Fifteen days had passed. Ian was standing on the Mogrian castle’s first training ground, a place that was usually crawling with knights. He had chosen this place for training since mana-breathing was more efficient outside. He also wanted to practice his mana senses.

Today is quiet. Usually, lots of servants snuck by, trying to figure out what the mage was doing on the training ground. Everyone was curious.

I wonder who started the rumors. All he was doing was sitting there, breathing. Most people would leave quickly when they saw that, but some had seen his magic and hadn’t kept their mouths shut.

“A fireball crushed the training dummy!”

“Suddenly, a ball of ice...”

“There’s a reason he’s already a mage.”

“That’s right. Everything in this world has a reason.”

Rumors had swirled, and they weren’t false.

It’s a good thing, actually. The continent was far from peaceful or united, and war could start at any time. As the news about his abilities spread, his value was going to grow exponentially. Being known as a genius who took after the Primal Mage wasn’t bad, at least until the unification happened. He knew some people would doubt his abilities and try to find out more—including the Ivory Tower.

They won’t find anything. He was certain of this. He knew how the Ivory Tower worked better than anyone. If they were to investigate him, he could handle it with ease.

I could play it safe, but... He had decided to continue along this path. It could be dangerous, but it was going to help him increase his strength faster.

I need to be able to speak Dragonian at least once. Then, it would allow him to turn back time. Ian smiled and looked around to find no servants sneaking around today.

“It’s quiet, so let me try...” Ian stood up and placed his right hand on the ground. With a whirring sound, cold energy began forming in his palm in the blink of an eye.

“Frost Nova,” Ian chanted quietly.

Immediately, an extreme chill spread in all directions. The ground, the training dummy, and the few patches of grass quickly froze solid. It was a sight to behold.

This isn’t enough. Ian’s face filled with disappointment. He had achieved this within a fortnight of being at the castle. Despite his terrifyingly fast growth and raw abilities being on par with a second-class mage, he was still not satisfied.

The entire castle should have frozen over, not just the training ground. In the past, he had been able to do that—he could have easily turned the castle into ice.

I need something to help with my mana. He needed an elixir or artifact to help him.

I can’t get my hands on elixirs yet. They could increase his energy, including his mana, either temporarily or permanently.

Not until I receive support. If the empire or the Ivory Tower decided to support him, he was going to have access to elixirs. For now, he couldn’t afford to drink them excessively. They cost a fortune.

Maybe I could use an artifact. Artifacts bestowed special powers, but most were owned by high-born nobles as family heirlooms.

They’re practically just wasting them. During the unification war, the mages from the Ivory Tower had rented these artifacts to increase their powers. All clans were expected to oblige in handing them in without exception.

I was the one in charge. Ian had to read countless documents related to the matter, so their uses, powers, forms, and owners had been etched in his mind until now.

The Mogrian clan’s artifact... Was it a ring? The Mogrian ring was a low-class artifact that increased the activity of the mana heart.

It was useless back then. At that time, Ian had been a mana monster that some had called a half-human or half-dragon.

But now, it’s a different story. Even a tiny bit of mana would help, so it was the perfect time to get his hands on the artifact.

But how do I get it? Nobody else knew about it. The clan only knew it was their heirloom, so they wouldn’t give or sell it to him.

“Hmm.” He needed more time to formulate a surefire plan.

“Sir! Mage!” Someone came running to the training ground. It was the Mogrian family’s old, gray-haired servant. His voice was full of urgency.

He might slip. The whole training ground was covered in ice because he had used an ice spell.

As Ian had expected, the man slipped. If he were to let the old man land on his back, it would be a life-long injury.

“Feather Fall.” Ian quickly used the slow-falling spell, and the old servant’s body fell like a feather. “What’s the problem?” Ian asked, reminding the man of his emergency.

“Ah! Sir! Please help us!”

All of a sudden? With what?

“My lord has disappeared!”

“Disappeared?”

“He went to Mount Mogrian to hunt...”

High-born nobles often hunted for monsters, rather than animals, on Mount Mogrian. The lord had left in the morning with a few knights, dozens of soldiers, and Lavi Mogrian and hadn’t yet returned.

Mount Mogrian. The only monsters that spawned there were goblins. It was hard to believe soldiers and knights could lose to goblins, which were short, dull, and barely had any strength. Besides, those creatures were easily frightened and couldn’t attack humans first. They also didn’t travel in groups of more than a dozen, so nobles went to hunt them because it was an easy fight.

“We mobilized everybody—knights, soldiers, dogs, and lumberjacks. Yet we still haven’t heard anything. All that was found were traces of a struggle...”

Had they really lost to a group of goblins?

This shouldn’t be happening yet. Lord Marcus Mogrian was supposed to die later, at the hands of a rival empire’s assassin, right before the first unification war.

It’s not time for his son to die, either. Ian remembered Lavi Mogrian as a stupid boy who ran away as soon as the war started, leaving behind the Mogrian land. And from what Ian remembered, the boy was beheaded before the end of the war for his actions.

If this was a regular hunt... The lord would have certainly participated in his past life as well, so this wasn’t caused by his return.

He’ll probably return alive. The future could not change on its own, so this wasn’t something he had to worry about.

“Instead of coming to me, why didn’t you go to Sir Marco?”

Marco was the dispatched mage, and he and his knights would’ve helped if Ian weren’t here. He had to let things flow the way they should.

“The mage is not here right now...”

That was a rather unexpected twist.

Now, this is caused by my return. Mages wouldn’t just leave without a reason, and Ian knew this because he had been dispatched before. Although he couldn’t be sure, he thought his return was to blame. Maybe the mage was sending a secret message to the tower master.

This could be dangerous. Lord Mogrian’s death could change the future, and Ian had to prevent it. The fact that he knew the future was his biggest weapon, or maybe even beyond that, along with his talent for magic.

“That’s why I came to you. With your talents, I assumed you’d have a solution, my lord... We don’t have any other options.”

Since most people looked up to mages and some had seen Ian’s magic, their expectations of him were not unreasonable, especially in such a dire situation.

“Where is this?”

“Excuse me?”

“I’ll find him,” Ian responded with certainty.

To keep the future as he knew it, he was going to find and return the lord and his son unscathed.