Cedric

Cedric Eberun is the only legitimate son of court magician Lucas and his wife Lisa, and Rest's half-brother. He is older than the hero by just half a year: while the lawful wife was pregnant, Lucas got a maid with child, and so Rest was born. Despite being the same age, the two boys were treated as night and day — Cedric cherished, Rest tormented.

From his father Cedric inherited not only a strong gift for magic but also a vicious temperament. Watching his father despise Rest and his mother abuse him, the boy too found pleasure in tormenting his half-brother. The moment he learned a new spell he would test it on Rest — fireballs, lightning balls and more flew at the fleeing 'mana-less' commoner. No one stopped him, and the 'games' grew ever more dangerous, bordering on attempted murder.

Without knowing it, Cedric spent years helping Rest grow. Denied books and tutors as a 'tainted-blood', Rest possessed a reincarnator's secret gift: he could copy any spell he saw even once. Every new piece of magic Cedric proudly showed off on him, Rest instantly absorbed — and cast back stronger. 'My vaunted brother has no idea he's investing in the growth of the one he despises,' Rest mused.

Called a genius and spoiled without limit since childhood, Cedric was undone by it. At the Royal Academy entrance exam he displayed the powerful spell 'Lightning Storm', but bombed the written test (just forty points), chose a poor spell for the practical, and was penalised for assaulting a proctor — leaving him at 116 points against a passing mark of 140. The 'crystal of possibility' barely glowed; the headmaster judged that Cedric had merely peaked early with no room left to grow. He was rejected.

The failure wrecked the whole family. For the first time his parents struck and locked him away, forcing him to cram for a retake; trading blame, they nearly resolved to adopt a replacement. Embittered, Cedric blames Rest for everything: 'While he lived in the house everything went smoothly… Next time I see him, I'll kill him!' But fate runs the opposite way: the mana-less outcast becomes a count and a hero, while the 'prodigy' drags his doomed house down with him.

Cedric made Rest a living target every day: chasing him around the yard with spells, scorching his skin, striking him with lightning, even throwing stones at the table. His parents never once checked him, and the pastimes turned deadly — an ordinary child would not have survived.

The irony is that this is exactly what forged Rest. Denied any schooling, he copied every spell Cedric cast and secretly surpassed him. Enduring the beatings, Rest swore he would one day rise above his father and brother — and kept that vow.

Cedric was set to follow his father into the court magicians, which would have secured House Eberun's hereditary title. But the exam failure undid everything. He had talent — in the practical he showed an above-mid-tier spell — yet laziness, a bad character and ignorance on the written test brought him down.

Headmaster Verroid Hahn rejected him for more than his score: at the interview the 'crystal of possibility' barely lit, revealing that Cedric had bloomed early with no growth left. A retake the next year was possible, but at a higher bar and with the stigma of a 'repeater' — and with it the ruin of his father's plans.