On a certain morning in a certain mansion, a young man was stirring awake.
The room was quite large, as big as a small house, and spacious. The walls were decorated with very beautiful and intricate designs made with lavish minerals. In the room itself, there was a very big wardrobe at the far left corner and at the right there was an equally, if not larger, bed.
The young man got up from his bed with a yawn. He stretched his body then sat up. He looked around his room for some time and his eyes balls stopped on his personal desk.
On his desk, a black book sat lifelessly. The sight of the book drew a smile on the young man's face.
'you're awake'. A voice said. The voice emanated from the black book.
'yeah'. Levi, the young man, telepathically responded.
After discovering the shadow grimoire at the store, Levi managed to escape the shop without a hitch.
He wanted nothing more than to just screw going home and look for a good place to practice 'shadow magic' as the grimoire termed it, but his plans were disrupted as he ran into Mariam, his personal servant, who escorted him back home.
He made plans to leave the house in the night, but he discouraged the idea as the mansion's security was far too tight for a midnight escape, he also thought it wise to rest and postpone his curiosities to the next day–today.
He found it quite hard to sleep the previous night, but he eventually managed it after long hours of sheep counting.
Levi got up from his bed and walked towards the grimoire, he sat on his chair and opened the book. The first thing he saw was [Introduction]. It was a breif introduction from the writer of the shadow grimoire, a person Levi believed to be the last survivor of the extinct shadow clan.
But before he could even start reading the words, a knock came from the door.
"Young master. May I come in". It was Mariam.
Mariam was one of the only remaining people in the entire mansion who still respected Levi. She always referred to him as young master and was very kind and patient with him.
"Come in". Levi replied with a soft voice. He had developed a soft spot for his servant as she always treated him nicely.
The door opened and a beautiful blonde haired girl emerged. The girl had brown eyes and blonde hair. She was bleesed with all the right proportions especially in her chest and in her maid uniform, she looked like a classic beautiful maid from a fantasy hentai.
Mariam walked into the room and was quite surprised to see her young master reading. To her knowledge, he had stopped reading any and all books after his seventh birthday. With her mouth slightly ajar, she just stared at her young master who sat on his chair and had turned around to look at her after the long silence.
"What's wrong?" Levi asked.
"Huh, Oh! It's nothing.....I was just surprised you were reading is all..." She said with flushed cheeks.
Mariam was a maid, but she was no more than sixteen years old. She was brought to the Swordhearth household after his fifth birthday and was tasked with being his personal servant since then.
Levi was by no means ugly, the opposite actually. It was just that his perpetual frown made him seem...unaproachable.
"Oh....so you found it surprising that I was....reading". Levi said while raising his right brow.
"Huh. No! No, it's not like that. It's just that I haven't seen the young master read a book in a long time now and I foolishly assumed that you didn't like them so.....I'm sorry". She said with a bow.
The question had gotten her all flustered and made her think that she had offended her young master. Seeing her reaction, Levi burst into laughter
"Hahahaha!" Her gentle and innocent behaviour was a breath of fresh air for Levi who viewed humans as heartless creatures.
"What...why? Did I say something funny....young master?". She asked, still a bit flustered but relieved at the good nature of her master. She had heard stories of servants getting executed for insulting their masters, whether it was on purpose or by accident.
"No, just....your reaction was priceless. Hahaha". Levi responded while still laughing.
"Uh.....young master!" Mariam said with a pout, which soon turned into a smile as she watched her young master laughing. After all, like any other servant in the estate, she was well aware of Levi's circumstances.
It was good for him to laugh every once in a while.
When Levi finally stopped laughing, he asked:
"So..what did you have to tell me?"
"Excuse me, oh! That!" Mariam exclaimed.
Levi couldn't help but think about how she would have been fired by now, if her master was another person, due to her forgetful nature.
"Your parents requested for your presence at breakfast". Mariam said.
At the mention of his parents, his expression turned sour.
"Tell them that I will be skipping breakfast today". Levi said and turned around to face his book again.
"I am sorry, but the patriarch specifically requested for your presence as he has a special announcement to make. He wants everyone in the family to be present".
"Hmm. A special announcement?". Levi asked and Mariam nodded in response.
'i wonder what's so important that they even need my presence...'
"Tell them that I'll be there. Just have to get dressed". Levi said. Mariam just nodded at him and left to deliver his response.
Levi undressed, entered the bathroom and performed the usual morning hygiene rituals before getting dressed again and making his way to the dining hall.
*****
Levi walked into the dinning hall and there, he saw his parents and sisters already eating. They didn't even bother to wait for him, it was expected.
He took his seat at the other edge, the furthest away from the patriarch–his father. They ate their meal in silence, and after about twenty more minutes they were all finally done. The maids rushed in like a legion to clear the plates and after which, the special announcement was set to commence.
"I have two important announcements to make". Raymond Swordhearth said after wiping his mouth with a napkin.
"The first, I would like to bring to all your notice that I will be leaving town to address the issue of bandits in the north side of my territory.
Normally, I would have just sent some guards but I deemed it necessary to personally attend myself. This way, I can get the job done quicker while sending a message to all other rouge factions". Raymond said and all the members of the family nodded, except for Isabelle.
Raymond Swordhearth was a very powerful individual. He was a swordsman and an S-rank mage with an affinity in fire magic. His mastery of the sword was also excellent as he was given the title of Sword saint by the king of Estia himself. There were only ten other individuals on the continent with this title.
"But father, my birthday is coming up and I really wanted you to be there". Isabelle said with a pout. She was the definition of a spoiled brat and Levi hated it.
'how rude, to talk when the patriarch is speaking'. Levi thought, maintaining his poker face.
"Isabelle! Mind your manners!" Their mother lashed out.
"No, don't worry about it". He said to his wife, then turned to Isabelle before beaming a smile.
"Don't worry my little princess, that's why I want to go there myself and end things quickly. I promise to make it back before your birthday in a months time and I'll bring gifts" Raymond responded his daughter.
'haaa. She speaks rudely at the table, but then her punishment is more gifts....that just sh*t'. Levi thought to himself.
He was the only one thinking this way as even Aina had a disgusted look on her face.
"Ok". Isabelle replied with a smile, allowing Raymond to continue his briefing. She had gotten what she wanted after all.
"The second is that your brother and our son, Alexander, will be returning from the academy for my daughter's birthday in three weeks time". This news wasn't taken lightly and even their mother shocked.
"What!"
"Since when?!"
"Brother's coming back for MY birthday?!"
'its OUR birthday, you damn b*tch'. Levi fumed internally.
Everyone had different reactions, everyone except Levi of course, who maintained his poker face.
The reason for their shock was that Alexander was actually a student in one of the most prestigious magic academies in the entire continent of illustria, the Blackburn magic academy.
It was a magic academy which boasted the feat of making legendary mages, respected for their power and wisdom, out of all their graduates.
If one managed to survive the three hellish years of the academy then they were all but guaranteed to become a high ranking mage and as such, it was a school that was highly sought after by the nobles. They sent their children there in hopes of turning them to successful mages, but the school had a reputation of only graduating an average of ten percent of the initial set.
Alexander had managed to enroll in the school on a freaking scholarship! To gain a scholarship, one had to directly impress the school's principal! And Alex somehow achieved this feat.
The dude had a snobby personality and saw all who couldn't contribute to his development as a hindrance, simply irrelevant and as such, it was quite a shocker that he was coming home for something's as trivial as a birthday party.
"Please be serious honey. You mean Alexander, THAT Alexander, our son Alexander, is coming back for Isabelle's birthday".
"Yes he is, he sent a letter and all". Raymond said while waving an envelope whose seal had already been removed.
They continued small talk amongst themselves, but Levi excused himself and went back up to his room. He was excited to learn more about shadow magic.
'Alright. Let's see what this is about'. Levi thought as he sat down on his desk, the book on his table right in front of him.
He read the introduction page.
[Before I begin, I believe congratulations are in order. For you to be reading this, it means that you are the chosen inheritor of the shadow clan's legacy and I congratulate you. In this book, you will be learning about shadow magic in it's entirety, from the basics to the intermediate to the more higher classes, all the knowledge of the entire clan are stored in this book. I used quite a lot of my own life force to enchant it, giving it a self as well as few other capabilities which you will discover as you go on. You have probably already seen the memory fragment I left behind and I am sure that you have a lot of questions, but I promise that if you manage to finish this book all of your questions will be answered. May the blessing of the shadow god be with you!]
Levi read the book and couldn't help but question the 'other capabilities' the writer mentioned, but he was even more curious that his answers lay at the end of the book.
He flipped the pages to the last and what he saw next shocked him. The pages were blank.
'what the...is this some kind of joke?!' he said while flipping through the book again, and he discovered that all the pages aside from the [Introduction] and [Chapter 1] were completely blank.
'it's not. Did you expect to just gain all the knowledge from the get-,go, of course not. Learning is a systematic process and this book is enchanted to follow said process. You will unlock the hidden information, if you master the available information and clear the objectives'. The grimoire said.
At that moment, Leone realized his own foolishness. Did he really think information was that easy to get, if it was then why would people go to school.
With a deep breath, he turned to the [Chapter 1] page and read it's title. It read:
[Chapter 1–Understanding Aether].