Chapter 35
“The Tower” is in an uproar. The notoriously difficult to please, Elder Zelma, finally found a disciple after years of breaking countless prospective disciples’ hearts. Her new disciple? It’s a mysterious young woman who hailed from the kingdom of blizzards, Almena.
Elder Zelma was quick to act. The moment Rennel agree to become her disciple, the female elder quickly left the restaurant while dragging the girl along. She didn’t even wait for the food they ordered beforehand before leaving and just ordered the server to send the bill and the food to “The Tower.”
The reason she was in a hurry was because she was worried that Rennel would suddenly change her mind. She was also worried that the other elders would compete with her for the girl once they realized her overwhelming talent. To prevent that from happening, Elder Zelma had the girl registered as her official disciple.
Only after doing all of that did the Elder Zelma felt relieved.
“Master, weren’t you overreacting a bit?” Rennel asked with an exasperated look.
Hearing her disciple calling her master, Elder Zelma could not help smile sweetly. “Girl, you’re underestimating your appeal too much. If the other elders found out about your talent, they might try to poach you away from me. The only way I could prevent that from happening was to register you as my official disciple first.”
“Is the tower that short of talent? Surely the other elders won’t go as far as poach other elder's disciple, right?” Rennel asked in confusion.
“No, the tower was never short of talent. But even in the place like “The Tower”, talent like you is very difficult to find. I mean, look at you? You’re only fifteen and yet you’re mana was on the level of an arch-mage – the same level as that of myself, and the other elders. Unless they’re blind, the elders would surely fight me just for the chance to take you as their disciple!” Elder Zelma explained with confidence.
Really? Was my talent really that exceptional? Rennel was feeling slightly emotional. Her first teacher, Chaos, never once praised her the same way as Elder Zelma. Yes, maybe she’s really that talented and her teacher, Chaos was just a miser when it comes to giving praises.
“Don’t let her praise get into your head. In term of raw talent, you’re inferior to the little tree spirit inside the Mazes of Trees. What’s more, this world is big and people whose talent was greater than yours surely exist somewhere.” Chaos quickly shutdown the girl’s delusion before it could fully form – bringing her from heaven back to earth.
“Geh! So cruel! Can’t you at least allow me some time to enjoy myself and bask in this rare glory, teacher?” Rennel complained.
Chaos looked at the girl as if she was trash, “And what good will that do? It’s not like being praise would make you the strongest in the world, right?”
Thuk!
My heart… Rennel felt like an arrow pierced her heart. Despite having found an arch-mage as her magic teacher, Chaos was not impressed. Teacher is so difficult to please…
Sigh. Feeling helpless, Rennel could only sigh inside her heart. From the looks of things, pleasing Chaos won’t be easy.
Elder Zelma noticed that Rennel looks slightly gloomy and asked if something happened that displeases her.
“It’s nothing, teacher. Please don’t worry too much about me.” Rennel responded in a slightly awkward voice.
She then asked, “Teacher, what will I do now that I have officially become your disciple?
“Why… we need to celebrate of course!” Elder Zelma answered cheerfully, "It's going to be a formal acceptance celebration. I'll invite all important people in the city and boast about you!"
Rennel was slightly taken aback and could only giver her master a guilty look, “Err… teacher; I might have forgot to tell you something very important.”
“Yes?” Elder Zelma looks at her disciple quizzically.
“Well, you see… I need to leave for Turok tomorrow so I don’t think I have time for a formal celebration,” Rennel confesses.
It can’t be helped. Due to the suddenness of the situation, the girl had pretty much forgotten that she booked a ticket for an airship ride to the city of Toruk. It was only through the hint from Chaos that she remembered about it.
So although Rennel wanted to celebrate with her new teacher, she couldn’t as there’s almost no time.
“Oh! That’s right… We did meet after you exit the station. So you bought a ticket for Toruk? That’s fine. We could always formally celebrate once you returned.” Elder Zelma nodded with understanding. Since things had already progressed to that stage, she could only compromise.
“Then how about we celebrate with just the two of us? It's a private celebration and won't take too much of your time. If I remembered correctly, the food from the restaurant we went to earlier should have arrived already. We could have an acceptance celebration at a later date.”
Rennel nodded at Elder Zelma’s suggestion. If the girl was to be honest, she preferred a private celebration compared to an official one as the former was less troublesome.
“Great! I’ll have the food delivered to my room. Let’s go. I want to learn more about you.” Saying so, Elder Zelma grabbed Rennel by the arm and drags the girl to her room.
While the master and disciple were privately celebrating, Elder Orwell’s report was about to reach its conclusion.
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“…That’s everything to my report,” Elder Orwell concluded.
Elder Orwell reached out for the glass of water in front of him. Talking for more than an hour made the elder’s throat rather dry.
While Elder Orwell was drinking water, the other elders are digesting the content of his report. Although Elder Orwell said a lot of things in his report, the elders only focuses on the most important points. For example: The fact that someone challenged the Titan Andes, the identity of the person who challenged the titan, the person’s origin, and of course, the person’s current whereabouts.
Due to Nuathl’s close proximity to the Andes valley, the members of the Council of Elders have a lot of chance to communicate with the lord of the valley: Titan Andes. Which also mean, that “The Tower” and the valley have an amicable relationship with each other that started centuries ago and lasted till this day.
Because of this amicable relationship, Elder Orwell didn’t have a difficult time getting the information he needed. Actually it was so easy that it barely inconvenient the elder. No matter what question the elder asked, Titan Andes would give the answer as long as it’s something that it knew.
No, the real reason that Titan Andes readily gave the information was because the titan had the permission of the other party (Chaos) to release the information. In the titan’s own words:
“They said that I could release the information on my own discretion.”
They…It means that more than one person was involved in the incident inside the Andes valley. However, according to the titan, only one person fought it. Although the person surrendered in the end, Titan Andes admitted that victory didn’t come easy.
Such were the thoughts that were swimming inside the elders’ heads. Despite losing the battle, the challenger was able to give the titan a difficult fight which was a testament to the challenger’s battle prowess.
And that challenger was a young woman…
The greatest shock of all came from the fact that the person who challenged the titan was a young woman. It won’t be too shocking if the challenger was someone with great age and experience. But for it to be a young woman; a child in the elders’ eyes, was truly an eye-opener for them.
“A young woman that uses a spear… someone hailing from Almena… doesn’t that describe the savior of Blizzard city: Platina?” The elder with long beard that reaches his chest, Elder Theodore, could not help but breath out a sigh.
How could they not know who the titan was referring to when it describe its opponent? In the recent months, a name, or rather, a title could be often heard inside inns, pubs, and taverns. A young woman whose skill with the spear was almost unmatched suddenly appeared during one of Blizzard city’s greatest crisis.
A few months back, a powerful goblin king appeared when Blizzard city was at its weakest due to the absence of the king. This goblin king, possibly a variant, was more powerful than any goblin king the kingdom had fought so far. If not for the mysterious young woman; the adventurer’s guild and the army might have paid a huge price just to kill the monster.
“Yes… aside from her, I cannot think of another spear-wielding young woman that could give the titan a good fight.” The kind-looking female elder, Delia, nodded in agreement. “Still, I never expected that she’s powerful enough to face a titan on her own, and even escape suffering any injury.”
“It’s simply a case of the young surpassing the old. Let’s just be glad that the new generation has someone like her. Who knows, she might just be the savior that the world badly needed…” Elder Xavier commented with a smile.
A savior?” Elder Ronin scoffed at Elder Xavier’s naïve words. “We can’t be sure of that. For all we know she could be the bringer of calamity.”
Hearing their colleague’s words, the other elders could only smile wryly.
“I say old man Ronin… can you be less pessimistic? It won’t kill you to say something more positive, right?” Elder Xavier asked with a helpless smile.
“I’m not being pessimistic; I’m being realistic. Calling someone you barely know a savior was nothing but ignorance of the highest level.” Elder Ronin argued.
Damn! As tactless as ever… it’s obvious where the child Zelma learned her tactless behavior.
There's a reason why everyone present thought of this. Elder Ronin was one of Elder Zelma’s teachers, and the one who taught her artifact forging. Among the Elder Zelma’s teachers, the one she didn’t get along the most was the aforementioned elder.
Also, it was already a consensus among elders and executives that the youngest elder inherited her teacher’s personality.
“Fine let’s leave it at that. Whether that young woman was the savior or the bringer of calamity, we’ll find out in the future. More importantly, we need to know her current whereabouts.” Seeing that no good would come from arguing with Elder Ronin; Elder Delia chimed in and diffuses the situation.
“If we follow Orwell’s judgment… then Platina should be inside the city right now…” Elder Theodore hinted while grooming his long beard with his hand.
Inside the city… wait!
Going with Elder Theodore’s hint, the other elders realized something. Earlier, Elder Zelma refuses to attend the meeting because she was looking for someone. Could it be that the person Elder Zelma was looking… was the mysterious Platina?
Bang!
Looking at the source of the sound, everyone saw Elder Xavier slamming his hand on the round table. How could the elders not understand? It was only more than an hour ago when Elder Zelma suddenly cut off all communication. And the unlucky person who was communicating with the female elder and was rudely cut off was none other than Elder Xavier!
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Sigh.
“To think that you’ve experience so much despite living only for fifteen years... “
Elder Zelma was feeling a bit emotional. After a short celebration, Elder Zelma asked Rennel what her life was like before meeting her. And although slightly hesitant at first, Rennel finally caved in and told her master her life’s story.
The story has tragic element to it which made the female elder’s heart to hurt for her disciple. How could it not? Her disciple was almost sold to slavery by none other than the very same people that raised her. What’s more… the girl lost her only friend in the village.
“No wonder you’re such in a hurry to leave. You finally found a clue of your friend’s whereabouts. If I were in your shoes, I’ll probably act the same way.” Elder Zelma looks at her disciple with obvious affection. She already liked the girl the moment her gaze landed on her. But upon knowing the length the girl was willing to go just to find her missing friend, raises the elder’s approval of the girl.
“But Cassandra, huh… Indeed. If this friend of yours did really have talent to be a sorcerer, then that child Cassandra would certainly be interested in her. Still… becoming Cassandra’s disciple will not be easy.”
“Master, could it be that you know Sorceress Cassandra?” Rennel hurriedly asked after hearing her teacher talking about Cassandra.
Elder Zelma nodded at the girl, “Yes, I have spoken to her in several occasions. She’s not bad. In terms of talent, she’s not that inferior to you. When it comes to character, it was acceptable. If not for the fact that she’s walking the path of a sorcerer, I would have taken her as a disciple.”
Really? Hearing that Sorceress Cassandra’s character wasn’t bad, Rennel breathe out easier. One of the girl’s biggest worry about Pina’s condition was the kind of person the sorceress was. She was worried that the sorceress would mistreat Pina because she was a slave. But if her teacher was to be believed then her worries were unfounded.
“Teacher, you mentioned that it won’t be easy for my friend to become Sorceress Cassandra’s disciple; what do you mean by that?”
“Ah, yes… for your friend to become Cassandra’s – “
Elder Zelma suddenly stopped talking much to Rennel’s confusion. But as she was about to ask her teacher, she heard three loud knocks on the door!
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To be continued
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