44 Chapter 44: A Thousand Apologies

Frei was waiting when she quit Jean's study room. Rena kept walking, ignoring him, heading toward the tower. From the distance, she could see the small windows on the brick tower and green ivy plants grew thick on the wall. She was looking forward to seeing Jean's lab, eager to see what she could find there. Although there was a little disturbance...

"Don't you have anything else better to do than following me?"

"I could help you with your training."

"I don't need your help."

Her answers become more snappy as she got irritated why Frei kept following her like a dog.

When Rena arrived at the tower, looking at the magic seal was drawn on the door, proved that it was protected by Jean's magic. The man behind her spoke, "I also want to apologize."

He said every word clearly, trying to convey he meant it.

"For what? You don't owe any apology to me."

"Then why are you angry?" Frei was calm, but his question was asked carefully.

She was bitter about her own helplessness and how she wanted to erase her feeling she just discovered.

"You don't need to be so kind and concern about me, I'm just your slave."

She took the key from her pocket with one hand while the other hand held the book she borrowed from Jean. She inserted the key to the keyhole and turned it.

"If I do that, will you not be angry anymore?"

Rena didn't answer him, his words become more and more irritating for her, as if he was trying to lure her anger out.

She twisted the door handle, pushing the door opened and quickly went inside. Even quicker trying to close the door. However, he had held the door already with his hand.

"Go away!" She shouted, pushing the door.

But the door wouldn't budge even an inch.

"I've never seen you as a slave." He said clearly.

She could see half of his face which wasn't covered by the wooden door. His sea-green eyes looking directly at her.

"Then what are you doing this morning?" She said while making a cynical smile. "Didn't you restrict me with a slave contract?"

Frei didn't answer her. However, she noticed a slight discomfort on his face. Before her mind could process what happened, Frei used that moment to slip inside the place and closed the door.

The two of them only stared at each other. She swore she would kick his ass if he approached her any further.

Then Frei said something unexpected.

"Sorry."

Just one word, without giving her any reason. No sweet words, no smile. He just looked at her straight in the eyes

Frei was completely aware the reasons for her anger. But no matter how much he hurt her, he was unwilling to let her go.

Finally, Rena relented. She was hurt, but treating him badly didn't give her any benefit either. Sighing deeply, she spoke impassively, "You need a thousand apologies before I could forgive you."

"Alright," Frei said. "Sorry... Sorry... Sorry... Sorry... Sorry... Sorry... Sorry..."

"Stop!! What are you doing?!" Rena looked at him angrily.

"You said you'll forgive me for a thousand apologies." He made a pouty face.

She put her hands on her face.

"I meant it won't be that easy to forgive you! Anyway, can't you just stop bothering me? I want to improve my magic skills, not wasting my time with you."

"I will help your training." He said insistently.

Ignoring him, she walked to the middle of the room. Her gaze carefully observed Jean's lab, noticing how the inside was much bigger than the outside. She quickly assumed this was spatial manipulation magic.

The room was filled with rolls of parchments and tools she had never seen, a few things scattered here and there on the floor. But the one that took her attention right away was the big globe in the center of the room. She approached the miniature planet.

"Is this Terrasia...?" She moved her head closer, bending her body a little.

"I'll answer your question if you forgive me," Frei said. He stood up and walked to where she was standing.

"It's fine too if you don't answer," Rena replied sharply.

He gave a soft sigh before answering her question. "That's not Terrasia. Terrasia is the name we gave for West and East Continent combined. Generally, it is the place where human lived."

She looked at the blue globe that was half her size, circling it slowly. Her head moved left and right a little, examining it.

"I'll make it 999 if you tell me what is this?" She pouted a little while saying it.

Frei couldn't help smiling, looking at her pursed lips. "991, I said some earlier. This is the miniature of our planet, Eden."

She muttered the word as she looked at the rotating blue globe in front of her, "Eden..."

Frei pointed out the place where they currently at with his finger. "We're here, this area is Valia Kingdom territory."

The green represented the land, and the blue was water. Rena directed her gaze at the green peninsula Frei pointing. The globe showed the location of the human continent just barely above the equator line, with its southern tips touching that imaginary line. The land outline was similar to the Rena saw before on the ship's map.

"And this is where Ardia Kingdom, right?" Rena pointed at the southern tips of the West Continent.

"Yes." He gave her a firm response.

"Frei... If there are human continents, is there any non-human continents?" Rena asked. Her curiosity beat her frustration over him.

"Yeah, this is Dragoria, it's the place where the dragons breed." Frei pointed another land mass on the southern hemisphere of the planet. "The place is too harsh for humans to live, the land is dry because constant scorching of dragon's breath, magma river on the surface, and active volcanoes could erupt at any given time."

"Uwee.... Dragons..." Rena said, her lips slightly made a downward curve.

"It's okay. Dragons live far away from human land, although that also applies to other magical creatures. It's not an everyday occurrence you walk into the street, found an abandoned selkie and brought it home."

"I don't casually pick him up."

Frei made a small laugh looking at her annoyed face. Then he asked, "Do you still want me to continue?"

She glared at him but nodded.

"This place is Evoria." He pointed at a land mass on the northern hemisphere. "There are some magical beasts who could withstand the harsh freezing temperature and settle here. Your selkie is probably come from here."

(Is that true, Neel?)

[Yeah, my home is pretty close to the mainland.]

"Also, there are islands inhabited by beastmen, spirits, or dwarves."

"Those races exist too, huh..." She blinked a few times, staring at the miniature Eden.

"Well, we don't mingle with other races, any contact with them was minimum during a peaceful time. Some people live their life without seeing any of them." Frei said. "I could tell you more if you are interested but don't you want to do your magic training?"

"Yeah." Rena nodded. She got distracted by Frei's explanation that she almost forgot what she intended to do.

"It's okay, I have a similar thing in my house, although smaller and not as amazing as this one." Frei tapped the circular wooden structure that supporting the globe. "I also have a lot of books, it's all for you to read. I can't teach you magic, but I can teach you other stuff."

She was quiet for a moment. He was being kind and generous right now just like the usual him, it was almost like she was the bad person who didn't know her place.

"I'll think about it." Rena shortly answered.

Rena turned around and headed toward the circular stairs, recalling what Jean said that the practice room was at the top. Her feet steadily stepped at the staircase one by one as she went up the tower.

The middle floor had a big wooden table, full of tubes and jars. Dried plant and organs filling the jars, but there were also some living lizards there. Mortar and pestle that was made of stone, and several cauldrons on the floor that were made of different materials. Colorful bottles were placed neatly on the shelves. She recognized right away that this must be the place where Jean experimented with potions.

Frei, who was following Rena, had also arrived in the room.

"This is rather creepy, isn't it?" He looked at one of the jars that had a big eyeball floating in the liquid.

"Have you never been here before?" Rena asked while she peeked at the content of the black cauldron.

"This is my first time here. Even he wouldn't let me in, you should be proud he allows you to come here."

"Then how about you? You are sneaking here." She frowned, blaming him. She didn't want Jean to get mad at her.

"As long as I don't touch anything, it would be fine," Frei said casually.

So they moved up again, climbing the stairs, and arrived at the top floor.

"There.... really is nothing here." Rena stared at the empty room. A sudden breeze welcomed her through the small windows. She walked to one of the windows and got a clear view of the royal palace.

"Beautiful, isn't it? I think Ladylake Castle with its peaceful atmosphere is the most beautiful palace in the seven kingdoms, although others would disagree with me." Frei said, smiling a little as he gazed the distance palace.

"Yeah... It's really beautiful, like coming from fairy tales." She watched the beautiful white castle that was surrounded by the blue shimmering lake.

"Why would other people disagree?" Rena turned her head on the man beside her.

"Well... They said Ardia Kingdom's palace is the most magnificent."

"Oh? What does it look like?" Rena asked.

Frei was thinking for a while before answering, "Isidor Palace is more of ivory color, just like the great wall of Fort Forenza. The palace was made from a single rock, a mega size rock that came from the bottom of the sea. It had an intricate design carved by spirits, the hall was decorated by the jewels given by the dwarves, the throne was made from ancient dragon's bone, and the surrounding garden was built by beastmen. It was a wedding present to King Isidor from The Amethyst Wizard."

After what he just said, there was no way Rena wouldn't be interested.

"Will I be to see it when we arrive at Ardia?" She asked, staring at Frei, who was gazing at the white castle.

"Unfortunately, I don't live near the capital, but you will see it someday," Frei said, turning his head on her, smiling.

Rena nodded and without her able to stop it, a smile spread on her face as well. She quickly realized this and turned around. "I want to practice now."

But in this empty room, there wasn't anything she could use as a target. So, she used the windows as her targets. Her wind magic went through the small windows when the spell hit the marks. She kept practicing like this for about fifteen minutes while Frei sat on the floor, watching her.

"Use me as a practice target." When Frei suddenly said that, Rena's spell hit the wall.

She stopped casting and turned her head to Frei. "Huh?"

"A living target would be a better practice. Attack me as many as you want." He got up from the floor. "Magic doesn't have any effect on me, you can't hurt me even if you attack me with your strongest magic."

"But..." Rena was still speechless. Not sure what she must do, being told to hit Frei with attacking spell.

"I also want to know your progress so far."

In the end, she accepted his suggestion. As she was inhaling a deep breath, feeling the sensation of magic in her body, Frei spoke again, "By the way, you don't look surprisedd."

"Uhm..." Rena compressed her lips, making a thin line. She was considering whether to tell him or no that she had known about his ability from Neel.

"Did that selkie tell you?" Frei quickly guessed the answer.

"Yeah." She nodded.

"Well, this power is troublesome for magicians and magical beings, but that's it." He shrugged. "It's more inconvenient than useful to me."

Rena was quiet. When Frei was speaking, she noticed his tone carried resentment.

"Aren't you angry at me?" He said, the corner of his mouth lifted. "I'm giving you a chance to hit me."

Even if she was angry at him, she didn't want to injure him. But Frei seemed to be confident about it, so she agreed to his suggestion.

Rena lifted her hand to his direction and shouted, "Fireball!"

The ball of flame shot out from her palm, however, it hit the wall. Frei dodged it.

"Eh..." Rena was surprised by his movement.

"I didn't say I could not dodge it." He smirked. "Anytime you failed to hit me, let's reduce the apologies I owe you. That would be... 990 left?"

"Who said you could do that?!" Rena shouted. "Windblade!"

The slashing wind came to Frei direction, yet once again, he evaded it with a little movement. He twirled a little and said, "989."

"I didn't say I agree with that!" She glared at him, frustration building up in her.

"Come on, I still owe you a lot of apologies."

"I'll forgive you if my spell hit you. Icebreath!"

Frei stepped back, avoiding the freezing wind. "It won't be training then. 988."

"Fine! I'll definitely hit you with my spell today! Fireballs!!" She threw seven smaller fireballs to Frei.

Frei was like dancing in the ballroom, avoiding Rena's spell. She didn't give him a chance to rest, kept throwing her spells at him. It was like Rena didn't have a cooling down period, a time before magician could cast another spell after launching a spell. However, no matter how fast she threw her spell on him, Frei managed to dodge all of them.

Rena soon discovered another thing about Frei; his physical ability was quite high. He had a good reflex, not making any unnecessary movement, and he didn't break a sweat even after Rena made him running around the room for an hour.

After all of her attacking spells were completely dodged by him, she suddenly remembered how Jean often threw a water orb at Frei. Even though Frei said magic didn't have any effect on him, he still got wet that one time.

She cast several Fireballs on him, and as she predicted Frei avoided them successfully. But no matter where he moved, he wouldn't be able to dodge this one. Concentrating a big amount of magic power on her palm, she shouted, "Water!"

A torrent of water gushed from her hand, just like a water dam broke free. The water was filling up the room, and although she'd probably need a topologize to Jean later because of this. Rena was too excited right now that she finally able to hit Frei with his spell.

A winning smile appeared on her face as she saw Frei was drenched in water. From his white long sleeve shirt to his brown leather boots, he was soaking wet.

"Good job, Rena. You've successfully made us wet." Instead of getting angry, Frei was smiling. "Now we can take a bath together."

"Eh?!" Realizing her mistake, she said, "I could dry us quickly! Wind!"

A gust of wind kept whirling inside the room before Rena sneezed, "Achoo!"

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