The following weeks settled into a new routine.

By day, Kai helped repair the damaged library.

He replaced broken shelves, copied ruined catalogs, and carefully restored torn pages with paste his mother taught him to make.

By night...

He read.

Not for entertainment.

Not to satisfy his endless curiosity.

But because he had made a promise.

He would never again stand helpless while others protected what he loved.

If strength could be found inside books...

He would search every shelf until he found it.

The first book he chose was one every child in the kingdom had read.

Introduction to Mana Manipulation.

Its pages explained the four basic elements recognized by the Kingdom of Valerion.

Fire.

Water.

Earth.

Wind.

Every awakened person possessed one or two elemental affinities.

Rare geniuses possessed three.

Legends spoke of heroes born with four.

Kai sat cross-legged inside the quiet reading room.

He carefully followed each instruction.

"Gather the mana around your fingertips."

"Imagine a tiny flame."

"Feed it your will."

He closed his eyes.

Nothing happened.

Again.

Nothing.

A third attempt.

Still nothing.

After nearly two hours...

A tiny orange spark danced above his fingertip.

It lasted less than a heartbeat before disappearing.

Kai stared at his hand.

"I... did it?"

His excitement quickly faded.

The spark had been so small it couldn't have lit a candle.

Even children attending the Royal Academy could produce larger flames during their first lesson.

He sighed.

"So this is my talent..."

Pathetic.

The next evening, he selected another manual.

Beginner's Water Arts.

The result surprised him.

Unlike the fire spell, cool moisture gathered around his palm almost immediately.

A single drop of water floated above his hand before falling onto the table.

Plop.

Kai blinked.

"...Again."

Another drop appeared.

Then vanished.

Not impressive.

Not useful.

Yet...

It had worked.

For the next several days, Kai experimented with every elemental primer he could find.

Wind.

Nothing.

Earth.

Nothing.

Lightning.

Nothing.

Light.

Nothing.

Shadow.

Nothing.

Only Fire and Water responded.

Even then...

Barely.

He recorded every result inside a small notebook.

Fire Affinity: Extremely Weak

Water Affinity: Extremely Weak

Everything Else: No Response

He frowned.

"It doesn't make sense."

If his affinities were this weak...

Why had both elements answered him at all?

Most people possessed only one natural element.

Two affinities were uncommon.

Even if his were laughably faint.

One afternoon, Kai carried several manuals into the librarian's office where his father was repairing damaged bindings.

Edric glanced at the stack.

"Studying magic?"

Kai nodded.

"I have a question."

His father smiled.

"You usually have ten."

Kai laughed awkwardly.

"I can barely use Fire."

"I can barely use Water."

"But both worked."

"Why?"

Edric carefully set aside the book in his hands.

"There are two kinds of knowledge."

Kai pulled up a chair.

"The first kind is information."

"Anyone can read it."

"The second kind..."

His father tapped Kai's chest.

"...must be accepted by the body."

Kai tilted his head.

"I don't understand."

Edric walked toward one of the educational shelves and removed three books.

One discussed swordsmanship.

Another covered advanced alchemy.

The last explained farming techniques.

He placed them side by side.

"Imagine three people read these."

"The first was born with extraordinary physical talent."

"The second possesses exceptional mana."

"The third grew up working the land."

He smiled.

"Would all three become masters of every subject?"

Kai shook his head.

"No."

"Exactly."

He pointed at the books.

"Knowledge enters through the eyes."

"But skills awaken through compatibility."

Kai listened carefully.

"The System doesn't reward reading."

"It rewards resonance."

"If your body, your mind, your lineage, your talent... all resonate with what you've learned..."

"The knowledge takes root."

"It becomes yours."

Kai looked down at his hands.

"So..."

"Even if I memorize every spellbook in the kingdom..."

"I may never become a great mage?"

His father nodded.

"Correct."

"You could recite every page."

"Understand every theory."

"But without compatibility..."

"It remains knowledge."

"Not power."

That explanation should have discouraged him.

Instead...

It fascinated him.

If compatibility determined awakening...

Then what exactly determined compatibility?

Talent?

Bloodline?

Practice?

Something deeper?

Over the following month, Kai became obsessed.

Every finished book received a note.

No resonance.

Minor resonance.

Strong understanding.

Failed compatibility.

He experimented with everything.

Cooking.

Archery.

Basic medicine.

Navigation.

Tracking.

Calligraphy.

Leatherworking.

Meditation.

None awakened into actual skills.

Some knowledge remained only inside his mind.

Others improved his understanding without changing his body.

The difference frustrated him.

"There has to be a pattern..."

Late one rainy evening, Kai wandered once again into the forgotten section.

The shelves here remained untouched since the attack.

Few people bothered reading them.

Most titles concerned professions that barely existed anymore.

His fingers stopped on a faded blue book.

Flamekeepers of the First Age

Curious, he opened it.

It wasn't a spellbook.

It described a forgotten profession responsible for maintaining sacred fires inside ancient temples before enchanted crystals existed.

The techniques focused on patience.

Temperature.

Breathing.

Respect.

Fire wasn't treated as a weapon.

It was treated as life.

Kai practiced one of the breathing exercises exactly as described.

Warmth spread through his chest.

Not painful.

Comfortable.

His fingertip ignited once more.

This time...

The tiny flame remained.

One second.

Two.

Five.

It burned quietly without collapsing.

Kai's eyes widened.

"It lasted longer..."

He hadn't become stronger.

He had become...

More compatible.

The following day, he discovered another forgotten manual.

Springkeepers of the Ancient Valleys

Unlike modern water magic, it taught harmony instead of force.

Water healed.

Water nourished.

Water remembered.

Kai repeated its breathing patterns.

A cool sensation flowed through his arms.

Several tiny droplets floated effortlessly above his palm.

There were still only a few.

Yet they remained suspended for nearly half a minute.

Impossible.

The beginner's spellbook had produced worse results.

"These books..."

Kai whispered.

"They're different."

That night, he spread both forgotten manuals beside the modern academy textbooks.

They taught the same elements.

Yet...

Everything about them felt older.

Gentler.

More complete.

The modern books described techniques.

The ancient books described understanding.

As though something important had disappeared over the centuries.

Kai rested his hand against his chest.

Suddenly—

Thump.

His heartbeat echoed louder than normal.

Warmth spread through his entire body.

Not painful.

Not frightening.

Familiar.

As if something sleeping deep inside him had shifted.

He froze.

"What..."

The warmth gathered near his heart before flowing through countless invisible paths beneath his skin.

His vision blurred for only an instant.

Images flashed before his eyes.

Towering libraries.

White-robed scholars.

Men and women wearing silver quill emblems far older than his family's crest.

Some held books.

Others stood calmly between raging storms of fire and rivers suspended in the sky.

Neither element harmed them.

Both answered them.

Then...

The vision vanished.

Kai stumbled backward, catching himself against a bookshelf.

His breathing became uneven.

"What... was that?"

The room returned to silence.

Only the rain tapping softly against the windows remained.

He pressed a trembling hand over his heart.

It still felt warm.

Not from fire.

Not from mana.

From something older.

Something hidden.

He remembered the stories his grandmother used to tell.

Long before librarians became simple caretakers...

Their ancestors had been more than keepers of books.

They had been guardians of knowledge itself.

Some legends even claimed the First Royal Librarians walked beside kings, sages, and heroes—not as servants, but as equals.

Most historians dismissed those tales as family pride.

Kai had always wondered if there was any truth behind them.

Now...

For the first time in his life...

He wasn't so sure.

Far below the library, beneath layers of stone untouched for centuries, a faint silver rune awakened.

One line.

Then another.

As though an ancient seal had recognized a heartbeat it had been waiting for across countless generations.