The Flower of Soline

His plan to make that red hair look like a fool would have been a lot easier if he had the memories of the previous owner of this body. Unlike how simple it was to follow along with the main character as they made their way down the many twisting hallways, finding ones way around this place was almost impossible. The Royal Academy was like a maze.

Each corridor looked almost identical to one another. The only differences were the small plaques above the doors to the classes that signified what was being taught, but even those were almost entirely useless since it seemed that each corridor had at least one room dedicated to ability training.

In the Flower of Soline, The Royal Academy was described as a giant school that was split up into three different buildings all connected by a single courtyard designated the safe zone. In simpler terms, the three different buildings were identical to junior highschool, highschool and university. The only difference being that making it to the next building was not only based on grades and performance, but also based on your skills and talents. Of course, in this world, showing ones skills usually meant that some poor souls had to lose their lives along the way.

To make things harder, the moment a student entered the Royal Academys grounds they also gave up their protection. Meaning that if a student killed another student, their families could do nothing about it. Not that they ever did anyway. If a student died it just meant that they were too weak.

None of these things mattered to him right now, what mattered the most to him was trying to find the highschool area. From pretext, he could assume that he had to be in the highschool classes. The only problem was getting to those classes.

The higher you climbed in the school, the further you had to go for your classes, giving others more opportunity to kill you. It was a clever lay out that the author had mentioned and one he had made sure to make note of. He had found it fascinating that the first prince had no issues heading to the university building even though it was in the back because he was so powerful that no one wanted to even try touching him. Laying out the school on power dynamics not only made for an interesting read, but it also made for a clear description of who held power in the Flower of Soline.

Unfortunately for him, his building should be on the right side, which meant that he did have to walk through hallways knowing full well that someone might take him out on his way. He cried internally as it only got worse once he realized he didn know where his classes were.

He walked down endless hallways, past countless doors and every now and then a single butler or maid who bluntly ignored his existence even when he asked them for directions. Growing frustrated he started to peak into every classroom, trying his hardest to gauge what classroom he should be in.

Of course he didn physically go into said classrooms. Instead he peeked through a small window on some of the doors. To his surprise most classrooms looked like average lecture halls one would find at a university. Students taking notes with their books open, a professor standing at the front speaking while writing on a board. But every once in a while he would see something interesting. A creature that was too similar to a dragon, a professor wielding both water and fire at the same time while reading a hovering book, letters floating off the book as the professor pointed to them one by one. Each was more fascinating than the last and he found himself immersed in such sightings.

Eventually he came across a door that was different from the others. It read Professor Rondell.

There has to be someone in here that should know where I need to go. he thought as he knocked on the door.

”Cough- Come in! ” A high pitched voice, almost as if the person had been startled, called out to him.

He hesitantly opened the door and was surprised to find a large room with wood floors and never ending bookshelves lining the walls. A detailed rug, with small letters and drawings was placed almost calculating down in the center of the room. Two couches sat on top of it with a single desk in the middle. On the far side of the wall, where two windows sat, was a large black board sitting in between.

A single man stood in front of the board. He was the definition of a scholar. His long brown hair was braided into an intricate braid behind him. He wore navy robes that fluttered behind him as he moved around, the gold accents glittered with each movement. On his sleeve was a single crest. His blue eyes were staring at the board, non blinking, as if he had fallen asleep while standing up, but the deep bags underneath his eyes gave away that the man was indeed awake, just sleep deprived.

The man never looked at him, so he took a moment to observe his surroundings before making his way to the others side to see what had the man so troubled. He almost laughed. On the board was a simple mathematical equation with notes all over the place and strange drawings scribbled half haphazardly next to them. He didn know what the drawings were, but the equation was simple enough that an elementary kid could solve it.

Thinking highly of himself and slightly wondering if the Professor was playing a joke on him or worse testing him, he picked up the half used chalk and wrote out the answer to the equation. When he was done he placed the chalk down and turned to the professor waiting on his verdict.

The Professors mouth was open. He blinked a couple of times, looking back at him then the board before he dropped the cup he was holding. It shattered on the ground and Aether flinched at the sudden sound.

”Apologizes, I didn mean to startle you- ”He reached down to pick up the shattered pieces, but was interrupted by hands grabbing onto his shoulders.

”How? How did you solve it? ” the Professors eyes were unfocused. ”No, no, thats not important. Who are you? ” The man shook him as he asked. Aether was seriously debating on whether or not he should just leave and try his luck elsewhere, but he desperately needed help in finding his classroom and outside of the mansion, this was the first person to actually acknowledge him as a human being.

But it seemed fate had other plans.

”Those eyes, that hair color. A Frenzel! ” he shouted. ”That can be, you definitely aren Leon. ” He circled around him, ”You can be Aria, you
e definitely a boy. ” Stopping, the man stood face to face with him once again, ”Tell me, whats your name? ” His eyes were narrowed, but Aether could see the sparkle in them. It was like a child getting a present on christmas.

Aether looked around. The name was on the tip of his tongue, but he was till ten percent unsure if that was indeed his name. The red-haired boy and his little gang had definitely called him Aether, so that had to be his name, but he hadn the time to officially confirm if he was part of the Frenzels. Yes, he had the hair, the eyes and the symbol, but he only wanted to confirm it when he met the other family members.

He glanced at the man before him, his eyes were shining like diamonds. He sighed, I guess it can be helped.

”My name is Aether Frenzel. ” He gave the Professor his best smile, one he had perfected after years of being dragged to boring gatherings.

The man seemed to freeze once more, before he snapped his fingers and getsured for Aether to follow.

”Follow, Follow! I need to know what amazing abilities you possess! To have such great intelligence alone was already too much, but being a Frenzel, ha, this is too much! ” The man was biting his finger, his eyes shined with a crazed look as he pulled out a small orb from behind a curtain.

”Go ahead, place your hand on the orb. ” Aether glanced at him then back at the orb. What was he supposed to do?

”Don tell me youve never seen an ability orb before. Uh, what have those bastards been up to, never showing their own son what an ability orb is. ” He grumbled under his breath and placed a hand on his head. ”Look, you place your hand on the orb and its color will tell me your ability. ”

Aether looked back at the orb. Was that all? Was that really all it took for him to figure out what his abilities were?

”Well, what are you waiting for, go on. ” He gestured again to the orb and this time Aether wasted no time in placing his hands on the orb.

He had been waiting for this moment since the moment he woke up. He needed to know what abilities he possessed so he could survive this damn world. He clenched his teeth as the orb grew a bright white, drawing the room in a single color as it shined. He was a Frenzel, his abilities had to be on par with the rest of the family, right? A part of him deep down was worried. After all, why would the Frenzels separate someone from the family? Something had to be wrong with him, he was hoping though, that it wasn his ability.

Maybe he should have known better.

When the light dimmed down, Aether smile dropped with the mans. The orb held no color.

”What- ” he gulped, ”What does this mean? ” The man didn answer. His mouth was once again wide, leaving Aether with a blooming hope that maybe, just maybe he had gotten lucky with a unique ability.

”This can be… ” the man mumbled and immediately dropped the book he had been holding. He rushed over to another bookshelf, rummaging through countless books, he dropped them on the ground one after another until he found the one he was looking for.

”Um? Is something wrong? ” Aether was growing more nervous than curious as the man kept mumbling incoherent words to himself as he flung a book open on the desk.

”Can believe this happened to a Frenzel. ” he looked up, ”Maybe thats why they hid him. ” His eyes gleamed again, ”Can believe I met one! Oh, here it is. ”

Aether leaned over to look at the page the man had opened up. A few names with dates lined the side of one page. There weren many, he could easily count them on one hand. The man took out his pen and started to write his name underneath the last name.

”What are you doing? ” Aether was growing even more concerned now. The man hummed and slammed the book shut. He said a small chant before putting the book back on the shelf, where it effectively disappeared.

”Recording your name of course. This book is the only one in the Kingdom that has the record of those with no abilities. It is an extremely rare phenomenon and my predecessors had this thing about keeping track of those few unlucky people. I never thought that I would have the opportunity to come across such an occurrence in my entire lifetime. And a Frenzel at that! Oh, this is going to shake the very Kingdom! I can wait to see the look on that bastards face as he learns that his son has no abilities. ” he mumbled the last sentence, but Aether was too far lost in his thoughts to really comprehend the mans grumbling.

His eyes twitched as he looked away from the man. His hand was trembling. Was this that foreboding feeling he was scared of? Or was this the fear of his evidential death that awaits him the longer he walks in this world? He wanted to laugh. A non-user. He was in the body of a non-user. It was no wonder that the original owner of this body had died. Of course he would die, in a world like this, it was only time. Though he should give him some credit. Making it this far was a feat in itself.

In the FLower of Soline, there was a topic that was only briefly mentioned, one topic that he as a reader had wanted more information on. It was one of the many questions he had sent the author in hopes of them expeaning on the topic before officially publishing the book.

Non-users. Beings that were unable to wield abilities. It was only brought up once in a conversation between an old lady and the First born Prince. It could have easily been missed if not for the old lady disappearing the moment after she spoke those words.

[ ”Be careful you foolish Prince, for those without abilities are not to be thought less of. ”]

The Prince of course just scoffed at her words, but it left him as the reader thinking long and hard about what the old lady had meant. Why would she mention non-users? Why shouldn they be thought less of? Do they hold some sort of power? Unfortunately, after that incident they are never mentioned again.

But now, he was one such character. A non-user that was practically unheard of, whose name had to be recorded by people for generations or they might not believe it.

How was he supposed to survive in this world if he has no abilities to protect him?