Eric had never heard of it; neither had Riya. The library had very little information related to the outside world.

  Lyria and Livy were also confused. They were just kids when they left their homes, so they barely knew much about the world.

  All three of them shook their heads in denial.

  Bella Noll had already guessed so, as Umbrixa was a very rare occurrence. She just wanted to see if Lyria or Livy had any knowledge related to it.

  After some thought, Bella Noll began explaining, "Hm... this is actually quite rare, as usually it might only happen when lots of people or intelligent species are dying with absolute horror for whatever reasons—maybe horribly eaten alive by some terrifying Mana Beasts or terribly tortured, then killed. Their final emotions and souls created huge turmoil, and this ends up generating terrifying death energy in their surrounding regions. But the nearby towns and villages that Ringwood Town is in contact with are completely fine so far. So, this might not be the reason. There can be other reasons, which I am not aware of. In short, this is a rare natural accident that may occur due to some accident." She shrugged. It wasn’t like she knew everything.

  Eric, Lyria, and Livy were perplexed by what Bella Noll was talking about, but they knew she hadn’t finished her explanation, so they waited for her to continue.

  "No matter the reason, the corpses buried in Ringwood Town’s graveyard started acting strange by coming out of their resting places. Then they started releasing even more death energy, which is very, very toxic to mortals, physically not much, but mentally they may lose enough sense to kill even their loved ones. Umbrixa’s Death Energy is very different from normal Death Energy."

  "But things don’t stop here. As soon as these undead rise, a leader too will be born, and that will be the end of any living nearby, unless there are strong Mana Wielders to wipe all these creatures out."

  "If my guess is not wrong, then either tonight or tomorrow, such a leader will awaken."

  Bella Noll sighed, as she would probably have to personally take action as her Element was best at cleansing these things. She would also likely lose quite a few years of her lifespan. The only thing she was glad about was that it wasn’t the doing of some Necromancer group, or else she would have lost even more years.

  'After today, I need to fully focus on training all three of them,' Bella Noll thought seriously.

  She had been extremely shocked throughout the years of training Eric, Lyria, and Livy. She had thrown extremely difficult tasks at them—ones no trained mortals could easily handle, but each one of them kept surprising her. She felt as if she was watching monsters being born. Because of this, she had decided to go beyond measure and limit, throwing at them physical techniques and skills that were theoretically possible but practically almost impossible. She was very curious about how far they could go with such severe training.

  Eric understood and at the same time didn’t. Undead? There were such monsters in this world? Should he now rejoice or curse that he had met such an interesting creature when he was still a kid and a mortal?

  No, he needed to check on them! Maybe he could become friends with them, since they were all evil!

  "Is it alright for me to come and observe during this battle? I wish to observe those interesting, ahem, foul entities!" Eric said with a serious expression.

  Both Lyria and Livy turned to Eric in shock, but then they also started to like the idea.

  The reason they hadn’t considered it at first was because they didn’t want to be a burden—and, more importantly, because of the inherent fear all mortals subconsciously carry toward any Mana Creature, Beast, or Wielder.

  Eric had no such fear. Even in his past life, he would barge right into any place—whether it was a haunted house, dangerous jungle, gunshot battlefield, or... private property.

  There is no such thing as adventure for a person who constantly fears life and death!

  The author's content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

  Taking some caution and being completely reckless are also two different things. Since Bella Noll was going, of course Eric would go under her protection—and who knows? He might get to see something new that a Mana Wielder could do. He was extremely excited internally.

  Lyria and Livy also turned toward Bella Noll and said with equal determination, "I wish to go as well!" Both spoke at the same time.

  Bella Noll narrowed her eyes and thought deeply.

  Normally, bringing mortals to the center of such death energy during Umbrixa was suicidal beyond measure. Normal Death Energy was way different from the outpouring of it during Umbrixa, which was so terrifying that even an Apprentice Rank had to guard their minds with Mana to not lose it.

  But since she would be going, she could easily cleanse the three when it became too much for them to handle.

  Since Death Energy targets the mind and spirit, it could also be used as training to toughen those—though no one would use this method on mortals, as the damage could become permanent. So, as long as Eric, Lyria, and Livy could go one-fourth of the distance, she could protect them with her Element for the rest of the journey.

  "Fine," Bella Noll nodded. "But don’t run around, and stay close to each other. If the trouble is too much, I will take you three and escape." Though she hardly doubted there would be such a big danger in this isolated town that she couldn’t handle—at most, she would lose a little more lifespan.

  "We will leave an hour before midnight; you children can wait in the main hall. Forget about training today, or else you all will be too tired." She waved her hand for the trio to leave.

  'Perhaps this will also be Juliane’s last time,' Bella Noll sighed with hidden sadness.

  Eric, Lyria, and Livy returned to their own rooms and prepared mentally for the upcoming action. Maybe they could also participate!

  -

  After Eric, Lyria, and Livy left, Bella Noll sat back in her chair quietly, listening to the heavy rain outside her closed window.

  After a while, she exhaled. 'I wonder how much lifespan I will lose this time. Hopefully not more than five years.'

  She could survive approximately six to seven more years, which was approximately when Eric would be reaching seventeen or eighteen years of age.

  She wished she could at least hold on till all three children became adults, but if she truly depleted five years, then she would only remain with one to two years—not enough to teach them a lot of what she had initially planned.

  Five years would be if she used her full strength. She hoped that wouldn’t be necessary.

  Bella Noll stood up.

  She needed to get her blade, which was in a similarly poor state as her and probably could only do one single strike before breaking apart.

  -

  Time quickly flew by, and it was exactly half an hour before midnight.

  Eric, Lyria, and Livy sat on a long bench in the main hall, silently waiting for Bella Noll for the last hour.

  Bella Noll was late despite them arriving earlier than the set time; the three were not too bothered and silently waited for her.

  Eric was very excited—just like in his past life when, for the first time, he had spent an entire night in a haunted graveyard all alone. Sadly, all his friends back then had chickened out at the last moment.

  Lyria and Livy, who were sitting on the left side of Eric, were in a completely different mood than Eric. They had worries that they had suppressed for a long time, and after sitting still for so long, their worries once again floated up in their minds.

  Both of them had long realized that there might be something seriously wrong with their Mana Veins, as no matter how much they practiced, their Mana Space simply refused to open.

  This was very abnormal, as they weren’t lacking in talent—they could clearly sense Mana, so by now, they should have become Mana Wielders.

  If only one of them had failed, that would still make some sense—but both of them failing was the same as saying that something was very, very wrong with their Mana Veins.

  Bella Noll refused to explain or talk about it and told them both to just focus on their current training, which they did. But their hearts always trembled with panic and alarm every time they got time to think about this—just like now.

  Livy raised her hands and stared at her palms, which were filled with gashes and cuts. Her pretty hands had long been torn—it didn’t bother her or Lyria—but if they couldn’t become Mana Wielders, then what were they going to do?

  They would be left alone in this orphanage and town, and their future was too bleak!

  Only they themselves could feel how heartbreaking the entire situation was for them. This was the same as being completely crippled—unable to move ever in life—it was simply better to die than to live.

  Both Lyria and Livy came from a society where they had only seen Mana Wielders around; mortal society was, in a sense, completely foreign to them. They could walk around in this place, but they knew they didn’t belong here. The school entrance exam incident, when they were just eight years old, was one such situation. They just couldn’t fit into mortal society no matter how much they tried. It was like putting birds into an aquatic lifestyle—they just couldn’t fit in and would always be alien to others.

  They were extremely glad that there was Eric in this place, or else, they would truly be left alone, and perhaps would be depressed enough to even think of taking their own lives, especially now when they knew they no longer had any future.

  Everyone within the orphanage, including Bella Noll, was a blessing—but they couldn’t be the companions and friends they needed. It was a blessing among blessings that they understood—as years passed by—that Eric was still there with them, and also smiled and grinned at them, blowing all their negative thoughts to oblivion.

  But time was passing, and one day, Eric would leave to fulfill his own dreams, and they would be left all alone in the orphanage...

  More than sadness, even Livy, who was kind by nature, was burning with fury and wrath over the Moonveil family. If she ever found out that they had involvement in whatever had happened to their Mana Veins... Then...

  Livy clenched her fists tightly, her eyes burning with wrath like never before.

  ‘I will make sure to slaughter every last one of them!’

  Eric, beside Lyria and Livy, found both girls’ situations very strange.

  Lyria was closing her eyes, sitting in a proper lady-like posture—but her arms, resting on her thighs, were tightly clenched and trembling slightly, though her expression was calm.

  Livy, beside Lyria, was watching both her tightly clenched fists right in front of her face with such a bloodthirsty expression—eyes filled with fury—that even Eric, who was almost always with them, had never seen such a face on her. It was so brutal that even he trembled.

  Eric wondered if both girls had already figured out that he was the one secretly stealing their mangoes—and now they were planning to beat him to death!

  Eric slowly, very slowly, moved further and further away from them.

  Just when he was at the end of the long bench and was about to fall off, Bella Noll appeared—with a completely different demeanor than her usual kind old woman attitude.