POV: Kai Mizushino
Place: Village School, Forest of Withered Stars
Date: August 30, 2214 (17 Years Before the Fall)
The next day arrived quietly, as if the forest itself was holding its breath.
Kai sat beneath the same tree where he'd first met Akito and Touya just days ago. The same tree where laughter had danced in the air and a new bond had taken root. But today, he was alone.
The cool shade offered little comfort as he quietly unwrapped the cloth around his lunch. A simple rice ball, a few pickled vegetables, and a small piece of dried meat—humble, but lovingly prepared by his mother.
He took a slow bite, savoring the quiet moment, until footsteps broke the peace.
Three shadows loomed over him.
"Well, look who it is," a sneering voice said. "The mana-less wonder."
Kai looked up. Three boys stood there, older than him by a year or two, wearing smug grins and eyes that glinted with cruelty. He recognized them. He'd seen them laugh during yesterday's test. Whispers had turned into mockery. And now, mockery had turned into this.
Kai said nothing. He simply looked down at his lunch, hoping they'd get bored and leave.
But they didn't.
"What's that?" one of them said, crouching beside him. "This your food? Looks like peasant scraps."
"Probably made by his weak little mom," another added with a snicker.
The first one reached down and snatched the rice ball from Kai's hands.
"H-Hey—" Kai said, reaching for it.
But before he could grab it back, the boy crushed it in his palm and dropped it onto the dirt.
Kai's heart sank.
"That's where trash belongs," the boy said, standing up straight.
The second boy grabbed Kai by the collar and shoved him backward into the tree trunk. His head knocked against the bark, pain flashing through his skull. The third kicked over the rest of his lunch, scattering pickled vegetables into the soil.
Kai tried to push himself up, but the older boy pressed a foot against his chest, holding him down.
"You think just 'cause a professor defended you, you belong here?" he spat. "Magic Academy isn't for trash without mana. You'll always be useless."
Kai's fingers dug into the dirt, his small body shaking—not from fear, but from frustration. From shame.
He couldn't fight back.
He couldn't even defend a simple lunch.
And as they walked away, laughing, he stayed there—alone, breath trembling, eyes burning.
But he didn't cry.
He simply sat up and began picking up the scattered pieces of food from the ground, placing them back into the cloth with quiet hands. His fingers were scraped. His knees were bruised. But he didn't stop.
Because even if they threw him down again and again…
He would still get back up.
That was the promise he made to himself that day.
The wind passed through the trees above him, gentle and soft. The same wind from the day he met his friends. And somewhere deep within him, though he couldn't feel mana…
He felt a flicker of something else.
Resolve.
To be continued.
[End of Chapter 9: Dirt on His Lunch]