The steam and smoke cleared, and Linnie winced, expecting to see the burnt visages of the others. First, he looked to the space in front of him. Instead of Marielle, he saw a tall and orange shape blowing in the wind.
Alwyn stood turned away from him, his cloak blowing in the cool gale rushing into the street to replace the hot air.
Linnie glanced to his left, where The Prince and Liora had stood. There, too, was a familiar face. One of the guards from earlier stood in front of them, holding a large shield.
"Haaah..." Linnie let out. Then, he gasped for air.
Alwyn stepped away from Marielle, who was standing there, frozen in the same position she'd been right before Linnie had casted the torrent of flame.
The wizard looked to The Prince and Liora first, frowning with approval at the guard. Then, he turned to Linnie.
Sneaky as ever, the boy had already slipped the conduit back inside of his pocket. As close of a call as this whole ordeal was, Linnie knew he didn't want to lose it just yet.
What an idiot...
Alwyn blinked moved the street like lightning, causing Linnie to flinch. His right hand, which had previously held the conduit, was forced into the air, tight in Alwyn's hand.
"Burned like usual. I actually got you a present," he said nonchalantly. Though he pretended to only be examining the wounds, it was obvious he had been expecting something.
Linnie half expected Alwyn to figure it out, but if he did, he didn't make it known. The strange presence from before that was in the air and stuck to his own mana was also gone, thankfully. The boy had no doubt that Alwyn would've been able to notice it.
From his pocket, he pulled out a pair of thick, woolen, fingerless gloves, and tossed them into Linnie's lap.
"Huh?"
"They're heat resistant. So you stop burning yourself like a dumbass."
"That's it?"
Alwyn looked at Marielle, The Prince, and the guard, then turned back to Linnie and shrugged.
"Yeah."
"Whatever this is, it's finished!" the guard shouted. "All of you will be coming back to the manor, and The Duke will decide what to do with you! And that includes you, Marielle!"
The guard grabbed Liora by the arm and tugged her, much to her displeasure. The Prince followed close behind, and Marielle walked over alongside them, dragging the tip of her sword across the ground.
The lady still looked a little out of it.
"You too, boy." The guard glared.
"No, no, I'd like to talk to my apprentice for a little. You're excused, though," Alwyn said, brushing the guard off.
It was obvious by now that this wasn't a normal guard. If him blocking the spell with little effort wasn't proof enough, the way he tried to command Alwyn made it clear.
'He's a knight...! Why didn't I notice it sooner? There's no way Corvailles wouldn't have a few knights! It'd be weirder if I hadn't met one yet."
"Tch, do what you'd like, then, wizard."
"I will, thank you~!" He waved the knight away.
"Hey! What about me!? I'm your apprentice, too! Don't let them take me away!" Liora cried out.
The knight looked at Alwyn, uncertain.
"...No, she'll be fine. Go on."
"What!? Noooo!"
The knight continued to drag her away. The Prince turned his head around, meeting eyes with Linnie. He couldn't decipher The Prince's gaze.
"So, when did you accept an accord?" Alwyn asked, averting eye-contact and opting to look at the bright crescent in the sky instead.
"A what?" Linnie asked, genuinely confused.
He looked at the boy, eyes narrowed. Then he sighed.
"No, I didn't think so. But, how'd you cast such a powerful spell!?"
"Uh, I don't know. It happened on accident!"
Linnie finally stood up, mostly recovered from the fatigue. His body was quick to produce mana, after all.
"The spell sucked up all my mana and I couldn't stop it."
"How amateur... idiot, why were you fighting her anyway!? And using magic, no less... my apprentice is so stupid! What if there were other people here? They would've died."
He shook his head, grabbing his nose. But, he was smiling, beneath his hand.
"Let's go for a walk. This place smells like shit after you burnt it to a crisp."
"You aren't mad? I kind of completely failed on the first day."
"Nah. I don't think you failed. I doubt that girl will be too upset, either. She was the one that initiated the fight, I'm sure. And I bet she said something like, 'use your magic, it's not like it could hurt me' or something."
"Yeah, she said exactly that! How'd you know!?"
"Pffft, because she's practically a squire. She acts just like a knight. That's actually why I wanted you and Liora to hang around her and get her used to you two. She needs to learn what it's like to be a wizard. And you know what knights don't do? Accidentally kill each other. But, wizards do that all the time! So, in a way, you kind of just gave her a taste of the future, like I wanted."
"Then you should've done that, you bastard! I'm barely even a wizard, how would I set an example for her? That's stupid!"
"Listen, you and Liora... the two of you are just really wizardy, okay? There's kind of a theory, you know, that wizards all act the same—deranged, as a knight would say—because of their mana content. Obviously, that isn't true. But. I don't think it's all that strange to say that, maybe, certain traits make people destined to become great wizards."
"You believe in destiny?" Linnie laughed.
"Hey, I don't know! All I know is that, you guys are gonna become super strong!" He pumped his fist with encouragement, then paused. "You need to."
"What?"
'We need to? What's he mean by that?'
"Ah, nothing. What I mean to say is that, I don't really care that you accidentally casted a powerful spell and nearly killed those guys, okay?"
"Uh, okay."
"Because that just means you can cast super powerful spells! Isn't that great!? Though, you will need to learn mana efficiency..."
'Huh. Good point!'
"...Yeah!"
"I can't lie, it's been a little frustrating holding back. As much as I've been refusing to teach you two, it really wasn't by choice. It would've been disaster if the both of you were already ahead of the lady and The Prince. This entire time, though, I really have been wanting to teach you magic!"
He paused, and then said:
"I guess I'm just excited to have students. It's like Aliza said, I would've never thought I'd be a teacher of four apprentices back when I was in the tower. And that was... not too long ago!"
"So, why?"
"It's the damned—"
. . .
"...Aha, I almost slipped up there. Can't tell ya~!"
He put his finger to his lips. In that moment, Linnie wished he could see Alwyn's eyes. But, like usual, they were concealed by the shadow of his hat.
'How annoyingly mysterious!'