Shades of the New World

Chapter 148: Not all rainbows and sunshine

Evin looked at the thick, creamy cup of coffee in front of him and waited with some anticipation. After a bit, he finished the coffee in a single gulp, while being mindful of the loose coffee ground and then toppled over the cup.

After a little while, Ofi then flipped over the cup very carefully and looked at the patterns.

"Hmm, it's mostly dots so many scattered dots. All I can say is that you're going to become filthy rich. Usually, there would be lines, circles, or even triangles and squares but for you, it's all dots. Oh, there's a little '4' here, see?" Ofi said and pointed at a certain spot of the cup. Sure enough, Evin could see a very poorly depicted '4' on the cup's inside. 

"This usually means jealousy, or misfortune. Guess some people would want some of your gold, eh?" Ofi laughed.

Evin, thinking of the fact that he owned this brand and usually received a lot of money from it, found the whole matter very ironic and amusing. As for the part about jealousy, or misfortune, Evin conveniently ignored it as simple superstition. 

"Anyway, I wanted to ask you something, how are you so fine, even after you drink such strong coffee? I mean, most kids go crazy after a little sip," Ofi asked suddenly.

"Maybe my body just works a bit differently than others. Also, in general, I believe mages have a stronger and more resilient system compared to non-mages. And even if I find something wrong, I can fix it very easily," Evin said after thinking a bit.

"Oh, could you describe what you feel, or see when you drink coffee?" Ofi asked passionately.

The two chatted for a while about coffee and its effects, as Evin helped a bit with the shop setup. At the end of it, Ofi invited Evin to Tower City.

"Do come visit us in Tower City in two years, to see the Velvet Procession. I'll make sure to save up a spot for you," Ofi offered, to which Evin agreed happily. He planned to take a glance at the Empress, one way or another in his life. 

Saying his goodbyes, Evin walked back to his mansion with a cup of coffee in his hands. Rith didn't wish to come out of Evin's shadow for whatever reason, and had asked Evin to get one for her.

[He seems like a pretty normal person Minus the parts where he talks about coffee,] Evin joked to Rith. 

[Well, that's a relatively tame version of him. Do you know how crazy he was three years ago, when he was just starting the business?] Rith said, sighing.

[By the way, what kind of things will you be teaching me?] Evin asked curiously.

[Most of the things I can do. Normal portals, Storage magic, Artificing, Portal Blades, you name it. There's also a little bonus from Abvelgail, which is related to a miniature World]

[A miniature World? What's that?]

[It's just a fancier Storage space, one which can contain living beings, like the place I put horses and other animals. Your shadow could be considered one, so you can consider yourself pretty lucky,] Rith said. 

[But as you've said, I already have the Shadow Storage, why do I need another one?] Evin asked.

[Don't be so impatient. What we're going to do is renovating your shadow. It's too empty for the time being. The Cosmics have made tons of research on Inner Worlds, and the Shadow Storage of Dark Mages aren't exempt from that. I even got to know a few things I didn't know from the study materials,] Rith said proudly.

Evin was very happy to hear about the miniature World. He was wondering about how he was going to make a more comfortable environment for the World Sprites, so he was very happy to receive such a skill here.

[But, first things first, let's talk with Nasst and see what he has to tell you,] Rith yawned and plopped out of Evin's shadow after they arrived home.

Evin walked towards Nasst's room to tell him that he was finished with his task. He knocked on the door, heard an approving sound from inside and entered.

"Oh, Evin" Nasst said superficially. Evin noticed that something was wrong. Nasst's eyes were cold and there wasn't the usual gentleness in his tone of voice.

"I'm done with the Gestures and I've just finished absorbing the Core Shard," Evin answered.

"Is that so?" Nasst answered with a barely perceptible hint of mockery in his voice. 

'What's wrong with him today?' Evin wondered.

"I've heard that your friend, Arza, became Deminte's disciple. Do you have any knowledge about this?" Nasst asked coldly, some of his fingers twitching slightly under his sleeves.

'Is that what this is about? I have a feeling I should hide my involvement' Evin thought annoyedly, but didn't show it in his face.

"Perhaps. I fought against him yesterday, and I saw elder Deminte sitting in the crowd. I don't know why. After the fight, I saw her saying something to an assistant next to her," Evin answered and saw Nasst's features loosening slightly. He then asked cautiously: "Is there any problem with Arza studying under Deminte?" 

"Nothing in particular Why did you take so long to beat him? And why did you act so differently towards him during the fight?" Nasst asked. 

"I had just finished practicing my gestures, and I wanted to try out its effects. At the same time, I tried out the Authority Style. It may have looked a bit weird at first, but it was because I was trying to get used to using the moves in real combat. As for my attitude, I was a bit pissed at Arza, for making me come over right after I was finished with a huge task. Maybe I took it out on him a little," Evin replied. 

In truth, Evin was deliberately slowing down his attacks, so Arza could get a grasp on it. Naturally, the boy's genius was able to grasp a certain part of the Authority Style during the countless exchanges. This would surely interest most of the bigshots, not even mentioning Deminte. But thankfully, those other bigshots didn't have the spare time to sit and watch children fight, like Deminte.

Evin then urged Arza to struggle and get up, since Evin wanted the boy to show off his unrelenting attitude. Honestly, Evin really thought that Arza would get up even without his own urging. He really didn't understand how and when the boy changed so much.

"Is that so?" Nasst said and his tone seemed to become normal again.

'Empress fucking almighty, that was scary. Now if that isn't a red flag, then I don't know what is,' Evin worriedly thought in his head. He was suddenly very glad that he put a clause for his own and his family's safety in the Contract. 

Nasst never showed this slightly insane part of his personality before, and Evin couldn't understand what triggered him so greatly. Well, Evin's first guess was that it was because Arza fell under Deminte's tutelage and Nasst believes that Evin was involved somehow. Evin just didn't understand why the reaction was this extreme. 

'Does he really hate that woman so much?' Evin couldn't help but think.

"Anyway, any news from the Somaturgy expert?" Evin decided to change the topic.

"None yet, but we do have another topic we can talk about," Nasst seemed to have calmed down and his hands began to play around with his beard.

"That is?" 

"It's faster to show you, follow me to the test room," Nasst said and got up.

Evin followed behind the man, worriedly thinking of the future that suddenly got very blurry. A shitty boss was barely acceptable in Evin's books, but a mentally unstable one was straight up lethal.