"Young Master!"
"Quick, get the physician! The Young Master has fainted!"
During his fifth birthday, Zacharia Evandiel tripped and hit his head. He knocked himself out and remained unconscious for three days. Contrary to everyone's worry and to everyone's delight, he was completely okay when he finally woke up.
However, something had changed.
The first five years of Zach's life had been as ordinary as can be. He was born. He ate, slept, and played like any ordinary young noble's son. He continued doing that, even after he woke up. That wasn't it. What had changed wasn't something as superficial as his behavior.
Half a year later, he slipped and fell into the pond in the backyard, almost drowning. But in the process, he found an ancient bracelet decorated with priceless jewels. A few months later, in the same pond, he found a matching necklace after almost drowning when a dog pushed him in.
A couple of days after his seventh birthday, some bandits broke into the mansion. Despite the heavy security, there was an opening that let them kidnap Zach.
Zach wasn't the only one kidnapped. Several other young nobles had also been kidnapped and brought to a warehouse. There, Zach tripped again and set off a domino-like effect of knocking the kidnappers against each other.
The kidnappers stabbed each other, fell over, released the captives, and set off the fireworks stored in the warehouse, alerting the various noble houses of their location.
Following this and a few other incidents, Zach's family did their best to keep him safe and out of harm's way. But even when he spent most of his days in his room, he managed to almost get the ceiling collapsed on him.
A beam had rotted without anyone noticing. Coincidentally enough, this beam happened to be right above Zach's room.
But the ceiling wasn't the only thing that almost fell on Zach. A box containing records of the ancient times that the person who built the mansion during the dawn of the Evandiel family hid also fell down.
It seemed that wherever Zacharia Evandiel went, he would be accompanied by unbelievable luck and misfortune.
That was why his family couldn't immediately say no when he, at fourteen years of age, wanted to attend the empire's Academy of Summoners. And a year later, he was ready to take the entrance exam.
***
Zach stood in front of the impressive academy gates. They were more grand than the ones to the family mansion.
"Let's hope for a peaceful academy life," Zach said with his hands on his hips as he admired the stream of hopeful new students swarming toward the exam hall.
"...Is that him?"
"I think so. Look at that orange hair. Only the Evandiels have that."
"Be careful, or you'll get caught up in his bad luck."
"Yeah, I heard he got five other kids involved in a kidnapping when he was younger."
"Five? I heard it was at least a dozen."
"Don't forget about the family of dogs that drowned trying to save him when he fell into a lake."
Zach ignored the voices of his possible schoolmates and headed toward the examination hall to take the first test of the day. With the Academy's resources, they had no trouble organizing everything.
Zach took the first theoretical test, and when he had just started taking a look around the campus, the results were already posted. He was a little disappointed since he wanted to inspect the place where he would live for the next four years.
However, since that wouldn't happen if he didn't pass both the theoretical and practical tests, Zach followed the stream of talkative and nervous students to the next examination hall. Already, the number of people had decreased to a fraction of the initial test-takers.
But the grounds outside the hall were still cramped.
After all, unlike the first test where everyone had been assigned to different classrooms where they had just needed to answer a string of questions about all kinds of subjects, the next test was the real deal.
There was only one Chamber of Ceremony in the Academy, so only one student could take the test at once. It was a tedious process. Fortunately, it didn't take long for each student to undergo the test. Most people entered the stone doors, which barely had time to close before opening again to let the dejected youth out.
But there were also several who stayed inside the Chamber for up to several minutes before leaving. And when they left, they were no longer alone.
Although Zach was excited, he couldn't be bothered to keep track of everyone who came out with summoned familiars unless they were extraordinary, like the guy who came out with a big, black dog as tall as him or the young lady who came out with a floating block of ice. They caused enough of a ruckus to stir Zach out of his daydreaming daze.
The other thing that woke Zach up was the voice of the instructor calling his name.
It was finally his turn.
'Shoot, I should have asked Nora to pack me lunch.'
Since so much time had passed, Zach's stomach had long forgotten the breakfast it had and was beginning to desire more food.
Zach passed through the stone doors and entered the dark room. It wasn't just dark. When the doors thumped shut, it was impossible to see anything inside. It didn't make a difference whether Zach's eyes were open or closed.
A few moments later, a ring of light appeared on the floor a couple of steps into the room.
Zach's face lit up in a smile. The ring's appearance meant he had the talent for summoning. However, he had only passed the first part of the test, so he couldn't relax yet.
Zach walked over and stepped into the ring. As he did so, the ring rose into the air and enveloped him in a veil of light before sinking back into the floor. As it did so, another, much larger ring of light appeared in the center of the room.
The large ring grew brighter and lines of similar golden white light spread through the room like the threads of a spiderweb, gradually encasing the entire room in a golden sheen. The light grew brighter and brighter until Zach could no longer keep his eyes open.
Still, Zach wanted to see, so he tried to keep looking until tears welled up in his eyes, and he had to close them and cover them with his hands until the light finally faded to reveal a mysterious figure.