Master, where are we going?"
"We are going to pick flowers from a dead person's bed."
"Why are we going to pick flowers from a dead person's bed."
"So that I can mix them into a pill and try to awaken some mana."
"What is mana?"
"Magic."
Silence returned and was accompanied by cool breezes blowing into the hallway against Ains and Joaquin's faces. Joaquin was still holding on to Ains's hand, and pulled her forward to stop her from wandering off into nothingness. There were portals everywhere on the walls and they led to random places across the world, some probably having no way to return the victims swallowed.
Joaquin knew all of this from just looking at them alone, but Ains also deserves credit for sticking her head through many portals on their way here. At some point Joaquin was also at fault for that, he had Ains check every portal in case there was a hidden passage somewhere on their way.
"Master,"
"What, wait a minute." Joaquin paused, he hadn't been paying attention to Ains, but had now noticed that she was still calling him master. "Why do you keep calling me that?"
"Because Master is a master magician and Ains wants to learn from him."
"And you thought the best way to do that is by making me feel uncomfortable?"
"But that's what papa told Ains."
"Who's your father, Jerry Fingers?"
"Jerry Fingers was a bad man."
"I don't know what is more shocking, the fact that you know him or the fact that you know what a bad person is." Joaquin said with a sigh as he lowered his head and slowed down.
"Master is not a bad person." Ains said as she caught up with him and bent over to look at his face.
"Then stop calling me that," Joaquin responded while looking into Ains's eyes.
Her eyes started to glow and a little tear formed in them, Joaquin felt a knot tie itself in his heart accompanied with a strong desire to pounce on her. But he kept cool on the surface and calmly asked. "What's wrong with you?"
"Master refuses to be Ains's master and teach Ains magic." She shed some tears.
"I don't even have mag…"
Ains wept.
"Fine, do whatever you want."
She instantly broke away from Joaquin's grip and started bouncing around happily chanting that she was going to learn magic.
Joaquin is someone who grew up receiving the best in terms of education and through his way of living had met many people and developed ways to deal with them. Never in his life has he met someone as carefree and as happy as Ains. He was not well trained enough to deal with her random behavior. Still it gave Joaquin more peace not being immediately put her under his control, unlike all the other people he had previously met.
"I don't even have any magic." He said after taking a deep breath. Ains looked at him as if she heard him and smiled while extending her arm to reach out for him. He took her hand and walked forward until they finally reached a point in the hallway which required them to change routes. Which was at the right time because the Idol Prince and his pack of self righteous students had almost caught up to them.
Unfortunately for them, their rash decision making meant that Ruben who wasn't at all good at reading the language of magic missed them and was unable to warn them about Joaquin. He was now wandering aimlessly in and out of treasure rooms with Noelle and Kyle.
Joaquin was looking for the coffin belonging to the owner of the tomb, this particular tomb was that of a time mage. Specifically it was Bronzefella's tomb and was a Chronoman, it was a race of humans who were almost entirely wiped out by the Bvhamithians. (Pronounced Bamithians by foreigners, and is used to refer to common folk in the Bvhamith Empire.)
Chronomen were born with an innate ability to control the flow of time and those lucky enough were even able to fracture the fabric of space itself. When they died all the energy in their bodies would pour off into their surrounding and thus creating amazing plants, animals, and springs. Their tombs were so valuable that wars could start over them, Joaquin was currently the only person who knew of Bronzefella being a Chronoman.
All the space distortions and portals in the tomb were due to his hundred year old corpse leaking energy. The tomb was known to being a calamity to the outside world because people who went in either never walked out or had no memory of what went on in the tomb.
Joaquin knew immediately after hearing stories about it that it belonged to a Chronoman and was determined to claim it for himself. He had all the backing he needed and the intelligence required to make sure the tomb did not swallow him. As long as no one followed him into the endless array….
"YOU!" Joaquin screamed as he turned to face Ains. He had been too relaxed around her and forgot that she was not in his plans. 'Is she a spy, an assassin or maybe she a runic doll.' Joaquin thought as he pulled out a knife.
"Is, master going to use that to cut the flowers?"
"I hope I don't." He said he put his hand on Ains's forehead and flicked her hair back. He tried his best to observe her for any runes and found none. But he still couldn't bring himself to trusting her with a secret this major, if she were to report back what she saw it could cause a war against her nation and Joaquin's backer.
"Ains, who are you?"
"Ains…"
"I don't want your name. Who are you?"
Ains frowned and dropped to the ground, she seemed to be shaking and unwilling to respond to Joaquin.
"Until you tell me there is no way I can let you walk out of here. I can't kill you because whoever sent you is already aware of my identity and will use your death as an opportunity to endanger me. But I can keep your lips about this incident sealed."
Ains looked up to his eyes, she did not smile and she was also not sad either, just disappointed. The look on her face made Joaquin feel terrible about himself for the first time in 17 years. He still went on with his idea, he was going to keep Ains quiet by making her sign a soul binding contract.