Hello everyone again. Once more, I failed to follow what I said and released another chapter. So here it is:

If I say house that maid led me to was big, it would be bit of understatement. That was however due to fact that it was not just living house, but half of house was used as main center for whole Sable family. But even half of this house was quite big for single family of four to live in. Even if we take in account four servants that head of family could afford to have, it was still very empty.

As we entered house, I spotted well known figure.

"Oh, Aiken. You are already here."

I blinked.

"Teacher Alaric?" I asked with surprise. "Why are you here? I thought you were leaving."

"Well... I had some business with M... I mean lady Sable. So I am here as well for day or two. But I will also return for next week and week after that, before I have to leave the city, so if you need help with anything, come for dinner and we can solve any problem you have next day."

As he said so, all new experiences I wanted to share with him exploded.

"Is that so? Great! Teacher, I have already learned [Freezing Wind]! I am now trying to learn [Wind Blade], but it is really hard. Our teacher has lend me some books that could help me understand it. She is really beautiful, like angel. Also I have learned new spirit training method. It is weaker than yours by a lot, but I can do it while studying books or walking and eating, so I am using it as well."

Teacher Alaric's eyes rotated in full circle and if he was eating something, he would choke on it. He knew about my spell learning speed that was too insane to match, but now, I was able to use some spirit training technique while not meditating? While he could easily do same, he needed quite some time to get to this point and he was already considered genius of highest grade, even before he learned mysterious training methods from ruins he visited.

He suspected this level of spirit control was somehow connected with me having no soul power, but he knew that he could not be sure about that. If it was so, there was still one more person who had probably same condition I had and at the same time did not have magic talent, my grandfather, to be precise. He decided that he would have to visit my village and meet my grandfather in next few months for sure.

"That is what I would expect from my student. You are making your teacher proud." he said, as he patted my head a bit. I felt happy, after all, this was Wizard of South, greatest magician alive, and he just vocally declared me his student for the first time.

"Teacher Alaric, about [Wind Blade], teacher Kalani told me it was hybrid spell you have designed for me. Is that true?" I asked innocently.

"You have shown spells I gave you to someone else? Aiken, three of these spells are special and secret. You should not let anyone borrow them, or they will steal them from you."

"But I did only let teacher Kalani have short look at book! And she would never steal from me anyway." I protested, ignorant of the fact that was she not previously afraid of my mysterious background, her pouch would be already two gold coins heavier. After all, it was before her delusions made her feel sympathy for me due to suffering she imagined I went through.

"Alright, but from now on, don't let anyone look at them." he said.

I nodded my head.

"So teacher, did you really create that spell for me?" I asked.

"Well, of course. I did." he said. It was however lie, this spell was created by him quite a long ago for his disciple, even before he discovered ruins.

"I see. Thank you very much, teacher! I will do my best to learn it over next week to make you proud of me!" I stated, happy because of his lie.

Teacher could feel bitterness on his tongue. When he gave this spell to his disciple, he only said the most basic of thanks and after he broke into tier eight, he said once that learning this spell was waste of time. On the other hand, I treated this spell as a great gift just because I thought it was something that was made by teacher for me. He felt guilty over lie he told me, but also happiness at the same time.

"But your teacher is not really wise. Thinking it is just mere hybrid spell. Aiken, this spell is true original spell made by me, and it can easily compete with traditional tier seven spells." he said, hoping for more praise. But he stepped on landmine instead.

"Don't say bad things about teacher Kalani! She is really smart, you understand?!" I was angered. How dare he attack MY teacher Kalani?!

As teacher looked at my expression, he guessed what was going on. It was weird, as he was bit dense usually, but I couldn't make it more obvious on my face. He smiled as he realised that if he wanted to be praised, he should have left my new teacher alone.

"Alright I take that back. She is wise. No one would be able to tell if it is hybrid or original spell from brief view after all." he retracted his statement.

"Yes, she really is smart." I said.

Teacher then led me to garden, where there was table and six chairs prepared.

"Uncle Alaric!" screamed girl as she threw herself at teacher. It was Saffron and I have to say I was surprised that she called him uncle. He was of course not her uncle by blood.

"Oh, Saffron, you grew lot since last year. You will soon be bigger than me if you continue to grow like this." joked teacher, as he held little girl and raised her to the air.

"Uncle Alaric." said the brown haired boy calmly, who was about nine or ten years old. He was son of lady Sable whose old clothing was given to me.

"Neri, boy, how are you doing? I hope that teacher Ilis is teaching you properly. If not so, I will have talk with him." responded teacher with smile.

"Welcome, uncle Alaric." said the third child, with deep bow of respect.

"Hello Flore, you are still at top of everything in your class, right? I heard from your mother, you really are doing your best, aren't you?"

"Of course uncle."

I need to say in my defense, that children fall in love too easily. And girl, seven years old daughter of lady Sable was really beautiful. Like a star taken down from the sky. Her hair were white with luster of silver, making it look like they were shining.

At that time, my heart split into two, as I did no longer know if I loved teacher Kalani or this girl in front of me.

Hearts of children are stupid, I have to say.

"Alaric, welcome." bowed lady Sable slightly.

"Lady Mia, I came on your invitation. Thank you for inviting me to stay." bowed teacher in response.

"Of course, it is no problem at all."

At that moment, Saffron who was unsure what to do finally decided and pointed her finger at me.

"Mom, why is Aiken here?" she asked.

"Well, Aiken is son of one of my friend, who asked me to take him to magic school. As I can't stay at city, I asked your mother to take care of him in my stead while he is in magic school." said teacher lie that he prepared ahead of time. He said it so calmly that even I was willing to believe it.

"I see." Saffron said before returning back to her chair.

As we sat down to table, I noticed there was important person missing. But since there were no more chairs and no one said anything, I decided to not ask, as long as other children were around.

Servants started bringing food, and I have to say everything was so delicious I could but drool just from seeing it.

After we finished eating, teacher Alaric started to talk to all children, asking them more in detail. From what I understood, son of lady Sable had talent so low he was not accepted to magic school and not even Sable family influence could help. Even now, he has only just reached tier four magic, and that was with help of many potions, items and personal teacher, that teacher Alaric provided for him. Tier four was minimal requirement for branch of generous, while advanced tier three for branch of common.

When Neri was six years old, he was only about to enter tier three. However, in merchant family, it was not necessity to be magician, however, being able to keep yourself safe was quite valuable, and would give you bit of respect from practitioner families. That was why most important members of merchant families had their children attend magic school and also reason why branch of generous was formed.

Small but not unimportant part of income of greatest merchant families was provided from auctions of items hunted by practitioner families, so having some respect of them was really important for Sable family. If you could make more practitioner families sell items at auction houses of your family, it was advantageous for your family.

Of course, lady Sable could easily use fact that she was friend of Wizard of South, but she would never do that for her pride would not allow her. She kept her friendship with teacher as secret as possible. Servants who knew about it belonged to family that served her family for long time and they were loyal for they were well paid and well treated.

As night started long ago, lady Sable sent all her children to their rooms to sleep. I stayed because I still had few questions and she had something to talk about with me and teacher Alaric as well.

"Lady Sable, can I ask, where is your husband, their father?" I said carefully.

Expression of lady Sable changed and darkened bit.

"My fool of husband is currently working on expanding business of our family in one of smaller cities together with my father." she said with murder in her eyes.

"I see, he does not return home often, I guess."

"Actually not at all. He has to stay there, to make sure everything is doing well. My father as well. Maybe, they will be able to return for some time after few years." she said.

It confused me. Was side business in smaller city really so important they could not leave. Truth was however darker then I imagined. Lady Sable in past took over Sable family, forcing her father out of city to some side business, where he could no longer threaten her. After couple of years, her husband was dissatisfied with fact that he had no say in family matters and joined her father in his exile.

I was bit scared by the way she said it, but I did not want to show it.

"I understand." I said, even though I did not understand at all.

"Well, I don't think so, but that is alright. You will understand when you grow up." she said, smiling warmly. "Also, I told you to call me aunt Sable, or aunt Mia. There is no need to address me lady. Aiken do you understand?"

"Understood, lady... I mean aunt Sable." I tried to agree, but habit overcame me.

"You little." she said as she pinched my cheeks. "Well, there is still something I wish to talk to you about, Aiken. Your pocket money. I wish for you to come here on every Sunday to show me that you are doing fine. So every Sunday, I will give you two silver coins. Here." she said, and then she gave me two silver pieces.

I have to say, while I knew how much forty gold was, I had no clue how much two silvers were worth. I would never imagine, that my uncle, compared to that, received three silver coins from village once a month, making my pocket money almost three times his pay. Or that it was almost third of what family of four servants of Sable family received together as their weekly wage. To be honest, it actually sounded like small amount to me, but in my defense, I had no idea how much were money worth. So I nodded, believing my teacher would say something if it was too little.

"Also there is problem with your servant. By problem I mean, you don't have one. I sadly can't help you, as all of our servants have their own tasks, and other than these four, there is no one I trust. I would like to pick slave instead, since it is second best option after trustful servant. With proper magic seals, slave should not be able to defy you or even conspire against you." she said.

Yes, there were slaves. I have high hopes, that by the time you are reading this, slave trade has already collapsed or was at least forced into illegality, but in my time, there were slaves. As a child, I honestly was very naive and could not imagine how terribly could they be treated by their masters or other people, who believed themselves to be above slaves. Reason why I considered slavery evil was along lines 'because my uncle say so'.

Usually commoners or even lower merchants, who got in deep debt were turned into slaves together with their families, and since there was currently peace, there were but few slaves who were commoners of West and East empires, and they were already aged. With magic seals being imprinted on their body, it became impossible to resist their masters, regardless of what was asked of them, and their use of magic was restricted to only when their master would allow them and weakened.

Of course, since imprinting magic seal was worth lot of money, there were also many slaves who had only some lower class seals, but these would be only used as manual workers and would require to be watched.

"I would be against that." said teacher Alaric. While he was not completely opposed to slavery, he found fact that even children of indebted families were forced into slavery extremely distasteful and was of opinion that other family members of indebted ones should not be forced to slavery. However, at the same time, he knew that if father, who was often main source of money was gone, mother would soon follow, with children being left to take care of themselves. Therefore, he could not find satisfying solution, and was left wondering if there actually was one.

"Well, as you wish Alaric. Third option would be staying alone. Can you stay alone, boy, or would you rather have your aunt buy you slave, Aiken?" she asked.

While I certainly was afraid of being alone, I didn't really feel like I needed someone to take care of me. But honestly, fear of being alone was almost enough for me to say yes.

"Aunt Sable, I would prefer not to be alone, but I am sure I do not want to buy slave." I said. Being alone was scary, but I decided I would follow what uncle would want me to do and reject her.

Uncle told me about how hard slave's life is and how terrible some people would treat them. Of course he simplified it, so in the end, I could not really imagine it. He was against slavery and if he ever learned I agreed to buy a slave, he probably, after he collected himself from shock that I had enough money to do so, would be so angry with me he would whip my back with belt until it was red like tomato. Therefore, I couldn't accept her offer.

"Are you sure about that?" she asked with disappointment.

"Yes, I am." I responded.

Teacher Alaric looked at me with pride, as if it was him and not uncle's belt that made me reject her suggestion.

"Alright, I guess there is one more way to fix your problem. There are usually some students in branch of generous from not so wealthy families that also don't have servant. I could talk to headmaster and make him arrange for you to share room with one of them. If they would agree of course." he said. He was never really aware of fact that I would be afraid to be alone in my room until lady Sable stated her offer. He was bit dense sometimes, as I already said. Only now he came up with quick solution, that was however bit problematic. Most of students who lacked servant got used to have their room completely for themselves and would not want to give up this privilege willingly.

"Thank you teacher Alaric. That would be great!" I responded, delighted by his solution.

"Well, it is already late and you should go to sleep right away. Albert will bring you there. Albert!" said lady Sable and then called the servant.

"Goodnight, aunt Sable, teacher Alaric." I said, following the old servant to my room.

I placed silver coins I received into pouch where I had money from teacher. I noticed that these coins were different from coins teacher gave me, but I had no clue why would it be so. But since I was really tired I didn't care as I went to sleep.