Lana appeared to stare blankly at Aiken. Me and Aiken? G-getting married? She could hardly believe it. “Are you messing with me?”

“No, you can ask him yourself. I don’t really understand why either. I mean, you already get good grades,” Aiken shrugged.

She stamped her foot, “I’m not talking about that and you know it! Why would he…” she contemplated.

“Relax. I don’t plan on being here long enough for you to come of age, so the marriage won’t happen. You don’t have to worry ab–”

“But I am worried!” she cried.

Aiken pat her head, “Does it bother you that mage?”

“I,” she averted her eyes, “didn’t say that.”

Aiken chuckled. He was a little disappointed because the file on the Lyons family that Instructor Watkins gave him noted that Finn had three sons, and the man really only cared about the eldest. The eldest son would often travel, and was hardly ever home, and for some reason Finn never gave too much power to the other two young men. Well, no matter. Once I have Finn in my pocket, then it should be okay. Now I just have to find a way to introduce Bryan to that duchess lady and let him work his magic.

Aiken learnt that Duchess Graham held quite the position of power, second only to royalty. She seemed a bit different from the other highborn, and Aiken relayed this to Bryan.

As they discussed matters on how to move forward, Claire, Bryan’s assistant, came into the office. She glimpsed at Aiken then placed some documents onto Bryan’s desk. “Everything from yesterday,” she said, then quietly left.

Bryan had a devilish smirk adorned upon him, “You should ask her out.”

“Who?” Aiken questioned.

“Claire.”

Aiken tilted his head in confusion, “She’s in my year; she’s fifteen.”

“So are you,” Bryan leaned forward. “And yeah, yeah, I know. Moral high-ground. But I’ve noticed your parents’ death affecting you, which doesn’t make sense. I dunno why you thought you could hide it from me.”

Aiken immediately saw where he was going with it. Indeed, despite having a matured mind, his brain was still that of a fifteen-year-old boy. Even Aiken had to admit to himself that he had some immature thoughts he wouldn’t usually have. Also, the fact that the deaths of his father and brother whom he only knew for about two days affected him so much, meant that the bodies they were in still had sway over their thoughts and behaviour somewhat.

Aiken was only an adult in wisdom. In every other facet of life, he was now a teenager.

It was a rather scary thing. Aiken mused on the topic, but Bryan brought him back to the present with a snap of his fingers. “Aiken, forget about me for now. Just focus on the tier thing. I’ll do all the investigating for now.”

“But–”

“Don’t make me threaten you with kicking you out my house, you brat.”

Aiken was about to make some smartass remark, but he felt like the day was lively enough as is. “Alright, alright, I’ll just stay focused on the rank-up. But only if you let me teach you some spells, at least to defend yourself in case some shit happens again.”

They agreed.

For the entire week, Aiken focused on researching the Magic Diagram Collection. They were a set of books. About three or four books existed for each tier, and since Aiken was a tier one mage, he could only access the tier-one collection, which was largely useless.

For that reason, he spent most of his time on practical preparation, learning a hodgepodge of new things, but it somehow felt limited. He’d hang out with Lana, help Watkins, and force Bryan to learn magic diagrams.

The days were monotonous, until finally, Wizzier’s Watchers. According to historians in the academy, when Wizzier was nothing but a small town, a group of battlemages, inventors, and explorers prevented a large-scale battle from taking place, which would’ve destroyed the town. They called that group Wizzier’s Watchers, and named the contest after them.

First up was the exploration category. It was half theory, half practical, almost like an exam instead of a contest. It tested on knowledge of survival in the wilderness, basic defensive capabilities to survive animal and magical beast attacks, how to scour for food if you run out, and how to make shelter.

Each category had one hundred points in which a person could attain, and at the end of it, he had seventy-two points. For a crash-course on survival by Instructor Watkins, he wasn’t too disappointed with the score. The exploration category certainly was the most boring one.

A couple days later, the technology category began. Bryan convinced Claire to join with him, despite her nervousness. She created something like a PA system. It transferred and amplified sound to any other unit through what was basically a microphone. And Aiken ‘invented’ a hang glider. He mentally apologised to the original inventor.

With a little bit of wind magic, it was easy to navigate. That science fair was over in a day’s time. Claire got some ridiculous score above ninety, and he got sixty-five. Guess they had better modes of transportation.

Because of the long list of participants in the technology category, Aiken had a long wait until the battlemage category began. Bryan used that time to invite him to a trip. He goaded Aiken with the promise of beer, which they both dearly missed.

Aiken, however, would be disappointed to find himself in some lady’s office. Bryan seemed to dig up her location after investigating her. He gently slid a piece of paper onto her desk.

The woman, stern in voice and uncompromising in gaze, questioned Bryan about where he got that.

He scoffed, “I assumed you’d know. Marina Clive. That’s your name, Countess.” Bryan seemed to be on top of things. “What is the Eye of Origin? Why did Natalie Fendora write your name and give it to us?”

“She gave this to you?” Countess Clive asked in surprise, or perhaps, suspicion. Her trimmed fingernails gently tapped on her wooden desk, inaudible in its rhythm. Despite having a poker face, it felt like her wrinkles became even more pronounced when she contemplated the intricacies of Natalie Fendora’s note. She rubbed her temples and exhaled.

Bryan nodded at her question.

“Dammit, Natalie!” the Countess raged. “Which one of you sees magic diagrams?”

Aiken cautiously raised his hand.

“What tier are you?” she questioned him.

He found it a bit strange that she would ask about that. Headmaster Fendora also shone light on its importance. “I’m just tier one, but I’m in the middle of Wizzier’s Watchmen,” he explained.

“This is such a risk, but we won’t even get the chance to do it if the royal court remains unconvinced,” Countess Clive crumpled the paper. “You, boy, the Eye of Origin does exactly what it’s been doing for you now, showing you true magic diagrams. However, it is suspected to be capable of more. And you, librarian,” she glared at Bryan, “the Kingdom of Haztun to the east is suspected by Harallen to have a dangerous group that incites many radical political changes, including war. I cannot give details at the moment, but the monarchy of Harallen are fools who can’t see past their own kingdom’s importance. Haztun is offering Harallen trade agreements that can benefit both kingdoms, but Harallen is fearful. However, the duchess has a lot of weight in the court. Convince her, and you convince Harallen.”

She rubbed her neck in stress and stood up, peering out her window and into her courtyard, “Oh, and boy, get to tier five quickly,” she said, then showed us the way out.

Bryan and Aiken walked along the hallways, still internalising what Countess Clive told them. Bryan sighed, “For some reason, they refuse to give us the entire story.”

Yeah, Aiken thought. And I have to rank-up. Maybe I’ll find information about the ones responsible for our summoning once I get to tier five.

The battlemage category was finally started the following week. There were duels in which the winner was not always the one who got more points. They judged mostly wit, reaction, and planning ability, as well as general combat proficiency. It was possible that the person who lost the duel would gain more points.

My first opponent was a bespectacled fellow. After having the rules explain, the match started. Without wasting time, the boy shot at earthen arrow out his staff. Aiken dodged it with the shift of his head and fire an ice arrow back at his attacker. The boy moved out of the way as well.

Aiken formed chunks of granite about the size of a fist and fired them off in quick succession, then brought a wall up to block the boy’s movements. The boy sought to go the other direction, but Aiken blocked off that strategy as well.

The cornered boy held his staff in both hands and used earth magic to glide himself out of the trap. But by the time he’d gotten out, a huge fireball smothered him. The burning immediately made him surrender.

No one could believe the magnitude of that fire spell, and it sparked a lot of murmuring, especially amongst the judges.