“Are you sure about this, Alex? I’m kind of nervous,” said Lucia nervously.

“Why are you nervous after coming this far?” Alex asked in an exasperated voice.

“I don’t know, and my hands, my hands feel like they’ve become lead. Uh… Give me a few seconds to get accustomed to this,” his teacher requested hopefully.

He sighed and replied, “Miss, it isn’t that hard a thing to do. Just knock on the door.”

Lucia and Alex, at that time, were standing in front of the door of the home of her father, Matthew. After deciding to take his assistance with finances, Lucia flew over here while bringing her student along as a means of comfort. She also wanted to bring Luna along like last time, however, the kid kindly declined the offer.

“I’m sorry, miss, but I think if we’re going to go on a journey, one of us has to learn cooking. I’m interested in doing it, so I’m going to do my best and learn from mother,” Luna had said, sweetly smiling up at the older girl and making her give up reluctantly.

Thus, she and her student travelled to her father’s home, but she started to become nervous as soon as she landed and slowly approached the door. Now, the two of them stood at the door, with Lucia being very nervous while her student took on the supportive role of encouraging her to knock on the door.

“What are you worried about, miss?” He asked her teacher curiously. “He’s your father. He won’t bite. I mean, no father would bite their daughter, right?”

“I know that,” she replied, looking nervously at the door, “but… it’s just that… I’m having second thoughts about coming here and taking his help after, you know, leaving home on my own and all.”

That statement was received with an exasperated sigh from her student, who replied, “But he embraced you the last time you came here, right? Did he try and chase us away in any manner?”

She did not immediately respond as she thought about it before saying, “Well, he did refuse to help us when I requested him.”

“Miss!” Alex said, turning to look at her in astonishment. “He said it himself in his letter, right? That he had reasons for not providing us direct support? You were there too! Don’t forget.”

“I know,” she said weakly, realising her counter had failed and feeling cornered. “Why don’t we return home and think about this again?”

“What? After coming this far and return empty handed?” Her student asked in an exasperated voice. When his teacher remained silent, he shook his head and sighed before saying, “Fine. If you aren’t going to knock on the door, that’s okay. I’ll just have to do it myself.”

“W-Wait!” Lucia exclaimed, quickly extending her hand out and grabbing the hand her student was about to use to knock on the door. “C-Can we think about this more…? Please…?”

She was now literally pleading with her student, who turned and looked at her wearily.

“Miss, I’m not forcing you to do this. The reason we came this far is because we all, including you, agreed that taking financial support from your father when he is willing to offer his help in this way was okay. Please don’t make it sound like we’re forcing you because that’ll lead to misunderstandings.”

“Y-Yeah. You’re right,” she agreed weakly with nothing to counter back with.

“In that case, knock on the door already,” her student insisted, pointing at the door. “It’s not that hard to do.”

Lucia nodded meekly and hesitated for a few more seconds. With no way out of her predicament, she resigned herself to reality and raised her hand before knocking three times on the door. In an instant, the door clicked and opened wide to reveal her father, Matthew, standing there with an excited grin on his face.

“Lucia!” He exclaimed, and bounded forward to hug his daughter tightly.

“F-Father?!” She exclaimed, shocked by him immediately appearing so suddenly at the door and bounding forward to hug her tightly.

While she reacted in surprise, he nuzzled his cheek against hers while saying, “I knew you’d come back! I knew it!”

Alex, who was as surprised his teacher, quickly calmed down and smiled while muttering, “Ah. I should’ve known.”

Lucia took a moment to recover from the shock and began struggling against her father’s hug to break free while exclaiming, “Father! Let go! You’re hugging me too tightly! Please! It’s embarrassing!”

“No way!” His father replied, grinning broadly and looking much younger than his appearance gave off. “My daughter returned after reading my letter, and I am very happy about it!”

His daughter was taken aback by his statement, and she turned towards her student and requested, “Please, Alex. Get this old man off of me.”

Alex, for his part, shrugged and spread his arms out in a giving up gesture as he said, “I’m sorry, miss. He’s your father, and I can’t do anything against him. So, just accept his hug already.”

When he smiled sweetly at her, she looked shocked and shouted for the Gods to hear, “Dammit, God! I knew I shouldn’t have returned!”

A few seconds later, Matthew let go of his daughter and looked very pleased to see her in front of him. The moment he let go of her, Lucia quickly pulled her student and kept him in front of her to act as a shield to protect her from anything else her father might pull on her.

Seeing this, her father laughed and said, “Come on, Lucia. You make me look like a villain,” and gestured towards the entrance, welcoming them in.

“You are a villain!” She replied firmly after walking in, and he shut the door behind them. “I mean, who the heck waits behind the door and startles their daughter like that?! It’s shocked me!”

“It’s precisely why I did it,” he replied with a cheeky smile, bringing relief to his serious face. “I wanted to surprise you and see your reaction.” Then he looked a little sad and said, “I didn’t exactly get the reaction I had expect, but… oh well. Your reaction was still something to enjoy about.”

Chortling with laughter, he slowly walked away with the support of his kane, leaving her and her student at the entrance.

She watched her father go before looking down at Alex and muttered in a dejected voice, “I am thinking of leaving right this instance.”

“Miss,” said Alex slowly, looking up at her with a wry smile on his face. “He’s just happy to see you return. You should be happy about it, too.”

“I would be happy if he didn’t startle me like that,” his teacher said weakly, and they walked forward and sat down on the chairs situated in the hall.

Alex leaned to the side and watched Matthew waving his cane around like last time and making the jug of water pour itself into three glasses before it went back to its original location. Then, a cupboard opened to let a tray to fly out before closing, and the tray flew forward while the glasses of water rose and landed gently on it.

“Here you go,” said the older man, walking over to them while the tray levitated over to them.

Once they each took a glass off the tray, it moved towards its owner and once he took the remaining glass off it, it then set itself down on the table and did not move again.

Alex took a sip of his glass and asked curiously, “Sir, how did you know we were coming?”

From beside him, Lucia sipped her glass a few times to quench her thirst and said, “Don’t tell me you’re spying on us, or were you waiting there this whole time like some kind of ghoul?!”

“Lucia, my dear, your words are becoming harsher and harsher,” her father replied, but he was smiling and did not take any offense to her words. Then he turned to her student and answered his question with, “Well, I was peacefully watering away my garden when I sensed some disturbance at the entrance, and when I arrived, I heard your voices from the other side of the door.”

“Then you should’ve just opened the door and not shock the hell out of me!” His daughter complained, looking upset.

Her father smiled wryly and said, “I’m sorry, Lucia. You’re right that I should’ve done that, but… well… Like I said, I wanted to surprise you and see your reaction.”

“Well, you did a good job of scaring me instead of surprising me,” his daughter replied, and turned away with a “Hmph” sound to show her annoyance.

As he smiled at her, Alex had another question regarding their arrival and asked the older man, “Sir, how did you guess that we’re here after receiving your letter?”

“Well, what else could it be?” Matthew asked in return with a small smile, “especially since I know the stubbornness of my daughter and that she wouldn’t come here for anything else.”

He turned to look at his daugher, who glanced at him before glancing away with a disapproving expression on her face. Lucia’s father smiled and decided to speak to Alex since she looked to be in no mood to speak to him about anything at that time.

“So, I take it you want my help in some kind of financial support?”

Alex nodded and said, “Yes. I, my childhood friend, and miss want to head to the Forest of Lone like you mentioned–!”

“I found out about that location first,” his teacher interjected without turning towards them.

He smiled at her before continuing as if he was not interrupted, “In order to get there, we need to cross Cheosan, and Meria so that we can get to Huizhou. I think you’re aware of this?”

Matthew nodded in understanding and said, “Yes. You’d need to cross their capitals, Yeong and Tartondal before you’re able to reach Taoqing. In order to do that, you’d need a sufficient amount of money on hand to pay for entering and leaving a capital. That’s where you need my help.”

“Yes,” replied Alex with a nod of his head in assent, “and if possible, we’d like for you to arrange for an escort once we reach Taoqing to help us get to the Forest of Lone.”

“An escort huh?” The older man asked, and he placed a hand on his chin as he thought about it. “Perhaps. Yes. I think I can arrange for someone to pick you up and escort you into the Forest of Lone.”

“Really?” The kid asked, looking surprised, and when his teacher’s father nodded in assent, his smile became wide. He thanked the other person by saying, “Thank you very much, sir! I really appreciate the support you’ll be providing us!”

Matthew smiled and said, “It’s fine, but don’t misunderstand,” and he looked seriously at Alex. “I’m doing this so that my daughter would be able to master her skills. My concern for you is secondary. Do you understand that?”

“You’re being rude, father!” Lucia snapped, turning to face her father angrily.

Alex, on the other hand, nodded and said, “Yes. I understand. I think it’s only natural since I’m a complete stranger to you.”

“Alex,” his teacher said softly, looking sadly at him.

Matthew, on the other hand, nodded as he was impressed by the kid’s level of maturity and remarked, “Good. You’re certainly display a maturity that’s above your age. How old are you, boy?”

“Twelve, sir.”

“Twelve?” Matthew asked, raising an eyebrow and looking amazed. “It’s certainly impressive to see a kid with your kind of maturity. Good. My daughter certainly has a good student under her care.”

“I don’t need your praise after you insulted my student,” said Lucia defensively.

“I was being honest with the boy so he didn’t misunderstand,” stated her father, then he smiled at her student and admitted, “but I realise now it was unnecessary. I’m sorry if I offended you, boy,” and he bowed his head to Alex.

His daughter became surprised by this action while Alex raised both of his hands in surprise, saying to him, “It’s alright, sir. Please. Raise your head. A person of your stature shouldn’t lower their head to a commoner like me.”

“Perhaps,” said Matthew, raising his head and smiling at the young kid. “Certainly many of the council members believe that, but I’m different. I believe that if you make a mistake, you have to do your best to show your apology to the other party. So, bowing down to you for unintended insult is a mistake on my part that I must apologize for.”

“I see,” said Alex, smiling softly as he liked the belief of the older man. “I like that.”

Matthew nodded in appreciation for the kid’s words, then turned to his daughter, who had waited patiently for them to finish speaking before asking her father, “Would you mind telling me now what is this big secret that’s making you not help us directly?”

“They are my personal reasons, Lucia, and are off no concern to you,” he replied curtly.

His daughter was startled when he said that and looked hurt. She folded her arms in front of her and looked at him with an expression of irritation on her face.

“You’ll never change, father,” she said in a disappointed voice, “and here I thought I’d finally be able to speak to you openly. I guess I was wrong.”

There was a moment of silence between them before her father thought sadly, “If… If someday, when I get the opportunity to speak with you, maybe then you’ll understand the difficult position this father of yours was in, Lucia.”

He sighed and looked sadly at his daughter, who had turned away and did not face him again. Alex was looking between them and did not like the silence that stretched between them, however, he was unsure of how to break it and wondered if he even had the right to do so.

“So, father, I don’t wish to be rude, but when will you be able to provide us with the funds necessary for the travel and arranging that escort for us?” Lucia finally asked, turning to face him with a slightly relaxed face.

Matthew was glad that she decided to drop the topic, and he replied, “Give me a few days, probably two weeks or so to gather the money and arrange for your escort. I’ll write to you when everything is arranged.”

Lucia nodded and smiled slightly as she said, “That’s great. Thanks… father.”

Her thanking him stunned Matthew because he did not expect anything of the sort from her. Even Alex was amazed by her thanking him, and smiled happily as he sensed that, despite the anger she had towards her father, she was still grateful for how much he was doing for her.

“For you, I’d do anything, Lucia,” her father replied with a big grin on his face.

Lucia chuckled and said, “Alright. I think that settles everything. Let’s get going, Alex.”

Her sudden words saddened Matthew, who looked at her sadly and asked, “Leaving so soon? You could stay a bit longer, couldn’t you?”

She paused and looked at the sadness in her father’s face and felt regret. However, she had a duty to perform as a teacher and continue the magic lessons despite the waiting time they have. So, she steeled herself and spoke softly to her father, hoping he would understand her situation.

“Sorry, father, but I have to teach my student. Even if we have to wait until you arrange everything, I can’t just drop his lessons. We must keep going with what we have and improve ourselves. Don’t you agree, father?”

To that, her father had to admit that was true and said, “Yes. That is certainly true.” Then he smiled sadly and said, “Oh well. Maybe next time you’ll stay longer?”

He was not expecting her to reply kindly to his words, but he was surprised when she simply said, “Maybe,” and smiled softly at him.

While he felt amazed by her dialogue, she rose to her feet and beckoned Alex to do the same. As they stood up, Matthew did the same and followed them towards the entrance and stood as they exited after bidding him farewell. It was not until they were a few meters away before he remembered something and posed that question to Alex.

“Boy,” he called, and Alex paused and turned to look at him. “I keep forgetting, but what’s your name?”

Alex blinked in surprise before he smiled and said, “Alexander Degan, but you can call me Alex.”

Matthew nodded and the two exchanged smiles before Alex grabbed onto his teacher, who flapped her wings and lifted into the sky. Her father watched his daugher flying away and felt sad for a moment before a slight annoyance creeped on his head.

“For some reason, I am feeling annoyed about the way he is holding onto my daughter,” he muttered to no one in particular. Then he sighed and muttered, “Maybe I’m overthinking.”

With that, he swung the door forward and shut it firmly.