Allen once again woke to the familiar white ceiling he had been accustomed to since the beginning of his academy year.
"Not here again…," Allen mumbled, as he was still trying to wake up.
The last thing Allen remembered was defeating Charles Rivertide in his preliminary duel against him. Things had started to become intense as Charles decided to use everything against him, so Allen had countered him with a move that was still not fully accustomed to - "magical release".
Over the course of their duel, Allen's sword had "cut through" each of Charles' spells, while in actuality the sword was absorbing his magic and storing it, which then Allen proceeded to use against him successfully.
Allen is still not completely sure how his sword does it, but he at least figured it out with help from August. Now it was a matter of improving his new skill that he has acquired.
However, he had more pressing matters he had to deal with at the moment.
"Rose is going to kill me," Allen said out loud, as he sat up in his bed. He rubbed his eyes.
"And now why would I do that?," Rose's voice came from the right of him.
Allen's eyes went from confusion to fear as he suddenly noticed Rose to the right of him, sitting in the chair she had sat in last time, after Allen's duel against Nathaniel Rivertide.
"Uh, Rose… hi…," Allen managed to say, although very awkwardly. He had no idea if he had five seconds or one minute left to live now.
"I'm not going to hurt you dummy," Rose giggled. "I'm just honestly glad you're okay"
"I-," Allen started to say, but realized that would be futile. His best course of action would be to leave it alone, and change the subject.
"Although what you did was very interesting, it was also very stupid," Rose gave him a look, as if she hadn't forgotten.
"Oh crap," Allen immediately looked away.
After Rose gave him quite the lecture, they finally started to talk a bit about the duel itself.
"So, I knew of course you were working on something, but I had no idea it was anything like you did," Rose brought up. "Just how did you do that? I'm assuming you used his own magic against him, unless you're not telling me you have three elements instead of two"
Allen immediately remembered that Rose was one of the only few people that knew of his other magic - his fire magic.
"No, I promise I have nothing like that," Allen assured her. "It actually has to do with my sword"
"Makes sense," Rose nodded her head. "I figured it had to come from that out of anything else. But just how does it work? Even my own rapier cannot do that, it's just a regular sword"
Allen proceeded to explain to her what he knew about it, which wasn't much.
"I see. So it's almost as if it absorbs magic… very interesting," Rose spoke as she tried to pin the dots together.
"Yeah, so this whole time my sword hasn't been actually cutting through or disabling magic. Instead, it has been absorbing it. I was just only using half of the ability it processed, as I misinterpreted it"
"That definitely makes a lot more sense. This whole time, I have been wondering how your sword was capable of such a feat," Rose sighed. "But now we know this, it just raises even more questions"
"Even more questions?," Allen asked, wanting her to elaborate.
"Well, now we have to figure out how it absorbs the magic," Rose pointed out. Is it actually absorbing the magic itself? Or is it perhaps absorbing the magic, turning it into mana, and then releasing it back as magic?"
"Wait hold on…," Allen had to blink a few times to realize what she was talking about. "You can't mean- wait, that's-"
"Perhaps unlocking what your sword is capable of may truly help us how magic, or mana for that matter, works," Rose explained. "Your ability to utilize your mana, William's snapping to cancel magic, elemental circles, everything we have no answers for might start to actually make sense"
"Oh my…" Allen started to say, realizing just what they were getting onto. Everything that William has been trying to teach Allen, and even the things he doesn't teach him; perhaps he could learn all of it, or even more.
"Didn't you say your sword used to be your mother's?," Rose brought up. "Perhaps if you found out more about her, you could unlock more about your sword?"
"Wow…," Allen said, completely dumbfounded.
This entire time, he has been so focused on his training, classes, and friends that he hasn't been focusing on one of his main goals for a long time - finding out more about his real parents.
But with the development of his new ability with his sword brings up an old question with a new meaning - just who was his mother?
"This- this is a lot to think about," Allen brought up, still processing everything. "Perhaps we should save this conversation for another time, maybe when I am out of the infirmary?"
"Good point," Rose sighed, still curious about it all, but more worried over Allen's safety. "We need to let you get your rest, so you can miss less class than you already have"
"What do you mean miss class? I'm sure he'll be fine," a voice came from the entrance to the infirmary.
Both Allen and Rose looked to see none other than Stephen, alongside the rest of the training club members, minus August.
"Stephen?," Allen asked, almost as if he didn't believe it.
"Allen!," Sarah immediately yelled, already jumping on top of the bed Allen was laying on.
"Hey!," Allen yelled, trying to get her off of him. "Wha-"
"Alright Sarah, that's quite enough," Rose declared, giving her a threatening glance.
"Aww, but I want to be with my Allen!," Sarah exclaimed as she continuously tried to grab Allen, as Allen kept her back as much as he could.
"No!," Rose yelled, immediately grabbing Sarah by the collar of her shirt as she quickly dragged her out of the room
"Allennnnn!," she desperately called out to him, as she was dragged out of the room by Rose as everyone else but Allen began to crack up.
"I suppose nothing ever gets old," Stephen said as he tried to wipe the smile off of his face. Who knew when Rose would come back in?
"If only I could have a girl like that after me," Thomas sighed.
"Oh? Should I drag you out of the room as well?," Cecily added, already grabbing him from behind.
"No ma'am," Thomas immediately exclaimed, as his shoulders shook from the fear.
"That's what I thought," Cecily remarked, looking away from him.
"Lily? What did I do?," Thomas asked, completely oblivious.
"One day dude, one day you'll get it," Stephen shook his head.
"Huh?," Thomas asked, looking at all of them for a straightforward answer.
After everyone had settled down and Rose and Alice had come back in (since Rose forced Sarah to change back to Alice), they all started to have normal conversations, including their own classes and the preliminaries.
"Speaking of the preliminaries," Rose brought up. "I have the results for all of us!"
"Wait what?," Stephen asked, confused. "Aren't the official results announced by the directors?"
"Well, since William is very unreliable with his paperwork, I have taken it upon myself to let you guys know of the result early!" Rose informed them.
"Leave it to William to delay his paperwork again," Allen sighed as he slapped his forehead.
"Anyways," Rose went back to the topic, not wanting to discuss Williams' antics further. "All of us have passed, and will be participating in the official tournament!"
Everyone began to cheer at the wonderful news. All of them managed to win their preliminary duels, which more than likely meant they would make it to the official tournament, but it may not have been fully guaranteed. With this news, everyone was guaranteed a spot in the tournament!
I did it, Allen thought to himself. I am going to make it to the tournament. Now all that's left is winning four consecutive rounds in the tournament, and making it to C rank!
Shortly after their conversation was over and everyone had to go, Allen was released from the infirmary. He didn't have any major injuries and the primary reason he was there in the first place was because of his exhaustion, which had already subsided.
Allen was on his way to his dorm room, as it was already getting late and he had classes the next day, when he ran into an unexpected visitor around the corner in the hallway.
"Hmm, well if it isn't my rival," Charles had a smirk on his face as he had his arms crossed.
"Charles?,'' Allen asked, a little surprised. "What are you doing here?"
"Well, I'm obviously here to speak to my rival, what other reason would I have?," Charles asked, turning his head away, face red.
"Were… you worried about me?," Allen asked, giving him a curious glance.
"N-No! Don't get the wrong idea!," Charles exclaimed, pointing his finger at him.
"Uh huh, right," Allen widened his eyes at him, but appreciated the gesture regardless.
"Anyways!," Charles exclaimed, changing the topic. "I have something important to tell you!"
"And, what is it?"
"I- I will not be participating in the tournament this year," Charles turned his head away once again.
"What wait?," Allen asked, confused. "Did you not pass?"
"No, I most certainly did!," Charles announced, proud of himself.
"So you've already heard the news early then," Allen concluded. "But if you passed, then why would you not participate in the tournament?"
"Well… many important reasons of course!," Charles announced, almost dodging the question.
"And? Those important reasons are?"
Charles decided to remain quiet as Allen stared him down, waiting for an answer. After a few moments, Charles finally spoke.
"F-Fine I'll tell you!," Charles exclaimed, crossing his arms again.
Charles seemed to take a deep breath before he decided to speak.
"After losing to you, my rival, I have decided that I need to take a further step back and improve myself as a mage!"
Improve himself as a mage?, Allen thought, interested. I never would've thought he'd take this sudden approach.
"After dueling you in the preliminaries, I realized that there's still so much I need to learn as a mage to get better, and for those reasons I have personally decided to step out of the tournament," Charles explained.
Wow, Allen thought. Charles really has changed as a person since the entrance exams.
"Are you really sure about this?," Allen asked. "Don't get me wrong, I have no problems with your decision. However, you would be forfeiting your ability to potentially do well in the tournament, giving you an edge to improve your rank, or more"
"Yes, I am very certain of this!," Charles raised his voice, as if he had given this a lot of thought.
"Very well then, I wish you the best of luck with your new goal," Allen nodded, with a small smile.
"Thank you," Charles gave him a small smile in return. "Once I can train to stand equal to my rival, will I be able to reach what I want to accomplish. Therefore, I shall face you in the next year's tournament, so you'd better make it to that one!"
Allen chuckled before continuing. "Alright then, I wish you best of luck with that, as I will be counting on it!"
"I- just don't forget that I am your rival, okay Allen Fleming!," Charles yelled at him, with his finger pointed at him.
"Yeah, yeah I get it," Allen had to hold back his laughter.
"Good! I will see you later, my rival!," he yelled before turning around and heading back to wherever he's now going.
Wow, wasn't that something else, Allen thought, as he watched Charles walk down the hallway.
He never would have believed it if Charles did this much earlier in the academy year. However, with the time that has passed, and the few times he has seen him, he can believe it with his own eyes. Whether it was their duels, the training camp, or perhaps both or more, Charles has certainly grown as a person. Allen grinned as he mentally accepted this new friendly rivalry between the two of them, in hopes that one day they may face again.
The following day, Allen was finally ready to head back to his normal classes, with Mr. Lyon as their teacher. He was excited to once again finally be out of the infirmary, as now he can see his friends during class and continue his training.
Since he's already gotten the early news that he will officially be participating in the tournament, he needs to do everything he can to be prepared for what is yet to come.
However, his plans were cut short when Rose went to grab Allen from his classroom, which caused quite the uproar from the students when the student council president herself had come to get Allen.
Although by now the rumors that Allen was affiliated with the "Blue Rose" had spread so far, it was a lot different for the D ranked students who had yet to see it in person for themselves.
Rose had explained on the way that William had personally requested for Stephen, Allen and herself to come to his office. Allen had questioned if it was in relation to their training club or something else, but Rose did not know nor did she have a precise answer.
Once the three of them had gathered in William's office, with Stephen reaching there on his own, it was then that William dropped the unexpected and worryful news.
"While I will be announcing this to the rest of the academy shortly, I wanted to inform the three of you first that I will be temporarily leaving the academy on personal business," William announced, lowering his eyes to his desk.
"Wait what?," Allen asked, completely caught off guard. Just what did William have planned so suddenly?