Part 1

“...and we both hope everything goes well there in Migur. We await your response Father, Mother and Sister.

With love, Lucas and Raphael.”

Putting down the quill and cleaning it’s tip with a rag, I looked at the letter I just finished writing under the vulture-like surveillance of my brother. It was mother’s idea to make us send a letter once a month. “So that she wouldn’t miss us too much” said father that time. It was troublesome writing a letter about our current situation since telling them that I, and of course my brother followed, went to war against the son of a duke would only make them worry more than necessary.

“Should we read it again? Just to make sure nothing slipped I mean” Proposed Lucas with his head resting on top of my shoulder like a kid.

“We decided to write it together so that we wouldn’t let anything slip and you had one job: make sure that, as I wrote, nothing slipped. I really don’t wanna read it all again”

“Mhh I feel that...then let’s just sort what happened in the last couple of months and make sure that nothing worrisome was written, ok?”

“Sure, sounds easier!”

“First of all: you almost died in a forest while fighting an almost gold tier monster”

“A.b.s.o.l.u.t.e.l.y no!”

“Great! Then, start a fight with a noble and his little gang?”

“I just said I had a “little discussion” with said noble”

“Eh good enough I guess, at least it’s not a complete lie. Going on, duels have been happening a lot more often for the both of us”

“I didn’t really feel the need to write that, even though there’s nothing bad about it”

“Well, on paper yes, but you do realize that they just want to shame you right, Raph?”

“‘Course I know that! And you know too that it’s thanks to their idiocy that I’ve been burning up ranks over ranks...unlike someone else apparently haha”

“Oh shut up! You know that if I could use my sword I’d be at a higher rank than you!”

“Just to check but do you remember that this is an academy for mages, right?”

“...Going on, oh, how about the fact that our little group has increased?”

“You mean about the fact that other than Youm-san and Sora-san now even Astar-san and Saifri-san are constantly sitting with us?”

“Yeah, I bet mother would be soo happy to know that her little edgy Raph has finally been able to make friends!”

“First of all: not funny. Second, I’ve already told them about it in last month’s letter”

“Oook...mhh about the girl that’s been spying on you?”

“Oh right, about that, I didn’t write anything about it but I do believe that it’s not just one person who’s spying me”

“Sure ‘bout that? I’m a hundred percent sure that I saw a black haired girl following you around the academy”

“Yes yes, there’s no doubt about her...I could be wrong but I feel like someone else is doing the same”

“Mmhh let’s just hope you’re mistaken. Anyway mhh...oh, how about our work?”

“They already know about it, don’t you remember? We wrote about that around the time we started working as adventurers”

“Ok ok, then...I think that’s it, there’s nothing noteworthy enough to tell them”

“I think so. Then if you’ll excuse me, I’ll go send the letter”

“Still going on with Sora-chan’s punishment,uh?” Said Lucas with a satisfied smug on his face.

“Her forced “dates” doubled ever since that incident...I barely have the time to study my spells!”

“Oh shut up and be glad to be going out with a beauty like Sora-chan...by the way brother-” His tone of voice suddenly became deeper and firm. It was his usual way of speaking whenever an important topic came up. “-since we are talking about spells, that time in the forest...those clouds, those thunders...what I saw was your spell, right?”

As I was grabbing the jacket of my uniform ready to go out I turned around with one hand on the doorknob and faced my brother with an unpleasantly serious expression.

“The weather was in my favour and I simply got lucky. That’s all there is to know”

“You can very well fool the others but not me Raph...what happened that made you use it?”

“Sora-san’ll be angry if I’m late. See ya brother!”

Closing the door behind me I began walking through the corridors of the male dorms. As usual they were very silent on a saturday morning. “The best time to study my spells” I thought to myself melancholically. The prospect of spending the whole day with Sora was neither joyful nor it bothered me, I simply thought that there were better ways of spending my time. Though I didn’t have much say in the matter.

As I was walking while thinking and massaging my still hot muscles from the morning training I reached the academy’s gates. There, with her back elegantly leaning on one of the stone pillars sustaining the gate, was my date.

“Can you be on time? Just once at least, Raphael-san!” Said with a cute pout the girl.

“I have an excuse this time! I was writing my parents a letter with Lucas so I kind of lost track of time a little”

“*sigh* Shall we go?” Asked the girl as she signaled the city on the other side of the gates with a slight movement of her head.

Part 2

It never ceased to amaze me how different my concept of city was from that of this world. Where in my world were fifty floors skyscrapers now stood ten floors towers, million dollar villas with pools, tracks and an infinite number of rooms were replaced by mansions. Castles were now the focal center from which cities developed. The sturdy concrete was nowhere to be seen, in its place stone and wood were the two main materials that composed a city.

As I walked around the streets of Alamara filled with shops brimming with colours, restaurants and taverns ready to open up to customers, bards and street performers entertaining their listeners, I realized that not once my feet touched asphalt. The typical sensation of uneven stone under my feet forced me to appreciate every step. Even though I had walked that same street tens of times already ever since I began living in Alamara, I never grew tired of it.

If I were to describe it’s structure I’d say it was a complete mess. There was no order in how the buildings were placed, nor in how they were built or their colour. This was Julius Road, the so-called “shopping district”. Julius Road was close to the east gate, the one most used by merchants, fifteen minutes away from the academy by foot. The feeling of a creative chaos that this road gave me was, for most part, due to the way the buildings were placed. A two floor house with a white dominant colour followed by a dark grey stone shop that sold heavy armors at cheap prices. Then a row of three small houses, very similar to each other, mostly made out of wood with bright red roofs, right next to them stood a huge three floor tavern in the shape of a “T” that dwarfed all the buildings near it. On the other side of the road were a tailor and a shoemaker. Two very small shops built in the same style and dark ocher colour. Both two floor buildings with the actual shop on the lower floor and living quarters on the upper. Right next to them was a two floor shared house made out of dark brown wood with a side-stair for those who lived on the second floor. And the road kept going in that same kind of pattern.

A touch of nature here and there gave off a very peaceful and refreshing feeling compared to the usual chaos of smoke and shouts of the merchant district. Those touches of nature were a set of evenly spaced bushes and trees planted in the middle of the road, large enough that four people could walk on each side of said trees.

Julius Road expressed it’s true beauty especially during the evening, when the sky is beginning to turn a dark red shade while taverns and shops light themselves of bright yellow colours.

It was around noon when me and Sora began stepping on Julius Road’s uneven grey stones. The purpose of our trip? Shopping! Apparently, Sora had been conditioned by some of her classmates and developed an awfully painful, for me, wish to see herself in fancy clothes. As such, I have been forced to follow her around town trying clothes for the past few dates. Painful memories of my days spent sitting on the benches in various shopping centers while waiting for my date to try her clothes began resurfacing. “Girls will be girls no matter the world I’m in” was a common phrase thought during said dates.

“What are you spacing out for, Raphael-san? I wanna visit one last shop before lunch!” Said Sora as she grabbed me from my wrist and pulled. Her fast pace almost seemed like a march.

“Yes ma’m” I reluctantly replied.

The shop she was leading me to was a shop that sold only female clothes that we had already visited a couple of weeks prior. When I remarked it she replied that she was not focused at that time. The prospect of getting pulled around the same isles once again brought me nothing but a headache.

As I was still forcefully being dragged around by that white haired girl, something caught the attention of my eyes. A shop that I had never seen before on that road had just appeared. On it’s windows, various strange and peculiar objects were displayed. Other than accessories such as necklaces and pendants, hourglass-like objects were also showcased. The curiosity was too much. I stopped on the spot, right in front of the window, and my sudden stop made Sora almost lose her balance.

“Hey, what’s the matter Raphael-san?”

“Do you mind going to that clothes shop later?”

“Mh? Got interested in this one?” Said her as she pointed at the shop in front of us.

“Yes, you could say that”

“Fine...but on one condition”

“Oh no…”

“You and I are going to eat out tonight, clear?” The smug on her face expressed both cuteness and cheekiness.

“*sigh* honestly...fine! Not like I can say anything against it!”

With a little smug chuckling on her part she followed me into the shop. A small place that felt even smaller due to the badly placed shelves the shop was. A very dark wood was the material mostly used for both the interiors and the exteriors. Even though such wood was clearly recent and in very good condition, it gave off an antique vibe that fitted like a glove the theme of the shop.

A maze of wooden shelves followed by a small black stone counter with stairs that lead at, what I supposed was, the upper living quarters. On the shelves were disposed various interesting things of different natures. Wands were the most common of those, followed by accessories such as rings, necklaces and earring. Other interesting objects I noticed as I walked around the messy aisles were a set of spherical objects of the size of a fist. Though the shape of such objects was the same, the colour differed very much. From a radiant golden colour to a deep black one, from a blazing red to an icy blue. All those strange spheres were on the shelf on a corner far from the entrance.

Curious as to see what else was waiting for me in that shop, I kept looking around for a good five minutes while Sora entertained herself in a conversation with the clerk. A young woman, not older than thirty with light brown hair and big green eyes. Her appearances seemed somewhat familiar but I couldn’t clearly figure out to whom.

I stopped looking around after those five minutes when one of the displayed objects caught my attention. It was a simple looking ring, wide enough to fit my thumb, made out of a shiny steel-like metal with a pitch black stone embedded on the top. It had no particular detail, it looked like a plain ring but for some reason I could do nothing but feel intrigued by it.

“Ehm sorry miss, how much does this ring go for?” I asked as I placed the ring onto the counter.

“Oh this? It goes for ten copper coins, though I’ve heard you both are from Alamara’s academy so I believe there are many more suitable ring for mages”

“Why is that?”

“You see, this ring doesn’t have any particular perk to it. All rings and objects I sell here are somewhat related to magic. I have necklaces that vibrate when close to huge quantities of mana, stones that, if a specific element spell is channeled through, can increase the spell’s power. A few days ago I even had a diara that could negate some of the damage taken from an enemy’s spell. But when we talk about this ring, it has nothing like that”

“Then why even sell it? If I may ask”

“*sign* I had this ring for over six months now and at that time this one stranger sold it for a very cheap price so I thought I could make loads with it. Unfortunately no one seems to even notice it”

“Did this stranger say something about this ring? I don’t know maybe where it came from?”

“Mmhh, I’m not quite sure if it’s true or not anymore but I do remember him saying that he found it as he was exploring a dungeon. though being devoid of any magical perk of enchantment, I don’t really know if that stranger lied!”

I wondered whether to buy it or not. There were many more useful items I could purchase that could even help me improve my magic, even though it was not the reason why I came into the shop in the first place. But the more I held that ring between my fingers the more I felt attached to it. The idea of leaving it rusting in the back shelf of a shop was bothering me. I reached to pocket inside my jacket and took out ten reddish brown coins that I soon placed on the counter.

“I’ll take it please” I said as I slid the ring on my thumb, the only finger wide enough to fit it.

“Thank you for your patronage sir, please do come again!” Said the clerk in a cheering tone as me and Sora began walking out of the shop.

“Now, where do you wanna eat, Sora-san?”

Part 3

- DANTHE HANNES’ POV -

I was cursing under my breath that guy for calling me out at that time, while I should’ve been drinking or in female company. I barely had any time to eat after my training. My room was a complete mess and of course that lazy bum of my roommate didn’t even move an inch to clean his part. As if I hadn’t been on edge for the past two months.

Julius Road was still as busy as ever, especially at this time of the day. The shops were starting to close while taverns and such were running full speed. I even passed a few of them with some friends sitting at some outside tables and happily drinking their beers.

“How I fucking envy them!”

I fastened my pace as I skipped through the shops and dodged the noblewomans carrying their bags of clothes. While doing so I even passed by a couple that seemed familiar. One had black hair and the other had them white. The man looked soo tired while the female had such a radiance around her that felt as if she shone of self-light. Though they looked familiar I couldn’t recognize them in that instant, either way I had more important things to attend to.

As I reached a narrow secondary street around the middle of Julius Road, I spotted the place where I was supposed to go. A fancy looking bar filled with elegant people who clearly looked uptight. The whole place was made of what looked like marble, with two floors and a stylish balcony on the front.

“But of course he’d choose a fancy noble shit-like place!” Was my remark followed by a sound spit on the ground.

Reluctantly I dragged my feet inside the place only to be stopped at the entrance by a sturdy looking guy with a deep dark skin and even deeper green eyes. With a hand placed on my shoulder and the other used to slightly move his jacket to the side in order to show the cutlass he was carrying under his waist.

“You are not welcome here!-” Said the guy in a tremendously deep voice “- Turn back before it gets ugly!”

“Ok listen here you big bastard, I’ve been called here by that snob fucker named Gallher. Now, if he doesn't come down or I can’t get up, I’ll simply let your gorilla ass handle the aftermath, ok?”

A staring contest started soon after. It was pissing me off the fact that I had to face all the way up simply to look him in the eye, the height difference was that large. Though luckily for the both of us, a man in an elegant white suit detailed in gold arrived at the scene.

“Let him pass Marcus. This gentleman here is an acquaintance of Gallher-san, Hannes-san I suppose...Hannes-san, I’m very sorry for the trouble but way too many peasants have been trying to sneak inside our building recently. You’ll surely understand!”

“Whatever. Where am I supposed to find Gallher?”

“Oh but yes, Gallher-san is currently on the second floor in the third private room. i’ll be sure to send a waiter soon”

“Yeah thanks!”

Without giving the man, probably the owner of the establishment, too much acknowledgement, I walked up the overly fancy marble stairs and found myself in front of a corridor with a bright red carpet leading to various private rooms. The room number three was not too far from the entrance and the golden number fixed on the black door was very much visible.

“Meeting in a taver was out of the question uh,-” I asked in a sarcastic tone as soon as I entered the room “-Gallher-sama?”

“Just drop the honorifics Hannes, it’s not even funny coming from you”

“Whatever...why’d you called me tho? Certainly it’s not only to offer me a drink uh?”

The room was way too fancy for my taste. Actually, everything that guy did was way too fancy for me. Even the way he sat, with his right ankle slightly leaning on his left knee, the back straight and a chalice of what looked like wine on his resting hand. The red leather sofa he was sitting on seemed so soft that one could even sink into it, very much different from the sturdy looking wooden chairs of my usual tavern. Even the paintings around the walls were fancy. Every single one of them portrayed either a noble-looking man or a fancy looking woman. If said woman was at least a bit sexy I would have appreciated it much better.

“Can’t you just enjoy the place? We should at least familiarize for once if we’re going to keep this group together until the fifth year”

“Nah, I’ve already told you why I joined you...besides, that’s totally not my place to “enjoy”!”

“Suit yourself...then you’ll not mind if I indulge in a drink, correct?”

“Aren’t you supposed to be still underage?”

“As if that really matters”

I followed the signs of his hand that directed me toward another fancy locking sofa in red leather in front of him. The only thing that separated us was a glass table held in place by a gold-like metal. Floral carvings on both the metal and the glass made it look so elegant that it was sickening.

“Well, since you don’t feel like enjoying yourself I’ll get straight to the point.-” Continued the blue suited man in front of me “-Have you been doing what I asked you?”

“You talking about those students you asked me to send his way right?”

“Indeed”

“‘Course I did, not that I like ordering people around though”

“Then why has the little shit already passed the sixty points mark?!” He was almost shouting as his free hand clenched hard on the hand rest of the sofa.

“Wasn’t this like, part of your oh-so-awesome plan?”

“How could that be part of my plan?! I clearly told you to send people strong enough to duel him!”

“Yes, that's what I did. They were all first and second years who professor Shailad deemed strong”

“Then why did they lose?!”

“Maybe ‘cause he beat the shit out of ‘em, duh?”

“Ugh! Why doesn’t he just roll over and die like a good peasant would do?!”

At this point Gallher was almost trying to crush the glass he was holding. I stood in silence as I enjoyed the sight of him desperate after one single commoner. However you may look at it, I loathed Gallher. I was barely playing along with his “strongest group” charade out of my own benefits and goals. As such, that sight really took a weight out of my shoulders, almost to the point where I would laugh.

“How about letting me fight for once? Now that it's official that he’s opposing us can’t I just crush him?”

“No! I already told you you can’t! What would people think if the strongest of the first year went and challenged him?”

“Don’t know and don’t care honestly”

“They’ll think that he’s worth being challenged by you! But he’s just a peasant, he’s supposed to be dealt with by others, not by us!”

“I didn’t really ask but ok...So? Can I leave now or do you have any more ranting to do?”

A moment of silence finally happened when the waiter entered the room. On a silver tray he carried three bottles of wine and two very elegant glasses. Asking for permission with a bow and receiving only a signal with Gallher’s hand, the waiter started clearing the glass table and serving us the glasses. In a very fancy manner he presented the three bottles to Gallher who chose an old looking one with a name way too difficult for me to remember. Once performed his task, the waiter silently left.

“The mid-year event will be held in a month or so. If that guy really wants to prove himself stronger he’ll not let the opportunity to get some more points pass. We need to find a way to crush him on that stage. I’ll have professor Shaila gather us intel on the event...Just in case, we have to find a way to make him join the event”

“Got something on your mind?”

“Mmhh yes. How about that purple haired girl friend of yours?”

“Uumhh...which one, big tiddies or small tiddies?”

“Is that how you differentiate women?-”

My only answer was a shrug of my shoulders accompanied by a cheeky smile.

“-Gods! How are you even popular with them in the first place?...Anyway, the big chested one”

“What about her?”

“You said that Bluescale is not going out or engaged with anyone right?”

“Yeah, Raphael is. He is always either training or studying. Sometimes he goes around town with his brother or that white haired girl but nothing else. On the other hand, I heard that his brother is a real womanizer! That red haired girl from the second year history class...umhh, long ponytail, decent boobs...anyway, I heard he was able to seduce her HAHA!”

“I do not care about such details. What’s important is that Raphael Bluescale has no woman. As such we are going to have your friend seduce him. She has quite the charm, correct?”

“Yes, she is sexy. though I’m not sure she’ll soo wholeheartedly accept”

“Just send her to me, we’ll reach an agreement”

“Alright alright, I’ll have it done. Anything else?”

“No, you are free to go”

“Nice! See ya ‘round!”

As I got the head up to leave I sprinted out of the room and all the way through the bar, almost ending up face to face with one of the poor waiters. Once out in the open, the reek of perfume and wine finally left my nostrils as clean air filled my crying lungs.

With my hands in my pockets playing with some silver coins I had in them I whistled my way out of the side street and all the way up to one of the pubs usually frequented by some of my friends. The smell of beer and the sound of a bard lit up my almost ruined mood.

“Time to get some reeall drinks!” I said as I opened wide the wooden doors of the tavern.