Chapter 6: School
Written from Daragon’s perspective.
“What would it take for you to go to school?” Relic asked me. I stopped for a moment. Who told him about that?
“Why the hell would I go back there?”
“Well-”
“No! No well! No nothing!” I cut him, walking away faster. I could hear Relic say something but was too angry. I turned around to see him use that portal thingy.
School. That was a memory I hated. Every second of it was hell for me.
----------------------------------------
Approximately 4 years ago. I had just turned 10 and was going into a new school. I just got kicked out of my previous school for ‘lack of attendance’. They were a prestigious school so they took stuff like that seriously. Even if my grades were good.
“Wake up sleepyhead!” Draken yelled as he pulled out my blanket. I was holding onto it though, so I started flying out. I landed head first.
“Can’t you wake me up normally?” I complained while rubbing my head.
“Sorry.” Draken apologized before giving me my school uniform. “Go bathe and change.”
“Do I really have to wear a uniform? It’s so uncomfortable.” I groaned. Draken just gave me a look. I headed to the shower.
After getting changed, I went downstairs and grabbed some bread for breakfast. I had to get to walk to school in 30 minutes. Draken did offer to fly me there but I refused on the grounds that I’d vomit. The school was about 3km away. I was above average in terms of running so I’d reach in about 10 minutes assuming I go at an average pace of 300 meters per minute, slightly above the average running pace of a 10 year old. (In this world)
After a mild jog, I made it in 13 minutes. I stopped by a shop to get a water bottle since I forgot to bring one. I entered the school and went straight to the hall. I sat there and waited for the rest of the school to do our assembly.
While doing our assembly, I noticed everyone else around me was not wearing a school uniform. Did Draken lie to me? I could feel glares pointed at me.
After the gathering, I was walking towards class when one of the boys tripped me. Everyone started laughing at me and that was my first taste of what school had in store for me.
----------------------------------------
Present day
I arrived back at the manor by the backdoor and overheard a conversation between Aisha and Relic
“He finished school early after studying his heart out.” I heard Aisha say. I assumed she was talking about me.
“He’s a nerd, I agree.” Relic responded, making me want to punch his face. “Well, it’s fine for him I guess. But Draken told me about Daragon missing out school a few years ago. I thought I'd try to fulfill that wish of his.”
I stopped in my tracks to think about what Relic had just revealed. I ran upstairs quietly.
‘Draken wanted me to go school? He knows how much I hated it so why.’ I thought to myself before turning my attention to the full moon. I was mesmerised by it. Its gaze, drawing me closer.
----------------------------------------
That was how I felt as I made contact with her pearly white eyes. The girl lended her hand out to help me up. Her name was Nayla. She had long black hair, tied up with a ponytail. She was taller than me at about 150cm or 4’11. I was only 142cm.
“Thank you but I can stand up fine.” I looked to the side, embarrassed. At age 10, I had already built up pride. I glared at the boy who tripped me, Haruun. He had a fade haircut. I didn’t think about it at the time, but he was really too much for his age.
I entered the classroom and the teacher, Ms Shermaine, told me to introduce myself. I really didn’t want to but she insisted. I went up to the front in order to introduce myself.
“My- my name is Da-Daragon.” I stuttered. The room was silent with eyes glaring at me intently. I felt their daggers piercing me “Hi…”
“Any questions, class?” Ms Shermaine asked.
“Are you a noble?” One of the kids, Zikri, questioned me. I didn’t know why he asked me that since I wasn’t really well known.
“I don’t see myself as one but my family is a Baron family.”
“What’s the name?”
“Eccel.” I answered and the class was in an uproar. The Eccel Family was one that turned a lot of heads. My father was the first Malay to reach Knighthood for the British Empire while my mother was an extremely intelligent and accomplished Combat Mage. Both of which died when I was 2.
“Then are you good at magic and fighting?” Haruun asked me this time.
“No, I can’t use Magic. I have N-”
“You’re a cripple?” He said as he laughed at me. Half the class laughed and the other just stared at me. My heart was palpitating at a rate I didn’t know was humanly possible. I started sweating. My train of thought was being derailed before someone spoke up.
“Hey! That’s not nice.” Nayla said. “He has a serious condition that affects millions!”
Haruun and the others just scoffed at her. And that was when I made my first ‘friend’ in school.
During free time, I was about to leave the classroom before Haruun and some other boys approached me.
“Listen here kid.” Haruun said as he grabbed a chair and blocked my path outside.
“Kid? I’m literally the same age as you.”
“I was born in January, now shut up.” He commanded. “You think just because you’re rich and can afford a uniform makes you better than us?”
“Better? I thought everyone had to wear a uniform. My brother gave it to me.”
“Shut up. This is what’s going to happen. You’re going to give me all your money or else we’ll mess you up.”
“No.” Looking back on it, a conversation like that between 10 year olds felt more like a high school bully situation. Except I wasn’t the protagonist.
Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
I was outnumbered and outpowered. He roughed me up but nothing too serious that needed medical attention. He took all my money which was about 30 pounds. I had no idea what Draken was thinking of, giving a 10 year old that amount now that I think about it.
I sat alone outside, without any food to eat. That was when a wrapped sandwich appeared beside me. Nayla gave it to me and I refused but this time she insisted.
“Thank you.” I responded and she smiled back.
----------------------------------------
My concentration broke when Aisha entered the room. I turned to look at her and jumped off the ledge into my room. I didn’t really hear what she said at first.
“Are you also here to convince me to go back to school?” I asked her after remembering her conversation with Relic.
“I know it’s a sore spot for you, but you need to.”
“For what? I already learnt everything and 99% of it is useless in real life. Especially since I’m not able to use Mana.”
“I know how good you are but there’s one thing college can grant you that you won’t find here.”
“Oh yeah and what’s that?” I said sarcastically.
“Friends your age.” Aisha tried to answer me with that stupidity.
“I don’t need friends my age. Three’s a crowd.” I faced her while answering.
“Daragon, you and I both know that’s not the right use of that expression.” Daragon pouted in response to her argument. “Well, I tried my best I guess.”
Aisha left me alone as I gazed into the moonlight.
“Friends my age... I remember the last time I tried that.”
----------------------------------------
I was thrown against the wall while vomiting out blood from my mouth.
“Stay away from Nayla.” Haruun warned me.
“Why? Because you like her?” I retaliated
“Don’t say I didn’t warn you.” Haruun replied with a sucker punch to my gut. I immediately fell to the floor.
The only upside was, he didn’t take my money this time. When I woke up, I was in the infirmary with Nayla by my side. She was blissfully asleep.
“Nayla?” I called out.
“Hm?” She woke up like she’d been sleeping for hours which was weird since when I looked at the clock, barely half an hour past. “Oh, you’re up!”
“Yeah... I am.” I chuckled as she giggled.
“Daragon, want to go out later?” She asked me.
I was flustered for a second and blurted out ‘yes’. With that, I secured a date.
When I told Draken, he seemed ecstatic. I told him about how I wanted to look nice and he brought me to Tom. Apparently Tom had experience dressing people up.
“So?” Tom asked me.
I stood in front of the mirror. I had slicked back hair and was wearing a tuxedo. Looking back, I looked like an actual nerd that Relic accused me of being but it didn’t matter. Because nothing could ruin my day.
“Here.” Draken said. He gave me the equivalent of half a grand. Honestly, my brother didn’t know the value of money that well but I was too high on ecstacy to realise.
“Thanks!”
I went off to my ‘date’. I waited for her at the park and there she was. She was beautiful. We tried to go to a fancy restaurant but they wouldn’t allow 10 year olds alone.
Instead, we just adventured the town unsupervised. We had a lot of fun. We bought some lollipops for a meal and ate it on the bench. I looked at her as her smile blew me away. That was before her face was struck with terror. I turned to see what made her frightened but all I saw was a bunch of people.
“Hey Daragon, I know a place where we can have way more fun.” She said, holding my hands. She was trembling but I was too caught up with her holding my hand to care.
“Sure!” I barked.
The sun had just set and Nayla led me to a back alley. I could see some people eyeing us. There were a lot of them. It made me uncomfortable but the way she held my hand reassured me.
We made it to a warehouse. There were big cans which were lit on fire.
“Are you sure this is the right place?” I asked as Nayla made a fake smile.
I saw some familiar faces. The group of people from before. Now that I thought about it, I had seen their faces a lot on our date. I just assumed it was a small world. There was a large man at the front who held another small girl, maybe my age or older. She had piercing green eyes and silky white hair though. It reminded me of Draken’s white patches.
“Come to papa Nayla.” The man said. Nayla twitched and went to him, letting go of my hand. He grabbed her and lifted her from her bottom.
“Hey! Nayla, where are you going?” I asked.
She smiled but it wasn’t the warm affectionate smile I saw before. Was this her real smile?
“You didn’t think she actually liked you did you?” All of them with the exception of the silver hair and Nayla started cackling at me. “She was just baiting you. She’s a cold, callous and heartless little bitch just like her daddy. You’re a noble so the price for ransom would be pretty high.”
I looked at Nayla for answers and all she could do was force a smile on her face. I felt defeated. They continued laughing at me. Their stares felt like daggers on me.
Enraged, I tackled him. I saw the others running towards me but he held his hand up, as if to command them to stop, and kicked me to the wall.
“You coward Nayla!” I roared.
“Shut up!” Nayla shouted. “You act all high and mighty. You think I have a choice? Everyone here is an orphan. The only difference is we weren’t fed a silver spoon by anyone. You get £30 a day. I’m lucky to even get that in a year!”
I just ran to her again and I got kicked again. Again, I ran and again I got kicked. Each and every time.
“Damn you’re a sorry ass.” The man responded. “Ain’t that right Priscilla?”
The silver haired girl just stared at me. I got up again. I just kept running at him. He kicked me into a wall.
“All right. Fun’s over.” He said, walking over. I then heard a loud thud as a shadow loomed over me.
The moon’s brilliance radiated as I saw a glimpse of who it was. I crawled to his legs as he lifted me up. Draken. His hands felt warm. It made me forget about all the pain I felt. Tom appeared next to him. I hugged him tightly.
“I want to go home.” I cried.
“I know. Just give me a minute.” He said, gently letting me down. I blinked and Draken vanished in front of the man.
Draken punched his face so hard that he went flying, breaking the wall. Draken and Tom’s eyes fell on them. Both of them were the opposite of the warm exterior I saw at home. Instead, they were rageful.
I don’t remember much else. In fact, I have a lot of gaps in my memories. Mostly because of the intensive therapy Draken made me go through to forget. However, parts of it remain. Instead of going to school, I continued my past habit of skipping it. I took the national exams when I was 11 and passed them meaning that I didn’t need to go to school anymore.
----------------------------------------
Tom entered the room.
“Are you here to convince me to go to school like Aisha?”
“No. I just wanted you to know, Aisha doesn’t know what happened to you. That’s why she doesn’t understand you. Only me and Dr- Only I know.” Tom paused. That’s right. Only Tom and I knew.
I almost forgot Draken was gone. This entire thing distracted me from his death. Was this a bad thing? Or a good thing? I really didn’t know. I sighed.
“Actually Tom. I’ve decided that I want to go.”
“Are you sure?” Tom raised an eyebrow, confirming my sudden decision.
“Yeah but next year. I’m still 16 you know? It’d be weird if a 16 year old suddenly transferred to college.”
“So what are you going to do in the meantime?”
“Travel.” I answered him. “Draken made a promise to travel with me but he can’t keep it so I’m going to go for the both of us.”
“You’re going to go alone?”
“I don’t know, but you’re still on vacation Tom. Don’t worry about it.” I tried my best to reassure him. “I’ll ask Relic to teach me about magic while we’re at it.”
“Daragon, not to be rude but-”
“It’s alright Tom. It’s a different type of magic.” I gazed intensely at the moon. The brilliant moonlight reflected on my skin. I took a deep breath. “Tom.”
Tom who was ready to leave but stopped mid-way. I got up from the window and hugged him.
“I’m sorry about before. Draken might not be here but I hope you continue being a part of my family.” I smiled at him.
I felt sweat on my shoulder but this time, I was sure it was coming from a good place.
----------------------------------------
“I’ll go to school.” I paused, facing Relic. “If you teach me real magic.”
“Oh. Well that’s going to be hard.”
“What? Why?”
“Because I have to leave. Remember? The whole wallet thing?” He shook his wallet.
“Well that won’t be a problem. I’ll just follow you.”
“B-”
“I have money.”
“Alright!” Relic suddenly sang a different tune.
“So, where exactly are we going?”
“I don’t know actually.”
“Wait then why are you going?”
“To find someone.” He answered.
“Who?” I asked curiously.
“My son, Encil.”