I landed in the middle of a huge garden, this time I tried to land more carefully. There were neat flower beds, lawns, hanging gardens and so on everywhere you looked. Some mortals wandered around looking after them. There were even a couple of acolytes.

There was something like a house not far from me, although at first glance from afar it looked like a bunch of chaotically intertwined vines covered with leaves. The house was big enough for me to notice it even from afar.

Near the house stood an elderly man in formal clothes. Outwardly, he did not look very remarkable. Only light green pupils stood out.

Next to him stood a bearded bull in a raincoat. Black short hair and beard. The piercing gaze screamed - do not provoke me.

Creston greeted with a warm smile.

- I'm Creston, it's nice to finally meet you in person. This is Lothar, he is also a True Magician of the Leicester family and was just visiting me, I hope you don't mind.

In the World of Mages, Mages mostly united in organizations under one name or another. Although Melrose and Leicester were considered Mage families, in fact, family ties among the True Mages of such families were rare. More often, the family meant a small organization of Mages.

The fact is that among thousands of mortals, only one with sufficient talent appeared to become an acolyte of the third rank. Accordingly, only one out of a thousand acolytes successfully became a True Magician. Although these numbers were rough and not exact, the bottom line was that there was not a single family that could guarantee that they would have a True Magician. What family can give birth to hundreds of thousands of children? Especially when you consider that after becoming a True Magician, the probability of a descendant appearing significantly decreased, and a True Magician with the transformation of an element to 80% completely loses ability to reproduce.

Thus, family clans and sects did not exist, they simply did not make much sense. Mages came together in organizations for the common good. Melrose had one True Magician in his family with whom he supposedly had some degree of kinship, but his fate is unknown. Most likely, Lothar and Stephanie did not have a real family connection with Creston, at best, extremely distant.

- I do not mind at all, it's nice to meet you dear Mage Lords.

After exchanging pleasantries, we all went inside and sat down in a kind of living room. Even the furniture here was made from living trees. Small beautiful butterflies slowly flew around highlighting the soft light, thereby illuminating the room. In general, housing was quite original.

- Nice place you got here. - I commented.

- Thank you. May I know for what purpose you wanted to pay me a visit? - Creston asked.

- Don't you want to know what happened to Stephanie?

- I want to know - Lothar interjected before Creston answered.

- Stephanie is dead. It was a tragic accident. A large tree fell on her. My condolences. - I shook the golem's head slightly and lowered the intensity of the light in my eyes, trying to show a semblance of sympathy.

Creston and Lothar looked at each other in disbelief. However, Lothar soon became angry.

- Are you kidding? You come here and claim that you have killed the Leicester Family's True Mage? Do you think you can get away with such an insult?!

- Take it easy! - Creston also raised his voice, then turned to me - It does not matter what happened before. More important is the purpose for which you are here today, Mr. Tarrister.

Lothar snorted defiantly.

- I wanted to get to know your family and resolve any differences, if any, between us. Do you have any grudge against me? - I clarified.

- No hard feelings. Stephanie decided to avenge her grandson on her own and did not consult with anyone. She is also responsible for this. There are no hard feelings between us.

Although Lothar clearly disagreed with such a statement, he did not intervene any further. I could not read their sound vibrations, yet both were protected by the innate barrier of the Magician. But overall, it didn't really matter. If they really decided to let it go I will be more than happy.

I was not going to look for and make extra enemies for myself unless absolutely necessary. I would not have dared to touch Stephanie if I had more time left at that moment.

- Excellent. Then I came with peace. As a newly minted True Mage, my knowledge is extremely limited. I was hoping you could enlighten me on some issues. - I replied.

The atmosphere cleared up a bit.

- Of course, we will be glad to help our brother in any way we can. - Creston smiled, but soon the smile left his face - but I should clarify something right away. For these three years we have helped develop the city of Tarrister and supported your people in their endeavors. Nevertheless, Steel appeared in your city a month ago. He is part of a large organization of Central Continent Mages called Foresight. Our family is not going to interfere in your conflict, I hope for your understanding.

- What kind of conflict? - I asked.

- Oh. I thought it was you who gonna tell me what its essence is. I only know that a month ago Steel showed up in the city of Tarrister and was looking for you. In the process, he killed the mayor of the city, Sellinger...

- What?!

Here I was surprised. Although I assumed that there was a possibility of such an outcome, I still believed that killing my people did not make much sense for anyone.

It might seem that I did not care about my people, but this was far from the case. My fighters served me faithfully for decades. I appreciated each and every one of them. In Outland, they had everything they needed, but after arriving on Orion, I simply did not have too much time to devote it to their future fate.

Sellinger was the first child I secretly taught the Knight technique and the first to become a Knight Apprentice. The first thing I was going to do was go back to my people. Not only to set the direction of the city and distribute tasks, but also to equip my loyal fighters by increasing their combat power. Help their children and even them themselves become acolytes if anyone wants to take his chances.

These people have been by my side for most of my life, of course I could not and would not ignore their existence even though I am no longer human.

I was also amazed at how my emotions changed. Although I was aware that I had changed after becoming a True Magician, however, I realized the depth of these changes only now. Sellinger's death made me angry. But I didn’t feel this anger, rather, I just understood that I was angry with my mind. However, simply understanding and feeling is two huge differences.

Emotions were also transmitted to the soul during the advance along with the information code to some extent, however, it was the human body, in particular the brain, that produced and intensified certain emotions. Now I could only vaguely feel fury in my soul, but I continued to calmly reflect on the situation as a whole. In a sense, this was more of an advantage than a disadvantage, especially for the Mage. However, in this case, I certainly had nothing to rejoice at.

- What exactly happened? - I clarified.

Creston briefly described Sellinger's death.

- But why did he do it? What's the point of this? - I asked.

- It's quite common among Mages. Although the massacre of mortals is not welcome, however, isolated cases are completely ignored. Most Mages don't even need any specific reason to kill, that's just something they do casually at will.

- That's how...

Although I already knew that everything was like that, however, it is one thing when it concerns someone out there. Another thing is when Sellinger became such a passing victim. On the one hand, I just wanted to crush Steel into meat paste, but on the other hand, this Mage was clearly not weak and I would not necessarily be able to win. Logic dictated that if the issue could be resolved without going to extremes, then it was better to ignore Sellinger's death and forget about revenge. For the first time since becoming a True Magician, I was a bit confused.

Creston outlined the situation and mentioned Rudolf as the strongest Elemental Star Mage of the Foresight organization. Even if I get rid of Steel, it won't solve the whole problem. There was something to think about.

The maid brought tea, and Creston was talking about its properties, but I mentioned that I was not a human and drinking such a thing no longer made any sense to me. To dispel the awkwardness, Creston mentioned a maid.

- This is Nissa. Lothar was kind enough to take her under his wing. Their elements are the same, I hope you don't mind.

I finally turned my attention to Nissa. She reminded me that 8 years have passed since my arrival on Orion. Now she looked quite grown up. Shoulder-length dark curly hair. A small but beautiful and delicate face with tattoos in place of scars. In general, she remained a rather petite and fragile-looking girl. However, the eyes were completely different now. They were deep and calm like a pond in winter. Her gaze was firm and confident. Perhaps she will still be of use, Lawrence will surely be happy.

- Hello Nissa, I completely forgot about your existence. Have you visited your father yet?

Nissa was not at all surprised by this statement and calmly replied that she had not yet visited her father, but Creston choked on tea. Lothar glared at him angrily. This whole thing with Nissa was originally aimed at her playing a role in their reconciliation. Of course, she wasn't so mediocre after all, so Lothar suppressed his anger.

Not everyone could afford to pay three hundred magic crystals one way to visit a relative, so Nissa's answer did not surprise me. Kyle's tutor was an Elemental Star Mage and could afford it, but in general, magic crystals were still quite valuable and the demand for them was much greater than the supply. Therefore, the number of magic crystals in Stephanie's possession surprised me a lot. Although, perhaps she just managed to sell a lot of Sky Crystals.

- I still want to know how exactly you killed Stephanie? Heard you have some ancient artifact that you found somewhere, or did someone from the Central Continent help you? - Lothar asked.

Of course, such questions were, to put it mildly, inappropriate. However, I already understood that Lothar did not have much respect for formalities.

- What other artifact? I found only an advanced meditation technique in the garbage, although there is nothing supernatural in it, but it certainly helped me. Other than my son, I don't know anyone from the Central Continent. A big tree really fell on Stephanie, that's all, I don't see any reason to lie. 

- It can not be! Do you want me to believe that an acolyte accidentally killed a True Mage? And anyway, if you don’t have a damn thing then you basically just recently ascended Mage, what did you expect when you came here alone? Do you think I won’t dare to kill you? - inflamed Lothar even stronger.

- Let's finish our friendly meeting first, you can try to kill me after that, what do you say? And in general, do you really believe absolutely everything that you are told? - I tried to calm Lothar in order to learn something else from Creston.

Unlike Lothar, Creston maintained a friendly air as he listened to me. Although it was not difficult for me to guess that he did not believe a single word of mine and is still sure that I have some kind of ace up my sleeve. People like that were easier to deal with than someone like Lothar. This guy was way too direct.

Since Kyle was mentioned, Creston revealed that his organization had disbanded and his whereabouts were unknown. Although the news from the Central Continent did not reach here very quickly, the fall of one of the three strongest organizations was no small event. This issue worried the local Mages to some extent, because if a full-fledged war of Mages starts, then this may well affect Orion, so Creston was able to find out a few details.

Maybe if I knew where Kyle was, I would try to help him, but I definitely wasn't going to travel the world looking for him. He is already a big boy and he should be able to solve his own problems.

I also found out that apart from their city of Dawn and three mines of magical stones, these magicians had little interest in the mortal world overall. They didn't even know the name of the trading guild that now controls the market in the kingdom, apparently the acolytes of the family dealt with such matters. This means that I can freely develop my own guild and gradually push the Leicester family away. Even if those acolytes at some point will complain to Creston, it would most likely be too late.