╚╩╩╩╝ Prince Malcolm Kiech ╚╩╩╩╝

Laying in my bed in the early morning, I tried to organize my thoughts. I had gone to bed frustrated the past night, hoping that my mood would improve in the morning, but it hadn’t. It’s been more than a month since Hazel and I came to the College, looking for any clues about where my sister would have disappeared to or why, but so far we’d found nothing. Any attempts that I had made to get closer to any of the Magical Engineering students had failed.

What’s more, I had not seen Hazel for a few days. I knew that if she was in any danger, that I would know. However, I’d felt nothing over these past few days, so I assumed that everything was alright, though that didn’t stop me from worrying about not seeing her.

“Hurry up in there, we don’t want to be late!” My roommate, Avery, shouted through my closed door.

I had not expected, being a noble student, to share my dorm with anyone, so I was surprised to see Avery when I entered the room. The boy was a few years older than I was at eighteen and had wavy, cyan hair and eyes to match. He was the oldest son of the Strahg barony. Avery was quite the womanizer. He often had girls visit under the pretext of studying, but I would often find him and whichever unfortunate girl he had with him studying the insides of each others mouths. The sight of it made me uncomfortable every time, but he was adamant of teaching me his ways. Though he insisted on waiting until I turned sixteen since, in his words, “nobody your age should be doing this stuff.” I found it hypocritical, but as long as he wasn’t bugging me now, I was fine. Other than all of that, the boy was very much like the older brother I never had.

Climbing out of bed, I dressed quickly and stepped out of my room to find Avery leaning up against the wall right by the front door. Flashing me a grin, he stepped over to our modest table and gestured to a plate of food.

“Nothing beats a hot breakfast early in the morning.” The boy explained with a wide grin. “I’ve already eaten mine, so eat up and get ready, then we’ll head out.”

Students in the college are required to provide for their own meals, whether it be from the canteen or home cooked in the modest kitchen provided in each room. I hadn’t expected it, but Avery cooked for the both of us in the morning. I’d had canteen food, which was very good, but Avery’s was somehow far better than food made by renowned chefs. Any time I tried to refuse his generosity, he would stop me and explain that it was only fair since he had me wake up so early. It was currently around five-thirty in the morning. It took me some time to adjust to his schedule, but I soon found it to be incredibly refreshing. The reasoning behind him having me wake up with him is that in order for a student to check out of the dorm earlier than the normal time, their roommate must accompany them. Avery wasn’t sure what the reasoning behind this was, so I just accepted it and used the extra time in my mornings to study while he did his usual morning routine.

Finishing up, we left our dorm. Living near the top floor of the men’s dorm, the trek down to the ground floor was more than enough for a daily workout, but that wasn’t enough for Avery. Our first stop was the twenty-four hour gym provided for students.

Watching just how hard Avery would work out would make me feel sore. It was rough to watch sometimes, but we needed to be within sight of each other, or we would both be in trouble.

Sitting a short distance away from him, I read through the notes I had been taking in the Battle Magic classes. I’d only enrolled in the class to find my sister, but I quickly found the knowledge given to be worth the effort. These past two weeks had been hands-on since there would be a practical exam in just a couple of days. It’s supposed to be some kind of tournament to show our efforts. Every first year is required to participate, so I’d been preparing and was hoping that Hazel would join me for practice.

Sighing, I put my notes back into my bag and stood up. I’d gone through every note, every subject they’d given us dozens of times and could recite them from memory. Studying like this wasn’t going to do me any good in the practical exam. I needed a more hands-on kind of studying.

“Where you off to?” Avery asked, putting away the weight plates that he had just finished using.

“Oh, sorry. I was hoping to practice my magic.” I explained, embarrassed that I had forgotten about the rules.

“Oh, cool.” He nodded. “It has been a while since I last practiced. I’ll join you.”

Avery walked past me and over to a set of double doors, shoved them open and waved me over.

Past these doors was an enormous open plaza. The area was centered inside the building, closed off on all sides by the gym’s high walls. There were already a few people out here training, but the area was large enough that didn’t have to worry about getting in each others ways.

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Stepping near the center of our little area, Avery called me over, explaining, “You’ve got the freshman tourney coming up, right. I’ll give you some tips.” He pointed to the ground just in front of where he stood. “This tourney will be a series of single duels. You will stand directly in front of each other,” he turned on his heel and took a step in the other direction, further explaining, “you will have fifteen seconds to find a position, then the duel will start.”

“And there will be both mages and warriors participating, right?” I asked.

“Yes.” Avery answered, snapping back to face me. “There will also be opponents of varying rank, but as I’m sure they’ve drilled into you, rank only matters if you can act calmly and efficiently.”

“Yes, they’ve explained it to me.” I replied.

“Seeing as how you’re a mage, you’ll have it rougher if you can’t keep your head on straight.” He started. “Circumstances change very quickly, and you need to adapt just as fast. Let’s say that you’re facing off against an indigo warrior, how should you act at first?”

“I need to get as far away as I can and find an open area where I can find the warrior if they try a sneak attack.” I answered. “I’ve already done all the theoretical stuff. I need real practice.”

“I see that, but how do you know if you’re capable of making these decisions in battle, when you’re surrounded by three opponents and being attacked?” He asked.

“That’s what I’m trying to do. How will I know what to improve if I don’t try?”

Sighing, Avery waved me over. “I didn’t want to do a mock battle, but if you’re that sure, then okay.”

“Thank you.”

Shaking his head, Avery replied. “Don’t thank me yet.”

Standing close enough that I could just barely touch him, Avery started counting down and the both of us darted away from each other. The rules stated that auras couldn’t be called until the fifteen seconds were up, since it would give warriors an unfair advantage. Stopping once I had counted to fifteen, I spun around to see that my opponent had barely moved from the starting position. He had dashed a short distance, then stopped. Then, the both of us called our auras.

Avery was a blue rank warrior with lots of fighting experience from his two years in Battle Magic. Seeing the blue aura wrap around his body, I swallowed hard and thought back to what he had last said, hoping that he would go a little easy on me.

My aura had remained purple since it had last changed, but that was because I had not put much effort into improving it. The only work I had done was figuring out how to control the strange power of the Dragonstone. Activating my aura now felt like laying another layer of aura on top of the first, but I was able to stop the warriors aura from manifesting. Using both drained my mana at an incredible rate and often left me feeling sick.

Taking the initiative, I summoned a Magic Ring and started casting. Quickly, I finished the spell as an arrow made of ice formed in the air and fired at Avery. Despite the projectile coming straight at him, the boy remained straight-faced and, when the spell was within reach, he swatted at it, smashing the ice into tiny particles. Shocked, I quickly cast another spell and watched as he tilted his head and leapt into the air, just as the ground shot up at where he had just been standing, landing directly on top of the affected dirt.

Suddenly, Avery darted forward, moving at a warrior’s enhanced speed, he would catch me in a matter of seconds, so I had to act quickly. I cast another spell and waited, hoping for it to work. Then, mid-stride, Avery’s legs sunk into the ground. Frowning, he reached out to the side, pressing against the non-affected dirt and quickly pulled himself from my trap.

“Very creative.” He complimented. “But you’re showing your inexperience.”

Reaching down, he scooped up some of the liquefied dirt and hurled it at me. Flinching, I stumbled and nearly fell over, but stopped as Avery reached out and caught me by my nose. Yelping in pain, I righted myself and knocked his hand away.

“Your casting speed is alright, and you’re the first freshman I’ve seen to use traps, but you’re awful at combat.” He stated bluntly. “Which is better than most others your age.”

“So what do I need to do to improve?” I asked, rubbing my nose.

“If your opponent can see what spells you’re using, then they can negate them or act against them, like I did. You need to hide your spells. You don’t have to stick your arms out to cast them.” He explained, sticking his arms out mockingly. “And most mages I’ve faced have been able to keep spells going mid sprint, so you’re going to need to work on your focus. Most of your opponents are going to be rich kids with tutors who teach them this stuff, but seeing as how we’re roommates, I’ll be your tutor.”

“You will?” I asked, excited.

“Don’t get too excited.” He warned. “I’ve been told that I’m a bit of a harsh teacher.”

“Why did they tell you that?” I asked, excitement turned to worry.

“Don’t worry about that.” He brushed off my question. “Now, as your first lesson, you need to do twenty laps around this courtyard, while casting spells.”

Hearing his first order, I realized just how much I was about to put myself through.

It was a horrible three hours, and I barely managed to get all twenty laps done before the bell rung for the morning ceremony. We had fifteen minutes to make it out to the main courtyard. Quickly washing, Avery and I made it out to where the enormous crowd was gathering and waited.

The morning ceremony only occurred every Saturday, and lasted around twenty minutes, but it felt like I was standing for hours. Seeing Principal Leonte come out to speak brought back memories that certainly didn’t help my pain.

After the ceremony finished, I relaxed my body, tensing immediately after I realized that I was about to collapse. Avery patted me on the back and congratulated me for a job well done before running off after a girl.

Saturdays were a half-free day. Students are expected to complete every weekly necessity on Saturday such as laundry, grocery shopping as well as any other like chore since the on-campus shops were closed every other day. Pushing out every chore I needed to complete in the day, I decided to pay Hazel a visit to see how she was doing.