"Not from our Hainalson Family... Could it have been from his mother's side?" Russell murmured.
Hill was startled, only then realizing: indeed, when the Hainalson Family had decided to leave their original territory, they had paid a tremendous price to have all their ancestors' remains cremated. But the Archmage's maternal family had not received the same treatment.
Or rather, the reason the Hainalson Family had been spared in the first place was because they had merely been the family caught up in it.
Gilbert's mother had also come from that family... Her aptitude had basically been nonexistent, but her status had not been low, which was why she had been able to become the wife of Gilbert's apprentice father.
Although marrying out had saved her life, she had not lived much longer in the end.
Compared to nobles, his maternal family had been more like a Mage Family. Nearly seventy percent of its members could enter the Defense Tower.
Therefore, they had not particularly discriminated against the occasional children with poor aptitude, and had arranged paths for them all.
There were not many noble families like the Hainalson Family, whose innate aptitude had not been particularly good and who had relied entirely on absorbing the bloodlines of various Mage Families to gradually improve themselves to the point where children with Mage aptitude consistently appeared.
The reason they understood the value of unity best was because they had suffered too much in the past.
Hill could actually understand why fortune had ultimately descended upon that family. When the World Will chose those it favored, it was not entirely undiscerning.
Even in this cold and selfish world, it had to see at least some glimmer of merit before it would take a liking to them.
However, granting fortune to an entire Mage