บท 83: Yumi
Wallace smiled at her as he tried to remember who Yumi was. But seeing the confused expression of Wallace, Yumi instead decided to further introduce herself.
"I'll be accompanying you to the competition. Oh! Of course, there would be two more security personnel coming with us."
Yumi smiled as she explained the situation. Her hair was coral-black that tumbled over her shoulders and accentuate her simple low cut evening dress exposing her unblemished white skin. Her luminous white teeth flash as she showed her vibrant smile to Wallace. The latter was mesmerized by the beauty in front of him as he missed the beat to reply.
'She wasn't a faculty member in the academy. An instructor from a different one? An employee of the headmaster? Or she probably has a personal relationship with the latter if she was recommended to join me overseas.' Wallace said in his mind.
They can't just send anyone to come together with him in the other country.
As he tried to contemplate it, it seemed like he was just dazed upon seeing the beauty and couldn't speak.
"Nice to meet you, Ma'am Yumi. I'll be in your care." Wallace finally said and politely addressed her as ma'am since he was also unaware of her status.
"You don't have to be too polite. Come in, we'll head to the academy first. I'll brief you while we're on our way." Yumi gestured for Wallace to come in and sit in front of the car beside her after loading his luggage.
"It seems that you already knew me even before you were assigned to accompany me in Montego. Is that right?"
Wallace tried to start a conversation as he seated in the car. It was only his guess as he heard her say 'I've finally met you' a while ago. It sounded to him that she already knew about him for quite a while now and only had a chance to meet him today. He was curious about this so he wanted to make sure that his guess was right.
"Haha! Well, of course! I'm from NMTI." Yumi said and chuckled upon revealing her status. Yes, this is the same person who called Headmaster Percival when Wallace registered his Magic Jammer Canceller before.
She was the one who immediately informed Percival about Wallace's submitted Magic Structure as she saw the importance of such magic.
She did it for his protection as this magic structure, even though not seemingly useful in many ways, could still give a large impact if used correctly against terrorists, large criminal organizations or even enemies from other countries.
As someone who had a high ranking status in the field, she was aware of the danger that Wallace could experience due to this magic structure. She was genuinely worried for his safety. That was why upon seeing the value of the said magic structure, before it was leaked to malicious people, she directly informed Percival about the news and planned to leak another information as a deterrence to those who had evil thoughts. They leaked the news about how he was also being protected and nurtured by NMTI and candidate for a high position when he graduated. This way, people would think twice before messing with him.
The National Magic Trade and Industry isn't just for office jobs but has a powerful line up of magicians in every city of the country as it oversees all the trades of Mana Artifacts, mana infused materials, Magic Structures, memory crystals, potion's ingredients, and others. They also had a dedicated group to acquire these raw materials or ingredients in dangerous environments.
After all, if there isn't a government organization capable of acquiring materials in these almost forbidden places, the trust of the independent magicians will be lessened.
If only the private organizations had a strong magician that could explore these places to acquire materials and ingredients, the young magicians like Wallace may instead decide to just rely and sold themselves in these organizations to make further improvements in their path.
Special materials for practicing Artifact Forging is not only expensive but also controlled by large organizations. But due to the government having a way to acquire these materials as well, they were able to properly set expensive but acceptable prices of materials for the public. They just need clearances to acquire them.
In short, the security defenses that Wallace paid for his house seems to be a bit of waste as someone was already protecting him in the background. Though it would still be useful if some uninformed people tried to mess with him.
Of course, when Wallace submitted the structure, he expected that he'll be noticed by the government but not this much. He only wanted enough attention to let him join the TMAC before but looking at it now, this made him a celebrity in higher-ups and was noted as 'not to be messed with' people.
"NMTI? I only knew a few people there. You must have heard about me from Mr. Bryson or others?"
Wallace asked. He then mentioned the magic engineer who took care of his Float Drive System.
"Nope." Yumi answered while shaking her head. She was also driving the car and glancing at Wallace from time to time. She chuckled before continuing.
"Try to guess more!"
Wallace could only try again as he didn't mind prolonging the conversation since there was still about half an hour before arriving at the academy.
"If not, then the headmaster probably told you about me? Ah! No, since you're from NMTI, you probably saw me visit there a couple of times. But since I caught your attention, you should have a high position there and learned my achievements. Is that right?"
Wallace said to Yumi.
"Spot on! Yes, I'm handling your Magic Jammer Canceller up until today. I studied that structure for so long and had learned it's everything. All its strengths and weaknesses were revealed to me. I even made plans for further improvement but was a bit stuck since any other improvement we try would destroy the Jax stone."
Yumi explained energetically in the first part but the latter part had a sound of exasperation. She seems to have also experienced a lot of failures during her research. Ultimately, it was alright to study his magic structure since they paid for the copyrights and made agreements with Wallace himself. This will also provide him some earnings.
"Hehe. Since I'm making no progress, my cousin told me to join you in Montego just in case I'll get some inspiration."
This cleared a lot of Wallace questions. But it brought him another question in his mind. Cousin? Wallace wasn't sure but Percival should be in his forties or maybe reaching forties. But this cousin of his seems to be around 22 years old. It made him realize something.
Was she also a prodigy like Clarence, a Battle Mage in the early twenties? That was impressive. But was his eyes deceiving him this time? Was that really her age? Too bad that Wallace's Divine Sense couldn't determine his target's age. And it was also for his safety not to ask further.
The two chatted more as Wallace learned about their planned schedule. Once they arrived in the academy, they will be meeting with the headmaster and will assign the two security personnel for them.
"We will be traveling for a few hours on a bus. Then we'll meet the other participants at the airport."
"I see." Wallace nodded at this and remembered the faces of certain individuals who made a strong impression on him in TMAC.
'Those third years had a chance to dip in that Revitalization Mana Spring. Let's see the improvement they've made.'
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