Chapter XXII

"Of course, my lord," she says with the utmost respect she can muster. In her life, this is not the first time she has had to react in such a way. One must know when to cower to the powerful or face the consequences.

At this moment her priority is to avoid a conflict between this strange mage and her village. Since the cost of such will surely be much greater than the loss of equipment. Although it's hard for her to believe that they don't want anything more. He may really only make his potions and leave. And right now, that's what she can only hope.

So she enters her house and indicates for him to follow.

"Grumpy, you'll see if nothing catches fire near the tree. And you go get the things I pointed out to you before." He says to his companions, pointing to the blond young man, Seres. Having given his instructions, he enters her house.

Inside her small residence, she leads him to the space next to the fireplace, where a table is on top of the equipment she has spent years acquiring. Even recognizing that it's not the best there is. Its loss would be painful for her. But in these circumstances, she can only hope for the best.

The fireplace is extinguished while in it is the pot she uses for cooking, and sometimes for making some preparations she needs for her remedies. "Here it is." She says a bit bitterly, momentarily forgetting to be careful when speaking to the mage.

Fortunately, he seems more focused on studying the house. Losing some time looking around, when she had spoken, he was looking at her bed on the other side of the house.

For a brief moment, she even started to think that he wanted to take a nap. Which wouldn't be so strange after all, she had no way of knowing how long he had been traveling. And life on the road can be tiring.

"Thank you." he finally says, looking straight at her. While giving her a small nod with his head. His gaze turns to the buckets of water she has next to the fireplace. And he takes on a look of thinking about something. Which she can't even guess.

"Here it is." she hears the cheerful voice of the blond young man saying as he enters her house with a bundle wrapped in a large cloth. "Put it there." the mage instructs while pointing to a space on the floor next to her alchemy table. The young Seres quickly complies, before asking. "Anything else?"

"No, accompany the lady outside." hearing this, Seres seems to become sad. Leading her to think that he wanted to see what the young mage was about to do. But quickly seems to compose himself and indicates to her the exit of her own house.

Considering that Eudora has no other solution. She decides to accompany the young man outside her house. When on the street, she sees something that worries her appear on the path leading here. A large group of her fellow villagers is coming here. Most likely, after seeing the fire, they had come to try to help.

The problem is that when they realize the story. What some may already know, thanks to Nela. When that happens, it can cause a conflict with these outsiders. Unfortunately, the mage inside her house can at the very least hurt many of her family and friends.

With that in mind Eudora, goes straight to them to control the mood. At the moment, all these outsiders want is to use her equipment. It's better to let them.

She joins the other villagers still some distance from her house. And quickly begins to explain to them what happened. As she had predicted, some of the more heated ones started right away suggesting, facing the mage.

Fortunately, between her and some of the more sensible villagers, they manage to get the approach of waiting to see to, prevail.

Meanwhile, the last member of the mage's group is busy controlling the fire. Running around the tree so that a new fire focus doesn't start.

A small group of villagers decides to go help. After all, it's in their interest to prevent the fire from spreading. Another group goes to the blond, who is next to their mule.

He quickly intercepts the people and begins to try to move them away from the pack animal. Which in turn creates some confusion and friction.

To try to ease things she goes there. "Please, move away." the young man asks the group of villagers. "Why? This is our village, now we can't go wherever we want." Alaric, a teenager, and one of the hottest heads in the village, replies. The boy simply didn't like what happened and was trying to create problems.

Although she has no doubt that he only wants to protect the village and its inhabitants. He didn't see the mage casting his spell as if it were nothing. As such, he doesn't understand the danger he's causing. In his heart, there is only the revolt because of what he understands as an attack. Against which he is being prevented from reacting.

So, he limited himself to finding a small way to face these attackers. "Alaric Verboc, what are you doing?" she asks him in a sweet voice as she approaches close enough.

"Grandma Dora. I'm not doing anything." the boy replies in a strident voice. Already knowing that the sweetness of his voice will quickly disappear. Which almost leads him to return to the little boy who stole sweet apples from her. Not that the last time that occurred was a long time ago.

"So you're not trying to cause trouble? No!" she says in a harsher voice. "Of course not, we just wanted to go sit there," Alaric says while looking around, trying to find support from his friends. While pointing to a spot near the outsiders' animal.

"And I understand, it's just that the mule is..." the young Seres begins to say. Trying to justify his actions by preventing them from approaching.

The boy has a strange hesitation, while trying to find an excuse but finally says cautiously. "... difficult. Being too close to her can cause problems."

"What my friend means is that the beast takes after its owner. So you can count on her biting someone. And that's the minimum it will do." says a new voice. When she turns, it reveals to belong to the other member of the strangers' group.

The young brunette, who if she's not mistaken is called Adar. So, far he was following the instructions he had received. Taking care to ensure that the fire from the tree did not spread. But now he came here, most likely to help his friend.

"Hey, that's a bit unfair. Nero isn't that bad." Says Seres, honestly sounding offended on behalf of absent the mage.

"Unfair! Only if it's with the mule, who of the two is less irritable." the brunette replies, with some intensity.

"He's not that bad." the blond repeats in defense of the third member of their group.

"Yeah, sure, he's not. Seres, when are you going to wise up? You can't stand by him just because he knows powerful magic." an annoyed Adar says. She can immediately see that this is an argument these two have often.

"I'm just saying he's not that bad with others. You know he's even nice to other people. The hunters had no problem with him."

Upon hearing this argument from the blond, Adar doesn't seem to find anything to disagree with. As such, he simply shrugs slightly.

The sudden argument between the two has the virtue of calming, the spirits of the group that was challenging Seres. After all, how can they create conflicts when their opponent is already busy arguing?

Furthermore, from the discussion, it's easy to conclude that these two are just puppets. And that they must be mistreated by their boss. Eudora feels a little bad for thinking. It was they who mistreated the other. Just because he dressed poorly. Which upon further thought is a bit strange.

But anyway, she decides to finish what she started by saying, "Well, I understand you. I also understand stubborn people who don't do what they should."

Her gaze goes straight to Alaric and his friends. Who immediately understand the message and start moving away.

When Eudora prepares to continue the conversation with the two young men. In an attempt to find out more about this strange group, the door of her house opens, and the third young man appears in the doorway.

He seems to hesitate, noticing the group of villagers not too far away. Finally, deciding to simply wave for his companions to come closer.

While the two young men obey, she can't help but notice that the mage is wearing a cloth covering his face. Does he think her house smells bad, or something?

The thought leaves her somewhat insulted; her house may be poor, but it's clean.

But then she remembers that the magician lit the fireplace. Something she noticed when she was clarifying things with the other villagers. This is not surprising. After all, he must need the fire for his potions. She can only hope he hasn't filled her house with smoke.

Or worse, toxic fumes from the potions. If that's the reason, he is protecting himself. Then, her house could become uninhabitable. Something worrying, but if that's the price of protecting her village, she accepts it.

The other villagers are also observing the strange scene. But fortunately, the other elders are keeping the group, which by now must be the entire village, under control.

The blond Seres separates from their gathering at the door coming in her direction.

"Sorry to bother you. But Nero needs to ask you some questions," he says to her in a friendly and almost cheerful tone. The poor boy seems to enjoy being useful to the powerful mage. Another child passionate about magic, something that rarely ends well.

But with no other options, she follows him to her house. Just giving a glance and a nod to the group of villagers to reassure them. To see if they don't act impulsively when she enters her house.

She enters her own house leaving the other two strangers at the door. Upon entering, she is amazed. She saw the house in a way she had never seen before. Her house was illuminated by a floating ball of magical light next to her alchemy table.

Which allowed every corner of her house to be visible. A result like this could be achieved with candles, but the cost would be immense. She doubts that even a noble would spend money like that.

Seeing her house like this, she can only remember that she was just thinking about how clean her house was. But seeing several dark stains caused by years of smoke. That before were invisible in the darkness but not anymore.

Next to the light is the mage, indicating for her to approach. Which she does. While approaching the table, she notices that for now, Nero hasn't done much. The ingredients he seems to want to use are already cut. And a series of herbs seem to have already been reduced to paste. But for the time he's been here, she expected to see more progress.

But when she gets to the side of the young man, she notices to her embarrassment the reason for the delay.

On the fire is hot water, with a dirty cloth next to it. It shows how this mage had been washing the table and the area around it. She would never have said that the space was dirty before, but for this strange mage, that doesn't seem to be true. So much so that he subjected himself to cleaning it personally.

Out of nowhere, he starts sneezing towards the table.

"Ah, it's a good thing I put this on. Otherwise, I'd have to start over." He says, pointing to the cloth covering his face. "I really hate being sick."

For her part, Eudora doesn't know what to say to this comment. What would be the reason he would have to start over? After all, he just sneezed a little.

But before she can say anything, the powerful light illuminating her house disappears. Leaving the fireplace as the only source of light. What she would have said was more than enough light before, now it seems to leave her house gloomy.

Beside her, she hears a soft and calm whisper. "The last light of magic."

And with that, the ball of light reappears as suddenly as it disappears. The mage, in turn, seems strangely focused on the result of his own magic.

"How long would you say I've been here?" a strange question asked by the mage. Was he so focused that he lost track of time?

"At least half an hour. And closer to an hour." Eudora replies.

"Much more than six minutes." she doesn't know what he means by that. How can he think only six minutes have passed? The absurdity of the comment leaves her speechless. How can she respond to such a thing?

"Last time, with everything that happened, I didn't notice the duration of the spells. But it seems to me that they lasted the same." She quickly realizes he seems to be talking to himself. Thinking about something.

Being something related to magic, she can't say anything. Also, she doesn't dare to interrupt the mage.

"Of course! Time is different. I have to stop thinking in real-time and think in-game time..." he says excitedly until he looks at her. Falling silent.

The whole comment leaves her confused, not understanding a word of what he just said. But his final look leaves her worried. Did she just hear some great magical secret? For which she will have to be silenced.

The thought leaves her mouth dry and some of her fear must show on her face. The young man takes a step back, saying, "Don't worry. I was just thinking to myself." something she had already understood.

"I just realized that I've been counting the time wrong. Some spells last longer than I assumed. A bit silly, isn't it?" He's been counting time wrong. But how can someone do that? But anyway, it's best not to think about it. She knows nothing about magic and it's better not to learn now.

"If you say so. I know nothing about magic. And more importantly, what is the reason you called me here?"

"Oh yes. I wanted to ask you some questions about your equipment," says the young man, approaching her again while pointing to the table.

"I didn't have access to such complete equipment last time. So I'm afraid of damaging something. So it's best to ask, don't you think?" A perspective for which she had to be thankful for. Because it would really be worse for her if he destroyed something. On the other hand, the young man had effectively declared himself a beginner. Which in alchemy can be dangerous in several ways.

So, she came to the conclusion that his concern must be more about his potions and ingredients. After all, he may end up with poisonous potions or destroy rare and valuable ingredients.

Anyway, it's best to be as helpful as possible.

"Then the lord can ask whatever questions he wants."