Fantasia: The Empyrean magi

Oldford City. Kingdom of Aledrin. The Kingdom of Aledrin was a small kingdom in the southern plains of Desolate Continent located near the Desolate Mountain Range. The climate and its environment were extremely suitable for humans to live in. Although Aledrin was merely a small kingdom, it wasn’t a vassal of another country. The weather was great today. The vast sky seemed as though it was an endless blue crystal, however, with blemishes in sight. The surroundings were so clear that it caused the sunshine to be rather glaring to the eyes. Oldford City — one of the smallest city in the kingdom — was located in a remote corner of the Kingdom of Aledrin. Its geographical location was rather unique in a sense that it was surrounded by large forests. Forests where shadows devoured radiance, trapping it into oblivion; where darkness loomed, prevailing over light regardless of whether it was daytime or nighttime. This place had been called Dark Forests. Although it was possible to see objects during the day, attempting to do so during the night was a futile endeavor unless one was a mage. These forests were the places where Lunar Grass propagated to the entirety of the region. This specific plant was a very common herb, which could be found anywhere on the continent, much less here. At present, in the streets of Oldford City was a young child of 3 or 4 years of age walking while glancing around. Large blue eyes filled with curiosity; tender, fair white skin like that of a newborn’s. His features were akin to a doll, extremely cute to look at. Every person who passed by him couldn’t help but glance at him just to appreciate his adorableness that had a hint of naivety. Nearby, austere-faced elders and even the cold-faced, robust adventurers walking down the streets also revealed rare smiles after seeing the young child. But as they looked at him, everyone similarly had a single question in their minds, ‘Where did this little guy come from?’. A kind-looking old man came forward and asked the young child, “Child, what’s your name and how old are you?” The young child looked up to the old man’s face with a curious expression. With an extremely lovable voice, he answered, “Hello, grandpa. My name is Alvin Godfrey. I am,” the young child held up four fingers, “four years old.” The old man became surprised at the young child’s manner of answering his question. He looked into the latter’s eyes only to see a gaze filled with innocence and curiosity; not even a shred of hesitation or fear was there. Only after a brief moment had passed did the old man jolt awake from his thoughts, but he smiled once again and asked, “Child, why are you alone? Where are your mother and father?” The atmosphere around Alvin changed, his face turning dim and his eyes flashing with a glint of sadness as he replied, “Father is at home. I asked him to take me to the city, but he said that I should go on my own. I don’t know where Mother is. Father said she went somewhere far away.” The old man suddenly felt guilty for asking such a question. However, guilt turned into anger when the old man thought of Alvin’s father. He said, “Hmph, what kind of bastard is his father? How can someone leave a young child like this alone in a city?” The more he thought of this, the angrier he became. The people in the streets who had heard also felt similarly. After all, the old man’s anger wasn’t unreasonable because slavery was a common occurrence in this ‘dog-eat-dog’ world, and a child as adorable as this was certain to be kidnapped and sold at a high price somewhere. Just as the old man was about to say something to Alvin, a cold, emotionless voice resounded from behind, “What are you doing here, Alvin?” Everyone turned to the source of the voice, only the find a middle-aged man standing there with a cold, emotionless face. His hair was disheveled and the clothes he was wearing were tattered. No matter how you looked at him, he was wearing were tattered. No matter how you looked at him, he was simply a beggar. Alvin heard his voice. He turned around and shouted, “Father!” However, when he did that, he drooped his head as though he had done something wrong. The old man’s face contorted as soon as he heard this. The old man knew about the middle-aged man. Although his physical appearance was that of a beggar’s, he was one of the few experts residing in the city. However, his personality was rotten to the core. With his strength, he could’ve easily become a city official or at least a high-ranked guard, but all he did was do odd jobs requiring strength enough to feed himself. He never helped the city whenever there was a desolate beasts invasion. No one ever had a good impression of him, but when they heard that he was Alvin’s father, everyone looked at the young child with pity. With a father like him, they couldn’t imagine how he would fare well in his life. If he was someone else, they might try to argue with him, but all of them knew that this guy was extremely cruel and merciless. It wasn’t a good idea to cross him. Alvin’s father ignored all the nearby people’s stares and spoke to Alvin in an extremely cold tone, “I thought I told you to come home by six in the evening.” Alvin looked at his father and said, “I’m sorry, Father. I got lost.” “It doesn’t matter what happened. The next time something like this happens, I will not allow you to come here again. Understood?” the middle-aged man replied. “Yes,” Alvin replied in a low voice. “Good.” As the middle-aged man finished saying this, he turned around and started walking without looking back. Alvin followed suit. Looking at the backs of the departing father and son duo, the old man sighed as he said, “I can’t believe that bastard Kyle has such a good son. I’m sure he’ll become a great man if he grows up from a proper upbringing. What a pity.” He sighed once again and returned to his work. Although he pitied the child, it wasn’t at the level where he would be willing to fight Kyle for it. Everyone who heard the old man’s words also agreed, “Yes, what a pity for such a good child.” After this, everyone returned to their respective duties and work. While walking back, Kyle heard the murmurs behind his back. His eyes flashed with a hint of sorrow, but it was soon replaced by coldness. Alvin continued to silently follow his father. He knew that although his father acted coldly, he still cared for him. He also knew that he only has his father in this world, so no matter how he treated him, he was still his only family in this world. After walking for a while in the forest, they reached an open ground upon which stood an old cabin. The cabin was extremely aged, looking like it was built at least 100 years ago. This was Alvin’s home. As they walked inside the house, Kyle shut himself in his own room without saying anything. Alvin said nothing after seeing this. Instead, he just went to the kitchen to see if there was anything he could eat. After eating whatever there was in the kitchen, he went outside to gaze at the stars in the sky as always. He sat on the roof while thinking about what had happened today. Alvin had always been curious about the outside world after reaching the age enough to understand things. He longed to make friends and go out to play with them. Alvin was a born genius, learning to speak as soon as he turned barely 1 year old and being able to read by the age of 3. Alvin was already 5 years old, but this was the first time he went to the city since his curiosity prevailed him. His house had many books related to the outside world. He had read many of those books, so he was completely excited when his father allowed him to go to the city. As far as he knew, Oldford City was a small city in the Kingdom of Aledrin, which was just a small kingdom in a large continent called Desolate Continent. He had read in those books that there were countless numbers of countries in the continent, and the Kingdom of Aledrin was one of the smallest kingdoms in the continent. In those books, he learned many things such as the history of the world, different races that inhabited the world, and even wars between humans, demons, and many other races. In the continent, there were several professions. However, the noblest of them all was the Mage profession. In Alvin’s mind, Mages were legendary personages who could summon storms and destroy mountains with just a wave of their hands. The more he read about Mages, the more he became curious about them. Since then, his curiosity about the outside world and Mages only ever so increased. He once asked his father about Mages, but he refused to say anything about the topic. Although his father acted like that, he had always helped Alvin in his studies. Kyle always put his utmost efforts in teaching Alvin about the history of the continent and the different races. But no matter how much he asked, Kyle never told him much about Mages and their classifications. This single point left Alvin confused. He didn’t know why, but his father seemed to be very unwilling to talk about Mages. That was the reason why the knowledge he had about Mages was only at the basic level; that was the reason why he thought he could gain more knowledge about Mages when he went into the city. As Alvin thought all of these, he noticed that it was already quite late, thus he decided to go to sleep. It didn’t matter why his father wasn’t willing. One day, he would learn all about Mages. While thinking that, Alvin fell asleep. Never would he have thought that an exciting day awaited him.