by L Travern
Helina went directly to the Hall of Candles, an enormous room with nothing but seven statues of thirteen-year-old girls. Each of them held a real red candle in their hands. Crafted by magic, the candles were always kept lit without ever burning out.
She went to the oldest statue, which held a candle composed by a mix of was and her own blood. She took a strand of hair from her head and placed it in the candle's flame.
The strand didn't get on fire. Instead, it floated above the flame and was covered by a green light.
When any Prophetesses did what she was doing, their hair would burn like expected. The exception was for the Chosen, who would have their hair glow green instead.
That simple glow changed everything. She had studied the formations in the candles and knew how they really resonated with Time, having nothing to do with the personal beliefs of the First Prophetess. It confirmed that she had really been Chosen by Time and that the error message was the one in the wrong.
It also showed that there was a hidden power sending illusions with fake error messages to some Prophetesses, a power that didn't want the boy to be protected.
She felt ecstatic. Not only she had been Chosen, but she was also part of something much bigger than she had ever hoped for!
The green strand of hair would be enough proof of her Chosen status to whoever came to that room, and thus she left the Abode without anyone seeing. Her secrecy meant her Vision was a secret, at least for now, and that she had gone to take care of it.
After all, she couldn't know who was acting against her Vision and it might even be another Prophetess — Time forbids it! Unless she absolutely needed to, she wouldn't ask the Temple for any help.
As soon as she left the room, a World's Writ tooltip appeared above her strand of hair, a red error message flashing in it.
The candle turned black and not only her strand of hair but also the entire candle were instantly consumed by flames.
* * *
The Shopping District occupied a good fifth of the city of two hundred thousand inhabitants. It consisted of a large group of streets, stores of the same kind sharing the same general area. Of course, there was the eventual odd store here and there but they were the exceptions.
A huge open market could be found in the middle of the District. It had about a thousand stalls and thousands of people in it at any time. Even in the early hours of the morning, it was already filled with stalls and people. Matthew eventually arrived there and started looking around, getting a feeling for the prices.
Mark, instead, looked at everything but the things on sale. A place like that was a den of thieves and he was determined to protect the Herald.
After a couple hours, Matthew noticed someone tailing him and stopped in front of a small stall. "Seven loarts for that tiny gemstone?" He said loudly. "That's daylight robbery!"
The stall was full of gemstones of multiple sizes and colors. While mana crystals were simply crystals that could hold Pure mana, gemstones had elemental properties. Gemstones were much rarer and more expensive than mana crystals.
The stall owner, an old fat man wearing expensive clothes, was sitting on a bench. He looked at Matthew, who was now using a veiling spell to look like a mere One Star Mage. "What do you know?!" The owner yelled angrily at being called a thief. "You're just a One Star Mage! Get lost!"
Matthew sneered. "Insolence! My master is a great mage and he taught me all there is to know about gemstones! This one is worth two pemags at most!"
"Preposterous!" The man yelled even louder, attracting even more attention from the nearby people. "My gemstones are of the greatest grade! This is a legit void gemstone, the rarest of them all, and it's already a loss for me to sell it seven loarts!"
Matthew shook his head. "What void gemstone? You just used a Blackening Spell to color it, my master told me everything about it."
The man showed shock on his face, not believing he was being offended like that by an insolent kid. A moment later, his face flushed red in fury and he stood up. "Who's your master?!" He yelled even louder. "Bring him here! I'll have words with him!"
Matthew opened his mouth to reply when a melodious female voice intervened. "Forgive my useless disciple for his ignorance, good man."
Everyone turned to see the most beautiful girl they had ever seen in their lives. She was about twenty years old, her skin looked soft like silk, her long black hair went up to her slim waist, and her light blue eyes shone brightly with life. Her clothes were simple, a white dress and white shoes, but such simplicity only seemed to add to her beauty.
"Ignorant?" Matthew asked with a frown, barely noticing her beauty. "Who's ignorant, you ugly old witch!"
Every single eye around him widened. Who was old? Who was ugly? That was the most beautiful woman they had all seen!
Matthew had obviously exaggerated. To him who had seen women so beautiful they would make mortals drop dead from shock, her beauty was passable at most, but she was still a far cry from being considered ugly.
The reason he was treating her like that was due to recognizing her as the one who had been riding the palanquin and also the one following him.
He had decided to cause a commotion with the stall owner to see how she would react but her coming to his aid could mean many things. The way she replied to this offense would narrow the possibilities.
And she had widened her eyes and opened her mouth in pure shock. She was called the Oldest, but only the Oldest Youngest! She was still twenty years old!
And ugly? How was that possible?! She was one of the Seven Flowers of the West! It wasn't always that the Youngest of the temple were called Seven Flowers, but the moment she was chosen, seven years ago, they started being called that way, in great part due to her beauty!
No one could even breath. No one had never seen such a shameless person like Matthew in their lives. Even the seller seemed to recover from his anger and was only staring in disbelief.
She was the first to recover from the shock. "Impudence!" She yelled angrily and pressure came out of her body.
In the Valdian Kingdom, Ascenders were considered the cream of the crop and the Eminences below them commanded immense respect. Even the royal family only had seven Eminences and the whole kingdom had less than twenty Eminences in total.
And she was an Eminence!
When she expanded her aura to pressure the boy, the mere left-over aura that befell the nearby klutzes was enough to make their faces pale and their souls tremble. That kind of pressure demanded submission or death and all of them, as one, kneeled.
There were also a few warriors and even a couple mages around, including the stall seller, a Notable Mage on his own right, and they all either bowed or kneeled, too.
In this world, the powerful ruled, and the weak obeyed.
In the middle of them all, only the girl, Mark, and Matthew remained standing upright. Matthew, of course, could ignore the pressure with his soul, and the ring he had given Mark allowed the man to also barely feel the pressure.
Matthew sneered again. "What is it, old hag? Can't handle the truth, so you try to silence others with force?"
* * *
Helina's shock only increased when she saw the boy in front of her withstanding her pressure.
Check Level, she thought for the hundredth time.
Level: 1 — One Star Mage (7 — Champion Mage)
The tooltip didn't lie, he was a mere Champion Mage. When put under an Eminence's pressure, Champions only had to bow slightly, but the boy was completely ignoring it!
As if it wasn't enough...
Level: 1 — One Star Warrior
Even the weak warrior beside the boy was ignoring the pressure! How was that possible?
Could it be that the man's level was being veiled by a Ninth spell cast by an Ascender so that her soul couldn't pierce through it?
What was the real identity of the boy she was supposed to protect?
And more importantly, why the hell was he calling her an
old hag?!
"Stop calling me that!" She yelled. She had always been treated well and treasured by the Temple of Time since she was first considered a Candidate, when she was ten. No one had ever dared to even look at her the wrong way! How could he call her old and ugly?
"Old hag, old hag, old hag!" The boy repeated.
"Y- You!" She bellowed in rage, unsure of what to do.
"Should I buy you a mirror to show you the truth? Huh? Is that what you want, ugly old grandma?" The boy asked with a smirk on his face.
That was it. Helina couldn't stop herself anymore.
She stepped ahead, shortening the distance between herself and the boy, prepared to strangle him to death.
But to her incredulity, the One Star Warrior besides the boy stepped between them and slapped her hand away.
The sound of it resounded through the silent and shocked market.
A warrior had slapped an Eminent Mage!
Chapter 22 - Interesting
Chapter 22 - Interesting
Mark had been one of the strongest warriors in the Valdian Family and he had been trained accordingly. He was ready to give up on his life for his missions and protecting the Herald of Change was the greatest mission he had received in his whole life!
That training was what made him step ahead and slap the Eminent Mage's hand away the moment she moved with hostility towards the Herald.
A moment later, when he understood his reflexive actions, his heart started beating furiously, filled by regret. Slapping a mage was a capital offense for any klutz or warrior, no matter the reason. He would die for it.
And yet, Matthew's words seemed to echo in his mind.
"The first and foremost rule of the old ways is to always follow your heart."
"Even with potential, you might still do something you shouldn't when following your heart and may end up dead."
"But even then, you'll be able to face failure head-on, because you did what you knew you should."
The Herald was right. How could he regret protecting him? How would he live with himself if he allowed the Herald to die without doing his very best to protect him?
He might have been able to do nothing before hearing those words, but now...
Now, regret left him, and only a sense of fulfillment for dying for the Herald of Change remained.
* * *
Helina was frozen in place.
She had been...
Hit?
A warrior...
Had...
Slapped...
Her?
Slapped her?
Slapped her?
Rage filled her. From the depths of her heart, it filled every fiber, every cell of her body. She had never been even spoken aggressively before, but now, a warrior dared to hit her, a Chosen Prophetess!
She pulled mana from her mana pool and was prepared to obliterate the man in front of her into oblivion, when a voice entered her very soul and seemed to throw water into the fires of her fury, instantly quelling it.
The cold went further inside, invaded her mind, and seemed to freeze it all!
Helina found herself instantly dazed, her mind empty of any thoughts. All she could do was look ahead without any idea of what to do.
* * *
Matthew nodded approvingly when he saw Mark act. That was how a subordinate should behave, and as the master, he would obviously not let a good butler die for protecting him.
He felt the girl pulling mana from her pool to use a spell on Mark and acted swiftly.
Myriad Arts — Spellcasting — Double Elements: Ice, Soul — Seventh Mental Stun!
The spell left his soul, never entering the material world, and met the girl's soul head on. It couldn't invade her soul, its resistance too powerful for a Seventh level spell, but it didn't need to.
Instead, the spell instantly encompassed her soul into a layer of ethereal ice. Then, it hit her soul with a mighty wave of coldness coming from all sides. Her soul acted instantly to dispel the effects, but that single moment of freezing coldness was enough to stun her.
The anger in her face disappeared, replaced by a blank expression.
Matthew smiled satisfied. His spells couldn't directly damage her soul but he had bypassed her resistance in an ingenious way. A mage outside battle simply wouldn't be prepared for a sneak attack injecting a wave of coldness in their souls unless they were experienced, something a Youngest Prophetess wasn't.
Sadly, such a move wouldn't work on anyone two levels above him because the coldness would be dispelled even before they properly entered their souls. Still, the effects of the spell on an Eminence and the speed which her soul had resisted confirmed some of his theories and would help him to create new offensive and defensive spells.
If they got into a battle, he would be able to get even more valuable data. However, doing so would attract the authorities, something a mere disagreement with a merchant wouldn't.
Now that her mind had cooled down, all he needed to avoid a full-fledged battle was a little acting on his part.
"Master, Master, I'm sorry!" Matthew said while bowing low to the woman. "Please, don't be angry at Disciple! Disciple's golem acted to protect me! Please, don't take back Disciple's golem!" There was absolute fright in his voice. "Please, Master!"
* * *
If a warrior slapping an Eminent Mage made everyone shocked, Matthew's words make everyone completely stupefied. It confirmed that the beautiful woman was the boy's master, and furthermore, that the woman was rich enough to provide even her undisciplined disciple with a golem!
Golems were expensive constructs capable of following sets of orders, with some of the best ones capable of something akin to human thinking. Although the one beside the boy didn't look especially smart, golems were also valued by how much like human beings they looked. Even those that looked like groups of rocks glued together were already expensive enough that most Eminences wouldn't be able to afford one, but that boy had one that looked just like a human!
If such a rebellious boy had been given such a high-quality golem that might cause even some of the poorer Overlords some envy, just how rich was his master?
* * *
Helina was even more shocked by what had happened.
The boy had attacked her soul and she had been completely unable to protect herself. It had been a sneak attack, yes, but even so, a Champion's spell shouldn't be powerful enough to affect an Eminence's soul even for a moment!
Not only was the boy in possession of a spell crafted to overcome stronger enemies, but he was also cunning. She believed that the One Star Warrior was no golem and yet, because high-quality golems couldn't be detected by the Check Item Heavenly Skill, she had been given a way of retaining her respect in front of the people.
After all, being hit by her own golem, given to his disciple for protection, only meant the golem was that good!
Of course, this excuse also saved the man's life, which was the boy's real intention. To pay for the favor of her not killing the man, the boy was accepting her earlier attempt at public deception and pretending to be his disciple.
Still a bit dazed, she faked impatience with a sneer and turned back. "Let's go!"
"Yes, Master!" The boy replied and they left the market.
* * *
Matthew had a good impression of the woman. She had tailed him and tried to help him with the merchant for unknown reasons, but when she reacted to his words just like a spoiled Prophetess would, without controlling her emotions, he became confident that she didn't have any shady intentions.
Either that, or she was that good of an actress.
Due to his experience, he didn't think she was trying to fool him. Her reaction timing, her posture, her eyes, all of it told a tale of an entitled girl who didn't know how to deal with a world that didn't act as if they owed everything to her. Obviously, he could be wrong but the chances of that were small indeed.
The only thing that remained was finding out why she was trying to
approach him.
Mark and Matthew followed her to a deserted alley. Once there, she turned back and looked straight at Matthew. "Who are you?"
He smiled at her but before he could reply, Mark did. "How dare you?!" He said. "You interfere in my master's business, pretend to be his master, tries to physically assault him, and only then you ask for his identity without even introducing yourself first?! From what uncivilized hole did you crawl from?!"
Matthew nodded. "Indeed. But William," he said, using the fake name they had agreed upon beforehand, "refer to me as your young master from now on, or people might find it strange."
Masters were usually adults and their children were referred to as young masters by their parents' servants.
"Yes, Young Master!" Mark replied immediately, without any of the edge he had shown on his voice when talking to the woman.
"Good," Matthew nodded again.
The woman was looking from Mark to Matthew as if she couldn't believe what she was seeing. Matthew smiled. Indeed, for a One Star Warrior to call the Temple of Time an 'uncivilized hole' was something even the strongest mind might take a few moments to come to terms with.
Regardless, everything else the warrior had said was true. Even if they were mortal enemies, it was only proper to introduce herself before attacking.
She breathed deeply and spoke. "I'm Helina Chosen," she said.
"I am William Butler," Mark replied. Both Helina's and his surname made it clear who they were. "This is my young master, Ted Bright-Star." As for Matthew's fake surname, it spoke of a kid whose family thought would have a great future.
Matthew raised an eyebrow, interested at what he heard. "Surnamed Chosen? You had a Vision?" He asked.
