Chapter 54
The next morning, Sylas woke up as usual and went to the library for her class. When she arrived, Xerath seemed to have just arrived too. Behind her floated a book with open pages. Xerath raised her head, lost in thought. When she heard footsteps, she turned around and waved for Sylas to come over.
"Teacher... Good morning."
"Morning." Xerath absentmindedly replied, extending her hand to fix Sylas's collar and patting her chest. She looked at Sylas's face with confusion, then reached out and unbuttoned her robe. Sure enough, the vest underneath was puffed up.
Sylas's face turned red in an instant.
Xerath sighed, "Don't dress so casually." Then she unbuttoned the vest and smoothed out the shirt inside, buttoning it up one by one.
"Appearance and demeanor are important aspects of how a person presents themselves outwardly," her gray eyes met Sylas's directly. "They reflect your respect towards your observers. Here, I am your only observer. Can you guess what I think?"
"I... I'm sorry, teacher! I... I didn't mean to disrespect you..."
Xerath gently pulled the fabric around her waist, making her take half a step forward. "I would feel... why does this child still need me to take care of her?"
Sylas was surprised. It was obvious that this answer was different from what she had expected. Xerath chuckled softly and said, "Sit back and continue with your lessons."
Sylas obediently sat back down. Xerath, as usual, picked up her pen and wrote down today's topic on the blackboard. Sylas felt a bit dazed, thinking that today was not much different from yesterday. Xerath didn't remember what she said about the water lord's servant yesterday, and didn't refuse Sylas because of it.
But a deeper fear suddenly spread from the bottom of her heart: had she already assumed that I quit this game? And have I forever lost the chance to play with her?
"Sylas？Sylas？"
"Ah? Teacher..."
"Stop daydreaming," Xerath tapped on the blackboard. "In order for you to focus, I have to ask you to analyze the word 'everyone' and its use here."
Thankfully, getting lost in thoughts was only temporary. This question was clever and troublesome, with many different situations. After describing each one, Sylas had already forgotten what was troubling her earlier. Children's worries always come and go quickly.
It was close to noon, time for lunch break. Xerath sat slanted in her chair, one hand supporting her chin, while looking at a floating book in front of her.
The sunshine was very warm, today was a rare sunny day, and the wind was howling as if it was expected. However, it couldn't enter the tower, only whispering softly in the background. The archmage was drowsy, and Sylas hid deep in the library, trying to find some clues to regain her position in Xerath's heart.
But the more she hurried, the more confused she became. What's worse is that Xerath must not find out about this, otherwise she will surely be disliked!
Sylas was muttering to herself by the window, her once smooth black hair becoming messy as she grabbed it. But she noticed a ripple in the surroundings and turned her head to see a gentleman in deep blue standing at the other end of this row of bookshelves.
She quickly stood up straight, afraid that Xerath would come out from behind the bookshelf. However, Hyectra looked around and said to her, "Shh... um, I have something to tell you privately, young lady."
"Privately?"
"Yes... Oh dear, actually, I'm afraid the esteemed archmage might scare you."
"Scare me? No, why would she?"
The water lord lowered his voice again, his massive body bowed as he approached her ear and whispered, cupping his hands around his mouth, "You shouldn't mind that she doesn't say anything. The summoning spell of the water lord is quite complex, and the spell's effect is directly related to the abilities of the water lord summoned in the end. But the strength of different water lords can vary greatly. Considering that the contract is for a lifetime, the archmage of course wants you to be more cautious."
"Hmm... I see."
It looked around and said in a lower voice, "There may be clues all over the house, but I can't say more. You need to solve all the puzzles left by the lady to gather the spells, but I can't reveal more. Oh, I should go now..."
"What's wrong? Why? Is the teacher awake?"
"No, quite the opposite. She's asleep, so I can't stay in the mortal realm for too long. I hope you don't get discouraged, but there's one more thing I must remind you. Please pretend that you don't know this is a game, don't make a big fuss. The lady's thoughts are hard to guess, but one thing is certain, she likes to maintain a calm appearance. Goodbye, young lady."
The body of the water lord became more transparent, and the pure elements that composed its body were dissipating little by little. It opened a space rift and quickly slipped inside.
Sylas was alone again. The sun streamed in slantingly through the window. The shimmering surface from earlier was now empty. Sylas sighed in relief, ready to go back to her own seat. But the sound of her shoes on the floor was too loud and clear, so she took them off and walked back softly.
The book in front of Xerath had fallen back onto the table, lying flat. Her braids hung to one side of her shoulder. Warm sunlight shone in from behind her, wrapping her in a faint golden glow. Her hair glistened under the bright light, making her features blurry.
There was one thing Sylas secretly concluded in her heart, "Extraordinary."
Sylas put her shoes down on her seat and quietly walked over, taking off her own cloak and covering it on Xerath.
Xerath herself was like an encyclopedia, with a strong memory. There were hardly any spell lookup books or the like at home. For ordinary spells, Xerath could talk about them in detail, even their lessons were unfolded from one spell to another, explaining the words and grammar used, and even tracing the origins of these word roots. They would talk about some historical knowledge related to it and sometimes involve certain magical items.
It was a lot of fun when Xerath was in class, but now Sylas realizes she stupidly missed many chances to talk to Xerath. Now those opportunities are closed, how will she know what spell she needs?
"Sylas？"
"Uh... huh? Teacher, you're awake?" She snapped back to reality, holding a book, and saw Xerath still curled up in the chair, not wanting to get up, clutching their own clothes. Sylas furrowed her brow, touched her forehead, blinked hard, and asked, "How long did I sleep?"
"Just two o'clock, you can sleep a little longer."
Xerath slowly sat up straight, quickly wiped their mouth, then realized it wasn't their own clothes. They quickly glanced at Sylas and stiffly whispered, "Thank you."
"It's my pleasure," Sylas also whispered back, but Xerath had no intention of giving her clothes back. They neatly folded them and put them aside, then said to her, "This weekend, I'm taking Titus to Withered Leaf City for a check-up. Is there anything you need to buy?"
"No, I don't."
"Then we'll go... um... to the vet, the library, the bookstore, the market. Is that all?"
"Yes!"
"What do you want to eat? How about Nislan's dishes?" Xerath's suggestion was quite tempting. Nislan is famous for its dairy cows, so most of the dishes are made with baked cheese and cream. Sylas loves milk and sweet things, just like most children do. As expected, Sylas didn't hesitate and instead showed a happy expression.
While things appeared calm on the surface these past few days, Sylas noticed some changes in the house. She couldn't be sure if they were clues left by Xerath, but she quickly made note of them.
While cleaning the house, Sylas discovered that some letters on the mithril magic circle in the laboratory had been painted in gold. These letters spelled out the number "13".
Sylas secretly wrote it down in her notebook. However, when she returned the next day, the marks had been erased.
After two days of pondering with no leads, Sylas found an opportunity to sneak back to the scene and recorded everything, including the whole magic circle and the colored letters. After she finished, she still didn't gain any new insights. She stared at the seat next to her for a while, remembering how Xerath used to sit there and watch her. Unable to resist, she sat down too.
The laboratory workbench remained untouched, and in the center of the room hung the mithril magic circle. However, all of the crystals had been taken down. (Word had it that crystal prices had dropped several times. Virgil had borrowed money from Xerath and then made a fortune short-selling crystals.) Only a single golden feather was left alone.
A feather!
Sylas's heart suddenly raced.
The only place in the house where there were numbers was in the library's book catalog. Perhaps these numbers were book codes? And someone even left a feather for her as a clue! They even specially painted the letters in gold!
She felt like she had found a clue, but there was still one thing she couldn't figure out: all the books were indexed using a combination of letters and numbers. Which letter should she use for the index?
Maybe with the first letter A of gold, but there is no such index symbol in the library. When Xerath was not paying attention, she tried the book "AU134" but the result puzzled her. It was a thin atlas.
Maybe there is something inside, but after carefully checking the pages, she found nothing. There were no markings or valuable information, only mountains, borders, and some scattered legends.
Could it be a wrong guess? Eventually, she decided to arrange all the letters in the word "gold" and excluded the combinations that were not in the index. She ended up with about fourteen index numbers, but when she tried "Am134", she felt that it must be the right book!
