Death, Devotion, Dissonance

Evin stood before the important-looking blonde boy of nobility, not really sure what was happening to him. He had just come from the bathroom, and was listening to Arza mention about how he missed something pretty epic. But then his name was mentioned by someone on the stage and he was practically dragged to the stage by some people dressed as high-class servants.

"Are you Evin?" the handsome, blonde boy asked.

"I am?" Evin replied.

Weirdly, even though he was in front of so many people, he was taking all this much more calmly than he would've anticipated from himself.

"Why the questioning tone? Are you Evin or not? Son of Edmund the blacksmith, a 2nd grade citizen."

'Who speaks like that?' Evin found himself thinking, before focusing on the reply.

"I am… But," Evin began, but couldn't quite continue.

"Speak up, boy. You're a mage now. Not some simple 2nd grade playing around with hammers and metals."

Evin was a bit riled up, to be called a boy someone of his own age, but experience was telling him that he probably shouldn't act rudely towards this teenage boy.

"I'm just… a bit confused, is all," he managed to mutter out.

"Have you not heard me perform and speak a moment ago?"

"No, sorry. I was away at the, uhh, away from the arena, so I must've missed your… performance."

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The answer seemed to irk the boy, as he harrumphed and started explaining.

"I heard about your talent of casting magic using your imagination, even though you're not someone of noble origins. Is that true?"

<Seems like Leanne's been a bit too talkative about your uncanny ability to cast using your imagination,> the voice said with a sigh, <As for his statement, just play dumb. Say that you thought it was natural or something.>

He didn't feel very good about it, but the recent events made him trust in the voice's advice much more. But it was still a hard thing to accept completely. Since the voice was a thorn on his side for such a long time, Evin still sometimes struggled to wholeheartedly believe its words.

"I just tried it and I was successful… I didn't think it was such a big deal."

The answer seemed to irk the noble even more, but he didn't make it obvious and just pointed towards two shiny rocks left on a table. Evin quickly realized that the things were filled to the brim with mana.

"I want you to prove that to everyone here, so people will realize that Imagination Casting is something that's accessible to everyone in the country, not just the nobles. To do that, I want to challenge you to a Duel of Efficiency."

"A Duel?"

"It's nothing violent. We'll just try to create magic that's better than the others with an equal amount of mana."

Evin wanted to ask what was the point of the duel if he just had to prove his abilities, but the blonde boy continued on with his explanation.

"This here is what's called a Mana Lodestone. Because of its ability to absorb the surrounding air of its mana and contain it within itself, it's something that's used by every mage across the world. As you can probably sense, all the mana in the surroundings have gathered inside these two stones."

Now that the boy mentioned it, Evin could feel that the amount of mana in the surroundings had dropped considerably.

<I guess those two lodestones contain the same amount of mana, and you have to try and outdo your opponent somehow,> the voice sighed, <Just lose. It's not worth getting on this asshole's bad books.>

"We'll hold each in our hands and cast our spell. And if you manage to win, I'll give you two Elemental World Shards. What do you say?" the boy said and threw one of the lodestones towards Evin.

<Oh? Two Shards? That should be two months of work, right?> the voice seemed a bit interested now, just like Evin himself.

"Alright…" Evin replied. It didn't really seem like he was going to get the choice to refuse, anyway.

"Very good, I'll start." The noble boy said and started to absorb the mana inside the stone.

<Eh, the two shards are nice to get, but something tells me that it's best for us to just play the slow game. There's no need to invite useless drama into our daily lives,> the voice decided after thinking a bit.

Evin knew that he didn't have a say in this decision. After all, even if Evin wanted the World Shards, the voice could very easily choose not to cast the magic, no matter how much Evin pleaded it. But just as the two had agreed to throw the Duel, a loud voice reverberated throughout the arena.

"If Evin manages to win, he'll be accepted into the Imagination Casting classes, and he'll also receive one Shard for a Conceptual World."

Shocked, Evin looked over to see a neatly dressed man speaking from the podium that the Chairman of the Academy was previously speaking from. But compared to the friendly looking middle-aged man, this newcomer was gigantic. Evin thought his father was gigantic, but he would probably look like a teenage boy next to this freak of nature. The other thing that Evin couldn't help but notice were the two magnificent bull-like horns protruding from the man's head.

'A Northerner,' Evin thought in his head.

But although Evin was shocked, even more surprised was the blonde boy next to him.

"Vice-chair Bokh? What is going on? If I'm not wrong, you don't even have the right to decide who learns in that class and who doesn't."

"Yes, I understand your concerns. Chairman Kent teaches the class, and he instructed me to say this in case something like this happened," the bulky man explained.

"And where is Chairman Kent himself? He was here a minute ago, why can't he say so himself?"

"The Chairman is bit… indisposed at the moment," the man said and seemed to glance towards a certain spot, "You'll have to trust my words on this one, I'm afraid. Well, even if I turned out to be lying, you can talk with the Chairman afterwards and clear out this misunderstanding."

"That is fine as well, but the majority of the noble students in the class also need to agree with this boy's enrollment, right?"

The boy seemed very opposed to the idea of Evin studying Imagination Casting.

"Ah, about that... he also mentioned that he'll refuse to teach anyone who refused Evin's entry to the class," the bulky man said with a chuckle.

<I really don't like this,> the voice hissed.

Evin didn't like where this was going either, but something told him that he needed to remain silent.

The boy raged on.

"He doesn't have the right to refuse us!"

"Ha-ha, of course he does - he's a High-mage of the kingdom. It's in his full rights to refuse to teach a Duke, let alone the second son of an Earl," the vice-chair laughed. "It any case, the situation won't change. You two shall have a Duel of Efficiency and I will be the judge of it."

Then, the man jumped off the terrace and in a few seconds; he landed on the ground after briefly levitating right before impact.

"If you don't want him in the class, then all you need to do is win. Any other concerns, young master Decatur Carew?"

<Tell him you want two more Conceptual World Shards if you win,> the voice suddenly ordered.

'What?' Evin thought he heard wrong. The whole time, he felt like the ant stuck between two lions, trying its best to struggle and survive, but apparently, the voice inside him had a very different idea.

'And also, we're gonna try to win?'

<These fuckers all have some dogshit agendas running in their heads and for whatever reason, we're one part of it. And, something tells me we won't like the consequences of throwing the duel. But. They'll need to understand that we're not so easy to bully and that we won't work for free…>

Evin liked the reasoning, but he still didn't feel very confident about it.

<Just ask. Honestly, you could ask for four and we'd probably get them, but I don't want you to look too greedy. Remember, when you're being daring like this, there's a fine line between looking bold and charming; or just looking like a complete dickhead.>

Evin didn't really believe the voice fully, but he could only sigh dejectedly and do as it said.

"I want to receive two more Conceptual World Shards if I win."

He didn't know why, but he felt very proud after he said this line. So effortlessly and confidently. He didn't stutter like he half expected himself to, and his voice didn't die out in the end like it usually did when he tried to speak to his father.

'Seriously, how am I so calm now?' Evin thought, and found the fear creeping up in his heart suddenly. He nervously looked at the two others to see how they reacted.

The blonde boy, Decatur's reaction, was as Evin expected - he didn't seem to like Evon's boldness very much. But the vice-chair, on the other hand, looked quite impressed, like the voice suggested.

"I can arrange for one Conceptual and one Elemental as extra for you," he said finally.

"I'll accept it," Evin quickly agreed, before the voice could say anything ridiculous.

"Good. Let's begin."