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the day for the entrance examination to the historic and prestigious easton magic academy finally dawned upon you and the boy you were assigned to protect. you learnt from his adoptive father, regro burnedead, that his name was mash.
mash burnedead, the most intriguing boy you've ever met.
and even now, he was just as intriguing.
CLANG CLANG CLANG CLANG CLANG-
the sound of weights coming in contact with the ground echoed, a few students stared at the source with you. it was none other than mash burnedead, the automatic iron pumping machine.
half of the attention from the surrounding applicants was on him, the other half was on you.
"the way her magic mark is formed! could she be...?"
you heard a number of students mutter and mutter about your magic mark. it didn't matter too much to you, but sometime back you had learnt that unnecessary attention could draw trouble.
you furrowed your brows; the muttering was seriously getting annoying. would sealing their mouths shut be an option? ─ you shook the thought off, turning your attention to mash who was... doing an invisible chair.
interesting.
you picked up the presence of two familiar individuals. you had a peculiar sensitivity towards mana, so you easily identified said familiar individuals to be... brad and regro.
you turned your head to the source of the magic energy that you sensed, only to be met with the sight of two poorly disguised old men. you could swear at a time like this, you were the most normal. you made eye contact with the two, shooting them a look at said 'get lost'.
the two men only turned to each other, whispering with their 'inconspicuous' disguises.
a burst of green flames swirled around the once empty podium, drawing everybody's attention ─ yours included.
"greetings, examinees!" a voice boomed from within the hurricane of flames. eventually, the flames dissipated, revealing a young professor.
"i'll be overseeing this year's entrance examination. my name is claude lucci. the pleasure's all mine." for some reason, he looked smug about announcing and introducing himself.
"claude lucci?! he's ranked 7th in this year's top up-and-coming mages!" you heard a student exclaim from the crowd. followed by another hurdle of students, the majority were praising him for what seemed like, to you, nothing.
"he must think he's hot stuff, appearing out of a firestorm and all." mash leaned over to you, expressing himself like nothing.
you nodded, agreeing with him.
"i don't like his face. i hope he gets burnt the next time he plays with strangely coloured green fire." you emphasised on the unfamiliar spell─ or maybe you were just used to warping everywhere with the help of your master cane.
"it's time for the first exam. take your seats." claude announced out of the blue. the students questioned him for there were no seats around.
the professor flicked his wand up. following his action, the ground started rumbling as you picked up a rise of magic energy.
stone desks and seats arose from the ground like weeds, followed by the test papers raining down and landing perfectly on the desks. quills shot down like darts, taking their places beside the papers. all the more with the flashy performance, the young professor's ego was only endlessly fed.
"why didn't he just set all of this up before we got here?" mash questioned, turning to you once more as if you were a know-it-all in this realm of magic.
"because people like him enjoy wasting magic energy." you nodded at your own statement, taking a seat beside mash.
"you have 30 minutes! begin!"
the test itself was fairly easy, from what you've heard. the real challenge was the squirming words that moved around the paper to no ends. rather than testing the students with half-assed questions, the actual test was to dispell the enchanted sheet of paper.
with the students who were muttering and whispering over your magic mark, and now the endlessly wriggling words and sentences... you were having a serious headache with this. oh, how you wish you could be sleeping peacefully in the lovely air-conditioned offices in the bureau.
SNAP!
"kindly stop moving." mash snapped his quill in one clench of his fist and, as if possessing sentience, the words immediately lined up perfectly in order.
'how motivating.' you half-heartedly thought to yourself, finally sucking your disdain up and dispelling the magic in one go. you answered the questions with ease. notoriously difficult exam, where?
you walked alongside mash as you had worked on your paper at the same pace as him.
"i finished." he handed his paper to claude.
"here too." you shoved your paper in the professor's face.
'this rude brat!!' the thought was written all over his face, but you didn't catch on.
"you don't shove your finished papers into the professor's face." he glared at you. you only nodded, not exactly caring for things like that.
from that point on, mash had found numerous ways to overcome the magic-based tests, passing each and every one. you, on the other hand, had no trouble either.
you were considered a first-rate mage, after all. moreover, you were of the kairos family. a prestigious family known for their incomprehensibly resilient genes ─ producing multiple double and triple-liners throughout centuries without fail.
"this is your next test!" claude announced, flicking his wand as the ground shook once more.
a maze sprung up from the ground, thick walls paving paths within the labyrinth. claude stated that it was no ordinary maze; it was laced with traps through and through.
"you have 30 minutes! reach the goal by the time limit and you pass!"
unfortunately, you found yourself separated from mash. now, if you weren't on orders to make sure the mushroom-head's identity was safe, you would've warped to the exit by now. however, an order was an order and you learnt to obey them without question.
"guess i'll have to go on a hunt.." you mumbled.
your hand glided against the wall, it seemed to possess a high resistance to magic. but it was not immune, and that was all you needed to cast a rather high-scale spell.
the wall parted open for you. your gaze fell upon a light-blue haired boy. he was a double liner, both magic marks running down his right eye. his attention seemed to be on a locket he wore around his neck.
"are you just going to keep staring?" he spoke up, closing the locket with a click as he turned his attention to you.
"i kinda got separated from my friend." you scratched the back of your neck.
"that isn't my problem. get a move on or fail." he huffed, turning his back and making his way. out of spite, you wanted to follow him.
so you did.
he picked up his pace in attempts to loose you.
so you picked up your pace too.
soon he was sprinting, turning sharp corners left and right.
"hey, i wanna ask. why're we running?"
"and i wanna ask why you're following me?!"
he finally halted, abruptly turning back. you bumped into his chest before falling on your bottom.
"ow. well not really ow, but ow." you murmured under your breath.
"just because you strayed away from your little friend doesn't mean you get to follow the first person you see around like some lost puppy!" the light-blue haired boy glared at you.
you slumped, your mood deflating as you nodded an 'understood'.
he only stared at you in silence before his eyebrows slightly furrowed. his eyes narrowed at the magic mark on your face.
"oi. that mark..." he inched closer to you, taking a closer look at the mark that ran down your eye.
"are you from the kairos lineage?"
you remained silent. your gaze was devoid of warmth, only a cold stare into his eyes.
"(y/n)." you only said.
"what?"
"my name's (y/n). just (y/n)." you grounded your statement, turning your face away from him.
"are we doing introductions now? fine. i'm lance crown." he sighed, crossing his arms.
"oh, it's you? the eldest son that fled." you raised a brow. he only grunted, giving you a distasteful look.
"guess we both fled, then." you shrugged, sighing and momentarily closing your eyes.
"so you are from the kairos lineage. how ironic." he scoffed.
he was sure you fled for a reason entirely different from his, but he wouldn't push it. you wouldn't even dare introduce yourself as kairos.
"let's go. we've wasted enough time on petty introductions." lance mentioned, making his way around the maze.
"you're bringing me along?" although you did follow him around just to spite him, you expected him to just abandon you. then you would look for mash.
"what choice do you leave me with?" he hinted that you would've followed him even if he did leave you be on your own, which wasn't exactly true. but you appreciated the gesture, following behind the light-blue haired boy.
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you two were the first out of the maze. eventually, student after student started flooding the rendezvous point. you only grew increasingly uneasy as mash had not yet made his way out of the maze.
"are we allowed to go back, lance?" you questioned, lingering at the thought of finding mash within the maze and just warping him to the exit. unfortunately, due to his lack of magic, it would be hard to sense and locate him.
"no. you could get failed for tha─"
BOOM!
consecutive loud bangs cut lance off as they only grew louder from the distance. from sound alone, you realised that someone (or something) was busting through the thick walls of the maze. you picked up the magic energy of one, but it was too weak to even have a chance against such walls impervious to magic.
that's when it clicked; it was mash, making his appearance in the last minute with a grand entrance.
"he just marched straight through!!" a student outed him out.
"sounds like we made it." mash monotonously stated, unphased by the fact that he busted through multiple one metre thick walls.
you let out a single chuckle, not at the abnormality of the situation but at yourself. for a boy who managed to beat an officer of the bureau with pure physical strength alone, who were you to doubt such a guy?
"took you long enough, jeez." you muttered.
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ᶻ 𝗓 𐰁
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