Chapter 38 The forests of Arkheim that swallows mages

Two days later, Aron woke up in his bed with a severe body ache. Getting down from his bunk bed, he noticed the fatty sleeping peacefully in a haphazard position. Last week flashed by his eyes, a smile on his face. Though it had been a cumbersome time period, he had made some very significant gains.

The herbs that he had discovered with Julia must be worth quite a bit. She will help him sell the one that will be of no use to him, and provide him the monetary value. For now, he had borrowed some money from her to buy a few things for his spell.

Finding his grimoire, he flipped the pages to locate the spell. Carefully he tried to decipher the letters of the spell but failed to do it completely. "Hmm.. maybe a week or so, and I can do this." His heart squirmed in pleasure, realizing how close he was to casting his first-ever spell.

He noted the ingredients required for his first-ever summoning into a piece of paper. Having seen the two skeletal soldiers of Julia he had a fair amount of idea of what to expect. Just the thought of being able to command those mean machines sent chills down his spine.

Next, he sat cross-legged on the floor and popped two mama gathering pills in his mouth. Last week too, he always made sure to have some private time to cultivate. After all, there is no spell that can be conceived without the mana.

With some help from the librarian lady, Mrs. Nancy, he was able to avoid the regular slavery tasks, much to the despair of fatty. Once again, after refreshing, he left straight for the central library. Making his way through the known corridors he flashed the identity card to the guards before gaining access to the teacher's exclusive section.

Carrying a set of books that he thought can be useful, he made his way to the reading table only to find a woman with long red hair sitting in one corner. With a charming smile on his face, he walked over to the familiar figure. "Would you mind if I sit here, miss?"

He found the same mask covering the left half of her face. The lady smiled before offering him the chair next to her. "I was wondering when our little teacher will return from his epic journeys." The redhead chuckled, taking a pun at Aron's stature. The boy didn't mind it, in fact, happy to find the lady.

"I am sorry, I checked with a few of my friends but they could not recall your name since my lady is from a different department." Darlene giggled softly, glad that the boy remembered her words. "It's okay, you can pull your strings. I am not in any hurry. What did you get this time around?"

She took a look at the collection of books that he had brought, without Aron even asking her she began explaining to him the concepts that he desired to know. The more time Aron spent with her, the more awe he felt towards her. As expected of Greenville Academy, even a teacher who is not extremely famous, still has such deep knowledge.

Thankfully, he kept his thoughts to himself otherwise he would have earned a slap to the back of his head from Darlene. "Thank you, madam. You are the best. Since I am only a slave boy right now, so the best I can do for you is to help you out in any chores." Half an hour later, Aron took the time to greatly appreciate her help.

Darlene had come to love spending the time with the boy. "Good, then can I remove my mask for a while? I want to keep my face free for some time." For a minute Aron was surprised at the simplicity of the request. He smiled bitterly. "Of course you can, ma'am. If I was anywhere around your age, I would have suggested you to not even bother hiding it. But then again, neither am I a girl nor do I struggle with the same issue like you."

This time Darlene was stunned for a minute. Once her emotions eased out she pinched the boy by his cheeks. "Haha.. some times you sound like an old man, kid. Regardless, I like that." She gently removed the face cover, closely scrutinizing the boy for any sense of even a slight aversion on his face. Yet, there was none at all.

She kept staring into his eyes for a long while. "Hmm? Is there something on my face?" Darlene was brought back by his words. Shaking her head she found herself with wet eyes. "Haha... it's nothing. You sure are a handsome boy. How many girls did you fool around with?"

This sudden change of topic caught the boy off-guard. "Ahem.. what are you saying, ma'am." The image of his intimate moments with Julia flashed in his mind. Unfortunately, the memories of his first time only brought back the trauma that he had gone through.

"Why? Please don't tell me you never had a girl." Aron made sure not to look into her eyes, smiling mirthlessly. "Well I had, it's just that it was not a very pleasant experience haha... Let's leave it at that."  Darlene can tell that he didn't want to open up to her and hence she didn't probe further.

Realizing that his answer had spoiled the atmosphere, Aron came back in with his own question. "What about you, miss? Are you married?" He saw her smile fade away from her face. "Huh.. do I look that old to you?" He knew she was just pretending to be mad, and both of them had a good laugh.

"Seriously though, even if you only show half your face, I am sure you can surpass the regular ladies. Not to mention that you are so talented to be a teacher here." "Well you are right, but no man can have half my face, now can he? Either they need to accept the full package or none hehe.."

Aron can tell that the woman was confident enough to even joke about such a sensitive issue. "Then it's their loss. Ladies with such kind soul only deserve the best of the men, nothing less." "Haha.. nice job buttering me up. But I got my classes. We will continue this conversation sometime later. You can even tell me about your trip outside, I would love to hear that."

Aron nodded, watching the lady put her mask back on and wave to him, before leaving in a hurry. It was only when she vanished from the hall did he found her ink pen beside him. Picking it up, he assumed it might be expensive so he kept it with him.

He studied on his own for the next few hours, when a guard found him and brought him along. Apparently, Nancy was calling for him. He waited outside her office and at the guard's behest, went inside. "Hello, granny!" He found the big-chested lady working on some documents as he asked for her permission to enter.

"Come in, kid. Take a seat." Finding him on the door she swept her long strands of wavy blue hairs, tying it behind her back. "How are your studies going on?" Her eyes peering straight into his, she asked. A formless prestige surrounded the lady, whenever he looked at her.

"Very good. Thanks to you I have gotten a hang of the script and figured out a few letters already." Nancy was quite a bit surprised that a novice boy with just the basic education of an orphanage was able to pull all this off.

"Great. I hope you are focussing on your cultivation as well. I want you to apply for the apprenticeship program next month. You think you will be ready by then?" With the recent progress he had made, Aron replied with a firm nod. "For sure, my lady."

Nancy had a good-natured smile on her face, happy to see the confidence in his bright eyes. "Hmm.. so now coming to the important topic that I invited you here for. Your case looked intriguing to me, hence I checked with a few of my sources. Your parents, their last mission was in the Arkheim forest. That's where their entire party went missing."

Aron was not anticipating that Nancy was going to talk about his parents. His mind spun, capturing every single detail. "It's a strange case indeed. The empire sent many expedition teams after the incident, trying to locate any survivors but none of them returned. The most powerful person they had sent was an A rank mage. After that person too, failed to return. The authorities were forced to digest a loss and not let any more people lose their lives."

Looking at the big eyes of the boy, hungry for any other details. She sighed. "I have never ventured in that forest, but from what little knowledge I have, I would say that Arkheim is cursed. Even someone like me can lose my life out there. Hence, I will request you to not look into the matters of your parents any further."

The lights in Aron's eyes dimmed by quite a lot. There was no reason for Nancy to lie to him. This was one of his biggest fears. Finding the boy on the verge of tears the lady's heart churned. "Of course, it can happen that we are all speculating wrongly and those people are just trapped somewhere, even at this point of time. My only words of advice are for you to have undue expectations from yourself. I know you would like to ascertain everything with your own eyes, but please you can't even step into that place before you reach the level of an A-rank mage. Do you understand?"

Aron knew that the woman only had his safety in her mind. If he acted rushed, he was just going to lose his life in the quest of discovering the mysteries of his parents. "Yes, I do. Thanks a lot, granny. Thanks for all the efforts you put in." His head touched the table as he showed the true respect that originated from his heart.

Nancy observed how the boy managed to control his reaction, despite the overwhelming emotions in his heart. "That's good. Let me tell you one thing, there is a reason why various adventure guilds exist in this world. Even if the empire can't enter a place, in this vast world there will always be capable individuals who can explore it."

A smile bloomed on Aron's face at the subtle information she leaked. Not arguing with her any further on this topic, he got up and took a long bow towards the lady. "It was not a big deal. Just focus on your cultivation." Thanking her for the last time, he was at the door when he recalled something.

"Ahem.. granny, I have seen a lady with long red hair. She has a mask hiding half her face. Would you be knowing her name, by any chance?" "Hmm?" Nancy fell in thought for a second but it wasn't hard to discern who the boy was referring to. "You must be talking about Darlene. She is from the beast transformation department."

She checked if he had any business with her however the boy replied negatively before taking his leave. Nancy had another matter that she didn't discuss with the boy. Actually, the empire makes sure that it looks after its high-ranking mages and their children, in case they pass away immaturely.

From what she found out, both his parents were A-ranked mages who were working undercover for the country. Even if they were there for covert missions, it doesn't dispense the authorities of their duty of looking after Aron, post their deaths. Why did the boy have to live a life of slavery then? That's was the only question that was left unanswered in her mind.