Half Prologue II Sol Von Cillion

Sol's eyes suddenly flew open in the middle of the night, forcing him to jerk up.

As he panted, he clutched the covers of his bed with sweaty palms.

'That dream again...' He mused, 'I've been seeing it almost every day for my entire life, but I still can't get used to it.' He moved to turn on the lamp next to his bed and checked an old-looking bracelet on his wrist.

The bracelet suddenly displayed a transparent blue panel a few centimeters above it.

[Time: 4:05 AM]

'Shit... I'm five minutes late!' He thought to himself as he hurriedly stood up, throwing his covers off and sprinting out of his room.

He rushed to the kitchen and immediately began heating several pans on a stove.

With a series of movements that looked trained and flawless, he moved through the kitchen with ease.

He chopped several onions into a fine spread in less than 10 seconds. Minced garlic in mere moments, and several other vegetables chopped with keen precision.

He molded bread, slammed meat, seasoned, cut, cooked, and everything else you do in a kitchen!

His movements resembled an individual who had done this over a million times.

The aroma of sizzling meat quickly filled the air, and wafting waves of freshly baked bread could be smelled from a mile away. The vegetable soup came to a bubbling peak as he finally took a step back to breathe.

As he exhaled, he wiped the sweat off of his forehead with a proud smile.

At that moment a beam of deep-orange sunlight gleamed through the window and cast onto his face, causing him to close an eye and lean back slightly.

'Already been two hours huh...'

After a few minutes, Sol stood to the side of a large dining room with a long table in the middle. It was underneath a brilliant chandelier that hung from the ceiling over 20 feet high.

The table was covered in plates filled with various kinds of foods--all of which he had prepared before sunrise.

His mouth watered as the fragrant aromas combined to create a tumultuous scent, but he stood still.

Just then, a group of people entered the dining room.

A man no older than 45 walked to the end of the table, brushing his thick robe made of luxurious wool out of the way before sitting.

His wife, a woman in her early thirties, sat down next to him. She wore a dress embezzled in various gems and trinkets.

Beside her sat two more children who were no older than Sol--13 years of age.

It was a boy and a girl who wore a pair of simple yet elegant clothing.

As they began to eat the food that Sol had prepared for them, he stood in anticipation with a grin on his face.

'Hopefully this time...' He thought to himself as he waited.

At that moment, the boy placed a single spoonful of soup into his mouth. He froze in place for a moment, before opening his mouth to let all the contents flow out.

"He's serving fucking shit again..." The boy said with a slight but disdainful chuckle.

"Did you even put any effort into this, you talentless scumbag?" His gaze, seething with hatred, shifted toward Sol.

Sol winced slightly, horrified by the piercing and scary glare that his step-brother, Etos, gave him.

"It truly is horrible. Lah!" The young girl next to him also opened her mouth and allowed the meat on her tongue to slide out.

She too faced Sol with a condescending look in her eyes. "Do you wanna die or something? What did you put in this to make it taste so bad? Rat poison?"

She sounded serious for a moment, but couldn't help but couldn't even take herself seriously and grinned slightly as she finished her sentence

At that moment Sol's heart began to beat faster. He could feel his chest thud in and out, and his breathing became more and more shaky.

"I--I'm sorr--" He stammered.

"Who gave you the permission to speak?" Etos exclaimed at that moment in a calm tone, "Huh? Are you going to answer my question? Or not?" 

Etos didn't raise his voice at all, since he didn't feel he needed to. What kind of master would raise his voice when commanding a mere slave? There would be no reason for that.

Right now Sol felt devastated. No matter how hard he worked on perfecting his meals, his family would never appreciate it.

It was painful, but most of all, it was scary. He knew what would come next if this happened... a punishment.

"No one..." Sol faced the ground and whispered his answer under his breath, but still loud enough for everyone to hear.

"I'm truly sorry," Sol said, although he was deeply hurt by his sibling's words, he knew that the right answer was to comply and try to make up for his mistakes.

That was all he knew from the tender age of 4 when his birth mother, a common woman, died due to a deadly illness.

After that, his father remarried another woman, his current stepmother, who was a noble and already had kids the same age as Sol.

"I thought it tasted good, or else I would have never tried to serve it to you." Sol couldn't face them while he spoke, as he knew that all he was doing was saying the truth to aid their lies.

"Are you saying my children are lying? Sol Von Cillion?" Sol's stepmother suddenly spoke at that moment, freezing in place.

Sol's heart skipped a beat as soon as he heard her voice. His eyes widened, as he managed to utter, "N-no... ma'am." 

"Get out." His stepmother exclaimed in a cold tone, not batting an eye at him.

Sol took this opportunity to bow slightly and begin exiting the room. As he did, he felt a glob of meat slather on his back.

"Haha! Take that, loser!" Etos laughed, grabbing another handful before chucking it across the room toward his stepbrother.

Sol didn't stop, simply walking out of the room as if nothing happened.

At that moment his eyes attempted to tear up, but he quickly stopped them from doing so. 

He exhaled a deep sigh of exasperation and walked back to his room.

'They... weren't happy this time again. Haha...' Sol desperately thought to himself. 'Maybe next time... maybe next time I can please them.' A fake smile donned his face, which masked his true feelings.

In the dining room again, Sol's father said in a low tone, "Eat." He grabbed a piece of meat and walked out of the room.

His expression was stoic and stern. His brows were furrowed as his strut was fast and confident.

As soon as he said to eat, the kids quickly began to scarf down the food.

"Holy fuck! He actually made it way better than last time! That talentless sewer rat at least is a good cook bitch. Ahaha!"

"Mind your language, my beloved son." The boy's mother lovingly said to him,

"Yeah yeah... whatever," Etos replied back with slight irritation, before continuing to mow down the food in front of him.

...

Sol soon returned to his room, which was a small room meant for maids and butlers.

However, it wasn't shabby by any means. The Von Cillion's, Sols family, were quite high-ranking nobles within Hllscani, one of the five Outer Sanctions within the vast Major Sanctuary (kingdom) of Seeranthel.

Due to this, even a butler's quarter was fairly luxurious.

Sol checked the time on his bracelet once again, "6:35 AM." It read.

"Good... looks like I still have a few minutes before I have to get ready for school." He said to himself as a slight, genuine smirk donned his face.

He looked around to make sure no one was nearby, before reaching under his bed and retrieving a locked box.

Inside, there was a single stone with an inscription carved into it. It was titled: "Wind Blade".

Sol eagerly took this stone out and gripped it with excitement, "Maybe this time, it will work!" He whispered under his breath.

However, his gripping of the stone didn't trigger anything to happen.

When learning a Ether Energy spell such as this one, Sol knew that a person would have to hold a Spell Stone in their hand.

This would trigger a reaction that caused the spell to transfer to the user. 

However, this only applied if one had a Ether Energy Core to begin with.

"No luck... again," Sol said--his eager attitude from before was completely gone.

"I guess it's not that easy to form a core overnight. After all... 90% of living beings are born with cores, and the only people out of the 10% to awaken one are hidden in myths and legends."

He loosened his grip on the stone, placing it back into the box before locking it and pushing it under his bed.

This time Sol didn't even need to check his watch to know that it was time to get ready for school.

As he prepared his clothes, he thought to himself, 'This school year is about to end in a few days... that means that the exit exams are closing in.' He had a worried expression on his face.

A few moments later, Sol snuck out of his estate when no one was looking.

This was so that he didn't have to interact with anyone and get in needless trouble again somehow.

A Huun soon arrived in front of his home. It was a round vehicle that floated in the air and was one of the most popular modes of transportation.

Sol got in the Huun and walked to one of the seats near the front where he always used to sit.

However, as he got there, a grim expression shadowed his face.

"Whaddya' lookin' at? Bitch?" A red-haired kid said in a mocking tone, sitting audaciously in Sol's seat.