A rift was formed between the Royals and the Lane family as the king's acts of tyranny was mostly directed at them.
The King ordered the troops to once more expand the borders of the kingdom. Duke Charles saw this as an act of folly and soon realized the reason for the king's actions.
The crown prince, Baldor, was the one who led the troops because Duke Charles stepped down from his position as the general of the imperial army and went back to govern his province on orders of the king. The knolls took note of these changes and made apt preparations for an ambush.
Out of 150,000 soldiers, less than half of them made it back alive with the crown prince Baldor declared dead as he was decapitated in the battlefield.
It is easy to be wise after the event, but the king still remained a fool and ordered another attack. This time, he led the attack himself.
Fortune indeed favours fools. The king was victorious in this battle against the knolls who didn't think that there'd be another attack after their enemy's loss.
After the king returned from the battlefield, he gave the position of General to the head of the Bloom family, Duke Johan. This position helped to elevate their status ranking among the high nobles.
The Lane family seemed to have lost favour with the ruler, knowing the reason for the king's actions decided to leave things be. Their influence in the imperial army and the kingdom reduced, thereby causing their position as the strongest Ducal family to drop. They mostly concerned themselves with matters involving their territory for the next couple of years.
This was all until the birth of Oscar, the son of Charles and Cassandra Lane. The birth of a child always brought joy to the parents and fellow well-wishers but this child showcased brilliance at a young age, learning how to read and write before the average age and possessing an inquisitive nature.
Eager to learn and know almost everything he finds fascinating. However, the first time he saw magic been performed for the first time by his mother. She burned the fields outside the manor. Oscar saw this from the window inside the house then he ran out to meet his mother.
When he came outside, she was already done burning it. He only met the aftermath.
"Mom, how do I do that?"
"Do what?"
"The thing you just did with the fire that went poof!"
His mother laughed while telling him "Ossie, it's called magic. You won't be able to do it till you grow older and awaken."
"But I want to do it now." Oscar grumbled and acted upset but the baby fat on his face only made him look cute.
"Now dear, don't be upset. You haven't had lunch yet have you?"
She switched the topic "Come now, let's go eat." She smiled and took him up from the ground.
"Ugh, Mom I can walk now, I'm not a baby anymore." Oscar complained.
"Haha, You are still my little baby Ossie." She said as they went inside the house. Since then, Oscar tried to do magic. He asked his Dad, the servants and even his relatives about it. They told him the same thing his mother said and laughed it off as the curiosity of a child.
He developed an unhealthy fixation and wanted to replicate it. Even at school, his friends noticed.
In the Vanderhal kingdom, education was divided into four phases: commoners went to a nursery school first while noble children would first get homeschooled. They were to attend a primary school after that, before going through highschool which was divided into junior high and senior high. The last phase of education was an academy, to further their course of study and enhance their battle prowess.
Oscar was still in primary school at this point and was still looking for a way to awaken his powers which could only be possible in eight years time.
When Oscar turned seven he started developing pyromaniacal tendencies, his unhealthy fixation on fire magic evolved into an obsession with setting things on fire. No one noticed this until the day he almost burned down his room with himself in it.
"Dear let me talk to him."
"No, I will do it."
His father sat him down and lectured him on how magic worked.
"Oscar, do you know how magic works?"
"It..."
"Don't answer the question. You might know it in theory but you do not understand the practicality of it.
Magic may mean many things, however, magic is a tool for the user to carry out an operation. It has many functions, be it in healing, strengthening or destruction.
You already know that before you become capable of using it, you would need to awaken your mana core. This can only be done when you're fourteen years old.
The reason why you need a core is because for a mage to perform magic he needs mana. We can't interact with mana without a core also in turn, without mana we can't use magic.
No matter how many things you set on fire, it will yield nothing productive except destruction. You are a smart child Oscar, you should be sensible enough to know what you shouldn't do at this point."
"I am deeply sorry for my actions father. This will not repeat itself again."
"Alright, we are changing your room and moving you to one that has been fireproofed. You've also been banned from having contact with anything considered flammable. Guards will be stationed outside your room to monitor your actions. I hope you understand that this is done for your safety."
"Yes Father."
He felt sorry about what happened but he didn't feel regretful for his actions. How was he supposed to tell them that he sensed something in his being, an inspiration of some sort while burning his room.
Forget about his current punishment he may never be left unsupervised till adulthood.
'I have to find a way to carry out my experiments more discreetly. For now I need to do some research and understand what that feeling was and also how to control it.' He mused to himself.
Oscar went to the library owned by his family. It contained a lot of knowledge on different things but mostly on magic, martial arts and a documentation of the family's history and achievements.
He picked out all books related to the fire element, books like; 'A Beginner's Guide to Magical Energy', 'Learning Flame Control' among others.
"What is mana? Mana is an inherent form of energy present in nature, it is felt by mages who in turn convert it into magical energy from their core…"
"The mana core is what the magician uses to draw mana into themselves for usage, mana is then converted into a usable form by the mage based on their attributes and the…"
"Magic is mostly manifested in form of spells which can be created intuitively or through the use of incantations, the basic spells don't require chanting but the complex ones require chants and hand signs which help the mage in creating stronger variants of the supposed spell…"
"The higher you go as a mage, the less likely you are to invoke magic by chanting as your comprehension of magic deepens and you gain more affinity with the element…"
Oscar felt a bit frustrated while reading.
"All the books only pointed the fact that I require a core to access magic, and to do that I needed to awaken the one in my body. Ugh... I can't wait to grow up. I need to find a way, I felt it the other time. Just need to get the feeling again…this time, without burning my room." Oscar facepalmed, remembering his room was fireproof.
"Please Oscar, could you keep the ramblings to a minimum, some people are trying to read here." A fifteen year old boy that had the features of a bookworm .
"Oh, sorry I didn't mean to cause a disturbance." Oscar replied as he stood up and decided to leave the library.
In the garden at home Oscar tried to imitate an action he read in one of the books in the library. Duke Charles saw his son sitting cross-legged on the ground.
"Oscar, what are you doing?"
"I am meditating."
"Why?"
"To help clear my thoughts."
Oscar gave a random excuse, he couldn't mention anything related to magic or he'll be placed under supervision once more.
"Well then, I'll leave you to it."
Duke Charles was baffled to say the least. His son was out in the garden, sitting like a sage.
'What thoughts does someone of his age need to clear? This boy is amusing.'
"It's not working" Oscar said while sighing.
"I'm not going to give up, I just need to get that feeling and I'll be able to do it, the ability to use fire!!"
Looking at the sky, the seven year old boy held thoughts and fantasies of magical power way above his age.