King Solomon and his wife Karin have tried multiple times to play with their son and teach him how to speak. Everytime they tried, Khaleed only seems to get annoyed and tries to push them away. Khaleed would only allow his parents to feed, clothe and clean him. His parents decided to stop trying for now, and only give the child what he needs. Sadly, it seems that the child might really be mute. He also seemed to hate when people are noisy around him.
King Solomon, frustrated, decided to meditate and cultivate his mana. He is pushing his mana outside his body, but at the same time he is controlling the mana such that a thick and dense aura is formed outside his body, a few inches above his skin. This is a fundamental mana training technique commonly used in the kingdom of Philippe.
To his surprise, the child was looking at him intently. On his own, he crawled towards king Solomon and touched his arms. It looked like the child was trying to touch his mana aura. It seems impossible, but the child is already able to see his aura. Children should only be able to do this once they have learned the meditation technique. This child might really be a prodigy, he thought to himself.
Seeing how interested his child becomes when he is meditating, he started meditating in the child's room every night. This is the only thing that he feels connects him with his child because playing with him does not appeal to the child.
When the child was already 2 years old, king Solomon again meditated in his room. To his surprise, the child copied his sitting position. Khaleed was trying to control his mana the same way his father was controlling his mana. The child continued doing this everytime his father came to meditate and form a mana aura.
One night, Karin woke up from her sleep. To his surprise, khaleed was in a meditating position, trying to make a mana aura on his own.
For a year, khaleed would keep on meditating, only stopping to eat and be cleaned. After eating or cleaning, he would always be found in the meditation position trying to make a mana aura. His parents were worried but didnt know how to handle khaleed. Khaleed seems special in their eyes. He seems to have both the negative and positive meaning of the word "special"
At 3 years old, Khaleed was already able to form a mana aura.
At 4, he was able to walk and perform other tasks while continuously forming a mana aura around him. This was a multi-tasking skill that is straining to all mana users, and is usually done for only a few minutes for training. Khaleed maintains his mana aura all the time, except when he is asleep. An impressive feat that people close to the royal family have started to notice.
This was a skill not even his brother, also proclaimed to be a genius, was able to do yet. His brother, Ragnar, currently 10 years old was known to be a genius and known to have great potential in magic and swordsmanship. He is the next in line for the throne. The people of Philippe have high expectations for Ragnar, and expect him to bring their kingdom back to its glory.
Outside of the royal family and the people close to them, nobody has any information regarding Khaleed. All of their focus were on Ragnar and his developments. The main reason the royal family didnt let other people know much about Khaleed was because he was mute. This might cause people to lose respect for the royal family. Another reason is to avoid politicians and opportunists to pick a side between Ragnar and Khaleed in the succession of the throne, considering that Khaleed is showing intense potential in magic.
Even the tutors, knights and advisors of the queen, the first wife, Astrid, and Ragnar didnt seem to notice Khaleed. They might not have noticed, but Astrid and Ragnar slowly did. They saw glimpses of Khaleed roaming the castle while maintaining a mana aura.
Jealousy and insecurity filled Ragnar everytime he sees his brother. He uses it as a motivation to excel in all aspects of his life; education, swordsmanship and magic. He may not be a prodigy like Khaleed, but due to the love of the kingdom and their expectations from him, he worked hard and was very disciplined.
Astrid told Ragnar " you should bond with your brother always, and if a chance appears, an accident happening to your brother might not be so unfortunate for you, me and the kingdom"
Ragnar obeyed his mom and tried to bond with his brother from time to time. Ragnar appeared to be very cold to his brother, but inside, even though he is filled with jealousy and insecurity, he loved his brother. Not once did he think of harming his brother, but he couldnt let his mother know that because he also loves his mother and he understands her pain of king Solomon having another family. He secretly read his books to Khaleed everytime they bonded. To his surprise, his brother always seemed to be interested and listened to him intently always.
After a few weeks, his brother would always look at books. Nobody knew if he was reading or understood them, but he was always looking at them and looked like he was reading them. He had a mana aura formed while reading which is incredible considering the strain it is to multitask doing reading and focusing on formaning a mana aura.
Khaleed still didnt talk. Nobody knew, but Khaleed was actually not mute. He hated noise. He hated talking the moment he was born and heard the sound his mom made during his birth. At that moment, he already had thoughts of not speaking because it was annoying for him. No other new born child should have any thoughts when they are born, but he did.
He started to get fascinated by the books his brother read him. He loved reading about the story of their God, Amek. The religion and their belief. How it ties to their race and affinity to fire. He also loved reading books about fire magic, and would practice the basics on his own. He would dream and fantasize of being a knight for their religion and spread their influence across the continent.
From time to time he visits the training of his brother with other children their age. At that point, it was already clear to him that he was special. He believes he already is more capable than all of them. His father already told him the same. King Solomon asked him to hide his talents for his brother. He didnt understand his father's reasoning, but he obeyed because he loved his brother Ragnar, and always felt grateful that he taught him about books.