Rondel sat in a wooden chair, three years after his sister's death, lost in thoughts and quickly looking through the notes he had made for this day, remembering what had happened all that time ago, right in the room next to his, right in front of his notes, the very same notes he was now looking at.
A few seconds later, still lost in thought as his hands slightly trembled and his new glasses, prescribed after it happened, but mostly useless, in his teenage years he had just been at danger of getting worse eyes, atop his face and making him look like a bit of a dork. not that he really was.
Actually, he was rather well-trained, had longish brown hair, wavy and unkempt, it would probably look good if he took actual care of it, his face was bumpy from an old case of acne he now had under control, his complexion was not the best and he was still rather pale, wearing normal clothes any person would wear to this occasion, the occasion of an interview.
After today was over he would either be a hunter cadet, or he wouldn't be, and that was it, no second chances, at least not for a few years, they required one to pass special tests and screenings after all, no please let me repeat, they would need him to be even better next time, it is in relation to age-class after all, no anything, he would have to prove his worth to them with a spell he had chosen.
Then he heard his name, the recruiter of the hunters, an old man looking wise beyond even his years and very angry, perhaps because he had quite the big scar inside his face, called for him, and he slowly stood up, shaking from nervosity, he had always been nervous and messed up right before he won in anything, after all, that was what had happened after his sister, he was just too scared to mess up anymore, scared of magic, for years, but now, it was his time to succeed, really succeed.
One could not imagine how absurdly nervous he was as he crossed the last corridor before the recruiter who had introduced himself as Sir Kelnra, a weird name probably coming from the middle western side, would finally assess him, something he was fairly sure wouldn't end too well if he still looked like a trembling dork when it happened, so he at least tried to straighten his posture.
It didn't do much, or at least he thought it didn't do much, he wasn't entirely certain of it without a mirror after all, and he heard his heart beating not loudly but with a heavy rhythm as he pumped the blood through his body to further calm him down, an impossibility by now.
Finally, he sat down, the recruiter in front of him, a window on the side of the room through which he could see the beautiful nature of the forest on the side, something even a normal hunter would be able to assess easily, but he was, after all, applying to be an elite of the hunters, a reason for which he was so scared.
The greyish dirty hair of the recruiter flowed a bit as he shook it, already lamenting this waste of time, but still began talking in a rough and intimidating tone that he had most likely trained to perfection as he trained the trainees, pun intended, and resulted in Rondel smiling slightly.
"So, why did you apply to this position?" he sighed, already noting something down, probably judging him from his appearance and bad choice in clothing, perhaps also his glasses and complexion, things he didn't really have the capability to control.
"When my s-sister died I wanted to protect others.." he stuttered too much, far too much, the recruiter probably thought of him as some kind of liar, or nervous mess... god, what was he doing... he was messing up all over again...
He sighed as he answered, "listen kid, I don't think you are a good fit, but let's at least show me your spell, shall we?" with an horribly dismissive and already annoyed voice as he once more looked at the trembling mess in front of him.
But what he didn't know was that this was the point he had been counting on, the point he had truly trained to perfection, forgetting parts of his health, his sleep, everything really, so much so that he had to start wearing glasses two years ago because he had just read that much, back when he had been in his late seventeens, early eighteens, the time his sister had died, so perhaps it had also partially been because of the many tears and him forgetting even to blink.
As Rondel calmed down he lifted his hand up and stretched it out, feeling the surrounding mana, especially thick in this place, wanting to do something a bit more impressive at first, but choosing something rather basic, a mere fifth-circle spell, a spell he had trained so much for.
Firstly, he called water, then, he called forth cold and made ice, thirdly he made the water and cold into an icy arrow, the recruiter looked, but took notes, then he added more, he added various spells at once, spells he had bene especially proud of, he made it rotate to increase momentum, he added poison, something he had always found weirdly easy to memorize, and he added spells of weight and heightening of force.
Finally, there was it.
Out of the magic circle in the air, resembling a pentagram with various smaller stars inside of it and countless strings connecting it, invisible as always, to the surrounding air, there came a masterpiece of a icy arrow, the very same spell that had killed his sister, his specialty that he had been learning as if possessed, with countless powerful additions, powerful enough to even damage a being of the lord-rank with fair ease, despite him barely being at the ninth sequence.
And just then the recruiter seemed to realize exactly that, and while noting down something that only took two short streaks with the pen, a bright smile spread from both sides of his face that made him seem slightly like a devil.