Character Information - Who is who?

Because I have created quite a variety of characters, I will now create little cheat sheets before a chapter for the characters who will appear in the chapter, but not for those who haven't. Please open the spoiler if you need some reminders. (Be careful, it can be a spoiler for the chapter!)

Lizko (II) U. Irim (Dragon-kin)

* Scholar/mage at the Cathedral of Pestilence

* Through a mistake unleashed the abnormality in the current demon-run

* Specialized in wild-demon research

* Red eyes

* Light-brown hair and scales

William (Wind-Djinn)

* Spy and Agent of the refugee camp in Kratikal

* Specialized in socializing, emotional manipulation, and scouting

* Green eyes

* White/Reddish hair

* Light-green skin

...

In the main cathedral of pestilence in Moorgrel's capital city Blue-Vermion

A dragon-kin was in his laboratory and packing up things for a particular colleague to send it to, 'Is she just playing with me? How can her student even learn so fast?'

He was already sending, together with 2D spells constructions, also easier 3D ones, which would only be learned later in the apprentice's education. If an apprentice learned a 3D construct, they would be considered a real mage at that point.

The education system for magic was very splintered in Mal-Gil. Thus every university or school did its own thing, more or less. Lower MU's oriented themselves roughly on the curriculum of prestige universities, and those had all different specialties. Some concentrated on war spells, others on lifestyle spells, and others were highly specialized like one that only taught illusion spells for entertainment purposes only.

So sending already intermediate spells to some disciple from a flunk-out fairy to a region fully void of any reputable magicians or institutions was mind-boggling to him. He didn't believe for a second that she had such a talented student and even less since he came from a wolf-kin knightage.

It was a surprise for him to receive a letter from her, and he thought it was only a simple and annoying gesture to ask for a little favor, but he didn't expect that she would go as far as to blackmail him for something like this.

The notes a mage made were all very personal and had a lot of worth. Even his material could go for thousands of gold coins on the black market. They were very costly and sought after. Many mages who wanted to retire sold their writings and used the gold as a nest egg.

However, the constructions written down by the mages were often wrongly depicted and barely worked. If they did, they were much more inefficient.

The same was for the magic languages and their chants. Sometimes magic languages existed as little student projects and were terrible. Still, the students most of the time needed coins, so they sold spells with their chants on the black market, only to be used by hedge mages who had no other way to gain any material.

Even his family purchased material from other mages for exorbitant prices for him. However, even if the material was pretty good, he had many problems since his youth: From using mana skills to correctly pronouncing the chants.

Still, his family forced him to learn and train without any end in sight since his siblings were unlucky and didn't acquire any mana skills. So he was the sole hope for his family to somehow become reputable enough so they would gain a standing again.

His lizard tail swung widely around, almost knocking some pots from a table, 'So much pressure and plus Green blackmailing me... I just want to research in peace, damn.'

His last project failed; he wasted around two years and would need a new one. But before he could start again, he would need to plan it out and show it to the treasury of his cathedral branch, so they would finance it. He already had a few ideas which could work fine.

His planning was interrupted as someone came to his small laboratory and closed the door behind them. Lizko became confused since one usually knocked first, "Who are you?"

It was a robed figure with a hood over his head. He took it off and smiled at Lizko, "Good day, Mr. Lizko. May I have a moment of your time?"

Lizko looked confused at him since it was a djinn, 'Do we get someone from their territory? Maybe they need me for a project since they also border Kratikal.'

What Lizko lacked in magic talent, he made up with his excellent research about wild demons. Even though it was unpopular, everyone respected him for his findings and the knowledge he acquired. This was also why he had his private laboratory.

He stopped packing and nodded slightly toward the djinn, "Good day. May I know your name first?"

The djinn answered with a friendly smile, "Oh, where are my manners? My name is William, and I am here with some questions."

Lizko nodded, pointing him toward the chairs, "Please follow me."

William nodded toward him and followed him. After sitting down and making themselves comfortable, Lizko asked, "May I ask from which branch you are from?"

One could find cathedrals all around the continent, and since most were research fanatics, race or class weren't big issues, at least in the open. In private most who were of noble descent despised other races. Lizko himself was somewhat ambivalent and only acknowledged that some were better at certain things than others.

When it came to research and sharing of information, the cathedral was, in this sense, very open and even forced their researchers to share it freely with each other. There was a strong idealistic streak in the leadership, and if someone went against it and wouldn't share their knowledge or research, it would usually result in cutting their funds.

Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.

So, Lizko was very open and welcoming to him, especially since William's smile was very warm and he had a friendly and soft voice.

After a short chit-chat, William asked without wavering his friendly smile, "May I be rude and come to the point?"

Lizko was surprised since almost all scholars or mages were from prestigious families, commoners, or nobles. Thus manners were most important to them. Nonetheless, there were also a lot of oddballs, so he nodded.

William crossed his legs and laid his hands on his knees, "Good, I am here to make a proposition since I know of your little dilemma with a little bug."

Lizko was confused and looked at him in distrust, "So, what do you mean exactly?"

William's smile didn't waver, "Hm? I dislike being explicit, but it is about a flying bug that wants something from you."

Lizko squinted at him but didn't answer. He couldn't read him at all, and since the situation with Green occurred, he had many sleepless nights, fearing that he could lose all the reputation he built up because some treehugger had a bad day and wanted to make him suffer. There was also the problem with his family, and his success inside the cathedral was needed, so his household would not collapse with him as the head. He would rather kill himself than be the reason they lost their title.

An eery silence hung in the laboratory till William broke it with a sigh, "Laurel L. Love."

As Lizko wanted to stand up and leave, William's voice bored into him like a knife, "Sit down."

Lizko wasn't a fighter, but he could assess danger and see that this djinn was dangerous. He was able to snuff him out without any problems. So he sat down again as his life was more important than his pride being hurt because a djinn ordered him.

William opened his hands, "I am here for a proposition, not blackmail. A deal between two equals, so to speak, interested?"

Lizko asked carefully, "What do you mean?"

The djinn pointed towards the package, "I know that there is someone who is an eyesore to you, while we want the one who the bug is teaching. As the saying goes: The enemy of our enemy is our friend."

The dragon-kin clenched his hands into fists, "So, you want to get rid of someone? Who would it be?"

William chuckled, "Hehe, why the distrust? If I wanted to, I could already rat you out, but I don't need and want to do this. All I need is the little disappearance of a certain puppy while you could help us a little in this endeavor."

The silence returned, and Lizko didn't want to trust him, but his words made sense. If he wanted to rat him out, he would have already done it, or if there was blackmail, he could also just do it, and he couldn't do anything, so a deal seemed like a good-faith approach.

"All right, talk."

William shrugged, never losing his warm smile, "What do you mean? We are already talking, but if you mean about the deal? I already said it."

Lizko raised an eyebrow, "What do you mean? You only said you wanted to get rid of a certain youth?"

William clapped his hands, "Right, and if this person is gone, you have no more problems, but if you are talking about the little bug, this could be arranged too, of course. I need to apologize as it was self-evident in my eyes."

Lizko was skeptical, "So, you have no problems going against a high-ranking circle member? Even though it is a somewhat rural temple, it is nonetheless a temple leader."

William shrugged, "Who said I would do this? There are certain elements that are more than willing to do unspeakable things for crumbs."

Lizko squinted again at him, "How can I trust you, though?"

William took a parchment from his side bag and handed it to him, "Read it and check the information yourself. There is a reason why the Leonandra underworld is in turmoil at the moment."

Lizko read the information and checked with what he had heard about, "This was you?"

William nodded, "Of course. It was a little test to look at their capabilities."

Lizko knew this information was hard to come by, and only influential merchants or aristocratic circles had them. Commoners had no idea what the turmoil was about and only knew that some of the underworld guilds started to panic and looked for certain people, 'Now, this is enticing.'

He returned the parchment and asked carefully, "What do you need me for then?"

William put the parchment back, answering openly, "When the time comes, we will need your expertise and knowledge of magic and other things."

Lizko was confused, "That's it? Couldn't you just skimp the black market for this?"

William shook his finger at him, "No, no, no, a reliable alchemist, artificer, or mage costs more than a little fortune, and I like to work with people who have the same goals as us."

Lizko again understood him very well. A black market hedge mage would probably not care if, for example, a bomb does what it should or not. He received the gold either way, and if it works, it's fine. If not, it's also fine since the buyers wouldn't return for a refund in their full height after trying to assassinate someone.

Lizko asked, now less careful, "So, you want me just to build something or supply you with certain magic and spells? That's it?"

William nodded but, halfway through, stopped and thought for a moment before answering, "Yes and no. We might need your presence at some point since you are a reputable noble, and we would need access to certain places, but that's it."

Lizko was unsure, so he asked, "But I wouldn't need to do anything other than that?"

William nodded without hesitation, "Of course!"

Lizko stood up and started to walk around, trying to think about it. It was fine for him if what the djinn said was all he needed to do.

So he stood still and looked less warily toward his new partner in crime, "When?"

William answered confidently, "In around three years, don't worry though, I will send you a letter so you will be informed about what we need. Also, we will not hurt you if you decide to not accept the proposal. Just know that if you accept the proposal, there will be consequences if you quit, of course."

Lizko looked back at him and asked, "What about my part? The bug?"

William stood up and walked toward him, explaining, "Well, she will be together with our target, so there should be no problems with this."

Lizko raised an eyebrow, "Excuse me? Where should this be?"

William looked at him and put his index finger in front of his mouth, "Trade secrets."

The dragon-kin frowned but understood that the djinn couldn't disclose everything before he wasn't in on it.

The refugee camp intelligence bet everything on a certain event and was actually very unsure if their targets would attend it. However, a plan could always be changed, and if Lizko was already a part of their team, he couldn't escape either way.

William stood before him and put his hand on his shoulder. A small, barely noticeable string of energy made its way out of his pinky onto Lizko's robe, "Like I said before, think about it and be sure of what you want to do. I am not blackmailing or threatening you, and neither do I want to force someone since only sloppy work will be the result. So I need someone who is on it, and if the price is some little fairy, it is easy for us to fulfill this wish, but know this, if you don't want to help, we will not target her at all since she is not important to us."

He turned around, put his hoodie on, and waved him goodbye before the dragon-kin could ask more.

...

Hours later

Lizko stood in his lab and thought it at least a hundred times through for the last hours and couldn't see any problems with it.

He didn't threaten him, he made a proposal where his knowledge and noble privilege were needed, so it all made sense since it seemed they had no one who could fulfill this role.

They would do all the dirty work, and even if they failed, he would be back to the status quo and only wasted a little time.

But something was there he didn't like. His instinct told him to ignore him, but after seeing the package he had prepared, he suddenly wanted to, even more than usual, get rid of this bug.

His anger became more pronounced than usual as he suddenly remembered all the work he had done to get to the point he was now, 'I need to do this...'