- Age Eleven -

A few weeks after the Harvest Festival, Daerin Academy had already finished welcoming a batch of fresh students. Last year's batch had all successfully moved on to their 2nd year at the academy. Among them were the children enrolled with recommendations from the three Houses of Daerin, Urie, Celeste, and Elicia.

Although they did attend a few of the same classes as the other 1st year students during this past year, as per instructions of the headmaster, a majority of their time was spent in individual practice.

Elicia, even though she would constantly complain about the repetitiveness, continued to diligently follow the headmaster's program and steadily built up her foundation. One surprising thing that happened during the year was that she had managed to pick up wind magic aside from her inborn earth magic.

It wasn't impossible to learn how to use magic different from the element your seed had manifested but it wasn't worth the effort investing time in something they had no aptitude in. Being able to pick up wind magic meant she had a talent for it.

With regards to regulating her mana and being able to contain it within her body, Celeste's improvement was smooth. She no longer had to worry about involuntarily dropping the temperature in her surroundings below freezing, and could now handle a bit of water magic.

What about Urie?

It was early morning and he was currently sitting on a pile of rocks beside the banks of the lake, at the location of their usual lessons. Four medium-sized fish were roasting on skewers jutting from the ground beside him.

“That's enough!”

An abrupt shout from nearby caused the flames roasting the fish to flicker before slowly shrinking down and dissipating, they weren't from an open fire. The flames were coming from Urie's body, previously encased in a ball of fire.

“Are they cooked?”

A soft voice, different from the one that shouted, sounded from the same direction.

Urie stood up and moved towards the skewered fish to check if they had been thoroughly cooked. Although slightly burnt, he waved a thumbs up towards the two other children watching from a rock ledge.

Celeste and Elicia came down from the ledge and Elicia grabbed a skewer.

“Agh! Hot! “ Elicia exclaimed, after taking a bite of the fish.

“Of course it's hot, it just finished cooking. You should have waited for a bit.” Urie scolded.

Celeste waved her hand over Elicia's fish and with a flash of blue light, she cooled it down enough to be eaten without Elicia burning her tongue. She then did the same towards the other skewers of fish. Their daily activities not only consisted of repetitive practice but also refining their skills to be able to do minute tasks such as this.

Urie however, still couldn't acquire his desired results, he still couldn't lessen the mana spilling out from his body. Every time he would get the hang of regulating his mana circulation, his seed would suddenly grow a size bigger, forcing him back to square one.

Although each growth was not as discernible as when he first performed his demonstration at the courtyard, the small change in his mana seed was enough to throw his control out of order. The size of his mana seed had now increased to double its original size.

Like Celeste and Elicia, he could now also perform mana circulation without having to sit down and close his eyes. Doing so, however, the ball of fire from earlier would unhinge itself from his hold and pour out into the surroundings.

“Little girls and boy, eat your food. Today, we'll be going outside the academy.”

Picking his nose with his pinky finger, the Headmaster, Arinndra, appeared out of nowhere.

“We're finally doing something else?” Elicia asked.

Her eyes were showing excitement as she had long since gotten tired of daily practice. Urie nodded his head as he was equally delighted at the thought of doing something new while Celeste just continued to eat her fish, looking indifferent.

The headmaster had instructed them the day before to pack a light bag with a few necessities before telling them to meet at the break of dawn.

“Where are we going headmaster?” Urie asked.

His mouth curling up into an evil smile, Arinndra snatched one of the fish and took a bite.

“It's a surprise ~ “ He teased while waving his pinky finger from side to side.

Urie didn't inquire any further as he knew that he would get nothing out of the old man. He took the remaining skewer of fish and sat down to eat. In front of him, he saw Celeste chewing on her meal while staring out into the lake.

He thought back to that moment she had first arrived. It's been a year since he first met this quiet red-haired girl. Rivelle had asked Celeste a series of questions which led to her telling them about herself. As they listened to her story, Rivelle, who was at the start half in doubt, started sobbing as she felt sympathetic towards her.

They were fascinated at the existence of another city with the same name as theirs, at the demi-human race of magic creatures called Elves, and at the perpetual darkness of the land. The only question that remained was how she came to be here and ended up outside the wall. Gideon, his father, might have an idea.

Rivelle brought this up with Sacha when she let him in, annoyed that he came back and started sniveling outside the door. Gideon had told Sacha that Celeste was a child with a powerful connection to the Water Spirit and that they should also pay attention to Urie since he exhibited similar if not stronger signs of a connection to another spirit. Particularly, the unknown Fire Spirit.

As with each element having a Spirit to represent it, they knew for sure that there existed one for Fire but none had ever managed to commune with it. Only time would provide them with the evidence to prove if he truly had a connection with it.

Urie shifted his gaze towards the scruffy old man taking a nap after filling his belly.

“The headmaster seemed to act like he knew a little about Celeste's circumstances. Maybe I should ask him about it?”

He thought about bringing it up multiple times with the headmaster but other than when the subject would be about their lessons, it was hard to have a decent conversation with him. Almost as if purposely avoiding the topic, he would make up excuses. Like having a sweets break in his office, the elderly need for afternoon naps, and other more pointless stuff.

“Cough! Cough!”

A bone that had gotten stuck in his throat brought Urie out of his rumination. Celeste came close and gave him a bowl of water.

“That's what you get for not concentrating on your food! Absentminded perso—Cough! Cough!”

The sound of muffled laughter came from Elicia before she choked on the food she had in her mouth. She ran towards the water's edge and managed to get the food dislodged from her throat as she knelt down and gagged.

Seeing her look over her shoulder with tears in her eyes, Urie remembered how troublesome Elicia used to be. Well, she was still a handful but she had grown on them. Compared to a year ago, she was now much easier to handle.

Breakfast carried on uninterrupted for about thirty more minutes before the headmaster woke up from his nap and brought the three children outside of the academy.

- Urie Loeth -

A familiar doorway had entered my line of sight a while after we left the academy. A large arch acting as the entrance to a domain larger than what can be contained by the outside appearance of the structure. There weren't any guards posted. The magic creatures inside, for some reason, had never tried to leave.

What were we doing here? The headmaster led us to the foot of Erden's Tower, an area normally not accessible to 2nd years like us.

“We'll all be taking a little field trip inside.” He said, nonchalantly.

Did I hear wrong? It was too early for us. We haven't been taught anything other than mana circulation, if any magic beast were to approach... We'd have to rely on the headmaster to protect us.

“Old ma—“

Ah, she got flicked on the forehead.

“—Headmaster, you said we were going inside?” Rubbing the spot that got hit, Elicia corrected herself and asked.

There were quite a few people around, wall veterans and school graduates making their living from hunting magic beasts, and current academy students working on graduation requirements.

As a majority of them were from Daerin Academy, they didn't stop to question us about our presence here when they saw the Headmaster accompanying us. I didn't know whether to feel scared or reassured.

“Yes, but don't worry about the magic creatures, I'll take care of them.”

Headmaster Arinndra said so but his appearance made us all apprehensive. His sunken eyes had sunken in even more, and his wrinkles, more pronounced. His white hair was still white while his back developed a small hunch. He might be strong but this past year, he had visibly aged.

Just as we were about to enter, he paused and turned around to face us. His hand glowed red as he pinched his index finger and thumb together before flicking us all on the head like how he did with Elicia earlier.

“Why'd I get hit again!?” Elicia exclaimed.

“That was for insurance.” While we were all feeling indignant, the headmaster spoke those words and turned back around to walk through the huge doorway. We all followed behind him and whispered among ourselves, trying to anticipate what plans the headmaster may have.

“What do you think Urie, Celeste? Y'think he might feed us to a magic creature? Elicia was hiding behind Celeste, trembling as she asked her question.

Me, Celeste, we both shook our heads.

“Don't worry about it. I don't think he would be the headmaster of the academy if he went on feeding his students to monsters.” I answered.

We found ourselves going through a long corridor after walking through the entrance. Upon reaching the end, we marveled at the scenery which welcomed our arrival.

Lining the inner walls of the tower was a lush forest, abundant with trees. At the center of the forest, a huge pillar the same size as the tower's appearance outside stood in a clearing surrounded by rock formations and barren land. We were positioned on a large platform with a staircase leading down to the greenery a few hundred meters away.

“It's so bright...” Celeste spoke while hovering her hand over her eyes.

She raised her head, her line of sight directed towards the ceiling. Bright was an understatement. The radiance coming from above was enough to light up the entire city of Daerin.

“We're paying a visit over there.” The headmaster was pointing his hand at the distant pillar.

Seeing at the location he was indicating, I knit my brows together as I recalled something my brothers had mentioned.

“Headmaster, isn't that area dangerous?” I asked to make sure.

“I told you, with me around, it'll be like strolling across academy grounds.” The headmaster stuck his chest out with confidence.

I decided to trust him for the time being. I would turn back with Celeste and Elicia if the situation ever became more than what we could handle.

We started walking through the forest after going down the stairs. After about thirty minutes, I was perplexed. The forest that I heard about from my brothers was full of magic creatures. So far, there were none that had appeared. Another half-hour passed and we started approaching the central area.