Neither Cassie nor Victorina seemed surprised by this outburst. Sadly, he had to disappoint her, “I don’t know.”
Slowly he reached into his robe before he took out an envelope, “Three years ago, Beast said he was leaving. At the time, he had just met with another dwarf named Lawrence. At that time, he handed me a letter.”
Placing it on the table, he didn’t wait, “As you can see, it is clearly not written in Beast’s handwriting. In fact, it isn’t the handwriting of a dwarf. As you know, very few of them find interest in penmanship. Only when I opened it, taking out the letter, did I find out it was from your father.”
A strange expression was portrayed on Jessica’s face, “I didn’t think you two got along.”
Shrugging with an unreadable expression, “We don’t. While we are both outliers, he is still an elf at his core. So we didn’t really get along, as I am a complete outlier that would be hard to convince anyone that has met elves that I am an elf.”
“What did the letter say?” Jessica couldn’t help but ask.
To which, Victorina was clearly not ready to say it in front of Cassie. While she was clearly not normal. He didn’t know the exact relationship between Jessica and her. This was something he wasn’t willing to say in front of her.
Sensing this, Cassie just smiled before standing up, “Since this intruder is a friend, I will take my leave for today.”
As she reached the door, she turned to smile at Victorina, “Don’t leave without saying goodbye.”
Without waiting for a reply, she left. Clearly not willing to allow him to slip away without telling her how he snuck in. Staring at the door, he shivered slightly, “Who was that woman? She is terrifying.”
As he had always been a bit of a mystery, Jessica wasn’t sure what to say. Therefore, she tried to push the conversation back on point, “Like she said, she is my teacher. She has done a lot for me. I would advise you to tell me how you got in. If you leave without saying anything, she will likely hunt you down. Though, she probably won’t harm you. The letter.”
Speechless, he could only sigh helplessly, “The letter was just some things…” Seeing her expression, he could only pause before spilling it, “He explained that his plans for you might get side tracked. If he didn’t come pick up the letter in a months time. I was to open the second note that was inside the envelope.”
“Since we didn’t get along, I didn’t really plan to take it to heart. While it stated that it would be extremely useful for me. If he couldn’t do it himself, he wanted me to teach you on his behalf. As you know, the mana art you use to circulate your mana is special.”
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“Yeah, even my teacher said that she thought the technique I was using was not normal. If I could get the latter parts, it would be immensely beneficial. If I couldn't, she would find something that might be able to replace it. But it would likely not be as good.” She spoke a bit fast as if it was not important.
Seeing this, Victorina became quiet for a moment. As Jessica stared at him, he finally spoke after sighing once again, “When he never showed up. I decided to read the note. If it could benefit you, it wouldn’t hurt to learn it myself. Inside was the location of a book hidden in a special place.”
“Can I see it?”
“No… The letter and the book were both burned. While there were parts of it I thought would be good to show you myself, it was too sensitive. So I burned it after memorizing the technique, as it instructed me to do.”
With a clearly crestfallen face, “Oh.”
“Do you know why he was so hesitant to bestow you the Everwood name?”
Hearing this, Jessica could only pause, a bit lost. Thinking about their history. He seemed really against it. In reality, he didn’t seem to like the name. And from the bestowment it was clear that it was related to elves, who the old man seemed to heavily despise.
“It is a title that is connected to elves. It is for that reason that he sent me to teach you in his place. As this requires elven blood and constitution to learn the technique.”
Looking at him with some confusion. He laughed a bit, “No, you’re not even a part elf. Your father was able to change it to match your constitution. In fact, from what the book said, it is like your teacher said. He not only took a technique only usable for elves, he changed it perfectly and tailored it for you. So learning this technique will be extremely useful.”
A slimy smile appeared on his face, “It was with that technique I was able to sneak in here. As I am sure you have already guessed, it is stealth related. While also having combat aspects with very fast mana channeling throughout the body. If you reach a high enough level, you can turn yourself basically invisible to anything but the naked eye.”
A look of wonderment appeared on his face, “I hate to admit it. I know this is a higher level of the basic technique taught to all elves. But your father is an absolute genius, it is said that at higher levels, it is possible to even become invisible to the naked eye. Though it requires you to be much stronger than them.”
Jessica didn’t seem to react much. Outside some warm and fuzzy feeling from her expression at the beginning. That was slowly dwindling as she remained silent. No matter how much he tried to move away, it appeared she could feel something from everything.
“There was more in the letter than that. Something pertaining to me…” She was a little uncertain, but it could be said she had a bit of confidence in her words to speak them.
“Yeah… He wanted you to make me the next Everwood. He never wanted you to become the next Everwood, and with him unable to return. There will come a time an Everwood will be required, and he never wanted you to be responsible for that.”
“Forsake the Everwood name?!” There was clear anger in her voice.
“No! No. He just means you will not be executing the responsibilities of the Everwood title. It makes more sense for an elf to be responsible for the elves. Why should you, who has anything but a good relationship, deal with the elves? Let alone you have a very long way to go before you can even begin to execute those responsibilities.”
Remaining silent for a bit, he couldn’t help but change the subject, “It took me three years to learn the technique. While it is made for you, it will still take a while. Ultimately, you are the only Everwood here. Everything is up to you. He said he raised you well enough to make your own decisions. He simply wanted me to share his thoughts with you and offer you an alternative.”