"Hello, young master~! Another beautiful day, isn't it?"

With an empty gaze, Anastasiy stared at the radiant sunlight illuminating his bedroom, before burying his head under his pillow and growling. Before he could go back to sleep, his blanket was abruptly removed, leaving him helpless in the fresh morning air. With difficulty, he barely opened his eyes and cast a murderous gaze at his valet, who held a glass with a cheerful smile. Knowing that it was a lost cause, Anastasiy took the glass and emptied it in one go.

"Ugh! Why does it have to taste so horribly?..."

"You know what they say, young master," replied the dark-haired man, placing a tray in Anastasiy's lap.

"If I have to hear that expression one more time, I'll make you drink that drink."

He didn't miss the grimace of his valet and ate his strawberry tartlet with pleasure, delighted to get rid of the acidity that was eating away at his mouth. Once his meal was over, he left his bed and went to his bathroom, followed by Veronica. Slipping into the bathtub prepared by his valet, Anastasiy let out a sigh of well-being as the hot water worked wonders on his muscles. Reopening his eyes, Anastasiy watched a faint blue glow appear around his scars. Slowly, the glow began to eat away the damaged skin, peeling it away from his body as if it was dirt, revealing flawless white skin. Even though Anastasiy hated the potion, he had to acknowledge its effectiveness. Within three weeks the majority of his wounds had disappeared. However, some of them couldn't heal. Jason and Ewald had studied all the books but couldn't find any tangible explanation as to why. In the end, this would leave him almost blind in his left eye and his right leg slightly paralyzed, forcing him to move around with a cane. Anastasiy considered himself extremely lucky to have only a few after-effects and scars here and there on his body.

“Young master? Doctor Jason is here. ”

As always, the old family doctor was punctual. Coming out of the bath, Anastasiy let Veronica dress him in his bathrobe, before going to his room where the black-eyed man was waiting for him with a smile on his face. At his side, Ewald was giving a dirty look to one of the two basins on the coffee table.

“Good morning, young master.”

“Hello Jason, hello Ewald.”

“Oooooh!”

Anastasiy stopped, staring in horror at what was in the basins. Two balls, one blue and the other red, were staring at him. The ball of water kept shouting "Oh!" and tried to leave his basin, but a barrier prevented him from doing so. The other ball, the red one, kept rolling its eyes at the excitement of the occupant of the other basin. Anastasiy could feel that the ball was looking at him with pity. He couldn't resist when Veronica pointed him towards the sofa, even though he couldn't take his eyes off the two creatures.

A throat clearing and Anastasiy turned his head towards his brother Ewald, who played nervously with the ribbon that held his blond hair. He couldn't help but compare their hair, his own hair shone like gold, while his brother's hair was matted like the color of wheat.

"I imagine you must remember this creature," began his brother, casting a new black eye towards the ball, which returned it to him.

"Yes..." mumbled Anastasiy as Jason began to examine him.

"Simply put, they're your familiars."

"Excuse me?!"

Anastasiy knew that he possessed magic, or rather, that he had possessed magic. However, as a result of the explosion, his core had broken. Apparently, he had tried to contain the explosion as much as possible, going beyond his abilities and therefore beyond his core. But then his brother told him that he had familiars, which wasn't possible! He needed a core to have familiars. Without a core, the link between the magician and the familiars would disappear and the familiars would die because they could only live off the magic of the magician with whom they were linked. It was therefore not possible for both creatures to be his familiars.

"Anastasiy," called Ewald, taking his brother's hands in his own, "for the last three weeks, me and Jason have been watching these two creatures. We've done all the tests we could. The tests all had the same results: they're your familiars."

"But..."

"Saying that they are your familiars may be incorrect, but it's the closest thing to their status," Jason explained.

Now, Anastasiy was really lost.

"They're my familiars, but they're not my familiars?"

"Normally, familiars are born from a piece that has come off from the core. But in your case, your core has broken in two. As a result, these two were born. So they're your familiars, but at the same time they're creatures from Thrymgia, the Mother of Life."