Chapter 33
After the executive left, Elder Zelma stood in her laboratory as if in deep thoughts. She stood there for a minute or two before making a decision. With a slight swing of her hand, a hooded gray cloak appeared out of nowhere.
The elder wore the grey cloak and covered her head with the hood. She then heads towards the door, only to stop as she was about to touch the door knob.
"I think I need to prepare a gift..." Elder Zelma thought as she turned around and started looking for things at her laboratory that could be given away as gifts.
"Let's see... If I remembered correctly, some ambassadors from a country across the sea came bearing gifts half a year ago. After receiving those gifts, I remembered throwing them somewhere... Right! Those gifts should still be there."
Elder Zelma opened another door inside her laboratory that leads to a decent sized bedroom. It was her room inside the tower. That said, it was a room that Elder Zelma rarely used as an arch-mage like her only needed very little sleep.
Because of that, the female elder often used the room as a storage room where she stores gifts, and items she rarely use.
Seeing the room filled with countless gifts that had yet to be opened, Elder Zelma frowned and started rummaging through the gifts. Before long, the elder found several items that (she thought) might serve as good gifts.
Satisfied, Elder Zelma, who was wearing a hooded grayish cloak opened the door to her laboratory and walked out. As she was walking to an elevator-like artifact, she stopped and spoke, “I’ll be going out for a little bit, Donde. If anyone looks for me just tell them that I went out. Moreover, I don’t like to be bothered when I’m out so unless it’s not anything important, do not contact me, understood?”
Donde and the elders of “The Tower” have spiritual connections that allow the elders to contact each other through the familiars. But unless, it’s something important like a gathering of elders, or anything related to the city, they would usually not bother each other.
Yawn! “Yes elder… you can leave everything to me…” The lazy familiar’s answer leaves a lot to be desired for most people but for the elders and executives of the tower, Donde’s answer was dependable as one could be.
Satisfied with Donde’s answer, Elder Zelma directly rides the artifact that would take her to the ground floor. She then chantlessly chanted a spell that would allow her to not be noticed by most people.
“Now then… I need to quickly look for that person.” Elder Zelma’s eyes gleamed with excitement as she takes out a round magical tool that was given by one of the executives, the male magician from earlier. She inserted a bit of her mana into the crystal, and a strange arrow-like rune appeared on tool’s surface.
“The person’s in that direction?” Elder Zelma stared intently at the arrow before nodding her head.
The round magic tool on the elder’s hand was a portable magic tool that could not only record the mana signature of a person; it could also point at that person’s general direction. But since it could only pinpoint to the person’s general direction, Elder Zelma still had to search the city for that person’s whereabouts.
“It’s troublesome… but if I could pull this off the reward would make all of the hard work put into finding that person worth it.”
An excited smile appears on the elder’s face. If the other elders and the executives saw her smile, they would be terrified and would pray for the unlucky person that managed to get into the female elder’s bad side. Of course, Elder Zelma wasn’t really on a bad mood; on the contrary she was really excited. Very few could make an elder like herself, who had stepped to rank of arch-mage at such a young age, excited.
But for the current Elder Zelma, it was exactly what she was feeling right now.
How could she not? The mysterious person that entered the city recently, the one with mana that could rival an arch-mage; that person might just be the one that she’s been looking for!
Heh heh… “I won’t let those old fogies get to you first…” Elder Zelma licked her lips seductively. And with an excited gleam in her eyes; the elder joined the large crowd of people walking here and there. Before long the elder was swallowed by the tide of people.
****
Hiss!
Rennel who was cheerfully walking on the street felt a sudden chill on the back of her neck and hissed. Alarmed, she quickly turned around and scanned her surroundings. But no matter how much she searched she could not find the source of the chill she was feeling.
“What’s wrong?” Chaos, that was floating leisurely in the air look at its student and asked.
Rennel turned towards her teacher and replied with an uneasy voice, “I’m not really sure, teacher. But I suddenly felt an intense chill in the back of my neck. It, it was as if some predator was staring at me from somewhere… but no matter where I looked, I could not find the source of my unease.”
“Oh? You feel a sudden chill in the back of your neck? Could it be a premonition?” Chaos asked with interest.
“A… premonition? You mean something will happen to me in the future?”
Hearing her teacher’s words, Rennel was enlightened. She had indeed read from one of the books in the guild that when an adventurer felt a sense of foreboding, something will happen in the very near future.
Could it be one of those?
“Then teacher, what should I do?” Rennel asked her teacher on what must be done after finally calming herself.
Chaos smirked and narrowed its eyes into slits. It already expected that something would happen after the two of them passes through the gate that had runes that could roughly measure one’s level of mana. It’s just that not even Chaos expect that someone would act so quickly.
“Whoever this person was, he or she doesn’t like wasting time. Now then…” Chaos turned its head towards the tallest structure in the city, “The Tower” and murmured, “…what are you going to do?”
Rennel who waiting for her teacher’s reply, only to see it acting strange could not help but ask, “Teacher?”
“It’s nothing. You don’t need to worry too much about the cause of your unease since you’ll know very soon,” Chaos looked at the girl and told her not to worry too much. “Just do what you must and get a ticket for the airship.” It advised.
“I understand, teacher.”
The girl was still feeling slightly uneasy but since her teacher told her not to worry too much, she won’t worry too much. Anyway, if anything did happen, she’ll just act accordingly. Having thought of that, Rennel calmly walked to the airship station to buy a ticket.
Meanwhile…
Elder Zelma studied the magic tool on her hand and frown a little. She then turned towards a certain direction.
“The arrow is pointing towards the direction of the airship station… Could it be that the person I’m looking for is going there?” Elder Zelma thought for a while before keeping the magic tool. “It’s possible... many of those who visited the city were here for the airships. But no airship should be flying today… so that person either went there to take a look at the airships or to buy a ticket for the next day's flight.”
“It’ll be good if it was the former but if it was the latter… then I need to hurry up.”
Elder Zelma quickly “walked” towards the airship station. No, rather than calling it “walking”, the female elder was actually floating. Indeed. Elder Zelma was using a customized version of the float magic to float several inches off the ground.
It was not that Elder Zelma hated walking but as a magician, her physical prowess leaves a lot to be desired. Although it’s possible to use magic to reinforce one’s body, continuous reinforcement could easily drain a magician of his or her mana.
Floating a few inches above the ground on the other hand drains mana a lot less, and is therefore, more practical in the current scenario. Thanks to this magic, Elder Zelma could move around without getting tired.
Still, this was a strange scene so it would be normal if people react strangely to it. But despite how strange it was, none of the people walking around even bat an eyelid to what Elder Zelma was doing. Yes, it was as if they couldn’t see the female elder all, which was exactly what happened.
Earlier, Elder Zelma had used a concealing spell earlier to conceal her appearance and presence. The magic has a time limit which forces her to cast the magic from time to time. It’s a slightly annoying magic to use but very useful for those who wishes not to be seen. And it’s all thanks to this magic that the elder could move around without being bothered by anyone.
Well, anyone besides her fellow elders that is…
****
“What do you mean there’s a meeting? Why so sudden?” Elder Zelma telepathically yelled in displeasure.
The female elder was terribly incensed. She was almost at the airship station when she received a telepathic call from another elder.
“It’s important… Elder Orwell, who was investigating the event in Andes valley, had returned.” An elder who had the voice of an old man, answered.
A few days ago, the elders of Nuathl received a report that someone was fighting the Titan Andes at the valley. When the elders heard of this, they quickly sent, Elder Orwell, who was the fastest among them to investigate. Apparently, Elder Orwell had returned this morning and requested an emergency meeting which, coincidentally, only half an hour after Elder Zelma went out to look for Rennel.
“I don’t care. I’m busy here. You guys could just sort it out on your own.”
After saying her piece, Elder Zelma unhesitatingly cut the telepathic link between her and the other elder much to the elder’s chagrin.
“Hmph! I’m about to meet that person and you wanted me to return because you told me so?
Although what Elder Zelma did could be considered very rude, the female elder didn’t care. For her, meeting that mysterious person was more important.
Back at the tower, the elder whose call was suddenly cut off by Elder Elma could only let out an exasperated sigh. “As you could all see, I failed to convince Elder Zelma to return.”
Hearing this, the other five elders could only smile helplessly.
“That woman… she could be so bull-headed sometimes…” An old man with a long beard that reaches his chest could only shakes his head slowly.
“Heh heh… What can we do? She had always been that obstinate. After she had decided on something, she’ll stick to it till she accomplished it.” A female elder that looks like a good-natured grandmother let out a forced laugh. “Ai, what exactly is that child up to?”
Calling someone as old as Elder Zelma, “child” might raise people’s eyebrows but considering how old these elders were, calling her “child” wasn’t strange at all. After all, these elders age were already in the hundreds. Even the youngest one present, Elder Orwell was almost two hundred years old!
In the elders’ eyes; Elder Zelma who was yet to reach the age of one hundred was still a “child.”
“I heard he was looking for someone. It seemed that a mysterious person caught her attention to the point that she ignored her research to look for him or her.” The elder with the long beard answered.
“Really? Was there something special about that person? To get that child to ignore everything else, that person must not be ordinary, right?” Asked the good-nature female elder.
“Yes… apparently that person possessed mana that won’t lose to an arch-mage.”
“””Really!”””
All of the elders present came to a realization. If the person that Elder Zelma was searching for was as special as what was reported, then her action of ignoring an important gathering of elders could be excused.
“I see… no wonder.”
“Indeed. If that was the case then Elder Zelma’s action was understandable.”
“She might have a valid reason for what she did but I don’t think she should ignore her duty just because of that.” A stern looking old man, an elder with black hair had a frown on his face, asked in a slightly displeased voice, “So are we going to commence the meeting without her?”
“What else can we do? It’s not like we can wait for her all day. Let’s just commence the meeting and update her later.” The elder whose communication was rudely cut off by Elder Zelma suggested.
The other elders look at each other before nodding their heads. They then turned towards a middle-aged-looking man, Elder Orwell, who was just silently listening the entire time.
Seeing the look on the elders’ faces, Elder Orwell nodded before opening his mouth.
While the elders are listening to the Elder Orwell’s report, Elder Zelma finally reached her destination after ignoring everything else. Thankfully, the elder’s effort was not wasted as she meet face to face with the person she was looking for.
She looked excitedly at the girl wearing a hooded cloak in front of her. Although she could not see the girl’s appearance clearly, it was easy for her to tell that the girl was very beautiful and young.
Elder Zelma opened her mouth and asked, “Girl, do you want to take as your master?”
****
To be continued
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