“Can’t you take me too?!”
“Teacher me too!”
Jamie pushed back the kids who were clinging onto him and said,
“No.”
“Take us along!”
“Even if you don’t want Lennon, just take me along!”
“What? What did you say!?”
“Teacher~”
“Yah, Ann!”
Jamie sighed as he watched Ann cling to his robe and Lennon getting angry at her. He snapped his fingers and vanished.
“W-what?”
“Ah, Teacher!’
Ann and Lennon panicked as they saw Jamie in the distance and as they were about to run, Jamie saw them running and snapped his fingers again.
“Ack!”
“This is bad!”
As if there was a wall, the two got blocked, unable to reach Jamie. And Jamie spoke to Hera who was beside him.
“Take care of the kids.”
“How long will this take?”
“I don’t know.”
He didn’t have a schedule or an answer prepared for it.
“Maybe a month. It seems it would be a year at most. In the meantime I will come if His Majesty calls for me.”
“You will be away for a long time.”
“I think so.”
Hera looked at the kids who were screaming for help from the transparent wall.
“Will you be alright?”
“Of course.”
“I think there is a gap between me as a teacher and me as a student who is learning.”
“Experience?”
“Right. This is my experience. I learned magic from my father, but he was always busy so I didn’t get to learn much.”
“But you are so high leveled?”
Hera was still 22.
The fact that she was in 5th class at 22 meant that she was talented. However, Hera spoke with an expressionless face as always.
“I don’t think that is something I want to hear from Elder.”
Jamie went silent. Well, she wasn’t wrong.
Disciples needed teachers. So Jamie thought during the entire week.
And he came to the conclusion ‘it is fine’.
“They know what they have to do. I could stand and help them but fundamentally it will not be of much change.”
“It is something the children need to realize on their own.”
“Right. Well, I won’t be taking a long time off, but a year without me should be fine. Honestly, I don’t think it will be up to a year.”
“I see.”
“And Miss Hera they have you.”
“… Me?”
Hera frowned at those words.
“Ann and Lennon might be in the midst of walking down the path which Miss Hera walked, so please give them any advice they might need.”
“I am not capable of that…”
“Eh. I know better than anyone that you are more skilled than those people there and can easily handle them.”
Hera went silent and Jamie shrugged his shoulders looking at her.
“Since the 7th elder and Count Simon are there, there is no need for Miss Hera to feel burdened.”
“Yes.”
Hera did say it, but her eyes were on Ann and Lennon.
Jamie smiled and walked to the disciples who were blocked by the invisible wall.
“Take us too!”
“Right! Take us too!”
“Shut up. You kids.”
Jamie took down the wall and Ann and Lennon, who were screaming by leaning on it, stumbled.
“W-what do we do if you suddenly take it down?”
“My knee hurts…”
“Both of you get up.”
Jamie raised his disciples and said.
“This trip is important to me. So you cannot come with me.”
“Euh.”
“We also want to broaden our scope of… kuck!”
“Shut up. So noisy.”
Saying so, Jamie hit Lennon on the head. He didn’t hit him too hard, but Lennon fell to the ground.
For 5 years this guy only increased in his weight and not stamina.
Ann looked at Lennon and mumbled.
“He didn’t seem to do it hard…”
“Anyway,”
Jamie said from behind Lennon.
“Don’t fool around when I am not there. If you have questions ask Miss Hera and other elders.”
“But… the only person who knows our curriculum is Teacher.”
“Even if they don’t know, they can help you out on this.”
“Still…”
“Ann. Give up.”
Lennon got up from the ground and dusted his pants.
“Actually, I knew you weren’t going to take me. Still, I tried just in case… but I got beaten.”
Lennon spoke with the coolest face he could muster.
“Have a safe trip. Until then, we will do what Teacher asked us to.”
“… Ann what is he doing?”
Jamie looked at Lennon with a disgusted face and Lennon yelled out in embarrassment.
“When someone is speaking, don’t you react nicely?!”
“Lennon, people shouldn’t change that fast.”
“Ann you too!”
“It really didn’t fit with your character~”
Even Ann yelled at Lennon for his expression and strange words and Lennon shouted like all the injustice in the world was directed towards him.
Jamie chuckled as he put his hands on their heads.
Lennon as well as Ann went silent.
“I believe that you both will do well.”
“… Teacher, be careful.”
“Don’t forget souvenirs when you come back.”
“Okay.”
Jamie said his goodbyes to his disciples like that.
“Did you greet them?”
“To the kids and Miss Hera.”
Jamie answered Jin, who was leaning against the wall.
Jin mumbled ‘Is that so?’ and then put his back to Jamie’s. He looked really cool like a person with nothing holding him back.
“And you. Aren’t you going to tell the others?”
“Tell them what? If we are meant to, we will meet someday.”
“Everyone will be sad.”
“Isn’t it sadder to actually greet and go? It is the same either way.”
“That is true.”
“Let’s stop now.”
Jin finally checked his room and then went out and Jamie shrugged as he watched the man move.
He asked Jin,
“So. Where is the headquarters?”
“In one of the six bans.”
“Which one?”
“Abraxas.”
One of the 6 bans was Abraxas.
A large temple-like structure which existed in the northernmost part, far above the Ariazad Forest.
It is also in the shape of a forest as it hadn’t been visited by humans for a long time, but it was a land with dangerous monsters lurking.
It was located in the northernmost side and it was constantly snowing so exploring it was difficult.
However, the strange thing was that despite the snow, the Abraxas was known to be warm.
“Isis is there?”
“Ah, not now. Honestly, Isis was there for a while.”
“…?”
When Jamie looked puzzled Jin said he forgot to speak.
“A week back, Beryl stayed there briefly to assist Isis. And then we talked about you.”
“What was it about?”
“What would we do if you turned into our enemy?”
“I see… so she is not there now?”
“They left because they had work to do.”
“What is the point of being the head of Frontier if she has to work?”
“That I cannot speak.”
Jamie wasn’t disappointed because he didn’t expect to meet her right away. Rather than that, the fact that Isis and Beryl had been there not too long ago was shocking.
How could this man only speak about this now?
“Anyway, then we cannot meet them even if we went there now?”
“No. They will arrive sooner than us.”
“That means… it sounds like going there is of no use.”
“Right. It isn’t bad to take this chance and look at the world.”
Jamie decided to stay silent. The more he talked with Jin the more he felt himself getting enraged.
So the journey to Abraxas began.
“You demon possessed monsters!”
“What do you think this place is?!”
“Go away! Get lost from here right now!”
“Look at those kids running away! Puahahaha!”
Children in their early teens were throwing rocks at someone.
A boy and a girl with shabby clothes on them, so dirty that they looked like beggars.
The boy was holding the hand of the girl and the other hand was wrapped in cloth, the food too looked several days old.
“Brother…”
The girl looked at her brother with a sad face.
The boy smiled like it didn’t matter.
“It will be fine.”
“Uh.”
The boy, Fivion held his sister, Fiona’s hand tighter.
Fortunately, the stones from behind didn’t hit them any longer but they could still hear them cursing.
“A child without a father.”
“Cursed bastards!’
“Stop coming to this village, you demons!”
An insult which was hard to bear for children who were ten and seven, but the siblings had to put up with it.
It was because they might get kicked out from the village if they caused a ruckus.
This was bittersweet.
Having to endure all this bullying and insults in order not to be kicked out from their own hometown.
A child laughed at the siblings.
“It is said that they wait everyday for their father who abandoned them? Funny bastards. Abandoned ones don’t even know shame. Right?”
“Rumor has it that their father is a famous con artist. Wasn’t it said that he was caught cheating inside the village and got kicked out?”
“I heard that he had an affair with someone and then abandoned his kids and ran away at night?”
“Really? Wow!’
“But. Just looking at them you can tell what their father must have been. Hehehe!”
The other children laughed at this.
Fivion stopped, making Fiona look at him.
“Brother… ignore them and let’s just go.”
Fivion didn’t respond to her words.
Anger raged from within him.
He was so angry at them, but even more angry at his own father.
A father he never saw before.
His mother always called their father a brave man. And he too believed that something must have happened to him and he was unable to get back home.
But for 10 years, forget coming back, there was no news from him, just like what these kids said.
“… let’s go.”
He grabbed his sister’s hand.
“I-It hurts.’
Fiona complained about her hand being held too hard. She wanted to leave this place right away.
‘Damn it.’
Being young was a curse.
He would soon become an adult and take away his mother and younger sibling out of this rotten village. He would have to be patient till then.
The boy had to suppress his boiling anger for today. Because right now there was no other place he could go.
So, the siblings ignored the swearing from behind and headed to their house far away from the village.
