"So you're a mage now?"
Jennette asks me with a curious glint in her eyes, she's leaning on the wall and I'm lying down on my bed, legs and hands spread wide, my heart beating erratically, the thrill of victory spreading warmth in my body and a mad grin is plastered on my face.
"No, not yet, I'm only officially an apprentice mage once I form my first circle."
I raise my hands and clench my fist in the air.
"That'll be very soon."
Jennette chuckles.
I turn my gaze in her direction.
"Why are you laughing?"
"Nothing, you just reminded me of myself when I won my first duel."
I arch my brows.
"Ah, that's right, I always forget you're a 2nd circle mage. So... found your breakthrough yet?"
As soon as I ask her, her expression crumples into a familiar expression... Sadness.
"It's.." she put up a fake, awkward smile on her face. "Forget that, you're going to the academy soon, how do you feel about that?"
I smile bitterly.
I see, she prefers not to talk about it.
"About tha–"
Knock! Knock!
"Who's there?!"
I ask with a loud voice, I'm annoyed by the person who cut off my conversation with Jennette abruptly, and I haven't talked with her for a while.
"It's me, young master."
My eyes widen.
I recognize that voice.
"Sin Morderego?"
Jennette shudders as she hears his name, she starts adjusting her clothes, her face flushed red like tomatoes.
I smirk mischievously and look at her, our eyes meet and I mouth to her without speaking 'I'm gonna tell him.'
Immediately, she starts shaking her head, crossing her arms in the air, signaling that I should not and she's also gesturing with her hands, begging me not to talk.
"Ehem, come in Sin."
He opens the door and walks in.
I stand up and sit down on my bed.
It's been a while since I saw the face of this asshole. He used to appear so threatening and dominant, but now he's... Less threatening and dominant.
His eyes are narrowed and he doesn't even look at Jennette as he walks past her and toward me.
"You remember my name."
A smirk forms on his lips.
Oh, the rings around him.
There are seven red rings around him.
So he's a seven-circle mage, and he looks no older than 34. Scary.
"Of course, I'll be a fool not to know the name of the Captain of the Flameworth's Mages. Plus you did tell me to etch it into my heart."
He holds back a chuckle and he rolls his eyes.
"You've become even sharper since I last saw you. Back then you were a newly hatched chick but now.. you're a slightly grown chick."
I raise the left side of my lips, "Uh, thank you I guess?"
Jennette is still shrieking at the corner, blushing like a young high school virgin who just found her first love.
Never thought she'd be this way. Guess love makes even the most regal person act like a naive fool.
"I didn't think you'd actually survive back then."
"Then I did, and shocked everyone in the family by doing so, I've heard that a lot."
I snort.
"Yes. But I'm not here because of that."
"Then why are you here?"
I adjust myself to sit down well.
"Two reasons: one, to tell you that you're going to the academy under my guidance in two months, that's when the new session is starting and you'll take your entrance test and everything. Two, I want to tell you that... I want to support you."
I raise my brows and open my mouth to form an 'O' shape as I hear his second reason for visiting me.
"Support me? As in supporting me in the fight against my other brothers and sisters to become the next head of the Flameworths?"
I rest my elbow on my thigh and relax my chin on my fist.
"When George and Jiley exist? Pfft" I scoff.
He grimaces.
"Yes. I see infinite potential in you. And I have no doubt you'll be able to become the patria–"
"I have no interest in being the head, Sin. In fact, I have no interest in this family at all."
My voice was stern and echoed dramatically. Sin frowned at my declaration, finding what I said odd and confusing.
I turn to look at Jennette, she's equally shocked and a 'what the hell was that?' expression is on her face.
I smirk.
"Do you have anybody you're interested in?"
He shakes a little.
"Pardon?"
"Do you have anyone you're interested in... Romantically?"
Jennette covers her face with her fingers, and I'm barely holding back a cackle.
"How does that relate to what we're talking about?"
I sigh loudly.
"Just answer the question."
He clicked his tongue and turned to leave.
"I see you don't take me seriously Young Master Charles. I have passed my message. Prepare to leave in two months."
Tsk. And I was about to play master matchmaker.
He looks at Jennette, she flinches and breaks eye contact, her eyes darting wildly.
And he continues walking towards the door.
"Hey, did I say you can leave?"
He paused mid-step.
His voice dropped low, venomous and filled with wrath.
"You're getting more brazen, Young Master."
The air around him distorts and the natural elementless mana that flows in the air around him starts getting corrupted by the mana he seeps out, turning red and making the temperature in the room increase.
Ah, now I know and can see why the temperature always increases when these monsters are angry. Their mana corrupts the air around them.
I'm not bothered by his display of anger, because now, all it does is make me feel a little heat and the gravity around me becomes a little bit more heavier but that's it. I've been training every morning with a boulder on my head for two years so this much gravity is nothing.
"Quell your little display, you're making my maid uncomfortable."
Jennette was fanning her face with her fingers because of the heat or maybe because her face was flushed, but whatever reason, he should stop this aura farming.
Why's he so angry? It's just a simple question. And before two weeks... I'm gonna be gone from this family anyway. Because I can feel it. My reserved mana is on its brink, I can't save anymore in my body cells, I need to make my first circle.
He raises his middle finger to me in response and walks out the door.
I chuckle softly. "Asshole."
"What the hell is wrong with you?"
Jennette raced towards me as soon as Sin left the room and she started beating me, although none of her hits hurt I still played along with her.
"Ouch hehe"
"You're so lovesick." I laugh at her and keep teasing her.
***
It's time for me to ascend to my first circle.
I'm scared, they say the first circle hurts like hell, they say it feels like you're going to die when you create your first circle.
But as much as I'm scared, I still have to grit my teeth and do it.
I'm on the ground, in a meditating position, like always.
Shirtless, only wearing pants.
I've made my plans– I'm gonna leave this house soon. To hell with them all and their family and their patriarchy and power disputes. I don't care. I'm going to chase power. The power to bend my fate and the power to go back to my real family again.
But all that depends on this step I'm about to take! So why should I fear this pain?!
What's more painful? This pain that'll last a few minutes before I gain my circle or the pain that'll last my entire lifetime because I couldn't change my fate and I decided to be a coward?!
I didn't train like I was gonna die just so I'd give up before I even started my journey. To hell with this world, to hell with the pain I'd feel.
Ascend!
Ascend to the first circle!
"Argh!!!"
All the accumulated mana in every cell in my body, I'm gathering them all in my heart!
The pain feels like everywhere in my body is being torn off piece by piece. Like my muscles are slowly getting ripped off.
"Nnngg"
I bite down hard and clench my teeth to muffle my screams.
My body is glowing with quad colors of mana.
My eyes have gone blind now, I can't see.
I can only feel. And what I feel is– Pain.
"Arrghnng"
Something feels like it's gripping my heart, squeezing it tightly.
"Yes, this is it, this is the key to my world!"
The pain is worth it.
But it's excruciating, slowly but surely, I can feel the circle– weaved by my mana, forming around my heart.
It feels like it's about to settle down and the pain is about to subside.
Then...
I feel a familiar burning sensation that threatens to burn my very being and soul to ashes.
"No! No! What!"
It's the flame of eternity.
"Wha– what is it doing?!"
It burns the ring of interlaced mana around my heart to ashes and starts burning my heart.
"No!"
I try to stop it but the flames don't bend to my will yet, I do not have the authority to do so yet.
Is this the price one must pay to gain power?