Situation

Four years quickly go by. Adrian had displayed an interest in topics above his age; power struggle, politics, the world, and how it worked, and so on. If one would think deeply, you would realize that he was equipping himself with the knowledge that a noble needed to rule his territory. This behavior had further made people hail him as the "failed genius".

Adrian sat in a chair in the great library of the palace he lived in. He had books that explained different topics opened before him. He read through each book for a while, then he sat up and looked out a window beside him.

For some in-explainable reason, he had been blessed with an eidetic memory and could recall everything that had transpired at his birth. After taking everything in, he had begun developing contingency plans so as not to be caught off guard and unaware.

What intrigued him the most about all his discoveries was that mysterious energy called mana. Every living being is born with the ability to use mana. Just like how the body organs are worked, mana is also like that; natural. However, there are different abilities for mana users.

Every human is born with an affinity to a certain element. Elements in this world are grouped into two; Pure and Variant form. The pure form elements are; Fire, Wind, Earth, Lightning, Water. In this sequence, the latter is weaker than the former. However, this can be ignored depending on each user's ability. The Variant form, however, includes the Light element and Darkness element. These two are the perfect balance to each other but can still also be overpowered when facing a weaker user.

There are special crystals called mana crystals, used to check a person's mana affinity. The signs for each element are; a mana crystal takes a liquid form if a person has an affinity with water, it becomes red hot for a person with fire affinity, slash and cut marks would appear on the crystal if a user has an affinity with the wind element, the crystal cracks if a person has an affinity with lightning, the crystal increases in size if the person has an affinity with the earth element.

When a light element user appears, the crystal shines a bright golden light and it would be a darkish purple if it was for a darkness element user.

As for Adrian, the mana crystal had shone a bright white light instead. This had never happened before, or not that they were aware of. It simply signified that he could use mana but had no affinity. Someone without an affinity can't use any element, right? It should be just like a flightless bird.

"Prince Adrian!"

Adrian was pulled back to reality as he heard his name. He turned to look at who had called to him. It was a familiar face so he was at ease.

"Bella, what is it?"

"Her majesty, your mother, has requested your presence"

Bella is one of the few people in this palace that didn't scorn him or his mother. Those that were nice to his mother were very few and could be counted with the hands. Adrian closed the books before him and followed Bella. Soon, they were before his mother's room.

Bella knocked on the door twice and went in with Adrian.

"Prince Adrian, your majesty" she bowed as Adrian walked up to his mother.

"Spending the whole day in the library again, aren't you?"

With a smile, Adrian walked up to his mother who stood before the window in her room. The light that came into the room gave her dark-green hair a bright luster as it ran down to her waist. The light also reflected her blue eyes under her perfectly carved brows. They outlined perfectly with her lips and nose.

Her gown gave no room to assess her body shape, but it was by no means plain. Adrian wondered how this beautiful mother of his ended up as the third wife of his father. She was pretty enough to be the first wife or even engaged to a powerful duke somewhere but it didn't happen that way.

"I enjoy the library" He replied as he hugged his mother.

"As much as I love your genius, I still want you to enjoy your childhood", she gave him a light pat on his head.

"Yes mother"

"Now, let's go have lunch"

Adrian held onto her hand as they left her room to go have lunch in one of the gardens nearby. He stayed with her till the day was gone.

He returned to his room later in the evening. Once in, he shut the door and took a casual stroll around the room. From where he started his stroll, it ended with him standing before a huge portrait that stood 15 feet tall.

The portrait was of a knight that stood with both his hands on a sword as they stood straight down on the ground. Taking a closer look, you would realize that the pointy end of the sword was positioned in a crooked way. Adrian adjusted the crooked part that the sword looked perfectly painted on the portrait.

Although not very loud, some sounds of metal turning could be heard. There is a bump at the point where Adrian had adjusted the portrait, like it was made that way. Soon, the sound stopped and the portrait slid to his left, opening a pathway to an underground area.

Already used to this scene, he walked in. He had no idea why this room had been here. To be precise, he had accidentally found this room a year ago. Since he now had a secret location to do what he wanted, outside the eyes of everybody, he had brought forward his plans to understand his rebirth situation.

Since birth, Adrian had failed to understand why everyone saw him as a failure. Well, since he had no mana affinity in a world where your affinity defines your growth, he pretty much understood his situation.

But one question continued to linger on his mind; if I don't have an affinity, why can I use all the known elements?

Simultaneously, he made use of all the elements; from fire to wind, earth, lightning, water, light, and darkness.