow, at that moment.. I felt indifferent.

*click* It was at that moment that I felt like I heard a shackle unlock.

-Huh?- My thoughts instantly started to become clearer as the fog that had hovered in my mind for years started to dissipate.

-T..that was it?- I had an odd mix of feelings start to well up in my stomach the more I thought about it. -The shackles I couldn’t find no matter how hard I looked, were hiding in plain sight…-

*clank-thud* The sound of shackles falling to the ground echoed through my mind as I looked around at the world around me in a new light.

I saw the dark clouds on the horizon flash with lightning, and saw a bird land next to me to pick up breadcrumbs.

I looked around the street and saw an apple break open after being blown off a stand by the wind, and saw a gold coin in a noble's hand glimmering in the sunlight.

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I kept seeing all these things.. these normal, easily explainable things, but somehow, I could only question myself. -Is it really all because of mana?-

For the first time in my life, I started to question the foundations of nature and magic. -Is mana really what causes these phenomena?-

As I finally left the area around the plaza, I continued to look around and question everything I was seeing.

It made a part of me feel stupid, but at the same time, I felt intrigued. It was truly a refreshing feeling.

Countless what-ifs ran through my mind as I continued to walk through town, and before I knew it, I found myself walking into the smithy with a youthful smile on my face.

*Clang* *Clang* *Clunk* The sound of metal being hammered echoed through the air with a methodical rhythm.

*fwip* Pushing aside the coarse cloth, I came in to see Udall hammering at a refined piece of metal.

"Welcome back, Michael." His voice sounded exhausted before he turned to look at me. "You seem to be in a good mood. Did you finally sort out your thoughts?"

*creeak* The chair creaked as I turned it around to face Udall. "I guess you could say that." Finally sitting down and letting my legs rest, I felt relief fill my body, which only further fueled my curiosity.

*fwip* The cloth in the door made a noise as it was pushed aside. "You’re finally back! I'm surprised you lasted that long, oldie." Mollie’s voice was surprisingly energetic.

"Haha, you’re calling him old?" A smug smile came to Udall’s face. "He's only 47. He's literally 23 years younger than you."

"So what? My youth is eternal!" She put her hands on her hips and held her head high like a confident child.

Udall’s smug look didn’t go anywhere though. "Uh-huh… Suureee-" *CLANG* His voice was cut short by a soft metal plate being slammed into his face.

The plate had molded to his head perfectly, so when he pried it off, he was left with a rough mold of his face.

Finally turning it around, the plate only showed the general contour of his face, but nonetheless, he looked back up at Mollie with a sly smile. "At least one of us is aging well-" *CLANG*

"Pfft-hahaha!" I couldn’t hold back my laughter as another plate came slamming into his face.

My thoughts were light, nimble, and youthful, and although I was physically exhausted, my mind was still full of energy. -When was the last time I felt this young?-

- Vasilias ~

"Uwaahh…" I let out a deep yawn as I ran my fingers through Ilios’s fur.

It had been a couple of hours since I finished my procedure on Oliver, and thankfully, his condition was starting to look better.

His internal bleeding was the first thing to heal, with the bruising disappearing quite quickly with a bit of my assistance.

As for the swelling, it only increased for quite a while, even causing his skin to break open and bleed on his forehead, but once the swelling finally started to return to normal, his condition greatly improved.

Thanks to mana and the incredible healing ability of humans in this world, it wouldn't scar, and once his skull healed back, it would look and feel as if nothing happened.

-Humanoids are surprisingly resilient considering how fragile their bodies are... - Looking at Oliver and seeing him start to move and wake up again, I reached over his head and nullified a few neurons that were firing, making his movement stop immediately. -Man… Maybe it's just him, but his mind is like clockwork...-

Over the few hours prior, I had been watching his mind very closely in an attempt to learn about it, and I did actually discover how to do several things.

After studying how the pain receptors, nerves, and mind all communicated, I learned to quell the pain from his shattered skull so he would only feel a slight headache, but this quickly led to me finding a way to put him back to sleep when he was in the process of waking up.

Shockingly, it wasn’t too complicated either. As I kept a close eye on his brain, whenever he initially started to wake up, a set of about 6 neurons were triggered by a chain of neurons that led to where the nerves communicate with the brain.

Putting two and two together, I made the assumption that the 6 neurons were something akin to an emergency wake-up response, and as expected, when I nullified the neurons fired from them, he would stop waking up and fall back to sleep.

-To think magic would make something like this even possible...-

*tap* *tap* *tap* *tap* As I was thinking to myself, I noticed someone sneaking down the hallway outside.

I was still letting my aura loose at that point, filling the room with so much mana that if I didn’t have control over it, it would be deadly to humans.

But before I could even bother restraining some of it, the door opened. *Click*

My aura immediately washed out into the hallway like flood waters.

Lucy, who was the one in the hall, still stood at the door, completely frozen with a slightly pale face. -She probably came to check on Oliver…-

"I'm doing something important, so I need you to stay out of the room for a bit. Oliver is fine." Not wanting her to come inside and give me any kind of distraction, I closed the door without any more thought.

Silence filled the hallway for several seconds before she finally backed away from the door and sat down against the wall. *tap* *tap* *thump*

"Haah…" -I guess I can't blame her for being worried...-

*rustling* "Mmmm…" Ilios shifted around some at my feet, getting extra comfortable as he rested.

"Lucky…" *pat-pat* -I could really use a nap right about now, too…-