“I’m sorry. I let the dream overtake me.” Elric had spoken up in embarrassment.

“That was no dream. Each scene you saw are places in the world. They are real and are memories of the magical formula.” When his master saw the distinct look of bewilderment on his pupil’s face, he continued to explain, “This formula is applied to every single area in the world. Each area only adds to the memory….Some people take these images to be illusions and dismiss them. Other people take these images to be a method of communication within….”

Seeing Elric at a complete loss for words from trying to understand it, Victor hurriedly snapped his student back to his senses. “Don’t think too much about it. We’ve already wasted enough time, prepare to set out!”

Hearing his master telling him about a method of meditation, Elric immediately closed his eyes accordingly to adjust his mind. Seeing his student begin to calm down, Victor sat back down and began to make several hand signs as he chanted out loud. “Fei—So—Fei—Fa—Fa—So—Fei—Fa—Ka—Na—Da”

A tremor ran through the area at once. Disoriented, Elric felt a second wave slam into his head before he could react.

“We’re here,” he heard his master say. Opening his eyes, Elric could only see themselves sitting on a platform. As he stood up, he looked at his surroundings. The platform was made from white marble into a circular fashion. A hundred meters away on both ends of the platform, a giant magical array could be seen. It was many times larger than the one back in the laboratory, but these two magical arrays were completely different from it.

“Quick, pull me up!” his forgotten teacher sputtered angrily.

It was then that Elric had suddenly remembered his poor master Victor. Half-pulling and half-dragging his teacher, Elric managed to pick him up. After tidying up the luggage, he hurriedly began to follow after his master.

As they traveled on the road, Victor began to explain several things to Elric.

Maguscraft was not something publicly taught to anyone that wished to learn the art. One had to request the Circle of Magi to become a provisional apprentice to a magus and begin learning. However, an examination would be conducted a year afterward to test their aptitude. Should they fail, then they would have one last chance to pass the examination again the following year. Should they succeed, then they would be formally accepted into the Circle and be taught the art in earnest.

Last year, Victor signed Elric up for this examination without the latter’s knowledge. Today marked the day Elric had to take the examination.

“There are two paths you may take. The first; you give up on this exam and return to your father’s store. The second; you take the exam and return to the store after failing.” Victor stated. He, it appeared, did not feel very optimistic for his own student.

“....I wish to take the examination….”

Hearing his own student speak, Victor didn’t feel that it was unexpected. After spending two years with him, he had a good understanding of the nature of his student.

As they spoke, the two finally reached the Circle of Magi.

They walked through a circular archway. Victor took Elric through a long assembly hall where three people could be seen already seated.

“You should stay here for a moment. Go acquaint yourself with your fellow exam takers. If there’s anything you don’t know, you can ask them.” As he finished, Victor left Elric and walked away.

In such an unfamiliar setting, this was the very first time Elric had felt rather lonely. He didn’t know just how he would be able to make talk with a random stranger.

After a small period of silence, the eldest of the three took the initiative to walk on over. “Hello, I’m Kite.” He extended his right hand. Reflexively, Elric stuck out his own right hand to shake it. “I-I’m Elric. Nice to meet you.”

With the silence broken, the atmosphere grew far more lively. After the self-introduction, the others came forward to introduce themselves.

Kite, Jerry, and Belladonna were now all acquainted with Elric. Kite was eighteen years old this year and was the disciple of an instructor of the Circle of Magi in Sina, Collins. He specialized in pyromancy.

Jerry and Belladonna were both the same year as Elric at sixteen years old. Jerry was the disciple of magus Pierrot and specialized in aeromancy.

Belladonna was the disciple of Bellissa, an Adept. Her focus was in hydromancy.

Out of the three, Kite was born into a family of knights with peerage. However, his orthodox knight training had been completely different from the other nobles. He didn’t have the overbearing attitude that many of the other nobles had.

Belladonna’s parents belonged to the clergy, resulting in a strict childhood and education in divine service. She was, originally, raised to follow her parents in service, but those plans were altered when she declared her intent to follow the path of her maternal aunt, Bellissa, a magus and Adept. The art of maguscraft was calling out to her, she declared.

Jerry was the son of a rich merchant. His parents had wanted their family to one day obtain the title of being a noble, and so they had made sure their three sons would be sent into the best educational establishment to further their careers. The eldest had joined the Imperial Knights. Jerry was the second son, and he still had a younger brother who was currently undertaking training to become a clergy.

In comparison, Elric being the son of a grocery store owner was quite a wretched status. But Elric hadn’t treated this to be a disgrace. In fact, he had even made mention of the fact that he had a physique that was unsuitable to learning magic.

Upon hearing that Elric was still taking the examination despite not being able to wield magic in the slightest, Kite couldn’t help but respect such a character. Without any further words, the two had already become good friends.

With all of the enthusiastic chatter, the time had quickly gone by. Soon, the halls opened up to reveal an acolyte.

“Are you the examinees waiting to take the exam?” The magus spoke.

“Yes.” Kite spoke up as the representative of the four.

“You will first fill out several forms and then head to your area of residence to put down your luggage. Afterwards, you will all attend the banquet.” After he spoke, the magus handed out several forms and then a pencil.

With the help of Kite, Elric had managed to fill out the forms with some difficulty.

Taking in the four completed forms, the proctor began to tidy them up before leading them out. Elric and the others had to carry their own luggage and follow from behind.

After reaching the residence, the three males were given a shared room while Belladonna was by herself.

After assigning themselves a bed, everyone threw down their luggage and followed the magus back out to the banquet.

Upon entering the banquet hall, everyone had felt the atmosphere to be rather noisy and warm.

Seeing the large crowd, Kite spoke, “We should walk together so we won’t get lost. It’d be extremely difficult to locate anyone in here.”

The other three nodded in agreement.

“Let’s first go eat then!” Jerry suggested.

“Fine.” For Elric who had only eaten breakfast and skipped over lunch, this suggestion was more than enough to stir his stomach.

With difficulty, the four had managed to squeeze themselves onto a dinner table. Unexpectedly, there had been very few people here. But most eye-catching was teacher Victor eating by himself with wide open chews. Seeing his table manners, it wasn’t hard for the four to deduce why there had been so few people near the dinner table.

Seeing this clown, the other three couldn’t help but feel some pity for Elric.

Just then, Victor raised his head up to look at Elric and the others. With a wave of his hand, Victor beckoned to Elric.

“He’s calling us over.” Elric explained.

“You can go.”

“Kill me if you want but I’m not going.”

“We don’t know him.”

The other three spoke in unison.