Hmm, this girl right now is glaring at me as If I did something terrible at her, she was holding her hand that she used to grab my wrist, and the way she is doing right now seems she was hurt, but definitely, she is not.
"Did I hurt you somehow?" I asked.
"Of course not… I-I'm just not used to get touched by a man…" She said with her cheeks slightly pink, as she was embarrassed to face me after saying that. Well, that is cute and she's cute, but I shouldn't dive into the topic further.
"So, uhm, you're a sophomore, huh, first time enrolling?"
"Yeah, I live in this island of Ortygia and both of my parents are mages and full half-blood. Actually, my family is one of the fifteen founders of the island making my family background quite powerful, but you should not fear me unlike all mages do. I'm quite generous to someone who experiences the same tragedy like mine as you do." She said with a proud look on her face as she put her hand on her chest as she puffed it up.
"Okay?" I mean, I gotta say that this girl is quite amusing, but if we're speaking some tragedy, I bet you would cry at my story, for me being a beggar and losing a family. Of course, I could not say that to her, afraid that I might shatter her pride (Show) right here.
Oh right, Mr. J explained that if you're a citizen on this island and you study at home and had the basic knowledge that most mages should have, they would be directly applied on sophomore year. And only those mages outside the island could start their academy at freshman year since we need the basic knowledge that most mages should have.
Meaning this girl must have her own wand not only that, she definitely had the permission to use that… Damn, I'm kinda jealous.
"Oh, right. I'm Valentina Lancaster by the way, I'm ten years old. My specialization is Enhancement and also I'm a battle mage, well, a student to be specific." She smiled as she introduces herself.
"I'm Magnus Firewood, Twelve, and specialization? I think I'm good at running and eating gar- I mean maintaining a healthy diet." I said as I scratched my head in embarrassment. This girl right in front of me has a novelty status while me on the other hand, a dirtbag that has the status of a beggar.
Hey, I love being a beggar, no complaints. However, this girl might run away from disgust if I said that.
…
The two of us had walked out of the forest finally, and when we got out what view had surprised me is a paradise, below the hill where we stood, there's a great plain and erected buildings could be seen. Tall buildings to be exact, it was a strange type of building architecture; it was not the same as the buildings back on Navarre kingdom. They use brick stone rather than using a plastered wall like the one used back on the Navarre kingdom.
The color of the tiled roof was so vibrant making the city very bright and lively if one looked closely on the skies above the cities, there are multiple four quadrupedal beasts with wings flying around, some of them are small birds and… wait, is that a human? It really is!
There are some humans riding on a stick, thick as my arms, some are riding on their rakes, and some are riding on a broomstick. Well, I wasn't really surprised that big, since most demi-human cultivators on the early stage, they can fly using a flying sword to fly around.
Back to the city, the city was surrounded with towns, with different flags on each town halls, the entire place was to coastal area to the west, and on the surrounding, and two tall mountains could be seen. Moreover, just on the back of that mountain, I could see a huge and magnificent building like castles, and there is a freaking huge flag above the clouds waving by the winds.
Seeing this, I could not help sighing in amazement.
"Beautiful…" I muttered silently, but this word had caught Valentina's attention as she gave me a smile. "Right! It is beautiful; however, our city is more beautiful hmph! When you see it, just on the east coast of this island, your expression just now would be triple to that!"
"So, there's a lot more cities?" I asked.
"Of course it is! We still have our territory in this place... Anyway, I'm going to our Lancaster town hall, see that red and gold with a flower on it? That is our town hall, well; practically it's like an embassy in this city… Be sure to pick that town when you are asked to what village you want to stay in!" She yelled as she started to run while waving her hands at me.
Geez. She's actually very approachable and I think we're already friends. Oh well, I gotta go and take this route, which is directed towards the academy.
There's a two route on this road, the other is towards the city.
*Rustle*
On my back, another bush was rustling and you know what I expect to see? Another person.
"Whoa, this city looks cool!" Yep, I'm right, another person.
I looked back towards that person and oh boy, another beautiful girl.
This time, she has the same age as me, and she also wore a green and red collar robe, and underneath that robes, she has a black uniform with a dark green ascot tie and on the middle of that tie, there's a golden bird insignia, her skirt was about to her knee length. And beneath that, she wears a long shaft black boots with folded green collar.
To her face, she has a long silver hair, it was braided, and she also has a left side swept bangs. Her eyes were grey and its shape was sharp, weirdly, her pupil was slightly vertically elongated like a feline beast. Her brows were straight but slightly angle making it looked like she was a fierce girl. Her nose was similar to Valentina, a perky nose but her lips weren't thin like Valentina's. Overall she has a beautiful refine face.
Oh, and by the way, she carries two swords on both of her waists on its sheaths. She's the type of a girl who seems cool.
When she was finished looking at the city on amazement, she looked at me and what she looked first was the color of my collar. Okay, it's weird but I guess it's important to know the class of the person you first met.
She stared at my face and it seems she looked bothered, but nope, she suddenly smile widely and with the flip of her right hands she waved at me and said, "Yo!"
Okay, definitely, this girl is a cool type.
"Hey." I waved back and gave her a faint smile.
"So you're a freshman like me, hmm, good good. Ms. Dorothy said that there are few fresh mages came to school for years now, and seeing one on the road made me glad that I had a fellow freshman." Shaking her head, she laughed while walking towards me.
"I'm Sofia and I'm thirteen; From Aereth Kingdom also I'm half demi-human and half-demi beast… Don't ask how because I don't know too, and not only that, I am also a half-blood." She explained, however, it's still confusing.
"Okay, that's definitely confusing, but I think, I will just call you a mixed blood mage, that's sound good."
"Oh! Nice one Johnny boy!" She clapped, wait, did she just call me Johnny boy?
"Ehem… I'm Magnus Firewood." I coughed and gave her a side-glance.
"Whaaat? You're a wood too? My surname is Blackwood."
Okay seriously, who's the god of fate for seriously making dumb names? I'm gonna knock his head for sure when I meet him.
"Cool." That's a lie, not cool.
I'm wondering if I'm going to meet a Redwood, Shallowwood, and Whitewood.
Both of us started to walk on the path towards the academy, this girl, Sofia was definitely one year older than me but she acts like a kid, she's full of ambition and very, very talkative. But somehow, every time she laughs, smile or smug, she looked beautiful.
We talked and talked until we reached the back of the mountain and the sun had finally sunk on the horizon and moon starting to appear on dark skies. Soon enough, we reached on the gates of the academy, and heck, it's big!
Because of our non-stop talking, my throat was dry thanks to Sofia, in my life; I had never talked too much until I met this girl.
So yeah, once we stepped on the magnificent and intimidating gates, Sofia and I, the two of us had our mouth gaped wide open as it hung on the air. Well, we both agreed that this island is indeed full of surprises.
"Damn cool." She muttered in amazement.
Darn right. It is amazing.
The two guards looked at us, and we stared at them too. The guards here wore thick black leather coats and they have a metal pauldron armor on their shoulders, they do not seem to carry weapons but surely, they carry wands around their body.
And seeing us by the guards and they noticed that the two of us are freshmen, with a sigh, the guard on the left looked at the guard at the right. With a smirk, he pointed at us with his lips.
"Geez, fine." The right guard wants to rebuke but he shook his head and walk towards us slowly.
"Who are your suitors?" He asked at us.
However, I don't know what is suitors are, and I don't even know who is my suitor! I looked at Sofia and what a bummer, she also looked at me expecting I know the answer.
"Uhh… Sorry, I don't know what suitors mean." I looked at the guard.
"Oh right, those damn suitors not explaining things… Anyway, suitors are the one who brought you here on this island." He smiled and surely he is a nice guy, I like it.
Me and Sofia: "Ohhh,"
"Mine is Julius Ainsworth."
"And mine is Ms. Dorothy"
Hearing this, his eyes widen and gasped, "No way, those two are still finding students, you two are damn lucky!" He gave us a faint smile and tap our shoulders. "Come on, I'll walk you to your temporary place to sleep in, the academy is already close at this hour and curfew is extremely strict here, you're only allowed to enter the academy early in the morning."
The two of us nodded in silence and followed him on his back.
While walking, Sofia nudged me, leaned on my side, and whispered, "By the way Magnus, you're a great companion; I hope we could team up in the upcoming days when we had quests and study spells." She gave me a smile and giggled sweetly.
Oh god, this girl…
"So, we're friends?"
"Pfft, no, of course not!" She laughed.
Well, thank you for smashing my expectation miss Sofia.
"We're not friends, but best buds!"
Oh…
And again, her laughed shines under the moonlight.
She punched on my chest although it was not light and actually hurt me a bit, her smile had just erased that pain and even made me quite embarrassed looking at her. But gladly she didn't notice me. Hah~ maybe this is the effect of me meeting up with girls since I haven't talked to a girl for years now.
We stopped walking when we reached a small building, it seems it was a normal or temporary shelter since it is a building full of bedrooms. We continued to follow the guard inside the building and we stopped when we saw a woman in the counter in the middle of the hall.
She was a middle-aged woman and when she saw us, she gave us a faint smile.
"Well, Johnathan this is a surprise, another two freshmen this month!"
"Yeah, I think it had already broken the record." The guard named Johnathan laughed, then he looked at us, "You see, every year we could only gather ten freshmen mages outside the continent, but this year, it's weird because many freshmen mages on the continent of Celestia has started popping up and it seems they are not decreasing! Those two demon seems had stopped killing young mages, anyway, this is a good news! This year we had already gather fifty freshman mages!." Johnthan explained to us before looking at the woman on the counter as he laughed in excitement.
"Well then Jhenica, I'll be leaving you this two, they are the disciple of Mr.J and Ms. D." He waved at us and bid farewell and a good night before leaving the building.
"Come here you two." Jhenica's voice echoed on the hallway, both Sophia and I walked towards her.
"Well, well, you two had great teachers, okay signed this up, here, here and here…" Jhenica smiled at us while explaining things as we fill up parchment papers regarding on the school, regulations and a blood sign for the agreement being a mage.
They are:
1. Thou shall not betray.
2. Thou shall not kill fellow mages.
3. Thou shall not commit sexual activities at a young age and only allowed at the age of 20.
4. Thou shall not plagiarize spells.
5. Thou shall not use spells without permission by your suitors.
6. Thou shall obey the rules and laws of the Island of Ortygia.
7. Thou shall die and protect the Island of Ortygia for its peace and prosperity.
8. Thou shall die as a hero not a betrayer.
9. Thou shall live and love the Island of Ortygia for eternity.
10. Just follow the rules, can you?
Okay, the last one is weird but I tell you, it's legit.
I don't want to sign because my freedom on the outside world would be shattered and severed once I signed this, I definitely want to go back on the continent of Celestia… However, I am not safe there and I would die there.
However, definitely… I can break that rule once I got stronger than any mages… I got friends like Sofia and Valentina, and I am sure I will have many friends in the upcoming days, months, and even years. I am not alone in this path… My life will be entangled on this isolated island… Definitely… Definitely, I would shatter that curse that has brought upon us and retain our freedom in this world once I got stronger…
Making up my mind I signed the parchment, with that, the parchment went 'poof' and it became shiny glitters. Soon, these lights flew towards my right wrist and oh dear, it is extremely painful!
It burns my skin creating words and It took five breaths before the pain had vanished. I got teary but when I looked at my hand, there is a word; however, I do not recognize this language.
"Ow ow ow!" Sofia held her wrist as she jumped from pain, however, she didn't get teary as I am… Seeing her like that, it made me feel pathetic. I mean this girl is still smiling while in pain. Oh god, I do not mean she enjoys the pain, but she could still bitterly smile in pain.
"Huh? The hell is this word? For all that pain, what I got is unreadable lines?" Sofia complained, her brows knit together. Definitely, she is not pleased about it.
Suddenly, Jhenica laughed softly that made us looked at her, and well, she seems to be amused to our expression. "Hehe, that is an ancient language called Greek, it's pronounced 'μάγος' or Mágos. Meaning a sorcerer, witch, or wizard."
She explained as she revealed hers, however, it wasn't the same words like our, it wasn't latin.
"This one is a language from the ancient world, and it was an ancient language too called latin, this word 'meɪdʒaɪ' means mágos, similar to yours, however, one can get this if you're in the military." She smiled as she explained.
Oh dear, so there's an ancient world? Is that the world where half-blood originated from? Greek and Latin? What's that? This mages and this people are a lot weirder than I had expected.