What a commotion.

Cheers reverberated throughout Manavil as the castle itself seemed to tremble. The pigeons sitting on the castle walls flew off in alarm, and the flags of each house fluttered vigorously. It was the day that the Meltor Empire was announced. After receiving the rod that symbolized the Imperial Guardian, Theo looked down at the crowd below him. The people currently looking up wouldn’t know about how a person raised in a rural area had reached this place and what hardships he had overcome.

The world’s best magician was once the dunce of Bergen Academy? It was a story that even he wouldn’t have believed in those days. The sky was blue as always and clear without any clouds. Emotions rose and sank quickly. He wasn’t so immature as to be swayed by raucous cheering, but wasn’t it okay to return the cheers once?

“Hmmm.” Theo raised the rod in his right hand and aimed it at the sky.

The crowd grew silent. They watched the best magician of the century with curious eyes, wondering what he would show on this auspicious day. Would it be fire? A lightning strike? They didn’t...