Chapter 7: The 7 years of Hell [1]

It was the next day, and I was being escorted through the halls of the mansion by a servant, who was standing to the left of me, taking me to the lobby.

I was being taken by the hand of a quite petite girl for her age, who had coils of light, auburn hair, cascading past her back. She had a thin-shapely figure, enwrapped by a maid uniform and had her sleeves rolled up.

The servant seemingly had a flat and expressionless face, but as I looked down, I could notice her hands shivering uncontrollably.

I also, however, was able to notice a painful amount of fresh scars mysteriously plastered around the back of her arm, implying that she had tried to brace herself from her fall. And so, I inquisitively asked,

"What happened to your arm?"

Trying to make some small talk to pass the time by, I decided that I should get to know this maid, as I had seen her consistently during my time here.

She instantly darted her eyes towards me with a hint of fear, before desperately trying to pull her sleeves down.

"Don't... don't worry young master. This was only the result of a slight mistake I had done. Nothing serious." she said, raising a mountainous amount of red flags.

However, as a naive five-year-old, I immediately took her words to heart and decided not to question further.

And as fate would have it, we had finished our conversation by the time we had reached the lobby, noticing Aunt Mary sitting on a sofa.

"Young Master, I realise I may be out of line to personally say this, but time is running out. Please, please never forget the sight of your own goal..." the servant warned before Aunt Mary got up and took me down a second set of stairs from behind the grand stairway in the lobby hall.

While the huge staircase in front of the Mansion's doors could be described as a stairway towards heaven, the hidden, clustered staircase behind it would be described as the stairs to hell.

As we went lower and lower, I could feel the light from the entrance become dimmer and dimmer. Each step was made out of unpolished grey rock, uneven and unlevel with each other. The sides of the staircase were followed by a dull, grey brick wall, with overflowing cement between each brick, implying how lazy the builders must have been.

There were no handrails or decoration, but instead the occasional cobwebs around the edge of the 'step'. Only after every 20 steps or so, would you see a dim lantern jutting out of the brick wall, obstructing the already narrow footpath, causing Aunt Mary to duck each time we encountered one. And when we did encounter one, it would only be less than a minute before we were plunged into darkness again.

This continued for around 10 minutes, constantly walking until we reached a sturdy, metallic red door. Aunt Mary pulled on this door with all her might, causing a deep screech to echo around the premise.

*CREEEEEEEAAAAK*

Rust from the bolts of the door flew off in all directions after having been moved after a long time. The door showed clear signs of resistance as it hugged the stony floor of the chamber until eventually revealing a powerful white light from inside the room.

My eyes were scorched in agony from the unexpected transition from dark to light.

"Woooaaahh..." I exclaimed, my jaw agape.

The room -no, the hall that I entered was at least half the size of a football pitch, enclosed in slightly glowing white panels around the chamber. The place that I was in did not feel real, as I could not see any shadows or equipment around me. It felt like a simulation.

"So this is what happens when magic and technology come together," I remarked.

All this time, I had not heard a single word from Aunt Mary, who had only been observing me and sliding her fingers across the walls of the room as she elegantly walked.

*THUD*

With a loud bang, the door behind me closed shut, sealing us two in this room.

"Alright, we should get started right away," she said with an inscrutable smile.

Anticipatedly, I listened for my first task.

"First off, you will need to learn how to use 𝑴𝒂𝒏𝒂 𝑴𝒂𝒛𝒆 as the heir of the Steelheart family."

Mana maze is a hereditary skill, passed down to those exclusively in the House Steelheart. Similarly, other houses also had access to their own hereditary skill, influenced by their role in the human nation.

The Steelheart house was in charge of combat-related duties, capable of raising powerful prodigies. This was also the reason why they were the number one House, ruling and dominating the other two with their combat prowess.

The Goldheart house was in charge of financial-related duties, famed for creating intelligent mathematicians and powerful figures of society. Without this house, the human nation would likely collapse under financial stress and debt.

And finally, the Rubyheart house was in charge of making weapons and tools, helping to rise the human nation with technological advances, and proved to be a great asset during a war.

"I thought that Mana Maze required using magic, and don't I have to be at least 11 years old to be able to use it?"

"Well yes, humans are only able to use magic once they are of age, but magic only refers to the implementation, or technique, of using mana."

Confused, I expectantly looked into her eyes.

"If we go into the theory of 𝑴𝒂𝒏𝒂 𝑴𝒂𝒛𝒆, it is essentially just the spreading of mana, pushing it outside of our body, and holding it there with our willpower. There is no actual technique used for it. That and the fact it is an innate ability in all Steelhearts."

All humans contain mana, it is the byproduct of our life energy, and collects as we age. Different people collect different amounts of mana quickly, but the general rule is that everyone will naturally grow, even if it is a little bit. It is only until we collect enough mana, that our body is able to adapt and implement magic. This would usually happen around 11 years old.

The body would also start to feel pain if there is no mana present inside of the body, so that is why people have become accustomed to only using magic once they have reached 11 years old.

However, a truth not many know, is that the Steelhearts' innate ability technically isn't the skill '𝑴𝒂𝒏𝒂 𝑴𝒂𝒛𝒆' but actually the ability to withstand the pain from having no mana inside of their body!

This allowed them to train simple mana techniques early on, and become powerful warlocks and mages.

"Now, the only way to train it is by being accustomed to the absence of information. Only when you are able to differentiate between yourself and the world will you find the answer." Aunt Mary mysteriously hinted.

"Oh, and by the way, in this chamber, there is magic used to inhibit hunger and sleep, now, while there might be some side effects afterwards, just know that I will come to you when you are able to use the skill."

"Now hang on, are you not going to teach m-"

The lights began to slowly dim into darkness and the whir of magic spells started to fill the room.

"Tick tock boy, time is running out..." Aunt Mary interrupted, shutting the door to the room with a cold smile and thud.

"What!?"