I woke up Monday morning and started my training. I was able to do a lot more and feeling confident I did three times as much as Malakir was telling me to do and I felt exhausted but also had a great feeling.

“Stop, don’t do anything more than what I told you to do earlier,” said Malakir. “Why not? This way I can get stronger much faster.”“You will but at a cost.”“How so?” I asked.

“Magic is as powerful as it is addicting. You may not have noticed it but continuous use of magic has made you be different from your age group. The same can be said for the students of this academy.”

“I don’t understand.”

“Magic requires one to have a great understanding of the affinities to be able to be used. As such it causes changes in the mage’s mentalities to be able to allow one to be able to use his magic at the most efficient way. A great example of this are the High Elves, they are arrogant and prideful simply because they live with the help of magic. They are alive because of their dependency to it. This reliance, has caused them to change their views of others as well as the way they think.”

“Humans, compared to the other races, are easily susceptible to the changes that magic does to them. Your friends act and think as if they are older why. This is because magic is forcing them to be older in mind. You have not noticed but mages are feared in the human race. Since the beginning of your race’s history in terms of magic, each and everyone is feared.”

“One of the reasons why the noble family has no power over the academy is because the commoners do not want anything to do with mages. Of course the opinions are mixed but as far as my knowledge goes, this has been and will continue for a very long time.”

“Exceptions such as your family and Alex’s exist because they have had a history of being able to use that magic for the good of the people. But those of common birth? I know of records of these mages to be persecuted by friends and families resulting in their own deaths or the deaths of those around them.”

“Remember, magic is feared and respected. Magic is helpful but it has its consequences. To help stop the fear of mages, Magus, the God of magic, has enforced rules upon it that cause its users to mature faster. It was a great idea that was accepted by all races to stop anymore unfortunate incidents to happen.”

“In hindsight, it merely caused isolation. The past is the past but now, commoners with magic are isolated. This is why most mages are either in the military, helping with the academy or a part of a noble faction. The commoners isolate the mages... even if they are their own blood.”

I sat there silent. Listening to Malakir made me think of the past events.

The riots in the south may be due to the influx of children with magic. I heard that the academy usually has 100 to 200 new students but this year, there were more than 1000 of us.

His explanation also made the actions of the people around me make sense. I didn’t think anything of it as I thought it was natural but then again why would a five year old flirt?

I took what Malakir told me to heart and made sure that I did not overdo it with my training.

I once again ignored my teachers and then lunch came.

Sasha, Alex and I were sitting at our table. Alex was glaring at Sasha but Sasha ignored him and looked to me and said, “I’m sorry for running away Saturday.”

“I had to make sure that Kaiser was alright. Even though I’m your fiancée, running away at that time was inexcusable.”

“Its alright,” I said, “If you don’t mind me asking, what is your relationship with him.”

“He’s my brother, he was born from a different mother and was disowned. I’ve only recently met him and wanted to know as much as I could.”

Alex and I were shocked to learn that Sasha had a brother, even if it was from another mother.

“Is his mother a noble?” I asked already knowing what the answer would be.

“No, his mother was a commoner,” she said, “She was chased out of the palace when they found out that there was an illegitimate prince. He has no last name right now, but I would like to give the throne to my older brother when my own father passes on. It’s his right.”

“Is your kingdom alright with having me as your fiancée?” I asked after some time.

“My father told me that it was alright,” said Sasha.

“I see. Next time bring Kaiser along.”

She was startled and said, “I can’t, no one can know that he is related to me. He wanted it that way so that he and his mother would not be hunted down.”

“We won’t tell anyone right Alex?”

“Your secret’s safe with us Sasha.”

“Thank you,” she said wiping her right eye.

We then separated and went to our Summoning class.

Ralph was there and he told us to sit down in front of him until everyone was here.

I didn’t ask why as he looked like he didn’t want us to say anything and just listen to him.

Soon, everyone was here and he started speaking.

“You all know what happened last Friday. Because of that it was a massive headache for the faculty to think of what to do. They’ve finally come to a decision.”

We sat there waiting for him to continue. “Wear these,” he said holding out a sack.

He dropped in on the ground and out came some gold rings.

“All students are now required to wear these rings at all times. It will prevent you from using any magic and if you try to remove it, you will be found,” he said with an edge to his voice.

We didn’t say anything and just each took a ring and wore it but I didn’t feel any change on me.

After wearing our rings, he told everyone except for Alex and I to run up the mountain again. Alex and I just continued on strengthening our muscles while we waited for the rest to come back.

Class was dismissed and Alex and I went to the front gates, waiting for the sword instructor that he said was going to come today.

I told Alex what Malakir told me that morning and he looked a little bit scared. I reassured him that the changes weren’t that malicious as if they were Malakir would’ve done something to make sure that we weren’t hurt by it.

That seemed to calm him down and I asked him what the instructor looked like.

He looked scared when I asked him that and started to describe him. He was apparently a prodigy within the Rammert Knights. He rose up the ranks through his skill with the sword and magic.

Alex spoke of him as a hero, mentioning his achievements which included killing a band of dragon race pirates that were terrorizing the northern seas.

He was blonde haired, green eyed and fair skinned. His name was Arthur, a commoner and was only a Guardian ranked swordsman but his expertise in strategy and his achievements made him earn the nickname, “Iron Guard”.

Why such a great man would be teaching us was apparently because Alex was assigned going to be my knight. Our fathers decided that Alex would be trained by the best so that I would be well protected.

The sun was down when we finally saw him. He wore a black armor with white designs on it which in the darkness made him very menacing. He was riding a on a white horse when he stopped in front of us and got off.

He knelt down and said, “Pleased to make your acquaintance Prince Zed. I have come to teach your servant, Alex Rammert, the way of the sword.”

“Rise, sir Arthur. We have been expecting you. Please follow us to the mansion,” I said making him follow us.

When we got to the mansion, Alex led his horse to the back where the stables were. I didn’t even know we had that as I wasn’t able to properly explore the mansion.

Arthur and I went inside and sat at the living room waiting for Alex to come back. While waiting for Alex I said, “Sir Arthur is it alright if I join your teaching Alex?”

“My lord?” he asked confused.

“I wish to be able to hold a sword and protect myself with it as well. It wouldn’t sit well if my knight knew something I didn’t,” I said explaining myself in a way I believed he would agree.

“Of course my lord,” he said bowing down, “you are free to join us. I would be honored to teach you.”

Alex came in and I said, “We can begin tonight no?”I stood up and Arthur did as well and said, “Yes we can.”

I told Alex to lead the way to the training room.

“Before we get started, I first need to know what you know about fighting with a sword,” he said as he grabbed a pair of wooden swords that Alex got out of the storage underneath the floor.

“This will let me figure out your strengths and weaknesses so that I can teach you better in the future,” he said handing us one of the swords.

“Face each other and begin combat.”

Alex and I stood apart from each other. He put his sword in front of him and stood in some stance and held the sword with both hands.

I, not knowing what to do with a sword, held it backhanded as it felt the most natural. Holding it out in front of me just like Alex, I leveled mine parallel to the ground with one hand behind me.

He ran towards me raising his arms and swinging the sword down. I parried the sword and along with the momentum that I had, spun with my right foot and elbowed him with my left.

I was only able to do this simply because of the fact that I was compensating by using mana.

He saw my movements and jumped back in time to avoid it. As I was still recovering from my spin, I was wide open and saw Alex’s sword coming straight towards me.

He was stabbing it to my face and I blocked with my sword. One hand at the pommel and the other at the tip of my sword.

We were both struggling for dominance when he forced all his weight on me which caused me to lose balance and fell down with a thud.

My eyes closed from the feeling of falling and when I opened them, Alex was standing pointing his sword at my head.

“Zed you’ve lost,” he said.He removed the sword and replaced it with his hand. I grabbed it and he helped me up.

“That was a wonderful fight, thank you,” said Arthur clapping, “Rest now, tomorrow I’ll give you your training plan. Alex where is my room?”

Alex pointed to one of the doors that I thought led to the baths but it actually led to a room. There were two doors, Alex pointed to the leftmost door.

As Arthur went through the left door, Alex and I went through the right door and in front of us were the baths.

We took a bath and ate dinner. We called Arthur but he said that he had already ate and he needed to be able to finish the schedule and that he was sorry about it.

When we were done eating we went back to my room and continued our training.

Since we were wearing those gold rings. Malakir had to get rid of their effects on both of us as Malakir did earlier during our spar.

After our training we slept and soon enough the sun was rising calling us both for another day.

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