Chapter 3 - Re-Start

"It's a Miracle !" The Priestess gasped looking at the baby.

"Congratulations Ameira, Goddess has bestowed a miracle upon your child, Your son is blessed." She continued.

"Sylphie. Without you we both Mother and child would have died today." Ameira thanked The priestess with wet eyes holding the hand of the priestess.

Seemingly, they knew each other quite well.

Both Ameira, 'the general's wife' and Sylphie, 'The Priestess of Healing Hall' were friends for a long time.

Years ago, when Sylphie wasn't even recruited by the temple, there was a time when she was getting chased by the bandits and was about to die, Ameira had saved her from the bandits along with the General, protecting her from harm.

Ever since then, they have become as close as a family.

"You shouldn't thank me for anything. And I really didn't do anything. It's really miraculous how suddenly...." Priestess stopped mid-sentence losing herself in deep thought and then continued "Let's just say it's Will of Goddess A'scelia"

General looked at the Priestess and became a little serious when she paused and changed her words.

General wanted to ask something but after mulling over, he kept quiet.

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After this event, the whole General's Mansion was filled with joyful celebration.

Ameira, General's wife fell asleep while resting at her place with her newborn baby lying on the cradle beside her...

Sylphie walked toward the child and looked at him deeply. She slowly sent her aura into the baby's body.

Seeing nothing out of place, she slowly made a little cut into the baby's arm and drew out two drops of blood. The baby didn't feel anything because of the aura that was being transmitted into its body numbing the pain and mending the cut made by Sylphie.

"It will do just fine." Sylphie muttered to herself.

Then after seeing baby has healed and didn't feel anything, she smiled at the baby and then walked out of the room.

Soon a faint greyish smoke spread throughout the room.

After some time, a shadow emerged out of the windows and looked around for any signs of life. And after not finding anyone else, the shadow donned in black garb, slowly drew closer to the baby lying in the cradle.

Soon a dagger appeared into the hands of black-robed man and it slowly drew closer to baby's neck.

Just as it was about to cut the baby's throat, A force field formed around the baby protecting him from any harm and a fine thread of bluish energy enveloped around the body of the assasin, restricting his movements.

"It won't be that easy, while I'm here," Sylphie said with a faint smile on her face which was hidden behind a veil.

"How can an Aura User do magic? You're a High Mage too?" Black-robed assassin said in a neutral tone which was filled with horror.

"Oh, You seem to know me?" Sylphie asked the Black-robed assassin "Tell me, who sent you?"

"You will never know. It was my mistake to assume that you can only use Aura. But you're making an enemy you can't afford to make!!" The black assassin threatened.

"You talk too much" Sylphie moved towards the Assasin to see his face. But before she could reach him the assasin took a pill.

Soon assassin's body started to melt with black fumes coming out of his body as if acid has been poured over his body.

"Damn Assassin !!" Sylphie gritted her teeth with anger.

She threw a ball of fire into the molten corpse which incinerated it into ashes, removing the nauseous smell from the room.

Meanwhile, the General's wife was still deep in sleep.

Sylphie went close Ameira and removed the layer of energy she had placed within her body.

"I'm sorry I had to do this," She said to sleeping Ameira.

Then she walked out of the room again.

Just outside the room, General was waiting for Sylphie to come out.

"Who sent him?" General indicated toward the incinerated Assassin's remain.

"You already know who might have done this. I didn't tell anyone else about your child's birth. The road was intentionally blocked by a tree, making it look like it was due to bad weather, but their clean placement of tree trunk gave it away. There should be hidden spies within your guards or servants" Sylphie said seriously.

"I can't thank you enough for saving my wife and son. I'll look for the spies but it might be hard as they are already vigilant due to their assassination failure." General took a deep breath "Only three people are able to mobilize this kind of measures so efficiently. I already have a hint of the culprit but I don't want it to be true. Otherwise, all my efforts, decisions and loyalty made in my life will become a failure"

"You are now a threat to them but they can't touch 'the hero' so of course, they would try to harm your child instead," Sylphie said.

"Isn't it ironical, that some people betray their own loyal protectors?" General seemed to mock himself.

"I had already warned you back then, but you're fool for the love of common people." Sylphie mocked.

"Why did you take blood from my son's body?" General ignored her sarcastic remark and asked her with a hint of anger and a little suspicion.

"Oh, you saw that? You're quite vigilant yourself General?" Sylphie said chuckling "Don't worry, I won't curse my own family. It's for his own good, you'll find out in future".

General nodded, he could believe in Sylphie.

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Next day it was announced to the kingdom that General had a son born into their family and soon a banquet was held to celebrate it.

Before long, many noble families even commoners came to give their blessings to the child.

And a royal envoy came bearing a gift from the king himself.

Pope from the Temple of Gods also sent their gift through their envoy making other noble families jealous of the General's charm.

Soon it was time for magic bestowal ceremony where a priest comes to baptise and measure the talent for magic and future prospects of the baby.

A priest in white garb came along with an instrument ridged with many patterns and with a transparent glass-like smooth orb attached above the instrument.

Measuring someone's talent with the help of the instrument is quite easy.

You just have to place your hands above the transparent orb and it will glow into different colours.

Different colours determine different talents starting from red as lowest to orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet/purple as highest.

The intensity (perfection, high, intermediate, low) determines quality of magic and the number of patterns that glow (one to nine) determines the magic storage capacity of user.

But when the baby touched the orb, there was no reaction for a long time.

Suddenly the surrounding turned silent.

The hustle and bustle in the mansion turned quiet with faint murmurs of people whispering about what just happened.

A few noble came out to give their condolences to the shocked and pained General couple but looking closer at their faces, you could make out mockery and glee in their tone.

In this world, a person without magic talent was deemed essentially 'inept' or a 'trash' without any future prospects.

Even most commoners have atleast level 2 mana capacity.

Nobles without any mana capacity are seemed to be essentially unworthy to hold the title of a noble and highly ostracized and discriminated against.

Sylphie came out from the crowd gracefully and said "There was a problem during childbirth and baby's body took harm at that time. It's already a miracle for him to survive and he won't be able to be a magician due to the fragile body and broken soul vessel"

She then took the instrument from the Priest to check again and then kept it to herself.

Soon the celebration was over and everyone else dispersed. The commoners were saddened to hear such a piece of unfortunate news because to them General was a heroic figure who deserved a heroic son.

Soon the news spread to the whole kingdom and many nobles expressed their grief over it, but truthfully, they were happy to have general's talent not coming to his progeny.

Nevertheless, nobody had noticed that the instrument that Priestess of healing hall had kept to herself in her storage space was shining intensely for a while before having cracks all over and breaking it down into chunks..

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