Chương 10: Dinner with Lady Amberlin

The dinner bell had long rung by the time Havlo got back to the inn. He'd known going into the meeting that Lorelark was experiencing issues, but he hadn't expected it to be this bad. By the time Captain Hughston had filled him in on everything, the sun had already dipped below the city walls. He looked past the front counter through to the dining room to see Lady Amberlin sitting alone over an untouched plate of food. All the other guests had long finished their meals and retired to their rooms.

She glanced up at the sound of the door, and the moment she saw it was him, a grin spread broad across her face. He made his way over quickly to join her at the table.

"Sorry I got back so late," he said.

"Next time please don't feel like you have to wait up for me."

"I was worried about you," Lady Amberlin said.

"I thought maybe you got lost in the big city. And then it got so dark, I was afraid you'd end up like Amy." The missing girl from the adventurers guild. He was going to start looking for her tonight.

"You don't have to worry. Nothing like that will ever happen to me," he assured her. She didn't look convinced, and he wished he could tell her more to set her mind at ease. She pushed the plate toward him. There was some rice, green beans, and a generous portion of chicken.

"I saved you some dinner. Eat up so we can get started on the cake." He realized that she must have already eaten, and the servers had taken her used plate away. He was glad she hadn't gone hungry waiting for him. While he ate, his master told him about her day and all the things she saw around the city. Her enthusiasm was infectious, and he was glad that the Second Apostle saw beauty in the mortal world.

"And then—oh, get this, there was this music shop," she said.

"It had the most beautiful gittar. I wanted to get it, but it costs ten gold pieces! The shopkeeper wouldn't budge on the price. Can you believe that? But I don't blame him. It's a beautiful instrument. I'd have paid twenty gold if I had it."

"So you got the gittar?" he asked.

"Oh... no. I decided not to get it." Sensing a shift in the mood, and wanting to see her smile again, he said, "You still have my flute. You can use it as much as you want." The flute had been left to him by the First Apostle, and that made it one of his most prized possessions. Normally he would never take it out of his inventory, but if it was for Lady Amberlin—well, she was the natural successor, wasn't she?

She'd played it every night at the dinner table in Restford, and then by the campfire on their way to Lorelark. Her music lifted his spirits in a way not even the First Apostle had ever managed to do.

"I'm better with the gittar," she said.

"And it also allows me to sing along." Next Lady Amberlin shared her thoughts on finding Amy. The problem clearly bothered her a lot, and she seemed unsatisfied with any of the ideas she'd been able to come up with. He wanted to assure her that he would put his best effort into the mission, that no matter what, they were going to find out what happened to Amy and get her back. But he didn't want her to concern herself with this more than she already had. So he said, "The city watch is run by very capable people.

I'm sure Evelyn is telling everyone she meets about Amy, but she has only been missing for a day. I'm sure the watch will find her soon."

"She didn't just tell us about Amy, she handed us a poster," she replied, unfurling her copy.

"Look at this. It's got a detailed portrait! And very well, I might add. You don't even have a printing press, so she had to do each copy by hand. That's how much she cares about her friend. That's why I really want to help her." He didn't know what she meant by a printing press, but he had been away from civilization and its technological developments for close to two centuries. The important thing was that he understood her point.

The effort that Evelyn was putting into finding her friend had touched Lady Amberlin's heart. The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there. But he didn't yet know how dangerous the people behind the abductions were, and he'd had to reassess his master's capabilities after she denied ever having fought the stone guardian outside the Moonfoot Temple.

After observing the inefficient way that she fought against basic monsters like rodents and slimes, he was afraid of her getting involved against an actually dangerous adversary. Her first focus should be on getting stronger. He'd decided that it would be best for everyone if he was to handle this matter on his own.

That way he could complete the watch's missions quickly, freeing up their resources to send patrols to Restford, putting Lady Amberlin's mind at ease and allowing them to go to Ygg Latten Bay to check on the second keystone. As for who had fought the stone guardian, his current theory was that it must be the same person who'd destroyed the Moonfoot Keystone.

They must have gotten past the stone guardian, realized there was no way to get through the temple doors, and departed without bothering to finish the guardian off. Given all that, he was very fortunate that Lady Amberlin had accepted him as her apprentice. But it also meant that he was greatly restricted in the magic he could use while she was around, as he had to keep up the ruse that he wanted to learn magic from her.

In all their time together, he'd been careful not to use any magic more advanced than the ones he'd seen her use. Unfortunately it seemed that her magical journey was only just beginning, as her best spell seemed to be [Fireball], which sat in Tier 3. Accordingly he'd kept his spellcasting to Tiers 1 and 2. But it wasn't just Lady Amberlin who he had to be careful around. He was already suppressing his mana so that other mages wouldn't realize his true power.

And if there were any witnesses present when he fought the kidnappers—if any of the captives were still alive—he would have to limit himself in a way that wouldn't draw too much attention. That was why he'd shown the captain of the watch an old card from back when he was only a third-circle mage. It was the right balance between allowing him to use spells powerful enough to get the job done while not attracting as much attention to the question of his true identity as the five-circle card would have.

He had to be careful when doing it though, and had concealed his last name with his fingers. Luckily the captain hadn't asked to take a closer look.

"We don't know the city well enough to help in any meaningful way," he said.

"We can do our part by keeping our eyes open and reporting any clues we find. I'm sure that's all Evelyn expects from us."

"But the poster..."

"Amy works at the guild, so every adventurer in the city would recognize her. As visitors to the city, we wouldn't know her face. That must be the reason Evelyn gave us the poster." Lady Amberlin nodded, reluctantly rolled the poster up, and tucked it away in her cloak. Havlo allowed himself to breathe in relief that she'd accepted his explanation. He touched her arm.

"Have faith in the watch, La... Amberlin. In the meantime, we should focus on growing stronger because there will be others in need of assistance, and we want to be able to provide it." Her mood seemed to lift, and she said, "Speaking of getting stronger, I have something for you." She lifted something from under her seat, a small parcel wrapped in parchment.

"I couldn't find any wrapping paper, but it's what's inside that matters," she said, handing the item to him.

"Go ahead, open it." He carefully untied the string and unfolded the parchment to reveal a copy of The Third Tier: A Guide for Advanced Beginners.

"They told me that the original was written by someone called the Amber Mage," she went on cheerfully.

"Apparently he was an accomplished archmage and a pretty good teacher, so I'm sure this will help you a lot in getting to the second circle. That's despite it being about the third tier because the mages guild rolls two tiers of magic into one circle, which is awfully confusing if you ask me, and..." While she spoke, he pretended to be overjoyed at the present. But internally he couldn't believe that this book was still being held up as an example of good magical instruction.

He'd written it back before he'd had any real experience with apprentices, and had yet to come to an understanding of how difficult magic was for most people to grasp. Why in two hundred years had it not been replaced by something better?

"You can keep the book if you stick with me for a year," Lady Amberlin was saying.

"I know that means it isn't a real present, and in hindsight I probably shouldn't have wrapped it up like it was, but I wanted to surprise you, and—""I appreciate the thought you've put into my apprenticeship," he said.

"I've had no thoughts of leaving your side, and I only hope I can live up to your expectations." She smiled at his words.

"I knew I made the right choice. Let's get started on the cake, shall we?" There was a large plate on the table covered by a cloche, which she now removed to reveal a pound cake. She cut off two thick slices and placed them onto some smaller plates, pushing one toward him while taking the other for herself.

"This cake is really good," he said after a bite.

"Isn't it?" she said happily. After dinner they retired to their rooms. They'd rented a separate one each, adjacent to one another, and the cat stayed with Lady Amberlin. Havlo waited until the noises coming through the wall died down and then waited a little longer. When he felt confident that she was asleep, he cast [Invisibility], opened his window, and flew off into the night. He was going to solve the mystery of the missing persons and put his master's mind at ease.