The small light glowed in the dark room, its light growing stronger but ultimately becoming unable to defeat the silver glow of the moon. The light disintegrated into dust along with its source.
"You've failed again~." Fir whistled and gathered up the dust in one small pile. He added this pile to the other and compiled them into a small concentrated ball of Dylan's failures.
Dylan groaned and fell flat on his back, bouncing up and down the springy bed. He gazed at the dark ceiling and brooded over his mistakes. "What went wrong? I went through all the steps and did everything correctly, how could it fail?"
"Maybe you just need to practise more." Fir suggested. "You'll eventually be able to do it."
"I usually succeed after trying for a bit. I'm not used to failing." Dylan revealed with a serious face.
If it was a normal person, perhaps they would become enraged by Dylan's self confident words that carried only the truth. Perhaps the desire to slap that ba*tard would arise in their hearts so that Dylan would understand the pain of the common untalented people in the world, but Fir wasn't a normal person. He was the spirit beast of the very talented Dylan.
Naturally, Fir too was talented. He learnt at a faster speed than his peers and was better at magic than them too. If not for the bird being lazy, then perhaps he would have already mastered the art of magic, at least, to a greater level than Dylan. Perhaps he could've gained a human form by now. But enough with the 'what ifs', the point was that Fir too did not know of failure.
"…Maybe you can ask Sherry for help." Fir suggested once again. He vaguely recalled that Dylan once said, Sherry was good at everything magic.
Dylan just looked at Fir, exasperated. Disbelief in his voice, he spoke. "Fir, you are aware who the present is for, correct?"
Fir nodded confidently. "Of course, I do. It's for Sherry yeah?"
"And you want me to ask Sherry for help?"
"Mhm!"
Dylan could not help but to face palm. "Are you even hearing yourself right now?"
(Author:…haha, who was the one who called Fir talented before, ha, ha)
"…She won't know it's for her!" Fir argued after thinking for a bit.
"It will ruin the surprise. Besides, Sherry's not very good at delicate jobs like this. What she's best at is using brute force. Only magic stones big enough to withstand the force of her mana is able to be enchanted by her. These stones are so small, how could she enchant them?" Dylan explained.
Fir paused to think before nodding in agreement. He had heard about her exploits before. As someone who operated on instincts, Sherry wasn't very good at controlling her mana. She had even worst control than him.
"Then all you can do is practise on these stones." Fir chirped and told Dylan. "Do you have a lot?"
Dylan nodded. "Thanks to a certain someone, I have a whole mountain of them."
Fir chirped to hide his embarrassment. "The cave was filled with the stones; how can I bear to leave them there to gather dust? It's injustice to such pretty things!"
"There's no difference between rotting in my storage and collecting dust in the cave. It might've even been better to leave them there. Now they have to become dust as a result of my failures."
"Humph! At least when they're with you, they're mine!" Fir declared. "Oh, and give me some so I decorate my home with them. At this rate, you'll ruin them all."
The home that Fir spoke of was the contract space. Normal spirit beasts can get pretty large in size and most can't shrink themselves. So, to solve the issue of housing, tamers developed a space called a contract's space. Tamers can build this habitable space suitable for their contracts and have them live in there. It was basically a mini world.
"Just make sure to leave some for me." Dylan muttered and granted the bird permission. Fir gleefully raided Dylan's storage and recklessly threw all the ones that caught his eye into his home. At the sight, Dylan secretly sighed. This bird really did love beauty a little too much. He shook his head and silently went back to practising.
In his mind, a familiar voice echoed.
***
"Dylan, you're so good at everything else, how can you not know how to enchant?" The voice asked curiously.
"It's not my fault. I never thought I needed to know." Dylan pouted and replied. "The academy is mean for making that the exam."
"Haha, it's something every magician should know!"
"Oh, shut up, Matthias. Just because you're good at magic, it doesn't mean you can brag like this?"
"And who was the one who boasted to me about his swordsmanship and few days ago?"
"…Me."
"Exactly!" Matthias laughed loudly and grinned at Dylan. "I'll hammer the know how into your head!"
Matthias and Dylan spent the whole day memorising how to enchant things. Unfortunately, they weren't able to put it into practice because Dylan didn't want to rely on his family and Matthias wasn't exactly well off. They couldn't buy magic stones just to practise magic on, it was too wasteful. Well, all their efforts went down the drain when Dylan transferred out of the magic class before the exam at the request of his father.
Fast forward a few years when the two had graduated and were on the path of fulfilling their dreams. Dylan acquired his own sword for the first time. The sword was plain and basic but Dylan treasured it as the fruit of his hard work.
"Matthias! Enchant my sword for me please!"
"Do it yourself, Dylan! I haven't slept since yesterday, cut me some slack." Matthias grumbled,
"Hehe, don't say that. You know that I've never enchanted anything before."
Matthias complained grumpily but still received the sword. "Just this once okay?"
"Okay, okay." Dylan nodded with a smile. But the next time he bought another sword, the same thing repeated, again and again. Every sword in his possession were without an exception enchanted by Matthias.
***
Recovering from his stupor, Dylan shook his head. He had been thinking about Matthias a lot lately. Even the slightest thing could trigger a flashback. And each time he saw his memories, he would always ask the same question.
Since when had it all gone wrong?
-----
Matthias: W-where is this?!
Author: Welcome, Matthias, to the mini theatre where your stupidity is broadcasted to the readers.
Matthias: Author? You're the one who keeps changing my goals and backstory aren't you? Do you know how confusing it is to wake up one day and suddenly your whole life is different?
Author: Ohohohoho, y-you remembered that?
Matthias: Stop dragging me into the story when I'm not even there!