Chapter Ⅰ

Past
Why...
Why was I going through all this simply for being an Elf?
Back then, I didn't know the answer.
It wasn't something a seven-year-old could understand.
All I knew was that no matter what I did, I was always the guilty one in everyone else's eyes.
It had all started ordinarily enough.
I was sitting quietly in class, listening to what the teacher was explaining. Outside, the sun was shining, and the other children were whispering among themselves.
Then a sharp voice rang out from the school's crystal speakers.
"Raven Thorne, to the headmistress's office immediately." A silence fell over the classroom. Some looked at me with pity. Others started snickering.
I took a deep breath.
What had happened this time?
I hadn't broken anyone's toy.
I hadn't fought with anyone.
At least not today...
I got up from my seat and stepped out into the hallway. When I reached the dark oak door at the end of the corridor, I knocked twice.
"Come in."
I opened the door slowly. The headmistress sat bolt upright behind her desk. Her eyes never left me — as if the person in front of her weren't a seven-year-old child, but some criminal she'd been chasing for years.
"Yes, ma'am?"
The woman rose slowly to her feet. "Do you have any idea how many times this makes you've been sent here for discipline, Raven?"
I stayed silent. I honestly didn't know.
"What did I do, ma'am?"
She struck her hand against the desk. "You broke your friend's toy!"
"And as if that weren't enough, you used magic on him in a common area! And there are witnesses!"
I opened my eyes wide in shock. "No..."
"Don't speak!" She strode toward me.
She seized my arm so hard I felt my bones creak. It hurt.
"Ma'am..."
"Please..."
The woman didn't listen. "You will explain this disgraceful behavior to me, in detail!" My eyes had welled up. "He insulted my family..."
"He started the fight."
"He used the magic, not me."
"Please, believe me..."
The woman's face twisted. "That isn't what the witnesses say."
"And they've also confirmed that you used forbidden magic." I felt something inside me break. She had no intention of listening to me at all.
"Get out. If I see you in here again, this won't just end with detention."
"I'll have you expelled."
I turned slowly toward the door. I walked out without lifting my head. Just then, the boy from across the hallway was waiting for me, leaning against the wall. There was a disgusting smile on his face.
"Ha... Told you. You can't mess with me."
He walked right up to me. "You're nothing but a lowly Elf. I come from the Solar line. Still haven't figured out the difference between us?"
I didn't answer.
Because I thought he was right.
Suddenly he grabbed my hair. I flinched from the pain. "Don't forget the rule. This is Vespera. My word carries weight here."
He shoved me hard, and I fell to the ground. The boy walked off laughing with his friends. I was left alone in the hallway.
I closed my eyes. Just then, I heard a gentle voice above me.
"Are you okay?"
I lifted my head. Standing in front of me was a slender girl with snow-white hair. In her eyes, there was no fear... only compassion. She held out her hand to me. "I'm Sora. Don't mind them." I hesitated for a moment. Then I took her hand. "I'm Raven."
Sora smiled. "That's a beautiful name." No one had ever told me that before. I smiled without meaning to. "Thank you."
"You're not a Solar."
"No. I'm an Ave. My parents moved here for their education."
"And you?" I took a deep breath.
"I'm a Moon Elf. I live with my grandfather."
A few seconds of silence passed.
Then Sora smiled again. "Want to sit together tomorrow?" This time, I was the one smiling. "Sure." That day, for the first time, I hadn't felt alone.
At the time, I thought it was just an ordinary day at school.
I was wrong.
Present (now)
I don't know why, but today I woke up without the usual restlessness I felt on other days. If anything, quite the opposite — I felt so positive, so upbeat, that it actually struck me as strange, since it had been a long time since I'd woken up feeling that way.
After washing my hands and face, I put on my slippers and left my room, heading down the small, creaking, winding staircase covered in old red carpet. I went in through the door that opened into the kitchen and greeted the kitchen crew, who, like me, had only just started coming in.
After looking around the kitchen for a moment, I found the person I was looking for. Sora, as usual, didn't look particularly awake, so I crept up behind her before she noticed. "Morning, delicate princess — let me guess, you fell asleep right before dawn again, am I wrong?" I teased her, half-mockingly. Sora was my childhood friend — we'd known each other since primary school. Unlike me, she was a bit shy, but very warm and sweet. As always, she was struggling to pin back her ever-restless hair with a clip. When she saw me, a groggy, half-melted smile spread across her face. She hugged me and said, "Mornin', yeah, I guess that's about right," with a small giggle.
Since Sora was already dressed, I went into the staff changing room alone and started getting ready. After putting on my chef's jacket, trousers, apron, and clogs, I tied on my bandana in front of the small, slightly rusted wall mirror and headed inside. After a quick round of greetings with everyone, I washed my hands and forearms up to the elbow. I checked what was left over from the previous shift, the notes, and the chef's special instructions for the day, then told the others to start prepping the equipment and heating the stoves. After laying out the ingredients and meats for the dishes I'd be cooking that day on the counter, I got to work with the others on the breakfast menu.

"It's nearly eleven, come on already," Sora complained, and I turned my head toward her. "Oh, sorry, I zoned out," I said, a little sheepishly, and followed after Rick and Sora out to the back garden. We usually took our breaks there together — the other spots were too crowded. "Did you two hear the news?" Rick said. "I think today's paper is supposed to have the application results. I wonder if anyone we know made it." Sora and I glanced at each other. "Wasn't that supposed to be next week? I thought I remembered that," Sora said. "That's what I heard too," I said. "It was, actually, but they moved the date up. The papers probably arrived while we were inside working. Let me go check." Rick got up and left.
Once Rick was gone, Sora and I looked at each other but didn't say anything. What Rick was talking about was an application held only once every so many years. For a school. A school only a hundred people from each continent could attend. The purpose of the school was to select seven new Heirs.
I was one of the applicants myself, and honestly, I had no real doubts about not getting in. Sora had applied along with me, but we hadn't told anyone about it. A strange, unnecessary sort of excitement had crept into me. I couldn't call it nervousness — I wasn't nervous — but I don't think I could say the same for Sora. Still, I took her hand under the table and asked, "Are you excited?"
"I guess, a little," she answered. Even so, her usual smile was still on her face. "Just imagine, if we both got picked. That would honestly be so nice."
"Yeah!" I agreed eagerly. "I think it'd be great too," I said, laughing. "Do you think we did the right thing not telling anyone else? I mean — if the results really are out today, Rick's about to find out at the same time as us, and I don't know, don't you think Rick and the others might feel a little hurt by that?" "They won't, don't worry about it, this would be huge news — and honestly, speaking just for Rick, I think he'd get so excited he'd jump straight into planning some celebration and wouldn't even think twice about it." "Telling other people could've caused problems too, you know that. I think we did the right thing. Let it be a surprise for everyone, us included," I said, sharing my thoughts. Sora nodded. "You're probably right."
Right as Sora finished speaking, Rick's voice reached us. He was shouting that he was coming. "They really are here — the results!" He dropped into his chair, crossed his legs, and immediately started flipping through the newspaper. "Ah, found it," he said, folding the paper and laying it flat on the table. We all leaned in together to scan the names. I looked first at the names listed under the Zerynthia continent. Even though I'd grown up on the Vespera continent, I was an Elf, so if my application was accepted, I'd be placed in the section of the school belonging to the Zerynthia continent. Sora, likewise, was looking at the Aetheria continent, since she was an Ave. Rick, meanwhile, checked Vespera first, since that was our continent and he was curious whether anyone we knew had made it.
While Sora and I kept scanning eagerly, Sora suddenly shoved herself back, her chair letting out an ear-grating screech, and clapped her hands over her mouth, letting out a stifled shriek. Rick and I both spun toward her at once, and in the very next second, Sora let out an even louder shout — "I got in!" — which was, at that point, inevitable. Both our eyes were shining while Rick looked back and forth between us in confusion. "Wait, what — what happened, got into what, I don't get it," he started asking. I immediately pulled the paper across the table toward myself and started scanning the names, which were printed tiny. While Sora talked to Rick, I was busy searching for my own name and... and there it was — my name was printed too. Raven Thorne. Was I happy? Yes. As happy as Sora? No. With a smile that showed I was pleased, if a bit smug, I tossed the newspaper lightly back onto the table, crossed my legs, and leaned back in my chair.
When Sora realized I'd gotten in too, she shot up out of her seat, jumped twice with excitement, and tried to say something, but she was so happy that she just kept opening her mouth without managing to form actual words. "This... this is unbelievable," she finally said, mouth still hanging open, and slowly sank back into her chair, while Rick stared at me in astonishment, sputtering, "Wait, you too?!" I just pressed my lips together and nodded, my smile firmly in place. Rick seemed unable to handle the shock — he went quiet for a moment, trying to process it. Since our break was almost over, and I couldn't be bothered explaining the whole thing to Rick, I got up. I never much liked having to explain and lay things out for people — always found it exhausting, honestly. So I left the job to Sora and made my escape.
I left Sora and Rick behind and went back inside to get to work again.

Once our shift ended, we wrapped and labeled all the dishes that had been prepped and cooked over the course of the day, then carried them into storage. We shut down the equipment, scraped down the counters, cleared away the mess, and disinfected everything. After someone else handled the floors. I made a list of what we were low on and handed it to the head chef. After washing and drying my knives, I changed out of my uniform, went to see the kitchen chef, got permission, and clocked out.
Unlike the other staff, I both worked at and lived in our small, old, but well-regarded hotel. So after saying goodbye to Sora and the others, I headed up to my room. On my way up, I grabbed one of the newspapers sitting by the entrance.
I went into my room, took a quick shower, put on my pajamas, and jumped straight into bed. Lying on my stomach, I picked up the newspaper and started reading through the rest of what it had to say. Even though I already had a good handle on it.
Five Centuries of Bureaucratic and Mystic Silence Broken: Great Changing of the Guard Begins Under Council Oversight
Seroptic Post — Special Report
Today, we woke to the most critical, and most bureaucratic, morning in modern history. Abyssia — which for three hundred years has held the balance of power between the continents in its hands — has reopened today under the coordination of the Ministry, exactly three hundred years after its gates were sealed for the last time. This event is not merely the reactivation of an elite academy; it marks a strategic turning point, one in which, under the watch of noble families and the High Council, seven new Heirs will be chosen to oversee global security.
A Grand Summons, Caught in the Grip of the Council and the Noble Houses
The expiration of the current seven Guardians' terms of authority, along with the waning of their influence, has accelerated the political maneuvering unfolding behind the scenes. While ministries and long-established noble families have begun lobbying to put forward their own candidates, the final authority — one that stands above politics — remains the Ancient Tree. By analyzing the flow of energy through the land, the Tree has begun to impartially identify those candidates of true merit, ones capable of shouldering this immense diplomatic and strategic burden.
Highly Secure Education and Flawless Elimination
Being accepted into Abyssia is only the beginning of the political pressures and grueling trials to come. At this academy, shadowed by the Council buildings, candidates will undergo years of training in crisis management, military strategy, and tightly controlled disciplines of magic. At the end of this brutal elimination process — carried out under the close watch of vested interests and inspectors alike — only seven will be officially sealed as global Guardians.
A Warning to Candidates and Noble Houses Alike
Young applicants and the families backing them need to be prepared for a formal, three-hundred-year contract of allegiance. The title of Guardian is not a seat of privilege serving the political power behind it — rather, it is a heavy devotion, one that demands the complete renunciation of all personal and family interests.
Abyssia's gates have opened, the Council has taken its place, and the countdown has begun.
And so, it all begins now...