Death, Devotion, Dissonance

Some time later, Evin woke up to find himself in his dorm room again. Groggily, he looked around the room and found himself alone. It seemed to be morning, judging by how the sunlight was shining inside the room.

<Ah, you're awake,> the voice commented.

Hearing the familiar voice, Evin was reminded of its crazed laughter and slowly, the events before he passed out started to play out in his head.

"What happened? What was that loud boom… and then…? I was burning all over…" Evin murmured as he checked his body to see whether there were any scars. Miraculously, he didn't find a single burnt patch.

'Fucking magic...' he cursed in his head for some reason.

<Well, first of all, sorry about that. Got a bit carried away there and made the explosion much larger than what I first planned to,> the voice chuckled sheepishly.

"Explosion?" asked as he got his clothes on.

<Yep, well, I'll teach you all about it later.>

"Tell me what happened afterwards. Am I in trouble for that?"

<Well, the Chairman came and fixed you up personally, so I don't think it's hopeless for us. They most likely think that everything was an accident. Maybe the noble boy will come to bother you some time later, but we're probably already on the top of his hate list, so there's not much we can do about that… Aside from that, well, I think someone will come and explain the situation to us soon enough.>

"The noble boy's alive?" Evin asked, remembering how the boy was passed out on the ground, his clothes burning.

<Yep. Apparently, he had a barrier of some sorts to protect him from harm. He only passed out from the sudden shockwave. Other than him, no one else was hurt, since the explosion wasn't that big, and the arena wasn't that damaged either. I actually believe think that the whole place was reinforced with magic, considering that there wasn't even a dent left on the ground.>

As Evin was listening to the voice recount the event, he heard the door lock click and open from the outside. He looked over to find Leanne walking in the room.

"Evin! You're awake!" the woman said, and quickly locked the door from the inside. She then ran over and checked Evin's body. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah…" Evin murmured, but he couldn't wholeheartedly be happy for Leanne's arrival, considering he was called out by the noble boy mostly because of her. "Sorry, could you tell me what happened?"

Leanne sighed in relief after making sure that Evin was alright, and started to explain some things to him.

"First of all, I'm sorry for what happened to you. I just want to say that this is all just a big misunderstanding," Leanne began.

"Why did everyone know about me so much? What was that back there?" Evin asked in an agitated tone.

"I'll explain everything to you in just a moment. About others knowing about you and all." Leanne said and swiftly sat next to Evin, "As you can probably guess, I need to report to the Chairman whenever I find a new mage among the commoners I check. Of course, when Konanne and you came in, I made sure to report it, like I always do."

"Konanne?"

"Ah, it's Kon's new name. As you know, it's frowned upon for mages and people of high-society to possess a three-letter name," Leanne explained in a hurry, "In any case, I reported it to the Chairman, like I'm supposed to, and at the time, although he looked a bit surprised, he didn't really look very interested in your case."

<Why the hell is she acting so scared?> the voice commented and Evin also noticed the oddity.

Leanne always looked like the confident, all-knowing type to Evin before. But today, she was fidgeting around, struggling to maintain eye contact with Evin, and overall, she just wasn't acting like herself. Noting this internally, Evin listened to the mage explain the situation.

"As you know, ten days later, the whole thing with your father coming in to refuse your entry to the Academy – against your wish, of course - happened. I told the guards to keep your father away from the building, but I guess they forgot about it," Leanne almost stuttered, "At any rate, your father ended up talking to the Chairman."

"What? How?"

Was it so easy to speak to a mage? One of the highest-ranking mages, as far as Evin was concerned.

"Apparently he managed to find an audience with him saying that he was a parent of one of the students. Then he told the Chairman all about this voice in your head that you had since you were a kid, and how it always seemed to control your actions," Leanne looked at him meaningfully, "I know it might sound a bit rude to you, but is that true?"

Evin tried to keep the frown from reaching his face and just sighed out.

"It's getting better."

"Ah…" Leanne murmured and went silent.

He was used to these questions, as seemingly every kid in block knew about his alleged insanity. They would run over and sheepishly ask Evin if he was insane, the way some withdrawn men would ask of a prostitute if she was actually a prostitute.

When asked with these questions, Evin found it better to acknowledge them, but mention that the situation was getting better. The voice explained that people didn't ask Evin to know whether he was insane or not. They just asked to find confirmation for their assumptions.

Evin, of course, wasn't someone so selfish to deny these people of their peace of mind. So when Leanne asked the same, Evin found himself reacting the same way he always did, it was just that he felt somewhat disappointed afterwards.

"You were talking about the Chairman," Evin reminded.

"Ah, yes. Of course. The Chairman. I talked to him while you were Dueling with Decatur Carew, the Countess' son. From what I understood, he's convinced that you have this all-powerful entity in your head that grants you unparalleled ability to cast magic and wants to learn more about it."

<Huh?>

"What?"

The voice and the Evin were both very confused, especially Evin.

'My whole life I was ridiculed and isolated for being a nut job, but apparently, it wasn't something to be worried about?'

"I know it sounds ludicrous to you, but there are many unexplainable things in the world of mages. You can't really blame the man for thinking of such things. He became especially convinced after that magic you cast on the arena."

"Is that why that noble boy knew about my ability to Imagination Cast?"

"Yes. The chairman told me he wanted to see you two face off, so he told Decatur about your abilities. With this, he could confirm your abilities to cast magic, while also making you become a rival of Decatur."

"A rival?"

"He said that he wants you to become a new icon for non-noble mages."

"What?"

"In his plans, you would become someone who would finally destroy the rift between nobility and commoners, once and for all. Of course, you know of the late king's efforts in this regard, but the discrimination of commoners in the kingdom's high-society is still very present. Nobles hold nine out of ten posts that a mage can occupy as a government official. And even then, the one non-noble that occupies the remaining post is almost always shunned and not quite taken seriously."

"Wait, wait. I don't want that. To become that… Destroyer of the rift between nobles and commoners," Evin hurriedly said, "I don't want to have anything to do with all that."

Leanne sighed and said with a heavy nod.

"But you're already involved in it. The moment you set off that explosive spell near Decatur, you became unable to just simply leave. If you don't pick a side and fall under the chairman's protection, Alix din Carew, the Countess of the county we live in will make sure to take revenge on you."

'It wasn't even me who did all that,' Evin almost said, but managed to stop himself.

"That spell was an accident. I just thought it would create a bigger flame, not that it would all suddenly explode," Evin said, remembering the excuse that the voice gave to the vice-chair.

"I know. But that doesn't change the fact that the Countess thinks you tried to assassinate her son. Tomorrow, she will come and demand your death. Well, she won't say it explicitly, but she'll demand you be put in the dungeons where you'll most likely be tortured for your confession and then killed."

<She sounds honest, but this is just a roundabout threat to do as she says.>

"The only way out for you is to follow the Chairman's wishes. He and the vice-chair will stand up to protect you, but you need to let them know that on the surface, you stand on their side," Leanne said, pure dread oozing from her voice.

<Ask her why she's telling us this,> the voice said coldly and Evin parroted.

"I don't agree with what the Chairman is doing. I don't think it's neither moral, nor befitting of him to pull teenagers into politics," Leanne said softly, "I- I was watching the whole thin happen from the terrace. When I heard Decatur challenge you to a duel, I wanted to go down there and stop it from happening, but I was held back by the Chairman."

It all sounded like a lie to Evin, but the voice seemed to believe the woman's words, albeit with a little twist.

<She's probably not lying. Remember how the vice-chair mentioned the Chairman being indisposed? He was most likely with Leanne at the time. Though I can't say if he was holding back Leanne from reaching you, or if he was just fucking her.>