Embers Of A Red Letter - Chapter 8Moments before the night fell away to the shimmering rays of the morning sunlight, a carriage was flitting through the harsh undergrowth of the Forest of Illusions. While it had barely been 2 days that he stayed at Fort Stel, he was utterly exhausted from the trip. He hadn't traversed through such a high-risk area just to go sight-seeing and admiring his new territory. There was work to do. Fort Stel was a work in progress by all accounts. Development was underway every passing moment, countless pns & projects still pending. Roel knew it would never be easy to build up such a huge establishment by himself, but it was out of pure necessity he pushed his pns forward to facilitate the upcoming terror.

  Sat on the table in-front of him was a neat red letter. To the average individual, it wouldn't have meant much, colored letters were used on occasion anyways, what was the big deal? For Roel on the other hand, this spelled the first trial he would have to go through. A letter dyed red had a different meaning for nobles; attention, swiftness, and danger, these were the traits the dark red color held. As the sole son of a Duke, Roel knew that whatever was penned inside the delicate parchment was either cssified or highly important information that he needed to know urgently.

  After a long 2 hour journey back to the Astra Manor, Roel swiftly dove into his office and dismissed all of the servants before slowly picking up the letter. A subtle mana pulsation was emitting from inside the gold-wax seal, Roel narrowed his eyes before delicately opening it. Inside was a one paged letter, the material it was made out of was as thin as paper but felt more like a fabric. It read as follows:

  [ Dear Roel,

  The 3rd moon will soon be hanging above the Astra Manor. Proceed with caution.

  Regards,

  Duke Frenca ]

  "What the hell is this supposed to mean???" Roel screamed infuriated by the seemingly dubious sentence. The more times he read it, the more indignant he became.

  The 3rd moon will soon be hanging above us?? There's already 2 moons in the sky you blind geezer! Have you gone senile? What does this even mean in context, is the world ending? As far as I know, there have only ever been 2 moons in the history of the Luna Kingdom! Wait a second....Luna Kingdom....is it-

  "!"

  Roel's pupils dited at the answer he nded upon. He honestly felt like pulling his hair out! Just the change in his mana fluctuation was enough to let the staff waiting nervously on the other side of the door know about his sour mood.

  "I didn't think it would happen this early...." Roel sighed as silver fshes of a person fshed through his memory.

  He took a moment to calm himself down to rein his mana back in before he took the letter on the table and grandly dropped it into the burning fme of the firepce. As the temperature of the young boy's expression grew increasingly cold, the embers of a certain red letter burned brighter than before.

  "..."

  The following days in the Astra Manor were peaceful as ever. Roel's eborate preparations left very little room to fault, therefore putting even his evidently paranoid personality at ease. As they say "there's no pce like home". While his reincarnation had blessed him with great abilities, the truth was there were quite clear limits to what he could do. Power was a tangible resource in this world, and a ck of it spelled trouble. Roel's powerset was quite diverse but there was one area he cked in, combat.

  Reality Resonance was an almost limitless ability, allowing one to essentially manifest their imagination onto the corporeal world. Imagining the impact it would have if it were used for battle would leave the most hearty of war-veterans shaking in their boots. But like all things, great power came at an equivocally great cost. As the situation around him was now stable, Roel dove into research. In the end he came up with 3 major points of interest.

  If abilities were like a gun ready to fire, mana would be the bullet getting shot. Manipution, control, and compression of mana were all essential skills that would undoubtedly raise one's prowess. Roel's skill set made him lean heavily into the spell-caster archetype which naturally made it doubly important to raise his proficiency.Havoc. Humans in this world have the ability to absorb mana and manipute it using their bodies, making mana somewhat of a drug/tool that allowed them to affect their surroundings. Now what happens when you overdose on a drug? When an individual loses control of their mana or overdoses, it causes them to go into a Havoc state, a bit like how a liquid in high pressure would rush towards a lower pressure area, mana rapidly ruptures out of the body to get back to a uncharged passive state. The affected mana rushing out of the spell-caster causes them to go on a rampage, unleashing unrestrained spells and brutal bursts of corrupted energy, all before eventually crumbling to their knees as the st drop of mana slips out of them. A truly terrifying concept.Nobility in this world aren't just at the top of the dder for show or wealth, the real value of a noble lies in their very blood. The term blue-blood was a material reality here. Noble Houses with centuries of history develop and protect their bloodlines thoroughly, every generation aiming to better it further than the previous. Through pairing the strongest individuals, to perfecting any physical fws, the genetics of nobles were almost like a potent slow-cooked soup boiling over a thousand years! Naturally every nobility had their secret, the Astra's included, but it would not be wise to assume nobles were fools running around in banquets every night to indulge themselves.While reminiscing the intricacies of nobles was interesting to Roel, he had more urgent things to do. His shimmering golden eyes unconsciously crept their way to the window, staring at the frigid wind battering on the gss. His eyes slightly narrowed as he quietly made his way down a dark corridor. Meanwhile, a fair distance away, the sound of hooves trudging through the snow-ridden forests could be heard. A massive carriage ornamented by a shining silver crescent had started pulling on the fickle string of fate underneath the moonlight.

  Urmomisdum