Observing the fork of the Ordell River, the Tower of the New Beginning stood imposingly. This magician's tower was the center of the Leirel palace and, at the same time, the power base of the Forlan royal family.

Inside one of her numerous rooms, a woman combed her silky cyan hair in front of a gold-framed mirror. But her hands stopped when she heard someone knock on the door.

"Adela, it's Eberhard."

The princess placed her exquisitely decorated comb on the dressing table and snapped her delicate fingers. In just a matter of seconds, her hair changed to the dark color of the night.

Soon after, Adelaide got up from her chair to head towards the door.

"You know I haven't allowed you to call me that," Adelaide said dryly after walking out into the hallway and closing the door behind her.

"Princess, I have been your protector for years; it wouldn't be bad if we began to shorten our distances a little," Eberhard responded with a smile as he followed the princess who had begun to walk down the hallway towards the stairs.

"The position of protector was granted to you by my father to give face to Duke Rangrif. Do you think I can't take care of myself?

"Of course, you can; your ten magic knights alone are a force to be reckoned with," Eberhard replied without flinching.

"That's what you say, but deep inside, you think you and your six ones could face us."

"Princess, our job is just to make sure your magic knights don't have any. That's all that matters."

The two young entered the magic circle that took them to the tower's main hall, where they met a middle-aged man with a tired expression.

"Lord Edward, it seems you have had a difficult day."

"Oh princess, a pleasure to meet you, and you as well, Lord Eberhard," Edward greeted as he bowed. "Indeed, the neighbors in Rimbel do not tire of causing problems. I may have to travel again in the near future."

"I see, so you were returning to your mansion to rest?" Adelaide asked.

"I would like to later, but first, I plan to go to the academy. They have a magical observation room where you can watch the exam from a distance."

"Right, today is the day the entrance exam begins," Eberhard nodded.

"I thought you didn't get along very well with House Riverde, Lord Edward," the princess commented. "Lucas Riverde is the only known name this year... or are you interested in the exam for some other reason?"

"That's right, princess, I have a personal acquaintance taking the admission exam this year. However, to tell the truth, I don't think I have anything to worry about."

"It never hurts to worry about the people you care about," Adelaide said. "Also, it seems this year's exam is going to be complicated."

"Casualties at the academy have increased considerably in recent years," Eberhard added.

"I'm surprised too," Edward nodded. "I don't know what Headmaster Gyan is thinking." 

On the way back to camp, I was in the middle of contemplating what I should do next. You could lose your soul in this valley, but that didn't mean you would drop dead at any moment.

To steal someone's soul, you have to end their life first (if you are not a god); only some weak creatures, such as small animals, can end up being collateral damage, which means having their soul taken along with some newly harvested ones and fly towards the ritual site.

That is what surely happened to the rabbit we found since it did not have any injuries. That there was no other body nearby simply meant that the other body's killer was a monster and had devoured its prey.

The temple had claimed that soul and, in the process, had taken that of the nearby unlucky rabbit.

Now, the ideal would be to hunt a monster as soon as possible and warn Deia and Norvin to find a safe place to wait for the return portal to open. For my part, I would spend the rest of the time looking for the temple.

My problem is that a lot of time has passed, and finding the temple where the ritual is being performed will be difficult.

I don't know if there are people who perfectly remember someplace they went for any motive in the past, but this valley is gigantic, and the past, for me, means hundreds of years.

Incidentally, anyone might wonder why someone is collecting souls in the first place. The answer is simple: they are used to be converted into magical energy.

Souls are the basis of divine magic, my ultimate goal. But stealing an entire soul is taboo, even in the world of the gods. Of course, some gods practiced it, and that's why human sacrifices arose.

But from what I have learned, it has been prohibited for a long time. Hence, the goddess cannot move freely in the current world. She broke the taboo by harvesting all the souls she turned into what we know as the Gifts.

Now, why she did what she did is something only she knows.

"Argy, how was everything?" Norvin came to greet me once we returned to camp.

"The perimeter is clean, but, likely, a monster passed nearby not long ago. We must be alert."

"Wow, I imagine that's Nili's tracking abilities speaking; really, having the help of an elf in a forest is invaluable." Norvin assumed that our findings were due to Nili's abilities as a native of the kingdom of the forests.

While we weren't talking about the usual trail of a monster, in a sense, he was right. It was Nili who discovered the rabbit's corpse after all.

"On a separate topic, Argy. I was talking to Deia about what you told us while we were making the camp about you not learning magic until now. We are not experts either; at least, personally, my knowledge is quite basic. But we thought teaching you a spell to create light at least would be good. It is very useful when camping in nature.

It was a surprise; I didn't imagine I would come into contact with new knowledge about magic before entering the academy. Well, my teachers would be magic apprentices themselves, but still.

Anyone would think that I could have asked Cornelia for assistance; not only is she a magician already graduated as a spellcaster, but she is also my retainer, so she wouldn't complain. But there is a very simple reason why I didn't.

I was afraid.

Like in ancient times, when I was afraid to open the results of an exam without having a doctor nearby to reassure me in case the results were bad. I wanted to put my hopes in the academy professors and the new knowledge about magic.

By this, I mean I did not dedicate myself to expanding my magic capability just because it was the best option. The other reason was that I simply couldn't do anything else when it was about raw magic. I could never create new magic by myself; I always needed my artifacts.

But, I have no good reason to reject Norvin's proposal; I think the time has come again to bet on the evolution of knowledge about magic. The last time I tried it was about two thousand years ago.