Four more years later. I was 34.
Half of my original territory and the new city already belonged to Viscount Rushford. In return, he gave me five magic stones. It was a bad deal for me, but I didn't have more time to spend because I had to send my son to learn magic.
I managed to buy three more magic stones at the auction of my own guild, and I got one by accident. Given the three crystals from Delric's corpse, there are a total of 12 magic crystals.
Kyle was already 11 years old, but he had not yet reached the boundaries of the breakthrough to the Knight's Apprentice, and this began to bother me a little.
Although it took me about 10 years, Kyle's technique was more effective than mine, and I tried to give him everything I could to speed up the process. I started to feel like he was missing something. Most likely I will have to arrange a serious test for him. He would be too helpless if he went to the Magic World without at least being a Knight's Apprentice.
For this reason in recent years I have become more and more demanding of him. Like me, he committed his first murder at the age of 10.
I locked Bertram in my estate and left a bunch of people to guard him. For some time now, all things from the warehouses of pawnshops and auctions in the city of Harin were packed in ordinary boxes and sent to the estate for Bertram to check.
Using mental energy, he checked for the presence of something in the boxes that had magical elements or mental energy, these boxes were put aside, and the rest returned to the warehouses. My people followed the whole process. In this way, Bertram continued to do the work for me of finding unusual things, but he himself did not have access to them without my permission.
If someone returned trying to redeem what was left in the pawnshop, he was given compensation in 10 times the amount.
Bertram himself was happy with his life, I had a lot of money, so he lived in a big way and got everything he wanted.
We have already collected a lot of information about various studies of magicians, alchemy, formations, spells and much more. Unlike actual magic items, these records could always be copied, so even the royal families didn't mind selling the information for a price. So Bertram had something to do.
Of course, for example, the spells of Mages of the 0th rank were usually transmitted not only through notes and explanations, usually in the spell book there was a special mental template for transmitting information similar but how the meditation technique was transmitted. Thanks to this, it was possible to recreate the model of the spell in mind without any problems.
If only theory and practice were used, it could take years of trial and experimentation to build an actual complex model of a spell. For acolytes this could end badly, so it was usually the True Mages who did this.
Nevertheless, the stock of Bertram and me gradually expanded.
Kyle and I recently went to the nearest collection point for a talent test, a trip that should have taken about a year. Of course, for insurance, I took a lot of people with me.
Along the way, I continued to train and beat Kyle, and also forced him to participate in battles with bandits and not only, still under my supervision.
Our relationship was no longer as warm as in his early childhood, but I didn't care. Let him hate me is much better than if he grows up a helpless piece of meat.
On the way, Kyle finally managed to break through to the Knight's Apprentice, which made me incredibly happy and my attitude towards him immediately warmed up.
By my 35th and Kyle's 12th years of life, we finally hit the mark. The target was a special border. It seemed that a simple forest suddenly ended in fog, but this fog was constantly seething and moving at great speed under the influence of the wind.
Along the perimeter of the border there were already many carriages with various coats of arms, accompanied by soldiers.
I already knew that this border stretches for kilometers, so it's quite difficult to block everyone who wants to get to it.
One of the Dukes ordered a rather young guy about 25 years old to cross the border and he was almost immediately torn to pieces, some of his remains mixed with blood were even thrown out of the border for all to see.
This was a fairly large-scale formation that remained active even before and after recruiting students. True, judging by the stories of other nobles, this magical formation had different modes of operation.
Now it supposedly killed only those who were over 18 years old, which I just clearly saw and felt a certain bitterness. My chance to become an apprentice of Mages was given long ago. Won't even be able to see them with my own eyes.
Within this formation children, simply by moving forward, will gradually reach a small camp of acolytes, who will conduct tests for talent, mental energy level and affinity with the elements. If someone turns out to be too mediocre, nothing good awaits him inside, he will be able to return alive only if he leaves his magic stones to the acolytes, and then not always.
Then the children will be taken to a teleportation formation that will send them millions of kilometers towards the north, where they will be assigned to magical organizations depending on various factors.
True Magicians are not eager to spend several years of their lives guiding students, no matter how talented they are. Therefore, teleportation formations had been built for a long time and almost all issues were resolved by acolytes.
Of course, if the organization did not have enough fresh blood, True Magicians could well appear in person. After all, it didn't take them that long now.
I knew all this because, although infrequently, some still came back and recounted all their experiences.
Gradually, the children were sent one by one over the barrier to be given final instructions. These children were not attacked and gradually disappeared into the fog. Soon, Kyle and I approached the barrier.
I sighed and looked at Kyle. At his 12, he was already quite strong and well-built, although he still looked like a teenager. He was handsome in his own right, but combined with those amazing red eyes and hair, he was eye-catching wherever he went.
- Well, brat, it's your turn. But remember, if you dare to return without becoming a Magician, I will personally kill you. - I said patting him on the shoulder.
- What if I become a Mage and kill you myself? - Kyle asked calmly looking into my eyes.
- Ahahaha! - I laughed heartily - Great! I will be happy to die by your hand, the main thing is that you have enough strength to do that.
- Maybe it's time to tell me about my mother? I think I have a right to know who she was and what happened to her.
The smile quickly disappeared from my face. I kicked my son in the stomach and he flew out of the barrier.
- Get out! A worthless weakling like you has no right to anything! - I told him after.
Kyle got up and took one last look at my pissed off face before turning around and disappearing into the mist.
He got all 12 magic stones that I had, maybe he will need extra ones. I also gave him a vial of strength potion and a couple of other useful things. I did everything I could for him. Even though I deprived him of a normal childhood, I did enough so that Kyle could now forge his own path as he wants.
As I calmed down, I felt the heavy weight of the promise Isabel had lifted from my shoulders. I loved my son, but at the same time, he was the cause of Isabelle's death, which caused me to get angry against my will, these conflicting feelings ate me from the inside.
What happens next was out of my control.
A year later, I returned back to the city of Harin. Although I was only 36, after Isabelle's death, I gradually began to turn gray and now most of the hair on my head has already turned white.
Nevertheless, the fire of ambition still burned in my eyes.
Back at the manor, I called Farez, Jaden and Sellinger.
Farez was still in charge of the guild's questions.
Jaden remained the leader of the bandits and the shady business.
Among the children, Sellinger was one of the most talented and trustworthy, I had long ago begun to secretly teach him the technique of the Knight and left him to guard the estate.
During my absence, nothing serious happened, so soon I was checking all the magic boxes that Bertram had managed to check in two years.
Opening them one by one, I sorted them by type, and if I didn't know their purpose, I put them aside to show them to Bertram. However, all these years, I was primarily looking for a meditation technique.
These were usually transmitted through disposable spheres in the form of magic balls, but in theory it could be a book or something.
Some Magicians returned to this part of the continent leaving legacies to their descendants, as in the case of Bertram. If there was no one worthy among the current descendants, they could simply leave the meditation technique and order it to be passed only to a worthy descendant in the future.
And that was just one of the options.
In any case, one of the boxes contained a rather bulky mechanical watch, someone clearly in need of money to bring something so unique to the guild.
The mechanical watches themselves were very rare and cost a lot, but I knew that these watches could not be ordinary because Bertram had already tested all the things from these boxes. Looking at them from all sides, I did not notice anything unusual, so I carried them to Bertram.
Bertram bathed with young beauties in an artificial pool, which was one of his requirements.
- Old pervert, you got a work to do. - I said gloomily.
- Sam! Finally back, how was it?
- It's okay, Kyle must have become an acolyte by now.
- Definitely! The child is clearly unusual. Okay I am coming out now.
We soon met in Bertram's drawing room.
- By the way, I managed to create a simplified formula for a speed potion, I even managed to create one, look. - said Bertram proudly.
- In case you forgot, I also read all the information that you receive, I remember very well that I gave you a similar recipe, so you have not invented a damn thing.
- I don't care, I made small changes to it, so now the recipe is mine haha. - Bertram retorted shamelessly.
Bertram and I have been working together for almost 14 years, he was already 44 and he was trying to break through to an acolyte of the 3rd rank.
Soon he was inspecting mechanical watches.
- Hmm, I feel mental energy, but it comes from somewhere inside. - Bertram gave an assessment.