A World of Perfect Balance
In this world, a special power known as mana existed. For ages, humans who had studied this power developed five distinct methods to harness it: martial arts, magic, spirit arts, dark magic, and ebon.
Martial arts absorbed mana directly into the body, maximizing the user's physical capabilities. Magic, by contrast, isolated mana in a corner of the body rather than absorbing it, then manipulated that power to forcibly alter external laws. Spirit arts resembled magic in some ways, yet instead of changing those laws, they focused on understanding and accepting the will of the spirits, flowing in harmony with nature as it existed.
Dark magic stood in complete opposition to the previous three. Rather than governing the world's laws as they were, it inverted the very nature of mana itself to wield negative-dimensional power, exploiting the reversed laws of reality. Finally, ebon operated on an entirely different mechanism from the other four. Unlike disciplines acquired and developed after birth, ebon referred to innate abilities one was born with. Strictly speaking, it was difficult to even call it a proper field of study.
There was also the Church's self-proclaimed Holy Magic, but this was less a discipline for reaching higher realms and more a form of prayer for mental cultivation. Broadly speaking, it fell under spirit arts as a branch that adapted to external laws as they stood. Thus, society generally recognized only the five disciplines above as true fields of study.
“......”
Kain's study. The space was lined with the miscellaneous books collected by the book-loving Kain. Of course, far more volumes slumbered peacefully in his subspace, and these were merely the ones he'd pulled out for immediate reading. Since he gathered books across every genre without preference, the collection here was astonishingly diverse in both type and quantity—from fairy tales, novels, personal essays, and diaries to history books and myths. There were also texts on magic theory, cutting-edge papers, introductory and advanced martial arts manuals, books on spirit arts or the Church's methods of mind cultivation, and even academic papers offering fresh perspectives or novel insights on the dark magic he had mastered.
The world is incredibly fair and harmonious.
It maintained a thorough balance without leaning toward any extreme. The same could be said of the five absolute beings who had emerged in the world. Each had reached the pinnacle through a different discipline. There was never any bias suggesting one field was superior to another. Whether by coincidence or fate, it was a fair world, and so no rule existed that one must study only a single discipline. Learning magic and martial arts simultaneously was possible. Combining spirit arts with magic was possible. Even studying dark magic and regular magic at the same time was possible. The systems and theories were simply so different that mastering multiple disciplines at once was extraordinarily difficult and grueling. Still, it was entirely feasible to focus on one as the primary and treat the others as supplements.
This held true for Kain and the other absolute beings as well. With sufficient tenacity and talent, one could achieve great success while mastering multiple disciplines evenly, just like his subordinate Greed. Of course, that case was an irregularity born from Greed's bizarrely greedy personality—he never let anything that fell into his hands slip away.
In any case, the world tried to grant everyone equal opportunity. But exceptions always existed. Among the five disciplines, ebon possessed a special quality that deviated from the world's laws.
Ebon was a power only the chosen could wield. As mentioned, unlike the other disciplines that were learned and developed after birth, this was an innate ability. While others increased their strength from zero to infinity, ebon worked in reverse. It was a discipline that reduced the scale of one's power by gradually shaving away the innate strength one was born with through control.
Unlike other disciplines, the upper limit was fixed from the start. Everything was random—some were weak, some were strong, even the potency of that power. That was why, throughout history, the number of ebon users who had reached the level of absolute being was overwhelmingly smaller than in other fields. The very existence of the Ice Queen, who currently ruled the northern continent, was one of the rarest special cases in history.
As far as Kain knew, in the current era, the only ebon users to have reached the absolute realm were the Ice Queen and himself.
In a sense, ebon users faced even greater rejection than dark mages. It wasn't simply because they had been chosen and thus provoked others' jealousy. Unlike dark mages who voluntarily became criminals, most ebon users caused severe damage to their surroundings upon first awakening because they couldn't control their power. Just as the absolute-level ebon user known as the Ice Queen had transformed the northern continent into a permanent frozen wasteland where people could barely survive when she first awakened.
Kain, too, remembered struggling considerably to control his own when he first encountered dark magic in the graveyard and awakened his ebon as a result. Of course, since his ebon differed in type from hers, he hadn't caused any conspicuous accidents.
“......”
Kain covered his purple-flickering eyes with his thick glasses as he thought this. For that reason, many ebon users, driven by public criticism and mockery, ended up falling into the underworld—a common occurrence across the continent. It was also why so many ebon users, rarely seen in ordinary society, served among his subordinates.
In the end, it meant ebon users possessed that much uniqueness.
And the topic Kain had taken the greatest interest in lately concerned these very ebon users.
It's strange.
There were no clues whatsoever. The ones who killed his sister. Whether individual or organization. Those who caused the airship accident and erased every trace of evidence. He could find no information on them at all. Even after turning the entire underworld upside down, nothing turned up. These were people who could unearth even the most tightly guarded state secrets. Was it because he understood his subordinates' capabilities too well? Kain knew all too well how absurd that notion was.
It's not any of you.
In this situation, the first people Kain had investigated were naturally the four absolute beings besides himself. For something like this to be possible, they would have needed to act personally. Yet the result was failure. None of them was the culprit.
Then there was only one possibility. Another absolute being had emerged after Kain.
Growing in complete secrecy is impossible.
A needle in a bag. The famous saying from the eastern nation of Hwan on the continent: no matter how outstanding one's talent or ability, it would inevitably reveal itself to the world. Kain himself had been unable to hide completely. Even during his conquest of the underworld, ordinary people might not have known, but every peak of the world had been watching his movements. Several attempts to interfere had come his way because of it.
No matter how well one hid and grew in secret, it was impossible to leave behind not even a single clue. Yet that didn't make it entirely impossible. An ebon user—and moreover, an absolute being who had awakened in a special way like himself, different from the Ice Queen. If such a person had appeared, then this scenario might indeed be possible.
And that bastard is definitely moving within the underworld.
Wasn't it said that the area beneath the lamp is the darkest? As the Death King who ruled the continent's shadows and commanded a broader domain than the other four absolute beings, it would paradoxically be easier for someone to act while evading his gaze. That fact irritated him more than anything. Whether the culprit knew he was being pursued or not, every action felt like mockery directed at Kain.
“Uncle.”
Kain's gaze shifted from the book on ebon he had been reading while lying on the study floor—with the thick volume One Hundred Recipes from the Renowned Chef Baron Byuk serving as his pillow—to the door. The person who entered after knocking was, as expected, Arina.
She approached him carefully, clutching to her chest the Basic Magic Theory that had become a hot topic because it was personally authored by the Magic Sovereign Ern Benedict.
“Um… are you busy right now?”
“No.”
“Then, could I possibly ask you to explain this section?”
Perhaps the department store terrorist incident had brought her some kind of realization. Since that day, she had suddenly begun borrowing magic theory books from Kain's study to study on her own.
Probably because it served as a stimulus.
A near-death experience. It was the kind of situation that would leave anyone with mental trauma. She had even witnessed someone dying right before her eyes. Overcoming such an event at her young age was remarkable in itself.
Of course, she did spend a few days trembling in fear.
She seemed to have tried hiding it so she wouldn't worry him. But there was no way Kain would miss her subtle changes. Especially when she spent every night sobbing while hugging her blanket in her room.
But in the end, she overcame it. And she chose to change.
Kain didn't show it, but he found her quite admirable. That was why. The man who would normally have brushed off such requests out of annoyance had begun listening to her questions.
She has decent talent, too.
Even in Kain's eyes, Arina possessed considerable talent for magic. She didn't have the monstrous talent Kain did—reaching absolute-level ebon the moment he first touched dark magic, attaining 3-star in dark magic at the same time, and later hitting 8-star in just three years. Still, reaching 2-star at the age of twelve after beginning magic without even putting in sincere effort was more than enough to be called a genius on the continent.
There was no reason for Kain to dislike the idea of her fully blooming that talent and rising to high realms where she could live with pride. She was, after all, his sister's daughter. Now that she had made up her mind, he hoped she would grow strong enough to easily scoff at the Grant Merchant Group that had once tried to abandon her.
“What is it?”
Still lying down without lifting his eyes from the book, Kain gestured for her to approach. As she sat down and opened her book, he moved only his eyes slightly.
“......”
While Kain examined the part she was curious about, Arina unconsciously glanced at the book he was reading out of curiosity. It roughly explained that ebon, unlike other disciplines with different mechanisms, was a type of mutation where mana gathered in a corner of the brain from the moment of birth… and so on. It speculated that the degree of synchronization with the brain depended on the size of that mass, which in turn determined the scale of the ebon. After that it delved into neuroscience, and Arina, unable to understand the specialized terminology, blinked with a slightly overwhelmed expression.
Is Uncle an ebon user?
She had caught a glimpse of the power he possessed back at the department store, but she had lost consciousness shortly afterward and couldn't grasp it clearly. By the time she woke up, Kain had already resolved the entire incident and matters were mostly settled.
Or maybe he's a mage.
When she thought about how he answered every question without the slightest hesitation, it seemed possible.
“Third bookshelf from the left, fifth row from the bottom. The pure white book.”
“Yes?”
Just as Arina was internally piecing together his profession, Kain—having checked what she was looking at—spoke while returning his gaze to his own book.
“There's a book there that explains the related techniques. The author was named Magnus or something. Anyway, that's the one.”
Kain fundamentally encouraged self-directed learning. His belief was that without personal will, teaching was pointless. So instead of handing her the fish, he taught her how to catch one.
At his words, Arina slowly stood and walked to the spot he indicated. A book titled Magnus Theory caught her eye.
“The content you need starts on page thirty-six.”
Kain told her the exact page and let out a yawn.
“And that's enough reading for today. Don't be late for the first day at the academy tomorrow.”
“I won't. I wake up earlier than you, Uncle, remember?”
Arina narrowed her eyes in mild displeasure at his words. But Kain paid it no mind, calmly turning the next page as he spoke.
“That's because I go to bed at dawn.”
It was the pot calling the kettle black—telling her to sleep early while he stayed up late. But strictly speaking, it wasn't Kain's fault so much as his sister Kayen's. She was the one who had always nagged him, when he would read books deep into the night without sleeping, that he wouldn't grow tall if he stayed up.
To Kain, he was simply repaying what he had endured, raising her daughter according to her values in her stead.
“......”
Perhaps because she had heard that story before, Arina offered no further protest. She quietly gathered the two books in her arms, walked slowly toward the door, and bowed her head.
“Then, Uncle, sleep well.”
“......”
Knowing she wouldn't receive a reply, she simply opened the door and left.
Even afterward, Kain continued staring at his book for a long time.
Ebon, huh…
Unlike other disciplines, far more about it remained unknown than known. It was a mysterious field where most aspects lingered in the realm of hypothesis and inference. Therefore, the number of different ebon abilities was as countless as the spells of magic.
So what sort of ability did that ebon user possess?
One may forget a favor, but never a grudge.
Kain covered his face with the book he had been reading, hiding his ominously flickering eyes, and closed them. It felt like he might see his sister in his dreams after so long. As if, following the scolding she used to give him, he was finally setting the book aside and slipping into sleep.