For dinner, there was wood-fired beef tenderloin marinated in a special mountain thyme sauce—Ishtar's favorite—accompanied by saffron rice. The aroma alone was enough to whet Ishtar's appetite. When the waiter placed the plates in front of them, Neosa, before even touching the grilled sea bass she had ordered, rested her elbows on the table, cupped her chin in her palms, and began to watch Ishtar with admiration.
"After those ostentatious banquets at the palace, the sincerity here lets me breathe," Neosa said, her voice blending with the rustle of the sea. Then her gaze turned serious. "But that expression I saw on your face before you asked me to dance... It wasn't just hunger, Ishtar. You looked like you were carrying the weight of the world on your shoulders. Would you like to share that weight with me?"
Ishtar couldn't tell Neosa what he had heard; she was a noble, after all. If what he said reached her father's ears, he could be executed, and he didn't want that. So, he decided not to say anything.
"Forgive me, My Lady, I'm just a little tired today. It's not what you think; I'm sure it will pass if I rest a bit."
Neosa gave Ishtar a skeptical look. She had a special talent for detecting lies, and right now, the man in front of her was lying. However, since everyone had their own secrets, she chose to respect that.
"Very well, if you don't want to talk about it, that's fine. But know that I am always here for you if anything happens," she said with an affectionate smile.
Just then, a man in a black tuxedo approached from behind and whispered into the Lady's ear. Judging by the Rose crest engraved on his belt buckle, he must have been Neosa's bodyguard.
"My Lady, it is late, we must go."
The Lady rose from her seat, and Ishtar stood up with her.
"I am sorry, Monsieur, but it is time for me to go. Ah, I almost forgot! You have a blacksmith shop, right? May I have your address?"
Ishtar took a pen and paper from his jacket, wrote down the shop's address, and handed it to Neosa with both hands. "Here you go, My Lady. Forgive my curiosity, but may I ask why you want it?"
Neosa closed her green-patterned fan, handed it to her bodyguard, and smiled. "It's a surprise."
Ishtar grasped the Lady's hand and bowed slowly. "Then I wait with bated breath, My Lady. It was an honor to dine with you during such a beautiful sunset."
With Neosa's departure, the silence that settled on the table fell like a heavy shadow over the magical moments they had just shared. Ishtar took a spoonful of the dessert on his plate, but the sweetness spreading on his palate wasn't enough to suppress the anxiety gnawing at his insides. There was a depth in the Lady's last look that he couldn't describe; it was as if she had seen Ishtar's soul with the naked eye. 'Surprise,' she had said. This word now echoed in his mind like both a sweet promise and a harbinger of approaching danger.
After finishing his dessert, Ishtar left the restaurant to go home. Suddenly, he remembered the necklace he had bought this morning. He reached into his inner pocket and took it out. He was having such a good time that he had forgotten to give it to her. He momentarily thought about how stupid and forgetful he was, but there was nothing to be done; he would have to leave it for next time.
The morning crowd on the street still hadn't subsided; in fact, this place was livelier than other streets. As Ishtar walked through the crowd, a clown appeared in front of him. There was a mocking smile on his face. He handed Ishtar a rose and a piece of paper. "This is for you," he said.
"For me? Why, and from whom?"
Without saying anything, the clown turned around, went into a side alley, and disappeared. After smelling the rose, Ishtar examined the paper. It was the symbol of those guys from this morning! On the paper, it was written: "If you reveal what happened today and the location of our order, you will die."
Ishtar quickly tore up the paper, burned it with magic, and continued on his way with an angry expression. After walking for a while, he arrived home and stood in front of the door. He couldn't appear before his family with this expression, so he put on a smile. He knocked on the door, but there was no sound. Right, his family was going to visit the neighbors today. Ishtar thought about how forgetful he was lately. Fortunately, there was always a spare key under the doormat for emergencies.
Ishtar opened the door with the spare key and went inside. He was alone at home today. After everything, this silence felt good to him. Since his stomach was full, Ishtar went straight to his room. It was 9:00 PM. Although it was early for sleep, he was tired, so he jumped into his bed and fell into a deep sleep.
Ishtar entered his subconscious and began to look for his master. His next lesson was intermediate magic, and he was impatient to learn. After walking in the darkness for a while, he came across a two-story wooden house. "What is a house like this doing in such a dark place?" Ishtar thought. The door was open. He pushed it ajar and went inside.
The interior was like a classic forest cabin. There was a fireplace in the living room and two armchairs facing it. The boy was reading a book in front of the fireplace. Ishtar had finally found his master.
"Master, so you were here. I've been looking for you all this time."
Seeing Ishtar, the boy placed the leather-bound book on the table beside him.
"Sit down, student. Today we will discuss magic theory instead of physical techniques."
Ishtar quickly sat in the armchair next to the boy and began to listen attentively to what his master said.
"In our previous magic lesson, I explained the basics, and you understood them successfully. Now, I will explain the intermediate level of magic. First, before I start, you must know this: The basics of magic and the intermediate level are completely different things. To give an example, imagine a snow-covered road. Think that when you reach the end of that road, you come across a door. Imagine that when you open that door, it opens to a meadow in the middle of spring, where flowers bloom and insects fly. That is how great the difference is between the two."
Ishtar raised his hand and interrupted.
"But Master, what is the reason for the basics and the intermediate level being so different?"
The boy smiled.
"Good question. The reason is that while the basics only allow you to use magic, the intermediate level allows you not just to use magic, but also to transform it."
Ishtar looked at the burning fire in the fireplace for a while and thought. Transform... What did transformation mean? Was it a kind of change?
"Master, I thought for a while, but I just don't understand this transformation phase. Can you explain?"
The boy snapped his fingers, and a table appeared in front of the armchair, with a teapot and two cups on it. He filled one of the cups and gave it to Ishtar, and took the other one for himself without filling it.
"Watch closely, student. What I am about to do will be the transformation phase."
The boy placed the empty cup in his hand on the table and held his hand over it. Suddenly, it began to change shape, and then the porcelain cup instantly transformed into a Golden Nugget. Ishtar's mouth dropped open. He had never seen anything like this before; it was as if the laws of nature were being toyed with right before his eyes.
"M-Master, how did you do that?" he asked.
Looking at Ishtar's astonished face, the boy went back to the time when he first learned magic. It created a rather nostalgic feeling.
"This was transformation, the intermediate level of magic. As for the question 'How did you do that?'; you remember the basics, right? You know, changing the nature of particles?"
Ishtar nodded with a serious look on his face.
"You remember well. What I just did was the exact opposite of that. Instead of changing the nature of particles, I combined those particles with each other to create a denser particle. In this way, I transformed the cup made of porcelain into the element of gold, which is much heavier than it."
Ishtar thought about this phenomenon. Instead of breaking them, combining them... He thought he grasped something. He wanted to try it immediately. His master saw this and handed the gold on the table to Ishtar.
"Come on then, it's your turn."
Ishtar took the gold and felt the 'atiro' inside it. Since this element was homogeneous, the atiro arrangement was different. He saw a cube, with an atiro at each corner. Ishtar tried to combine these cubes. It was working! The atiros were merging, but suddenly...
BOOM!
The gold exploded and scattered on the floor. The boy created a magical shield to protect himself from the fragments. Ishtar started coughing from the effect of the dust. The boy put both hands on his student's shoulders.
"Hey, are you okay? Hey, pull yourself together, drink this tea."
Ishtar drank the tea his master offered. After a while, he recovered.
"I'm sorry, Master. It happened because of me, you didn't get hurt, did you?"
Seeing Ishtar was okay, the boy took a deep breath.
"Hey brat, you scared me to death! You combined the atiros too fast. Be more careful next time."
A sad expression appeared on Ishtar's face. He couldn't even manage something this easy.
"I failed this time, Master. This transformation phase is quite difficult."
"Hey student, if everything could be learned in a day, everyone in the world would be either a mage or a knight. Don't forget that."
With this word from his master, an ambitious look appeared on Ishtar's face.
"Alright, Master. I will definitely learn transformation. Even if I fail, I won't give up."
The boy smiled and patted Ishtar's head.
"Good, you are a good student. That's all for today, see you tomorrow."
Ishtar suddenly woke up from his sleep.