After waiting for a few minutes and making sure no one followed me, I teleported inside the inn room and saw Anise laying down in deep thought.
Seeing that she didn't even seem to notice me arriving, I sneaked up around her and whispered in her ear: "Boo."
Startled, a fireball formed in her hand as she turned around looking ready to throw it out. Seeing that it was me with my hands raised, she canceled the spell and said: "Why did you do that? I almost blew you up."
A chuckle escaped my lips as I hugged her and said: "Don't worry, I can protect myself. I see you finally managed to increase your casting speed."
She nodded meekly and looked up into my eyes before saying: "Did it go well?"
Being stared like this by her captivating pure black eyes almost made my soul leave my vessel for a moment. Smiling, I said: "Damn, how can you be so beautiful?"
She blushed and punched me softly in the stomach before saying: "Hey, I was being serious.". After that she lowered her head and whispered in a barely audible voice: "Thank you."
I ran my fingers through her hair while saying: "The circle is destroyed, but I chose not to mess with the wizard responsible for it."
Seeing that I was finally serious, she looked up again and asked: "Was he or she strong?"
I nodded and replied: "Probably yes. He's been absorbing the souls attracted by the magic circle into his own soul, basically devouring them. I witnessed the process myself. He's also a light wizard."
"Did you see how he looked like?"
"Yeah, skinny, about as tall as me, golden robes and golden hair paired with green eyes."
Anise frowned for a moment before saying: "I don't know him so he's probably not be from our academy. What do you plan on doing now?"
"Pretty much nothing. The circle is destroyed and I don't have to get involved with someone that might be stronger than me. I know the place he lives so I plan on finding out who he is and decide what to do after."
"Mhmm." Anise nodded before burying her head in my chest and saying: "Tell me if I can help in any way. I've been pretty much useless ever since we left the academy."
"Who said you're useless? The fact that you are not as strong as me for now doesn't make you useless. Did you forget I promised to make you the greatest wizard from this world?"
She nodded in my chest, pushed us both on the bed and hugged me tighter before whispering: "Can we sleep like this tonight? I don't feel like learning or doing anything else right now."
I placed my arm around her back to show my agreement and we chatted a little more before falling asleep.
In the morning of the second day, I felt a small pain on my chest which propped me to open my eyes. Looking down, I saw Anise bitting my chest with her eyes fixed on me.
I raised an eyebrow and gave her a questioning look which prompted her to release me from the bite and say: "I called out to wake you up for like ten times. Seeing that you didn't react to my calls, I improvised a little.".
Seeing the cocky expression on her face, I pushed her down and also took a playful bite of the exposed part of her chest. She tried to push me back, but seeing that I was refusing to move, she grabbed one of my ears and pulled me away by force.
With a beet red face she said: "We don't have time for this. Lysa and Velor must be waiting for us for quite a while at the adventurer's guild."
"They can wait a little bit more." I replied as I freed my ear from her grasp and locked lips with her.
After some morning fun, we both cleaned ourselves, changed clothes and made our way towards the adventurer guild.
Lysa and Velor were indeed waiting for us, and by the look of their faces when we walked inside, it was quite a long time. With an apologetic look on our faces, we walked up to their table and I said to them:
"Sorry for being late. We were… delayed."
"I can imagine." Replied Lysa with a knowing look and her eyes fixed on Anise's chest. Following her eyes, I noticed that the upper part of Anise's breasts was slightly exposed through her robes and the bite mark from before was clearly visible.
Blushing, Anise pulled on her robe and looked down before she elbowed me under the table.
Velor apparently didn't notice or didn't understand because after looking confused at our interaction, he said: "I don't get it. What happened?"
Lysa put on a playful smile and said: "It seems Anise was attacked and bitted by something on their way here."
Velor had an exaggerated expression as he turned to look at Anise and said: "No way. In the city? What bit you?"
Anise was so embarrassed right now that even the tip of her ears turned red. Seeing her attempts to make herself look smaller, I looked towards Lysa with a pleading look before saying: "It's fine. So what do you guys want to do today anyway?"
It seemed like Lysa granted us mercy because she didn't dwell on this topic and said: "We looked through the quests and they are mostly the same, that is to help hunt people from the demon army in certain sectors."
"Should we grab one of those quests as well?"
"I have another idea. Do you really need the money from the quests?"
"Not really. What do you have in mind?"
"Well, the guild banned the use of high magic because they were scared of demonic retaliation, but I think that if the demons were going to retaliate they would have by now when the space magician wiped out all their teleporters. I say we sneak deep inside the enemy camp and try to use high magic there to start wiping out their armies. Maybe we can hit the demon who is controlling all of these people, but if not we can at least speed up the process of pushing the demons back from our continent."
Honestly, her plan was not bad. I imagined the demons didn't retaliate because they were still scared of Senna's attack. I didn't have much hope of us managing to kill the demon who is controlling the humans, since if he was here he would have been killed by the spacial collapse. And if he was here and was able to escape that, he would probably escape any magic we're going to be using to attack.
What surprised me was the fact that Lysa was the one who suggested that. I can still remember she was not that keen on killing all those people a few days back. Pondering for a moment, I asked her:
"You didn't seem to like the idea of killing the people controlled by the demons. What changed?"
She looked down and gathered her thoughts before saying:
"I still don't want to, but we don't even know for sure if they can be freed from the demon's control. I think killing them might be a mercy after all and will also reduce the casualties on our side."
I could hear the struggle at the start of her words, but felt her conviction become stronger with each word, in the end looking unflinchingly in my eyes as she said.
" It's still a war after all, a war that the humans can't afford to lose."
I nodded and said: "We can do that, but do you have a plan?"
"Since you can use all the elements, I figured you might have a way to get us outside the wall and inside the enemy camp without getting spotted."
"So, your plan is me?" I asked with amusement.
She nodded and replied: "Exactly. You are in charge of leading us there, Velor of protecting us while me and Anise are in charge of using large scale attacks on the enemy army."
"Why can't I attack as well?" I asked. It seemed a bit weird to be let out of the attacking group. Plus, that pretty much means I won't get any experience.
"Will you have enough mana to ensure out infiltration and escape if you join the attack as well?" she asked sarcastically.
"No problem. I can probably handle attacking as well with mana to spare." I replied with a smile. She didn't know that my level was not 39 and I also didn't plan to tell her if she didn't ask.
She looked me straight in the eyes for a moment and seeing no trace of lie she nodded: "All right, if you think you can manage it, you can join in attacking as well."
"What about me? I also want to attack." Said Velor suddenly from the side.
"No way. We need you to save your mana and protect us in case anything goes wrong." Lysa immediately turned him down.
"But…"
"No buts. You are in charge of protecting us and that's it. Understood?"
Hearing Lysa's commanding tone, Velor hang his head and agreed softly under his breath.
Seeing that Velor didn't retort anymore, Lysa turned back towards me and said: "So, do you have a way to get us out of the city and into the enemy camp unnoticed?"
"Easy, I'll just create a tunned underground."
"That might work outside the city, but the walls run quite deep and I there is detection magic against people tunneling underground."
Hearing her words, I was glad I chose to sneak past the guards and I didn't burrow under the wall the last time. Thinking for a moment I said:
"I imagine flying over won't work either?"
She shook her head and said: "No, there are scouts placed atop the wall and we might land into trouble if they spot us."
"Well, then I guess there is only one way. Lysa, can you use all light magic without a chant?"
She shook her head again: "No. There are only a few select spells I can use without a chant. Why?"
"I know a light spell that turns you invisible, but I don't know how it will work on four people at once."
Lysa nodded and said: "Let's go to our inn room. It's not far and a good place to practice and complete our plan."
We all agreed and walked out of the adventurer's guild towards the inn Lysa and Velor we staying in. After we were inside one of their room, we all sat down and Lysa said: "Show me the spell."
Nodding, I cast my invisibility spell again. Lysa immediately stood up and walked around me a couple of time before extending her hand and touching my head.
"Incredible. If I didn't see it for myself I wouldn't even believe it was possible. Can you tell me how this spell works?"
"It's a bit complicated, but I'll try my best." Since she was a light wizard, I figured she might actually understand and started explaining shortly about how sight worked and how the spell bent the light around my body. Once I was done, she looked at me with a dumbfounded face and said:
"What the hell did you went on about? I barely understood anything at all."
Her reaction was a bit out of my expectation, but luckily I had Ai to clear things up for me.
[She doesn't use light, but divine magic. Did you forget she's actually a priestess?]
'Oh. Are you telling me she can't use any light magic at all?'
[She probably can if she uses a chant, but not without one. All the spells you saw her cast without a chant are divine spells.]
'Damn.'
Sighing, I looked towards Lysa and said: "Since you failed to understand, it seems that you are not actually a light wizard."
"Huh?" she had an expression of confusion, but deep in her eyes I could see a trace of worry. I imagine this must be related to whatever the two siblings were hiding. Deciding to not probe into it, I answered:
"You might think you are using light magic, but what you are using is in fact divine magic. They are two totally different affinities."
This time there was genuine surprise on her face as she asked: "Are you saying that this is not light magic? But how?" she said as a small ball of light appeared in her hand.
"To use light magic without a chant, you must understand what light is, how it's formed and how it's used. To use divine magic, you probably need to have a connection to realm's will. Is not that how you cast your magic too? By using the world's will."
Lysa fell silent and seemed to be in deep thought, but Velor on the other hand stood up in a hurry and said: "Are you blind? If it looks like light it means it's light magic."
His words brought awkward expressions to the faces of everyone inside the room. Lysa looked extremely embarrassed as she said: "Sorry, he's always been like this." She then turned towards Velor and said: "And you, if you don't plan on using you head at all at least shut up. No one will think you're mute if you don't speak."
Velor sat back down while me and Anise did our best to stop ourself from laughing out loud. Lysa, now that she dealt with her brother, fell into deep thought again. After a while, she said:
"Can you cast divine magic without a chant as well?"
"No, I can only use light magic."
"Can you used a light spell to imitate mine? I want to see the difference for myself."
I nodded and cast a ball of light that looked like a miniature sun. She brought hers close to mine and analyzed them for a moment before saying:
"Hm. They are indeed different. I never knew that the magic I used was not of the light element. I guess I can't use that spell then. Can you use it on all of us?"
"Let me try." I proceeded in channeling my mana and tried bending the light around them as well. They disappeared, which made a smile appear on my face before I heard Velor's voice.
"Why can't I see anything?"
Confused, I asked out loud: "How about the rest, can you guys see?"
"No." Replied both Anise and Lysa.
I canceled the spell and thought for a while before I figured it probably has something to do with my mana blocking their vision. After discussing for a while with everyone, including Ai, we couldn't come with a valid solution so Anise proposed.
"Well, It's not like that is a big problem. How about we hold hands while Ethan guides us. Like this we won't get lost and we only need to use this spell to get out of the city."
The plan was so simple that none of us thought about it. We agreed to the idea and Lysa said: "Now that getting out of the city has been solved we can just go."
We agreed and I added: "Can we take a small detour, I want to check a place out."
The others agreed and we walked out of the inn room. Since I was getting out of the city for a while, I figured I might as well go by the mansion that wizard stayed in and check it out. We had to take a slight detour but no one complained and we were soon in it's vicinity.
Lysa looked at the luxurious mansion up ahead and asked: "So, what are we doing here?"
"I just wanted to ask around and figure out who the place belongs to." I answered while carefully observing the place.
"Why?" asked Lysa.
I turned around and noticed the Lysa's and Velor's expressions were kinda weird. Figuring that they must know something, I asked excitedly:
"Do you know who lives there?"
Lisa thought for a moment before saying: "That symbol on the gates belongs to Grand Duke Onwell, the Emperor's brother. Only the Grand Duke and it's immediate family are allowed to use it, but I heard the Grand Duke it's leading the war himself so he's the one that should be staying here."
The fact that I messed with a member of the imperial family brought a shudder down my spine but I managed to remain composed and asked: "Do you know the Grand Duke's level and if he's a wizard?" it was useful having friends from the Capital.
"It might be outdated by a couple of years, but he should be a level 66 Adept Wizard specializing in Light and Darkness magic. Are you going to tell me why are you so interested in the Grand Duke's house?"
Now I knew that the skinny man I saw in the underground was possibly the Grand Duke himself. Feeling that it was better to let that incident go, I said: "Doesn't matter. I was just curious about something. Let's go.". As my words ended, I turned around and started walking towards the northern wall while ignoring the looks I was getting from Valor and Lysa. It was better if they stopped asking since I didn't plan on getting involved with the imperial family any more that I already did.