… This building had its reasons to stand out. Being the home of the King himself, his family, and old as hell, it didn’t only stick up from the other, lower towers of Crocus, but its status was higher up in the clouds too. Hyōen had his eyes all the way to the top of the castle when he suddenly got the sun behind the grey clouds radiating from small openings in the nimbus, directly on his face, in which he covered some of the view with a hand. It was quite a marvellous view to behold… so this was where he got the letter. He almost couldn’t believe that someone from this castle could have the half-mind to contact him within the deep forests of Worth Woodsea; he still didn’t assume the possibility that somehow, the sender could have used another medium to get to him in form of… well, another raptor? He wasn’t the only damn falconer around town, after all…

“… E-Eh, Coda?” He suddenly turned his head around in such a pace that it looked as if it was spun 360 degrees around if looked from the distance. Coda had suddenly left his shoulder without warning, out of sight for the Fire Mage. Had she already gone to the meeting location? He knew that this study would be located somewhere beneath the castle’s outer structure, so he kind of had to enter it from somewhere specific. There was a gate nearby, because from his position, he simply looked to the side of the castle and was a good distance away from the actual entrance that he was supposed to go. Coda was a very cautious bird, so he cared not much as he moved towards the gate and noticed how the domes of the castle circulated… or how they seemed to circulate in his eyes. It continued so, while rays of the sun that hid behind the light clouds began to shine down upon the area of Mercurius, the proud name of this wonder…

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"Thank you so much for helping me,” The great Lady Merlin’s voice resounded behind her. A mysterious woman, the King’s most trusted, an advisor to the Council, and a powerful mage whom no one seemed to know more than necessary of, smiled at the platinum blonde haired Seated Knight, a knowing glint in her eyes which seemed to say she knew everything that the younger woman could possibly hide away. Somehow, Eva had known, too, at the very moment the woman’s gaze fell on her only hours ago that she may have figured out some bits and pieces of the power Eva so far had decided to hide, for her own safety and others’ as well.

“No, it’s my pleasure to be of any service to you Lady Merlin,” Eva turned around, bowing courteously at the woman that was a good few inches taller than her. It had been no more than two hours since she arrived at the great palace of Crocus, Mercurius, the decorated abode of Fiore’s King himself and his family. She was called over by Merlin herself after hearing of Eva from Luciel, her apprentice and possibly foster child. But, even though Merlin had gotten her contact info from Luciel, when she arrived at the study that morning, Eva was surprised to find that Merlin had called her on her own accord without letting Luciel know. Some tea and snacks after, Eva finally understood what the great sorceress was trying to ask of her. They had gotten straight to the point once Eva realized she did not have to put up any mask in front of this woman whom had already unraveled Eva in a way that no one ever managed to at the first sight.

“I had an idea about you when I initially heard from Luciel,” she had said over the chamomile tea once the pleasant fragrance grew around them. “It must be quite burdensome, isn’t it?” her eyes calmly lifted over to Eva’s amber ones, two jewels that burned with acknowledgement to what Lady Merlin was on about. “I suppose it is. I haven’t learned to control it completely yet,” she placed the cup of tea down to answer and a strangely comforting silence settled around them afterwards.

Then their conversation had ceased right there until they finally got to the real point where Merlin proceeded to give her further instructions on what Eva had to do. “Fear not that you’ll have to do this all alone,” the lady said once they were facing each other again. An amulet with one single blue stone gleamed in her hand. “I had actually sent for someone else to accompany you with, miss Eva. I’m sure they would be arriving shortly,” Merlin handed over the amulet for enchantment, the object that she had went to find after leaving Eva in the study. “As I said before, all you have to do is enchant the amulet with longevity and perfect health charm. You may use my study to find anything that may help with the act. I trust you to finish this job before I get back from my own work. That is ok with you, Miss Eva?” She asked for the last time, smiling when Eva nodded politely in reply.


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Hyōen hadn’t read much about Crocus and its history, but he was already loving the infrastructure of the capital. It suited such a huge city to have eye-candy as buildings, glimmering pride and domes that literally shone as strong as the sun. He had half a mind to climb up there and take a better look at the city as a whole from the top of Mercurius, but… he was on a mission! He couldn’t let himself wander off now! Shaking his head in disapproval, the Fire Mage simply walked around the dome as he had been quite far away from the actual gate. However, that also suited as a plus for him, at least; he got a fine view of the entire castle, many corners and rooms and et cetera. It was still worth it, in his eyes.

He could almost spot Coda soaring around the skies above. It kind of pulled the Fire Mage a little too far away from the thoughts of this mission; apparently, he wasn’t to clear any sewers for giant rats or cursed wolves this time. Nor was he going to defend people from evil spirits or dangerous beasts. It was rather something very unfamiliar with his daily schedule; enchanting. Thankfully, he wouldn’t be doing this new task on his own, in which he remembered to pace up and meet Lady Merlin and his partner. Who knew, they might have been waiting for him by now…

As soon as he entered the castle, he smelled something fragile… sweet. It was, for him, clearly the smell of something baked on top of some kind of spice that he couldn’t quite specify just yet. It confused him a little as the request involved enchanting only, so he pulled up the letter again and read through it once more, just with a little more insight in the context this time. The client was a mage, a sorceress referring to herself as Lady Merlin. She was requesting him to enchant a special amulet for her foster child, a person that Hyōen remembered from the drugs that he once had to receive back. “… Ah, a kind of secret gift for her?” he asked himself when having read the paper, “That’s pretty sweet of her… darn it, I should have arrived earlier!” He couldn’t risk getting late to help someone give such a gift to their beloved, so he suddenly dashed towards the entrance to the study and walked down the stairs until he reached the large room.

Now, Hyōen wasn’t familiar with the word ‘study’ as a substantive, but this place looked more comfy and warm than what he would expect something alike a library. It was still a large room compared to his cottage, so he had to look around corners once or twice to spot whoever he was going to meet. It was at that moment that he spotted two ladies in each other’s company near a shelf. It was also at that time that he realized his absence and the possibility of its impact on them, in which he softly but with an apologizing tone greeted: “… I guess I’m a little late..?”

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Eva noticed the boy’s arrival before lady Merlin did since she faced the direction of his arrival. At first, his shadow had appeared behind a large shelf, slowly making its way closer while Eva’s focus clung to it, moving along and drawing up when his outline appeared at the corner. Merlin noticed, too, once she followed Eva’s gaze, a smile automatically appearing on her face in order to welcome her second guest for the day.

“No, you are just in time actually,” she told the boy, going over to him so that she could fill in on the details about what was expected to be done. “This is Evangeline. She is a Rune Knight who will be helping you with the task today. I hope that both of you can get along well”. Eva smiled politely at the raven haired boy, her gaze quickly being dragged over to the bird next to him.

“It’s nice to meet you,” she greeted. Her voice remained smooth and kind despite the fact that inside her mind, she couldn’t care enough. As long as she was able to successfully complete the mission assigned to her, it was enough for Eva and having one other person there or not did not make any difference to the situation at all. If the boy knew what she was thinking, perhaps he would have gotten angry. But her skills did keep her act playing well for not even a bit of her real feelings would be actually reflected on her countenance.

Besides, her eyes were still on the subtly moving creature. During the last few weeks, Eva had started to realize that she rather liked animals quite a bit and if the chance arrived, would even like to keep some companions of her own. Only, she could never actually find something that seemed to get along with her. Most of the animals she tried to go near to seemed to hate her and Eva could only guess why.

Once Merlin made sure that both Eva and her partner for the day were sure of what they were supposed to do, she once again reminded them that they are free to use her study as long as she could come back and still find it in one piece. For some reason, and a reason Eva wasn’t sure if she guessed correctly, Merlin seemed to have cast a quick subtle glance at the boy as she said it. It was difficult to catch her in the act unless the boy liked to observe people as much as Eva did.

After she left, Eva quickly turned to the arcane tomes in the shelf next to her. Earlier while Merlin left to get the amulet, Eva had gone through half of the study once, taking a quick peek at what was in the shelves and what was not, coming across various books and articles that could help her with the enchantment. It was at that moment when she had found the one shelf which seemed to keep most of the books on what they were looking for that Merlin arrived, making it easier for Eva to turn straight to it once they were left alone to complete the job.

“If possible, can you go through the other shelves to find a book called Enchantments for Longevity and Perfect Health?” She asked the boy next to her. “It’s the only book I’m missing in this shelf. The book should be somewhere near if that helps you,” Eva said and plucked a well-kept tome from the shelf, beginning to read it.

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Lady Merlin had approached him right after his arrival. Although, he noticed the Rune Knight’s gaze first as she was literally glancing towards him from her position and all, while the Fire man had made his arrival known. His hair got half a mind to light up for show at that moment, but his expressions wouldn’t suit the case, in which his hair stayed the natural, coal-black part of the spectrum that people could see. Coda was absent, but she was enjoying the air outside, and despite being her master, he wouldn’t just call her to his side every single time. She had her right to get some fresh air, and this mission seemed not to be using her aid much. Lady Merlin had, luckily, reminded him that he wasn’t late, in which he quickly sighed in relief. “That was good…” he expressed, scratching the back of his head.

His partner appeared to be a Rune Knight. It was rather confusing, honestly; he had met his fair shrae of Rune Knights already, which were three very specific types of people. A cat guy with a short temper, an adventurous cat lady - yes, with cat ears and everything - and a third one that barely made his presence known, but decided to stay in the shadows as Hyōen dashed across town. Obviously, meeting another Rune Knight, that would trigger memories like those where he could relate to earlier Rune Knights that he met in the past, but something else poked his curiosity. It was… well, he couldn’t really point out what exactly. Anyway, it was obviously waste of thinking as she had greeted him, in which he lifted up a hand and returned with: “And you too. I’m Hyōen..!” His voice was a little louder than her smooth tone, but also quite welcoming. He was happy to have met a new face today, just like he always would be.

Coda came flying through an opened window - the ones that were much slimmer than regular ones, and which were often seen near the ground as the study was pretty much below the earth - and landed on the falconer’s shoulder. He gently greeted the raptor by stroking her forehead a little as he noticed how the Rune Knight’s eyes had set on the animal. Did she like birds? It appeared so, if she didn’t just like all kinds of animals like Hyōen - with the exception of reptiles - and for some reason, he felt that it suited her atmosphere to be an animal adorer too. However, Coda had begun getting really suspecting against the blonde knight, in which the Fire Mage had to step in before actions were made. With a few words spoken to her, Coda, he seemed to be able to sooth the predator’s instincts and make it more tolerant towards the Rune Knight as she quickly calmed with her upraised feathers and angry face.

His face turned towards Lady Merlin as she reminded them that the study was to their assistance for the enchantment, if only it would be found in one piece again. That kind of reminded Hyōen of what happened at Luciel’s request when he was searching for those drugs, and a quick glance was sent to the boy from Merlin as she could have known of the event herself. He couldn’t but sweat a drop when that happened, in which she left during that scene. “Well, I guess that we have more than enough knowledge around to hep us with the enchantment,” he spoke up, because in reality, he knew quite well that Lady Merlin was capable of making a fine piece of art for Luciel. However, he knew too about her reasons that she had to go, and he understood very well. When he turned around, Evangeline was already into the books and quickly asked him for a favour; a specific book called Enchantments for Longevity and Perfect Health. “R-Roger..!” he replied ambitiously, until he walked towards the other shelves nearby. He began searching through the labels of the books to try and find the specific one, and he kind of repeated that at a few shelves. That was when he finally stumbled upon the real deal, but he could only glance it so well because of the height. Pointing a finger to it, he knew just what to do; a whip of harmless fire suddenly swung around the book’s cover, pulling it down to his hand as he grabbed it almost effortlessly. He took a quick, nervous look on it… and it was still intact, safe from the fiery flames. A quick sigh followed afterwards as it would have been idiotic to set fire on books already, in which he moved over to the Rune Knight and softly put the book up to her field of vision. “Found it,” he replied with a bright smile.

814/3000

Eva was now quite convinced of her suspicion to animals’ strange dislike towards her. When the bird flew in through the window to the boy’s shoulder and noticed her intense stare, it had jumped into a not so subtle fury, something that took a bit of patient effort from its master to quench. Maybe animals were able to sense something deeper about her that no one could at a simple glance. After all, their natural instincts were strong enough to warn them against the good folks and the bad ones. Even Eva would not refute if the innocent bird decided to categorize her into the bad pile since Eva herself knew she wasn’t the nicest person in town. But, she wasn’t the worst either to be fair.

Anyways, once the introductions and whatnots were made and done, Eva continued to read through the tomes of the shelf she stood in front of while Hyoen went over to the others to find the book she had asked him to. Each shelf was at least seven to eight feet high, taller than both the Rune Knight and the fire mage. Her amber eyes had kept a fixed gaze on his back when he walked around, missing him only when he disappeared behind some shelves. In a way, she tried to multitask while she read and kept an eye on him to see if he was not having any trouble or maybe even causing one.

With a start, suddenly she wondered. Perhaps, she had judged the man a little too fast? Clearly, Eva had somehow landed on the idea that he might cause trouble from Merlin’s gestures and unconsciously decided to suspect the man. She realized when she kept looking back at him every now and then that maybe she was making the mistake of judging a book by their cover, a mistake that Eva always repeated to herself to never make as it could lead to incorrect judgement and in the end towards incorrect actions.

So at this revelation, Eva chose to concentrate on the task at hand, about to turn her gaze back to the books permanently until she caught a radiant glow coming from his direction. Her eyes narrowed on him. With a startled gasp, she stood up, staring bewilderingly at the boy that decided to use fire on a book. Even though she saw and confirmed that the book was not harmed at all, watching the act had made her heart stop for a moment to replace it with a vision; she saw a disappointed Merlin and the terrible consequences that would follow.

“You almost scared me to death,” she exclaimed once the book was extended to her. “How do you use your fire magic like that? It’s strange that it doesn’t burn anything other than you,” Eva took the book from him before asking. In her memories, there was not a single fire magic that Eva came across which did not hurt someone or something other than its user. Heck, some of the said magic even affected the user. So it was definitely strange that the boy could cast something like that. Maybe Eva had to study further on magic and its different types but what a curious thing she had witnessed.

“Anyhow, it’s good that we have the book now. I found some other helpful tomes too. Can you draw a small circle on the floor and place this amulet in the center?” She requested, fishing inside the pocket of her black jeans to take the blue jeweled amulet out. “I will begin the enchantment as soon as we are done”.

1745/3000

The Fire Mage had yet to fully understand why Coda had gone into such a state of anger before. He didn’t know anything about this Rune Knight that he assisted in casting this enchantment, but apparently, Coda saw more to her than Hyōen did. Perhaps Coda had a special ability, or maybe it was just natural for raptors like her to distinguish people’s inner natures. However… if that was the case, did that make her someone to avoid, or rather, someone hostile? In the end, it couldn’t be of any use to think about that as he was in the midst of something, but it truly watered his seeds of curiosity.

She seemed… utterly surprised when he handed her the book. He noticed how her eyes had opened up widely when he walked away from the shelves that covered the way between their gazes. “…” He couldn’t but blink a few times at her reaction, because clearly, it was nothing significant for the Fire Mage to generate such harmless fire in occasions like this. Her words also indicated her shock, and when Hyōen remembered back to Merlin’s expression, then he kind of understood why she was so scared. If he ended up burning down the study… see, that would have been labelling him a rogue for how long? An eternity? “Eh… I should’ve given out a warning or something. Then again,” he almost mumbled in apology. He simply laid down the book next to her and walked over to the other recipes that she had seemingly put up during his search. Her question came hitting him from behind as he needed a moment to think of what to answer; yes, he never really tried to explain with words, but perhaps he had the capacity to do so now.

From where he lived, harmless fire would have been a huge plus to the survival perks, in which he turned his head towards her, and with a face deep in thought, he answered: “… Well, I guess that magic is different from person to person. Let me think… I do live in a very green area, so perhaps my magic is accustomed to not burn things down so easily? At least… at least not when I don’t want it to.” It sounded almost as if he barely knew for sure himself, despite that it was his very own magic. “Maybe it just takes a little practice to do things like that.” However, he had a point given out; back at Worth Woodsea, where trees were as widespread and large, leaf-filled and ecologically varied in countless ways, a single candle could burn down everything within a single night. He, however, had lived there for as long as he could remember; since the time where he learned about magic, he never burned down anything major, like a group of trees or a huge area of shrubbery, even once. It was actually interesting to think about how magic worked from person to person; maybe other fire-utilizing wizards were more ‘destructive’ when it came to their usage of magic.

With the book and the distinctive tomes ready, it was about time to complete the enchanting ritual. Nodding quickly to Evangeline, he waved his hand over the table for a pen to draw the circle on. There was one near a shelf, and it was fairly thick enough to be used on the floor too. Crouching down, he carefully drew a fine sphere with a diameter of approximately… he would say 45 centimeters. It was, at least, a good enough size for the amulet to stay in the middle and all; not too big or too small. He then grabbed the amulet that the Rune Knight had and laid it right in the middle of the circle, then stretching up again. “Everything looks ready..!” he reported with an eager look on his face.

646/3000

Indeed, magic was truly different from person to person but there were some basic principles that most magic seemed to follow. However, his explanation about how his magic may have adapted to suit his surroundings did make sense. It was still strange for fire magic but it was still not unheard of. “So magic that molded its structure to suit its caster’s needs, huh? Does not sound like something impossible, I suppose,” her soft voice echoed inside the large study, mostly musing to herself. It was not such a rare phenomenon now that she thought about it. Nature affecting one’s magic; yes, there had been examples. One of them could be Nanuq. The snow clad region rarely produced mages outside the elemental circle of water and frost which, after a number of studies by a bunch of determined researchers, proved to be the play of nature that surrounded them. They were given magic that could adapt to their world and keep them safe. And, while Eva did not exactly know where this raven haired mage came from, she guessed that his magic was result of the same principle, or perhaps, it was special like her own magic. Whatever was the case, it had managed to scare half the life out of Eva for a moment and she hoped that he would never do something like that again.

She stood up from her crouched position. Standing to a side as he readied everything for the enchanting, her eyes once again followed him moving across from her to grab a pen that was surprisingly big enough to draw on the floor with. ‘Merlin seems to have just about everything,’ she thought as the boy drew a neat circle on the floor before placing the amulet down. “Done? Great, we can start the ritual for enchanting it then,” Eva approached the circle, gesturing with a hand for Hyoen to move back a little before placing them in front of her chest in a prayer like form. As a white light of energy built up from inside of her, Eva concentrated it all on the motionless amulet, going over every bit of the enchantment spell inside her head. The amulet glowed. A blue circle surrounding it and then slowly, as the wind around them picked up from the powerful spell and blew everything back, the circle slowly got drawn into the blue glistening jewel of the ornament, finally dying down as the enactment reached its final stages.

“Oh my, you two are done with it already?” Eva panted, having lost more than half of her mana during the process. However, at the familiar voice, Eva caught herself quickly to look up at Lady Merlin, whose smiling face appeared next to a shelf of books. “Well, it was a difficult spell to cast, wasn’t it?” She chuckled knowingly. After walking over to them, Merlin knelt on the floor, placed a comforting hand on Eva’s back and stood back up with the amulet in her hands. “The good thing is that it gathered some good quality mana,” she looked at Eva from the corner of her eyes, not missing the light glare that the Rune Knight directed at the sorceress. But none of it seemed to face her. “Now, let’s get this packed so that we can get it to Luciel. I hope the two of you are not tired yet,” She looked at Hyoen to give him the amulet. “Can you wrap this up as a beautiful gift, darling?” she asked him

2332/3000

”… Well, pretty much,” he answered her when she tried to put words in her understanding of what the Fire Mage explained. Then again, could magic really do that? It sounded more like evolution than something ethereal, magical. Being an animal lover himself, he did adore nature, and so he knew too about terms like natural selection and how most of the species back home would have been specialized to certain, specific purposes of survival. However, did the very same rules that welded the animal kingdom apply to the world of magic? And even if, would the rules be the same or altered? He never got to read about that, either because that no books resolved around this topic or he simply didn’t look further for it back in the days…

The circle looked ready, and as Hyōen had drawn the circle, all that they needed was the actual ritual to start. Having the book at their disposal, it seemed to lack only one thing; a kind of word, a summoning or an adjuration. The Rune Knight seemed to have things in hand as she had shown a gesture to the lad, asking him to move back as he did so without saying a word. He looked at Evangeline as she readied the spell, while her body began lighting up in front of both the Fire Mage and the raptor on his shoulder. Coda stretched her wings in both awe and surprise, while Hyōen’s eyes widened a little. The light escaped from her body and circled around the amulet as if she was aiding it her energy. Given by the look on her secluded face, she was in a state of deep concentration, and despite the urge to comment the light show, it was as if a spectral clone of himself was keeping his mouth shut while he, in reality, just stayed silent with intention. The amulet suddenly began to glow in front of them when the light seemed to leak into it, probably another phase of the enchantment. He quickly held up an arm to cover his face when the blue circle appeared, because given that Coda covered her face with her wings, he indicated that a gust would hit them straight on afterwards. She always used to stand like that during storm calls or just before a beast would roar at them. His assumption was right, too; after the blue circle had manifested on the amulet, it shrank into the amulet slowly as wind pushed out of the antiquity, hitting both the wild pair and Evangeline. It was fairly weaker than expected, but it was still strong enough to cause pages of books to flap in the wind. A few, empty cups were pushed back too, but other than that, everything seemed unharmed. Thank god for that, because if things got a little too overboard, then Merlin would have been able to point it out. When the gust finally settled and seemed to die off, Hyōen glanced from his arm and over to the amulet that looked a little lightened…  it felt as if the enchantment was rather successful.

Surprisingly, Merlin showed up between the shelves and sounded surprised that they were done this quickly. “O-Oh, yeah, the amulet is ready,” the Fire Mage commented, taking a look at Evangeline’s sudden panting. She must have used a lot of energy in the enchanting, which would have explained the exhaustion that followed afterwards. “… Maybe if you need some rest-“ he would have suggested her, given his feeling of need to express his worry and all, but after Merlin’s compliments and thanks about the enchantment that turned out to make quite the exotic product - an amulet with ‘good quality mana’ as she stated herself, giving the Fire Mage a little root for a little bit of jealousy to grow - they still needed to ready it as a gift. It was a gift, in the end, to Luciel; it needed a proper pack to be contained. She obviously handed the amulet to Hyōen, given that he hadn’t exhausted himself too much like Evangeline, asking him to wrap it up for Luciel. “Yeah, no problem..!” He quickly grabbed some fine paper and bands to wrap up the gift with as he began his work, finishing it quicker than he expected. It looked pretty for a gift, so he didn’t really deal with it afterwards as he spoke: “We should go and give Luciel it now.”

He would suddenly aim for the window, putting a leg on the edge and looking out of it, finding it large enough to eject from. “Well, we’ll be back soon..!” he spoke back to Lady Merlin as he crawled out from the window, dashed up the wall while glowing feathers could be seen descending in front of the same window and approaching another window that would lead into the library. He did hope, too, that Evangeline could follow up with him…

827/3000

End WC: 3153/3000

Eva sighed, leaning back against a book shelf as she tried to get some more energy back into her. She now knew why Merlin sought her and Hyoen out for the mission. Whether it was Hyoen who proceeded with the enchantment or herself, they both would have been the better choice thanks to the high level of mana that they had. Eva couldn’t quite grasp how high Hyoen’s mana was but she had an idea from the brief use of his magic earlier. The part about getting a better quality mana was most likely because Eva had channeled a little bit of her Heavenly Body magic into the amulet, something that Merlin didn’t count on to happen but was visibly happy that it did. After all, it was probably the best magic to accompany an enchantment for longevity and perfect health, aside from other overly powerful healing magic. Whatever way it had turned out, Eva could see that Merlin was tremendously pleased with the result, a hint of it showing in her light steps as she hovered around Hyoen while he wrapped the gift up.

Watching the two wiggle around in front of her, she tried to stand up, her legs wobbling as she placed a firm hand on the shelf before pushing herself up, taking a single moment to get her wits back, and moving away, walking towards the two mages to see what they were up to with the gift. With a light smile, she noted that it looked beautiful, the outer packaging complimenting the blue jewel inside, colorful yet not gaudy. She nodded at the fire mage when he was done. “That looks beautiful,” she admitted, ignoring the silly voice in her head that said she could do better. She worked in a field where looking good was everything. Surely, the aesthetics may have rubbed off on her, too? But she brushed all those thoughts aside. Somehow, every time she told herself to not get conceited, her trail of thoughts traveled that way still.

“Yes, let’s get it to her soon.” Eva took the gift while Hyoen approached the window. “What are you doing? The door is tha-“ Eva was left surprised for the second time that day when the boy wordlessly jumped over the window, using the walls and she guessed his magic to keep himself from falling off. She sighed. “I guess he found the fastest route,” she rolled her eyes, groaning at the amused chuckles of Merlin behind her. “But damn brat, he thinks he is smart,” she smirked, putting a leg over the window herself before free falling to the ground. The rush of wind enveloped Eva and at the moment that it seemed she would hit the ground, a white light glowed around her, and without a sound, she shot up, turning efficiently to the side to follow the fire mage to what she guessed would be the library windows.

Luciel was already there, a silent surprise lighting up her usually indifferent features as Eva landed on the window sill, stepping forward with the gift extended towards the blonde girl. “Merlin sends her regards. Happy Birthday, Luciel,” She smiled, placing the gift on top of a pile of books that looked like some sort of makeshift blanket for her. “Oh…” she seemed to be at a loss of words, looking between Eva, Hyoen, and the gift, slowly processing what was going on.

“Ara, you two arrived already?” Merlin walked in through the doors as if she was right inside the room all along. Eva had to wonder why Hyoen and herself had to go through that trouble if she could have just walked in like that herself. Why bother when she could have given the gift to Luciel herself? Sigh, she didn’t question it. She was probably going to get annoyed with the great sorceress further if she even heard the answer.

“But thank you two so much for a job well done,” She took out a couple of pouches full of jewels from out of nowhere, handing one over to Hyoen before throwing the other one over to Eva with a wink. “I hope we can meet again. Once again, thank you.” With that, Eva knew it was time to leave. She would, however, turn to Hyoen before they left. “Thanks a lot for the help today. I hope we can meet again, soon,” all the pleasantries were exchanged before Eva walked out the door herself.

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-exit-

Hyōen felt like arriving first at the library due to his lack of warning, but he didn’t even consider Evangeline’s technique as she suddenly jumped up beside him, surprising the bird and himself quite a lot. “… Pft, you almost scared me there too,” he mentioned, having looked down and seen her literally attempt to crash down with her head first, only to suddenly dash up like a shooting star. She did catch up to him in the end as they both approached that one library that they had to enter in order to arrive in the library where Luciel would be.

Once entering the room, Evangeline had taken the gift off of Hyōen’s hands and stepped towards Luciel with it. Standing in the background as the Rune Knight congratulated her, he couldn’t but do a simple peace sign to the birthday kid. After things were clear for Luciel, Lady Merlin entered through the plain doorway that lead to the library - you know, without the whole, adventurous effect and all, despite her being a massive conduit of arcane prowess. She was happy, though, when she saw that the gift was given and things looked just right, so no problems seemed to have been rooted, and everyone could sigh in relief. Coda, on the other hand, got eager when Lady Merlin handed a reward to the Fire Mage. As he was about to grab it, the bird simply caught it using her talons and flew around with it, confusing Hyōen. “H-Hey, you sneaky, little thief..!” he proclaimed in a rather playful tone, while he managed to grab onto Coda and gently pull off the pouch from her greedy claws.

After having accepted the gratitude, he never realized that he forgot to ask for her name. When the Rune Knight approached him, thanking for the work and all, she simply walked out of the room before he could even open his mouth…

WC: 321

EXIT