Chisato

There is an old legend in the human world.

A legend about a group whose name has survived for generations.

Mariyard.

No one knows exactly when it first appeared.

Nor does anyone know who stood at its origin.

But mentions of Mariyard appear throughout history again and again.

During great wars.

During disasters.

During events that changed the borders of nations and marked the beginning of new eras.

Sometimes Mariyard appeared where the outcome already seemed decided.

Sometimes its name surfaced only years later—in old records, eyewitness accounts, and chronicles.

And some events are still only suspected to have involved it.

Over the centuries, so many stories have gathered around Mariyard that it has become difficult to tell where truth ends and legend begins.

But its name was never forgotten.

Children learn about Mariyard in history classes at magical schools.

And at academies, where the most talented mages go to study, the surviving information about the group is examined in far greater detail.

Ancient chronicles.

Eyewitness accounts.

Research by magical historians.

Debates over who the members of Mariyard truly were and what role the group played in the history of the human world.

To most people, it is nothing more than a legend from the distant past.

A story about mages who lived generations ago.

But there is one detail that appears in no textbook.

Mariyard never disappeared.

Tesi sat on the edge of a rooftop near the arena.

It was still noisy below.

The Astras were trying to calm the participants while explaining what would happen next.

After everything that had happened, the selection had been temporarily suspended.

It would resume in one week, once they had finished investigating the incident in the arena.

They would begin with the unfinished battle involving the boy in the purple robe.

After that, the remaining participants would move on to one-on-one matches.

The crowd reacted to the news in different ways.

Some complained.

Some were happy about the extra time.

Others were still trying to understand what exactly had happened to Lenkart.

Tesi barely listened.

The sun was already slowly sinking toward the horizon.

Its light had turned reddish, reflecting across the rooftops.

Tesi watched the streets below as the participants gradually began to disperse.

His mind was occupied by something else entirely.

Who should I start with?

Noxi?

Vasi?

Or the third one?

Tesi narrowed his eyes.

A familiar figure had just appeared among the people below.

That boy.

The one in front of whom the purple-robed boy’s crescent-shaped attack had disappeared.

Tesi replayed the scene in his mind.

Everyone around him had tried to dodge.

Someone had jumped aside.

Someone had ducked.

But he had simply stood there.

And the attack had vanished right in front of him.

Tesi smiled faintly.

“Let’s start with you.”

He jumped from the roof.

The streets of the capital were still in chaos.

People were discussing the incident almost everywhere.

Some claimed that the boy in the purple robe had somehow destroyed Lenkart’s magic.

Others were already saying that he hadn’t used magic at all.

A third group insisted that the entire fight had been staged.

The story changed with every retelling.

The only people who seemed mostly unconcerned were the merchants.

They remained behind their stalls.

Some sold food.

Others sold magical tools.

Others sold jewelry.

A few continued calling out to passing customers as though nothing unusual had happened in the center of the city only a few hours earlier.

Tesi followed the boy from a distance.

So far, he hadn’t looked back even once.

How am I even supposed to tell him?

Tesi thought about it.

Usually, he didn’t care much about how to begin a conversation.

This time, though, things were a little more complicated.

Walking up to a stranger and saying:

Join my group.

Even to him, that sounded strange.

First I should at least figure out what kind of magic he has.

Tesi continued following him.

After some time, the boy reached the city gates and left the capital.

Tesi was slightly surprised.

“Guess he lives somewhere nearby.”

Outside the city walls, it was noticeably quieter.

The noise gradually faded behind them.

The road became narrower.

More and more trees appeared around them.

After a while, the boy left the main road and entered the forest.

Tesi stopped.

He watched him for several seconds.

Then smiled faintly.

“Perfect.”

This would be much more convenient.

The boy walked calmly between the trees.

Dry branches cracked beneath his feet.

The forest was quiet.

Then a flash appeared between the trees to his right.

He snapped his head around.

A fireball was already flying straight toward him.

At the same moment, a small die appeared beside him.

It materialized from thin air.

The die spun rapidly.

One face.

Another.

A third.

Then it stopped.

Three.

The boy barely had time to raise his arm.

The fireball struck him.

A dull impact sounded.

Flames covered his clothes for an instant before disappearing.

The boy took a step back.

Only a small scorch mark remained on the fabric.

He quickly checked himself.

Almost no damage.

But his expression immediately turned serious.

His eyes swept around him.

Left.

Right.

Between the trees.

Up among the branches.

“Easy, easy.”

The voice came from above.

The boy looked up sharply.

Tesi jumped down from a tree.

He landed lightly and straightened.

The boy immediately tensed.

“Who are you?”

“I’m not going to do anything to you,” Tesi said. “I just wanted to test something.”

The boy looked at the scorched part of his clothes.

Then back at Tesi.

“That’s a pretty bad way to test something. You just attacked me from behind.”

“But you barely got hurt.”

“That doesn’t make it better.”

Tesi shrugged.

The boy stared at him for several more seconds.

Then something in his expression changed.

He seemed to remember something.

The arena.

The wounded Lenkart.

The man who had appeared beside him.

And then Fati Lemoni.

The sixteen-year-old participant whose appearance had begun changing in front of everyone.

A few seconds later, someone completely different had been standing in his place.

The same person who now stood before him.

The boy narrowed his eyes slightly.

“I remember you,” he said. “You were at the arena. That participant... You changed your appearance, and then you moved the others away.”

Tesi nodded.

“Who are you, anyway?”

“Tesi.”

The boy stared at him for several seconds.

“Chisato.”

Tesi raised an eyebrow slightly.

“You gave me your name, so I figured I should at least introduce myself,” Chisato said. “But I wasn’t actually asking for your name. You throw a fireball at my back, jump out of a tree, then stand there like nothing happened. You weren’t one of the Astras. I don’t recognize you as any famous high-ranking mage either. And judging by what happened in the arena, that appearance you were using wasn’t real.”

Tesi waited until he finished.

“I want to offer you a place in my group.”

Chisato didn’t react immediately.

Then he gave a short laugh.

“Are you serious?”

“Completely.”

“You attacked me five minutes ago.”

“I was testing you.”

“Very reassuring.”

Tesi only smiled faintly.

Chisato rubbed the scorched fabric of his clothes and looked at him again.

“And what group would that be?”

“Mariyard.”

The smile disappeared from his face.

For several seconds, he said nothing.

“Mariyard?”

“No.”

Tesi raised an eyebrow.

“Just no,” Chisato continued. “Mariyard is something from history books. A legend. Half of what people say about it probably never even happened.”

He paused briefly.

“So you’re telling me Mariyard has existed all this time, and you’re casually walking around the capital recruiting people into it?”

Chisato smiled again, though this time it was more at the absurdity of the situation.

“And I’m supposed to believe you?”

Tesi said nothing.

“Exactly.”

Chisato was about to turn away.

“What did they teach you about Mariyard at school?” Tesi asked.

He stopped.

“A lot.”

“For example?”

“Why?”

“Pick something you don’t believe yourself.”

Now Chisato looked at him more carefully.

“Fine.”

He thought for a moment.

“There was one story. Supposedly, one of Mariyard’s mages could compress his own magic so much that an entire spell fit inside a single drop.”

Tesi remained silent.

“Magical historians still argue over whether that’s even possible,” Chisato continued. “One chronicle says a drop like that destroyed a small army without a magic circle or any preparation. But no one has ever been able to properly reproduce the technique.”

Tesi raised his hand.

“This one?”

A tiny droplet appeared on the tip of his index finger.

Chisato fell silent.

It was almost transparent.

So small that it could easily have been mistaken for ordinary water—

if the air around it hadn’t begun to tremble faintly.

“Wait...”

Tesi moved his finger slightly.

The drop fell to the ground.

For a moment, nothing happened.

Then the world seemed to flash.

Chisato instinctively covered his face with one arm.

There was almost no roar.

Only a short, low impact—

followed by a wave of hot air.

When he opened his eyes again, he froze.

The forest was gone.

For dozens of meters around them, the trees had been destroyed.

Only dark ash remained of the grass and bushes.

The ground had turned black.

But around Tesi and Chisato themselves remained a small, perfectly even circle of untouched grass.

As though the spell had deliberately gone around them.

Tesi lowered his hand.

Chisato stared at the destroyed forest for a long time.

Then at Tesi.

Then back at the forest.

“What the...”

He stopped himself.

For several seconds, he simply stood there.

“That still doesn’t prove anything,” he finally said.

But there was noticeably less confidence in his voice.

Tesi smiled.

“Of course.”

“There are plenty of powerful mages. And if you’re about to tell me that you were the mage from that chronicle, I’m leaving.”

Tesi looked at him.

“Actually, that wasn’t me. I can just do the same thing.”

Chisato narrowed his eyes.

“Are you messing with me?”

Tesi turned away and walked several steps across the surviving grass.

“Don’t believe me.”

“What?”

“Don’t.”

Now Chisato was the one who had nothing to say.

Tesi stopped.

“I don’t need you to believe me. I offered you a place. Whether you accept or not is your decision.”

“In the legendary Mariyard.”

“Yes.”

“Where I’m supposed to be alongside a man I know absolutely nothing about.”

“Also yes.”

Chisato sighed quietly.

“You’re terrible at recruiting people.”

He looked at Tesi with open distrust.

Tesi turned toward him.

“Tell me, Chisato... When your magic first appeared, how long did it take before the people around you started telling you what you could become?”

Chisato frowned slightly.

Tesi continued, looking up at the starry sky.

“With people, everything starts with magic. It appears—and almost immediately, someone decides what you’re worth.”

“Strong magic opens certain doors.”

“Weak magic closes others.”

“Rare magic makes people start looking at you as though you’re something special.”

He shrugged slightly.

“Then comes your birth.”

“Money.”

“Your family name.”

“Your position.”

“Other people’s expectations.”

Chisato remained silent.

“And eventually, a person stops understanding where they are in all of that.”

The forest had become unnaturally quiet.

After the spell, even the nearby birds were gone.

“And what does any of that have to do with Mariyard?” Chisato finally asked.

Tesi looked directly into his eyes.

“In Mariyard, nobody cares what this world decided you should become.”

A pause.

“There, you decide for yourself.”

Chisato said nothing.

“Not your magic.”

“Not your name.”

“Not other people.”

“You.”

Tesi looked toward the blackened remains of the trees.

“If you want to go right, go right.”

“If you want to go left, go left.”

“If one day you want to turn around and walk somewhere no one before you has ever gone—do it.”

“Sounds nice.”

Tesi smiled faintly.

“Freedom almost always sounds nice.”

“Almost?”

“Until you have to pay its price.”

Chisato frowned slightly.

“And what’s the price?”

“Different for everyone...”

They looked at one another for several seconds.

“Mariyard plays by its own rules,” Tesi continued. “Not because it thinks it’s above everyone else.”

He paused.

“You simply can’t live your own life by someone else’s rules.”

Another brief silence.

“You choose your own life.”

“And your soul makes the choice.”

Chisato looked away.

He wasn’t smiling anymore.

“The problem is that not everyone listens to it,” Tesi continued. “Actually... not everyone even knows how to hear it.”

Tesi didn’t rush him.

After a while, Chisato asked:

“Why me?”

“Because your magic interested me.”

“Only my magic?”

Tesi smiled faintly.

“At first, yes.”

Chisato gave him an annoyed look.

“Then I saw you in the arena.”

The smile disappeared from Tesi’s face.

“Everyone else moved away from that attack.”

“You stayed.”

“I just didn’t have time to dodge.”

“I know.”

Chisato looked up in surprise.

“That’s why it’s interesting.”

Tesi stepped a little closer.

“What kind of magic is it?”

Chisato remained silent for a while longer.

The person standing before him no longer seemed like nothing more than some strange mage who had decided to attack him in the woods.

At least, not only that.

“Luck magic,” Chisato finally said.

A die appeared beside his palm.

“When something happens that my magic can affect, this appears. Everything after that depends on the number.”

He turned his wrist, and the die slowly rotated in the air.

“One to six.”

“The higher the number, the more circumstances turn in my favor.”

“The lower it is, the worse things get.”

Tesi studied the die carefully.

“Three is almost a normal outcome. Two means bad luck. One...”

Chisato smirked.

“If it lands on one, it’s usually better not to do anything at all.”

“And five?”

Chisato paused for a moment.

“Strong luck.”

Tesi immediately remembered the arena.

The crescent-shaped cut.

Chisato, who hadn’t moved at all.

And the attack vanishing directly in front of him.

“You rolled a five.”

It wasn’t a question.

Chisato looked at him.

“I did.”

“So you really didn’t have time to dodge.”

“I told you.”

“Let everyone else think you stood there on purpose.”

Chisato couldn’t help smiling.

“I wasn’t planning on correcting anyone.”

Tesi laughed quietly.

“And six?”

“Then something almost impossible becomes possible.”

“For example?”

“I don’t know. It’s different every time. An attack might simply fail. An opponent might make a mistake they would normally never make. Something so unlikely could happen that under normal circumstances it simply wouldn’t.”

Tesi looked at the die again.

“Interesting.”

“Is that why you threw a fireball at me?”

“Yes.”

Chisato closed his eyes.

“You’re insane.”

They remained silent for several seconds.

Then Tesi extended his hand.

“So?”

Chisato looked at it but made no move to shake it.

“You’re asking me to join a group whose existence I thought was a fairy tale five minutes ago. I barely know anything about you. I know nothing about where Mariyard is, who else is in it, or what you even do.”

Tesi kept his hand extended.

“Correct.”

“And after all that, you expect me to just say yes?”

“No.”

“Then what are you waiting for?”

Tesi thought for a moment.

“For you to decide whether you want to find out the rest.”

Chisato looked at him.

“And if I refuse?”

“You go home.”

“Just like that?”

“Just like that.”

“After telling me that Mariyard exists?”

Tesi glanced toward the destroyed forest.

“Are you going to tell anyone?”

Chisato looked there too.

“No one would believe me.”

“Exactly.”

This time, they both smiled.

Chisato looked at the extended hand again.

“And what if I agree, then realize I made a mistake?”

Tesi’s expression became more serious.

“Then it’ll be harder.”

“How much harder?”

“You don’t join Mariyard temporarily.”

Chisato looked up.

“If you join, you stay until you die.”

Silence.

The smile slowly disappeared from Chisato’s face.

“You really decided to save that part for last.”

“I’m telling you before you answer.”

Chisato stepped back a few paces.

Tesi didn’t follow him.

“You do understand how insane this offer is, right? I’m supposed to decide my entire life right now based on a conversation with a man who first shot at me, then destroyed half a forest, claimed to be part of Mariyard, and started talking to me about freedom.”

Tesi tilted his head slightly.

“Sometimes life gives you signs. The important thing is noticing them in time and using them properly.”

He glanced at the ruined forest.

“I think this is one of them.”

Chisato laughed.

Really laughed this time.

“You’re definitely insane.”

He looked once more at the burned forest.

Then at the die beside his hand.

It slowly dissolved.

“No.”

Tesi said nothing.

“I’m still not sure I completely believe you,” Chisato continued. “And I’m almost certain I’m going to regret this later.”

He stepped closer.

“But if even half of what you said about Mariyard is true...”

Chisato took Tesi’s hand.

“I want to see for myself where this choice leads.”

“I still have no idea what you’re talking about with all that soul, choice, signs, and everything else, but...”

He stopped.

Tesi smiled.

“Good answer.”

“Don’t start.”

“Then welcome to Mariyard.”

Chisato released his hand.

“That’s it?”

“What else?”

“I don’t know. A secret oath. A blood ritual. Something appropriate for a legendary group.”

Tesi turned toward the road.

“We’ll get to that.”

Chisato’s smile disappeared immediately.

“What do you mean, we’ll get to that?”

Tesi was already walking away.

“You wanted to know the rest.”

Chisato stared after him for several seconds.

Tesi raised one hand without turning around.

Chisato waved back.

The first had been found.