“Where is this place…!? Who are you all!”

A scrawny child was struggling inside a hidden chamber, his face that had been washed countless times with his own tears, had despair written all over it.

Since the moment he woke up, he was held imprisoned in a small cage by two sinister-looking men. Inside the narrow s.p.a.ce, he was not even given the s.p.a.ce to turn back his head and look at the shackles that chained him.

Inside the black cage, and attached to the ends of the black shackles, a pure white child was chained.

“Let me out now!!” The child still had some energy left to make a din as it hasn"t been that long ago since he got captured.

However, all his efforts were in vain.

“Big bro… that s.h.i.tty brat is so annoying, can I beat him?” The underling glared at the boy with a face of disdain, and took out a metal rod from underneath the table.

Startled by the cold glimmering appearance of the metal rod, the boy felt terror from within him, and his voice that was supposed to be voiced out got stuck in his throat. However, not before long, he started to cry out uncontrollably as he was unable to restrain himself any longer.

Hidden within the deepest part of his memory, was the scene of his parents getting murdered.

Everything was burning, and everything was dark red in color.

Be it the flames burning on the outer wall of the wooden house, or the blood spurt on the inner wall of the house; be it the fleeting sparks springing out from the pale white hair of Mother, or the blood pool forming beside Father"s chopped off body; be it the torch that the underling was holding in his hand, or the blood that was dripping down from the leader"s machete.

Everything was red in color.

A very pretty vermilion color.

A completely pure scarlet color.

An utterly terrifying fiery red color.

The memories of his distant past had been turned into ashes in the sea of blood red.

It turned black in color, a black that signified despair and hopelessness.

A black that was incompatible with him.

This is my fault… if I did not exist… this kind of thing would not happen. 

At this point in time, the boy was thinking that everything was the fault of his, but in actual fact, he was just afraid of facing the two men that were in front of him.

“Indeed, it is a bit annoying.” The leader of the two laughed as he stopped the track of his agitated underling. “However, I have a remedy to deal with this kind of situation~”

Just as he had finished his sentence, he took out a vial containing a red concoction from his bag.

It was a red that people loathe.

It was a red that made people hopeless.

Without saying a word, the man smashed the vial of concoction on the floor. Inside the broken gla.s.s vial, a chemical reaction seemed to have occurred to the scarlet red liquid. It instantly changed into the form of a black smog, and drew closer to the direction of the boy a little at a time.

“This is…” The underling asked as he put down the metal rod that was in his hand.

“A fast remedy to deal with the [White Magic Clan]~ Just watch.”

“Let me go… Let me… OWAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!” In an instant, the boy covered his throat as a force of acute pain similar to that of having one"s five viscera and six bowels tearing, raided across every inches of nerves in his body.

Furthermore, the more the boy screamed, the more the pain was etched into his memory; the more unforgettable the pain was, the more he would continue to wail.

It was only until he vomited white foam mixed with blood, and completely lost the ability to make a sound with his throat, did the boy finally escaped the control that the pain inflicted on him.

As a price of that, he lost his consciousness.

“This… what"s happened?” The underling stared blankly at the boy"s lifeless body, unable to comprehend what had happened.

“Heh, this is actually pretty simple. Although the ability to [consume mana] is very powerful, the side effect due to this ability is very prominent as well, and that is they will absorb all surrounding and contacted mana unconditionally. Hence, all that is required to do is just the dissemination of mana infused with [curse] into the air, and they would absorb them uncontrollably.” The leader explained, and started eating the unfinished drumstick after he returned to his seat.

“[Curse]…?”

“Are you an idiot? You don"t even know what a [curse] is?” The leader apparently getting irritated, mocked his underling.

“Heheh…”

“I might as well explain it to you.” After sucking the grease on his fingers, the leader took out more red vials from his bag and said: “These liquids are extracted essence of mana, and are inconsequential to us. However, once a [curse] is infused with it, the properties of the mana will change, and the curse within this vial is [silence].”

Seemingly understood the logic behind, the underling slapped his head in realization and said. “Ah! Does that mean that if these mana are absorbed by the brat, it equates to the brat absorbing the [curse]?”

“Correct, to describe it better, it is like a [restriction]. Once the [restriction] is violated, the brain will experience a phantom pain.” Halfway through his statement, the leader shift the topic of the conversation: “But, it doesn"t end well if we feed them too much mana, we have to beware of their [mana release] as well. Hence, in order to prevent them from unleashing mana, we have to use this vial of concoction.”

After finishing his sentence, the leader bought out another black vial of concoction from his backpack and smashed it against the floor. The concoction evaporated into a smog, and was once again absorbed by the unconscious boy.

“This is the magic vial of [immobilization], it can prevent them from casting magic. Just that it only works against the [White Magic Clan]~” The leader laughed and pa.s.sed his bag to his underling and said: “From now on, you will take charge of the task of feeding him a vial each everyday.”

“Understood~”

With a menacing grin, the leader walked slowly to the boy side. What reflected in his eyes was not a living person but countless gold coins. “[Luminous white latern] does not need any interaction, nor do he need a purpose to live. He just have to stay obediently in cages such as this, and make money for me.”

For the two of them, such days lasted for approximately 3 years.

But for the boy, for the entirety of his life, his time stopped in that moment forever .

“Number 73!” At a short distance away, Dairo called the person that was before me in the queue. It was his turn to measure his mana reserves.

As for me, I stood at my position and was staring at my pale white palm.

Using a bit of my concentration, I imagined the steps to manipulate mana in my mind.

Bzzt Bzzt…

A weak spark flashed in my palm.

This is the mana of Kasier.

The mana that I absorbed from that electric magic.

[The white magic clan in the world have no mana originally, but once they absorbed enough, they will naturally have mana.]  a quote from Lufamu.Potatoman

“B rank… Next , number 74.” After a short while, the person before me finished his test of releasing mana, and got a pretty good result.

In the end, among all the village partic.i.p.ants, only Wu De and Di Yana have no mana reserves. The rest of the partic.i.p.ants have a substantial amount of mana, and received a rating of [B rank] on average.

However, it"s not that I like to boast. But compared to the mana on my palm, I"m afraid that the average rating is still too low. 

I have to admit that you, Kaiser is worthy to be my most… my second most beloved person. Your huge and warm mana filled me up inside my body, and made me fully satisfied. (TL"s note: This sounds familiar, where have I heard this before?)

You recharged me with a large amount of electricity, and almost made me lose my mind. You have to take responsibility of me, my wives and my children…

But, does that mean I"m going to get another [S rank] rating? No… Spare me… The people behind me, please try harder and surpa.s.s me!

Ah… there"s no one left after me.

Sigh…

With a lack of better option, I stepped forward to accept my destiny.