In the spacious lecture hall, after the final training session ended, Carla Brown sat on a wooden bench near the window.She was trying to jot down her notes on the students' performance, but her hand kept pausing, over and over, as Neil's image replayed in her mind.
He wasn't just a talented boy.He was… something else.
She set the pen down on her notebook and rested her forehead in her palm. Her breaths came slow, as though she needed time to absorb what she had witnessed.
"I know I've seen him before…"
Exactly two years ago.On that night no one ever spoke of.When an A-rank beast swept through the forest's edge, and the knights went to stop it.When she arrived after the battle was over, she found the beast's massive corpse sprawled across the ground… and on its chest, a charred scar unlike anything she had ever seen.
"They said it was a powerful magic strike… but no… I saw the sparks when I came closer."He had defeated another A-rank beast.
She lifted her gaze toward Neil, who sat coolly at the back of the class as if nothing around him mattered.She remembered those sparks:Electricity tinged with deep blue light, not ordinary lightning, but a layered energy like the weaving of fine neural networks…Something no one in this village had ever studied.Not even at the capital's academy.
"The Jealous Technique…"
She whispered the word to herself, inaudible to anyone.She had later searched for it in the archives.A rare technique, almost like a multiplier for the body's latent energy – producing fine electrical sparks that didn't come from the lightning element alone, but from the practitioner's ability to activate a state of energy-based malice – a twisted communion with the primitive urge to surpass every limit.
"The sparks don't just burn… they open dormant channels in the nerves."
She pressed her palm to her chest, sensing a strange tension.She had never seen anyone his age capable of such a feat.And today – she had seen him repeat it with almost no effort.And then… what happened afterward.
She remembered the moment vividly:Krista unleashing light energy everyone thought impossible.Adam wielding the rare darkness element.And between them… Neil, like a cornerstone to their talents.
"How can a child his age… create the drive for those two?"
He wasn't just a natural talent.Not even a genius.He was… trained.As if he had lived twenty years in the span of eight.Acting with strictness, planning without emotion, directing others like pawns in a larger game.
She slowly raised her head, staring at the ceiling as if searching for an answer in the void."He doesn't know how much he frightens me sometimes… doesn't know how much he makes me feel like I'm witnessing the birth of something we won't understand until it's too late."
She closed her notebook and fell silent for a moment.She remembered Krista's face clinging to hope, and Adam's feral expression.And between them, the blond boy who had ignited something in their hearts that would not fade easily.
"If this is what he's done at eleven years old… what will he be in ten years?"
A cold shiver ran down her neck.She closed her eyes slowly.
"What kind of man will grow here…?"Carla had heard of children born with talent, and others forged through harsh training. But she had never heard of a child who, simply through his presence and persistence, could draw out of others what they didn't even know they possessed.
She sat on a wooden seat in the empty classroom after the students left, the sunset flooding the hall with a pale orange shadow. She placed her hand on her cheek, replaying the scene that hadn't left her mind since that day.
How did he do it?She remembered the first time she noticed those strange sparks of anger in his eyes.Neil hadn't been scolding Adam or Krista… he had been staring at them with a single, deep, silent look, as if saying:"I won't accept your half-measure."
She recalled how he stood before Adam and told him with a coldness bordering on mockery:
"I know you're planning to hurt me. Good. Plan more. Make every second worth your entire life. Otherwise, you'll remain an insect before me."
That day, something changed in Adam.Carla saw it clearly.That broken boy, drowning in vague depression, lost the glimmer of sorrow in his eyes, replaced by a cold gleam…The gleam of nihilistic resolve.As if Adam had suddenly decided that anything was permissible if it meant breaking this blond boy.
Then came Krista's turn.She had trembled the first time Neil told her to attack him seriously.He said to her with a short smile that was neither kind nor cruel:
"You'll stay pathetic until you learn to suffer willingly. All your strength is afraid to come out because you're afraid to break. That's fine… I'll break you myself, then fix you."
At that moment… Carla remembered how Krista's eyes began to change.She recalled that faint light in her hands one day, how after weeks it became real flashes of light.Then full-fledged magic.Then… a rare element never recorded in their era: the element of light.
How?She had asked herself a thousand times.How can a child awaken in others this raw courage, this stubbornness bordering on madness?
She had watched them from the school balcony, when the three met in the sandy yard.Adam standing with rigid shoulders, his pale face showing nothing but sickly determination.Krista's eyes gleaming, as if on the verge of tears from excitement and fear.And Neil, in the middle, speaking without a hint of hesitation:
"One of you hates me. The other admires me. You both think I'm the cause. Correct. Use me. Hate me. Love me. It doesn't matter. What matters is that you uncover the depths you're hiding. Only then… will you know what you are."
That moment…Carla would never forget it for as long as she lived.There was nothing childlike about it.Neil hadn't seemed young to her then.He was something like the old trainers who spent a lifetime teaching soldiers hatred and discipline.But… he was just a boy.
She pressed her hand to her chest, remembering in detail how that day erupted.Adam suddenly unleashing the darkness element.Krista crying, then gathering every spark she had into a full light-forged sword.And Neil… laughing.A short laugh, not without genuine appreciation.
"He didn't just train them…"
He had freed them from their chains.Torn out their fear.Planted in them a terrifying boldness to discover their own inner cruelty.
How had he done it?Maybe she didn't have the answer.Maybe no one ever would.
But he had.And in just a few short years… he had created two of the rarest elemental wielders in the whole generation.Darkness and light.As if they had been born to complete what no one thought possible.
She sighed slowly, looking toward their empty seats."What kind of fate awaits these three?"Then she closed her notebook.And in her chest, the question lingered unanswered.
On a gray, lightly rainy morning, as students dispersed into their training halls, Carla Brown stood before the large glass window of her office, watching Neil walk calmly across the dirt courtyard, his footsteps leaving marks unlike those of ordinary children.
She could no longer resist her curiosity.She had seen with her own eyes how Adam and Krista had transformed from children drowning in fear or aimlessness… into fighters wielding rare elements, with terrifying confidence.
She pressed the small bell on her desk.Within a minute, the door opened quietly.Neil entered, his face cold, his eyes carrying something far beyond his years.
She spoke in a neutral tone, masking the tremor of her curiosity:— Sit down, Neil. I want to ask you something specific.
He sat across from her, raising his gaze directly to hers.— About what?
She hesitated for a moment, then leaned forward slightly, whispering as if afraid someone might overhear:— How… did you do it? How did you make them… awaken their elements?
He stayed silent for a few seconds before tilting his head slightly, as if deciding whether it was worth explaining.Then he spoke with a strange coldness:— Which part exactly?
She gestured with her hand, explaining with restrained excitement:— I saw what you three did in the yard. Those… electrical sparks that made Adam move at incredible speed, and Krista breaking the stone sword with rare light. I've never seen anything like that before. How did you awaken what was inside them?
Neil's eyes widened slightly, then he shook his head.— Ah… that.
He leaned back against the chair and let out a short breath, as if recounting something obvious:— It's simple if you know the principles. There are two main ways to do it…
Her eyebrows rose.— Two ways?
He nodded with calm confidence:— The first, I call "stimulating the soul with electric shocks." You know that magical energy isn't just physical. It's tied to the mind and the soul. When you strike the body with measured doses of electrical current, it disrupts the layers of the barrier between consciousness and the subconscious — the barrier that keeps latent energy from surfacing out of fear of harm or exhaustion.
She covered her mouth in shock:— You… used real electricity?
A small, emotionless smile crossed his lips:— Yes. But at a low concentration that doesn't kill, only jolts the nerves and the body's energy pathways. Then, the soul is forced to respond. Some people break down and cry. Some resist. But those with great latent power… awaken.
She stared at him without blinking, as though listening to a fairy tale.— That's… extremely dangerous.
He shrugged indifferently:— Yes, but it's effective.
— And the second way?
He looked toward the window, lowering his voice as if confessing something:— The second, I call "the reflection of intentions."
— I don't understand.
— When you fight or train with someone who sees in you something they hate or something they desire… those intentions reflect back into their energy. If you looked closely, you'd see that Adam wasn't focusing on me as a teacher. He saw me… as a target to be destroyed. As for Krista… she saw in me an ideal to catch up to.
— So… psychological provocation as well?
He nodded confidently:— Yes. When you combine precise electric stimulation with deep psychological pressure… latent energy explodes unconsciously. The problem is, many collapse or get hurt. That's why I only used it on them… because I saw rare potential in them.
He paused for a moment, then added in a lighter tone:— And because… I needed stronger opponents over time.
Carla felt a faint tremor in her chest.How could a child speak like this? As if he were an anatomist conducting experiments with cold detachment.Yet part of her… couldn't help but feel awe at this dark brilliance.
She asked in a shaky voice:— And… will you keep doing this with them?
He looked at her for a long moment.— As long as they're willing. No one can grow without pain.
Then he stood simply, nodding to her respectfully:— Is that all, Miss Carla?
She nodded heavily, unsure if she pitied them… or him.— Yes… you may go.
Neil left, leaving behind a strange emptiness in the room… an emptiness like the echo of something far beyond his years.