"Are you sure you have everything?" Gian's mother asked for what felt like the hundredth time. Even though this body adored her, Feo was growing impatient with her constant badgering.
"You always forget stuff," she said, looking through his bag once again as they waited for the bus, just outside their house.
They lived in a fairly clean neighbourhood, each house identical to its neighbour; double-storey, with a vibrant lawn up front. It seemed that the discovery of steam-tech hadn't affected this part... or time point in the world.
"Where's your wand?" his mother asked, her eyes not looking up from Gian's open bag.
He sighed and pulled it out from beneath his cloak. "Here."
He still found it odd that the people here needed such a device to use magic. But perhaps it was a result of the god they served... Shalak, they called him. Another perspective of the One-God.
His mother nodded. "Good, always have your wand ready," she whispered. "I know you said they stopped bullying you, but you need to be able to protect yourself in case Jeffrey and his bastards—"
"Mommy, you're not supposed to use that word," Becka giggled. "Bastard, bastard, bas—"
Gian's grandfather cleared his throat, picking Becka up onto his shoulders. "Khloe, he'll be fine," he said, stepping forward. He patted Gian on the back. "He made it this far, ain't he?"
Gian was confused about what they were talking about.
Khloe broke down into tears. "My little boy's all grown up," she sobbed. Gian's grandfather handed Becka over to him and caressed Khloe's back.
"There, there now, Khloe," he whispered. "He ain't leaving forever. He'll be back in a few months for winter holidays."
Gian rolled his eyes at the drama. Was this how normal families acted?
"Gian, why's mommy crying?" Becka asked. Her little eyes were watering, it seemed even she was on the verge of tears.
Gian looked for the right words to say. Despite his coldness towards the rest of the family, he couldn't quite find it in himself to hurt Becka. "Well—"
Just then, there was a loud honk.
"There it is," his grandfather whispered, looking up towards the end of the road.
Gian turned and found a large metallic vehicle— seemingly floating over the asphalt pathway— hovering towards them.
The bus stopped right in front of the house, the front door opening with a hiss.
It was filled to the brim with other children, each of them wearing the same black and blue academy robes as he was.
"Gian Luca?" the bus driver asked. Gian nodded.
"We're in a bit of a rush. Those are your bags, right?"
Khloe started sobbing even harder behind him. A few of the children started pointing; some giggling, others rubbing their eyes like they were about to cry as well.
"Yes," Gian replied, dropping Becka and closing up his bags.
The bus driver nodded and pulled out a wand from his front pocket. "Estoro, velisium," he whispered, before waving his wand. With that, a stream of blue light shot out of the wand and struck Gian's luggage.
It disappeared in an instant.
A memory dug itself out from his mind. 'They call that storage magic here... we didn't have that.'
"Okay, hop in."
Gian looked back at his family, then up at the bus, before taking a hesitant step forward. 'What am I doing? Why am I hesitating? Come on, an academy, isn't this what you've always wanted?'
"Bye, bye, mommy," Becka said, waving to Khloe and their grandfather as she grabbed onto Gian's hand.
"Oh dear," Gian's grandfather whispered.
He picked Becka up, restraining her as she kicked and screamed to go to the academy with Gian.
Even as the bus drove past the end of their street, he could still hear her little screams.
'A family, huh.'
Gian had taken a seat at the very back, a spot everyone had avoided because it was so close to the toilet. And rightfully so, someone had released what he could only describe as a chemical war crime in there.
He leaned against the window and closed his eyes. He'd overheard someone say the bus would take half an hour to reach the train station. He planned on using that time to study his manacore and see if he could figure out how to access the 'quests' that the woman back in the sanctum had spoken of.
He took a deep breath and reached into his manacore as he had done back in his old world. His heart slowed, and the sounds of the outside world became muffled.
The darkness in his vision slowly faded away to a red light. His manacore.
It was a small spherical thing... imperfect, some spots were even a darker shade of red.
'It's not shattered,' he thought in awe. His manacore... it was... fixed.
Just then.
『Welcome, Messiah Candidate.』
'It's that voice again.'
『You have two unread notifications. Showing them to you now...』
━━━━⊱༒︎ 『Tutorial Quest』 ༒︎⊰━━━━
Completion criteria: Set foot on Hargreeves Academy grounds.
Time limit: 2 days.
Rewards: 1 gold coin.
━━━━⊱༒︎ • ༒︎⊰━━━━
'Hmm, so this is how I'll be receiving quests, huh?' he thought, reading over the quest description. It seemed almost too easy for it to be part of some grand exam. However, he decided not to think too much about it, after all it did say tutorial quest.
He wondered how he would access the next notification for a moment, before doing what felt most natural.
'Next, notification.'
『Showing next notification...』
『Your divine blessing has completed validation. You now have full access to its effects and are fully vulnerable to its flaw.』
『Your blessing title is: Golden Messiah.』
『Please invoke its name for more information.』
'Wait, they gave me a rune for free?' Gian thought, excitement slowing his thinking. 'I have to calm down. It might be something useless' he thought, taking a few deep breaths.
''Regardless, free magic is free magic.'
'Show me more information on... Golden Messiah.'