10 Ren Garner

The dawn chorus of melodic birdsong drifted in. The light of dawn seeped into his room through the window. Ezra rubbed his bleary eyes, then he felt heavy to move around as something was preventing him from getting out of the bed. Theo's arms were on his neck, and both of Clara's legs were on his stomach. They are both wildly asleep last night. He pushed Theo's arm to the side and lifted Clara's leg from his stomach.

He walked to the window. There was a pearly glow in the sky. However, his gaze seemed to be empty. That matter was still had lingered in his head. 'White mask with magenta moon crest pattern on it'. When Ezra heard this from Theo, he tried to recollect his memories. It was the memories of his previous life, he did encounter people who wore that mask pattern. If those people are still out there, then hostility and violence will always accompany this world.

Then, his mother came into his room. Ezra was back to his sense. His mother was a little bit surprised to see him already woke up from his bed. Then, she reminded him the breakfast was prepared on the table and she will be going to meet someone. In other words, the three of them were the only ones will be in the house since his father also will be going to his work.

...

After they had taken their shower and breakfast, they spent their time in the reading room. Ezra was lying in a prone position while reading a book. The book has a violet colour as the cover. Both Theo and Clara tried to peek at the content of the book but neither of them could read it. Ezra has been studying the book for more than two hours already. Theo and Clara were about to burst their emotion out of boredom. They just accompanied Ezra there. They did try to read a book but they couldn't. After that, Theo couldn't hold it anymore and started to grumble. "Ezra, can't we go outside of the house, I feel bored." Then, Ezra closed the book and stood up while holding the book to his chest. "Alright, let's get some fresh air."

...

"Ezra where are we going to?" Theo asked him.

"There are some spells I want to try so we need to be far away from people." He said.

The three of them walked to the forest that was nearby Ezra's backyard. Well, it's not quite big to call it a forest since it only covered up a small hectare.

The two of them sat under a tree while Ezra was carving a circle on the ground using a stick. There are also a few words written in that circle. "What is that?" Theo asked. "This is a magic circle." Then, after Ezra finished drawing the circle, he instructed Theo and Clara to sat in the circle. Both of them sat cross-legged. "Alright, now show me your back." He said. Both of them were puzzled but they did what they were told because they have trust Ezra wholeheartedly.

"Don't worry, from what I read in the book this won't even hurt." He lied, his lips curved upward a little bit. 

Then, as soon as he flowed his mana onto their backs, the magic circle suddenly glowed into purple. A few lightning appeared as a jagged streak on Ezra's hand. These curse marks are stronger than he thought. The two of the children were gritting their teeth to bear the pain.

The book that he studied was about the curse magic. He was doing some research about the curse slave mark. Based on his reading he didn't find any other solution to break the curse other than taking the owner life or the owner itself call of the spells. Nonetheless, after spending a lot of time reading the book he came up with an idea on how he can break the curse without involving the owner but this was only theoretically and a hypothesis that is not being confirmed by anyone.

Then, an explosive mana wave occurred and blew Ezra away from the circle but it did not harm him.

While the two children were still sitting there as there were nothing that happened to them except for the slave mark….

Their slave marks still there on their backs…but the pattern seemed different than the previous.

"Haha…It did work." He postulated. The two of them stood up and were still confused. What did he mean by it work? The curse marks were still there. Then, Ezra explained to them. What he did was not removing the curse but instead, he put his curse slave marks on both of them. However, for it to work out, Ezra needs to make his curse spell stronger than the previous one to replace it. Hence, it drained almost all of his mana just to replace two curse mark.

In other words, they are not binding to the previous owner instead of to Ezra. They have to obey Ezra since that was the purpose of the mark but Ezra wouldn't use it but he can't cancel the spell too or not Theo and Clara will become the previous owner slave again.

However, it's still the same as they are being free as long as Ezra didn't use the slave mark to his advantages. He also hid the slave mark and its aura from being sensed.

Now the two of them can begin their training to use magic without any harm.

...

Later that night, Ezra did a few checks on their mana core and it seems like it almost developed. He predicted that Theo can use it next year while Clara in two years. Both of them had developed their mana core earlier than an average child. This was because they were exposed to a high density of mana at an early age. They were captivated in a cave and were exposed to the mana crystals that radiated mana.

Some nobles also used this as a method to fasten up their children developing the mana core. However, it also has its risks. If the children body unable to convert the impure mana into pure mana, it could end up the mana core absorbing the impure mana and this could lead to the mana core become unstable and crack. When the mana core crack, the child has a high possibility to be a cripple and can't use magic otherwise he could damage his mana core more and eventually died.

That's why mana core should be developed naturally but for Ezra, he has the understanding of how to reshape the impure mana into pure mana. That's why he was able to develop his mana core at the age of two. Normal children would develop it at the age of 8. The next year Theo will turn 7. That makes him one year early. While for Clara, her mana core will fully be developed at the age of 6 that is two years from now.

Besides checking their mana core that night, Ezra also had asked Theo about the small book that Ren gave to him. Theo took it out from his pocket and gave it to him. When Ezra opened the ribbon, Clara and Theo clung to him. They were also curious about the content. Then, Ezra opened the first page. As usual, the two children couldn't understand a single word written in it. "Ezra, can you read it to us too?" Theo asked him. Ezra turned his head at him. "I couldn't read it either." He said.

Theo and Clara were shocked by his answer. Ezra couldn't read the word, not because of the handwriting but each of the sentences doesn't make any sense. Ezra checked on the other pages it was still the same. Since nothing was interesting could be read from the book, both of them went to sleep but Ezra was still staring at the small book that he was holding in his hands. What's the point of writing the whole book if it's just a scribble? Ezra was still dissatisfied. "There has to be some kind of meaning to it." He jumped out of his bed a walked toward his window and sat there.

Moonlight filtered in through the window. He still hasn't stop gazing at the book. He was pondering why did Ren give Theo this book. There must be a reason for him to do so. Moreover, why did he wrote something that incomprehensible unless…

*chuckle

Ezra put his right hand covered his eyes while giving a soft partly suppressed laugh. The two children haven't sleep yet. They were shocked to hear someone was laughing sinisterly from the window. Ezra didn't realize that he was giving them a scary vibe.

"Ahem! Sorry." He postulated.

"You suddenly become gleeful, did you finally able to read it?" Theo asked him.

"No, I still couldn't read it maybe not for now." He said. Then, continued to explain it to both of them. He can't read because it was not meant for him. The book words were written with drops of blood that was enchanted with magic spells. In other words, the book does have something written in it but the words scribbled on their own due to its does not regard the reader as someone who qualified to read it. This was something that usually done among the family to pass their heritage or legacy to their generation. However, its also been used to prevent the content from being read by others.

Thus, there must be something that important and should not fall into the wrong hands in this book.

"Huh!?" Both of them didn't understand what was being told to them. "So, how are we supposed to know the content?" He asked. "We have to find someone who can read it," Ezra answered.

"and…who?" Theo asked him again. Ezra then stood from his sitting and walked toward them and show them the cover of the book.

"It has to be someone that related to this name. In another way to say, someone that related to him, his family member."

'Ren Garner'

the name that was written on the book.

"We have to find his family member if we want to know about its content" Ezra explained.

The spells that were used on the words was not what an average mage could do. That means Ren's family must be nobles since he was able to know and use these spells at such a young age. However, that not the main thing that was in his mind. He was wondering why does Ren would go through this extend to hide its content. There must be something that relates to that organisation. He thought to himself.

On the other hand, there something bizarre about the magic, there were a time when he can understand it, there is also a time when suddenly the next sentences rewrote on their own.

Supposedly the magic would not allow you to understand the message not even a single word. Could his spell was imperfect? Nevermind if I had time, I try to read.

If his suspicion was right about the organisation are on making their moves again.