"Hey, not that I notice every single thing you do but where's your brooch?" Blaize asked suddenly while I'm healing my ninth patient. I noticed it too, I'm not wearing my gem brooch.

The emerald green gem brooch is the academy's uniform's main feature. Everyone has to wear one at all times to gain access to the school's specialized grounds. However, when at the dormitories, they can remove it so every student can sleep well. This brooch is our direct source of magic from the crystal. It allows the unlimited flow of magic from crystal to us. It is usually worn near the heart so magic can flow faster. Without it, we'll exhaust ourselves if we use our magic continuously and beyond our limit.  Right now, I forgot to put it on my tracksuit.

"I forgot to wear it," I answered Blaize's recent question. He looked at me with a confused expression.

"How exactly are you doing this right now?" he asked again. The patients we are healing also looked at me.

"I don't know, okay?" I told them. Blaize removed his brooch and handed it to me. There are eleven more patients on the queue so I guess he'll test himself.

"Maybe I'll try it for myself." and so, he tried. His limit was seven severely injured patients from the weapon-user class. He was about to collapse when I healed him and he regained balance.

"You.. you never fail to amuse me," he commented with a smile on his face. I twitched in surprise with his expression.

"You seriously need to rest right now," I told him.

"Not really. Keep my brooch first, we never know how much more you can handle. Return it later." he said and left his station, leaving the remaining patients to me. Blaize checked up on the other support mages to see how they're doing. Being a member of the academy infirmary, his rank is higher than the rest of the support mages. Blaize, as the best and youngest member, is well-respected by all students- well, except for some jerks.

The moment we finished healing, I returned the brooch to Blaize. We bid farewells to see each other later on and head off to each dorm. I saw a familiar dirty-blonde figure came from my room. She’s already wearing the Council uniform. The Council consists of best members of each sub-class of the academy- meaning Blaize and Laika are members. Though Blaize is a member, he rather wear the healer uniform than the council one…I dunno why, maybe because the healer uniform is more comfortable or that he likes being a nurse than proudly stating he’s the best. I’m not stating Laika is proud but she’s not a member of any other school organizations so she doesn’t have other uniforms to choose from, excluding the standard ones. I entered my room and prepared for classes.

Arriving at the dining hall, everyone’s grouped according to classes. There are some new faces in everyone’s group. It must be that time of the year… wherein fresh graduates of the junior league become members of the senior league.

“Sup?” I greeted Blaize as I sat beside him.

“Grab a meal and sit beside me,” he said as he continued eating. I did as he said. I went to the banquet table to grab a meal- a bowl of rice, vegetable soup, three slices of cow meat and a glass of orange juice. I sat beside him who just finished eating. I started eating when he said something.

“We didn’t receive another member.” he said.

“That’s something to be expected,” I responded after swallowing the food in my mouth.

“We only have less than 50 members and we’ll have more people to heal.” he explained.

“That won’t be a problem. You’re Blaize Stanford.” I joked as I proceed on eating.

“If you want me to die early, just be honest and tell me.” he gave me a stern look.

“You know it’s a compliment, right?” I assured him.

“That sounded weird to me.” Blaize crossed his arms.

“If you hate it that much then forget it.”

“I won’t. I heard it from you.” he chuckled. How weird. He’s probably making fun of me. I continued eating my meal while he’s watching me. If I could just punch this guy for making me feel this awkward, I'll do it right away. After a minute or two, he started talking again.

“Do you remember the first time we met?” he asked. I just stared at him without trying to remember.

“You don’t remember, do you?” he asked again, now with a gloomy expression. I tried remembering but I couldn’t. There’s only one thing I remembered.

“You were a jerk?” I tried to confirm.

“So that’s what I am to you? Not that it wasn’t true though. As for you, I never thought you’ll be as strong as you are right now.” he commented. Oh wow, I’m flattered.

“Well, there’s always room for improvement,” I told him and I continued eating.

“I am a well-known and respected person yet you- who lived here for almost 9 years- never know who I was. And of course, you were a shadow I barely heard the name of. I was supposed to be your guide for a month and I didn’t teach you a single thing. Despite that attitude of mine from that time, you stayed by me. You shocked me with your great improvement. You gave me a reason to acknowledge your existence. Yes, I declared you as a rival because of your monstrous change. However, you always impress the hell out of me. From what I observed, you didn’t mind most of the things I do so I thought… being your rival and classmate is the remaining reasons for me to hang out with you.” my eyes widened when I heard every single thing he just said. His face looks like an expression of an awkward relative, I nearly choked on my last bite. He handed me a glass of water.

“Curse you, Blaize. What did you ate? It must have contained poison or something.” I joked as I place the glass on the table.

“Why? I’m just reminiscing our time together since it’s the time of the year again. Sadly, we didn’t receive a new member.”

“I mean, why didn’t you tell me last year?”

“Because I wanted to tell you about how I felt since that day I realized those things. You seriously scared me earlier, you know? I thought you already died.”

“Well, whatever. I’m alive and gonna kick yo’ arse.”

“Psh, you rarely win on our healing competitions.”

“I’ll win next time, pal.” I chuckled. Blaize stood up to place our dirty plates at the ‘used wares’ station. The moment he returned to his seat, a lightning suddenly appeared. It was produced by one of the school head, who happened to be from the lightning producing clan, Voltergaurde. Feltia, despite being a young member of the Mistcliff Magic Academy Administrative Committee and the messenger for this town, is Xenos’ 29 years old sister. The message appeared after the sound of thunder. It says:

“Brace yourselves. Today, the most awaited autumn tournament for the senior league is being prepared. All students should not enter the arena grounds until the day after tomorrow. Since yesterday was the deadline for the enlistment of candidates, we already prepared the parties through random party selection. Remember, no hard feelings, it was selected randomly. It was divided evenly with the distribution of both weapon-users and war mages. I’m afraid agri-mages can’t join again this year.”

I heard a bunch of ‘aw’ whines as the broadcast continued.

“Having a member of both classes, the third member is randomly selected from both. All parties should make preparations before the tournament. The prize this year will be an instant promotion of being the main guards of the royal family. Again, no hard feelings. Do your best and earn victory!”

The broadcast ended and names appeared on the plain wall that can be seen by everyone. I looked for my name and I had the hard time to look for it.

“Team Seiya, that’s your party,” Blaize mumbled so I looked at him.

“I may be wearing glasses but that doesn’t mean I’m blind.” he added.

When I saw my name, it’s true, I’m a member of Team Seiya- Seiya Collins as the party leader. I have no complaints about her since she’s a quiet kind girl whose rank may be average but was the strongest from the special mages. What I hate, however, was being grouped with Xenos. I looked for Laika’s name to see that she’s teamed up with Blaize and Alfonse- the best and strongest of the whole senior league. For now, Team Blaize is the most indomitable party. Maybe that’s the ‘no hard feelings’ meant for. I heard a slam from the table behind ours… it was Xenos.

“Why am I grouped with low-ranks? I hate you, sis” he whined. I saw Seiya stood up from her seat and went beside him. She summoned a chick on Xenos’ head.

“No one wanted to have you as a party member. Your rank is also low so don’t complain,” she said. The guys on the same table laughed at him.

Seiya left the chick on his head and went back to her seat. I saw her look at me and smiled. She’s a really handsome lady.

“You’re lucky enough to have her,” Blaize commented.

“Yeah, at least someone who can kick his arse,” I added.

“But I tell you, you better train your buffs too. If possible, learn the techniques of your mates” he advised.

“Noted.” I grinned and accepted it.

“I’ll help you train later,” he muttered. I was surprised with this response. When I was his junior buddy, he never said such thing.

“Is this one of those ‘hang out with you’ sort of crap?” I asked.

“No. I want to help you. If you become a royal guard, you’ll get to discover the world beyond this place.” he stated. That was something I didn’t expect to hear from him, I’m tearing up. I hugged him.

“Wha-?”

“You don’t want to see anymore me, don’t you?” I asked him to probably annoy him, still trapping him in a hug.

“S-stop it. There are people looking.” his face turned a bit red.

“Of course they will. Not unless I did this.” I said as I pinched his sides. He twitched in pain. I laughed a bit and some of those watching chuckled.

“Don’t say it like some father sacrificing his daughter to discover the world,” I told him.

“What you did hurts… and I didn’t mean it that way. Plus, it’s not like I don’t want to see you anymore. It’s just that I want a good fight.” he replied.

“I thought so! I must not be shaken and I’ll let you taste defeat!” I declared and it’s as if he’s really up for it.

“Okay then,” Blaize smirked.