“There is only one path when you reach the end. They say those of my kind do not know fear. That day, I thought I was ready. I wasn't. None of us were. “

-1-

Chapter 1 “Magic, Father ... and problems”

The studio was at peace. A dark wood desk stood alongside an elegant wood chair, and to the right, a white window allowed airflow. Pierce was next to it, reading a book, holding it up with his right hand while his left hand was writing in the air.

He moved slightly. A library filled with books on history, economics, and commerce was on the wall. He was tall, 1.82 meters. 

He was happy until.

SMACK!

"Did you finish the reports?!" Benjamin yells as he lets some gold bags hit the floor.

He laid some papers on the table in front of Pierce.

Pierce jumps, and his book falls to the ground; he laughs nervously as he scratches his head.

"I was a little busy," Pierce says 

Pierce looked at the desk. It was full of papers: Business, Sales, and Merchandise—the usual stuff in commerce.

Benjamin sighed; he pinched his frown while looking down; he was annoyed.

"How many times do I have to tell you, don't waste your time on magic!" Benjamin yells as a 

Butler enters with the newspaper and delivers it to Pierce.

Benjamin gets mad and intercepts the butler, grabbing the newspaper.

"This again!" Benjamin holds the newspaper, gritting his teeth, and throws it to the floor. (Trade suspended with the Sev kingdom)

"Business is getting worse and worse! You! You are fired!” Benjamin points at the butler.

Pierce moves in with his father. “Father, wait!” Benjamin walks out of the room, extremely annoyed. 

The Buttler sighs and takes off his hat, looking down.

"First, I lose the business, and then this kid who only wastes his time." Benjamin slams the door as he exits.

Pierce looks at the butler and then at the newspaper on the floor. "We can't keep firing everyone, Father." 

He moves and grabs one of the bags full of golden coins and gives it to the butler. The butler is stunned; he can´t accept it, but Pierce ignores him as he grabs a paper from the desk and jumps through the window.

He falls, and the curtains follow him. 

Pierce writes the letter "A" and the number "1 " with blood in the air. The word "air" appears out of thin air, and with the number 1, they form a circle that envelopes Pierce with small green dots.

A green circle appears on the ground, slowing down the fall. The two-floor fall was slow, and Pierce landed safely on the grass.

"This feels awesome! Pierce looks excited at the mansion.

The Edevane mansion was huge, four stories tall, and filled with white windows. Next to it was a beautiful garden filled with bushes, flowers, and trees, and a fountain with a Marmol wolf statue proudly shown in the middle. 

Pierce moves backward, looking at the window from which he fell, and turns to crash into someone.

Pierce retreats two steps back and looks at the man.

"Godric!" he smiles

"One day, someone will think you are a thief and call the guards," Godric said as he laughed. 

"Yeah, well, it's better if Father doesn't see me," he responded.

Godric smiles and looks at the paper in Pierce´s left hand. "So you finally made up your mind; you are right then, even I can't tell how he will react."

Pierce looks at the mansion. "I have to do this, Godric. He doesn't understand."

Godric smiles and approaches Pierce, grabbing his left shoulder and giving him a book, “Tier 4 Magic.”

"Godric?" Pierce looks at the book.

"I can't understand anything about that; maybe someone at the university will teach you."Godric gently rubs the shoulder.

Pierce grabs the book, holds it dearly, and turns to Godric. “Thanks, Godric.”

"Now go; the inscriptions will close at any minute!" Godric pushed Pierce away from him.

Pierce runs through the garden and jumps to the wall.

Godric sees how Pierce climbs the wall and jumps outside; he shakes his head. “This kid.”

Suddenly, two horses approached the entrance past the front gate. Godric noticed it and turned around. A man in a military uniform got out of the carriage.

"Him again," Godric says. He takes his hand watch, looks at the hour, and squeezes it tightly as he walks to the entrance.

Through the city's streets, Pierce runs, passing houses made from wood, selling fruit; after a while, only a road made from rocks, alongside bushes, remains. Pierce looks at metal tubes, forming a grille with elegant spikes at least 3 meters tall. The building is made from marble, alongside towers.

He was getting closer to the magical university as people in white uniforms, black boots, gloves, chests, and golden Eupalettes walked back and forth.

Finally, he reached the wide-open front gate, the road leading to a vast marble building. The front garden was full of grass, with no perfectly cut flowers, as students and their parents walked to the building.

One student approaches Pierce and gives him the newspaper.

The student was short, 1.65 m tall, and skinny. It was apparent he didn´t exercise, and he wore the school uniform. 

"News!" the student yells.

Pierce accepts it. It looks different from the one his Father threw and is less designed. It looked like the university news or something.

The information was the same: “Trading suspended with the Sev Kingdom."

Pierce reads it, and a red-haired girl crashes into him.

"I'm sorry!" The girl turns shortly and keeps running.

Pierce looks at the girl, looks confused, and notices his book has fallen. He picks it up.

"She must be in a hurry. Do you know her?" Pierce tries to take the dust off his book

"No, I don't think so, but her face looks familiar." The student rubs his chin.

Pierce gives his hand.

"I'm Pierce, by the way."

"Hernan." Hernan takes the hand and shakes it.

As Pierce and Hernan talked, a young man with brown hair was screaming. He was searching for the running girl. The man was quite aggressive with the people when he got to Pierce.

"Hey, you two! Have you seen a girl with red hair running this way?!" The man approached Pierce

The man was intimidating. He was wearing the school uniform and was 1.80 meters tall. His muscles were visible, and it was obvious that he exercised a lot.

Pierce didn't like the man's attitude; a lion was visible on his clothes, and he stood in his way.

"Maybe yes, maybe no; who is looking for her?" Pierce says, looking at him.

When the man tried to talk, he noticed the symbol in Pierce's clothes, and with anger, he pushed Pierce away.

"Useless merchants!" The man kept walking.

"What is his problem?" Hernan asks.

"I don´t know. His symbol was a lion, though. Maybe he is an Ainsworth.” Pierce looks at the man.

"Ainsworth, huh? Well, we shouldn't get in his way." Hernan holds the newspapers.

Pierce kept seeing the direction in which the man was going.

"I have a bad feeling; come with me," Pierce tells Hernan.

Hernan looks at Pierce. " But I have to deliver this? "

Pierce moved. “Either way, many people are going there.”

The two walked; many students were heading the same way. They reached the main building and entered.

They found a crowd, and in the middle, the girl with red hair was arguing with the man of the Ainsworth family.

"I already said no, Forrest!" The girl yells as she crosses her arms and turns away.

"Evelyn, this is your only chance! This way, you can get out of that filthy place!" Forrest answers.

Evelyn came rushing and slapped Forrest's face with tears in her eyes.

"Take that back!" Evelyn yells.

The crowd was in shock; Forrest was with his face down, and Evelyn slowly walked away.

"Evelyn! Why won´t you understand!” Forrest was getting angrier.

Pierce sees him and decides to intervene. "Hey, we don't need to escalate things," he says.

Forrest looks at Pierce and twitches his face. "You again?" he yells.

Pierce was in front of Evelyn, and  Forrest tried to approach Pierce, but he looked at the newspapers on the floor and went to grab one.

“You should be working on this instead of wasting time here!” Forrest throws the newspaper to Pierce.

"What does the Edevane family have to say about this?! The great merchants of the north can´t keep a simple business?!" Forrest yells, and the crowd hears.

"He is an Edevane?"

"My father lost his job because of them!"

"They said they kept all the money and stole from the north!"

Pierce's face was down, looking at the newspaper.

"Keep wasting your time here while the people keep losing their jobs." Forrest turns his back on Pierce and looks at Evelyn. "This won't end like this, Evelyn." He leaves.

The crowd dispersed. Pierce kept staring at the newspaper, but suddenly, he heard a voice.

"Thanks for the help!" Evelyn says as she approaches Pierce.

Pierce turns to her. He looks at her gorgeous blue eyes, contrasting with her red hair.

She was 1.65 meters tall and thin, and the uniform looked great on her.

"He was getting pretty mad back there; I guess the slap was a bit too much; sorry for how it ended," Evelyn offered her hand.

"I'm Evelyn Lachance." Evelyn smiled.

"Pierce Edevane." Pierce shook her hand and smiled.

"Well, I guess I will see you around, Pierce. Thanks again!" Evelyn walked away

Pierce looked to Evelyn as she exited the building when Hernan came.

"So she is the daughter of Lachance; I knew her face was familiar," Hernan says.

"Huh? You are still here, Hernan." Pierce looks at him.

Hernan grabs the newspaper and looks at Pierce.

"So you are an Edevane; I don't think they should blame you, " Hernan says, scratching his head.

Pierce took the newspaper and threw it into the trash can.

"I don't care," Pierce smiled as he walked to the exit of the building.

Pierce walked with a paper. “I just want to learn magic.”