Insight and Enhancement

Emilia Von Rozenberg was the heiress to a mid-sized viscountess territory outside of Luna city and thus qualified to be called a noble. But in the end, she was just a noble in the countryside living a sheltered life and never truly witnessing the outside world. Thus it was completely understandable when she saw Luna city, one of the largest metropolises in the world, and more importantly when she saw the Stone family estate.

As the night cloaked the city and Emilia followed Max into Luna City, amazement and shock were clearly written over her face. Unlike her former household territory, Luna city clearly lived up to its name of a metropolis with sprawling buildings. The city built at the base of the Luna mountain range reflected over the clear waters of the Luna lake present on its other end under the serene moonlight. They finally entered the stone family estate after about 30 minutes since they had departed. Apart from the large sprawling gardens within the estate, the Stone family mansion itself did not look much larger than a typical noble household. In fact, it could be said that it was rather modest.

"I'm sorry but can you use magic to jump up to the second floor balcony?"

"Yes, I can indeed. I do have enough mana proficiency for physical enhancement of that level, but why do you ask?" Emilia replied puzzled at the sudden question.

"You see, no one knows that I snuck out to fight bandits. The image I have maintained is that of a rather ordinary person. People don't really know about my abilites or even the facts related to Order of Kronos. All the information I have was procured mostly alone on my part."

Emilia was shocked. Indeed it was hard to imagine a 9 year old child, about the same age as her running around fighting an internation organization alone. Rather this brought up more questions in her mind.

"Then I can't understand a few things if that is the case. Why would you even tell me about all of this in the first place, a person who you have just met and not tell the seasoned veterans who have helped your family for many years?"

"Indeed I was not considering to involve anyone in this matter, at least as I had planned originally. But there are a few reasons for that. I'll explain about that in a bit." Saying that he jumped up to the balcony as quietly as he could. I followed suit and jumped as well.

When we entered the adjacent room, it was put simply, a study. There was a rather classic looking table by the window with the dim moonlight dripping in. One wall of the room was entirely covered with bookshelves. Many of the books had been removed and now rested on the table alongside piles of documents. At the other extreme end there was another table with 4 chairs for conversations probably.

"This is my office. Currently the guards are standing outside my chambers and any of my other vassals have already retired for the evening. I chose this office for our discussion because its completely soundproof, making it ideal for having confidential talks."

"I understand."

He then sat down by the desk and pulled out a tiny box. What it contained seemed to be black contact lenses. He then put them on completely covering his heterochromatic eyes.

"This is just a safety measure." He said in a deep voice. "No one except those who took part in my 'training sessions' know my true eye colour. Well that includes you as well now" while chuckling nonchalantaly.

"I see, I presume its to safeguard your public persona."

"Indeed. It will act as a simple yet effective deterrant against any enemies, presumably the order in the future, from making any connections to the stone family. Of course identity and tracks will be well hidden as well."

Her master, the person she had pledged her loyalty to seemed to return to the serious demeanor he had displayed before. She began to wonder what his true personality was like.

"Now then, since you are already about 9 years old, you must have had a mana core reading done before, is that correct? As you may know, a mana core reading simply implies your total magic power. While it can increase over a persons life through extensive training, the change is not that high. In all honesty, the extent of a persons mana core reading is predetermined when he or she is born. On that topic, may I know your mana core reading?"

So he asked in a subtle yet deep and imposing voice, something uncharacteristic of a 9 year old boy. His manner of speech as well was not brutish, probably his noble upbringing subconsciously affected his speech in all his personas, giving a gentlemanly tone to it.

"Yes, of course. My mana core reading as I had measured at the age of 5, was if I remember correctly, 53. Since the reading was higher than normal, I was swiftly termed a genius." Emilia replied.

A common person's mana core reading would be around 10, at max 20. These people could not practice magic efficiently, as their overall mana itself was very low. Most of them ended up taking jobs that did not require the use of magic or fighting. A person with a reading beyond 20 was eligible for practicing magic techniques. People whose reading reached up to 40, were capable of using at most sensory and basic strengthening magic. Any person having a reading above 40 was termed a genius and all sorts of possibilities concerning magic as well as society opened up to them. Incidentally, the highest ever mana core reading publicly recorded till date is 86 and belongs to the female crimson knight 'Scarlet'. But the system of core readings were invented only 500 years back. Thus this did not involve the readings of the legendary figures of the past, some being the legion of heroes. According to historical studies mana proficiency was insanely high in the past and only declined in the recent times.

"I see." He replied slowly. A grin spread over his face face as he scrutinized what I said. "In that case why not conduct a mana core reading for yourself right now? I guarentee you will be shocked with the results."

Emilia considered this statement for a while. She had come to regard her boss, Maximus, very highly in the short duration of time they had been acquainted. She thought of how he had used pure magic power to kill the bandits earlier. Clearly, his power was unfathomable. Going by how he conducted himself and how firmly he guarded his identity and abilities, all the while acting as the Stone family head, it was not unreasonable to assume his intellect was unfathomable as well. But she could not understand the reason for this sudden request.

"I must say I am confused by this. Even if 4 years have passed since I took my mana core reading, I don't think the number should have changed that much. In the first place, even if someone had rigourous training for multiple years the number would only go up by a few digits." Emilia made her case, still trying to understand her boss's statement.

"True. Indeed what you said is true. Even if people trained for multiple years, even if a persons control and proficiency over their magic improved, the actual core reading will hardly change. For normal people that is...!"

What did he mean by normal people? And even if she was abnormal how much would the reading have changed by. There was only one way to find out. Maximus removed another box one of the desk drawers. As he opened it, a cleanly polished metallic object, which itself looked like a smaller box, and a ring embeded with a shiny rock were visible. This is called a core measurement device. The ring once place on your index finger, transmits mana signature readings to the metallic box, whcih calculates the actual values and displays it as numeric figures. The stone on the ring is called a mana stone, which is a crystallization of natures mana over long periods of time.

I switly put the ring on my index finger, curious to see the result. The mana stone shined brightly in response to this and subsequently the box shined as well. After a few minutes, the number which was supposed to represent my mana core reading was imprinted on the box, in deep red colour. Her master did not move an inch, just grinning, barely noticeably. The reason why he was grinning was made obvious to me a few moments later as I stared at the number and gasped.

"....N-no way. H..How is it so high? Should'nt it be around 53? How is it 89?"

It was truly unbelievable. Now while she knew what her lord meant, she count not understand it. In a single night, her mana reading went from 53 to 89. More importantly is it not higher than the crimson knight's reading? She stared at Maximus in disbelief.

"Surprising isn't it? As I said, in the case of a normal person, this increase in mana reading would not be possible. This increase occured only due to the fact that I stabilized your mana core which was afflicted by demonic synergy syndrome. The amount will probably continue to increase at a faster rate for a while after this as well. Since I stabilized your mana core, some of my own mana fused with your stabilized core, making it possible for you to use my technique to stabilize cores as well. I am calling this phenomenon magic enhancement, at least for now."

"Are you going to make this technique public? Would it not be better if more people knew this technique?" I asked

"No. The only people who can use this technique are me or someone whose core was stabilized by me. This technique does not work on normal people who have stable mana cores since birth. To make it public, I would have to gather people affected by demonic synergy with the help of associations such as the knight order. This would easily attract the attention of the order of kronos who will then target me, the root cause of their problems who is preventing them from harvesting demonic mana. Additionally, in the eyes of the general public, demonic synergy is akin to a curse and its true circumstances are unknown."

"I see..." I replied as I digested the overload of information.

" Now, to answer your original question from earlier. This information is indeed confidential and as I said, I would have erased the memory of our conversation about the order from your mind using memory magic, if you did not seriously choose to follow me that is. You see, I had been thinking about how I would combat a grand scale organization like the order of kronos for a while now. There is an obvious limit to what I can accomplish on my own, in which case support would be required. But, when you said that you would follow me, it occured to me that this was possibly the answer I had been looking for."

"What do you mean?" I asked curiously.

"If I were to form an organization from the people who were discarded and erased from their families due to having demonic synergy, that is only if they choose to join, I could combat the order from the shadows. Since their identities will be erased by their very own families their the order would not be able to track any information about them. Additionally, since their mana core would undergo the same stabilization technique, their overall power and potential would increase as well. This power was a necessity to fight the order, whose higher ranking members would have powers of similar levels as well. Ordinary people or even the knight's association did not have the necessary power and thus do not qualify to combat the order."

I was shocked by the amount of thought he had put into his plan. What made this thought more frightening was that he thought of all the pros and cons for a plan of such a scale immediately after our conversation earlier today. People were always amazed by my intellect and said that I was mentally mature far beyond my years. So this was a blow to my pride, though I recovered quickly enough. Now I understood what he was thinking when I told that I would follow him.

"This is a plan of grand scales in order to combat a organization of a similar scale. In order to not make any errors, a considerable time and effort would be required,but according to my calculuations, we should have the necessary qualifications to called an organization in about 4-5 years time, that is around when I would have to attend an academy. Now, I ask again, do you still choose to follow me and fight against the order? Know that no fame or popularity awaits you if you do since wyou will be fighting in the shadows and not in the public like knights."

I had no need to think again since I had already prepared myself earlier itself and I replied-

"I do. I will try to accomplish any task you put up, for me for repaying the debt of saving my life as well as to prevent such incidents from happening."

"I see. That's fine resolve. Also, is it fine with you if I were to introduce you as my secretary from tomorrow? I can't just tell everyone that a noble's child is working for me?" He asked calmly.

"I do not mind, Maximus-sama. But my family is no more so what identity do I have to show in public from now on?"

" No need to be so formal. Just Max will do. I will take care of identification. Now, to more pressing matters, we will begin training in the morning."