Taking this with a heavy skin and a heavy heart, Elric turned to walk towards Victor.

“Master, what’s wrong?” Elric asked.

“Oh,” Victor swallowed a piece of a chicken drumstick before quickly biting into a piece of fried fish. With a muffled voice, he spoke, “You’ve been starving the entire day. Hurry up and eat. Tomorrow morning, head to the starting point a little earlier, I have something to say to you.”

A pork leg was thrusted into Elric’s hand. 

“I’m not hungry.”

“Not hungry? Impossible.” Victor doubted. 

“Oh, right! I’ve become good friends with my fellow exam takers. I’d like to spend a little more time with them.” Elric hurriedly spoke up. Then, before Victor could say any more, he ran towards his companions.

“Hurry, let’s go now.” Belladonna urged.

The group of four quickly made their way into the small flower garden where all was quiet. In there, Elric split the pork leg amongst the four of them. A single pork leg wasn’t nearly enough to feed the four young stomachs. But, to remain at the dinner table and take some more food required far more courage than any one of them currently had.

Fortunately, there had been a waiter with a platter of snacks and drinks. Just barely, the four of them had managed to fill their stomachs by a small amount.

Then, two magnificent robe-wearing magi came walking over to them.

“Master,” “Aunty,” Jerry and Belladonna rushed to stand up.

It appeared that these two magi were Pierrot and Bellissa. Due to etiquette, Kite and Elric stood up as well.

When Bellissa saw Belladonna come forward, she took her by the shoulder and spoke, “Didn’t you work hard today? You must be starving! Why haven’t you gotten anything to eat?”

“I don’t have the courage to go fight with the hungry dragon for his territory.” Still hungry, Belladonna had angrily vented away. She had completely disregarded the fact that the disciple of this “hungry dragon” was feeling quite embarrassed.

“Hahaha, hungry dragon—what an apt comparison.” Bellissa gave a happy laugh. This type of laughter had made Elric feel that Bellissa didn’t have the best of relationships with his master.

“Cough, cough.” Pierrot gave two short coughs to garner attention. As if holding back a pained expression, he spoke, “Let’s not be so impolite. Archmagus Victor is an extremely powerful magus.”

“A-Archmagus??” To be truthful, Elric had never felt so much shock before. Seeing the look of befuddlement on his companion’s faces, he knew that they were all thinking of the same thing: 

“This guy, to think that he was somehow connected to a respected and venerated Archmagus.”

Still in a tizzy, Jerry and Belladonna were taken away by their masters to gods-knows-where. Only Kite remained by Elric’s side.

“We should head to bed first!” Kite suggested. Originally, Bellissa and Pierrot had both wanted to bring Kite to where his master had been. But Kite had declined their goodwill. If Elric were to be left alone in this place, with his current mental state, there would be no way for him to find his way back.

“We’re going, then!” The still in mute shock Elric hadn’t any energy to reply to him.

With great difficulty, the two had managed to drag themselves back to their residence. On the door was a single piece of paper tacked to it with the words, “Tomorrow before dawnbreak. Gather at the gates.” written on it. Opening up the door to get to their beds, Elric’s head dropped onto his bed. After such a heavy shock, he had felt powerless. It seemed that a great turmoil of emotions was truly damaging to one’s health.

“Hey, feeling better yet?” Kite asked in concern.

Elric turned his body over and faced the ceiling, “I’m fine, just shocked really. Too shocked I’ll add. My entire body feels weak.”

Seeing that Elric was fine, Kite had turned to face his ceiling on his bed like Elric had done. Looking at it, he spoke, “How do you view your own master?”

“A lecherous, drunk, and lazy rogue that is incapable of being a proper magus.” A series of dark and rather insulting words streamed out from Elric’s mouth. 

“You forgot voracious and shameless.” Kite quipped. He still had the terrifying image of his teacher Victor with fat dribbling down his mouth.

“He must have some sort of strong point. What school of magic does your teacher specialize in?” Kite persisted.

“Master has always been a drunkard. I’ve never seen him cast any type of magic.” Elric had furiously wracked his brain for a memory to see if there had been any profound acts of magic his master had ever done.

But while he was thinking to himself, Elric found himself falling asleep.

When the time came for him to wake, he realized that it was still quite early. It was still dark outside.

He didn’t know if it was because he had crashed early due to the shock he had felt towards his master’s identity, or because of his nerves due to the examination later today. In any other case, Elric was unable to fall back asleep. Getting up, he opened the door to his room and gently closed the door to the best of his ability.

There was no one in the hall when Elric had walked through it.

Elric strolled through the Circle of Magi by himself in solitude. The majority of the doors were locked, and many of the rooms were dimly lit. The stars in the sky were beginning to wane, and Venus was already started to shine from the east.

Walking to the center of the room, Elric waited for the sun to rise up from the east.

The sky gradually grew brighter and chased away the darkness with its morning light. Although the western skies still had some visible starlight, the eastern skies were beginning to whiten.

“What an early riser!” A voice suddenly called out from behind, scaring Elric into jumping up. Turning back, a single frail but serious looking magus came walking towards him.

“To think, there would be someone early enough to watch the sunrise.” The old magus spoke.

“I’ve heard many travelers say that the sunrise of any place is one of the most treasured sights in the world.” Elric spoke before quickly adding on, “So, I came here to personally witness it myself.”

“Is this your first time traveling? You must be Victor’s student then!” Elric was surprised to see this older magus’ analytical and judgemental ability.

“How did you know?” Elric asked carefully.

“My student will be taking the examination for the first time as well.” The magus spoke.

Elric immediately realized that the old man in front of him was Kite’s master—the preceptor of Sina’s Circle of Magi, Archmagus Collins.

“Your physique doesn’t seem too apt to be learning magic!” Worthy of being called the head magus of the Circle of Magi, Collins had been able to see through him at a glance, “Did Victor not tell you?”

“Master has. But I still wish to learn more about maguscraft even despite my lack of talent for it. Knowledge of the art has always been restricted to the magi in the past, but now that even commoners are being given the opportunity, I wish to be one of them.” Elric confessed. The magus he was speaking to felt like someone who could sympathize with the frustrations Elric had about his capabilities. “So if a method exists for maguscraft to be teachable to the masses, surely a powerful Archmagus like yourself would know of one!”

Uneased perplexion filled Collins’ eyes. Such a statement from this youngster was a little worrying, but also just a little inspiring.

After Elric had finished saying his first bit, the esteemed magus had something to say before, but after hearing the rest, Collins hadn’t replied. Elric’s heart had grown restless as a result. That was because there had still been one more thing he didn’t say to Collins—even now, Elric had doubted even his own words—he had instinctively used these words as an excuse to leave the comforts of his familiar and comfortable little grocer.

“The sun has already risen. It’s unfortunate, but you’ve missed it.” Collins suddenly changed the topic.