“Sacred silkworms’ virgin silk essence.” Kinoya couldn’t see other’s expressions but he could expect it.

“What is that?”

“In the beast country far north, one can find silkworms that give transparent silk. Once it comes into contact with another living being it will die. But if one could extract its essence even before it could give its first silk, it will act as an extremely potent curse.”

“Even if the blue silk invaded the human body it wouldn't have much effect, Mage or non-mage alike. One could live his whole life with the silk inside his body but everything will change as soon as there is a wound.”

“It will corrode everything around the wound at a visible speed.” Kinoya pulled up his eye band a little to show his now hollow right eye hole.

“Can you see now? How did you come here?” Kinoya didn’t need an eye to feel the genuine concern in Akai’s voice.

Kinoya looked around and found only one other person in the room. It must be Vaicus. He made sure there was no one else around and…

“What is this?” Akai’s voice was startled. Even though Vaicus didn’t say anything, he bent down to support himself.

“I am a grade one mage apprentice,” Kinoya spoke after nullifying the gravity domain. “I can see with magic perception.”

Though the black man had told him that he will teach him later, still Kinoya used it as a bluff. ‘It’s better than talking about innate talent.’

‘Magic perception?’ It was not like Akai didn’t hear about it. His youngest daughter had told him that it was a high-grade spell and not everybody could comprehend it.

Akai took another look at Kinoya, ‘It is not like anybody else could become a grade one apprentice without any help.’

“Little general, What type of spell is that?”

“I don’t know the perfect name of it, but I call it [Gravity Manipulation].”

“Gravity?” Akai wasn’t sure he had heard it correct. But with Kinoya’s nod, his face turned serious, “You should not talk to others about this.” His unexpected suggestion confused Kinoya, and Akai could see it on his face.

“Gravity is not a pure elemental spell, but a derivation from earth elemental. All the uni-elemental spells can be divided into five grades, with pure elemental spells are grade three, like the earthen wall and fireball.”

“The spells that are derived from the different elements could have a lower or higher grade. Like hardened, derived from the earth, the heat from the fire is grade two spells while earthen spike or wind blade is a grade four.”

Akai waited a moment to see the expression of Kinoya before adding, “wind tornado of wind, the gravity of earth and liquefaction of water are some of the grade five spells.”

‘A grade five spell as the first spell essence, no wonder the mana consumption is so high.’ Kinoya had an idea that [Gravity Manipulation] is a high-grade spell but he didn’t have a clear idea about its actual grade.

“Don’t be too content about it.” Looking at the bright smile that escaped Kinoya’s face unintentionally, Akai forcefully added, “Those are uni elemental spells, but there are inter elemental spells above it. Remember there is always someone stronger than you.”

“I know, father.” Kinoya took out the crystals with blue silk inside and asked, “What should we do about these?”

“That is going to be a problem. If we make the matter public, that will create unexpected chaos.”

“It will increase the violence on the civilians.”

“It is not just that.” Thinking about the list of problems Kinoya couldn’t help but frown, “We can’t let them be neither we could… I have an idea. It will be hard and time-consuming but it could be one of the solutions.”

“What?” They have to find a way, they just couldn’t let the assassins run wild in the city.

Kinoya moved one of the crystals on the table and moved the other one to the side and then cut his fingertip. As soon as he moved the finger over the slithering silk jumped out of the crystal and swarmed through the air while trying to reach the wound.

But the black smoke soon oozed out of the wound and closed it. His black mana also trapped the silk. No matter how much it struggled the silk couldn’t escape it.

Kinoya crushed the blue silk with his mana as he spoke, “They are very sensitive to the blood.” Pointing at the crystal at the edge, “Even at such a distance it became excited.”

“So all we need is blood.”

Kinoya nodded, “We don’t need to check them, just a wound on their body will be enough. It doesn’t need to be deep, as long as it draws blood.”

“But if they have the crystal on them wouldn’t they die?” Vaicus was not sure about Kinoya’s intention, but Kinoya didn’t hide it. “Rather them than our soldiers.”

“But we couldn’t do the same to the whole city. Other generals…”

“Let’s not talk about them. Just control the flow of the northern part of the city. Don’t let any civilian enter or get out of the area. Once it starts don’t even spare a child or old. A small cut won’t kill them.”

Even if Kinoya couldn’t see them, he could still feel the lines forming on their foreheads. “This is the step we have to take. Otherwise, the casualty might be too much to recover.”

He took the crystal that was at the edge of the table. “The girl had four of these crystals with her. The number of civilians in the city is around 100,000. We are around 70,000. Even if 1 in every ten have these crystals the casualty could be 40,000.”

They couldn’t spit out any more words, “General, I will stay while the operation takes place. It will be over before you know it.”

**************

“Either hypnotised or charmed.” Kinoya couldn’t help but shook his head. There were almost 1500 people who had died today due to crystals. And three soldiers too.

But after they saw the effect of the crystal, about 7000 more crystals were submitted by the soldiers. If it wasn’t for the other generals stopping Akai, he would have beaten the whole corps.

‘Now we can hope those idiots can understand the severity of the incident.’ Kinoya walked by the river as he reached close to the tent. There were two moons in the sky.

“Now that I think about it I haven't seen all four moons in a long time. Who knows when it will be the time of grand union?” Taking a last look at the black and white sky he entered the tent, and…

“Where were you?”

Kinoya’s attempt to seek the speaker failed. No one in his vision was giving off any aura.

“Iilea?”

“Oh! Do you remember? How lucky?”

“Why are you here?” Even if he tried to locate her with her voice, he wasn’t experienced enough, and the failure soured his mood.

“Eight o’clock” with some assistance he could now see the outline of a human.

“I couldn’t sleep.”

“So?”

“I didn’t sleep for more than ten days.”

“What?” Kinoya wasn’t sure whether it was a joke or not but he couldn’t hide his shock, “Didn’t you sleep like a log yesterday?”

The aura-less body jumped up in excitement, “Exactly. That is my point. I didn’t sleep for 10 days before yesterday but yesterday… Look look, even my dark circle reduced a lot.”

As she came too close Kinoya took a few steps back, even if he couldn’t see, it was too close. “What is your point?” He was agitated.

“So I thought it might be due to the bed, so I came here. You weren’t here so I tried to sleep but I couldn’t.”

“So you can’t sleep here too. Now go back.”

“No, no. You are missing an important point. It was not where, but who?”

“Huh?”

She didn’t explain, just grabbed him and dragged him to the bed. Unable to control himself Kinoya sat down on the hay bed and at the next moment, something heavy was put on his lap.

“Wh...what are you doing?” Even Kinoya himself knew he was startled. Didn’t know whether to push her down or not.

“Ten minutes. No thirty minutes. If I don't fall asleep by then I will leave, I will never come back.”

“What the hell are you talking about?”

“Just thirty minutes. If I couldn’t fall asleep, I will let you do it with me, promise.” Kinoya could understand how desperate she was for sleep but this wasn’t the situation he wanted to be.

Yet he couldn’t force himself to push her down. And what was more amazing was that it wasn’t even five minutes before aura was coming off her body.

“She fell asleep? Wow!” Kinoya was dumbfounded, “But how come she could give off aura after she fell asleep?” Kinoya had no idea about it, neither did he want to. Without moving he tried to meditate in this awkward position.

But the remarkable thing is he returned to his mage space far quicker than any other day.

In the space, the black man was sitting on the stone bed cross-legged. It looked like he was thinking about something.

“What is she?”

Hearing the question, the black man turned towards Kinoya, “Don’t ask that question.”

‘What can you even answer?’ Kinoya sighed.

“Like I can tell you that, whatever you think I can listen to them.”

And an awkward silence followed.

“Don’t just stand there. Sit down. It is hard for me to even talk.”

Kinoya didn’t dare to waste any more time and sat down in front of him.

“This is the only spell you are going to learn from me. So listen carefully. [Magic Perception] has two stages.”

“Imagine you are standing still in the water. Now you are creating a ripple. A part of the ripple will get reflected for each object on its path. All you have to do is sense the ripple.”

“So I have to send out mana ripple and sense the mana reflection.” Looking at the black man’s nod, Kinoya added, “But I couldn’t find a person hiding behind an object.”

“Like you can see a person who is hiding with your eyes”

Kinoya gave a silly smile, “But if I continuously do that then too much mana will be lost and if there is a mage he might find me.”

The black man shook his head, “The first stage is called induced state. But if your [Magic Perception] reached innate state then… Every object, living or inanimate, gives off very little mana fluctuations. In the innate stage, you would be able to sense those.”

“But you are a long-distance away from that stage. Now close your eyes.” With a flick of his finger, the earth slime divided in the numerous small slimes. They continued to bounce all around the room.

“Close your eyes. Try to send mana waves to sense them. If it wasn’t for you I would have gone to sleep. Do you know how much mana I am spending for each moment I am awake?”

‘Why are all the people around me so much obsessed with sleep.’ Before Kinoya could even sigh he could feel the furious eyes that were staring at him. Without wasting any more time he closed his eyes.