"lina, you're a System user?" Alistair asked lina with a pained expression. She shook her head in horror, but couldn't bring herself to answer. "And you were hiding that from ? ?"
Blood suddenly began dripping down from the corners of Alistair's eyes and from his mouth, which twisted into a sick smile. lina jumped back from him as he reached his arm towards her. "I died for you, and you won't even tell the truth? You're despicable."
"No… I wanted to tell you…"
"But you didn't!" He suddenly rushed forward and grabbed her arm tightly, pulling her closer. The blood that had been flowing down his cheeks dripped on her. "I'll have to take you back to the Church now."
"No! No! You can't!" She struggled against him, trying desperately to break free. "I don't want to kill anymore! I don't want to watch people die! I don't want to destroy the world again!"
"You mustn't run, lina! It is your duty! You must kill the Monster Lord. Do not worry! You won't be alone—I'll be right there by your side," Alistair laughed maniacally, blood falling from his mouth as he did.
"No! No! NO!" She scread and, with a jerk, sat up in her bed. Tears were dripping down her cheeks, and her heart felt like it would break out of her ribs.
Sienna instantly scurried to her side, chittering nervously. Before lina could realize what had happened, the door burst open and Master Gilbert ran into the room. "lina! Are you alright?"
The sight of her face covered in tears scared the old man, and he hurried to her bedside, taking her hand in his own. "What happened, child? Are you in pain?"
His familiar presence and his large warm hand cald her. Grounded her in reality. She had never held his hand before, but it was surprisingly strong for such an old man. lina let out a deep breath of relief and wiped away the tears from her face with her other hand. "No, I'm alright. It was just a nightmare... A really bad nightmare."
Gilbert sighed in relief and let go of her hand. "Don't scare like that again. But you say it was a nightmare… Perhaps I need to give Knight a verbal beating."
"No, I don't think it was him. This was sothing that ca from ."
Sienna scurried into lina's lap, looking at her with concern. Warmth radiated from her little body, further calming lina down. Her heartbeat cald, and the nightmare faded away. However, the worry remained.
"Master, I think I'm going to have to leave."
"Leave?" Gilbert narrowed his eyes. "What's this about? What happened yesterday night? That noble brat brought you back here unconscious with a bloody nose, but wouldn't say a word of what happened."
Alistair must be in shock. I'm not surprised, it'd probably take a while to process what he'd seen last night. But once he does…
"So?" Gilbert prompted her after a mont of silence.
"I stabilized the passageway to the Monster Realm," she said, deadpan.
Gilbert blinked at her in what was the most genuine expression of shock she'd seen on his face. "What? Passageway to the Monster Realm? Girl, how would you even do that?"
"Well, first, I used Sienna's mana to secure a link to the unstable passageway. Then I slowly felt out the mana flow of it—it was absolutely chaotic, not sure what could have caused that—and then I began to use Sienna's mana to correct the unstable flow in the passageway to the way it's supposed to be. It was a bit difficult since I had to channel mana from another creature and correct the unstable mana at the sa ti, but thankfully, the passage guardian also aided . It was much better attuned to the passageway."
"Passage guardian?"
"Yes. Poor thing was forced to remain in the Human Realm because the unstable portal kept jumping from one location to the next in the Monster Realm. I imagine it's why it attacked Alistair—usually they are quite docile towards humans."
Master Gilbert let out a deep sigh, leaning back in the bed and rubbing the bridge of his nose. "Let ask you—how do you even know all that? I understand that you were a mage before, or rather, in the future. Whichever one it is. But this is not sothing every mage can do. Leon can barely light a candle without setting the whole place on fire."
lina scratched the back of her head sheepishly. "I might have been… a very good mage."
Gilbert arched his eyebrow.
"Okay, okay, I was the [Archmage]," she admitted. Hiding it from him would have been pointless anyway. He can instantly pick up on her lies.
Gilbert let out another exasperated sigh. "You are one giant walking mystery, you know that. For what purpose would an archmage suddenly beco a baker's apprentice in so backwater town like this?"
She looked down at Sienna and gently patted the wyrm's back. "I think it's best if you don't know that. You should forget I was ever here. Once the Church cos and asks questions about , you should tell them that you had no clue that I had any unusual power."
lina got out of bed and went to her wardrobe, ready to pack her things. She hadn't wanted things to turn out this way, but lina couldn't just leave an unstable passageway open so close to Sunglow. Any monster caught in it would be extrely agitated and attack just like Sienna had. So even though Alistair had been right there to witness it all, she had to do it.
"Hold your horses, girl! Where do you think you're going?"
"I'm not sure. Perhaps to the neighboring country of Su Xien—I hear they are rather accepting of monsters. Perhaps, I could find a place there for Sienna and ."
"And why would you be doing that?" Gilbert demanded.
"Because Lord Sinclair saw use magic? I'm sure that by now, he has realized that I am a System user. He probably believes that I'm a [Mage] class too."
"So?"
lina blinked at the old baker. "So—he's going to report to the Church."
Gilbert shook his head and let out a snort. "I highly doubt it."
lina blinked at him. She knew Alistair. He would always bring the youngsters who had access to the System to the Church. Even when they had begged him not to do it, his views on the matter were firm, and she couldn't even fault him for that. There had been many examples in the past that displayed what horrors individuals with System could do. Whole kingdoms were be sent into ruin.
Gilbert pointed to the door. "Why don't you go talk to him? He sat by your bedside for a solid four hours, refusing to leave until finally exhaustion took over. He's currently sleeping on the couch downstairs."
"He's here?!" lina exclaid in horror, the nightmare resurfacing in her mind.
"I thought you'd be happy about it. He hasn't run to report you to the Church."
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"Well… I guess I am happy about that. But doesn't that an he just wants to understand what he saw first before he reports ?" lina said and grabbed her sack.
Gilbert pulled it out of her hands and threw it underneath her bed. "Once again, you're not thinking straight because of that boy. Just go and talk to him. I promise you, it'll be alright."
lina hesitated for a mont. She didn't want to face Alistair. Not rather–she was afraid of what he'd say. Would he bla her for her lies, just like in her dream? But the stern look on Gilbert's face left no room for argunts, and she nodded. "Okay…"
She took a deep breath and headed to the door, but then bolted back to her wardrobe and grabbed her favorite blue dress. "But I'll go take a bath first."
Gilbert audibly groaned as she darted into the bathroom, waiting only long enough for Sienna to scurry inside. Needless to say, she did not hurry with her bath. She soaked in the warm water for a long ti and then spent even more ti waiting for her hair to dry.
Once lina had finally gathered enough courage to leave the bathroom, it was already long past the bakery's opening ti. She suspected that Gilbert had closed the bakery for the day due to last night's events. Not that she had any hope of doing any work today—her only thought was still to grab her things and run.
Oh, it would have been so much easier if I had just never t him again. I should have left Sunglow right after that first ti. What made believe that I could keep my secret from him out of all people?
lina's steps on the staircase wavered as she heard Alistair's voice in the kitchen. Sienna chittered nervously when lina didn't move for a while. She was about to turn around and go back to her room when suddenly Alistair erged from the kitchen. Her heart stopped as their eyes t.
"lina, you're alright!" Relieved smile blood on his face, and just like that, most of lina's fears lted away. He ran up the staircase and extended his hand towards her. "Do you need help? Are you in pain sowhere?"
Dumbfounded, she shook her head. "No… I'm alright."
"That's a relief. But you must be hungry. Master Gilbert has prepared breakfast."
He held his hand outstretched, urging her to take it. Nervously, she reached out and took it, feeling the strength and warmth of his fingers. Yet he guided her down with incredible gentleness, watching her every step to make sure she wouldn't stumble and fall.
"I have to admit you gave quite a scare yesterday when you collapsed," he said, guiding her into the kitchen and pulling out a chair for her.
Why is he suddenly being so attentive? Not to ntion that he called by my na again without "Miss". Shouldn't he be angry? Or at least confused?
"That was the longest bath a person could ever take," Gilbert grumbled.
"I felt like I needed a good wash," lina said nervously.
"Did you warm the water with magic? I can't imagine you sitting in cold water for so long," Alistair asked, and lina cursed herself inwardly.
Here it cos. Ti to pay for all the mistakes I've made. Oh, I'd rather face the Archbishop Heiliger again than be questioned by Alistair. I could have had Sienna spit a fireball in her face.
"Well… I…" lina stamred, unsure of how to answer.
"She channels Sienna's magic and warms it that way. Or sothing of a similar sort," Gilbert explained in her stead.
"Fascinating! I'm so sorry that you had to bother yourself with those heavy pots to draw my bath before," Alistair said, but there was a boyish fascination on his face.
"I don't understand…" she muttered.
"What?" Alistair cocked his head curiously and pushed a plate with a stack of pancakes towards her. It was covered with various fruits and drizzled with beautiful golden honey.
"You realize that…" She couldn't force herself to say System user. It felt like she'd be announcing it to the whole world.
"That you're a System user? Yes, of course. I had so suspicions for a while now. But don't worry, your secret is safe with ," Alistair said with a wide smile.
"You won't tell the Church?" lina asked in surprise.
"No! Of course not. It's clear that you don't want to have anything to do with them, and I have no intention of forcing you to go against your will."
lina slumped down in her chair, relief washing over her. This whole ti she had believed that he'd undoubtedly report her to the Church at the first opportunity, yet here Alistair was—announcing that he'll keep her secret.
"Are you alright?" He asked, jumping out of his seat and moving next to her to catch her in case she fell.
"I'm… just relieved," she let a small smile appear on her lips.
"I told you, it'd be alright, foolish girl," Gilbert grumbled. "Now eat your breakfast. You'll still have so explaining to do to the Guildmaster later."
lina winced. Luckily, nobody else besides Alistair had seen her, but explaining what she was doing in the forest in the middle of the night wouldn't be easy either.
"Don't worry about it, lina. We'll just say that you brought your tart to the agitated monster, it ate it, and then left. After all, it's already happened once, so another ti wouldn't be so ludicrous," Alistair said reassuringly.
"You'll still get an earful for sneaking out in the middle of the night, but I'm not saving you there. You quite deserve it," Gilbert grumbled. "Now eat!"
Gilbert pushed her fork closer and then left the kitchen, muttering sothing under his breath.
"I have to agree with Master Gilbert. Even if you have Sienna by your side, leaving in the middle of the night to deal with this dangerous situation on your own is rather reckless, even if you're a [Mage]," Alistair reprimanded, sitting down in the chair across from her.
"I'm not a [Mage], Lord Sinclair," lina shook her head, staring down at the stack of pancakes.
"You're not? But how did you do that then?"
"It was through Sienna's power that I could do it," lina said, but realized that she did not sound very convincing. The unusual situation had left her mind reeling and unable to find the right words.
Alistair narrowed his eyes. "Even if Sienna helped you, I don't think soone not familiar with magic could do that."
"Well..." lina stamred. She couldn't just admit to her past right now. Where would she even began to explain herself?
"I'm sorry. I shouldn't press you for answers when you're exhausted. Please eat and rest. We can discuss it at so other ti."
lina stared at him in amazent. She couldn't believe that he would just leave it be without an explanation. "Why?"
"Why what?"
"Why don't you ask for an explanation of what you saw? Demand answers? Report to the Church?"
"Because you've once again saved Sunglow. You're a hero. What right do I have to shun you when you accomplished what I couldn't?" he said, but his expression turned serious. "Well, in reality, I do have a rather selfish request which I wish you to fulfill in exchange for my silence."
lina leaned closer, wondering what he would like. Perhaps sothing relating to magic since he knew that she could use it to an extent. Whatever he demanded, she was ready to do it. "Of course. What is it, Lord Sinclair?"
"Please, call by my na," he said with a mischievous smile. She recognized this expression. She'd seen it quite often during the last few years they spent together. But she never expected to see it again, and she expected him to ask him to be called by his na even less.
"No, I couldn't. You're a nobleman and I'm a commoner," lina shook her head. "It's improper."
"Please," he asked, looking at her like an abandoned puppy. Yet another expression, she hadn't seen in a long ti, but one he had often used to get what he wanted from her.
lina tried to resist it. She tried to think of all the argunts of why it would be so bad for her to just call him by his na. It could start so unsavory rumors. But in the end, she was unable to resist his plea. "Very well, Alistair."
"Wonderful. That sounds much better," he humd with satisfaction. "Now you should really eat your breakfast. I'm sure you must be hungry after yesterday."
lina nodded and tucked into the stack. Only after taking the first bite of deliciously fluffy pancakes did she realize how hungry she was. She ate with gusto, occasionally taking a glance at Alistair, who was sipping tea, seemingly deep in thought.
For a while, there was a pleasant silence between them as lina ate. However, when she was close to finishing, Alistair cleared his throat, sowhat nervously. "There is one thing, I believe you should know."
"What is it?"
"You see, Master Gilbert's friend is not the only one I decided to consult in regards to my System problem. I've also sent a letter to one of the bishops of the Church."
lina nearly choked on the pieces of pancake she was eating. Alistair hurriedly offered her tea, and she drank it to dislodge the piece.
"Does that an that sobody from the Church will co here?" She asked nervously.
"I'm afraid so. I'm really sorry, if I had known your situation, I never would have requested their help, but it's too late to cancel the trip now," Alistair said, looking down into his teacup guiltily. "They should be arriving soti next week, and from my understanding, they are sobody rather high up in the Church's ranks. I believe it wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that she might possess a skill that might… expose you."
"Who exactly is coming?"
Please, anybody but her. Anybody but her!
"Amaris Heiliger."
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