Regain: Revenge of the Greatest

Kael spent his time with the Earl, being taught by morals according to the Rezelus church, the most widespread religious organization among the human kingdoms. By the influence of those around him, he forgot about his true family. Some memories of his family tried to come back to him, but the flashes in his mind were blurred images of people that his young self couldn’t comprehend.

The time passed that Kael only sees the Earl as his true family, but his mind keep on making him remember things of his past. He told his visions to Cadell, as he was what he knew as his grandfather, but Cadell dismissed all his memories as imaginations of a growing child. He accepted Cadell’s explanations, leading him to get further away from the truth.

However, there’s something that the people around him should have been aware of. All these times, Kael’s innate magic was being deprived of its need for mana. Forgetting everything included that Kael forget his meditation too, which prevented his body from dying for a long time. It was starving for nourishment, and little by little, its call for its need grew inside Kael. It became a little headache at first, which happen to be the same symptom that Kael has whenever some memories of him came back. But the day finally came that the debilitating fever returned to him.

A month before being five years old, Kael collapsed on the ground while the Earl was teaching him. The Earl called his servants immediately, and they took care of him. He’s burning, his fever warming up his bed in an instant. He can’t open his eyes, as he endures the pain radiating throughout his body. He’s squirming around, holding everything that comes into contact with his hands. When he does hold on to something, he holds it tight, expressing the suffering he endures.

Kael called for the Earl many times, begging him to stay. The Earl did stay, giving orders to his servants. He held the weakening child by the hand, not letting go even if the child sometimes squeezes his hand too hard, or burning him with the fever. He called for a healer from the kingdom capital, but a high grade healer has yet to appear. All they have is Seqina’s knowledge of potion making. That doesn’t do much to calm the child’s fever down. A week passed, and Elalios went to the Earl.

“My lord, I think I know what’s happening to Kael”

The Earl looked at him. “Speak”

“My lord, is it not possible that Kael has an innate magic?”

“Unthinkable”

“My lord, if I may, it’s possible that there are cases where the symptoms come out late for someone who has it”

Lord Gideon was about to deny Elalios, but he stopped and considered what he knew about the nature of innate magic.

People with innate magic needed constant absorption of mana in their bodies, at least until their innate magic absorbed enough mana to mature. This need was fulfilled by either training the child to absorb mana earlier compared to their peers, or someone proficient enough transfers mana to the child’s body in a nondestructive way. In general, the greater an innate magic is, the higher the amount of mana needed.

The first method in stabilizing an innate magic is kind of hard, given that a child, much less an infant doesn’t have the mental capacity to feel mana on their own, even with someone’s guidance. Some parents with a child possessing an innate magic, will try to let their magic flow to the child to assist them in feeling the flow of mana. It’s a good and direct way of making the children learn, if transferring actual magic, and not formless mana to anyone isn’t as dangerous as possibly killing the recipient. No credible account was documented to support the effectiveness of transferring magic. The safer way is to just teach a child, and have faith that they can learn.

The second method was easier, but with some factors to consider. First, people proficient enough to manipulate formless mana was mostly found in a single place. The city-state of Rezelus, the center of the most widespread church of the same name, is where most, if not all of the said people were located. The place is secluded, and the people that can enter it were limited to mostly nobility. Even if a child with an innate magic did get in, the parents will have to sacrifice their time with the child until their innate magic completely matured.

Another thing to consider is the church’s condition for anyone known to have innate magic. Anyone who have a child with such condition should agree that their child was to serve the church for a lifetime, and such agreement will not be broken even after the maturation of the child’s innate magic. Innate magic is not just a rare trait, it is also perceived as the most superior form of magic. The church claimed that they wanted to lead the children to the proper way of living, as to not let them use their power to do evil deeds.

All of these information pointed the Earl to various possibilities. If Kael did have an innate magic, someone must’ve helped him in the past to replenish his innate magic’s need for mana. Either the child himself, or a person in his outer circle can do that. His mind told him that both of those scenarios were too improbable, that it might as well be impossible.

The Earl considered the strength of the innate magic. He thought that Kael has a weak one that doesn’t need as much mana, but it’s hard for him to wrap his head around that kind of assumption. Innate magic, being the most superior form of magic, should never be considered weak, and so he rejected that guess too.

All that was left to him is to reject the assumption that Kael has an innate magic dwelling in him. He looked for other things that could cause Kael’s sudden fever, but all of it came back to nothing. He looked at the child for a long time, not knowing that Kael heard their short conversation.

‘Innate magic..?’, Kael thought, his mind a hodgepodge of memories without coherent sequences. The pain still lingered, distracting him from looking on in his jumbled memories. Then, a single name popped out in his mind. Someone is calling to him by that name.

“Lucien..”, a voice said.

Hearing the voice seemed to arrange his memories all at once. Clear memories of the past came back to him. Returning to his true self made him realize one thing. He forgot to do his morning meditation.