Hey guys! Sorry for the late update, I had a busy week and I just recently got done with it. Hope you guys enjoy and if you have any questions just ask!

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It definitely was Alex. Those eyes, hair, skin, even physique was definitely Alex. I had thought that he died back then but here he was standing right in front of me.

I hugged him tight and said, “Alex!”

“Prince Zed,” said Alex, “it is also good to finally meet you.”

He said those words in short breaths and I realized that he felt different.

I let go of him and asked, “Alex, its me, Zed.”

He blinked once and said in a confused tone, “Yes, of course Prince Zed.”

It was my turn to blink and asked, “Don’t you remember about the Shadows?”

“Shadows? I’m sorry Prince Zed but I think you might still be tired from your trip. If you would follow me, I would take you to your mansion to rest,” he said bowing down.

Then it dawned on me that this was a different Alex. He might have the same name as well as features but there were differences. This Alex was polite while the Alex I knew was pushy.

I then proceeded to follow him as I tried to forget the past that I didn’t want to remember.

He led me through corridors and courtyards until we got to the mansion. It was situated at the southeastern section of the school, right next to the forest. The mansion was two stories high with a narrow wall of glass with gold etchings in intricate designs. The glass was a bit clouded and all that could be seen from the outside was a silhouette of stairs.

Inside was a quaint interior that rivaled only the palace. From the entranceway, the corridor in front led to what seemed to be a sitting room. The right led to a dining room from the large table that could be seen. To the left were the stairs that I saw from outside and a door that led somewhere.

“This mansion is ours Prince Zed,” Alex said as I was looking at the place.

“Ours?” I asked looking at him.

“Yes, I was chosen to be your servant so long as you are here. Seeing as how I was already supposed to be your knight, they just decided that it be better to get accustomed to each other immediately,” he explained.

I shook my head at that and said, “Our ages are the same. There’s no reason for you to be my servant. Just be my friend and that’ll be enough.”

I messed up my friendship with Alex of the past so I wanted to make sure that I could at least keep the Alex I saw in front of me as my friend.

“Of course,” he said after being silent for a while.

“Come on, stop being so formal! We’re friends right?” I asked with a smile.

“Ye-yes!” he said also with a smile.

“Follow me, I’ll take you to your room,” he said as he turned to the left corridor.

The second floor only had four rooms. He turned left and opened the room on the right.

Inside was a large four-poster bed with black drapery. There were two dressers as tall as me with a mirror on top of them. There was a mahogany desk half the size of the bed that had magic pens, paper, and some books. A bookshelf also stood on the right side of the room while a door was on the right.

“Would you like to take a bath first or take a rest?” Alex asked.

“A bath and I already said that you can drop the formality,” I said.

“Yes,” he said as he opened the door on the right and inside was a set of stairs going down.

I followed him and I was greeted by a large bath. There was a mist that covered the whole room as the glowing white orbs filled it with light. The floors were tiled marble and in the middle of the bath was a Ravenex statue with water flowing out of the mouths of the heads.

You can control the temperature with this podium,” he said pointing to a podium in front of me.

I set the temperature to lukewarm and we proceeded to take of my clothes.

“Place the clothes here and it will be cleaned and placed in our rooms by magic,” he said pointing to an alcove to the right.

I began stripping but Alex was just standing there. I stopped and said, “You can take one with me too.”

“No, I cannot,” he said as shook his hands and head no.

I shrugged and continued stripping. When I was done, Alex was closing his eyes and I took this opportunity to push him into the water.

He was firm in standing there as I lacked the strength to push him. I was having a hard time pushing him but then suddenly I saw him fall towards the water.

He was now drenched and had no choice but to join me in the bath as he took off his clothes as I looked at him.

I realized that he gave in to my pushing him and that put me in a bad mood. I knew I was weak physically and I focused more on magic because of it. Because Alex just let it happen I was feeling a bit miffed.

He looked at me concerned and asked, “What is the matter Prince Zed?”

“Nothing,” I said as I got into the bath as well.

We spent the bath in silence in opposite corners. Alex would try to start a conversation but because of how bad I felt I stopped it before it could be called one.

I knew I was throwing a tantrum but I couldn’t just let it go.

We finally got out of the bath and went to our own rooms to change.

I was in my room wearing a red shirt and black pants when a knock came at my door. I opened it and saw Alex. He was wearing a dark blue shirt with white pants.

He bowed and said, “I’m sorry for any misconduct that I did earlier on! You may punish me as you see fit!”

I was shocked that he would do this and I asked, “Punish you? I don’t even remember anything that you did wrong.”

He shook his head while still bowing and said, “You were in discomfort during the whole bath. I was unable to find some way to make you comfortable so it is obviously my fault! This is why I must be punished, please do as you see fit!”

I felt bad about the situation. It was my fault but he was taking the blame for it instead.

“Stop,” I said, “Raise your head and look at me.”

He did so and I said, “It was my fault not yours. So don’t.”

“But Prince Zed!”

“Stop it,” I said a bit too loudly, “We’re friends, stop trying to be my servant or whatever and just be yourself.”

“I’ll try Prince Zed,” he said and we forgot the whole thing as I wrestled with him which ultimately resulted in me losing.

We were in the dining room eating an early dinner. Alex was a surprisingly good cook at the same age as I am.

I learned about him during dinner. He was the son of the Rammert family, the leaders of the Rammert Knights, the strongest Magic Knights of the kingdom.

Magic Knights were mages who defended the kingdom from outside attacks like pirates, bandits and foreign nations. There was a test that you had to take when you were at least 11 to be able to become a knight.

Alex wanted to be one as his older brothers were already knights, he was the only one who wasn’t yet. He was trained since birth to become one, cooking was apparently one of those skills.

I became interested in the Rammert Knights and when I said that I might want to join he said, “You can’t. The purpose of the Rammert Knights originally was to be the guards of royalty. Royalty cannot be a Rammert Knight as we uphold this tradition.”

I sighed at the lost of the opportunity and decided to continue eating.

Alex wanted to clean the dishes when we were done which left me with Malakir in my room.

“Malakir,” I said, “is there any way for me to get stronger physically?”

“Yes, but it will be very painful,” he said.

“I’ll do it,” I said.

“Then concentrate mana into your body. Similar to creating a mana orb but instead of condensing it into an orb, condense it into you own body. This will hurt but your body will be stronger for it.”

I did as he asked and it really did hurt, my body felt like it was burning and tearing apart. I screamed and Alex came running in.

“Zed!” he shouted as I felt his hands on me.

I stopped what I was doing and noticed that I was sweating a lot.

“Are you okay?” he asked worriedly.

“I’m fine,” I managed to say.

“What happened?” he asked.

“It was training,” said Malakir.

Alex looked around for the voice and I pointed at the book. He stared at it when Malakir said, “Hello Alex Rammert.”

He looked a bit startled for a bit and then took a stance.

“What did you do?!” he asked in an angry tone.

“It was training,” said Malakir.

“Training?! It was hurting him! How is that training?!” he shouted.

“Training without pain? That there is a contradiction Alex,” said Malakir.

“Stop it!” I shouted.

Alex looked at me and I said, “This is Malakir, my summon. He was just teaching me how to strengthen my body with mana.”

“Your summon?” he asked.

“Yes. Malakir is my summon,” I said.

“Then why was he hurting you?” he asked.

“I was manipulating mana into myself. The process was very painful as Malakir explained but I went through with it anyway,” I said.

“My body is weak, I do not want it to be weak,” I continued.

“You don’t have to, Pri- Zed,” he said, “That’s one of the reasons why I’m here.”

I shook my head and said, “Even so, I do not want to be helped if I can help it.”

“But Zed.”

“I want to do this,” I said as I continued pushing mana into myself.

At some point, Alex joined me saying, “If you’re doing it then I’m doing it too.”

We trained through most of the night and we went to our own rooms when we stopped.

“He’s a good kid,” said Malakir when Alex was gone, “he’ll be a great man in the future.”

“How so?” I asked.

“Just from what I know.”

“I see,” I said as I didn’t question further.

I slept through the night and woke up to a new day.

Alex and I were eating breakfast when he handed me a blank paper.

“This has your schedule,” he said, “Inject your mana in it and it will show you your classes for the year.

I injected my mana on the paper and the paper started having beautiful designs all around it and on it was written:

07:00 AM – Breakfast

08:00 AM – Basics of Magic

10:00 AM – Magic History

12:00 PM – Lunch

02:00 PM – Summoning Magic

05:00 PM – Free Time

08:00 PM – Dinner

10:00 PM – Free Time

I read my classes to Alex and he said, “We have the same classes. That makes things easier.”

We finished eating and began walking to our first class of the day: Basics of Magic.

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