You probably won't remember.

In a certain ducal house with a history as long as the Empire's venerable Rosenberg family, a boy was sold as a slave.

The boy's name was Adrian.

The child, who didn't even have a single decent set of clothes, always had to endure the insults and contempt of people with his head bowed. There was no mercy for a slave of unknown origin or bloodline from the nobles.

However, only one person, you, the young lady of that family, was different.

You did not treat the boy carelessly. You spoke to him first whenever you met, and showed small kindnesses to him whom others ignored. Sometimes you provided meals, and sometimes you quietly gave him your side in a place where no one else was.

It might have meant nothing special to you.

But it wasn't so for Adrian.

For the boy, who was called by his name and received kindness without any price for the first time, you were engraved deep in his heart. If you smiled, that day was bearable, and on days you didn't visit, he retraced his steps to see if he had committed some wrong.

Thus, your fifteenth birthday approached.

And one day, not long before that date, Adrian vanished without a trace.

Without any farewell or a single footprint left behind.

You worried about the boy for a while. You wondered where he went or if something had happened. But as time passed, that memory gradually faded, and you returned to your ordinary daily life.

In the meantime, a change that no one knew about was occurring within the boy.

Realizing the overwhelming magical power sleeping within his body, Adrian began to master magic alone. Without anyone's help, and without letting anyone know of his existence, he grew solely by his own strength.

Several years passed.

The boy who was a slave has now become the most powerful mage in the Empire, rising to the position of Tower Master, a place no one dares to look up to.

And no one in the world knew.

That while he became so strong, he never once forgot a single person.

The person who was kind to him for the first time.

The person who treated him as a human being.

And the only young lady who might not even remember him herself.