18th Julias, 5678
"Hey, William, what are you thinking about right now?" Zack asked as he nudged the shoulder of the white-haired boy standing beside him.
Zack was currently donning a grey tuxedo and grey pants, which nicely complimented his grey eyes, along with a plain white shirt and a silver tie.
Standing beside him was a white-haired boy who wore a single-breasted white suit with white pants nicely complementing his white hair and a red shirt with two black shoulder straps with white lines going from his shoulders all the way to the end of his shirt, which nicely complimented his stunning gem-like red eyes along with a plain golden tie.
Both the boys standing together looked stunning despite their young age and screamed of their noble lineage, with a bunch of young maidens glancing their way, hoping to catch the attention of at least one of them.
These two boys were Zack and William, who were standing in a corner. William was holding a glass containing a red liquid containing what appeared to be a wine of some kind, which he drank, looking lost, unaffected by the music or the voices of everyone else around him.
On a second glance, one might be able to see that the glass in Williams's hand wasn't wine; it looked more like pomegranate juice, which he was slowly savouring, almost as if it were wine, which gave the illusion.
Finally, after hearing Zack's voice and being shaken a bit, he broke out of his own thoughts as he answered.
"A-uh, nothing!" William exclaimed.
Right now, Williams mind is filled with thoughts of how he told Zephyr about going to the neutral continent with him and completely forgot about his fake birthday party.
He was born on 11th Julias, 5668, but due to their being a divine thunderclap on that day, many people might get suspicious of him.
Due to this, his parents told everyone that he was born a week later than he actually was, on the 18th instead of the 11th. They even delayed news of his awakening for 4 whole years and announced that he had awakened at the age of 4, which was more than enough to make a mess throughout the kingdom, with almost everyone praising him as a once-in-a-century genius. The fact that his father was the strongest man in the Karka kingdom only made things worse.
And to sell the lie even more, his parents hosted a grand birthday celebration on the 18th every year, inviting all the nobles and influential figures in Karka Kingdom and neighbouring kingdoms.
There were 6 total kingdoms on the human continent; 5 of them were handled by nobles, with the last one belonging to royals who rule the whole continent, due to which it's the most prosperous and rich kingdom.
Another thing that makes the Royal Kingdom so special is the fact that the first ever portal to Morgov opened there. Now, a bunch of other portals have been replicated and created in other places using spatial mages, but the one in the Royal Kingdom is still the biggest one.
The royalty of the human continent are descendants of Zephyr, so they're all very talented at magic, and they all have striking blond hair and eyes, just like Zephyr.
Their surname is Leonard, but no one knows if that was actually Zephyr's surname too, or did they make it up?
William had tried to ask Zephyr this question before, but he refused to answer, saying that it's dangerous for him to know his name.
After vanquishing the demon king and saving the world, Zephyr separated different races on different continents, giving all of them appropriate land and resources to maintain peaceful relations with them.
The URF was responsible for maintaining world peace as it had members and representatives of all races.
As for Zephyr, he became the emperor of the human continent and ruled for hundreds of years before he ascended to godhood.
In his lifetime, magic was considered weaker than swordsmanship or other martial arts due to the only way of casting magic being the chanting method, which required around 20–60 seconds for a spell, making it very impractical for actual combat.
But Zephyr made and popularised the chantless method, allowing mages to instantly cast spells that, though weaker compared to their chanting method counterparts, were far more appropriate for combat.
He also made countless new spells, proposed countless theories regarding magic, and solved many pre-existing problems with magic.
Before making the modern-day version of magic, which is considered equivalent to, if not superior to, martial arts.
Throughout history, he's indisputably the individual responsible for making magic as great as it is today, with many naming him the 'Great Sage'.
Zephyr also had many achievements outside of magic, such as solving the issue of beggars and unemployment throughout the human continent, which sadly, his successors couldn't maintain throughout the years, making these things a problem once again in modern society.
But due to his countless such achievements as well as saving the world, many call him 'the boy who changed the world'.
This was probably also the reason why the memoirs had a giant castle and Zephyr chose to sit on a throne, as he really had an obsession with ruling and being in a position of power.
He had already celebrated his birthday with his parents on the 11th; it was a very fun experience to get to spend time with them, and his parents had gifted him a skill book containing [Heavy Hit] and an A-rank shield that could reflect energy-based attacks. Of course, it had some limits, but it was still very useful, so William fed it to Shadow Slime so he could have some defensive options.
Right now, he was just waiting for the party to be over so he could depart.
The incident with Zephyr happened three days ago, and it most certainly changed William far more than he could even imagine.
At this point gone were all his other thoughts; he just wanted to become strong and wipe that smug grin off Zephyr's face.
"Bro, stop zoning out; what are you even thinking with such a serious expression on your face?" Zack asked, looking annoyed.
"Ye, I'm sorry, I got distracted," William quickly apologised, realising his own mistake.
Ever since that incident, William has developed a tendency to get lost in his own thoughts.
"Why are the two of you just standing here?" A cute and soft voice asked from behind them.
Once William turned around, he was greeted by a cute, short, black-haired girl in a black gown and black heels.
It was Lilly Zack's little sister and William's childhood friend.
Karka kingdom was governed by four counts: the Verheins, Shadowhearts, Flamewells, and Luther family.
Both Zack and Lilly were children of Count Shadowheart, and as such, they were the successors of the family.
Count Shadowheart, just like Rex, only had one son, so thankfully for them, there wasn't any sort of battle of successors.
Old William really enjoyed teasing her, and the current William was also the same.
"I was just asking Zack why you're so short." William retorted in a teasing tone with a smirk on his face, a sight that would be enough to smite the hearts of many young maidens.
However, Lilly didn't care about his charms, as she replied.
"Just wait; I'll one day be taller than you, and then we'll see who's laughing." She replied with a cute pout, clearly affected by the comment on her height.
William just smiled calmly as he replied.
"Sure shorty"
"Jerk," Lilly replied.
"Anyways, what are you doing, Lilly? Wanna hang out with us?" Zack asked
"Sure, also, I just wanted to ask you guys about the blonde girl over there who keeps stealing glances at William," Lilly said as she pointed towards a cute blonde-haired girl standing a bit further away from them.
Hearing her comment, William finally saw the blonde-haired girl whom his father had tried to engage him with a while back.
Ciara Fiel, the daughter of Duke Fiel, was also someone whose talent in magic was only second to his own.
Looking at her, William remembered his first meeting with her.