Since its invention, magic was a long-longed dream of humanity. And although almost no one can say when or why it happened anymore....but this dream turned into reality. All citizens of Ardia were part of this dream. Well....at least many people were part of the magical society.

The society was divided into four different classes determined by the magic abilities and amount of magic particles hosted inside the people's bodies. As everything was working with magic, from simple things as lights, to ovens, or even greater things like transportation, having likely no mana particles to use meant to be worthless for the society. To live an at least worthy life one needed to be born in one of the three higher classes which are from middle class to high Keskus, Yufukuna and the Nobility.

But as mentioned there were also many people who weren't gifted with high magical qualities. Those people were considered scum of the society.

Konnah was one of them. Branded with his origin in the Khathad-District, he was considered as one of the worthless amongst humanity.  It was precisely because he belonged to the Khathad-District, that his life was rough since he could remember. He was 23 years old and haven't seen anything except the shabby and rough life of his without a hope of improvements in his life. He wore a simple white linen shirt combined with a blue jeans and black shoes. His closes weren't considered fine in any other district, but in his environment everything that wasn't damaged could be considered thus. Other people from Khathad-district didn't care much about appearance but to Konnah it meant something. Even though it weren't noble clothes, it was important to him as a symbol that he didn't saw himself as dirt or scum.

Still...a sigh escaped the young man, as he was standing in front of a machine. Judging by the looks, it was something similar to a paying-machine. It was only colored in a simple, dark blue and bigger than him. Also the the front of the upper half was made of glass, while the lower one was made out of metal. At hip heigt, it provided a place to put one's hands on. There were multiple of these devices in the room he was in and all of them looked the same.

The room itself was a small one, which was because the whole house wasn't very big. There weren't any tables nor chairs. Basically, these weren't even necessary, since nobody ever had the intention to stay in the building for more than a few minutes. The lighting was relatively poor, as only a simple ceiling lamp lit the room. The floor was the highlight of it all however. as the building's foundation sank a little further into the ground year after year. This made the simple stone floor very holey.

Konnah was alone inside that building and looked at the device in front of him. Before he continued with his task, he let out another deep. resignated breath. Annoyed and demotivated he put his right hand on a designated area on the tax-machine. As soon as his hand was placed, the machine started to make some noices.

"Konnah Nafarkis.

Age: 23

Class Affiliation: Khathad

Magic Affiliation: none

Magical Amount Classification: Keska.

....Succsessfully Identified", was said by a digital voice which came out of the machine as it showed a holographic image of Konnah in a 360 degree view.

"Damn MACON. Always reminding me of what I am and what I possess. A system which tells you, that you're worthless as a human and should vanish for the sake of society.", he complained in his mind. It wasn't basically untrue. There were no possibilitys to raise ones amount of magical particle inside the body, nor was it possible to develop a magic affliation. The only hope there was, that one had a magic affiliation which wasn't known to the MACON. But if one hadn't the amount of a Yufukuna or Noble, it was still almost useless. He would have moaned a bit longer about the device in front of him, but his thoughts were interrupted by that very machine.

"Please choose your payment method and use the transaction terminal to transfer your fee.", it came out of the system again. The holographic image of Konnah was gone. Instead it showed a simple value on it's display.

<<3000 Masul>>

Masul was the currency used in Ardia. It wasn't measured by a value given to a specific form alone but by weight, too. It was pressed into different stone-shaped forms. 3000 Masul was the fee that every Khathad had to pay, regardless of whether and how much he earned. It could be seen as the price of their right to live.

Since Masul were gemstones made of pure, pressed magic, it was also possible to pay the tax with body internal magic particle. But this was a painful process as it drained the magic out of the hosts body. In addition a Khathad didn't have enough magic inside his body to fully pay his taxes even if his amount of particles was considered 'Keska'. Also, there was no known method how to use magic particle inside Masul to cast magic.

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As any other Khathad, Konnah had to choose the payment method 'Hybrid', which allowed him to split up the sum in body internal magical particle and Masul. Otherwise no Khathad could ever have been able to pay the taxes. From his pocket he took a few stones of Masul which shimmered in a red tone and placed them into the transaction container. The value was determined automatically before it  was deducted from his fee, which was left with a lower score at the display afterward.

"It went only down to 1800 this time, huh?", he thought to himself. "I guess this will still hurt but at least it is better than other times.", he continued as he placed his hand on the transaction device. As he placed his hand on the transaction device, a bright light surrounded his hand.

"Ugh!", he screamed as he felt his magic being sucked out of his body. After the light vanished, he took his hand from the surface and shook it even though he knew, that the pain would still stay for a moment.

"Only a few seconds but the pain hurts as if it took at least some hours.", Konnah said to himself as he turned around to leave the building. "Anyway, it's over for this month", he appended to his former sentence.

He left the payment hall and let his gaze wander from right to left. Even though it was still afternoon he was the only one there. The streets were empty, too but that was nothing special. The life of a Khathad consisted mainly or working and sleeping. Since they could only choose the hybrid-paymethod, they needed to earn Masul. But for the same reason they had to pay in 'Hybrid', the couldn't get a proper work. Working devices where operated with magic. So the most Khathad had no other choice than selling themselves of as slaves or work till they were soulless beings with too much magic drained out too often.

[  Meanwhile at another place.....  ]

"Again!", was heard in a loud and strong tone. The source of this voice was a middle-aged man with a stern look. He stood with his chest outstretched and shoulders high. His back was perfectly straight and his hands clasped behind it. All in all, he appeared like a person to be respected. His brown hair was short trimmed and here and there one could see that it started to turn gray. His gaze fell on a young woman standing before him, who were surrounded by four other people.

She was a beautiful but young looking, small woman. She wore an elegant white dress with puffed sleeves, a style popular in noble society. Right below her chest she wore a fitting, white belt as decoration since her dress didn't need it because of the lacing. The lower part of the dress was colored in different nuances of white. The style of her hair just supplemented her origin. Wavy half-up hair, as red as blood, with a bun at the backside of her head and a half bangs haircut overlapping the right side of her forehead. As the hair went down to her hip it spread out more and more.

"Again, Miss Phyllis", he repeated in a softer tone now. "You're getting better with every try. As expected your learning speed is quite astonishing even with more complex magic", the man continued as he smiled.

The young woman turned her head left into his direction without turning her body. "I know, Kason. That's how it's supposed to be", Phyllis replied confident. "I'm a Prodigy after all. Anyway, one more try", she added. As she finished her last sentence she turned her head back and looked around her. She was surrounded by four men who were her sparring partners. All of them raised their arms and casted some magic. Unlike Phyllis, it took them a few seconds to fire their attacks.

In the next instant, Phyllis was attacked by four large, sustained streams of fire. Each of them was several meters wide and high and one alone would have been enough to completely encircle and burn a person.

Just before the firestreams reached her, she raised her arms to the sky and her hands began to glow. The streams of fire that were racing towards her before now enclosed her like a tornado that towered several dozen meters into the sky and she was in the eye of this tornado. She had taken over the streams of fire from her training partners and united them into one big stream of fire.

In a split second, she yanked her arms down and pressed them to the ground. The tornado collapsed and instead spread in a circular wave around Phyllis, which hit the other four around her with tremendous force.

All of them had to defend themselves with an large earth wall, which they summoned in front of them. After several dozen meters the fire wave dissolved.

Because she was focused on her counterattack, she did not notice that a young maid hat approached them and stood next to Kason and whispered something to him.

He cleared his  throat briefly and started to speak. "We finish today's class, Miss Phyllis. It seems like your father has ordered you to visit him in his study. It seems that he wants to talk to you about something.", he stated before he turned his head to the maid. "You may go now, Miss Elifa. Please inform his lord van Hofstedt that his daughter will come by in a few minutes", he said to her in a warm voice, before turning back to Phyllis.

"I'll take my leave then.", the maid replied while she bowed. She left the place immediately.

Phyllis walked towards Kason since she expected him to explain his plans for the next days class. She patiently stood in front of him, as she awaited his plans.

"It seems like your father has some plans for you tomorrow. You'll have one day off from class. We'll continue the day after tomorrow. You have mastered this fire tonado excellently and I believe that you can do the rest in self-study. The next topic will be thunder magic.", Kason explained to Phyllis. "I'll take my leave now.", he also bowed briefly to her before he left the place.

Phyllis stayed behind a little longer because she still had to recovery from the exertion. After a few more deep breaths she moved along towards the villa.

"It's unusual for my old man to interrupt my class. I'm curious what he has in store for me.", she pondered as she entered the main hall. On her way to her father's study, she was greeted by many servants of her family. She came to halt, as she stood in front of his door. The exertion and amazement were gone from her face. Every time she met her father her expression turned blank.

Phyllis knocked at the door and waited for a reply. "Come in", a neutral, firm voice demanded. She gulped once before entering the room.