Chapter 14: The Four Brothers of 1987 (Part 1)
“Huff, I’m exhausted. Linley, how do you have so much stamina?” Reynolds panted heavily, but Linley didn’t seem affected at all.
“Tired already?” Linley chuckled. How far had they even gone?
He himself had run from Wushan Town to the Ernst Institute without feeling a thing.
“Hey, put that over there. Yeah, the box goes over there. Careful now—if you break it, you can’t afford to pay for it!” A crisp, youthful voice rang out from the 1987 courtyard. Linley and Reynolds exchanged a glance, curiosity piqued, and walked inside. As they entered, they saw several sturdy men busily moving various items around.
A lavishly dressed boy stood in the center, barking orders.
The moment the boy spotted Linley and Reynolds, his eyes lit up, and he dashed over excitedly. “Haha, you must be my roommates! I’ve been waiting forever. So far, it’s just me here. Let me introduce myself—I’m Yale. I guess you could say I’m from the Sacred Alliance.”
“What do you mean, ‘you guess you’re from the Sacred Alliance’?” Reynolds shrugged. “I’m Reynolds, from the O’Brien Empire.”
“I’m Linley, from the Fenlai Kingdom of the Sacred Alliance,” Linley added with a smile.
These were the roommates he’d be living with for a long time.
“Ah, Reynolds, Linley, great to meet you! Hey, put those exercise tools over there.” Yale turned and shouted at his servants.
“Exercise tools?” Reynolds blinked his big eyes at Yale. “Yale, what are you using those for? Are you planning to become a warrior?”
Yale wrinkled his nose and grinned slyly. “Even though we’re noble mages, we still need to sculpt a good physique. Otherwise, how are we supposed to charm the pretty girls? There are plenty of beauties among mages, you know. Especially the female mages at Ernst Institute—they’re not just beautiful, they’ve got class. Showing off that you have a girlfriend from Ernst Institute? That’s real bragging rights.”
“Uh…” Reynolds was speechless.
Linley couldn’t find words either. Seeing those exercise tools, he’d thought about using them to train, but it turned out Yale only wanted them to look good for picking up girls.
“I’m eight years old. Yale, how about you?” Reynolds was clearly outgoing.
Yale was very tall. At nine, Linley was already over 1.5 meters, but Yale was a full half-head taller than him.
“Me? I’m ten. Haha, not too young, though. My brother lost his virginity at twelve, so I need to get ready early too.” Yale’s eyes gleamed.
“What does ‘lost his virginity’ mean?” Reynolds looked at Yale, puzzled.
“Yeah, what does that mean?” Linley also stared at Yale, confused.
Yale looked at his two roommates and was momentarily at a loss for words. Beside Linley, Doehring Cowart was clutching his stomach, laughing. This made Linley frown and ask via mental transmission, “Grandpa Doehring, what are you laughing at?”
“Young master, everything has been arranged,” a very gentlemanly middle-aged man said respectfully.
“Alright, you can all go back. Tell my old man that he doesn’t need to bother me unless it’s important. Oh, and remember this… don’t forget to transfer money to my magic crystal card every year. You know, mages spend a lot on staffs and gems.” Yale spoke casually.
The middle-aged man bowed respectfully. “Yes, young master.”
Yale nodded in satisfaction, then waved his hand to dismiss the group of servants.
“Magic crystal card?” Reynolds stared at Yale in surprise. “Only the ‘Four Empires Bank,’ jointly established by the four empires, issues those, right? I heard the processing fee alone is a hundred gold coins.”
“That’s right,” Yale said, clearly knowledgeable. “A magic crystal card requires at least a thousand gold coins to start. But a thousand gold coins probably wouldn’t even cover my monthly expenses.”
Linley heard this.
“Rich guy,” Linley thought to himself.
His father gave him a yearly allowance of a hundred gold coins. In Linley’s view, a hundred gold coins a year was already enough, since an ordinary commoner worked hard for just twenty or thirty gold coins annually.
“You’re really loaded. My dad only gives me two hundred gold coins a year,” Reynolds said with a pout. “And he told me to focus on training and studying magic.”
“I only get a hundred gold coins,” Linley said with a smile. “But it’s enough for a simple life.”
“Hey, brothers, my money is your money. If you’re short, come to me! We’ll probably be together for decades. Decades as brothers—why split hairs?” Yale was generous, but his words made Linley and Reynolds pause.
“Decades?” Linley looked at Yale in surprise.
Yale said matter-of-factly, “Linley, at Ernst Institute, you have to reach the sixth rank as a mage to graduate. The higher you go, the harder it gets. Reaching the sixth rank usually takes decades.”
Linley frowned.
Decades? Would his father have to support him all that time?
“Grandpa Doehring, why didn’t you tell me about this?”
Doehring Cowart’s voice echoed in Linley’s mind: “Linley, relax. Spending decades to reach the sixth rank is for ordinary people. Under my guidance, I can get you to the sixth rank in ten years.”
Ten years.
By then, he’d only be nineteen. Linley felt relieved.
“Everyone’s here?” A crisp voice sounded, and a boy about the same height as Reynolds walked in. He seemed more composed. “Hello everyone, I’m George, ten years old, from the Yulan Empire.”
Yale, Reynolds, and Linley briefly shared their own information.
“Yulan Empire?” Linley was startled.
The Yulan Empire was the oldest empire on the entire Yulan continent. In the first year of the Yulan calendar, it had unified the whole continent. But as time passed, conflicts arose, and the empire split repeatedly. Now, it was just one of the four empires.
Even so, the Yulan Empire was the top economic power and a major producer of mages. Its magic academy was second only to Ernst Institute.
“George, your empire’s magic academy isn’t far behind. Why travel all the way here?” Yale asked in surprise.
George smiled faintly. “Although the empire’s academy is strong, it’s still a bit weaker than Ernst Institute. If you’re going to study, you might as well go to the best. The journey is long, but it’s a kind of training.”
“George, you’re ten? But you look about my size,” Reynolds chimed in.
George gave a wry smile.
Eight-year-old Reynolds and ten-year-old George were about the same height, making them the two shortest of the four. Linley was half a head taller, and Yale was the tallest.
“Forget that. When I registered, I checked—this year’s hundred new students all have at least upper-grade mental energy and elemental affinity. I even found some freaks with both at the super-grade level.” George seemed well-informed.
Yale shrugged. “That’s normal. Who at Ernst is weak? My mental energy and elemental affinity are only upper-grade, putting me near the bottom of the hundred. If my dad hadn’t pulled some strings with the Radiant Church, I wouldn’t have gotten in.”
Linley was surprised by Yale’s background.
Connections with the Radiant Church—Yale’s father was no ordinary man.
“Linley has the best talent in our dorm, but Ernst has an absolute genius. Have you heard of him?” Yale glanced at the three of them.
Linley and Reynolds shook their heads.
George nodded with a smile. “I know. Ernst’s current top genius is ‘Dixie.’ They call him the greatest prodigy of the century. He’s a dual-element mage with super-grade elemental affinity and mental energy. His mental energy is exactly 68 times that of an average person his age. Normally, 30 times is considered super-grade. His should be super-super-grade, but since super-grade is the highest classification, that’s what he got.”
Linley was stunned.
A dual-element mage with super-grade elemental affinity and mental energy.
“I’m only a dozen times the average, and that genius is a full 68 times,” Linley marveled.
Ernst Institute truly gathered the best—almost all the magical prodigies of the Yulan continent. Here, Linley was just above average. But… behind Linley stood a Saint-level magus from over five thousand years ago.