“Well, whoever it is, they must love you immensely.”

“E-, eh?...”

He gasped, blushing.

I hope he isn’t thinking something weird.

“Is-... is it a girl!?”

“I seriously doubt that.”

“Oh.”

Don’t make that face.

It’s not what it looks like.

I waved my hand dissmissivly.

“Oho. Well well well. Mr. Soulio. What’s your name?”

Name? Well, of course, it’s Magnus Karlsson.

“...”

…

Oh, right, you can’t hear me.

Silly me.

I shook my head exaggeratidly to make sure she could see she couldn’t hear me.

“Oh, right. Wait right here.”

She quickly left, leaving me and Allan alone.

“U-, uhm, Mistress?...”

Why do you look so tense, Ally?

Here, let me massage your stiff shoulders.

Oh! How muscular!

“Hiii!!...”

Don’t make girly sounds, now.

“Pl-, please, whoever you are, let me retain my chastity-”

Now, what’s that supposed to mean?!

I should slap you for saying such things, humpf!

But I won’t, since hitting children is illegal(in most countries).

But oh, alright, I’ll sto-,

“Alright, now, what’s your name fella?”

“Mistress Cromwell” came right around the corner, carrying a little jewel-adorned horn.

Geez, why is everything here covered with jewels?

“It’s so mana can flow through them freely, Mr. Spookster, and not dissipate into the air.”

H-, huh!? You can hear me?!?!

She was holding the horn up to her ear, and, now that I look closer, it is indeed covered with mana, flowing about like a current!

“Yes, I can. I must ask, why are you monologuing? Anyhow, do tell me your name. I can’t stand to come up with any more nicknames.”

A-, ah, yes, I’m Magnus. Magnus Karlsson.

“A great wizard, eh? No wonder you control the mana so expertly.”

Great wizard?...

I wouldn’t exactly say so, but I’m no expert, so I’ll take it.

And you are?

“Me? I’m Mary Cromwell. I’m sure you recognize the name, but no, we were not related. At least not by blood...”

...ah, yes. That other famous Cromwell. I know them for sure.

But what are you doing with Allan?

“Allan? You mean Andrew here?”

Allan looked extremely confused.

Yes, uh… Sorry to say, but his name isn’t Andrew? It’s Allan? Allan Woodsworth?

“Allan Woodsworth… I see… Andrew, would you mind changing names?”

“Uh-, I-, um,”

“I’ll take that as a yes. Now, Allan, would you like to greet Magnus Karlsson, the man whose orb is in your chest?”

“Uhh… hi?”

Nice to meet you too, Ally, even though I’ve known you for quite a while now.

Sorry about being asleep, I didn’t mean to.

“...”

“...He said hi back, called you Ally, and apologized for sleeping. Ah, right, why did you sleep for so long? Mana regenerates by itself, so it shouldn’t have been a problem, unless you’re a lazy student like And-, Allan here who can’t regenerate mana at all.”

Well, I…

I went out in a blaze of glory, like a decade ago(god that sounds weird) and used up all my mana, and as I found out just recently, I’m under a curse that steals all my mana?...

I think it may be that the only reason I came back was because Allan somehow regenerated a single mana.

Ah, sorry about stealing your mana by the way, it won’t happen again.

Probably.

“...I see. So, if And-, Allan here had just regenerated a single piece of mana earlier, you wouldn’t have slept for so long. Allan.”

“Do I have any say in this?...”

“Sure you do. Would you like to hear Mr Karlsson speak? You may borrow my Hear-Horn, but if you so much as put a scratch on it, I’ll throw you to the Wolololves!”

“I won’t!”

“Just like you wouldn’t destroy my automaton? And my hand-written certificate in Creutzish? I worked hard for that, you know!?”

“I won’t! Geez, I just wanna…”

He carefully cleaned the thin end of the horn with his robe before hesitantly sticking it in his ear.

“H-, hello?...”

Allan!

“Gah!!”

He fell right on his back. Well, atleast he didn’t drop the hear-hor-, oops, there it goes.

Not if I can stop it!

Extending my arm quick as I can, I easily caught the horn in my hand and presented it to Allan with a tinge of pride. Hear-horn? Whatever.

Allan, are you alright??

You eyes are bulging!

“I-, I-, I…”

Just take it!

“My, my.”

Ah! Mrs. Cromwell took it first!!

Hey, give it back to Allan!!

“He might have put a scratch on it! These things are expensive, you know? And anyhow, if you want him to see you, can’t you just use the ASE on him? For a mage of your caliber, altough I’ve never heard of you before, should be able to do something so simple, right?”

The AS-what?

“You know. The ‘All-Seeing Eye’?”

Never heard of it.

“Ugh.”

She grunted before making that OK-sign before her-, ah! I see!

I think you’ve misunderstood somehow! I am not a mage in any way!

“You bear the title of Magnus, do you not?”

No, that’s my name!

I have no title, apart from “Fuckwad”!

“...I see… but you can still do it, can you not?”

The ASE? Yeah, probably!

Hey, Allan, stick out your hand and make the OK-sign, will ya?

“...he’s asking you to make the sign of the All-Seeing Eye.”

“Oh-, ah! Yes!”

Allan blushed slightly before making the OK-sign.

Is he shaking?...

Nah, must be my imagination.

Alright, let’s see…

First, make a stalactite form, gotta be super-sharp…

There we go!

Perfect!

The ultimate murder weapon!

Now to just gently insert it into Allan’s eye…

Blunt side in, of course.

Just gotta…

Stick it…

Oh!

It attached itself!!

Nice one-,

“GRARGH!!!-, wh-, what’s that!?!?!?”

A-, Allan, are you alright!?

Stop falling over!

I reached out to help him get up, but he must have gotten spooked, since he started crawling just the other way.

Hey!

Alright, gentleness isn’t ideal, better bring out the big guns!

I grabbed his hand and jerked him back to his feet.

Allan looked absolutely stunned.

Hm?

I didn’t realize it before, but…

Allan, you’re pretty short, aren’t you?

“Not for his age.”

Gragh!!

Y-, you were listening?

“I heard everything.”

I-, I see. Well, I said nothing strange, so…

A-, Allan, don’t look at me like that!

T-, take it back!!

“No can do.”

Can’t I talk to Allan?...

“If he doesn’t drop the Hear-Horn again, then sure.”

Allan…

Don’t you dare drop the horn. Hear-horn. Whatever.

I looked him stern in the eye and waved my finger real menacingly so he knew I wasn’t messing around.

He looked terrified and gulped loudly, so it must’ve worked?

Mrs. Cromwell carefully handed over the horn.

Alright.

I know you can hear me, Allan, since you’re freaking out, so I’m telling you for both our sakes. Don’t mess this up. I can see this lady has some mad mana, and I’d really rather like it if she didn’t do something wierd to us both, and she can’t hear us right now, so I’m just going to ask real calm…

How have you been? Has she treated you alright? I’m so sorry for abandoning you, I did it in order to protect you, so I hope you’re not mad-,

...why are you looking at me like that?

I’m just trying to, y’know, make up for lost time?

“Look, I, uh… whatever happened when I was a kid, I can’t remember. Like, at all. I’ve lived with Mistress Cromwell all my life. I have no idea who you are, but… I’ve suspected it all my life. I’ve never truly felt like her kid, so, you know… who are my parents!?”

H-, hey. Don’t look at me like that either.

You’ve got stars in your eyes!

Well, I shouldn’t, it might be bad, but, I…

Well, alright then!

So it was like this…

...