As far as Adam knew, the ceremony marking the start of the year varied in every place in the world, in Ferston, its residents celebrated 'Warm Hearts Day'.
Derdenia's, which is the kingdom in which Ferston is located, traditions are centred around Pruina, the goddess of winter and households. As the goddess gives people warmth during wintertime, celebrations mostly consist of contradictory themes, the warmth of the fireplace inside one's home fighting against the freezing coldness of winter.
The day was the most important day for all Derdanians, not only did it mark the seventh day after the new year, symbolizing the already started year, but fifteen-year-olds were also introduced to Adult society. It consisted of a day full of attractions provided in towns and cities by local governments. While most of the celebration differs every year and in each town/city, there are few main points that every party celebrates with.
Firstly, Adults embrace the cold in respect towards the warmth, not all but most of them don't wear anything on their torso all day. Of course, children are prohibited from such activities, they would die from the cold without the resistance gained by living all those years and enhanced by mana flowing in their veins.
The celebration centred around a gigantic fire set on the main square of each city. Fire is built by all of the residents, making it a joint effort to make bonds and a homely atmosphere around the city. A hearth is built to make the tallest and hottest flames possible. The fire is lit at dawn and is expected to last till midnight.
Third, and the last consistent tradition is the ending ceremony, during which Young adults, freshly turned fifteen-year-olds, who have awakened their mana on the first day of the year, go up on a platform and introduce themselves to adult society, sometimes showing off their skills if they have any worth of note.
For the little ducklings, the day is stressful.
Waking up and seeing those happy people all the time, while you still have to train under the guidance of the guards? No one wants that.
Going up the podium and introducing yourself to the entire town? Can you imagine something more stressful?
And of course, their future job. After all, it's the final time to decide on your career, anything later and you will be behind your peers.
The final product is a unique combination of slightly depressed teenagers and topless adults running around with logs of wood and alcohol in their hands, while children play around the fire in the background.
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Adam looked out the window while eating breakfast.
Today, traffic next to Derek's house was unusual, normally one or two people would walk by, and sometimes someone would come in to say hi or ask Derek to hunt a monster, it was quiet most of the time.
Today though, carts rolled by every fifteen minutes or so. A lot of people got engaged in acquiring wood for the fireplace. The storage of timber was located near the woods, so they had to travel quite some distance to deliver the wood to the central square.
It was quite engaging, and very relaxing, not to say he was slacking off while his peers trained in the field. He performed a simple exercise, proposed to him by his uncle actually, he watched the passerby and their carts and made a flat sculpture of them with ice magic, making it follow their moves.
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The thing about the magic though, was that he had no idea how to progress, he had basic skills, but no method of advancing his rank.
For example, the chief guard told Adam that there were five ranks of magicians inside the kingdom. It wasn't some arbitrary, superficial rank, but one based on the number of ascensions a person went through. There are Aspiring magicians, Beginners, Intermediate, Advanced and Masters in order. Adam and Amx Steelarme were obviously aspiring magicians, but at which rank did Edgar stand? Who knows.
Similar was the ranking of aura users, the only difference was the warrior prefix and that instead of a Master Mage, they were called Weaponmasters. Their name could be smugly combined with the rank name, so it was.
The biggest difference in the status of a mage and a warrior was the availability of their absorption technique. While warriors could just go to the army for some time and get a technique, with various stages of completion depending on the rank acquired in the army, Mage's situation was very different, to get a technique, the most common practice was getting a master of their own, who would guide the aspirant through their journey.
Creating their technique was also possible, for both warriors and magicians, but it was most importantly - risky. While creating your one, you could easily hurt yourself, or even lead to your death.
The most practical way for Adam would be to get himself a master, but that would mean he would basically become a slave, and he would have no idea what his master would expect from him.
What Adam did know though, was that without an absorption technique, he would stay at the lowest rank forever.
It wouldn't be a problem for Max, the Steelarm family definitely had their own techniques.
One way for Adam to acquire one would be to ask the chief guard about it, but the price Edagr may ask for may be too high.
'I need to consider all options, hastily decision would haunt me, but on the other hand, asking about it isn't a bad idea, if he asks for too much, I can always refuse.' Thought Adam.
After coming to that decision, he ended his exercise and he went outside. The day was quite cold, and the snow was plentiful, luckly, many people walked the road to the town today, so the snow there was packed, and didn't spill into the boots of the aspiring mage. The sky was clear, with the sun poking its head from a distant mountain range illuminating the valley and woods around in a gold-ish hue.
The cold conditions didn't bother Ferston's residents as much as one could think, some even were happy that the contrast between cold air and the heat of the fireplace would be so high, that it made the unique atmosphere of the festivity.
When Adam arrived in the town, he noticed that guards had their tops taken off, not only men but women too. Even though almost all of them were shaking in the cold, and probably embarrassed about their nakedness, it was nothing that a quick sip from a flask couldn't alleviate.
As Ferston wasn't near any borders with neighbouring countries, even guards on active duty could partially participate in the festive atmosphere of Warm Hearts Day. Although they still couldn't leave their positions, all traditions that could be performed while being on guard duty and didn't compromise their readiness were kind of turned a blind eye to. That's the reason that all around Ferston, mini fireplaces were being erected by the guards. Alcohol on service wasn't something that came along with the celebration, it is just an all-year tradition.
On all the streets, there were stalls selling food and other things. every house was decorated with ice and torches and people walked in their fine clothing, or half of it. Chief guard Edgar's manor was no exception it was the most decorated building Adam had seen this year, with ice and fire intertwining around each other, it was mesmerising. Evidently magical in nature, ice torches stood among other decorations, their tops lit up with a fire, that didn't melt its support.
Servants of the manor recognised Adam from his earlier visit, around a week ago, and went to notify their master, leaving Adam in front of the gate.
A few minutes later, they came back, this time bringing along their master. Along with them came Edgar's son, Max and his friends with whom he fought throughout the week, he knew all of them, but didn't spend a lot of time with them.
"Hello Mister Edgar, I came because I'm in a peculiar situation, and you as a senior mage are the only person I can turn to. Please hear me out" Asked politely Adam, after making a slight bow in front of the host, as a sign of respect and a greeting.