Estrangement Syndrome (Estrangement Syndrome 1) ✅
Mana is the life force that exists in everything. Mana gives you conscious thought, unconscious thought, and is the source of all feelings and life. Mana levels in humans though are moderate and usually cannot be harnessed past the normal capabilities of a human body.
When the grandfather he never met suddenly died, Shuei felt nothing but indifference. The feeling does not change when a lawyer suddenly shows up at his house with his grandfather's will. But as his grandfather's only surviving heir, Shuei had inherited a large house in Kyoto that his grandfather was the landlord and caretaker of. After being pressured by his mother, Shuei packs up and leaves Tokyo to move to Kyoto and to see the house he inherited...and the tenants who lived there.
Little does he realize that the house is no ordinary house, and the tenants are no ordinary tenants. For the house is in fact a Gateway; a connection to a spiritual realm called Seirei-Kai, and the "landlord" of the house serves as the Gatekeeper to protect the Gateway. The tenants of the house are a race of people from Seirei-Kai called the Seishin. They are human in appearance but the Mana inside their bodies is one thousand times stronger than that in a human body. They are powerful and have longevity...but they are also a dying race. For all Seishin that have been born in the last eight hundred years have been male. With no women to grow their population, the Seishin have needed to take drastic and creative measures to have more children and to save their race. Measures that are not entirely working, as they continue to only have male offspring.
Shuei doesn't want to be the Gatekeeper. He doesn't want to care about these people with whom his grandfather cared more for than his own family. Despite this he still finds himself drawn into the world and culture of the Seishin of Seirei-Kai...and all the drama that comes with it.
The is the first book in a new series called Estrangement Syndrome.
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Word Count: 69-70,000
