"Blind?"
"A blind girl will go through the awakening? That's a new one. I've never heard of blind people using magic, haha!"
"But some disabled people use magic..."
"None of them can fight, let alone a blind one! What difference does it make to have magical abilities and not be able to use them?"
Several people murmured in the vicinity of the entrance to the Awakening Temple while Lauren heard all that.
But in the darkness of her life, there was no way she could care about the sharp comments of mere strangers.
What difference did it make to her that these people spoke of her like that? Hell, she had lost her mother and her sight at the same time!
To bring her down, one would have to do much more than just comment on her blindness!
But Vicente didn't like some of those comments. He pressed his teeth together and glanced out of the corner of his eye at some of those people in line to enter the Awakening Temple.
The man in front of them frowned and looked intently at the girl with her eyes closed.
Using his mana, he could tell that it wasn't a lie.
'There is no mana circulating through her eyes... This girl has totally lost her sight.' He thought, imagining that it would really be difficult for her to move around the temple without help.
No temple official was allowed to treat young people who came daily to awaken their powers any differently, so they couldn't help Lauren.
However, there was a way for him to authorize Vicente.
"As long as you don't stay near her at the time of awakening, it's okay for you to take her there and then pick her up." This person said, not caring whether or not it was useless for Lauren to go through the awakening.
If asked, he would say that this young lady would not go far, even if she had good talents. But he had no reason to make Lauren's life difficult, and it was her problem to decide to go through awakening.
"Hmm, I promise not to get in the way of anything, senior. I'll just take her there and pick her up when it's all over." Vicente said before that man dressed about the same as the other temple staff stepped out of his way, giving way.
"To family and friends, proceed through the alternate entrance." He said as he looked at the guards beside Andrew and Nina.
This man made a strange expression as he smelled the scent coming from Andrew, watching him in disgust.
A woman next to this man, also dressed in some sort of black cloak with a half-moon symbol, looked back, seeing Andrew and his people entering that building.
"Poor children..." She muttered.
"They look fine to me." Another man said this, also dressed in the cloak of temple officials. "Better to have an alcoholic father than nothing. They at least seem to have coins..."
"Hmm, some people have a lot less."
...
After entering the Awakening Temple, Vicente directed Lauren through the wide corridors of this place, where there were directions that made it easy for anyone for the first time there.
On his way, he saw several pictures and images on the walls of these well-lit corridors.
Some pictures were more challenging to understand, with representations of things that Vicente did not understand what they were about.
But several others had images of Magic Gems.
Magic Gems were fantastic things that had origins not yet understood by the magicians of this world, with infinite possibilities.
It was said that there were a few types of Magic Gems. Yet, when they connected with magicians, they differentiated into forms different from their natural states. So it was very difficult to find similar ones.
Only within the same family could one find people with similar Magic Gems. But even these gems would generate different abilities in relatives with similar capabilities.
Vicente saw a few types of Magic Gems in his way in these representations.
In general, Magic Gems showed in their form the talent level of their owners, but also their rank.
Their rank was the same as Magic Pentagrams, varying between red and violet colors, with one representing the lowest level and the other the highest.
But beyond this, each one had a shape. Some were triangular, others were circular, among other geometric figures.
The most common ones were triangular, circular, and square. But there were special shapes. These shapes were related to the magicians' powers.
If they were common shapes, then the elemental affinity type would not form awe-inspiring powers. If they were special, then that magician's abilities would be impressive.
Vicente knew the basic theory behind it, and seeing some of those Magic Gems, he couldn't help but be curious about what his sister's would look like.
Kate's had a yellow circular gem, while Andrew had an orange triangular one.
He didn't know any of his other close relatives besides his parents, so he thought Lauren's would be similar to one of these two types.
With this in mind, he reached the end of the last corridor, where a flight of stairs led to a very well-lit area.
As he climbed that, Vicente continued describing the surroundings to Lauren until they reached the platform in the middle of that coliseum.
"Vicente?" Lauren asked in a low voice as she realized her brother had stopped talking.
But Vicente couldn't help but open his mouth and say nothing for a moment, looking at this place's surroundings.
This looked like an ordinary fighting platform, surrounded by the coliseum galleries, where the public could follow the daily awakenings.
But this coliseum was completely covered. On the ceiling was a constellation of precious stones the size of grapes, each as bright as stars in the night sky.
Some were brighter than others, but in general, they looked very similar.
The black ceiling favored the circumstances, making the ceiling look like a piece of sky.
Meanwhile, in the center of that platform was what appeared to be a black obelisk, but not quite to the point where there seemed to be nothing there.
Vicente looked at that and immediately realized that this was no ordinary construction.
"Vicente?" Lauren asked again, looking in the direction of her brother's face.
"Hmm, that... Cough, we are at the place where you will go through the awakening along with the others. It's amazing, big sister. If you could see it, you'd be impressed." He commented, still looking at the surroundings, noticing that there were already about 30 young people of the same age as Lauren around.
Some of them were looking in his direction. After all, he looked too young to be there.
But no one approached him or tried to question him. Everyone was looking forward to their awakening, so it mattered little what this child's situation was.
"Is that so? Then it is a shame." Lauren said, but she really didn't care if this place looked fantastic.
Then one of the few staff members at the Awakening Temple approached Vicente and Lauren. "Hey, how did you get in here, kid?"
Vicente saw that tall, perfectly shaped woman with a black cloak hiding part of her beauty, but which obviously was unable to do so.
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