The days passed like normal. Kai trained tirelessly and studied Elvish with Aina, who seemed to have returned to normal after two days of being a no-show. At first, it seemed like her sulking wouldn’t end, but once she started teaching, her entire personality did a 180. After the lessons ended, she pulled out a small pouch from her pockets and handed it over to Kai. It felt heavy, despite its size, and a few marble-like sounds resounded from within as Kai squeezed it in his hand.

“You have ten pills of each inside.” Aina said with a sigh, “Do some tests with Elizabeth and see how long they last and how much you progress. I had to fight my engineers for them, I swear they’re so stingy…”

“This…” Kai opened the bag with a gasp of cold air as the golden and silver pills reflected their glow into his crimson pupils. “There’s so many of them! It only took your team two weeks to create them?”

“Yeah… it wasn’t easy, and convincing them to give them to me was even less so… but I managed.” She wore a bitter smile on her face while explaining the situation, however, she didn’t let it show for too long. The chair creaked as she stood up, leaving together with Kai whose exhausted mind couldn’t help but think about the pills.

Maybe I’ll be able to cure this damned hole now! Elizabeth has been helping me with the technique, but she hasn’t seen anything out of the ordinary, and even as the hole grew larger she still didn’t see what happened. Perhaps the tamed mana will help me… but also… He gulped as he thought about the unknown effects and side effects. A hole seemed to have opened in his stomach as he walked toward his room, still following Aina.

“Aina, are you coming with me? I thought you said you’d let Elly handle it.” Kai asked in a whisper as he hurried beside her.

“I reconsidered. My daughter may be good at a lot of things but she still has to catch up on medicine. I’d rather observe this one time, besides I think I found a solution to your ‘illness’.”

Kai’s eyes immediately widened, and his heart skipped a beat as a cracked voice escaped his lips, “Re-really?!”

“I’m not sure, I will need to see how your body reacts to these pills but I hope I’m right.” Her half-confident tone killed some of Kai’s excitement, but he nevertheless clenched his fists in anticipation. The short way to his room remained silent until they finally arrived in front of it.

The door cracked open, revealing Elizabeth’s figure, her right leg rapidly moving up and down as she fidgeted with her fingers. Her head immediately rose with excitement, only for her brows to slightly furrow upon seeing Aina. “Is everything alright?” She asked, making space for her mother and Kai on the bed.

“Yes, I’ve managed to acquire a few pills, and I want to observe their effects,” Aina said with a smile that betrayed her otherwise stoic voice. “Just pretend I’m not here and do what you usually do.”

“Al- Alright.” Kai nodded and showed Elly the pouch, pulling out one silver and one golden pill, and gently holding them between his fingers as he inspected them under the chandelier. The silver pill had a hint of a warm color inside, like the first ray of the spring sun after a harsh winter. The golden one, on the other hand, appeared like a miniature sun, whose blazing surface contrasted with its chilling core. Together, both pills formed an invisible balance, canceling and taming each other’s energies. Even Elizabeth’s emerald pupils widened as she laid eyes upon them, and gulped as her trembling hand reached for the silver one. Inhaling sharply and bringing it closer, she activated her eye magic, peering deep inside the pill. Blue-ish, transparent clouds filled the small, spherical medicine, and the mana seemed to condense into small droplets under the pressure, which quickly evaporated back into a gaseous form under the life force’s supervision.

“Incredible…” Elly retracted her vision, small droplets of sweat dripping down her forehead as she handed the pill back to Kai. “Mom this is…”

“Revolutionary,” Aina said confidently, a smirk creasing her lips as she stood with one leg over the other. “Now, hurry up Kai.” She beckoned with a trembling hand.

Kai nodded and sat down on the bed, cross-legged. Taking a deep breath, he swallowed both pills at the same time and immediately began controlling the energy as the pills melted in his mouth. The tamed mana and life force circulated through his body like a river on a mountain, passing through the forest and dirt that was his flesh, and entering the canals that were his mana veins.

Letting the mana go first, he grits his teeth and prepares to endure the painful process of destroying his mana veins. However, that feeling never arrived, as the tamed mana traveled through the veins, the amount that escaped through the holes gently tore through them, gradually chipping away. Next, the life force met the newly enlarged holes and immediately began repairing them even faster and better than before. The microscopic gaps or additional wounds caused by the rampant life force were now reduced by more than fifty percent.

The two women bit their lips and fidgeted with their fingers as they observed the changes in Kai’s body. Aina let out a sigh of relief as she noticed the pills acting exactly like they should and the increased efficiency in Kai’s healing. However, Elizabeth started clenching her fists as she saw the boy’s expression changing to a frown. Sweat dripped down his body as he carefully controlled the energies, and his arms and legs trembled each time a full cycle passed.

“Don’t worry,” Aina reassured her daughter. “Now that the energies don’t have a mind of their own, Kai has to put in more effort to move them around, which is already incredibly difficult without mana… I don’t know how he’s doing it.”

Hearing that, Elizabeth’s nerves seemed to have calmed down a bit, however not enough for her heart to stop racing. Just as Aina said, Kai now depleted more mental energy to move the mana and life force around, but the results were clear - The process at which he healed had sped up by at least twenty percent and the amount of healing done by thirty-seven, with a now much more painless process.

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

Hours passed, and the mana and life force cycled through his body hundreds of times before the seemingly infinite energy within the pills finally dissipated. Kai’s sweat-covered body burned hot with vigor, however, the mental exhaustion quickly caught up as he fell unconscious. Elizabeth quickly rushed forward and caught him before his face met the bed. Placing Kai gently on her lap, she finally let out a heavy sigh of relief while looking at his fatigued yet content face.

“Wow, I haven’t seen him sleep this well in a while…” Elly remarked as she brushed away his disheveled hair, a soft smile creasing her lips as she chuckled. “I… am sorry about what I said a few weeks ago, Mom. I was just afraid and anxious… Kai is… the last royal now. Ray and Elena… it’s just… it was too much. Even after all the time that has passed, I couldn’t calm down, I still can’t...w. And then… I snapped at you, it was unfair.”

Aina listened silently, and she scooted over after Elizabeth finished her apology. Raising her hand, she placed it over her daughter’s blonde locks and brought her closer to her chest. “It’s alright. I understand how you feel. To you, your father was someone capable, a hero, a dragon amongst men. I won’t badmouth him again but… I can’t forgive him either.”

Elizabeth sighed but remained close to her mother’s head as she continued her previous conversation. “I don’t know what Haniard is up to but eventually he’ll come looking for Kai. I already saw posters circulating amongst the human kingdom… they look similar to Kai but not quite enough. Especially not now when he’s changed so much. He’s safe in here, in Evicario. Haniard wouldn’t dare send anyone in unless he had a death wish. However…” Elly bit her lower lips as she caressed Kai’s silver hair.

“Kai has other plans.” Her mother continued, staring at the boy with curiosity. “He’s bent on getting stronger… on getting revenge. Even if he doesn’t say it, I see it in his eyes. His soul burns with the desire to kill Haniard… I’m… I’m scared.”

“You are scared?” Elly echoed, turning to Aina with surprise. “Why?”

“The boy is weird… he’s not strong, he can’t even use magic… but throughout these six months, he’s never once missed a training day. He kept enduring this immeasurable pain of strengthening his mana veins in hopes of being able to use the most basic of Inkos magics… and on top of that, he’s learning Elvish. His willpower… is scary. His methods are even more so… I mean, that weird weight training creation he came up with… Not to mention the technique itself… and the name - Hippocratus, doesn’t it seem familiar?”

Elly jumped up with widened eyes as realization hit, and her ragged breathing barely calmed down as she stared at Aina, whose expression almost mirrored her daughter’s. “No way… Kai- he’s an…” Her mother remained silent, however the silence was enough to confirm Elizabeth’s suspicion.

…

Kai woke up the next day alone, tucked in his blanket. Not even Onyx had returned from his endeavor, but that wasn’t the first thing crossing his mind right now. He jumped up and concentrated on his mana veins with a racing heart. Although he couldn’t use mana for spells, he could still use it to look inside himself. A smile creased his lips as he inspected the amount he healed. Immediately jumping to his feet and grabbing the pouch of pills, he rushed out the creaked door in excitement, completely forgetting to check his illness.

Walking in the empty hallways wasn’t that weird for him, as even the staff slept during the night when he was awake. The only thing keeping him company were the countless lights and the shadows created by them, however, he found some kind of solace in these unanimated shapes. He strolled around the manor, picking up an apple from the kitchen before walking outside. He took off his shirt, revealing his slightly muscular yet pale upper body, and placed the bag of pills to the side. Welcoming the moon’s harsh rays with a smile, he walked toward the training ground and picked up a wooden sword as he finished up the apple.

Gripping the hilt tightly with both hands, he took a deep breath as he placed himself in the stance Euphridia modified for him. It was just as basic as the one taught to him by his grandpa, however, it now had way fewer gaps. It seemed sturdier, yet more agile and less open. He inhaled swiftly and sang the sword horizontally, its figure becoming nothing more than a blur as it split the air.

In almost the same instance as the slash finished, he returned to the original stance and prepared himself for another swing. The air once again split, and it did so again and again, each time faster and faster until… The sword split in half after the fiftieth swing, unable to take the drastic change in kinetic energy any longer. Kai let out a soft chuckle and sat down on the chilly floor. Sighing, he looked up at the moon, the being that watched over him since he started on his journey. Enduring the slicing pain in his retinas, he smiled bitterly and laid down on the ground, his chest heaving.

Seven months… has it been seven months? Eight? I don’t even remember… The first few days since Haniard… since… Haniard… He immediately stood back up, his nails digging into his palm as creaking teeth escaped his mouth. It’s been seven months! That bastard… I never once stopped to consider what he did in those months! My mother’s heart! What could he have possibly used it for? Seven months… seven months and all I did was swing a stupid sword around and act like a hero!

His heart raced as anger rushed through his veins and he kicked the ground, jumping to his feet. The muscles on his body contracted and spasmed as he looked around the training ground with constricted pupils. However, besides the wooden swords and weights, the only thing within his eyesight was the wooden dummy they used to train his swings. Its once clean appearance now stood covered in scars, cuts, and markings. Kai picked up a wooden sword, tightly holding it in one hand as he let out a primeval scream and rushed toward the wooden puppet. Tears formed around his eyes as the muscles in his dominant hand contracted even more, the wooden sword cutting through the air like an arrow released from its bow. Kai’s screams only got louder and sharper as his weapon approached the dummy until the two finally collided with a muffled explosion.

The blade within Kai’s clutch shattered into pieces, his eyes widening as the pain within his right hand spread throughout his body. He fell face first on the floor, gliding on the chilly ground and creating a faint red trace until he finally stopped a few meters away from the wobbling puppet. Groaning, he stood up, his pale face covered in blood however the anger within his eyes not having subsided one bit.

More and more blood rushed to his face, and more dripped onto his cheeks. Looking up at the moon, his lips parted into a widened mouth as a raw, powerful, pain-filled scream escaped his body. It didn’t last long, just long enough for tears to accompany the blood smashing on the floor, and just long enough for his scream to become a cry. He fell to his knees, hitting the floor as hard as he could, remembering the pain and hardships Haniard brought him.

In his blurry, tear-filled vision he saw the last ray of hope in his journey. The bag of pills, which seemed to be winking, beckoned him to approach like a siren to a sailor. Kai crawled over to them, stopping his tears as he grabbed the bag, holding it tightly in his palm as an insane idea popped up in his head.