Inside the grand hall of the Grimoire Tower, ancient magic books flew from the high wooden shelves in a dazzling display of light, hovering over the crowd before settling into the hands of their chosen owners.
As the air eventually settled into silence, Asta stood empty-handed while several arrogant youths began mocking him for being a magicalless orphan who couldn’t even attract a single page.
Asta remained completely unfazed by their taunts.
In his mind, he had only attended the ceremony out of curiosity.
He knew all along that the iconic five-leaf grimoire didn’t truly belong to standard magic—it was an anomaly waiting for the right moment.
Suddenly, a blinding aura of golden light erupted beside him as a magnificent book bearing a golden four-leaf clover floated down directly into Yuno’s hands, shocking the entire tower.
Following the Grimoire Ceremony, Father Orsi took Sister Lily and the church kids to the market to buy food for a small celebration.
Yuno began walking back toward the church alone, holding his new Four-Leaf Clover Grimoire, while a sinister, scarred man quietly tailed him from a distance.
Asta, sensing trouble early on, kept his distance behind them, blending effortlessly into the shadows of the village streets.
Yuno stopped in a quiet stone alley and turned around, his expression calm.
“Who are you?”
“Back when I was in the Magic Knights, they called me Chain Magic Revchi,” the man sneered, his grimoire floating open.
Before Yuno could draw upon his wind mana, heavy iron chains shot out from the alley walls, tightly binding his arms and body.
The chains immediately suppressed Yuno’s magic power, rendering him completely helpless as Revchi stepped forward to steal the legendary Four-Leaf Grimoire for the black market.
“Do you really think you’re qualified to drag a legend down?” a calm voice echoed from the alley entrance.
Asta strolled casually into the alley, looking completely unbothered.
Revchi scoffed in annoyance at the magicless orphan, immediately unleashing a dozen heavy iron chains toward him.
But Asta, relying purely on his refined physical speed and spatial awareness, effortlessly deflected and dodged every single link with fluid micro-adjustments.
Just as Asta moved to close the distance, the stone ground beneath him suddenly emerged upward!
Massive jagged boulders erupted from the earth, forcing Asta to jump back into the air.
A second man stepped out from the shadows of a nearby rooftop—a burly mage carrying a dark grimoire, his hands glowing with dense, earthy mana.
“You’re too careless, Revchi!
Let me handle this brute,” the partner grunted, slamming his palm toward the ground.
“Rock Magic: Earth Prison!”
From behind Asta, Revchi laughed maliciously as he poured his remaining mana into his chains.
“Chain Magic: Binding Iron Cage!”
Surrounded on all sides by towering rock walls and a dense canopy of heavy iron chains, Asta was trapped with nowhere to run.
Both rogue mages grinned, confident they had cornered their prey.
Right as the iron and stone were about to close in, a strange, resonant pulse echoed deep within Asta’s chest.
It wasn’t magic, and it wasn’t chakra—it was a heavy, ancient presence answering his sheer, unyielding willpower.
An unnatural darkness fell over the alley, swallowing the daylight.
Tiny embers of crimson light rose from the stone ground like floating dandelions as a battered, dirt-covered magic book materialized, radiating a blood-red aura as it floated down before Asta.
Revchi stumbled backward, his face pale with absolute shock.
“W-What?!
You don’t have a drop of mana…
How can you suddenly awaken a grimoire?!”
“Abandoned by the world, my ass,” Asta spat coolly, cracking his neck as a sharp, disdainful smirk touched his lips.
“As long as I’ve got my arms and legs, I’m better than your whole lot.”
In both this life as Asta and his previous life as Rock Lee, he had heard that phrase more times than he cared to count.
People had always looked at his lack of talent—first without ninjutsu, and now without magic—and wrote him off as broken, useless, or abandoned by fate.
But every single time, it was his fists, his endurance, and his unyielding training that proved every last doubt wrong.
He didn’t give a damn about fate, because hard work had always defeated natural talent.
As Asta spoke, the ancient five-leaf grimoire flipped open, settling on a faded page.
CLANG!
A massive, rusted greatsword fell from the sky, slamming edge-first into the cobblestones.
The shadow projected onto the alley wall behind Asta twisted into the faint silhouette of a horned devil.
“Yuno!” Asta called out sharply over the din of battle, not breaking his stride.
“Take care of the earth mage!
I’ll handle the chain bastard!”
“Got it!” Yuno responded instantly, his eyes sharpening.
With a fierce flex of his muscles, Asta grabbed the heavy hilt of the greatsword with both hands.
Pale green chakra intertwined with the dark, oppressive energy of the blade.
Asta lowered his center and launched himself forward like a cannonball.
“No-!” Revchi screamed.
His eyes caught only a blurred afterimage before the flat side of the heavy blade slammed directly into his chest.
BANG!
Revchi rocketed backward, crashing violently into the stone wall before dropping lifelessly to the dirt, completely knocked out.
Free from the binding chains, Yuno channeled his magic instantly.
“Towering Tornado!” Yuno roared, his Four-Leaf Grimoire glowing bright golden.
A violent spiral of concentrated wind blasted through the alley, tearing through the falling boulders and pinning the second mage straight into the brick wall, rendering him unconscious in an instant.
Asta sheathed his heavy sword back into his grimoire’s storage, casually walking over to pick up Yuno’s Four-Leaf Grimoire from the dirt.
“Here,” Asta said, tossing the book over.
“Don’t lose it again.”
Yuno caught his grimoire, staring at the dark, heavy sword strapped to Asta’s back.
He had always considered himself a genius, yet against a former Magic Knight, he had been helpless—while Asta had shattered high-tier magic and crushed the enemy without casting a single spell.
A fierce, burning determination ignited in Yuno’s chest.
He tightened his grip on his book, silently swearing to himself that he would train twice as hard every single day.
He wouldn’t let Asta pull ahead, nor would he ever need saving again.
High up on the roof, Rick and Will hugged the chimney tiles, trembling uncontrollably as they watched the fight conclude below, terrified to even make a sound before fleeing into the night.
Walking back toward Hage Village, Asta ran his thumb over the rugged leather cover of his grimoire.
The fifth leaf…
it dwells a devil, right?
He could feel the faint, restless pulse of it inside the ancient pages.
Asta chuckled faintly.
A devil, huh?
Suits me just fine.
As long as it cuts down whatever stands in my way, I couldn’t care less where the power originates.
Joining the Magic Knights in six months would give him the real stage he needed.
When Asta arrived back at the church yard, Nash and the younger kids were outside, diligently practicing their physical drills.
“Brother Asta!” Nash called out, wiping sweat from his forehead as he paused his stance.
“Did you manage to get a grimoire?”
Asta grinned, pulling the dark, battered grimoire from his belt and holding it up for everyone to see.
“You bet I did.”
The courtyard erupted into cheers.
The children rushed over, surrounding him with wild excitement, eager to touch the cover.
Over the past few months, Asta’s training guidance and high-protein meals had made these orphans far stronger than average kids their age, and seeing their mentor succeed fueled their spirit even more.
“Brother Asta, what’s your workout for today?” one of the younger boys asked eagerly.
“Ten thousand single-finger pushups per finger,” Asta replied calmly.
Flipping upside down in an instant, he balanced his entire body weight on a single index finger and began executing rapid, flawless reps.
“He’s a complete monster!” the kids laughed, thoroughly entertained before jumping back into their own sets.
Just then, Father Orsi and Sister Lily walked through the church gates carrying bags of groceries from the market.
Father Orsi froze, dropping his bags in shock as he spotted the grimoire resting on the bench beside Asta.
“A-Asta…
is that…
a magic book?!” Father Orsi gasped, tears immediately welling up in his eyes.
He rushed over and grabbed Asta’s shoulders, weeping dramatically.
“Oh, heaven be praised!
A miracle!
God has truly answered my prayers for you!”
“I told you he could do it, Father,” Sister Lily said with a warm, genuine smile, her eyes shining with pride as she looked at Asta.
“Congratulations, Asta.”
The entire church family gathered together in high spirits, celebrating the fact that both Asta and Yuno had successfully obtained their grimoires.
With his family’s support and his new blade unlocked, Asta knew the next six months of preparation for the Magic Knights Exam were going to be intense.