"His starting point is too high," Muria sighed as he watched Aeolus, in his Seraphim form, playing with a group of flower fairies.
Aeolus was vastly different from how Muria had been at the same age. If they had been born during the same era, his son would have completely outclassed him. There was no helping it. When he and Mikaela conceived Aeolus, their strength far exceeded that of his parents back then.
When Gold Dragoness and Ansor had conceived Muria, they hadn't even reached the Legendary rank yet. But when Muria and Mikaela conceived Aeolus, Muria was on the verge of breaking through to Legendary rank 7, and Mikaela was already at Legendary rank 5.
Conceiving a child with such strength was a small miracle in itself. Moreover, their life levels had far surpassed those of his parents at that time. Muria, shortly after birth, had received a power gift from his grandfather Deimos, which brought him to the threshold of a Dragon King. Mikaela, by virtue of her bloodline, was recognized as the greatest talent of the Seraphim, the most powerful bloodline seen in nearly a hundred thousand years, second only to the direct descendants of the ancient Seraphim gods.
Thus, Aeolus inherited some of the power from both Muria and Mikaela. He could freely switch between Titan, Seraphim, and Gold Dragon forms, and he could even combine two or all three forms at will. His natural talent far exceeded Muria's.
Aeolus' initial power was equally astonishing. He was born with the ability to fly, a characteristic of the Gold rank. Such strength at birth was truly excessive.
Apart from a few extremely unique races, almost no long-lived species was born with such overwhelming power. A high starting point could be seen as a disadvantage by some.
Take the Titan race, for example. The epic Titans certainly had the means to raise the minimum power of their race, but they chose not to. Raising the race's baseline came with more harm than good. The stronger one's power, the fewer opponents they had. For Titans reaching Legendary rank, finding suitable opponents became increasingly difficult.
"You've already made your decision, so why do you keep complaining?" Mikaela, standing nearby, spoke with a mix of emotions.
Although she loved battle and was more domineering than most Seraphim, she still couldn't bear to see her son suffer.
"Aeolus!" Muria walked toward his son, who was playing with the flower fairies.
"What is it, Father?" Aeolus, sensing something ominous, looked up at his father as he approached.
"Your playtime is over!" Muria scooped his son up in his palm. As confusion filled Aeolus' eyes, golden divine light radiated from Muria's body. Runes began forming, creating a sealing formation that slowly sank into Aeolus' body.
"Father, what are you doing?" Aeolus asked curiously, reaching out to grab the formations, feeling no danger from them. But despite his efforts, he found that he couldn't touch them.
"These are sealing formations," Muria explained. "They will temporarily seal your bloodline powers and your memories of this time. But don't worry, once you reach adulthood and break through to Legendary rank, these seals will shatter, and all your power will return."
"Father, I feel so sleepy…" Aeolus's eyelids grew heavy. The world around him began to blur as darkness consumed his vision, and he drifted into unconsciousness.
"All that you will experience now will make you stronger in the future," Muria said softly as he watched Aeolus shrink and his aura fade, becoming no more than a regular human baby. Though he felt a twinge of guilt, Muria quickly steeled himself.
With the power he held now, if he didn't take this drastic step, he risked raising a spoiled child who might grow into a hedonistic second-generation elite. If Aeolus were left to grow freely in Senaps, he would undoubtedly develop an interest in combat, similar to most Titans.
Without his memories from a previous life, Muria might have grown up just like a typical Titan, with perhaps a few dragon-like traits such as greed. But if raised by the Seraphim, Aeolus might end up like Mikaela's sister-in-law, someone who possessed immense talent yet was content to quietly garden with little ambition.
The traditional Gold Dragon upbringing wasn't ideal either, where children were often placed in noble human families. Muria disagreed with this, as even the most virtuous of nobles belonged to a circle prone to indulgence in debauchery that even demons would be shocked by.
"Was sealing him to this extent necessary?" Mikaela asked, her heart aching as she looked at the now infant-sized Aeolus.
"Only by rising from the lowest point to the highest can he stand firm and weather any storm," Muria replied resolutely. "His starting point was too high. It could lead to bad habits."
If Muria allowed Aeolus to grow up freely in Senaps, his extraordinary talents would ensure that he would be surrounded by praise and adulation. Such an environment could easily foster undesirable traits.
"I will grow with him," Mikaela said, cradling the now tiny Aeolus in her arms, her gaze full of love.
"Of course, we'll both grow with him," Muria agreed, embracing Mikaela as they looked at their slumbering son.
"But first, we need new identities to disguise ourselves."
...
Ten years later, Senaps Subcontinent, Eastern Region, Holy Flame City, Holy Flame Elementary School, Fifth Grade Class 23.
"The results of last week's mainstream racial language test are in. Now, let's announce the scores!"
The language teacher entered the classroom, carrying a stack of test papers. The already quiet room became even more silent, the tension palpable. Every student stared at the teacher with bated breath as she flipped through the papers, her face expressionless.
"Emine Arin, 57 points, fail."
"Charles Trenet, 58 points, fail."
Every student whose name was called paled with dread, already imagining the punishment that awaited them at home.
"Alisa Lu, 87 points, good."
At this, the teacher's expression softened slightly, and the student named beamed with relief, knowing they had done well enough to avoid trouble at home, maybe even earning a reward.
"Gord Lee, 99 points, excellent!"
"Aeolus, perfect score, outstanding!" The teacher looked up at the black-haired, golden-eyed boy sitting in the front row with a hint of admiration. However, there wasn't much surprise in her gaze; this was just Aeolus' usual performance.
"Edmunds, perfect score, outstanding!"
...
After announcing a few more perfect scores, the teacher smiled broadly. "Our class performed among the best in the grade this time. The students who achieved perfect scores contributed greatly. Let's give them a round of applause!"
The classroom filled with scattered applause, though most students clapped with expressions of indifference—they had grown used to this.
"Are those guys even human? How did they get perfect scores on such an impossible test? What kind of brains do they have?"
"They look like us, but they're not the same species."
"If I were half as smart as them, my dad wouldn't beat me when I got home."
"I'd settle for a third of their brains."
As the applause faded, a few students whispered to each other, expressing their frustration at the near-perfection of their peers.
"Teacher!" Aeolus raised his hand from the front row as the applause died down.
"Yes?" The teacher responded kindly to her top student.
"How many students in the entire grade got perfect scores?"
"There are 1,862 students in the grade, and only 52 got perfect scores. Our class alone has five!" The teacher proudly announced, thrilled with the results of her students.
"Fifty-two perfect scores?" Aeolus's face fell upon hearing the number.
...
"What a disgrace! I'm a high school student at Senaps Dragon Academy, pretending to be a child taking an elementary school test for short-lived races!" Edmunds scowled at his perfect score paper, feeling a deep sense of humiliation.
"I don't understand why the academy would assign such low-difficulty tasks with such high rewards!" Edmunds crumpled the paper and shoved it into his desk, planning to destroy it later. This would be a black mark on his history, something that couldn't be allowed to remain.
"I'm sure I'm not the only dragon who accepted this task. For the short-lived races, this test may be difficult, but for us, it's absurdly easy. It makes sense for only one or two students to score perfectly, but here we have dozens!"
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