1-maya

[4.98 x 10^51] frames later, in the summer of approximately [8.03 x 10^60 + 4.01 x 10^52] U.F.C.

“Why do I bother about this world,” the young boy thought, sitting on the bench.

“People can go to war with each other for all I care. Let them all destroy each other, and this earth shall be pure again.”
“And this so-called school, this vile establishment serving only to train people to be sent off to die, let it perish.”

At this point in time, the bell rang, signifying the end of lunch break. The boy got up from the bench, and surveyed the surroundings. The clear, glimmering water of the channel, with dense forestation on the other side, did nothing much to soothe his feelings.

The boy walked up a flight of steps, into the school building.

—

Eighth period. The magic instructional lesson in the outside practitional field.

As the boy approached the field, there is a visible age difference between him and the other younger students.

“I see that he stayed the grade for almost two years now,” one of the students was heard whispering to her friend.

After everyone settled down in a circle, the instructor handed everyone a small mechanical disc the size of a pocketwatch. The disc, with a significant tone of red, encased intricate gears and parts inside a metal alloy.

“As you can see, this is the Nina DialDisc,” the instructor commented.

“Yes, we know what a DialDisc looks like, thank you very much.” The boy muttered discontentedly under his breath.

The instructor seems to have caught that remark, for he immediately chose the boy to do a demonstration.

“Noel, come up here and explain how this DialDisc works.” The boy cringed, paused a moment, then got up slowly. Walking towards the center of the field, he took out his DialDisc and held it in the palm of his hand.

The gears, without any physical contact, began to rotate on its own. Small sparks were generated as the delicate machine worked itself.

Noel pointed at the ground in front of him. A glyph appeared on the ground, from which emerged a spectacular thermal display. A pillar of flame shot from the ground to a few feet above in the sky. The first-years were definitely impressed.

While the other students were still captivated, the instructor took this chance to start explaining the workings of this equipment.

“The DialDisc interacts with three-dimensional space at a molecular level. In this instance, the Nina DialDisc forces energy on its directed area, causing matter to undergo exothermic reactions, regardless of its original compound structure.”

A student raised his hand. “How does the DialDisc work itself just now? I thought there was some enchantment to it?”

“The power from the DialDisc relies heavily on your willpower. You all know that the conscious mind is able to manipulate reality, right?”

The students looked earnestly at the instructor. Noel, meanwhile, went back to his seat and sat down, looking away instead.

“For example, in the Informational Era, scientists have already found that concentrating on a random number generator causes a shift in its output (but I was not there to see it). Therefore, the same mechanism is also used here when scientists developed the DialDisc.”

“Usually,” the instructor said, “people call out enchantments as a way to increase concentration. I’d advise you all to practice with enchantments first.”

—

The remainder of the class was spent generating combustion from nothing. Most of the students could only form small sparks, with the better ones creating small balls of flame.

Meanwhile, Noel was sitting at a corner, staring blankly at his juniors attempting their futile task of emulating what he did in the demonstration just now.

“You are well beyond what I teach,” a voice came from behind Noel. He turned to see his instructor.

“What do you want?”

“Well, I’d like to ask you why you are still in this grade even with such competent skills.” The instructor sat down next to Noel. Noel immediately shifted away.

“I don’t feel any need to advance to the next grade.”

The instructor pondered for a moment, and asked, “Also, you seem to be appalled by the very usage of magic. How come?”

“…None of your business.”

“Very well,” said the instructor, who got up and walked off.

As the bell rang, Noel knew exactly the reason for his detest against magic.

Something happened [4.98 x 10^51] frames ago that affected his life forever.