The door closed behind a woman, that had just seen her son in a long time. Even if he was in bad shape, he was still her dear son. Kagura was almost jumping from foot to foot while walking towards the inn. She was a little bit late, but because she had always been on time for years, she didn't think it as a big problem. Many of her coworkers had after all also been late from time to time.
The walk to the inn was a very closed one. The wasn't much open space, because the road from Kagura's house to the village was surrounded by an old forest. There were all kinds of trees that reach all heights. Some were up to 165 feet and some were just little saplings.
They had leaves in yellow, orange, red, green, white and some didn't have leaves at all but fir needles. Kagura loved her walk to work in the mornings. The trees and bushes around her smelled amazing and brought her mood up with bright colors.
The road was also very safe, because of the guild in the village. It was just a small one, but still had some A rank adventurers and the lower rated ones, kept the near forest safe.
Kagura, after about 20 minutes arrived at the village gates. The guards that now knew her well, nodded and made way for her to walk inside. The village was still empty, school hadn't started and not many works either.
Only market, shops and inns were starting to open for adventurers or quests coming outside the village. Kagura walked down the familiar road. It was an aesthetic village. It could be like a European village from the medieval times. With many dark wooden houses. They weren't a big village so they were mostly one color and had only one or two floors.
Kagura looked at the bakeries, shops, and other services that people could enjoy down the street. But soon she arrived at the inn. In was called rising sun and it was the only inn in the village. Some rented rooms from their apartments, but they were not considered inns.
Kagura walked in, it was completely empty so she walked to the employees room behind the counter. It too was empty. She checked the time and she was a little bit troubled for being a couple minutes late, but because no one was complaining, she put her bag in her locked, put on her apron and walked behind the counter.
She usually waited for about two hours before anyone walked in. She and only one other person took care of the inn in the mornings and the rest came when it was time to prepare breakfast and clean rooms of the leaving quests.
Today however her co-worker was sick and she would have to stay there alone. She wasn't that patient to just sit there for hours, so she took her book from under the counter, flipped to the page she was left in and continued reading. It was a magic theory book.
In this world, there were two kinds of magic.
One was basic magic also known as common magic. It was so througly explored so there's almost nothing new to it. Examples would be water, ice, wind, fire, electric and so on. This was something that everyone could learn with practice. Of course a little bit of imagination would help the process.
At average people from the age of eight and forward would awaken a mana core, and if they didn't a talented sage, could awaken it for them.
This kind of magic was taught to children at school and everyone would learn to master at least one element, but if you were talented and hardworking enough. You could study the rest of them on your own.
Then there was another kind of magic.
This was an advanced type, and they didn't have a scientific way to explain them, but to cover it, that could be explained with understanding it. You would ask, thing and answer your questions about the magic, deepening your understanding.
These were hard, and would not be taught to anyone, if they didn't have a master that taught them. Magic like time, space, void, mutation and soul were under this category. It was so little studied because of it's rarity and dangers that only imagination was the end of it. You would need to explore it and try new things.
Some sages had to thing for centuries to answer them and only after that, could they use them.
Currently Kagura was studying about water magic. They went hand to hand together, and she thought it as an interesting and useful topic. How it was used before and how useful it could be.
However, in the middle of studying, the door opened. She put the book away, stood up and got ready to greet, the one who got inside.
"Hello, sir"
When she saw clearly who the one, that stepped inside was, she frowned. It was the baron's son. Baron was the second lowest nobility rank in the continent, lowest being the knight. The baron didn't have much power and his son even less, but they were still nobles.
"Oh Kagura, I've missed you a lot. Did you consider my offer?"
The Baron had made her an offer to cure her son's depression, if she married the man. This was however impossible for two reasons. One being, that nobles could not marry commoners, so Kagura would get beheaded if she agreed.
Second, Baron in no way could have the power to successfully cure him. Kagura was afraid that the man would just use some brainwashing magic or wipe his memories, so there was no way, the she would let him even near her son.
There was another reason but it was quite selfish so she didn't consider it as a reason but the Baron's son was ugly. Baron was a fat 40 year old, so younger than Kagura, but his face had a small uneven moustache, his red hair had ran away from his forehead to the top. His face had some pimples and there were huge black bags under his eyes.
He was dressed well, but that was only because of his maids, what poor girls. These however were reasons, she did not dare to say, because she would have to switch counties and did not want that now that her son was getting better.
So she only told the first reason and that she wanted to marry a man that she loved. The Baron's son was not happy to hear it. He was screaming and swinging his hands, screaming and cursing until his guards calmed him down.
"Sir, master Tony, please calm down."
Tony calmed down after that and they left, luckily they didn't decide to stay. Sometimes they stayed to eat or one of the guards rented a room, but because it was so early, they left.
Kagura was left alone again, she sighed in relief, sat down and continued to read her book.
There was actually only one reason that Tony wanted to marry Kagura. Kagura was referred as the angel of the village. She was still a beauty in her mid-forties. She had a pale skin, yellow snake like eyes, a pure and beautiful white hair. Her figure was good and didn't seem to have aged from the time that she was twenty.
She was a god of beauty, a top of the mountain that no one could reach, but Leo was not afraid of anyone and wanted that god for herself.