A burly man stands in front of madame Isabella 

“So where did you get the boy?” Isabella asks

“We were just outside Myene village seeking for a boy that would meet your requirements and were acquiring slaves. Later, a woman walks up and claims she can get a boy that matches the requirement, but he is young, so we called the master who asked to see the boy.

Thus the same night she was there with a boy in her arms, we inquired about the origin but she asked for less amount to not answer, still master gave her enough to purchase a dwelling in the capital”

“So what happened then?” Isabella asks.

“Well, she left the next dawn. We sought to find out where she would have picked up the boy, but she used magic and was gone with no trail left behind. 

When the master got the message from you to find out more about the lad and the woman. We inquired around the village and discovered that she didn’t use to live in the village, but she had a hut that she would come to use now and then.

There is Lionhearts’ family residence nearby. Folk guess she was working there as she wore maid outfits.”

“Anything else?”

“No, nothing else. We will keep searching and inform you if we find anything, but why are you so interested in the lad's origin?”

“No reason I just like to learn if there are any weaknesses I can use to break the boy and don’t bother about finding anything else about the boy, it should be fine with what you have told me”

“Of course, my lady. I’ll be off then” 

“Take this as reparation for the information and inform your master I need all the elves he can get his hands on, even male one” Isabella throws a pouch to the burly man who catches it and hides it in his cloak.

“Male ones?” the burly man asks confused, as there was a market for male elves, but the woman in front of him had never offered such services. She offered services to women but never used males.

“Do I need to explain myself?” Isabella snaps.

“No, my lady, I will tell master”

“Then you can leave”

The burly man bows his head, turns, and leaves the room.

In the empty office, Isabella sits on her desk pondering over what she had heard.

“Did you hear what he said?” Isabella asks to an empty room.

“Yes, my lady,” a figure emerges from a dark corner of the room. A figure shrouded in darkness.

“Sofia, find the woman and bring her to me”

“If you don’t mind me asking, why are you so interested in this boy?”

“That boy is an irregularity” 

“Whatever do you mean, my lady?”

“He has a higher life energy than even you elves”

“But he hasn’t even awakened his mana. How can you possibly see his life energy?”

“Life energy has nothing to do with mana for life energy gives life, it influences the years you are going to live and the only thing that happens to it is that it decreases as you age.

Death attribute magic allows me to see the life energy in every living thing and influence it to some aspect but him. His life energy is overflowing. It’s as if you fill a bucket of water and it pours out from the sides once filled”

“What does that mean?”

“I don’t know. First find the woman and bring her to me”

The figure shrouded in darkness retreats into a shadow in the room's corner and disappears.

Isabella is left in the empty room. She opens a drawer in her desk where a letter stays seal of which is broken, but one can tell that it is Lionheart seal with a side profile of a lion.

She looks upon the letter and goes into deep thought.