Amy had been chewing her food when she heard her father talk about the Mageria and the fact that both her parents wanted her to attend it soon.
On hearing what her father had to say, Her body had instinctively seized up.
From the memories she had, the Mageria was not the happy place her parents thought it was.
The moment she had been old enough to attend, her parents had enrolled her into the school and they were excessively proud that their daughter was learning advanced magic unlike the mediocre ones, common citizens knew and were used to.
However, what her parents didn't know was that in the whole school she was one of the few people who didn't have any real talent for it, mostly because she had two parents from the red clan while the blue and white clans were known for their high-level talent in magic.
In the Mageria, she had no real friends and even Diraya, the person who had found her dead on her bed, whom her parents thought was her friend, was just a fellow housemate who usually tried to avoid Mayami so as not to be associated with her in any way.
At the Mageria, students without magic were obviously discriminated against, and from the memories she recalled of the place, Mayami didn't want to go anytime soon.
"I am just getting used to a world with magic in it, Cathedrals where people worship goddesses and priests with murderous auras that carry daggers around and now I have to go to a school filled with snotty teenagers, and judging from precedence the probability that my inner twenty- the five-year-old soul is going to be mocked by them is very high," thought Amy as a frown appeared on her face and her appetite gradually dissipated.
Losing all interest in the food she had been eating, Mayami dropped her fork face down on her plate as she prepared herself to talk to her parents.
" Do you not think it's too early for me to go back there? I...I...died and I do not know how or if it was someone's handiwork," said Mayami in a fearful voice trying to summon a few drops of tears from her eyes to gain some sympathy from her parents.
" I get the feeling that attending the school might be a fate worse than death. If plan A, doesn't work then Plan B would most likely be to pretend to be sick and faint while trying to stand up from the table where they were all eating," thought Mayami preparing for the worst-case scenarios.
However, her mother went beyond her future expectations when she suddenly wailed and busted into tears.
" We.... We know tha...tha...t, but we can not protect you. The Mageria has promised to protect you and also try their best to find out what happened to you.
I...I...and your father can do nothing but put our trust in them since the Mageria has the emperor's backing unlike other magic institutions," her mother managed to speedily say in between tears.
" It's okay mother," Mayami quickly said as she tried to placate her mother and stop her from shedding more tears. She then stretched her hand across the table, grabbing hold of her mother's hand.
"I agree with you mother, I'll go. I don't want you to have to worry about my safety,"
"There, there," said Mayami's father patting his wife on her shoulders to calm her down.
After a few minutes, Mayami's mother finally stopped sniffling before smiling to assure her family members that she was fine.
"I'm both happy and sad to know that this time next week you'll be in school," said her mother with a small smile on her face.
Mayami tried her best to nod and lift the corners of her mouth to form a smile.
"Me too," said Mayami out loud and deep down she couldn't help but think about what she needed to do to become powerful enough to not be affected and controlled by events and people around her.
After eating and talking with her family for a little longer, Mayami finally stood up and offered to pack and wash the plates but was quickly sent to her room by her parents who still thought that she needed to rest as much as possible.
It was late in the evening and on getting to her room, the moment she laid on her bed to rest, she fell asleep. All the strange events of the day had made her tired and she blissfully slept until the next day, while her parents also retired to their room.
However unknown to them, in the tall building directly opposite the three-bedroom house they lived in, a cloaked man with a raised hood over his head stood at the window of one of the rooms in the building, facing Mayami's house as he monitored all that was going on in the house.
Alfred and Homona, who were Mayami's parents were middle classed citizens and they both worked as editors at a newspaper agency and were able to earn more than 100aras each.
They had enough money to make them live comfortably unlike the houses on the opposite street from where they lived where a whole family had to struggle to be able to live in one room so as to avoid being homeless.
The hooded man stood in a dark room and continued looking at the house in his sights and would sometimes raise a small glass frame to his eyes, muttering words under his breath, in a way that allowed him to see every single thing that was going on in the house.
After confirming that everyone had gone to sleep, he stepped back from the small window he had been looking through and considered sneaking in to take a closer look.
A soft breeze suddenly blew into the room and his long black cloak bellowed at his back as he turned around with plans of leaving the room and building he was in.
He had barely taken a step forward when the blurry figure of an obscured face of a man wearing a small gold plated crown appeared in front of him.
His demeanor suddenly changed and the moment he saw this figure appear in front of him, he suddenly knelt on the floor with both knees and bowed his head until it was almost touching the floor.
"You have failed. What are you still doing here?" Said the blurry figure in a voice so soft that it could put a baby to sleep.
"Mo...Monitoring the girl, Your Pridefullness. I was sure that I sacrificed her to our lord and was shocked to see her come back to life at her burial, I...I believe that an angel or another God might be involved," said the hooded man with the utmost reverence in his voice.
" Regardless, you still failed and your punishment will be decided by me. You can monitor her from some distance, but do not go near her or her family. Many eyes are on her," said the blurry figure that kept levitating above the ground before gradually fading away.
"As you wish, your Pridefullness," said the hooded man that hadn't moved from his kneeling position on the floor.
After a minute of silence and when he was sure that the blurry figure was completely gone, he tried to raise himself up from the floor with his hands at his side, when he noticed that his left leg felt unsteady as he stood on both legs.
Quickly, he removed the shoes and socks on his left leg, lighting a cigarette lighter at the same time in order to get enough light to figure out the problem with his leg.
Bending down, he took one look at his left leg and he was dismayed to discover that the first two toes on his left leg were gone, almost like he had never been born with them as the flesh merged completely with the rest of his foot.
"Your will be done," he quickly said before raising his head up and wearing his shoe back. Not bothering to walk out of the room, he snapped his fingers and in less than a second, he disappeared along with the cigarette lighter he was holding in his hand.
In a flash, darkness and silence were the only things that remained in the otherwise empty room.