Oliver Vinari looked around. He was standing in the middle of Anguis’ mighty coliseum, the hundreds upon hundreds of people in the stands cheering his name. He grinned, waving at everyone.

And there they were, the ones that he really wanted to see him standing on this prestigious stage. His parents, his brothers, his teachers, his classmates… they were all looking at him with shining, amazed eyes. His heart soared as jubilation overcame his entire being.

He had made it! He had proved to everyone that he was more than just a faceless, average person! He was something more! He was worthy enough for his name to be noted!

Oliver looked to his side. Lined up beside him were those that he truly belonged with.

Ardea, Arthur, Lancelot, Gawain, Cadmus… the geniuses who stood head and shoulders above everybody else—and Oliver was one of them!

Headmaster Capitis, with his portly stomach and short handlebar moustache, approached them, a proud smile on his face. Oliver stood straighter than he had ever stood before.

“Congratulations, my students. Truly, I am blessed to have students as talented as you—”

Something changed. Perhaps the sky had grown darker, or perhaps the audience had grown quieter, or perhaps Headmaster Capitis’ smile had faltered a bit. Oliver didn’t know what, but something had definitely changed.

A sick feeling slowly wormed into his stomach, and Headmaster Capitis slowly turned towards him. His eyes narrowed at Oliver, and a confused expression twisted his face,

“Hm? Who are you, and what are you doing here?”

Oliver’s eyes snapped open, the ache in his heart almost unbearable. He breathed deeply a few times, the cool air of autumn dispersing the fog of sleep from his mind, and the light of the morning sun streaming in from his window easing the pain in his heart to a dull throbbing.

He did not exit his warm covers, even though the pendulum clock on his wall was telling him that he only had thirty minutes to get ready for class. Instead, he stared at the white ceiling above him, trying to keep the memory of his recent dream from fading from his mind.

Then, his vision slowly fell on his desk, where a single, unsigned form innocently lay.

As was usually the case every day, Oliver met Cadmus on the way to Magic Fundamentals class.

“Yo,” Oliver greeted.

“Hello,” Cadmus greeted back, as polite as ever.

“Hey Oliver,” Alice cheerfully said as well. It seemed that she had finally warmed up to him in the past few days.

He had grown used to her presence now as well, so he merely responded to her greeting with a small wave.

They made small talk as they walked along the hallways. However, neither of them even broached the topic of the forms that had been slipped under their doors last night. This was the good thing about being the person who usually directed the conversation in a group, you could easily avoid topics that you didn’t want to talk about.

They took their seats in class, and Oliver instantly noticed that the air was charged with a tremendous amount of excitement. People were animatedly speaking to each other about the upcoming Twin Peaks Magical Tournament, and no matter where he turned, all he could hear was talk about that one same topic.

Then, Professor Mackenzie entered. She looked frazzled. Her normally neat hair bun looked messier than usual, and there were faint bags underneath her wide brown eyes.

She quickly ran through the attendance, before she too dived straight into the topic of the upcoming tournament.

“I’m sure that all of you have already received your tournament sign-up sheets,” she said, holding up a copy of the form, “If you somehow haven’t, talk to me after class and I’ll give you one. Now, I want you all to think very carefully before you guys sign up. As stated on the form, deaths have been known to occur during this tournament. Not because we have you guys fight to the death, but because you will be fighting with powerful magic, and sometimes, the referees won’t be able to stop some fights in time.”

The class seemed to gulp as one. Although, Oliver could tell that there was still an undercurrent of excitement present as well. Professor Mackenzie’s words were grim, but Oliver knew that most of the class couldn’t help but picture themselves as one the rare few who were skilled enough to avoid such a fate.

Oliver knew this, because he too had fallen into the same trap. The dream from this morning stood vivid and clear in his mind. He could almost hear the crowd chanting his name again…

But then, he glanced at Cadmus out of the corner of his eye, and reality reasserted itself.

No matter how much he dreamed, such a role wasn’t meant for him. It was meant for the amazing geniuses who were in a league of their own. It was meant for people like Ardea, or Arthur, or Cadmus.

“We want your guardians to be aware of this as well, which is why they have to sign that form too,” Professor Mackenzie continued, unaware of his thoughts, “The deadline for submitting those forms is two weeks. Make sure to get it to any of us faculty by then.”

She put her copy of the sign-up form down on her desk, and grinned, though it came across as a bit strained,

“Now that we’ve gotten that over with, let’s get to today’s lesson and talk about magical circuit techniques.”

Oliver quickly pulled out his Academy-provided notebook, his quill pen, and his inkwell. Thankfully, Professor Mackenzie waited for them to get ready to take notes. Oliver turned to a new page and hurriedly scrawled:

Magical Circuit Techniques.

Professor Mackenzie examined the room, and when she was sure that no one had been left behind, she began her lesson,

“As some of you may already know, as long as you have a magical line connected to your magic circle, you can use it as a circuit to power it from anywhere. For example, I can be at one end of the room, and my magic circle can be at the other end. However, if I’ve drawn a magic line to connect me to the circle, I can use that line as a circuit to power my circle from this end of the room as well.”

Oliver made sure to note this all down as she spoke. He glanced at Cadmus out of the corner of his eye again. As usual, Cadmus hadn’t even brought out his notebook, and it was clear to see that his mind was elsewhere.

Oliver frowned. Not everyone could be like Cadmus.

When class finally ended, Oliver let loose a loud groan of relief along with many other students. Magic Fundamentals class was always rigorous and packed with study. Other than the five-minute break that they got in the middle of class, there was simply no time for rest. It seemed that this Academy’s title of ‘best school of magic on the continent’ wasn’t just for show—these demanding classes made sure that they would be able to keep hold of that title.

Cadmus beside him yawned slightly before getting up and stretching a little. It seemed he had fallen asleep during class.

Oliver’s eye twitched.

He packed all of his stuff into his bag, and together they descended the steps of their amphitheatre-like desks. Instead of heading towards the door like the rest of their classmates, Cadmus said,

“One second.”

Oliver nodded and followed after him as we walked up to Professor Mackenzie,

"Yo, brat. What’s up?” She greeted.

Cadmus handed her his entry form for the Twin Peaks Magical Tournament. As expected, it was already completely filled out.

Except…

“You need to get your guardian to sign this as well,” Professor Mackenzie said, examining his form. And then, her face fell, “Oh right… You as well…”

Though Cadmus didn’t look remotely affected by her words, Professor Mackenzie somberly took his form and set it down on her desk. Oliver caught a glimpse of another form sitting there as well. It was signed by Gelida Olvo, and it too had its ‘signature from guardian’ area left blank.

He stored this information away in his head. Who knew when it would come useful?

With his business done with, Cadmus said,

“Thank you. I’ll be taking my leave now.”

Professor Mackenzie nodded, “Yeah… see you later.”

As they walked through the hallways to get to their next class, Cadmus asked Oliver,

“And you? Do you think that your parents will be able to sign your form and return it on time?”

Oliver forced a smile, “Me? Oh, I don’t intend to enter the tournament, so that’s not a problem.”

Cadmus frowned, his narrow green eyes seeming as though they were piercing right through him.

“Is that so? What a shame. I think you would have done well.”

Oliver chuckled slightly at his joke.

A few more days passed, and though the anticipation and excitement of the upcoming tournament had spread throughout the whole Academy, classes had still gone on as usual. And while it was obvious to anyone watching that all the members of the faculty were dealing far more work than usual, they still made sure to not let any of their tiredness or stress bleed into their classes.

That is why Oliver had expected today to play out more or less the same as usual.

The first sign of a deviation came when Cadmus didn’t show up for class.

Oliver knew that Cadmus would rather have been focusing on his magical research rather than go to classes, but he also knew that Alice would have never allowed Cadmus to skip his classes. So what had happened? Why wasn’t he here?

“Alright kiddos,” Professor Mackenzie called, “I have a pop quiz for you all today. It’ll take almost all of class for you guys to finish this, so I suggest you be quiet so that we can get started as soon as possible.”

Oliver winced. Had Cadmus known about this? Was that why he wasn’t here?

Well, on further thought, that didn’t really make sense. Cadmus would easily be able to ace a pop quiz like this. He wouldn’t really need to skip.

Besides, Alice would never in a million years accept an excuse like, “I want to skip because there’s a quiz I don’t want to do.”

A stack of parchment was handed to him. He took one, passed the rest along, and then got straight to work.

The next class, Magical Combat class, usually required people to partner up into groups of two in order to allow people to gain practical experience in using their newly learned combat spells or tactics against another living, reacting person.

Of course, Oliver usually partnered up with Cadmus. Cadmus wasn’t here today though, and now there was an odd number of students in class, meaning Oliver had no one to partner with. He was forced to go to Professor Carmen to explain his circumstance, and the act of it was vaguely embarrassing for some reason.

Professor Carmen put him with two other people, Jack Webb and Will Collins, and she told them to work as a three-man group for today by periodically switching places with each other.

Jack and Will were remarkably plain-looking people with short brown hair, just like Oliver—though Jack’s hair was shaped in a bowl-cut, and Will’s hair was spiky. While Oliver wasn’t friends with either of them, he still knew them as acquaintances (well, Oliver knew everyone in the class as an acquaintance. He’d made an effort to get to know all of them as soon as classes started), so it wasn’t too awkward when he joined their group.

As the class tried to put Professor Carmen’s poorly-explained instructions into action (usually, it was only when she went around the class and actually gave people physical demonstrations did anyone really understand what she was talking about), Professor Mackenzie suddenly entered the classroom.

For a second, Oliver thought that she was here to just talk to Professor Carmen. But then, she announced,

“Hey everyone,” She held up a stack of parchment, “I have your graded quizzes right here. Please come to get yours when I call your name.”

This seemed highly odd to Oliver. Usually Professors—including Professor Mackenzie—just waited until their next class to give them their graded quizzes, tests, or homework back.

It seemed that Professor Carmen had been expecting Professor Mackenzie though, since she didn’t look surprised at all by Professor Mackenzie’s sudden appearance.

Professor Mackenzie quickly went through her list of names, and Oliver made sure to quickly collect his quiz when his own name was called.

91/100

He smiled. Not bad…

Once everyone had gotten their quizzes back, Professor Mackenzie said seriously,

“This quiz was a method of judging where you all currently stand in terms of basic magical knowledge. Those of you who got a score under ninety are highly advised to not sign up for the upcoming Twin Peaks Magical Tournament.” She shrugged, her tone becoming less formal, “It’s up to you guys in the end, but trust us; we’ve been doing this for a long time—we know what we’re talking about.”

A few murmurs spread throughout the room as Oliver looked down at his quiz again. He felt a complicated rush of emotions.

So… he was eligible to enter the tournament as well, even though he wasn’t talented at magic at all…

He stood there, simply staring at his score for who knew how long, until Professor Carmen finally said cheerfully,

“Okay~ let's get back to class again!”

Taking a deep breath, he stuffed his quiz into his bag. Although, the score refused to leave his mind, like an annoying decoration on the wall.

91/100...

Lunch seemed like it would be a lonely affair as well, but partway through, Jack Webb, Will Collins, and three more of their friends came up to his table,

“Hey,” Jack greeted, “Mind if we sit here?”

Oliver wasn’t sure how he felt about that. On one hand, it was kind of embarrassing to sit alone at lunch for some reason, but on the other hand, he didn’t want to sit with another group of people who were great friends with each other, but didn’t know him nearly as well.

Of course, he couldn’t really say any of that, so he nodded, saying, “Go ahead,” out of politeness. Privately, he wondered why they had come to his table anyway? True, there were thousands upon thousands of students in this Academy, but there were more than enough lunch tables to accommodate them all.

Jack’s group took a seat, and instantly began talking animatedly with each other. As expected, it was terribly awkward for Oliver to be here as well. He didn’t really know any of these people well enough to interact comfortably with them.

So, he just sat there silently, eating his food hurriedly so that he could leave soon.

Then, Jack turned towards him, “Hey, is it true that Guiles is in the infirmary?”

It took a moment for Oliver to realize that Jack was talking to him. And when he did, he blinked confusedly,

“Er—I don’t really know. Sorry.”

“Huh, I figured you would have known—seeing as how you’re always hanging out together,” Jack said, “Will said that his sister saw Guiles in the infirmary this morning. Apparently, he was covered head to toe in bandages. Just wanted to check if that was true.”

Oliver gave it some thought. That would indeed explain why Cadmus hadn’t come to class today. However, what could he have been doing to get injured to such a degree that he had to be covered in bandages?

“Guiles is probably joining the tournament, right?” Jack asked.

Oliver nodded, “Yes, he’s already turned in his sign-up form.”

Will chuckled, “I don’t really see the point in joining this tournament. It’s fun to watch, sure, but the participants are just like jesters: dancing around for other people’s amusement. I just want a relaxing school life, so there’s no way I’m going to do something troublesome as joining the tournament.”

Jack and his friends laughed, and nodded to show their agreement.

“Man…” Jack said, “All those guys trying so hard—It’s admirable, but I’m way too lazy to do anything like that.”

His friends laughed and nodded again. His words claimed that he found those who were putting in a lot of effort ‘admirable’, but there something in the way he spoke that made Oliver feel as though he and his friends were almost making fun of those people.

“Speaking of the tournament, what did you guys get in the pop quiz?” Will asked.

Jack grinned, fishing his quiz out from his bag and displaying it to the group:

85/100

“Yeah, it’s not over ninety,” Jack said with an uncaring wave, “But I barely pay attention in class, so a score like this is good enough for me. I can’t be bothered to try harder.”

So why did he sound so proud about it, Oliver wondered? Why did he get the sense that Jack was showing off?

The others showed their graded quizzes as well, and their scores all ranged from between seventy to eighty.

“And you, Oliver?” Jack asked, “What did you get?”

Oliver warily took out his quiz and showed it to them.

Jack and his friends’ eyebrows climbed when they saw the score written on it,

“Ninety-one? Wow. You must be a pretty hard worker, huh?”

Jack said it as though he was impressed, but Oliver was pretty sure that he saw a glint of annoyance in his eyes. In fact, it seemed that all of Jack’s friends were hiding their annoyance.

Will laughed, “What’re you studying so hard for, Oliver? It’s only our first year—no one cares what grades we get in this year. Or is it that you’re planning on joining the tournament? Sounds tiring if you ask me. That stuff is for those guys who put in all their effort for everything—like Regis or Pendragon.”

Oliver didn’t say anything as he stuffed his quiz paper back into his bag. It was only now that he finally understood why these people were acting this way. He understood because he too had been the same when he was younger.

‘I’m too lazy to do this,’ or ‘it sounds tiring to put in all my effort.’ These were the words that Jack and his friends were always repeating—not only to others, but also themselves. They kept repeating these words because they wanted to believe that they too had this amazing potential, and the only thing holding them back was their lack of a work ethic.

When Jack had shown his score of eighty-five out of a hundred, he hadn’t been lamenting how he’d gotten a score under ninety. He had been showing off, essentially saying, ‘Look! I got such a high score without even paying attention!’ He was building up this implicit idea within others and within himself that he had an amazing amount of talent contained with him. He was clinging to the idea, that if he only tried his best, he would be able to reach the same prodigious heights as Ardea, or Cadmus, or Arthur.

But of course, these were just excuses. Oliver understood this best. Not only because he had thought the same way in the past, but also because he was friends with one of those incredible geniuses. He knew firsthand just how exceptional these people above them were.

In fact, he had already begun to understand this even before meeting Cadmus. Oliver liked to gather information, so he had already come to find out just how amazing some people could be a long time ago.

It seemed simple to Oliver. Some people had talent, and some people didn’t. Unfortunately, Jack, Will, the rest of his friend group, and even Oliver himself…

They were all a part of the latter.