Laniakea handed the dish to the person who had come to deliver the lady's meal to her room.
"Are you the person who's here to bring the lady her meal?"
"Yes, I am. I'm the lady's maid," she said as she placed Laniakea's newly cooked meal onto the cart and made her way toward the room.
"Chef Brandy, I'm finished with all my duties now. Could I go watch the guards train?"
"I don't have any authority over that decision, so you'd have to ask the instructor himself. But if you ask, he'll probably let you watch anyway, so I guess it's fine," the head chef said.
Laniakea made his way to where the guards and knights were training. He had only just arrived, yet he was already noticed.
"Hey, you over there. Come out," the instructor said.
"How did you notice me? I was standing behind you," Laniakea asked.
Slowly turning around, the instructor replied, "You sound pretty young. Maybe you need to eat more meat and grow a little." But then he looked at Laniakea with a surprised expression. "Hey, kid, were you the one standing there?"
"Yes, that was me. You even called me over, so why are you surprised now?" Laniakea asked, not knowing what the problem was.
The instructor quietly whispered to himself, "Either I'm crazy, or I'm getting old. Kid, let me ask you one thing to confirm something. How old are you?"
"I am currently nine years old. I recently started working here as a chef."
"Fuck, I really am crazy. Say, do you happen to be able to use Aura?"
Some of the guards and knights who overheard the conversation exchanged confused expressions, whispering among themselves.
"What did he just say?"
"Has he already gone senile? He isn't even forty yet."
"Did our instructor really just say that?"
Laniakea didn't know what was going on, but he answered honestly. "Yes, I do know how to use Aura. I learned after a knight left me an instruction manual."
"I would've understood if you had a small amount of Aura, since many aristocratic children learn it nowadays. But they only have about one percent of what a normal knight possesses. I just cannot believe you have this much Aura. Your body should have exploded already," the instructor said.
Laniakea was taken aback by the instructor's words, and a memory flashed back from when he was newly acquiring Aura. "Wait, could it be that my body was supposed to explode back then, and that's why I felt so much pain? But that doesn't explain how I survived. Did the notebook save me, or was it that liquid? I have no clue".
Snapping out of his deep thought, Laniakea asked the instructor if he knew any reason how he could have survived, obviously omitting the part about the notebook and the liquid.
"I'm not sure. You're the first kid I've ever seen—no, you might be the only kid alive who has the same amount of Aura as an adult. Never mind that; not even many adults can handle what you have. You're a genius. No, 'genius' doesn't even encompass it. What do you say, will you join the knights here?" the instructor asked enthusiastically.
Laniakea thought about it for a moment but ultimately declined. "I'm sorry, but I came here as a cook, and I will stay one. I don't mind regularly joining you after my shifts, but I cannot leave my duties behind."
"Hmm, well, I can respect your decision. I hope to see you again tomorrow."
"Of course, I'll do my best to come after my shift. Just one last question."
"Sure, you can ask me anything."
"How did you notice me even though I was standing so far away?"
"Oh, that's easy. Every knight has Aura, and we can manipulate it. How well we control it depends on the person. We have basic techniques that every knight has to learn to even be considered one. Do you see those knights over there? Technically, they are knights since they awakened their Aura, but they aren't officially recognized yet because they haven't mastered these techniques."
"And what are they?" Laniakea asked.
"The one I used to notice you is called 'Search.' Well, I didn't use Search itself, but a variation of it. By using it, I can sense different Aura vessels around me—meaning knights, since only they possess Aura. This happens unconsciously, like breathing or a reflex. Search itself is done consciously. By activating it, you can feel every presence around you, even bugs crawling on the ground. However, it uses way too much Aura, which is why people only use it in small areas and created variations that use less energy, though they function a bit differently. If you catch my drift."
"Yes, that makes sense. So Search is like a detection spell that mages use, and the variation is like a radar that detects anything with Aura," Laniakea answered.
"That is absolutely correct."
Laniakea felt a lot of satisfaction at having learned something new and made his way toward his room, ready to experiment a little with the stuff he newly learned.