Chapter 228: Your Teacher is Serie!?
Flamme was treated a little better. Though her own magic was also restricted, she was not in chains. There was even a glass of water on the table before her.
"My Lord Duke, we did not mean to damage the city's barrier..." she began, and told him everything, from the beginning.
"Just for that?" the Duke of Hohenheim said, a look of a pure and simple disbelief on his face. "Why did you not just ask for help?"
"We did," she said, her own voice now a little lower. "But they told us... that they could do nothing."
"But to do all this... for a single elf..."
He did not understand. To cause such a commotion, and to drag an elf into it... it was all giving him a headache.
"We had no choice," she said, a look of a pure and simple guilt on her face. "We had to take the risk. We had to send her to the only one who could save her."
"The only one?" he said, his own ears now pricked. "And who is that? And what makes you so sure that they can?"
She hesitated. To tell him the names of her teachers... it could be a way out. But it could also cause more trouble than it was worth. But the look on his face, and the thought of her senior, who was now a prisoner... she made her choice.
"Our teacher," she said softly. "Ela and I... we are of the same school."
"Oh?" he said, his own interest now piqued. "To be able to train a powerful mage such as yourself, and an elf as well... your teacher must be no ordinary person. What is his name?"
He began to run through a list of all the famous mages he knew. But he could not think of a single one who took apprentices from different races.
She took a deep breath. She wanted to say his name, but she knew it was a name that carried too much weight, a name that would bring a new and different kind of trouble. And so, she gave him the other. "Serie."
"S-Serie!?"
The duke, who had been so calm and so composed just a moment before, now shot to his feet, a look of a pure and utter disbelief, and even a hint of a new and terrible fear, on his face. "Did you say... the elven Saint, Lady Serie!? The one who stood with the legendary god-slayer, Lord Rhodes!?"
He had every right to be shocked. Her name... it was a living myth, a legend, a name that was revered by all the great mages of the land, a name that represented the very pinnacle of a magical power, a deep and ancient wisdom. Her apprentice? The very thought of it was a terrifying thing.
"Yes," she said with a nod.
He slowly sank back into his chair, his own heart now a pounding drum. It took him a long moment to process what he had just heard. He stared at her, trying to find a lie in her eyes, but he could only see a calm and honest gaze.
"Proof," he said, his own voice now a little shaky. "What proof do you have? To use the name of such a revered figure... it is a crime that will only add to your own sentence."
She was silent. She had no proof. Her teacher... she had never given her any token of her apprenticeship. Her own knowledge, her own understanding of magic... that was her proof. But how could she show that to a stranger? A few light arrows? Every mage in the land could do that now, thanks to him.
"I have no token," she said with a shake of her head. "My teacher never gave me one."
He frowned. No proof? Then how was he to know if she was telling the truth? But... he had never heard of her giving her apprentices any kind of an official mark. And the girl... she was a powerful mage, no doubt about that. To have been trained by a legend... it was a plausible story. He was torn.
Just then, the door opened, and the bishop, Cassarius, walked in.
"You've come," the duke said with a nod.
The bishop gave a slight bow and looked from the girl, to the duke. "What is the situation?"
He told him everything, and at the mention of the name, his own face was a mask of a pure and utter shock. "No wonder..." he murmured to himself, and then he looked at the girl. "You used a teleportation spell. You sent the elven girl away?"
"Yes," she said. She had a good feeling about him, the one who had been willing to help.
"The residual spatial fluctuation... it is very complex. It is a modified version of the common spell, and a very impressive one," he said, and then turned to the duke. "My Lord Duke, the barrier is stable, though it has been severely depleted. It will take about a month for it to fully recharge."
"A month... that is just in time for the monster tide," he said with a sigh of a relief. The barrier was the very foundation of their city. "But to have been depleted to such a degree... the loss..."
"My Lord Duke," he interrupted, and a new and strange look came over his face, "such a loss, in exchange for the favor of two of her apprentices, one of whom is an elf... it is a small price to pay."
"You mean..."
"She is not lying. At least, I do not believe she is," he said, his own voice a calm and level sound. "A teleportation spell of that magnitude... it is, in itself, a powerful proof. And their purpose... it was to save a life, not to destroy. They have caused no great harm."
He was telling him to let it go. To punish them... it would be to risk her wrath.
"But the elven girl they sent... the dark corruption within her... it was a thing that even I could not heal. And they sent her to Lady Serie. Does she have some special way to deal with it?" He was, of course, curious. What kind of a holy magic could she possibly possess?
The duke's head was now a throbbing mass of a pure and unadulterated pain. The other girl... he did not care about her. But these two... if they really were her apprentices... their own status was a very delicate and a very dangerous thing. To imprison them, to judge them... to incur the wrath of a living legend... a chill ran down his spine.
"Then what do you propose we do?" he asked, and pushed the problem onto the other man.
"To release them... it would be a breach of a protocol," he said after a moment of a deep and thoughtful consideration. "But to punish them severely... it is a great risk, and they did have a good reason for their actions. Perhaps... we can just keep them here, in a comfortable and well-appointed prison, and in the meantime, we can send a messenger to the Elven Kingdom, to verify their identities."
It was a compromise, a way to save face. "I agree," she said. "But please, be quick. We are very worried about... the elven girl's safety."
"We will do our best," he said with a nod. "And I hope that she will be saved."
And with that, the tension in the room was finally broken.
She was taken to a quiet and comfortable prison cell. And Ela, not long after, was brought to the one next to her.
(End of chapter)
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