Evan was on his way back to the mansion, reviewing the contents of the parchment with a thoughtful expression.
He was in the process of selecting a potential trading partner, but it seemed the relationships among the kingdom’s mages were more tangled than he expected.
The top-ranked mage, for instance, had gone into seclusion, and his whereabouts were currently unknown.
‘Archmage Krais.’
An 8th-circle archmage officially recognized by the kingdom.
It was said that only three people across the entire continent had reached the 8th circle level.
Naturally, many kingdoms coveted such power.
However, none of them could afford to control someone with that level of strength.
On top of that, Krais was notoriously unpredictable and irrational, making negotiations with him virtually impossible.
The Lupes Kingdom had already made several attempts to recruit him, all of which ended in failure.
‘Might as well consider him out of the picture.’
Ranks 2 through 4 were occupied by the heads of the Magic Towers.
These individuals belonged to powerful noble families and had gathered trusted mages to build strong factions around them.
They monopolized various magical markets and technologies through the use of their towers.
‘They’re hogging everything for themselves. Not that I plan to get involved with the tower heads anyway. Still, I’ll need to keep an eye on them.’
What Evan needed to focus on were those ranked 5th to 10th.
That narrowed it down to a pool of about six people.
‘Among them… there are only two who might actually be useful to me.’
‘The Marquess of Armeria and the Count of Beidel.’
These two were the only ones running independent magical guilds, each coming from a prestigious mage lineage.
However, the current state of their families was quite different.
If the Beidel family was a rising sun, then the Armeria family was one setting in the west.
‘The Armeria family… A mage noble house that existed even before the Lupes royal family came into power. But ever since the royal transition, their influence has steadily waned.’
To make matters worse, after a mana core was discovered in another territory and a magic tower was built there, many of their mages had been lured away.
On top of that, the current head of the family was said to be a reclusive eccentric obsessed with magic research.
As he grew increasingly detached from politics, it was inevitable that the family’s influence would continue to decline.
In contrast, the Beidel family was home to a politically savvy mage.
Count Beidel had strong ties with the central high nobles and was even receiving support from the tower heads.
Because of that, even though their guild didn’t have a magic tower, it was rapidly growing.
‘Well, I guess he’s the only realistic option.’
Evan decided to send a letter to the Armeria family.
‘It’s too hard to rein in someone who’s flying high. A toothless tiger is easier to tame.’
Anyone with political ambition was bound to cause trouble down the line.
All Evan needed was enough strength to keep Hilton and Heres in check.
***
As soon as he returned to the mansion, Evan sprang into action.
Before crafting the mana core, there was something important he needed to secure.
‘I need to make it publicly clear that the mana core belongs to the Count’s household.’
To do that, he would need to deploy knights.
‘I’ll have the knights guard the goblin village. Just making it look like our family has occupied it will be enough to silence any doubts.’
That way, none of the parties he planned to deal with would get any funny ideas.
‘Ideally, I’d talk to the Count directly…’
But Clyd refused to meet Evan.
All official matters were handled through Alburton, and even communications with Clyd were relayed through intermediaries.
For some reason, Evan’s access to Clyd was thoroughly restricted.
‘Not that I’m complaining. It’s actually more convenient for me this way.’
As Evan walked through the mansion, he stopped one of the maids working nearby.
“Hey, you there.”
Startled by the sudden call, the maid who had been cleaning froze in place.
“Y-Yes, young master? Did you call me?”
She nervously looked around.
Her eyes landed on a particular vase the family head was known to treasure.
If the infamous troublemaking heir decided to throw a tantrum and break it…
Gulp.
But contrary to her expectations, Evan spoke calmly.
“Go tell Alburton I need to see him urgently. I’ll be waiting here.”
Confused, the maid tilted her head but quickly nodded with a polite bow and ran off.
***
A short while later, Alburton approached in a hurry.
“Young master? I heard it was urgent. What’s the matter?”
“Yeah, I just need you to pass along a message to Father. I’ll be borrowing ten 10th-rank knights.”
“Excuse me? What do you mean by that?”
Alburton had long learned to expect trouble whenever Evan summoned him.
Sure enough, today seemed no different.
Waving his hand dismissively, Evan spoke firmly.
“Don’t argue. Just pass it on. It’s nothing serious. I found a nice hunting spot in the forest, and I’d like to enjoy it in peace.”
“Young master, that’s far too dangerous. If you simply wish to train, why not use the facilities within the knights’ grounds?”
“No, I want actual combat experience. And besides, it’ll serve as training for the 10th-rank knights too, right? They’ve just been sitting idle. Why not put them to good use?”
As Alburton hesitated, Evan continued without waiting for a response.
“I’m sure Father will agree. I’ll go ahead and start picking out the knights. If I get the go-ahead, great. If not, you can come and get me.”
“Y-Young master!”
Ignoring him, Evan steamrolled forward with his plan and left the mansion.
His next stop was to find Alan and Reynold.
“Young master, are we heading out right away?” Alan asked.
Evan shook his head.
“No. There’s something I need to do first. We’re going to the second shared training ground to pick out ten knights.”
“Huh?”
“What do you mean, sir? Are others coming with us too?”
“Yes. The place Alan discovered is going to be important moving forward. We need to establish security right away.”
Evan took the lead and headed straight for the second public training ground.
As luck would have it, the 10th-rank knights were training there with the 9th-rank knights.
“I’m going to check out the rest of them here. You two, bring over anyone you’ve gotten to know or think is decent.”
With that, Evan activated his spiritual eye and began inspecting the group of 10th-rank knights.
“That’s all, Lord.”
Count Clyd rested his chin on his hand, wearing an intrigued expression.
The report Alburton had urgently brought was about Evan.
Apparently, Evan had taken ten Grade-10 knights with him and gone hunting in the forest.
Looking at Evan’s recent behavior, there were many things that couldn’t be explained.
‘Had he changed as a person?’
He suddenly began training in swordsmanship, and at some point, even started losing weight.
Perhaps coming back from the brink of death had finally made him mature.
These days, he rarely drowned himself in alcohol or caused disturbances around the mansion.
If there was any trouble, it was just things like taking knights on a hunt without permission—like today.
But that was something he would’ve been allowed to do anyway, if he had grown up normally.
‘No, if Evan had mana and was a proper knight heir, then…’
Even leading the 1st Knight Order wouldn’t have raised any objections.
That was the rightful authority of the Kerthen family’s firstborn.
Alburton spoke, sounding worried.
“Lord, shouldn’t we send someone to stop him while there’s still time?”
Clyd didn’t answer right away and thought for a moment.
If it had been the old Evan, he would’ve stopped him without hesitation.
But Evan’s recent actions had been different.
It was as if he had found a goal—his passion for swordsmanship never seemed to waver.
His son’s change was, in fact, a positive one.
There was no reason to interfere.
Besides, Delian also led knights and patrolled the designated areas.
That was part of a knight’s job, protecting the territory.
Destroying dungeons or discovering dimensional rifts and reporting them immediately was also important.
“That foolish boy probably just needed a change of pace. Leave him be, but keep me informed.”
“Understood, my lord.”
“I suppose I should see him for myself soon. When is Hilton supposed to arrive?”
“She said she’ll be coming up shortly with the second madam.”
“Then once the two arrive, prepare a family dinner.”
Clyd found himself growing curious about Evan.
He wanted to see if the boy who came back from death had truly changed.
***
Evan was moving through the forest with Alan, Reynold, and ten Grade-10 knights.
‘Looks like the Count gave permission, since no one tried to stop me from bringing knights along.’
Walking at the rear of the group, Evan glanced at the Grade-10 knights.
They had been selected based on Reynold’s recommendation.
Apparently, they were peers who had trained with Reynold for years.
Judging by Reynold’s personality, Evan had a decent idea of what kind of people they’d be.
He handed each of them five gold coins, along with the promise of regular training instructors.
In exchange, he made them swear to keep silent about everything that was going to happen.
‘They’ll only be stationed around the goblin village entrance and outer perimeter, so they won’t know anything about the mana core…’
‘Still, it was best to keep them quiet about anything happening near the mana rift.’
As Evan was lost in thought while walking—
They arrived at the goblin village.
But something caught his eye—packs of wolves were prowling near the perimeter.
Alan, now commanding the knights, turned to Evan.
“Young master, it seems a few monsters have gathered in the meantime.”
“Well, it can’t be helped. Take the knights and deal with them. Then place them on alert, just like I instructed.”
Evan delegated the command to Alan and quickly made his way toward the boss room.
He had no time to worry about anything else.
Once inside the boss room, Evan approached the altar without hesitation.
‘As long as I put in all the materials here, it should create a mana core, right?’
The altar had grooves and drawings that showed where the materials should be placed, so activating it wasn’t difficult.
He just needed to fit the items into the slots according to the images.
Tuk—!
With each material he inserted, the altar began to tremble slightly and emit a soft blue light.
Kukukung!
By the time most of the materials were in place—
The altar started to glow even more brightly.
As soon as he placed the mana stone in the final slot at the top—
Kwachijijik!
A powerful spark erupted from the altar.
At the same time, the mana stone began to resonate, and the magic circle activated.
Kwoooo!
The air roared and shook violently.
Moments later, all the mana spilling from the rift began to flow into the altar.
A glowing blue sphere, about the size of a face, formed.
And then—
It rapidly grew in size.
Kwakang!
The sphere released an intense pulse of mana.
Evan was stunned.
The process of creating the mana core had followed the expected steps.
But the energy spreading out was clearly beyond ordinary.
‘What the hell is happening?’
The pressure kept increasing.
Evan collapsed to the floor, unable to stay on his feet.
“Urgh!”
What kind of thing was being created to release this kind of power?
Evan could only sit and watch helplessly.
Eventually, all the mana from the rift was absorbed into the blue sphere.
Then, the mana rift vanished.
And at the center of the boss room, a small blue sun floated in midair.
Fwaaa!
It burned like a sun, yet wasn’t hot to the touch—because it was made entirely of mana.
It simply radiated mana nonstop in all directions.
‘This… this isn’t the kind of mana core I know. What is this?’
Evan stared blankly at the unbelievable sight before him.