A dry, cold wind was blowing above the streets of an old, forgotten town. The withering silence of the night was only broken by a few stray dogs, fighting for almost rotten food, and the whispering of the wind.

And in this wind, unnoticed by anyone, was an ethereal cloud, almost as if thought given form, flowing like a piece of wood in the ocean, undisturbed by the birds flying through it, and ignoring all the architecture in its wake, until it reaches a certain someone. An orphan, so malnourished his ribs seem to almost poke through his skin, sleeping on a few pieces of cloth in a moldy wooden room, so degraded by the years that it did little to stop the wind.

As the cloud touched the kid, inclined to do so by nothing other than chance, it quickly enters his body, fusing with his soul, and so, he wakes up.

"A mortal?" The kid says, not even bothering to move, merely opening his eyes and looking around, analyzing the room he is in "And such a deplorable one at that, they truly do not care about the ones that are to come next? For ones with such a limited lifespan… but now is not the time, I have things more important than contemplating the nature of mortals."

Self-analysis

"As expected, focus and mental power have no correlation with memory, which explains why my parallel minds collapsed, probably a self-defense mechanism so the brain isn't damaged. I will have to work this body up from almost nothing, I can't believe I managed to get myself killed by… by…" As he tries to remember the words, the boy finally moves, lifting his torso off the ground, grunting from pain, and using one of his arms to cover the side of his head and the other to hold himself up "Shit, I'm losing my original memories… well, those aren't 'original' since this isn't my body. I guess this leaves only one option… at least this way I can leave something behind." Then closing his eyes again, he furrows his brows to concentrate, and the air around him seemly stops, as if the space itself has been affected by whatever he did.

Magical awakening

"Yes, finally, to encrypt the techniques before I forget them."

Mental Lock

"Shit." The boy says, falling on his back, covered in sweat "Just that took so much effort, you brat better be grateful. Now, what should I do with the rest? The kid does seem a little… passive in life, understandable for someone growing up so close to the front, but certainly not someone I want to inherit my knowledge, I guess I can change that. I could modify his memory to change his personality or… I could try something better; if it works. Lucky kid… And remember, child! Go towards the bright light falling from the sky! There you will find… Something. I've forgotten what by now, but I know it will change your life for the better."

Mind Alteration

Then, the child fell asleep, overwhelmed by exhaustion, his mind overtaxed. Yet that same mind shall soon find itself experiencing more than it ever thought possible.

—

Waking up with a powerful headache, the kid tried recalling what had occurred that night. He could remember it, despite the memories of whoever that was disappearing, the ones of what happened were his. But even then, he could not understand what had happened. Years of little to no interaction with others, only to occasionally beg for food whenever he'd see someone in this deserted town, had left him with very low thinking skills. However, the one thing he knew was that he should follow a 'light'. What that light was he had yet to figure out, however, but he'd do anything if it meant something better than struggling to survive every day, assuming the one from yesterday was to be trusted of course.

So, he went outside, a little later than he would usually wake up, probably due to the blackout he had. But, before he could try and search for a way to get food, yet again like all the other days in the past, he saw it, the light. Falling from the sky, maybe a few hundred meters away, was a beacon of light. Whatever that was, it was clear that it must be the 'light' that was mentioned, so he started heading towards it without thinking further.

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There were few people on the way, as this wasn't a very active area, most being the same as him, struggling to survive day after day in the slums, but as he got close to the light, he realized he could not hear anyone no more. Looking around, people would, for some reason, either turn around or take another route when reaching a certain point.

After the final turn in the road, no longer hidden by the row of houses, he could see what the light pointed at. The alley was relatively clean, almost as if untouched, with no trash or bugs. And in the middle, there were 2 people, a man, and a woman, standing around a small stone disk, which was right in the middle of the beacon. Both of them were weird looking, as the woman had vibrant, red hair seemingly flowing from her head, and wore a red-brown robe, while the man has short, yellow hair and wore a simple blue shirt and a leather vest. These types of clothing, and these hair colors, are not something the boy has seen before.

Taking notice of him, the woman turned to look at him and smirked before speaking "Look, Nik! We got a wild one after all!"

With a snort, Nik replied "Really, Amy? Why do you have to word it that way? And why assume so fast that he's…" But before continuing, he finally takes a look at the kid.

"Well, he doesn't strike me as a young mage that got lost, does he-" Amy replies, before getting interrupted by him.

"Yea yea, I got it. No need to deepen the wound now." Nik said as he started walking towards the boy. "Now, kid, just stand still for a second…"

Then, he put his hand on the boy's face as he simply stood there, not knowing what to do, and closed his eyes for almost a minute, before getting up again and facing the woman.

"11 years old, orphan, can't find parents in his memories. Oh, and his name is Sebastian." He said as he closed his eyes with a smirk.

"Got it, anything abnormal? Or is it a natural awakening?" Amy asked as she crossed her arms.

"That's how it looks. Went to sleep, woke up, and suddenly started seeing magic." Nik nodded, his smile growing even more, but Sebastian was still unable to figure out the reason. "I already called for transport. We'll finally finish this task."

"You tell me, I didn't even have to go with you, but you kept talking about being ambushed like the silver spoon kid you are." She snickered, amused.

"Can you stop with this? There's no reason to mock me at every opportunity, and we're near the front, you should…" But before being able to finish, a man covered entirely by a dark robe, wearing a blank white mask appeared in front of him. "Oh, you got here…"

"Is this the wild awakened?" The masked man asked him.

"Yes. I read hi-"

Then, Sebastian couldn't hear him anymore, as he was inside a room, with the masked man in front of him talking.

"Someone will arrive soon to guide you further. Wait." And then he was gone, disappearing without a trace, the same way he appeared. And despite looking directly at him, Sebastian found it quite hard to figure out exactly when exactly he disappeared. This whole day has been more confusing than a dream to him.

Looking around, Sebastian was situated inside a long hallway, wide enough for a few men to pass through shoulder to shoulder, with doors on either end and a few on the sides. The door he was situated next to also had a few chairs near, but before he could figure out their purpose, said door opened, and a young man with dark-brown hair greeted him.

"Oh, you're Sebastian, right? Come inside, sorry for the confusion you must be facing, Adam… the masked man you saw, really doesn't like this job." He said as his eyes drifted off for a few seconds before focusing again on Sebastian "Regardless, come. There's one more person that arrived in the same situation as you, so you're not alone, don't worry."

Inside, Sebastian indeed saw another kid, a little older than him, but despite that, and the clothes on him being actual clothes and not rags, he was normal looking, sporting a confused and innocent look, probably just like he was. The room looked like an office, but much higher in quality than he has ever seen, with shelves full of books, and a desk with 2 wooden chairs for the other kid and himself to sit on. As the man closed the door behind him and sat on the opposite side, he began speaking.

"Hello to you two, my name is Markus, a teacher at the academy you are currently in, but please call me Mark. As both of you might have noticed, strange things have begun happening around you, but they were simply things you weren't able to see before, like the beacon of light that brought you here. That, kids, was due to magic. Unfortunately, magic is a very dangerous tool, so you have been brought here to be taught how to use it, otherwise, you pose a danger to yourselves and others, so you will have to stay here for a while. At the Venesicia Academy."