Isadora fixed her student with stern yet, to him, unprecedentedly warm eyes. " When doing anything, you should have purpose. Any goal without power and resolve back it up is meaningless, just like any power with no goal to direct itself to."
Rumius bowed his head and nodded glumly.
" Now, as for the reason we're going through all this trouble, well…" Isadora chuckled. " It's for you."
Rumius looked up, both surprised and confused. " For me?" He repeated.
" Yes." Isadora picked up the third sheet of paper from the detailed plan and waved it. " When I showed you this to read, you really did just skim through, didn't you? You missed a lot of details."
" Did you see what was part of rewards?"
A small sense of embarrassment turned his ears aflame as he gingerly took the paper back from his master's hands. Rumius scanned through again for the section he was looking for.
' Rewards: A payment of Fourteen gold coins and a hundred silver, a 1st class gate permit and….FOURTEEN GOLD???'
Rumius did a double take. ' Gold. It's says gold right? Holy shit!' Rumius looked up, his eyes shining. ' Fourteen gold!!'
' MONEY!!!!'
Back when he stayed in a mansion with caring maidservants and a wonderful mother, he basically never had to worry about money. However, after coming to live with master, he had really, really, really come to appreciate the value of these shiny round things.
They were a worldwide currency, or at least a widely accepted one in the major cities. The coins used by the demons and humans had slightly distinct shapes but in weight; they were the same. This was how their value was measured. Naturally, they did have different names, but Master just called them silver and gold, so Rumius followed her lead and didn't bother to learn the names either.
The ranks started from bronze and up to gold, each level was worth a hundred more than the last. It was a primitive but easy-to-understand system. Made for the benefit of some lesser blessed races, or so master had said.
Then Rumius, snickered. " Oh…so even you are interested in the reward master."
Isadora nearly jumped." What? And you aren't?" Her face was a look of surprise and borderline admiration. " I'll have to know that I had to fight tooth and nail to get that commissioner to agree."
" Well, of course! It's fourteen whole gold after-all! Such a sum of money! Oh the bliss of coin and stability!" Rumius sang with a snide smile on his face. If he could, he would give her a thumbs up and say: ' YOU DID GOOD!'
' Hehe so even master cannot escape the wiles of gold. Well… I suppose with this, I don't mind going along with the plan after-al-'
" PA!"
" OW!!"
Rumius looked up, surprised and with accusation in his eyes. One of his hands held his head where master had struck him. Meanwhile, she stood completely nonchalant, even preparing her free hand for another strike.
Instantly, Rumius sensed danger. " Wait! Wait! Wait! Mercy! I'm wrong! I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" Rumius reeled back, retreating far away. " Uncle! Uncle!"
" Who hell are you calling uncle?" Isadora demanded.
" I mean Auntie! Auntie! Master! MASTER! MASTER!" Rumius screamed frantically as he heard the unmistakable sound of cracking of electricity
" I'm sorry! I'm sorry!"
Isadora's electricity eventually disappeared. However, Rumius still ended up getting hit another time. As he rubbed his wounded head, he whimpered tearfully: " Heck…what did I even do?"
" What did you do? I thought you to read the report properly? Are you purposely trying to get punished?"
' Hey! I'm not that kind of person!' Rumius wanted to talk back. But the moment he had the thought, the two spots on his head where he had been struck earlier started to throb harder.
' Okay…maybe not such a good idea.'
Purposely reading slowly, and going to the end this time, Rumius focused on the three remaining items listed after the shiny goods. The first was a 1st class gate permit. Rumius remembered hearing about this one before from Glia. It had appeared on one of her usual stories and she had said how much she wanted one.
If this it was the real thing, it would make their travels, at least within demonic territory, a lot easier. No border checks, rights to jump wait queues etc..
Next in line was something called a Labyrinth tome. Not recognising the term, Rumius asked master about it.
" Explaining a labyrinth tome requires you to first understand what is a labyrinth. It's a story for another time, so you can disregard it for now." She instructed. Her voice had a subtle sense of growing excitement that left Rumius perplexed.
Rumius nodded without showing too much emotion.
" Then, next is a…shard of *_______*."
" YES!! " Isadora suddenly screamed, a familiar and PTSD inducing mania in her voice. Her back arched as she shouted to the ceiling, making Rumius jump.
Looking at her, Rumius stood wide eyed, not for one, but for two reasons.
There was something terribly wrong with him. No, it was something that was wrong with this word.
" *_______*." Rumius repeated and yet again! Small shudders made their way under his skin, squirming and leaving him feeling as if he had been pricked all over by thorns.
" Don't try. It's no use." Isadora said, with a knowing smile. Rumius turned to her, confusion in his face and asking for answers.
" I can read it. And I can hear myself reading it. But it…I can't…" he struggled. There were to words which he could use to describe it.
" It's alright." Isadora assured her apprentice.
" This isn't demon tongue."
" You're right, it isn't. Isadora nodded. " It's a language that is much older than that."
" Don't you notice anything familiar about these characters?"
Rumius looked back at the paper, until it finally clicked.
Rumius reeled back in shock." T-The…the characters! They're the same as in my unique skill! The..the…"
" You're right. The person who gave you that skill was the same person who created this language. She was someone who lived and died a long, long time ago." Isadora crowed with some degree of pride.
" Did you know her, master?"
" No. But she's been mentioned quite a bit in ancient texts. I spent much of my time reading those in the past." Isadora said. " More importantly, however, are what these shards of *_______* do."
Smiling, she added. " As you've noticed by now, your unique skill differs from that of other humans, mine included. And in essence, it is a different format from what unique skills tend to be,
" ….A different format?" Rumius repeated her last few words.
" Yes." Isadora tilted her head to one side slowly. There was a small twinkle in her eye as she smirked. " I suppose this is a balancing act that the gods have decreed for you. With your blessed ability, you would achieve what others spend decades to doing in just minutes. That would be positively heaven shaking."
Hearing her words, Rumius couldn't help but agree, yet feel a little cheated by his sense of adventurousness. Was there maybe a catch? Was his unique skill maybe stronger? Alas, it was unlikely.
' Master had only said that it was a different format, not a different kind, or breed or system. It was like reading a book. Whether it was read on paper, off a wall, or on a tablet, it made no difference. It was still the same book. If it were anything, else, she would have told me." Then he paused. ' Wait…or would she? '
Isadora went on." Unfortunately, that's all I know about it. There should be more records in Limia for you to look at. However..!" She stressed the last word as an excited expression came over her face.
" I know enough to tell you what these shards do." Taking the paper from him, Isadora pointed to the words and gushed excitedly, causing him to look, dumbfounded and in wonder. Inwardly, he made the comparison of his stoic master to a child showing their parent a drawing. A terrifying thought.
" These shards are super rare. As in 'you do not know how rare they are' sort of rare! It's said that they were the shards of a star that feel from the sky a long time ago and was destroyed by the gods!" She squealed. " Are you listening?"
In an instant, her harsh berating voice returned to shock Rumius back to reality. " Y-yes! Of course!" However, master was no longer looking at him.
" If I remember correctly, then these shards will help you greatly when the time comes for you to attain your basic skill's base function! When you use these skills in tandem with a breakthrough, it is said that…well, I don't know what will happen but I'm sure it will be miraculous things can happen! I mean think about the runes on it! The resonance is undisputed! There are also many accounts of it in the Limian texts of old!" She gushed, red faced and all smiles.
' Miraculous things will happen? What is even meant by that?' Rumius thought, then sighed.
Haiz. It was probably likely that master wasn't excited for him, but excited at him. It was like he was a sort of rare phenomena which she was waiting to happen.
Though as he looked on, he let the tips of his lips arch upwards slightly. He didn't share her passion, but in at least he appreciated master's gesture for him. He didn't appreciate the Guinea pig part but the 14 shining, gold coins awaiting him? Ooh those were a different matter.
' JACKPOT!!!' screamed a voice in his head.
The last item on the list was some kind of tome and Rumius didn't recognize its name. However, Master assured him that it was of no concern to him yet. It was simply a trinket that she wanted to pick up. In the end, it seemed to Rumius they had in fact struck a decent deal. Master for her part, thought that she had ripped the bureau of splendidly.
"Well...I suppose that's it." The night's growing old." Master kept the documents back into her robe by the door and jumped on the bed.
Tomorrow, they would begin their operation…if Rumius could wake her up in the morning for it, that was.