...
"Huh...?"
Huh...?
"You heard me, welcome to the society of Magic." The violet haired girl said with a stern face, completely devoid of any foolishness.
Magic huh.... that... certainly would explain a lot. Riley would think back to just only a couple minutes ago, where he was being furiously trailed by Kiera. He remembered her jumping from tree to tree like ninja's from fiction. He'd then think about the saber of light she miraculously formed from just her palms. And lastly, he'd think about her performance just a matter of seconds ago, defeating a zombie-like man with a spear she herself created, and her acrobatic prowess. He'd take another glance at Kiera Minsoo Goldfaire, and then a deep breath.
"haha...."
"...? What's so funny?" Kiera's face would turn from serious to a mix of curiosity.
"heheh hahahaha!!" Riley would laugh like someone told him one of the funniest puns.
"YEAH!!!"
...
The two of them were both walking back up the short hill within the forest—back towards the school they were at almost 15 minutes ago. They walked in silence, although there wasn't an awkward atmosphere between both of them. The girl held the strange looking orange cracked orb in her hands and solemnly stared into it, she would then sigh a look of defeat. The boy stared at her every movement like some stalker you'd see in a tv show, although he was much closer than any stalker would dare get.
"Hey so what's with you staring at me like that... it's creepy, do you have some sort of staring fetish..?"
"huh? oh no it's just you can't expect me to not stare at you right now... I mean did you forget what happened just a minute or two ago?"
"Yeah."
Literally how??? "Well come on you gotta explain something about that! I mean magic, your little sword and spear things the way you flipped around that guy—oh and that guy what was his deal I mean-"
Kiera wouldn't be looking at Riley during the conversation, she'd only be looking ahead. "alright shut up I get it geek you're interested in my absolute radiance but right now isn't the time..." She'd then rotate her head downwards back towards the strange sphere. "I broke the damn core... Just my luck shit like this alllwaaays has to happen to me!"
Always happen to her?? with the way she was moving it looked to me she hit the genetic jackpot you don't know misfortune like I do asshole!
They would both continue to walk in silence until reaching the top of the hill, where the abandoned tennis courts would be at. Kiera would dash towards her snacks and backpack at the wall while Riley slowly followed her still questioning quite literally everything that has transpired. Kiera would begin packing her stuff; her phone, junk-food, and other things that spilt out her open bag when she began to chase down the boy who saw her. Once finished she twisted her upper body behind her towards Riley.
"Hey so like I kinda gotta go."
"What do you mean you 'kinda gotta go'?!!? you haven't explained anything!!"
"ugh who cares can't you like figure it out yourself."
"uhhh no I can't 'just like figure it out' myself. Plus aren't you the one who told me I was 'Welcomed' to this 'Magic Society', I'M NOT FEELING VERY WELCOMED!"
"Alright shut up shut up!" Kiera would look down at her phone for a few seconds then slowly look back up towards Riley.
*sigh* "Tomorrow, 2:35. right here, right after school. Be here." She would then take off, a bit faster than she was chasing down Riley.
Tomorrow huh. Riley would again, think back to all the acts Kiera executed moments ago. Magic is real. His face would have a bright grin, from cheek to cheek. Finally! I knew if I prayed enough some random god would heed them and start my manga main character journey!! Magic really is real!! hahaha!!!!!
-A bit later-
"You're finally back home, what took you so long..?" It was Riley's mom, who was cleaning around the house. The Farley family consisted of 4 people, Riley, his mother and father, and lastly his brother. However by looking at his mother one would say Riley had a 5th family member approaching soon as his mom was almost 8 months pregnant.
"Mom you know you shouldn't be cleaning I said I'd take care of it." Riley would attempt to grab the broom out of her hands but surprisingly failed due to his mothers iron grip.
"It's fine I've been doing it for months and nothings happened—hey answer my question where were you." She'd say, making a pouting face.
"I was just staying after school... Mr. Meinder wanted me to you know..." Crap if I talk about my grades then she'll really get on me.. but I can't tell her what actually happened either..
"Mr. Meinder wanted to congratulate me on how good I've been doing in his class, so he had me stay after for awhile. It was pretty boring actually haha.."
"Oh really? congrats I knew my smuggy boy wasn't all dull! hey wait Isn't Mr. Meinder your algebra teacher? I thought you had him in the morning."
"Huh- uhh nope don't know who told you that. I also decided to walk home so that's why it also took me awhile." Close one. "Well anyways I'll see ya I'm gonna go lay down." he'd scurry off to his bedroom trying to avoid continuing the conversation. Riley's house was a medium sized one floor apartment, in which his room was farthest from the entrance.
"phew.. anymore talking with mom and she'd figure me out in seconds." Riley would place his bag down and fall back onto his bed exhausted. He would then take his shoes off and roll over his blanket onto his pillow.
Since magic really does exist, how has no one discovered it? well no one would be a lie, there's no way only Kiera would be the only user right? there has to be other people. But that still doesn't answer how at least some of the general public hasn't seen anything. Maybe they erase their memory with magic like that one movie I still need to watch. And what types of magic are there? is it like fire, wind, ice stuff like that...? Yeah no way. If it was that simple we'd certainly be living in an anime or novel. I have so many questions... Riley would start to close his eyes, getting drowsy. He would recall the words of Kiera earlier.
Right after school.. right..
The next day Riley would go through his school day normally, listening time to time, sleeping in algebra, and answering a total of 1 question in class. He only spoke to two people in school, Aiden and his other friend Oliver.
"Yo Riley you seen the new Isekai anime that dropped? episode 1 was actually kind of interesting!" This was Oliver, most of his dark green hair covered his face however as the name suggest he had Olive colored eyes. He was a fellow anime connoisseur like Riley but was more of an introvert than him since he didn't really know how to speak up.
"Oh crap I all about it I was supposed to watch it with a couple of people on the forums! ugh I know their pissed..." Despite the small adventure Riley had yesterday he shockingly took a nap then slept perfectly even he himself was surprised that he was able to sleep despite thinking of magic all throughout yesterday.
Aiden would pause eating his food and tilt his head towards Riley, "Wait did you say Forums? people are still on those? I thought we dropped forums in like 2010."
Oliver would turn towards Aiden, "Oh that's right you don't know, we never got to experience the prime of scrolling of forums with fellow otaku culture in America so Riley decided to make his own and it actually blew up! shocker huh?"
"Hey not too loud!" Riley would whisper embarrassed. All of them would chuckle with each other. They've been best friends since the beginning of middle school. Aiden was the only person out of the three that had actual other friends he could talk to, but for Oliver and Riley this was all they got.
"Damn this food looks like a mess" Aiden said
"It's actually not that bad, ignore the look, smell, and taste then you got yourself a pretty good lunch." Oliver countered
"Well It's better than Middle-school food I guess... If you could even call those things they served to us 'food'". Aiden would say, almost not being able to finish his sentence due to the traumatization of Middle-school lunch.
The background chatter volume of the cafeteria would begin to rise, as the Violet haired freshman made her entrance.
"Hey Kiera real quick could you help me with the Bio work! I seriously wasn't paying attention lol!" A guy asked.
"A, C, B, A. Those are the answers for the first four questions, Sorry but that's all I'm gonna give you!"
"Kiera wanna make a TikTok with me I found a really cute audio!" A girl and her friend would run up to her.
"Sorry but I kind of wanna sit down for a second, maybe later."
"Hey Kiera wanna sit with us we brought snacks!"
The girl would stiffen and then turn quickly towards the guy who asked for her to join them.
"Sure!"
She's 100 times different then she was back when I found her. So the nice girl everyone knows is just an facade huh. Well, I can't really tell anyone or she might kill me. Not that I have a reason to tell anyone anyways.
"Man I don't get the obsession with that girl..." Oliver would clench his hands on the table
Aiden would agree, "Yeah, I mean she's pretty nor-"
"She's 3d not 2d damnit!!"
"You know Oliver you gotta grow out of this 2d obsession eventually, clean yourself up and I'm sure-"
"Never!! I'd take a visual novel wife over a real one any day of the damn week!!"
A small argument started between the two, while Riley just stared at Kiera with a blank face from afar. Kiera herself would begin to sit down with the group that invited her—in which none of them she knew. But before sitting all the way down she quickly darted her eyes towards Riley like she seen a ghost.
"gah!" Riley recoiled back a bit before putting back on a blank face, however his excitement clearly shined through with an excited smirk. Magic....I want... no, I need to know more!
-After School-
"Huh? you don't wanna walk home today? are you sure because this is like the one time Oliver is actually going somewhere with us, albeit home." Aiden would try to plea to Riley but he wouldn't budge. Oliver wasn't the type of person to hang around outside of school hours unless online, so it was like a blue moon was occurring right in front of their faces and Riley turned away.
"Sorry man, I gotta do something, Next time i swear." Riley would say sorrowfully. Sorry guys but this is way more important than Oliver being an actual functioning human being. Riley would watch the both of them walk away before checking his phone, 2:35. He started to walk toward the tennis courts psyched. His heart was racing, he had a million questions for the girl who almost killed him yesterday just over her revealing her true colors accidentally.
He'd turn the same corner, the same way he did yesterday; giving him a bit of deja vu. Here we go.
...
"She's late...."
...
"Oh you're actually still here."
"Do you know how long I've been waiting?!?!"
"Yep, too bad I don't really care."
This little-
"Alright incel, follow me."
"Incel!? you...." wait follow her?
Kiera would look around her surroundings for a second, then pull something out of her backpack, It was a book. The book was golden, with white metal serpentine stripes circulating the book. From Riley's position he couldn't seen the title of the book. She would open the book and pull out what looked to be a bookmark, then sighed. Frankly to Riley all of her sighs were starting to annoy him, though he wouldn't really go in depth with the comments about her behavior, almost like he was trying to stay on her good side.
She'd would tap on the bookmark, once she did it would appear to glow white and then tear into pieces which fell onto the ground. The pieces would then start to fluctuate and orbit her, then they would begin to make the shape of a brown dusty door. The door was damaged, and looked like it would fall over if the wind blew just a tiny bit too hard. Riley took a couple steps back, blown at what he just witnessed.
A magic door?! A real magic door!
"Hurry or I'll leave you!" She exclaimed as she opened the door and walked into it. Riley quickly followed.
Suddenly, a blinding light hit Riley with made him flinch, then squint his eyes. Rubbing his eyes a bit he took another look, the sight amazed him. In front of him stood a giant mansion, actually it was more akin to a rather large castle. However in the distance of the castle were floating islands. Despite those two very attention drawing aspects the thing that Riley's eyes laid on the most was the horse with wings flying in the sky, often referred to as a..
"Pegasus??!!!" Riley shouted with a huge smile on his face.
Kiera's look turned from a bummed out look to an annoyed one. "The showoff." She would start walking again and Riley would follow. They entered the giant castles campus, which consisted of a beautiful garden—One that would rival even Eden. They followed a cobble stone path that led through the garden which contained trees which leaves drooped just over the heads of the path, vibrant grass and bushes that would probably sing if they could, and flowers that the boy has never even seen before. Though Riley was still processing the floating islands.
Eventually they took a left turn amongst the cobblestone path which exited the garden. Then lied in front of them a 10 foot door leading into the castle. Kiera would slightly tap on the door to open it. Inside was the hallway you'd expect a castle to have, paintings of people you don't know, a luscious red carpet and impeccable interior design. At the front there was a corridor which branched into two. Kiera led Riley would walk down the right one. As per usual he glanced around the surrounding area, his eyes moving in a multitude of ways. To his right was a window which showed the garden they were just in, around them stood people whom were staring at both Kiera and Riley. Riley was going to whisper to Kiera to ask her why they were staring.
"Shut up ignore it." Or not.
Eventually, they stopped and stood in front of another giant door, however this was around 7 feet tall. Kiera would walk in with Riley tagging just behind her. The room they entered appeared to be the room of a principals office—that was the closest thing to describe it. Looking forward sat a man behind a desk facing the giant window behind them, and looking to his right was a short old lady on a quite pricy looking couch. The man at the desk and crimson red hair with forest green eyes, his hair reached down to his legs. He wore a white collar shirt and black dress pants, with black dress shoes accommodating the pants. The old lady possessed white hair, and nice silver glasses, and a white blazer dress. The man rotated his chair around in an 250 degree angle, he would then give a scared look and proceed turn his chair around towards them. He attempted to do a villain chair spin, but failed. Getting a full look at the man he looked to be only 20 at best.
Kiera stared at him silently before speaking up, "Him" She gestured her thumb at Riley who looked at her, then the man. The man would smile.
"Finaaallyyyy It's been soo long little Goldfaire I was starting to get reeaall worried that you wouldn't have a boyfriend."
Kiera gave him a frustrated stare; even more so then she had earlier. Which made the man chuckle a bit. "hehe It was just a joke you know? I can teach you some if you want little Goldfaire."
Does she really hate me that much? I don't even know her! Well whatever, what's with these two... Wait, If this is kind of like the magic headquarters vibe I've been getting then that must me this guy is...
"You'd be correct Riley Farley, I am the head of the Magic Society."
Riley and Kiera looked stunned, Riley tried to shout however the man cut him off.
"Yes yes I know you're name *gasp* shocker! plot twist! Riley Farley you are the Chosen one!!! lol no but I won't stop you from dreaming it. Oh and before you asked because I know you will ask I'm basically Mr. Magic so yeah, knowing you're name isn't that hard."
The room fell silent, Riley had a defeated look on his face and decided not to speak, Kiera stood there annoyed at every single passing second, the old lady looked at peace watching the scene playing out in front of her, And The crimson haired man rest his fist on his cheek, smugly smiling.
"Ok so since you guys aren't gonna say anything I'll say some stuff kay. Riley Farley, You can call me Morgan, Mr. Morgan, sir, boss, god, king, hell even queen haha. Ok fine all jokes aside Farley I'm sure you're beyond confused because of what little Goldfaire over here did yesterday right?" Riley would do a quick nod to confirm.
"Well, You have questions right? I'm giving you a minute. Hit me."
"MAGIC! h-how!?"
"Magic doesn't come wasn't a concept made from fiction, it existed before fiction was even an concept. It's been with us since the very beginning, and because of that it evolved and adapted along side every single organism."
"e-evolved and adapted?"
"There are different types of Magic, Divination, Alchemy, Necromancy, Ritual, Extraplanar, Tarot, Belief, and the one little Goldfaire has—Summoning. Magic evolved by it being used more, and adapted to each persons needs and use of it, creating variety. There are more that we probably don't even know of though."
Riley thought about it for a second before responding, "So little Gol- I mean Kiera's magic... Normally you would expect the title of 'Summoning' Magic to be spawning Beast or Animals but because of evolution hers changed to Weapon Summoning magic is that right!!"
"Bingoooo I'm starting to like this guy!—next!"
"How has no one discovered magic?"
"The Magic Society is one of the earliest organizations ever created, we knew that publicity could endanger the world, so we make stuff secret ya know? Also there are these things called scrolls, reading and deciphering one will let you learn and spell that isn't exactly in your arsenal. One of the most common spells is to erase someone's memory if they have little to no mana, not to say these scrolls aren't extremely rare in itself—also mana is the thing we run on but you probably already guessed that!"
"How many people can actually wield magic?!"
"Not including our trainees, or people who shouldn't, about 2.5k? and counting."
"Okay now what about that ghoul guy? what was his deal!"
"blah blah blah exposition exposition"
"Huh what do you mean?!"
"Your times up dumbass." Kiera slapped the back of Riley's head, pretty hard.
Crap... I forgot about the time limit... but I can just ask Kiera or someone else later right... wait..
"Hold on, I know you said I only had a minute but.. Now that I'm here what's going to happen to me? you guys aren't gonna kill me right."
"Maybe!"
"I'd wish."
These two are the worst!
"Don't listen to them boy, You're gonna be fine." It was the old lady, who finally decided to speak up due to the unfair tag-team. "I'm surprised your partner didn't tell you though, seeming as you two will be working together from now on."
"uhm... partner..." wait.
Riley would slowly turn his head towards Kiera, who is now really in an unfruitful mood. Morgan would decide to speak up again.
"Thaaaaat's right you two starting today will be a ship! I think I'll call it Kiley... or maybe Riera? Any who little Goldfaire didn't want to tell you today because she was super sh-"
"Shut up you shitty leader!! Zip it! Zip!" Kiera would burst out in frustration. The old lady would once again begin to speak to Riley.
"Riley Farley, please listen up. When starting to go on missions the Magic Society council decided to make it so one person in the duo is the leader. Of course increasing you're status within the Magic Society can allow you to leave your partner and increase the amount of people that are allowed to go on missions with—if that's what you choose. The leader of this is called the 'Maestro'. The Maestro of the current Kiera and Riley party is..."
After what felt like forever, Kiera finally had a smirk on her face.
"Me of cour-" "Riley Farley, you will be the Maestro."
...
...
"HUH??!!"