I looked at the door, there was a grandma standing there, she wasn’t really hunched or anything. However, she was wearing some kind of reading glasses, and her hair was pale white, her skin was very rugged. I must also add that she was wearing an oddly revealing dress. I looked at her hand, it seemed to be holding a sword for whatever reason. The king looked at her with a slight surprise.

“I thought you weren’t going to come.”

The woman frowned. “Just because I dislike you it doesn’t mean I will skip something that I find interesting myself, so where is this new mage?” She scanned the room and locked gazes with me. “Oh, what do we have here?” She inspected me in surprise. “Hmm… I don’t know you, but since you are here you must be important.” Well… yeah. “Want to be my grandkid?” She asked with a bright smile.

I couldn’t help but tilt my head, this woman just walked in and decided to randomly ask me to be her kid. What?

“Lin, don’t joke around too much. Just take a seat.” The king sighed.

“I wasn’t joking though…” After saying that halfheartedly she took a seat. She kept eyeing me with slight interest. I sighed, this really was going to be annoying, wasn’t i⁠—

A thunderous sound crashed into the room, the door was sent flying. “Oi, Firil! DUEL ME!” A burly man shouted as he enthusiastically ran into the room with a battle axe. The king sighed once again.

“Firil is not coming, so just take a seat.”

The man frowned and scratched his beard. “What a waste of time… Well, regardless… If I can’t beat Firil my kid will! He was sent to learn magic after all.” He said with pride as he took another seat.

People kept walking into the room, but this time they didn’t make a quarrel or a disaster, they just quietly sat down. Some of them looked rather refined, others were true warriors. I noticed a slight sense of hostility and unfriendliness, mostly directed at the king. Others looked at the king with awe and respect, it was… odd. The grandma kept looking at me as she absentmindedly scratched the floor with her sword, I would say she was the weirdest one out there. The warrior was sleeping on the table.

The king with crossed arms was restlessly tapping his elbow. He was waiting for someone else, well, not like it was hard to notice. Out of the twenty or so chairs, one spot was missing, which oddly enough was next to the king. I wonder who the person was.

Someone walked into the door, it was Dan… We locked gazes for a moment, my eyes widened. He coughed. “I am sorry I am late.” He then took a seat. Dan’s voice was oddly weird, it felt fake and just... Not Dan's, but it was still Dan, weird...

Also... Why was Dan here? Guildmaster? Sure, that works for me. But also a noble? I mean, sure I guess, but wasn’t he supposed to take care of Ari? Well… he will pay, now that I know that Dan is very important and is not taking care of the things I gave him... He won’t get away from me anymore. He seems like a useful person to have around, besides, he didn’t take care of Ari. After grinning to myself I noticed Dan went pale for a bit. I guess he sensed it.

The king stood up.

“Well, I assume you all know why we are all here.” I heard a few grunts and saw some nodding. “So… The elf is getting replaced, he went too far.” I saw some more nodding to his comment.

“So, where is the replacement? Is it Firil?! FIRIL COME HERE!” The axe warrior exclaimed as he smashed the desk, I was quite amazed it hadn’t broken yet. The king sighed.

“No, it’s not Firil. He really doesn’t have anything to do here anymore. So, stop that!” The warrior dropped his shoulders. “Well, regardless. I brought you all a wonderful mage that will serve as the elf’s replacement. She is right here!” He pointed at me… They all looked at me with curiosity, although… I don’t remember the king knowing my name, so there is that. What a problem…

I decided to just sheepishly smile. The warrior grunted. “You expect me to believe that thing can beat Firil?!” A few nods followed.

The grandma smiled. “Oho… I am more interested in you now. What do you say, do you want to be my grandkid?” I sighed. What was with these people.

“I see, the king has decided… Well... can I go now?” One of the more well-dressed people commented. The room was basically split between well-dressed people and warriors. Then there was Dan and the grandma. The refined people nodded in agreement of leaving.

“You will have to wait for that.” The king looked at me. “Since you all know why you are here, you must also know that we need to approve said mage.” People nodded, some were opening their mouths to speak. “Therefore, we will need to see that she is worthy. To the practice range, we go!” He stood up, leaving no room for protests. The refined people sighed, the warriors looked at me with slight anticipation, others with tiredness.

People started walking out of the room, including the king. I was the last one to stand up alongside with Dan. First thing I did was stand in his way.

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

“Do you need anything?” He sweetly asked with curiosity. I tilted my head.

“What do you mean by that? I left you to take care of Ari.”

He thought for a second. “I don’t know anyone named Ari though…” He scratched his cheek before giving me a bright smile. “Oh! I know. You must think I am Dan!”

I nodded in confusion.

“Well, I mean… I am Dan... But I am not... Let's say I am Dan for now. I don’t know what type of connections you have with me, but nice to see that Dan has a very pretty girl aiming at him.” What?!

I breathed in and out to stop me from smacking this person in front of me. “So… Who are you then.”

“I am currently Dan, but if you mean who I actually am, I am his sister. You can also call me Mia, I get told I look a lot like Dan. So, for now I am Dan.” I scanned “her”. She looked exactly like Dan, the only difference is that she was wearing a dress instead of male armor. Huh… Well… I guess I can ask something important now.

“I see… So, tell me, is Dan a girl?”

She thought for a second. “I don’t think so… Did Dan become a girl or something?! I want to have a younger sister!” She childishly fantasized… Sigh. Why was she even here? Besides, what does she mean by younger?! Are you telling this girl is older than Dan and somehow more obnoxious?

“Ah… Don’t think of me as important, I might be here, but Dan is the noble. Even though I am technically a noble, but Dan is the house representative. But, for now I am the representative.”

“I see…” She was overly friendly, and stupid...

“Now that I told you all that. What’s your name?”

“Aizen.”

“Weird name, but let’s be friends!” She exclaimed as she hugged me, she was definitely not Dan. Everyone in the caslte was weird...

“M—Dan! Stop messing with my new too⁠— court mage!” Looks like the king was also in the 'pretend this girl is Dan' thing...

She unglued herself from me. “I am sorry about that. Well, let’s go.” She grabbed me by the hand and took me out of the room and into the hallway. Fenri lazily followed.

The hallway was deserted. I was dragged up the ramp and into the light, which led to the roof. The architecture was very weird. At least the place looked sparkly clean and refreshing. The old room felt suffocating in a way. The king was gone for whatever reason. Dan’s sister kept dragging me to the roof. The ramp wasn’t very steep, but it was a long walk.

After some more walking, we were finally out. The first thing I noticed were the crenellations that ran around the entire spiral that was the castle. I wonder if one still needed a license for those? Well, they were just as white as the floor of the inside, the floor of the outside was a light gray. I noticed the nobles from afar. I kept walking alongside Dan’s sister. The closer I got to them, the more I noticed. There was a lot of battle dummies, like the one Dan had pulled yesterday. I guess those were the targets. I also noticed something rather odd. There was a gap in between the spiral, like some kind of interruption; it had smoke coming out of it.

I arrived after some more walking. I received a few comments from the tired nobles about taking too long. The king gestured me to come to his side, making me stand in front of everyone.

“Now we will have her perform her strongest spell!” I saw a bit of excitement from the warriors, nothing much though. The king moved away and left me standing in front of a dummy. My mind was blank, it was too sudden. I stood there looking at the dummy as I thought about the possible spells I could use.

I sighed and looked around. I wanted to see if I could use fire here. But honestly… it might’ve been a bad idea. I heard some metal clanking on the background, it had some type of rhythm that felt oddly familiar, but I shouldn't be distracted about it. It was probably a blacksmith or something.

“How long are you going to take?”

“Why are you wasting our time?”

“Show me that you can beat Firil!”

The nobles weren’t that friendly either. I sighed as I looked around for ideas, I practically looked at absolutely anything and everything that could sparkle something in my mind. First thing I realized was that there was no wind blowing, and the mana was rich and flowing like a river, I looked at the ground. It wasn’t entirely spotless of dust, in fact… the reason it was gray was because of dust. I got to thinking into important things, about what could I use for the target. I thought about something fun that could happen, or that I saw happen, fun things tend to be dangerous after all.

I remember this one time in my dragon days ⁠— I was in a cave that was full of dust particles, it didn’t really have airflow for that matter. Adventurers showed up to do the dragon subjugation, the warrior seemed oddly stiff. The mage was excited and the priest was oddly nervous.

“Maybe we shouldn’t do this…”

“It’s free rare drops!”

“Yeah… Just listen to the mage, it will be easy.”

“I love dust explosions!”

The mage looked at me with bloodlust. I wasn’t really paying attention at the time, however, she then used some fire and the entire cave lit up on fire, my vision turned white and a thunderous sound resounded. What I heard were screams of agony and constant swearing about something going wrong.

When it cleared up, the adventurers weren’t there. I was bewildered about what happened, and it seemed interesting. So I spent the following months researching about it in my own dragon way, I realized that what they called 'dust explosion' was literally in the name, it was a rare phenomenon that happened under very specific conditions. ⁠— After recalling those fond times I smiled, it was something fun, but it had too many things it needed. I looked at the dusty ground. I felt nostalgic, I kind of wanted that to happen, the problem was… This wasn't an enclosed space, also there were a few more problems.

The king leaned in and whispered into my ear. “I know you are nervous, but don’t make me look bad, or you will regret it.” How... threatening.

“Right…” I sighed. “Hey, I want to try something new, so let me try it and if it goes wrong I will just do it the generic way.”

He thought for a second. “Very well… do what you must.” He left like that, he was weird.

Well… I really wanted a dust explosion, I didn't really know if this dust, in particular, could be ignited, but it was worth a try. I looked at mana, I wondered if I could make mana influence something physical.