Chapter 26: Strange Coincidences
Around 5.00 A.M, he walked out of his bedroom in a formal black suit and went downstairs. As he reached the reception room, he halted his footsteps as he noticed that his mother had already woken up and seemed to be cooking in the kitchen.
"Mom, why are you cooking so early?" He asked in a surprised tone.
"I know about your job timing, son. Yesterday evening, Lady Charlotte came to our house along with Mr. Hunt. When we were discussing jobs related topics, Mr. Hunt informed me about your job timing. Otherwise, I would have let my son go out with an empty stomach." Eve walked out of the kitchen with a plate full of burritos on it.
With a wry smile on his face, Charles walked near Eve, picked one burrito from the plate, and took a bite. He slowly munched while enjoying the taste and soon gulped it down.
"Awesome food, mom," He commented casually and then started taking another bite.
"Are you telling the truth? Or, did you compliment me just to make me happy?" Eve stared at him with her wrinkled face for a second and soon continued before he could answer,
"Be careful of any ruin-related missions, Charles. If your higher-ups assigned you on such a mission, avoid it at all cost."
"Who is that old man, mom?" Instead of responding, Charles posed a question and took another bite.
"Are you asking about Mr. Carter?" Eve stared at her son with wide eyes and soon asked,
"When did you started losing your memories?… Ha! He is Derrick's father." She stopped for a moment and soon widened her eyes further,
"Don't tell me-"
"You also forgot about Derrick?" She stared at him in confusion for a second and soon became worried.
"I didn't forget him. It's just my memories are a little hazy." He waved his hand and then warned,
"Be careful of any Red-Haired individuals, mom. I have a vague feeling that someone is plotting something behind the scenes." He paused for a second as he wiped his hand and mouth using a soft tissue cloth and added,
"That certain Red-Haired person's target might be us."
Upon hearing his words, Eve stood there for a second and soon nodded her head.
"I will be careful."
Heaving a deep sigh, Charles also nodded his head and then moved towards the entrance. He then picked up the black leather shoes and wore them.
"See you, mom." Saying so, he waved his hand and soon walked out of 45 El Street, leaving Eve alone at the reception hall.
Unlike a few moments ago, her eyes turned cold as ice. In a second, her whole pupil turned white and then returned to normal.
"Red-Hair… Red-Hair… He is not a monster… He is not a human either… Who is he?" She muttered in a weird tone and soon shook her head.
"I don't have enough information to do a divination." She sighed helplessly and then closed the wooden door from inside.
In the meantime, Charles went to 35 Ivy Street and entered the Withering Shadows branch office. After notifying Russell about his arrival, he silently left there with multiple sealed letters and moved towards Gold Street. Charles then went to 34B house number and gave that letter to a guy named Harry. But to his surprise, he met Luke over there and exchanged few words with him before leaving Harry's house.
After that, he searched those sealed letters and noticed that two other members were living in Gold Street. Letting out a heavy sigh, he went to the right houses and started delivering the sealed letters. But he got more surprised… No, he got astonished as he met Bella Collins in one of those two houses and became confused. He didn't talk much with her after greeting her and walked out of that house.
He then went to multiple houses in different streets and started delivering those sealed letters one by one. But one thing that gave him a feeling of uneasiness was that he met his acquaintances like Emilia Wilson, Andrew Harris, Mr. Hunt, and Lady Charolette multiple times in one way or another. If not for his keen observation ability, he wouldn't have noticed that. When he delivered the letters, some would appear in the same house, while others would pass by along the way.
'Coincidences?' He felt puzzled inside as he returned to 35 Ivy Street and gave a short report about his daily mission. After that, he received another sealed letter from Russell and went to Olive Street, where the Security Administration Office was located.
It took him almost fifteen minutes to reach the Security Administration Office. Unlike other administration buildings, the Security Administration Office was just a small single-storied brick house.
Once he entered the security department's fence gate, he gave the sealed letter to the bald security officer, who looked around 40-years old and waited outside the building. In the meantime, the security officer walked in and soon returned with few folded paper sheets. Taking a closer look, Charles noticed that some red wax sealed those folded papers together.
'Looks like secret letters.' He thought inwardly and then extended his right hand to get those papers.
"Deliver these letters to your boss before 8 A.M." The bald security officer passed the folded papers to Charles and said.
Nodding his head, Charles turned around and started walking once again. But he soon bumped into a 30-years-old man. If not for his good reflexes, he would have crashed onto him.
"Don't daydream when walking, kid." The silver-haired man said in an annoying tone and then walked past him. With a nod, Charles glanced at him and furrowed his brows. If he didn't bump into him, he wouldn't notice strangeness.
'I also saw him earlier when delivering those letters.' His eyes widened as he looked at the silver-haired man deeply.
He had short hair, fair skin, an oval face, a small mustache, average height, and a skinny body. He wore a formal white shirt and black pants. Engraving his appearance in his mind, Charles shook his head and started walking.
He didn't stop anywhere and soon reached 35 Ivy Street. After that, he went to Russell's office room and gave those sealed papers.
"You did a good job, Charles." Russell leaned back on his wooden office chair and added,
"Your today's job is over. You can come back tomorrow morning around 5.30 A.M, and repeat today's job."
Charles breathed out a sigh of relief and nodded his head. After that, he bid his farewell to Russell and went to the Life Church. He walked on the smooth aisle and soon arrived in front of a beautiful woman's white statue. Charles then clapped his hand together and started praying while reciting a usual 'Thanking' incantation.
After he did that, he bent his waist and bowed his head while maintaining the clapping posture.
"Life is Eternal." He said in praise and then walked out of the dome-shaped building.
After that, he went to Wisdom Library in Olive Street and thought of searching for books about Fire mages. He went to the fourth floor and started his search. After searching for an hour, he found a red-covered book called 'Crimson Eye' on a corner shelf. As the name suggests, a crimson eye was portrayed in a vertical position drawn on the cover, making the book look dangerous.
"Crimson Eye- by Helen" He muttered the book title and the author's name loudly and hit the book thrice to remove the dust. After that, he went to the lonely table and sat on the old chair.
He then placed the Crimson Eye book on the table and opened it. The first few pages were about his ramblings about how great the fire magic was and about his personal experiences. Charles skipped most of Fire Mage Helen's early life experiences and soon stopped as he stared at the new information about mages.
"What are these spell models? How can mages create spell models in their minds? It is one of the biggest mysteries till now. Let me share my experience with my fellow readers. After consuming the [Apprentice Fire Mage] class gem, I suddenly felt some deep connection with the fire!
I lit the candle and stared at it for a moment. But soon, I started mimicking the fire's movements and done strange dances like the candle fire. At that moment, I wanted to be free like the dancing fire. When I was dancing, I suddenly gained some enlightenment about the fire! Countless sparks appeared in my mind and soon formed into a hexagonal-shaped crystal. When I ended the dance, I found out that I somehow constructed the 'Fire Wings' Spell model!
Surprising, isn't it? But gaining enlightenment is a rare occurrence. If you want to construct an attack-related spell model, you have to think deeply about destruction using fire. Everything is based on your thinking. If you're going to construct the next spell model, you have to be patient.
You will only gain your next enlightenment after you understand the secrets of the constructed spell models. That's how a normal mage constructs his spell model. If you ask me how the First Arcane Era mages constructed their spell models, I will answer a single answer.
F*ck off!
I'm not a mage from the First Arcane Era! dammit." Charles stopped reading the book as he digested the newly gathered information from the Crimson Eye book.
'It's all about thinking, huh.' Charles nodded his head in understanding and then continued to read further. Fire Mage Helen then mentioned various spell names and their uses. Nothing piqued Charles's interest as he read the book patiently.
After reading for another hour, he soon straightened his back as he saw that Fire Mage Helen wrote about the new topic.
"Elemental Heart Creation or Mana Heart Creation-
If you are an apprentice mage, I don't think you need to learn about this now. But if you are a [Fire Weaver] or other Rank-2 mage class member, you must know something about getting the Elemental Heart. When you are a Rank-1 mage, you don't need to gather 'Mana' from the outer atmosphere for a long time before releasing your spell.
But that changes when you become a Rank-2 mage. When you became a Rank-2 mage, you will face a big problem in releasing your magic spells. That is- Fuel. Without fire-elemental energy, you won't be able to cast a Rank-2 fire spell. Although there is some amount of fire elemental energy in the atmosphere, it won't be enough for you to cast a Rank-2 spell. It will take a day or two to fill your Rank-2 spell model with fire elemental energies. It goes for other elemental mages too. If you didn't create an Elemental Heart, you would be stuck in this Rank forever!
Now, how to create this Elemental Heart, if you ask?
That should be done by the ritual method. To do the Elemental Heart Creation ritual, you need three things.
First one- You need the coordinates of any fire-elemental plane. Don't worry about it. Our Lawful Churches has many fire-elemental planes under their control.
The second one is- Sacrifice. When summoning the will of a Fire-Elemental Plane, you need to offer something unique. It can be a fire demon's corpse, a fire-elemental crystal, or a rare fire-related artifact.
And the last one is- ritual materials. To create a ritual circle, you will need some materials.
They are:
. Twelve drops of any Fire elemental Creature's blood.
. Twelve Fire Stones
. Twelve Red fruits
. Twelve types of fire elemental herbs.
Once you gathered these four materials, you have to inscribe a unique ritual circle. About the unique ritual circle… Sorry to break it to you, but there are only the Churches, Old organizations, and the four ancient Empires that possessed these unique ritual methods. You don't have to worry much about it, though. Once you give enough sums to any of these organizations, they will lend you a copy of it.
After that, all you have to do is follow the methods and summon the 'Will' of any fire elemental plane. When the 'Will' descended to the ritual circle, it will send its' imprint to your 'Inner World' as a gift. That gift or the Fire imprint is the Elemental Heart. Once you possess this imprint in your Inner World, you will be instantly able to link that imprint to a fire-elemental plane using the right co-ordination. After that, you can quickly draw fire-elemental energy using the Fire Imprint from the fire-elemental plane and refill your fire spell models…"
As Charles read the contents, his eyes went wide for a moment.
"This book is a treasure for an apprentice mage." He muttered slowly and then continued to read till evening.
Once he noticed that the darkness had appeared, he closed the reading book and placed it on a particular shelf.
After that, he walked out of the Wisdom Library and went towards his house.
In a blink, one week passed smoothly.
During the past seven days, Charles woke up early morning and done his morning job perfectly. Although he 'coincidentally' met his acquaintances one way or another, he didn't put much thought into that strangeness and started doing his regular work.
When he was free, he spent most of the time in the Wisdom Library and read more books about mages. Like the Fire Mage Helen, other authors also notified about the Elemental Heart and even gave some clues about where to get the ritual materials. After reading all those books, Charles started to understand something. To walk on the path of mages, one needs to be a filthy rich person.
'Rich, huh. I have only two silver coins.' He muttered to himself as he stood in his house yard. Today, he wore a neat blue surcoat over his grey shirt, deep-blue pants, and brown leather shoes. Rubbing his forehead, he searched his void pouch for a whole minute and soon frowned.
'Where did I put those two silvers?' He checked once again and soon got confused.
He then shook his head, took out the silver pocket watch from his pant pocket, opened it with a flip, and glanced at it.
'11.00 A.M.' He nodded his head as he walked on the grassy yard and then went out of the compound gate. Simultaneously, he took out the steel dagger from his luggage bag and placed it in his waist along with its sheath. Unlike last time, the Observer's dagger's appearance looked very different. Yesterday, he went to an Artisian's shop and painted the steel dagger in his skin color. Smiling lightly, he walked on the muddy road and soon crossed El Street's junction.
