Unexpected Event

[POV: Zandra Zanuki (former matriarch)]

"Former matriarch, Ron said young master's aura seems to be leaking out," said one of my maids.

"Tell him to be on stand-by in front of Ares's bedroom. The area around his bedroom will be heavily guarded and don't let Ares out of the room no matter what" I ordered before I took a sealed metal box the size of an adult man's palm before going out of the room.

"So what is the situation?" I asked after seeing a dozen security surrounding the area.

"Madam! No-no one is inside the room" one of my subordinates reported.

"Opened the door and make sure to search every corner and crook. Find him quick" I ordered urgently.

"Madam, the Shadows that guarding young master Ares reported that he was walking towards the mansion backyard and they were following him from a safe distance"

"Now move. Close the mansion gates. Surround the area, and the rest follow me to the backyard" I said while walking as fast as I can following my subordinates who tracked Ares's footprint.

It seemed Ares's aura was more chaotic than I first thougtht if none of his Shadows managed to stop him and only able to follow him from a distance. It was wel known that Zanuki aura was different than normal humans and Ares's aura was on a whole different level.

If it wasn't managed properly, more problems would arise in the future.

A few minutes later, I saw him walking towards the center of the lake. His nose was bleeding while his skin was as pale as a corpse. His aura started to affect the subordinates in front of me.

"There, that is the young master" one of the guys shouted.

"All of you surround the lake" I ordered before walking alone towards him since currently, no one else could help him other than me.

He stopped moving and stare at me with a blank gaze. Both his red and purple eyes seem to be glowing under the night sky with a dim moonlight.

"You're doing great," I said after reaching him.

I hugged him and quickly injected a special drug into him while also channeling my aura along with the drug to make sure the drug was absorbed into his body since his aura was currently haywire and out of control. It's a miracle, that his aura didn't burst out randomly and injured anyone.

A few moments later he fainted and I quickly made him wear a black chocker to further control his aura. After almost half an hour later, when I sensed that his aura remnants have completely dissipated, I asked a few servants to take him to his room so he could properly rest.

'It seems his subconsciousness led him here since he knows that he will harm almost everyone in the mansion' I thought to myself while looking at him being checked by healers and injected with a few more options.

"Ron just tells him that his aura went out of control if he asked what happened tomorrow morning," I said to his butler who was standing by his bedside.

"Tighten the security for tonight" I ordered the others before leaving the room.

*************************************

'Urgh I feel like my head has been smashed a few times' I muttered when I woke up that morning.

"Young master good morning. Do you feel uncomfortable?" Ron asked me.

He looked haggard with red eyes seemingly looking like someone who was staying up all night doing hard labor.

"What happens?" I asked after remembering a few glimpses of last night's memory but the rest was still hazy.

"Your aura went out of control last night thus the matriarch has to calm you down and you might feel exhausted for a few days as the side effects of it" Ron explained to me.

"Ohhh I see. Is anyone alright?" I asked kind of accepting my fate.

"Yes everyone is alright and we wished that you will recover soon," Ron said seemingly touched.

'The young master is so caring. He should worry about himself more but he still has time to think about everyone else. He must've gone to the lake because he doesn't want his aura to harm anyone' Ron thought in his heart.

Unfortunately, Ares has no way of knowing what Ron is thinking in his mind and no one will know that he went to the lake unknowingly just to avoid anyone and because the lake seems cold enough to cool down his feverish feeling.

'It's good right as long as no one is harmed. I don't want any bad records either by accidents or not since by becoming a good guy then I can stay alive' I lamented to myself.

"Here is your favorite meat and mushroom porridge. Please eat young master since you have to gain more energy to recover faster" Ron said energetically while putting four plates of porridge all at once in front of me with two glasses of warm milk.

"Yeah...thanks"

"Your class with Master Zenin will be postponed to next week thus we can kind of relax for a bit this week" Ron notified me.

"Hmm ok"

"Please call me if you need anything young master," he said after cleaning up the plates and glasses. Later he checked my body temperature, blood pressure, and heartbeat rates before going out of the room when he confirmed everything is fine.

"He had become a more worrywart than ever" I commented.

Since Ron didn't allow me to go out of bed, he gave me the history book about dragons, giants, and elves to make me occupied for the whole day.

Since these three races exist in this world, of course, I have to know about them. It is said that there are only a few dozen of dragons left and most of them love to be disguised as either humans or elves but there are also many who choose to live isolated from the outside world.

Meanwhile, the giants mainly could be found on Gargantuan Islands which was not far from Fleming Island which was the headquarters of this world's mages.

Gargantuan is a bunch of island archipelago occupied by giants and no dungeon gates appear on these islands.

The elves on the other hand live on the border with humans. They didn't have a specific country or territories like humans because they lived nomadically for thousand of years ago after the last Elves King died.

However, they have a fixed gathering place called Paradiso which is located on an island that was far away from any lands. Only elves knew the exact coordinate of the island since it was said to be a moving island. The coordinates might change every few months.

Some said that it was a massive ancient mythical turtle the shell was as big as an island. That's why the island is moving across the sea since the turtle is swimming. The turtle is said to be a mythical immortal creature and also the elves' guardian creature.

"Hmm interesting" I mumbled to myself.

The only race that is actively fighting with demons and monsters are humans since elves are selfish creatures and will not sacrifice themselves fighting with something they deemed as filthy creatures.

Meanwhile, since the giants' territory was not affected by either monsters or demons from the dungeon gate, they decided not to get involved with human affairs too much. That's why they only trade with humans but never wanted to establish a more secure relationship.

There's also a group of half-giants half-humans where mostly they have a height of around 3 to 4 meters while normal giants are normally 7 to 9 meters tall. The tallest human is usually less than 3 meters while elves have the same physique as humans except for their distinct long ears and beautiful appearances.

"Ron said that dark elves are working with the dark mages in this territory"

There are two types of elves in this world which are regular elves and dark elves. Regular elves look like your typical elves from manga and games while dark elves usually have dark brown skin and dark hair. They could also use elementals and summon spirits but instead of using normal mana, they use dark mana or dead mana and become similar to black mages.

Both kinds of elves hated each other since the regular elves deem their other counterparts as filthy for using dead mana while dark elves hate them for their arrogant and holier-than-thou attitude.

Many dark elves live near grave areas or areas where mass murders have happened since they could absorb mana dissipating from the dead's resentment. Currently, most of them live in Cairo Empire where there's a forbidden place filled with dead mana called the Death Desert.

"Cairo Empire is a neighboring country of Hargan and the border between the country is the desert area of Death Desert. The entrance of the desert seems to be at the end of the Kiba territory" I said to myself while looking through the map on my computer screen.

Another forbidden area is in Hargan Empire which is called the Dark Forest located in Kazigare Valley. Kazigare Dark Forest is situated behind the Zanuki mansion mountain peak. It was called Dark Forest due to the weird atmosphere there and all the trees are black starting from their trunks to their leaves.

The monsters also seem to have had become mutated weirdly but since the monsters living there quietly without any hint of a monster wave, the authority just let them be and restricted the area by announcing it as one of the continent's forbidden places.

The continent has four big empires, a union of small countries, and a neutral observer country. Each nation has its forbidden places thus this world has five forbidden places.

I continue to immerse myself in reading the book until dinner time when Ron has to snatch all the books away and force me to sleep after taking medicines.

*************************************

"Ares~ Do you miss me?" he said while hugging me.

"We meet every week," I said before I managed to be released from the bear hug of a bear-like person.

'This is my first time seeing a mage this big' was my first impression of my uncle called Zenin Zanuki who was also a popular mage in the Hargan Empire with the title of The King Of Flames.

He was considered an oddball among the Zanuki since he couldn't wield aura at all thus he chose to become a mage because of that but seeing his physics, I didn't think even the Zanuki knight captain could touch him if they fight barehanded.

"Oh, my~ Fine then so how is it? Have you chosen a topic for your research assignment? I will submit that research to HGA as your enrollment evaluation" he said before sipping the tea served.

Currently, we were sitting in the backyard garden of the mansion where there were only the two of us there. He is also the one choosing this place as our meeting spot every week since he said it's easier to practice magic out in the open. I sat opposite of him since I didn't want to be hugged again and I couldn't even refuse since he was a naturally an affectionate person with excessive hugging addiction.

"I planned to write about psychokinesis," I said calmly.

"Hmm isn't its magic circle kind of complicated so what are you going to do?" he asked curiously.

"Can you take a look at this" I showed him my tablet screen which shows the process of me trying to create a simpler magic circle of psychokinesis by combining other spells' magic circle and simplifying it"

"It seems possible to be honest but do you know that you have to put restrictions on it to make it stable and functioning. The reason why its magic circle is complicated is to remove all the restrictions."

"Yes I know but I don't know what kind of restriction I should put since each restriction have a different burden"

"You said you get the idea from your cousin's way of wielding a weapon right; so why not a restriction that it will not apply to living things" he suggested while munching on the chocolate muffins.

"That sounds plausible" I replied agreeing with him.

"So how is your mana control? Are you still mixed it with aura?"

"Yeah but it's getting better"

"Since your magic is progressing well and I'm not aiming to teach you to become a mage, do you want to know why I become a mage instead of a warrior?" he asked me.

I already knew the answer but the original 'Ares' might not know about this so I decided to act ignorant by saying, "Isn't it because you're more talented in magic?"

"Haha that's also kind of true but to be honest it's because of fate," he said before sipping his tea and he continued his story.

"One day, my private instructor realized that I couldn't wield aura and my mana awakened quite early compared to my siblings thus they brought me to meet Grand where she injected mana into me and she almost experienced mana depletion because my mana pool is so large. After that day, they concluded that I definitely couldn't wield aura but have a talent to be a mage"

"...." I just kept silent since I don't have anything to say.

"They send me to study in the Magic Academy and then I continued studying at Soraz Magic Tower until I was 18 years old before I went to Fleming Island to rank up and do research as a mage there. Don't you think my life's journey seems smooth?" he said smiling at me.

"Maybe not" I replied without showing any emotion despite knowing that he was ridiculed by outsiders and also the mage community since he came from a warrior family.

"Yes, it's not. At first, I was happy that my family fully supported me despite me being an oddball, and since they easily accepted it, I also slowly accepted the fact that being a mage is also ok but not everyone is like our family. They mocked me for not being able to wield aura, some even speculating whether I'm a Zanuki or not. I don't even have friends during my study at the academy since most of them were intimidated by my physical size" he said while staring at me.

"Why should you care about what people said?" I commented nonchalantly since that is one of my life's principles where I wouldn't care what people said as long as I didn't harm or disturb anyone.

"Hahahaa yeah that's true and I just realized that when I started learning at Soraz Magic Tower where many of the talented mages acted just like you said. I felt at ease there and smoothly graduated at the top of my class. Later I went to Fleming Island with my wife which was my partner at that time to rank up to monarch class mage before we come back to the empire and get married" he finished his story with a big smile.

Mage of this world has their ranking system which was aided into seven ranks starting from the lowest Debutante, Solda, Monarch, Arcane, Nova, Sage, and Archmage. Meanwhile, the other humans with special abilities were ranked into four ranks, Abnormal, Pandemonium, Destructive and Supreme or the APDS ranking system.

The name rank's names were given during the first great war and that was why they sounded intimidating to normal people.

Mages at Debutante and Solda were comparable to the Abnormal rank, Monarch and Arcane were comparable to Pandemonium, Nova and Sage were comparable to Destructive rank and lastly, Archmages were considered as the Supreme rank.

Currently, Zenin Zanuki was a Nova mage based on the information Ares managed to get from his two servants but it wasn't possible if his Uncle Zenin was Sage rank mage instead since the power gap was quite big and ambiguous for each rank.

It was more ambiguous and not clear if the APDS rank system was used.

"So the conclusion?" I asked.

"Hahaha as direct as ever huh. My only advice is to pursue what you want no matter what people said about you as long as you don't harm others" he said while looking at me meaningfully.

"Are you saying this because I like working on those weird toys isn't it?"

"It's not that weird in my opinion but whoever comes up with those is definitely a one in a kind genius and I just hope my nephew can do whatever he likes"

"I already said I'm just working on them in my free time," I said when I saw him kind of assessing me.

"Haha don't worry Ares. I believe you since you're more diligent compared to my oldest daughter. By the way, they have shown me the toys you sent them that you called hot air balloon and lantern. That is also one of the weird toys from before right?"

"Yes. I just completed it and design another one since both of them are using the same principle" I said while also explaining the concept behind the hot air balloon briefly.

"I never expected you can use the density of air pressure like that. Why not you make a research paper on that but it's more on scientific theory and not related to magic" he commented.

"My sister said she wants to write a proposal to use it in an entertainment-based business such as in tourism"

"Hmm then just write the full description on how to make that toy and let your sister do the rest" he decided easily and I also kind of agreed since I know Zerisa is a capable lady as she is the future matriarch.

In the novel, Ares managed to stay alive and avoid authority multiple times because Zerisa purposely leaked the security information or sent a weaker force. I could say for sure, that she was the only person who would side with Ares whether he was a good guy or not but unfortunately due to her status being a matriarch, she couldn't openly help Ares since the Zanuki would then be branded a traitor.

However, the other known Zanuki members remain neutral where they have no intention of helping or catching Ares except for one member who was the only one who tried to assassinate Ares once.

After living as Ares for a few months, I came to realize that none of the players managed to change Ares's fate was because, during the start of the novel, it's already too late for Ares to change since he already in deep despair.

The novel was based on the protagonist's point of view and the reader never sees what Ares experienced thus when he was first showed up, he already on his way to hell, and with just one push he would fall. The Zanuki family might have done their best but they couldn't bring Ares back up from hell even if they were strong.

************************************

[POV: Jinu Zanuki]

"Sir the monthly assignment has arrived along with a research proposal. Other than that, lady Zerisa also sent a letter with a mana recording stone and she said to directly contact her if you are interested" said my aid before exiting the room leaving the stacks of documents on my table.

"Hmm, this boy is not stupid but it's obvious he doesn't like the subject too much. So he decided to propose taming certain monsters instead of killing them all? That sounds interesting but kind of impossible so I just have to wait for the final proposal then" I commented while putting a 'Passed' mark on the proposal and monthly assignment.

Later I put both of them inside a large metal briefcase where I would submit them to the matriarch to be used as an enrollment evaluation.

"So let's see what my lady has said huh-" I read the letter and quickly watch the recording in the mana stone and it took me a few moments to get a hold of myself after watching it.

"Hah, that kid does seem more worthy now. Amusement park huh" I quickly connect my communication line to someone before it was connected within seconds.

A figure of a young lady typing on a computer showed up on my communication screen. Despite the young lady didn't even spare a glance at me, I proceed on saying, "My lady, can you give me the complete proposal and maybe a few more ideas to attract more tourists since you know right that our territory is not as scenic as the other territories. That's why we never really dive into tourism before"

"I'm working on it" she answered coldly which was her usual reply and I should be grateful that she even replied.

"I thought you were busy preparing for the royal events?" I asked trying to probe where she got that idea.

"If you want to confirm whether that idea is Ares then the answer is 50% yes since he just modify one of the toys grandpa gave him"

"Ah, those weird toys. So are you going to let him handle the tourism business?" I asked trying to remember some of the weird toys that I have seen in the past.

"No. He said that he will not be involved in anything other than creating new things and giving new ideas"

"Hmm so when are you going to start?"

"I'll give you the finished proposal within this summer break where you will then do the market research and find some workers to be sent to Ares where they will be taught how to create it from Ares. We finalize everything during the winter celebration later" she said after stopping typing and finally focusing on me.

"Hmm I will send some people during early autumn thus the mass production can be prepared during winter after the finalization. So are you going to be interning in our family business instead of other places?"

"Yes why not, since most of the nobles do the same"

"Just asking. That's it. See you during the royal events my lady" after I finished saying that, she cut off the communication line.

"Hmm it seems like we will be making more money but those other bastards might try to copy us and since the principle is easy, it will take less than a year before perfect competitors emerged like mushrooms grow after rain" I mumbled to myself while writing down a few trustworthy trainee engineers that I hired before I create a temporary work transfer for them.

*(mushrooms grow after rain= Very quickly and in great quantities simultaneously)

"Max arranged for these people to come and meet me after the royal events are finished" I ordered my aid while giving him the list.

"Yes sir"