Departure of the village head

"Good lad, everyone back in the village will be extremely delighted by this news. I can't wait to see their reactions, tks tks tks" the village head said with a mischievous grin on his face. He refrained from saying Alex's parents directly and instead used the whole Village so as not to place Vee in a strange mood.

Alex only smiled foolishly in response, he was also very happy about his awakening but did not know what to say and could only sun his teeth.

"Alright now, I heard you all have to report to the academy today so I won't hold you up. Let's go get your things so I can start returning to the village, I've been away for too long" the village head said with both eyes fixed forward, burning the marvelous image of the academy into his memory even though this was not the main part of the academy.

Alex's face changed when he heard the words of the village head and his eyes suddenly turned blurry, he suddenly felt bitter about the village head leaving. The village head was the only one whom he was familiar with and had known all his life here in the capital city, he would be left all by himself once the old man left; well, he wouldn't be literally alone since there would be tons of people at the academy but he wasn't familiar with any of them.

"Aya, what's that look on your face? Listen here, men do not cry easily even when facing pains…some pains. So wipe your eyes and keep your head up, stand proud like the mage that you are!" The village head comforted Alex when he saw that the kid was about to burst into tears.

A gentle smile could be found on his lips when he stared at Alex's face. He had been present in the village since the day of Alex's birth and had watched the kid grow, not just Alex though. He saw all the kids of the village as his grandkids and leaving one in such a huge place with no one to watch over him made him a bit sentimental as well but he knew it was a necessary step for the kid's future.

The words of the village head hit deep into Alex's heart, he felt his heart beating wildly. He remembered his father saying something similar to him not long ago, his eyes became even more blurry but he still managed to look up and even bring out a smile.

"Yes, sir!" He responded with a low shout, his voice almost cracking.

" Then follow me and let's go get your stuff," the village head said.

The three of them left the academy ground together and went to the apartment where both of them had stayed to get their things. Alex's luggage contained the clothes that he had brought with him along with some clothes and footwear that the village head had bought for him.

Since the money that they brought with them was still much, the village head decided to get some more things for Alex. He also bought for Vee, the kid was humble at first and kindly refused but the village head was persistent and still bought him some sets of clothes.

After so much spending, the money that was left was about sixty gold coins and some silver. The village head directly gave half of it to Alex so he could use it if anything came up in the academy. After all, the money had originally been given to them for Alex's sake.

"You don't really expect me to give you everything, right? I will have to buy some things back to help improve the lives of the people back in the village. Although such an amount of money can't do much here, you should know that it's different back home. So you should understand, right?" The village head smiled apologetically at Alex for not being able to give him all the money since he was planning to buy some medicine, farming tools, fertilizers, and other things back to the village, he also needed to pay for his transport through the next kingdoms.

Alex shook his head after hearing this.

"Please don't say that, you can take everything back and use it for the village. I can look after myself" Alex proposed while presenting the thirty gold coins and silver coins to the village head.

"Haha, how can I be so shameless? Of course, I can't accept everything, this should be enough for us so you can keep the rest" the village head laughed and patted Alex on the head.

He brought them back to the gates of the academy after they spent over two hours outside.

"Good luck kids, make us proud"

The village head said his goodbye and waved at them as they went in, he only left after they had gone far into the academy.

"The village is counting on you, kid" he muttered softly as he left, prepared to depart for the village that same day.

....

Alex and Vee arrived at the registration building where they had come to register for the awakening. The building was filled with other kids who also came to get their things so the two of them had to search around the building for a while before someone attended to them.

The person who attended to them was a woman who appeared to be in her sixties, she was not a mage and was just an ordinary person.

She gave both Alex and Vee a strange glance because of their matching hair and eye colors which was strange since the two did not look alike so they could not be mistaken as twins, even siblings would have a bit of difference in those regards.

Still, she attended to both of them respectfully. After all, they were now students of the academy and could be regarded as mages.

Mages were not people whom ordinary people could disrespect as even a weak magic apprentice-ranked mage could easily wipe out a small team of ordinary humans.