I stared at the mirror, full of disbelief. This couldn't be me, could it? My face looked like what someone would see in some Korean series, carefully crafted through make-up and editing to make me look as handsome and cute as possible.
My black hair matched my abyss-like eyes. I had a sharp gaze to add. Honestly, I had to give myself some credit, I was a hotshot.
This was far from what I expected. I expected to look somewhat average, acceptable, not this. Seeing my face now, I began to question my origin again. No one with an ordinary background could look this good, if not then I was just lucky.
I leaned back from the mirror. It felt good having the looks, I couldn't lie. Which dude didn't want the good looks? I walked out of the bathroom and saw Andrew already placing his stuff, and yeah, this dude had to be joking.
Because why the hell were there two massive stuffed animals on his bed, like what the actual hell? That wasn't the worst, one was purple and the other was a light red shade. Bro couldn't even pick better colors.
I felt the urge to ask him if he liked dudes and if I should watch the way I interacted with him, but suddenly, a painting frame fell out of his bag. I rushed and grabbed it before it hit the ground.
I turned it around and saw a painting of a younger Andrew with a girl with purple hair. He rushed down from the bed and took the painting from me, like he didn't want me to see.
I got up and looked at him. He turned his head away and apologized. "Sorry for that, it's just this is precious to me," he said, holding the painting close to his chest.
"I understand. Is she a sibling or someone you love?" I asked him. He flinched slightly, so I knew it was one of the two. I leaned closer to love.
"She was my childhood crush, though she was a year older than me and far more skilled in magic than me. She is the reason that I came to the academy. She is a third year here," he explained, his voice barely loud enough for me to hear.
"You did it because you love her. She must really be lucky to have you," I said, but he shook his head.
"This painting of me and her was the last time we ever saw face to face. We drifted apart after that. She was a genius, and though I was talented, I couldn't keep up the gap.
Her parents took her away to train and get better, to utilize her talent. I did everything within my power to catch up, but I couldn't. Even now, the gap between me and her is great. She barely remembers who I am. I'm sure she has a better group of friends, something I can't be a part of." I saw tears gather in his eyes. His hands shook as he told me.
"Yet I hold on to this dumb dream that one day I'll be able to reach her." He wiped the tears from his eyes and then looked at me with a smile. "Sorry, I'm here telling you my sob story on our first day. I'm sure you see me as a bother now," he said, but he was wrong.
I stepped forward, grabbed him by the back of his head, and pulled him in for a hug. His eyes widened in shock.
"There is nothing bothersome about you. You are simply telling me of your dream. Others might see it as dumb, but I see it as a great thing. And I believe if she knew how much effort you put into getting here, she would take you in a heartbeat." The words left my mouth by themselves.
Andrew heard them. He buried his head in my shoulder, tears pouring from his eyes, staining me, but I didn't mind.
That was how I made my first friend of the academy. Andrew was a nice person with a simple yet heavily ambitious dream, and much like me, he never stopped chasing it. Even now, he was running after the dream.
Hearing him gave me much-needed motivation to start my own journey, and because of that, I swore in my heart that I'd help him as well, no matter what it took.
We spent time arranging our room. Classes started the next day, and we had to be ready for it. Night came soon. I sat at the table with a crystal lamp in my hand. I slowly read through the contents of my file.
I had a wind affinity, and that was all. There was no other description of which level I had reached in wind magic. But I understood the concept of ranking in this world through the games.
It all started from a one-star mage, capable of only casting beginner attack and defense spells, and if they used weapons, it was still basic uses of mana and spells.
The ranking went up to the fabled nine-star mage, also known as the supreme magus. In this world, magic was cast through a certain method: the spell used to activate the flow from the magic core, the right imagination to go along with the spell, and the release through the mana veins.
It sounded like a simple process, but doing those three at the same time was extremely hard, and if done wrong, it could lead to backlash.
It would take me a while to get into the flow of things in this world, considering the fact that I didn't have any memories. Luckily, I had the space, which would allow me to progress twice as fast. All I needed to do was put in a lot of effort.
Effort wasn't foreign to me. As a former final-year college student that learned a course like mechanical engineering and still dabbled in electrical and software stuff, I still managed to play the game every day. I knew how to delegate time and work efficiently. I'd catch up in no time for sure.