“The Magic Knight Exams can be broken down into three different stages,” Secre told the three humans standing in front of her as she stood on a branch in the deep woods, away from prying eyes. “The first will involve a flock of anti-birds.”
Asta gasped smiled. “We’re gonna meet your mom and dad?” he asked happily before Secre flew over to peck at his head. “OWOWOWOWOWOW!”
With the idiot taken care of for the moment, the bird flew back to her branch. “No moron! It’s a test to see how much mana you possess. Anti-birds have a natural sense for mana that let’s them sort out which animals make good prey, and which ones to stay away from. Since you have next to no mana at all, try and make sure they don’t peck out your eyes,” she told him. “This will also mark people as targets for the final stage of the exam, since everyone will see how weak or strong everyone else is at a glance.”
Sunset crossed her arms. “I don’t suppose there’s a way to bluff Asta’s way through it, like some kind of bird repellent?”
“Hey! I don’t need any cheating help like that!” he told them.
“I think I should point out the obvious,” Yuno spoke up. “If someone thinks Asta is weak, then they’ll probably underestimate him.”
Despite the logic of the argument, Secre frowned at the boy. “The Magic Knight Exams aren’t some contest where the winner gets the job automatically. It’s a sales pitch to the different knight captains. If they don’t think you can handle the job, you don’t get in. Period.”
Sunset raised an eyebrow. “So you can pass every test and still fail? That seems pretty unfair.”
“Have you lived in this world recently?” the bird replied. “The second test is always chosen by a random captain and is completely up to the individual. So, I can’t tell you anything aside from the tests can involve anything from something sensible, to a completely useless act in which everyone is told to drink a bottle of liquor and have to enter the final round intoxicated.”
All three of the humans stared at the bird.
“...you can’t be serious,” Yuno finally said. “There’s no way that someone who would do that could be a captain of a magic knight squad.”
Secre fluttered her wings in indignation. “Hey, you’re the one who’s lived his entire life in this little hole in the ground. You have no idea what the mages who have made a name for themselves are like,” she said. “One captain is a fiery loudmouth that likes to listen to his own voice, another one is a full-on sociopath, and the newest captain is a child of nineteen that from what I could tell during last year’s exam, still needs a babysitter half the time. None of them are what any sane person would consider normal.”
“And we’re supposed to work for these people?” Sunset asked incredulously.
“You’re supposed to join the Knights and build the connections we need to find the rest of the magic stones,” Secre corrected her before waving the question away with a wing.
“So what’s the third test?” Asta asked.
“That’s always the same. Two mages from the assembled candidates will agree to face off in a sparring match to showcase their skills,” she told them. “Don’t even think about trying to face each other. While losing your fight doesn’t mean you won’t get chosen, it still won’t look good. Nobody will care what your skills are if they can’t be applied to a combat situation. That is at the core of what the magic knights do.”
Sunset looked down at the ground in thought. Well, I shouldn’t have that much trouble if that’s the case, she told herself. Although ponies weren’t the best at violence, Celestia had taken a great deal of time in teaching Sunset magical combat. A lot of ponies, including her included, wondered just why that was when Equestria had been such a peaceful place. But, it had left Sunset with a quick reaction time and ability to analyse a situation when her blood was pumping so hard she could hear her own heartbeat screaming at her to run away from danger. “Guess that means we’re going to have to spend some time practicing on each other, then.”
Since it made little sense to just throw magic at each other when Yuno only had a single spell in his book and Asta needed to work on his swordplay, the three teens spent the next month mostly practicing away from each other and experimenting with new magic. While Yuno went about mostly on his own and did his usual chores with as much oomph as possible, Asta went into his usual place in the forest to just beat on rocks, trees, and anything else he could find. But, an unspoken agreement between the three of them made everyone keep their distance, since any spying would negate the surprise factor that a first bout would entail.
As for Sunset, she spent most of her time getting instructions from the bird.
“For obvious reasons I don’t think I need to explain, the element you use will determine the effectiveness of the reinforcement magic on your body,” Secre told the girl as Sunset sat beneath her on the grass. “All of them can give you a physical boost to one degree or another, but wind will make you faster than earth, while earth will increase your resilience better than the others at the cost of speed. Fire works best for physical strength, but most mages of that type surround their hands in magic to keep from breaking them whenever they need to throw a punch. The specialized elements like light, ice, ash, and so forth follow the same principles to some extent, but can also provide a little exception to the rule. Like light’s superior speed enhancement even though it’s technically fire.”
Sunset laid back on the grass and propped her head up with her arms as she tried in vain to get comfortable to no avail. “What happens if I channel two elements at once?”
“That’s not possible,” Secre told her.
“Yes it is...in theory anyway,” she admitted a minute later. “And I’m not talking about opposing elements. More like, fire and earth or water and wind.”
After letting out a chirp of a sigh, Secre landed on the girl. “Please don’t do something that’s going to blow yourself up. You’re the only sensible ally I have right now. If you die, those two idiots will lose their buffer. Just work on your specialization for now, you at least have an actual spell for that.”
“...get off my boobs,” Sunset told the bird before shooing her away and rolling onto her stomach while propping herself up with her arms. Over a year with the things, and they still felt weird. Especially now. “And leave the boys alone, they’re not that bad.”
Secre landed in front of Sunset on the grass. “You weren’t around before...you were around,” she said awkwardly. “Those idiots would spend all day trying to outdo each other. Yuno, just as much as Asta, but not as loud about it.”
As the conversation died down, Sunset found herself looking at the bird before she laid flat on her belly. And was quickly reminded how different it was for a human girl to do that than it was for a pony. So, she rolled over onto her side. “Hey Secre...do you ever get used to the change in species?”
The bird was quiet for some time. “Not really,” she finally said. “I’ve lived like this for hundreds of years, but I can still remember what it was like to have hands and teeth.”
A tiny bit of hope that Sunset had been feeling died out and she curled up into herself a little, despite the discomfort her body was experiencing. I guess I should say, thanks for being honest,” she said without much emotion as the world started to blur.
“What’s wrong?” Secre asked.
“...I started my monthly bleed today,” the redhead admitted. There was a fluttering of wings, and Sunset looked up to see the bird had retreated well out of range of her grasp. “OH COME ON! There’s not a lot of people I can actually talk to about this, you know!” Despite her usually sensible nature, Lilly got pretty...religious about such things since the church had attached a stigma to it. “Don’t you have any womanly advice for me? I’ll take anything at this point!”
After circling Sunset for a few seconds, Secre came back down to land. “Sorry. I uh...remember taking a bath in warm water helped me when I had that problem,” she said. “So...you didn’t have to deal with these sorts of things before?”
Sunset reached up to rub her aching head. “We had a breeding cycle that drove us to mate, but it didn’t occur once a month, except in the Spring and Summer.”
“So, you just masturbated for a few days?” the bird asked with a bit of envy.
The strange word made Sunset give Secre a clueless stare. “Master-what?”
Secre let out a small squawk before jumping back a few inches. Then, Sunset could swear she saw a blush on the bird’s face before she held a wing up and coughed into it. “Ahem! Um, okay...let’s...find a spot near the river where we can build a small area for holding water with some earth magic and heat the water. Then I’ll...walk you through it.”
“I DON’T CARE WHAT YOUR EXCUSES ARE! YOU’RE GOING TO COME BACK TO THE CHURCH AND EAT LUNCH EVERY DAMN DAY, OR I’LL DRAG YOU BACK HERE MYSELF!”
Yuno repressed a shiver at the memory of his little sister yelling at him and Asta the day after they got their grimoires and came home just after dark as he walked down the road towards the church.
While he could understand the need for food, having gone without it every now and then during a long winter, needing to stop every single day just to come home and eat was troublesome. Unfortunately, the king had long since decided that all the game animals belonged to him and killing one without permission was a crime. So he couldn’t just hunt for his own meals, or bribe the local magistrate to look the other way when a deer went down without any money.
The fluttering of wings made Yuno tense up before he felt a fat bird land on his shoulder. Although he didn’t react as badly as Asta, nobody besides Sunset could take a talking animal without some degree of hesitation. Not that he could let Secre know that of course. “Spying on me again?”
“For who? You need to stop being so paranoid,” the bird told him.
Yuno raised an eyebrow. “Well you do seem to be spending a lot more time with Sunset than me or Asta.”
“Yeah because we’re both girls, kid. Plus, you’re terrible at conversations,” Secre said. “Here’s a tip from an old bird. Trying so hard to look like the cool silent type makes you act really stupid.”
With the insult needling him on, Yuno found himself torn between asking a question that had been running around in his mind for some time and staying quiet. But since that would have only proven the bird right, he decided to ask. “Okay then, there’s something I’ve been wondering. You talked about how you and the Wizard King had tried to make magic items to make everyone’s lives better, but the magic items I know about don’t really help people farm and grow crops. So what happened?”
Secre studied the boy out of the corner of her eye for a moment. “The first few things we made were more just to see if we could create magic items, not much of it was very useful. Looking back, King Clover didn’t have much in the way of common sense, because some of those inventions should have never even been made,” she said. “And by the time we started making things like the magic items that are still in use today, our time had run out.”
“But he couldn’t have been the only person who wanted to do things like that,” Yuno pointed out.
“But he was the only person with the money, ability and position to do it,” she told him. “Plus, he wanted to help people. But magic determines your status in society. Nobody at the top, the people with all the resources, wants to help the people at the bottom stand as their equal.”
Yuno frowned. Not that the bird, but at the road ahead. “I do.”
“Says the boy at the bottom,” Secre pointed out before taking a breath. “Don’t get me wrong, there are some worthwhile nobles. But a good many of them are in the Magic Knights because they actually have a sense of duty. They spend all of their time making sure that people don’t get killed that they can’t actually do anything to improve the lives of the people they save.”
The conversation died as Yuno retreated into his own thoughts. The bird had a point. It was one thing to become someone with the authority to actually change things. But it was a completely different thing to use that authority correctly. It wasn’t just selfishness that could trip people up though, a wrong decision made with even the best of intentions could end up causing calamity.
Yuno blinked as he realized something. That was the real reason he needed to be the Wizard King instead of Asta. His not-brother might have been passionate and had a good heart, but he barely ever used his head for anything but hitting things.
“Hmm, that’s odd,” Secre mumbled as she looked behind Yuno.
“What is it?”
Instead of answering, the bird took off and flew up into the sky before circling around a bit before finally coming back down on the boy’s shoulder. “Usually, the two of you have your little race right about now, but Asta isn’t anywhere to be seen.”
Yuno felt a bit of panicked irritation. It would be just like Asta to get himself hurt right after getting his grimoire. “You don’t think he tripped and cut his own leg off or something, do you?”
“That sword of his is so dull it couldn’t cut butter,” the bird said. “Not that it really needs to, considering what it is.”
With the only logical worry dealt with, Yuno slowed his pace. Asta probably headed back early or lost track of time, there was no reason to be concerned about his absence. Although, Yuno’s concerns quickly rose back up when he caught sight of Sunset jogging along the grass with a smile on her face that was so bright it was like the air around her was sparkling. “Yuno!” she said happily before grabbing his arm in a deathgrip with both of her arms. “How’s my favorite big-baby-orphan-brother doing today, hmmmm?”
Yuno did his best to hold onto his composure as his definitely-not-older-sister hung onto his arm. “Is everything okay?”
“Awww! You’re so sweet for asking!” Sunset said happily. “And I was having a bad day, but after a good hot bath in the forest and doing this little trick Secre taught me-”
The bird was in Sunset’s face a second later. “Never mention that again, ever!”
Sunset rolled her eyes. “Fine,” she agreed before letting Yuno go and grumbling to herself. “Excuse me for being happy I no longer have to go through hell once a month after enduring it for over a year.”
Before things could get any more weird, Yuno hurried along. “Come on, if we’re late to lunch, Asta will probably eat half our food,” he said as he walked as fast as he could without running.
The three of them made it to the church in short order, but found the dining room rather quiet as the children were talking in normal voices without the gray-haired headband wearing one around. Father Orsi looked up from where she was setting out the food. “Oh, hello you two. Food is taking a bit longer since Sister Lilly isn’t feeling well today and needed to lie down.”
“So, Asta really isn’t back yet,” Yuno muttered before the bird flew off of his shoulder and out of the door. “Well, we can give him thirty minutes. He’s probably doing something stupid, like lugging that sword around for the extra weight to train with.”
“AAAAAH!” Asta shouted as he swung his sword and barely managed to keep himself from stumbling after he finished his attack that hit only air. After regaining his footing, the teenager looked back at the dead tree in the clearing he was training in to see that its shadow had moved to cover a nearby rock, the symbol that it was time to get going home.
He felt some irritation at remembering Sunset’s words. It would be simpler just to camp out in the woods while preparing for the Magic Knight Exams. That way, he wouldn’t have to take an hour out of his day to run to the forest in the morning, back home at lunch, then back to the forest and back home at night. Plus, it would give him some camping experience. Which he would need for his journey to the capital. The trip would take at least three weeks.
Not that there’s much point in it right now though, Asta told himself as he looked at his sword with a frown. While years of training his body allowed him to lift the thing, even he had to admit that it was just so damn heavy the weight was next to impossible for him to compensate when making a swing. If he didn’t hit something on the first try, he stumbled.
And if he couldn’t figure out a way to not stumble around after every swing, getting into a magic knight squad would be impossible.
Trying to figure it out himself wasn’t working and Secre said she had never even used a weapon when she was human. While there were some guards around town, they just laughed at Asta when he asked if they could show him what he was doing wrong.
But, that was a worry for another time. Right now, he needed to get home.
A plan that was put on hold when he heard some screaming before a naked man with dark red hair crashed through some bushes with a giant boar that was as tall as he was on his tail. “GET OUT OF THE WAY KID!” the nudist shouted at him.
Asta grit his teeth at the sight. “Don’t run right at me!” he screamed before taking the large sword in both his hands and setting up a swing while the old man with the red hair just continued to do so. “Okay fine! Then duck or something you weirdo!”
As Asta started to swing, the man dashing towards him went into a dive and barely avoided getting hit by the sword that smacked the boar in the snout. Although, just like the last time he hit a living creature with his black blade, the boar was knocked back instead of being cut in half. Then, it quickly got up and ran away, yipping more like a beaten dog than a monster that weighed close to five-hundred pounds.
Once it was out of earshot, Asta could hear clapping coming from behind him before the redhead, who also had some scruff on his chin, slowly stood back up. “Hey! Good job kid!” he said as he started to come closer to Asta. While completely naked. “I was doing some fishing in the river and the thing just kind of snuck up on me. I guess I was just too close to his territory or something.”
Not another one, Asta thought as he kept his eyes focused on the man’s face and nothing else. What was it with him and running into redheads that didn’t care to give a damn about how little clothing they had on? It was bad enough that Sunset had just walked in on him at one time when he and Yuno were in the bath, showing off that weird sun on her butt before asking if they could make more room.
“Oh come on! Lilly said the bath was ready and I could go on in. What’s the problem this time?” Sunset’s voice echoed in Asta’s mind.
“I suppose I should introduce myself, my name is Fanzell Kruger,” the redhead told Asta before holding out his hand.
Asta’s eye twitched. “No! What you should do is PUT SOME CLOTHES ON!” he yelled at the man. “AND JUST WHO IN THE HELL FISHES NAKED, ANYWAY?”
The man gave a nervous laugh and scratched the back of his head. “Well, I didn’t want to get my clothes wet,” he said. “And could you escort me back to my house? It’s in the woods and I don’t think it’s safe to head back there on my own.”
Asta blinked at the fact he was being asked to follow a complete and total stranger back to his home in the woods as the man stood in front of him, completely naked. “Yeah sure, no problem.”
A short time later, they made it to a two-story cabin in the woods that was looking pretty rundown that the redhead said he was squatting in. Once Fanzell went inside to get changed into some clothes, he came back out again, dressed in some pants, a white shirt underneath a green tunic, and a belt with the usual grimoire holster that held a green book half as thick as the dictionary Sunset had poured over her second month at the Church. “Hey kid, mind if I see that sword of yours again?”
Asta blinked, but pulled out his book to retrieve his sword and held it up with one hand. “Cool, isn’t it? It’s not really made for cutting things because it can cancel out spells. This old bird I know calls it anti-magic!” he bagged. “And I’m the only one that can use it!”
“Anti-magic, huh? That’s a new one for me,” the man said.
“Me too, but this baby is going to get me into the Magic Knights!” Asta said as he swung his sword, then let out a little cry as he stumbled forward. After catching himself, he gave a nervous laugh. “Well uh, once I figure out how to stop doing stuff like that.”
Fanzell’s face took on a thoughtful frown. “It’s because all your weight is in your knees. See kid, swordsmanship is all about footing. Without a stable foundation, your stance will crumble. Keep your feet facing the same direction as your sword. And just before you swing, take a half-step forward to shift your weight.”
After processing the instructions, Asta raised his sword up and moved his foot forward. The second he took a step, he swung his sword and...didn’t stumble. Just to see if it was all some kind of fluke, he tried it again. And then again, and again. Completing the move five times, he finally stopped swinging the weapon around and let out a victorious cry. “ALRIGHT! I DID IT!” he cheered. “WOOOHOOO! TAKE THAT YUNO!”
“Yuno? Who’s that?”
Asta calmed down after hearing the man’s voice and looked over to him. “He’s my rival. We’re both going to join the Magic Knights and go after the title of Wizard King!”
Once he had heard the boy’s answer, Fanzell reached up and rubbed the stubble on his chin. “Wizard King, huh? Why would a kid like you want to go after a prize like that?”
“Well...it’s kind of embarrassing to say, but...I want to show everyone that a nameless nobody with no parents, formal education, or noble title can rise to the top in this world,” Asta told him. “I look around at all these people without any hope for a better life. But the reason they don’t have a better life is because they don’t think they can make it better on their own, with hard work and dedication. So I want to give them the hope they have to see that.”
Fanzell stared at the boy for several seconds, his mouth hanging open just a little bit. “...huh.”
It was only then that Asta realized that things hadn’t gone like they were supposed to. “Wait...you’re not laughing.” Everyone laughed at him when he said he was going to be the Wizard King.
“Should I be?” he asked with a raised eyebrow.
With great difficulty, Asta actually had to bring up all the things people said about him when he told them about his goal. “Because, everyone says it’s impossible.”
“Eh, Never know until you try,” Fanzell told him with a shrug.
Since the lack of mockery was somehow making things awkward for him, Asta decided to change the subject. “So uh, how do you know that trick?” Asta asked. “Do you use swords too?”
After a few more seconds of just staring at the boy, Fanzell got up and started walking, looking around his yard. “Well...not exactly,” he said before bending down to get a little twig from the ground and drawing out his grimoire that became surrounded in a green aura like Yuno’s did whenever he was playing with magic. “Wind Creation Magic: Emperor of Slashing Winds!”
The wind in the area thickened to the point of becoming like a really fast moving mist that swirled around Fanzell’s little stick until it formed a blade made of visible air.
“SO COOL!” Asta cheered as he looked at the man holding his big sword.
“It’s not really a sword, per say. It’s my mana coiled around a physical object and honed to a point at the ends. I call it Slashy for short,” Fanzell explained. “And since most of my magic takes the shape of swords, I decided to pick up a little swordsmanship.”
Seeing a golden opportunity, Asta grinned. “Hey old man, think you can teach me how to use my sword better?”
Fanzell gave him a look of disbelief. “Kid, I’m twenty-eight.”
“Yeah, but you look really old, and that’s what matters,” Asta replied. “So, swordsmanship, pleeeease? I saved you from getting rammed up the ass by that big pig.”
After a few seconds, Fanzell shrugged. “Okay, you got a point there. I can give you a few pointers,” he said before suddenly tensing. A frown crossed his face and he began looking up into the air before stepping in front of Asta. “Wait a second…”
The wind began to whip around again, causing the trees to rustle before a pair of people flew in from above, held aloft by wind mana. “Oh! Hey guys!” Asta said as he raised a hand to wave at Yuno and Sunset before suppressing a bit of jealousy. They fly now-no! You’re not going to think like that.
It was increasingly hard for Yuno to keep a straight face as Asta took the time to recant his tale about how he had met the wind mage in the forest.
Thankfully, Sunset was around to say what Yuno, as well as the bird on the window sill were thinking. “So, you just went off with the naked stranger to a secluded cabin in the woods where he let you watch him play with his sword?!” she screamed.
“Well, when you say it like that-”
Sunset didn’t let Asta finish as she advanced on him. “ARE YOU A SPECIAL KIND OF STUPID?” she screamed. “This is how all those stories Father Orsi told us go! Next, we’re probably going to find the corpses of half a dozen kids in his basement! Did you even think about the basement?”
When he found himself backed into a corner Asta held up his hands. “I don’t think he has a basement.”
Then, the other redhead that liked to run around naked foolishly decided to speak up in an stupid attempt to disarm the situation. “Kid, I get that you’re worried, but there’s nothing funny going on-”
“I’M NOT TALKING TO YOU OLD MAN!” Sunset yelled loud enough to shake the house as her mana flared in response to her anger.
Fanzell took a step back before Yuno saw his eyes narrow a little and his hand moved towards his grimoire.
“AND NONE OF THAT!” Sunset yelled before there was a bang when the magic book simply popped out of existence to reappear an inch from her open hand for her to grab it.
The move left Fanzell stunned for a moment, as well as Yuno. Wait, she can just snatch someone’s grimoire with spatial magic? he thought to himself in a second of shock before realizing something like that should have been obvious to him. How is that fair?
Asta had a slightly different reaction. “HOLY COW! Sunset, you’re little popping spell can just steal someone’s grimoire?” he yelled before blinking and taking his out of his belt’s carrying case to clutch it close.
“Okay, scary little lady,” Fanzell said before holding up his hands. “It’s just an old soldier’s instinct. I wasn’t going to draw it. No need to pop my head off.” Then, his attention turned to Yuno. “So, you’re the wind mage then? Pretty cool that you can carry another person at your age.”
Without actually putting any emotion into his words, Yuno gave the man a reply. “Just lucky I guess.”
Then the redheaded man looked at Asta. “And holding your grimoire like that won’t stop her from taking it. You need to activate it. That way, the mana flowing through it will disrupt her spatial magic spell,” Fanzell informed him before looking back at Sunset. “But as long as nobody gets the drop on you, they’re pretty much screwed.”
“Flattery will get you nothing but paranoia from me,” Sunset told him with a frown. “Now, how about you tell us why you’re living here, since Asta didn’t get around to filling us in. Which means I doubt he asked a combat-capable mage what he was doing in a middle of the nowhere dump like this that isn’t even in a middle of nowhere town.”
Fanzell took in a breath and shrugged. “I’m waiting for someone.”
Sunset tensed, her eyes glancing around wildly for a bit. “...is this the part where she jumps out and attacks us?”
“HAHAHAHA!” the other redhead laughed. “Wow kid, you are paranoid. “No, I’m waiting for my wife. We promised to meet up in this area if we ever got separated.”
As things started to relax a bit, Yuno took a step forward and noticed something out of the corner of his eye, which only he could have seen because Sunset was holding the book facing away from her. So she couldn’t see the symbol on the cover had nothing to do with clovers. A burst of will had his grimoire out of its case and surrounded by green mana before it flew open to the page of a spell he had recently added to the book after a month of hard work. “Is she still on her way here from the Diamond Kingdom, like you?” he demanded as the wind swirled around him in preparation for anything.
Fanzell stared at Yuno for several seconds before sitting down in a chair that was right behind him. “A four leaf clover too?” he mumbled. “Crap, what are they feeding you kids in this shitty little valley?”
Fanzell laid out his story to the three kids in front of him as best he could without trying to make it sound too unbelievable. Which he knew it would if he actually told the truth. He told them he was a rank and file Diamond Kingdom Mage Warrior rather than a commander in charge of training new recruits that used to command a whole army. After being stationed at a secret laboratory as security, he learned that the Diamond Kingdom was doing some very sick and twisted experiments on kids no older than the three in front of him. After a crisis of consciousness, he decided to desert the army and take his wife with him. Even though in reality, they hadn’t actually gotten married as of yet.
“...I mean hell, I had just got married a few months ago,” he told the three brats in front of him. “I wanted to have kids one day. Anyone who is worth being called a father can’t see something like what they were planning to do to those children and not feel sick.”
“Which is what, exactly?” the tall boy with the black hair and golden eyes asked. It made sense the four leaf had taken over the interrogation when things had gotten real.
The girl was a spatial magic user, which meant she probably wasn’t worth much in a fight. Although, it did explain why she didn’t even bother reaching for her grimoire when things got tense. Those types of mages didn’t actually need their books to throw their spells around, lucky bastards. Now, she was sitting across from Fanzell and actually leafing her way through his grimoire. Which was probably a disappointment to her, since only two of his spells had any pictures.
Although...there did seem to be something really odd about her mana.
As a wind user, Fanzell’s sensory abilities were among the best possible thanks to his element type. He could sense magic long before he saw the effects or heard the explosions. And what he sensed from her was just...weird. It was like she blended into the mana around her to the point where it was hard to pick her out of the background.
“Look, I only got to hear some stuff every now and then, okay?” Fanzell told them. “But there was talk of things like implanting mages with magical items to increase their mana storage and special training that removed their ability to think for themselves. They’d be like a really smart golem.”
After turning the page in his grimoire, Sunset looked up at him. “And the dual-element thing?”
Fanzell felt his composure slip and grunted. “Where did a brat like you hear about that all the way out here?”
“Dual-element?” Asta asked.
Since he really didn’t have anything at all to hide in regards to that, Fanzell answered. “There was some talk of...I don’t know, stitching two different grimoires together. Don’t ask me how they thought it could be done, I’m just a bodyguard, not a researcher.” Which was a lie since he had been involved in the project by means of teaching the children selected for the process, but had nothing to do with the actual operations.
“And you didn’t do anything to stop them?” Asta demanded.
Fanzell snorted. “Like what, kid? Break them out? Oh yeah, me and my apprentice against ten times our number of special soldiers. I have a wife, what do you think they would have done to her if I took off before she went to visit friends out of town?” he asked. “You said it yourself. People without any hope don’t bother to change things for the better. We just do what we can to get by.”
The frown on the girl’s face deepened. “How could anyone do stuff like that to another person?”
Hearing such naivety coming from the girl that was trying to act tough got a snort from Fanzell. “Not everyone in the world is as lucky with mana as you are, kid. On top of which, the Diamond Kingdom borders two hostile states, while Clover just has one. Here, you guys make sure your nobles marry other nobles and royals before they start popping out as many kids as possible. But Diamond's magical bloodlines are thinning. Even our top guys are nothing compared to just fifty years ago. So, the king is looking into other methods to enhance his forces.”
As Asta got all dejected and lowered his head, Mr Tall and Handsome spoke again. “So, you’re defecting to the Clover Kingdom?”
The suggestion was so insulting, Fanzell snorted at it. “Are you kidding me? You think I like this rat hole any better than my homeland? At least I got some history there. The Clover Kingdom is a fucking mess waiting to collapse in on itself. The only place worse than this hole is the Spade Kingdom,” he said as he looked to Yuno. The royal family had been knocked off about fifteen years ago, and the guys who took over made the worst of the worst in Diamond look like saints. “We’re heading to the Heart Kingdom to get lost in the mists.”
The three children shared an uneasy look. “So uh...do we believe him?” Asta asked.
Sunset sighed and leaned back in her chair. “Really wish I had some kind of mind reading magic right about now.”
“Asta, you were the one who met him first,” Yuno finally said. “You should be the one to make the call since you were the only one who talked to him when he isn’t under duress.”
Fanzell could have sworn he saw the bird standing in the windowsill rolling its eyes.
“Give him his book back,” the boy without mana said after a few seconds. “If he’s a bad guy, we’ll just kick his butt when he tries something.”
Strawberry-Red, groaned and did as he asked before sliding it over to Fanzell. Which he was glad for. It would have been a real pain on his ego to have to take it from such a cute girl. “Don’t come crying to me when this all blows up in your face.”
“Speaking of crying, we should probably get back to Father Orsi,” Yuno spoke up. “He began preparing your wake when you were late to lunch. Something about being eaten by wild animals.”
Asta gave a sound of discomfort. “Oh for-does that guy think I can’t do anything?!”
Several days passed as Asta continued his swordsmanship training under Fanzell. Not to let a golden opportunity go to waste, Yuno visited him as well to get some instructions on wind magic in regards to the less flashy stuff that most kids didn’t even know they could do upon getting their grimoires, like how to sense the flow of mana. Sunset would usually sit at a small table on the porch of his house, holding the man’s grimoire open and comparing it to a charcoal rubbing she said had been taken the day after meeting the man while acting as if she was watching him like a hawk for any sign of treachery. As for the team’s actual fowl, Secre found herself growing increasingly put off by the fact that she had to remain silent in front of the Diamond Mage.
She watched from the roof for any sign of pursuit that she knew the Diamond Kingdom would had to have sent after him while glancing down at the boys from time to time as Fanzell’s wooden replica of Asta’s anti-magic sword that they had to use since the boy’s black blade went through his magic wind blade like it was made of...well, wind.
“No, no! You’re too slow! Don’t pause between hits! What we’re after here is speed,” Fanzell told Asta as the boy stumbled after a strike because of bad footing.
Asta nodded. “Gotcha!” he said before starting to charge, then stopping after another step. “Anything else?”
The question had Fanzell thinking for a moment. “Well, you’ve got a solid defense and offense now. But you need to keep working on your footwork. Remember, half step just before the strike. But not too soon, or you telegraph the attack.”
“Right!” Asta said before grinning. “You know, you’re a great teacher Fanzell!”
The man who wasn’t much more than a boy himself reached back and scratched his head. “Well, I did a little teaching back in the day. But my students didn’t think much of me,” he said before scratching his chin. “Although...I got to say, you’re probably one of my top three pupils. Although, the number one is pretty out there. Mars never really used his sword himself, it was either through an intermediary or just moving it with his magic. So...I can’t say for sure if he really counted.”
A sudden presence of new mana heading in their direction drew Secre attention and she focused her senses to try and find out what it was. A few seconds later, she could practically see the outline of a slight girl in the trees, jumping from branch to branch in a direct line towards the house. She could have been headed for the nearby pond for its water, but that was rather doubtful since Secre could tell the girl was an ice magic user by her aura. “Ka-Kaw! Ka-Kaw!” she sounded. We really should have come up with a better signal. “Ka-Kaw, Ka-Kaw!”
Sunset closed the grimoire and looked up with a frown.
Yuno stopped chopping wood with his magic and raised his grimoire defensively as he walked to the front of the house.
Asta sat down next to the fire that was cooking the potatoes they had propped up on sticks to grab one and take a bite. And then when the small lady who was quite possibly an assassin sent to kill them all landed and took off her cowl to reveal a short head of hair that framed her face, he turned around with his mouth half full of food, after just putting his sword back in its book. “Who’s that?”
Don’t attack him, Secre told herself as she resisted the urge to fly down and peck Asta in the head. It’s not worth it. He’s about to die anyway.
The small woman in a dark robe that had been sent to kill them went into a crouch several feet inside the house’s clearing before she looked up at the redhead in the green coat sitting by the fire. “I have returned, master.”
Oh...well...he still shouldn’t have reacted like that, Secre thought to herself.
“Hey Mariella,” Fanzell said with a raised hand in greeting.
“Who’s she?” Sunset called out from the porch.
The other redhead looked away from the fire and over to Asta. “That’s Mariella, she’s my apprentice. I sent her out to look for Dominante when the heat got too much for me.”
“Hey Mariella, I’m Asta, from Hage Village!” the short boy said loudly in greeting as he raised a hand.
Off to the side of the house, Yuno frowned and looked around the treeline. “And what about the other eight guys that came with her and are now moving to surround us?”
Secre blinked at the casual comment before looking around, just barely noticing the men in white and dark blue hooded Diamond Kingdom robes that marked them as mages and hid their faces as they moved through the woods. She felt a bit of embarrassment, but quickly shook it off. Well, my magic was about opening my master’s door when he locked his keys in his room. I’m not a bloodhound.
As the girl Mariella took a step back, Fanzell sucked in a deep breath and sent a blast of wind from his hand to snatch his book from Sunset, getting an annoyed shout from the girl. “Yeah, that’s probably a Diamond Kingdom assassination squad. They’re not exactly what I’d call front line troops, but you don’t really need to be when your job is to sneak in and murder people when they’re sleeping,” he said before reaching up to catch his grimiore. “So, you went and turned traitor on me, huh?”
Caught off guard by being suddenly found out, or perhaps realizing that she hadn’t actually fooled the redhead in the green coat at all from the start, Mariella took a step back. “You think I had a choice about any of this?” she demanded. “Every other student you trained besides me is dead, and they would have killed me too if I hadn’t agreed to hunt you down to prove my loyalty to the Diamond Kingdom!”
Asta opened his book and drew his sword as the eight mages from the Diamond Kingdom came out of hiding to land in the field, their books out and ready for battle, showing a veritable rainbow of different magics. Three were approaching Yuno from all of his open sides, the two of them were moving towards Sunset from the other side of the house, and the other three came in to support the girl with the short black hair that had led them all here. “YEAH, WELL YOU AREN’T-”
Fanzell threw his grimoire on the ground and raised his hands. “I give up.”
“-SERIOUSLY?” the short boy shrieked at the slightly older boy who was just in his twenties.
Despite the battle being ended before it had even begun, none of the other mages put away their grimoires as Fanzell looked over to Marielle. “So, did you ever find Dominante?”
The girl reached into her robe and pulled out a wand with a glass orb on the end to throw it on the ground. “She’s dead. This is all that was left of her when the assassination squad was finished,” she told the young man. “That, and a great deal of blood.”
“...I see,” Fanzell said before looking up at the girl after watching the wand fall to the ground. “I take it since you guys didn’t come and slit my throat while I was in bed that you want me back on the project?”
Mariella nodded. “That’s right, the choice specimen has made it through the selection process. But, the project leads are wanting you back to consult on his final conditioning.”
A grimace crossed Fanzell. “That boy has a name! Use it when you’re talking about him. It’s pronounced Mars,” he told the assassin before he paused for a moment, his frown deepening. “And how the hell did you guys get him to go through with the final selection procedure? I put that girl he was sweet on in the same group as him. There’s no way he would have killed Fana.”
“Oh! That’s the best part, Master. The training you gave him kicked in automatically when she attacked him in desperation for her life!” Mariella told him happily. “Her body got thrown out with all the others, but her grimoire remained around afterwards to undergo the merging procedure. So the experiment was a complete success! That’s why they want you back, you see. A weapon that hasn’t been tempered properly isn’t of much use now, is it?”
The magical researcher in her made Secre grab onto the last part with interest. They found a way to stabilize a grimoire after its owner died? she asked herself. How? As far as she knew, that should have been impossible.
Unless, it was another five leaf. Or the Diamond Kingdom equivalent.
The possibility of another book like Asta’s out there chilled Secre to the bone.
“Don’t sound so smug when you talk about stuff like that,” Fanzell told her. “Now, I take it you all understand that if you hurt these kids, I bite my tongue off and you can all watch me bleed to death before we get home. Even if you can stop that from happening, I doubt I’ll make a good consultant when I can’t talk.”
Mariella nodded. “That is agreeable. Now, come along and we’ll take you back where you belong, to the Diamond Kingdom.”
But, that plan was quickly derailed when Asta lifted his sword to point it at the girl. “LIKE I’M GOING TO LET THAT HAPPEN!”
Sunset groaned and rubbed her head. “Asta, you did just hear the part where this guy said he wasn’t just a janitor at this lab where they experimented on kids before forcing them to kill each other? He was a fucking part of it!”
“Hey, I told you guys I was a guard,” Fanzell snapped at the girl.
“Eh,” Sunset said with a shrug. “Where I come from, that’s pretty much the same thing.”
Yuno looked back towards the other boy, making Secre want to hit her head with a wing as he took his eyes off the three dangerous people standing in front of him with their books out. “She’s got a point, Asta. Plus, he’s choosing to go with them. It’s not really our decision to make, here.”
“But our decision to do nothing about it is!” Asta yelled back at them. “And Fanzell ran away from these guys! Him doing bad things in the past just means that he has to take the time to make up for them now!”
As the two teens near the house shared a look of unease, Secre could already see where this was going. Unfortunately, the sheer inexperience in her charges was showing and she had to fly down to Sunset to land on her shoulder and give the young unicornian a little reminder just loud enough to be heard. “Get your book out, stupid.”
The girl’s eyes widened in sudden realization. “Oh right!” she said before her magic wrapped around the light brown grimoire that had the size and thickness of a good hardback novel, making it almost a match for that other magical book Sunset had back at the church Secre had seen her looking at longingly from time to time.
“...hey,” Yuno said uneasily after Sunset pulled out her empty grimoire. “Is Asta actually beating both of us in an argument?”
Sunset held out a hand towards the two mages that were focusing on her. “Yeah, so we better hurry up and get rid of the witnesses. Then we can deny it ever happened. So much for my big sparring practice surprise,” she said as the mana gathered around her to shine brightly. “Light Creation Magic: Divine Emperor’s Holy Sword!”
As everyone in the clearing tensed at hearing one of their opponents was using the worst magic they could they could possibly hope to face, Sere remembered back to the conversation that started Sunset down this particular path that ended with her wielding the same spell that had been used to cut down Licht five-hundred years ago.
-Three weeks ago-
“My cutie mark?” the girl asked as she soaked in the tub at the church alone, save for the bird that was sitting in the window. “Well, it’s a sun so...uh...it means…I’m...really good at magic.”
Secre couldn’t understand why Sunset was being so hesitant. Starswirl had gone on for hours about the thing on his butt and how it proved he was the greatest magic user who ever lived. The man’s massive ego aside, it was a little odd to hear another Unicornian not be proud of it. “Yes, but is it magic in general, or do you have a particular affinity for solar-related magic?”
“...well, I like fire more than the other elements,” Sunset admitted. “But that’s just a bit of a personal preference, and since magic is heavily dependent on the will of the user. It’s probably why I’m a bit better at throwing fire balls than water drops.”
“You do know the sun produces more than just fire and heat, right?”
And they already had the workings of a complex, powerful spell just sitting around for Sunset to study without bothering anyone.
Fanzell Kruger didn’t know how things had gone from where they had been ten minutes ago to where they were now. A bit of nostalgia back when his work at the mage enhancement project had been full of hope had made him take a look at the three kids and feel that again. Now, that feeling was gone and all he felt was terror.
Because the world didn’t make sense anymore.
That’s not possible, Fanzell told himself as the fiery redhead sent her attack flying almost too fast for human eyes to follow into the two members of the assassination squad that didn’t even have time to counter before they were struck down. That’s just not possible.
Sunset must have been feeling merciful, because instead of being sliced in two by the giant sword that was as large as the monster Asta swung around, it passed right through them both in a flash before cutting down a tree behind them. Then, they both just cried out in pain and dropped to the ground. Magic was an extension of the user’s will after all. While some spells could get out of control and cause unwanted damage, if a mage with a good amount of subconscious mana control didn’t want to kill their target, the damage done just wasn’t fatal despite how many vital points were hit.
“Oh God!” one of the members of the assassination squad in front of Fanzell yelled in a panic. “She’s a light mage! Kill her! KILL HER NOW!”
But...she wasn’t a light mage. She couldn’t have been. Fanzell had seen her pop herself and the boy’s straight to his house every morning with her wild spatial magic that left one of the kids puking their breakfast out about twenty-five percent of the time.
The three mages that had been focused on Yuno turned to aim at Sunset, which turned out to be a very stupid idea when the boy with the four leaf let loose his spell. “Wind Creation Magic: Towering Tornado!” he shouted before a controlled whirlwind appeared around Yuno, pulling the spells that the three Diamond Mages had sent towards Sunset before sucking their casters up at well. After getting hit with the disrupted effects of their own spells, the tornado cut off and let the three unconscious men plummet to the ground.
The remaining mages also fired a volley of spells towards the girl on the patio, but they were close enough to Asta that he was able to catch them all in one swing of his giant sword before they could get past him. “OKAY, NOW LET’S SEE IF ALL MY TRAINING PAID-”
“Retreat!” Mariella yelled as Asta turned towards her before she jumped out of range of Asta’s with the other three magic users, who quickly increased the distance with more long jumps aided by their enhancement magic until they were into the woods.
Asta blinked as the mages that were still conscious disappeared into the trees. “OH COME ON!” he shouted. “I didn’t even get to do anything!”
With the battle apparently over, Yuno looked to the three mages he had dealt with. “So, what do we do with-” he stopped talking when a series of spatial magic portals with a red tint to it opened beneath the unconscious mages to draw them in, which was followed by another pair that sucked in the ones Sunset had dealt with.
The familiar magic got a frown from Fanzell. So, they actually sent Galleo after me, he thought to himself. This is bad. While the man wasn’t much of a fighter at all, he was a spatial mage that could bring in a hundred troops to a fight when it was in the middle of nowhere. “Oh wow! You guys really saved my life just now! Sorry for all the trouble, but it looks like I should get going before those mages come back with reinforcements. I wouldn’t want to end up causing some big international incident that could start an all out war or anything!” he said in a voice loud enough to give Asta a run for his money.
Yuno just looked on confused. “Uh...okay?”
There was something off to Fanzell as the scariest little girl in the world gave him a considering glare before she moved out from under the shade of the house and walked over to him with her grimoire trailing behind her, floating open just above her head. “Well, just don’t lay down and die next time you get into trouble,” she grumbled before holding out her hand to make Fanzell’s grimoire float up into her hands and handing it to him. Which was another kind of magic she shouldn’t have been using. “Because, you know...we had to go to the trouble of saving you and all. It would be rude...or something.”
“Trust me, I always take the advice of terrifying monsters to heart,” he told her with a disarming smile.
Sunset’s face turned to confusion. “Are you making fun of me?” she asked.
To which Fanzell could only give another little laugh about before he looked back up at the house. He needed to get his things and head out before the Diamond mages regrouped and decided to try and launch another attack with a larger force rather than wait for him to lose the kids.
That was when something seen from the corner of his eyes made Fanzell realize what had been bothering him about Sunset after she came down from the house; impossible magic not withstanding.
Her book was in the wrong place.
Whenever a mage’s grimoires was open, it stayed within easy reach to be ‘read’ when they needed to cast a spell or turn a page. Sunset’s grimoire seemed little more than an afterthought to her.
And when Fanzell’s glance made him focus on the book, he understood why.
The pages were blank.
Which was impossible. More impossible than her using two different types of magic. He could have even written the apparent spatial magic as her just moving too fast for him to see. Light mages were supposed to be able to do that sometimes. But not when they didn’t have a single spell in their open grimoires, which never let open pages be blank when they were activated.
Fanzell gulped down the excess moisture collecting in his mouth and bent down to pick up Dominante’s wand before he was caught staring. As soon as he touched it, the wind mage noticed that there was an imprinted message that had been left in it, left there by its previous owner. Something Mariella should have detected as well.
So that’s what she’s doing, the young man thought to himself. It had seemed a bit off that Galleo hadn’t launched another attack, especially with Fanzell’s rather obvious bluff. But if someone was advising restraint...
“Well kids, I should probably get packing,” he told them. “Thanks for the save.”
Asta rested his sword on his shoulder. “Okay. Guess we’ll see you around old man.”
Fanzell’s eye twitched. I’m not old.
“We should head back to the village and tell the magistrate what happened,” Yuno said.
Although his mind was on other things instead of the little monster talking with the two twerps in front of the house, Fanzell walked up on the patio and caught sight of the charcoal rubbing Sunset had left on the little table that was in the shade. The arcane script was unrecognizable to him for the most part. Although, a little of it looked familiar, bits and pieces he had seen on the pages of his own wind sword spells.
It was then that something obvious hit him, and he turned to stare at the most terrifying thing he had ever seen as she gave the two boys a bright smile as she made a joke or something that got Asta riled up. She was reading my book.