“Oh my God, son!”
“…Mom?”
The child, who had been staring blankly at the scene he had created, came to his senses at the shocked voice from behind. When he turned his head, he saw his mother’s surprised face.
“What are you doing now? What is all this?”
“Huh?”
Only then did the child realize that the entire room was covered in ice. He also noticed that the unknown energy flowing from his hands was continuously turning into sparkling snow crystals.
“I, I don’t know. It just suddenly… Mom, what should I do?”
In that moment, the frightened child sought help from his mother. As his clouded consciousness returned, a chilling coldness overwhelmed him.
“My hands are so cold… It hurts, cough, it’s cold. Mom, waaah…”
“It’s okay, baby. Mom will help you. Come here.”
The woman rushed over and embraced her son tightly. His body was colder than usual. Although the child’s coldness penetrated deep into her bones, she didn’t mind and drew upon her mana. If she delayed any longer, it seemed like everything up to the outside of the house would be covered in ice. If that happened…
No.
The woman, feeling urgent, quickly attempted guiding. Having been a guide for a long time, she easily recognized what had happened to her son.
Awakening.
The child had just awakened as an esper. The woman tried to stay calm as she wrapped her shivering body with her own mana. However, calming her son was not easy. She bit her lip as she realized that the child’s power far exceeded her own.
She had always known that her son’s ability was extraordinary. He had suffered from severe hypothermia since birth.
But she didn’t expect him to awaken so quickly. Overwhelmed by a sense of helplessness, the woman comforted her child.
“That’s right, my son. It’s nothing serious, so let’s calm down. Take a deep breath in and out. Breathe deeply and try to settle your mana.”
“Hoo, hooo…”
“Now close your eyes and feel the mana inside you. Find it and try to gather it.”
“G-gather? How do I do that?”
“Well, let’s see. Do you remember how to fold laundry? Try to imagine folding your mana neatly, like folding clothes.”
“Umm, like this?”
Despite having just awakened, the child followed his mother’s words and controlled his mana. Then, the continuously flowing mana stopped abruptly, as if a faucet had been turned off. The cold air that filled the room gradually disappeared.
“Haa…”
The woman sighed with exhaustion after confirming that her son’s mana had calmed down. She quickly composed herself and gently stroked the child’s head.
“Well done. It must have been your first time handling mana… You did great.”
“Hehe, cough. But the room is a complete mess… How do we clean this up?”
“…Mom will take care of it.”
The woman calmly reassured her son not to worry. However, her eyes moved busily. She sighed as she surveyed the devastation in the room.
It was fortunate that she had discovered and calmed him quickly; if she had been a little late, it could have announced his awakening to the whole neighborhood.
If that had happened, villain organizations would have immediately come to kidnap her son. With this level of power, he would surely be a high-rank.
The woman bit her lower lip, horrified at the mere thought. When a resident in a defense zone awakens, they usually end up in one of three situations: being dragged into a villain organization, enlisting in the defense force, or joining a guild. Obviously, becoming a soldier or a freelance ability user was far better than becoming a villain. But she didn’t like either option.
Joining the defense force would improve their living conditions and ensure their safety, but only for a while. The child would receive training as a boy soldier and be deployed to the battlefield as an auxiliary agent.
It was common for soldiers to get injured or lose their lives in battles with monsters while carrying out missions. She would be worried sick every time her young son went out to the field.
Becoming a guild member was impossible for now due to lack of experience and young age. He might receive sponsorship until adulthood due to his promising future, but there was a high chance of getting caught in unfair contracts and being exploited while accumulating massive debt.
She had left her home country and come to the defense zone because she had been deceived by a guild notorious for being a black company in the past.
But she couldn’t just sit still. The woman lived in a slum controlled by a villain organization. If she caught the eye of an organization member, both she and her child would be in danger.
What should I do?
The woman chewed her lips nervously, lost in thought. She knew she had to go to the defense force tomorrow to report the awakening and take a grade test, but she couldn’t bear to be separated from her child.
Unable to make a decision, she gripped her son’s shoulders tightly and made him look at her. Whether they go to the defense force or find a guild, it seemed better to properly investigate for the sake of the child’s future. She needed time for that.
“Baby, listen to mom carefully. You must never use this power in front of other people.”
“Why?”
“If you use your ability, bad people might come and take you away. Then we might be separated forever.”
“Gasp!”
The child’s face turned pale at the grim warning. Having been born and raised in the slums, the boy knew well the terror of villain organizations.
“My son, do you want to keep living together with mom?”
“Yes, yes!”
“Then you need to learn how to control your mana well. You must never use your power except when it’s just the two of us.”
“I understand.”
“Good, it’s a promise. I’ll teach you how to control your mana.”
“Yes, I promise!”
“I’m sorry, it’s because mom is inadequate…”
The woman’s face crumpled with sadness after making a pinky promise with her child. If she hadn’t been a slum resident, if she hadn’t been a low-level ability user barely worthy of being called a guide, she would have been genuinely happy and celebrated her son’s awakening as an ability user. There would have been no need to worry about threats from villain organizations.
“Mom will protect you somehow. So don’t be scared. Everything will be alright.”
Unable to overcome her emotions, the woman hugged the child tightly. It was a vow to her son and a pledge to herself. It was also a desperate prayer that nothing would happen. She kept whispering words of love to her child to suppress her rising fear.
“I love you, baby. My beautiful son, mom loves you so much. My precious treasure, …”
* * *
…Where am I?
Iberis wondered as he woke up, staring at an unfamiliar ceiling. It wasn’t the sight he had grown tired of seeing for the past few years.
“Ah.”
Blinking with a dazed expression, he soon remembered that this was a hotel. Didn’t he come to Paris, France, where the European branch was located, to attend the medal ceremony yesterday? He recalled meeting Winfried, talking with him, then returning to the hotel with Lucas, having dinner, and falling asleep.
Finishing his recollection, Iberis felt an inexplicable emptiness and turned his head. The face he always saw when he opened his eyes wasn’t there. He lightly moved his hand, feeling the sheets, and sensed a faint warmth.
“…Luke?”
Iberis sat up with a drowsy face, looking around for Lucas.
“Is he outside?”
Iberis muttered in a low, husky voice after confirming no one was in the bedroom. He was about to call for Lucas again but closed his mouth.
Whether it was because he had a sad, nostalgic dream or because Lucas had left him alone, his mood was oddly off from the morning.
“…”
Leaning against the headboard, Iberis fell into thought. After receiving guidance from Lucas, he occasionally dreamed of his childhood. As if retrieving pieces of lost memories one by one.
‘I love you, baby. My beautiful son, mom loves you so much. My precious treasure, …’
Iberis slightly furrowed his brow as he recalled the voice still lingering in his ears. Even this time, he couldn’t remember his ‘real name’ that his mother called at the end of the dream.
It wasn’t just today. While other scenes were vaguely recalled, the name he heard in his dreams was always blurred, as if pixelated.
“What could it be…”
Iberis sighed, feeling a tightness in his chest. Though he had lived as ‘Iberis Hyun’ for longer now, he sometimes wondered about the name his mother had given him.
“Are you awake?”
“Luke?”
Iberis snapped out of his gloomy thoughts as the pleasant baritone voice wrapped around his earlobes. Spotting Lucas standing at the doorway, he asked accusingly.
“When did you get up? Where did you go alone?”
“Just a little while ago, not even a few minutes. Room service arrived, so I went to receive it…”
“Room service?”
“Yes, you need to have breakfast.”
Lucas approached the bed and extended his hand to Iberis, urging him to get up. Unlike Iberis in his pajamas, Lucas was wearing a neat shirt.
“I thought a light meal would be good, so I ordered corn soup, French toast, ricotta cheese salad, and peppermint tea. For dessert, I got chocolate and milk pudding.”
“Hmm.”
Satisfied with the menu selection, Iberis made a small noise and got up. They were all things he liked.
“Just go wash up quickly.”
Lucas, who had been watching him fondly, raised his hand to tidy Iberis’s disheveled hair. Then he lightly kissed the forehead that peeked through the strands of hair.
