The King’s Kindness Is No More

Vivilian Keirans POV

”Take a deep breath. ”, I said, watching as Ai did as I instructed.

Ai had been acting a little weird ever since he had woken up, he was acting strangely distant, he used to jump on my arms and kiss me on my cheek because he loved being carried and according to him, the kiss was the reward I received. Thinking of such fond memories, I couldn help but frown looking at my younger brother in front of me.

Ever since he woke up, I haven gotten any kisses nor have I carried him.

Hmph.

After noticing that his breathing was even, I continued with my instruction, ” Now feel the world around you. Feel the wind, light, and other lifeforms surrounding you. Become one with them…..become one with nature. ”

We had come out for our training session since it was better that way. To master magic, one must first learn to utilize mana which is something akin to air, its everywhere.

It took me a month to sense mana, so I was ready to have more one-on-one sessions with Aiden. Suddenly, Ais eyes opened, they fluttered, and I could see confusion and panic in them.

”Whats the matter? ” I asked, taking hold of his hand.

Ai took a deep breath and replied, ”Its nothing. ”

Hmmmmmmm.

Somethings bothering him.

I watched for an hour as he struggled to sense mana.

”Lets stop here for now, ” I said getting up from the clearing.

****

Aidens POV

Whats happening to me?

I lay down on my bed, staring at my ceiling blankly.

Earlier, during training, I definitely felt mana. But that was impossible. Last time, it had taken me two years, and that too with the help of many elixirs. Is it because Ive already gone through this once?

No, that isn possible. Mana isn something you can learn to sense by reminiscing about how it feels. Somethings different about me…is it because of this?

I gently massage my stomach, the mysterious tattoo could be the reason for all these changes.

It doesn matter.

The important thing is that I can sense mana now, this…changes everything. But just to be sure…I should try sensing it again.

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath in.

The world went silent the more I concentrated but it was a comfortable silence.

There it is.

I could feel it clearly…..more clearly than ever before. Mana flowed into my body as if it was the most natural thing to do. As it entered my body, I could feel my senses becoming sharper.

This just doesn make sense.

How could something that troubled me so much in my last life be as simple as breathing now?

****

”Did you grow taller? ”, my father asked while taking a bite of his steak.

Rulfeus Keiran was the king, he was busy all day with work but he always made time for his family. Right now, we were having our lunch.

”Yeah…you look different. ”, my mother, Serena Keiran commented from beside my father.

”Really?! ”, I said, making an embarrassing display of childish excitement.

”Yeah, you look healthier now, ” Vivi added wiping away at her mouth with a handkerchief.

The conversation dulled for a while after that as each of us concentrated on our food, but my mother broke the silence,

”Now that you
e feeling better, why don we resume your classes? ”

Ah right….I did have classes to attend. Well not attending them would arouse suspicion and that would be bad so…

”Yeah….Ive rested enough. ”, I said, devouring the last piece of meat on my plate.

****

Mana.

An energy that can never be truly understood, but was a great source of power. A persons affinity with nature directly influences the way they can utilize mana. In my last life, I wasn that gifted but I did alright…it took me a total of two years to just sense and understand mana but in this life, it took me a mere day.

The contrast was like day and night, even if I had already sensed mana once before it wasn possible to be this good at controlling mana.

The next step after sensing mana was learning how to manifest it, for that one must first let go of control to gain control, it was supposed to be hard even with my knowledge but right now….I was doing it.

”Amazing, ” I whispered watching the small ball of light dancing around my palm.

It was a basic Level 0 spell, Lumin. It was used as a torch. Even if it was a spell of the lowest level it was crazy that I had managed to implement mana so soon. But my excitement soon died down as I felt dizzy.

This must be my limit. I dispelled the spell and climbed onto my bed, closing my eyes to try and sleep through the dizziness. I managed to maintain Lumin for thirty minutes, which was amazing on many levels.

All mages are born with a limit that slowly embiggens as we grow up and at a certain age we hit a wall and the amount of mana we can take into our body is fixed permanently. It happened to me at twenty and it was probably going to be the same in this life as well.

I could slowly feel myself falling to sleep now. It was good that I could sleep now since tomorrow was going to be a busy day.

****

”Whats the matter, Serena? ” Rulfeus asked, lying down on his queens lap.

The queen, Serena Keiran had been troubled for the past few days, the king had noticed this quickly since he adored his wife.

”Its Aiden…..ever since he woke up, it feels like hes grown distant. ”

Rulfeuss brows furrowed as he heard her, ”He was almost killed, hon. The boys probably terrified and trying to act brave in front of us. ”

”Yeah…- ” Serena said even though she could tell that her son was acting weird, lately, he was even avoiding her. ”-..that must be it. ” She chided herself for having such silly thoughts.

It was only natural for her to come to this conclusion as people often believe what they want to be true and Serena very much wanted her son to be the same cute little boy. But if by chance, he had learned the truth about her-

Serenas eyes darkened with a dangerous glint.

-itd be troublesome.

****