White Horse City was a beautiful place, with white walls and red tiles, green grass and blooming flowers.
Hill slowly walked towards the castle. Today he would become an adult and then bid farewell to this city forever.
Hill's identity was a bit awkward. His father, Earl Pelast, had married three wives, each giving birth to a son, and Hill was the middle one.
According to the rules of the Saral Kingdom, non-firstborn sons had to take a portion of the family estate and leave at the age of sixteen.
The mother of the eldest son, Manton, came from a noble lineage. As the daughter of Duke Kral, she had a substantial dowry. Unfortunately, she had a frail constitution and died shortly after Manton was born.
With such a powerful maternal side, the Earl had to be careful when choosing his second wife.
Unwilling to just choose from the lower nobility, he set his sights on Melanie, the daughter of the Court Archmage Obstan Fran, who was not part of the noble system.
Melanie, a fair-skinned, beautiful mage, was deeply attracted to the Earl with her long, golden waterfall-like hair.
And Earl Pelast, handsome, wealthy, romantic and passionate, quickly won over the innocent and beautiful mage, thanks in no small part to the court women's encouragement. She soon decided to marry him, but regretted it within two years.
The entire Earl's Castle rejected this female mage; everyone believed she would harm the eldest son, Manton, including the husband who claimed to love her the most. After Hill's birth, he was even more guarded against her.
However, no one anticipated that there was no room for petty intrigue in the world of mages. Melanie threw herself into alchemy, bought a manor outside the town, and moved there with her son, never to see her husband again.
Before he was twelve, Hill saw this so-called father only during the annual New Year banquet. Unfortunately, when Hill was twelve, Melanie's alchemy experiment failed, resulting in a spell backlash that led to her death a few months later, forcing Hill to return to the Earl's Castle.
Earl Pelast was indifferent to this son and quickly focused on selecting a third wife. He no longer dared to marry another proud female mage after twelve years of ridicule from the nobility.
Eventually, Pelast chose the baron's daughter, known for her great intellect, beauty, and elegance, who gave birth to a third son, Edgar, two years ago.
The castle's inhabitants finally returned to their familiar routine. The young, beautiful new wife postponed Manton's coming-of-age ceremony from sixteen to after twenty. Manton, being far from a formal knight, had no one to blame but himself.
Most people pursue comfort and enjoyment when there's no pressure, only pushing themselves when under stress. So, Manton began rigorous daily training.
Hill, however, was determined to leave, but if fourteen years later, a thirty-something Manton still hadn't become a knight, Edgar's eligibility for inheritance rights would be in question.
Of course, should the Earl meet an untimely demise before then, Hill could return to claim the title. After all, among the next generation, Hill was the only one above knight level.
To minimize trouble and maintain some peace, Hill rarely used spells in the castle, allowing everyone to believe he was still just an apprentice.
Manton had tried to win Hill over, but his clumsy tactics were easily rebuffed by Hill, who assumed an aloof and cold demeanor, merely waiting for his inheritance. Observing him for a while, his stepmother concluded he truly wanted to leave, ceasing her surveillance.
Hill spent his days in the castle's study, until last night when he suddenly received a message from his maternal grandfather, who had never contacted him directly before.
He rushed to the manor that night. Sensing his mage-level spiritual power, the cold mage was satisfied and handed Hill a storage ring, departing without giving Hill a chance to speak.
Hill called after his grandfather for a long time without response, frustratedly packing up the manor and collecting his mother's belongings. The storage ring was large, filled with many magic books.
He understood that the mage profession involved a lot of self-study; after his mother introduced him to it, he needed to read and learn more. Fran's approach was not wrong.
As a grandfather, Fran's love manifested in the ring, filled with precious materials, a large amount of gold coins, enough books to fill a library, and the most important high-level materials for constructing a Magic Tower, something Hill couldn't buy even with money.
But! Hill lamented in his heart: "Dear grandfather! I am a sorcerer! I don't even know about my own bloodline!"
Yes, after years of meditation, nearing the path of a mage, Hill took an unexpected turn, awakening as a proud earth-wood-water sorcerer. Perhaps it was the time travel that caused the twist; in his previous life, he worked in civil engineering, and in this life, he added water to his abilities after awakening.
In Hill's spell list, Mud into Stone and Fossil into Mud were prominently listed, followed by summoning earth elements, wood elements, and water elements. Sandwiched in between were Earth Shield, Earth Movement, Slow, Natural Growth, Summon Nature Companion, and Purification.
Hill knew his bloodline was exceptional. Not everyone could possess so many spells immediately upon awakening as a sorcerer. Furthermore, ever since awakening, his body had grown stronger day by day, harboring immense strength despite its seemingly frail appearance. As a sorcerer, his power almost rivaled that of a formal knight.
During his awakening, Hill vaguely saw a giant bear roaring to the heavens. He knew his main bloodline must be of the bear kind. The Bear Clan was primarily earth-based, requiring a complementary bloodline for coexistence. Thus, Hill continually pondered what could combine with an Earth Bear to produce an earth-wood-water descendant.
He was intensely curious about his bloodline, unable to find clues despite reading all the books in the castle and manor. Finally, a potential source of knowledge, the Archmage, appeared but yielded no results.
Instructing the manor's housekeeper, Lina, to pack his belongings and wait for him at the manor's gate, the frustrated Hill walked back to the castle in the morning light.
Earl Pelast had not yet risen, and only Manton, accompanied by a few bastards, was vigorously training. Hill ignored them and went straight to his room to pack.
A few days ago, the steward had conveyed the Earl's intentions to him—giving Hill two choices: a lord with a small fief within the earldom or a baron with no fief but holding a pioneering decree. He chose the baron without hesitation. What a joke! Staying in the earldom would mean endless troubles, whereas magic and alchemy were far more appealing. Hill had no desire to endure such pain.
No one in the Earl's Castle knew Hill was a sorcerer. Low-level mages were not uncommon among the nobles, as becoming a mage required a lot of time and countless resources. With the Earl's cold relationship, Hill, unlikely to receive significant inheritance, was not valued.
But if he were known as having inherited a bloodline, he'd surely be made to marry into another great noble family to breed heirs.
Hill only wanted to escape as far as possible and find a place to hide until he became an Archmage.
After packing his room, Hill didn't have to wait long before the steward arrived, requesting his presence downstairs. The Earl, his wife, and all family members were waiting to have breakfast with him. Hill slowly descended the stairs, entering a crowded dining hall full of onlookers. Amidst whispered conversations, he finished a breakfast that made his stomach ache, then followed the group to the conference hall.
The Earl stood at the front of the hall, facing Hill among the crowd, and said with a smile, "Dear Hill, my beloved second son, on this important day of your coming of age, I, as Earl Pelast, bestow upon you the title of Baron Polanio,
and as your father, I grant you twenty thousand gold coins and permit you to take all of your mother's estate. May you, as Baron Hill Pelast Polanio, bring further honor to the Pelast Family!"
As soon as the words were spoken, Hill heard the whispers grow louder, as the onlookers couldn't hide their surprise.
The Earl's annual income was about sixty to seventy thousand gold coins. The title of baron without a fief seemed high to commoners, but a real power-wielding earl could bestow one each year, typically used to win over grand knights or purchased by nobles. With no grand knight this year, bestowing the baron title to Hill was normal.
But the Earl didn't even grant his own son a fief! The combined estate Hill received was worth less than two years of the Earl's income.
The Earl thought Melanie's estate was enough to compensate Hill. Though he wasn't afraid of the Court Archmage, he didn't want to cause trouble.
However, he deeply disliked this son, who stood as a testament to his wife's abandonment. As long as Hill remained, Melanie's story would never be forgotten. He definitely wouldn't keep this son in his fief. Hill, being a mage, was sure to choose the baron title over a minor lordship.
The Earl had always assumed that Melanie, just a lowly alchemist, had foolishly caused her own death. Even if she left Hill with an estate, it would be worth no more than ten thousand gold coins, so he generously allowed Hill to keep it after her death.
Hill never wanted the Earl to discover Melanie's true status as a mage with a storage ring before he came of age.
With Manton, a strong maternal-backed eldest son, if the Earl wished to allocate wealth to his other children, he had to portion it from his annual income. Thus, he was reluctant to give Hill much.
The coming-of-age ceremony which should have preceded the division ceremony today was wholly disregarded by the Earl.
Typically, a child splitting from the family would receive substantial compensation at the coming-of-age ceremony.
But Hill had no such ceremony.
Today's actions merely made it clear to everyone that from now on, they need not favor Hill out of respect for the Earl.
Hill didn't care about any of this. He looked indifferently at the hall's shifting atmosphere.
From now on, this place belonged to the new Countess and Manton to continue their war!
Hill only took the twenty thousand gold coins. Edgar and any future brothers would thus be eligible to receive hundreds of thousands.
He saw Manton's eyes suddenly grow sharp, recognizing little brother Edgar as his true enemy from this moment on.
The young and beautiful stepmother's eyes sparkled. Everyone understood that even though Edgar would get a lot, she wanted even more. The Earl's Castle would undoubtedly be bustling in the future, giving the contented crowd sufficient fodder for gossip.
Hill didn't want to deal with these people and matters. Taking the baron documents from the steward, he solemnly thanked the Earl for the title and walked out of the castle, with everyone watching.