Chapter 49: Who I Want To Be

Disclaimer:

Hi guys. I really had fun with this chapter as I could kind of do what I wanted with these characters. You'll see who I'm on about once you read below . Also, I was ironing out some things with this chapter when the spoilers for the recent Black Clover chapter came out! How crazy are current events! Anyways, with that said I hope you enjoy.


"How did this end up with us being attacked?!" David jumped backwards, careful to not be in the way of the enemy's strike. "Dice Magic: Gambler's Fallacy!" The Dice mage from the Golden Dawn threw his die onto the floor and saw it roll a few times. "Come on… Really… you give me a measly two?!"

David saw a small blast of energy form near his body and shoot out to the enemy in front. However, as the energy blast hit the enemy, they easily dodged it. "Tsk. Hamon, see if you can handle it!"

"You got it!" Hamon summoned his grimoire and it flicked to the page he needed. "We ended up in this hazy, purple field and the next thing you know we get attacked all of a sudden!" The Glass mage quickly put his hands to the floor. "Glass Creation Magic: Verre Epée!"

Hamon raised his hands in the air and a bunch of sharp, glass swords erupted from the ground, trying to defeat the enemy at hand.

However, this certain enemy was very agile and outsmarted them. She had jumped in the air and was about to use her weapons to counter the two Magic Knights.

"She's way too quick for us, Hamon!" David said, panting from exhaustion.

"We've been at it… for so long now… how did this even happen?" Hamon put his hands on his knees, waiting for the next attack from their opponent.

"It happened as soon as the three of us entered this room filled with purple haze. Valmoira was in the front and something fell next to her. Next thing you know, she's the one attacking!"


THE TIME PRIOR TO THE FIGHT:

"Another long hallway? We've been walking around for so long now!" Hamon complained, walking behind David who was in the middle, whilst Valmoira was leading the two.

"You got that right, buddy", David responded. He wiped a bit of sweat from his forehead and sighed.

The leading Druid turned around. She had an angry expression to her face and her eyes were a wide open suggesting she was annoyed at the two.

"For the last 10 minutes, I have been hearing you two complain for the longest time! You are Magic Knights, are you not? All we have done is walk and this is too much for the likes of you?!" Valmoira shouted. Her short, black hair waved slightly as she shook her head in disappointment.

David sped up and walked alongside the Druid. "Oh, but Miss Valmoira, you're a powerful species so obviously you have no problem with this sort of stuff! Can't you understand us mere humans?" David said, teasing the angry woman.

"D-David, what are you doing?! We don't even know this woman and you're trying to make fun of her?" David mentally reached out. He couldn't physically do it as he was quite a way behind them.

Instead of reacting like the angry person she portrayed herself as being, she replied normally. "Hm, I would not be able to understand you humans since I do not know what you are like. The only things we do know about you is that you lie, shame, beat, discriminate, betray, kill, hit, kick, destroy, siege, purge, invade, steal, punish-", she was about to carry on but was cut off.

"N-now, now… we don't do all of those things! I mean, just look at Hamon!" David tried to explain.

"What is the matter, you two…?" Hamon caught up and the first thing he noticed was Valmoira staring intently.

"Look at Hamon, hm?" Valmoira walked closely to the glutton and looked him up and down. Her chin was in the grasp of her dark hand and her piercing, green eyes were scanning. "What about him?"

David face-palmed as the Druid didn't understand. "I mean… if you look at Hamon, you wouldn't think he does those things, right? You know, lie, shame, beat, kill… etc, etc".

"Is this supposed to be a joke or something? All humans look and seem alike to me. Are you implying that if I look at a human who seems to be nice, then my thinking will sway?" Valmoira turned around as the mood of the conversation shifted to a serious one.

The Glass mage was the one to argue back this time. He had sped up and was now walking alongside both David and Valmoira and he posed the question: "Why do you actually hate us so much? I'm pretty sure none of us have ever been to the Forgotten Forest, let alone met any of you".

"It is what we have been taught and I will uphold these teachings! Though… if you really want to make me change my mind then fight me!" She took her iron spear out from where it was attached to on her back and started twirling it around. As she did, her green eyes seemed to flare from excitement. "I am just like that idiot, Dike, when it comes to the rules… I hate to admit it but then again, I can have some fun!"

David and Hamon took a step back and sighed with an awkward smile to their faces.

"No, no, I don't think we're going to fight you anytime soon", David protested, waving his arms around.

"So, to make her think differently, we have to fight her… and win?! Yeah, that isn't happening", Hamon thought. He made sure not to walk alongside the Druid from now on as, to him, it seemed like she was clearly itching for a fight.

"You do not want to prove me wrong? That is fine", she tucked the spear away on her back and turned around. There seemed to be a look of annoyance as it seemed like she actually wanted to fight. "Have you two ever thought about why you discriminate?" She asked as she started walking again.

"We don't do it. Other people do but personally, I don't do it and never will", David replied.

"Me neither", Hamon added.

"Oh, but you do. It has been the same since our first encounter with the first Wizard King 500 years ago. Sure, I was not there but the stories are all the truth. You humans will discriminate against your own kind, like the ones in the Common and Forsaken Realm, correct? Even though they are the same humans as you? That is why I say you are all alike since humans can hurt other humans, even if they are supposed to be one", Valmoira explained.

The two Golden Dawn mages were silent after that. They knew that most royals and nobles discriminate against the ones lower than them in status and that it has a knock-on effect since those from the Common Realm discriminate the ones from the Forsaken Realm. The whole Clover Kingdom has a cycle of this and it isn't wrong to say that David and Hamon are part of something bigger.

The group of three soon found themselves in an open space. A thick, purple haze was in the air in this particular room and they found it hard to move around since they couldn't see a lot of what was around them.

"Do you know anything about this, Valmoira?" David asked, squinting his eyes to try and make things out.

"I am not sure. Just be careful not to step in anything you should not", she replied. "Be wary of enemies, too. We can not be certain that we are the only ones here". The Druid whipped out her iron spear once more, twirling it in her hands.

Suddenly, a large splash sound came from the ground next to Valmoira's feet. The group looked at the floor and they saw a little, purple object that had fallen beside the Druid. Looking closely at it, it had a set of five tiny tentacles with suction cup-like shapes on each one. Other than that, it had a small, round, purple body.

"It cannot be… it is…?!" Valmoira gasped as her gaze was fixated on the round object.

"What in the world is that disgusting thing?" David asked. He had started to hold his nose shut because of the vile stench it was giving off.

"It's definitely something you can't eat, that's for sure!" Hamon gagged and started to wave away the fumes that were coming from the tentacles.

Valmoira knelt down and her face was near the purple object. "This 'disgusting thing' as you call it is actually from one of our Eternal Gardens. It used to grow all sorts of plants, be it for healing, battling, even decorative ones, but a few years ago… it became barren. This could be one of the last things from there".

"Eternal Gardens? There are more than one, then?" Hamon asked.

"And you're essentially saying none of them exist anymore?" David pondered.

"We were hit with a drought that you could liken to the outside sun's summer heat. We were taught about how hot it got in the outside world during the second season. Anyway, we were suffering with a terrible drought that came out of nowhere which burned up all of our Eternal Gardens. Thankfully, the forest itself was fine, but we could not say the same for other areas", the Druid explained.

"A drought in the Forgotten Forest? The water in this place is plentiful in heaps and bundles, so it's very weird how a drought swept across…", Hamon shook his head as if something wasn't adding up.

David walked up to Valmoira and also knelt down beside her. "So, how did this… uh, plant thing, get here do you think? Is it the reason for the purple haze?"

The green-eyed Druid replied with a shake of her head. "No, this haze was here already. Despite the 'Purple Hydrostat' plant being purple it has no effect on its surroundings unless its consumed. I am not sure in the slightest on how this got here though…", Valmoira tilted her head in confusion.

However, just as she tilted her head, the suction-cup plant wrapped its five tentacles all around the female Druid's face and latched on immediately. It wasted no second in causing her pain as the weapon-wielder was crying in agony.

"Get… off of me… right now!" Valmoira violently thrashed about. She was falling to the floor, scratching at the Hydrostat, as well as rushing to the wall head-first to try and get the thing off her face.

"We… we'll help you right now!" David shouted as his grimoire floated right next to him.

Valmoira jumped in the air and perched herself on one of the branches that were growing from the small trees in the middle of the room. "No! I do not need any help… from the likes… of you!"

David shouted back in confusion as he didn't understand why she couldn't accept the help. "Look, yes, we're human but we have the means to help you! Stop being so stubborn and calm down for a second!"

Valmoira gasped as the Hydrostat gripped tighter. "Stubborn…?" She questioned as her violent thrashing came to a halt. Suddenly, Valmoira seemed to get calmer as her body went to a standstill but she wasn't better by the slightest.

Out of nowhere, a purple aura started to emanate around the Druid and the Purple Hydrostat on the middle of her face started pulsating. It seemed like the aura was originating from it and it was consuming Valmoira. Without a sound, the taken-over Druid pulled out her iron spear from her back and got into her battle stance.

"Um… David. It looks like we have a fight on our hands!" Hamon stepped back as his grimoire also started floating next to him.

The Dice mage shook his head. "Well, it looks like we are going to help anyway whether you like it or not!"

Valmoira started running forwards at a great speed. Her spear was held outwards and she kept twirling it between both hands. The sharp point of the weapon was tearing apart the fuzzy, purple smoke showing just how quick the attack was coming.

"Glass Magic: Mur de Verre!" Hamon jumped backwards and motioned both of his hands towards the ground that separated both the Golden Dawn duo from Valmoira. As he summoned his spell, a tall wall of transparent glass emerged from the ground which created a defence for both David and Hamon.

David ran to the glutton. "Nice job, Hamon! Now, we need to defeat her quickly before anything bad happens. You've seen how angry she can get when she's thinking properly… now, mix in that plant attached to her face and we have no idea just what she could do!"

"Well, to defeat her we need to take that purple thing off from her face. It had suction cups on its tentacles so merely ripping it off would cause damage to her actual face as well. Yeah, we're in a battle but the Druids already hate us so hurting them even further would not be the best move", Hamon explained.

"You're right. Personally, I don't want to hurt her either so the only thing for us to do is…!" David started to decide on the plan of action, but a huge burst of noise suspended his train of thought as he turned his head to the left towards the glass wall.

It was Valmoira and she was easily breaking through Hamon's spell with her iron spear. "This… cannot hold… m-me!" She screamed, although her speech was heavily disjointed most likely due to the Purple Hydrostat's influence.

After a few seconds, she had burrowed through and was in the same space as both David and Hamon. She turned to the mages and thrusted her spear which was now covered in shards of glass, making it even more dangerous than before.

"This isn't good!" Hamon shouted and dodged the jabs from the spear. However, he wasn't quick enough to evade all of the attacks as the iron spear pierced through the side of his clothing, drawing blood from his hip.

Hamon knelt down and felt his right hip with his left hand. He brought it to his face and realised just how deep the wound was. "Huh? It only grazed me, yet there's so much blood?!"

Valmoira took a step back and flicked her iron spear to get rid of Hamon's blood. The flick plastered the little bit of blood on the floor and Valmoira chuckled slightly.

"Is that… all the strength t-that you posess?" She spoke slowly but calmly.

Hamon fell to one knee as the wound started to sting. Upon closer inspection, shards of glass had entered his wound and had started to hurt a lot. "My own… Glass Magic?"

"Tsk. Hamon doesn't seem to be having the best of chances. It might be up to me to do this! Dice Magic: Gambler's Fallacy!" David threw his die towards Valmoira who didn't know what the object was. A die was something foreign to Druids so a tiny cube didn't seem to be a big threat at all.

"This… object? You have Dice Magic… but just what is… it?" The green-eyed Druid wondered, looking closely.

When the die stopped rolling, its face looked up and it turned out to be five pips.

"Yes, a five!" The blond mage stood in front of Hamon, becoming some sort of shield to protect him with. "I'd shield my eyes if I were you, Hamon".

A circle of light started to form on the floor around the fallen die which coincidentally formed around Valmoira too. As every second went past, the light grew in intensity and was pulsating. Eventually, the circle became a half-sphere, trapping the Druid inside its confines and what came next was a large explosion of light.

"D-David?! I thought we agreed to not harm Valmoira too much… you know, considering their race hates our guts!" Hamon shouted, still wincing in pain but the attack from the Dice Mage diverted his attention.

David stepped backwards and a look of shock was on his face. "Oh, right… it seems like I forgot", he laughed nervously.

As the explosion stopped, a massive hole was left in the ground where plenty of debris was falling into. The ceiling had broken and the walls and floor were cracking apart at a fast rate. However, this attack did nothing to the purple haze as it was still around the room.

"This purple haze is kind of a problem since it hinders our eyesight. Just what is the source?" David asked rhetorically.

After he did, the dust had settled from his attack and what was left was Valmoira standing in the middle with not a scratch on her body.

"So… that was the best… you could offer?" Valmoira slowly spoke as she jumped forwards.


PRESENT TIME:

Valmoira cut her charge short this time. She had just jumped in the air to strike but decided to go for a different approach. Instead of charging for the two Magic Knights as she had done previously, the Druid tilted her iron spear sideways and she raised her right knee up to her waist. With full force, she snapped the iron spear in two and was now in possession of two weapons: One in each hand.

"Two weapons now… one for each of us!" Hamon realised as he struggled to get up.

David was very worried at this point but one thing slowly entered his mind and made him wonder. "She isn't even using her magic! This is all her physical strength and we seem to be no match… what will happen if she decides to use her magic?!"

Valmoira threw both halves of the iron spears at David and Hamon. The quickest one was the part with the sharp, iron attachment on it and it was heading straight for the Dice mage's chest. The force behind the throw was so quick that the haze around it started to disperse because of the speed behind it.

Just before the weapon hit David's chest, he threw another die in front of himself and the tip of the spear hit the dice full on. The face that the weapon hit was only one pip which meant the magic wasn't going to be very strong at all.

"Shit… this is it. Let's see if my magic can save me…!" David tensed up and closed his eyes. A part of him was ready for the iron spear to pierce him but he still had hope. "Come on, Gambler's Fallacy…!"

The magic that emerged from the one-pip was a small burst of heat. The heat managed to change the spear's trajectory ever so slightly but instead of hitting David in the chest, it hit him right in his left leg causing him to scream in immense pain.

"ARGH!" David shouted as he fell to the floor, clutching his open wound and grinding his teeth. "The pain… it's not just from being stabbed, but there were still bits of glass on the tip that are now…!" He couldn't speak more as he needed to use his other hand to stop the bleeding in his leg.

Just before David was hit, the other half of the iron spear was en route for the Glass Mage's neck since we was slightly shorter than David. However, as Hamon was thinking of evading the attack, the force and wind behind the attack swept the glutton backwards and when he looked up again, the broken half of the spear was inches away.

"G-Glass Magic: Mur de Verre!" Hamon quickly casted his spell but the spear was already half way past where the glass barrier was forming. The magic managed to cut the half-iron spear in two which slightly changed its route. Though it wasn't going to hit Hamon's neck, it pierced his shoulder and he was flung backwards and into the wall. The thin handle of the spear jammed through his shoulder and stuck itself into the wall behind Hamon and he was dangling.

"GAH!" Hamon cried in agony. He tried not to move too much because if he did, his shoulder would essentially detach from his body because of how the spear was lodged into it.

Valmoira slowly walked up to the two who were next to each other and seemingly defeated.

"Awh, and you… humans could not do a thing to me…!" She started to laugh. The Purple Hydrostat grew in size and covered more of her face with its tentacles.

David and Hamon were quickly losing their strength and they had no idea what to do. The only thoughts in their heads was of a certain event during their childhoods.

"Just who do I want to be…?"


DAVID'S FLASHBACK – SIX YEARS AGO:

"Mother, can I go out to play with some of the neighbourhood boys?" A teenage David asked his mother who was busy reading a book in her study.

The woman put her book down on the wooden table and lifted her reading glasses from her eyes. "Oh, please, David. You're 14-years-old and you're about to get your grimoire tomorrow. You don't have to ask me to go outside. Make sure you have fun but don't go too far!"

David ran towards his mother who was sat on a rocking chair and hugged her. "Thank you!" He said just before running outside the house and onto the streets.

"Honestly, he's not a typical noble… not in the slightest. But I guess that's his charm", David's mother smiled as she put her reading glasses back on. "Going out to play? No, he just wants to flirt with the girl down the street", she chuckled.

David was running around outside and reached the noble house of the girl he had a crush on for months. "Yes… today is the day I impress her! Tomorrow, I'm going to get my grimoire but honestly, I do not care about it. As long as I get to be with girls, then that is the only thing that matters!"

The 14-year-old David was very much a ladies man as well as a player. The 'ladies' for him being teenagers just like him, but he was known to flirt with anyone of the female gender, be it older than him or his age. Because of this aspect about him, he never paid any thought on his own future or on the future of his noble house, considering he would take over eventually when he was of age. By not paying attention, it meant he had no care for the world outside of his interests and social circle. His mother was very lenient with him as she thought he would mature on his own, but David was far from doing that… until this day.

The young Dice Magic user happily skipped to his crush's house and when he reached the door of it, he paused and took the building in. The house was very large and consisted of a driveway to the left of the door which has two personal horse-drawn carriages parked. The house itself was a three-storey building with large, glass windows that let in the blazing sunshine from the sky. The walls of the house were made with polished stone bricks and smooth marble which, from anyone looking from the outside, would think that this noble family had more money than most other nobles.

The area also had a steel barrier to it with a gate that served as the entranceway to the property. The reason David was allowed in without asking was because the family knew his own and they had formed a strong relationship.

"Okay, I made sure to get flowers on the way here and I can't wait to give them to her! I wonder how they'll look next to her long, black hair? " David knocked on the door and within a few seconds it had opened.

The person who came to the door wasn't the girl that David liked, but it was her mother.

"Oh, hello there, David! Nice to see you again", the girl's mother replied. "Are you here for Eleanor?"

"Y-yes, Ma'am!" David bowed. His heart was beating so fast and it felt like his chest would burst.

"Haha, you're so cute. Unfortunately, my daughter just popped to the market just a few minutes ago. The travelling merchants just came by to the town and she didn't want to miss it. I'm sure you can catch up to her if you go now!" The mother replied.

"Th-thank you!" David bowed once more and ran off to the direction of the travelling market.

Almost 10 minutes went by and he finally spotted the market. There was a whole bunch of merchants selling expensive goods to the citizens of the town. From clothes to jewellery, and there were even things like little magical items which served as toys for the younger children.

"This market… it's completely different from the ones in the Common Realm since these things are the best of the best. No wonder Eleanor wanted to buy from here…", David put his hands on his chest and it seemed like he was fluttering in the air like Cupid. "… She has amazing taste!"

Suddenly, David caught the black hair of the girl he was looking for and she seemed to be going down some alleyway.

"There she is! Ooh, an alleyway, hm? Seems a bit risky but maybe I can impress her in a place like that to get our soon-to-be relationship going?" David rushed off towards where the girl was headed.

Eventually, he had caught up to her and was going to call out her name. Instead, he saw another two girls meet up with her with one other boy that seemed to be sulking.

David, without thinking about it, hid behind the brick walls so he could see and hear the four people but they couldn't see or hear him.

"That boy… I've never seen him before but he's definitely a noble too. He seems a bit big so could he be from a family that specialises in the food industry? That's a bit mean of me to assume I guess just from looking, but oh well… I wonder what's going on?" David sat down on the floor and eavesdropped.

The boy who was with the girls started to speak but it was clear how nervous he was. He was slightly shorter than David and he had the same blond hair colour as him, however, his hair style was quite peculiar as it seemed like he had three ponytails of some sort with one on top and the other two on the right and left side of his head.

"Um… I th-thought it w-would just be us two h-here?" The shy boy said to the David's crush.

"Hmph. Like I was going to listen to someone like you. You may be a noble but the sight of you disgusts me and I wasn't going to let you order me around", the girl spat.

David's eyes widened. "Is that really how she talks to other people…?"

The two girls beside Eleanor started to laugh and call the boy names regarding his appearance and weight.

"O-oh. Well, that's fine… I wanted to see if you… you would be my g-g-girlfriend? See, I made these chocolates for you myself!" The blond boy presented Eleanor with a heart-shaped tin of very expensive-looking chocolates.

A part of David started to get angry because Eleanor was also his crush. His legs started to move because he wanted to intervene but then he decided to see how it would play out, considering he felt weird with how Eleanor was speaking.

A few seconds of silence filled the air of the alleyway as the girl grabbed the tin of chocolates. She took one from its slot and ate it quite quickly. Her eyes widened as the flavour of the chocolate surprised her.

"Wow, these really are good!" Eleanor seemed to praise.

The boy was smiling. "S-so… I'd like you to be my girlfriend! I… I'm going to become a Magic Knight soon and I want to be able to make you happy! Y-you said chocolates would be a g-good way to start so what do you think?"

Another few seconds went by but instead of the reaction that the boy was hoping for, he was met with a slap across the face by his own crush.

"You think I would fall for a fat loser like you? The only reason I wanted to try these chocolates was because I know your family works in the food industry. Your food is good, I'll give you that! Though, everything else about you is…", Eleanor scanned the boy up and down and spat.

"… Everything else about you is rather disgusting!" The two other girls finished.

The boy started to tear up and he slouched down, his face looking towards the ground.

David was completely shocked with what happened. He didn't even care that this boy was going after his crush. The fact that Eleanor spoke to someone else like that disgusted him and he felt sick to his stomach.

"I g-guess I'll be going then. It looks like it's about to -r-rai-!" The boy tried to get up but was hit by the chocolates he made.

The three girls started to throw the chocolates at his body and considering these were freshly made and with fine ingredients, they were quite hot and hurt that much more. When the chocolates were done with, the three girls started kicking him and throwing rubbish at him that they found around the place.

"This… has to stop! But… I never even trained with my magic, let alone confronted anyone. The fact that she's… anyway, I need to get help…!" David quickly stood up and ran away, but as he did, he dropped the flowers on the floor. He went towards the market but as he was about to shout, rain started falling down from the sky and it quickly made the area murky and very dark.

"No…! I need someone to help!" David turned his head in the direction of his own house and started running. "That's right… Mother! She always told me to come to her if there was a problem… but she's so far away". David stopped running and shook his head. "No. I can help him myself! My Dice Magic, even though I don't exactly know what it does, can help!"

At this point, David was a quarter of the way to his house but all of the tension and worry that the boy would be all alone got to him and that was why he had decided to go back to the alleyway by himself. David quickly ran towards where the confrontation had happened but as he got there, the alleyway was empty. The four people had gone from there and the only thing left was the empty tin of chocolates.

The 14-year-old looked towards the tin and clutched his fists. "I knew about the horrible treatment of peasants and commoners by nobles and royals, but this was different. There's terrible things like this even with the people of the same status? It's not on the level of what I've heard about, but the intent was still there. I… I should have helped that boy out but I was scared that Eleanor would find me weird. I really cared about myself at that point rather than the person who was being hurt…".

"Who do I want to be? When I get my grimoire… what is the next step? I thought Eleanor was the perfect girl but seeing her like this… I wonder how many others are like that? They put on a sweet face but underneath it all…!"

David kicked the tin of chocolates away from him and he looked into the sky.

"I want to be a support! I want to help others out when they are finding it hard! A noble has other people do their work for them, but I'll be different! I'll be the support they need!" David shouted to the dark and cloudy sky, rain falling down on him.


HAMON'S FLASHBACK – SIX YEARS AGO:

"Father, I'm going to bake chocolate today if that's okay with you!" A teenage Hamon asked his father who was busy looking through some work documents.

Hamon's father stopped what he was doing and looked at his son with a weird expression. "You're going to bake them yourself? Why don't you just leave it to one of our maids?"

"I… I want to eat them with a friend! I also have an interest in cooking… I'm not just a simple eater, you know!" Hamon laughed but still pleaded with his father to let him bake.

The father sighed and smiled. "I know you're good at cooking but I just didn't want you to be tired. You know you have to get your grimoire tomorrow, right? As long as you don't push yourself too hard then I guess it's all fine".

With that said, Hamon quickly went to the kitchen and got started. The maids working at the time were surprised with the blond's actions as he had never been in the kitchen to do work himself. He would always sit and watch but this time he was actively making something.

Hamon had told the maids to leave him alone for the time being and he got to work. He got the ingredients like butter, cocoa powder, milk, eggs and blended them all together. As he was making the dessert, he had one person on his mind.

"If you really want to impress me, why don't you make me some chocolate! You know, since your family is involved in the food industry!"

Hamon's cheeks grew pink and he smiled. "Eleanor… perhaps with this, then I can…!" He thought to himself as he finished baking his chocolates.

As he set the chocolates in the heart-shaped metal tin that he bought, he also got ready to go outside. To him, it looked like it was going to be a sunny day so he didn't wear too many layers. After getting ready, he took the chocolate tin and went outside to meet with his crush.

Hamon was running and skipping with a smile. The girl of his dreams had told him that if he could impress him then he could be her boyfriend.

The young Glass Magic user eventually got to the market square and saw that the travelling market had come to town. He saw so many people buying such beautiful clothes and jewellery. He also saw families having a good time with the food they bought and when he saw the food, he was happy too and this was because he made some food himself and could potentially see Eleanor happy as well.

Hamon started panting since he was running this whole time. "I'm only at the market square but Eleanor's house is still quite far away…", he wiped his sweat from his forehead.

However, as he was about to make the second half of his journey, the girl he was going to see actually presented herself in front of the small glutton.

"E-Eleanor…?" Hamon waved and his cheeks blushed.

"Oh, it's you. Do you have my chocolate?" Eleanor asked with a rather disgusted expression.

"I d-d…!" Hamon was going to answer but was cut off by the sound of two other girls who were behind Eleanor.

"It's the fatty…", one girl mentioned.

"Shh! Don't let him hear you or he'll eat you up…!" The other girl replied.

Eleanor started to speak to Hamon after this. "Say, why don't we speak in this alleyway? It could be quite embarrassing for you to give me these chocolates with all these strangers around, you know?"

Hamon's eyes lit up. "Wow, you're actually r-right!" He turned his body and started to walk. However, he was always behind the two girls and Eleanor, which showed just who was the leader in this situation.

As Hamon got to the place where Eleanor and the other two girls stopped at, he mentioned something that felt a bit odd to him.

"Um… I th-thought it w-would just be us two h-here?" The shy boy said to his crush.

"Hmph. Like I was going to listen to someone like you. You may be a noble but the sight of you disgusts me and I wasn't going to let you order me around", the girl spat.

Hamon froze up at that comment. "Why is she being mean? Is it something I said…? Well, maybe it's my imagination and I shouldn't focus on it. For now… I'll do this!"

"O-oh. Well, that's fine… I wanted to see if you… you would be my g-g-girlfriend? See, I made these chocolates for you myself!" The blond boy presented Eleanor with a heart-shaped tin of very expensive chocolates. However, the only reason they looked expensive was because of the time and effort he had put into them.

A few seconds of silence filled the air of the alleyway as the girl grabbed the tin of chocolates. She took one from its slot and ate it quite quickly. Her eyes widened as the flavour of the chocolate surprised her.

"Wow, these really are good!" Eleanor seemed to praise.

Hamon was smiling. "S-so… I'd like you to be my girlfriend! I… I'm going to become a Magic Knight soon and I want to be able to make you happy! Y-you said chocolates would be a g-good way to start so what do you think?"

Another few seconds went by but instead of the reaction that the 14-year-old boy was hoping for, he was met with a slap across the face by his own crush.

"You think I would fall for a fat loser like you? The only reason I wanted to try these chocolates was because I know your family works in the food industry. Your food is good, I'll give you that! Though, everything else about you is…", Eleanor scanned the boy up and down and spat.

"… Everything else about you is rather disgusting!" The two other girls finished.

The boy started to tear up and he slouched down, his face looking towards the ground. Even though he wasn't looking at the girl he was hoping to impress, he could feel her sharp, blue eyes piercing down into his soul.

"I g-guess I'll be going then. It looks like it's about to -r-rai-!" The boy tried to get up but was hit by the chocolates he made.

The three girls started to throw the chocolates at his body and considering these were freshly made and with fine ingredients, they were quite hot and hurt that much more. When the chocolates were done with, the three girls started kicking him and throwing rubbish at him that they found around the place.

"Did she never really like me at all? Is this what I am to her… to the people who think they're above me – a punching bag? This can't be right. I have so much more about me… I want to help people, but… they were right. Even though I want there to be more interesting things about me, I'm powerless and weak. All I am is a fat nobody…", he started to tear up.

Hamon had stopped moving and the rain started to fall down on him and the others.

"Ew, let's get out of here, Eleanor!" One girl spoke, covering her hair with her hands.

"Right!" The other girl replied.

"You got that right. See you, Hamon", she winked and ran away with the others.

As the rain continued to fall, a puddle formed on the ground below his face and he could see the reflection of his dirtied face in the water.

"This is who I am? This… cannot be all I am!" Hamon slowly got up from the floor and looked up into the sky and cried for a few minutes. His chocolates were all over him and on the floor and despite them being brown, all he could see through his teary eyes was a grey colour everywhere he looked. "This is how the world is to me, huh? A cold and miserable, grey place?"

Once again, the 14-year-old looked into the sky and pleaded. "If anyone is hearing this, what is there for me in this cold, grey world? Am I truly nothing? Am I only 'the fat kid'? Please, leave me a sign to show that not everything is grey!"

However, there was no such sign revealed to him and he wore a depressed frown to his face. He slowly started to hobble back to his house when he slipped on some rubbish on the floor and he landed face first onto the floor. Though, what he felt wasn't the cold, hard ground, but it was something rather soft and smooth.

"Huh?" Hamon said to himself as he wiped his teary eyes and focused on just what he landed on. He felt his hands meet the stick of something and picked it up. As everything stayed grey around him, the thing in his hand came into view and it was a set of flowers that someone had dropped.

"Flowers, hm?" Hamon was about to leave them on the floor until he scanned the petals of the colourful plant. His eyes widened with shock as some colour finally entered his eyesight.

The flowers were all sorts of colours. There was a bunch of them and it seemed like someone had been tightly holding them just a few minutes ago. The petals were blue on one flower, red on the next and green on the last.

"The… sign?" Hamon's expression seemed to light up and his vision started to focus more. Just before, his view of the world had turned grey for the first time, but just as quickly, colour had come back to it and it was because of these flowers.

"These flowers… someone is supporting me! And…", he stood up tall and smiled. His face was still muddy from the rain and soil he had landed on, but he didn't care at this point. "Who do I want to be in the future? Someone known for being fat and weak, or someone who has the strength to get past anything? I will become strong… stronger than anyone!"

Hamon started to run towards his house, flowers in his hand and he was going as fast as he could. He shouted into the dark and cloudy sky once more as more rain was falling down on him.

FLASHBACKS – END


David and Hamon suddenly got a burst of energy as they were thinking about the past. Valmoira was closing in to give the finishing attack, but the Golden Dawn duo weren't going to give up.

The Dice mage ripped his squad robe with all of his strength and wrapped it tightly around his wound on his left leg.

The Glass mage used his magic to conjure up a glass object that was sharp enough to cut through the half-iron spear that was lodged in his right shoulder and he fell to the ground on his two legs.

David and Hamon both looked up towards the approaching enemy.

"I'm going to support Hamon with my magic here… this time we're going to do it, buddy!" David shouted. "I wish I was there for that boy all those years ago but helping out my friends is a way to repent for that one mistake I made!"

"I'm going to be as strong as I can be at this moment, right here and now! David, lend me your strength!" Hamon shouted back to his friend. "To the person who left those flowers when I was at my lowest point… thank you. This is for you!"


Just as things were changing for the duo of David and Hamon, another presence was lurking around. However, this presence wasn't in the Temple of Valchronos, but just outside the Forgotten Forest itself.

A lone man was looking up at the sheer height of the Forgotten Forest and he sighed as he dropped his shoulders.

"This is going to be a pain isn't it?" He yawned and stretched his arms.

The man had black hair with a few white patches and was also wearing a long, white robe that was open and he wore a dark-blue shirt and trousers under it. He seemed to have a red tattoo on his left cheek and his eyes were droopy as if he was about to fall asleep.

"Man, i haven't been here in a long time... i wonder how the temple is doing? Well, i guess i'll go check it out. Let's see how interesting things get, considering...".


NOTES:

You may have thought this would be a Mimosa-focused chapter because of the last one, but it was not! Haha, not to be evil but there was a reason I separated the story like this.

Some David and Hamon-centred focus here. Honestly, I really like David as a character and desperately wanted to expand on him. A part of me hopes Tabata does something more with him in the canon, but then again, it is nice expanding on his character by myself. Hamon is great too and I'd like to use him as well as I can before… well, you know what happens with him in the future… .

How did you like their backstories? It is quite simple but not everyone needs a complicated backstory for their motivations.