"Law, where were you man? It strange of you to be so late." Rondell asked me as I waited outside by the door for them.

"Are you ok Law? Your clothes are torn? What happened?" Natasha clearly noticed the small details and questioned me even more deeply.

Damn, I can't tell them the truth, especially with Natasha here, since 3rd Prince John is still her brother, even if she doesn't talk about them much. I worry what she will do when she knows someone is targeting her brother, and if that woman finds out then it's all over.

"Just fought with a thief, who tried to steal from me. Don't worry about it. What did I miss?" I asked back trying to divert the topic.

"Nothing much just the same boring speech, except for prince John's speech. But you were there for that right? Best speech ever. People really should start doing what he does and stop boring us to death." Lewies replied as he stretched his lanky arms out, while Natasha furrowed her brows while remaining silent.

"I agree, with that. I thought I would have to endure another 1 hour of words dishing to my face, but thankfully we were saved. Hey, Natasha if you ever see his highness John say thanks to him for me will you?" Rondell asked Natasha.

"I told you although we are related by the emperor, us siblings are not close to each other. We don't talk with each other much let alone see each other, especially John." Natasha answered back with a frown.

"Although I agree with you Lewies that his highness had a short speech that made our lives better, he could have added more interesting vocabulary instead of using plain words." Ruby replied while pushing her glasses back.

"I agree it was too plain for a noble, especially for a prince, no offence guys." Ian responded agreeing with Ruby while looking at us apologetically.

"None taken, I understand what you mean" Ruby replied.

"Not to interfere with you political bla, bla, bla but can we go somewhere else? This place is getting too crowded." The talkative and gossipy Maisy spoke up as she saw that her personal space was getting smaller by the second.

We moved towards another spot away from the door after getting some small snacks and a drink each.

"You guys prepared for the exam then?" Ruby asked as she wiped her glasses slowly.

"Yeah, I have been training very hard for the past few weeks." Rondell replied as he fletched his muscles.

"You do realise that we might have theoretical exams as well?" Ian questioned Rondell whose excitement slowly disappeared.

"Yeah, I know. I did some revision." We laughed at our groups only so-called 'muscle brain'. Rondell was very bad at theoretical knowledge but when it came to practical he was a born genius, compared to most people, able to understand everything and anything once he tries it out.

"Hey, did you guys hear about what happened to Ellis?" Maisy suddenly brought up a topic which silenced all of us.

Ellis, also known as the talentless genius. The only magi apprentice who could understand both the practical and theoretical knowledge of higher-ranked magi spell perfectly. However, fate was against him due to his limited talent in magi accumulation, if not he would have been one of the few able to contend against me in this academy.

"What happened?" I quickly asked as I wanted to know what happened to one of the genii of the academy.

"I heard that he got beat up pretty bad and a few days later his mom died from her severe illness. Probably due to the sudden shock he received he quit the academy and went missing." Maisy replied back.

I was shocked at this information. "Was it Phil?" Lewies asked. Everyone knew that both Ellis and Phil fancied Ava, due to this Phil would end up doing unspeakable things to him, such as beating him up, breaking his bones. He couldn't even report him as Phil would make sure to heal him before he could report him, covering up all evidence and eye witness with his power and influence.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

We often kept an eye on Ellis inside the academy in order to stop Phil from doing anything against him, but Phil often found holes through our net and escaped our eyes.

"I don't know. But I bet it would be him." Maisy answered back.

I sighed at this. Ellis was a very quiet person keeping to himself and avoiding everyone else. Due to his solitary nature along with not wanting to offend Phil, people avoided him, making him a loner.

I often tried to talk to him and tried to offer help, but he simply shrugged it all and walked away.

"I hope he comes back safely." I murmured worriedly.

"Don't worry he is safe." Natasha suddenly chipped in surprising all of us.

Seeing all of suddenly whip our heads towards her, the beauty queen suddenly started getting nervous.

"I can't reveal much, but he is safe and doing well." She replied as she tried to smile us off.

"Why don't you tell me what happened to him, Tash? Girls secret." Maisy started poking around for information around the uncomfortable Natasha.

"She probably can't Maisy. Look at her struggling, she probably had to swear an oath." Ruby tried to pull back Maisy from Natasha.

Oath. Something only Magis are capable of doing.

Oath was the primary reason why most children aren't taught magi until after a certain age or until they seem mature and wise enough to their supervising adult or teacher.

There have been cases of immature children that have been taught magi to go around casually swearing oath for everything and later on ending up following the ridiculous oath they swore or facing the consequence of breaking an oath.

Oath once sworn has to be kept for their whole life. If it was broken then the Magi will have to face a constant barrage of their own magi particles attacks inside their body, while unable to cast even a single spell no matter the rank, till they die.

Swearing an oath is a great way of making sure one is loyal or honest to someone. However, oaths have also been known to throw relationships in chaos. If someone was asked to swear an oath, it is equal to doubting their integrity and honesty.

So, when someone swore an oath without anyone asking them of it, it was seen as a great act of courage and loyalty.

"Oh sorry." Maisy apologised seeing the seriousness of the situation.

"That means he is under the protection of a commandment if you had to swear an oath of secrecy. But what would a commandment family want with a talentless person like him?" Ian being one of the 3 nobles among our group tried to guess Ellis's situation.

"Many things man. Although he is talentless, he is a brilliant genius. One of the commandment family must have hired him to tutor their kids, in exchange for resources." Rondell guessed.

It must be true. All of the upper nobles, commandments and all the royal children was never once seen in the magi academy training. I can understand why the royal children or the children of commandment families never came to the magi academy but what about the children of upper nobles?

Natasha was the only odd one amongst them. When we had asked Natasha once she in reply said for security reasons and that they have much better tutors at home. But that raised another question in me, why did she come to the academy if she had much better tutors at home along with having to face security problems?

"Sorry guys but I am not under any oath." Natasha who turned quiet in front of Maisy suddenly spoke up.

We all turned towards her, especially Maisy with a bright face.

"Before that let me give you guys a warning and some background information.

There is a name that brings sheer rage and fear to any upper echelons of the empire. Don't ask me why, as even I am not sure why everyone fears that person?

Anyone found to be in his association or in his presence without the other nobles' knowledge are put under extreme scrutiny to the point that you will only have 2 choices after that: die or willingly serve that person.

My family warned me that if I were to even be approached by him then they will willingly disown me and personally offer my head to others to prove their loyalty."

Maisy suddenly gasped while the others including me were shocked beyond words.

I have heard of how strict the life of nobles was after a certain age from Maisy once. She had told me that the pressure and stress she is facing is nothing compared to what Ian or Natasha is facing as she belongs only to a low standing noble family.

Most people including me had assumed being a noble or heir of a noble was such an easy life. Drinking, partying, having money for anything and everything. However, this was only the case for low ranking noble families or children of nobles who abandoned their rights to be heir to their family.

I wasn't told much other than this. At first, it was a hard thing to believe until Ian pointed out to me how serious a person Natasha was when studying and always maintaining the perfect image of a princess. Till then I had always thought it was her arrogance of being a princess, from that moment on I truly understood the meaning of 'Never judge a book by its cover.'.

She was always working hard and keeping up her facade even in front of us, not trying to ruin the reputation of her family.

But being disowned and killed for being in the association of a person? Even when the said person gives her all to uphold her families image and reputation.

This kind of uncivilised barbarism made me miss my home back on Earth, but I made a promise back then and I will fulfil it.