“Huh?” was all I could manage to say as the next thing I knew I was hit by a ball of wind, “woaaah” I could say as I flew back crashing into the padded wall behind me.

“Focus Simon, we're still in training!” Chided a man in his early thirties dressed in workout clothes and a ferocious look on his face.

That man was Gregory Chronos, my guardian and teacher in magic.

“Sorry… I was distracted” I replied, rubbing my head.

“With what?” Mr Chronos asks.

“He’s probably thinking about that girl he kept staring at in the cafe” said a blond scrawny boy on the other side of the training field. Arthur Cromwell a prodigy that descended from a very prominent mage family and he also happens to be my best friend. 

“Put all your distractions aside and focus on what you’re doing in the present,” Mr Chronos chided me “there’s a time for everything, a time to be distracted and a time to be trained, so focus on your training understand?” I nodded my head “Good” he said “Again!” he shouted for us to get back in position “And Simon” He added “I would advice talking to her than staring, you will find more luck getting to know her compared to just staring” My face blushed with embarrassment as he finished.

“I hope you will be more of a challenge this time Simon” Art called out from where he was standing.

“Ready!” My teacher said as he raised his right hand “Begin!” he shouted chopping the air with his hand.

Arthur dashes towards me with his right fist imbued with air going for my face as I dodged to my right countering it with a kick to his stomach Arthur let out a groan as he clutched his stomach before looking at me with a look of annoyance “why….you” was all he could manage before imbuing more air mana into his fist and dashing full force towards me, I started to imbue my hand with mana and a cloud of darkness formed around my fist. I begin to run towards Arthur as his arm starts to come towards me. I swing my fist to meet him halfway………

"You know it was just training right?" Said a skinny black haired boy sitting across from me.

That's Simon, my best friend and partner in school. His head was bandaged after a little "accident" during training.

We went to our usual hangout spot, a cafe not far from our school.

"Oops! Guess I went a bit too far huh?" I replied as I let out an awkward laugh.

"You think?" He said with an annoyed look.

"This the third time Art" He continued while rubbing his head bandage "you always go too far whenever you get angry, haven't you given me enough bruises?"he complained .

"Don't be such a baby Si….” I pestered.

"Besides warriors consider them as a badge of honour" I teased.

He responded with a grunt of displeasure.

Trying not to notice I changed the subject

"Anyway Bill will be back tonight and my family are going over for a welcome back party, you should come it's been three months since we last saw him"

"Yeah it has, wonder where he's been all this time?" Simon placed his hands on the table and leaned in looking more interested.

"And besides Mr Chronos will be there as well" I said trying to convince him to go with me.

“Sure then I'll see you there.” he got up from his seat and began to leave.

"Where're you going? We still have time before the party" I asked, chasing after him.

"I'm going to pay my respect to my parents….. it's been way too long since I last spoke to them" he said with a look of sadness on his face.