The day was mild with soft bites of autumn cold.
The sky was clear, painted this transformative clear- blue that deepened the further a person dragged their gaze along the surface.
Faint sparkles of blue, practically imperceptible, hovered in the air over a massive, lonely forest.
A clean set of brick buildings sat within the centre of the far-gone woods, normally devoid of contact with any living beings.
Execpt for the weekdays.
Students, dressed in creme uniforms, emerged from all directions of the forest.
A large majority made their way from a far and peaceful neighbourhood, whilst others poured in omnidirectionally.
Some emerged from river waters; others tunnelled through the soil with sharp claws.
Somewhere, a single silver-haired youth made his way from the privileged dormitories for the first time.
Elsewhere, a certain black-haired youth had almost finished their long walk from the outskirts of the neighboured district and through the forest.
Julius stepped through the darkness, under the roof of thick tree branches, only half illuminated from the sun weaving its sunlight between dead tree branches to show the way.
An old beaten path snaked through the trees; Julius followed it in calm silence.
His expression was as enigmatic as ever, like trying to investigate the far distance during a snowstorm.
"That damn vault led me nowhere, only giving me riddles to go off of." Julius wondered to himself in silent contemplation.
"If I find Falson soon, he'll have an idea of what's next." Julius concluded as he walked, refusing to acknowledge the cloud of doubts lingering in the back of his mind.
How long had this chase gone on for?
With what results to show?
They were soul-crushing questions, ones that led to a continuously descending path.
This path would only waste further time, if followed, and raise further unanswerable questions.
Julius had long since made up his mind to follow this trail, quitting now would be devastating after the long year he had already dedicated.
Julius steeled his resolve, reaching this exact conclusion once again, then pulled his gaze up from the battered dirt path just as a set of faint light-blue sparkles floated in front of him.
Julius mumbled under his breath, with something like irritation or maybe even disdain. "Are you going to follow me today too then?"
The sparks pulsed mid-air with an ethereal glow, finally twisting around and overlapping over each other to form a horizontal oval the size of a wardrobe hovering at eye-level.
This oval then parted from its middle, with two sparkling blue surfaces pulling apart from each other like an eyelid.
A infinitely expanding pocket, faced Julius, both paradoxically a surface and an expanse filled with countless stars.
A ring of tightly fit stars circled the middle of this paradoxical expanse, glaring at Julius like an iris and a pupil.
"That depends, Son! Are you planning on evoking the wrath of any more servants to cosmic calamities?" This floating eye, made from stars, spoke back in this dramatically exaggerated voice that projected from everywhere and nowhere at once.
The voice was stage-like, false in every aspect of real human nature.
it was comical, stretched to fit something an illusion of something or someone that was good-natured.
It was like a robot, programmed to speak like a father in a child's comedy television show.
"Son." Julius repeated internally, painting the word in seething anger inside his head.
"This 'thing' hadn't approached me for years of my life, though with its abilities it must've been aware of my existence. Though still, it calls me its son." Julius cooly sighed in his heart, weighing the expanse of the single word in a foaming sea of calm indifference where the depths of rage simmered deep below.
Not to mention Julius didn't fully understand the eye's use of words, as he thought upon them too, he only knew it was referring to the Keeper in some sense.
He remained silent whilst passing the cosmic eye, continuing upon the beating path, as the sun continued to lightly guide the way for him.
"Aww, Son. Don't be like that. You are only putting yourself at harm if you continue as you are." The voice theatrically swooned in its continued comical voice.
Julius continued.
"Son, you are wasting your time!" The voice projected omnidirectionally.
Julius stopped.
His hand tightened into a fist, straining with the same sound as stretched leather straining under tension.
For one livid moment, Julius thought about shoving his weapon deep into the cosmic eye's pupil.
"There's no point..." He sighed in a bland breath within his core.
His fist loosened, relaxing into an open palm again.
"Like it's ever worked before." Julius grumbled in his mind, this thought like gravel crunching together in a grinding machine.
He stepped forward again, continuing on the beaten path.
Soon Julius left the crowded part of the wood, stepping out into a sunny clearing.
The grass was visibly greener, suddenly lusher, the grass continuing out toward a set of clean brick buildings in the distance.
The tree's growth lessened where the grass stretched in a circle to surround the set of buildings.
Before, the trees swarmed the land to populate the wood.
Whereas now, the trees were fewer.
The rare few that sprouted had aching distance between each other, they were different to the trees forming the ring around the brick buildings, each tree abundant in crisp green leaves even now in the start of autumn.
It was as if the trees had soaked up the abundant prosperity of the randomly vibrant land.
Ahead of Julius, he could make out the lines of students shuffling along like freshly poured cream, feeding through the open gates and toward the brick buildings.
Julius merged with the overflow of students pouring through the opened black gates, disappearing like a ghost into the crowd.
The flood continuing through the entrance of the white building, nestled toward the centre of the inside, leading into the front lobby of the academy.
Inside the white building, a monkeyish man sat in a desk chair overlooking the approaching students.
His yellow eyes flicked up from his desk to occasionally monitor the flow of students.
His grey tail swayed behind him, poking out through the black dress pants he wore as his dress jacket comfortably sat over his small frame.
His face was like that of a baboon, with a salmon-pink tint to his skin, his head had grey hair jutting out everywhere in an almost square outline.
He didn't recognise the black-haired student drifting right, past the desk and down the hall.
The monkey lowered his gaze back to the desk, neatly stacking and piling away a stack of purple cards.
Down the hall, Julius continued quietly toward his classroom.
His illusive gaze subtly flicked to passing students, noticing the hushed whispers and the blatant staring coming from passing students.
"I shouldn't be surprised, getting called into the principal's office on your first day would definitely stir up some gossip." Julius remembered, thinking calm and steady thoughts as he reached the doorway to his classroom.
A loud voice projected through the open door, held open by a wooden peg jammed underneath the dark wooden door.
"I SWEAR! HE'S A FREAK! I'M NOT LYING!" The voice protested desperately, their voice loud and yet somehow unheard.
Julius reached the doorway, his piercing gaze sweeping over the room to find the cause of the noise.
His eyes instantly settled on a student with dark hair that fell to hover an inch over their shoulders, floppy brown wool ears drooping from the dark-grey knit hat pulled over their head.
Fenrir sat in his seat, on the right side of the room, his body twisted around to face the students behind him.
One arm rose over the back of his chair, other extended just as wildly, the wool ears on his knit hat swaying lightly as he rolled his neck dramatically whilst speaking.
"You mean to tell me you saw Julius in the same room as the principal, an alleged sun god and some floating starry eye?" Thurid questioned hesitantly, one hand on her hip, as she titled her head aside to hang her unconvinced look.
"I SWEAR THIS ISN'T A PRANK! I'M TELLING THE TRUTH, FOR REAL THIS TIME!" Fenrir screeched, slightly rising from his seat with urgency, his face blooming red as if he was on the verge of implosion.
"THERE WAS THIS EYE! THEN THIS SKELETON! THE EYE PUT THE SKELETEON TO THE FLOOR WITHOUT TOUCHING IT!" Fenrir continued, desperately trying to convince the group.
Across from Fenrir, on the other side of the room near the front, a pink-haired girl slowly peered over.
Nagiri's pink gem-like eyes glinted with interest at the conversation happening across from her, her eyes slowly seeming to narrow as she tracked the conversation closely.
Thurid stood behind Fenrir's chair, her eyes rolling heavily at Fenrir's continued testimony.
She scoffed, raising her arms to fold one over the other. "Once again, it's always some prank with you. Why do you always have to go and slander someone?" She sighed with theatrical agitation.
Julius had been watching from the doorway in silence, his enigmatic gaze following the conversation like cold settling over a room.
He had forgotten how Fenrir had walked in yesterday, on his own interrogation, in the principal's office.
Fenrir had passed out twice from pure disbelief at what he was saying, his brain failed to register the situation and decided to shut off to prevent a self-implosion of the psyche.
What was most unexpected was that the boy had wasted no time in moving the news about, surprising Julius entirely.
"That could complicate things." Julius theorised to himself, internally strategizing for how this might affect his social standing, simultaneously contemplating if he had any use for a reputation anymore in the first place.
"A reputation is just what other people think of me, it's their thoughts not mine. How could it possibly affect me in any physical way? Being caught up in that is just a waste of my time." Julius mumbled internally.
Julius had wanted to maintain a somewhat powerful appearance, just enough to prevent students from picking fights with him.
Afterall, Julius wasn't a fool, he wouldn't give students a chance to assume he could be bullied or suppressed in any way.
If students thought he was weak, they might start trying to find fault with him just to have a reason to fight him.
It wasn't that Julius couldn't handle himself, if that were the case, it was just that logically it made more sense to him to prevent the hassle altogether.
A reputation, an intangible thing that stuck to someone whenever people looked at a person, was in the process of currently trying to be changed by Fenrir.
Fortunately for Julius, it appeared that Fenrir was incapable of making anyone believe his testimony.
This was because of Fenrir's own reputation, Fenrir had in the past spread misinformation and rumours about people before, which resulted in solidifying people's assumptions of not trusting Fenrir's words.
Thus it was Fenrir's own reputation that prevented him from altering Julius's.
This made Julius smirk within the depths of his being.
He raised a foot then planted it against the glossy floor, snapping with just enough pressure for the toe box of his shoe to make a click noise where it met with the ground.
At once everyone turned their heads, except Fenrir who was too busy squawking to hear the sound of Julius's arrival.
"Julius!" Thurid cheered with joy upon seeing the boy, she had spent the night recalling their unimaginable evening together and was eager to find out what else she didn't know about this mysterious boy.
The pink-haired girl, Nagiri, had turned her chin instinctively toward the clicking sound that came from Julius.
At once her posture sunk inward, with the speed of an ostrich hiding its own head in the sand, averting her gaze altogether.
Julius stepped down the aisle, created by the gap between the columns of desks.
His steps were as light as a feather, with a gracefulness like wind itself, gliding down the aisle until he reached Thurid.
Fenrir's face shrunk with pale fear at the sound of Julius's name, abruptly twisted around to face ahead.
Fenrir went silent, fixing his expression instantly like the flick of a switch.
His expression still involuntarily turning murky, as Julius neared whilst traversing the narrow gap.
Thurid flashed a beaming smile, stepping away from Fenrir and toward the desk with two seats closest to the middle, dropping into her seat.
Julius silently passed Fenrir, his expression as unchanging as calm wind as he stepped past Fenrir, his gaze never dropping once to even lick Fenrir.
Julius approached the desk Thurid sat at, pulling his own chair out calmly before dropping into his own seat.
As soon as Julius settled into his seat he noticed two things.
Nagiri had been eyeing him softly from her seat in the furthest corner in, the front of the room, now visible to Julius as he faced the front of the room from where he sat.
He watched as Nagiri whipped away, just as quickly as Fenrir had also done moments ago.
Meanwhile Thurid had immediately leaned aside, toward Julius, speaking in a conspiratorial whisper.
She hissed in a dramatic whisper, pulling the palm of her hand beside her chin to control the proximity of whisper's reach.
"So, it seems like I'm not the only one who knows about your escapades."
She giggled quietly, pulling her hand away to reveal her mischievous grin.
"Hmm, so she does know Fenrir's telling the truth." Julius realised to himself.
"I suppose she must've realised the 'skeleton' she punched yesterday must've been the same 'skeleton' Fenrir mentioned." He theorised silently in calm contemplation.
But it still brought up another question.
"So she lied for me?" Julius questioned curiously, his eyes glinting imperceptibly toward Thurid.
Thurid had known Fenrir was telling the truth, knowing his loudness was reaching the students ears, deciding to ridicule Fenrir and disprove his claims.
For Julius's sake, perhaps.
"She's semi-trustworthy then." He briefly noted, whilst never placing too much weight in the belief.
Nothing in this world was truly selfless, everything had a cost, everyone had something to gain from their actions.
"She could want to protect the secret to prove herself useful, so that I would think of asking her to come with me again." Julius assumed instantly.
"Right, she must like the excitement from yesterday and is afraid to lose it." He decided, all whilst sitting neatly in his seat, his expression unchanging as he waited for the class to start.
"After all, no one could really be that kind." Julius concluded with steel resolve in his heart.
Just then, as the students finished piling in and filling the seats, a familiar warm voice carried through the hallway.
"Sorry I'm late, class!" Mrs Hatch apologised loudly, as she finally stepped in through the classroom, a bundle of books under her arm whilst a black handbag hung from her shoulder.
She stepped across from the right side of the room at the door, all the way to the left where an bent desk sat at a right angle at the far left side of the room.
She dropped her items on the desk with a sigh, her liquorice black hair very slightly tussled, suggesting she was either in a rush or incredibly busy.
When she sighed, a weight seemed to press onto her shoulders, dropping them down as she turned her head to the left to examine the room.
"Right." She breathed, collecting herself before exploding with warm energy.
"So class, I had a look at some of your results on last weeks pop quiz. I'm very concerned with everyone's basic understanding of mana." She explained as she rounded her desk, leaning her weight back against the outer edge of her desk.
"Julius!" She breathed warmly, with a loud and joyful energy, as her glasses glinted with a shine from her eyes actively scanning the room to look for the boy.
"Ah, there you are." She snorted a small laugh through her nose in a jet of air.
"I didn't see much of you yesterday. I didn't get a chance to see where you fit in with the rest of the students."
Thurid snorted loudly, a more piggish noise compared to the soft one Mrs hatch made.
Her hands flew up to catch her inflated cheeks, held firmly with contained laughter.
Julius leaned back into his chair, silently placing his hands over his arms.
"Fit in." Julius highlighted internally.
"No wonder Thurid laughed." He thought to himself, understanding her amusement.
If only Mrs Hatch- knew.
Mrs Hatch paused, her eyes widening behind her black circular-framed glasses.
She studied Thurid with her puzzled gaze, wondering if she had something on her face, then continued after discarding the thought.
"So? Why don't you start us off? So I can understand how much you understand." She suggested warmly, curiously folding her arms as she emphasised "You."
"What is mana?" She asked in a light tone, warm with innocence as she threw the opportunity to Julius.
The students gazes' fell upon Julius, similarly to how they did the previous day, like when Julius was asked to display fire magic to the class.
Julius broke his silence finally after dragging a long sigh, his voice boringly indifferent.
"Mana is life."
end of chapter 12