Chapter - 4: Silica Garcia

'He has really inherited the deeds his mother used to do, but seeing his pure eyes with curiosity, I can't say no to him.' Lamina thought.

"Are you interested in magic, little Ryan? The one you just saw was the special magic of your grandmother. Not many people have this type of magic, so you can be now proud of being my grandson hahaha." Lamina, knowing that Ryan got interested in her magic, puffed her chest in front of Leon with pride, as if to say that see, our grandson is more interested in talking to me than you.

Leon had an ugly face at this moment. He was also proficient in different magic but he didn't have chance to show it, now he missed in impressing his grandson with magic before her. He looked like someone who ate a fly. Ryan didn't pay attention to their antiques, he was already used to it. They always had attitude of comparing with each other as he got to know more about their nature. What caught his attention was that not everyone can use same type of magic since he heard his grandmother say that she was one of the few who could use such magic....'interesting research topic..' he thought.

"Okay, we will talk about this topic later, now you have some eating to do, so don't get distracted in talking about this and that. First finish eating later when we return, I will answer your questions." Unpacking the box Lamina told Ryan. After that, Ryan ate his fill while he had many thoughts racing in his head. He had decided to learn magic at all conditions. Just after he finished their carriage came to stop somewhere on the roadside.

Curious enough to what made their carriage to stop, Ryan put his head out of window of the carriage to see where are they taking a stop.

What greeted his eyes was a beautiful three-story building, which at the end had stone boundary of considerably high enough that no ordinary person can jump. There was a guard stationed at the gate.when he saw their carriage, he came forward to greet them.

"Lord Duke welcome. Our Lady has told us that you will be arriving. We have prepared everything, this way please." The guard came near them and bowed his head ninty degree and said loudly. Then took their carriage to the front door of the building and after we got down from carriage, he with our carriage driver, left somewhere backside.

"Ryan the one who stays here used to be one of the members of our party when we used to be Adventurer. She is a great person be sure to greet her properly." Lamina explained their relationship with the home owner of this place. They started walking inside through the garden where you can see various kind of flowers at a glance. Lamina continued her explanation while walking.

Ryan listened carefully and new who the person that was living here was. The one who lived here was known as Silica Garcia. According to his grandmother, she was one of the best person who is proficient in different runes engraving and enchantment methods. Runes and enchantment is one of the lost technic, When they were still young and was in the same party she used to experiment her runes and enchantment technic on their weapon and armours.

This was rare subject with not much study material, since this was a very rarely studied topic because of its complications there are not many people who wants to learn it and those who show some enthusiasm towards it are not proficient in it, they are constantly researching about it while searching for related information from old books.

"Silica got many offers so that she could share her knowledge in this field... Fame, riches and many other offers were made but she never accepted them."

While her grandmother told him about this famous figure, they moved inside, where he saw the person in the explanation who looked around forty years old exactly like his grandparents. Ryan actually didn't know the real age of anyone of them. They looked exactly the same in last years without any changes in there body. Although they are at the age around sixty or seventy according to common sense, it's seems that this magic thing really do some magic.

In his last life people of this age get wrinkles on their faces and their health starts degrading but here, this doesn't seems to be the case. They had no wrinkles on their faces while they had their back straight which contrasts to the image he held for aged people.

Feeling movements in the hall, the person in evaluation turned her attention towards them. When she saw their arrival Silica stood up from her couch and greeted them.

"Lamina it's been a while since we met." Silica had a wide smile on her face which showed how happy she was to meet her friend.

"Yeah! It's like two or three months the last time, I saw you. I always tells you that you should move to our mansion it's too big for us, but you never leaves here. I know that at this place we used to live once but that is not the reason you should chose this place. You know that Happy memories can be made anywhere if you have the people you care about with you." Comments between ladies never ends, this was Ryan's personal experience which was true to the point that it never fails in comparison to anything.

Not refuting Lamina, Silica turned her attention towards Ryan.

"So this is little Ryan huh. Last time when I visited our cute boy was lost in his dreams. Hey boy come here." After their little chat, Silica turned to talk to Ryan, while gesturing him to come near her.

"Hello granny Silica." Ryan has mastered art of making cute face which took him almost six to seven months, using this unique skill as weapon he has given many people deep wounds. So he used his most lethal weapon and approached Silica and got into her arms.

Silica had a pleased smile on her face when see saw Ryan's reaction. Happiness involuntarily appeared on her face. She picked Ryan up from the ground and held him in her hands.

"Good boy, such a good boy. Lamina you are really luck, you had such a good son and now you have such a cute grandson. You really will kill this old lady with envy." Silica joked lightly while she invited her guests to sit on the couch. After some small talks between two grannies a maid came with some drinks which she served to the three adults while Ryan sat on Silica's lap without showing any movements.

"Silica don't pretend like I don't even exists. You should at least have to greet me as I am also guest of your house. Are you and Lamina insulting me in front of my grandson??" Leon felt left out when he heard them talking among themselves while they didn't even look at him. He had feeling that this might damage his image in his grandson's mind as mighty grandpa so he couldn't stop himself from saying.

"Have I invited you?? Be grateful that you are even allowed to enter in my house, if not for giving Lamina some face, I won't even let you enter this mansion." Silica glared at Leon, Ryan got goosebumps all over as he experienced the change in atmosphere around them. It was like a sleeping volcano which was suppressed is about to erupt.

'This old man is really something. I don't know why but I feel like I should never mention his name in front of people if, someone asks me that, am I his grandson? Don't know if it's gut feeling but doing so may help me in preserving my life for a longer while.' Ryan, seeing the change in Silica's way of talking to Leon made a determination not to admit himself as Leon's grandson in front of any powerful person. He felt that this was really good decision, which he didn't know was his best move he may have thought of, until the near future.

"Old man, didn't I tell you to keep your mouth shut while we talk. This is the reason I don't want to take you with me when I visit our old friends. They try to ignore you and forget about old matters but you have to always mess with them." Lamina was really embarrassed at the movement. She really didn't wants to come here with Leon but she thought that it was a good time to introduce Ryan and Silica she wouldn't have come here. she only came when Leon made promise that he will stay quiet and will not make trouble, she thought it would be alright but now it seems that she really made a mistake this time.

'Aaee.. I was really impulsive this time.' Lamina thought.

"So you want me to pay attention to you? Okay, I get it but for that you have to first pay me for all the materials and those equipments that I enchanted for you, with different runes and magic. Or you can always use equally valuable as payment method so yeah, after that you can join us or if not, than you better keep your mouth shut here Leon. We are old friends so don't give me reason to embarrass you." This time, Silica was really mad. This shameless old man was opportunistic and really stingy. When they were still adventures, he literally took everything he dims attractive to himself on any mission, also he took advantage of their party members unique skills. As for payment he will always say later and since they were all friends they also not bothered at that time but this shameless man really took everything for granted without paying anything back. Rich bastard...

'Now even with all his money that his household made, he doesn't want to pay for all the things he borrowed and even never returned them to me and the party members.... shameless bastard.' Silica didn't have anymore good impression of Leon.

'Is my house in debt?? How much could one person loan that with all the riches that we have, grandpa can't pay it back. Am i going to be a working human machine all my life, only to repay for this old man's loan. My future looks dark, to me now. All the light that I had in my life is being extinguished and funny thing is that I can feel it.... God please be merciful at this little soul." Ryan expression turned dark on thinking of future possibilities and the criticism he will suffer from his grandpa's friends. Thinking about it, he sensed his heart bleeding. All those happy memories he made untill now started losing into darkness.