129. The Great Trade
"Young Colt, the process of healing this kind of injury is going to hurt, just a tiny bit. But do not worry, I will heal you like your wounds were never there in the first place. Are you okay with that?" Just as they reached the ninth floor, Lucille felt the need to warn and ask Colt such words.
Colt saw Lucille as a caring Master. Thus, he didn't think much about it and agreed, "I trust you, Tower Master."
"I will not fail you, Young Colt," Lucille uttered with her back turned to Colt.
As they reached the tenth floor, they were barred by a steel door filled with runes. No one could enter that room unless it were Lucille or Mina.
After Lucille did some fancy hand movements and painted lines on the air using mana, the runes glowed and the door opened with a creak.
All of the windows in that room were closed, only the lights of the glowing runes provided light. And as the doors closed with a creak, Colt heard a very subtle continuous laugh from Lucille.
He swallowed his saliva, and before the doors closed, a scream reverberated in the Magic Tower.
Inside the Magic Tower, screams were nullified by the runes they placed around the area. They did it so they will not get noise complaints so much.
However, one particular scream threatened that as Colt screamed on top of his lungs while his bone was reconnected. He found one of the most traumatizing moments of his life.
Colt's eyes were widened. He was too shocked to even comment on what the hell just happened. It somehow took an hour for his leg to get reconnected, and in that hour, Colt experienced pure horror.
With cold sweat dripping down his body, Colt trembled, "Y-you're scarier than Teacher Neun…"
His experience could never be told.
"Don't be such a pussy. I did my best to reconnect your bone and heal you up, no problem. Cut me some slack. You didn't even die. Complain when you die, not when you survive."
Lucille proudly uttered. Colt, in the end, stayed silent. Talking to Lucille was not going to go anywhere, no matter what he says.
As Colt stretched his body, he remembered something and asked, "Tower Master."
"Just call me Lucille or Miss Cille."
"Okay, Miss Cille, do you have any more Purple God Shards I can take?"
"NO!" Lucille immediately answered as she moved to one corner of the room where she protected her stash. She seems pretty eccentric, to say the least, "This is my precious stash, and I'm using this to learn about the secrets of lightning and become the first Lightning Mage."
Colt looked at this petty maniac and sighed at her pathetic sight, "If you're experimenting to become the first Lightning Mage, then there's already someone who beat you to it. Someone already mastered Lightning Magic by now."
"What!? Who is it? Who dare steal my glorious experiment?" Lucille crawled towards Colt and grabbed his shoulders.
'She's strong for a Mage.'
"Miss Cille, please calm down, I'm going to tell you what's his name anyway, so please do not act in this manner."
"Who is it?"
Like how touchy scientists were back on earth in terms of their experiment topic, Mages were the same because their identity correlates with Magical Technology.
They would kill to get the upper hand on someone who researches the same topic as they were. In the City of Magic Orthuna, it was a cutthroat business when they present their Thesis.
Colt could see how severe Lucille's expression was in this.
"It's Yrva, the heir to the Genesis Family!"
"Genesis Family?" Lucille moved away from Colt. Releasing a deep sigh, her disappointment was unmeasurable, "Well, that makes sense."
"You're not surprised?"
"Grand Sorcerer Astrape proposed the Theory Lightning Magic, someone from the Genesis Family of the past. It's not that surprising. His treasure may even be with them to help with the process."
Colt remembered something vital, and something inside him clicked, "Astrape? Treasure? Are you talking about the Lightning Orb of Astrape?"
"You know of it, Young Colt?"
"Well, I have read about it multiple times." Colt nodded his head as he remembered trading the location of the Lightning Orb for Yrva's and Jin's safety. It was a Magic-related treasure. He couldn't use it, so he handed it to the most trustworthy Mage he knew, Yrva of the Genesis Family.
"I don't know much about it, but I heard it's one of Mystical Treasure of the World, correct?"
"Yes, that Lightning Orb of Astrape was one of the seven Mystical Treasure gifted by the Goddesses. Grand Sorcerer Astrape was the strongest Sorcerer of his time, and he fought with the Master of the Elves then to fight the Beast of Lightning and Fire."
While Lucille was telling Colt the story, tossed him a rolled scroll.
He opened the scroll and an image of three people atop a mountain fighting against a beast possessing three pairs of wings.
The image was vivid. The two were marked purple and the other green. The person honored with the purple controlled the lightning from beyond the dark clouds, and the one with the green mark braved the cyclone of fires drawing its attacks.
"The one marked purple should be Astrape, and the green should be the King of Elves, then, correct? But who's the one leading the charge?"
In the middle of the battle, there was someone else drawn in full black. It caught Colt's attention very much.
Lucille walked over and looked at the scroll, "Oh, that's the one who had the World Devourer you now have."
"Oh, is that—" Colt quickly turned his head to Lucille, his mouth gaping wide. A smirking Sorceress locked eyes with him. Before he can even reason, Lucille already grabbed his left hand.
"I knew it was the World Devourer."
"Let go! I'll tell Mina on you." Colt felt an indescribable pressure from Lucille.
"Tell her then. I can overpower that twerp any second. She'll hate me, but if I don't make any moves on you, then I'm on the green. She��ll forgive me."
Colt also came to that realization. If Mina was a full-blown yandere then there was no chance she would forgive Lucille. But she wasn't so Lucille had a point.
"How did you even learn that I have the World Devourer?"
Lucille giggled, "Quite simple Young Colt. When your left arm was cut off, I was the one who attached your arm. When I was reattaching your arm, that black mark you have sucked up my mana. And earlier, though it was minuscule, I can feel a hint of Mana in your system through that mark, you may fool Mina, but you can't fool a True Sorceress like myself."
'So the reason she took so long was because of this thing?' he knew something was up. And being in the situation that he was in, Colt grew helpless.
"It seems like I can't hide it anymore. Please, let me go. I'll do whatever you want except giving you my left arm." Colt knows he wouldn't die, so his voice instantly became calmer. Lucille already knew. There was nothing he could do.
Lucille raised her brows; it was a shocking statement from Colt. But it was an acceptable one, "Heh, heh, I beginning to like you more and more."
"Thanks, I supposed. So, Miss Cille, what do you need from me? I need to go back to the Manor; I have people to care for. I forgot, I want you to help me with something if I help you with this."
"I'll help you with anything if you answer my questions. So, I'll get to the point, if you know the location of the World Devourer, then you must know of the location of the Lightning Orb!"
"Oh, I traded that off for someone's life. I'm sorry, but Yrva of the Genesis Family already got that. You must already know I'm telling you the truth. He did become a Lightning Mage."
"…" Lucille was silent for some time, "Ahem, so that's how he managed to become a Lightning Mage. No matter; what about the World Tree? That is the ultimate form of Healing Magic. If I can get my hands on that, I'll be—"
"I gifted that to Mina as her Bride Token." Colt was brutally honest. Lucille didn't peg him as the maniacal slaughterer, so he was honest with her. Besides, she couldn't possibly hope to raid the Genesis Family for the Lightning Orb or kill Mina for the World Tree.
And just to prove Colt's point, Lucille began sulking on a corner while fiddling with her thumb and pouting.
'So that's where Mina got that trait.'
It was a fascinating sight.