(Arnold Pov)
It was night time now…
I looked outside the window, at the starry and calm night to calm my nervous heart. This night was the time when Yoshiro would take his mana aptunment test for once again after three years of his hard life had passed, and I couldn't let out the feeling of having butterflies in my stomach.
My feet didn't stop tapping the floor, and I could feel that I was sweating buckets even when there was no mirror to see my reflection. It's just that unnerving, and both outcomes to this test, whether he really cured from his strange disease or not, would change his fate entirely.
*knock knock
"Ah, come inside," I said. And who came was exactly the person who I was waiting for, Yoshiro Ehren.
"Is this the place where I should do that… test? I thought that I should go to the place where I did it before…" Yoro said while curiously looking around. His pale face was no more, replaced by a handsome and healthy one that consisted of jet black hair of mine and blue eyes of his mother.
"a-ah, the situation had changed. We can do it here all the same, the difference would be the fact that there is no one who will be watching you in the process except me." I answered while trying to be as calm as I could. Yoshiro seemed to doubt me for a second, but I paid it no heed as I pulled the appraisal orb from below my desk.
"This is an appraisal orb, the orb that can determine your mana affinity, and at the same time, your potential in magic." After I explained, I instructed him to place his hand on the orb. "If you feel some kind of tugging from below your stomach, you should let the sensation freely do whatever it wanted without restricting your mana. It's a normal reaction."
Yoshiro nodded understandingly and put his hand on the orb like I instructed. Three years ago, we also did the mana affinity test to him, but it was in the form of ritual and involved many magic stones in the process so it would end up with the result as detailed and as accurate as possible.
But it wasn't needed now, that all I needed was how far his mana had developed and if something had changed in the recent years.
Yoshiro put his hand on the orb, and it glows dimly in a white bluish hue. The boy gasped at the magical phenomenon in front of him even if he had experienced it three years ago. It wasn't one of the best experiences I guess. Shaking the thought out of my head, I focussed my will to delve into his mana to check his magical properties.
And the result is no less than shocking.
First, his mana had stabilized as I feared, and secondly, his mana quality increased by leaps and bounds compared to before.
Initially, his mana quality is above average in a large margin, exceeding all the human mage I ever met in my whole life, even myself, who was labelled as the best mage in the kingdom. But now, it just had increased even more.
Not only that, another notable thing from him was his element affinity, which turned out to be space, a rare element that hadn't been seen in eons that was only written in some old records…. records that said nothing but problem to me at the moment.
"Ugh…." I groaned and felt a headache coming. So I took the liberty to massage my temples and sighed helplessly, raising a concerned stare from the said devil himself.
"Umm, you okay? You looked pale, dad." Yoro said while looking unsure whether he should come here to help me or keep putting his hand on the orb like I command him to.
"no… I just tired" I closed my eyes, trying to ease the pain away and organize my thoughts at the same time. But when I opened my eyes, I caught a glimpse of Yoro doing something strange.
Is he… clicking the air?
I widened my eyes as a realization struck me. Quickly, I leaned my body forward and caught his hand in me, taking Yoro red-handed in surprise.
"What did you just do?" I asked sternly.
Yoro's face contorted in a mixture of pained and panicked expression, realizing that I saw what he did just now. "N-no, it's nothing. I-I just, just-"
While his eyes wandered everywhere but to my eyes, I interrupted him, knowing very well that he just wanted to come up with an excuse. "Just what? toying with your HUD interface?" He widened his eyes in now, completely surprised and wasn't expecting me to answer it right.
I snorted. "You know what? Nevermind."
If one compared it with the mana quality and affinity he had, the significance was pale in comparison. I shook my head again to shake off the relapsing migraine and moved my body a little behind, taking the damned ball with me in a very fast motion, then threw the cursed thing off the window.
Crash!
…...clang…!
Yoshiro was in agape seeing my reaction. His hand still raised in the air like before, but his eyes locked at the hole on the broken window, couldn't believe what he had seen just now.
"Yoro" But sadly for him, he couldn't have a break and I called to wake him up from his stupor.
"a-ah y-yes…?" He came back to his senses, but it seemed that he still couldn't wrap his head around the situation.
Yet rather than enlighten his curiosity, I furrowed my eyebrows and looked at him seriously, my hand landed on his shoulder and he jolted out of his dazed condition as I squeezed it tightly.
"Don't say a thing about this event, your situation, or the test. Don't say even a thing except to our close family, and our close and trusted aides." Then I paused as I remembered something. "And not even Cecilia can know about this, understand?"
"I-I understand…" He managed to squeeze out a response albeit a little stuttered. "may... may I know the reason why?" He asked after a brief pause to collect himself.
"Because it will bring us more harm than good, Yoro. Your magic is extremely unique, and it will be the best for it to stay hidden until you are older, or at least way much stronger than you are now." I squeezed his shoulder tighter. "Many will be aiming at you because of your ability, and who knows? It might not end up in a situation as simple as death… you know what I am talking about?"
He nodded, which made me heave a tired sigh once again as I rested my back on the chair. "Well, that's good. You can go now." I gestured to him to go as I closed my eyes, wanted nothing but to rest for a while.
"Ah yes, I almost forget." I opened my eyes and managed to stop him in time when he opened the door. He looked back at me confused and warily. "Tomorrow, come here again at the same time as earlier. I will be training you in magic."
It was very subtle, but I definitely saw that his eyes shimmering in excitement when I said that. Yoro left after showing his confirmation, leaving me alone with my document for once again.
"Space element… huh…"
It's an element that was extremely rare and unique. It was very rare that there was simply no grimoire or magic book that could guide the user to control and use it… or at least I knew none in Escilla kingdom at the moment.
It only left Yoro an option to learn magic with other elements than space, maybe thunder and water. I had tons and tons of grimoire in that type. It was also a really fortunate coincidence that he had a top-class mana quality, so while learning other magic elements would be a little bit hard for him, it would only be one level harder than the one who had the affinity. Which was a pretty good thing.
One problem gone, and another came. Written on my network intel was the report he managed to gain while I was away, and the content really wasn't less important than the news about Yoro's recovery yesterday night.
"Rumour about an upcoming demon invasion…. ah this world is getting more and more problematic as I turned more and more older."
I couldn't hold my n-th sigh today. Well, I might as well grow one or two white hairs by tomorrow.