Another week had passed and school started in three days. Currently, Mathis was sitting, frozen, on his bed. He slowly loosened his grip on his phone which accidentally fell down on the mattress. Just now, he had received an automated call from the academy. Since the dorm for magic students had been blasted out of existence, they had found an alternative to housing these students. They decided to split the normal rooms in two. So, Mathis would have a roommate.
"No... this can't be..." Mathis muttered while delicately holding his head.
He really didn't want a roommate. Even less a magical one. What if he gets stuck with a powerful guy? A guy that can detect aura? It would be surprising, but still. What a drag. Anyways. Today was the day he would finally evolve again. The time between the two evolutions was short, but Hector said it was mainly because he had ridiculously high affinity, and the time between the evolutions would grow larger each time. Listening to Hector's unclear advice, he decided to evolve his eyes. With this evolution, he'd see 10 times better than before, see in the dark and would start seeing the magical energy. Very powerful mages could feel magic, but no human could see it. Now, he could already feel magic pretty easily, as if a true professional, but seeing it was different and could be an advantage.
Mathis laid down on his bed, preparing to be knocked out by the evolution. Scally was sleeping peacefully next to his feet. Scally was now as big as it's mother was. He and Mathis could communicate, though not very complicated sentences.
[Stay calm] Mathis communicated through aura.
Then he repeated the same routine as before and got knocked out.
He woke feeling like he got run over by a truck. Everything hurt and felt sore. His sight though. Everything, far or close, was extremely clear. He could see everything little dust spec floating around. The before and after couldn't be compared. Mathis was speechless.
He now had to learn how to conceal his beast aura, which had grown exponentially since the first time he started absorbing magic. So he practiced what Hector told him until he finally did it. It felt quite uncomfortable, but he'd have to continue practicing it since school started in two days.
Somehow, that day, as he was tired and concentrated on practicing so much, he didn't even see something wrong with his reflection in the mirror. Nor did he come across anyone.
the next day.
He dressed up. Today his dad would drive him to school. At first he wanted to go by bus, but his dad insisted. Something about honoring his first day. Mathis didn't insist.
He calmly instructed Scally to follow him discretely. He quickly went to the bathroom for a quick check to see if he looked decent.
'?!' Mathis was shocked.
His eyes were now red with a slit.
'What's this!?' He asked Hector.
'It seems you didn't control the evolution correctly. It's normal for a new athanatos to make a few errors.' he said nonchalantly.
'God damn it. what am I supposed to do for school? Contact lenses? No, it'll take too long to get them. That only leaves...'
_____
"Mathis, why are you wearing sunglasses? You never wear any because of your cap. And you didn't take it off either." His dad said as he entered the car.
"So, do you know when my big brother's coming home? It's been at least a year." He fluidly changed the subject because his dad would be able to tell he was lying.
"Actually, he called me yesterday and he should visit this month. He said he'd come pick you up from your school to pass the weekend here with everyone." He answered with enthusiasm.
"Cool." He said, mildly happy.
As the car rolled, Mathis was thinking about the year to come. His classes, how to discretely sneak out, how to hide Scally and other such things. But. As the car continued to roll, Mathis felt something was wrong. He looked out the window. Instantly, he felt bile rise up his stomach. The buildings they passed by, the way they were taking, his dad wasn't taking him to school. In an instant, everything clicked in his head. How surprisingly easily the police let the accident go without an answer to what really happened, his mother being over sensitive everytime he left home and how his dad insisted to take him to school.
They were going to a place he was familiar with, the psychiatric hospital. Although he didn't remember his episodes, he did remember his mom taking him here quite a few time. He hated that place. The people scrutinizing everything he said or did, how easily they just labeled him as crazy. The lonely days spent on his own because they kept him for elongated watch.
It seemed the police had in fact seen the tree with his blood and identified it as his, also guessing what happened. Now, his dad was attempting to take him there before he could complain and resist.
"Dad, don't take me there it's useless." He said, his voice slightly trembling.
His dad's hand gripped the steering wheel tightly, but he didn't say anything.
Scally, who was next to him, invisible of course, felt his distress and rested it's head on his lap.
"I'm serious dad, putting me there is a bad idea." He said, this time his voice more stable.
"Mathis. You nearly bust open your skull. Have you looked at yourself in the mirror recently? It left a scar. Even with healing magic. This is serious. We can't leave you on your own until we are sure you won't do this again. Next time you could die." His dad said with sadness in his voice.
Mathis flinched. It was true. Since it took time for him to get healed, it had left a big, ugly scar. He was really close to dying that time. He shuddered slightly. No, he needed to concentrate. This was a serious matter.
'Hector, this won't happen again will it?' He asked in his mind.
'Well.. Uhm. I can't say for sure.' he answered.
Mathis sighed while pinching his nose bridge.
'But I'll try to stop you.' He added.
'Thanks...' said Mathis.
"Look dad, what happened that day... I wasn't trying to kill myself. And I can assure you seeing a psychiatrist won't help. This is not something that was caused by bad mental sanity." He tried to explain.
His dad's grip loosened and his tension seemed to partially go away.
"You didn't.. try to kill yourself?" he asked slowly.
"No." Mathis said firmly.
His dad parked the car silently. He then rested his head against the steering wheel, taking deep breaths.
"Thank god..." his dad said in a weak, cracked voice.
They stayed in silence for a while. Mathis felt his heart warm up knowing his dad actually cared. But then the warmth went away, like a candle getting snuffed out. How would his dad react to his... special condition? Well, it certainly was better than being dead wasn't it? Hmm...
At least, at that point in time, it was.
"Can you get me to school or do I walk there?" he asked when he felt his father was more calm.
"Hah!" his father laughed and then sniffled. "I'll get you there." he said with a small smile.
"You'll deal with mom for me? please." he asked seriously.
"Sigh... Yeah, but it won't be easy. You better be grateful." his father answered.
"Don't worry, I'm grateful with every fiber of my being." Mathis said, smiling.
----
Mathis had finished installing himself in his room. Wait, no, his shared room. He glared coldly at the empty bed. The rooms in this academy used to be spacious enough. It was cramped now. Of course, people had the choice of getting out of the program and getting a refund for the fees, but the incident happened too near to the beginning of the school year so it wasn't really an option.
Tomorrow school started. Normally, his roommate should be arriving anytime now unless he wanted to skip on the welcoming ceremony/supper/buffet. Which you wouldn't, unless you want to miss important information. Since it was still partially early in the day, he had time on his hands.
"Come on Scally, let's get outta here." He said.
Scally followed him, invisible.
He decided to explore the school grounds while eating magical fruits. There was quite a lot of people. Random mention, but he finally took off his cap. So he was walking around while eating red berries.
Honestly, it was a beautiful day.
Everything was pretty. The trees were in bloom and petals were floating about and covering the ground. He glanced the cafeteria's way. He had grown accustomed to raw magical beast meat. Now, anything not containing raw magic was... tasteless. His family had grown worried about the fact that he didn't eat with them anymore, though he looked alright so they didn't bother him with it. Or maybe it's because his father knew he wasn't lying when he said he was eating just fine. And Hector told him that sadly, normal human food will soon become toxic for him. Not a Tokyo ghoul kind of eww immediate puking toxic,. but a meh this taste weird and oh god gotta go to the restroom. Though he wasn't too sad. Cuz magic food was just awesome. Though... he felt he was slowly straying from humans. Not that he was ever really close to humanity anyway. Bitter, he thought about how he was always unusual and rejected by others. Sad thoughts bad thoughts, he focused on something else. Maybe he should try eating human food for one last time? He decided to head there.
The place was full. Some people were standing up, even. He got himself a plate of medium cooked meat and looked for somewhere to seat.
Surprisingly, there was in fact a few available seats. They all were surrounding one guy. He wore the red uniform of the magic students and there was two red horizontal line on his tie, signaling he was a second year. Mathis decided to ignore how suspicious it was and sat down next to him. Said guy had messy black hair and a grim complexion. He looked short and tired. The looked at Mathis with interrogation points in his eyes.
"What? Is this seat taken?" Mathis asked, suspecting it might be the case, hoping it wasn't. He'd hate to eat his last comestible human meal standing up.
"Huh? No." The guy said and returned to his meal.
Mathis looked at his meal. He frowned, feeling, seeing the lack of magic in it. Hmmm. He looked at the berries he carried in his pouch. They were glowing in red, wafting a fragrant magic energy. Hmmmm. He took a bunch of them and put it on the steak. He smiled. Much better.
As he was about to eat his meal, someone tapped his shoulder. He turned around to see a green uniform student. A first year this time.
"Hum, you probably don't know, but this guy is actually a chaos magic user... so you shouldn't seat next to him." The student tried to whisper to him discretely.
Chaos magic. A weird combination between white and black magic. No, a fucked up mix, a dangerous varient. Chaos magic was the exact opposite of light magic, the mix of white magic and water magic. Light magic healed humans and hurt beasts. Chaos magic hurt humans and was good for beasts. There was a multitude of chaos magic users that became crazy and became killers. Maybe it was because chaos magic users were treated like out outcasts, anyways, being a chaos magic user sucked. Most of them decided to hide it and never use it. But there were exceptions. Mathis wondered why the guy next to him didn't do so.
Mathis turned to the student.
"And so what? There's no other seat. You want me to eat sitting up?" Mathis said on a snapping tone, kinda annoyed someone interrupted him before he ate.
The student frowned.
"What? No, why are you getting mad? Weirdo." The student said, angry about his reaction when all he did was try to warn him. He slightly glared at him before walking away.
Mathis turned to his meal, but felt the chaos user stare at him.
"Why are you staring at me?" He asked uneasily.
"Why are you wearing sunglasses indoors?" The guy asked.
"Uh. Uhmmm. Cough. Don't bother me, I'm eating." He said, very awkwardly.
"..." The other guy obviously felt awkward.
Mathis took his first bite, eager to know of it'd taste good. And.
God.
It was good.
He instantly devoured his meal.
He felt stupid for not thinking about it before. Mixing ingredients. What if he took a winged deer steak and put oxen herbs on it? He felt his mouth salivate just thinking about it. The mix of magic and tastes... oohhhhh. It was no exaggeration to say Mathis had become very obsessed with food since he developed his core.
Anyways. He didn't talk to chaos guy and quickly went away after finishing his meal.
He spent the rest of his time observing the school grounds and planing a way of escaping the school at 3am to go the wild forest and hunt secretly. The school didn't let students leave unless they had justifications. There was a small shopping center on school grounds so students didn't have to always leave, a security thing. Since he didn't have any valid reasons and crafting one would be complicated, he felt just escaping was easier. Not to mention students could leave a limited number of times in a year. He didn't want to waste them like that.
But eventually, the time for the ceremony came.