Hearing the announcement, Raze knew who was going to come on stage; it was one of the five Grand Magus. One of the group that chased him down to the ends of Alterian. They never let him rest for a moment.
He was unable to take a day's rest or sleep peacefully because he knew that these people were always on his back, always after him. Even when he lost everything, when they had torn him down, they continued to chase him.
How many times had he sworn, sworn that he would get revenge on each of the Grand Magus, to allow them to experience a fraction of the fear and hatred that he had suffered that day?
"Now is not the time," Raze told himself with a tensed fist. "If he spots me now, then he might very well know that something is up. He might be able to tell that my body is not a real body. I've been able to get away with it so far, but if it's him..."
Raze was tempted to just get one look, to see how much the Grand Magus had changed. It hadn't been so long since the two had met; he hadn't been in Pagna for a long amount of time, so there couldn't be that much difference.
Maybe seeing him would ignite his anger again, unable to hold himself back, it was a risky move.
"I'm sorry," Raze said. "But I have to go now."
With that, Raze had left the event hall; he had slipped through the crowd moving side to side, and if anyone asked where he was going, he would simply state that he was off on a toilet break.
While walking around the place, Raze was getting ready to head to the section he needed to go to, but just before he did, he took a step into the actual bathroom. He gave a quick glance to see if anyone was inside but found nobody before heading to the mirror looking at his appearance.
His hand raised to graze the side of his own cheek, but he could feel next to nothing as the magic within his body was activating.
"I don't look the same as I was before, I'm not the same as I was before," Raze said to himself. "This is a new body, a new life, yet I'm still obsessing over the past. Over what happened back then? Maybe, I should have taken this chance to live my life to the fullest rather than it being obsessed over revenge."
Thinking this, Raze started to reach out to the mirror. When he did, and his finger touched the glass, for a moment, he could see his old face in the reflection, and flashes entered his head.
In the far distance, he could hear Ibrain's voice. "Thank you all for joining me today; I am happy to still currently be the principal of the Central Academy! This is special to me because when I became principal, I also was introduced into the group, and became one of the Grand Magus."
Both of Raze's fists were clenching hard as he heard every word coming out of Ibarin's mouth.
He had a personal grudge against every single one of the Grand Magus. They had all ruined his life in one way or another, but Ibrain, in a lot of ways, when he looked back at it, he was somewhat the start of it all.
Everything was flashing in Raze's mind. "I remember, I remember it all, I can't forget, I can't just let them all walk free, rewarded by the Alterian world. No one is punishing them for what they have done, no one is capable of doing so, I'm the only one that can, so I have to."
Raze left the washroom, heading to his vault, with deep memories of the past.
From a child, Raze had a deep fascination with magic. There was a deep reason for it all, a dark secret that he hadn't told anyone, but it was magic that was able to set him free from it all.
For the longest time in Alterian, the world had somewhat been divided. There were those that lived above ground, and those that lived below it, in underground cities where the poor lived.
Those that lived off the scraps that would be dropped down from above. It was almost impossible for one to get out of the situation they were in living underground. Because there was no way for them to learn the powers from above, the powers of magic.
Those underground were uneducated, most couldn't write or read, so even if they got their hands on something like a magic book that explained the basics, they wouldn't even know where to start.
For Raze though, he had a curious and advanced mind, and there wasn't much for them to do in the first place, so he persisted. With the books that would be thrown away, he had gathered the simpler ones, the basic ones for children.
He started from there, teaching himself the language of Alterian, the writings and how to read; just knowing this had already simply put him above the others. However, those living underground didn't see it that way.
Because knowing how to read and write, how was that meant to help? They needed to be good at using tools so they could fix the items they used on an everyday basis. Learn how to build and craft things with their very own hands.
If they didn't have people like that, then their world down below the city would collapse itself as well.
So Raze wasn't considered special by the others for knowing this; if anything, he was considered slightly strange for having an interest in this. What was the point of learning to read and write?
He would never be as good as those above anyway, so even if he escaped, his life was still destined to be one full of failure in the first place.
Going through the streets littered with rubbish and people dressed in drips and drabs, Raze held his books. He soon could see his own house up ahead.
The houses were square buildings made of brick, small in size built on top of each other. At most there were four of these single-floor houses built on top of each other, and they were placed close to one another.
For Raze, they lived in the bottom house; when he entered inside, he quickly looked to the corner where he placed most of his books and added another one to the collection. He soon covered it with a dirty cloth as he heard footsteps hurrying.
"Boy why are you late! You haven't even wiped the dirt off from your face!" A man with ragged clothes shouted; his speech was slightly slurred, and his top was half on him.
He quickly rushed over to the boy and grabbed onto Raze's hand.
"We don't have time to clean you up; they'll be here any second; come on!"
This was Raze's father, a man whose name he didn't even wish to remember. As for his mother, he didn't even have a picture to remember; either she died, or ran off, who knew. A tale his father didn't even bother to tell him.
Raze was soon dragged out of his house, and his father held onto his shoulders. He wasn't the only one out, but the rest of the parents were out of their houses, with their kids being held similarly.
Their children dressed in their best clothing, cleaned and washed, compared to their parents.
Then, walking through into their town, there was a single man, adorned with clothing from above. Wearing thick robes and an iron mask covering his face. Raze's eyes locked onto a small pendant that he noticed by his side; it had a marking on it, the marking of an I. The marking of Idore, one of the Grand Magus.
