Aspiration to the Heavens: Becoming the Supreme Mage Vol. 1- Novus Magus

[Revised/Edited] Episode 60: Court of Dreams

"The butterfly flutters around joyfully..."

*Lei*

We were led into a large auditorium full of thousands of students. In the upper part of the front of the room, there were three balconies which sat the leaders of the nearby nations.

I spotted Wanikiya's father, Grand Chief Makya Kohana, a tall dark-skinned man wearing three necklaces, the first was made out of tropical flowers from each of the Wahkanian islands, the second was made out of bones of fish and other sea creatures, and the third was made out of white seashells. He also had on his crown of feathers, and his multicolored ceremonial robes.

The king smiled proudly at his oldest son as we sat down in the front-row.

Wanikiya, on the other hand, pretended not to notice his father. I didn't get what was bothering him. Had he gotten into a fight with his father?

The woman seated next to Chief Makya also waved at us, or rather to Adela. Adela waved back at her. The woman was her aunt, Gracia. To the right of my mother's cousin sat a blond-haired man dressed in a red leather coat. His eyes were covered by sunglasses, but I assumed that they were intimidating simply from the sheer aura he was giving out. I hated to admit it, but my first thought was, 'This guy is stronger than Eri.'

"There are leaders from every country in the region," I said.

Iah smiled at the blond-haired man with sunglasses. "Yeah. To be honest, I'm kind of surprised that they invited my uncle Huang, given our history with this country and all."

In addition to the leaders of Wahkan, Xiān, and Mina were half a dozen others. One of them was the king of Sera, a guy who strongly resembled Sarah. However, unlike her, he had a perpetual smile like the one Hal had on. To his left was a woman dressed in robes made of feathers. Was she the leader of An's country?

"Brother," Sarah whispered, stopping in her tracks. Her brother flashed her a grin as he waved at her.

Vermeil put her hands on her shoulders. "Relax. He can't take you back by force in front of all of these foreign leaders."

She nodded and took a seat.

Between the woman in feather dress, and Huang Wudi sat a black-haired man with piercing green eyes, wearing an expensive-looking tailored suit. I recognized his face from a middle school history lecture. He was President Oringo Bruno, one of the few democratically elected leaders in this region of the world. He smiled as he placed a glass of wine up against his lips.

To the right of the king of Sera was a woman with a majestic aura. She wore a white hanfu that made her seem ghostly as it blended with her white hair, fair skin, and light lavender eyes. She had to have been from Uan, Xue's country.

To the right of her was another woman. This woman also had fair skin, but her hair was the color of gold and her eyes were a deep golden-orange like actual amber. Was she a leader of Vermeil's country? Unlike others in the region, Harun had a council made up of the leader of every dukedom of the country which came together once every three months to preside over national issues, the rest of the time they would focus on their dukedoms. The head of the council rotated with each session. One could say they were more of a confederation than a kingdom.

"Pardon the wait. We're finally ready to commence with this ceremony. I, Vita, would like to welcome all of our new students, as well as the leaders of the twelve countries in our region," Vita said as she held her hand toward us. I'm glad to see that all of you are here. I hope that we have a good year. We're going to have a few speeches. You'll also receive your first tool as a magician, a wand. Each of these wands, as you probably already know, have a special form depending on the bearer and their power. In the future, if you decide to take upon an apprentice, the wand will be used to sign the person with the insignia. Though I guess I'm really getting ahead of myself."