"Why aren't you celebrating?"

I turned around to face the mercenary, my palms still tingling with the sensation of my ability. Behind her, the sleeping silhouette of Gray was barely noticeable under a bush of thorns. He still couldn't understand how he could sleep in such an uncomfortable spot.

"I just discovered that my whole family plotted to enslave me, sorry for not being drinking wine while parading around the town," he replied dryly.

Immediately shame gripped him.

"Please forgive me. I didn't mean to offend you."

"Like you would ever offend me," snorted Marianna. "And besides, it is healthy to get angry sometimes. You know expressing your feelings and not suppress them until you explode—both literally and metaphorically."

"Should I laugh?" he asked fighting the urge to lift the corner of his lips.

"Hey, today you just broke apart your extremely toxic family. You can do," she looks around trying to find some kind of barrier or limits in the empty desert, "whatever you want!"

Frederick felt like the glass containing his emotions explode at her words. He let out a deep laugh. Immediately his stomach ached. It took him a few seconds to realize the cause. Tears started to form in his eyes and soon enough rolled down his cheeks wetting the sand under him.

"Why are you switching up so fast?"

Marianna took a peak at him, but a shadow of worry clouded her face when she discovered his expression.

"C-Can I-I hug y-you?"

'In all my nineteen years...'

Her eyes widened but she still walked up to him.

'I've never...'

"I guess it's your lucky day."

He didn't wait for her to finish and clutched tightly to the back of her shirt, burying his head in her belly.

'Laughed genuine.'

Until the sun set down, Frederick didn't let go of his embrace.

⚔️⚔️⚔️

"So," started Gray stretching lazily, "Let me start with the basics, in order to fully exploit your power you need to understand it."

Sitting like an exemplary student, Frederick was carefully listening to him. The mercenary still had some reserves about him. He was weak, naive with a once of push over. Still he had in his eyes a spark that he rarely saw. It lit his face with a new kind of energy: fiercer and braver. There are plenty of ways that you can hurt a man, and bring him to the ground.
You can beat him, you can cheat him, you can treat him bad and leave him when he's down but he survived one of the worst: betrayal by blood.

He was a raw gem that Marianna stumbled upon and that he had to polish.

"We only have a few days before the Hunt, if you listen carefully to me then you will have a good chance of survival."

'Around thirty percent...still he was at three only a few hours ago.'

"What is the Duel you are talking about?" asked his pupil breaking him away from his thoughts.

Gray felt like someone had threw him a bucket of water.

"Wait, Marianna didn't explain to you anything about a Hunt?"

The fallen noble frowned trying to remember scarps of his previous conversations.

"She mentioned something about earning my freedom."

'S**t'

"Is it something important?" he worried lifting his chestnut eyes.

Gray silently cursed his friend. Now the chances of survival of his new protégé was reduced to nine percent. If Marianna didn't care to explain in what dangerous game he was pushed in, it wasn't his duty to inform him. She took responsibility the moment she chose to spare him.

He wasn't heartless but he tend to not meddle in other's people problems as much as possible. The only exception was Marianna, firstly because she saved his butt six years ago when they destroyed the orphanage but also because he viewed her as more than just a friend.

Being older of four years, he felt the need to protect her the moment she entered the Est wing of the orphanage—the wing he was the in charge of. He never dared to say it out loud but in his heart she was nothing less than his little sister. And like the responsible big brother he was going to let her sort out her own mess. Even if it included her losing her newly found sweetheart.

'Maybe she it will learn her to ask please when requesting help,' he laughed internally.

"Yes, you will ask her about it when we are finished with today's lesson, and when she will come back from her hunt. Now, let's go!"

Frederick opened his mouth to protest but was silenced by a simple look from the mercenary.

"So, I suppose you are familiar with the term chakra? No, I think in this kingdom you call it mana."

"Aren't those two different things?" he responded sliding his hand on his neck.

"Yes and no and the same time. The chakra is the energy in our bodies but mana is the energy both inside and outside our flesh. Since we are approaching your ability as an extension of yourself it combines those two very similar energies into one: magic," he explained slowly.

"I am not sure to understand."

"Yes, it's very difficult to explain properly, let's try it directly, now close your eyes and focus on the mana outside your body. Follow your instinct."

Frederick closed his eyes, thirteen minutes passed before he made a small movement of surprise.

"What you just felt is your chakra entering in collision with the mana, since you are seeking outside you create a link between you and the metal."

"It didn't feel like a collision," he said looking at his chest, "It felt more like two pieces of a puzzle being assembled together."

"This is exactly what magic is, a union between two similar energies," smiled the mercenary.

The rest of the day passed in a blur, the newly wizard was unstoppable feeling the adrenaline of the ability.

"Oh! Marianna is back!" noticed the wizard before abandoning him. "I will let you two talk."

⚔️⚔️⚔️

"It's all in the name."

That was the answer of Marianna. She was peeling the skin of a rabbit and, her fingers tainted with blood and her eyes fixed on the raw flesh. Strangely, Frederick didn't feel uneasy in front of this sight.

"Could you develop your answer a bit more? The way your friend was acting tells me it is pretty important," he pressed.

"Well in two days there will have a definite area and you will have to escape before the Hunters catch you."

"And you didn't think to say anything to me?!" he exclaimed.

'How do you think I'm going to get along without you, when you're gone?'

He was going to die.

He felt like he wanted to cry. Marianna bit her lip looking away guiltily.

"I didn't want to get you worried. I wasn't even sure we were going to get your powers back. I didn't want you to get distracted."

Frederick slid back his glasses on his nose.

'You took me for everything that I had. You are the only one who did. But still...'

"So you didn't tell me anything because you didn't trust me?"

Marianna stole a look at him and turned her back at him.

"I did it because I care about you."

The young magician took a step back.

"Y—You what?!"

"I said I was going to teach some battle tricks."

She had rose from her crouched position and was walking away.

"No, you did not! Wait Marianna!"

({~*Author note*~})

Hi Sunflowers 🌻 (Hi @AprilJester;))

I like to develop my worldbuilding so I thought it would be interesting to learn more about magic than just using it for the convenience of the plot and leaving it 2D.

Since this book was created for the TEGSA contest I had to use something from the song 🎵 Another One Bites the Dust🎶 by Queen

I used:
🤍 the lyrics: "Let's go!" "How do you think I'm going to get along
Without you, when you're gone?
You took me for everything that I had"

"There are plenty of ways that you can hurt a man
And bring him to the ground
You can beat him, you can cheat him, you can treat him bad
And leave him when he's down, yeah"

See ya next chapter 🙂