Chapter 18

Katherine kept her promise. Around sunset she showed up at the inn room carrying with her a rotisserie chicken and a few biscuits wrapped up together in a cloth satchel. For a drink she provided me with ginger ale. Perhaps she intended for it to be a silent reminder of my promise to her. She said nothing directly of our earlier discussion. All that she asked me were a few simple yes or no questions to which I gave the proper response and nothing more. Now that she knows me for the pathetic creature that I am, I’m too terrified to speak to her. I’m afraid that with one false word she’ll abandon me and return to her mother’s house. Then I’ll be alone again like I’ve been for so many years now. But I don’t want to be alone anymore. I don’t want Katherine to leave me.

It is now Tuesday morning. Yesterday I passed the entire day in the inn room and missed out completely on the festival. I fully intend to enjoy the rest of the festival, but first things first. I have to go after Sidney Butterfly.

I let Katherine carry out her early morning bathroom routine, and then follow suit after her. When I put on my new outfit, I’m a bit heartbroken to see that I’ve nearly ruined it already. I say nearly and not completely because Katherine not only washed it, but also sewed up the cuts as well. Unfortunately, there were a lot of cuts and she used black thread on top of purple, so it’s still pretty noticeable. But all the same, I’m grateful to her for her efforts.

We leave the inn around 9 a.m. After a quick light breakfast at a country-style restaurant, we depart from Magali. I still remember the directions that Master Simon had given me on how to reach Sidney’s manor. We follow down the road for a mile exactly as he had instructed. After a mile or so, we see the road leading off to the west and follow it. On the way Katherine begins to ask me questions perhaps out of curiosity, or perhaps as an act of mercy. Heaven knows that I don’t deserve to hear her voice anymore.

“Master tell me about Death Magic.”

I readily answer, “Death Magic is a forbidden discipline. It is illegal to learn, to practice, or to teach Death Magic. Unlike the other disciplines that can be used for various benign purposes, Death Magic is only good for precisely what it sounds like. Those who practice Death Magic are called heretics. The inquisitors are legally allowed to kill any heretics that they see on sight.”

We continue walking on as Katherine takes in the information. A minute later she continues with her next question. “If Death Magic is so bad, then why do people learn it?”

I sigh. How the heck should I know? “Maybe for power, maybe to have a taste of the forbidden, or maybe for more sinister reasons. I don’t really know. The one thing that I do know is that Death Magic is a shortcut to power. It instantly elevates someone from the unique class level to the ultra class level. Even people with only a small amount of magic power can become ultra class through Death Magic.”

We burn through another mile before we sit down to take a rest. Katherine flops down next to me huffing and puffing from the exertion of walking two miles. We still have one more to go before we reach Sidney’s place. Katherine peers over at me and asks her next question. “If the death mages are so bad, then why don’t the inquisitors just arrest them all?”

Were it only so simple! I tell her, “Most of the death mages are able to turn their Death Magic powers on or off. That allows them to hide themselves out in the open amongst normal people. Anyone could be a death mage and you’d never even know it. Well, anyone other than life mages. Trying to combine the powers of life and death results in a mage losing his magic power forever. Another thing to consider is that the death mages are all ultra class and most of the inquisitors are unique class. It takes a whole team of inquisitors to fight a single death mage, and even then they still sometimes lose. From what I understand, that has been the case with Sidney Butterfly.”

I decide that we’ve had enough rest. We get back on the road and follow down it for another mile. From some ways out, I see a big white manor situated on a green hill. Even though the manor can be seen from the road, the only actual way to get to it is to pass through a small wooded area that touches directly onto the road. This is a relatively uninhabited area, so there may be monsters in the woods. I warn Katherine and prepare to enter.

“Are we going to be alright?” she asks.

“Yes of course. Even if there are monsters, they shouldn’t be too much trouble.”

“No. I mean with Sidney. If the inquisitors didn’t come back alive, will we?”

“Ah come on Katherine! She’s Silvia Butterfly’s little sister! Besides, we don’t have to fight her. We just have to convince her to turn herself over to the inquisitors so that she can receive the Rite of Penance. Just leave it to me.”

“Okay…”

She doesn’t quite sound convinced. Neither am I entirely. I had heard about Sidney from Silvia, but I never personally met her. I’m just assuming that she’ll be a sweetheart like her sister. How could she not be?

I push into the woods. As one might expect, there are trees everywhere with mostly dirt and a small amount of leaves on the ground. There are little brown squirrels bouncing about, a gray rabbit, and even a few butterflies. Everything feels normal and peaceful. Well, everything apart from the outrageously strong gravity. I bend down to my knees taken by surprise by the sudden force. Katherine, too, kneels beside me. “Master what is this?”

“It’s a trap. Sidney knew that inquisitors would come for her, so she put this gravity field here. I would say from the way that the animals are skipping about that it only affects creatures with mana. That means that all of the monsters here have probably gone elsewhere. But even without the addition of monsters, this is still the perfect trap for the inquisitors who wear heavy armor and carry heavy weapons.”

“What are we going to do Master?”

I have an idea. I take out my bag of scripts and search through my Support Magic scripts. Yet tragically, it seems that I’m out of scripts for bolstering one’s physical strength. “Crap. I thought that I had a Power Up script, but I don’t. You wouldn’t have happened to have learned any Support Magic spells yet would you?”

Her brown eyes light up. “As a matter of fact, I have! While you were sleeping yesterday, I read through my magic books and practiced a little. Just a second.”

She takes out her Support Magic spell book and briefly reviews its contents. “Okay, I got it.”

Using Traveler she concentrates her mana and casts the Minor Power Up spell on me. It’s only a debutant-level spell, but it’s just enough to do the trick. I use Guilt as a walking stick and rise up to my feet. “Katherine, climb up on my back. I can walk us out of here.”

She climbs on my back and throws her arms around my neck. With her weight on top of me, it’s difficult, but I manage to move forward step by step. At the rate that we’re going, it will take me a while to clear the woods. “Katherine, I’m impressed that you learned a new spell so quickly.”

“Why? Is that good?”

“Well, it’s not bad. How many other spells did you learn?”

“All of the debutant level ones.”

I accidentally raise my voice from surprise. “You learned all of the debutant level Support spells in a day?”

“Yes and the Life and Plant Magic ones too.”

“Oh shut up,” I say thinking that she’s trying to pull my leg.

“It’s true. I mean, I have to practice more before I fully memorize all of them, but I cast each spell at least twice yesterday.”

“And you didn’t go into mana shock?”

“No. I had a few mana potions and I felt fine.”

I trudge on with her on my shoulders in quiet contemplation. Never before have I heard of someone learning so many new spells in a single day. Granted they’re low level spells, but that doesn’t make it any less impressive. What Katherine did was essentially the equivalent of blowing through all of elementary school in a single day. Now I’m really curious about who her father is. I know that she’s not getting her magic power from her mother. Were it not for the fact that he had passed away, I’d ask her all sorts of questions about him. However, after my night of wanton drinking, I’m already on thin ice with Katherine. I don’t want to say the wrong thing and completely sink in. But the next time that we’re having a good moment, I’ll ask her about her father.

I strain out step by step until we finally exit the woods. Now we find ourselves at the bottom of a tall hill. There is actually a stone staircase built directly into the hill that we can climb up, but for the moment I need a break. I sit down on the bottom step and Katherine joins me. She looks up at the house examining it closely while she twirls her index finger in her hair. “Her house is pretty.”

“What were you expecting?”

“A haunted mansion.”

I laugh and then drink some water from a canteen. Katherine is kind of right. A pretty white and pink house is a bit unfitting for a powerful death mage. It’s a good sign though. It shows that Sidney isn’t somebody who’s completely steeped in darkness. She and I will have a nice, reasonable conversation and I’m sure that she’ll see the logic in surrendering to the law. Besides I’m a friend of her sister. Once she hears that, I know that she will trust me. Heck, she might even ask me to stay for dinner.

I catch a second wind. Katherine and I begin climbing the stone staircase. While we climb I look up at one of the windows and I could swear that I see a curtain move. I guess now she knows that we’re coming. That’s fine though. I was planning on sounding the doorbell anyway.

Katherine and I reach the top of the stairs. I turn around and take in the view from the top of the hill. We can see the woods that we passed through, the road beneath us, and also quite far off into the distance in each direction. I bet from the back of the house, one can even see the city of Magali from here. It’s a pretty and refreshing view. I can see why somebody would want to put a house up here.

I step to the front door. The door is a painted white double door with an eagle crest on one door and a dove crest on the other. Everything about this house seems fitting and proper for the prestigious Butterfly family. On the left-hand side of the door is a lever. I pull it to the sound of grinding gears finished off by the ring of a bell. I smile and wait patiently for Sidney to answer the door.

After a moment’s pause, the door opens. I nudge Katherine along and step into Sidney’s house optimistically.