Chapter 2
The Entrance Ceremony
Dragon Sage Shinkirou was a young man in his early twenties. He has a long messy black hair and a sharp venomous pair of slit pupiled eyes. Even though he was young, he had a built of a full grown adult. Shinkirou donned a plain grey shirt and trousers, a cloth waistguard consisting of three long pieces of cloth, each had a symbol of a dragon head engraved on it. Covering most of his body was a long black cape reaching down to his feet, which also had the dragon head motif located on the left shoulder. The only thing that was fancy with his dressing was the shiny black metal gauntlets and boots he wore on his hands and feet.
Another two things that never left his side other than his cloth, was the two katanas; curved, slender, single-edged swords originated from the eastern land of Ryukyu, which he carried on his waist. One had a crimson red scabbard while the other on had a laquered black scabbard.
As his title went, Shinkirou was one of the Dragon Sages, a mysterious group of seven powerful Magisters that sustained the Laws of Magic in Darmenia. Most Dragon Sages have their identities and past backgrounds remained secret, a few of them never even revealed themselves in public. It was also unknown to the world of who their master, the Dragon King was. Rumors said that the Dragon King himself, or itself, was actually a true, living dragon, a huge reptilian creature with outstanding strength. Some also said that the Dragon King was a god-like being who bestowed the Dragon Sages their powerful magic, some even said that the Dragon King created the Dragon Sages himself.
Every one of the three Magister Academies have their own Dragon Sage, who acted as the right-hand and advisor of the Archmagisters, making their title as high as the Grand Magisters. Even the Centurion military force have their own Dragon Sage, Dragon Sage Celestine, whose also the commander of the Centurion 2nd Fleet.
Some people admired the Dragon Sages and looked up to them as heroes. But for Tasia, they were like monsters that mothers told their children before bedtime.
As Dragon Sage Shinkirou was pacing towards the podium, his clunking footsteps were accompanied by gasps and awes of the female students and mutters and sneering from the male students. Nearly all of the girls adored Shinkirou because of his cold expression and cold personality.
"I will never understand why do they love him so much." Tasia sighed.
Sakura chuckled. "Well, he is pretty handsome if you ask me. Sadly for them, he doesn't seem to show interests in any of them."
"I don't think he has interest in anything." Tasia added.
Upon arriving in front of the podium, Shinkirou gave a slight bow to Archmagister Gadiell.
"My apologies for being late, Archmagister." he said in a calm, expressionless voice.
Archmagister Gadiell waved his hand dismissively. "Take your seat, Master Shinkirou."
Without another word, Dragon Sage Shinkirou proceeded to climb up the podium and seated himself on the only empty armchair, right next to Grand Magister Sting.
As all the seats in the Hall have been filled, Archmagister Gadiell rose up from his throne-like armchair. He spreaded his arms towards the crowd of students and began his speech.
"I welcome you all, fellow Magisters of Darmenia."
As Archmagister Gadiell proceeded to his welcoming speech, Grand Magister Sting turned to Shinkirou.
"You're kinda late, Roro." Sting addressed Shinkirou with the nickname that the Grand Magister himself had given. "I haven't seen you since this morning. Where were you though?"
"I was..." Shinkirou paused for a while, and resumed, "...sleeping." he could guess that Sting must've sensed the bluff under his tone.
"Uh-huh. Forgot to set the alarm clock, or you were just drunk last night?" Sting went to take a long sniff on Shinkirou's black cape. He then moved away and shook his head. "Guess not. Smell pretty sober to me."
Five years ago, when Shinkirou was assigned as the Dragon Sage of Gathaspa Academy by Dragon King Bahamut, Sting, who was also recently assigned as the Academy's new Grand Magister, was the first person who had approached Shinkirou and tried to befriend him. At first, Shinkirou had avoided him, as he was not interested in having the happy-go-lucky guy as a friend.
But Sting wasn't a man who would give up so easily. On the following day, Sting had challenged Shinkirou to a Duel in order to persuade the Dragon Sage to go out and drink with him. Although he was still twenty-seven at that time, Sting was still one the strongest Magisters Shinkirou has ever fought against.
Their battles lasted for almost half a day; their equally immense strength would have turned the whole Coliseum into ruins if the judge had not called the battle to an end. Their fight had ended with a draw, but Shinkirou, in respect of Sting's determination and power, had accepted his offer and went out for a drink with him that night. It was during the same evening that Shinkirou received the nickname 'Roro' by Sting. He never found the nickname amusing, and regularly reminded Sting not to call him by that name. Yet, Sting never stopped calling him that, but strangely he never called Shinkirou with his nickname in front of the public.
Shinkirou was never grateful, nor was he upset of having Sting as his only friend here. Sting had considered him as a friend, but he only befriended Sting out of respect and honour for the Grand Magister's strength. He never wanted, and never needed any friends, as the emotions had towards everyone around him were only emptiness. Hollow and blank. Not a slight love or hatred inside his heart.
"Anyway, this year's new intakes seem a lot more than last year, don't you think?" Sting asked as he turned to gaze the crowd if students below him.
Shinkirou followed Sting's gaze. He saw that the first three rows of seats from both the male and female sides were completely filled with more than a hundred of new students, their ages probably ranged from fourteen to sixteen. Observing the new batch of Young Magisters closely, Shinkirou noticed some of them had nervousness registered on their faces, while some even sported proud and egoistic expressions.
Then Shinkirou's attention was drawn towards a female Young Magister, who sat quietly among the bunch of new girl students. She looked like an oddball inside the crowd of female Young Magisters, as of all the students in the Academy, her long straight hair was the only one that was dyed in bright purple. Judging from her petite, yet slender body size and her position as a new student, the girl was probably fourteen or fifteen years old. While the rest of the students had their attention fixed to Archmagister Gadiell, the girl's eyes were looking down on her feet, her face showing passiveness and timidity.
In a strange way, his instincts seemed to find the girl rather unusual, and it was not because of her strange hair colour. Shinkirou could not guess what it was. A corner of his mind whispered to him, telling him that there was something familiar about this young girl. Then suddenly, her dark purple eyes moved up from the floor and locked themselves with Shinkirou's.
Then a strange sensation shot past Shinkirou's head like a bullet. The magical energy within him started to vibrate under the strange presence. Shinkirou's skin slightly twitched. This is the first time in years since he had felt like this. The strong presence of an evil aura.
"What's wrong, Roro?" Sting asked, noticing the troubled look on Shinkirou's face.
Shinkirou slowly shook his head. "It's nothing. It's just a little headache. I'm fine." He bluffed to the Grand Magister.
Without further question, Sting returned his attention to Archmagister Gadiell.
What was that? Shinkirou asked himself, Clearly, that sensation was not normal. He looked again at the purple-haired girl. Her eyes had looked back down on her feet.
Who are you? Shinkirou growled coldly.
Sakura was listening attentively on Archmagister Gadiell's welcoming speech. On the other hand, her friend Tasia seemed to be suffering from it. The girl's eyes were winking slowly every seconds while her head was tilting up and down as she tried to avoid drowsiness.
"Don't fall asleep." scolded Sakura, shoving Tasia's shoulder with hers'.
Tasia let out a short yawn. "He's using the same old speech from last year. Why shouldn't I be?" she retorted in a lowered volume.
"Maybe you should write him a new script for next year's speech, Sakura. That way I won't die of boredom before graduation." Tasia joked.
"I would love to if I don't have to bother myself with your unfinished writing assignments every week." Sakura cursed under her breath.
"Need I remind you, that being a Magister is not to be considered as a gift?!" Archmagister Gadiell's voice boomed inside the Gathering Hall like thunder. "It is in fact, my fellow Magisters, a responsibility that should never be taken lightly!"
"For almost a century, we the Magisters have become a light of hope for Darmenia and its people! For almost a century, people looked up to us as their guardians and peacekeepers. Indeed we are. All of us were bestowed our special abilities by God, to act as the backbone of the human race. It is our duty to maintain the balance in Darmenia, and at the same time, obeying the Laws of Magic that has been established by non-other than the founder of the Magister Academies; The Three Magister Generals."
A holographic image of a huge circle, with three different symbols engraved on it; a red wolf, a white bear, and a brown rhinoceros materialized behind Archmagister Gadiell. It was the official insignia of the Three Magister Generals, with each animal representing one General. The wolf being Gathaspa, the bear was Balthazar, and the rhinoceros was Melchior.
"The Three Magister Generals themselves had played a very important role in the restoration of Darmenia. Not only did they were the founding fathers of magic, but they had also freed this land from the evil clutches of the Dimiourgia Empire. Using their knowledge and power over magic, they defeated Dimiourgia and restored Darmenia back into its peaceful state. We all owe our greatest gratitude for them."
The Archmagister paused for a moment to catch his breath, and resumed. "I understand that most of you have little confidence in this responsibility that you now carry inside you. But rest assure my dear students. By the time the Academy's done with you, all of you will become true fledge Magisters, and are ready to become the next generation of Darmenia's guardians!"
With that Archmagister Gadiell turned to face the Magister Generals' insignia and threw his hands up. "To the Three Magister Generals, we here, are your successors! The Magisters of Darmenia!"
There were thunders of applause from the students while Archmagister Gadiell retreated to his armchair. Too concentrated with the speech earlier, Sakura didn't realise that Tasia had already fallen asleep on her shoulder.