The report arrived at one of GIMA’s administrative centers.
The large room was filled with workstations, archive panels, and documents constantly being transferred from one department to another.
A senior officer received the report from the system.
He opened it.
At first…
he only glanced through it.
Archive Conflict.
Cases like this were rare.
But they were still considered part of standard administrative procedure.
He was about to forward the report to GIMA High Command when his eyes stopped on one particular line.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
ARCHIVE CONFLICT REPORT
Archive Identity
ICAN-000001
Recorded Identity
Lucient Von Ardent
Current Identity
Aether
Status
Synchronization Conflict
Current Profile
Successfully Reconstructed
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
The officer read the report twice.
His brows furrowed slightly.
“ICAN-000001…”
He turned toward his colleague.
“Hey, isn’t this classified as a Founder Archive?”
His colleague walked over.
“You’re right.”
“Then forward it to the Senior Faculty.”
The officer nodded.
“All right.”
The report was then forwarded to a higher administrative level.
Some time later…
inside the GIMA High Command conference room…
several senior instructors, evaluators, and Division Heads had gathered around a large table.
A glowing panel floated above its surface.
The complete Crystal Resonance report was displayed before them.
One of the Division Heads read the final section.
“Current Profile successfully created.”
The Senior Evaluator beside him continued.
“Identity?”
“Aether.”
“Candidate number?”
“0713.”
“Authority?”
“Creation.”
“Class?”
“Unique.”
He paused.
“Unregistered.”
One of the senior instructors nodded.
“Then the candidate remains assigned to Special Evaluation.”
“Correct.”
“That’s standard procedure.”
They then reviewed the measurement results again.
Mana Capacity — S
Mana Quality — S
Vestige Resonance — S
Mastery — Master, Middle Stage
One of the Division Heads raised an eyebrow.
“Those are fairly high statistics.”
Senior Evaluator:
“For a new candidate…”
“…that’s very high.”
But the discussion lasted only a few seconds.
Their attention returned to the top of the report.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Archive Identity
ICAN-000001
Recorded Identity
Lucient Von Ardent
Current Identity
Aether
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
The room suddenly fell silent.
A senior evaluator slowly leaned back in his chair.
“…I want to make sure of something.”
He pointed toward the identification number.
“Is this really a Founder Archive?”
The administrator standing beside the panel nodded.
“Yes.”
“And the system found this number automatically?”
“Yes.”
“Without any manual request?”
“Without one.”
One of the instructors rubbed his chin.
“How long has it been since ICAN-000001 last appeared in an active system?”
The administrator opened the historical records.
“More than a hundred years.. probably a thousand years.”
“…”
No one immediately responded.
Eventually, one of the Division Heads spoke.
“Then this cannot be treated like an ordinary Archive Conflict.”
“Agreed.”
Another evaluator stared at the report.
“Is there any possibility the old database was corrupted?”
“No corruption has been detected.”
“The Crystal?”
“Normal.”
“The Archive System?”
“Normal.”
“The Identity Scanner?”
“Normal.”
The room fell silent again.
A senior instructor let out a slow breath.
“So the system is functioning.”
“Yes.”
“And it really found ICAN-000001.”
The administrator nodded.
“However, the current identity is still Aether.”
“Authority of Creation.”
“Unique Class.”
“The current data was also reconstructed without any issues.”
One of the Division Heads closed his eyes for a moment.
“So we have two separate matters.”
He pointed toward the top of the report.
“Archive Conflict.”
Then toward the current profile.
“And a new candidate with an unregistered Unique Authority.”
“Do not mix the two.”
“Agreed.”
The Senior Instructor who had remained silent until then finally spoke.
“The first is an archive issue.”
“The second is a candidate evaluation issue.”
Everyone nodded.
Still, several faces remained uneasy.
One of the senior evaluators spoke quietly.
“Regardless…”
“…that number still has to be reported.”
A senior instructor leaned back in his chair.
“An Archive Conflict involving that number…”
“…has to be forwarded.”
“To the High Chancellor?”
“Yes.”
The Division Head nodded.
“Forward it to the High Chancellor.”
No one objected.
The report was sent onward.
Forwarding Archive Conflict Report
GIMA High Command
↓
High Chancellor of GIMA
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Some time later…
on the highest floor of GIMA’s main administrative building…
the door to a large office opened.
A secretary entered carrying an archive panel.
“Your Excellency, High Chancellor.”
The man sitting behind the desk raised his eyes.
“The report?”
“An Archive Conflict involving a Crystal Resonance reading.”
“The candidate?”
“Aether.”
“Candidate number 0713.”
The High Chancellor accepted the panel.
He glanced through it.
Then…
his eyes stopped.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Archive Identity
ICAN-000001
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
His expression changed.
“000001…?”
The secretary nodded.
“Yes, Your Excellency.”
The High Chancellor stood.
“Make absolutely certain this report is genuine.”
Secretary:
“It has already been verified by GIMA High Command.”
“The Crystal?”
“Normal.”
“The Archive System?”
“Normal.”
“So…”
The High Chancellor looked at the panel again.
“…the system really accessed a Founder Archive?”
“Yes, Your Excellency.”
The High Chancellor remained silent for a long moment.
He read the report again.
Recorded Identity
Lucient Von Ardent
Current Identity
Aether
His hand slowly clenched.
“How many times has something like this happened?”
The secretary hesitated.
“With ICAN-000001?”
The High Chancellor nodded.
“Yes.”
“…Never.”
The High Chancellor stared at the screen.
“And where is the candidate now?”
“He’s still undergoing the selection.”
“His Special Evaluation?”
“Already assigned.”
The High Chancellor nodded slowly.
Yet his expression remained tense.
A Founder Archive was not something that could simply be dismissed as an ordinary system error.
Especially not one bearing that number.
It belonged to one of the oldest archives in GIMA’s history.
The High Chancellor nodded again.
“Continue the admission process.”
The secretary hesitated.
“And this report?”
He looked once more at the panel in his hand.
“Forward it to the Founding Authority.”
The secretary lowered his head slightly.
“House Ardent?”
The High Chancellor answered immediately.
“Yes.”
“Understood, Your Excellency.”
The panel was transferred to the special reporting channel.
GIMA HIGH CHANCELLOR
Archive Conflict Report
↓
FOUNDING AUTHORITY
HOUSE ARDENT
Far from the main GIMA complex…
in one of the oldest territories of the Galaxium Empire…
stood a magnificent estate that had served as the primary residence of House Ardent for centuries.
It didn’t resemble the Imperial Palace.
Nor was it excessively luxurious.
But every part of the estate carried something different.
Something ancient.
Something grand.
Something filled with history.
The emblem of House Ardent was carved into the main gate.
A symbol that had existed long before the Imperial emblem of Galaxium.
Inside one of the estate’s libraries…
a young-looking man sat alone.
His hair was neatly arranged.
His face appeared no older than twenty-five.
Yet his gaze was far calmer than that of most people his apparent age.
He wore simple black clothing with the emblem of House Ardent on his chest.
In his hands was an ancient book.
His name…
was Xavier Von Ardent.
Patriarch of House Ardent.
One of the first-generation Vestigers.
A wielder of the Authority of Magic.
A man who had reached Peak Mastery—
Infinite Magic.
And someone who had lived for more than a thousand years.
Knock.
Knock.
Knock.
Someone knocked on the door.
Xavier didn’t look away from his book.
“Come in.”
The door opened.
A female servant stepped inside carrying an archive panel.
“Hm?”
“There’s a report from GIMA.”
Xavier turned another page.
“An administrative matter?”
The servant hesitated.
“An Archive Conflict.”
Xavier’s finger stopped.
“An Archive Conflict?”
The servant remained silent.
Xavier finally looked up.
“…There’s more?”
The servant nodded.
“Yes, Lord Xavier.”
“The Archive Identity involved…”
She opened the panel.
Her eyes carefully scanned the report before speaking.
“…is ICAN-000001.”
…
Xavier froze.
The ancient book in his hands slowly lowered.
The aura around him changed.
His gaze sharpened.
“Repeat that.”
The servant swallowed.
“ICAN-000001, Lord Xavier.”
For the first time…
the calm expression on Xavier’s face disappeared.
He stood immediately.
“Give it to me.”
The servant quickly handed him the panel.
Xavier took it.
His fingers moved rapidly as he opened the report.
Page after page.
Then…
his eyes stopped at one section.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Archive Identity
ICAN-000001
Recorded Identity
Lucient Von Ardent
Current Identity
Aether
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
…
Xavier didn’t move.
Didn’t speak.
Didn’t blink.
His eyes remained fixed on the name he hadn’t seen in any official report for more than a thousand years.
Lucient.
His younger brother.
A thousand years…
and that name had appeared once again in an official archive.
Xavier slowly closed the panel.
But only for a moment.
Then he opened it again.
He read the report once more.
This time…
more slowly.
More carefully.
There was no smile.
No panic.
Only an increasingly serious gaze.
The servant finally spoke.
“Lord Xavier…”
Xavier didn’t answer.
His eyes remained fixed on the report.
Eventually…
he spoke quietly.
“Prepare transportation.”
The servant hesitated.
“To GIMA?”
Xavier shook his head.
“No. The Imperial Archive.”
He looked at the name again.
“I want to see the complete report myself.”
“And every archive connected to it.”
The servant lowered her head.
“Yes, Lord Xavier.”
She turned and left to arrange transportation to the Imperial Archive.
The door closed behind her.
Xavier remained alone in the library.
The glowing panel still floated in his hand.
ICAN-000001
Lucient Von Ardent
Current Identity — Aether
For the first time in a very long time…
Xavier stopped reading his book.
He simply stood there.
Staring at a report containing a name that should never have appeared again.
The report…
no longer looked like a simple administrative document.
And for the first time in centuries…
his younger brother’s name had returned before him.
Some time later…
a black armored carriage left the main residence of House Ardent.
Only a small number of guards accompanied it.
A few family knights.
But anyone who saw the House Ardent crest on the side of the carriage would immediately know that the person inside was not someone ordinary security could simply question.
Inside the carriage…
Xavier Von Ardent sat quietly.
The archive panel remained in his hand.
His gaze returned to one name.
Lucient Von Ardent.
Below it…
Current Identity — Aether.
Xavier closed the panel.
He leaned back against the seat.
His expression remained calm.
But his thoughts were moving far faster than the carriage.
A thousand years.
It had been that long since the name had last appeared in any official Imperial matter.
And in all that time…
Xavier had watched countless famous names rise.
Then disappear.
Kingdoms had fallen.
Dynasties had changed.
The Empire had expanded.
Borders had shifted.
Yet one thing had remained.
The name Lucient Von Ardent was still preserved in one of the oldest archives belonging to House Ardent.
The name of a younger brother.
A leader.
A child Xavier had once watched grow from a boy into one of the strongest humans in history.
Xavier opened his eyes.
His gaze turned toward the window.
“What really happened to you…”
“Lucient…”
he murmured.
The carriage continued forward.
Eventually…
it entered the heart of the Galaxium Empire.
Government towers rose beyond the white walls of the capital.
Imperial flags fluttered along the main roads.
Soldiers stepped aside when the House Ardent crest came into view.
Xavier paid them no attention.
His gaze remained fixed on the panel.
Several hours later…
the carriage stopped before the main entrance of the Imperial Administration.
The door opened.
Xavier Von Ardent stepped out.
He wore nothing more than simple black clothing with the golden House Ardent emblem on his chest.
Yet the moment his feet touched the ground…
the guards standing nearby immediately straightened and saluted.
Xavier gave them a slight nod and walked past.
They recognized the crest.
House Ardent.
One of the oldest families still standing on the continent.
And among all the names bearing that crest…
Xavier Von Ardent was one of the most formidable.
He had lived since the First Generation.
One of the few humans in history to reach the peak of Infinite Magic.
Throughout more than twelve centuries of Vestige history…
only around thirty humans across the continent had ever reached that level.
Xavier was one of them.
Even many high-level mages from later generations continued studying theories based on his records.
Everyone near him instinctively stepped aside.
Not because Xavier was deliberately releasing his power…
but because the presence of someone who had lived for more than a thousand years was difficult to conceal.
A nobleman walking in the opposite direction suddenly stopped.
He recognized the crest.
“House Ardent…”
A quiet whisper spread.
“Why has the Patriarch come in person?”
Inside the throne room…
Laurence V was receiving reports from several Imperial officials.
Valeria Ashfield was also present, standing on the right side of the chamber in her Imperial General uniform.
Several Dukes.
Earls.
Royal advisers.
And Imperial knights stood throughout the room.
They were discussing matters of state when the main doors opened.
A guard entered.
“Your Majesty.”
Laurence raised his eyes.
“Lord Xavier Von Ardent has arrived.”
The room immediately fell silent.
Laurence himself remained still for a few moments.
“Xavier?”
He stood.
“Alone?”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
Laurence frowned.
That was unusual.
Xavier almost never came directly to the Imperial court.
Whenever House Ardent wanted something…
a letter was usually enough.
Or they would send an envoy.
The doors opened again.
Xavier entered.
The atmosphere of the room changed instantly.
His gaze was calm.
His footsteps were light.
Yet a deep magical aura seemed to exist beneath the surface.
Valeria, startled, nearly drew her sword.
She recognized that aura.
Xavier.
One of the most powerful mages humanity had ever produced.
The conversation in the room stopped immediately.
The nobles turned.
The Imperial advisers stood.
Several knights even instinctively placed a hand over their chests.
At the end of the chamber…
Laurence V raised his head.
“Lord Xavier.”
Xavier nodded.
“Laurence.”
Laurence V rose from his throne.
“You came personally?”
Xavier walked farther into the room.
“As you can see.”
The direct arrival of House Ardent’s Patriarch at the Imperial Palace was not something that happened every day.
Laurence knew that.
But he also knew something that very few people in the Empire did.
Xavier was not merely the Patriarch of House Ardent.
He was his grandfather.
A blood relative whose true relationship to the Emperor had to remain a secret.
Especially in front of the nobility.
Laurence took a slow breath.
Then his voice became firm.
“Everyone out.”
Several advisers looked surprised.
“Your Majesty?”
“Everyone.”
Laurence looked around the chamber.
“The advisers.”
“The nobles.”
“The knights.”
His gaze stopped on one particular person.
“Even the Imperial General.”
Valeria raised an eyebrow.
But she immediately bowed.
“Understood, Your Majesty.”
She turned and left the room.
One by one…
the nobles and officials followed.
The throne room doors finally closed.
Silence filled the chamber.
Laurence waited a few seconds.
Then stepped down from the throne.
He approached Xavier.
And…
for the first time…
the attitude of an Emperor changed into that of a grandson.
Laurence knelt.
He lowered his head.
“Greetings, Grandfather.”
Xavier looked down at him.
The corner of his mouth lifted slightly.
“It’s been a long time since I heard you call me that.”
Xavier placed a hand on Laurence’s shoulder.
“Rise.”
Laurence stood again.
“I’m sorry I can’t greet you properly here.”
Xavier:
“I understand.”
He walked toward one side of the room. This chapter is updated first at g.com.
“If you revealed our relationship in front of them…”
“unpleasant questions would follow.”
Laurence smiled faintly.
“And I already have enough problems.”
Xavier let out a quiet laugh.
“At least you still have your sense of humor.”
Laurence smiled as well.
“It’s been a while.”
Xavier:
“Yes.”
He let out a soft breath.
“You’re becoming more and more like your father, boy.”
Laurence gave a faint smile.
“Unfortunately.”
Xavier chuckled.
For a few moments…
the two simply looked at each other.
Their relationship had never been simple.
Officially…
Xavier was the Patriarch of House Ardent.
Laurence was the Emperor of Galaxium.
But beneath all those titles…
Xavier was still his grandfather.
The only surviving member of the Ardent family generation above him.
“Why did you come personally?”
Laurence asked.
Xavier raised a glowing panel.
“Because a certain archive number has appeared again.”
Laurence took the panel.
His gaze settled on the report.
“ICAN-000001.”
His expression immediately changed.
“Lucient?”
Xavier nodded.
“The GIMA Crystal Resonance synchronized with his Archive Identity when a candidate completed registration.”
Laurence read further.
Then stopped at the current identity.
“Aether.”
He raised his eyes.
“Who is he?”
“Candidate number 0713.”
“And the system connected him to Lucient?”
“Not exactly.”
Xavier shook his head.
“The system found a Soul Signature matching the old archive.”
Laurence read the report again.
Several seconds passed.
Then he exhaled.
“This sounds like a data conflict.”
Xavier:
“That was my first thought too.”
Laurence looked at Xavier.
“Then perhaps we should see it for ourselves.”
Xavier nodded.
Imperial Archive
Far beneath the Imperial administrative complex…
was a chamber that even most high-ranking officials had never entered.
Archive shelves stretched deep into the darkness.
Glowing panels floated between the corridors.
Data spanning thousands of years of Imperial history was stored there.
Inside one of the main archive rooms…
a senior administrator stood as Laurence and Xavier entered.
“Your Majesty.”
Laurence nodded.
“Display ICAN-000001.”
The administrator immediately began working.
A large panel appeared.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Imperial Cadet Archive
ICAN-000001
Lucient Von Ardent
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
The old data appeared one line at a time.
Authority of Magic.
Infinite Magic — Final Stage
Authority of Destruction.
Emperor of Destruction — Final Stage
Duality.
Mana Capacity — ∞
Mana Quality — Z
Vestige Resonance — Z
Laurence fell silent.
Even though he had read Lucient’s history countless times…
seeing those records displayed like this still felt different.
“He’s a monster…”
Laurence muttered.
Xavier smiled faintly.
“He’s my younger brother.”
Laurence let out a quiet laugh.
“And also the reason most military history books never stop talking about him.”
Xavier said nothing.
The administrator then opened the newly generated report.
“This is the data obtained from the GIMA candidate.”
The panel changed.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Current Identity
Aether
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Authority
Authority of Creation
Class
Unique
Status
Unregistered Authority
Mana Capacity
S
Mana Quality
S
Vestige Resonance
S
Mastery
Master
Middle Stage
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Laurence studied both sets of data.
Then pointed toward the current profile.
“The difference is too large.”
“Yes.”
“The Authority is different as well.”
“Magic and Destruction are not active.”
“Creation appears to be the current Authority.”
Xavier nodded.
“And the Soul Signature?”
The administrator answered.
“Identical to the Archive Identity.”
Laurence immediately looked at him.
“Identical?”
“According to the system.”
The room fell silent for a moment.
Then the administrator opened the verification results.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Soul Signature Verification
99.999999%
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
“So…”
Laurence crossed his arms.
“The Crystal isn’t damaged.”
“No, Your Majesty.”
“The Archive System?”
“Normal.”
“The database?”
“Normal.”
Laurence sighed.
Xavier stepped closer to the panel.
He carefully examined every result.
Nothing was missing.
No archive had been altered.
No identity had been swapped.
The system had simply performed what it had been designed to do.
Search for an identity.
Find a match.
Then compare the old records with the current state.
The problem…
was that the current state was completely different.
Xavier finally spoke.
“So it isn’t damage.”
The administrator shook his head.
“It’s more accurate to call it a synchronization conflict.”
Laurence nodded slowly.
“Data from a thousand years ago was compared with the condition of a new candidate.”
“Yes.”
“And the system has no parameters for a change that extreme.”
Xavier looked again at the name on the screen.
Lucient Von Ardent.
Then at the name beneath it.
Aether.
He remained silent for a long time.
“Lucient couldn’t possibly have returned as an academy candidate.”
Laurence smiled faintly.
“And if he were still alive…”
“…he wouldn’t need to take an entrance examination for GIMA.”
Xavier gave a quiet laugh.
“That’s true.”
Both of them understood how absurd the possibility sounded.
Lucient Von Ardent had once been the Supreme General of the Galaxium Empire.
Commander of the United Army.
Leader of an entire civilization.
One of the strongest Vestigers in human history.
There was no reason for someone like that to suddenly reappear as an academy candidate under another name.
Especially when Aether’s data showed something completely different.
Unique Class.
Authority of Creation.
Master, Middle Stage.
Mana Capacity S.
Everything pointed toward a young Vestiger only beginning his journey.
Not the legendary man who had once commanded humanity’s armies.
Laurence rubbed his chin.
“Then we’ll resolve the system conflict.”
The administrator nodded.
“What should we do with the old archive?”
“Don’t delete it.”
Xavier answered.
“ICAN-000001 remains Lucient’s.”
“And Aether’s data?”
“Create a new profile.”
The administrator immediately began working.
Several panels moved across the display.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Archive Identity
ICAN-000001
Lucient Von Ardent
Historical Record
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Then…
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Current Profile
Aether
GIMA Candidate
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
The system began separating the two data sets.
It did not erase history.
It did not alter the old identity.
It simply created a separate profile for Aether so the same conflict would not occur again.
Several minutes later…
the administrator lowered his head.
“Synchronization complete.”
Laurence nodded.
“Good.”
Xavier still stared at the screen.
For the final time…
he read the name.
Lucient Von Ardent.
Then the panel closed.
“Well…”
Laurence said,
“…the problem is resolved.”
Xavier nodded.
“For now.”
Laurence continued staring at the closed panel.
Lucient Von Ardent.
Then he shut his eyes briefly.
“I’m not sending anyone to look for Aether.”
Xavier turned toward him.
“Why?”
Laurence V:
“Because we have no reason to.”
Laurence began walking out of the archive chamber.
“He’s simply a GIMA candidate with an unregistered Unique Authority.”
“The Crystal Resonance experienced a conflict with an old archive.”
“The issue has been corrected.”
He stopped for a moment.
“If we start deploying soldiers just because a system recognized the name of someone who has been dead for a thousand years…”
Laurence sighed.
“…the entire Empire will think we’ve lost our minds.”
Xavier smiled faintly.
“True.”
They left the archive chamber.
Behind them…
the code ICAN-000001 was once again stored among millions of Imperial historical records.
As though what had happened that day were merely a small anomaly in an administrative system that had been operating for centuries.
But…
several people in GIMA had already heard about the incident.
And news like that…
never truly stayed in one place.
FOUNDER!!?