How long does he need to run?
He successfully escaped from his prison where he has been kept since he's a child and is now being chased by people he doesn't know. He continued to run until he reached the edge of the land. He tried to look at what's below but he didn't know what a cloud was. All he has is the instinct that he'll die if he stepped on those grey things.
The cell guards are coming nearer to him and each of them have an activated magic seal on their hands.
He knows what will happen if this escape fails. He'll be sent again back to the dark room where he is fed only with porridge. His father will be angry and will attack him with magic indiscriminately until he faints. Broken bones are nothing. His body can regenerate it. But the pain remains. And it is thousand times more painful since he learned that the person who's torturing him is no other than his own father.
He tried to beg and promised that he'll be a good child despite not knowing what he did wrong. Yet, all of this fell on the deaf ears of his father.
If he's bound to die in that dark cell, he'll rather jump and die as a free being. This decision made him jump from the edge of the land and fall on the borders of Erasmus. All of his limbs broke when he tried to stop his fall. Disregarding the broken limbs that are slowly being repaired on its own, the escapee dragged himself on a nearby tree where he enjoyed the cool shade for the first time.
At the same time, Prof. Rigel and the group are on their way back from their journey on the borders where they spent 2 days travelling and 3 days on investigating the mana.
Daniel is the first one to see the collapsed person. "D-dead. T-there's a dead person!" And he screamed in fright, crouching on his seat.
The group stopped and Rigel went to check the body. "He's not dead," he announced. He motioned for the students to help him lift the person and bring inside the carriage.
"Gladly, he's just unconscious. Maybe from starving, let's give him food when he wakes up," said Professor Lamia who accompanied them. "We can leave him in the lord's custody when we reach the next town."
"No."
Everyone looked at Professor Rigel who negated Prof. Lamia's suggestion.
"I'll take him," Prof. Rigel added.
"But we can't take him back to the institute. This is not under our jurisdiction." Prof. Lamia refuted.
"I said that 'I' will take him."
After making himself clear, the stubborn Prof. Rigel went back to his horse and led the march once again. Prof. Lamia who is still taken aback by the Professor's decision decided to stay silent and studied the sleeping child.
He looks like he's still in his teens. Probably around 14 to 16 years old. Its clothes are totally worn out and traces of slashes and cuts can be seen from it. However, when she looked closely at the child's body, there's no single trace of wounds. He's just a dirty child with ragged clothes and is unconscious from extreme hunger.
When they reached the town, Prof. Rigel excused himself to buy a coat. The others also went their own ways to buy their own stocks. Some preferred to stay on the carriage.
Those who stayed gathered around the stranger that they picked up and exchanged looks. No one has any idea why the professor known for his high level magic would take this child back with him.
"Does he feel like... they were alike?"
"Like from what? Are you trying to joke here? Prof. Rigel has a steady background. He's from a rich merchant family that operates large businesses around the continent. They're also dealing with royalties."
"Sympathy?"
"Sympathy for my back! If it's sympathy he should take every beggar we encounter."
The twins, Chad and Keenan found themselves arguing the reason behind Prof. Rigel's action. But before they reached any conclusion, the professor butted in.
"I'm sorry, I am not rich enough to support
all homeless."
After another 3 days of travelling, the group are back inside Yothopyia Institute. The child awakened midway and is now fully alert of his surroundings. Prof. Rigel gave him a coat that can hide his ragged clothes. When interrogated, it seems like he lost all his memories including his own name.
What he expects on this journey is an accident or a tragedy where he'll be forced to see his students fall one by one. But it didn't happen. Instead, he got this child who doesn't have memories of the past.
He tried to use Legend Lore but even with this ability that shows him the origin of both living and non-living, he can't see who or what is the child as if an invisible force is blocking him.
"Follow me," he called out to the child.
The two walked to the institute's dormitory. Inside the castle-like dormitory, Rigel owns the largest room, much larger than the headmaster's. It has its own study hall where he does his official work and two small bedrooms for accommodating guests and another one for himself that is twice the size of other rooms. It also has a living area and bath room the size of his own bedroom.
"Sit," he said and pointed to the chesterfield.
"What's your name?"
Again, the child said "I don't know." Rigel who has the ability to detect surface thoughts and sensitivity in any lies found this answer truthful. For the meantime, he'll accept it but will also continue observing him.
He went to his bedroom and came back with a sword in his hand. "Hold it," Rigel commanded. The sword is similar to the crystal used in measuring a person's mana level. It changes its color depending on its user and of course it has an effect on its sharpness.
The sword that is dull showed a blinding darkness once the child took it. Rigel who's watching finally confirmed his suspicion. He's indeed someone like him who has the traits of Erasmus.
Unbeknownst to the masses, Rigel Regulus have the ability to use two domains. The domains of knowledge and weather. With his true seeing ability, he became unparalleled in combat by reading the enemy's movements and identifying any faints. But his knowledge domain can't be seen by the people watching the fight nor the people he fought with. He also kept quiet about the fact that he has the knowledge domain. He's only known publicly as a high-level magician that controls the weather and he only did it twice. Once during a great drought where he volunteered to the imperial court and second when there's a large storm on a school trip. The two, rain and shine became his official abilities written on the records.
When he's investigating himself, trying to learn why he has the Erasmus trait. He learned that he is a descendant of an Erasmus merchant who travels frequently. The merchant changed its family name into Regulus and from then on, the Regulus family became a prominent figure in magic with Neos who can perform large scale magic. And despite the flashy offers given by the empire and other kingdoms in the continent, they never accepted a noble title. It is their family's oath to not tie themselves into politics or royalties.
But the child in front of him proudly displays the black sword without any restraint. Rigel took it back once more and the sword became dull. Then he tried attaching his mana that made the sword pitched black once more.
"You're not special. See?" And he pointed the black sword at the child's face. "Wash yourself and practice holding the sword without changing its color. You'll eat when you succeed."
The child stood up and Rigel guided him to the bathroom. He showed him how to use the utilities. As a result, the professor became emotionally exhausted by the child's ignorance in every single thing.
He gave him his old clothes and told to stay in one of the guestrooms. He still remembers how the face of the child lightened up when he opened the lights on the room and told him to sleep on the bed instead of the cold floor. From this behavior, he can come up with a few hypotheses regarding the child's past.
He left him with the sword before proceeding to the headmaster's office to report about the trip and the child.