Sasha was laying down on a bed reflecting on what happened last night. She wasn't sure why she was so angry at Koren but she slightly felt entitled to.

"Out of nowhere, he's saying that he's going to leave to another CONTINENT for a year." Sasha angrily grumbled to herself as she walked downstairs to prepare for breakfast.

"BRAK!" Kizu who was waiting for Sasha started to bark continuously.

"Yeah, yeah, he's even making me take care of his pet." Sasha grabbed a slab of meat from the fridge and threw it at Kizu, who remarkably caught it mid-air.

Sasha clapped for Kizu, who twirled in a circle to show off.

"Wow, maybe we should open a circus." Ian joked as he walked down the stairs

Sasha giggled as she began cooking breakfast. Ian, however, could tell Sasha was still mad about yesterday and felt the need to bring it up.

"Sasha, can we talk for a moment?"

Sasha nodded half-heartedly, ignoring him.

Ian sighed

"Please…"

Sasha reluctantly sat down across from Ian, clearly upset.

"Why are you mad at Koren?" Ian wasn't sure why Sasha was so angry yesterday and she wouldn't talk about it.

Sasha looked at Ian blankly.

"Sasha, we need to communicate, what's bothering you?"

"I feel…"

Ian motioned for her to continue.

"I feel like he's going to leave and forget about us."

Ian frowned but was slightly relieved it was not something too major.

"Why do you say that?"

"Well… ever since a few months ago Koren has acted like a whole new person. He's been going out to train extremely early, he's been getting top grades and he's even won a prestigious competition.

After a moment of silence, she continued

"And I reflected on how we treated him before all of that… we were total assholes to him."

Ian was speechless, now that he did think about it he didn't remember any memorable moments he had with Koren before yesterday, it was all about his two genius sons, Aaron and Steve.

"We are failure of parents to him, and you know it. We always compared him to Aaron or Steve even though he excelled in other aspects."

Her tone then turned icy cold.

"We neglected him as a child, and once he has a chance to leave he will take it."

Ian didn't say anything, no he couldn't say anything. Ian felt entitled that his children do well, and when they didn't he dismissed them.

Sebastian who was listening to the whole conversation was brimming with anger. He didn't know how Sasha and Ian treated Koren before he emerged from the bow and assumed it was the same as now. But hearing how they neglected Koren, who Sebastian considered his son filled him with anger and disappointment.

But he was curious about one thing, what did Koren feel.

*

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN HE'S IMPRISONED!" A dark hooded figure screeched, a frightening aura befell onto everyone in the vicinity

"M-Milord, he attempted to kill the target during the tournament. The King ordered execution this Sunday." a servant responded as he dug his head into the floor.

"He lost the tournament, and he lost us the target." The dark hooded man mumbled to himself repeatedly. He looked down at the servant whose head was embedded so deep in the ground a dent appeared in his head.

"Call everyone downstairs immediately."

The servant hastily ran out of the room leaving a puddle of blood on the stone-cold floor.

A minute passed and the previous 5 hooded members turned to 4.

"Salaz, can you explain to me why Cyres isn't here right now?"

A short man responded, his voice trembling from fear.

"Y-yes, Cyres attempted to kill the target which he was ordered not to do-"

He was suddenly cut off.

"What did I tell you?"

"No mistakes sir."

The hooded man suddenly appeared behind the short man, his hand holding his skull firmly.

"WHAT DID I TELL YOU!" He abruptly screeched

"N-No mistakes sir." The short man was quivering, fearing for his life

"Well, you have to pay me for your failures." A vicious smile appeared on his face

In a sudden, swift motion the hooded man slammed the short man's skull onto the hard wooden table. Over, and over, and over, and over, and over...

The room was pitch silent, other than the occasional head hitting the table everyone was quiet as they could be.

The table that was spotless clean a few moments ago was overfilling with blood, staining everyone's clothes.

The hooded man after one last bang, dropped the deformed corpse before leaving the room slowly and quietly.

Once they confirmed he was gone did the people start to breathe again.

*

"Koren, are you paying attention?" Kien began to shake Koren who was fast asleep.

"Huh, wait where am I?" Koren looked around confused, but after seeing students eating he quickly realized where he was.

"How come you're so tired?" Kien asked as he bit into his sandwich

Koren yawned obnoxiously

"I dunno."

"Hmm, I read a while back that if you get abnormally tired it means that you are going through a mana breakthrough."

"Huh, a mana breakthrough what's that?"

Kien gave off a heavy laugh and pulled out a pair of glasses which was quite amusing to Koren and Sebastian.

"I'm glad you asked, a mana breakthrough is a stage in a magician's life where your mana pool exponentially increases along with your magic casting speed."

"But I'm not a magician?"

"It can happen to other classes who use a lot of spells."

"Ah!" Koren exclaimed

Koren figured it's happening to him due to his use of mana strings lately. Yesterday he even had summoned ten of them simultaneously which did cause some backlash.

"Anyways, what else is up," Koren asked as he finally looked down at his food

A mischievous smirk appeared on Kien's face.

"I don't know if you have heard, but you have gotten quite popular."

Koren looked startled for a moment but a look of pride came upon his face.

"I mean with this face, it isn't that hard." he said while pointing at himself

"Oh, is that so."

Kien and Koren both giggled like a group of girls.

"When are you leaving for Corendale?" Kien dropped a bombshell onto the conversation but Koren knew he had to tell him sometime.

"In a month."

Kien sighed and looked at Koren with a bitter face

"It's going to be so boring without you." he groaned as he violently bit into his sandwich

Koren nodded

"Yeah, I'm gonna miss you."

"Well, ish not rike your leabing now." Kien mentioned with food in his mouth.

"Yeah, now that I think about it we haven't hung out outside of school."

"Yeah, let's do that!" Kien exclaimed alarming everyone near the two of them.

'Ah, youth.' Sebastian thought to himself, reflecting on his memories back when he was in high school.

"I miss those times, I really do." Sebastian muttered