I was confused when I saw a young man who looked a bit younger than me by several years. The man had unkempt medium length black hair that almost came down to his eyes which had black rimmed glasses resting upon his nose. He wore black pants and a black vest with a white shirt underneath that was partially untucked. Once he was in full view, he stopped and studied me before I asked him a question “Isn’t there an old man that worked here?”.

The man went from happy to have a customer to a grim expression quickly upon hearing those words. “He’s… no longer in this world.” His voice went quiet as he spoke. Suddenly he had a stern look on his face as he asked me something “Who are you? Not many people know of that man, especially someone as young as you.”.

I didn’t know if I should tell him the truth or not but ultimately decided with “He taught me the basics of magic.”.

The man raised an eyebrow “That man taught you magic?” After speaking those words he began laughing. “Hahaha, that man has only taught two people.” He paused for a moment and studied me before continuing “and I’m certain he wouldn’t teach someone like you.”.

Even though I wasn’t certain still about everything I saw in those memories but when he said those words, my eye instinctively twitched. “Why is that?” I asked, not trying to escalate things.

He looked at me from top to bottom again. “Simple, you have to catch his eye and even then he still wouldn’t teach me.” He voiced out. After he said that, it made a bit more sense as to the hostility. He probably couldn’t accept the fact that I was taught magic from the old man and he wasn’t. The interesting thing was that he said he taught two people and if I was one of them and the person in front of me wasn’t, then who was the other one?

“Is there any way I can prove I was.” I asked him, not wanting this misunderstanding to go the wrong way.

The man in front of me went quiet for a few moments before giving an answer “Well you clearly aren’t the first person he taught but the second person, he wouldn’t say much except that they were a dual user.”.

Upon hearing those words, I finally understood how I could prove to him that I was. “I am a dual user.” I told him.

He looked at me, still skeptical about it. “He never told me the types of magic the dual user could use but if what you say is true, show me your magic right here and now.” After he said that, he watched me, waiting for me to demonstrate.

When he said that, I understood that this would probably be the only way to show it so I closed my eyes and drew mana out of my pool and guided it to my legs. Once ready, I opened my eyes and cleared the distance between us in a couple of blinks. I still wasn’t too used to the magic and felt a bit awkward as I stumbled forwards from where I stopped.

“Okay it’s bad but I will admit you have speed magic but what about your other type.” He said while still having a skeptic look.

“It’s hard to demonstrate here since it’s strength magic.” I said while thinking that I didn’t want to chance breaking anything in here.

“Hmm, if it is strength magic, that would be a bit hard to demonstrate…” The man began pondering. He then suddenly said “Wait, there is one way to confirm that you aren’t just using two types of magic that aren’t your attribute as well.”. After speaking he turned around and began walking behind the bookcase “Follow me.”he called out from behind it.

I followed him behind the bookcase and he led me to a door that led into a familiar room from the memories. It was a small room that had a pedestal in the middle with a crystal ball laying upon some cloth as a cushion. He then told me to wait on the side closest to the door. Once he was on the other side facing me, he then started speaking “Okay now just place your hand on the ball, we’ll know once and for all after that.”.

Once I placed my hand on the crystal ball, I wanted to try something and began drawing mana from my pool towards my hand but as I was doing so, I felt it being pulled. After a brief period of me placing my hand on the ball, two strains of colors started exploring around the ball before coming near the center and intertwining. “Hmm, grey and yellow… and good mana control. Seems like you speak the truth after all.” The man spoke in a low voice as he examined the display in the crystal ball.

He then squinted an eye while furrowing his brow while looking at the ball for a few moments before shaking his head and looking up to me. “You can take your hand off now.” As I listened to what he said, he started talking “It seems like I misunderstood you, let us start again. My name is Rick, I helped the old man run the store before he had to leave suddenly and then I took over so this place wouldn’t be destroyed.”.

As I took my hand off, I looked at Rick “My name is Crim. You mentioned before he had to leave suddenly, I thought you said he passed.” I asked him.

Rick’s face saddened “He did… Unfortunately he just said he had to leave and did. In the end I don’t know if he really has passed but there's a feeling in my chest telling me he has

I wondered if the old guy told him nothing to protect him. I then got curious and asked “What has the old man told you about me since you know he’s taught two people?”.

“He’s told me about the other person he’s taught but not you, the dual user. Only thing he said is that he discovered and taught a dual user. After that he told me to keep quiet about it and said nothing else about you.” Rick answered.

Once I heard him say that, I understood why he left suddenly without telling him why. Since Rick believed me now, I moved on to why I was here and asked “Now that you know that I was one of his students and since he isn’t here, can I ask you about a book?”.

Rick looked at me curiously “What kind of book were you going to ask the old man for?”.

I thought back to the memories of the one book that I remember “I think it was called.... The Dark Secrets of Marawa?”.

“That’s an interesting title…” Rick said before he began furrowing his brows. “I haven’t seen it myself… but I do remember him mentioning him having to sell a book about Marawa to a person in another town.” He answered after a few moments.

When I heard those words, it was unfortunate that he didn’t have it but at least I might have another clue. “Do you know who bought it or anything about the person?” I then asked him.

Rick raised an eyebrow to me “Why are you trying to find out about it anyways?”.

Since it didn’t seem like he fully trusted me, I decided to give him my reasoning “I was… an orphan from the orphanage that burnt down in Marawa… I thought maybe that book would help me find out why it happened.”.

“I heard about that, didn’t expect that you were one of the orphans though. I heard no one came out of that place alive.” He said. He then pondered around the room for a few loops before turning back to me. “Tell you what, it will take a bit but I might be able to find the name of the person if it was tracked but I need you to do something for me in exchange.” He told me. “Currently though, I don’t have something for you to do but I hope I can take your word for it that you will do something in return.”.

I nodded to him, “I can do that.”. Once I agreed with him, he brought me out of the room we were in and back towards the entrance, with him going behind the counter after telling me to wait on the other side by the main door.

“Finding the name of the person who bought the book won’t take too long since you have the book title. If you come back tomorrow I’ll most likely have it for you. Other than that, I just need a way to contact you for when I need your help with something.” He explained it to me.

I couldn’t think of a way until I remembered that I was a part of the guild. “I’m actually with the guild so when you need my help, I’m certain if you tell someone there, they will find a way to contact me.” I let him know.

“Hmm… the Guild of Briona? The one for adventurers, right?” He questioned. After I nodded to him, he added “Do they know you are a dual user?”.

“When I originally signed up for the guild, I prevented my mana from entering their crystal ball so they think I don’t use magic.” I quickly said, not wanting to tell him the real reason they don’t know.

“Well it seems like you already know to keep the fact that you’re a dual user a secret. From what I know, sly people try to take advantage of someone like you.” When I heard him, I actually didn’t know they would do such a thing and kept what he said in mind. “Okay well, that’s enough of that from me. Is there anything else I can help you with?” He asked.

I shook my head “Not as of right now, maybe later in the future.” I told him.

“Alright, well I will try and get the info for you by tomorrow, you have a great evening, Crim.” Were his final words before I turned and walked out the doors.

Once I was outside, I looked above to see the sun beginning to set and decided to go back to the guild and have dinner with Ilise before she left. Along the walk, I noticed that the place wasn’t as busy as the afternoon but it was still quite lively with people going about their business from food stands to people entering clothing stores and more.

When I made it back to the guild, the sun was just starting to hide over the horizon. I then entered the building to see if Ilise was waiting for me at a table somewhere. After a bit of looking around, I finally found a young girl in a black robe sitting at a table by herself with two glasses of water sitting on top of it. After confirming that it was her by the robe, I walked over and sat down in a chair across the table from her.

“You’re late, what were you up to, Crim.” Ilise said with a slightly upset expression.

I didn’t know we had a set time and was surprised that she commented on that. “I got caught up talking with someone at a bookstore.” I told her.

Ilise then let out a giggle “I’m just joking with you, we only agreed to have one last dinner before I left.”. She then added “But I’m a bit surprised that you were at a bookstore, that’s quite interesting.”. After she said that, she had a curious look in her eye, wondering if I would tell her why.

“There was a book that I wanted to see if they had but sadly they did not.” I gave her a simple answer.

“Oh I see. Well if that's all then let's call over the wench and have a good dinner.” Ilise said with a gentle smile as she waved over a wench she saw that just came from behind the that most likely led to the kitchen.