บท 11: Omen of conflict 1
— Evening —
Knock! Knock! Knock!
The sound of knocking comes from outside the door. Daniel who's lying lazily on the sofa looking at a small gadget on the tea table in front of him that shows the scene of three people waiting in front of the door on the screen.
"Who are you guys?" Daniel asks as his voice sounded out from a small metal gadget on the door that looks like the eye.
"Sir! Are you the Artificer who partnered with Miss Wrath? One of the men asks for confirmation as he checks the paper in his hand that has the address of Daniel's current place.
"Yes, Please come in." Daniel's voice sounded out again and the door was quickly opened revealing the room full of strange artifacts and dozens of metal scarabs flying around as it carried scrab to the recycle bin.
"Sorry, It's a little bit messy. I just finished with my work." Daniel smiles wryly at the three men who're looking at him strangely. Then he pointed at the two racks full of weapons he had prepared for sale.
"Oh, everything that's for sale is on those two racks." Said, Daniel as he pointed at the weapon rack he had prepared for them.
The three men looked at the rack and their eyes shone as if seeing a priceless treasure while one of the men who seemed to be the leader quickly walked in front of the rack.
"This… this is a work of art!" Said the man who seems to be the leader while gently touching a sword that was hanging on the rack.
After that, the two others begin to note down the content of the item on their file while the leader seems to continue appreciating the weapon on the rack and quickly keeps it in the special bag they brought along.
"By the way, where is your teacher? I also have a business to propose to him." The leader suddenly asks.
"Huh?"
"Your teacher! Where is he?" The leader repeated with a little bit of annoyance in his voice.
Hearing that Daniel began to think.
[Teacher? Does this guy mean the one who taught me to create these Artifacts? But I don't have a teacher, all of them were just common Artifact cards I actualized and enhanced with my Grand Artificer profession card to sell to other people! But those are supposed to be top secret. I would rather take it to the grave.
There's no guarantee what they would do if they knew, worst case I might get captured and dissected like some kind of alien. Anyhow, let's reply as vaguely as possible, I can't let them know that I don't have any backers or teachers can I?]
"Oh… He's not here." Daniel replied after thinking it through.
"Of course as expected. Who would believe that a commoner runt like you would create this level of Artifact." The leader said in disdain.
"Commoner runt?" Daniel repeated, feeling a little bit angry with this leader's remark, he wanted to immediately chase these people away and didn't sell his artifact, but he of all people knew that was just a useless action because other than stroking his wounded ego there's nothing to be gained. Plus, he needed money and magical resources. So he decided to let it slide… for now.
"Mr. Willow, we can't wait for his teacher. We need to bring this to the auction house so the Identifier process will quickly begin, and finish within this day." One of the men said toward the leader.
"Yes, of course. Those were priorities, let us proceed then." The leader named Willow and one of the men picked up the bag they kept all of the weapons in and walked out of the room while one of them walked toward Daniel with a document.
"Sir, Please check the content and sign here to receive the item." He handed over a document to Daniel with a pen that looks like a magical pen along with a small box that has the content inside it written on the sticker on the box.
"Oh Thank you." Daniel receives the pen then opens the box and checks the content within for a bit then signs his name on the document.
After he finishes with his signature, a blue light shone on the pen and the document's appearance changes and the symbol of a red tower appears on top of it.
The man has a look of surprise on his face then he takes the document back from Daniel and checks it again.
"Hmmm…" The man groaned while scratching his head.
"Is there something wrong?" Daniel asks.
"No…" The man shakes his head and then nods. "Everything seems to be in order. Thank you very much" He bowed to Daniel and then walked out of Daniel's room.
—
Outside of the room, after the three people arrive at the elevator's hall.
"Mr. Willow, I think we might have misunderstood something." The man who came out last said to his superior.
"Huh? Did you think he's a fake? C'mon, at least he has a good teacher who could create masterpieces of Artifacts. He shouldn't be that bad." The leader named Willow said jokingly.
"No sir, I mean… He should be the one who created these Artifacts. The signed document glowed blue, this means he is the one we are supposed to…" The man explained while looking at the bag containing the Artifact weapons from Daniel's room.
"That's impossible. We all know that it takes at least 25 years of study in magical theory, magical ingredients, and theory about Artifact creation and smithing to be able to create the most basic artifact! Even if he were a genius, there's no way he would be a qualified Artificer at the age of thirty!" Willow denied what his subordinates just told him.
"Besides… one needs to be at least 12 before they can use magic. The magic vein opening ceremony cannot participate if one does not reach 12. All of you should know how fatal it is, even with 15-year participants the fatality rate is still 20%."
What Willow said was the truth, to be able to use magic. Humans need to kick start their magic vein that is laying dormant within their souls by letting the magical energy run through their bodies with the guidance of a highly skilled mage. This process is highly fatal to the young body, the fatality of this process will be completely eliminated once the body reaches 20 years of age.
But here comes the contradiction. In order to develop the magic vein which is a very important aspect of the mage's strength. They need to be able to use magic before they reach 20, that is because children's souls will be completely stable once they reach 20 years of age creating a stable foundation for the magic to be used and introduced to the world through various spell effects.
In order to create a bigger and stronger foundation. Mages need to be able to use magic before they reach 20 and train their magic. This will force the mage's soul to develop a new set of magic veins within their soul. The more set of magic veins they have before they reach 20, the better the foundation that mage becomes which will lead to their growth in the future.
With this logic, his subordinate didn't say anything. He just looked at the signed document in his hand with a complicated face.
There is one more thing that they need to give to Daniel. According to the rule, the Mage identity card needs to be given directly to the recipient. There's no way their relatives or apprentice could receive it instead of the recipient. If the recipient isn't there, they need to come back again to give the ID card directly.
There's no workaround since the ID card would be bound to the recipient's soul and their information would automatically update once the recipient touches the unbound ID card.
Seeing his subordinate's complicated face, Willow begins to get annoyed.
"Trust me, there's no way that runt can create even the lowest tier of artifacts, let alone create these masterpieces," Willow said with confidence as he is the one with the highest authority in the group.
His two subordinates looked at each other deciding whether or not to trust their new leader, but from what they knew, this new leader of theirs came from the noble lineage from Europe which is the holy land for mages from their point of view.
So they decided to trust him since he should see and know more things than they did.
"Yes sir, as you ordered." One of Willow's subordinates said before following him to the elevator that was just opened along with his friend.
— Meanwhile – The Great shrine —
At the same time, in the great shrine where the sealed pillar used to be. Dozens of people in formal wear are walking about in the shrine as many strange-looking types of equipment are operating. Some look like cameras, some look like the gadgets that the people in the ghost-hunting tv show use as they try to detect anomalies in the scene.
Amongst the formal wear men, there is a man with black slick hair combed to the back. His black suit and tie with long black coat and his serious no-nonsense air emanating out of him and everyone who talks to him is talking in a humble tone.
These are telling anyone who sees him that he is the highest authority figure in this place.
Then, a few police in black uniforms walked in under the guidance of one of the men in formal wear. He led a group of police toward the man in a black coat who was reading a pack of documents in his hand about the report of what had happened here.
"How may I help you sir?" The leading police who seems to be the leader of this group humbly ask with a deep bow toward the long coat man
"Greeting district chief, I heard that this case is in your jurisdiction for three days. Can you tell me why you didn't tell us about this the moment you got the report?" The man in a long coat asks with seriousness.
"Sir, T… th…This happened on Friday evening. The security guard reported it to the police on Saturday morning and I got the report on Monday then we used 1 day to investigate whether it is true or not. The… Then, the moment we are sure that this case is beyond the scope of our authority. We immediately report it to you, sir." The police district chief fearfully reports.
The man in a long coat checked the timetable from the report along with his smartwatch and found out that everything is the truth.
"Understandable and it is very logical." He said then suddenly glaring at the police chief.
"But why do I feel like I'm being played? You know fully well that this shrine is associated with the Curtained World! It's not one of those fake shrines you could find anywhere! We are talking about the true power in the Curtained World here district chief. This should be the highest priority on your list!" The man in a long coat reprimanded the police district chief.
"But we did things as fast as we could. You should know that during the weekend the police who were stationed at the station didn't have a clue about the Curtained World! He just didn't have enough clearance to know!" The police chief immediately defended himself and blamed the system.
"So, you're not trying to play me, you're just incompetent then…" The man in a long coat said in disdain then continued.
"From now on, I hope you'll be a little bit more competent by thinking about stationing one of your men who have the clearance to know about the Curtained World at the station 24/7."
Then he sneered and added.
"You'll get your salary cut in half for three months. Consider this as a warning from me and fix your incompetence! Dismiss!"
The police chief district didn't dare to retort back to the man in a long coat. He could only repeatedly thank him and bow before making himself and his cohort scarce.
—
After the police district chief came out of the shrine. He entered his car to drive off before dialing a number on his phone.
The phone rang for a few seconds before it got picked up with a beautiful female voice answering.
"Yes? Police District chief?" The female voice answered.
"Miss Wrath, This is all I can delay the case for you. The royal court mages seem to take this case more seriously than I had imagined. Delaying it more than this, and I would surely find myself sleeping with the fish under the sea." The district chief said fearfully.
"Thank you, District chief. This is more than enough. Consider the favor you owed me repaid, Good bye." Wrath reply.
"That's good to hear, miss Wrath. goodbye." The police district chief hung up his phone and continued driving back to his police station.
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