Chapter 2: Crimson Grimoire

Lucius entered one of the first year's lecture rooms, he belonged to one of many first-year classes. He directly headed towards the seat at the back beside the window, he sat down and stare outside through the window, the clear blue sky and drifting pure white clouds calm his heart and cleared his mind, this is his favourite time of the day where he can just relax and think of nothing, but his rare found peace quickly ended when their professor entered the room.

" good morning everyone, today we will talk about Grimoires..." The professor's words halt when his gaze landed on Lucius.

" Oh, Mister Limerick, I didn't know that you are still here in the Academy? " The professor said in a mocking tone with a grin on his face.

The professor's name is Ronald Fletcher he is from the Fletcher Family, they are one of the noble families that have close ties with the Academy.

Augurn Magic Academy is a neutral faction that is situated in the Rivel Kingdom, the founder of the Academy is a Sage named Anthony Augurn, he is one of the wanderers that liberated this land that they now call the Rivel Kingdom he is one of the companions of the founder of the Rivel Kingdom, the first king, Gerald Rivel, while the first king's other companions chose to be the first noble of the kingdom, the Sage Anthony Augurn chose to build a Magic Academy, he is a man who wants pursue the limits of magic, that is why instead of vying for power and authority he decided to make his own Magic Academy, and one of the rule he made when he created the Academy is that it must Damian neutral as long as it stands, and that rule has always been followed by the Headmaster of the Academy, but as time goes by the nobles is slowly penetrating the interior of the Academy and are slowly using it for their own selfish desires, though the academy might appear neutral from the outside, but the inside the academy is filled with corruption.

Professors like Ronald Fletcher are one of the reasons why the other students bully Lucius and other kids because they bully their students, when the students saw these kinds of behaviour they think that it is fine to bully others and that they can get away with it, but there are still other professor's who are concerned about this type of behaviour and they punish those who bully other students, but they are small in numbers and do not hold a high authority, plus most of them came from humble backgrounds that is why even their fellow professors look down in them.

When Lucius heard professor Fletcher's mocking words his face didn't show any emotions and just attend blankly at the professor, being bullied for two years straight, this kind of mockery does affect Lucius anymore, he's heard every kind of insult and so this kind of treatment is nothing new to him.

" Oh well, I am sure that I won't see you next year so do what you want " professor Fletcher added and then he proceeded to write something on the board.

But when Lucius heard his words there is a certain kind of pain that stab his heart, he knows what the professor is talking about.

' yearly assessment' Lucius sighed, the yearly assessment is a type of examination that tests the students' progress, for the students of the higher years their magic capabilities are tested while for the first year students it is the most important day in their life because this assessment will determine their future, during the assessment, other than theoretical examination that will test their basic understanding of mana and other magic related topics, the first year students will also try to summon their Grimoires.

Grimoires are magical books that every person who wants to be a Mage must have, Grimoires contain the magic spells that they can learn, and it also determines their elemental affinities based on the colour of their Grimoire.

The color of the Grimoire represents their respective element, Orange Grimoire means that a Mage has the fire affinity, meaning he or she can learn fire-based magic spells, Blue Grimoire is water, Green is plant, yellow is earth, grey is wind, those are the main magic elements, there other elements besides the five main elements and those are the light element if someone managed to summon a white Grimoire that means they have the affinity of light, black Grimoire is the dark element, these two elements are extremely rare but they are powerful as well, the chances of a dark or light element to appear is one in ten million, but there are other rare elements than dark and light but they're not as powerful and appears one in a thousand, like the lighting, steam, metal, smoke, poison, etc.

There are countless elements in this world and even with thousands of years of magic, the Mages and sages do not dare say that new elements won't appear.

...

After Lucius and Professor Fletcher's short interaction, the lecture started, today's lesson is about mana control, Lucius already knows what the topic is about since he's been in the first year for two years now but he still pays attention to every lecture.

Hours passed and the lecture ended,m as it is now lunchtime, students left the room to go to the cafeteria where they can eat, but Lucius just stayed in the classroom since he already knew what would welcome him in the cafeteria, another set of bullying that is why he decided to skip lunch and stay inside the classroom.

A few minutes later a group of kids entered the room, they are all wearing orange robes, and the last one of them is carrying a trash can.

" Hey trash, do you think you can avoid us by staying here? Hahahahaha " it is the same white-haired kid who beat him up the other day, his name is Elton Fletcher, and he is from the same family as professor Ronald Fletcher.

Elton Fletcher grabbed Lucius' hair and slapped him, but Lucius cannot do anything about it, he fight back he will get beat up and the professors will definitely call us and if that happened Professor Fletcher will use it as an excuse to kick him out, he will not wait to kick him out of the Academy even though the yearly assessment in only a few months away.

" Do it! " Elton said to the one holding a trash can, then he threw it towards Lucius, he is now drenched in the garbage and it smells really bad.

" Hahahahaha let's go " Elton and his lackeys left the room laughing, while Lucius remained in his seat with trash all over his body, he stared at Elton and the others' leaving backs, when they finally left the room Lucius sighed and removed some of the garbage on his head a shoulder but he cannot be bothered to go to the bathroom to wash up, he gave up.

When lunch break ended the student entered the classroom, and what welcomes them is the stench coming out from Lucius, they immediately covered their noses and those who sit near Lucius, picked up their things and moved to a different seat.

A few minutes later the next professor came in she smells something bad, and when she saw Lucius her expression turned ugly.

" Get out of the room! " She screamed at Lucius, but Lucius just shrugged his shoulders and left the room.

That is the last class of the day and since he cannot attend it he decided to leave the Academy and go home.

...

In the tallest tower inside the Campus of the Academy, an old man with a head full of white hair and a long beard wearing a simple black robe is standing in front of the window watching Lucius leave the campus.

" Is that him? " The old man asked.

" Yes, Headmaster, he is Lucius Limerick " a man with red hair wearing an orange robe with the symbol of the Academy answered.

The old man watching Lucius is the Headmaster of the Academy.

" Hhhhhmmmm, I see, what can you say about that kid Ramus," the Headmaster asked.

" Well he is not my student but from what I can see, he's a silent type of kid maybe because of his circumstances, he never causes trouble even though other students make trouble for him " Ramus answered.

Ramus is a professor that specializes in fighting, he was once a royal mage that completed several difficult missions that made him famous and were nicknamed the Flame Tyrant but for some reason, he left the ranks of the Royal Mages and joined the Academy as a Professor of offensive spells and magic combat.

" Do you think he will be able to summon his Grimoire this year?" Headmaster asked.

" I doubt it, Headmaster, from what I can see he didn't make a lot of progress this year " Ramus answered.

" Okay, that's all you may leave, " Headmaster said as he continues to face the window, Lucius left the academy premises already and now the Headmaster is staring at the clouds in the sky.

Ramus bowed and left the Headmaster's office.

...

Inside the Limerick mansion.

Lucius is sitting on the floor inside his room holding a knife.

' okay this is it '

He then slashed his wrist with the knife.

Blood spurted out then he slowly fell as his vision gets blurry and his mind dizzy, but despite all that there is a smile on his face as if he has found the answer he's been looking for.

' mom I can now see you again, I know I promised you that I will live a fulfilling life, but it's too much this world it's cruel ' Lucius has had enough.

Tears flow down his eyes as he remembers his loving mom.

Blood from his wrist dyed the floor red, but something strange happened when his blood touched the old ring his mother gave him.

' now Lucius promise me that you will never take this ring off your finger okay'

His mom said when she gave Lucius the old ring as a present on his birthday, though he doesn't understand why he nodded regardless and from then on he never remove the ring from his finger.

The ring glowed in crimson when Lucius' blood touched it then suddenly it floats and slowly turned into a crimson-coloured book.