Memory Seal- Volume 2

by Insane Mooncake

  “...WESLEY!”

  “AHHH!” Wesley sprang out of his chair, yelling, then looked around and saw that he was still in the reception area.

  Okay. Not under attack.

  “Wesley, what are you doing sleeping in my reception area? It wouldn’t do for you to get detention on your first day here, would it?”

  “No, sir!”

  “Hm. I’ll give you a chance. Report to the training fields tomorrow at sunrise. The fifty or so best Rank 8 Elementary Mages of the academy will fight for three spots on the school’s representative team. If you manage to obtain one of the spots, I will consider waiving your detention.”

  ‘Is this what they call blackmail?’ Thought Wesley.

  “What else would I get if I win?”

  “Eh?”

  One of the rules Wesley had learned from Gust on their travels - there is almost always room for bargaining, if you have thick enough skin.

  “What other benefits would I get?”

  “Well, you would be respected by the majority of the school, have the other of representing the school in cross-school competitions, and -”

  “Sorry sir, but all of those naturally come with winning. Perhaps…”

  “Get out!”

  “...Okay.”

  After leaving the building, Wesley looked back. Maybe he needed to work out his bargaining skills…

  Inside the building, Headmaster Farhir stood in a daze, then broke out into laughter. “Hahahaahaaa!”

  Tali, the receptionist, looked at him with questioning eyes.

  “Ahh… It’s nothing. The little fellow is quite interesting, that’s all. Oh, right. Send a school guard to bring the little bugger back to the Lumient family estate.”

  “Will do.”

  …

  The next morning, at sunrise, Wesley had arrived at the training fields of the Reiniad Elementary Institute of Magic.

  Several hundred students, along with many teachers and school guards had congregated around the fields.

  “Approved competitors, come to the center of the field!”

  ‘Ah, I guess that means me.’

  Wesley walked toward the center of the field, but someone almost immediately grabbed his arm.

  “Hey kid, where you going?”

  Wesley pointed. “The center.”

  “Do you think I’m stupid? You’re not one of the competitors.”

  At this point, however, Headmaster Farhir arrived on the scene.

  “John, what do you think you’re doing?”

  “This kid was trying to pass off as one of the competitors, sir.”

  “He is one of the competitors.”

  “Ah?”

  John looked at Wesley, who was clearly around eight to nine years of age, then looked at all of the other competitors, who were all teens.

  “Sorry, headmaster.”

  After Wesley had gone to the center of the field, and Headmaster Farhir had left as well, John turned toward the others around him. “Anyone seen that guy before?”

  Everyone around him shook their heads, except for one.

  “I was at the training fields the other day, and he and the Headmaster had a friendly match against each other. He was actually very competent - he might actually make one of the three spots.”

  Hearing this, John kept his mouth shut.

  Once everyone was settled, Headmaster flew into the air, to the delight of the many students present.

  “You all know the drill. Free for all, last three standing make the team. Go!”

  Instantly, a flurry of seals appeared as everyone raced to finish their spells as quickly as they could.

  “Hm.”

  Wesley thought for a second, then began drawing his own.

  With the high destructive might of magic, it quickly became clear who the true contenders were through the chaos.

  Alex, light-based mage, shot beams of light out of his initial seal into the fray, knocking out a dozen or so opponents.

  James, a lightning mage, disqualified another dozen or so with a field of lightning that surrounded him - none could approach him, and those who were unfortunate to be in range were electrocuted until they lost consciousness.

  May, a fire mage, took the most aggressive route, and simply bathed herself in fire and charged toward her opponents, burning them until they forfeited.

  In mere moments, the majority of the other fighters had been cleared and were being nursed back to health on the sides of the field.

  After a few moments, only this trio stood on the field, alongside an odd assortment of structures that people had created with magic in attempts to survive.

  They looked at each other, then at the headmaster, who was standing on the side of the field, now surrounded by those who had been disqualified from the match.

  Then, they began speaking to each other.

  “Alex, May, why hasn’t the headmaster announced our victory yet?”

  “I don’t know. Maybe we’re supposed to fight each other?”

  “That’s not what happened last year.

  Then, Headmaster Farhir spoke up.

  “There are four remaining left on the field. Hence, the competition has not yet ended.”

  At that same moment, a giant ice dragon suddenly broke through an ice wall and charged its way through the trio, who were instantly frozen, unable to fight any longer.

  “Ah, did I win?” Wesley climbed his way past the broken down ice wall.

  At the start of the fight, Wesley had quickly built four ice walls around himself, then waited.

  After all, why should he exert effort in disqualifying others when he could just wait and get the same result?

  However, once everyone saw him climb out of the ice wall, they’d realized what had happened.

  “Hey, that’s cheating!”

  “You were just hiding!”

  SImilar shouts could be heard from the hundreds of students watching.

  “Mm, sounds like I won.”

  Headmaster Farhir finally announced the results.

  “Wesley is the sole winner of this competition. James, Alex, and May will compete again to determine the last two spots. As for how Wesley won, this was well within the rules. Quick thinking and defensive tactics can save one’s life in battle.”

  With that, he motioned for Alex, James, and May to be healed so that they could compete at their fullest potential.

  “Gods above.” He groaned. “That kid may be a prodigy, but he’s a handful…”

  Chapter 6

  A little more than an hour later, the results were final.

  Alex, May, and Wesley would be the Rank 8 Elementary Mage representatives on the school team.

  In the next two days, the three representatives for Rank 9 and Rank 10 Elementary mages would be chosen as well.

  After presenting the three winners to the rest of the students, Headmaster Farhir turned to them. “Attend your classes as usual for the next three days. Come to my office instead of your period one class the day after.”

  “Yes, headmaster.” The trio chimed.

  “Alright, now head to your classes. Wesley, I have your schedule for you, and I have assigned a guard to escort you from class to class.”

  “Thanks.”

  With that, a school guard walked up to Wesley. “Hey, I’m Dave. I’ll be your escort around school and to and from your family estate. Nice to meet you.”

  He reached out with his hand, intending to shake Wesley’s.

  “Nice to meet you.” Wesley shook Dave’s hand.

  Truthfully, Dave was very happy to have had his job transferred. Standing at doorways, patrolling the school grounds, these tasks were all very tiring on his feet. Now, he could just sit inside classrooms and keep a lazy eye on some rich family’s spoiled brat.

  Ahh…he could already see some relaxing days ahead of him. Heck, the kid was even good enough to be on the school’s representative team, so maybe his own status would grow from proximity.

/>   Or he’d be able to visit other cities and countries on the school’s dime. That’d be the life…

  “Ah.” He quickly pulled himself back to reality.

  “Well, your first class was light magic, but that time has already passed. Your second class is mana control and manipulation, but that has passed as well, so… it’s time for your magic theory class.”

  “Hm.” Magic theory was actually the subject Wesley was most interested in. With the book of spells from the Lumient family, he had access to hundreds of different spells, as well as information regarding magic theory, there were some parts of the books he didn’t quite understand - he needed guidance. The sooner, the better. After all, it would be only after he understood the basic of magic theory, that he would be able to create his own spells.

  And as for his mana control and manipulation class, only with extremely fine mana control would he one day be able to imprint spells and rise to a whole new tier of strength.

  After walking through the school’s grounds, they reached the classroom for magic theory. During the class, Wesley tried his best to concentrate, but could only stare out the window in disappointment- he’d learned everything the teacher was currently going over, whether it be from the Lumient family’s books, or his dreams.

  He wondered how Gust was doing.

  After class finally ended, several of his classmates walked up to him, prompting Dave rush before Wesley for protection.

  “Yes?” Wesley was unperturbed.

  The one leading the students was James, who had been pushed out of the school’s representative team earlier in the day.

  “You and I will duel, the winner gets the 3rd spot in the representative team.”

  “You mean, my spot.”

  James bristled with indignance. “You only received the spot because you hid like a coward!”

  “Like a coward is going a bit far, isn’t it? Have you killed before?”

  Hearing this, James’ face only grew confused. “No.”

  Wesley stepped up to James with a big smile on his face, and said in a sing-song voice. “Well I have~.”

  Then he walked away, with Dave in tow.

  “Come, you still want to duel?”

  James faltered, just a bit, but enough for everyone to notice.

  “Seems like you’re the coward here.”

  With that, Wesley left with Dave to his next class - James did not follow.

  After thinking about it, for a bit, Dave decided to ask Wesley the obvious question at hand.

  “Have you really killed before?”

  He couldn’t match the visage of someone who’d committed murder before to the innocent, childish face of the kid walking next to him.

  Wesley thought back to that bloody night in the Alaki Mountain Range.

  “Of course not. I was just bluffing.”

  Hearing it that way didn’t help Dave’s nerves either, somehow.

  Inside, however, Wesley couldn’t help but contemplate. He really had changed a great deal recently…

  He’d never have tried to pull something like that in the old days.

  “By the way, what’s my last class of the day?”

  “Physical Education.”

  “Ah…?”

  “It’s a very hard course, so I’ve heard.”

  “But why do mages need a physical education course?”

  “Hm, I think I heard one of the teachers yelling ‘A healthy body means a healthy mind’!’ at some of the students.”

  Wesley groaned. He had a bad premonition of what was about to happen.

  -5 minutes later-

  “Take 10 laps around the school grounds!”

  “How far is it around the school grounds?” Wesley asked Dave.

  “About a mile.”

  “...”

  Although Wesley and Gust had travelled a great deal every day, it’d been at a leisurely, walking pace, and most of the distance between the Conarite Kingdom and the Reiniad Kingdom had been with Mark’s caravan, and then Charles and Charlotte’s wagon.

  “...Okay.”

  Wesley began to jog at a fair pace around the school grounds with the rest of his classmates. To start, he was able to maintain pace with everyone else, but once they got to the 6th lap…

  *Pant, pant*

  Wesley looked forward, to the corner of the school grounds several hundred feet ahead. All of his classmates had already rounded the corner, yet he was so far away from it.

  Well, nobody’s around… might as well take it slow.

  “Is there a slacker in my class???”

  A teacher suddenly appeared behind Wesley, and began drawing a seal.

  “There are no lazy students allowed in my class! Run!”

  “Alright, alright.” Wesley finally began to run again, but after a few seconds he felt his scalp tingle, and looked back.

  A large fox, made of fire, was chasing after him.

  “Ahhhh!” Wesley turned around and sprinted as fast as he could.

  In just a few seconds, he had rounded the corner.

  “Hehe.” The teacher clapped his hands in delight.

  “Foxy, keep chasing him!”

  …

  Later that afternoon, when Wesley returned to the Lumient family estate, his hair emitted a burnt smell, and his white and gold mage robe looked slightly worse for wear.

  As he entered the front gates, however, someone suddenly hugged him from behind and picked him up.

  “How’s my itty bitty cutey cousin doing? Er, why is your hair burnt?”

  Of course, it was Kate.

  Wesley hugged his older cousin and shouted his grievances. “The physical education teacher bullied me!”

  “Oh...were you running slowly?”

  “...”

  Kate patted her cousin on the head. “He was just looking out for you, you know? Us mages are helpless against physical fighters if they’re able to close distance on us. So, until you’re capable of flying, you have to be able to outrun even those who are at the peak of physical fitness.”

  Wesley grumbled. That was fine and all, but did the teacher have to be so harsh?

  Chapter 7

  “Anyways, Wes. I heard something interesting today at school. Did you perhaps make the school’s representative team?”

  “Something like that.”

  “Wahhh, that’s my boy! Let’s let great-gramps know, maybe he’ll reward you! You know, he’s been really on me lately about how I have to make the team so as to not lose face for the family, but hey, you’re already in so who cares, right?

  “Come, let’s go!”

  With that, Kate forcefully dragged Wesley toward the main hall. When they approached the entrance however, they noticed that another man was already inside, talking to the Patriarch.

  Kate and Wesley walked inside, but despite that the Patriarch and the unknown man continued to speak to each other, Wesley and Kate could not hear their words.

  Some kind of sound wave distortion spell? Wesley wondered.

  Seeing that the patriarch was busy, Kate and Wesley stayed by the front entrance to the main hall instead of approaching.

  “Kate, what rank are you?”

  “Rank 10 Elementary Mage. Being from the Lumient family, obviously I focus on Light-magic, but I don’t focus on healing like most light mages do, I’m split down the middle between defense and healing.”

  “Won’t it be hard for you to get a spot, then?”

  The way Wesley saw it, the way the competition worked, with a free-for-all, last man standing layout, those who excelled at offensive spells or defensive spells would have the best chance of surviving. Those who specialized in support or healing spells, would have a hard time surviving to the top three unless they worked alongside someone else.

  “Yes, but that doesn’t matter to people like great-gramps there. He just wants the Lumient family to continue to be seen as the top mage family of the Reiniad Kingdom, the most important ally of the King.