Prologue: Beneath The Willow Tree

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‘When I come of age, I’ll enter the best magic academy and reach the peak of power!’

I’d told myself these words years ago. My dream was to become a powerful mage who could obliterate the most powerful of monsters with ease, a mage whose name was known throughout the continent, a mage who was treated with respect wherever he went. I had every intention of making these dreams come true.

Well, that was until today.

“Weak mana intensity, you fail,” A middle-aged man who was unnecessarily muscular for his profession said, “Next.”

In front of him was a boy who wore commoner clothing and had a complicated expression on his face as he continued to stay where he stood.

The man noticed this and spoke, “Didn’t you hear me? This academy is the branch of the most prestigious magic school in the continent, the requirements, although lower than headquarters, are still very strict,” He said in a cold tone, “hundreds of thousands fail every month; you aren’t the first and you certainly won’t be the last, now scram!”

He waved his arm and a powerful gust of wind carried the boy outside and gently lowered him down to the ground where he continued to think to himself.

‘Why did I choose to fail?’  The boy thought to himself.

He knew very well that he had condensed his mana to the right intensity to be able to pass the exam, hell, he had even exceeded the requirements by a slight amount and learned even learned a few more spells than needed. And that took him back to his last question, why had he failed?

Just as he began to inject his mana, an indescribable feeling took over him and made him stop pouring his mana into the orb just as soon as he’d started. He knew very well that this was his best chance to enter, the age of sixteen, twelve months after mana began to manifest inside his body.

The boy’s thoughts were muddled and his head was confused, why had he made this decision? His body began to walk by itself and he soon found himself within the forest outside the town, where he stood in front of a willow tree that situated itself beside a decently sized pond. The sun gave off heat and the area around the pond gave off the perfect amount of coldness to counter it.

The boy looked at his favorite place and breathed out a sigh. He plopped himself down under the tree in between a gap in the roots and leaned into the old willow’s embrace. His dark-brown hair melding perfectly into the scene.

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He’d often come to play around this area as the child, especially around the summer, where playing in the water was one of the most refreshing things he could do in his rather boring lifestyle that consisted of running a job at the inn and helping his aunt at housework.

His aunt’s face flashed into his head and he let out a groan, she knew he had all the requirements and that he could’ve entered the school without any problems. She was not going to let him forget about this one, he grimaced at the thought of his aunt's coming barrage of scolding and lecturing.

Failure was unacceptable to him a mere four hours ago, but when he actually got to stand in front of that mage with the chance to prove himself, everything just felt wrong.

Wasn’t this what he wanted, wasn’t staying at the academy and becoming a powerful magus after graduation his lifelong plan?

Well, it wasn’t anymore.

The boy looked up at the willow that accompanied him throughout his life and blinked as the rays of sunlight made his eyes squint.

He closed his eyes and felt the warm sunlight on his face, the cool breeze brushing past his skin and clothing, and the gentle sounds of nature ringing about around him.

Where was he to go from here?

Should he try to enter another magic academy?

A school for warriors and knights perhaps?

Maybe even live out his life as a scholar? That didn’t sound too bad.

And then, just as he was about to fall asleep, just as the last strands of his consciousness disappeared, the true dream he was looking for all his life suddenly came to him.

No more illusions, no more dreams that weren’t his own.

From this moment on, he had decided.

He was going to see everything this world had to offer.

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Author's Note:

Hello everyone, I'm back and I'll try to update every few days. Also, the chapter lengths will be much longer than this. This is just the prologue and the coming chapters will at least be 2000 words in length, I promise.