In an extravagantly decorated room with one window, it could be seen that there was a boy sitting in the lotus position. The sun was rising and its rays hit the child of no more than five-years-old. Feeling the rays of sunlight, the boy opened his eyes and from his azure eyes was excitement. He had been awaiting this day. The start of studies, though normally feared by children, was something that made his heart beat in expectation. He imagined all the things he could learn, inhaled deeply and then, after a few seconds, burst out laughing.

He couldn’t believe that he was excited to study. It was a funny thing as, from the fragments of the memories he had, he was a man that truly detested his studying. The man he once was, however, was forced to, so as to live a somewhat ‘bearable’ life. The boy, once a man, sighed. He really was pitiful in his previous life, to succumb to the will of society. Of course, that was only for his old life, he had no intention of doing the same now.

A slight creaking was heard and the door of the room opened, and from it peeked a tiny head. The boy’s face formed a smile and told the visitor to enter.

A girl around the same age as him entered the room, smiling just like him. The girl had golden locks just like him, had azure eyes just like him, had a lithe figure just like him, and wore a blue blouse and a white skirt unlike him. They were very similar and if their hair were of the same length and that if they wore matching clothes it would have been a difficult task to tell them apart.

“Hi Alice,” said the boy in a soft tone, “You excited?”

The girl, Alice, vigorously shook her head. The boy chuckled as he expected that answer.

“Wait, so you don’t want to learn magic?”

Alice’s eyes widened and she quickly waved her hands as if wanting to dispel her previous answer. A chuckle was heard and the petite girl blushed and pouted as she realized she had just been fooled by her brother.

The brother wiped his teary eyes caused by his laughter and, in a serious tone, said, “But, you know Alice, you have to be hard working if you want to be a mage as great as Tear the Magus or maybe even Arcus the Old.”

Alice, as she listened to her twin, looked up at him with shining and determined eyes. He, the brother, saw this sight and, once more, laughed.

She, in response, pouted again and after a few minutes of, as the boy called it, ‘play time’ they started to wait, in silence, for their respective teachers.

That silence soon broke as, after 15 minutes of waiting, no one came and they were bored. They soon resumed mucking around and their playing somehow took them to the garden. The garden was out in the open, allowing the sun to shine its bright light upon it and the ones in it. It was covered in flowers of a variety of colours and there were a lot of greenery and shrubbery that creeped in the place.

This was the boy’s favourite place. When he first saw it, the garden seemed magical to his eyes, captivating him. It was, however, nothing magical and the only reason he felt it so special was the fact that it was a complete contrast to his old way of living. It was vibrant, it was colourful, and best of all, it was natural. It was totally unlike the concrete buildings that towered over him in his past life, giving him a breath of fresh air. He was free. Free from the burden of society that was placed upon him unwillingly. He was free.

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Beside him, Alice made a questioning face, wondering what was so special about the garden to make his brother so uplifted. Sure, there were a lot of pretty flowers but it lost its magic once it was visited for around one hundred and forty-eight times. Not to mention that he always visited the garden every day, and she was truthfully becoming tired of it. So she grabbed the hem of his white shirt and motioned for him to move on. And so he did. Turning towards the drawing room, he proceeded to move.

En route, they passed by a couple of servants who greeted them accommodatingly. “Good morning, young master and young mistress,” they said with one asking if it was not too early for them to be awake.

“It’s fine,” the young master said, “there’s no need to worry, we were just a bit excited for what is going to happen.”

This reply received him a warm smile from the servant and another beckoning from her sister, which told him to hurry. It seemed that she was becoming quite impatient at the moment. Sighing, they reached their destination. The drawing room was a gigantic room with a well-crafted and designed oak table that fit a dozen chairs, exquisite paintings that livened up the place, a couple of flower vases filled with fresh flowers and a gold chandelier that lit up the room. Additionally, there were three windows that showed the view of the city from above. It was almost perfect except for one thing, there were no visitors. More specifically, no governess nor tutor was to be seen anywhere.

The pair of twins, in disappointment, sat down. Alice sat down with her eyes downcast, obviously saddened, and her brother who sat right beside her decided to entertain her. So he told her a tale. A tale of a man within a stone jungle.

Minutes passed, and the room was silent once again… or at least that it was supposed to be. A sobbing was heard within the room and the brother, who told the tale, thought about what he did.

Was it too much for her? Was she too young to hear it? Why did I do that? Wasn’t I supposed to cheer her up? How did I make such a huge blunder?

These thoughts bounced back and forth in his mind and he resolved to apologize to Alice for making her cry.

Sorry.

That was all he said and all he could do. He was inexperienced with these type of things thus he could only utter a single word of apology. He felt ashamed of himself yet what was he to do? The boy felt that there was no solution to his err.