Sheeron and Toley made their way over to the barrier mage's office. Toley expressed his surprise to Sheeron at how small it was, considering what an important building it was. He was promptly told to keep a lid on it before his teacher opened the doors for them to enter.

Inside was a plain-looking waiting room with empty chairs lining the walls, they were made of black leather and looked very comfortable. The female elf at the reception desk smiled and welcomed them in, then asked them what business they had.

“I'm here to see one of the Chiron's students, Jeerae.” Sheeron said with a polite tone, although not quite as formal as he had been with Lee Fira. “My name is Sheeron, if he asks. I haven't seen him in years and wanted to introduce my new student to him.”

“One moment please, I'll see if the young master is busy. Ever since his loss a couple of days ago he's been very diligent in his studies.” The receptionist said while leaving her desk and walking towards one of the walls. She put her hand on what seemed to be an empty space on the wall, which then glowed. After a moment, the wall opened a door for her to enter.

Hearing of Jeerae's loss again made Sheeron tense up and grind his teeth. Toley could tell that Sheeron was in complete denial that it was the same Rox that they knew. It had taken an hour to calm him down after he overheard it from Lee. Shouting accusations of foul play, lies, and 'there's no way that useless dead weight could hold his own against someone like Jeera'.

Toley was also in disbelief, although for other reasons. From what he had heard, Jeerae was a barrier mage apprentice and quite powerful in battle, as were all of the Fira family. Jeerae, more than likely, was seen as one of the most powerful young people on the surface of Chalice. According to Lee's own testimony, however, Rox not only defeated Jeerae. He used him as a punching bag, despite Jeerae's best efforts and most powerful magic attacks, including a high-tiered compound magic between wind and fire.

Compound magic essentially boiled down to a combination of two different types of magic, such as fusing fire and wind. It's an extremely advanced technique that even some of the most powerful mages can not use since it requires one to have two separate images in one's head when they form the two magics. It is hard enough to use two different magic elements at the same time, or multi-cast spells, let alone mix them together. However, if someone manages it without blowing themselves up, the magic's power multiplies.

Yet Rox was able to take such an attack head-on and then beat Jeerae into submission before finally using a magic attack that even Lee was unable to recognize. The only thing they were told was that Rox had said it was void magic. Even so, Toley and Sheeron had seen Rox's guild sheet. It was clearly stated that he had a level zero in all of his abilities. If he really did have a seal as Rox had apparently claimed to have, Toley wondered why he kept it on. He should be able to break it at any time. Unless he couldn't?

Toley's thoughts were interrupted when the door reopened and a red-haired elven youth ran out.

“Teacher! It's been so long! How have you been?” He said while excitedly walking up to Sheeron.

After they shook hands, Sheeron smiled and spoke cheerfully, “Jeerae! I've been good, except for a certain thorn in my side from the Aqua family, and recently one from the Nihil family as well. Other than that, though, things have been great! I've even got a new protege who learns almost as quickly as you did.”

Jeerae was frozen in place, however, after the mention of the Nihil family. The sentence about the new trainee went over his head entirely. “Do you mean Rox? Rox Nihil?”

Sheeron frowned, “Yes, unfortunately. He applied for a quest my employer put out to the Nil city guild. For some reason, my employer took a liking to him. So now I'm stuck with his cocky dead-weight self.” He paused, remembering the incident with Rox before they had begun their travels. “Speaking of which, I keep hearing people spreading lies about your losing to him. That's not true, right? If it is, I can only imagine he used some sort of trickery or poisoned you.”

Jeerae was shaking his head and, oddly enough, seemed to be smiling. “No sir, it's all true. The honored Rox Nihil defeated me, fairly, in front of thousands. His physical and magical prowess astounded me. Initially, it was a shock, but after a day or two of processing, it helped me to realize how arrogant I had been. There is always someone stronger and I have a long way to go, so now I am devoting myself to reach at least our barrier mage's power. That's why I'm here, studying under him. He happens to be an old friend of Sir Nihil, actually.”

[https://i.imgur.com/6zSfRqD.png]

Sheeron was shocked to his core. Not only had Jeerae's personality changed from how he remembered the boy, but he had no choice but to believe that Rox had defeated Jeerae. Something dawned on him, however. “Wait. He used magic? How?”

With perfect timing, Chiron entered the room and answered the question. “Simple, Rox probably commanded his seal to break temporarily.” He said plainly. “Now, all of you, come into my office. If you're going to discuss such private matters, at least do it in my office where there will be no prying ears.” Chiron then gestured for the group to enter his study, which they did quickly.

“What do you mean that he 'commanded his seal to break temporarily'? Isn't that impossible?” Toley said, finally having the courage to jump into the conversation to sate his own curiosity. Sheeron stayed silent, the same question on his mind.

If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

“My name is Chiron, the barrier mage of Fira, nice to meet you too. May I ask your names?” Chiron said patiently, insisting on introductions before divulging anything further.

Toley shifted uncomfortably and returned to being sheepish after being shot down so harshly. “My name is Toley Fairton, bronze-rank adventurer and trainee of Sheeron.”

“Sheeron Pankton, mythril-rank adventurer and bodyguard to Kara Aqua.” He said with pride to his voice.

Chiron nodded, then answered Toley's earlier question. “It's not really my business to be discussing, but seeing as you are his party members, I figure a small explanation would not be out of the question. To answer your question, seal magic can be used and manipulated in many ways once you have deciphered the seal in question. The more powerful and specific the orders of a seal are, the less malleable the rules you can manipulate. In Rox's case, he has long since deciphered his seal. From what I understand, that was only one of the conditions for breaking it. So, instead, he takes advantage of having deciphered it to allow him to wield his full power in a pinch or under very specific conditions. In the case of his fight with Jeerae, he seemed to have just released a bit of his power to blow off some steam. If you ask me, I think he could have beaten Jeerae without releasing his seal at all, even if it would have been a more difficult fight.”

Toley could not help but to be amazed. He may have come from a small village, far from real civilization, but even he knew how impressive all of this was. Now he definitely wanted to meet and get to know the rest of the party, even more than before. He unconsciously grasped the engraved obsidian dagger he kept on his belt. Chiron glanced at him, then at the dagger with a questioning look, but shrugged it off.

Sheeron was pale, he had long since passed through anger or shock. Now he was horrified of what he was hearing. He had thought that Rox was merely dead weight, but now he's hearing that not only was he wrong, but Rox could have beaten Jeerae without magic? Just what kind of monster had Kara brought into their party? Even more than before, Sheeron wanted Rox to be out of the party. At the very least, he needed more information.

After that, Chiron refused to answer any more inquiries they had. Whenever they tried, he insisted he had already told them more than he should have. Chiron quickly shooed them all out of the room, Jeerae included, but asked Toley to stay behind for a few minutes.

Toley looked to Sheeron, who nodded his permission. He then went back into the room with Chiron, the door closed behind him. The air had become so heavy that Toley felt he would be able to cut the tension with a knife. Chiron, who was facing away from him, turned to face the boy and began speaking in a serious tone.

“Toley, I know we've just met, but I need to ask where you got that black knife.” He said, glancing at the engraved knife on his belt.

“I received it along with a letter from my previous teacher when she disappeared. It was all that she left behind.” He replied, being open about everything, wondering where this would lead. “I've been carrying it around in hopes of using it as a clue to finding her and learning what happened to my parents.”

Chiron was silent for a long time. The seconds dragged on like hours for Toley, but in reality, only a minute had passed as the elf was thinking. Finally, he responded, “That dagger belonged to someone who Rox used to know. I met them once, when I first met Rox, back when he was still captain of the Fira town guard. I do not know their name, but was she a woman with brown hair and purple eyes?”

Toley stiffened, “Yes! Yes, that's her! Please, tell me anything that you can.”

The old elf could only shake his head sadly, “I'm sorry, but all I know is that Rox knew her from before he was a captain. She seemed to be in search of someone or something and came to him for advice. If you wish to know more, you'll have to ask him.” He paused once more, this time for only a moment, “I was asked to not disclose this, but since you're in the same party it can't do much harm. I heard from Feera that Kara and Rox have gone to the Forest of Giants to study the Sealing site there. If you can't possibly wait for them to get back, perhaps you should make contact with Feera and meet them in the forest. It will be dangerous, however.”

The boy thought about it, as clear-minded as he could after finally having a lead. It did not take him long to come to his conclusion, “Of course. I'll talk to Sheeron about it. Thank you, Chiron.”

“Think nothing of it. It's the least I can do, these eyes of mine with level eight eyesight tell no lies. You are more than you know and I simply wish to push you in the right direction. Good luck.” He said cryptically, but Toley decided not to look a gift horse in the mouth.

After saying his goodbyes he exited the room and rejoined Sheeron. Explaining to him where Kara and Rox had gone, as well as that Feera was in town still. It did not take much convincing to get him to prepare to rush to the Forest of Giants. Toley had figured it would be easy, given that Sheeron now seemed wary of Rox. Their first objective was to find Feera, which did not take long.

She was found at the Inn that Kara had rented out, drinking all of the booze she could find. One of the perks to renting out the entire Inn, apparently, was that she was allowed to have at their food and drink supply as she wished. Based on how many empty liquor bottles were around her room's floor, wishing is exactly what she had done all day.

Unfortunately, this meant that they would have to wait for her to wake and sober herself up. Following Kara and Rox would be delayed a day.