At the moment, I was in the dining room, seated at the chair right of my father's on the dining table. Breakfast had just finished while the rest of the family had gone to perform their duties father had asked me to stay behind and told me to take the seat on his right. He than starts to address me.
Artur "wendelin you know that today is the day, the magicians of the duke breithild household will be arriving"
The past month had gone by quite fast and the day finally arrived when alfred and berkhart would arrive. I am really excited to meet them. I think this as I reply to my father.
Wendelin "yes father, I remember you said that they will come on the behest of duke breithild to retrieve the bodies and belongings of the fallen soldiers that died in the demon forrest subjugation attempt five years ago"
' How could I even forget I have been looking forward to meeting them from the moment you mentioned that they were coming' I think to myself.
Artur "yes according to the letter sent by duke breithild they should be arriving before lunch time, so we must host them for lunch after which we would discuss business. I need you to go to the hunting grounds and see if you can catch anything for lunch"
Even though both of them are high ranking retainers of duke breithild, they can't just come on our families territory and simply retrieve the armour and belongings of the dead soldiers without getting the lords permission and settling on an appropriate tax rate for any thing they take from our territory while exploring there.
Things like monster corpses, ores, minerals, and even the belongings of the dead soldier will be taxed, even though the belongings of the dead soldiers didn't belong to us, it is present on our property which means if someone wishes to retrieve it, then taxes would be applied to it.
They are probably going to discuss this after dinner.
I nodded at father, after which our talk finished and we both went on our separate ways.
I then went to the to the hunting grounds, in the past year I had become quite familiar with the terrain of the hunting grounds. I had even found a few underground mineral veins with the one the skills I created called 'sonar', this skill basically acted as detection magic but with a range hundreds of kilometers in all directions even underground. I had found viens containing relatively small amounts of gold, silver, iron, brass and even platinum, I didn't tell my family because if I had told them, than they could use these resources to make the territory richer. This would have made things difficult for my plans of inheriting the territory. I created the skill 'master alchemist' which helped increase my natural talent for alchemy and read the books on alchemy in the study and extracted as all the ores from these veins until they became dry and refined them. I than hid them in an artificial cave I created underground so no one would find out.
With my fimiliarity of the area, it didn't take much time for me to catch a boar and two ginea fowl. After that I gathered some wild vegetables and fruits and then thinking that I had enough returned to the mansion. Then I dropped off everything I had gathered in the kitchen for mother and the servants to prepare.
Then I started preparing for alfred and berkharts arrival. I knew that my magic capacity was extremely large, I wanted to be seen as extremely talented, not a complete monster so I created the skill 'anti detection', this skill makes sure only ten percent of my actual magic capacity is detected when some one tries to get a read on my magic capacity, but even with this I had atleast three hundred times more magic power compared to the the adventurer with the highest magic power I had seen, that came to our territory with the merchant caravan. I then wear my best clothes and wait for them to arrive.
I was waiting in the dining room with the rest of my family when I feel two powerful magical signals flying towards our location at a fast speed. A while later a servants walks in and informs us that the guests have arrived. My father than quickly went to greet the guests, and guide them to the dining room.
As father entered the dining room the guests followed behind them, the first man to enter had had silverish grey hair, blue eyes with the look of someone in his seventies, he wore a white button up shirt, black pants and blue magician robes and he looked as if he had been quite handsome in his youth. The man who entered next looked like in his forties, he had an average looking face with black hair and eyes, he wore a black full sleeve shirt with sand colored pants and a black cloak at his back.
When both of them entered they started to look around, as their eyes landed on me and our gazes met, a surprised expression marred their faces. The younger one of the two still kept his suprised face while the older surprised expression turned into a beaming smile as continued to look at me.
Alfred pov
I am Alfred Reinhardt the head mage of the of the duke breithild household. I am considered one of the most excellent mages, being counted among the top two in the kingdom and top three on the continent. Despite being such an accomplished mage, I still haven't accomplished my greatest goal, to find a sucessor capable of learning all the magic I have to teach. Even now when I have grown 104 years old I still haven't found a person capable of learning everything I have to teach. Although I have had many students over the years of my long life, none of them have met the requirements for being my successor.
Two of them did come close they are, Climt Christoph von Armstrong and Berkhart ringsted. Climt though having a higher magic capacity than my own, only had the talent to perform a small selection of magic, while Berkhart had great talent with many different kinds of magic, as well as superb magic control but he lacked the magic capacity necessary to become a truly excellent mage.
Right now I was currently waiting for berkhart at the entrance of my house, I then started to see his figure coming towards my location with half closed sleepy eyes.
Alfred "don't tell me you were out drinking again"
He only gave a small chuckle at my reprimand. 'kids these day have no respect for their elders guidance'. As I was thinking this berkhart starts to speak.
Berkhart "come on don't be like that, plus we have an appointment to keep right so lets get going"
Hearing berkharts words, I nodded and telepoeted us to baumeister fiefdom.
Our employer duke breithild had tasked us to retrieve the belongings of the soldiers that died in the campaign five years ago.
But before that we needed the permission of the current lord of that fiefdom and also settle on a tax rate. Though I haven't seen the baumeister mansion, so I teleported to the closest location and we fly the rest of the way.
As the baumeister mansion came into site, I start sensing an incredibly large magic signiture, this magic signature was a few times greater than my own. I then look towards berkhart and he seems to have sensed the same magic signiture. I am now curious to just who this is, this persons magic signiture is different from any any other person I have felt.
At this moment I can't help but think' is it possible that this person is the one I am looking for, my successor '
In a few minutes we reach the baumeister mansion and were led to the dining room by the lord of the baumeister house. I could sense that the magic signiture was coming from the direction of the dining room as well so I followed him quitely for now. As I entered the room my eyes swept across all the people in the room until my eyes landed on a child, who from his appearance looked seven years old at this moment a beaming smile made its way onto my face as I think ' he might be the one'.
Wendelin pov
My father than invited both alfred and berkhart to join us, and then ordered the maids to start serving lunch.
They took the chairs at fathers side which had been left empty for them. The maids then start to serve the food.
All of us then started to eat, after a while alfred lookes towards father and started to speak.
Alfred " all the dishes are quite good, especially the boar and the ginea fowl, they must have been difficult to catch"
'he is trying to make small talk', I think to myself. Father than replied.
Artur " I wouldn't know, the one who cought them was wendelin my youngest"
My father spoke pointing his fork, which was in his right hand towards me. Alfred than looked at me with a smile on his face and continued speaking.
Alfred " I see, so your youngest , wendelin is a mage than as well"
When my family heard this every one except father, mother and erich looked at me with a surprised expression.
'so father, mother and erich had already guessed it', I think to myself, I had already guessed they might, since I wasn't trying to hide it any more.
Kurt than, finally snaping out of his stooper asked alfred.
Kurt "Does wendelin really have magic talent"
Alfred "yes I'm surprised you didn't know, look at your dining table is it really possible for a young child like him to catch two ginea fowl and a boar, the only possible explanation is if he had magic"
kurt than gained an embarrassed look and says while looking towards me.
Kurt "he never said anything about having magic talent and I never saw him performing magic"
Wendelin "It's not like a tried to hide it or anything, its just that no one ever asked, and I didn't see any reason to tell anyone that I could do magic"
I said, while lying through my teeth. Alfred than started to speak to my father while glancing at me from time to time.
Alfred "knight artur if you allow it, I would like to take wendelin with me and make him my students"
'yes, yes, yes, he is going to take me as his student', I start thinking this excitedly. I'm not gonna lie I was slightly afraid at first that he might think that I'm too young or that he wouldn't want to take me as his student, but it looks like alfred personality is the same as in canon, I was contemplating this while my father started to speak while looking towards me.
Artur "why do you want to make wendelin your student?"
Alfred " I as an experienced and powerful mage can sense the magic talent of other people and wendelin has an incredible talent for magic"
Artur " I see in that case, I leave the decision to wendelin, if he chooses to go with you I will not stop him"
Kurt hearing this makes a sour expression and immediately speaks out.
Kurt "father if wendelin has a talent for magic shouldn't we use it to develop our territory"
Hearing this alfred becomes distressed but my father's next words serve to relieve him.
Artur "no kurt, this is wendelins choice"
'kurt that idiot!, father is trying to do him a favor and he doesn't even realize it', I think to myself. If the people find out I could use magic than things would probably spiral into a civil dispute, I was contemplating this as alfred's snap me out of my thoughts.
Alfred "so what do you say wendelin, and before you answer you should known that I am considered among the top 3 mages on the continent and I can help you become an excellent mage in the future, if you're willing to put in the effort"
Wendelin "I humbly accept your offer and thank you for giving me the opportunity to become your student"
I replied with a beaming smile, to which alfred replied with a smile of his own and even berkhart who was quitely eating all this time, gained a smile on his face. But then my mother started to speak while looking at me with a worried expression.
Johanna " wendelin don't you think that you're too young to leave home"
Wendelin "I'm going to have to leave sooner or later mother. I simply can't pass up such a good opportunity"
Johanna "I see, in that case make sure to take care of yourself"
She said in a defeated tone to which I nodded.
'it makes me sad to see her like this but it can't be helped', I thought .
After that, the rest of the lunch past by in silence. After which everyone left except artur, kurt, alfred and berkhart who stayed behind to dicuss the reason for their visit.