After hours of being as still as a statue, Zeke's lashes fluttered. Shortly after, his eyes opened. With his blurry vision, he slowly began to be able to make out the figure in front of him. For the past hours, the woman had sat in a chair across from him.
Zeke smiled brightly. The gesture was not only meant to ease the nervous expression on the young woman's face. It was also a genuine expression of his delight. "Thank you so much, Petra. You were an enormous help!"
"O-ok," the woman said hesitantly, "can I clean now?"
Zeke looked around his room. Only now did he remember that the maid had initially come in order to clean. However, the moment Zeke had seen her, he had immediately roped her into his experiments. As one of only a few non-mages around, he had urgently needed somebody like her to test his improvements to his Soul sight.
"Sure, sure," Zeke said. "Sorry to keep you for so long."
"It was no trouble, young lord."
Zeke's smile faltered slightly as he considered the situation. Being away from her responsibilities for hours might cause some trouble for her. However, he wanted to make sure she wouldn't get scolded for it. "I'm sorry for keeping you from your duties. If anyone asks, just tell them you were assisting me with my work. This was my fault, not yours."
Her expression brightened noticeably at his words, causing his smile to return as well. With a final nod, he left the room, leaving Petra to her duties. Similar situations kept cropping up, and Zeke was getting better at dealing with them. It wasn't easy for him to get used to all the peculiarities of his position as the head of the family.
As a boy from a small village, Zeke had never needed to pay much attention to any kind of social etiquette. Growing up, everyone in the village would speak their mind freely. In the worst case, your words would get you into a scuffle.
Now, however, in this world of money, power, and status, he found that most people didn't ever speak their minds. He was certain that Petra would not have dared to blame him for her tardiness, even when pressed.
Only recently had Zeke noticed that he was causing such problems. And no matter how many times he asked them to simply tell him about such concerns, they never did. So, he was left with no other choice than to just play his role better. He had promised himself to be more mindful, and he was glad that he hadn't forgotten about it this time, despite his excitement. And yes, he was excited. His days of work and experimentation had finally paid off!
Zeke had completely avoided using his Soul Sight outside his private workshop after realizing how vulnerable it made him. However, this was clearly not a great long-term solution. Especially not for when he would need to use it publicly.
This was a tricky problem, as Zeke couldn't ask anybody for help. Furthermore, his enormous collection of books was useless as well this time. Even the Soul Magic texts of the Giger didn't contain any clues about this. Their people never even seemed to have considered any safety precautions. This careless behavior made sense for their situation, but Zeke didn't have that luxury.
Fortunately, the solution had been something fairly simple. Instead of leaving his body completely, Zeke would merely extend a single tendril of his Soul outside his body. As he had just confirmed with Petra, this was already enough to give him the full benefit of Soul Sight.
However, this was the easy part. It had been much harder to come up with a countermeasure to being attacked. Even the tiniest bit of his Soul being exposed might allow a Mind Mage to burrow in. Zeke had considered many different approaches, but the method that had finally won out was something he remember from his childhood.
In the village of Feldstadt, during the warm summer months, Zeke, Lilly, and Markus would often spend hours playing outside. One of their favorite games had always been the Lizard hunt. They would try and catch the tiny reptiles as they were sunbathing atop the warm stones of the village wall. Those tiny critters were able to move like lightning the moment they sensed danger. But what was even more frustrating was their special escape move.
More than once had Zeke been certain to have caught one of them, only to end up with a discarded lizard tail as his only reward. Those colorful reptiles were actually able to detach a part of their body to save themselves. It was exactly this childhood memory that had given Zeke the inspiration for his own safety measure. Akin to those lizards, Zeke decided to discard his tail, so to speak, were it to be caught.
To his surprise, separating a part of his Soul was an utterly painless affair. Zeke didn't even notice anything different at first. However, after having repeated the action a couple of times, he noticed something strange. His memories of those lizard-hunting days grew foggier and foggier. After a while, he had a hard time recalling any details at all.
A cold sweat ran down his back as Zeke realized the price of his strategy. Apparently, the Soul was deeply connected to memories. Every bit that he lost was akin to losing a minute, hour, or day. He shuddered at the thought of what would happen if he ever lost a significant part of his Soul — it might cost him years.
Still, the sacrifice had not been in vain. Zeke had learned something truly valuable. If the Soul was tied to memories, then he could increase the size of his Soul by making new memories. This realization reminded Zeke of one of the first things Maximilian had ever taught him.
Back then, Zeke had asked his mentor why he needed to go out and hunt. He had argued that it would be far more beneficial for his growth to just stay home and practice spells. What was it that the old man had said?
"The stress of actual combat puts a great deal of pressure on the mind and body. That pressure is the best way to stimulate progress. Stress is a fantastic learning aid, you see."
Maximilian, with his centuries of experience, would not make such a claim thoughtlessly. Zeke didn't even doubt for a second that real combat experience was beneficial for growth. However, what if the old man had misinterpreted the cause of this phenomenon? What if… instead of stress, it was merely the fastest way to grow one's Soul?
Zeke had no doubt that not all memories were equal. Certain moments in his life impacted him more than others. Even without using his Magic, there were certain scenes he could recall with perfect clarity.
The moment Lilly told him to stay away…
The moment he had traded his life for Viola's…
The moment Maximilian was taken…
In an instant, Zeke shut those memories down. He didn't have the time or inclination to revisit them at the moment. However, no matter how painful, it was exactly memories such as those that proved his point.
If he was right, then this discovery was troubling for him. His preferred approach to getting stronger had always been to lock himself inside his workshop and tinker with his spells. However, if his new conjecture was right, then this was not conducive to long-term growth. What if… what if he ended up with an arsenal of deadly spells but a pitiful, shriveled-up excuse for a Soul?
Zeke didn't know what kind of disadvantages an underdeveloped Soul would cause, but a certain man suddenly appeared in his memories. Marlon Bloodsword, Tristan's father, had spent his entire life researching spells. Zeke clearly remembered the painting of the man.
Marlon never advanced to become an Arch Mage in his lifetime. But it was more than that. He had looked frail, ordinary, and… weak. Compared to Tristan, who had spent half his life on the war front, he looked like an empty shell of a man. He had completely lacked the vibrant light in his eyes that was so common in the knights of Valor.
Zeke didn't know if those two things were related, but he was completely certain about one thing: He didn't want to end up like that. He didn't want to look like a shriveled corpse every time he crawled out from his lab. This was not the future self he wanted to create!
But for now, this was all just a theory, nothing more than mere conjecture on his part. Before making life changing decisions on his path as a Mage, Zeke needed proof. It would be foolish to simply believe in a theory based on nothing than the few discoveries he had made today.
But that left one question: How would he be able to prove something like this? The most important thing was that he would have to be scientific about it. Just as Maximilian had taught him, he would have to conduct a proper experiment…
Slowly, the pieces of a plan came together in his head. The parameters were clear, now the only problem would be to find the right people. He needed two of them, and one perfect candidate instantly came to mind. For the second person, he actually had to go through his roster of employees. However, he eventually found somebody suitable...
After sending out two telepathic messages, Zeke began his preparations. It only took a couple of minutes before two people entered his workshop.
"Yo, what do you need?" Leo asked.
"You called for me, young lord?" the other boy asked.
Zeke eyed his two test subjects meticulously. Leo was dressed casually, as always. The dirt on his clothes made Zeke suspect that he had come right from the training ground. The other boy, Milo, was wearing pristine white robes. He was one of the Life Mages they had hired recently. For some reason, all healers Zeke had ever met preferred such a getup.
"I want to conduct an experiment with you," Zeke admitted directly. "It is not going to be dangerous, but it needs a certain amount of trust…"
"Just tell me what to do," Leo said, rolling his eyes.
"What about you, Milo?"
"Erm… sure?"
"When I say 'a certain amount', I meant that you will have to trust me with your life. Is that still ok?"
"Erm…"
"I'll pay you one piece of gold," Zeke offered.
"YES! I'll do it!" Milo agreed immediately.
"Hey! Will I also get paid?" Leo asked.
"No," Zeke responded with a smirk as he led the way over to the lounge. On the low table in front of it, there was a teapot and two cups. Zeke filled each of them and handed one to each of the boys who had taken a seat across from him.
"That's no regular tea," Zeke explained. "It has a fair amount of Supra root in it. You won't taste it, but after a couple of minutes, you'll both lose access to your Magic. This is necessary for my experiment."
Leo immediately gulped the tea down, licking his lips afterward. "Good stuff."
Milo was a bit more hesitant, but eventually, the allure of the promised reward won out. And after a few careful sips, he also finished his drink. Zeke took both of their cups and leaned back into his armchair. "Now, before I start with my experiment, I'll need to ask some basic questions first. Let's start with you, Milo."
"S-sure."
"You grew up in Tradespire?"
"Yes."
"You are a Duo-affinity Mage?"
"Yes."
"Have you ever been in a fight?"
Milo blushed slightly. "N-no."
"And you are 16 years old?"
"Yes."
"Excellent!" Zeke exclaimed. This was exactly what he was looking for. "Now, you, Leo. How many fights would you say you've been in?"
Leo thought about it for a moment. "I don't know, hundreds — maybe thousands."
"How many times was your life at risk while fighting?"
"Hard to say," Leo responded. "Probably dozens."
Zeke was stunned by this response. It was far more often than he had anticipated. "Dozens of times?"
"I started adventuring work when I was 12," Leo explained. "The orphanage wasn't feeding me properly. You'll probably laugh at me, Zeke, but I had real trouble even taking down a couple of goblins back then…"
"There's no shame in that," Zeke replied magnanimously. However, his inner thoughts were completely different. 12 years old??? Fighting goblins?? He had almost died trying to do the same after becoming a Mage. What kind of child fought monsters for a bit of extra food?!
Eventually, Zeke snapped his attention back to the two boys. Despite the shock his brother had given him, this was excellent. Leo was an even better candidate than Zeke could have hoped for.
Now, it was time to start...