Mid Afternoon - Late Spring : Kingdom of Kaelallan

- Michael Cotorel ~

After nearly 24 hours of carrying people to medical wards, helping treat the wounded or arresting thugs in nobles estates, I could finally relax.

"Ugh.." I let out a groan as I sat down at the table in the smithy.

"I'm surprised you lasted that long oldie." Mollie was the first to poke fun at my exhaustion.

"He's only 47. He's literally 23 years younger than you."

"So? My youth is eternal!"

Udall looked at her with unbelieving eyes, "Suureee.."

*Smack*

Mollie smacked him with a metal plate that molded to his face.

-It's good to see that their relationship hasn't changed..- A warm smile came to my face as I watched their quarrel.

My mind began to wander as they were 'fighting'. I started to think about various issues I had encountered with magic but couldn't think of any new ideas.

Recently, my mind was blocked whenever it came to new ideas about magic. It was as if there was some kind of wall I needed to remove before I could get stronger.

I was incredibly far from the peak of magic. The realm of magic was something that was limitless, no matter how high you climbed, there would always be another peak behind it so I always had things to learn.

Even just during the king's speech several days ago, I saw a young demihuman child control and use such a ridiculous amount of mana that even I would struggle handling.

The world of magic was, without question, one without end, but over the recent centuries it’s development had stagnated. The strength of mages had begun to level out and fall behind the other adventurer roles and mages were becoming less common.

As a mage with Nation rank mana control, I had a responsibility to help lead the innovation of magic, but with the mental blockage, expanding on such advanced concepts was simply impossible.

The issue was, -I have no idea what is even causing it..-

Figuring it would be good to just have a moment to myself, I decided to take a stroll around town.

"I'm going to step out for a bit, I’ll be back later tonight."

Stopping their play fight, Mollie looked over. "Alright, we are planning to head to the tavern for dinner if you'd like to join us then."

"Sure.. I'll see you then."

As I walked out of the door, Udall gave me a look of worry.

"I'm fine.. I just need some time to sort my thoughts.."

Once I walked out of the smithy, I left the market and just started mindlessly walking around the city.

I had no destination in mind, nor did I pay attention to where I was going, I simply walked.

Looking around, I could see people of all walks of life.

There were Peasants, there were nobles and there were adventurers, each of them wearing a different expression. Some were happy, some were sad, some were carefree, some were stressed.

But at the end of the day, they all shared a look in their eyes.

Their eyes had purpose. They were all motivated by something, they had something driving them to continue their day whether they wanted to or not.

-So.. what is motivating me then..- The deeper I looked inside myself, the more confused I got.

I wanted to say it was magic, but since I had returned to Kaelallan my motivation for it had plummeted.

I ran through various possibilities, not being able to put my nose on it before a knight spoke up in front of me.

"Sir please stop there."

-Huh?- Looking up, I took a moment to figure out where I was. -Oh I’m at the plaza..- "Right.. sorry sir, I was just taking a stroll and got lost in my thoughts."

"No worries, just be sure to pay attention to where you are walking, you could cause an accident."

“Thank you, I will keep that in mind.” Giving a polite gesture to the knight, I turned back around and started to leave.

As I walked down the road though, I peeked back behind me.

In the middle of the plaza was a dragon in such a deep sleep it looked dead.

Whenever I would look at it, my heart would ache, it reminded me of a moment I tried to forget.

"Haah.." -what is wrong with me..-

Turning away from it, I shook my head and continued to walk around town, trying my best to get my mind off the topic.

- Vasilias ~

It had been a couple of hours since I finished my little procedure so I could finally see Oliver’s condition starting to get better.

The internal bleeding had long since healed and the bruising had started to fade with only minor assistance from me every now and then.

The swelling increased for a while but had finally started to go down. The skin on his forehead had begun to bleed in certain areas from the swelling but it started to heal quickly after the swelling started to go down.

Thanks to mana and the incredible healing ability of humanoids in this world, it wouldn't scar and once his skull healed back, it would look and feel as if nothing happened.

I was sitting next to his bed in a chair I pulled up so I could keep a close eye on him, whenever he was about to wake up I'd make him fall back asleep. -He'd be in a crazy amount of pain if I let him wake up now..-

Currently, I was lessening the pain signal from the nerves in his head so he would have, at most, a minor headache, but if he woke up, I would lose that control.

I was always controlling or manipulating something, whether it was nerves to nullify pain or triggering certain neuron channels to keep him asleep. These took made me need to pay attention but that didn't mean I necessarily had to give it my entire focus constantly.

After around an hour I could mindlessly control what I needed to, giving me some free time.

Instead of wasting that time just sitting around though, I was playing with magic, using singular atoms to try and see what possible things I could do or what possible new phenomena I could discover or utilize.

-Magic is truly bottomless isn't it..-

*tap* *tap* *tap* *Tap*

Someone was trying to sneak down the hall outside.

I was letting my aura loose, filling the room with so much mana that it was deadly to humanoids. I lowered the density around Oliver and let the excess flow out of the open balcony door.

Having my aura filling the room was perfect for the situation, I could regulate temperature, moisture and even bacteria although I didn't mess too much with them for several reasons. -I not only had no clue what was good versus what was bad, but it would also take too much effort to try and do anything to them because of the sheer volume of them..-

*Click*

Lucy, who was the one in the hall, slowly opened the door.

My aura immediately tried to flow through the opening so I had to quickly grab control of it.

Seeing the wall of aura through the doorway Lucy froze.

"I'm doing something pretty important so I need you to stay out of the room for a bit." I didn't want to worry about a distraction causing me to accidentally kill Oliver after all.

Hearing my voice, she just stood there before slowly giving a nervous nod and closing the door.

*Tap* *tap* *thump*

She reluctantly took a few steps down the hall before sitting down.

-I guess I can't blame her for being worried..-

At my feet, Ilios shifted around some, getting extra comfortable during his nap.

Although I wasn't exactly super tired, I felt mentally fatigued. -I wish I could take a nap too..-