Chapter 44
“He’s not human?” Miranda asked, slightly in daze.
Sorceress Cassandra nodded her head, “Yes… he’s not human but a creature not of this world.” She explained.
Hearing her teacher’s explanation, Miranda was tongue-tied. It’s one thing for the silver-haired girl’s teacher to be not human, after all this world consisted of not only humans but also other intelligent races like the beast men, centaurs, dwarves, elves, gnomes and more. But for Rennel’s teacher to be someone from another world… isn’t the scope way too big?
Miranda felt like her brain was not big enough to process such shocking information.
“Teacher, I felt like my head’s about to explode…,” Miranda complained while clutching her head. “It’s just too shocking.”
“I understand how you feel. I was shock when I first here the information from him as well.” Sorceress Cassandra forced a wry smile.
When she heard that Pina’s friend suddenly showed herself, she was only slightly surprise but didn’t think much of it. After all, even if the girl, Rennel looked for her disciple, Pina would’ve still look for her once she completed her basic magic training.
But once Rennel’s teacher made his presence known, things had become more complicated. Not really too surprising if she were to be honest as the silver-haired girl’s teacher was unbelievably powerful despite sealing his power. Moreover, such a powerful creature was not of this world.
“My old teacher told me once that there were powerful god-like beings watching and guarding this world. Did they not interfere when Pina’s friend’s teacher appeared? Or maybe they were unaware that some otherworldly being managed to pass through the net?” The sorceress thought. But once that thought surfaced, she quickly erased it.
“No… that should be impossible. Even if they did not notice his presence when he first entered this world, they should have noticed him by now. It could only mean two things: Either they allowed him into this world, or, his too powerful for them to handle so they just let him be.”
The first option was still easy for her to accept but the second option only send chills into her very soul. If Cassandra was to be very honest to herself, then the second option was the more likely right answer.
“It’s quite fortunate... He seemed to have no design for this world, because if he had then the result would have been very catastrophic.”
Cassandra turned towards her disciple and caught the black-haired girl just silently staring at her, “What’s wrong? Is there something on my face?” She asked jokingly.
Miranda felt a little awkward after being caught staring by her teacher, “err… no, I was just waiting for teacher,” she said while scratching the back of her head.
Sorceress Cassandra shook her head in amusement but didn’t linger too much on the topic. “Could you ask the girl, Rennel to meet me once she’s done catching up to Pina? I would like to personally talk to her.” She instructed. “Also… tell her that she’s welcome to stay in the tower as long as she wanted,” the sorceress added.
“I understand, teacher. I’ll go check on them now.” Miranda bowed slightly to her teacher before walking towards the door. She opened the door and walked out.
Once she’s out, Miranda let out a long sigh. Although she had calmed down a lot, her mind was still in shock by information on the silver-haired girl's mysterious teacher.
Moreover, She also curious to know how much information Rennel was allowed to tell her friend, Pina. Judging by her master’s words, Rennel was only allowed to reveal certain things about her mysterious (and non-human) teacher.
“I’m also really curious about the girl’s mysterious teacher... Should I ask her about him as well? Maybe she’ll even allow me to meet that mysterious teacher of her? Yeah, it’ll be good if that happened…,” Miranda though to herself as she walked down the stairs.
As the black-haired girl was in deep into her thoughts, she didn’t even notice that she’s descending the stairs a lot faster than normal. If she were in her normal state, she would have complained about the almost endless stairs of the tower again.
Not long after, Miranda found herself back in the room where the two girls are staying. “I wonder if they’re finished catching up to each other. It’s been many years since they last meet so they must have lots of stories to tell. Is it really okay for me to bother them like this?” She thought to herself as she stared on the door.
“It, it should be okay! Yeah… they been talking for some time now so they should be wrapping up by now, right? Right! That should be the case,” the black-haired girl blurted out loud. “Besides… it almost lunch time. So I should just invite them to have lunch with me and teacher!”
Having thought of a proper excuse, Miranda finally decided to open the door.
****
Rennel was unceremoniously invited for lunch by the excited Miranda. But out of good fate, she accepted the black-haired girl's invitation and had lunch with the sorceress. Also, since it was a good time to leave a good impression with her best friend’s teacher, she also accepted the sorceress’ request for a private conversation.
To her surprise though, the conversation was more focused on Chaos instead of her or her relationship with Pina. This of course surprises the girl considering that she didn’t even know that her teacher had made his presence known. Chaos obviously corrected her assumption that he made his presence known as it was the sorceress herself who discovered him.
Seeing the two argue like friends surprises the sorceress but it also alleviated a lot of her worries. As she sees it, as long as the relationship between Chaos and girl remained close as that of friends, or even close relatives, then there’s little chance that the mysterious creature Chaos would act against them and the world.
After the conversation, Sorceress Cassandra extended an invitation to Rennel; allowing the girl to stay in her tower as long as she wished which made the girl happy as she could spend more time with her friend.
Unfortunately, that stay was cut short as the girl was forced to move again the very next day when an envoy from the gnome kingdom of Farcell pay the Sorceress' Tower a visit.
“My name is Lucata,” the female gnome envoy introduced. “It’s a great honor to finally meet you sorceress.” The child-like Lucata added with a respectful bow.
The gnome Lucata was only half as tall as the Sorceress Cassandra and looked like a little girl with greyish-green skin. She was as tall as a dwarf or a goblin and even shares the strange color of the goblins, only lighter. But there's nothing strange about her appearance as this were some of the standard features of the gnome race.
But unlike goblins though, gnomes weren’t ugly repulsive creatures that all living creature in the continent (except their own) want to hunt down and eradicate. No, gnomes weren’t ugly at all. Except for their short stature, pointed skin, and greyish-green skin; gnomes looks very similar to humans. And yes they do have hair unlike the hairless goblins which they keep long and well-groomed to make them easily distinguishable from their hated counterparts.
There was actually a reason why gnomes tried their best to make themselves easily distinguishable from goblins and it has something to do to what happened to them in the past. Basically, gnomes are victims of discrimination on the hands of humans.
It happened several hundred years ago. As gnomes shared some features with the hated goblins, their race once experienced being looked down upon by the immature and not easily trusting humans. Some cruel human kingdoms even went as far as to hunt them along with the cursed goblin race.
The discrimination lasted for almost a century and only ended when the more moderate and knowledgeable human factions took power. Once the humans became more educated and less ignorant; the way they threated the gnome race changed drastically.
They started befriending the gnomes, and even started trading with them. They also shared their knowledge with the gnomes while the gnomes did the same. Basically the relationship between the two races improved a lot. It was as if the conflicts between the two race but just an illusion or even a dream.
Sorceress Cassandra nodded and spoke, “The honor is all mine. Lady Lucata, was it? I know the reason why you’re here. It has something to do with the letter that was delivered a week ago, right?” She asked.
“That’s correct, sorceress. My king sent me here in hope that you’ll reply favorably to our request,” the female envoy answered truthfully.
“I understand. I have read the letter thoroughly and thought of things through carefully before making a decision – and I agree.” Sorceress Cassandra replied with smile.
“Truly?! Oh, blessed be the gods of knowledge and technology!” The female envoy bowed towards the sorceress again in again. If Sorceress didn’t stop her from doing so, she might have broken her back with the endless bowing.
Envoy Lucata was ecstatic. She thought that she’d needed to do lot more to convince the well-known sorceress. She even prepared a lot of expensive gifts. Unexpectedly, the sorceress had already made her decision before she could present her gifts to the sorceress and her disciples. Of course she would still give them the gifts even if the sorceress refuses the request.
“Sorceress… when can we leave?” Lucata asked after calming down.
“As soon as possible… The faster we solve the problem the better it would be for everyone,” the sorceress replied. “Before that though, I needed to talk to some people. So can you wait for a bit?”
Hearing that the sorceress wanted to resolve the situation was fast as possible Lucata smiled widely. She then nodded her head quickly and said, “Yes, yes, of course! Please take your time.”
Nodding, the sorceress summoned three people: Miranda, Pina, and Rennel (and Chaos).
****
“These two girls are my disciples. The one with the black hair is my first disciple, Miranda, and the one with the red hair is my second disciple, Pina,” the sorceress introduced.
“I’m Miranda. It’s nice to meet you, envoy.”
“I’m Pina, teacher’s newest disciple. My magic still immature but I’ll do everything I could to help. So please take care of me.”
“It’s a pleasure to meet both of you.”
Sorceress Cassandra nodded before turning her head towards Rennel. “This silver-haired young lady over here is Rennel. She’s Pina’s good friend and an esteemed guest of my tower. Like my two disciple, she too, would accompany us.”
“Ah… So the young lady that was as beautiful as an elf was Miss Rennel. A pleasure to meet you,” envoy Lucata praises.
Being overly praised made Rennel blushes a little. Although the one doing the praising was a woman, and even a gnome, she still could not help but feel a little embarrass.
“My two disciples would act as my assistants. As for Miss Rennel, she would act according to circumstances.” The sorceress explained.
Lucata nodded her head but one could see some worries in her child-like face. “Forgive me sorceress… but I’m a little worried. We would surely encounter danger when we arrive at that place so is it really okay to bring children along?”
The three young ladies felt a little strange being called ‘children’ by a female gnome that was much shorter than them. If they were to line up together along with the envoy and have people point out who looks the most child-like in the group; most people would definitely point at the female goblin envoy.
“Don’t underestimate them. My two disciples are very talented magician and could protect themselves,” Sorceress Cassandra replied with a smile on her face. “And as for Rennel… she’s the last person in this world you’d have to worry about.” She insinuated.
Sorceress Cassandra’s enigmatic words (about Rennel) caught the gnome envoy off guard. She turned towards Rennel and stared at her for a long time. But no matter how much she looks she couldn’t see anything special about the girl except for the fact that she’s inhumanly beautiful.
“If it makes you feel better… the girl’s master is an arch-mage.” The sorceress added seeing that the envoy was still not convinced.
“Arch-mage!”
The moment Lucata heard the word arch-mage, the way she looked at the silver-haired girl changed drastically. And who could blame her? Although gnomes are known for their knowledge on lost technology instead of magic, most of them were still aware what being an arch-mage represented.
It represented power; the pinnacle of mortal magic. Reaching the level of an arch-mage is very difficult even to talented magicians. As such, arch-mage are well respected, more so than the pinnacle of other occupation.
For the girl to become an arch-mage’s disciple could only one thing: She’s very talented and might even become an arch-mage in the future.
“My apologies! I was ignorant and judged you based solely on your appearance!” The envoy Lucata apologized profusely.
“No, no, it’s not your fault. My appearance did indeed not invoke confidence to anyone.” Rennel said while waving her two hands. “Also, I’ve only become an arch-mage’s disciple for a short time only know some minor spells,” the girl added mentally.
“Thank you for your understanding!” Lucata bowed towards Rennel. “ If you needed anything; anything at all, please do not hesitate to let me know.” She said while still bowing.
Rennel quickly helped Lucata up and told her she understood so that the gnome envoy would just stop bowing.
“She really likes to bow, doesn’t she?” Everyone thought rudely in their hearts.
“Well then… should we get going?” The sorceress asked after seeing that all misunderstanding was cleared up. “Lady Lucata, you did prepare an airship for us to travel, right?” She asked after turning to the female gnome envoy.
“But of course, sorceress. We have long prepared everything beforehand, and were only waiting for you to accept our request.” Lucata gave a reassuring reply.
Sorceress Cassandra nodded in appreciation. She then stood up and looked at the others and spoke, “very good! Then let us depart for the Dark Sea!” She declared.
****
To be continued
Previous Chapters: https://read.cash/@beastion
