Magic academy / shadow path / noble families / coming of age / building a realm and vying for supremacy / underdog's rise
Viral Aide is the son of the Viral family, one of the Empire's twelve great houses.
He is fabulously wealthy and has plenty of brothers, yet somehow he is the least favored of them all.
On the day of the entrance exam, the magic crystal glows a dull purple: the shadow element, an aptitude the Empire deems inferior.
His father walks away without looking back. He is dumped at Darkstar Academy across the bridge, a place for taking in “failures.”
Everyone says the shadow element is weak, evil, and has no future.
But Aide discovers that he can “swallow” other people's spells.
Fireballs or wind blades, it doesn't matter. All he has to do is reach out, and they vanish into his palm.
Students of the elemental school are afraid to go near him. Students of the holy light school want to eliminate him. Alchemy students… want to take him apart and study him. Even students of the low-status miscellaneous studies school dare to point fingers at him.
But he only wants to understand one thing:
What does the sentence on the first page of his grandfather's notebook mean?
“Shadows are not darkness. They are merely the other side of light.”
Then he turns to the next page.
The Empire's history is a lie. The Holy Light Church is a lie. Even the very source of magic has been altered.
By the time he is sixteen, he is appointed a lord of the Empire.
The entire Empire is about to awaken in his wake.
Dear Yifei Yanzu, come and see it for your enjoyment.
I came here from the last book, come on