After some dozens of minutes, Drake sighed, when he saw Umbrum in this state, he could not help but feel like he should solve this issue, first came the healing. Rolling up his sleeves, he quickly rubbed his hands and said as he respectively laid his hands on his left and right legs.

“I am going to heal you, so don’t move an inch alright, it might hurt a bit after all.”

That was to be expected, the mage closed his eyes and waited for the pain to come, however, nothing happened, or to be more exact, he did not feel anything hurting him at all. Was that an issue ? No, however, it might mean that nothing happened, that he was not healed, it would be troublesome.

While his eyes were closed, Drake indeed healed Cinis’ legs, what was unique was that, no light or any spell could be seen from his hands, nothing. It was as if he only touched CInis’ legs then he was healed. Was it usually so easy to heal someone with magic? Or was it just Drake?

In both cases, it was quite shocking, in a just a few seconds he was healed as well that a sudden surge of energy appeared, it felt as if his whole shell was burning with vigor. His shock could be seen on his face, agape, wide-eyed, and raised brows. Then, he thought about it and sighed sorrowfully, that was something he will never be able to. As, after all, the magical spells he is able to wield are significantly limited due to his condition.

“That… was impressive… but, didn’t you say it would hurt?”

Umbrum could not help but be curious about it, it was likely the contrary of hurt, it was even easing his pain and relaxing him. Casually smiling, Drake faked a punch on his leg and reply on a light tone, without shame.

“I just wanted to see how you react to my warning, and it was just as expected. Calmly as if you were used to it.”

His reply made this foolish child quiet, he did not want to talk about it. However, in his opinion, it was more he did not give any reactions and thought that it meant that what you don’t do or say mean something… which was something he never realized, silence could be considered as a reply as well.

“...”; what could it mean? He did not know, perhaps, Drake’s reaction to his silence would respond to this pointless question. At the very least, he would have learnt something very basic between human relationships. Something he should have been taught a long time ago instead of discovering it by himself.

“Are you perhaps upset?”

So, silence as reply can mean that someone is upset, it does sound logical. If Drake knew what this little one was thinking, he would realize that he has no experiences with social or anything that need bonds. If he knew, he would realize how easy it should be to push him toward the way he wants him to go, but of course, he didn’t.

“No… I wanted to see how you would react to a silent.”

Basically, Umbrum copied Drake who at his word went blank, in others words, there was hardly any expressions on his face, since it wasn’t something he expected. Did the child joke? It was a first. On top of that, it was well used.

A sigh escaped his mouth and his friend smacked his head without an inch of hesitation.

“You little scoundrel.”, despite everything, a wide smile could be seen on his face, this action made him quite happy. It meant that his protegee was feeling slightly better after what happened to him in the recent day along with the despicable and illusory lies he told him. The apprentice laughed as he barely felt anything hitting his forehead.

“Anyway… I have a favor to ask, I need you, absolutely.”

Suddenly changing his tone into one that didn't fit the previous mood, Cinis could not help but feel slightly tensed and immediately asked something.

“Do you need to reinforce the security?”

This was biased towards his life experiences who became quite influential to his way. Unable to unlink his bonds and consequences of the pain to his hallucination as Drake said.

Shamefully to this poor child, his friend shook his head after making a deep frown, he was confused, clearly, as he did not understand why would he need to reinforce the security? He is here after all, isn't that basically one of the best protections?

“No no, that is completely unrelated… you see, I am an influential person, and if I talk to the people, it might be quite intimidating, then, I need you to speak in my stead, you must be more familiar with… common people, I suppose?”

It was understandable, however, Umbrum thought about it and anticipated the future if he accepted and decided to talk to them. It would be a disaster, him? Talk? Communicate? Wasn’t Drake basically asking him to lead his project to a disaster?

“D-Drake… that’s really, like really a bad idea… I can’t refuse, I can only accept as I am greatly indebted to you… but please rethink of it, you know how… I talk, I am not really someone eloquent who can convince people…”

As a matter of fact, Umbrum indeed knew nothing of relationships as he always avoided crowds and approached little groups he could befriend with. Thinking for a bit or actually not since everything was already decided since the very start.

“Don’t worry, you would do great, don’t worry too much about it. And well, even if you mess up, that’s fine, I can not choose anyone else, I only trust you among all the people here.”

He said confidently as his eyes seemed to pierce through Umbrum’s essence who could not help but be agape, that sentence moved him, or what was left of him after the catastrophe, what could he do? Someone trusted him, him, out of all people. He could not believe it, so, that was no because he was indebted, no, because he was trusted?

“I… I don’t know what to say, this… this… can I really believe you? After all, I mean, it just has been a few days, why me? You could simply ask Notitiam… he is an information broker, of course, he should know how to speak to people a bit more than me… no, way more than me… I don’t know how to talk to them without feeling awkward, uncomfortable, embarrassed… and so on. Notitiam is someone who must speak quite a lot of people, his words must be filled with tricks I wouldn’t even be able to understand… he is much more suitable than me, and perhaps, after a few days, you would find him trustworthy… more than me even so.”

Bursting out in laughter, Drake held his stomach after trying to seriously listen to the one he shall entrust the future of The Magic Association, the name was decided, it was a gamble… he did not expect to hear such a refusal. This child was really foolish, or perhaps he could say selfless and mindful. Nevertheless, in this world, those usually die first unless their background or strength could not be underestimated. Which in this mage’s case was unlikely, he was still a kid with no social experiences, or at least, he barely had any experiences of how society can be harsh.

“Hahahahaha! You little scoundrel, you think I can trust Notitiam? Can’t you just take some responsibilities and help me? I can even teach you some magic spells if you wish to. I want it to be you, Notitiam is shady, way too shady, as an information broker, he has pretty much a lot of reasons to backstab me, while as for you… why would you attack me?”

This time, he could not deny him, if he asked himself this question, he would say that he has nobody to attack, nobody at all. As who can’t he hate or love when there is nobody around? To be exact, when there was nobody around. Today, Notitiam and Drake seem to be with him, perhaps out of circumstances, despite this, it felt better. Better than the trips he has taken to arrive here.

“Haa… alright, I will help you but do not expect much from me please… else you will be greatly disappointed in me… just don’t say I didn’t warn you, okay?”

Taken aback and having no choices but to obey, Umbrum felt a certain warmth due to Drake’s tactless care for him, someone who basically gave a meaning to him, when was the last time it happened? Way too long ago, so long that his memories about it are hazy, it originates from the time he started learning magic, five years ago perhaps.

Whatever, he never wished to remember, that was something that could wait, for now, he shall live in the present and forget what does not exist anymore, the past isn’t while the future has yet to be, thus he shall continue to walk on this endless line without watching where he is going, he will see how it goes. Whether it turns, it returns, it comes back, it jumps, it deviates, or whatever it can, he will go forward.

“Haha, don’t worry, after all, I can’t go back on my words, can I?”, Drake said while shrugging, it slightly irritated the young child who shook his head and replied, continuing what Drake said.

“Yes, after all, time is irreversible, you can not go back, you can not stop, you can only go forward, more and more. Even if people say you are going back on your steps, it is wrong, you are returning, because, between when you started, and when you came back, time passed, and people change, they change constantly, people can not stop changing, as at every minutes, at every seconds, at every instants, we change whether we like it or not. It can be the same for…”

It seemed that sometimes Umbrum can go ramble what people would usually call useless nonsenses, who cares about time anyway? The meaning of it and so on, Drake simply listened and smacked him once he could not hear due to his voice becoming lower and lower as he was simply expressing his own thoughts, forgetting about the surroundings, closing himself in his own world, letting people observe him like how a warder would watch his prisoner throwing a fit while both of them being in different worlds.

“Ouch… why..?”, rubbing his forehead, he could not understand why he did this once again, did he do anything wrong on accident a second time? Doubtful, to be safe, he decided to apologize before getting cut off by this same person who smacked him.

“Umbrum… you were thinking aloud, and your voice became so low that I could not hear you… can you talk louder?”, basically, it was as if he admitted overhearing what Umbrum was saying who made abstraction of the world around him.

“Ah… no, I can’t… I mean… that’s only… what I think and it’s quite lacking in terms of content and quality… I can’t do that… I was just mindlessly thinking… I have no proofs of what I said…”, awkwardly, he tried to shift the topic to something else before Drake commented on something else, trying to reassure him for what he will do in the future.

“Anyway, I won’t say you were eloquent, but your manners were quite charming while you were thinking aloud, it made you feel humane which is basically something that most people think that mages do not possess, humanity, humility, modesty and so on. If they talk to someone who is like anyone, like them, that has flaws, wouldn’t it seem more affordable for them? Wouldn’t they be prone to join the Magic Association instead of discussing with an artificial and unreachable individual like me, who knows how speeches function and how to manipulate people. Aren’t you quite suitable in this case?”

Getting back so abruptly on the previous topic, Umbrum could not react properly but then his brain processed what he heard from Drake who still had this smile that could not be wiped off so easily. Since, he would need to contradict him, nevertheless, how? It was frustrating, silently, the Magic Association’s chairman stared at him, waiting for him to reply.

Minutes passed, and the young mage’s face became redder and redder as he did not find any way to refute him.

“I give up… I am ignorant… I can’t deny you on a subject I don’t know a thing about…”, deceiving people was far from something he could do. Just like a child, he was more or less naive and innocent. Obviously, he could do crimes, but according to his view, he would never ever mean anything bad.

“Haha, let’s continue then, once we get down, I would have you talk to the peasants that were invited. They should be here in a few hours.”

And thus, Umbrum needed to get prepared as quickly as possible since he did not have much time because of Drake’s carelessness.