A/N: I don't own Black Clover but am a huge fan of it and that's good enough for me.
Rain poured from the sky as a person walked across the bridge, the only person on foot in this weather. It didn't mean much to him, it had been raining all week and for the most part kept the sidewalks clear enough to get where he needed quicker.
The only issue he really had, and realistically so, with the weather is his torn clothing. Most everything he had on was worn down by time and use enough that the rain would go right through it, soaking him down to the bones. On top of the being soaked the less than cold wind only made it worse, leaving him shivering as he kept going.
Where was he even going? A question he had not yet answered, but kept going as if he knew. Really just finding a corner or someplace to not be directly in the rain was preferable. Hell he'd honestly get under the bridge if it wasn't above only water, the river held on both sides by high walls of cement. Food was another good idea for leading him where to go, since it has been a day since he has had any scraps.
As he continued across the bridge he was lost in this thought process, not seeing the car that lost control due to how slick the road was. this lost of control led the car to veer off and go right at the soaked person. In that moment right as it crashed into him did the teen take notice, and several types of panic ran through him as he was thrown over the side of the bridge. When he finally processed that he was ran over with a car he had already broke the surface of the river and sinking below.
A second later he pulled himself out of his stupor to try to swim up, not wanting to drown. Almost as if the river hated him an object he couldn't see, as he had his eyes still closed, fell on top of him and pushed him lower into the water.
The teen had new panic as he realized what fell on top of him, the car. Whoever had struck him also went over the side of the bridge. Under the car he sunk to the bottom of the river, too injured to be able to swim out from underneath the vehicle. Pressure hit his back as the teen realized he was now at the bottom of the river, pinned under the car. Ignoring the build-up of panic he began to attempt to push the car off of him, refusing to die here.
While he struggled to get out from under the car, the teen noticed the driver of the car, a man possibly in his thirties, manage to get out from inside the vehicle. Hope filled the teen as he thought the person could help him get free from his own situation, only for that hope to be lost as the person took one look at him and promptly swam up to the surface. The teen shook off that loss of hope and figure the man was simply catching his breath before coming back down. So in the meantime he returned to trying to free himself.
His lungs started to burn as he was on the last bit of oxygen he had in his lungs, and he still kept trying to push the car off of him. He looked up and hoped to see the man coming back down, and saw no one. The man had left the river, full well knowing he had inadvertently pinned a kid underneath his car.
He was left to die.
More panic and tears filled his eyes as the teen pushed as hard as he could, trying to give himself room to wiggle out from underneath the car. He couldn't die here! He couldn't die being a meaningless existence! Anger at his being abandoned, and panic over his pathetic and short life being at the end, were the last feelings he had as the burning in his lungs stopped burning. As he felt nothing and saw nothing anymore.
The feeling of water was the first thing to come to the teen's mind as he became aware of himself. After that was the sound of the waves as they calmly went up and down the sand, the teen being halfway in the area of the waves. His eyes opened to see a bright sun and a sky with only a handful of clouds spread about the vast blue. He didn't try to sit up, not wanting to test his undoubtedly broken bones and ruptured organs. That car had hit him more than what could be called soft.
Wait.
The teen paused his thoughts as he chained together the events of what. First he was walking across the bridge, then ran over by the car. After that he was pinned under water by the car, and that jerk of a driver abandoned him to die. Then he blacked out, still under the car.
So why was he on a beach?
"Hey!" A feminine voice broke his thinking as a voice called out and he heard footsteps approaching him, from farther up the beach above his head. "What happened?"
Instead of trying to verbally respond the teen thought to first try to get to a sitting position, regardless of his injuries he didn't feel like lying there getting looked down on. Attempting to sit up and preparing for feelings of great pain from the action he was surprised to feel no pain, no aching organs or inactive and stabbing of broken bones to indicate he had been hit by a car. Looking down at his clothing gave the same results, his apparel looking as disheveled and torn as usual, and not covered in blood or anything rips that could provide proof of the injuries he got from the car hitting him. It was almost as if the event hadn't happened.
"Hey idiot!" The feminine voice spoke again and made the teen return focus to that, not the oddity of his uninjured body. "I asked what happened."
Looking at her before speaking, the teen gained his own questions for her that he wouldn't ask. His questions lied in her own apparel.
The feminine voice belonged to a tall, woman with brown skin, green eyes and short, ruffled black hair. Her apparel that was questioned was a white tube top that exposed a decent amount of her cleavage and midriff, as well as white arm warmers that cover her elbows. She also had white shorts, along with white detached pants that reach slightly past her knees, and white shoes. On top of her shirt she had a blue robe, held together by a gold pendant of a rose that dropped down to her lower biceps. If he had to guess, the teen assumed she was just a year or two older than him.
The woman gave him an annoyed look, especially given how she noticed his confused look at her sense of clothing. "Answer my question nitwit!"
"Where am I?" He asked his own question.
"Answer my question first!"
Deciding it was best to not annoy the lady who was already annoyed enough he answered. "I fell into a river, then woke up here." Of course what didn't make sense was how he fell into a river in the middle of a city, in the Midwest. At least half a state away from any beach.
The lady gave him a flat expression. "You fell into a river..."
"I got ran over by a car." He defended himself.
"The hell is a car?"
"How do you not know what a car is?" It was his turn to show a flat expression.
"Don't act like I am the idiot here!"
Instead of responding to that, the teen asked his earlier question. "Where am I?"
"Way too close to the border with the Diamond kingdom."
"The what kingdom?"
As if she couldn't already be looking at him like he was the stupidest person she has encountered, the look only grew. "Are you serious?"
"I have never heard of any Diamond Kingdom close to Crestwood."
"Crestwood? There is nowhere near here named Crestwood."
The two silently stared at each other for a few seconds while confusion ran through them. The silence was broken when the teen asked himself a question out loud.
"How far did I float down that river?"
The girl looked down the beach into the ocean. "So... you're not actually from here?"
"Where is here?" He asked as he stood up.
The teen was immediately put on his back by a giant arm made of dirt while the girl hard her arm pointed at him, with a glowing book floating next to her. "The Clover Kingdom."
"What the hell?!" His confusion was not so much that he was pushed back onto the ground by a giant arm, yes it was confusing, but the fact that this girl seemingly created that arm by pointing at him.
"I am supposed to be here guarding the border with Diamond due to a rumor of infiltration. I severely doubt even you think this terrible plan would've worked."
"This isn't some dumb trick!"
"Right, because you can hide your mana completely, something pretty much no one is capable of, and just end up right on the border to be found as a washed up foreigner." The dirt arm pushed him farther into the sand.
"What the hell is mana?!"
"Stop playing stupid! I already know your plan and stopped it."
"There was no plan, idiot!"
"No one from Diamond is getting past me."
"Oh? Is that so?" A third voice cut in at that moment, as a boulder flew through the air and crashed into the girl. The impact made her lose focus and release the teen.
He looked behind him to see who just attacked the girl and saw a perhaps mid twenties man with pale skin and brown hair with matching eyes. He had a gray robe covering everything down to his feet, but his arms were outstretched and he had a glowing book floating next him, with the same brown glow as the girl's did.
"I wouldn't have interrupted this good opportunity to waltz on by, but to accuse some bottom of the barrel filth with no mana of being from Diamond? And then assume we'd make such a stupid plan like that? I took offense and decided to set you straight young lady." His book began to turn pages on its own, and then stopped on one. "Earth Magic: Earthen Army."
To the teen's complete shock, ten forms rose from the sand, made out of hard rock and in the shape of men. Before they were even fully emerged they moved towards the girl, who only had an annoyed look.
"Earth Magic: Rampaging Mother Earth!" Her book had flown to a page and she said those words and suddenly the ground below her gave way to a giant form that she stood near the top of. It was a giant being made of rock with glowing eyes and the girl standing proudly on its shoulder.
The teen didn't know how to react to this situation completely. Magic was a thing that apparently used wherever in the world this clover and diamond kingdom were. Part of him wanted to not do anything but at the same time his mind focused on that guy's words.
Some bottom of the barrel filth with no mana.
It aggravated him to be called filth and that anger led his next set of actions.
"You attack like a brute." The man called out to the girl as her rock giant smashed another one of the guy's rock soldiers. The smashed soldiers kept pulling themselves back together slowly after she broke them.
"I don't want to hear some meathead try to call me a brute." The girl broke another soldier.
"Me?! The meathead here? I'd laugh if you tried harder with your jokes." The man waved his hand and made more rock people form.
"If I tried harder I doubt you'd understand." The girl retorted as her golem continued to break down the numbers of the man's animated forces.
"Surely you see I-"
A cracking sound stopped his sentence and also made his earthen soldiers drop to the sand. The girl looked at the guy in confusion only to see the teen she had accused of being a member of Diamond. He was holding a decently sized rock in hand, which been used on the Diamond kingdom's mage's head.
The teen had an angry look as he held the rock over the guy's head. "Call me filth again and there'll be more than a concussion!"
The girl held an odd look of surprise at the diamond mage being caught off guard. She hopped off of her rock giant and stepped up to the knocked out mage from Diamond. "I didn't need your help." She shot at the teen.
"I wasn't doing that to help you." He shot back.
"Good because I didn't need it anyways." She stated dryly as she grabbed the book that belonged to the unconscious man. "I still don't trust you." She stood back up and as soon as she did a ball of condensed wind ripped through the teen's right shoulder, as well as her own left shoulder. Both of them fell over, while clapping was heard behind them.
"Marvelous..." The teen turned to see the speaker, and person slowly clapping, to be an aged man who had the same outfit as the unconscious person. He held a disgusted look in the direction of the three grounded people. He also had a floating/glowing book and this one had a lime green glow. Behind him was another person similar apparel who had a book that glowed red. "To think that a lowly mana-less abomination could defeat you in one hit Hedri, pathetic."
"Mud Wall Partition!" The girl yelled as rock erupted up and down the beach in a wall, cutting off sight between her and everyone else.
"Let's kill the girl, she has some fight left and I prefer this to be a fixed situation as soon as possible." The man with the green glowing book didn't even cast a look in the direction of the teen, ignoring him since he hadn't moved since being hit.
"Rampaging Mother Earth." The girl spoke and made another towering golem come from the ground, not wasting a second before it climbed over the wall and rushed at the diamond mage.
"Wind Magic: Wind Bullet." The man shot another ball of condensed wind at the golem, blasting a chunk of its torso off as it continued to charge him. The man tried to back up only for another wall to rise up from the ground behind him and get in the man's way. He looked at the golem and his position and used his wind to fly up, avoiding a fist of rock that collided with where he previously stood. As he shot up through the air he saw something in the side of his eye, turning to it he gained shock at not noticing the threat that had somehow gotten this close without being sensed.
Before the girl could make sure her wall helped her golem smack that wind mage she got distracted by the third member of the group, who had gotten to her side of the wall.
"Fire Magic: Hellfire burst!" The mage cast a spell without hesitation, a burst of flames shooting towards the girl.
She reacted by making another mudwall partition. "I hope you already beat that wind dumbass." She spoke about her golem as she repeated the spell and created another golem who wasted no time in rushing over the wall to fight the flame mage. The girl cursed as she tried to stand up, the pain in her shoulder reminding her that she was injured. She cupped the wound and cursed again, at herself for not knowing recovery magic. She quickly moved to get over the wall, the rock wall moving to firm steps for her along the side. Once at the top she saw both of her golems, making her assume the wind mage was defeated, attacking the fire mage.
"Hell's claw!" The mage announced his spell as a massive clawed hand made of flames swiped at both the golems, who crumbled apart from the attack. The mage turned to look at the wounded girl. "You annoy me."
The girl gained a cocky grin. "Rampaging Mother Earth." She created another golem and planned her next step, only for the plan to be thrown out the window as the guy disappeared from in front of her golem.
"It's over." The mage spoke from behind her and the girl had no time to react, only able to turn to the side and try too late to use a spell as the man prepared to use his last spell on her.
That single split second felt slow as she cursed herself for losing to a guy like this, but on that same breath saw a figure appear behind the mage, who felt the presence himself at that second. In a repeat of the girl's situation the man had no time to react past turning just enough to see who had gotten the drop on him.
"Wha-" The fire mage was cut off as the teen impaled a sharp rock into his neck and pushed it far in, leaving the mage's last words as one of confusion.
The girl had surprise as she saw the fire mage drop dead, which wasn't the surprise to her. the surprise was this teen. The idiot who was just found on the beach somehow got the drop on two separate mages from Diamond and took them both down fast, with no mana at all.
The teen dropped to a knee, all his energy being used in leaping up the wall to stab that man. He held his stomach where he had a large slash. "Are you okay?" He looked up at the girl.
"I didn't need your help!" Was her response. "I was just about to use a spell to counter his."
"I didn't ask about your fight, I asked about your health."
"It's not your concern so shut up."
The teen gained a flat expression as he sat down completely. he didn't have the energy to argue. "I wounded that other guy. The one with the green book. He disappeared and I don't know where he went."
"How did you sneak up on any of these people?"
"They focused on you."
"Even still, it's not hard to sense ma- oh. Your lack of mana." That made sense now, the only reason they didn't focus on him was because they couldn't sense him because he had literally no mana to sense. They'd have to see him to know where he was.
He took a breath before asking. "Mana is what you people used to do all this?" He waved a hand to the beach.
"So you actually aren't from around here?"
"I said that already." The teen didn't hide his annoyance with those words. The two didn't speak for the next few seconds as they both didn't know what to do.
"SOL!" Another voice broke the silence as two people dropped from the sky next to them.
The two people were one girl that appeared to be just older than the teen, with her having brunette hair and green eyes, and the other was a plump blonde woman perhaps just in her early twenties. The first thing the teen noticed really were that the two had the same blue robe with rose pendant that the Sol girl had.
The now identified Sol sighed in relief as the two girls checked on her. "That info was right, some diamond brutes tried to cross the border here. I put them in their place."
The teen didn't even try to cut in that really he had taken down all three, he only groaned in pain, letting the two other people know he was there as a result.
The blonde looked at him. "Is he one of them?"
"This punk? No." Sol scoffed, gaining a dirty look from the so-called punk.
"Selena use recovery magic while I get use to Kiten, we should report this to Miss Charlotte." The blonde stated.
The brunette, now known as Selena, turned to the teen and pointed her hands at either Sol or him, a book she had in a pouch on her hip floated out and glowed blue. "Water Magic: Aqua bubble." Water sprouted out of thin air and shot at Sol's shoulder and the teen's own shoulder, before forming a bubble on their wounds and slowly but surely healing those wounds. A second use of the spell was used to on the teen's stomach.
He looked at the water at work and then back at Selena in shock. "How is this happening?" He apparently chose that as the time to question what all these people with floating books were doing.
"You really aren't from here?" Selena asked, and the teen shook his head in response.
"It's magic." The blonde lady answered. "I'm Puli Angel, this is Selena," when she pointed to Selena the girl gave the teen a smile. "And this is Sol."
The teen nodded to show understanding and then said his name. "I'm Wilhelm."
"Well let's get to Kiten, and then hear what happened here. Miss Charlotte should speak to Wilhelm as well, she'd know what to do about his situation." Puli pulled out her own book, one that glowed pink. "Wing Magic: Angel Wings."
Wilhelm watched as feathers appeared in front of Puli in a vast amount and flew around the four of them and formed wings on their backs, which lifted them off the ground.
"Wait what about those people?" Wilhelm pointed to the two diamond mages. He shifted his gesture to the one who used Earth magic. "That one is still alive."
"That one?" Selena repeated the statement.
"I stabbed the other in the neck. There was a third but he ran away." Wilhelm replied.
"We take this one then." Puli didn't question his sentence as she made wings grab the earth mage from Diamond and bring the unconscious person along to Kiten. "We can send someone to handle the rest of this."
"You stabbed him?" Selena repeated his statement again. She had slight shock at hearing a magic-less foreigner managed to get the drop on and deal such a blow to a mage who caused damage to her ally.
"He focused on her and I saw the opportunity." The teen showed no qualms with his actions.
"I didn't want or need the help from him." Sol chimed in.
After flying at high speeds for a few minutes they arrived at Kiten, a decently sized town with a massive wall around it that had towers along its length.
Puli placed everyone in the town square, where multiple people stopped to look at them. Wilhelm heard words like Blue Roses and magic knights but didn't focus on that, he really didn't focus on anything but his earlier thoughts. How it made no sense for him to somehow wash up on a beach on an unheard of continent when he was in the middle of a city far from any ocean when he fell in the river.
So how? How did he end up here? Especially in a place where magic was a thing?
He kept thinking to himself as he followed Puli, so far his favorite of these three ladies as she was straight to the point and wasn't A.) Being utterly annoying about his existence like Sol, and B.) Wasn't giving him odd looks like Selena. The second part wasn't nearly as bad as the prior point but after a lifetime of scornful looks he was sour with even plain odd looks.
"So... what land are you from?" Selena asked as they walked towards a building close to the square, which had a blue flag posted above the door with a tracing of the same rose the three ladies had on their robes.
Wilhelm gave no response, since he didn't want to talk about a place he never liked to begin with. His lack of response made Selena give a sigh and Sol whack him on the back of his head, which made him turn to the girl and scowl.
"Answer a lady when she responds to you!" Sol scolded the teen.
"Sol, don't hit the kid." Puli lectured. "Magic Knights protect the civilians, not attack them."
Sol muttered some words and instead of testing if the girl would hit him again Wilhelm looked at Selena. "I don't want to talk about that place. It wasn't my home."
Selena felt bad for the situation and waved her arms. "I'm sorry... I just thought some conversation may lighten how jarring the whole situation is." Those were the last words said before they entered the building, Sol moving past Wilhelm to enter before him, to no surprise to the teen who had moved out of the way.
"Sis!" Sol said as she crossed tables to the other side of the hall where a few more people, all women, had on the same blue robe.
"Sol I told you not to call me that." A woman corrected Sol.
Wilhelm took one look at the woman and assumed she must've been Miss Charlotte. She had on the same robe as the others but a cape of the same color, as well as several pieces of armor. If Wilhelm had to guess any of them as the leader it would be her, especially with the air of calm she seemed to give off.
"Right! Sis, the info was right. Diamond mages did try to cross the border but I dealt with them. One ended up running back to Diamond Kingdom though."
Charlotte nodded and then noticed Wilhelm and the unconscious mage. "I take it these are the other two?" She doubted the standing one was any sort of mage, she felt no mana coming from him whatsoever, but why else would he be brought along.
"This is actually Wilhelm," Puli introduced the teen. "He is from a different continent and washed ashore right near the encounter. He got involved and defeated this guy here," Puli indicated to the still unconscious mage. "I believed it best to console you on procedure with this situation."
"Just to clear it up I didn't need his help." Sol had to add in, which finally annoyed Wilhelm enough for him to comment again.
"Oh bullshit!" Wilhelm cursed, making half the people do a double take. "That guy with the flames would have cut you in half if I didn't kill him!"
"I had that completely handled!" Sol showed more offense now than prior with Wilhelm claiming to save her from a mage
"He had you caught off guard and I saved your ass! Show a little fuc-"
Before the two teens, who were actually previously moving at each other, could do anything more or say anything else, vines had shot over from Charlotte and wrapped up both of them, especially covering their mouths.
"E-nough." Charlotte said sternly. "I will not have a foreigner act so rudely towards my squad, nor would I have any squad member pick fights with people." The cold look she gave made both of them completely stop.
Wilhelm was not going to test the lady who had vines wrapped around him and showed no signs of struggling, prompting the lady to release him and Sol, who did the same as Wilhelm.
Before Charlotte spoke again she waited a second. "There is no real procedure for foreigners who end up on on the continent, as only one person before has ever ended up in this situation." She was not going to think about how this foul-mouthed kid already seemed familiar to that man. "I will make mention of your appearance to the Wizard King but for now you stay here in Kiten."
"So I can leave this conversation?" Wilhelm tried his best, honestly half-assed best, to not sound rude about it, but if he was honest he wanted to not be pulled from situation to situation by all these people. He wanted just a moment to be able to figure everything out. "I have to think about things."
"Stay in the town." Charlotte didn't argue with him on that at all, but left the rule.
Ten minutes later Wilhelm was sitting on a bench in the town square. He ignored everyone who gave him odd looks, especially since he knew it was about his clothing, which stood out in two separate ways. The jeans and green tee-shirt, with a windbreaker was a definite style several steps away from all of these people, who had clothing closer to medieval or fantasy type styles than Wilhelm's own modern clothing. Plus the tears across his clothes from living on the streets to the encounter with mages also worsened their condition.
He ignored worrying about his clothes and thought to the river. He remembered very vividly drowning under that car. He could still remember the burning in his lungs and across his body from the lack of oxygen. He definitely drowned. There was no denying that he had drowned and died.
Except he was here now.
That deterred his belief of his actually dying, he wouldn't be alive if he died, that's common sense that even he could understand. So obviously he didn't die. Except nothing else made sense for that situation. He was abandoned under the water by that man and was crushed by the car. No way could they have gotten that vehicle off of him quick enough before his lungs filled with water and he passed away, which he remembered happening, so clearly he drowned. However he can't be alive if he drowned so the most logical reason didn't add up.
What if he had died, but reincarnation is a thing and brought him back? As if his desperation to not have his life end how it did made the universe give him a second chance in this world? After all he had to deal with in the previous life could fate be giving him a sympathetic restart? Which means he did die, if this is what he accepts. That he died abandoned and alone, without anyone in the world even giving a second thought to him in that life.
"Hello." A chirpy voice broke his thoughts and made Wilhelm turn and see that Selena had sat next to him. "Sorry about earlier, Sol is sometimes a handful."
"She wasn't the worst part of today."
"I saw the damage, those Diamond Mages did a number on you guys."
"I didn't mea- yea they did. It's not like that mattered though, your magic got rid of the evidence."
Selena gave a smile to the compliment. "Thanks, I have been working on my recovery magic."
"How does magic even work?" Wilhelm asked what he deemed probably the most important question of the day. "Back where I am from it is a thought of process, but no one has any there."
"Oh. Um..." Selena drew a blank. "Sorry I haven't been asked this before. We can actually get some books from the library down that street to help explain it." She pointed down the street.
"That may actually help." Wilhelm stood up and followed Selena as she went down the path. "Wait, why are you helping me?" He wasn't exactly likable.
"I mean... Don't you need help?" Selena asked and unlike Wilhelm made it not sound rude. "I would be completely lost on my own in a different land."
"But why?"
"I'm a magic knight, we're meant to help people. It's a reason I became one."
"Is that what the robe is for?"
"Yep, each squad has their own robe that shows they are a magic knight. There's our squad, the Blue Roses, then the Golden Dawn, Silver Eagles, Crimson Lions, Coral Peacocks, Green Mantises, Purple Orcas, Aqua Deer and Black Bulls." Selena listed off the squads.
Wilhelm nodded. "Back to magic, I was called mana-less earlier. Is that needed for magic?"
"Mana, yes. Magic is what is our spells. Mana is the energy that is used for magic."
"So my lack of mana means... I can't do magic?" Wilhelm asked as he opened the door to the library in the town.
Selena waved her arms in objection. "No-no! It's possible still. Remember how Miss Charlotte said there was another foreigner like you? He was able to retrieve a grimoire and had mana and magic, despite being from really far away."
"So the grimoire, I assume its the books you all have?"
At that the girl pulled out her grimoire, a blue book with gray circles starting at a three-leafed clover in the middle of the cover and going outward, like ripples in water. "We all get a grimoire when we turn 15 and go to the grimoire towers."
"Are you just handed them?" Wilhelm had confusion over thinking that these books were passed out at random. Could people just swap them then?
"Oh no, actually we... kinda stand there and the books choose us. You can't use any grimoire but the one connected to your soul, and it comes to you in the tower."
Wilhelm thought for a second as he followed Selena, who was grabbing a few books from the shelves as they walked. "So if I go to the tower I may get a grimoire and then my mana will come?"
"Yep, and then if you train... the Magic Knight Selections are six months from now in April."
"A test to become a magic knight?" As Wilhelm asked that they sat at a table.
"If you want. It's not necessary but if you ask me, you would make a good one." She turned slightly red when Wilhelm gave her a look of confusion. "It's just... the way you managed to fight those mages from the Diamon Kingdom despite having no mana yet was... cool. I think even Sol would admit that if she didn't have her pride."
It was the first time someone had said something about Wilhelm that wasn't calling him filth, trash, or threatening to beat him for stealing food to eat. Wilhelm didn't know how to respond so he turned back to the books. "So at this selection, I assume that the squads pick who they want, instead of someone who passes getting to put themselves in whichever they want?"
"Mmhmm. The squad captains choose who they want, but if multiple squads want the same person than they get to choose which squad they go into."
"And all of this is based on my getting my grimoire and using my mana good right?" Wilhelm asked as he skimmed a book.
"So are you thinking of becoming a magic knight for real?"
"I owe you for healing me I guess. I can turn around and heal someone else to pass on the help."
Selena gained a smile, happy to see Wilhelm as more positive, even if just as rough, than when when she first saw him.
Wilhelm however was looking at the book, which had been about the magic knights. He had been on a page about the ranks and saw something that made him set his sights on it. A role that is one of a kind, only held by one person in a generation, someone of great significance that would no doubt be written down in history as someone who mattered.
The Magic Emperor.
A role anyone can obtain if enough effort is put in. All Wilhelm needed was his grimoire and mana, and then he would be on that path to be as far as possible from his previous life. The universe had given him this second chance and he wouldn't waste it at all.
Wilhelm turned to Selena. "So where do I go to get my grimoire. You said a tower right?"
"Yep, there's a tower here in Kiten but it's not really public. They open the doors tomorrow though because there is a ceremony, it happens once every few months and anyone over the age of fifteen can go there." Selena answered.
"I turned fifteen in July. So tomorrow I can get my grimoire, and my mana, and then work to becoming a Magic Knight?" Wilhelm repeated the steps.
"Yep!" Selena gained some of Wilhelm's enthusiasm.
That was all Wilhelm needed to hear, as he looked at all the books and got ready to read as much as he can before the next day, the first day of his path towards no longer being meaningless.
The next day couldn't have come quicker, Wilhelm finally being excited for something in his life making it an entire new experience altogether.
The night before he had been given a room at an Inn and dinner and breakfast, something Wilhelm was happy to receive but his main focus was kept on the grimoire. Wilhelm had even spent part of the previous day poorly stitching the large hole in his shirt closed. The Innkeeper told the teen which direction the tower was in and Wilhelm was on his way.
On the way to the tower Wilhelm saw other people all going there and it made him feel all the more nervous and excited at the same time. He was actually a part of something this time, not someone thrown outside and left to himself. The curiosity of what his magic could be grew even more with every step.
"Hey Wilhelm!" The voice of Selena gained his attention and Wilhelm turned to the girl as she approached him.
"Hello."
"I admit I got curious to see what your magic was after yesterday." Selena started as she got in pace with the teen. "It's not really often that a foreigner is here." She then turned red. "I hope that didn't sound rude."
"It wasn't... Shouldn't you be with your squad though? Or will that Sol hit me for questioning what you do?"
Selena gave a laugh at that. "No, Sol doesn't normally hit people."
"It's because I hurt her pride wasn't it?"
"I wouldn't... Yea it was her pride." The girl changed course on her statement. "She doesn't really think highly of guys in general. It definitely stung that you were the one who saved her, especially considering you haven't gotten your mana yet."
"I'll try to let her fight her own battles next time."
"I think she wants her next battle to be against you."
Wilhelm stopped and looked at her. "What?"
"She halfway couldn't stop fuming about you yesterday, especially for the arguing in front of Miss Charlotte. She actually wanted me to tell her what magic you got so she can prepare for a match."
Wilhelm's only response was a hmm sound as they entered the tower.
To Wilhelm the next few minutes went by in a blur, his mind not focusing on the people around him or even Selena, who had amusement at seeing Wilhelm's amazement of the insides of the tower. Encircling the tower's insides were shelves lining all the walls all the way up to the top of the tower, all filled with books that were grimoires. He looked at all of the books and was hoping to see a twitch or movement of any kind from a book that chose him. Wilhelm didn't even really pay attention to the person who spoke to everyone. His words registered with Wilhelm but they just weren't important to him until he heard about the grimoires doing anything.
"Anyways... Let me get to why you kids have come here." The aged watchman of the tower spoke as he raised his arms. "The awarding of the grimoires!"
At that moment multiple books lit up from spots on the shelves, in a variety of colors, and flew off the shelves and directly to their owners. All of the young people showed enthusiasm and glee as they grabbed their books, all sharing the three leaf clover on the cover's center. Everyone spoke amongst themselves with excitement as they got their grimoires, and soon the ceremony stopped, no more grimoires coming off the shelves, everyone getting their books.
All except for Wilhelm.
It got quiet as everyone noticed the foreign teen who stood in the middle of the tower, with no grimoire. He kept his gaze right at the top of the tower, not moving to make this feel any more real of a situation. That he was cheated by fate of yet another chance to be anything more than meaningless. He heard snickering and comments from the crowd and refused to react, not moving in the hope that a grimoire would show itself as his, that fate wasn't screwing him again.
At that moment a sound was heard, the overall silence letting everyone hear it as a book, from the highest shelf of the tower, fell down and crashed to the ground, no floating or glowing light to it, right in front of Wilhelm. No one spoke as he picked it up and held it.
Wilhelm's grimoire was a dark green in color, with gray lining the spine and the only thing on his cover being the three-leafed clover. No tracings or ornaments like everyone else. His book was plain. Wilhelm didn't even feel any mana or something new to feel like he got magic from this either. It felt like Wilhelm picked up any random regular book off of the ground.
At that moment someone started laughing, and then a few joined them, and then half of the tower was laughing at Wilhelm.
"His book just dropped to the ground!"
"How did he even get a grimoire with no mana!"
"That fits the mana-less foreigner!"
More and more jokes and insults were thrown, and Wilhelm only stood there, looking at his book.
Was this a joke? Did fate really bring him back to life after giving him one of the worst existences, only to mock him even more? Was that all there was to his life, for fate to just toy with him and make him live the most pitiful, meaningless life?
His thoughts pulled to them river, where he was thrown under a car and left to drown, even the jerk who caused the situation left him to die. All he had in that moment was his desire to matter, to not be this filth on the ground that everyone kicked around and laughed at. He clenched the book as his anger rose.
"SHUT UP!" The teen's voice made there be silence among everyone else. He looked up and his slightly red eyes looked at everyone. "I am going to become more than this! I am becoming the Magic Emperor!" He made that vow right then and there officially. He wouldn't let the universe and fate keep pushing him around anymore. He was going to force a change with everything he had.
After his declaration was made the tower's occupants were silent for a few seconds, before all the people who were laughing earlier as well as even more, began to laugh harder, and all the mockery began again. The foreign teen's eyes gained just enough liquid to not be noticed by anyone as his scowl worsened and he made for the door.
Selena didn't say anything as Wilhelm moved past her, not sure how to speak. She did however try to grab his arm to try to comfort her new friend but she missed his arm, watching as he stormed out of the tower, the doors slamming behind him with a loud crash.
That is how the story of one of the greatest mages began.
A/N: That is the end of chapter one, hopefully y'all liked it because I plan on updating this story around every Sunday.
Wilhelm's magic is something I had some fun planning, and there's a blatant hint as to what his magic is. If you must ask, it's in the title.
I'll answer reviews down here every week, or in PPM's if you all have questions or things that are better/preferable to answer there.
As I say at the bottom of every chapter, I have a discord server with the link in my Bio.
Hope you enjoyed this chapter, let me know how it was and have a good day!