"1…2…3!"
"Clang! Clang! Clang!"
The sun was shimmering on the bells in the tower of the royal palace as guards started to clang it.
Walking into the awakening hall, Lock was expressionless as numerous eyeballs pried deep to his soul.
The golden gaze of his father observing him weighed heavily to his mind.
'Sigh. This is sickening.' He thought.
He carried on walking to the center of the stage until he reached the center.
Right now, the entire kingdom was watching. All the nobles in the Capital and royals gathered for this event.
Wryly smiling inside, he pushed his right palm on the center of the transparent magic circle hologram hovering before him, and waited for it to point on what category would his power be.
The magic circle was simple. From left to the bottom to the left and to the center and vice versa, it consisted of all the magic elements available. Then when one puts any part of his body to the center of the holographic magic circle, the machine would try to analyze one's mana and pinpoint what was exactly the power one had awakened.
Just like the crowd, Lock waited as well for the hologram to point what was this new power that he had awakened.
Although he did not show it due to the aristocrats and his father's presence, he was also ecstatic. He believed he had already awakened three powers, so it wouldn't be too hard to believe he will awaken another one and probably another one.
Dreams danced rose to his mind, until he felt a negating force that pushed him back crashing to the opposite wall.
"Ouch…" he groaned, and as he opened his sight, he immediately caught sight of a few people smiling ear to ear, looking at him with a mocking gaze.
"After all that hype, who knew he was actually magicless?!"
"What a failure!"
"An embarrassment!"
Just as Lock grew daunted, he also caught sight of his father staring at him with the usual cold gaze Lock could most picture when he remember his father.
Lock subconsciously pushed his head down dreadfully, as echoes of misanthropic and cynical laughter echoed in his mind like a pendulum.
"What just happened?" he mumbled to himself.
Before he could figure out anything, he saw himself standing before his royal chamber while he was being emotionlessly stared by his father.
"You're not allowed to get out here starting today. Learn from your mistakes. You're a great disappointment to the royal family." King Philip emotionlessly said, turning his back after until he left.
Lock also pivoted and locked the room.
The sound of the cynical laughter and disappointed gazes earlier played as clear as possible inside his mind.
"What's that?" he started to smile, but he suddenly burst out in mad laughter, curling to the floor while holding his stomach.
The entire afternoon, Lock felt strange until nighttime as he began to suddenly chuckle sometimes for no reason.
Then just as he was still tipsy, he walked towards the windows with a smile on his face, and gazed at the capital. Lock narrowed his gaze as he clenched his fists and gritted his teeth angrily until a tiny amount blood seeped out of his lips.
"If I could just get out of here, I would have gotten out long ago!" he madly murmured, tensing his senses immediately after, as the silhouette of a man got reflected to the glass panes.
Lock pretended to not notice, but the unknown mas spoke.
"I would get you out of here." he said in a serious tone, snapping his fingers right after.
Before Lock could even respond, he felt a white light invade his vision, as he unduly passed out to the floor.
--
Gradually, Lock opened his eyes only to find himself staring at a wooden ceiling 4 meters away from his face and had slight scratches and abrasions. For some reason too, his golden hair had grown that it was blocking most of his face like untouched mane.
'Where is this?' Lock thought, as he subconsciously lifted himself up, and suddenly got hit in the head with the ceiling.
"Shit!" he groaned lightly, and massaged his head for a few seconds to decrease the pain. When the pain ceased, he blinked his eyes thrice and saw the surroundings. What he saw was completely awing.
"A stable? This is a stable, right?" he said, covering his nose a little. He also noticed that he was lying in a small corner placed at a higher level of the wall where he could see all the horses in their own little homes. The smell of horse poop, horse, muddy ground, and wet wheat entered his sense of smell.
Finding the exit, Lock walked out of the stable blankly, and then he was even more amazed. For some reason, he was in the Capital. The area was filled with workers working to take care of horses, rabbits, pigs, and different kinds of animals. The wind was kinda fresh too, and the greenness of the ground and the blueness like calm waters in rivers brought him excitement and confusion.
"Haha," a smile slowly formed on his face, as he started to walk forward with a happy atmosphere.
He had never went personally to the capital, but had some pride in where was where and what can be found somewhere. Stables. Many stables, horses, and different kinds of animals, Jason knew that this was none other than the Animal District.
But what was he doing here?
Jason brushed his long golden hair and found out it was a little sticky that it felt like he hadn't taken a bath for many days. His eyes had also started to widen as he learned that he was wearing some type of very dirty clothes. The one he only saw in cosplays .
"Why do I look like a beggar?" He started to say, looking at his bare feet and ragged clothes. As he continued, Lock didn't cease exploring the place. At first, he totally thought this was some kind of dream that he would wake up soon. However, he couldn't help but believe otherwise as he felt everything go towards him as if it was real.
'The sensation my soles feel on the ground, the cold wind brushing and entering my clothes, my itchy hair, everything feels real. What happened to me?' he thought, before finding a place to rest on the shade of a tree on the sidewalk.
'First, I should try to remember…what happened to me?' Lock continued exploring his memories, and after some minutes of almost fruitless effort, he remembered one glimpse like a picture of something.
First was the picture of him supposedly failing to get a power just like others in the ceremony.
After that, picture after pictures came to his mind like a series of light stabs in his head…
His father's cold gaze on him, as he emotionlessly spoke the words: "You're not allowed to get out here starting today. Learn from your mistakes. You're a great disappointment to the royal family."
Finally, there was the image of him looking at the Capital from his large window, and then lastly, the image of the unknown man who was behind him at the moment.
"After that, I passed out." Lock stared at the bustling crowd in the market he had went to, and the long road that stretches like a snake in the middle of the buildings, "Could this be a doing of that man?"