Chapter 83
A storm raged across the endless desert, and in a flash of lightning, a tall stone tower came into view.
The stone tower had eight sharp edges, tapering in the middle and gradually widening at the top. The sharp edges of the stones extended beyond the top of the tower, reaching towards the sky.
In the middle of the eight edges was a dull and massive crystal, hanging high without any support. Then, in response to the lightning, it suddenly burst into a bright light.
A horse with almost invisible wings galloped towards a tall gray tower, with lightning chasing after it, but always managing to dodge just in time. Flying alongside the horse was a translucent blue bird. It stayed close to Pegasus, afraid of straying too far and even willing to slow down its own speed.
Right on the horse, there was a knight wearing a black cloak, pressing his body down, almost sticking onto the horse completely.
"We're almost there, old friend..." he whispered to Pegasus, "Really! Look below your feet!"
The horse couldn't help but slow down, while the lightning suddenly lost interest and snaked through the empty space, heading towards the tower. A bright glow lit up above their heads, and Pegasus stepped into a pile of green flesh-like plants.
"What kind of magical creature has Xerath been raising?" Pegasus slowed down, taking small steps forward. The hooves no longer touched the slightly soft sand, but the hard sandy ground. The hooves made a "clatter" sound, and Pegasus stumbled back and forth.
"Alright, stop being naughty, let's go."
In the strong wind, Virgil took out three arrows and shot them into the void. The arrowheads, guided by an invisible hand, wavered in the turbulence and struck the stone monument almost covered by cacti.
He urged Dvořák to walk towards a gap in the flesh-like plants. The teleportation array was made of runestones, making it difficult for plants to invade, resulting in a gap. The runes lit up one by one, Virgil closed his eyes, feeling the wind around him suddenly getting smaller. He opened his eyes, and he was already at the door of the tall tower.
The door opened, and a gentleman in deep blue stood at the door, adjusting the golden ring on his hand. He said to him, "Long time no see, Mr. Virgil."
"Long time no see, old friend! Are you doing well?"
"Not bad, my master will be coming down soon."
Virgil threw his cloak on the ground as he entered the room, but before it could touch the floor, a few droplets caught it in midair. They wriggled and placed the cloak in front of the already lit fireplace. Then, as if afraid of the flames, they quickly fled and darted towards Hyectra.
The deep blue gentleman banished them back to the Water Elemental Realm. A teacup floated in front of him, and the icy droplets that fell from the cup turned scorching hot, steeping the tea leaves within. A dollop of white cream dispersed in the clear tea, simultaneously disappearing while making the water murky.
The milk tea was handed to Virgil, and he took big sips, letting out a satisfied sigh. "After a long journey, a cup of sweet, hot drink is truly blissful! Thank you, old friend!"
"As long as you enjoy it." The crisp sound of boots grew louder. A woman in a black robe slowly descended the stairs, her long golden hair neatly coiled atop her head. Her expression was indifferent and distant, even as she stared at Virgil, he still felt her lack of presence.
"Old friend, long time no see! Has it been lonely without the little creatures?"
Originally a joke between old friends, but after hearing the words, Xerath's eyes cast downwards. However, she quickly looked up again. "It's not very lonely, in fact, I was just wondering why Shamodial didn't bring back any new letters."
"Hehe," Virgil reached into his small bag and pulled out a stack of letters. "Are you looking for this?"
They all had different levels of water spills. After the water lord took them, he handed them to the arrogant archmage.
She just glanced at the names and set them aside, only showing a slight smile when she saw the last one. "Thank you, let's go upstairs. It's not enough to just drink tea, I'll have Elvis make something warm for you."
"You're really considerate," said Virgil sarcastically. He felt that this treatment was completely earned from this letter.
The living room upstairs was as clean as always, but for some reason, it felt lonely. There was a delicate little box on the table, but it was empty. There were also a few letters placed beside it, some of them were taken out, and some were not.
"Oh, did I interrupt you while writing a letter? Is there anything you want me to read for you?"
"No... no, I'm going to a small gathering organized by Diego tomorrow. All of our fellow members are attending. I'm afraid I won't have time to deal with those things before I come back."
"Then what are these?" Virgil sat down on the opposite sofa. Titus barked and tried to climb onto his lap, but failed several times. Virgil lifted its front paw and examined it while looking around to see if anything was unusual.
Very healthy.
"Letters that Sylas wrote to me."
"Um... so many? Sylas looks like she has been walking for a whole year."
Xerath said strangely, "One letter per week, a total of seven letters, I don't think it's a lot."
"Isn't that a lot?" Seven letters, each one several times thicker than the ones Xerath writes to others.
"Ah... is our little beast doing well at school?"
Xerath glanced at him and said, "My little beast."
"Alright, is your little beast doing well at school?"
Xerath generously said, "You can see for yourself." She pointed to some of them.
Virgil also didn't hesitate, took a stack of letters and started reading. The handwriting was very beautiful. Virgil couldn't help but ask, "She must have been punished a lot for writing when she was a child, right?"
Xerath smiled, "I have never hit her. Not everyone gets punished for writing like you do."
"Yes, if I hadn't been scared by the beating, I wouldn't have learned 'writing' properly."
Virgil, a hunter who did everything, had a secret skill of forging documents. He could forge complete sets of fonts and stamps. The reason behind this was actually because he had a very strict father. In order to avoid getting beaten for his grades, he studied hard to imitate various fonts and signatures. He even refused Xerath's help in providing answers.
The neat handwriting was pleasing to the eye. Virgil gestured and commented, "It looks just like her... or rather, from her handwriting, she is definitely not the obedient child in front of you."
Xerath blinked, seeming to find such remarks fresh. "I never expected her to be an obedient child. But why do you say that?"
"Well... don't you think so? She's not naturally someone who writes strictly stroke by stroke. Her strokes are quite elegant."
"I do feel that way."
"So? I think she won't be very obedient. Maybe she's another rebel."
"There's nothing wrong with that." Xerath shrugged. "I'm even looking forward to her being like that."
Virgil unfolded the letter and read it carefully.
"Dear teacher,
The twins from the Rost Family have a very sharp sense of smell. In Swiss's words, they have an unusual sensitivity to 'gossip and rumors.' Just by looking at the stationery I used, they inferred that I have moved to a different place and then deduced that I am at Star Song Castle from the postmark. The two of them, just like me, are about to take the intermediate exam. We often study together in the library now.
Sometimes, after class, we would run out to play. Just like you said, there are many magical shops on the street outside the school. There is one shop that sells all kinds of magic patterns, but the twins said it's too expensive and told me not to buy from there. They said it's much cheaper to buy in Withered Leaf City. Strange, how come I didn't know Withered Leaf City has such shops? Also, I think the money you gave me is enough to pay for a magic pattern. But you also told me to observe how my classmates use money, so for now, I haven't bought anything. But that reindeer pattern is really cute.
The schoolwork isn't particularly heavy. The difficult parts that the teachers emphasized repeatedly are not a problem for me. You have given me much more challenging training than this, so I think this part is fine. My main problem is that I have no knowledge of world history and general history of countries. I regret not paying attention when you taught those things."
It is mostly these very trivial daily life on campus, hastily written, becoming more casual towards the end. On the slightly yellowed draft paper, she can write straight without drawing lines, and by the end, only Xerath might be able to understand her messy handwriting.
"Can you understand this part?" Virgil tapped the letter in his hand.
Xerath asked in a strange way, "Why can't you understand? I correct her homework every day, I can even understand her secret codes."
Virgil shrugged. He considered himself good at analyzing handwriting, but many of the abbreviations in the letter made no sense to him. "What is this 'D...L'?"
"It stands for the Dalongkun Rule."
"So what about this L.C.T?"
"Leighton's table transformation."
"...you guys have so many abbreviations."
"In our informal communication, there are many abbreviations like this. Do you really want to spend an entire page just to write these names? Shamodial wouldn't agree either."
"This reasoning is sufficient...so you guys just write these...academic insights on paper? From what I can understand, it seems like she is not very satisfied with the explanations in these textbooks. Is it normal for geniuses to feel this way about ordinary people?"
Xerath smiled, unable to hide her pride and a hint of disdain. "Most likely. She feels it's inaccurate but doesn't know whether to correct the lecturer in class, so she wrote to me."
"How will you appease her? Aren't you the person who criticizes teachers in class?"
Xerath said, "I probably used the same arguments that the principal told me back then."
Virgil squinted and said, "It's like...our height measurements are not precise to one-thousandth of an inch. Sometimes using rough tools can simplify the process. High precision is not necessary most of the time. Like that?"
"Did you remember to listen carefully?"
"Of course," Virgil rubbed Titus's wiggling bottom, "Because I am a not-so-smart human, you see."
Xerath pointed out without politeness, "Although I have corrected you many times to the point of being fed up, I still want to say, you have talents in other aspects that ordinary people find hard to reach."
"Such as?"
