Shades of the New World

Chapter 126: Rhea's worries

Rhea was extremely happy like all her problems were resolved as she teased Evin.

At first, Rhea was terrified of the boy. Mage were known for their arrogance and their power. Her father was a soldier who fought with the South and he would always talk about how a mage easily killed a hundred man battalion consisting of Myrmis. Myrmis were pathetically weak compared to trained soldiers, but most common men and women would still die at their hands. 

Thus, Rhea was always respectful when she interacted with the boy but most of the time, the boy acted like an idiot. Even more so when a Cosmic started appearing from inside his shadows. Their endless quarrelling completely evaporated Rhea's fears of mages. Curiously, she began to ask about the secrets of mages. How spells work, how do they cast magic, all that good stuff. Evin only told her some stuff about the Worlds, and nothing else. 

'Fine, then,' Rhea thought back then and decided to not mind it too much, but one day, a great big trouble appeared in Rhea's life: Evin behaved like he was completely enamored by her. And differently from the men that would simply glance at Rhea from a distance and try to create a private environment, Evin showed his aims very openly. He did not outright say he loved Rhea, but even a blind man could see his intentions.

Rhea felt troubled by Evin's attitude towards her. Obviously, she dismissed Evin's cringeworthy lines as jokes, but Evin would occasionally act extremely mature and observing. This contrast confused her greatly and she was having trouble coping with it, before one of the men in the street informed Rhea of Evin's true nature. 

A vicious Child of the Empress who murdered one of the mage instructors on the first day of arrival, because he couldn't control his bloodthirst. 

Hearing the man snitching on a six-year-old boy, Rhea dismissed it as some dumb attempt at her and didn't care much at first. But gradually, she became convinced that the boy truly was a Child of the Empress. 

At first, she was shocked to actually see one of the Children with her own eyes. But then, she felt terror at how she interacted with a murderer on a daily basis. But calming down, she realized that the rumors about Evin and how the boy acted were completely different. The black-haired boy that interacted with her never showed any sort of viciousness or violent tendencies. She decided to get to the bottom of this matter and started asking around for information about Evin. 

Rhea was naturally curious and most of the time, her stall was painfully empty so she had a lot of free time.

Her little series of questionings led her to a woman named Olken, who was the mistress of the instructor that died at Evin's hands. Some said that she was definitely more than just a simple mistress, but the woman herself insisted on it, so none could really complain about it.

Olken lived in one of the better areas of the Tribe Grounds and she taught the local children how to read and write in Imperial. Rhea managed to catch her after one of her classes, but suffice to say, Olken didn't react that well to a sudden visitor who wanted to ask about an incident where her lover died.

Olken only showed some interest when Rhea explained that Evin was a frequent visitor to her stall, and that she was confused on how to approach the boy. The two went back to Rhea's stall and Olken had a very sugary coffee at Rhea's insistence.

Olken told Rhea that she was sad about her lover's death, but her interactions with children were able to cure her grieving heart. Thankfully, she had a lot of money accumulated, so she didn't struggle financially afterwards. When Rhea asked her about Evin, Olken explained that she hadn't spoken with the boy, but expressed that she didn't blame the child. The officials explained how it was an accident after all.

Coming back to her dwelling, Rhea had more questions than answers. Olken was obviously lying about not meeting Evin By Rhea's judgement, she was very sincere when she said that she didn't blame the child and she also wasn't lying when she said that she was sad about her lover's death. She also only showed a reaction when Rhea spoke about Evin.

'If she hated her lover, maybe she wouldn't feel enmity towards Evin but if she liked her lover, she would definitely hate this random boy. Unless of course, they met at some point and resolved this misunderstanding somehow,' Rhea concluded after mulling over the matter for half a day.

But in the end, she still couldn't make up her mind about Evin. How the boy resolved his enmity with Olken, she did not know. And after thinking about it so much, she gave up and decided to trust her own judgement. She decided not to look at the labels that others put on Evin and make her own mind about the boy.

After getting to taste his own medicine in full, Evin went back to his mansion under some of the curious gazes of adults, who weren't familiar with him.

There weren't any attacks on him since that incident a month ago, so Evin's days were relatively peaceful. Like Nasst said, the attack seemed to only be some sort of warning and a way to apply pressure, but Evin wasn't really one to feel pressured due to that small attack, so he was mostly at ease.

He also completed a bunch of missions and increased his contribution points to almost 4000. Another month and he would be able to buy that Dark World spell. Evin would've been able to resolve the problem of contribution points in a few days if he wanted to, but there was a limit of missions he could take in a month, which was usually just 10. 

Thus, he had to fight for high-paying missions on the Mission Pillar. Usually, he would have to contend with Arza, Bardom and the twins since they were the strongest mages in the Tribe. Out of slight fear, Bardom and the twins would offer Evin the high-paying missions, but Evin wasn't so desperate to bully six-year-olds for something he could get eventually. It was a first come first choose kind of system anyway.

As for Arza, the boy was doing great. He'd become more lively like before and very quickly became one of the most popular kids in the mage classes. Most of the children weren't like Evin, or Koya who was used to ugly and violent scenes. They were still innocent and uncomplicated, so someone talented and charismatic like Arza would quickly become a little red-haired hero in their midst.

'I really had a negative effect on the child, huh?' Evin thought with amusement. 

Rith had reassured him by saying that if Evin hadn't spent time with the boy and showed him some of the shadier sides of the world, there would be a red-haired justice maniac running around instead, which made Evin feel like he did something good for this World. 

Thinking of such random things, Evin reached the mansion. The gaping hole of the last month was replaced with a sturdy looking metallic floor with a stair right next to it. If Evin went down, he would be able to see the new Test room underground.

But that wasn't Evin's destination as he walked towards the makeshift classroom with only a single desk and a podium after saying bye to Rith. Inside, Nasst was sitting on the couch smilingly, as he invited Evin to sit down. The elder man was revolving a pair of grandly ornamental Baoding balls. After spending a month with the man, Evin became used to the other's need to fidget, so he wasn't very distracted.

Oh, for those interested, Nasst's super secret department that he had to censor its name and everything, was just the "Department of Intelligence of the Northern Tribe Union". Evin only found out about it in the World of Space Contract that he made with Nasst. Evin really didn't know why it had to be kept secret, but he supposed that there were some rules attached to these kinds of things and didn't think much about it. Evin asked Nasst about it, and the man just said it had something to do with the image of the nation. 

'Guess spying on others is a bit of a touchy subject here,' Evin shrugged the matter off his head.

"I heard you finished memorizing the illusions. It was much faster than I expected. Congratulations," the elder man said.

"I happen to be interested in the subject, so it was much more efficient," Evin replied honestly and brought out the book.

"Keep it to yourself and make sure to practice its contents regularly. You'll never know how it might save your life," Nasst replied with a smile and continued: "Now, let's talk about your study plan"

Evin's ears perked up and he gathered his focus.