I turned to face the voice.
"Hi there kids."
A lady with red hair waved to the both of us.
"Are you Genoa?"
Asked a very confused Morgan.
Now that I think about it they could pass off as relatives.
Both had fiery red hair, well Morgan would later compared to her dull red currently, but more importantly their brown-amber eyes which were quite unique already were nearly identical.
"Yes, that would be me, but before we continue, boy over there, are you going to keep staring at me?"
"You look like Morgan."
"Shouldn't it be the other way since I was here before the two of you?"
"Sorry."
"I'm just messing with the two of you. I am Great Mage Master Genoa."
"You may refer to me as Great Mage, Mage Genoa, or Genoa, whatever you preference."
"Well, if I may Great Mage," I began, "would you mind taking her in as a disciple?"
I pointed at Morgan.
"Oh now this is interesting, usually people would ask me for advice, or secret magic formulas or secret magic, and some have even asked to become my disciple before you."
"I have granted some a little advice or a small secret formula, before I sent them back."
"If you can guess why I'll give you a hint on how to make me your master."
Well now this was too easy.
This is one of Morgan's fighting lines when having to cast a healing spells, 'Genoa always said a mage should always help other aspiring mages'.
"They were greedy, looking for personal gain, instead of trying to advance the world of magic."
"Correct, a pure mind and talent."
"A mage who has only trained for 6 years I assume, who is a 4th star knight, and a 3rd circle mage."
I let Genoa see my true power, but not my true talent, since it might overshadow Morgan, and affect something I didn't want to provoke.
"You were the same circle as me?"
"Yes."
"Wait, so why did you say you needed a lower circle then? You clearly knew about this location from the inscription, and you could've easily entered from what I'm seeing."
"On top of that, the only difference between us is our gender and I'm certain you have a few female acquaintances. So, why me?"
As I began to open my mouth, Genoa opened hers.
"Well, as you can see, he brought you here to make you my disciple."
"It doesn't make sense for him to do that, however since he couldn't have known what was in here, since he had never come inside, but he could read the inscriptions on my name."
"Therefore, I submit that he has fallen in love with you."
Wow jumping to conclusions huh?
Well not exactly wrong, because I did like Morgan just not this one.
Despite being the same age, she was quite petty, but not in a fun way like the in game Morgan.
But that's to be expected. So honestly I'm over it.
"He has what?"
"Child am I wrong?"
"Well, I saw her at the weapon selection ceremony."
"See?"
"Hold on, lets let him finish."
Interjected Morgan.
"Your hands, arms, and legs were twitching. You had deep eyebags, and bloodshot eyes."
"But you were clearly not suffering sickness, so clearly you were hard at work, even during free time."
"So I thought you should be her disciple, because I don't have that drive."
Parts of that were true like the observations I made of her while at the ceremony, but as for the sickness thing and the 'drive to work hard' they were completely out of my ass.
"Look at this young romantic!"
She clasped her hands.
"Wait, but I didn-"
She cut me off.
"Everything you did here today was for her right?"
"Well, yes."
"There, you see, he has a crush on you."
"I think he's trying to say-"
"Nonsense, this is a budding romance, so as a mage, how am I supposed to break the two of you up?"
She clutched her chin in one hand, and stared out into the 'sky'.
"I've got it, I'll take you both on as disciples."
"Uh what?"
"Excuse me?"
"Yes, that's what I'll do. Do either of you object?"
Well, I wasn't going to, but before I could even voice my words she just butted in.
"Times up."
It has literally been a second.
"You're both my disciples now, so as your master I need to find your current level, so let me separate the two of you for testing."
With that she whisked me away in her dimension.
I could resist her magic to a certain degree, but with spatial magic, if I wasn't sure of fully denying it, or being certain that being lost in the void, or being cut in half was better than whatever was on the other side, I wouldn't interfere.
And therefore I let her take me away.
"So child, why did you bring her here? It seems you had a purpose in doing so, and to me you clearly had no feelings of desire, or ownership over her, so why try and make her my disciple?"
"Because-"
"And don't tell me it's because of your pure heart."
"I could see your frighteningly cold calculations as soon as you entered my realm"
Well I wasn't if you would let me finish.
"I need her to become stronger."
"And you brought her here on a whim? To a secret inscription that has specific parameters only someone like her could fulfill."
"I'm certain you couldn't read the ancient language parts of that inscription, so there are only two reasons you took her with you."
"One, you wanted to use her as a test dummy, a meatshield for yourself. Or two, something I'm far more inclined to think given your very hidden calculative nature, you knew she would stumble upon it, and decided to either make it happen early, or give her an extra push."
"The first one is only supported by the fact you gave her food, a good human shield is one that is alive after all."
"Spoken like a true battle mage."
I spit venom back at her.
"So it's the second then huh?"
"So tell me, how did you know?"
"Did you find someone who fit the description of the inscription and force them in here?"
"Divination magic."
I was going to bs so hard right now that I could win an award.
"Hoh. Tell me more."
"I know of the future Genoa, I see a future of destruction, an age of chaos written by the hands of the demons."
"I also know of the powers Morgan will come to wield, your very own."
"That is very interesting child."
"Divination magic and fate magic are quite the elusive and esoteric magic attributes."
"It is quite curious to see someone as young as you wielding it and so skillfully too, you must be wise beyond your years child."
"So tell me, how much has changed?"
"I've only moved her meeting with you by a week."
"I see. This won't cause too many problems."
"Although a week is a lot of time for many things to change, it is also insignificant along the long, long, river of time."
"I may not be great at divination, but spatial magic, gravity magic, illusion, curse, fire, and the sparks of time magic are within my grasp."
"You brought these attributes with you to the 7th circle?"
"Yes, it is one of the main reasons I never reached the 8th."
"I understand. So is my test over?"
"The first one, yes."
Someone hand me an acting trophy.
"So what is she facing?"
"You".
***
*Morgan's Pov*
As Master Genoa took away Lucas, she brought him back just as quickly.
"You're finished."
She said pointing at Lucas.
She pointed at me next.
"You'll be after him, once I get this one item."
And she left us alone.
I tried to strike up conversation between us.
"How do you feel about our new master."
"She's kind of eccentric."
His answers were short and curt.
"I didn't really like the way she spilled my feelings out like a detective retracing a crime scene."
"I mean you're not a victim right? You came willingly."
On a technicality I did, but sure let's go with that.
"Anyways, so do you like me? I mean you followed me all the way here."
He started to walk towards me.
I pulled my hand up, a bad habit from my childhood when it came to casting, before I realized we couldn't cast.
I looked to his waist.
It seemed that he still had his weapons.
"Master!"
I screamed.
He stopped and quickly took a swords stance and looked around.
"Looks like she's not coming after all."
He began walking towards me now, sword pointed at my neck.
He took slow steps methodical almost as if to avoid the eyes of Genoa.
He inched ever closer and I tried to step away before I realized I couldn't.
"Heh, don't scream too much, it'll kill the mood."
Scum. He was completely and utterly human scum.
I can't believe this is how it happens.
Finally he reached me.
He put his hand not on the sword on my throat and forced me down.
He stabbed the sword in his hand down into the ground next to my face grazing my ear.
I wanted to touch the bleeding area, but I couldn't feel my arms either.
"The paralyzing agent worked wonders huh?"
He was a bastard, the worst kind of bully, one who preys on weak women unable to defend themselves.
I steeled myself for what was to come.
He tore apart my clothes, but as he began to, I felt angry, I wanted to burn him alive.
I couldn't move my arm, but I could move my mana.
I started to channel it through my veins and as I let it all explode everything felt white.
"morgan....."
"Morgan."
"Morgan!"
I opened my eyes to see Lucas shaking me.
His eyes were different, worried, shaking.
I staggered away from him.
"Are you okay?" he asked.
"Do I look-"
I stared down at my clothes to find them unharmed.
"Master, that was too cruel, even as a test."
"And so you decided to break the illusion?"
"Yes."
"Are you saying you know better than me how to test?"
"No, I'm saying I know Morgan better than you."
They argued.
One looked genuinely angry and worried the other mocking and haughty.
Then the look on Genoa's face changed.
She clapped her hands together and we were in a classroom with two seats, with no desks.
"I'm sorry I had to do that to the both of you, but I needed to test your hearts, as well as your loyalty to one another. I can't have traitors or people who betray their comrades."
We looked at each other and with our eyes agreed to forgive her.
"It's for the sake of the test, so it's ok."
"I wasn't comfortable, but seen as she's okay, I'm okay."
I really couldn't find out what this boy was after.
At times he was clearly trying to get on my good side, and others he felt like a field commander, giving orders to his subordinates.
At times it felt like he was protecting me, and others like I was a fly in his web.
When we were together meeting Genoa, I'm sure we both understood he had no romantic or sensual feelings for me.
But I couldn't tell.
He was someone, who over the course of the entire day, showed one emotion and that was exasperation, with me.
Aside from that he showed no anger, sadness, joy, despair, or hope.
He was a pragmatic person.
And then he got angry, and argued with a mage far beyond his own level, to protect me.
It was certainly confusing.
"Don't you feel special Morgan? After what he did for you?"
I shuddered. I never want to have that dream again.
That illusion scared me. It really did. In a way, that was so primal, that it was hard to explain.
"Sorry, I phrased it badly."
She cast a spell, and my heartbeat began to slow.
"I'm sorry, what I meant was didn't you feel glad that he was fighting for you?"
"Yes, I'm incredibly grateful."
Which I was, because if not for him, I would have had to endure that horrible illusion.
And I don't think I could have faced him properly if I had been made to endure it.
I turned to him and bowed my head.
"Thank you."
"No worries, I didn't want you to earn any more scars, you don't deserve any of them."
"Look at this budding romance."
Genoa's eyes and mouth smiled.
I was beginning to despise that 'young love' smile in particular.
***
*Lucas' Pov*
With the test and Genoa's explanation out of the way she determined a way for us out of the 3rd circle.
Well for Morgan.
I knew that clearing that scenario would give me enough 'exp' to 'level up' theoretically.
I still didn't know how the rewards system worked in real life.
It was okay though.
Morgan's plan to leave 3rd circle consisted of more physical training first before Genoa taught her anything more.
And with that Genoa said, our first meeting was over and to come back in a week.
We were spit out into the graduate hall and I found a red magic circle on the back of my hand.
Morgan's had one too, so I assumed it was a key to the realm of some kind.
Good to know.