Kadyn couldn’t contain his excitement after receiving the last notification. However, as he sat on the chair, boredom clutched his head and drowsiness swamped his eyes, and he fell asleep.

“Si-sir~” a noise fell in his ears, and he fumbled his hand in that direction. “Sir…”

Someone once more called. He rubbed his eyes before turning at the culprit in irritation—a boy was standing in front of the counter. The same boy who went into the Magic Acceleration Room not long before.

“One hour is already up?” he asked in confusion. 

The boy ogled Ayaan speechlessly. Complete at a loss for words. “Umm… sir, I want to use the same service once more, can I?” he inquired.

Kadyn peered at the boy and thought he sounded humble compared to before. In contrast to his previous suspicious self. Furthermore he struck as nervous when he inquired about the service. Kadyn thought a little about it and nodded. “Sure, how much time?”

“Five hours!” replied the boy.

“Sorry, man,” Kadyn immediately turned him down. “I can’t provide the service for five hours.”

“Sir, are you upset due to my earlier attitude?” the customer squeaked in panic. “If… if you want I can apologize.”

Kadyn gawked at the boy and then shook his head. “You misunderstood me. I didn’t think you were impolite. It’s just that I need to close the shop in two hours. Therefore you can’t stay here… well if you want to practice here till tomorrow then…”

[Warning: one customer can’t stay over six hours in the Magic Acceleration Room in a single day.]

“The fuck!” Kadyn cursed in irritation and the boy flinched back in shock, seeing Kadyn’s sudden outburst. Not daring to speak no more.

[Host is not allowed to curse the system: 96-10→86]

“Holy sh…” through the halfway Kadyn controlled and swallowed the urge to swear. He took a deep breath and cooled himself down. Though his expression turned ugly. “You can only stay here for two hours.” He eyed the pale boy and sighed. “Four hundred dollars.”

“Ye-yes sir,” he handed over four hundred dollars and headed towards the room without turning back, afraid that Kadyn would stop him the next moment.

As the customer scurried to meditate, Kadyn also entered his secret room and activated the Elemental Chaos Formula. The boy would take two hours. Kadyn could meditate four hours inside the formation. Of course at the cost of four energy points.

    ——

“Tring!”

He locked his bicycle and hustled into the house. The door was already open. From outside, he heard a voice of a man coming from inside. He slowed his steps, and eyed in front of him—a man sat on the sofa and was talking with his mother, and Salona blushed now and then. Elora was sitting beside the man, hugging his right arm tightly and acting like a spoiled brat. Due to back towards him, Kadyn failed to see the face of the man. However, he knew who that man was.

Salona was the first to notice him. “Come, come, son,” she cried. “If it wasn’t for you, he would have already gone.”

Hearing Salona, the man and Elora veered round and spotted him. Kadyn peered at the man—pale face, and red-deep eyes, and silver hair that made him devilishly handsome. Furthermore there were no wrinkles on his face, and he looked even younger than his mother, around thirty years old.

“Come here,” Magnus gestured and smiled towards Kadyn. Kadyn padded and stood in front of the man. “Fa-father.” He had no idea why, but he felt a tremendous urge to call this man his father. Maybe these were the feelings of old Kadyn.

“I heard you had an accident?” just when Kadyn sat beside his mother, Magnus urged and the temperature fell down. Kadyn felt he was inside the ice cube. But as soon as the temperature fell, everything turned normal. It appeared as if everything was an illusion just then. His mother and Elora’s expression didn’t change. That meant, neither of them felt the change in the atmosphere. 

He looked at his father more seriously, who was waiting for his answer with squinted eyes. He had no idea if it was his doing. Or it was really just an illusion created by his own head. “Cough,” Kadyn coughed and continued. “It just as you said, was an accident. Nothing more.”

Magnus peered into his eyes and nodded. “If something is bugging you, just tell me. Remember one thing—I won’t let anyone bully my children, no matter who it is.”

Kadyn detected a severe expression on Magnus’ face and felt a strange warmth surging through his heart. It was a different father just a few days before who was spoiling him. Now when he got another, he did not differ from the first. They both loved their children.

After that Magnus again turned towards his daughter. “Ahh, yes, didn’t you say that you will participate  in some kind of competition?”

Elora eyed her father and shook her head. “What happened?” Kadyn urged reflexively, seeing her crestfallen look.

Elora gazed at him and bit her lower lip before replying, “they cancelled the healing competition.”

“What?! Why?” Kadyn asked.

“There won’t be any inter-school competition, and they would compete against other magic schools. The healing isn’t as exciting as other elements, so they cancelled it.” She replied with her head lowered.

“Dunce!” 

A voice sounded in Kadyn’s head. He knew who it was, and hearing such a comment about his sister made him furious. He was about to burst when System explained: “I’m not talking about your sister. The organiser of the competition is an idiot.”

“Why do you say that?”

“Because the healing element is one of the most sought and feared elements.”

“How could healing be one of the deadliest elements?” Kadyn voiced his doubt. Everyone knew that the healing element could only heal. Why would someone fear it?

“What do you know? In ancient times people called it the wound-illness controller. What do you think the controller means? If it could heal, then it could make wounds worse. Tell me what would happen if your wound never stopped bleeding amidst a battle? Furthermore, after a certain amount of time, the healing element could be evolved into something amazing. Something marvellous”

“Don’t worry, there will be many chances in the future.” Kadyn eyed Salona, who cupped Elora’s puffy cheeks, and patted her head, and comforted her daughter. For this once, he felt grateful to the System, for blessing him with the love of a family once more.

“Thank you very much.”

“…”