It Was Truly Unexpected Bad News
It was truly unexpected bad news. Isabel had died. The reason was complications from giving birth to her second child. Ether's younger sister, the princess, had been born safely, but Isabel hadn't overcome the aftereffects of the delivery and had departed for the heavens.
It was heartbreaking. Though I could no longer shed tears in this bodiless form, the loss of one of the few people in the world who could communicate with me was a massive shock.
At least it was a relief that Ether wasn't in the palace for any particular problem. He was out on an inspection tour to gauge the state of the kingdom. It felt a bit early for that, but I recalled records of the current king doing undercover inspections at a similar age.
I decided to go find Ether. Sure, how would I track him down in this vast kingdom? But a prince on tour wouldn't exactly go unnoticed. It wasn't like the king's undercover jaunts; he'd have over a hundred escorts. And if I couldn't find him? No big deal. I probably had near-infinite time on my hands, after all.
Do souls have a lifespan? Yes, they do. Even wandering souls like me fade and dissipate after a certain time if they lose power. Evil spirits vanish too if they can't possess a host for long enough. The same might happen to me if I didn't keep absorbing other souls. But since I was constantly devouring them, I wouldn't vanish. At least, that's what I believed.
Tracking Ether down was just as easy as I'd expected. Not even a month after I started tailing him, I spotted him riding in a carriage.
[Ether]
I spoke to Ether, who sat quietly in the carriage with his eyes closed. He'd grown into such a fine young man. Even at his tender age, he exuded a noble dignity that screamed royal blood.
"Guardian Spirit?"
[It's me.]
"Why did it take you so long?"
Tears welled up in Ether's eyes. No matter how composed he was, he was still a child not yet ten.
"Mother..."
[I know. I stopped by the palace.]
"Mother searched for you right up to the end."
Tears finally spilled from Ether's eyes. His escort knights and the rest of the retinue didn't know what to do.
[Things kept me outside too long, somehow.]
Ether pulled out a letter from Isabel, carefully wrapped in leather, and showed it to me. It was long, but the gist was that she was deeply grateful to me and entrusted Ether and Elizabeth to my care. So, they'd named his sister Elizabeth after all. Come to think of it, I hadn't even checked on Ether's sibling back at the palace.
Ether and I shared stories of the years we'd spent apart. I figured a kid's tales wouldn't amount to much, but one part stood out as crucial.
[You can't use mana?]
"Yes. Father called in famous doctors and mages to treat me, but they said it's just my constitution—nothing to fix."
Such constitutions do exist, of course. But ones completely incapable of using mana are surprisingly rare. And Ether seemed to be one of those few cases.
He looked utterly dejected as he spoke. Sure, lacking mana didn't mean he couldn't be a good king. In fact, it was hardly necessary. But to a young boy like Ether, it must have been a huge worry.
[Ether, want to try something I'm going to teach you?]
"What is it?"
[I can't guarantee it'll work, but if it does, you'll be able to wield something like mana.]
"I'll do it! Please let me try!"
It was only natural, but his speech patterns took after his mother's.
The years I'd spent trailing Ma-su Wang weren't just idle time. I'd been deeply fascinated by his ability to wield aura. Beasts using aura was supposed to be impossible. Plenty of mad researchers had tried it—capturing intelligent beasts and teaching them human mana cultivation methods. The verdict? It didn't work. Beasts and humans processed mana differently, with different bodies to match.
Some lunatics even researched beast-exclusive methods, but those failed too. So how did Ma-su Wang use aura? One might think he was human first, already knew aura, and kept using it post-transformation. But no. I'd asked him directly: the mana methods and operations from his human days were useless now. The way he took it in and used it was entirely different.
Academies and mage towers preached that the world brimmed with mana, which we absorbed and used. Aura was just mana refined in the body. I obsessed over this, researching intensely—with Ma-su Wang's help.
I found the answer. The energy filling this world isn't mana. We absorb that energy and convert it into mana to use. Beasts can't use mana but employ magic-like abilities. Ma-su Wang wielded aura by using the raw energy directly.
Of course, theorizing a human version wasn't easy. But Fortega's mana cultivation method proved invaluable—its structure aligned closely. Not identical, but after endless refinement, I perfected it. I couldn't test it myself, but theoretically, it was flawless.
From that day, I began teaching Ether the method. Cautiously, of course. Even if I was confident in its safety, I layered in multiple precautions.
Ether's talent was as outstanding as expected—his soul's vast size and brilliance proved it. A week after I taught him, he sensed the energy in the air. Most call this "feeling mana," but they're sensing already-converted mana. My method let him feel the raw energy itself.
Ether was so thrilled he bounced around like mad. This was a monumental discovery. If I'd found it in life, I'd have founded a whole school around it.
As I delved into proper cultivation training, Ether asked, "Guardian Spirit, what's this heart method called?"
[Hmm? Never thought about it. Since you're the first to learn it, let's call it the Ether Heart Method.]
It was also the name from my past life.
"Ether Heart Method!"
I could see his shoulders dancing with excitement.
After that, Ether trained diligently. The inspection tour proceeded without major incidents. Being a publicized trip at a leisurely pace, the nobles along the route prepared lavish welcomes and hid their dirty secrets.
But hiding doesn't mean hidden. Just passing through a territory revealed the lord's character from the people's living standards. This current domain was a prime example. The commoners lined up on either side of the procession, cheering half-heartedly like they'd been dragged out by force. It was pathetic.
From the moment the lord himself came out to greet us, looking suspicious with his pitch-black soul swarming with dozens of resentful souls overhead, I'd had a bad feeling. But plenty of lords were like that, so nothing special.
[This place seems particularly bad, Ether.]
I finally piped up. I'd never offered Ether direct advice before—this was the king's test for him to judge and resolve on his own. But Ether was already frowning out the carriage window at the people, nodding grimly. This might be the first punishment of the tour.
The current king had beheaded over ten nobles during his own inspections.
The lord's manor was a gaudy contrast to the ragged populace. Whether he read Ether's expression or not, Viscount Balterain grinned obsequiously, spouting florid praise of his "achievements" before the prince.
[Is he insane?]
My inadvertent mutter made Ether burst out laughing. That only egged the viscount on, rambling louder.
Ether's patience finally snapped. "Hey, you there!"
"Yes, sir!"
The knights escorting Ether snapped to attention like they'd been waiting.
"Investigate why this territory's people are suffering—immediately!"
"Understood!"
At the knight captain's command—who led the inspection troupe—knights and attendants scattered in all directions.
"What is the meaning of this, Prince?!"
Viscount Balterain's face turned beet red as he spat and screamed. But two knights had already pinned his arms; he couldn't budge.
"If the viscount's done nothing wrong, nothing will come of it."
Ether's tone was ice-cold. He turned away, as if the man wasn't worth seeing.
[I'll poke around too.]
Uncovering hidden things was my specialty. I quickly found the safe in his office, dropping the covering painting to the floor. The inspection crew probably would've found that anyway.
Next, a hidden basement. Why do people always hide in such predictable spots? I kindly labeled the entrance: "Basement Access."
The basement held a fortune—too much for the office safe.
Third was the real shocker: another basement beneath the hidden one. I dove in and rocketed back to Ether in alarm.
Ether was still seated near the viscount, watching events unfold.
[Ether, watch out! This bastard's a black mage!]
No sooner had I spoken than dark magic surged from the viscount.
Ether startled, about to order the holding knights, but they reacted faster—drawing swords and slashing instinctively. A murky translucent barrier blocked them: Dark Shield, black magic.
"If you'd just passed quietly, nothing would've happened!"
Even stronger magic poured from him. This wasn't amateur stuff; the mana was immense.
The knights struck again, but the shield held. I zipped in, piercing it to blast a mana bolt into his face. Back when it was just raw mana discharge, maybe not—but after shadowing Ma-su Wang and devouring hordes of powerful beasts, this was child's play.
Boom!
The explosion snapped his head back, shattering his mana concentration. In that gap, not just his guards but some of Ether's too joined in, shattering the Dark Shield with aura-infused blades. They diced the viscount into meat chunks in seconds.
The second basement was a black magic lab, littered with traces of human experimentation—like that Viscount Jimnus Kragel I'd met in the capital before.
After encountering Jimnus, I'd feared black mages intensely for a while. But after seeing certified ones at the mage tower, the terror faded. Jimnus had been the anomaly; no other black mages could see me.