"I still don't get it." Mi Young says.

The boy looks like he was scratching his head when he answered Mi Young. "Listen, people who worshipped the nine clans fear them. Yes, that's true. However, they believed that even though the nine clans are the most powerful clans in the entire Mage Kingdom, they can easily be defeated if all the Mages go against them. They are still human you know, so they might be powerful physically and by mana power but they can't oversee things like a god does."

"Okay? Then what's the point about fearing an Absolute Mage?" The black haired girl pushes.

"Now, imagine a being that can oversee things way more closely than a normal Mage. This being can see everything you do from your everyday chores to your deepest and darkest secrets. If a being like that exists, then all of the Mages combined can't do anything about it. That's what they were afraid of." The boy says with a sigh. "Do you get it now?"

"So, people from the past were afraid of an Absolute Mage because they were afraid that someone can see and judge them for their wrong doings?"

"Uhn. Yes, the nine clans can rule them but if they grew tired of one of the families in the nine clans they can just stop worshipping them and give them their mana resources. They can also form alliances with other families so they can overthrow them. That's what their mindset was all about." The stranger says in a soft whisper. "I mean, I can't actually blame them. They were just scared that someone as powerful as an Absolute Mage can foresee everything they do. But having an Absolute Mage can also help the kingdom a lot."

"Like helping them defeat Tartarus?"

"Like helping them defeat Tartarus." The other party says, turning his head to Mi Young. "I still can't believe you know about the true history of our kingdom. Whoever taught you that might also be one of the people who have read a book from the past. Those are truly rare since they are forbidden in the kingdom."

Mi Young sighs as she looks at the empty and dark road in front of them. "Actually, that person has more than the knowledge of those books when it comes to the past."

"What do you mean?" The boy asks the young girl who was still lost in her thoughts.

Snapping out from her thoughts, Mi Young shakes her head as she turns to the boys and smiles. "Nothing. Just felt like talking to myself. Anyway, what about the gift again?"

"Oh right. So this Kwon member, who was supposed to be an Absolute Mage, was a maiden. They say the other reason why the Kwon clan didn't tell the whole kingdom about the Absolute Mage thing was because this Kwon member wasn't from the main family."

"Oh. Was she a cousin?"

The boy shakes his head. "No. This was an illegitimate child born from a Kwon man and a slave."

"Seriously?"

"Uhn. That's why they were also ashamed of having that child."

"What did they do to her then and how did she manage to give them the Mana Shell?" The black haired student asks.

Mi Young sees the boy freeze on his spot once more. The young girl notices that every time the boy isn't ready to answer a question from her or if they are touching a sensitive topic, the boy always does that.

So when the young girl was about to tell him that he can answer her some other time, the other party managed to continue his words.

"This is where everything went crazy." The boy starts with a dark voice. "So, the wife of the man who managed to have a daughter with a slave, told the whole Geo community about their affair. After that, rumors about the child having strong and amazing abilities started spreading all across the kingdom. A couple of years later, the child began to manifest signs that she was becoming an Absolute Mage. So when the kingdom heard that rumor, they rebelled against the Kwon clan. However, the Kwon's managed to deny these accusations and they also successfully kept their 'worst mistake', that's what they started calling her by the way, a secret."

"Where did they keep her?" The black haired girl asks.

The boy went silent for a while as Mi Young continued to wonder about the possibilities where the almighty Geo clan could have hidden their 'worst mistake'.

When the stranger sighs, Mi Young immediately turns her attention towards him again, still waiting for his answer. "You know, another thing about being an Absolute Mage is your ability to have unlimited mana."

"Unlimited….mana…" Mi Young worshipers as she couldn't believe what she was hearing. "That is indeed a scary yet amazing power."

Holy sh*t. Mi Young couldn't imagine how powerful an Absolute Mage is. Just having an unlimited source of your mana is truly terrifying. Now she can imagine why the people of the Mage Kingdom were so scared of having an Absolute God. A being who can make you vanish with just a single snap of his fingers…Mi Young shivered at the thought.

"That's right. It's amazing yet scary at the same time." The stranger says with a chuckle. But as soon as he said his next words, his voice went back to being serious once more. "But still, taking a person's freedom and life is a very wrong thing to do, especially if that person didn't do any harm to anyone at all."

"Taking a person's life? You mean they killed the maiden?" Mi Young asks, disbelief evident in her voice.

"It's not actually killing her but the torture and the pain she went through just to be put in a place where you will forever be frozen in time is inhumane." The figure says. He starts to say something but Mi Young couldn't hear him except for the word 'mana shell'.

Mi Young could have just ignored him and waited for him to repeat his words. However, something dawned inside her that made her whip her head towards the man's direction in a blink of an eye.

"Please tell me my assumptions are wrong…" The black haired girl says in a whisper, voice pleading and sad.

The boy didn't say anything but only hung his head low.

If Mi Young was standing, her knees would have buckled upon hearing this story. But even though she was already sitting down, the black haired girl can still feel her knees getting weak upon realizing what they have done to the maiden.

"How can they do something like that to a person?" Mi Young whispers in agony.

"That's what monsters do." The stranger whispers, voice filled with hatred and spite. "They will do anything they can just to get hold of her power."

"If you don't mind me asking, how did they do it?" Mi Young asks in a tiny voice.

It took the boy a few seconds before he gets to answer the young girl's question. "Her body is inside the Mana Shell which they filled with some sort of fluid that keeps her frozen forever but still keeps her alive."

"She's inside the Mana Shell so that's why they were able to have unlimited mana for thousands of years?" The young girl questions, words feeling like acid as it comes out from her mouth.

"Uhn."

"Why do they still keep her alive?"

"Because if the source dies then the mana will also stop from flowing." The stranger says.

"Sh*t." That was the only thing Mi Young can utter as she tries to process everything she has heard from the stranger.

She can't fully digest the thought of people doing this to a person, a good person at that. People are so cruel when it comes to power.

The black haired girl couldn't stop herself from clenching her hands. Somehow, she feels this unexplainable hatred towards the High Lords of this city and towards the Kwon clan themselves.

"Can I ask you another question?"

"Shoot." The boy says.

"Why did you say that the Mana Shell was a gift from the goddess?"

"It's an expression the people who knew about the Mana Shell used to spare themselves the guilt of doing it to a person. They say that her sacrifice was a huge help and that they would forever be grateful for her. So they started calling her the 'goddess'." The boy explains with a dark voice.

Mi Young nods her head once more before she says something again, "Can I ask one last question?"

"Sure. What is it?"

"Why do you want to come here?" The black haired girl asks. She sees the boy freeze once more and the young girl immediately knows that the boy has some personal connection with the Mana Shell, so she waits for his answer.

It took the stranger a few minutes before he found the courage to answer Mi Young.

"Because I want to free her from the prison that I myself did to her."