Auran Malckoy stood in the corridor leading to his room, gazing at the darkness that swallowed the hallway. Just a moment before, he had been in the headmaster's office and received his final allowance from his family.
He was a member of the proud Malckoy family, a family that bound its name to magic. In this family, every member was a remarkable magic user who pressured themselves to be masters of magic.
"Master of Magic" was a title that the most noble of the Malckoy house held. Bearing this name meant that one had mastered the field of magic they chose to follow and had acquired unique powers for themselves. For the Malckoy family, the title of Master of Magic was their whole purpose and end goal. Household members would start to pursue this dream from an early age, beginning with the academy run by the Malckoy family.
There, the Malckoy family descendants would first choose a field they would want to pursue, and to graduate from the academy, one must develop their own theory. It was then that the Malckoy family would acknowledge their descendant as their own.
If the candidate failed to develop their own theory in magic, they could still graduate from the academy, but not as a direct descendant of the Malckoy family. That person would also lose the aid of the family and the pathway to becoming a Master of Magic.
So for Auran, receiving his final allowance from the family meant that he was on the verge of being expelled as a direct descendant of the Malckoy family, and if that happened, the dream of becoming a Master of Magic would become an almost impossible feat.
It had been four years since he enrolled in the academy, and others who enrolled the same year as him had already graduated after developing theories in the fields of magic they chose and started walking their own paths.
But Auran was still here at the academy. He had not developed a theory in the field he had chosen.
"Where did it go wrong?"
Auran gazed at the darkness, feeling emptiness inside, just like it. Developing a new theory in magic is not an easy feat an ordinary magician could achieve, but members of the Malckoy family are anything but ordinary. From an early age, they shows exceptional talent in magic, and their aptitude for magic was far higher than anyone else's in other noble family's.
In terms of understanding, the Malckoy family inherently shows smarter and more intelligent traits for their age. Being able to develop a new theory in magic to be accepted into the direct lineage is the only test that fits those with gifted talent and aptitude.
Auran was the same; he had remarkable aptitude for magic and was pursued by many to be highly intelligent in learning about magic. He was proud before entering the academy and had dreamed of developing a remarkable theory in a field of magic.
But when years passed, it all shook and crumbled, and the once-praised Auran is now forgotten by all. He was unable to develop a new theory in the field he chose and thus is stuck in the same damned place for years.
Time... That was the field he had chosen, a field of magic that was so mysterious and scarce that only a handful of magicians would choose to follow this path. But despite knowing how difficult it would be to follow this path, Auran had chosen it because he felt drawn to the twisted and mysterious nature this field held.
However, it was only after he had chosen that path and studied it for a while that he realized he was walking a doomed path. The knowledge about time magic was too few, and the only handful of magicians who had succeeded in this path kept their knowledge to themselves, making the time path even harder to study.
Without any clear guidance on how to successfully step into the path of time, Auran became stuck from the beginning.
Many had told him to abandon this doomed path. But Auran was determined to figure out a way for himself. He had endured years of difficulty on this path and managed to scratch out a few pieces of knowledge that he thought would be useful.
"This time it should work."
He managed to convince himself with those few words and regained a bit of confidence.
"Auran, why are you still outside?"
A voice came from behind him. Auran looked back and saw a young boy who appeared to be the same age as him. However, the truth was that the young boy was much younger than Auran but had a very promising future.
"Henry, I should ask you the same thing."
It is restricted for children to stay outside their dorm rooms after midnight. However, Auran had come out of the headmaster's office just a minute before midnight, so he would be able to defend himself if something happened. But Henry was different; although he would graduate this year, it didn't make him exempt from the law.
"Felt a bit hungry."
There was a bag in Henry's hand, and Auran smelled a sweet scent from it.
Henry was dressed in white and had dark shades under his pupils that Auran managed to see even in the distance. His eyes were red in color, and his sharp teeth slightly became visible when he talked.
"You've gone outside of the academy, how did you do that?"
"I just walked out through the gate, although there was a guard, they ignored me."
His answers perplex Auran, but only for a second before he remembered that Henry was not an ordinary student. He was a prodigy when it came to the path of curse magic he had chosen. Similar to time magic, curse magic was also a sacred path, and those who walked this path were feared and respected by others.
"wanna join me?"
Henry slightly revealed what was inside the bag, and Auran saw that it was honey buns. Incredibly soft and sweet honey buns. After receiving his final allowance, Auran was destined to spend his money carefully, and he knew for a long time that something expensive like honey buns would be out of his reach.
After knowing that, he craved it even more.
Although Henry was a prodigy, he was not as much of a show-off as others. He was still a bit humble and had become friends with Auran, who had been at the academy years before he came. So, they had a pretty close friendship.
After agreeing to Henry's offer, the two come to Henry's dorm. Before opening the door, Henry glances at the word "Apprentice Magician" hanging on it.
"This won't be here for long," he remarks.
His words are like a sword thrust past Auran's heart.
"Good for you," he manages to blurt out, forcing the words through his throat with great difficulty. The title Apprentice Magician is the beginning title of a magician, and only if someone passes graduation would they be titled as a Graduated Magician — a title somewhat respected in society.
"If you had abandoned that doomed oath and chosen a different one, you would have graduated long before me."
Opening the door, the two enter Henry's room. It is a clean and spacious room with a few comfy pieces of furniture.
"Let's enjoy it while we can, since I'm not sure I'll be here next month," Henry place the honey buns upon a table and sat down on a cushion sofa beside it.
"You'll be graduating," Auran gaze at Henry without reaching for the buns.
There is no fixed time for a candidate to graduate from the academy. Although commonly it takes at least two years for someone to graduate, the time mostly depends on the talent someone shows. If a student develops their theory and manages to prove it, they could graduate almost instantly.
"The Head Committee requests my presence next week to prove my theory, so that would lead to my graduation at the end of this month," Henry explains.
Auran doesn't feel jealous hearing him; instead, he felt envy — if only he were able to develop a theory for himself, or if there were any source material for him to properly step into the path of Time, like the Curse Magic has things would have been different.
But Auran soon denied his hopes, for now he knew that hoping for impossible things was pointless. There was no source material for the Path of Time, and if one wanted to invest in it, they had to invent the source material themselves — a feat that only a highly experienced magician could manage.
"Are you interested in looking at my theory for a few seconds before I present it to the Head Committee?" Henry offered Auran a honey bun while looking into his eyes.
It was then Auran realized Henry had a hidden motive for inviting him for a treat. When Auran first came to the academy, he was popular for being a prodigy, and everyone had high expectations for him. Although now most of them had forgotten about him, there were still a few who remembered how talented Auran was and would suggest others ask him for advice before presenting their theories to the Head Committee.
"I would love to," Auran agreed.
Henry soon demonstrated his new theory of Curse Magic.
Curse Magic was closely related to Soul Magic, and high-level Curse Magic users could observe the souls of other beings. The theory Henry developed was called Curse Suppression. It was a spell he had designed to break other curses using one powerful curse.
After observing the theory Henry had handed to him, Auran added a few suggestions of his own. To seek an entry point into Time Magic, Auran had even studied other fields of magic, and because of that, he had a lot of knowledge about every magic field there was. Even a professor at the academy would feel inferior to him when it came to common knowledge of magic.
"It's a shame. With the knowledge you have, if you had focused in any other direction, you would have still been a prodigy to this day. Are you still determined to follow that same path?" asked Henry, after adjusting his theory with some of the tips he received from Aurun.
Seeing how easily Auran assisted him, Henry realized that Aurun was a true prodigy — someone who could have been a pillar of this generation if he had chosen any other path to follow instead of the path of Time, which was immensely hard to pursue with the tiny amount of source material available for study.
Henry had once tried to follow the path of time magic with the curiosity he had toward it. Time is the most revered and respected path, and those who master it tend to be more mysterious and powerful than others. But Henry soon found out how hard it was to follow this path. Other than having very few resources to study from, one also had to possess remarkable comprehension to follow this path.
And more than that, one needed to invent their own theory just to first access the magic of time to begin with.
Seeing all this, Henry wisely abandoned that path and chose the path of curse magic instead—another path respected just as highly as time magic, but with more source material available and lower difficulty in comprehension.
Auran felt the compassion behind Henry's words, and he felt grateful for it. But Auran knew he stood in a place where he couldn't change his path.
To abandon the path of time... it was impossible. He had sacrificed everything for it. His young mind refused to give up until he saw the fruits of his efforts.
"I think I'm closer to a breakthrough, so yes, I'm still determined,"
It wasn't a complete lie. After years of effort, Auran had a hunch forming in his mind—something he hadn't completely figured out yet.
. . . . . .
After bidding farewell to Henry, Auran stepped out from his room and made his way toward his own room. Passing countless doors, he came to the corridor that led to his room and walked into the dim light.
Because of the rules of the academy, no one was allowed to be up at night, and throughout Auran's whole walk, he did not see anyone in sight.
If not for Auran being a veteran senior in the academy, the lonely corridor in the cold night would have definitely scared him to the bone.