Ewald had not heard of any news regarding Rivka since her forced eviction. He even asked Raem and Lara to have a search around the city with no avail. He was unable to utilize the manpower the Fenchel had due to Elias’ veto. He was adamant that Ewald should stick by his decision. It was possible that she had left Lux via a merchant carriage or by some other means. The only thing he could do was hope that she was doing alright.
Some time had passed since. It was a rare occasion where he was reading books in the library. He just felt like it. The majority of books in the library was just literature along with occasional historical titles. As he went over several books, he noticed that a considerable amount of books were written by the same author who went by the name of “Ruta”.
“Ruta? That’s a female’s name, isn’t it?” He wondered aloud.
It was at this point that he could sense some commotion outside. It felt like a lot of people were on the move.
“What’s going on?”
As he popped his head out of the door, he saw numerous maids moving up and down. A pair of maids were carrying a large bowl, and another was carrying steaming towels. He recognized a pattern there.
“Is Lady Harder in labor?!” He asked aloud.
“Yes!” A maid who was passing by answered.
He followed the maids to a room where he was denied entry which was completely understandable. With his arms folded, he walked in circles like a father waiting for his child to be born, except that he wasn’t the father.
Noah Harder arrived not long after.
“Young master? What are you doing here?”
An old maid nearby replied with a smile before Ewald could.
“He’s been circling around as if he’s expecting his own child.”
Noah laughed in return. He gave a powerful pat to his back and told him.
“Young master, worry not. All women go through this.”
He really didn’t seem fazed. Fortunately, they didn’t have to wait long because they heard a baby’s cry from afar.
“It’s a boy!” A maid exclaimed joyfully.
Noah clenched both of his fists and uttered, “Yes!”
“Congratulations, Sir Harder!” This time, Ewald gave a powerful, as least he thought it was, pat to his back.
“Only the father may enter,” A maid informed them. Ewald fought back with puppy eyes.
“No, you may not,” The maid profusely refused.
Shrugging in defeat, he returned to his room. It was good news regardless for the couple in spite of the fact that their future remained uncertain. Granted, it was good news that they had a son, but they were living in a literal hut. He didn’t believe that their wages were so low that they couldn’t afford something else. He felt that they were planning for something else and was saving up for whatever it was. Regardless, it wasn’t really his business.
Then something even bigger occurred several days later. It was shortly after he had breakfast. He was preparing to leave for the decoy house to meet up with Raem and Lara when someone knocked on his door.
“Yes, who is it?”
“Milord, it is Emily.”
“Huh?”
She had left a moment ago with his dishes. She must have forgotten something, he thought. When she entered his room, however, she had brought news.
“A carriage is here for you, Milord.”
He titled his head in confusion. “And? What does that have to do with me?”
“Lady Flissing is here.”
He froze on the spot, unable to process what he had just heard.
“I must be tired,” He said while rubbing his forehead. “I heard that lady Flissing is here. Silly me. So, who has arrived?”
“Lady Flora Flissing, Milord,” She replied firmly.
……What the freak?
“Lady Flissing is here? Why?”
This time, Emily didn’t or couldn’t answer. Taking a deep breath, he dashed out of the room only to find Elias approaching him fast.
“Sir Hunt, have you heard -”
“Yes,” He interjected at once. “Lady Flissing is here apparently.”
“Why?!” Ewald cried.
“I don’t know.”
By the time they arrived at the main lobby, Edmund was there already. He was reading a letter delivered by a messenger who came along with the carriage.
“Father, what is going on? Lady Flissing is here, I was told.”
“It seems so indeed,” Edmund replied, turning around.
Apparently, Lord Flissing was in full agreement of the marriage anyway and chose not to negotiate anything and sent her. He even included a large dowry of 50 gold coins in the back of the carriage.
“Lord Flissing has no terms. ‘Just take her’ is all he has written.”
Having said so, he showed the letter to Ewald.
“You cannot be serious…” Taking the letter, he found that it was indeed written so. There was indeed just a single sentence in the letter.
Just take her, it said. He had to blink a few times and even shook his head in his initial denial.
Oh, my God, what kind of father is this?
He rubbed his eyes. He was feeling tired already and it wasn’t even noon yet. He handed the letter over to Elias.
“What do we do now?” He asked Edmund.
“We cannot send her back. We are stuck with her.”
“So, I am going to marry her like this?”
Edmund stroked his chin. “I suppose further talk will go on, but it is increasingly likely that you will need to marry her or at least take her in.”
“What do you mean by ‘take her in’?”
He gave a cryptic answer. “I … don’t know.”
We are fucked. We are absolutely fucked!
The three men sighed together in unison.
“Let us welcome her at least,” Elias suggested eventually.
“We don’t have a choice at this point,” Edmund added. “Ewald, you are to be her suitor. We will follow you.”
Leaving a nine year-old to take care of the trouble, huh?!
Alas, he couldn’t dispute the fact that this was his problem at least. He was the one who suggested this after all. Clearing his throat, he adjusted his clothes and readied to welcome lady Flissing.
Ewald, flanked by Elias and Edmund, walked out of the main entrance and approached the carriage. A middle-aged butler was waiting by its door, ready to open on cue. Ewald gave him a nod, and the butler opened the door gently. As soon as the carriage door was open, a hand reached out, which the butler held it by her wrist and gently guided her out.
Flora Flissing had arrived at the Fenchel manor which was a totally, completely and utterly, unexpected turn of events. They expected a series of negotiations that would take months. They did not expect Lord Flissing to send her outright like this.
On the flip side, however, it could prove advantageous, Ewald felt, because the fault wouldn’t entirely be upon the Fenchel. Both houses were partners in this little scheme. Would the king punish both of the two largest houses in his kingdom? He doubted it.
Flora Flissing brought just bare essentials. In fact, the dress on her was all she had brought. Also, she had only a single maid with her. Still, none of that mattered when her dowry was whopping 50 gold coins. Edmund noted that her dowry was ten times more than the general average.
“Lady Flora Flissing, we welcome you, Milady,” Ewald declared as he bowed lightly with a palm on his chest.
Flora curtsied holding the helms of her skirt. Her long straight blonde hair waved with the wind beautifully as she curtsied. A maid exited following Flora. She, too, curtsied.
“I thank you for saving my life,” Flora said gracefully.
“I, too, thank you for saving my life,” The maid followed.
Hmm?
“Oh, you must be the maid from…,” He trailed off.
“Yes, if it weren’t you, I would not be here,” She said with a smile. She looked to be in late 20s and had short dark blue hair with light blue eyes.
“She has been my maid for as long as I recall,” Flora added. Ewald caught on what that meant. His mother, Vilma, had a maid like that who was basically her mother spiritually. Flora may have brought only one maid with her, but the maid was one she could truly trust.
“Sir Hunt, please show the lady her room.”
There was no “her room” because her visit was sudden. Regardless, Elias put up a composed smile as he bowed to his order.
“Please, lady Flissing, this way.”
Once Elias led the two women into the manor, Edmund and Ewald let out exasperated sighs.
I really want a drink. I am too young for that, eh.
Edmund told him out of the blue, “I was told that you evicted Rivka out of the decoy house.”
His statement brought him back down to Earth.
“Yes,” He admitted without a fuss. “And I question whether it was the right call.”
“The moment I released her to you, she was your property to deal with. I won’t have a say in how you deal with her.”
Easy for you to say.
“I have searched for her without avail.”
“Would you take her back even if she’s found?”
That was a difficult question.
“I do not know.”
“We, nobles, must make decisions at times whether we want to or not. Unless you are willing to embrace her, I suggest that you cut her off even if your heart aches.”
He began to see the dilemma Edmund must have had when he decided to remove Icilia from the equation. He made a decision even if his heart ached. Ewald was in a similar situation.
“It should be easier for you to cut her off, unlike my own situation.”
Indeed, to Ewald, Rivka was just a girl he knew. Yes, they were related, but he never felt that she was her niece to begin with because he had always been told that she was a candidate for a marriage.
“What should we do with lady Flissing?” He changed the subject.
“Again, it’s your problem. You claimed that you wished to talk to her. Well? She’s here now.”
“She is not here to talk. She is here to get married," he retorted.
“True,” Edmund admitted. “Your situation isn’t really different from mine. I met Loukia only when it was decided that I’d marry her. Your case is different in the fact that you saved her life and she is very favorable of you personally. I had to learn to love a woman I had just met. Whether she loved me back or not, I never knew and will never know.”
There was bitterness in his words. Commoners tended to marry those who they liked. Nobles were different. “Love and affections” were alien words for them. Everything had to be very much business-like even when it came to finding a life partner to be with.
“What of your mistresses? Do you like them?”
Edmund replied with a shrug. “Even choosing a mistress requires a certain degree of politics. You can’t choose a commoner for an example.”
What a sad life.
And the very sad life was going to be his, probably, at this rate.
Feeling depressed, he didn’t feel like doing anything else, thus he returned to his room. Interestingly, Emily was already there, waiting for him. She bowed upon seeing Ewald entering the room.
“Milord,” She said curtly.
Figuring that she was here probably due to Flora, he prepared mentally for what was to come.
“What brings you here?”
“Lady Flissing requests an audience.”
He took a deep breath. He didn’t really want to talk to her at the moment. Regrettably, that didn’t seem to be a choice.
“Very well, lead on.”
It turned out that her room wasn’t even that far from his own. It was on the same floor and even on the same hallway. In fact, it was just two doors apart. Emily knocked the door gently three times, and Flora’s maid opened the door. They exchanged a look, and the maid allowed them to enter.
Flora was sitting by a table with a cup of tea he recognized immediately. She stood up and curtsied at once.
“I hope you are enjoying the tea,” He remarked as he approached her and took a seat across hers.
“I’ve heard so much about the Macomaco tea. I was not disappointed,” She replied as she, too, sat down.
“Do you have the tea in the North?”
“It’s my understanding that we cannot culture the tea plant in Dido. We have to purchase it, and it’s very expensive from what I was told. This is not the first time I’ve had it, but this one tastes different in a good way.”
The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
Of course, it should be better. It’s fresh first of all, and I harvested it secondly.
In fact, he had been developing his own way of fermenting the tea. At this point, while still similar, Grent’s way and Ewald’s way of fermenting tea differed. Of course, he wasn’t going to tell her that.
Her room was remarkably similar to his own. Perhaps, it was a tad smaller, but its layout was identical with virtually the same furniture. In other words, she was being treated with utmost respect. Otherwise, he didn’t think the loyalist maids would have allowed her to drink the tea. It was always in short supply, he was indirectly told by Emily at one point.
“So, what would you like to talk about?”
She beamed a smile in response and took a sip.
“I just would like to clear a few things up…” Then she looked right into his eyes. “Is it true that you initially rejected the proposal?”
… What am I supposed to say here? Is she mad?
“Yes, I did,” He replied earnestly.
“May I ask why?”
“My father and I both felt, at the time,” He made sure to emphasize “at the time”, “that there was a conspiracy behind the proposal.”
“What kind of conspiracy?”
He hesitated to answer her.
“The incident where I saved you, it was fishy.”
Her face darkened. However, she didn’t look surprised.
“I assume you knew about that. We felt that it was a setup to coax us into the marriage proposal.”
Of course, the truth was that it was a setup by Lord Flissing to end Flora. He didn’t have the heart to tell her the real truth.
She nodded weakly in response. She took another sip and told him with a weak voice.
“For my father, reputation is everything. In his own words, if he couldn’t find a suitable man for me, I would be better off being dead.”
“He has told you that? In your face?”
“He has.”
He was flabbergasted. At the same time, however…
“He must still care about you.”
“Please, let us lower the formality a little,” She suggested. “We will be here for a long time. There is no need to put up a face here.”
He glanced at the door where Emily and Flora’s maid were at. They showed no reaction.
“Very well, let us talk a bit more freely then.”
Upon his agreement, she let out a long sigh and loosened her shoulders.
“I haven’t … relaxed for some years. Thank you.”
“What do you mean by that? Why couldn’t you relax?”
“The werewolf incident wasn’t the only attempt that my father has tried. I’ve always been on edge.”
He grimaced; He was appalled.
“You were not able to relax even at your home due to the fear of being removed?”
She didn’t answer, and he didn’t need to hear her answer. He stood up at once and looked at Emily.
“Emily, bring casual clothes for the lady.”
She looked utterly confused by the order.
“I beg your pardon?”
“I said, bring casual clothes for the lady. She’s going out.”
“But…”
“Obey or you are removed from your position.”
Startled, she bowed at once. “As you wish,” She replied curtly and went out.
“What are you trying to do?” Flora asked.
“Lady Flora, may I call you just Flora?”
“You may.”
“Let’s go out. Not as a noble making a round, but as a person simply going out.”
She had no idea what he meant. She had never left her own manor unless it was an occasion like the royal party. Looking at her utterly bemused face, he also realized that she had no idea what he meant.
“Just come with me. You will find out. There is A life outside of these walls. You should experience it while you still can.”
When Emily returned with a set of clothes which included a pair of pants, he was asked to leave the room while she changed. Emily followed him out and started to berate him in a whispering tone.
“What are you doing?! She shouldn’t be going out!”
He retorted, “I want her to taste freedom.”
She rubbed her temple with one hand. She sighed with exasperation.
“For a noble lady like her, freedom does not exist. She is meant to holed up in a nice place like this and act like a pretty doll. That is it.”
“That is not how life should be.”
She retorted, “For a noble lady like that, it is how it should be.”
He knew she was an orphan. She knew what outside would be like. Upon the realization, he grew an urge to ask her a question.
“Say, if you were kicked out, where would you go?”
She grimaced. “Am I fired?”
“No, at least not yet. Where would you go? Just answer me.”
“I’d go to an orphanage, but Lux does not have one and I am a little too old for an orphanage also. I would stay in an alley near a tavern to get some free meals. I’d need to find a job also. The easiest way is probably to put on a skimpy dress and work at a tavern.”
“Is that so…”
“I am not fired, right?”
“No, quit asking.”
Flora’s maid opened the door, allowing them in.
“I’ve never worn pants before,” She remarked as she circled around cutely. She was wearing a white blouse, brown pants and ankle leather boots. Her long hair that reached her waist was a bit out of the picture, he felt. Alas, he couldn’t dare ask her to cut her hair. That would have been outright rude. Even he knew that. Then her maid made a comment.
“Shorter hairstyle might work better for you, Milady.”
“Do you think so?”
“Perhaps, it is time for a change.”
Thus, he and Emily were kicked out of the room once again and were told to visit her tomorrow.
“What a weird day,” He remarked after he sent Emily away.
His impression on Flora was rather positive. He understood that she had been under duress for a long time and that her arrival here was more of a relief. He honestly had no idea what kind of upbringing she experienced however.
Just because you can’t find her a good husband, you kill her? What kind of logic is that?
He couldn’t understand Lord Flissing. He didn’t seem like a bad person when he met him at the royal party which made him more puzzled.
The next day, right after breakfast, he was notified that Flora was waiting. He had mixed feelings about it. He was already busy. Was she going to be one more person to look after? On the surface, he was only nine years old. He wasn’t supposed to be looking after others who were older. Under normal circumstances, it would have been reversed.
Emily was waiting for him by the door to take him to her room.
“Well, let’s get this over with.”
When Flora’s maid opened the door and let them in, they were in for a shock. Her long blonde hair that reached her waist was no more. That much was expected. What wasn’t expected was that the new length of her hair was only cheek length. It was even shorter than Emily’s hairstyle. In addition, she was wearing the same casual clothes from yesterday. Her dress was nowhere to be seen. Yesterday, she was a proper lady. Now, she looked like a tomboy. It was such a U-turn.
“How do I look?” She asked while circling around on the spot.
“You look good, I must say.” He gave her a thumb up which she didn’t understand the meaning of. Her maid had to whisper to her ear to inform her.
“I see! Thank you kindly.”
He did promise to take her out. Thus, he figured he would do just that.
“Where would you be taking her to?” Her maid asked him formally.
“I’d like to show her around the city.”
The maid looked clearly skeptical. “You are able to do that? Do you wander around the city? On your own?”
“Yes?”
She looked at Emily for confirmation, which she nodded back.
“But you are the heir. You shouldn’t be going out like that,” The maid lectured.
“That is if one cannot take care of himself. I am well capable of looking after myself. I have proven myself, have I not?”
She seemed struck back. “You have indeed…,” She whispered.
“She will be safe with me. Fear not, errr…, I don’t believe I know your name, yes?”
The maid bowed. “You do not. My name is not worthy of your attention.”
He wasn’t going to press. “So be it,” He replied curtly, ending the conversation.
When he led Flora to the shed in the rear garden, she found it strange that a small farm field was present in the corner.
“It’s a Macomaco tea field,” He informed her.
“Wow! You have a Macomaco tea farmer employed directly by the house?”
“Something like that, yes.”
“I’ve been told that only a few know the secret of the tea harvesting. I am impressed that the Fenchel has access to the tea directly like this.”
She would probably find out that he was the farmer at one point. Regardless, he figured he didn’t have to tell her right now.
“There is a secret passageway under the shed. We are going through it.”
“So, that’s how you go out? Why don’t you use the gate?”
“Why bother the guards? Let them sleep.”
“Sleep? If they sleep on the job -”
He put a stop on her. “It’s just a figure of speech. There is no need to bother others unless necessary.”
“A figure of speech…”
A bird in a cage was probably how he’d describe her at this point. She was pure and innocent. He realized that she must have had a very sheltered life. He felt that Emily had a point in her statement that someone like Flora should stay like a doll. She was raised like that and didn’t know any better. If she married anyone else, she would probably live like that. Nevertheless, he had no intention of keeping the bird in a cage like a pet.
“Sir…? Who is the chick?”
The first person they ran into upon reaching the first floor of the decoy house was Raem who casually asked who Flora was.
“Well, she is Flora Flissing,” He, too, answered casually. Thankfully, Raem was quick in the uptake upon learning that she was from the Flissing.
“My apologies!” He bowed with a palm on his chest. “Because of the way she dressed, I figured …”
“It’s alright.”
Flora attempted courtesy out of a habit only to realize that she wasn’t wearing a dress. She didn’t know what to do at this point and just stared vacantly.
“You bow, like this,” Ewald showed her. “With a right palm on your chest where your heart is.”
“I, I see.” She followed his instructions and bowed lightly with a palm on her chest.
“I AM HOME!” Lara charged in with a spear resting on her shoulder. There was a rabbit dangling on the spear. It looked to have been pierced by her spear in its neck.
“Are you able to catch rabbits now, Lara?”
At the same time, Flora shrieked upon seeing the bloody mess which startled Lara.
“What? What?!” Looking around frantically, Lara panicked.
“Calm Down, Flora. This is their way of living,” Ewald told her.
“I … beg your pardon?”
“Who feeds you? Who feeds us, the nobles?”
Flora had no answer to that. As far as she knew, food was always brought in by her maids. She didn’t need to know where they came from.
“Meat is caught by people like Lara who in turn hands it over as a form of tax,” he explained. “Bread is exactly the same. Wheat farmers hand them over as a form of tax.”
“Why do people hand things over to us?”
“In return, we nobles guarantee safety and stability. If a monster shows up, we take care of them. If someone is messing up with the market, we put a stop on them and even out the prices.”
She started to stroke her chin in deep thoughts. At one point, she retorted softly, “But reputation … My father said…”
“That’s bullshit,” he interjected firmly. His strong language startled her.
“We, nobles, are nothing without support from the commoners. We do not stand above them as masters and slaves. We exist because of them. We are meant to help them live better lives, not crush them down from above.”
Raem nodded repeatedly while Lara had no idea what was going on.
As for Flora, her whole world was starting to crumble down. The cage was finally open, and the bird inside it was curiously looking around at the cage door, yet to take a step outside due to fear of the unknown.
“Um…, can I skin the rabbit?” Lara asked innocently.
She has got to learn to read the room…
“Yeah, sure, I am surprised that you are able to catch rabbits now.”
“She has been at it for a while,” Raem replied in her stead. “She is a lot more agile than I am. I figured she’d manage it one day.”
Lara smiled proudly while scratching the back of her head. She pulled the dead rabbit out of the spear and carried it to the backyard. Flora was deadly afraid of what Lara was doing and could only watch behind Ewald’s back, which looked a bit awkward since Flora was a tad taller than him.
“Milord, I have a report regarding you-know-who.”
He was glad that Raem didn’t reveal Rivka’s name in front of her.
“And? Any luck?”
He shook his head. “Neither Lara nor I had any luck. So, I asked Sarah from the guild to place a Looking-For poster. It cost a silver coin.”
The Looking-For poster would be sent to all other guild branches throughout the Kingdom. It’d take time for it to spread however.
“One thing seems to be certain; I don’t think she is in Lux,” Raem concluded.
“So, I assume she purchased a seat on a merchant carriage and left.”
“My thoughts exactly, Milord.”
“I assume also that we have no idea which direction.”
“No, sir. But we will have words if she’s ever seen by the guild members.”
Flora was looking curious, looking back and forth between Ewald and Raem.
“The bigger question would be,” Raem continued, “What you will do once she’s found. Will you take her back?”
As much as it pained him, he had made a decision at this point.
“No, however I’d like to keep my eyes on her from a distance.”
Raem bowed lightly with a palm on his chest.
“You wish is my command.”
He then went to the backyard to assist Lara. Only when they were left alone, Flora inquired.
“May I ask who you were talking about?”
He wasn’t going to give her the full truth again but he wasn’t going to give her an outright lie, either.
“It’s a girl I was supposed to marry.”
Looking surprised, she placed her hand on her open mouth.
“She has rejected me, and I told her to leave.”
“Is she not a noble?”
She asked because, if she was a noble, she would have had a place to stay although she instantly realized that she probably wouldn’t have a place to stay if she was also rejected by Ewald. A bitter smile surfaced on her face.
“She wasn’t. This is a piece of truth I wished to hide from you, and one of the reasons why I was against our marriage.”
He actually gave himself a giant thumb up in his mind because he felt he sounded pretty cool back there. She looked convinced by his words as well. Uneasy silence ensued afterwards, making her uncomfortable.
“Let us go out,” He suggested. “It’s time to see Lux.”
Her eyes darted widely as she surveyed her surroundings as they walked on the streets of Lux. He assumed that she had probably never seen her supposedly homedown, Dido, either. Her whole world had been her own manor after all. Worse, it was probably her own room.
“What do you think?”
“It’s … hard to put in words. Fascinating? I think.”
She was amused at merchant stalls and hid behind him when they passed by the tavern due to women in skimpy dresses. Meanwhile, Ewald checked alleys around the tavern discreetly just in case Rivka was found there.
“The women in that place were literally naked!” She remarked rather angrily after they passed by the tavern. “And it’s broad daylight!”
They weren’t though? Their skirts were just short. That was all.
“Well, it’s the tavern where folks unwind and have drinks.”
“Why don’t they drink at home?”
That … was actually a tricky question to answer, he thought. Yeah, why not drink at home indeed.
“Errr, perhaps to drink in peace?”
“In peace?” She retorted. “That place was crowded, very crowded.”
“Errrr, perhaps to look at the women?”
She looked to be seriously considering his answer. The women at the tavern were all gorgeous indeed.
At one point, they were passing by the guild.
“That building looks to be different from others,” She remarked. “It looks like a manor but it has no guards and fences, and an unusual amount of people around.”
“That’s the Lux guild.” Since he assumed that she wouldn’t know what a guild was, he explained it as simply as he could.
She mumbled after his explanation. “So, a group of combat capable commoners take on mundane jobs…”
“I wouldn’t exactly call them ‘mundane jobs’. They take on requests from others. The nobles won’t do anything about them because it’s either too irrelevant or simply out of their jurisdiction.”
The cat choker retrieval job fell into irrelevant jobs. The Fenchel wouldn’t obviously do anything about it because…, why should they? It was literally irrelevant. The goblin camp extermination he had done with Raem and Lara fell into the latter. It was out of jurisdiction for the Fenchel.
“Do you have an elemental affinity, Flora?”
“I do not know.”
“Huh?”
“I was never taught magic nor was I ever tested for an affinity.”
Lord Flissing, dude …
She was twelve or thirteen. He wasn’t sure which; he wasn’t going to ask a lady’s age. Either way, she should have been tested. The blatant lack of care toward her was way too evident.
“Hello, Sarah.”
Ewald waved at the guild receptionist as they entered the guild. She beamed a smile back in return.
“Welcome, Kamil. Who is that lady with you?”
“Kamil?” Flora repeated in a whispering tone.
“Just someone I met not long ago. Would it be possible to get her elemental affinity tested?”
It was free as far as he knew.
“She doesn’t know her affinity?” Sarah cast a doubtful look upon Flora. “She looks old enough though.”
Flora certainly did not look like a commoner in spite of her casual clothes. Her flawless pale skin was a clear indication that she rarely ventured outside. What Sarah noticed was something else however; it was her hair, flawless and shining hair which was a sign that her hair was being taken care of very well. Regardless, whoever she was, it was not her business.
Just like before, she called out for the huge dude to come down with a small leather pouch. She had Flora touch each of the elemental crystals.
Lo and behold, the blue crystal shined albeit weaker than what he had observed with Lara.
“Water affinity, around three, I think,” Sarah declared.
While Flora had no idea what that meant, Ewald considered a possibility of using her in the group at the decoy house. He did not have a mage still, and it didn’t look like he was going to get one. He wanted a fourth member regardless.
Edmund and Elias would probably oppose his idea. He could certainly see why. Folding the thought for the time being, he congratulated her.
“Well, not too bad. At least it’s not one.”
Elemental affinity one and two were basically useless. With a score of three, she would be able to cast what Lara could cast at a higher cost of stamina. As Tom with an affinity of two, all he could cast was breeze and gust.
“Would she be able to cast healing water and antidote?”
“That shouldn’t be too much of a problem but probably limited to thrice a day.”
He could take her words for it because she was a water mage herself.
“Thank you! See you later!”
Waving at Sarah who was waving back, he took her out of the guild.
“Water affinity three, what does that mean?” She asked as soon as they were outside.
“That means you have a connection to the elemental water. It’s at level three, meaning they are kind of meh with you.”
“Meh?”
“Well, they don’t hate you but they don't exactly like you, either.”
She seemed to be sad at hearing that.
“Do you have an elemental affinity?”
“Yes, I was told it’s wind with an affinity score of five.”
“That’s higher than mine.”
Well, duh.
“I will teach you magic at some point. Let us go back. We’ve been out for a while.”
Man, what a day…
He really wanted a drink. A mug of chilly beer with a roasted rabbit leg would go down really smoothly. In fact, he used to have that exactly with Fio at night after he returned from hunting.
Perhaps one day…