Sepp’s pov:

Before he went to see the king, Miedes brought me to a room, where I could sleep. It was plain. It had a bed, a desk and 1 window.

“Does everyone sleep in such a room in this castle?”(Me)

“Nonono. There is a huge difference. The room of servants are about the same as yours, while the rooms of the other court magicians are about 3 times bigger. But all 3 of them have their own villa, so they barely use it.”(Miedes)

I was confused yet again.

“You have to start from the bottom, before you should try to reach the sky. Rest well.”(Miedes)

He left my room and went to see the king. I was tired and fell asleep shortly afterwards. I could have slept through the whole next day, but I annoying knocks prevented me from doing so.

“Sir Court magician, wake up. It’s already noon.”(Maid)

Unwillingly, I stood up and made my way slowly to the door.

“What’s so bad that you have to shout like this?”(Me)

I said while opening the door. The maid overlooked me and tried to peak in my room, to see if there was someone. She was a lot bigger than I was, about 1 or 2 heads I’d say, so it wasn’t that hard for her to do so, it was just; it was really depressing.

“Hmpf.”(Me)

She finally noticed that I stood in front of her. The maid came down to my height.

“Say boy, do you per chance know where the court magician went?”(Maid)

She said with a smile on her face. The combination of my age and the room for servants just had to cause a misunderstanding. I felt sad about the whole situation.

“Oh no, I heard he is new here, perhaps he got lost in the palace. Or could it be that this is the wrong door, or…”(Maid)

She thought about all things, which could have happened to me, or where I could have went.

“What do you want from me?”(Me)

I had enough and stopped her blabbering.

“I have a message for the court magician, but it looks like he isn’t here.”(Maid)

“I am right in front of you.”(Me)

“Hm? Did you say something? Well could you tell him to come to the throne room, if you see him?”(Maid)

I gave up.

“Sigh. I will tell him if I see him.”(Me)

“Thank you. Have a nice day.”(Maid)

Because I remembered the way, I didn’t need anyone to guide me to the throne room,. Even then, my room was far away and I had to go outside and cross the training fields to get there. Half-asleep and unmotivated, I slowly headed to the throne room. Because they were talking about something interesting, overheard a conversation of soldiers who took a break from training.

“Hey did you hear about the new magician?”(?)

“Not much. Tell me more.”(?)

“I heard that he is very young, under 18 or something like that. The king even decided to make him an official court magician.”(?)

“No way. Are you sure about that.”(?)

“The Lieutenant said so.”(?)

“He also said that there will be an all-out war. And. What happened?”(?)

“That’s true, but...”(?)

“Come on, let’s go back to training.”(?)

“Sigh. Sure, but this time I won’t lose.”(?)

“We’ll see about that.”(?)

On my way to the throne room, I came across many other people and I was the main topic of almost every conversation. In only 1 night, the rumour of a young man soon becoming the 4th court magician spread through the whole palace.

I didn’t know anyone, I came across, but the same went vice versa. It felt strange, how everyone talked about me, but no one recognized me. Before I knew it, I stood in front of the golden doors again. Without thinking, I opened them.

The whole room looked even more magnificent than what I remembered and many people were gathered. This time there were only a few soldiers stationed on both sides of the red carpet, but they were only present to watch over the gathered people. I was somewhat overwhelmed.

“Perfect timing Sepp. We just finished preparing everything.”(Miedes)

I was relieved to hear a familiar voice. Miedes cleared himself a way through the gathered guests, in order to get to where I was standing.

“What is all of this?”(Me)

“Didn’t the maid I sent explain everything?”(Miedes)

“She only told me to go to the throne room.”(Me)

“Strange. I clearly told her to explain the whole situation. Well, we can’t change it now, so let me quickly summarize everything.”(Miedes)

The whole commotion was to officially welcome me as the 4th court magician. Therefore, they prepared a ceremony and the only piece missing, was me.

“Just pledge your loyalty like you did before and do what Arthur tells you to do and this will be over in an instant.”(Miedes)

The song of a gong silenced the whole room.

“It’s starting. I will be somewhere near the other ministers. Good luck.”(Miedes)

He said and left me standing alone. Everyone was clearing the red carpet. I was super nervous and had no idea what to do, so I did the same. At the second gong, the king as well as 3 other hooded people entered from a side door. While those 3 positioned themselves behind the throne, Arthur sat down on it and looked across the room.

“I thank all of you for attending this special ceremony to officially accept our 4th court magician. Sepp of the Dark Continent, step forward!”(Arthur)

His voice echoed through the whole room and the crowd reacted to his words. The mood instantly got bad and I felt a lot of pressure coming down at me. I could only step forward with a lot of effort. With thinking about taking 1 step at a time, I somehow managed to reach the red carpet. Same as last time, I kept my eyes low and stopped before the king to kneel down.

What pressured me weren’t the people themselves, but what they whispered. “From the Dark Continent? Is the king still right in his mind?”; “Is this really a good idea? Wouldn’t it be better to kill him?” and other negative comments were said about the king and me.

2 other important looking people, came from the other side door. 1 of them brought a sword, while the other carried a robe, similar to what the 3 hooded people next to the king wore. All of that whispering stopped at once when the king stood up again. He took the sword and put it on my neck.

“Decide, swear your loyalty to me, or die. Which is it?”(Arthur)

I could feel the focused stares of everyone present.

“I decide to swear my loyalty to Arthur Pendragon.”(Me)

He put the sword away from my neck and gave it back to the person who brought it. Then he took the robe and held it in front of me.

“I grant you this robe as well as the title genius. Take them and show us your worth.”(Arthur)

When the king gave me the robe, it was like all the pressure on me disappeared and he would bear it for me.

“I will not disappoint you.”(Me)

For the rest of the day, I felt like I was in some kind of trance. I barely remember that after the ceremony ended, there was a banquet. The 4 court magicians sat at the same table as the king and everyone else was scattered around the dining hall.

The other thing I remember was that the king told me he planned to introduce me to the whole continent and that we would leave the capital and head for the cities. Date of departure was the next day.

My trance ended and I found myself in my bed again. Perhaps someone carried me there or I was able to reach it myself, I don’t know and I fell asleep again.

At least I was able to get up the next day and we departed for the nearest city called Sonya city. I even got a carriage for myself. However, I felt lonely, so I invited Miedes and we talked for the whole journey.

The convoy consisting of the carriage of the king, followed by some retainers and my own in the back, received a warm welcome by Sonya city. I didn’t leave the carriage, I just looked outside the little window. The citizens cleared a path for us. They all looked quite happy and even waved at us. They didn’t see me, but I waved back. For the 1st time, I was happy about my decision of working for the human king.

Even with such a light mood and a festival in front of my nose, I somehow felt uneasy. I felt that someone was especially eying me. I believed in my strength so I kept it to myself. The city lord prepared rooms for us to stay. We received a villa next to the 1 of the city lord.

I was wondering if the king planned anything else, but it didn’t look like it. Our group rested in the heavily guarded villa and the rooms we were provided with by the city lord. I was able to get some of Arthur’s time and ask him about the whole trip.

I intended to have a short talk, but it somehow ended in many new topics coming up and before I knew it, it was already dark. I headed back to my room and left the king alone.

Rumble.

Before I could entre it, the ground shook and I heard a loud explosion from far away. I could hear screams coming from the citizens. Everyone from the villa immediately gathered in the entrance hall.

“What’s the matter?”(Arthur)

“We are under attack. The south gate got destroyed.”(Soldier)

“What? Who is attacking us?”(Arthur)

“I don’t know. The gate got destroyed without anyone knowing how.”(Soldier)

“What do you mean no one knows how?”(Arthur)

The king thought for a while then he came to me.

“We’ll go and have a look. You stay here and watch after the villa. You are probably what they are after.”(Arthur)

“Yes.”(Me)

He nodded and the guard guided them to the destroyed gate. I just followed them outside to watch them leave and when they were out of my sight, I went back inside. I was the only 1 left behind in the villa, everyone else followed the king. I collected my thoughts and went back to my room.

I just felt like something was wrong. The stares in the city, the bad feeling I had throughout the whole day and now the destruction of the gate. I could hardly see anything, but I could hear the commotion through the opened window. I instantly prepared myself and went into a fighting stance. I remembered that it wasn’t me, who opened the window.