Invitation Letter

"Hey bro Haruki, what's this bad feeling I'm getting from?"

The boy tried asking his older brother, but the boy didn't receive any response causing him to be worried.

"Hey… why aren't you answering…? Is there something wrong….?" Please… answer me."

Despite the boy's efforts to get his brother's attention, the boy received no response from his brother whatsoever. He ran towards his older brother and as he's about to touch him, his older brother instantly disappeared causing him to fall down.

"Ngh!"

"It hurts…"

As the boy is about to get up, his face frightened as he realizes that something is wrong. His whole body trembled and couldn't get up. He started breathing heavily as if he was exhausted. The boy is confused about his situation and couldn't understand what's happening to him.

*cough*

The next thing he saw caused his eyes to widen in fear as he saw a drop of blood below him. He touches his body out of curiosity and realizes that his hand is stained by blood from his body.

*COUGH*

He coughs again but this time he coughed with blood. At this moment, he finally grasped the situation around him as if he snapped back to reality. He could hear that everything around him is scorched in flame, he can hear the people screaming in despair from afar. He finds himself lethally injured, covered with blood and wounds around his body. Despair instilled him as he realized the situation around him.

"Hey…. this can't be real…. right….?"

*Pant*

*Pant*

"Please… no more…"

The people he lives with in the village are now being massacred as he helplessly can't do anything but witness everything fall before him in despair.

"Look what we got here?"

The boy was suddenly startled by a knight aiming the spear stained with blood at him.

"Is there anything for you to say, you filthy creatures? after your own kind tainted our kingdom and the world with your unforgivable malice?!"

Confusion, despair, guilt are what overflowed to his feelings by the knight's words for a moment.

Why… Why are they doing this? What exactly did we do to deserve this? For these innocent people's lives to be trampled on and taken away from them?

"How can you say such things… when you have that disgusting grin on your face…?"

After his sight blacks out, he finds himself waking out from his bed as if he's woken up from a nightmare.

"That same dream again huh? Except it gets a bit clearer in each dream. Just what are they exactly? I'll just ask gramps about this when I see him."

The young man stretches both of his arms while yawning before getting up on the bed. As he's about to get up, he noticed a letter on his table.

"Huh, what is this? It can't be…"

He immediately grabbed the letter as he recognized the stamp of the letter but he hesitates to do so.

Is it fine for me to open this letter? This letter might belong to gramps. Oh well, he's not here right now so it wouldn't be bad if I open this first right? It's on my table after all.

He proceeds to open the letter as he grins wickedly and starts reading the letter. His eyes suddenly widen as he realizes the letter was for him after his name was written next to "Dear". He continued reading the letter until he suddenly stopped midway.

"No way… Is this some kind of joke…?"

An invitation letter to take the entrance exam at the Novaria Royal Magic Academy. An elite academy where most highly skilled mages apply. Gramps told me that only nobles and royals were the only ones recorded that are skilled enough to pass the entrance exam throughout history. In other words, everyone whose classes below nobles weren't able to pass the entrance exam for the past centuries. Not a single one of them. Unless I read this whole thing, I won't be convinced. Besides, this might be one of gramps' pranks again.

Feeling skeptical about the letter, he continues to finish reading the letter. After a bit, he finally finishes the letter.

"I see… So it wasn't a joke or a prank at all."

But to think that they'd personally invite someone like me to take the entrance exam at an elite academy, isn't it a bit suspicious? I thought the letter was a prank since my name was written on the letter and only few people know my name since me and gramps live far away from the crowd and I'm not known or popular to anyone at all, so how? I'm certain that gramps told me my name is "Markus" however, my name on the letter was written as "Markus Mavros". My gramps never mentioned me having a last name either.

*Sigh*

I think I should put it aside for now. Might as well find out when and where the entrance exam will take place if I'm going to participate on this one.

…

He glances at the clock near his table to check the time and the shorter hand is pointing at IX while the longer one is pointing at V. A couple minutes later, he rushed out from the house and started sprinting towards the kingdom.

My name is Markus even though I'm not sure about my last name. 3 years ago gramps found me in the woods and adopted me. I don't know how or why I was in the woods but I have no memories about what happened. Even though he can be annoying sometimes, he took good care of me. After a few years of living with gramps, that dream I had earlier started to appear a year ago. As time passes, it appears in my dream more often. And each day it gets a bit more clearer. I tried to get my answers from gramps, but he keeps changing or turning down the subject everytime I ask. Maybe I could find my answers by taking the entrance exam and even learn amazing magic spells there.

The young man known as Markus, heads out to his destination with a determination on his face.

.

Meanwhile within the Royal Palace of Novaria, a female figure is seen wandering the hall. She wears a long purple dress and a cape with the same color. She appears to have dark purple hair that matches her attire along with her empty lavender eyes that matches her beautiful yet expressionless face. She walks around with her both hands clasped. Her servant who's concealed with a cloak suddenly appears behind her while kneeling its left leg.

"How did it go?"

"Everything went according to your plan, your highness."

"How about 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗽𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗼𝗻?"

"There are no signs of him responding yet, even after the letter was sent to him."

Her expression showed slight disappointment upon hearing it.

"Surveil the upcoming entrance exam until it ends."

"Yes, your highness."

Without a moment, her servant disappeared in an instant. After that, she walks around the hall again.

"Just wait a bit more… I'll definitely meet you again."

.

*Pant*

*Pant*

"Finally, after a long run I'm finally here."

Markus doesn't seem to sweat much despite running at full speed from his home. A moment later he froze as his eyes fixated at the entrance of the royal capital of Novaria. He couldn't help but be fascinated about it.

"Amazing.. So this is the royal capital? It's much more than I had imagined. I didn't expect it to be this huge."

I'm still not sure if I can actually find the answers that I'm looking for here. After all, I have to pass the entrance exam in order to find out who sent that invitation letter and seek answers from that person. This may also be a good opportunity for me to develop my magic.

"Alright, here I go."

He enters the royal capital filled with crowds to find the academy to take the entrance exam. As he finds his way towards his destination, he walks past the cloak person with concealed appearance as this person watches him pass by.

"Alright, seems like the time has come.. again."