Irvene's point of view
Morning finally came and we're back to work as usual, not forgetting the plan to follow those people who would go to the Red river. I assumed that the restricted mining area was still as dangerous as it could be like what happened yesterday. Regardless of that, greed must have possessed that Headmaster.
When we're worrying about how we would hide Winter from Headmaster Estrama's eyes, she transformed back into a silver marble. I hid it into my clothes pocket and put it on my cloak.
"It's good that she could transform into a small thing but how would she get back into a human form?" Meryll asked.
I looked at her unknowingly. "About that.. I also don't know. We'll figure out later," I said.
Recently, I've been filled with mysteries I still couldn't solve. Everything just came piling up on me. Nonetheless, I would do what I could to unravel every puzzle I encountered. Quiet Mystical.
Mystical Encounters...
"Irvene?" Meryll uttered.
My mind stopped wandering when I heard Meryll's voice.
"Ah--, let's get outside so we could finish our work early," I said.
"Okay then, talk to me if something's bothering you. Don't keep it yourself!" Meryll explained.
"Don't worry, I'm definitely okay," I answered.
After our conversation, we walked down the hallway, reached the stairs and got down. We're supposed to get outside of this mansion when a man named Erill Wanemoon called for us.
"Why?" I asked.
"Headmaster Estrama invited the two of you to the dining area for breakfast," he said.
That was all. He left afterwards.
"Hmp," Meryll uttered.
"We forgot to eat. They won't poison us, aren't they?" I asked.
"You know it's not a problem, but we'll see," Meryll said.
Since it wasn't befitting for that Headmaster to just poison us, he wouldn't dare or so I thought. It wasn't hard to find the dining area since someone led us there. Only Headmaster Estrama and Erill could be found on the table. A quiet, simple room that wasn't to be expected from the Headmaster.
The table here was short though, but I saw another room with a longer one. I find this suitable especially when only a few would dine. Eating on a long extravagant table alone was just not my preference and maybe also a lot of people.
"Archmage Elvina, you two may take a seat," he said.
We sat beside each other and watched the servants placed the dishes on the table. I looked at the food and tasted a bit and continued eating which Meryll followed.
All of us ate silently especially Erill, who hadn't said a word.
"You seemed to like the food, Archmage Elvina," Headmaster Estrama said.
"As long as it's safe, I don't complain about any food I eat," I said.
He just chuckled and did a quick glance at the dishes on the table especially the water.
"Thank you for the dish, we'll be leaving now for work," I said.
After that, I drank the water from the glass, emptied it and didn't forget to give Meryll her water.
"Goodluck with your work. I expect that it'll get done early."
I heard the Headmaster said from afar as we walked away.
"Demanding old man," Meryll whispered.
"Don't let him hear that, pffft," I said.
While we're walking I handed her a small bottle. I also have one which I drank and noticing my actions, she also did.
"Antidote?" she asked.
"Of course, you wouldn't want to get sick during work?" I said.
"Tsk. I haven't notice at all but you should have said," Meryll said.
"It's better we keep it ourselves," I said.
When we reached outside, there were already a lot of workers whose earlier than us. We immediately walked and made our way to the entrance of the mining area.
The place wasn't so silent like yesterday. A crowd of miners and knight guards were circling and we didn't knew the reason.
"What's happening there?" Meryll asked.
"Let's see," I said.
We walked near them and we managed to get at the center of the circled crowd. A miner whose swinging his pick axe wildly was trying to be stopped by the knight guards.
"Aren't two knight guards are enough? Something's wrong with that miner," Meryll uttered.
"I don't know if we should interfere, let's wait and see if they could stop him," I said.
After I said that, that miner suddenly swung his pick axe strongly on the ground. It released a strong impact and pushed all of them except Meryll and I. The circled crowd were now lying on the ground.
"Don't go near him!" Meryll shouted.
I hurriedly put long ice spikes around that miner and Meryll followed with an attack to make him lose consciousness. We managed to suppress him but it didn't last long.
"Irvene, his powers was familiar," Meryll said.
Since Meryll was near while I'm not, I didn't have an idea what she's talking about. I hurriedly went near them while chanting long ice spikes to surround him again.
I suddenly felt a faint sense of familiarity. His eyes were barely clouded with black color.
"This was the aura in that dangerous mining area," I said.
"They still allowed them to work in that area!" Meryll shouted.
"We'll talk about it with Headmaster Estrama later. We only agreed that there would be no workers during our work time but it isn't agreed for it to close whole day," I explained.
"They managed to find a hole," Meryll uttered.
While we're busy talking, we're also trying our best to stop this miner. Not long after, the Headmaster with Erill Wanemoon came running near us. Maybe the knight guards reported it to them.
"Archmage Elvina, let us do our work," Erill Wanemoon said.
I heard Meryll hissed. I pulled her with me and see if they could stop that miner. I'm sure it wasn't his intention to wreak havoc, it's only that mysterious aura in that mining area was the reason.
Erill tried to stop him with his magic and sword, but he only managed for a little while and then his faced looked weak after.
Headmaster Estrama quickly chanted a small magic barrier to restrict the miners movement and seemed to chant a sleep spell. His plan worked but the moment he removed the barrier, the miner suddenly woke up and aimed at him.
"It didn't work!" Erill uttered.
Then suddenly, Headmaster Estrama released a lot of magic and used a stronger magic barrier but it seemed to lack of defense so I hurriedly helped out and chanted a few spells to enhance the magic barrier.
Huff, huff.
I used a huge amount of magic but I did my best to not show it especially in front of them.
The miner whose still strongly swinging his pickaxe became weaker because of the barrier. Not long after it fell on the ground and lose consciousness.
That unexpected moment was unbelievable. Even though it was only possessed by a faint black aura from that dangerous mining area, it required many skilled people to defeat it. I needed to study that mysterious aura.
Not long after, that miner was lifted up with the use of magic with a magic barrier. We couldn't tell if it would wake up again.
"It seemed to be related with the mining area, I want to have a word with you, Headmaster Estrama," I said.
He looked at us and nodded with his furrowed brows. We made our way to the Alchemy room and the miner was also brought inside it.
I wonder how strong its power could get. It's just simply dangerous.