Well, it seems like it's finally time to face my greatest challenge yet. One so monstrous and complicated that everything else that I have done in my life fails to compare to even the first month of this four-year journey that I am setting out on.

My name is Zach Truuben, I am fourteen years old, and am about to begin my first year of high school life. In the following four years, I shall learn how to properly command my Shadow Sigil and utilize it "for the safety of the nation". Well, at least that's the official story. Sure, it would not be very nice to watch my home nation be destroyed in a war, but I don't know if I am ready to give my life for it just yet. I am pretty afraid of death, it's probably my greatest fear yet, specifically what happens after death. Sure, there are stories of the Goddess of Old performing miracles and "proving" her existence. But even if those are not just mere rumors, who knows whether she didn't just make up the possibility of the afterlife? The Gods are known to play tricks on mortals for their own amusement, I wouldn't be surprised if this were the case here as well. I certainly am not ready to try that out on myself and risk my existence!

My primary goal is to get my Sigil license, allowing me to somewhat utilize my Sigil in public and freely use it in case of self-defense. Oh, and also greatly enhance my chances of getting hired! What job am I aiming for? Well, I am not really sure about that just yet, but I have four full years to make that decision, and the license won't hurt no matter what I choose~ but enough about that, I have been having my mental monologue for far too long, and Sera asked me a question. Who is Sera? Well, the girl right next to me obviously! My childhood friend and future classmate! I actually didn't really catch what she was asking... Fuck. She hated it when I did this and she had to repeat herself, might as well risk it and guess if I'm going to be lectured anyway, "The train should arrive in a little over five minu~", "I know, that wasn't what I asked!" she cut me off before I could finish, "You were having your 'internal discussions' again, I presume?" I was caught! "Whatever" Sera sighed "What I asked was, do you think that Trif is gonna teach us? I didn't see them in a while!" Damn, that brings up unpleasant memories. Trif, our old combat teacher, and also, a strict ass. Sera really liked him for some reason, but I couldn't stand his attitude. He forced us to train to the brink of exhaustion pretty much every day, and I wasn't one for physical exercise to begin with. Needless to say, I was overjoyed when he had to move after being accepted as an instructor at Cyrin. Sadly, Cyrin was the same school that we would soon be attending, but there was one last straw to grasp at! "Most likely not, Trif mostly teaches advanced combat, he most likely won't teach us until at least our second year." "What a shame" Sera remarked, her previous smile diminishing for a moment, at least until she spotted something behind me and began pushing me out of the way, followed by her screaming loudly "Johannes! You are finally here!" Our other friend, Johannes Vers, appeared "at the last moment", but probably not. Johannes loves to act mysteriously, or at least, attempt to. I think it helps him gain confidence and counteract his shy nature somehow, although I didn't try asking about it yet, I wonder why? But whatever, it wouldn't surprise me if he had been waiting behind the next corner until this moment before appearing before us, well, he was here at last. "Hello, Johannes." I greeted him briefly, Johannes doesn't like getting touchy and disliked hugs and similar gestures, so this was the best approach for him. He replied soon after with a simple, yet effective "Hi." Yep, typical Johannes.

But enough of our lovely friends for now, the train arrived and we have to depart. I took one final look at the city of Saar which served as my goodbye to it, before walking to our reserved cabin and sitting down next to the window. I wouldn't let any of the others steal my great view, they'd have to fight for the other one and leave me out of it, oh I can't wait! "Hey, that's unfai~" Seraphina wanted to critique my ways, but before she knew it, Johannes was heading for the other window seat and was about to sit down. She tried to pull him back, but someone with a Warden Sigil such as Johannes couldn't be bested by the likes of us in a strength competition. To be honest, I doubt Johannes even noticed that she pulled at him until he sat down and looked at her. "Tough luck Sera. Should have been faster I guess'' We sounded in unison. Sera pouted in response, but then reluctantly sat down next to Johannes, somewhat upset that she didn't get to sit next to a window, but still excited about the following train ride, and for a good reason at that. It wasn't often that you get to ride a magic train like this one after all, especially not if you were someone of our stature. The nobles could probably enjoy the luxury of riding this thing as much as they want, but we needed a proper reason and a year of our savings for a single one!

***

The following ride was somehow of a letdown, although most of that can be attributed to our ridiculously high expectations. I spent most of the time skimming through the book for one of our classes, "The basics of Sigils and Mana" since I wondered what we would learn in the following year. I understood the first couple of pages, explaining that everyone regularly takes in "pure mana", and that our Sigil converts that into the appropriate type that we then utilize for what we call magic. But the further I went the less I understood from each page, I suppose some of the lessons are supposed to synergize with knowledge from other subjects that we would learn and made less sense on their own. But alas, we were about to finally arrive in Cyrin. Standing up, we took our stuff in the process, followed by us stepping out of our cabin and slowly making our way to the exit. As we walked I took a few glances at the walls, noticing a number of runes that I did not understand in the slightest. 'I wonder what each of those does?' I thought briefly but swiftly put that thought in the back of my head, there was a more pressing matter at hand. "That's crazy!" Sera stated somewhat loudly "I completely forgot how many people this thing can hold" Our path was blocked by an enormous mass of people, all of which wished to enter Cyrin as quickly as possible. 'This is gonna take a while...' I thought to myself, angry at the people in front of us, but also somewhat at myself since I didn't anticipate this, even though I could have come to this conclusion. Well, no use in lingering on that...

Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site.

We inched forward bit by bit every so often and after about half an hour, we were all outside. "Finally!" we all said simultaneously. "What a pain, " Johannes sighed "Do we continue with our initial plans?" "Of course!" Seraphina assured him, there was no way that she was going to miss out on exploring Cyrin immediately, no matter how tired she was after the ride and the exit debacle. "Alright, let's just drop off our luggage at the dorm first." I proposed "Let's do that." And so, we made our way to the academy by using the map that we were provided with, and after some asking around, we found out where the dorms were as well.

Firstly, Johannes and I dropped off Sera at the girls' dorm, if we would leave her to herself she would get lost in a matter of seconds, and we didn't wanna bother with searching for her later. After that small detour, we soon reached the boys' dorm and walked up to the reception, being greeted with somewhat of an unusual sight. Oh, who am I kidding? We almost pissed our pants at the sight of a monstrous being made of stone, with the body of a lion and the head of a bird, 'probably an eagle' I guessed, and with a snake for its tail. It stared at us, "Surprisingly expressive for a statue," Johannes remarked, at least he kept his sense of humor in this situation. Both of us started pulling our swords in anticipation of a fight. The fact that a "monster" somehow made it into one of the greatest Magical institutions did not register within our minds until the creature opened its mouth and human speech began flowing out of it: "Woah, calm down there buddy! You new recruits are in no shape to fight a gargoyle! Although I appreciate the eagerness, we'll have to postpone the sparring sessions until you graduate." Johannes and I looked dumbfounded at each other. 'A GARGOYLE!?' I thought, 'Those things are like tier 3 monsters at least! We wouldn't last a second against one of those, why is it here?' "Anyway, state your names so that I can assign your rooms~" And there was my answer. 'Of course, Cyrin would have a tier 3 monster work at their reception...' I sighed audibly, my legs were still shivering, but I reluctantly gave my name to the gargoyle: "Zach Truuben", followed by Johannes who hesitated even more so than me, waiting for me to make the first move, "Johannes Vers" "Very well, let me think for a second," The gargoyle stated, following which, his eyes began to visibly glow for a few seconds which was blessed with absolute silence and enough time for us to somewhat calm down and process the situation. "Oh, commoners." Its expression turned a bit sour, after which it probably realized that it was supposed to stay neutral or something 'Of course, a discriminatory stone statue.' I would have loved to shoot back it somewhat, verbally of course, but I was way too scared of angering it. Yes, even with, what looked to be a magic cage, surrounding it. I didn't even notice it earlier, but it seems like the gargoyle is caged in a ring of light, most likely being constructed by the runes on the floor and the walls. Possibly for the purpose of keeping the students safe, but I wasn't taking any chances. It looked Johannes directly in the eyes as it said the magical words that would allow us to quickly leave this heavy atmosphere "Johannes Vers, room 142, floor -4," after which it turned its gaze to me and did the same "Zach Truuben, room 143, same floor. Take the stairs over there" it pointed one of its paws at the general direction of the stairs and then laid down, looking somewhat annoyed. We quickly did as told and didn't waste a second.

***

Johannes and I were beginning to sweat lightly as we declined the final flight of stairs with relative ease, Trif's lessons surely helped in this. But it was still a rather time-consuming task, as well as, according to Johannes, 'Kind of a pain'. I fully agreed with him on that point. I wonder whether one could construct an apparatus that could save us the stairs? I had heard of teleportation platforms being constructed in Crocia, but as far as I know, they were very expensive and only rarely used in emergencies, well, emergencies and whenever some noble wanted to save a couple of days of travel... On a more important note, we finally reached our rooms, giving each other a brief nod before entering and temporarily separating. I took in the atmosphere of the small dorm room, barely big enough to contain the bed that I was provided with, as well as the small table with a singular chair while leaving just enough empty space to stand and look at the friendly-looking wall that would be the only view that I will have for an indefinite timespan. "Pretty depressing!" I exclaimed, followed by me putting down my luggage on the bed and beginning to unpack a bit, I searched for a change of clothes that I could wear while we explored the city, swiftly finding success in my endeavor. I switched into it and made my way for Johannes' door, it was time to get Sera and have our first real look at Cyrin.