Wein

"Yes," Doctor An slowly said as he looked at Kara's crimson eyes carefully, and explained, "the black earrings we created were powerful as you see. But there were many catch so our team collectively decided to seal it."

Just then, Doctor An sighed and sat to his table with a heavy somber face.

"After wearing it seems, the magic item have the ability to use the user's most dominant emotion and make it bloom, and if negative, it would eventually make the user crazy. This is extremely dangerous. That means we now have an insane mage in a rampage."

"Unfortunately, for Cannon, his intentions were not good. He is a part of a terrorist organization wanting to take possession of the magic item, and the black pearls didn't miss that, turning him insane."

Kara could not believe it.

'To think there was a catch like that. Thankfully, I have no desires for this when I tried to get it. I told myself it might make me interesting, but in reality, I did not feel anything.' Kara thought and laughed inwardly.

Just then, a small innocent smile blossomed on Doctor An's face.

"But Lord Kara is different. Seeing how the magic item did not make you insane, I see you always had good intentions. That's why I truly believe in serving you, My Lord." Doctor An said.

Kara smiled with the old mage doctor.

---

After learning about the catch of the magic item, Kara walked for a while. He was taking rounds exploring the vicinity of the town.

The Town of Salience was a simple community, and its size made it appear more as a village. There were so few houses built, and there were very little infrastructure around.

Now that he had decided to protect this town, Kara had learned many things. For one, this town was extremely excluded from the kingdom, if not the continent.

It was like the boonies; where peasants live.

Because it was too far, no one from the kingdom comes to visit.

Due to that, those recruiting young knights as new recruits to enter the academy were nowhere to be see when normally, they visit towns and villages to check out 7 to 10 year olds who have a talent for the sword.

There were also no wizards who try to recruit those who can use magic. Normally, they check out young potential talents alongside knights, but there was none.

Wizards were rare to begin with. There were very few peasants from the boonies who has enough potential pool of magic to become a wizard worthy of the kingdom's gold, so putting in the work to travel in this dangerous part of the Main continent which was quite isolated was understandable.

Due to this, Kara had decided to hold a ceremony to find out those who has talent for the sword and magic soon.

He has a mage like Doctor An, and a prodigious knight like Gary. He also has the adventurers.

Why can't they train the young generation?

Kara used one S-familiar for him to observe the boy called Lucian.

Transparent, the dark purple wolf stalked Lucian from behind.

Lucian was a brown-haired boy who had no parents, and lived as one of the older kids of the small town's orphanage. He was 7 years old and Kara could feel a great aptitude of magic power in him. Unlike the other few kids in this town, Lucian definitely above shoulders the rest.

But Kara had not seen how this boy was yet.

'Could he have some problems?' Kara take these things into account seriously.

Just look at himself, Kara was raised well, but after his parent's death, he changed. Indeed. He changed, and it was not a good person.

Yet, he was thankful for his parents. If not for them, he might have turned to a serious killing machine.

Soon, he arrived at the orphanage.

Lucian peacefully went inside, as he waved at the other kids in the orphanage who were playing tag.

The orphanage was not big at all, but it was one of the biggest and stand-out buildings in the town. It was located at the southern end of the town and it was in the middle of potato fields.

The area were spacious, thus, the kids could be seen enjoying themselves very well. They were very noisy.

"Shadow Demon," Kara muttered.

And in an instant, black vein-like thorns started to spread from his pupils and moved out to his face occupying his entire being. He had transformed to the crimson-eyed shadow demon.

Kara wanted to really check out the orphanage, as it was in some sense must be connected to the church.

Normally, orphanages were also churches. However, this orphanage was not a church at all.

Kara was cautious.

The kingdom has the king in the center, while there were the three dukes ruling a dukedom that surrounds the castle of the king.

But not so far, there were also the Williamson Theocracy. The Williamson Theocracy was a kingdom that had a strong belief they were being guided by the divine power especially of the Great Gods. From what Kara seen, that would not be wrong.

'Divine? Great Gods?' Kara was worried about something.

The orphanage was certainly connected to the Church. The Church was one of the Ten Factions ruling this world, and the Williamson Theocracy was certainly connected to the Church as well.

However, they were two separate things.

The Williamson Theocracy was another kingdom, seemingly in belief that they were a part of the Church. The king, and the dukes believes in that.

But they were really not.

Yet they continue to use the name of the church in their dealings, acting like some operational unit. The church was not saying anything about them as well.

Thus, that could only mean the Williamson Theocracy was working for the Church; the pope.

After a few moments, Kara entered the orphanage unnoticed.

"Ordinary, this is very ordinary," Kara said, as he saw that there was really nothing wrong here as it seems.

Then, he saw an old man.

The old man was not dressed in anything. The kids called him Uncle Joni. They seemed to like him. After a few moments, a lady of the cloth appeared, and it seemed the children liked him more.

"Lady Amy, you're as beautiful as ever," Lucian, despite being a child suddenly said.

The Lady of the Cloth was indeed beautiful. She has a very youthful face, and very feminine features that showed an innocent charm.

Just then, while the children were mostly clamoring at Lady Amy, Kara can't help but notice a little boy who was quite the preoccupied one.

As he looked closer, Kara was taken aback.

For some reason, he could not take his eyes at him. Just like Lucian, this boy was not going to be any regular human. Kara detected a trace of flow of magic energy waves from him, and looking at the might, it was superior to that of Lucian.

"Hmm. How could Doctor An missed this?" Kara asked as he tilted his head in curiosity.

There was more things that stood out more about this boy though. He looked like he was suffering from insomnia. Like he had insufficient sleep, making him look fragile and have dark circles around his eyes.

"Hmm. What is this?" Kara noticed this peculiarity, and was in deep thought.

After looking at him, somehow Kara could feel something inside the boy. Something different.

"What is this?" Kara thought.

It was at this moment, that Lady Amy finished dealing with the children and made them behave. So, right after that, Lady Amy saw the strange boy and sat on his side.

"I heard you did not go to the town again. Lucian and your other friends are also going, so are you still scared?" Lady Amy asked.

"I'm not scared," the boy immediately said. But it was clear he was scared.

Kara decided to stay for a while longer, to see how this story would go.

"It's just that I'm suspicious of the new people in the town," the boy replied.

Lady Amy giggled at this, and ruffled the boy's hair.

"Wein, I talked to Doctor An already, and even to the adventurers and they were all good guys. I did not talk to their leader yet, but I knew that they saved all of us. They can't be bad people."

"Still…"

Lady Amy saw that Wein was genuinely afraid, and offered. "That's right. Why don't I go with you next time?"

"Really?" Wein slowly asked.

"Of course."

"That would be…great."

A cute smile blossomed on Wein's face. Lady Amy smiled with him.

"Then, we should go this afternoon, after I finish washing the laundry. Our Wein is the only one who hasn't gone to the town yet, right? We should really go. After all, they're going to see if someone has aptitude for magic."

"Lady Amy, I'm sure I would be better than Lucian!" Wein suddenly said, as if he was having a competition with Lucian.

"Hehe, knowing you, I'm sure you just be all right." Lady Amy said, as she continued ruffling his hair again.

At this time, Lady Amy broke into a worried expression as he stared at Wein's face.

"Wein," she said, "What about your nightmares? Are you still having them?"