Hello everyone! Thank you to all for reading and following my story. This is the final chapter of Arc 1 - Reborn the next chapter will be the beginning of Arc 2 - The First Year. Hope everyone enjoys reading!

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The first day of travelling was very uneventful. Unless you can call, Malakir teaching me more about the history of magic and doing the exercises. By this time I could do both things simultaneously, although I have to be very focused when I do it and the slightest bump in the road would cause it to get very unstable. That was an event I did not want to do again, I had to explain to the captain what the sound was and that there was no danger to my life.

The guards were a solid bunch, they were all Warrior ranked while the captain was Guardian ranked. Of course, there were those of Squire rank but those were mainly composed of archers and crossbowmen. The Warrior ranked had swords and axes, while some had hammers and maces. They all wore the same armor with the Rigel insignia of the bird with two heads, six wings and twelve tails.

I believe that the creature was called a Ravenex, a legendary bird said to have been created as a bane of magic. It no longer exists as they were exterminated for their parts to be used as countermeasures against mages. Needless to say some of their parts are still used today, their bones are used in the mint that created the currency of the Rigel kingdom. In this way, only those coins are accepted and no mage can make gold out of lead. Which they did at some point which led to the Ravenex’s extinction.

Just another lesson that I think is useless from Malakir.

Its been three days since we left the castle and I was already getting annoyed at Malakir because of his constant teaching. We ate our food in the carriage since Malakir wanted to teach me during that time as well. Malakir was very happy about this, I could only tell this from the way his voice rose several pitches every time he started teaching.

I was really bored so I looked out the window of the carriage and saw a large lake. “Stop!” I shouted.

The carriage stopped and Malakir said, “What?”

I ignored him and went out, I told the guards, “Let’s rest here for a while.”

They nodded and Malakir floated towards me saying, “Why are we stopping? Aren’t we in a tight schedule to get to Asmodeus Academy?”

“We are but I need to rest plus I need to get away from your teaching for a bit,” I told him honestly as I headed to the lake.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” he shouted.

I ran to the lake and took a look at it. It was pristine, you could actually see the fish inside the lake. There were trees all around us since we entered the base of the mount Stonepeak. This was the mountain that I could see from the castle.

There were deer on the other side of the lake drinking water and I decided that I should just sleep here for a bit. Next to the relaxing waters.

When I came to, I was tied up by ropes. I couldn’t see anything around me and I struggled to try and get out of my bindings.

How long have I been asleep? What happened? Where’s Malakir? Where are the guards? I thought these things while trying to get out of my binds when I heard a sound.

A door opened and I squinted as the sudden light hit my eyes.

“Finally awake aren’t we, little prince?” said a voice.

I opened my eyes when they recovered and it was the fat slaver. But it couldn’t be, I thought, didn’t he get captured? How’d he escape?

“You really shouldn’t have captured my brother, now I, leader of the Stone Bandits, am gonna torture you so bad you’d wish you’d died!” he said grabbing my hair and pulling me.

He took me to a room and chained me to the wall standing up. He then proceeded to beat the crap out of me while saying things like “This is for my brother!”.

When he got done left me battered and bruised while still chained. I wasn’t able to stand up as the pain was too much. I tried to stay awake but the blood loss made me weak. Before I lost consciousness, I said, “Malakir, Leon, Salazar…”

When I opened my eyes, I saw my brother Leon staring at me.

“You’re finally awake!” he said hugging me.

I was in a white room filled with beds and some potions that made it look like a mad alchemists lab.

“What happened?” I managed to get out.

“You were attacked by the Stone Bandits and was taken hostage by them.”

“Hostage?” I asked.

“Yeah, those bandits actually thought that they could use you as a leverage to get their friend back. Bad thing for them, we found you bruised and wearing a Ravenex collar that we just executed them on the spot.”

“A collar?” I asked moving my right to my neck. Sure enough there felt like there was something there from the soft skin I felt.

“Yeah this collar,” he said showing me a black collar with a red stone in the center. “This collar nullifies any magic from the wearer. It’s usually only used on criminal mages, how the bandits got a hold of this I have no idea. Salazar is looking for clues right now.”

So that’s why Malakir couldn’t save me, I thought.

Sure enough Malakir appeared beside me and he said, “I’m sorry master, they used Ravenex mist that made me unable to do anything.”

“Ravenex mist?” I asked.

“Oh? You also know about those. Well yeah, they also used them on you and the guards. The mist cancels any magic and weakens anyone without magic. It’s a very unique material that could only be gotten from our royal stock.”

“Um yeah I do,” I said forgetting that only I can hear Malakir.

“Anyway you should get some sleep. And you’ve made a pretty big impression at the school if that’s what you were hoping for,” he said with a smile.

“Impression?” I asked looking around, “you mean I’m at the academy right now?”

“Yep, the Academy infirmary. It was the closest place to where we found you and we thought it best to bring you to a place that could better take care of you rather than out in the wild,” he said getting up.

I nodded.

“Don’t worry just rest, you missed the first day of school though,” he said opening the door, “I’ll tell Salazar that you’re up.”

And with that he left.

Malakir kept on apologizing to me and said that he will teach me ways of countering counter magic when I got better. He actually even started teaching me even though he said he would wait until I told him that my side was hurting and he shut up.

It took a couple of hours and the door opened again and in came Salazar, in his red and white clothes, Principal Artemia with her green and gold robe along with her black staff, and also another person who I didn’t recognize.

He had black hair, brown eyes and skin, and he was the first person I saw that wore glasses. He wore a blue robe with yellow trimmings. He exuded a calm and responsible feeling.

When Salazar saw me, he ran up to me saying, “Zed! You’re alright!”

He hugged me tight, which actually hurt and I told him that and he said, “Sorry, sorry. I was just so worried.”

I smiled and I heard Artemia say, “I’m glad you are safe Prince Zed.”

“Thank you for taking care of me,” I said bowing my head.

“No need to thank me, we only provided you with a bed. You’re brother’s mages did the actual healing. You were already fully healed when they got you here, and that was the most hectic first day every. Wouldn’t you agree Sieg?” she asked the boy next to her.

“Yes it was principal,” he said in a voice that sounded almost like a girl’s but was definitely a boy’s.

“I’m very sorry for the trouble I caused,” I said bowing.

“O-Oh its no trouble at all,” she said cringing.

Out of the corner of my eye I saw, my brother staring daggers at Artemia. I touched his elbow and he looked at me and changed his expression to a kinder one.

“That being said, we welcome you to Asmodeus Academy, Prince Zed,” said the boy, Sieg. “We’re sorry that we couldn’t make it as grand as you would have liked it but current matters couldn’t let that happen.”

He said the word “grand” with such emphasis that I thought that he hates me. But then I thought, he doesn’t have a last name! Which means that he was a commoner and he clearly hates me for being a prince.

Good grief, first day of school and already an enemy that hates my guts, I thought.

“It’s alright, I’m responsible for the trouble caused by my kingdom. It is only natural that something of a grand scale could not happen,” I said lowering my head thinking of the lessons with Malakir.

In one of his lessons, I learned that Asmodeus Academy is within the lands of the Rigel Kingdom but is not controlled by it. Similar to the Vatican back in my world. Though the kingdom has no power within the Academy, it can still limit the supplies that the Academy receives. This is probably why they are trying to make sure that no bad relations happen with my family.

Explains why the principal hasn’t done anything to kick my brothers out. The academy has a ‘strict students and faculty only’ allowed inside. Also another lesson from Malakir. And here I thought I was ignoring him. Probably the blessing’s fault. Even if I’m not paying attention I still learn stuff. Where was this when I was in the other world!

“Since you missed the first day’s ritual, we decided to do it when you woke up,” said Salazar motioning to Artemia.

“Yes, Sieg,” she said holding out her hands.

Sieg pulled out an orb from his robes and handed it to Artemia. It was smaller than the orb that tested my affinity a month ago.

“It’s the same way as your affinity test, just place your hands on the orb and inject your mana inside.”

I practiced this with Malakir. We decided that it would be best to hide the fact that I could use Ethereal magic and since I could already summon Malakir that we just reveal that I can use summoning magic.

I touched the orb and released my mana after converting it into summoning mana. The orb glowed and revealed a circle filled with runes that I had no meaning of.

“Summoning magic,” said Artemia, “with this we your schedule will be the same as the students that have it. Sieg will bring you your schedule tomorrow. As custom, you will also be serving as a Magus of the school under Sieg.”

“Magus?” I asked.

“Peacekeepers and intermediaries of the school,” explained Sieg, “we will be responsible for the safety of the students as well as making sure that the students do not cause any irreparable damage to each other.”

He sounded annoyed at the fact that I would be working with him, yet happy as I will be serving under him. So its like a student council huh, and I have to serve under a guy that hates me? This is going to be a nice life, I thought with a sigh.

“Of course you do not need to participate at all,” said Artemia as if sensing that both I and Sieg did not like the idea of working together, “because of your status as Prince, simply being a part of the group is enough.”

“No, I will do my duty as a Magus since it was given to me to do,” I said thinking that if I just slack off, Sieg is going to hate me even more plus my reputation will be destroyed if I don’t do it.

“If you insist,” said Artemia with a sigh, “let’s go Sieg, we need to give Prince Zed time to rest. We will come back in the morning.”

With that they left the room leaving me and Salazar alone.

“What a day…” said Salazar crashing on the bed next to me.

“I’m sorry,” I said.

“Don’t be, it wasn’t your fault that you got ambushed by bandits, it was that captain’s fault for stopping at such an open spot.”

“What?” I asked incredulously, trying to remember the captain.

“Yeah, why would they even stop at a place that they could be ambushed easily is beyond me. Brother is going to put stricter rules now to make sure something like that never happens again so don’t worry.”

“N-no, I was the one who told them to stop there,” I said remembering that the captain did warn me that the place wasn’t safe but I was too focused on stopping Malakir from teaching me that I ignored him.

“What?!” he asked looking at me with shocked.

“I-I-I was the one who told them to stop there,” I repeated, “I was bored from staying locked inside the carriage,” I lied thinking that I hadn’t told them about Malakir and am not going to tell at least not yet.

“Because you were bored…” he said looking at me, “do you understand what you did?”

I shook my head and dropped my head down.

“Because of your stupid idea, half of your guards lost their lives!” he shouted.

I shuddered and in came bursting in my older brother Leon asking, “What happened?! What’s going on?”

Salazar told my brother everything and Leon just came closer to me and said, “Do you realize what you did?”

I nodded and said, “Yes.”

“Are you going to do the same thing again?”

“No…” thinking that I wasn’t going to let something like my stupid reactions get others in trouble again.

“That blessing of yours is the main cause of this so its not your fault,” he said hugging me closer, “we told you to make sure that you decided things carefully because we knew that your blessing was going to do something like this. Only, we didn’t realize that it would be this quick.”

Blessing? I thought, oh yeah from Finda I think.

After calming down, Salazar said, “I’m sorry for shouting at you. I was just worried.”

“Father knows of what happened and has placed guards all around the academy, since we cannot station them inside. They will listen to you and help you when you need it,” said Leon releasing me.

“I won’t need them,” I said, “I’m a Rigel, I will not let anyone die for me again.”

My brothers laughed and Leon said, “That’s the spirit, but father’s orders are absolute, so the guards will still stay.”

I nodded knowing that I couldn’t say anything that would change that.

“Anyway, good luck with school and take this,” Leon said handing me a package, “its from father. He said it would help you.”

I opened the package and it was a gold bracer with the Rigel symbol, the Ravenex on it.

“It’s a Ravenex infused bracer. It’ll stop any magic from interfering with your own magic. Its one of its kind so don’t reveal its powers,” said Leon cautioning me.

“Thank you brother,” I said hugging him, “could you also tell father my thanks and that he and mother shouldn’t worry anymore?”

“I will, now rest,” said Leon.

With that they both left leaving me in an empty room with Malakir.

“I guess you won’t need to teach me counter counter magic then Malakir,” I said grinning at him.

“I still need to teach it to you. What would happen if you lost that bracer, and I have to say that is something that wasn’t made before. Theorized but not practically made. Whoever made it is a genius,” said Malakir.

“He must be if you say so,” I said looking out the window. It was still daylight but I felt so tired from the events that just happened.

I caused the guards to die, I got captured and beaten. Saved by my brothers and sent to a school to work under a guy that hates me. To make matters worse, because of the blessing of a god, I’m going to be in trouble most of my life. Just when you think life is good, life turns around and shows you why its not.

“I’m going to sleep,” I told Malakir.

I laid down on my bed thinking, school starts tomorrow. I wonder what’s going to happen. With that I slept through the night soundly and the hectic week ended.

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