"Help you clean?"
Sophia was ready to face another tortuous set of experiments, but what she will have to do is just clean a house.
"You were the one that says that this place looks like it was robbed. So those are the conditions, do you accept?"
Zatiel was making fun of the apprentice, after all, he never hoped that she could help him with his runes.
"I will not be involved in some dangerous experimentations?" Sophia still could not believe her job would be so simple.
"What are you talking about? I am a runemaster, how could you possibly help me in my experiments. As for trying my runes, if I say the word, there will be hundreds of apprentices willing to use them despite the risk."
"Sorry, I was overthinking," Sophia finally relaxed, and she smiled and thought 'Finally, I can see the light at the end of the tunnel.'
"But there is a catch, due to my constant experimentations this place is always getting dirty so you will have to live here."
Sophia was surprised by the request, it wasn't that she had a problem living with someone, but she perfectly knows the state of her body and how the rest of the world sees her.
"Do you really want someone like me living with you?"
As she asked she could not help but feel contempt for herself.
"If something so insignificant like physical appearance will affect me, then I would have gone crazy a long time ago," Zatiel words were truthful, after all, there are very few things more disgusting than a Mane.
"Even if you don't care, the rest of the apprentices will spread rumors about you," Sophia's life is a truly lonely one, even if someone could see past her body, the looks that they get from the rest will do the trick and make them get away from her.
"When have you seen a dragon caring about what a lizard says? If they annoy me, I will just kill them. Anyway, you are giving too many excuses, are you going to live here or not?���
Zatiel made an annoyed face as she looked at the woman, as if he was telling her to stop bothering him with such insignificant things.
"Yes, I will!" Sophia was smiling from the bottom of her heart for the first time in a long time she found someone that makes her feel a little normal.
"Ok then, you can begin immediately, this place is a dump," Zatiel gives the order, and he started to familiarize himself with the diagram for 'Transfiguration'.
Sophia didn't waste time and started to clean the place from top to bottom, all the time with a smile.
Zatiel saw the expression she was making and understood how she was feeling.
The feeling of being normal was something he truly desired when he became a demon, but unlike her, for him, there was no one that could give him that. But this wasn't the only reason he asked her to stay here.
As long as they lived in the same house, he could keep an eye on her and make sure that the information about the laboratory stays a secret.
As for the option of forcing her to give the information, that could easily cause a backlash, and more importantly, he didn't want to do it, and as long he doesn't want something there is nothing that can force him.
The days passed as they both reached a rhythm. As Zatiel created runes, Sophia was cleaning and when she had time, she prepared food with the corpses of magical creatures.
To Zatiel there was no difference between eaten raw meat and something prepared but he had to admit that the woman really knows how to cook.
Something out of the normal was the obsession of Sophia with not letting Zatiel see her body, although he told her that it was not important, she was really stubborn in this, choosing to wash only when Zatiel was sleeping or in deep concentration with his runes.
Even when they were eating, she always adopted a posture that hides her face. Despite telling her to stop with this nonsense, she doesn't listen and continues, so Zatiel eventually gives up and lets her do whatever she wants.
....
In one of the upper floors of the Sinux Tower, you could see two men facing each other, one of them is a middle-aged man with a dignified aura sitting in a big chair while the other was an old man kneeling on the floor.
The person that was kneeling was Old Hal. He was soaked with sweat with a pale expression and his body was stiff due to the tension. The reason for all of this was the person in front of him.
Although the middle-aged man wasn't even looking at him, he released such a pressure that made even breathing difficult to old Hal.
The man had in his hands two parchment containing runes, of course, they were the ones Zatiel give old Hal to advertise them.
"Are you sure you have given me all the information you have on that runemaster?"
The man never stops looking at the parchments, but old Hal could have sworn that two immense eyes were staring at him when the middle-age man made the question.
"Yes Lord Magus! I swear that I have told you all the information I have," The reason that old Hal was here was pretty simple. The fame of the runes spread even better than he thought, reaching the ears of this official Magus who summoned him to interrogate him about Zatiel.
Even though the middle-aged man was only a Rank 1 Magus. To someone like old Hal who was barely a Rank 2 Apprentice, the pressure that his magnetic force field released was too much.
"You can leave, I will be keeping these runes, you can have this for your problems."
The man never looks at old Hal and just gives the order as he throws a potion.
Old Hal catches the potion, and he becomes excited when he finds out what it is.
It was a simple vitality potion that can give a rank 0 life-form 25 extra years of life, although for old Hal it was something very precious, for a rank 1 Magus was nothing valuable.
"Thank you, lord Magus, thank you, I will be taking my leave,��� Old Hal leaves the room, almost running when he does, as for the runes, he will never dare to ask a Rank 1 Magus to return them.
'If Zatiel asks me, I will just explain the situation, after all, he could not have expected me to fight against a Rank 1 Magus,' Old Hal was a little fearful of returning empty-handed, especially with someone like Zatiel that gives him the sensation that is in front of a human-shaped monster.
In reality, his fears were unfounded. The runes reached the hands of a rank 1 Magus was exactly what Zatiel was planning.
"So Jhon, what have you found out?"
When old Hal left the room, a person covered in shadows materialized in the air and started to speak to the middle-aged man.
The moment the man sees the shadow, he immediately stands up and bows to the person.
"Lord Clive, I have done as you told and searched the information about the new runemaster. His name is Zatiel, he has been in the tower for less than a year, and according to what I could find out, he was able to create at least three peak rank 0 runes in less than two weeks. Also, it seems that he is responsible for Arthur's disappearance."
The Magus named Jhon gives the information with a respectful tone. This was normal, after all, the person named Clive was a Rank 2 Magus.
Clive only nodded at the information, not expressing anything.
"Lord Clive, the skills that apprenticeship is showing is too high, I think he must have some special artifact or something similar that helps him, I suggest that we bring him here and heavily interrogate him."
In the eyes of Jhon, greed could be seen, after all, with the abilities Zatiel was showing, becoming a Rank 1 Runemaster was not very far, and even to a Magus, achieving that is something truly glorious.
"I have used the surveillance of the tower to see his process of crafting and there is no such thing as a cheat, he is just talented," Clive could see Jhon's greed but didn't say nothing, after all, if there was an artifact that helps you create runes, he would have been the first in taking it.
"Do as I instruct you and contact him, also handle the problem with Arthur's master as we discussed," After he finished speaking, the shadow disappeared.
