It was a Level Three Sealed Object that could open a door to any location and allow the user to return outside the door at any time.
The price was that, after using it, the user would randomly lose something from their body. It might be a strand of hair, an eye, or even a heart.
There was no pattern to these losses, no order whatsoever, and no way to predict them.
It had only been classified as Level Three because the scope of its harm was limited.
After Estelle finished explaining, a trace of confusion appeared on her lovely face. How had Eros known that part of her soul was missing? She asked him outright:
"How did you find out that part of Mommy's soul was missing, Eros?"
After all, this was nothing like an external injury. Eros answered casually:
"Have you forgotten that I have a Divine Artifact, Mom?"
So that was how!
As for Eros's missing aunt, Estelle was unwilling to give up on her. But her current strength was clearly insufficient to resolve the crisis they had faced, so she could only put the matter aside for now.
Over the next few days, he still had trouble moving around, so he continued to spend his time lying in bed.
During that time, he also learned that he had missed the start of the school term, but Estelle told him:
"It's all right. You can go later."
Wendy, who was already attending the academy, took a few days off and came home to stay after learning that Eros had woken up.
After listening to Wendy describe life at the academy, Eros gained a clear picture of the place where he would be spending the next few years.
The Imperial Capital First Holy Academy was an institution jointly founded by the Three Great Churches-the Reincarnation Church, the Ocean Church, and the Covenant Church-to train sorcerers. It recruited children with a talent for sorcery from across the Empire.
However, the academy only taught knowledge from Sequence 9 through Sequence 7.
If you wanted to advance further, well, you had no choice but to join one of the churches.
Only after you had worked diligently for it for several years would the church consider whether to reveal the methods for further advancement.
If you chose not to join, you only needed to pay back the tuition for those years, and then you could go back where you came from.
But for children from ordinary commoner families, that tuition was an astronomical sum.
As a result, students almost always chose to join a church after graduation and become its lowest-level workers.
Of course, those people saw nothing wrong with working for a church.
After all, these were powers ranked among the top ten on the entire continent. The pay and benefits were bound to be excellent. All you lost was your freedom.
But in a feudal society where divine authority ruled everything, you didn't even have human rights, and you still wanted freedom?
So hardly anyone complained about that. Hadn't things been this way for tens of thousands of years?
Another month passed. Although his body was still somewhat weak, ordinary singing, dancing, and rapping were no longer much of a problem.
And so, Eros reluctantly said goodbye to Estelle and boarded the train bound for the First Academy, deep in the mountains and forests outside the Imperial Capital.
A new life was beginning!
With a low blast of its horn, the train gradually slowed and finally stopped at the foot of a mountain.
After getting off the train, Eros looked at the steps stretching all the way from the foot of the mountain to its summit and felt a headache coming on.
[In the past, a mere few thousand steps would have been nothing to him. But his body hadn't fully recovered yet. If he tried to climb them now, he would probably collapse halfway up.]
[Eros felt rather helpless about this. Estelle had originally wanted him to bring a few servants along to help, but he had declined. After all, he was just going to school at an academy.]
I know that routine inside out. Who could have guessed there'd be so many steps outside the academy? That brat Wendy didn't even tell me.
His eyes darted around, and he turned his attention to the fellows who had traveled with him.
They were clearly academy students too. Otherwise, they couldn't have boarded this train.
Before you continue