The morning sun came through my window and made patterns on the stone floor. I was already awake. I was always awake now. Sleep was something I could do if I wanted, but I didn't need to. Most nights I just lay there thinking. Last night I had thought about the fights with my squad. The way Luck's lightning had felt. The way Magna's new spell had pushed me back. The way Gordon had cried when I called him a friend.
It was strange having feelings again. Good strange. Like when you hold your breath without knowing it and then finally let it out.
I got up and put on my Black Bulls robe. The black fabric was soft from being washed. The gold trim caught the light. I still wasn't used to wearing it. A year ago I was living in a cave in the jungle, eating mana beasts and burning myself to build resistance. Now I had a room and a squad and people who called me friend.
Life was weird.
I went down to the common room. Everyone was already there. Charmy was in the kitchen making something that smelled like sugar and butter. Vanessa was on the couch with her morning wine. Luck was hanging from the ceiling again. Magna was trying to fix his cracked sunglasses with tape. Gordon was in the corner mumbling about how nice the weather was. Grey was a lamp.
Asta was doing push-ups in the middle of the floor.
"NINETY-EIGHT! NINETY-NINE! ONE HUNDRED!" He jumped up and threw his arms in the air. "That's my morning warm-up! Now I'm ready for the day! What are we doing today? Are we training again? Going on a mission? Eating breakfast? I want to do all three at the same time!"
"We can't do all three at the same time," Magna said.
"Not with that attitude!"
Finral was fixing his hair in a broken mirror on the wall. He had put on his nicest robe. The one without any holes or stains. He was practicing his smile in the reflection, trying different angles.
"Today is the mixer!" he said, turning to face us. "This afternoon! Me, Luck, Asta, and Ouga. We're going to the capital to meet girls! Real girls! Who might actually talk to us because we're Magic Knights now!"
"I still don't get what a mixer is," Asta said. He had stopped doing push-ups and was sitting on the floor with his head tilted. "But Finral said there's going to be cake. So I'm going."
"There will be cake," Finral said. "And girls. Mostly girls. The cake is just to get the girls to stay."
"That sounds like a trap."
"It's not a trap! It's socializing!"
"Same thing."
Noelle was sitting at the table pretending to read a book. But she hadn't turned a page in five minutes. Her eyes kept looking over at me. When she saw me notice, she went red and looked back at her book so fast I thought she might hurt her neck.
"Stupid mixer," she muttered. "Who even goes to mixers anyway. It's a waste of time. Magic Knights should be training. Not... socializing."
"You could come if you want," Asta said.
"I don't want to come! Why would I want to come?! I have better things to do!"
"Like what?"
"Like... reading! Reading is important! Royals read lots of books!"
"You've been on the same page for ten minutes."
"IT'S A VERY LONG PAGE!"
I was about to say something when the door opened. Yami walked in. He was wearing his captain robe and smoking his morning cigarette. His eyes went straight to me.
"Ouga. My office. Now."
The room went quiet. Yami's voice wasn't angry. It was serious. The kind of serious he only got when something important was happening. Even Luck stopped swinging from the ceiling.
I followed him to his office. It was a small room at the back of the castle. Papers were everywhere. On the desk. On the floor. On the windowsill. Some of them looked really old, like they had been there since before I joined the squad. Yami didn't seem to care. He sat down in his chair and put his feet on the desk.
"Close the door."
I closed it.
"You're not going to the mixer today."
I didn't say anything. I just waited.
"The Wizard King wants to see you." Yami took a long drag of his cigarette. The smoke curled up toward the ceiling. "Today. In a few hours. Alone. No squad. No backup. Just you."
That was unexpected. The Wizard King was the most powerful mage in the kingdom. The leader of all the Magic Knight squads. He didn't meet with random new recruits. Especially not ones from the worst squad.
"Why?" I asked.
"Because of what happened in Saussy Village." Yami blew smoke toward the window. "Those Eye of the Midnight Sun guys. The leader you killed. He said their boss warned them about you. That means they know who you are. That means you're on their list."
He took his feet off the desk and leaned forward. His eyes were hard.
"The Wizard King wants to know everything. What they said. What they wanted. Why they're after you. How much you know about them. All of it. So you're going to the capital. Today. Not to some mixer. To the royal palace."
"When do I leave?"
"Now. Or soon. The meeting is at noon. Don't be late." Yami put his cigarette out in an ashtray that was already overflowing. "The Wizard King is a nice guy. Patient. Understanding. But he doesn't like waiting. And he really doesn't like being kept in the dark about threats to the kingdom."
"I understand."
Yami looked at me for a long moment. His eyes were hard to read. "You okay with this? Talking about what happened? I know you've got history with these cult freaks."
"I'm fine."
"You sure? Because the way you crushed that guy's face didn't look fine. It looked personal."
"It was personal. But I can handle it."
Yami nodded slowly. "Alright. But if the Wizard King asks you something and you don't want to answer... just tell him. He'll understand. He's good like that. Better than most people in power."
"I'll remember."
"Good." Yami leaned back in his chair. "Now get out of here. Go get ready. And don't tell the others where you're going."
"Why not?"
"Because Asta will want to come. And I don't have the energy to deal with that."
I went back to the common room. Everyone looked at me when I walked in. Asta was practically bouncing.
"What did the captain want? Was it a mission? Are we going on another mission?! Is it something cool?! Is it something dangerous?! Is it both?!"
"It wasn't a mission," I said.
"Then what was it?"
"Just a private talk. Nothing important."
Asta looked disappointed. His shoulders slumped. "Oh. Okay. Well, you're still coming to the mixer today, right? Finral said there's going to be cake! Three kinds of cake! Chocolate and vanilla and some kind of berry one!"
I shook my head. "I can't go."
"WHAT?! WHY NOT?!"
"I have somewhere else to be."
"Where?! What's more important than cake?!"
"Something the captain asked me to do."
Asta's mouth opened and closed. He looked at Finral. Then back at me. Then at Finral again. "But... but the mixer... the cake... the girls Finral promised would maybe talk to us..."
"I'm sorry."
"This is terrible! The worst thing that's ever happened! First Yuno gets a four-leaf grimoire and now this!"
"That happened years ago."
"THE PAIN IS STILL FRESH!"
Noelle looked up from her book. Her eyes were curious. And maybe a little relieved. "You're not going to the mixer?"
"No."
"Oh." She looked back at her book. Her face was doing something she was trying to hide. A small smile that she was fighting to keep down. "Well. That's... that's fine. I mean, I don't care either way. It's not like I was worried or anything."
"Were you worried?"
"NO!" She slammed her book shut. Her face was bright red. "Why would I be worried?! You can do whatever you want! You're a grown... well, you're not grown, but you're big! You can make your own choices! I'm not your keeper!"
Vanessa laughed from the couch. "Sure you're not, princess."
"I'M NOT!"
"Your face says different."
"MY FACE SAYS NOTHING! IT'S JUST HOT IN HERE!"
Magna walked over and clapped me on the shoulder. "Whatever the captain asked you to do, good luck. And if you need backup, just send word. We'll come running."
"Even if it's dangerous?" I asked.
"Especially if it's dangerous. That's what squadmates do."
Gordon appeared beside me. I hadn't heard him come over. His voice was so quiet only I could hear. "...if you need help... I'll come too... my poison magic might be useful... I want to help my friend..."
"Gordon wants to help too," I told the room.
"...he translated for me again... Ouga is such a good friend..."
Charmy came out of the kitchen carrying a small box. "Here! Take this! It's snacks for the road! I made them fresh this morning! There's mana beast jerky and honey cakes and some of those berry tarts you liked last week!"
I took the box. "Thank you, Charmy senpai."
"Just bring the box back! And maybe some ingredients from the capital if you see anything interesting! Their spice market is supposed to be amazing!"
Finral was already heading toward the door with Luck and Asta. He turned back and gave me a sad look. "I'll save you some cake. If there's any left. Which there probably won't be because Asta eats everything."
"I do not eat everything!" Asta protested.
"You ate three chickens last night."
"That was a training snack!"
"That's not what training snack means!"
I went to the broom shed and picked out the same reinforced broom I'd used for the Saussy Village mission. The wood was warm from the morning sun. The bristles were a little singed from Magna's fire training last week. But it still flew straight.
Noelle appeared in the doorway of the shed. She was holding her grimoire against her chest like a shield. Her face was doing that thing again where she was trying to look proud but actually looked nervous.
"You're really not coming to the mixer," she said.
"No."
"Is it... is it because of what I said yesterday? About mixers being stupid? Because I didn't mean it. Well, I did mean it, but I didn't mean you shouldn't go if you wanted to go. I just meant—"
"It's not because of what you said."
"Oh." She was quiet for a second. "What kind of business is it?"
"I can't say."
"Is it dangerous?"
"I don't think so."
Another pause. Noelle's fingers tightened on her grimoire. "If it was dangerous, you would tell me, right? So I could... so the squad could back you up?"
"I would tell the captain. He would decide if the squad needed to know."
"That's not—" She stopped herself. Her face went through about three different shades of red. "Fine. Whatever. Go do your secret business. See if I care."
"I know you care."
"I DON'T care!"
"You're blushing."
"I'M NOT BLUSHING! IT'S JUST HOT IN THE SHED!"
"It's cold in here. The window is broken."
"THEN IT'S COLD BLUSHING! FROM THE COLD! IT HAPPENS ALL THE TIME! GOODBYE!"
She stomped away. Her silver hair bounced with each step. Her grimoire was still clutched against her chest like armor. I watched her go.
Vanessa appeared beside me with a wine glass in her hand. She must have followed Noelle out here. She was smiling in that way she did when she knew something you didn't.
"You know she likes you, right?"
"She's my squadmate."
"That's not what I said."
"She's a royal. I'm a commoner. And we're both fifteen."
"Love doesn't care about age or blood status." Vanessa took a sip of her wine. "But you already know that, don't you? You're not as dense as Asta. You just don't know what to do with it."
"I know what to do. Nothing. We're Magic Knights. We have more important things to focus on."
Vanessa laughed. "You sound like a captain already. But feelings don't go away just because you have important things to do. Trust me. I've tried."
She walked away before I could answer. Her wine glass left a wet ring on the windowsill.
I swung my leg over the broom and kicked off from the ground. The wind caught my robe and made it flap behind me. The castle got smaller and smaller as I climbed into the sky.
The capital spread out below me as I flew. White buildings. Red roofs. The royal palace in the center, its towers reaching toward the clouds like they were trying to touch heaven. The floating squad headquarters circled slowly above it all. The Golden Dawn's castle gleamed like a jewel in the morning sun. The Silver Eagles' fortress was cold and sharp like its captain. And somewhere down there, in a restaurant I couldn't see, Asta was probably eating cake and Finral was probably striking out with girls and Luck was probably challenging someone to a fight.
I would have laughed if I was the kind of person who laughed easily.
The Wizard King's castle had guards at every entrance. They checked my robe and my grimoire and my identity. One of them, a big man with a scar on his chin, looked at the wheel behind my head with wide eyes.
"That's... that's really something," he said.
"I know."
"Does it do anything?"
"It turns."
"That's it?"
"That's enough."
He let me through. The inside of the castle was all marble floors and tall windows and paintings of old Magic Knights on the walls. My footsteps echoed as I walked. Servants hurried past me with stacks of papers. Assistants ran from room to room carrying messages. The whole place felt alive in a way the Black Bulls base never did.
I was shown to a waiting room. Big chairs covered in red velvet. A table with water and small cakes on a silver tray. A window that looked out over the capital. I sat down and waited. The chair was too soft. I wasn't used to soft things.
The door opened exactly at noon.
Julius Novachrono walked in. He was younger than I expected. The stories said he was over forty, but he looked maybe twenty-five. His purple eyes were bright and curious like a kid looking at something new. His blond hair was messy like he'd been running his hands through it. He wore the Wizard King's robes—the fanciest clothes in the whole kingdom—like they were just regular everyday clothes.
"Hasegawa Ouga!" He smiled and sat down across from me. His smile was real. Not the fake kind that nobles did. The kind that reached his eyes. "I've been wanting to meet you for weeks. Ever since the exam. A grimoire with a wheel instead of a clover. The ability to adapt to anything. Fascinating. Absolutely fascinating."
He leaned forward and looked at the wheel behind my head. His eyes were wide with curiosity.
"It's visible now. To anyone with enough mana, I mean. Does it always turn like that? What happens if you stop adapting? Does it stop turning? Does it turn the other way? Can you make it go faster? Does it ever get tired? What's the most things you've adapted to at once?"
"One question at a time," I said.
"Sorry, sorry." He waved his hand. "I get excited about new magic. It's a bad habit. My advisors tell me I should be more serious. More kingly. But how can I be serious when there's so much interesting magic in the world?" He pointed at the wheel. "And yours is very new. Completely unprecedented, actually. I've been Wizard King for years and I've never seen anything like it."
He settled back in his chair. His expression became more serious. Not angry. Just focused. Like he was putting his curiosity away for a minute to deal with important things.
"But you know why you're here."
"The Eye of the Midnight Sun."
"Yes." He folded his hands on his lap. "Captain Yami gave me a report about what happened in Saussy Village. The robed mages. The mist magic. The leader who tried to recruit you. And what he said before you killed him."
I didn't flinch at the word "killed." It was a fact. I had killed Heath Graice. I would kill more of them if I got the chance. The Wizard King didn't seem bothered by it either. He said it like he was talking about the weather.
"He said their boss warned them about me," I said. "A man named Licht. He said my grimoire was unique and I was too dangerous for anyone below the Third Eye to handle."
"Third Eye?" The Wizard King leaned forward again. "What's that?"
"Their strongest members. Below their leader. I don't know how many there are. But the one I killed—Heath Graice—said he wasn't one of them. He was just a regular member. He said the Third Eye were on a completely different level."
The Wizard King nodded slowly. "This matches with other things we've heard. Small attacks on villages. Mana being stolen. People going missing. All connected to this group. But until Saussy Village, we didn't have a name. Eye of the Midnight Sun. And we didn't know they had a leader called Licht."
"They're organized. More organized than bandits or rebels. They have ranks and specific orders. Heath said they wanted to sacrifice the commoners for the greater good of humanity. He called it a revolution."
"A revolution." The Wizard King's voice was heavy. "There are always people who want revolution. The gap between nobles and commoners has been growing for years. I've tried to fix it, but change is slow. Too slow for some."
"He also said something else." I paused. "He said they were taking mana from commoners. Draining it from their bodies with some kind of device. The village I grew up in—a small place in the Forsaken Realm—was attacked a year ago. Everyone was killed. Children. Old people. A priest who raised me. The symbol on the attackers' pendants was the same as the ones in Saussy Village."
The Wizard King's face changed. The curiosity was still there, but now there was something softer underneath. Sadness. Understanding.
"That's why you killed him."
"Yes."
"Not because he was a threat to the village. Not because he was a terrorist. But because he was part of the group that destroyed your home."
"He was both. But yes. That's why."
Julius was quiet for a moment. He stood up and walked to the window. The capital spread out below him. Thousands of people going about their lives. Shopping at markets. Playing with their kids. Eating lunch. Not knowing about the cult gathering in the shadows.
"I won't tell you that revenge is wrong," he said. "I've been a Magic Knight long enough to know that some things can't be forgiven. Some people don't deserve forgiveness. But I will tell you this." He turned to look at me. His purple eyes were serious. "Don't let revenge consume you. I've seen it happen to good people. They lose themselves in the hunt. They forget why they started. And when they finally catch what they're chasing, there's nothing left of who they used to be."
I thought about the emotional nullification. The year I spent without feelings. The cold void where my heart used to be. I had already lost myself once. I had already been consumed. And somehow, against all odds, I had found my way back.
"I know," I said. "I came back from it."
The Wizard King studied me for a moment. Then he nodded. "Yes. I think you do."
He walked back to his chair and sat down. "Alright. I'm going to give you a special assignment. Unofficial. Off the books. If anyone asks, you're just doing regular Magic Knight work."
"What's the assignment?"
"Keep doing what you're doing. Protect your squad. Protect the innocent. And if you run into the Eye of the Midnight Sun again..." He paused. "Gather information. We need to know where they're based. How many members they have. What they're planning. If you can capture one alive, do it. But I won't order you to show mercy to people who burned your village."
I nodded. "I understand."
"Good." He stood up and held out his hand. I shook it. His grip was firm but not aggressive. The grip of someone who had power but didn't need to prove it. "I'll be watching your career with great interest, Hasegawa Ouga. Try not to destroy too many buildings."
"That depends on the buildings."
He laughed. A real laugh. "I like you. Now go. Your squad probably needs you. The Black Bulls have a habit of causing chaos when unsupervised."
I left the castle and flew back toward the base. The sun was starting to set. The sky was orange and pink and purple. Like someone had spilled paint across the clouds. Somewhere in the capital, Finral was probably crying into his drink and Asta was probably asking for more cake and Luck was probably banned from another restaurant.
But that was fine. They were my squad. My strange, loud, broken squad.
And for the first time in a long time, I was glad to be going home.
(Go and read my first own novel named"Muscle System: in the world of mana " peace ✌️ 🕊️)