This was a world of magic.
The Continent was one of the lands most abundant in magical energy, and here resides the Elisor Kingdom, whose court magicians are renowned for their skills and magical capacity. Magic can appear in anyone, but the royal family are most often endowed with magic as if they were blessed by God.
Alula, Elisor's capital, is also home to the most elite magic academy in the kingdom. Many of Elisor's court magicians hailed from here. What makes Alula Magic Academy different from many other magic academies was that they provided full scholarships to anyone who exhibited signs of magic.
There were a number of noble families who looked on this practice with disdain as it allowed nobles to mix with commoners. Granted, other magic schools provided financial assistance to commoners as well, but they often either separated commoners from nobles or provided limited financial resources. Alula offered full scholarships and allowed all students to share dormitories, classrooms, and the many resources available in the kingdom's most elite academy of magic.
Ji-Dam Sinclair was considered a commoner student who was accepted into Alula. Well, accepted was an understatement since after the day she tested for magical ability, the reading stated she had a high level of innate healing magic. This prompted the instructors to basically beg and cajole her into attending their school. Healing was already a rare enough ability, and add in a high level of innate ability, academies were scrambling to get her to attend their school.
Her parents were former nobles but have fallen to become a basic merchant family, thus they were delighted for her. However, upon reaching Alula Magic Academy, her magic worsened and became a low level ability. Ji-Dam and the instructors who brought her were awkward but since they couldn't revoke her scholarship as she indeed had magic, Ji-Dan stayed as a scholarship student.
Of course, this sparked debates and envy as noble children who disliked mixing with commoners found Ji-Dam even more irritating to the eye. They saw her as even worse than commoners since she was a former noble who had fallen from grace and willing to live like peasants.
The Sinclair family was a Baron family but because Ji-Dam's father refused to bend to corruption, they were targeted and finally lost their status. No matter how people viewed her father, Ji-Dam was proud in the fact that he did not lose his moral principles. Thus, she walked onto campus each day with pride.
Holding her bag, Ji-Dam walked into her first class with steady steps. Her waist-length iris purple hair flowed down her back, half of it tied in a ponytail to keep it out of her face. Ji-Dam stopped for a moment outside the door to look at the class rankings, hazel blue eyes sparkling a bit when she found her name in second place.
It was sort of difficult to be in class when half of them hated your guts and the other half only viewed you with pity. Ji-Dam didn't really care, only lamented the fact that her spring youth might not have much blooming friendship. Ji-Dam had a couple of friends back in her town, but most did not have magic. The one who did was Claude, but he had gone to another academy before her. His ice magic was one of the most beautiful things she's ever seen, and Ji-Dam missed him a lot sometimes.
In her moment of elation, Ji-Dam didn't notice that a girl with magenta hair was looking at her with gaze filled with malice. After Ji-Dam went in, the girl strode up to the rankings and sneered at the name under hers. "As usual, that bitch doesn't seem to respect our Lady Rosellia! Everyone knows that Lady Rosellia is supposed to become the Crown Prince's fiancee. How dare she compete with you like this?" One of Rosellia Vienne's lackeys spoke up. Rosellia smoothed out her facial expression and casually said, "It's alright, trash will always be trash. Don't lose your composure over such a person." The girls clapped and giggled. "Lady Rosellia is so magnanimous!" They followed their leader into the classroom.
Ji-Dam was having a rather mild day.
No one poured water on her, her lunch was left intact and whole, and some people even smiled at her. Okay, maybe only the teachers smiled at her but they still counted as people. It was better than her first week of school when people bombarded her with questions, instructors wanting her to prove her place in the institute while students wanting to figure her out. In the end, she was sort of outcast but since the academy had welcomed her, the student body merely maintained a distance save for the occasional jerks who love making others' lives difficult.
Her treatment and available resources were largely dependent on her performance in the academy. One of the instructors who had initially brought her here told her that she would receive stipends for each term she stayed in Alula. He told her that he and his team would be researching her case since it was rare for there to be a fluctuation in magic level unless the core was unstable. Ji-Dam was worried at first but she relented knowing that this research could potentially help others who find themselves in similar situations. It comforted her that there was someone willing to help her, and the stipends would really help her father's business.
It was the last class of the day: Magical Theory. Ji-Dam found her being Rank 2 in both her class and magic abilities hilarious in some way and had a little smile throughout her last class. She enjoyed this class as it was more open to discussion and ideas, unlimited by structure and disparity between levels.
The instructor rapped on her desk. "Who can tell me how the laws of physics and magic interact?"
"Don't we just assume everything's magic?" A male student asked. A few students snickered as the teacher tittered before calling upon Ji-Dam, seeing her raised hand. As she answered correctly and even described in detail her own theories on the mass-energy ratio, Rosellia's eyes narrowed in hate. "Thank you, Ms. Sinclair. Now onto our next major concept...."
It was almost time for the Crown Princess selection as second year was coming to an end. Traditionally, the Crown Prince's fiancee was chosen from birth but the prince upon learning about this decided to bypass it and extend the deadline until the end of his second year in the academy. He was a cold person, one that reminded Ji-Dam of Claude but Claude was much nicer in comparison. He also had an ice-attribute magic, but the prince preferred his flame magic. Yep, the Crown Prince of Elisor has dual ice and fire magic.
Ji-Dam sighed in her heart how some people could have all the luck. Oh well, she thought, I just have to work harder than anyone. As class was over, Ji-Dam headed to the library to study for the upcoming end-of-term exam. It was a major exam that she really needed to pass. Her stockings were starting to tear since she sent all her stipends to her parents.
As she gathered up her belongings, Ji-Dam heard a few girls giggle excitedly as they left. "Oh, I can't wait to see how that loser gets put in her place. Thinking she's so smart to speak up to the Lady like that! Ha!" Another girl put up a finger to her lips. "Shh! Don't want anyone to hear us. Lady Rosellia said she'll let us do whatever we want with her after she's done!"
Ji-Dam hesitated for a moment at the corner. One, she did not want to get involved with Rosellia and risk her position in Alula. Two, she and her weak magic couldn't really hold out against Rosellia's physical enhancement ability. Yet she couldn't leave knowing what will happen if she walked away and pretended not to notice. Ji-Dam knew that her guilty conscience would bother her and make her sick, so the churning feeling in her stomach bubbled as she silently followed the girls up to the school rooftop.
The moment she opened the door, the sight of the girl held down and being beaten by Rosellia awakened a sort of power within her. The weak cries of pain stirred her into action. "Stop! Stop it right now!" She yelled, feet carrying her towards the victim.
Rosellia had been watching, absent-mindedly kicking the girl until Ji-Dam came into her sight. Just the sight of her made Rosellia feel a coursing hatred burning from within. As she watched the girl walk out onto the rooftop, not even noticing how the door was barred afterwards, her blows began coming down harder on her subordinate. The cries turned into shrieks and pleas, and Rosellia saw the spark of fire that lit up from those damn hazel blue eyes. Rosellia looked on with mocking eyes as Ji-Dam rushed to push her-- HER, ROSELLIA VIENNE-- to the side and cover the other girl on the ground. Rosellia would never tell anyone that her breath hitched in her throat when those hazel blue eyes flashed in anger and disappointment towards her, how the indigo haze of that hair flew around while she glared at them like a mother protecting her young.
Of course, she couldn't hide her glee and satisfaction at all when the girl behind Ji-Dam, the one who was beaten black and blue, drove a knife through her chest and pushed her off the roof. Rosellia laughed wildly, magenta hair tossing about and eyes glinting manically.
She just wished her chest could stop breaking into a million pieces when that pair of hazel blue pierced hers one last time before turning dull.