Immediately after my conversation with Mark, Prof. Elric spoke up,
"Now that your conversations are finished, we need to go. We can't keep the headmaster waiting, can we?"
Mark replied, "Yeah that old man can throw quite a rant when he wants to. Alex, you better hurry up and meet the headmaster, or else he may come here himself."
I asked, slightly caught off-guard, "Are you not going?"
Mark answered, "No, I still have a duty to do. Besides, Elric will be going with you."
Prof. Elric was already heading towards the door. He said,
"You two can keep at this all day, but I need to go back and enjoy my break. Now, Alex come with me."
I hurried along behind Prof. Elric. After reaching the door, I turned back and addressed Mark saying, "Thank you for your hospitality. I hope we meet again."
"No problem", he said smiling, "And I'm sure we'll see each other soon."
As I exited the door, the professor led me through the large gate leading outside the place. There was a large clearing, directly after which I could see some stairs leading down the place. I came to a halt behind Prof. Elric.
He was standing in front of a car, which I found surprising as I never thought that cars would be present in this world filled with magic. After getting in the car, the car started and we moved surprisingly fast down the mountain. There was a road leading down the mountain which I was not able to see previously while inspecting the clearing.
After traveling through the twists and turns along the mountain, we came to the side of the mountain where there were many houses present. Prof. Elric parked the car outside the only mansion from what I could see. Most of the houses were similar but this mansion seemed pretty luxurious, which was making my nervousness come back again.
I felt a mix of trepidation and nervousness bubble up within me. The idea of meeting the headmaster of Nexus, this world's most advanced magic college, was pretty intimidating.
We got out of the car and Prof. Elric turned toward me, asking,
"Alex, let's go inside without any further delay."
I nodded, upon seeing that Prof. Elric started heading inside the mansion gates. There was a guard stationed outside who nodded to Prof. Elric respectfully and eyed me with curiosity as I followed behind Prof. Elric inside the mansion.
We entered the building without any delay. After we entered inside, there was a man in a black coat and white shirt. He seemed like a butler with how he looked. He came towards us quickly and said,
"Master Hartley has been awaiting your arrival, Prof. Elric"
The professor replied, "Lead the way, Winston."
The butler turned around and led us to a room at the back end of the mansion. Along the way, I saw that the mansion was well-cleaned and had a lot of decorations. There were a lot of paintings and a few expensive-looking vases in the hallways. The pictures depicted mages casting spells and a few of them were portraits of different people.
The butler turned towards us upon arriving outside the room and said,
"You can visit Master Hartley yourselves. I still have duties to attend to, so I will be taking my leave."
"Okay," replied Prof. Elric. "Thanks for leading the way, Winston"
"You're Welcome." The butler said and bowed slightly before leaving.
Prof. Elric knocked on the door and said
"Headmaster, it's Elric and I've brought Alex with me."
A voice came from behind the door, "You may come inside, Elric."
Prof. Elric opened the door and he entered the room.
I took a deep breath, steadying my nerves, and followed behind Prof. Elric. The room was filled with the scent of old books and the soft glow of candlelight. Shelves lined the walls, brimming with tomes and artifacts.
The Headmaster was seated on a chair behind a desk. The emblem on the wall caught my attention. It was the same emblem I saw in the building earlier. I think it is the emblem of the college if I'm not mistaken.
My attention turned toward the elderly man seated on the chair. He must have been teaching something to the girl who was seated next to him, as the girl was asking him various questions.
He spoke to the girl, "Sia, we have guests now. We will continue this later."
The girl begrudgingly spoke, "Okay, but please make it quick." And then she left the room.
His attention turned towards us. He first greeted Prof. Elric, "Elric, Thank you for bringing Alex here during your break."
"You don't need to thank me, Headmaster. You are the one who has to do most of the work, the least I can do is bring Alex here."
"Well, let's not talk about it. You can leave now, I have some things to discuss with young Alex here."
"Then, I'll be going and take care of yourself."
As I watched the scene play out in front of me. I observed the headmaster sitting on the chair. He was an elderly-looking man with gray hair and a white beard. His eyes seemed to contain wisdom and the viscidities of life. And while he looked old, his back was surprisingly straight.
After Prof. Elric left the room and closed the door behind him. The headmaster and I stared into each other's eyes for a moment. After a brief moment, the headmaster spoke,
"I'm glad we could meet, Alex," his voice carrying a melodic tone. "My name is Oliver Hartley and I am the current headmaster of Arcane Nexus Institute. I have been expecting you. You possess a unique gift, one that this world has not encountered often. I have been selected by the apostles to teach you the fundamentals of magic."
Upon hearing that the headmaster of the most renowned magic school is supposed to teach me magic, I was bewildered at first, but after thinking about it, he must be the most knowledgeable person about magic as the principal of the most famous college in this world.
The headmaster continued, "Now as you might have been told, I have little time left in this world, so I will not be able to teach you all about magic. And I also have a college to manage, so how about considering enrolling into Nexus to learn magic?"
Not knowing what to feel nor how to respond, I considered my options. "I will gladly join the Arcane Nexus Institute, but can you first tell me all about this college?"
"Ah, what can I say about this institute? Not to boast, but this is the most renowned magic institute in the country, and probably only a few institutes can even be considered rivals of Nexus."
The headmaster looked towards me to see if I was listening properly and then continued.
"The institute has a large variety of subjects that a student can choose from. There are item production, spell casting, magic theory, and item enchantment along with many others you can learn here."
I guess this list of classes feels like I'm in a magic world. I haven't even seen a person do magic after arriving here.
"The classes will start in 5 days, so you need to prepare for your first class."
"But I don't know any magic, will I be fine?"
"Most of the kids awaken at the age of 12 and start with learning basic meditation, then learn how to sense mana and some theoretical knowledge. They will at most know some basic spells which you should be able to learn pretty easily from what the apostles told me."
"So, do you mean I have some kind of advantage for learning magic?"
"Yes, as you should know from your conversation with the apostles your intelligence should be enhanced. And before you ask, I have been made aware of your circumstances. Can you tell me the element or elements you have unsealed?"
I hesitated slightly but seeing no merit in hiding it, I replied "I have unsealed the water element and have some level of understanding of the earth element."
"Very well, I will be giving you some books on the basic history of this world and Nexus Institute, along with books for some water spells."
He got up and gave me three thin books from a bookshelf to the right. And then led me through a door located between two bookshelves, which I failed to notice. After passing through the door I came into a place with the room divided into four sections by bookshelves. He led me toward one particular section with the most books and asked me,
"Young Alex, what do you think the water element represents?"
I contemplated for a while and spoke after finalizing my thoughts. "The water element represents serenity and adaptability, and it has a dual nature of healing and destructive power."
Upon hearing my answer, the headmaster smiled and said, "That is very clear and concise of you, but remember each element represents a large number of things. Take water as an example, it also represents reflection, transformation, balance, and purification among many others."
"Can you explain what you meant when you said water represents transformation?"
"I'm afraid not. Each person has his journey for discovering what their elements represent. Alas, you need to comprehend multiple elements while most need to comprehend one or two elements, in some rare cases some have three elements to comprehend but that is a special case."
"You gain some, you lose some," I said, and this phrase resonated within me now more than ever.
The headmaster chuckled and said, "What you said seems to be correct. Now I will be giving you three spellbooks that contain basic spells of the water element which you can learn from."