Year 4580, Day 124, Five Element Calendar.

A female maid opened a window on a luxurious room. Sun rays passed through the window and lightened up the room that previously submerged in darkness. Birds chirping sounds could be heard in the surrounding. A small pond could also be seen outsides the window. A garden which filled up with flower and small trees lay besides the pond.

All the surrounding looked serene and peaceful. This was a dream-come-true living quarter for most peoples of the continent.

The luxurious room located inside a courtyard. A courtyard surrounded by rectangular walls in all four sides which had 3 m height. Although the wall itself blocked beautiful views of the surrounding, it was replaced by the man-made garden that made this courtyard an excellent living quarter.

Only one entrance could be found in the front wall of the courtyard located in the east side. There was only one building inside the courtyard where previous mentioned room located. Adjacent to this courtyard, few others similar courtyard could be found.

Those courtyards scattered randomly with no special pattern or shapes resemble them. Each courtyard connected by a paved road. The area in between the courtyard filled up with somewhat dense trees resembled a forest. Those trees were probably few hundred years old by the size of its trunks, a lot older than those small courtyards that scattered around.

Some distance away on the south direction from the clustered courtyard, a majestic castle stood glowingly. Compared to this castle, those buildings inside the courtyard could be said as nothing. It was like comparing an ordinary housing to a luxurious villa.

The castle was magnificent.

It was known as the Royal Castle of the Rivermountain Kingdom. As its name implied, it was where the King and his wives lived. Those courtyards that located on the north of the Royal Castle were called Princes Courtyard, where the princes and princesses of the Royal Family lived.

Both the Royal Castle and Prince's courtyard were located inside the Royal Palace Complex. The complex itself surrounded by a wall, called Royal Inner Wall. This was the wall that separated the Royal Families with the rest of the Kingdom's citizen. The royal nobles lived in their own world.

Other than King's castle and Prince's courtyards, only two buildings could be found inside the Royal Palace' inner wall boundary. They were the Westwing Building and the Eastwing Building. The Westwing was a place where the Armory and Granary of the Palace located. The Eastwing was where the Barrack and Library located.

That was the general layout of the Rivermountain's Palace Complex.

Coming back to the previous room, the room's size was around 10 square meters with a wooden bed in the middle. Windows located on the east side of the bed, once the maid opened the curtain, sun rays directly fall to a boy's face which was still sleeping soundly on the bed.

The boy had handsome face with straight black hair and black eyes. His body was small and skinny but he had white healthy and delicate skin. He opened his eyes slowly because of the sun rays that fall from the window.

The maid said, "Young Lord, it is breakfast time, please wake up. Your Majesty is waiting."

The young maid, Semok, was around 16 years old; she was a beautiful maid with blond long hair. She helped the young boy to get up from his bed.

"Is Father already waiting for that long?" asked the boy to the maid.

"No, Your Majesty is still waiting for the other young lords to arrive," replied Semok.

The boy got up from bed and cleaned up himself. The young maid helped him to change the clothes and tidied it up. After couple of minutes, an handsome and clean young boy with luxurious clothing was standing in front of the mirror and smiling to himself.

His name was Jago Rivermountain.

He had Rivermountain as his last name and it implied one thing, the royal blood of Rivermountain Kingdoms ran through his vein. His father was Alash Rivermountain, current King of Rivermountain Kingdom.

Jago was one of Alash's son, which mean he was an actual Prince of the Kingdom. Since 4 years old, Jago lived in his own courtyard, similar to other princes and princesses. All princes owned their own courtyard.

Alash was a King, he had many thing to do. Thus the only chance for the princes to be able to meet their blood father face to face was only during dinning times. Off course, if the King summoned his princes, they would have a chance to meet their father.

But a King's summon would only be done when a Kingdom's subject performed honorable and meritous deeds, this include even for the princes. In short, other than when they dined together, it was difficult for the princes to meet their father, an awkward relationship of a family.

Satisfied with his own looks, Jago came out from his courtyard and walked to the front gate. In front of his gate, a carriage was prepared to bring him to the Royal Castle. Jago never missed this kind of opportunity since he lived at the Palace Complex. Although he might choose sleeping rather than other activity, but breakfast or dinner with his Royal Father is an exception. Jago wouldn't miss that opportunity.

Jago looked at Semok with a little bit disappointed looks in his eyes than vanished into his carriage. He asked the driver to rode as fast as possible to the Royal Castle, he didn't want to miss this.

The 5 years old boy looked at the window and thinking. His maid should wake him up sooner, but she didn't. Jago could only took deep sigh. Nearing his 5 years old birthday, many people start to scheme against him. Since for Five Element Continent's resident, the 5 years old birthday was the first and most important of all.

In the dining room of the Royal Castle, except Jago, all of the princes and princess arrived on the table. The Queen and Concubine sit on the end of the long tables. Between both of them, a bigger chair than the rest was empty. The chair located exactly on the table end.

It was the King's chair.

Now, only two chair was empty on this dining room, Alash's and Jago's chair.

Servants busily prepared the dishes on the table. A royal butler gave orders and pointed his finger here and there. The Queen and Concubine was seen talking to each other merrily. Sometimes they smiled and laughed, peoples would easily saw that both of them had a good relationship.

Few moments later, a man came to the dining room. He had a muscular body, handsome face and blond hair, typical hair color of the Rivermountain Kingdom citizen. From his looks, people would easily think that his age would be around twenty to thirty, but his real age was way more than that.

He was Alash Rivermountain, the current King of Rivermountain Kingdom. He was the highest decision maker on Rivermountain and his ruling are absolute. Similar to other's royal family members, he had the family name of the Kingdom's founder.

Although Alash looked like on his twentieth, his actual age was 41 years old. He was a respected and loved King by Rivermountains's peoples. His presence commanded respect from anyone in the kingdom, whether they came from his own Royal family, military or academic societies.

The reason was very simple, as of now, Alash was known as the strongest cultivator in the Kingdom, there was no other cultivator that can best him in actual battle, one on one.

In Five Element Continent, where personal strength hailed as law and bigger fist talked more, his achievement indeed commanded respect from everyone. With his strong cultivation, he secured the King position from his brothers during the inheritances contest on their era.

In Rivermountain Kingdom, King's position would not be inherited by the oldest son, but would be inherited by the strongest one. This led to a natural selection process where the next generation King would always be the strongest of their siblings. Traditional and primitive yet effective methods ensuring that only the best genes would be passed down to the next generations.

Alash wore casual outfit with green color. Due to cultivating the wood element which was full of vibrant life energy, he could maintain younger look on him. Similar to him, most of the cultivators on the Continent which cultivated wood element would be able to retain younger look and had longer age. It was one of the special treat of wood element cultivator.

"Lord Father," all the attendances on the dining table greeted respectfully when Alash come to the dining table. Alash nodded his head and looked around the table, all of his son and daughter sit in their respective chairs. There was only one empty seat on the dining table.

The King asked, "Where is Jago?"

"He is not coming yet, Father," a prince replied to the King.

Before long, Jago came to the table with hurried footstep, it was almost look like that he ran. He greeted the King and both of his mothers on the right and left sides of the King and sit on his own chair. Everyone followed Jago's every action with sneer on their lips. No one felt pity for him.

Alash himself was a 6th generation of successor to the kingdom since its establishment. As a King, it was normal for him to have several wives. Even for some nobles, it was normal for them to kept an harem on their castles.

Alash wasn't that type of King, up to date he had only two companions. One was a nominal Queen, the other one was his concubine. Both of them was sitting on his left and right sides. On his right sides sat with calm and smile shown on her face, a beautiful lady wore a gorgeous dress with light green color, Asri Woodforest, first wife and Queen of the Rivermountain Kingdom. Sitting next to her was a 8 years old boy Anteng Rivermountain and a 6 years old girl Bening Rivermountain.

To the left sides of the King was another beautiful lady Sari Riverkeep, she was a royal concubine to the King. Sitting next to her was a 7 years old Kemaki Rivermountain and a 5 years old girl Hening Rivermountain. This was the complete line up of current royal family of Rivermountain Kingdom.

According to the Continent's tradition, a woman would not take his husband's family surname after the marriage. Family surname would only be given to blood related descendant. Thus sons and daughter would get their father's surname because the bloodline of the family running in their veins. In contrary, their mother would still keep their previous family surname.

The Queen, Asri Woodforest, came from the Woodforest Family. This was a Royal Family of the Woodforest Kingdom. The Woodforest Kingdom shared the border with Rivermountain Kingdom and located in the north of Rivermountain. Their marriage was arranged political marriage to maintained good relationships between their bordering kingdoms.

The Concubine, Sari Riverkeep, came from the Riverkeep family. This was a Noble Duke Family under Rivermountain Kingdom. They ruled the Riverkeep Dukedom, located in the south east of the Rivermountain's Capital City. The Riverkeep Family was the second strongest family on the Kingdom after the Rivermountain Family itself.

"Jago, how lazy are you, must we wait for you every day for the breakfast?" Kemaki, with a small and high pitched voice chided Jago with sarcastic tone.

Small quarrel between princes like this were allowed. The King himself normally would not take any action as long as it was not threaten the life of each prince.

"I'm sorry big brother, my maid woke me up just now," Jago was the smallest prince in the table. Other than Kemaki, there was also Anteng, three of them were the rightful candidates for the King's position.

"Huh, so it's your maid fault is it?" Kemaki kept pressing in Jago.

The King glanced at his smallest son for a while and turned his attention to the discussion between his wives.

"No, I don't mean that."

"How responsible are you, putting the blame on your maid for your laziness."

"Stop it Kemaki!" Anteng, as the oldest brother, said calmly to stop the bickering between his brothers.

"But Brother, you see for yourself how Jago act. He is lazy and put the blame on his maid. I wouldn't mind if Semok become my maid instead of become his." Kemaki didn't want to give up to bully his youngest brother.

Jago took a glance at his own father, when he didn't see any reaction from his father, Jago could only lower his head and see the plate in front of him.

It was not his first time being bullied by Kemaki. Although it wasn't the first, Jago could still feel the pain. The only person that he looked up for protection was his father, but Jago didn't get what he wants. His father remained indifferent toward any bullying happen to Jago.

Jago himself knew that Kemaki was just only looking for trouble with him. Jago was not even 5 years old yet. His daily schedule was all arranged by his maid, which was a lot older than Jago himself.

But Jago knew the real reason behind todays bullying. It was Semok. Everyone knew that Kemaki like to fool around with beautiful maid, in this world, kids mature very quickly, especially for the noble descendant without any concerns on the living expenses. Even though Kemaki was only 7 years old this year, but he had many experiences related to the opposite sex.

Jago kept quiet and didn't respond to Kemaki's taunt.

Jago was not the child of the queen or the concubine. Jago's mother was only an ordinary woman. She was not officially married by the King also. Thus actually in this table, the only one that share blood relation to him was the King himself.

It was common for royals and nobles to had illegitimate child outsides of marriages. Although it was common to happen, but it was also uncommon for an illegitimate child to be able to grew up till an awakening age like Jago.

In Five Element Continent, nobility was granted by patriarchal lineage, which mean, it didn't matter who your mother was, as long as your father was a noble, then you would have the right to inherit his title. To prevent an illegitimate child obtained the right from his father inheritances, it was normal practice for the legal wives to act by silencing those commoners mistress.

Those known illegitimate child normally would be assassinated by the legitimate successor. For legitimate successor, which was normally backed by their mother's noble family, it was very easy to do such tasks. This cruel nobility system was common on the Five Element Continent.

With such background, Jago was all alone in the royal palace. But compared to Concubine's faction, Queen's faction had better treatment to Jago. One of the example was something that happened just now. Anteng, oldest son of the Queen's faction, asked Kemaki to pipe down and stopped bullying Jago.

Kemaki grudgingly looked at Anteng but said nothing to his older brother. In term of a Age, lineage and others, he was still below Anteng, thus he should know his place, temporarily.

After short moment, Kemaki looked at Jago and licked his lips. He knew Semok, Jago's personal maid. She was one of the most beautiful ladies on the Capital City. Kemaki thought it was a waste to assign such maid to Jago, Kemaki thought he could use the girl 'better'.

Semok herself was not an ordinary maid. She came from the wealthy Grey Family of Capital City. Her family, to maintain the relationship with the Royal Family, sent their own oldest daughter to the Palace as a maid.

"Jago and Hening, both of you will be 5 years old in the next few days. It is time for your Element Affinity Test. Prepare yourself!" Alash said to both of his youngest child during their breakfast.

Jago was flabbergasted. He didn't think that his Father would remember that his 5 years birthday was coming soon. Jago took a breath and looked at his Father.

"I'm ready Father," Jago replied solemnly.

"Me too, Father," Hening replied softly with her cheerful tone.

Alash nodded his head to both of his youngest and continue to eat his breakfast. After few minutes, he lifted his head and spoke with loud voices.

"Prepare yourself, the test will be conducted in the Academy's testing formation 3 days from now," said Alash, after that he stood up from his chair and left the dining room.

"Yes Father," Jago and Hening replied almost in the same time and bowed their head, even when their Father was long gone. The entire main royal family member dismissed their self from the dining room after Alash left.

"Jago, wait." Bening called Jago with soft voices when everybody left the dining room.

"Yes, Sister?" Jago replied happily, Bening was his closest sibling.

"Can we talk in the Library?" asked Bening.

"Sure," Jago replied

Both of them, Bening and Jago, walked out from the Royal Castle. Jago jumped up on Bening's carriage and let his own carriage came back to his courtyard. Other than both of them, each of the family members dispersed on their own. Bening's carriage started to walk to the Eastwing Building where the library was located.

The Eastwing Building, which also called Eastwing Palace, consisted of several buildings. All of those buildings divided into two clusters, it was mainly called Barrack and Library. The Royal Library was a 3 floor building with large size and had many guards surrounded it. In the continent, knowledge in the form of books was heavily guarded treasures.

Especially for mage cultivator which required to study magic spells and manipulation of element. Previous training note of the predecessor was a priceless treasure. This royal library itself had hundreds of years of these knowledge collected. Thus it was normal for the kingdom to maintain its security at full cost. That was why the Library located near to the Barrack.

The Library's guard team headed by a Novice Mage at primary level, which was high enough standard to obtained Commander rank in the army. Other than him, dedicated guard personnel could be seen patrolled on the Library's ground.

Other than the guard team, The Royal Library was also equipped with detection and defensive rune formations. These formations would be monitored by the guard team's leader but also can be overridden by any direct Royal Family's members during emergency. All those precautions due to the preciousness of the knowledge accumulated on the Royal Library.