The air felt heavy with tension in the corridors of House Smith. Whispers started to spread. Servants would lower their gaze and walk slowly whenever Logan passed by them. Whenever Alice was around Logan, she watched him with worry…not for herself, but for him.
She didn't want him to be in more trouble because of his talent.
"He shattered Darius's ribs with a palm strike!" One young female servant whispered with awe in her eyes as she was cleaning the dust of a window.
"Isn't he only nine? Even his mana is sealed. Then how come?" Another servant working beside her added.
"Who knows? Even the elders of the house are puzzled." The female servant giggled.
"What are you laughing at? This is serious. Is he even human?" The other servant looked a bit terrified.
And as always, fear gave birth to stories.
"Maybe he is using something wicked or some forbidden technique. Or worse…he could be practicing black magic. So be careful next time whenever you are around him." The servant warned the female servant.
[Black mages are sinners. They worship different unexplainable existences and wield wicked spells. Some are Seers, able to glimpse fragments of the future. They don't just use mana to cast magic. They can use curses, wrath, souls, and blood as well.]
The fear in people's eyes and the whispers around him didn't affect Logan in the slightest. He still maintained his calm and composed demeanour. There would always be whispers…some laced with insults, some with admiration, and others...
with fearful awe.
Like now.
He had become a contradiction. A boy with a sealed mana core, no family support, and no pure noble bloodline. And yet, the same boy had defeated Darius Smith, the likely patriarch of the house Smith in the future, favored son, tri-elemental prodigy.
Not with tricks. Not by accident. But with terrifying power.
Many didn't want to accept this reality, though. They preferred explaining this as trickery or treachery.
But everyone could feel the change, no matter what they told themselves.
The balance of power..... Maybe it had started to shift.
Lord Rudeous's Study – That Afternoon….
Outside, snow blanketed the world in white. And inside. Fire crackled softly in the hearth at the corner. The air was heavy with growing tension.
Abraham was standing awkwardly with stiffness. And while he spoke, his fingers were trembling slightly.
"This… isn't normal," he said. "My lord, please listen."
Rudeous remained silent, staring out the window at the garden, which was bathed in snow.
Abraham paced. "A boy with a sealed core shouldn't be able to do this. No magical enhancements. No spells. And yet…he shattered bones with a mere punch. It will be a mistake to brush it off as just talent. I am sure he has something up his sleeve. Something dangerous."
Rudeous finally spoke with a flat voice. "Such as?"
"There are many wicked people who use black magic," Abraham said urgently. "I think, he might be…"
"He might be my son," Rudeous interrupted calmly. "And he won a duel just with strength. One that Darius demanded."
"But what he did is impossible to achieve!" Abraham insisted. "He didn't just defeat Darius. He broke his ribs. With just a punch. That's not possible for any normal human without using mana."
Rudeous turned toward him with a calm and unreadable expression. "And that's why you think he's a threat."
"I think he could become one. And even if he means no harm… others won't see it that way. The royal family and other noble families. And what about the Stevens family? What happens when they learn a boy with a sealed core defeated their blood in a duel?"
Rudeous kept staring at the fire for a while, Logan's expression still lingering in his thoughts — calm, confident, but without ego.
"I'll handle it," he said at last.
Mirena's Quarters – That Night.....
Mirena stood by the window, rage burning inside her. In the next room, Darius lay swathed in bandages. Totally silent and humbled now.
"How could Rudeous dismiss this?" she hissed. "My son was humiliated — not just in front of his family members, but many from other noble families were present as well. How could Rudeous brush it off like it was nothing!"
Adlan, her cousin, watched from the side. "Be patient, sister. Don't act ra—"
She cut him off. "Do you think they'll forget what happened? Those noble brats and guards who watched my son bleeding before a magicless nobody? My son, the heir, defeated by a half-blood joke!
Adlan frowned. "So what do you intend?"
Mirena turned, crossing the room in swift strides. She unlocked a drawer and withdrew a pendant — an iron charm etched with red runes that pulsed faintly in the firelight.
Adlan's eyes widened. "That's a Veiled Circle relic… You promised never to use..."
"I know what I promised," she said coldly. "But promises are for safe times. This is war."
"You are being too dramatic, sister. It's just a quarrel between kids. And there are eyes everywhere, sister. If someone learns you've kept contact with the Circle..."
"They won't," she snapped. "There's a man in the lower district. A healer. But he owes us. He served the Circle before going into hiding. Show him this, and he will do us a favour in return."
"You want him to kill the boy?"
"No." She smiled wickedly like a devil. "I want him to test that boy. Agitate him. See what he really is. And if the child dies in the process?"
She paused, then said softly, "Then we call it what it is…
An accident!
A magicless child with mysterious power. It won't be questioned."
Adlan hesitated. "And if Logan survives?"
"Then we'll know for certain," she murmured, "what kind of monster we're dealing with."
Logan's Chambers – Later That Night....
Moonlight spilled in slanted lines across the floor.
Logan was sitting cross-legged beneath the frosted window. Breathing slowly in a particular way. It felt like an art, like a rhythm.
He sank into meditation, guiding his Qi with focus. His meridians letting it slide through his whole body.
He recalled the duel while meditating.
The power he'd shown, the gasps, the silence afterward....
"I should've held back more," he whispered. "But I had no other choice. Because Darius wouldn't have stopped until someone from us bled."
Logan had no intention of flaunting his strength. Nor did he want to entertain a child's provocation in the first place. But some things could not be avoided. Letting Darius say whatever he wanted meant allowing him to insult his mother. That was something Logan could never tolerate.
Pretending to be weak and refusing to fight would only have encouraged Darius further.
That was why things unfolded the way they did.
Now he could simply let nature take its own course.
Days started to pass like that.
Until....
Outer Courtyard – A Few Nights Later....
A hunched figure crept through the outer courtyard, wrapped in woolen layers. A satchel hung at his side, clinking with tools and bottles.
He was walking slowly like each step was a measured one.
He stopped beneath a dark tree at the edge of the estate. His eyes scanned the shadows.
Right then….
A voice came from the darkness beyond the hedges.
"I am here."