Mage's Profound Truths

Chapter 26: Whisper

Meixue came in from outside, her face red from the cold. She patted the snow off her body, then hurried to the fireplace, rubbing her hands constantly to warm them.

“Meixue, back so early today?”

Merlin also came over to the fireplace and asked casually.

Meixue looked at Merlin in surprise, then said in a low voice, “Swordsman Perot said it's too cold, so he let us come back earlier these few days.”

Merlin nodded lightly but said nothing more. He also sat by the fireplace, seemingly to warm himself, but in fact, he was observing the fire elements on Meixue.

Now that Merlin had already constructed the spell model for Fireball in his sea of consciousness, he had become more sensitive to fire elements. He could clearly feel that the surrounding fire elements were slowly entering Meixue’s body.

This was the special feature of Meixue's fire-attribute physique—it could attract fire elements into her body. If enough fire elements accumulated inside, she would be able to communicate with them and unleash the powerful force of fire elements.

However, Merlin now noticed that although many fire elements were entering Meixue’s body from the outside, just as many were also flying out of her body.

In other words, Meixue's current situation was that she simply could not retain the fire elements that entered her body.

This was the biggest difference between elemental swordsmen and spellcasters.

As long as spellcasters constructed a spell model, these models would forcibly absorb surrounding elements and bind them within the model, turning them into the caster's mana. There was no possibility of loss.

Elemental swordsmen, on the other hand, could not forcibly retain elements. They could only rely on their special physique to attract and gather more elements.

The difference between the two was naturally obvious, like night and day—they simply could not be compared.

Originally, Merlin wanted to see if he could help Meixue break through and become a true elemental swordsman.

But after careful observation, he found that his presence near Meixue would cause his spell model to forcibly absorb nearby fire elements, even drawing out some of the fire elements inside Meixue.

Therefore, not only could Merlin not help Meixue, he would even interfere with her accumulation of fire elements.

Faced with this situation, Merlin had no solution. He could only shake his head helplessly, then stood up and said, “Meixue, since it's so cold, you should go rest early.”

After speaking, he turned and went upstairs, returning to his room.

※※※

Sitting in Moss’s carriage, Merlin was meditating with his eyes closed.

After several days of cultivation, his spiritual power had improved significantly. However, constructing a second spell model in his sea of consciousness was still a bit too difficult.

“Young Master Merlin, we’ve arrived.”

The carriage stopped. Moss lifted the curtain and spoke.

Mental meditation could be practiced anytime and anywhere, and one could wake from it at any time. There was no need for a special meditation room. Therefore, upon hearing Moss, Merlin opened his eyes and jumped off the carriage.

Today, Merlin was attending etiquette class. He had found that continuing to practice Fireball in the castle was no longer very meaningful. He could already control the fireball precisely with his mental power and no longer needed prolonged practice.

Merlin walked straight in and saw Gut and Anson on the second floor. However, they didn’t seem to notice Merlin—they were staring at Tirafa in the distance.

Tirafa held invitation cards in his hand and was handing them out to the people coming for the etiquette class.

Merlin stepped forward, patted Gut on the shoulder, and asked in a low voice, “What is Tirafa doing?”

Gut was startled, but after seeing it was Merlin, he let out a slight sigh of relief and curled his lips, saying, “What else? Today is Tirafa’s birthday. He’s busy inviting people to his birthday ball.”

“Birthday ball?”

Merlin immediately lost interest upon hearing that, as with his relationship with Tilafa, he definitely wouldn’t be invited.

“Heh, Merlin, that’s what you don’t know— the real drama is just beginning. Tilafa is specially inviting Teacher Gia today.”

The chubby Gutt let out a sneering laugh, and just as he finished speaking, Gia came up the stairs from below.

Merlin squinted slightly. This Gia had been seriously injured yesterday, so her complexion still looked a bit pale.

However, the red mark on her forehead that Merlin had caused had completely disappeared—no one knew what kind of medicine Gia had used to recover so quickly.

Tilafa quickly walked up to her and, using noble etiquette, solemnly presented the invitation card with both hands, smiling as he said, “Teacher Gia, today is my birthday. I’ve organized a birthday ball and hope to invite you to attend!”

“Your ball?”

Gia looked up at Tilafa and her expression immediately turned cold. She said indifferently, “Sorry, I have something else to do today, so I’m afraid I can’t attend.”

With that, she completely ignored Tilafa’s stunned expression and walked directly toward Merlin.

“Merlin, come with me. There’s something very important, related to you.”

Gia leaned close to Merlin’s ear and whispered softly.

Merlin’s expression shifted slightly but quickly returned to normal.

He saw that the people around them all had shocked and confused expressions. Gia’s whisper to him stood in stark contrast to her earlier coldness toward Tilafa, clearly causing misunderstandings.

“Let’s go.”

Merlin kept a calm expression, then followed behind Gia and left the building.

Tilafa stood frozen, staring at the disappearing backs of Merlin and Gia, his face ashen. The invitation card in his hand slipped to the floor.

He never expected that Merlin would silently get involved with Gia.

“Haha, Tilafa got shut down. I really didn’t expect this—Merlin quietly hooked up with Gia. Judging by how they looked, their relationship must be pretty close!”

Chubby Gutt laughed quietly, but his face also showed confusion. So he turned to Anson beside him and asked, “Anson, do you know when Merlin and Gia got together?”

Anson’s expression was complex and changing. After a while, he sighed and shook his head slightly. “I don’t know either. Merlin has only come here a few times, right?”

Anson’s heart was conflicted. Ever since he met Gia, he had been thinking about her, but now Merlin and Gia were suddenly so close—it was hard for him to accept.

Merlin followed Gia into a spacious courtyard. The view here was broad, and one could easily tell if anyone was around, so there was no concern about being overheard.

“Gia, go ahead. What’s this about?”

Merlin gradually came to a stop, asking calmly.