It was actually a pretty pleasant day, so yes, he was wrong.
Rob stared at his reflection in the mirror, he grabbed the sides of his head, scrutinized his face and hair, and pinched the bottom of his chin as he furrowed his brows in distress. From the middle of his scalp was a clear line, with his long messy hair cut and trimmed down to a more appropriate length and swept to the left and right. It was a midpart, a goddamn midpart, an idol-esque hairstyle that reminded him way too much of his first life’s younger sister.
His younger sister, for the lack of a better term, was a mentally gifted fan of a certain group of hot male idols and would spend some money to support the aforementioned group by buying merch, attending concerns by flying to another country, etc.
Rob didn’t mind it all that much, honestly, but it did bother him a lot in his first life that his dear little sister acted in such a depraved way. So, when he stared at himself in the mirror and saw a handsome face that had the same general feel as those idols, it boded a few negative feelings within him.
“What, you don’t like it?” Elaine stared at Rob’s face as she wore a playful grin.
Rob looked at her, her appearance had also changed a lot. If he were to give a general term to the new vibe she had, it would be a… tomboy? Yes, a tomboy. Her hair had been cut short just right at the base of her neck, rather than her previous waist-length hair. It also resembled the tomboy haircut he had seen in his first life, and numerous other lives in the home reality he had been born in where he had lived as a human.
I was wondering why so many universes had humans in them. Now, looking back at it, it was just a species preference by that little loser. So much for being a Higher Existence. Rob snorted as a memory appeared in his mind again. It was that satisfying feeling when that little cunt finally died, the way that reality just disintegrated into nothingness was a catharsis for sure. It was as if he was wiping out all of the bad blood he had, killing everything that had opposed him over the course of countless years. It was the ultimate revenge.
Sadly, one problem led to another. He still had to face the onslaught of multiple Higher Existences and his journey at that point was far from over. So many hurdles to face, so many things to comprehend, and so many things he had to do over and over again over the course of multiple incarnations before he finally landed on that jackpot and ascended to the supreme throne.
As he heard his sister’s teasing question, Rob swept his hair and flicked her on the forehead. “It’s fine.”
“Ow!” Elaine pouted her lips as she rubbed her forehead. She had realized just how much Rob loved to flick her on the forehead, it was a sort of habit at this point.
“Come on, let’s buy some ice cream before we head home. We still have some time left to enjoy the day with,” said Rob. He then realized something as he pointed at Elaine’s face. “Wait, where’s your shades? Where’s your hat?”
“Don’t worry, don’t worry!” Elaine responded with a confident grin. “Can’t a girl show off her looks for a day?”
“Oh? Where did the shy little girl go to who can’t handle the looks of other guys?” Rob wore a bemused grin as he - with a chuckle - put on her cap which he grabbed from the nearby table.
“Hmph, I was just overreacting. Now, let’s go already!” Elaine inwardly squealed in excitement. Ice cream… I haven’t had one in years!
When the two walked out of the salon, Rob felt a stir in his soul as eyes gazed upon him, and his sister, like hawks. Rob didn’t care much about fame or glory, so when he could sense the emotions of attraction and envy directed toward him, he was a bit annoyed. Being the center of attention wasn’t really something he wanted or needed.
Elaine, though at first enjoyed the attention, started to grow bored of it after a short while. Luckily, the streets turned more lively a few minutes later when they had already bought their ice cream, and they blended in well enough to not stand out.
“Ugh, it felt like I was an animal at a zoo or something,” Elaine huffed.
“An animal at a zoo?” Rob wore an amused grin. He had been an animal at a zoo many times too, and all he could say was that it was pretty fun, having free food given to you while all you had to do was ignore the gazes of those bored fellows.
“Hey,” said Elaine as she looked to the side and stopped walking. She pointed at the distant golden gate off into the distance, and asked, “Isn’t that the academy?”
Rob’s gaze followed her finger as he answered with a muffled yes. He was too busy enjoying his basic vanilla ice cream drizzled with some sweet syrup, but as he was about to take another bite into his cream, he widened his eyes and mumbled, “It should be fine… right?”
“What’s fine?” Elaine asked, curious as to what the random question Rob gave to the air like a little weirdo imposed and meant.
“Hey,” Rob said and ignored her question. Instead, he responded with another question, “You wanna look around the academy with me?”
“Uh huh, look around…,” Elaine chortled as she rolled her eyes.
“Okay, you got me,” said Rob. He raised his arms to the air, and he wore a toothy grin that didn’t sit right with Elaine. “I was just curious, you know.”
“Curious for what, exactly?” Elaine squinted her eyes and crossed her arms.
“Your aptitude. For magic,” Rob answered as he widened his grin.
“Ohhh!” Elaine almost shook her head at the unneeded suspense. “You should have just said so, but is it even allowed? I’m an outsider, you know,” Elaine emphasized the words you know, a phrase Rob habitually used in his sentences.
“It’s gonna be fine!” Rob waved his hands as he already began to walk toward the golden gates. “They’ll probably accept if we pay a little fee, maybe they’ll even allow us to use it for free since I’m a student there!”
“Fine, fine,” said Elaine. “But I ain’t helping you out if we get into any mess, alright?”
“Sheesh!” Rob laughed. “I told you to not worry! I got this.”
…
“Ugh, so much paperwork, so much work!” an old man groaned in exhaustion as he leaned back on his chair. On the table in front of him, multiple floating pens hovered around as ink was splattered in graceful handwriting. “Prestige this, glory that, but they don’t realize just how much work there is for the principal!”
Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
“Tsk, I cannot wait to retire once I turn 100. A few years left, after that, that little Emperor would have no more excuses. I’ll enjoy my retirement, wandering around the entire world, eating delicacies I haven’t tried yet, go fishing in the vast oceans, then die peacefully without any family members,” he said with a rather longing grin. He could already vividly imagine the life he’ll live, free from worries and responsibility from work.
Yes. The old man who complained like a whiny kid was none other than Christopher Laum, the legendary principal of the Vizwel Royal Academy and a powerful archmage, given the title - Archmage of the Four Elements.
He had received that title with his great talent for fire, water, earth, and wind, four elements which he had developed and refined over the course of his lifetime. His long white beard and wrinkly skin were more than enough proof for his age.
Christopher Laum appeared as what you would think when you hear the words archmage. An old man with flowy white hair and a majestic beard overflowing with sageliness. He had a particular fondness for his beard, it was an old tradition he had received from his predecessors, although a beard isn’t as popular to the mages of the new generation.
They’d rather look younger and younger, deluding themselves into the illusion of youth. Hmph, ignorant lots. A mage must appear wise and old, like me! Oh, how tragic for this tradition to come to an end.
As he stared outside the window of his office, observing the surprisingly crowded academy grounds with students still roaming around, albeit in casual clothes. They’re mostly the ones who lived in the school dorms, hence the high amount.
He rubbed his beard, joyfully laughing at the new generation that would be given the title of alumnus when they finally graduate from school. Yet, when he was looking around, his eyes blinked in surprise when he saw a strange sight.
It was a strange sight indeed.
Walking down an empty stone road, a young boy with a muscular build and dazzling good looks licked on ice cream with a pair of shades on. He appeared rather happy as he conversed with the girl beside him, a girl with looks on par with the young man.
She had a boyish vibe, with neck-length black hair and crimson red eyes that gave her the same feeling of a thorny rose. But in stark contrast to her general vibe, she wore a playful grin on what would be a cold and impassive face.
“A couple? Hohoho, youth indeed, but how come I’ve never seen them before? A pair as good-looking as them would be the talk of the school for quite some time,” Christopher mumbled in slight curiosity. Deciding to solve this little mystery, he grabbed the glasses on his desk, placed them over his face, and used the spell placed on it to search for who the student was.
Maybe they aren’t a student? I have a pretty good memory, and I can even remember the names and general appearance of all the students that had graduated from this school since the time it was created. It was due to my memory that I have such deep foundations in the four elements, after all. Christopher did doubt that maybe his memory was a bit spotty, but with their striking appearance, he believed that they were more likely to be random strangers just wandering the school grounds for entertainment.
But, when a name popped up on top of the boy’s head and a general profile appeared in his vision, along with a picture, Christopher almost leaped up in shock and shouted ‘Sorcery!’ from sheer bewilderment.
W-What’s this? That guy is Rob Fortune? This Rob Fortune, this ugly-ass goofball?
Christopher’s gaze moved from the picture floating in front of him to the guy walking down the road. It was a stark difference, like the difference between night and day. One appeared like a loser who had zero charisma, the other appeared like a guy who’d woo over a hundred girls with ease.
The height, the jawline, the hair, the literal shine in their eyes, it was so different that Christopher believed the glasses were wonky, but nope! They were fine! The guy was truly Rob Fortune according to the glasses.
“Damn, puberty saved this boy’s life!” Christopher rubbed his chin as he gave a playful laugh. But then, he saw the two stop at a certain building, the same building where the Aptitude Scale machines were stored in. “Oh? Are they planning on testing out the girl’s talent?”
“Hmm, why don’t I check it out myself? This should be rather interesting,” said Christopher. Even though he reasoned in his mind that it was to ensure the safety of his student, it was more so because he wanted to escape from work for a little bit and enjoy life.
So, with no one to stop him other than responsibility, he burst into bright flames and disappeared.
…
Rob gave a handful of silver coins to the lady who was the clerk for the building and returned back to Elaine with a grin. “See? Told you so.”
“Wow… That’s expensive,” Elaine mumbled as she stared at the pouch of coins, previously full of money that had now been drained.
“Yeah, 10 silver coins is pretty high. They should lower it down to 5 silver coins, but maybe the machine uses some kinda system that uses some resources to operate, maybe mana crystals? No, wait, that’s stupid. It should be using the natural ambient mana in the academy!” Rob shook his head. The academy is highly dense in mana, which is one of the main reasons why students lived in the school dorm. Because of the numerous dungeons placed inside the school, and how dungeons naturally leak out mana into the outside world, the academy is overflowing with mana.
“Let’s just do the stupid test already,” reminded Elaine. She wasn’t dumb enough to think she’d have some sort of talent for this kind of thing. After all, both of her parents were nothing more than normal civilians, or in Rob’s words, powerless meat bags that even a child could kill with relative ease.
“Okay, okay.” Rob was about to walk up into the room when an old man wearing a white long-sleeved shirt and light blue overalls walked up to them with a smile and opened the door for him.
“Good afternoon to you two. I’ll be operating the scale from outside, so you two don’t have to worry about any privacy problems, and I’ll be right here if any accident were to occur,” said the old man.
“Oh? The school’s more thorough than I thought…,” Elaine mumbled in slight surprise.
“I bet they’re just storing the data in a database of some sort and tricking us into thinking they don’t know the results of these tests,” Rob whispered in a not-so-whispery voice as he wore a teasing grin directed at the old man - and strangely enough, there was a dim golden luster to his ordinary dark brown eyes.
The old man quietly beamed a smile, but inwardly thought, Spot on, spot on! There wouldn’t even be an operator here because the scale is always on 24/7! As for accidents? There are always the golems to help with that.
The old man was indeed Christopher Laum, and unable to bear the guilt any further, he gave a light cough to urge the two to go inside and do the test.
Fortunately for him, Rob wasn’t in the right mood to enjoy his little jokes and just wanted to go home already, eat some dinner, and meddle with alchemy inside his room. Maybe he’ll even watch some magical television after dinner or finish the book he’d been reading.
“You remember what to do, right? Just touch the scale, and try not to resist the mana,” Rob reminded.
“Yes, you’ve said it already!” Elaine rolled her eyes over Rob’s caution. She then approached the strange pillar that rosed up to the ceiling, with a width much wider than her body. As she took a deep breath, she stretched out her hand and firmly placed her palms and fingers on the pillar.
The moment she did so, a strange current of energy flowed from the tips of her fingers down to her body and soul. Aptitude for the elements was mostly related to the soul of the mage, since the way magic worked in this world - due to the way it developed - the soul had a prominent presence in determining the natural talent of the mage.
In various other worlds, this could be far from the truth for their magic system. Perhaps there’s no restriction in the element and instead mages had differing talents in terms of learning speed or mana reserves, other worlds ranked talent based on the overall potential of a mage and how far they could reach.
It was a slight detail Rob found humorous. What a primitive magic system.
Just as his thoughts turned condescending, a bright crimson glow erupted from the pillar! The light was blinding and Rob had to close his eyes, but his heart skipped a beat as he realized what this event was.
He had already used Fortune Stealer to inspect the luck of the old guy from before. He wasn’t foolish enough to believe there was a random old guy who acted as an operator when the clerk from before didn’t say anything about there being an operator. And when he saw his astronomical S Rank luck, he already deduced who the man was.
So, what do you get when the principal of your school was there to witness the unveiling of your younger sister’s earth-shattering talent in a certain element of magic that was rare?
Well, you’d get an Opportunity!
“This… This!” the old man shouted with bloodshot eyes. When the light receded and Rob could open his eyes, the old man was already in front of his sister, desperately grabbing her hands as if he wasn’t willing to let her go, and shouted, “You… You must attend this academy!”
“No matter what, you must attend this academy!”