Two days after encountering the gaze from the dark.
Hugo walks around the foundation building looking around and also eavesdropping on people’s conversations.
Nobody is really talking about the topics that he is interested in.
They’re just talking about things like rising prices.
Or some matter that is too personal.
He is eavesdropping on people but he doesn’t want to intrude on other’s privacy too much.
A gentleman should always respect others and show it too.
‘Perhaps, a gentleboy or gentlebaby would be more suitable.’ He lampoons a little and then suddenly starts wondering about that incident.
He sighs inwardly.
He can’t help but think about that alive darkness in the room.
‘Nothing else happened after looking at it that day, I had thought that this gaze was of a person that has been locked in there.
So, it would make some sounds or cry for help.
But it didn’t make a sound of any kind.
It truly made no attempt at getting out.
Instead, it is like it wanted me to go inside the dark room.’ He shivers a little after thinking about it.
The gaze of the darkness hasn’t stopped staring back in these two days.
Whenever he is at Mr.
Michal’s home, that gaze always stares.
He has suspected that it is watching from the vent that is covered with some sheets.
He didn’t confirm it as he never looked at that dark room again.
Or even anywhere else for that matter.
After seeing a burning sky in his last life, he has come to realize that there is some sort of magic system in this world.
However, he has no idea what it is about and how it works.
He has only seen two instances of it and one of them ended his last life.
So, his fear of these unnatural forces makes sense.
He wouldn’t dare to tempt it or get close to it.
It didn’t try to lure him closer to the room.
But he has no way of knowing if it is friendly or not.
This incident has also has made him wary of Mr.
Michal.
That man apparently stays outside all the day and only get back in the middle of the night.
So, how does he even nurture that darkness to become something like that?
‘I can’t rule out that I have never seen that man actually leave the house.
My mom always leaves first with me after doing the chore.
So, he might as well be lying.
Or there is something else that is at play here.
What should I even do?’
With no serious decision made by him.
He has subconsciously decided to ignore that darkness inside the room.
‘I wish it was all just my imagination.
But that boat has sailed long ago because I feels being stared at all the time whenever I am at Mr.
Michal’s house…
What if it tired to lure my mom inside?
I can only act normal and pretend that I have not noticed its existence.’
Hugo rubs his temples a little and continues his petrol around the foundation building.
After an hour of roaming around, he found nothing of interest.
Today also just same old rumors and even the private staff of Madam Tallia was quitter than usual.
Perhaps, she has specifically told them to not talk or be more careful.
This caution has resulted in him having no intel to tell today.
Perhaps, he can just tell Olla and others all these unimportant talks of people and act super cute while doing it.
She probability will be satisfied with that.
However, when he a takes the last corner of this petrol destination.
He finds that the door of Madam Tallia’s room is opened.
In addition, nobody is guarding the place.
‘Is this my golden opportunity to get some solid info now?’
Hugo patiently waits for three or four minutes to see if Madam Tallia or someone else enter or exit the room.
However, he finds nobody to be nearby and inside the room.
With this opportunity in front of him, he makes the decision to enter and find out what could be inside.
It would be a waste to just leave.
Who knows if he ever will get another opportunity like that.
After waiting for one more minute, he enters the room and then examines the room.
The room itself is very spacious.
Much more spacious than his current place.
But not as big as the one room of the mansion in the 1st incarnation.
There are few fancy lanterns in the corner.
The table in the middle looks very expensive and made of good material.
The whole thing is covered with files and documents.
Aside from these big details, there are photos of Madam Tallia and her husband.
Rest of the room is decorated with other fancy stuff.
Hugo looks at the files and books and makes a tsk sound.
He wouldn’t dare touch any file as it wouldn’t provide him with valuable information within time.
He would love to carefully read though every file and check how far has he come with his education.
But he rather look for something that is much more of an evident to prove that madam Tallia is either innocent or of being guilty as the rumors say.
With a little reluctance, he looks away at different places.
He doesn’t try to move anything as he carefully makes his way behind the table.
Hugo quickly browses through everything that is at the table and in the draws.
The only thing that catches his eyes is a book that is different than everything.
Something that didn’t belong in a place like this.
This book is different as it is sinister in nature.
Ignoring his caution to satisfy, he opens the draw and takes the book out.
A frown suddenly appears on his face.
He finds maliciousness oozing from the book.
The knowledge within this book is unnatural and powerful.
Every pour of his being is telling him to get away from it.
But there is a part that is bewitching him.
This is what he felt when he saw the burning sky in the 1st incarnation.
He couldn’t help but look at it.
Like it is a subconscious reaction.
The cover of the book looks extremely dirty and might even be made of rock like material.
There are small complicated symbols all over the book and each symbol is red or brown in color.
Ignoring all the danger signs, he opens the books.
Inside the book, he finds ritual instructions or formulas to make potions or knowledge about “magic”.
All of the information is readable by him as all of it is written in Flames of heart.
Of course, the words are much more complicated and unfamiliar.
But he manages and skims the first page and then second and then third and so on.
He didn’t pay much attention to the rituals and formulas.
It is impossible for him to remember every one of them.
So, he focuses on the main knowledge.
Affinity.
According to the book, humans have affinity to hold powers or magic of particular domains.
Many of domains corresponds to fire, water, mind, flesh, earth and many more.
The book doesn’t clarify how many of these domains even exist.
Humans can find their affinities through simple or complicated rituals.
Or a failure.
Like if it a fire element ritual is performed and if the human body respond to that ritual.
That many you have affinity with fire.
If not then, you are actually from a different domain.
Also fire itself has four different brands so there are four different rituals to find the affinity towards fire domain.
After finding the affinity, you can start different rituals to get different abilities based on your affinity.
Hugo narrows his eyes and says in his mind.
‘Trial and error method?
Before you can even use magic, you have to first determine your affinity and then do more rituals to gain different abilities.
To even perform the ritual, you need to know the perfect setup too.
Otherwise, it won’t work.’
He reads one of many rituals that is related to flesh.
‘Drink blood of some other human…preferably, a corpse.
Then mark your chest with the symbol given in the book.
After waiting for an hour, if the blood within you crawls back out of your mouth.
that means you’re within the domain of flesh that brands at your own body…..Hmm, this ritual is easy.
But obtaining blood of someone else is the only difficult part.’
This ritual makes him feel a little grossed out.
Drinking the blood of a corpse is morbid and vile.
Not to mention, the ritual can fail too if you are not from that specific domain of that specific branch.
After spending two seconds more looking at the pages of flesh domain.
He moves through reading the rest of magic knowledge and a little hope light up within him.
But then, it is extinguished as he finishes the sentence.
‘A human can know their affinity without the affinity ritual by asking for help from a God or an existence… THIS IS A SCAM.’
For whatever reason, he has made up his mind that Godlike beings are not to be trusted.
This stem from the legend of the flames of heart.
That story has made him question every God.
He really doesn’t want to ask a God or an existence for help.
Who knows, what would happen if he does.
He little slows down at reading as he digests all the knowledge he has acquired.
This is very valuable information that can make someone capable of stepping in the world of unknown.
With this affinity system, he also comprehends one more thing.
A human might not just be able to find their affinity with rituals.
Perhaps, different methods or coincidences can confirm your affinity or trigger it.
Like in his 1st incarnation, he suspects that he was related to fire somehow.
That would make sense as he resisted a faction of the initial hit of the burning sky.
He also suspects that his mother, Saliva, also has fire affinity.
As her blocking him made a little difference and help him survive.
Many things were at play to make him survive that initial blow of the burning sky.
However, they were all coincidences.
But later died either way.
‘In summary, affinity rituals are for safety for the individual.
One can skip the affinity ritual and get straight to the real magical rituals.
But that bring danger and could harm or kill the individual.
Affinity rituals are much safer and danger is low.
There are other ways to find your affinity as you probably have some attraction towards one particular domain… Maybe one won’t be hurt too much if one who is in fire domain were to jump into fire?
Or not, my body didn’t really resist the burning sky that well.’
Hugo nods to himself and finds his theory to be little plausible.
This gives him some confidence and makes him want to know each affinity ritual so he can find what affinity does he has.
He doesn’t move for almost five seconds and looks like he is in a deep thought.
Suddenly, he hears a whisper and his thoughts shatter.
“Turn the page.”
[Note: Affinity rituals are start of stepping into the world of magic or mysticism. I called it mysticism because if someone were to get help from a deity then it would be considered mysticism… i think. Otherwise, it is just magic. There isn’t much difference in between to the two. Just how it is acquired. That’s all. Later, there will be more rituals or other things will be introduced that are more complicated and dangerous than an affinity rituals.]