Chapter 3

The air that surrounded Metoki felt tense as his fear was to be imprisoned, as it could tarnish his family's name. Metoki Zeitod, the second son of the Zeitod family, well-known for their ability to craft absurd amounts of weapons requested by the Commander of the Royal Knights.

If news was to break out that their son was buying fake items and especially a fake insignia, it could be a massive downfall of their business. Metoki was trembling as he uttered his answer to Lyons' question.

“I-i bought it a-at a store f-further north from o-our school…”

He spoke head facing the ground, playing with his fingers trying to calm himself down. Jiniya sighed at the sight of Metoki trembling in fear, she whispered a few words to Lyon wherein he agreed to what she had told him.

“Metoki, the Princess suggested for your identity to be hidden. But a report must be given and you shall speak with the Commander, but do not fear, I will be there along with the Princess”

Lyon spoke, assuring Metoki that he would not be imprisoned, his body still shaking from fear. Jiniya smiled and suddenly grabbed his arm pullin the two men inside the falls, despite water gushing out, they were not soaked nor was a droplet of water visible in their uniform.

The sun was bright and birds were chirping, the smell of sunflowers filled their noses as a bell echoed from a distance. Looking around the area, Metoki immediately realized where they were standing, a place where most people would not come since professors banned them from entering the prestigious Avaritian Magic Academy’s sunflower garden.

A large field filled with a rare kind of sunflower that can change its color to replicate the sun similar to a mirror. Jiniya started to walk forward as their classes were about to start, Lyon followed her from behind while Metoki walked with so much caution as he did not want more consequences.

They arrived at the main entrance of the Academy’s main building where a woman with dark brown hair and light brown skin was standing, a notebook and a pen checking one by one of those who entered the building, Her uniform was composed of a white long-sleeve with a ribbon on its collar overlapped by coat that had the same color of the cloud in the sky, along with a skirt that reached her knees, a pair of black shoes partnered with black stockings.

It was the same clothes that Jiniya was wearing but with no stockings, Lyon and Metoki on the other hand wore pants of the same color instead of a skirt. As the three of them passed by the students, she immediately bowed at Jiniya after seeing her face.

Jiniya waved her hand at the student to which the student waved back before continuing to check the people who entered the building. The Avaritian Magic Academy was one of the two schools that existed inside the Kingdom of Avaritia, it was a school that was supposedly meant only for commoners but was also opened to those lesser nobles. 

The main building was composed of three floors, the lower floor being used for a cafeteria and a few classrooms and meeting rooms, while the middle floor was meant for magic classes where students have to use magic, and the highest floor where magic is unstable and nauseating. It is used to train those with less mana to be able to last in a fight where lots of mana is used.

Mana is the source of all magic where most people can gather mana that surrounds them while the others are capable of producing mana within their bodies. Nobles are known to be able to use the mana stored inside their bodies and produce magic with it ranging on what their bloodline has. 

Commoners on the other hand can only gather minimal amounts of mana from around them which most of the time they use for defense, so most commoners are taught swordsmanship at a very young age. Whereas for those in the Royal family they are capable of both using mana around and inside their bodies.

But even to those with massive mana reserves inside their body using magic wages a huge toll on their physical self. Some have died from mana exhaustion while a few others were paralyzed and were no longer capable of using magic.

 Inside the classroom where both Lyon and the Princess were attending, a topic was brought out by one student about the history of magic. The student was Zack, a child born and raised with no magic aptitude but is very talented in swordsmanship, given the right weapon he could be unstable but with him being only a commoner his life was bound in chains.

“Professor, last time you told us that the first being to use magic was the Demon Lord Abaddon and that he passed down his magic ability to those who worshipped him. But why is it that humans fought him despite them praising him”

Lyon was astonished to hear someone ask about the Demon Lords existence, since it was a topic tackled once by the professors and never to be spoken again. Unless a student was courageous enough to ask about it. The professor was baffled over the question of his student, the others stared at him waiting for his response, their piercing glares of curiosity made Lyon cuckle weakly.

It took a few more minutes of immense staring for the professor to speak up. Lyon, knowing how the story goes in normal books, seems to blissfully listen as the professor explains the knowledge he has.

According to the books taught in school, there was once a human who threw his humanity away to make a deal with the devil. The deal was that the human would be capable of using magic but in exchange he was tasked to collect 5000 pure souls, the human obliged with the devils request.

He was then later known to be the Demon Lord Abaddon, who laid waste on those who stood against him. The story in the normal academic textbooks about the History of Magic was contradicting every paragraph as to why professors tend to bend the story a little to their amusement.

But most of the time the story is told that a human made a deal with the devil who gave him powers to use magic, the human then wreaked havoc on earth making the people band together to defeat him. At first he was praised and cherished by humans for his magic ability but those who envied him thought otherwise.

Lyon, who knew a whole different story far from what was written in normal textbooks, was surprised to hear a word spoken by the professor. It was a similar route to what he had deciphered from the books in the forbidden library.

He immediately glanced at Jiniya to check if she heard it as well but she was in a deep state of slumber, mouth open and drooling, arms and legs fidgeting as she seemed to be dreaming. Suddenly the teacher called out Jiniya’s name and to Lyon’s surprise she suddenly stood up like she was not sleeping, her drool returning to her mouth keeping her face fresh.

“What do you know about the History of Magic?” 

Jiniya was slightly baffled by the question, knowing full well of what Lyon had just deciphered. The room was awfully filled with silence as the student waited for the Careless Prodigy to spit out an answer. She took a deep breath in before answering.

“The knowledge I have is very much to all of you. But I do believe that the textbooks are somehow rigged. Think about it, would the contents of a single piece of paper be the same after being passed down to several generations?”

Both the students and the professor were satisfied by her answer, every last one of them applauding as she sat back on her chair. But there was someone who was not amused by her answer, a male student wielding a sharpened stick sat quietly at the back, eyes filled with anger.

The professor then proceeded to talk about the Royal family and the achievements made by the nobles. Jiniya listened carefully to every word the professor had spoken, because a single mistake could cause that man his whole life and career.

It took him about 30 minutes to go through the whole Royal family starting from the very first Queen, her Majesty Queen Avaritia, and a few nobles such as dukes and marques with very notable achievements such as defending our borders from invaders and protecting the kingdom from when the Invidian Knights tried to start a war with Avaritia.

Jiniya was very pleased by his discussion that her azure eyes sparkled at the end, she was very notable for being awake on topics such as the Royal Family and the Arts of Magic. While Lyon was more well known for his swordsmanship ranking number 1 in the whole academy. 

The class abruptly ended when a voice spoke from the speaker hanging from the wall at the very front of the classroom. A familiar female voice was about to announce the current events for the day, despite her stuttering her voice was very elegant and mesmerizing to the ear that the Princess wants her to be her alarm clock.

“Uh- Eh- Ah… G-good morning students of Avaritian Magic Academy. I am here to a-announce that classes are to end at noon and that the t-trial for the Avaritian Magic games will be h-held this afternoon. I would also like to say g-goodluck to those who will participate. T-that is all, thank you!”

Listening to her voice was like listening to an angel. It was so alluring that people tend to crowd the announcers room to figure out who that person is. But it was not a concern for Lyon, Jiniya and Metoki as they knew very well who it was.

With the class ending early, Lyon and Jiniya headed to a large arena where those who plan to participate in the magic games are preparing themselves. Going straight to the bleachers, they saw Metoki sitting beside a woman further to the top. 

Jiniya rushed to their location hopping on each step immediately hugging the woman beside Metoki. The two fell down on the bleachers looking joyous as ever, the woman had long black hair that was tied in a pony tail whereas the princess had her hair loose.

“How I missed you Lily!!” 

The Princess spoke cuddling with Lily kissing her cheeks so much that people around them stared at what they were doing. Lyon coughed which alerted the princess, her suddenly sitting down on the bleacher leaving Lily laying down.

Lyon held out his hand and helped Lily sit properly along with Metoki guiding her back as she sat down, Jiniya held Lily hand and smiled as she missed her friend a lot. Lyon sat beside the Princess when he suddenly felt the same presence from the classroom behind them.

He looked back to see where it was coming from but the bleachers began to fill with students who wanted to watch. An announcer then spoke to the mic grabbing everyone's attention, even Lyon’s, cautious of the Princess' safety he glazed from time to time as the announcer spoke.

“Let us begin, the Magic Tournament Trials!!”

Chapter End.