"Who's the strongest here, guys?"
A young man was standing in the doorway. He had short brown hair, a plain white shirt, and plain black trousers.
"He's not from around here, is he?"
Everyone in the room thought the same thing.
The young man walked inside, and the door slammed behind him.
"I want to defeat the strongest and join your club."
"We've already taken who we wanted, you can go..."
Hexagon began to grumble.
"It doesn't matter! I am walking the path of a true warrior! Only battle can divide us!"
"I'm going to use force now..."
"Don't bother."
Madness, who had already put on his sunflower hat, interrupted the conversation. His face was the centre, surrounded by bright golden petals.
"Step aside, Viver, I'll deal with him..."
Weaver obediently moved away to Hexagon.
"...My name is Madness." Who are you, warrior?
Without tension, without showing any emotion, he addressed his opponent.
"My name is..."
*Ahem*
The stranger coughed very hard. So hard that it seemed as if the devil was about to come out of him.
"Uh, well... I'm a Reader."
"You're kind of strange..."
Ness took up a fighting stance. Reader stood up and also took up some kind of strange stance, covering his face with his fists.
"Let's begin."
Hexagon lazily missed the start of the fight.
A moment later, before he could even finish his sentence, Madness kicked Reader in the forehead.
His opponent collapsed at the door without even understanding what had happened.
"You're strong."
The winner of the round said with undisguised sarcasm.
Without thinking twice, the second one got up and began to approach Madness, nervously shifting his feet.
"He doesn't even use magic. Although I can feel the pressure from him even now. Apparently, he emits it without even thinking."
A second later, a fist flew into Reader's stomach, knocking him back a couple of metres.
Reader doubled over, writhing in pain.
Ness turned back to his teacher.
"Mr. Hexagon, it hurts me to look at him, maybe I should..."
Before he could finish his sentence, he felt a hostile aura. He felt as if a bloodthirsty beast had pounced on him. He automatically moved to the right. Reader collapsed to the floor.
"You know, I'm not implying anything, but maybe you should give up. You clearly don't belong here."
"Quiet, Madness, I sense strong potential in him."
"You call this 'strong' potential? I certainly trust your instincts, but I have experience too."
While they were talking, clearly showing indifference to their opponent, Reader again assumed his strange stance.
He prepared his hand to strike. He struck and... Without even dodging, Madness struck him in the stomach again. Reader's hand didn't even reach its target.
*Crash*
However, a second later, Madness heard the sound of something falling. Looking back, he saw that his pot had fallen off the nightstand.
"Damn, I need to replant it quickly."
He ran over to the spilled soil. And felt a blow to his neck. He passed out.
"Yes, I won!"
Reader began to dance his strange victory dance.
"See, even without using as much strength as he did, I was able to defeat him."
"You know..."
Hexagon approached the "victor."
"I'm not exactly an honest person myself. But winning like that is worse than death for a warrior. Although I'm impressed by your strength, you managed to knock him out. I don't think even I could do that. It would be a bad idea not to take you as my apprentice after all."
"It was easier than easy. I didn't even have to steal the scroll with the forbidden techniques.
"You can go, Viver.
"But..."
Viver had expected this. Hexagon decided to show Viver how to analyse a fight, and even before the match began, he noticed the only one with a large reserve of magical energy. "It's three times more than mine, where did he get it from?" Viver understood why they chose him, but such news could not help but make him sad.
"What should I do now?" Biting his lips nervously, the main and only loser thought.
"So you want to take this idiot with us?"
Stereo approached Hexagon, dressed in a daisy costume. She wore a silk dress decorated with patterns of leaves and flowers. And around her face were white daisy petals.
"Can't you see what he's wearing? Can't you hear the way he talks? He's crazy! He might even be a saboteur from Paralleta!"
"Oh, even if he is a saboteur, what can he do to us? My connections can smooth things over if those old farts from above bring charges against us."
"Fine, it's your business. But why kick Viver out?
"If you like losers like him, start your own club and take in scum like him.
"Are you listening to yourself? Have you already agreed on everything, or are you even worse than a loser like him and don't keep your word?
"Oh, fuck it, let him stay. But you'll teach him, just like you taught that 'winner'.
Hexagon went somewhere else.
"I'm going upstairs. Once you've met, come here. I need to fill out some forms for the mages' committee.
***
Viver exhaled. All the tension immediately dissipated.
"Thank you."
He thanked the girl.
"You're welcome."
She winked at him.
"So you're Stereo! I didn't expect to see you here. How do you feel about shibari?"
Reader said this rather arrogantly. Stereo reacted to his words with sincere hatred and slapped him across the face.
*smack*
"Are you completely out of your mind?"
She quickly stomped out of the main room.
Standing at the front door, she called out to Viaver:
"Viver, let's go to the festival together."
"What? But I haven't even grown a flower, and I'm dressed like this..."
"Come on, let's go."
"All right, then."
Viver went with her to the roots of the capital.
"Poor guy, he doesn't even know what they want to drag him into,"
Reader said quietly and sympathetically.
***
Three hours later, they approached a huge tree. It was called the "Tree of Life." Approaching the fence protecting it from vandals, they began to admire the tree, whose foliage shimmered with all the colours of the rainbow.
"Did you know that today is a special sunrise day?"
"Special in what way?"
"According to legend, the tree should bear fruit today. The last time this happened was during the War of Six.
"And what could that mean?
"I don't know. Probably just a beautiful legend. We're not in some fantasy world; prophecies don't work here.
"That's true.
They stood and chatted. At one point, they decided to pray together. After Stereo prayed, she took her flower to the gift collection point.
Then these gifts will be planted close to the tree of life, it will take their lives and live for hundreds of years. All these people put part of their souls into caring for the gifts. And they gave part of their souls to this tree.
After the prayer, Viver asked:
"Why did you stand up for me?"
"It's hard to admit, but I liked you..."
She said this with a completely embarrassed face and a slightly crooked smile.
"I see."
"Let's keep this our little secret."
She took his other hand and asked him a very pleasant request. Viver scratched his hair in embarrassment.
"Looks like he took the bait."
Of course, there was another reason for her behaviour. She enjoyed gaining the trust of lonely men.
However, Viver was not that naive. He had figured out her deception while they were walking to the tree and chatting amiably. He had heard enough stories about such relationships. And he was not so stupid as to not understand that life was not that simple.