章節 1: The Boy Who Loved Magic

I love Magic!

Ever since I was little, I thought of nothing more than the sublime art of the supernatural.

Isn't it amazing? With a mere invocation, one could cut down trees or cause flames to appear.

With the mere sleight of one's hands, storms could appear and rain descend from the heavens.

A mere illumination in the dark or the lovely melodies from charming spells were enough to make my skin tingle as I would beam excitedly in wonder and awe.

Everytime I saw the wondrous use of magic, I had only one thought on my mind.

'I can't wait… I can't wait!!!'

After all, once a child turns ten years old, they would be taken to the Magic Tower to undergo the 'Awakening'.

Once it was my turn, I would also go through that process and become a Magic-User. However, my ambition did not stop there. I was going to keep rising until I become a fully-fledged 'Mage' and grow to become a Grand Mage of the kingdom.

Yes! I, Lewis Griffith would achieve great exploits in the realm of magic!

Of course, I knew mere words and dreams would not take me to my goal, so I decided to do everything it took to guarantee my ideal future.

Most children who were yet to 'Awaken' would rather spend their time goofing off and playing silly games. But nope not me, I was different from the silly ones around me.

Ever since I was young, I knew for a fact that I was special. No one loved magic more than me, therefore no one could achieve the heights I would be able to.

I spent most of my time in the public library, reading up on various magic theories and spell structures.

The small village I grew up in was a rural town mostly based on agriculture and food processing, books were rare. However, as was the policy of the kingdom, Public libraries were provided for in every town, no matter how small the town was.

Being the only one my age who frequented the library, and one of the few within the village who used it, everyone already knew me to be a genius.

"This is only the beginning. Soon, the whole kingdom… no, the whole world will know the name of Lewis Griffith, Grand Mage of The Eastern Kingdom!" I often said aloud.

Of course, most of the children couldn't associate with me, since I would rather spend my time reading books or watching the little magic users in my village perform spells, rather than play silly games with them.

And as a result of this, I had no friends. Not one!

But who cares? After all, I had my love and passion for magic!

Years went by, and before I knew it I had turned ten years old. It was finally time for me to leave my little village and take a trip to the Kingdom's capital to undergo the 'Awakening'.

The people of my village shouted out words of encouragement as I was about to leave like, "Show 'em who's boss, Lewis!"

Of course, I would. It was only natural.

"Yeah! Even a child from out here in the boonies can be a 'Mage', you know? Let those noble bastards know that!"

Heh, that's 'Grand Mage' to you. I wasn't going to settle for anything less.

"Good luck, Lewis. You were a jerk, but I hope you at least 'Awaken' successfully!"

What the hell? Why wouldn't I? As if there was any other choice for me other than that.

The possibility of failure was nonexistent.

And so, with the cheers of the villagers who saw me off, I ventured out of the village with my parents.

Yeah, my loving mother and rough father. Both of them supported me in my venture and pursuit of magic, allowing me to overlook the fact that none of them possessed magic.

In fact, I kind of felt bad for them.

It took a few days for us to reach the East Kingdom capital, Zurich. During those moments, I passed time by reading a couple of books that I borrowed from the library.

I stared at the pages with boredom clearly displayed on my face. It had been a few years now since I exhausted every single material within our Public Library.

I made requests to the Capital for more stocks, however, since I was the only one who desired this, not much heed was made to my plea.

"Just you wait. Once I'm done Awakening, no one will be able to ignore me!"

I fantasized about how the event would go, playing it over in my head many times.

What level of talent would I have? What mana core grade would I possess?

My body throbbed excitedly as I simply couldn't wait for the moment to arrive.

And finally it did.

I underwent several procedures. I was made to place my hand on a special type of crystal ball, I was placed within a circle with special markings within it. A strand of my hair was taken for analysis, etc.

Of course, I expected all this. After all, I had read about them a lot and even asked some of the people in the village who went through the same process.

Finally, we were done with the tests. All that remained were the results. My parents sat beside me in the analyst's room as we all waited for him to finish collating my result.

The Magic analyst compiled the results and wrote a few things on a sheet of paper. I stared hard at him as he evaluated everything I had done so far with a straight face.

'What's going on? Isn't this the part where he exclaims and declares what magnificent talent I possess? Or is he still confused? Oh, great analyst… you're confused, right? My talent is so shocking that you're simply at a loss for words right?'My mind teased as I played around with my thoughts.

Hehe, I knew it! There's no way that he would be-

"I'm very sorry, but it appears your son, Lewis Griffith, is inept."

The words kept on ringing in my head as I took in every single syllable, yet they made no sense to me.

"E-eh…?!"

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