The Amaranthine Kingdom is located in the Western Domains of Ouroboros Continent. It is one of the few remaining human kingdom that still stood until today. In the current era, the Amaranthine Kingdom was filled with mages and warriors alike, making it a force to reckon with.
Legend has it that the founding ancestor of the Amaranthine Kingdom was one of the mages who participated in the Great Demon War 500 years ago, against the world's greatest threat, the Demon God, Astaroth. With such a reputation, it was naturally a truly strong human kingdom.
The royal family of Amaranthine Kingdom, the Amaranth Family, was resided in the Royal Estate Palace, a structure that had an unparalleled and marvelous construction, with huge, towering walls surrounding it.
In one of the office located in the right wing of the Royal Estate Palace, were two men having a discussion. One of the men was wearing a luxuriously expensive royal uniform with an insignia attached on his left chest. While the other one has simple clothes.
"What's the update regarding my brother's state?" the royally uniformed man asked. This is actually Caladros' older brother, the first prince of Amaranthine, Prince Liverté Fenwynn Daelithor Amaranth.
"The Prince's condition is finally getting stable after His Majesty the King poured a lot of healing and regeneration resources," the other man replied respectfully.
"Hmm," Liverté nodded his head, sinking into his own thoughts. Someone actually dared to murder the Duchess and attempted to assassinate a royalty. It was truly brave without doubt. His blood was boiling right now because someone actually targeted his little brother.
After thinking for a bit, the first prince finally broke the brief silence.
"Who do you think is the mastermind behind the assassination?"
The man suddenly looked surprise when he heard. After thinking for a bit, he replied, "To be honest, I have no idea right now, Your Highness. But the biggest possibility right now were those conservative old fools from the noble families."
"Oh?" Prince Liverté's eyes lit up with interest. "Why is that?"
"Well," the man hesitated for a bit. "His Majesty the King has been trying to remove and replace old laws with new ones to keep up with the other kingdoms who adopted new strategies for themselves. So—"
"So you think that's the reason why they would assassinate the Duchess and my little brother?" Liverté interrupted.
"Well, I… I don't really know," the man shook his head bitterly. "But whoever is behind this, they are plotting something. It could inflict a damning damage to the royal family if it happened."
"You are right," Liverté nodded in agreement. "So what do you think should we do right now?"
"Do nothing," the man replied without hesitation. "At times like this, what we should do is observe. That's the best thing we can do right now, in my opinion, Your Highness."
"Indeed," Liverté replied. Then, he suddenly remembered of certain someone. "Though I doubt he's just going to be quiet and observe after all that happened."
"You mean, His Majesty?"
"That's right," Liverté touched his chin as he replied. There was no way that old man was going to let bygones be bygones temporarily. After a day or so, he's going to act. After all, his son nearly died because of an assassination. It was inevitable that he'll go crazy because of this.
Liverté just hoped that he's not going to do reckless things that will lead the royal family's status into ruins.
"Anyway," Liverté continued. "I want you to gather information regarding those old fools from the noble families."
"As you wish, Your Highness." the man stood up and bowed to the prince before leaving.
Liverté looked at him, then through the window where he could see the entire of Amaranthine Kingdom.
"Old king, what are you going to do?"
***
Caladros eyes snapped open, the white chandelier hanging on the ceiling appeared in his vision. He appeared to look confuse, as he immediately sat on his bed, staring around like a madman.
Then it hit him.
"This is…my room," Caladros mumbled, removing the blanket covering him. As he got off of his bed, he squinted his eyes as the sunlight filled the room.
"It's been a while, how long has it been?"
Caladros smiled faintly, missing the blue sky and the bright sun that illuminated the kingdom. This was the world he's used to. The world of humans. Well, technically, the world of magic.
"Ah!"
Caladros ears twitched when he heard the noise. He turned his gaze and saw a maid looking at him with shocked expression, her mouth forming "O" shape as she slightly covered it with her hands.
What is this girl's name again?
Caladros remembered that this girl was his personal maid, but he entirely forgot her name. Maybe because 50 years had passed in that red world that some of his uninteresting memories were forgotten completely.
"Y-your Highness, you're already awake?" the young maid said, her voice full of concern. "Y-you should rest, you are still wounded."
"What?" Caladros looked at her, confused. Then he began to check his body but there was no wound or scar on it. "What are you talking about? I don't have any wound."
"B-but…" the maid stammered, looking really confused as well. "You have been stabbed 3 hours ago."
3 hours ago?
Caladros furrowed his brows when he heard this. Only 3 hours had passed in reality? What does that mean? It means that he spent 50 yesrs of suffering and misery in that damnable realm of Astaroth but only 3 hours had passed here.
Thinking of Astaroth, he suddenly fell into deep thought. Legend has it the 6 Supreme Sorcerers and the Divine Hero killed the Demon Titan and Astaroth was sealed. Does that mean the realm he spent 50 years of time was actually the legendary sealing realm? He was even more confused why the Demon Titan still alive. When he first met that creature, he was extremely puzzled.
Caladros sighed and threw those thoughts to the back of his mind. Now's not the time to spend the next few minutes thinking about the Demon God who was beyond his control right now. He should start with something small first.
Thinking of this, Caladros finally replied, "I guess I just have a really good regeneration ability."
It was bullshit, of course. There's no way a magicless person like him could heal from such a near-death stab wound within just 3 hours. Looks like the Demon God helped him accelerate his recuperation process.
"I-is that so?" the maid continued to stammer. "I-I will report this to His Majesty immediately."
Saying that, the maid hurried scrambled open the huge door and left the room. Caladros just stared at this and shook his head. Then, he turned his gaze through the window, where he could see the amazing scenery of the entire Amaranthine Kingdom. Well, not really all, because all he could see was the royal capital. But it was still impressive.
Caladros sat on his bed again, thinking about Astaroth's final gift to him.
Magical core.
An innate object that humans blessed by the heaven gets. Because of magical core, the practice of magic was possible. Every mages in history, even the Divine Hero, all has magical core. Because if one don't have it, they're just an ordinary bastard who can't even do simple magic.
The magical core stores mana, and the capacity of each core still depended on the individual. For example, those of immense talent has vast reservoir of mana in their magical core, easily able to cast mana-heavy spells without being drained. While those with average capacity would need to recover after using one spell.
Magical core also evolves as the mage's level progresses. The quality of mana stored, and the capacity of magical core, will drastically improve as per the principle of magical progression.
Caladros closed his eyes, trying to find something using his consciousness. Something inside the body. A non-physical object placed in his stomach.
After trying to sense it for a minute or so, he finally saw it. A spherical red object floating in the darkness. It was just there, unmoving, as if unbothered by everything that happen outside of it. Its size was as huge as a wall clock. This was his own mana core.
Caladros excitedly opened his eyes, heaving a sigh of relief. His mana core was finally working. His previously defective mana core was now running. He can finally use magic.
However, something still seems bothering him. There was a voice in his mind saying he should take a look at his mana core again, because he might discover something.
Caladros sighed and goes back to sensing his mana core again in that dark world. As he tried to look at it carefully, he actually noticed something. There was a dark sphere just a distance from his mana core. He failed to see it previously because of how perfectly it blended with the dark world. However, now that he took a careful look, he could finally see it. It was like his red mana core, the black sphere was just standing still, unmoving.
"What the hell?" Caladros mumbled as he retracted his senses from his mana core. He rubbed his chin with interest, thinking of possiblities. "So it seems like Astaroth did not merely fixed my mana core. Looks like he put something as well."
As he thought of this, the door burst open as a loud voice invaded his ears.
"My Cal! Your father is here!"
Caladros' expression froze when he heard this. He didn't need to see the person to determine who it was. Just by how he speaks, it was definitely that old man.
"Ah shit."