In a spacious conference room, a large group of what seemed to be important officials sat discussing with each other. At the top of the table sat the King of the Empire, Theodore the Third who at the moment looked extremely agitated.

“SILENCE!” He yelled, the room immediately became silent. The King was a kind man, but when it came to asserting his position he was vicious.

“Repeat yourself, Fain.”

A bearded man stood up from his seat, bowing towards the king before speaking loud and clearly.

“The boy was interrogated by my men, he revealed that his backing was a dark magician-”

Theodore’s eyes widened

“A dark magician…” he muttered to himself

A dark magician is an existence that would drive terror and fear into any person no matter how influential or powerful they are. Twenty years ago during the battle against the Demon King, a large number of magicians were captured and brainwashed by the Demon King turning them into dispensable soldiers that could bring down armies. After the war many of them escaped and stayed in hiding, waiting to strike.

“Continue.”

“However right as the boy revealed that a rune that was escribed on his tongue exploded, destroying his mouth.”

The group all nodded as it was expected, Dark Magicians took pride in secrecy, it was given that he had some self-destruction spells put on his pawn.

“I see, Commander, kill the boy and eradicate any traces of his body.”

A brooding man nodded as he disappeared from sight.

“All of you keep this strictly confidential,” Theodore spoke sternly

As he began to walk away a sudden thought came across his mind.

“Find out what that boy is hiding, a dark magician wouldn’t go for someone for no reason”

The group of officials nodded

“Remember, no mistakes.” A glint of madness appeared in the King’s eyes as he walked out of the door.

*

A handsome youth was lying on top of a mansion holding his hand out to cover the moon. This was naturally Koren.

“Oh yeah, what’d you wanna talk about Sebastian?”

He looked to his right where Sebastian was also laying down.

Sebastian earlier in the morning wanted to ask a question but suddenly changed his mind.

Sebastian looked at Koren before looking back at the moon.

“What’s your goal?”

Koren frowned at the unexpected question.

“Uh, to impress my parents.”

Sebastian began to shake his head wildly

“You're lying.”

Koren sighed

“Yeah, your right.” Koren’s natural bright tone was nowhere to be found and was replaced with anger and sadness.

“I hate my parents, I really do.” The harsh words that Koren kept in his mind ever since he was a child emerged from his voice.

Sebastian’s eyes shook, it was almost as if he was looking at another person.

“Well I heard a little about it from your parents, tell me the whole story.”

Koren shrugged casually

“It really isn’t a story, when I was younger I had all of my skills checked out by my father and he saw me as obsolete, a failure. He always gave me the cold shoulder and never cared about me. My mother only dealt with me because I existed, did you know that they didn’t tell people I existed?”

Koren started to shake violently, tears forming in his eyes.

“They didn’t tell people I existed…”

Sebastian was unable to produce tears but it felt like his heart was eating itself.

Wiping the tears out of his face he continued.

“But suddenly I started to get stronger, I started to get perfect scores, I started to become non-obsolete. So the rats my parents are, began to treat me better. They started to get stuff for me, they started to care for me.”

“And what’s ironic is my “mom” acts as she cares so much about me, getting mad at me because I'm leaving. If I never met you… if I didn’t get stronger they would have kicked me out on the streets and changed Aaron and Steve’s memories so that I never existed even in memory.”

Sebastian was speechless, he didn’t want to believe Koren but he knew… he knew it was true.

“I will never forgive them, I will never.” Koren’s sharp voice rang in the cold night air.

*

The next day passed and Koren was going to meet Kien and Maria at the local shopping area. Koren was waiting outside of a weapons store and waved towards the approaching Kien.

“Hey, Koren.” Kien walked over to Koren and sat down next to him.

“When’s the princess coming?” Kien asked slightly annoyed

Koren sighed

“Why don’t you guys like each other?”

Kien frowned “Hey, I was perfectly fine with her but she for some reason really hates me.”

Koren smirked knowing full well Maria despised Kien, but he too didn’t know why.

Sebastian shuddered as he looked at Koren, the person he talked with last night was nothing like the person infront of him.

Maria walked up to Koren and Kien who were still discussing about why she hated Kien.

“Hmm, I just don’t like you because your annoying,” Maria replied cruelly

Kien who has been looking for a girlfriend and has been rejected more times he could count felt his self-esteem go even more down.

“Hey, your being mean.” Koren helped Kien up as they walked into the weapon shop.

“Welcome, welcome!” A large man welcomed the group into the shop

“I am Vaj, if you want to request a custom weapon come to my desk over there.” He pointed towards a wooden desk where a large amount of paper sat in piles.

They all nodded and began to inspect the weapons Vaj provided. Since Kien is a healer he didn’t exactly need a weapon, but he wanted something to keep him safe. Maria, on the other hand, is a Swordsman, a class that is extremely reliant on their weapon.

Since Koren already had his main weapons, he was looking for a nice dagger he could use. His other dagger was a common dagger you could find at any mediocre smithery.

Koren started to study the daggers Vaj had showcased but noticed a flaw in all of them. He walked up to Vaj who was reading something.

“Hey, I was wondering where you kept your best daggers.”

Vaj chucked

“They are all there.” He pointed towards the daggers Koren looked at.

Koren inwardly was cussing Vaj out but a thought came to him. He took out a large pouch that he kept in his jacket and started to shake it.

*CLANK CLANK*

The heavy noise of gold coins rang out into the shop which immediately caught Vaj’s attention.

“Ah, I was foolish. Let me show you where the exclusive goods are.”

Vaj pulled at a lever under his desk which opened a hole behind Vaj.

“Call your friends over here, the stuff they are looking at is garbage compared to the stuff I have here,” Vaj spoke with a large amount of pride

Koren called his friends over where they followed Vaj into the hole which had a long line of stairs. They all walked down the long stone stairs when eventually a dark room greeted them.

“Ah, give me a second, let me get the lights.” Vaj started to fumble around the room

“Here it is.”

A sudden thud rang out and a blinding light engulfed the room.

“Wow…”

The room was lined with glittering weapons covering as far as Koren could see. The original shop that Koren was in a few minutes ago size was not even a quarter of this room.

Vaj chortled at their surprised reactions before walking back to the main store.

“Damn Koren, you really know your places,” Kien commented as he grabbed a long sword from the wall.

Maria nodded in agreement as she stole the sword Kien was touching.

Koren started to walk around the room looking for daggers to use, after what seemed to be eternity he found two daggers he could use. Both are magical artifacts, weapons that are made from magical materials and have certain perks that are devastating in power. However, they are extremely expensive which was not a problem for Koren at the moment.

‘Master which one should I go with.”

Koren held up both daggers, one had a long blade with a dark black handle. The other one had a short blade and was completely white. It had a wide handle with three holes to snugly fit your fingers in.

‘Hmm, I would say the one on the left.’

‘Yeah I thought so, this white one is useless for throwing.’

‘Wait, try to insert some mana in the black one.”

Koren shrugged and began to insert some mana into the dagger. The black handle started to glow blue as it transformed into a full-fledged sword.

“WOAH!” Koren jumped back from shock.

‘Ooh, that’s quite interesting, try thinking of holding an axe.”

Koren nodded and thought of a small axe, and right as he thought of it, the same axe emerged in his hand.

“That’s neat!” Kien remarked

The group went back up and paid for the weapons they chose. Koren decided to pay for everyone which was a hefty 50 gold (50,000 USD).

Koren sighed as the money left his pocket, but the items he got were all worth the price. The group went for a bite and that ended the day for Koren, and before he knew it, a whole month passed right before his eyes.