CHAPTER 1: The Xavier Academy for Magic

It was the start of a new school year for Xavier Academy. Old students gathered in the campus grounds catching up and merrily chatting with their friends while new students stood there observing their surroundings as they were either looking for a familiar face or just waiting for someone to talk to them, afraid that they might give out a bad impression.

Always the same scene every school year. This is what Professor Constantine Ignis concluded after watching the students on the campus grounds with cigarettes pressed on his mouth. He stared sheepishly and gave a sigh of relief as if to voice out his disinterest.

"There you are!" Someone yelled. That surprised the Professor, making him almost drop his cigarette.

"The head mistress is looking for you!" the young man told the professor as he approached him.

"Oh Luke. . " He greeted the young man who was giving him a stern face.

Luke was taken aback when the overpowering smell of the cigarette smoke penetrated through his nose.

"That habit will kill you!" Luke retorted as he covered his nose as he greatly disliked the smell of cigarettes.

"What can I say, I love my cigarette." was all the professor had to say before reaching his pocket for another stick to light.

Luke didn't pay heed to whatever remarks the professor had to say as he was already tired of arguing with him when it comes to his vices. So he chose to ignore his argument and continued to nag him in order to make him hurry up as the headmistress was waiting for him.

"You don't want to ignore the head mistress' summons and you know what happened the last time you made her wait." He taunted the professor.

Luke saw the professor shiver at the thought. It was not good to be on the headmistress' bad side.

Despite Professor Constantine being infamous for being laid back and doing whatever he likes, he could never defy the headmistress as he once told Luke how scared he was of her.

As to how scary the headmistress could be, Luke could only imagine as the professor dreaded telling it to him whenever he asked about it.

Constantine gave out a deep sigh and slid his cigarette back in his pocket. He tugged his coat and combed his hair with his hand in an effort to make himself look presentable as he did not want the headmistress to bite his head off for looking like a bum. The headmistress is known to have a lot of pet peeves and one of them is not being presentable in her presence.

As if to understand his actions,Luke looked at him from top to bottom and gave a somewhat curt nod as if to say what he looks like will have to do of which the professor interprets as Luke's way of saying that his gesture right now is something that the headmistress can tolerate.

Before deciding to make his way to the headmistress' office, he glanced down at the campus grounds one last time but he made a double take when he saw amongst the crowd a blonde girl overflowing with mana.

It was not the amount of mana that caught his attention as it is not an unusual occurrence as he has known students who possess a large amount of mana. What really caught his interest was the purity of the mana that the young girl possessed.

"Interesting. . ." he muttered to himself .

Professor Constantine took some time off to observe the peculiar mana that the young girl was emitting. Even the headmistress did not have a mana this pure. He thought to himself as he got absorbed observing her further.

Luke saw the professor giving an amused look much to his surprise as he has never seen the professor that way before. He always knew professor Constantine as someone who always looked bored out, disinterested and someone who did not give a care in the world.

Before he completely got side tracked, professor Constantine snapped out of his trance and set his curiosity aside for the time being as he thought that there would be plenty of time for him to satisfy his curiosity once classes finally started.

Something must have caught the professor's interest which made him curious. He looked at the place where the professor is looking at but is really clueless as to what he is actually seeing.

It is something that the professor only knows which is why he dropped his curiosity and gave up knowing whatever it is.

"Let's go give the headmistress a visit shall we?" he told Luke as they hastily made their way to the headmistress' office.

On their way, Luke was pondering what could have made the professor look with such interest. He finds it really curious as it is rare for the professor to gain interest in anything. Whatever it is that he saw must have been something worthy of his attention as Luke can confidently say that he could count the things that the professor fancies on his fingers.

Professor Constantine and Luke walked side by side as they marched past the long corridors not uttering any word as they were both absorbed in their own thoughts.

Not long, they stopped their stride upon arriving at a huge black door which has a plaque that indicates that that was the headmistress' office.

"Thanks for accompanying me all this way. I'll call upon you when I need you." The professor told Luke while gently patting him on the back. Much to Luke's disapproval as he really hates it when he does that because his hands tend to be a bit heavy.

"Then I'll excuse myself." Luke excused himself and left the professor to do whatever business he had to do in the headmistress' office after all he has a class to catch up to.

Luke is already a second year and one of the leading and bright students of the academy. Being at the top entails a lot of advantages and benefits and one of the many opportunities presented to them is getting to learn directly from a prominent professor.

So when the headmistress informed him that he can apprentice under Professor Constantine,he Immediately accepted as it was an opportunity that does not come too often especially with Professor's Constantine's case as he rarely or almost never entertains anyone under his wing.

Luke was aware that Professor Constantine only took him as an apprentice because the headmistress forced him to and the fact that he was not able to refuse her made it more convenient.

As for Luke, he feels really grateful and fortunate despite all the negative remarks that they throw at him for being the professor's assistant as it was not everyday that you get to learn from the mage who was dubbed as the flame emperor by the empire.

That was the only reason that Luke was willing to be with the lazy and laid back professor in the first place.

Luke was so occupied with his thoughts that he did not notice the girl in front of her. He bumped into her and the two fell on the ground.

He landed on his butt which really hurt as the floor which really hurt. He wanted to curse but no words seemed to come out of his mouth because the pain made him swallow his words.

"I'm really sorry!" the girl who he bumped to immediately stood up and apologized while bowing many times.

Luke froze in his place when he looked up at the beautiful bespectacled girl he bumped into.

Luke was totally bewitched by her beauty. She had long blonde hair and beautiful blue crystal-like eyes. Luke has seen many blonde girls in the academy but none like her. Hers were like golden strands of hair that seemed to glow when shined by a light. She radiates a kind of elegance that Luke finds captivating. She even had a voluptuous body and huge bosoms.

Luke suddenly felt embarrassed as he finally realized that he had been staring at the girl for quite some time. He averted his gaze immediately and quickly stood up.

"It's okay. I should also apologize as I wasn't paying attention to where I'm going." Luke told the girl.

"I'm the one who's sorry, I was in a hurry that I failed to notice you." The girl apologized again as she kept bowing down.

"It's fine. So where are you going? Perhaps I could help you out?" Luke asked.

"I'm on my way to the headmistress' office. I really should be going." She answered

"Oh,I see. It's just straight ahead. You be careful now."

"Thank you!" she bowed once again. "I'm really sorry for the mishap. I should be going now."

She excused herself and hurriedly went her way.

Oh shoot! Luke just remembered that he was also in a hurry but before he went his way, he glanced back at the beautiful girl who was now at a fair distance.

"I forgot to ask her name. . ." he muttered to himself.

She was really a beauty to behold that Luke already can't stop thinking about her.

Perhaps a better opportunity arises the next time she meets her.