"Why the hell is this lowly brat here alone again?" Viscount Sauco thought to himself.
He was scheduled to teach them every Tuesday and Thursday.
He thought that after his effort to demoralize the poor baron's son, the child would give up and leave the castle. He even got his relative on standby to recommend him to the Marquis. He just left him in the drawing room to wait.
"What happened to the west part of the castle?" he wondered.
The Viscount also noticed the ongoing construction in the west part of the castle, where the dining area was located. He already knew that Ernesto was grounded and couldn't leave his room. Still, he felt a shiver run down his spine as he thought of the possibility of the young master's sudden punishment being related to the broken walls of the west castle.
"Good morning, Viscount Sauco. Young master Ernesto cannot attend our class again because he is grounded. The Marquis told me to tell you that, in the meantime, our classes will be postponed until his punishment is lifted."
Ndulou calmly explained to his teacher while Viscount Sauco's ears twitched every time he heard Ndulou mention the word "our" in his statement.
"Don't tell me this brat is not leaving at all? How shameless this lowly brat could be!" he said under his breath, while Ndulou maintained his calm and approachable expression.
Viscount Sauco nodded. "Okay, I got it." and he asked, "Anyway, will you still stay here?" as he wanted to verify if he could still make his recommendation.
"Yes, sir." Ndulou politely replied while lowering his gaze. The child was aware of his lowly position but still decided not to leave once he realized what he should do.
Ndulou wanted to pay back what the Marquis and his son did for him—for all the things they graciously gave him, like the opportunity to be educated and for taking care of him. He realized he was misunderstanding the father and son because of their vicious and unapproachable front. He wanted to stay at the castle to take any opportunity that he could to be useful to the Oliva family.
Thinking about his new resolve, he felt that the scornful gaze of others didn't bother him much anymore.
Fortunately, Viscount Sauco peacefully left the castle with no complaint, but he was already forming his own plot to kick out the Baron's child at their next meeting. Not knowing this, Ndulou was satisfied with his meeting with Viscount Sauco and stayed behind to study and learn things on his own.
He planned that before Ernesto's punishment was lifted, he would make sure that he had already studied all the basic knowledge he needed.
"When do you think the Marquis will let Ernesto out?" he asked Lucas. He cannot meet Ernesto while he is being punished. Ernesto was also not allowed to leave his room.
"Maybe for a month?" Lucas was not sure because, the way he sees it, Ernesto was not entirely at fault.
Ndulou leaned back in his chair and worriedly commented, "Surely he will be bored."
"I guess not."
Lucas said nothing out loud, but he didn't think it would bore Ernesto to stay only in his room.
Lucas was right.
While Ndulou was busy with his studies, Ernesto was busy with his magic refinement since his young body was still not fully developed and was still adjusting to the foundation he forced himself to absorb at the blue building in the underground city. His current ranking or state of his magic is in "Flares" form.
They ranked magicians depending on the growth of their fire.
When a magician focuses their mind and mana, they can see a fire burning within their body. Depending on how strong the fire burns, it is equivalent to their magic skill. It doesn't matter what attribute the magician has, even the water and ice attribute magicians can see their own growth of fire.
The lowest and tiniest light of fire are the Sparks: the beginner's magician has them.
Next are Embers: a trainee magician with low mana capacity.
The third rank is Flares: a trainee magician with high mana capacity.
The fourth is the Pre-Flames, usually called Mage: average magicians.
The fifth is Flames: Skilled magicians.
The sixth is pre-Blaze: expert magicians.
The seventh is Blaze, usually called the Master Mage: High-level magicians
Eight is Fiery, usually called the Arch Mage. magicians at the highest level
He cast a unique barrier around his bedroom with the purpose of soundproofing and hiding the presence of his mana while cultivating. He also meditates and exercises his body. When he really gets bored, he uses teleportation magic to stealthily leave the castle.
"haaaa, that's enough for today,"
Ernesto satisfyingly releases his cast for cultivation. He looked at the calendar and said to himself, "Only a week has passed."
Time really runs slow when you watch for it.
"Come to think of it, I haven't seen the Dragon since she left and went home." He suddenly got curious about what the dragon was doing, so he decided to teleport to the forest.
First, he left some markings so that when someone is about to enter his room, he will be notified.
shhhhhhaaaaaa
The strong autumn breeze brushed through Ernesto's long silver-blonde hair. He was in Mayon's forest again, but there was no sign of the dragon Fetahaya.
The forest was still the same except for the additional transparent people, who were now visible in Ernesto's eyes. He tried his best to ignore it because the dragon hasn't taught him how to deal with it yet.
He went to the hidden passage right below the cliff that was full of vines, but the dragon was not in her lair, either. He was about to leave when he looked at the glass orb that he had used before. He wanted to see the glass orb that he had broken multiple times in his past lives.
He already knew the whole path of the dragon's lair and casually walked through the darkest passage within the lair and exited with a warm, bright light from where the glass orb should be placed in the middle. But unexpectedly, even the glass orb was missing.
"Mmn?" He put his hand to his chin and thought, "The dragon is not here, and the glass orb is not here either. Did she use it? But where?"
It puzzled Ernesto about why a dragon that knows how to teleport to almost any point in the world would use a one-time-use glass orb.
"Maybe the underground city?" He tries to guess where the dragon was.
"No, no, that city can be teleported at any time. There is no magic restriction there." Ernesto used the glass orb to teleport into his past lives because he lacked magic skills and was in a rush, but not in the dragon's case. "Hmm. Where could she be?" Without finding the answer, he went back to his room again.
"Oh? Lucas!" Ernesto acted surprised that Lucas was inside his room. "Did my markings not work?"
He closely looked at his magic markings that he left a while ago. They should notify him if someone wants to enter his room. "I think I did well on casting this?" he said, looking at Lucas with sparkling eyes. "As expected for earth spirits!"
Lucas narrowed his eyes as he looked at Ernesto. He didn't know if the young master was making fun of him, but the markings that he left were so weak that he could easily go through them.
"Are you this bored?" he asked instead.
"Of course. Who would not be bored if I could not play with Kuya?"
Ernesto walked closer to his closet to change his inner wear, but Lucas shut the closet door while Ernesto was trying to get his clothes. "You need to go outside, sir," Lucas said with a straight face.
"Why?" Ernesto wondered what had gotten into Lucas because he looked so grim.
"If you don't know this news yet, the dragon annihilated the whole village of McTan."
"Is that something to do with me?" He indifferently responded. It was not his responsibility to do whatever the dragon did. It doesn't matter if the dragon thrashed the whole kingdom, as long as he and his family weren't harmed.
"The royal family is gathering soldiers and manpower to go against the dragon,"
"So?"
Ernesto is a Marquis son, so he can reject it even if they include him on the list, but the thing Lucas informed him of took him by surprise.
"Ndulou is included in the list."
Ernesto immediately let go of the closet door and grabbed Lucas' collar. "What the fuck did you just say?"
"Baron Miyano loves his three sons, who are older than Ndulou. The fourth son is doing important work at the royal library. His two sisters cannot take part because they are female, and the youngest son is too young. That is why Baron Miyano listed Ndulou instead. He had already sent a letter to the Marquis to notify him of his fifth son's participation in defending against the dragon."
"What kind of nonsense! Just one strong wind can blow him out! Why would he? Kuya is too weak!"
Lucas shrugged his shoulders. "Is it because he is the least favorite?"
Ernesto let go of Lucas' collar and immediately cast a teleportation spell.
Lucas fixed his wrinkled clothes and let out a long sigh. "This punk is always running"
After a moment, Ernesto appeared in the middle of a conference room with a large oval-shaped table and several sets of old adults talking to each other.
"Father!" he called out to his father, who was at the far end of the table. A knight and butler, Damian, who loves flying, was sent flying again after they tried to block him.
Jose Oliva maintained his stoic face and reminded him, "Child, you're grounded. You're not allowed here and everywhere outside your room."
But Ernesto ignored Jose's words as he shouted, "Kuya has been enlisted! Do something about that!"