Regraud, one of the neighboring cities of the Royal Capital, this is where most low to middle-class citizens are located. The Hayrain Shop was, as usual, getting ready for business.

"Azrael must be hanging out at that old hermit's place as usual"

"He must be learning magic from that elder, don't worry he'll be back before you know it" the attendant casually said

"I do hope so, he spends almost all his time there now, he doesn't even go home"

"Well you know how he is madam, after all, he's his father's son"

"Oh, my Dear... How I wish you were here. My son worries me and you worry me the most” Lina said as she slowly sat down and looked towards the window with sad eyes.

Azrael, the son of Lina Alistorm and Marfik Anguis. His father was an officer under the Hawk Regiment, as such, he was not always at home. Due to the conflict with the nobles in the capital, they were tasked to be in charge of patrolling the boundaries of the Empire's territory, searching for possible expansions and dealing with invaders.

—————————————-

On a house near outskirts of the city, a 15-year-old youth with short jet black hair was concentrating.

A small magic circle was drawn in front of his hand. Light particles slowly gathered on the circle.

*Pzzzttt* "Light Beam!" A ray of white light shot towards the wolves and swept from side to end. The three wolves were successfully destroyed, however, two more remained, directly pouncing towards the boy.

He quickly sidestepped and dodged the wolf and fired off another Light Beam but as he turned the other wolf bared its fangs.

“Ah, shit” The sharp fangs buried under his arm and the wolf flung the boy, smashing him onto the trees.

“Recall.” A coarse voice sounded and the remaining wolf dissipated into thin air.

The man's name is Gerald Ansler, a 73-year-old retired mage. Azrael begged him to teach him magic as he wanted to help out his Family’s dilemma. After witnessing Azraels aptitude for magic he immediately took him in as a disciple.

“It hurts dammit! Why didn't my magic work? It should have eliminated them all in one shot. Huff, huff” The boy was panting heavily.

The old man hit Azrael with his staff in the head. “Ow! I’m already injured, master!”

“First of all, why did you assume that all my wolf summonings were of the same grade, you can blame that on your lack of observation. All you do is act on impulse. Did you not notice that 2 of the wolves had a higher grade? The difference in their color intensity was a dead giveaway. Had you stopped to analyze your opponent first you would not have been beaten.”

“Now give me your arm” Azrael raised his hand slowly while Gerald cast a healing spell. A yellow magic circle appeared on Azrael’s arm and slowly healed the bite.

“Teacher, why don’t you teach me more powerful spells instead of this. A stronger spell can get the job done quickly. As a mage, I’m going to be on the back anyway.”

"What kind of thinking is that?! despite your talent, you don't even have enough mana to even execute those spells yet much less use them properly. You can’t even do a simple observation, battles are not just won by who has the stronger spell" he coldly yelled.

“We will be repeating this until you are able to observe properly!”

Azrael frowned and was about to retort. As soon as he was about to speak, Gerald hit him with his staff again.

“It's only a months time till the Military Academy enlistment. You want to enter the military don't you, then stop complaining about every little thing, the assessment done on the enlistment will determine your starting point. It will give you the necessary edge in order for you to have a favorable position when you enter the military academy."

Gerald was a Mage in the Military before he retired. He was very knowledgable in terms of the military enlistment process. "The tournament will begin two weeks from now, we will be increasing your Training volume from now on”

“I understand Master, let’s continue”. -And thus the grueling training continued until evening.

—————————————

Late at night as Azrael was walking home, exhausted and ragged, he thought if what he was enduring was actually worth it. Azrael's family was exiled by his clan due to the elders of the clan not approving of his mother as such they were forced to leave.

“I need to train harder to prove those elders wrong..”

At the Hayrain Shop.

"Mother!! I'm home. " Azrael called. "Do you know how worried I am? , and it's been 3 days since you left! Work has begun piling up and your grandfather can barely do it by himself.". Lina frantically said.

"Sorry mom, I'll help grandpa with all the orders tomorrow," Azrael said as he ran hurriedly inwards the shop past Lina

"That child, he's still really intent on learning magic in order to join the military, if only things were different." Lina sat down and a clear sadness permeated through her eyes.

—————————————

As the sun rises, the Hayrain shop prepares to open for business.

The Hayrain shop is a small-time magical workshop, they produce and fix magical items ranging from simple potions to weapons. The shop used to be the most famous workshop in the city as it was heavily supported by their clan. However, when the family was exiled its resources and clients were all cut-off including its experts, it didn't help that their clan was already declining to begin with. Their family's economy plummeted to the point that they possessed only half-ownership of their own shop.

Azrael went inside the workshop, on the board he noticed multiple job posting. “There really is a lot to do”. He climbed down the stairs to the basement of the shop where the crafting is actually done. As he descended, whirring sounds were heard and a metallic chemical permeated the air.

“Grandfather is here already, better start helping” Azrael mused

"Hmph, you finally went home, you should stop making things difficult for me and your mother... We have a high priority job so you do that first. Finish refining those 100 high-grade magic stones right there, it's going to be picked up in one week." his grandfather strictly said.

"100?!! Since when did we have rich customers grandpa?". With wide eyes, Azrael asked.

High-grade Magic stones were quite expensive. It was quite rare for customers to have it refined in their workshop. After all its status wasn't like before, so people would not trust them, but for someone to give them a job to refine them, much more so 100 pieces, it was truly surprising.

"A military officer came here 3 days ago and brought these stones to have them refined, although he didn't say his rank. I'm sure it was at least Captain rank or higher since he paid a very high amount for it. We should be able to regain the title to this workshop within 2-3 years with the help of this money, or maybe earlier if you don't slack off." His grandpa said with an extremely satisfied face.

“I won’t, I know how important this shop is.”

For the past year, Azrael has indeed neglected to help out their family in pursuit of training for the Military Enlistment. If he could push through as fast as he can, the sooner he can alleviate his family.

“Now get back to work, the customer is expecting this to be done fast". Azrael then began doing the refining process.

Azrael then sat down to one of the workbenches and channeled his mana to the table machinery, to begin with the refining process.

Growing up, Azrael always went to his Family’s shop. Due to his natural talent in magic, he naturally learned the trade. However, he gave up his interest in the shop for magic in hopes that he would get into the military to uplift his family status faster.

"Hey grandpa, what did that man tell you he was going to use this for?" Azrael curiously asked. Such a huge work order should have been done in a much larger shop. "He didn't say," grandpa replied.

"Oh well, no point in thinking much about it, I need to finish at least 10-20 by today in order to get back to training tomorrow," Azrael thought to himself.

—————————————

On the city gates, a squad of soldiers was entering the city. They bore the sigil of the Cross attached to a Fist, the "Force Division", under the direct command of the Chief of Military, this is the 2nd largest Regiment in the Empire, they’re also considered the strongest regiment.

"We came too early," one of the soldiers said. "Its only natural you idiot, we are of the Force regiment, we must display a prime example of discipline, right captain?" Marcus said as he puffed his chest.

"Indeed Sergeant Marcus, although I have to say we really came too early, the assembly is still in 2 Weeks, couldn't we took a break first at the capital. Alas, I should still be drinking and enjoying myself after that frustrating mission, but Noooo our OH! SO Great General deployed our squad out of all the squads. " Cygnus said in a grumbling voice.

"Ah! Captain you of all people shouldn't talk back against our great general" Marcus strictly said.

"Oh shut up Marcus! you're just like that shitty the general, you want me to kick you out of the squad? huh?? huh???"

"Are you really part of the six clans?" Marcus sighed with a grimaced face. "What? you little shit...."

With an extremely handsome face, Slim muscular build and blonde hair, Cygnus was described to have the perfect personification of a male. The successor of the Andares Clan one the 6 Main clans in the Empire, he exuded an aura of a noble, however, his personality is of the complete opposite of what you would expect. Simply put he was really really lazy.

"There they go again," said the soldiers, this was a common scene in their squad after all. Marcus was the upright soldier while Cygnus was slacking type. They were bound to clash almost all the time. Despite this Cygnus was still respected in the squad not because he was the captain but because he was also a Knight.

Being a Knight is a special status in the empire, as after all a knight is directly under the command of the royal family. A person can only be named a knight if one has huge military accomplishments or immense battle prowess, Cygnus falls into the latter.

"Although Captain, why did general Escariot assign five squads for this simple military enlistment including us?, any squad can actually do this”

“Ah, I forgot to tell you guys, Prince Johann is actually in the area as well so he will be attending. One of the King's Guard is even with the prince," Cygnus lazily said.

"King's guard? who?!" Marcus asked intently.

"Hmmmm..." Cygnus pondered. "I don't remember.. Does it even matter? A king's guard is a king's guard, there's no better security than that, actually, maybe we shouldn't even attend this thing". "I'm not even fit to fight yet, my weapon is damaged.. mmm, Ah! I know, Sergeant Marcus why don't you take command of our squad, I'll go find a workshop to have my weapon fixed, you go ahead. I'll just see you guys at the assembly"

“No not this again, captain--" A small hum of wind gusted gently, woooshhh. Cygnus disappeared in a blink of an eye. "Goddammit! what the hell am I supposed to say to the general, when we get to the barracks later." Marcus angrily said.