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Prologue

Have you ever wondered what would happen if you broke the laws of nature? What could possibly come out of such an endeavor, or how would you even go about achieving such a thing?

Laws made by humans are fairly easy to break. Just rob a store or hit someone a little bit too hard, and you end up on the receiving end of a fine, at the minimum. But how would you break the laws of nature?

The answer to that is magic.

Okay, before you back out and say this is too cliché for your liking, just hear me out. Magic isn't what you've heard of in those popular books or movies, not at all. It isn't a sudden, massive power-up making you the most overpowered protagonist in a fictional universe. Neither is it a pill solving any and all problems.

Then what is it? Magic gives the user the ability to ignore the laws of nature, and afflict an intended effect onto their target. That's the short story.

Looking at this, it really does seem like a pill for solving all problems. And even though that isn't really the case, anyone would think so at first glance. Which is why there has been one rule that absolutely anyone who has anything to do with magic knows - do not tell anyone about it. The existence of magic is an absolute secret, and any outsider who comes to know about it is wiped of their memory. It is a world unwelcoming to outsiders.

However, exceptions do happen. I happened to be one of those exceptions.

That's right, I, a random high school kid, who just began to realize how embarrassing his chuuni phase was, happened to be one of the most magically apt wizards of the century.

First let me tell you about myself. I'm Roma Gagarin, a 16-year old guy who until a year back fantasized about being an ultra-powerful mage. Of course, these were nothing but teenage delusions. As such, I spent countless hours playing RPGs, watching anime, writing crap about my persona's secret exploits, and lots of other things.

Sometime in middle school, I got exceedingly conscious of it. I started trying to hide this side of myself more and more, until someday I decided to pack everything up in a box, put it away somewhere and forget it ever happened.

Then I actually forgot about it for a while, until I hurt my toe on the box while getting something out of my closet. That made me recollect all of those memories, and suddenly I felt so embarrassed by it all that I wanted to burn the box or toss it in a river somewhere.

Except you can't just go around burning stuff in your neighborhood for all to see. People are curious and they'd want to know exactly what you're trying to spill a canister of petrol on and burn with a stare of embarrassment and disgust on your face. It'd be fine if they thought you're burning your porn stash (why would you though?) but if they got to know it's 15 volumes of physical, handwritten shame you're burning... well they're going to be quite wary of you for a while.

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

Having made all those realizations, and thought through the consequences of my actions, I went ahead and burned them on a backstreet anyway.

Now if this was a normal, well-written story, there'd have been something cool like a book that refused to burn down, or a magic artifact that I had out of coincidence that flew off somewhere into the distance, calling me to follow it, or really countless other things.

But it seems the guy who wrote my story was a terrible author, because absolutely nothing of that sort happened. I felt elated seeing the fire burn away at the cardboard, burning away any evidence that I was ever involved with such strange delusions. I felt a tinge of sadness thinking how much time I spent writing all those volumes, so I decided to yell, "Burn, flames! Burn away all the trash that has become your feed!" to push those thoughts away.

"Hey, are you the guy Alexei told me to meet?" said the voice of a girl behind me.

I turned back to look at who was behind me. She was a girl just a tad bit shorter than me, wearing a raincoat with a hood. The lighting was awkward and it was dark outside, so I couldn't get a good look at her. That said, Alexei... didn't the guy who roped me into that chuuni stuff back in sixth grade have the same name?

Perhaps sensing that I had no clue what she was talking about, she continued, "He told me to wait for someone to show up here, and he said I'll understand 'when I see him,' but I guess I got the wrong guy."

Then, quicker than I could react, she pulled out a literal stick of wood, and spoke in a quiet but determined voice, "Forget what I just said. 「May you be cleansed of the memories I deem undesirable. Amnesia!」"

I felt some sort of pressure building up in my head, but it went away in a second. I continued staring at this mysterious hooded girl, this time with a confused look on my face. She turned away to walk off, until I asked, "Are you talking about Alexei Pavlov?"

She looked back at me, then quickly moved up close to my face and asked, "How did you repel the spell I just casted?" Seeing her up-close, I could make out her features a little better. 'Man, she looks cute... if only she was my- okay snap out of it, you're in the middle of a conversation.'

"Repel? Spell? What do you mean? And are you talking about Pavlov?" I pressed.

"Yes, yes, Pavlov Alexei Vladimirovich, now tell me, how the fuck did you take that spell face-on and not get affected?" she snapped.

'She's pressing on about that spell stuff... don't tell me she's in her chuuni phase?' I thought. Then I told her, "Look, lady, I don't know why you keep pressing on about this spell stuff, but it's embarrassing me real hard. I got over my chuuni phase and I'm in the middle of burning any evidence that it existed, so please stop with your 'spells' and whatnot. Also why did Alexei want you to meet me?"

She sighed, as if realizing something, and said, "Alright, please accompany me for sometime."

"Why should I? I don't even know you," I retorted.

She sighed again, this time in annoyance, and chanted, "「Show my enemy the extent of my strength. Baton Wand!」" The stick she was holding grew thick and dark, and she whacked my head with it with what seemed like all the strength she could muster.

I blacked out and lost consciousness.

---

To new readers: Greetings! I hail from Wattpad, where I basically had zero active readers until now. (Well I had two, but...)

This marks the first chapter of my first published work! As such, I admit that my writing in this story isn't exactly the best. Regardless, I can only get better from here, so if you like the premise of this story, do come around every Wednesday-ish for a new chapter! I'll be publishing from a backlog for now (I'm on hiatus until June for new content), but I'll be cooking up new plots and twists very soon.

I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and I hope you will enjoy everything else to come.

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