Chapter 1
"Jin, why can't you be our history teacher instead of Mr. Lee? Your stories are never boring. Unlike his," said kid not older than ten or eleven years old. "Your stories are amazing!" Other kids around him - there were five of them, all about the same age - actively agreed by nodding and making noises. Jin looked at them lovingly, not even sure how to answer to that.
Their company looked interesting: Jin, a tall handsome man in his late 20s, was sitting on the steps of a tall five story building with two huge towers on top of it, holding a basket full of fresh groceries on his hands, surrounded by a small crowd of school kids, who were listening to him and sighing in ave.
It was a nice spring day and Jin was heading back home with some groceries he'd picked up himself at the fresh market - the maids would never buy the right ones - and was actually in a little hurry to get them right for time the manor's cook will start making dinner. But on his way he was held back rudely by a familiar company of six graders, chilling on their way home from school. And like every other time when the kids have chance to get hold of Jin, they just didn't miss it. He literally couldn't get away without telling a fascinating story about Cypherland. Not made up story, but the real one and - of course! - mind blowing. Something about powerful magicians from the past and wars between kingdoms.
Today's story was as thrilling as all the previous ones and had the same charming effect on kids - they immediately wanted him to be their cool history teacher.
"Jin, really, come to our school! You will be better than all of them! Yeah, you'll become.. The dean! Yes, in no time you'll be the dean!"kids were begging. "Pretty pretty please!"
Jin smiled widely, patted the brown skinned boy (the one who had just promoted him to dean) on the head and laughed softly at kids' disamusement with a respected professors who happen to fail to keep them excited about history.
"Well, kids, this is kind of.. impossible for me to become your teacher, you know".
"And why's that? Why's that?" a high-pitched disappointed choir followed.
"It's, umm, complicated. And also, I can't just leave Master Min alone, can I?"
A sudden loud voice from somewhere that seemed like manor's top window caught everyone's attention.
"Jin! Ji-i-in!"
"And that is" Jin nodded his head pointing to where the sound was coming from, "Is exactly what I'm talking about: seems like Master Min needs me about right now"
"Jinnie, right now!", a distant almost growl followed.
"No, Jin, don't go-o-o," one kid was trying to hang on Jin's arm as the latter tried to stand up, almost not managing to get balance and good hold of groceries.
"SEOKJIN!" Master Min's voice was now even louder.
"Yep, kids, gotta go. Please behave! See ya!"
Kids had nothing else to do but give up, accepting Master Min's authority over their beloved storyteller "Bye Seokjin! Take a good care of Master Min", they sighed.
Boys waved and shouted their goodbyes as Jin with groceries ascended up the stairs, rang the bell on a huge wooden door and waited till the doorman would open it before him. Before going in he turned to wave back to them one last time.
"Be sure to study well, kids!"
Then he disappeared behind the door that closed right after him with a loud bang. The door lead into The Northern Castle - home, workspace and personal fortress of Master Min, The King's First Magician also known as Yoongi.
After entering the castle, Jin faced a huge mess which was precisely Yoongi running around, as angry as he could be.
"He's up to something! He is definitely up to something! Something... Something... Really dirty!" Yoongi wasn't saying it directly to Jin as he was furiously going through his wardrobe. The statement was more of an abstract declaration of war. "And he's doing it get to my nerve. Yes, to get to my nerve AND to show off in front of the king. This is d i r t y".
Jin was looking at Yoongi patiently, having handed the groceries over to a maid who hurried to greet him and was looking genuinely scared of Master Min's passionate performance.
The fuzz that Yoongi was making wasn't really proportional to his size of a skinny 5,9 feet tall man, but probably big enough considering his status: The King's First Magician. He indeed was the first and, up until recently, only one. And that was exactly the issue.
"Why would Joon hire him? Was I not enough?" Yoongi kept on with his angry monolog, and also with searching the wardrobe which he was now simply emptying right on the floor. "Two King's Magicians?! There was nothing like this in the whole long history of Cypher Land ever since Cypher himself laid his divine foot on this very ground!"
Whatever Yoongi was looking for in the wardrobe still wasn't found.
"Taking this heiress scholar out of nowhere?" he went on. "Making up a title for him - The Second Magician? Putting him in The Southern Castle? Who does that?" At these words Yoongi hopelessly abandoned gutted out wardrobe and moved to another prey which was a dark brown wooden bureau.
"Min, calm down," Jin suggested calmly.
No reaction.
"How old is he? Fifteen?" Yoongi asked angrily.
"Min, come on".
"Or maybe twelve? This little smart-ass genius Jung-"
"Yoongi!" Jin had to cut him harsher now, because Yoongi's whining was unbearable at this point.
"-kook... What?"
Well, Jin has lost some of his patience too by then.
"What? First of all, The Crystal is in the upper drawer of the chest in the practice room, and second, cut the jealous crap and tell me what's going on exactly?"
Yoongi only got to open his mouth for answer but his words was silenced by the big loud bang from outside, that was followed by the echo of loud applause and cheering of a crowd.
Yoongi looked at Jin victoriously like his yet unspoken point had just been proven.
"T h i s is what's going on. And it's not just my jealousy, this is the disgrace to the court, he is a disgrace to the court!" Yoongi spat out venomously. "This little show off is out there right now trying to impress the plebiscite with some cheap magic tricks and I ain't letting him get away with that!"
"Come on, Min, let the boy have some fun".
"Oh yes, I will let him have fun! I sure will, right after I teach him some manners and show what fun exactly he is allowed to have, where, and when. Now get me my mantle and get yourself ready. We're going out there cause I feel like the class is about to start right now".
With these words Yoongi ran up the stairs and disappeared on the second floor.
Jin didn't like the idea of going out there at all, forecasting some nasty scene in front of the hungry for tea audience, but needless to say, Yoongi was unstoppable, so Jin had basically no choice at all at this point but to get ready and prepare for the blow. He walked into Yoongi's first floor office, took the black mantia with silver pin on it - the official outdoor uniform of honor of The King's First Magician. After doing that he went to the back door entrance that was already opened and revealed the view of the lackey outside preparing a two-horse cab for him and Master Min.
In a few minutes Yoongi himself was back on the first floor too, putting his mantle on hastily and not letting Jin help him. Next minute he was all settled in the cab, hurrying Jin to do just the same.
"South Mainson Square, Joo!" Master Min declared after both of them were seated in the cabin. "And please, do it fast. We need to get there before the show is over!"
It took them less than ten minutes to get to The South Mainson Square, partially because Yoongi's permanent demand to increase the speed, partially - because they took a shortcut which excluded the perspective to be seen driving past The Palace. As angry and out himself as Yoongi was, he still had sense of reason, understanding that another squarell between his two magicians was the last thing that King Namjoon needed to be worried about at that time.
As Min's cab approached the square, the concentration of people around was constantly increasing until it turned into a real loud crowd that formed a dense circle around the Statue of a Magician. However, the statue itself was not the center of crowd's attention, but the action that took place right at its feet.
Unfortunately Min's cab didn't yet get close enough to see what's going on behind the noisy crowd.
"Closer, Joo, closer, go through the crowd!"
"But Master Min, if I move the cab anymore I'll hurt the people!"
The cab was stuck inside of a cheering crowd. Almost no one was aware of who arrived there, though some shared suspicious glances noticing that the cab seemed quite royal, no one would move to make way for it though.
"Ughh, for Cypher's sake!" Yoongi growled and started to get out of the cab right into the human buzz, trying to disentangle his mantle along the way. When the magician finally succeeded, Jin went right after him and out of the cab, and followed the boss who strolled right through the crowd.
This definitely drew some attention to Yoongi's delegation. People who were elbowed by him recognized The King's First Magician immediately (for it was hard to not to), and the whispers "Master Min!" and "First Magician himself" rose around as him and Jin moved further.
Finally Min pushed through the circle of people and got to witness what it was all about. And oh, if he thought he had been angry before, then he was yet to discover what real anger is, after seeing what opened to his sight.
Indeed, the scene that revealed itself before Min's eyes was fascinating.
Jeon Jungkook, The King's Second Magician of Honor, a handsome black-haired young man in an all black long jacket and trousers, was standing under statue of a magician, holding something that looked like a water gun. The smell of smoke was all around.
"Imagine this, cypherlanders: we'll be able to see the fireworks in the daylight, as bright and colorful as they are seen at night!"
The croud cheered, and Jungkook continued."What you've seen now was just the beginning. Now let me show you the spell in full power. Trust me, this is gonna be the most beautiful thing you've ever seen!"
After saying this Jungkook aimed his probably not a water gun up in the air and started mouthing some sacred unknown words with his eyes closed. The crowd became silent and curious. Exept for Master Min.
"Stop that right now, Jungkook! This is not allowed"
People in the crowd felt at that moment that they will definitely get even more entertainment than what they originally came for.