"On this beautiful day, you take your first step down a new path. I wish you all faith, hope, and love," the grand maester announced and landed at the elevated platform, having descended from on high.
He walked forward and introduced himself, "For those who don't know, I am the master of this grimoire tower. Now, never once has anyone from this region distinguished him or herself by becoming a Magic Knight, much less the Wizard King. I sincerely pray that one of you has what it takes to become the Wizard King someday…
"No, really! Seriously!"
"..."
"Ahem! And now, it's time for the awarding… of your grimoires," he grandly said.
Immediately, several books among the myriad of others in this grand library glowed in unique colours and flew out from their respective locations.
"W-Woah…"
"Amazing."
"Finally, my very own grimoire," a young lady said.
"Haha, check it out! Mine's bigger!" (I said.)
"Heh. Yeah, maybe, but mine's thicker." (Bro said — based on a true story.)
"Alright! Now I can leave this town and go to the city," said another kid joyously.
"I'm gonna take over the family business!"
"This is my grimoire? Seriously?" some ungrateful brat said.
"Why is mine so tiny?" (I now understand the hidden jokes Yuki Tabata put in this scene. My young mind glossed over it years back.)
"I guess… I'll decide what to do with my future when I have more pages of magic filled in here," a girl said.
"Hm. Six months from now, we'll be taking the Magic Knights' entrance exam," the yellow-haired brat bragged.
"And we'll pass it for sure. Just wait," his companion added.
"Yes, very good. I have high hopes for you," the grand master said.
Kojo, however, was in a daze, staring blankly upwards. There before him, there were two large glowing cards—one red with intricate markings and one black—floating in the air!
Kojo smiled from ear to ear and reached upward.
The red card with black intricate markings, as if to answer his call, was engulfed in a thick, dark red light and speedily floated down.
The dark red light was so large, it drew the attention of everyone present, even the tower master, whose eyes widened.
"Could it be?" he wondered.
Kojo didn't mind the looks and just grabbed onto the red light with his two hands.
'What is it? What is it?!' he eagerly thought.
Just then, the dark red light subsided, and all that was left in his hand was a large, but extremely slim, greyish black book with blood-red markings forming a square around the extremities of the cover.
Kojo focused on the blood-red clover sign, and his smile froze. He didn't need to count the leaves for long… because there were only two.
"W-What the f**k is this?" Kojo voiced weakly.
The girl behind him exclaimed and announced, "It's a two-leaf clover grimoire!"
The tower master raised an eyebrow. 'How is that possible?'
"What?" someone voiced.
"Huh? A two-leaf?"
"Is that even possible?"
"Pfft. I guess he's another national treasure," the yellow-haired brat said, prompting the entire floor to burst into laughter.
Kojo gnashed his teeth and ignored the laughs and whispers, quickly turning his grimoire over and inspecting it. It had teeth or mandible-like protrusions at the opening on the grimoire, both sides knitting themselves together like the closed mouth of a pointy-toothed beast.
Kojo didn't care. The pointy sides bit into his fingers, hurting him, but he pried the grimoire open.
However, his eyes blurred a bit as he saw inside. It was completely blank, completely pageless!
"Hey uhhh…" Asta voiced loudly, causing the laughs to pause. He had knelt with one leg and his arms stretched up to receive his grimoire.
And sheepishly voiced, "My grimoire's not coming…"
"Er…" the grand master brushed his beard, "Try again next year."
"What?!" Asta's face fell.
"Pfft~" From a single chuckle, their laughter erupted once more, even louder this time.
"No, really. This is too funny! One can't use magic and the other one can, but he's still useless!"
"What kind of trash magic comes with a two-leaf clover even?"
"I bet all it does is make his feet glow, quite dimly too. Ahahaha~"
"I couldn't get over the first one before this happened. This is just too crazy!"
"Seriously? That's awful," said someone pitifully.
"I can't believe it," another added.
Asta's face was frozen in shock. And Kojo stared blankly ahead, his face shrouded in darkness.
"Ha! I guess if we competed to see who was the most pathetic, we'd be no match for these two," the yellow-haired brat mocked.
Suddenly, a bright light shone from in front of Yuno, drawing awe from everyone, even the grand maester again.
He mouthed, "W-Woahoho… is that the four-leaf clover?"
"The four-leaf…" the yellow-haired brat's eyes flickered, "like that of the legend?"
"The one that the first Wizard King received?" Father Orsi exclaimed.
"The grimoire said to be filled with immense power and good luck?" asked Sister Lily.
'And it's his? That peasant?' the yellow-haired brat spitefully thought.
"Wow!"
"Awesome!"
As everyone expressed their surprise at Yuno's grimoire, Kojo raised his head and turned his cold gaze to the cloaked individual with a scar on his face standing at the edge of the crowd, shrouded in the shadows.
The book stopped glowing and landed deftly on Yuno's palm. He turned slightly and declared, "I am going to become the Wizard King."
Everyone looked at him in awe and screamed, "Amazing!"
"He's the shining star of Hage," Father said, tears flowing down his face like an ocean. Sister Lily, Recca, and Nash all wore equally surprised looks. Even the little one screamed, "You're amazing, Yuno!"
In the middle, where Yuno stood, Kojo was gone from sight, and Asta rose from his feet before saying, "Yuno… just wait. I'm gonna catch up to you. Because I am your rival!"
Everyone burst into laughter, as expected.
"Did he just say 'rival'?"
"Who does he think he is?"
"He's not even the one with the glowing feet, and he thinks he's his rival?"
"Big talk for some idiot who didn't even get a grimoire. Hahaha~"
Yuno stared at Asta and then walked past him.
"Not possible."
Asta stood there frozen, but then let out a sigh..
Sister Lily watched him with worry all over her face, while Father wore a wide smile as he said, "Alright, kids! Time to go. We have to prepare for the big feast. Since today is special, you all get three tatoes each."
The little one screamed in joy, Recca complained about their choice of meal, while Nash watched Asta with a nonchalant gaze before following behind.
The cloaked man began walking too, muttering to himself, "Heh-heh, well, isn't this a surprise? A two and four-leaf clover grimoires. What amazing things to find in a crummy little town like this—"
Bam!
Someone bumped into him from behind.
"Hey, watch it!" he said annoyingly, but saw that the person didn't turn or apologize but just kept on walking. He noticed them and smiled sinisterly.
"Oh… It's the kid with the two-leaf clover grimoire. Hehehe…"
As Kojo walked behind his family, he suddenly felt a hand grab his shoulder firmly. He halted and turned to see that it was the tower master.
"Young lad, can I speak with you for a moment?" he politely asked in his old, grainy voice.
Kojo looked at the halted Father Orsi and Sister Lily, and Father just nodded and said to everyone, "Let's be going, everyone. Kojo will catch up later."
Kojo turned to the old man and simply said, "Sure."
"Ahem. Follow me."
Kojo followed behind the tower master.
"What is your name, young lad?" the old man asked.
"Kojo."
"Mm. And what is your magic?" The old man brushed his beard as he led Kojo up a spiral staircase.
"Copy magic. I can use someone's magic once after I touch 'em," Kojo simply answered, glancing at his grimoire and gritting a bit.
"That doesn't sound bad—"
"I can only use a rudimentary spell of theirs, and I need to touch them again before I can do it again. Even then, I can't keep a backlog of spells from different people because the last one erases when I touch someone again," Kojo explained.
"Hmm, are you sure that is all there is to your magic?" the old man asked.
"..."
Kojo remained silent. He truly wasn't certain by the virtue of the fact that he couldn't believe his magic was this useless. After all, there was that last black card. Maybe he needed to get it first before everything came together. But then he never controlled his two previous occurrences with the cards.
They arrived at the old man's study, and he said, "Let me see your grimoire…"
To which Kojo easily handed him.
The tower master looked at it carefully, felt it, and analyzed it.
"Hmm, I didn't believe it, but it is actually a two-leaf clover grimoire. This is… quite unprecedented. I would say, even rarer than the four-leaf clover grimoire."
He used his magic to make the Grimoire float and also used it to pry it open.
"No pages? Hmm…"
Kojo's eyebrows were scrunched and he voiced through gritted teeth, "I don't know what the hell this is. If it's useless, why bother giving it to me? This was my last hope in getting something useful… something that could help me get into the Magic Knights, yet I was insulted in this manner."
The tower master caressed his beard and said, "No grimoire is truly useless, boy… Unless you actually had a dimly-glowing feet!"
"..."
"Ahem! Anyway, every magic is as unique as each star in the sky. Your grimoire is definitely the first ever one to appear, and that can be a good thing; you never know. Either way, I have to document this…"