Chapter 4

Kein being done with his trial has just left the chamber and as the last one hurried to join the others waiting in the hall

“That was not as easy as I thought it would be! Kein, how did yours go?”, Ursla asked as she saw Kein leaving the chamber with a curious look on her face

“-huh, sorry what were you just saying?” He replied in a daze

“What’s wrong? You passed right?”, Ursla saw the sigil glowing on his hand and was wondering why he was acting weird

“Ah, yes, I did”

“That’s it? Why are you moping then?”

“It’s nothing the test was a little more stressful than I expected it to be”

“Oh, that it was”, Ursla said as she remembered her own experience in the test

After a while a resounding voice was heard in the waiting hall. The high priest of the church was addressing all the attendees at the moment.

“May I have your attention please. Since everyone has successfully finish their trials as of this moment, we will be going ahead with the test for elemental bearing. This test is much simpler than the previous one and all you have to do is close your eyes and Imagine an empty bowl in your mind, then you fill the bowl with what comes to your mind right after. The sigil of Lumia placed on your hands will then glow in the corresponding color of your element. Them being: White-Light, Black-Dark, Green-Nature, Red-Fire, Blue-Water, Brown-Earth, Gray-Wind. You may go ahead now”

The hall was in a commotion before the high priest talked and was rendered silent by his words followed by multiple-colored lights popping up now and then from the sigils on the attendees’ hands.

“Osiliya grant me the powers of your domain”, Ursla prayed to the supreme goddess of water as she followed the high priest’s instructions

“A bowl and fill it with what I think?”, confused by the ambiguity of the task Kein still followed the procedure as per the instructions

Various gasps could be heard around the two at this moment.

“-how could such a strong hearted person bear such an element!?”, the priest who had conducted the trial of virtue for Ursla couldn’t hold back and exclaimed

“This purple light! If I’m not wrong, I remember reading that it’s the very rare Poison element which is despised by many for its vile nature!”

“Yes! That's right I also heard a similar thing earlier”

“Such a shame for a bright person like her to be destined for a poisoned future”

Just as things were settling down, the crowd was shocked yet again when the dimly lit symbol of Kein disappeared altogether

“What’s happening? How could there be no bearing to an element?”

“The blessing of Lumia also has disappeared!”

“This is unprecedented! Is he even human?!”

The two of them opened their eyes at the same moment and realized that in their short trance, they had become the center of attention

“Kein, what’s happening why are they staring at us?”

“I don’t know either. I was just doing as the priest instructed and my sigil just disappeared!”, he said while looking down at his hand

As they were pondering what was going on, they were greeted by the High priest himself.

“Would you two please follow me”

Disregarding their shock, they had to follow the high priest given his standing within the church. He led them into a room near the apex of the church. It was large and had a desk at the center. Sitting at the desk he told them to take a seat.

“Do you realized why I have called the both of you to my office?”

Having a slight idea that it was regarding their elements they just shook their heads so that they could get a proper explanation

“I see, let us begin with the young lady first shall we”, as he said this, he opened a drawer at the desk and took out a pair of gloves

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“As you can see, the light is purple indeed. This is the highly rare and valuable element of Poison. Some people regard poison users to have a twisted personality for them to have an affinity to it, yet I think that it isn’t what element that a person has that defines them but how they use it. Poison being a substance that can utterly destroy yet can still be used in some medicinal applications. Don’t let the views of others cloud you into thinking that poison is detestable”, The priest said with a caring and friendly look on his face

“These glove are specially crafted by a grand magus friend of mine to hide the affinity of a person. If you would like I can give this glove to you and I would suggest that you use them to avoid the piercing gazes that are bound to befall you with being a poison uses”, as he finished speaking, he gave the gloves to Ursla

“Thank you, high priest!”, understanding that he was doing this out of consideration for her and for her protection in the future, she bowed deeply while receiving the gloves

“Now then, what do we have here?”, the priest got up and walked to Kein’s side and examined his hand

“The blessing of Lumia as dissipated already, which means that you are already completely compatible with your element. On the other hand, since it happened so fast no one could see what your element actually was. It just happens that I have another way of testing one’s elemental bearing here”, pointing at a large mirror on the side the high priest beckoned to Kein

Kein walked up to the mirror and touched it with his palm. At this moment various colored lights flashed from the mirror and finally all of them merged into white and then the white dulled into black before disappearing.

“As I had expected! You have the legendary omni-bearing. This type of elemental bearing refers to a person having an equal affinity to all elements but the problem is that your omni-bearing is different from the ones recorded in the past. There is no case of light and dark being involved in omni-bearing!”, the high priest was shocked when he first saw the multi-colored lights but when they coalesced into white and finally turning into black, he was confused more than shocked. Right as he was explaining the scenario to the two, he suddenly started to emit a bright light and went into a trance.

“What is happening to the high priest!?”, Ursla was shocked to see the situation

“Let’s go get someone to help him out”, Kein ran out the door and found one of the nuns and brought her to the room

“This is-”, she immediately kneeled down and began praying to Lumia upon seeing the high priest in a trance

Just as the shocked nun was about to tell the two to also pray, the priest’s trance ended.

“It’s fine now, the oracle has passed”, he told the nun, after which she got up and bowed to him before leaving

“Your name is Kein, is it?”, the priest turned to him and asked

“Yes”

“The goddess has spoken-, would you mind stepping out for a bit”, almost forgetting the existence of Ursla, the priest gestured her towards the door

“The goddess has spoken, ‘You who hold power over everything under heaven, are deemed above existence and shall be exempt’”, the priest then looked at Kein to see his reaction

“I’m sorry but what does that mean?”, he asked dumbfoundedly

“To put it in simpler terms the goddess is exempting you from mortal standards. This grants you immunity from various things that bind regular people like- being unable to converse with gods unless they are given an oracle, being unable to manipulate even their own element before acknowledging the supreme god of that element, being unable to wield divine power without being destroyed by its sheer force! These are just a few that I have named, there are many such rules that bind mortals. Given immunity to these means you have been acknowledged by the goddess as her peer, that is, one at an equal standing to her!”, the high priest then immediately knelt down before Kein

“What are you doing, High Priest?!”, Kein was shocked at the sight before him and immediately got the priest back up to his feet

“Would you mind if you kept this oracle that you received a secret for now?”, Kein asked him, hoping to avoid further unwanted attention, before even he himself knew what was happening

“If that is your command, then so be it!”, the high priest was disappointed that he had to keep such a big deal a secret yet he understood the other party’s concern and accepted swiftly

Being done with the coming-of-age ceremony, everyone headed back to their homes and so did Kein and Ursla. Later that night Kein was having trouble sleeping.

“It’s all your fault! If only you didn’t create me!”, a voice wailed in his head as he tried to sleep

“Why are they worshiping only you while shunning me?!”

“I am the same was you!!”

“What is happening? Who am I? and who was that?”, Kein woke up with beads of sweat rolling down his face to see a man standing near his rooms window

“It would seem this is the second time I have been wrong. Your destiny seems much larger than I first thought little one”, Vygil sighed as the moonlight bathed the room into a shade of silver

“Have you figured out who I am?”, Kein asked expectantly

“No, but I can tell you that you have a connection to my master. The creator of this world. I sensed his will emanating form you just a moment ago. It seems that this anomaly happening is not a random or a planned occurrence but a consequence of your appearance in this world”

“What anomaly?”, Kein was getting even more confused than he was before

“It’s nothing. I should take my leave. I dropped by after sensing my master’s presence but I think it was just a fleeting wisp”, Vygil leapt out the window and disappeared into a gust of wind

The next morning

“Are you really intent on leaving?”, The priest who had taken care of Kein asked

“Yes, I have to find out who I really am!”, Determined he didn’t back down and affirmed his decision to leave the orphanage and explore the world in the hope of finding a clue as to how he ended up in this world

“And who is the other person that was talking yesterday”, he thought but didn’t speak out loud

“What? You’re leaving already?! I’ll go with you!”, Ursla overheard the talk between Kein and the priest and jumped in at this moment declaring her stance

“No, you can’t. It will be dangerous where I am going. I can’t allow you to get hurt on my account”, Kein refused without a second thought

“Hmph, Okay then you go on your own!”, Ursla who is know for being adamant had relented on a single sentence which left Kein and the priest doubting her

“I’ll be heading to the adventurer guild first and registering there first, so that I can move between countries easily”, Kein told the priest as he picked up the bags he had packed earlier and walked towards the exit

“Hope you restore that which you have lost, Good Luck”, The priest bid his farewell to Kein