"Shine upon the darkness! Burn my enemies!" shouted George. "Fireball!"
A fist-sized ball of fire shot from George's fingertips and hit the boulder ten meters away from them, leaving behind almost inconspicuous burn marks on its surface.
"You sound stupid." Austen picked his ears in embarrassment. "Can't you come up with better words for the chant? Shine upon the darkness?"
Austen cringed. "You know we don't really need words to cast our spells."
"But won't it look cooler that way?" said George.
George cast another fireball spell—chantless. This time, the spell was completed in two seconds. It was also larger—around the size of an adult human head—and stronger. George willed it to rapidly spin before flying toward the same boulder. It exploded and destroyed a portion of the target on impact, sending pieces of stones flying about.
George and Austen grinned at each other.
They'd really come far after meeting their master. With such dangerous spells in their arsenal, they were confident that even the soldiers in Lion City were no longer their match.
Hours of repeatedly running around the town with weights strapped on their bodies and endless hours of mastering the core magic formation had finally paid off.
"Master said we should aim to have our cast time reduced to half a second," said Austen. He cast the same spell as George, destroying what remained of the boulder. "We did great coming up with the idea of making the fireball spin rapidly, but it still takes us two seconds to cast the spell."
George nodded. "We still have a long way to go."
Austen laughed. "But isn't it exciting? Master said that as long as we keep on training, the time will come when we'll be able to surpass even the Master of the Tower."
According to Lark, the massive mana pools of the brothers gave them an edge to the other magicians of the kingdom. With such reserves of mana, it was possible for them to repeatedly train and cast their spells, accelerating their growth severalfold.
"The Master of the Tower, huh?" George sat on the grass and looked up at the cloudless sky. "If we really do become that strong…" Although their master told them with certainty that they had great future ahead of them in the field of magic, the brothers still couldn't believe it. After all, they used to be nothing but errand boys from Lion City.
"But big brother, I heard from Chryselle that most magicians use chants for their spells. It's a lot different than how the master taught us."
"Trust the master," said Austen. "There must be a reason he decided it's better for us to skip straight to chantless magic."
"I've thought of it before," said George. "But if making the fireball rapidly spin increases its power, wouldn't our spells become stronger if we forcefully compress it before making it spin?"
Austen raised a brow. "As if it's that eas—" Austen stopped midway through his speech when George summoned a ball of fire in front of him and forcefully shrunk it. And as though it wasn't enough, it also started to spin rapidly.
"You can do it too if you try," said George, unaware that what he was doing was no easy feat. From the size of a human head, the ball of fire had now shrunk to the size of a fist. Compared to the fireballs they'd been casting before, this one looked more solid.
"You! When did you learn to—" "I've been practicing in my room." George pointed at the sky and the compressed fireball spell shot up, eventually disappearing from sight. "I know you said that doing it alone is dangerous, but we have the item the master gave us, right?"
Austen couldn't believe it. The little brother who'd been having a hard time grasping the magic formation before had now surpassed him and become this proficient in fire magic.
Austen sighed. He shrugged, as though he'd come to accept everything that had transpired, then sat next to his little brother and ruffled his hair.
"Hey, what are you doing?" said George, irked by the way his brother was touching him.
"Nothing." Austen also looked up at the sky. "I'm hungry. Let's grab some meat skewers in the Central Market and go home."
George beamed. "Sounds great! I've saved up a lot of money recently.
Let's buy our siblings lots of bread and meat!"
After becoming the disciples of the Lord of Blackstone Town, money was no longer a problem for their family. The amount they were being paid each month was more than enough for them to live lavishly even in major cities. The brothers were truly grateful they'd moved to this town and met Lark.
After their training, the brothers left the forest edge and went to the Central Market. With the establishment of the Merchants Guild, the place was bustling more than ever before.
"Young Masters!" the meat vendor shouted in greeting. "It's been a while! Here for more skewered meat?"
Young Master? thought Austen. He found it odd that the vendor seemed to be more polite to them than usual.
"Give us eighteen sticks, old man!" said George.
"That's quite a lot, Young Master. Bringing some home, eh?" said the vendor. "Eighteen sticks coming up!"
George said to Austen, "It smells so good. I can't wait!"
"Wipe the drool off your face." Austen frowned.
"It's really good to have money," said George. "We can buy such delicious food for all of our siblings. There's also cool-looking leather boots I saw in the newly built shop near the temple. They're a bit expensive, so I've been saving up to buy them."
"That's why we need to continue working hard," said Austen. "So don't you dare slack off, brat."
"Who's slacking off?" George rubbed his nose. "I'll surpass everyone soon and become Master's best disciple. Just wait!"
Austen thought of Anandra and Chryselle. For some reason, Austen had this strange feeling that they would never become stronger than those two.
Especially Anandra—that man was like a monster now. The last he'd heard, Anandra had managed to defeat all of the humanoids at the Training Hall at the same time. The Master of the Tower felt like a more reasonable goal, now that he thought of it.
"Here are your skewers, Young Masters," the meat vendor politely handed them the bag. "Please come again!"
"Thank you, old man!" said George.
After buying meat skewers, the brothers immediately went to the nearby baker. To Austen's surprise, even the vendor of this stall was acting unusually polite.
"Young Masters!" said the woman. "What can I get for you today?"
Austen frowned for a moment. "Three loaves of manchet please."
"Manchet, is it? Of course, right away," said the woman.
Austen nudged George's ribs. He whispered, "Hey."
"What?" said George, not bothering to lower his voice.
"Don't you find it strange?" said Austen.
George shot a quizzical gaze.
"They've been calling us Young Masters," whispered Austen. "The old man, and now, this. Why are they acting so polite to kids like us?"
"Isn't it normal to be polite to customers?" said George, as though he found everything natural. "When we're still errand boys in the city, we had to bow several times to our bosses, right?"
"That's different." Austen rubbed his brows. "Look, they never called us Young Master before, right? Why would they start acting so politely now?"
A passing customer—a man who worked in the mines—met George's eyes. To George's surprise, the man smiled and lightly bowed his head in greeting.
Seeing this, George finally realized that something was not right.
"Y-You're right," said George.
The woman handed them the bag filled with machets. She looked at the people in the Central Market who were happily chattering with each other.
"Everyone's really in high spirits today," she said. "Even I can't help but feel excited."
Austen received the bag. "Excited about what?"
The woman's eyes widened in surprise. "Oh my, you haven't heard the news yet?"
Austen and George looked at each other. They'd been training at the forest edge since this morning.
"What news?" said George.
The woman deeply breathed in, as though trying to reel in her excitement. "Lark Marcus! The Lord of Blackstone Town! The two of you are his students, right? Soon, he's going to become the king of this kingdom!"
Austen almost dropped the bag he was holding.
George repeatedly opened and closed his mouth. "K-King? M-Master is going to become the king?"
"That's right!" said the woman excitedly. "The news came from the merchants who arrived this morning! Who would have known that the lord would become the next ruler of this nation! It's really exciting, don't you agree?"
They finally realized why all of these people were treating them with utmost respect. After all, they were known to be students of Lark Marcus— the next King of Lukas.
The woman sighed while looking at them. "How envious. To be the students of our lord. The two of you will probably end up living in the king's castle in the capital, surrounded by numerous servants."
The woman added, "Now that our lord is going to become king, I'm pretty sure this town will prosper even further. No wonder everyone is in high spirits today."
The brothers could no longer hear the last few words of the woman.
They were stupefied by the news that their master was soon going to become king of this kingdom.
*** The next day, news of Lark's return spread throughout Blackstone Town.
Bards sang on the streets as everyone celebrated the return of the future king of the kingdom.
George and Austen immediately went to the mansion to greet Lark.
"Master!" George barged into his office unannounced.
"Hey, at least learn to knock!" shouted Austen.
The two halted in their tracks upon entering the lord's office. To their surprise, ten people aside from Lark were already inside.
Gaston, Big Mona, Chryselle, Anandra, Princess Esmeralda, and five unknown men wearing hooded cloaks stood before Lark. The five unknown men were even taller than Anandra. Moreover, each of them felt dangerous, as though they could snap a human's head with their bare hands.
George and Austen instinctively took a step back upon meeting the unknown men's gazes.
"They're my remaining disciples," Lark said to the five men.
"I see," said one of the men.
Immediately, the ominous aura filling the room vanished. George and Austen felt like they could properly breathe again.
Now after a careful look, each of the five men had an unusual resemblance to their master. Their hair had tinges of silver, and one of their eyes was blue—as though the blood of the Marcus family was flowing through their veins.
There was something eerie about their appearance, but the brothers couldn't pinpoint what it was.
"George, Austen." Lark smiled broadly. "It's been a while. I heard from Anandra that the two of you have been training diligently while I was away?"
"Of course!" said George. He looked as though he wanted to show off his spells in front of all these people.
Lark chuckled in amusement.
"Master, we heard the news," said Austen. "You're going to be the king of this nation?"
"King regent," corrected Lark. "It's a temporary position."
Lark paused. He looked at everyone in the room. "And I want every one of you to come with me to the capital for the coronation."
Big Mona broadly grinned, his body quivering from excitement.
Looking at his eyes, it was apparent that he was inwardly squealing in glee.
"Of course! My time has finally come! I'll be sure to show those Vont bastards that the newly enthroned king is on my side!"
Chryselle averted her gaze upon hearing those words. She'd heard from Lark how her maternal family pushed Big Mona's father into bankruptcy, eventually leading to his death. She said to Lark. "I will follow you anywhere, Master."
Anandra simply nodded his head and didn't utter a word. Gaston, on the other hand, looked conflicted. After several seconds of silence, the butler bowed his head. "I'll follow you."
Lark heaved a sigh of relief upon hearing Gaston's reply. Although it would be a great loss for Blackstone Town if the butler were to come with him to the capital, Lark believed that the town hall could still function without them around.
Lark needed capable people he could trust once he'd ascended the throne—and Gaston fitted that position the most.
"Princess, please use this chance to return to the capital," said Lark.
The princess furrowed her brows. "I'm not returning to the capital, I'm simply coming with you. There's a difference between the two."
The youngest daughter of the King was as stubborn as before. Lark decided not to argue with her.
"George?" said Lark. "Austen?"
The two said in unison, "Of course, we're coming with you, Master!"