From the day I was born, I knew I wasn't normal; it didn't take long to realize why.
I was born with green hair.
I didn't know it at the time, but my parents worried about me because of it.
It wasn't long after I could walk and go outside that the bullying started. I didn't know how to react.
To be fair, I didn't know much at the time.
My parents tried to talk to the kids, but they wouldn't listen.
Then my dad talked to their parents; even then, they kept attacking me.
My dad bought me shorts so I could run away faster. It helped, but only a little.
Then he bought me a hooded sweatshirt to cover my hair.
My life didn't seem to get better.
I started to hate my hair.
I started asking myself questions that shouldn't be forced on a kid.
Why did those Superd demons have to go crazy and be hated? Why did they have to have green hair? Why did that disgusting Laplace have to have green hair?
Why did I have to have green hair?
I didn't know what to do with myself.
If everyone hated the color green, what would I do when I grew up? I thought I had nothing waiting for me.
Then I met Roxy Migurdia, and the life I knew changed.
My father met her in Ars, and they traveled back to Buena together.
From what she'd told me, Miss Roxy was a magician, and a very good one. I didn't know much about Miss Roxy or magic, but I did know that she wasn't afraid of my hair.
She was startled the first time she saw me, but after a while, she pulled herself together.
After that, my life started to feel more valuable.
From then on, I was able to talk to someone who didn't hate me and who wasn't part of my family.
Miss Roxy also had weird hair.
It was blue because she was a demon. People also saw her differently because of her hair, so I felt like I had someone who could at least understand me from then on.
Then I heard about a boy my age named Rudeus and how Miss Roxy was teaching him.
The woman bragged every chance she got about how smart he was or how well he was doing.
I thought it was incredible.
My father told me that Rudeus was also learning fencing from his father, Lord Paul.
He told me he was good at it too.
Whenever I heard about Rudeus, I only received praise.
I knew, without even meeting him, that he was a fantastic person.
But what caught my attention was when Miss Roxy told me about their first meeting. Apparently, he didn't even look at his hair.
What would he do if he met me? How would he react? Wouldn't he mind my hair too? Wouldn't he hate me? Those were the thoughts running through my head at the time.
Still, I dismissed those thoughts. Deep down, I knew that someone like me wouldn't even pique the interest of someone as great as him.
He was destined for more incredible things, like the heroes of the bedtime stories my father always told me.
He wouldn't be bothered by a nondescript girl with green hair.
I held onto that assumption for months after Miss Roxy arrived.
Until one day, I started getting bullied.
It was just another day. That day, I tried to play outside, but I was intercepted shortly after I left.
It was Somal and his friends. They had been primarily responsible for most of my bullying.
They threw mud at me while yelling at me to get out of town.
I live here too, you know. Besides, I have nowhere else to go.
Those thoughts always ran through my head at that time.
That day I ran home, and all I could do was cry myself to sleep while my mother hugged me. And so the next few days passed, until one day I met him.
It was just as I went to drop off my father's lunch that Lord Paul and a boy arrived at the watchtower.
I panicked at that moment; the same Rudeus I'd heard so much about was now standing right in front of me.
What would it look like if I introduced myself to him? Would he hate me? Would he judge me by my hair?
I didn't want to know, I didn't want to be rejected again, but he never did. Instead, he noticed my ears?
He was like a prince in a fairy tale, and I, a green-haired girl that only my parents and a demon woman seemed to want, was his unlikely princess.
When he told me his name, he only told me what he was thinking, but then he told me my hair was beautiful. He said my hair—that hair I hated—was pretty and that I should take care of it.
That was all he really did, and that was all it took.
After that, I started to kinda like my hair.
All because a boy said he thought it was pretty.
That was it, but maybe it meant even more because it was the same Rudeus I'd heard about.
Every time we talked after that, he looked at me with such empathy that I couldn't help but trust him. He reminded me of how my father looked at me, or how my mother looked at me. It comforted me.
When he said he wanted to be a friend I thought I was dreaming.
Luckily, I wasn't. I was so happy that I couldn't express it properly. So I cried. I thought he wouldn't like a girl who cried over just anything, but it didn't bother him, and I didn't cry for a long time.
After that, we ran and played for a while. He even took me to a lonely hill with a large tree where he liked to play; a pretty place, I thought.
The only things surrounding him were other trees, plains, and some fields further away.
He told me this was our place from now on. A place where we could play. I'm almost certain that being as happy as I was back then was dangerous, but I didn't let it bother me. Nevertheless, I did let the desire get the better of me a little.
I asked Rudeus if he could teach me magic.
It was stupid of me. I thought I'd gone too far, but I still did it to ask my only friend such a ridiculous question.
I thought he'd say he couldn't or that I wasn't good enough. He didn't say either. Instead, he showed me compassion and accepted my proposal.
From then on, the life I had feared since birth became one I was glad to wake up to the next day. All because of a boy I thought I'd never meet.
The next few months were the best I'd had yet. I became Miss Roxy's student, just like Rudeus.
I even learned that Rudeus was teaching him a few things.
They had a relationship very similar to a give-and-take.
As incredible as Rudeus seemed to me, he seemed more so every day. He didn't seem to struggle or falter. When bullies came looking for a fight, he ignored them.
Whenever I worked with magic, he could identify my problem.
He could do things with magic I couldn't even dream of.
Every time he cast spells, it was like I was looking at a painting. If I weren't grateful for being able to talk to him, I'd probably be jealous of how good he was.
So my months passed, and now my days would change a bit.
Today, Rudy graduates from Miss Roxy's teachings.
According to what Master had said, I'd be a Water Saint-level mage before the day was out.
Of course, I didn't have to wait long for them to come and pick me up on their horse.
When they stopped in front of me, Rudy waved his hand, which was holding a wand. "Look what I got, Sylphie!"
"Master made that to you?" It was something I'd never seen before. It was obviously a wand, I knew that just by looking at it. It had a very distinctive red jewel at the end.
"I'll give it to you when we're done." Rudy's statement didn't go unnoticed by our master, who simply sighed at his words.
"I'll make you one too, Sylphie..." She smiled awkwardly. "I may have forgotten to give one to Rudeus at the beginning of our class. It's almost a tradition to give your student who can cast beginner-level spells a wand to help them, but I may have forgotten since you're already quite skilled."
After explaining the situation, she grabbed my hand to help me climb onto the horse. She sat me between her and Rudy. I felt self-conscious when she grabbed my hand, but I think she noticed, so she stepped aside.
She doesn't have to act so coldly. Not that I cared much.
"The place I found is a bit far away. So it will take me an hour to get there." Our teacher told us, and I nodded; apparently, Saint-level magic was dangerous; at least, that's how Rudy described it to me.
That's how we headed towards the place where our teacher decided to hold the ceremony.
We were far from any fields I knew, and the only thing in sight was the grass that seemed to stretch endlessly across the land, only breaking from the Red Dragon Mountains in the distance.
We all dismounted, and as Miss Roxy tied it to a nearby tree, I couldn't help but wonder what would happen from now on. Rudy would graduate, but I would still be under the tutelage of our Master. Would he still care about me? What would become of the friend I'd made?
"Rudy, what will you do once you finish Master Roxy's lessons?" This was a worry I'd carried with me for the past day.
"I'll most likely start training with my father in earnest." I couldn't help but wonder if this was his way of telling me he wasn't planning on playing with me anymore.
"I'll still help you from time to time, and I promise I'll keep playing with you; I just think I'll be busier from now on." He seemed to be deep in thought.
"Aren't you busier now that you're doing both? Wouldn't you be less busy now that Master isn't teaching you anymore?"
"Haha, you might be right about that." From the way he said it, it didn't seem like he believed it.
"This is a good place for this, don't you think, Rudy?" Miss Roxy approached us once she finished tying the Horse.
"I don't know, Master. You're the one who knows how to cast the spell." I always found it strange that Rudy could talk to adults the way he did.
Almost every time, Miss Roxy would ask him something, he'd give her a longer answer than she wanted.
Rudy was wise beyond his years.
"Don't be so impertinent!" she tapped his forehead.
"I'm going to demonstrate the cumulonimbus spell to you. After dispelling it, I'll ask you to do the same thing, but keep it going for an hour. That's the passing grade for this exam. I can only cast it once, so you'll have to memorize it and repeat it after seeing it once... Do you understand, Rudy?"
"I'll do my best!" That didn't really answer her question, Rudy.
"Ha, I love my job," she commented dryly. "Well then. Here we go!" She took a few steps away from us.
The atmosphere changed when she got far enough away.
Our teacher was going to show us something that not everyone could see.
It was a spell Rudeus would have to replicate. One that I would eventually have to copy as well.
The girl raised her staff as she began the chant.
"Great Spirit of Water and Imperial Prince of Lightning, who ascends to the heavens, grant my wish and bestow a wild blessing."
Her hair blew chaotically in the wind. The sky, once a soft, lush blue, was instantly enveloped by grayish mountainous clouds. "Show your power to insignificant beings. Impact with one blow of your divine hammer upon the anvil and cover the land with water!" It was mesmerizing to watch her control a spell of such magnitude.
As soon as I thought it was starting to rain, the clouds left nothing in their wake as they drenched us all in an instant. "Ah, Rain! Sweep away all and expel all..." I wasn't prepared for what was to come if I believed this was all her spell could accomplish. "Cumulonimbus!"
Everything seemed to stop for an instant.
I looked at Rudy's face, and it only seemed to show amazement.
He looked so happy at that moment that I wondered if anyone could be as envious of a storm as I was.
A moment later, everything returned to normal. What I thought was the climax of the spell was nothing more than a premonition of what was to come, and in a split second, I was stunned.
However, a hand grabbed me—Rudy's hand—and even as the downpour swept away everything in its path, he clung to me.
He remained motionless in the face of a storm like this.
He didn't falter even in the face of a saint's magic.
Instead, he reveled in the moment, and I too found myself fascinated, both by the storm and by the boy in front of me, who was squeezing my hand so tightly I almost mistook him for a grown man.
Rudy is amazing...
The spell took a total of an hour. We were all completely soaked, which was bad considering it was the middle of winter.
"Okay, Rudy! Your turn, I'll take care of Sylphie!" my teacher said as she patted Rudy on the back. "Do your best!" she said, but I could see a bitter smile on her face.
She glanced back for a moment, a smile playing on her lips, and stepped forward onto the plain, wand in hand and ready.
"Sylphie, stay close to me." With her free hand, Miss Roxy pulled me even closer. "Envelop me in the magnificent armor of the earth: the Earth Fortress!" Instantly, a rock dome enveloped us.
It was dark inside the dome; the only light came from a slit Miss Roxy had probably left open to supervise her student.
"Did you shorten that spell, Master?"
"I've been practicing." The woman smirked at me as she answered. Rudy told me that since we were younger, it was easier not to use spells.
I didn't quite understand why, but it could be the same reason we can increase our total mana. However, the same couldn't be said for our teacher, as she struggled to even shorten a spell, let alone completely undo it.
It was typical of her to never give up, no matter the obstacles.
"You're amazing too, Master Roxy."
"What's with that too…?" she replied bitterly. I might have unintentionally angered her.
"Sorry, do you think Rudy can?" I looked at the boy who was still walking away from the "Earth Fortress" that surrounded Miss Roxy and me. He always walked with such determination that you'd never guess he was my age.
"Do what…? The spell?" Her tone made me think he thought what I was asking her was ridiculous.
"He'll have no problem. He's Rudeus Greyrat, after all; he's naturally gifted." She had a sour expression.
"You should watch to see if you can understand anything."she placed her hand on my back. "Because I know you will."
I looked back at the crack in the barrier and saw that Rudeus was already forming the clouds.
For some reason, we needed to do it once with the incantation before we could cast a spell without it.
What Rudeus was doing now was like experimenting with something.
He'd done it before, so that was the only way I could describe it. Though from where we were, I couldn't hear anything he was saying.
What he was doing now was different from what I'd seen our Master do.
The wind she produced was so strong it knocked me off my feet.
But now, the winds he conjured seemed so fast they could split someone in two if they weren't protected.
Rain pounded against our shelter as if trying to breach it.
Lightning flashed one after another in a seemingly endless assault on the land while thunder crashed across the sky, shaking me to the bone.
Overwhelming. That was the word that clearly described what lay before me.
That day Rudy became a Saint rank water magician at only four years old.