Isabella

Anise came to the bed, laid next to me and hugged me while saying: "Are you sure it was fine letting those people go? If the Emperor finds out about it you might get into trouble."

"It should be all right. I only hope to manage to solve everything and leave the Capital before things get even more complicated."

"Do you think they will agree to your request?"

"I'm not sure to be honest. Having the Imperial Wizard come with me will leave the Emperor unprotected so that's out of the question probably. I can only hope that she'll at least agree to show me a few devices and explain how they work."

"Did you think about how you're going to explain all that knowledge you wrote in your book? That is definitely something unheard of in this world."

"I'll just tell them the truth if they ask about it. Doesn't matter since, with Lysa and Velor being his children, he probably knows anyway. Are you coming with me tomorrow?"

Anise shook her head and said: "No. I want to stay here and finish reading through these books. I want to grow stronger quick and be able to help you in fights. Do you mind?"

"No. It's probably going to be boring anyway. I'm going to sleep since I wasted quite a bit of mana as I kept teleporting back and forth."

Anise kissed my cheek and rested her head on my shoulder before saying: "Thank you. Have an easy sleep."

I smiled and closed my eyes, ready to go to sleep. For some reason or another I felt really tired today.

On the morning of the next day, I woke up and noticed that Anise was already up reading through the books I made yesterday.

"You woke up early." I remarked. She raised her head from the book and said with a smile: "Good morning. I didn't sleep last night. I stayed with you until you fell asleep before I got up and started reading again."

I stood up from the bed and walked to her side. Hugging her from behind, I peeked over her shoulder and looked at what she was reading. Seeing me get close, she turned towards me, kissed my cheek and said: "Can you help me with some parts I don't fully understand?".

I nodded and she started asking questions about the stuff she didn't fully understand. Like this, we spent the morning with me explaining some of the theories in the books I made. A few hours later, there was a knock on the door.

Sitting up from behind Anise, I walked to the door and opened it. Oliver was there with a smile on his face. Seeing me open the door, he immediately said: "Are you ready?"

I nodded and turned towards Anise: "I'm going out. See you later." After Anise waved me off, I got out and followed after Oliver.

As we were walking towards the castle in the distance, he said to me: "I already spoke to the Emperor and he agreed to meet with you inside his courtyard. Since it's not an official audience there's no need for court courtesies but you should still try to act politely. I'll start telling you a few things you should or shouldn't do so pay careful attention."

For the rest of the way, he kept talking to me about what I should and shouldn't do. I listened to him intently until we eventually arrived at the courtyard's entry. After Oliver showed the guards some kind of letter, they let us in and we headed towards the garden were I was supposed to meet with the Emperor. I was a lot more relaxed than I thought I would be, but I couldn't really figure out why.

As I got closed to a relatively big table in the center, I saw a middle-aged man drinking what looked like tea together with Lysa. He didn't look at all as I was expecting. He just looked like a normal father. Golden colored hair and kind smile on his face as he chatted merrily with his daughter.

A woman that looked in her late twenties was sitting to the side and ignored the two's conversation as she was reading through the book I made the other day. As I got closer, she was the first one who felt me approaching and closed the book before slowly putting it down on the table while softly caressing it's cover with her rosy slender fingers. She then lifted her hand and moved her pitch black hair to the side to stop it from covering her eyes as she fixed them on me like she was trying to see through me. To be honest, she looked a lot more intimidating than the Emperor himself.

A while later, the Emperor and Lysa also noticed me and stopped talking. Lysa rose from her chair and and walked up to me. She then bowed towards me while saying in a formal tone: "Ethan, it's good to see you. I would also like to apologize for not letting you know about my family. I hope you can forgive me and Velor." Her formal and polite tone didn't seem like they suited her, but I didn't say anything as I bowed the same way and replied:

"Good to see you, Lysa. Don't mind it, I understand your circumstances were a little special." After replying to her I turned towards the Emperor and bowed in the same way Oliver instructed me on the way here: "Your Imperial Highness. It's an honor to finally meet you."

The Emperor nodded towards me and said: "No need for formalities. My kids already told me about what you did for our empire and how you saved their lives so I am in your debt. Please take a seat and tell us why you wanted to see me."

Taking a seat on the chair across the Emperor's, I was about to tell him the reason I came when I felt a sudden influx of mana bending the space around me. I already knew that this spell was cast by the Imperial Wizard so I just turned towards her, channeled my mana and stabilized the space again.

As soon as the space was stabilized, she smirked at me and said: "Got you!". I was confused what she meant when I noticed that the garden all around started fading away and we remained floating in an empty black space. I tried channeling my mana to return to the garden we were in before but it proved useless. Space all around me was a lot more solid than I expected.

[She broke space all around you two and teleported the entire fragmented space inside the void. To leave you must find whatever she used to anchor you two here and destroy it.]

After hearing Ai's words, I said: "You got me indeed. Why did you bring us here?"

She shrugged and said: "I wanted some privacy and to check your skill in spatial magic. The knowledge inside the book that kid passed me is impressing, but your application of it still appears to be lacking."

I nodded at her words and said: "It is indeed lacking, but I've only been studying magic for less than two years and I consider my progress to be quite decent."

She raised an eyebrow and said: "I agree, for two years it's not bad. Now tell me, what do you want from me? I already heard you need a favor regarding some teleportation artefact."

I started telling her everything, starting from how I arrived into this world, to how I arrived at that cave and how some golem hit the teleportation device and it split me and Anna apart. As my story ended, she said: "Are you saying that you found that device in some ruins? Are they perhaps ruins of the city of Atar?"

"Yes, they should be ruins of the city of Atar." I then took the key I got from the old man Cain and showed it to her: "I also managed to find a similar key as the one used to activate the teleportation device in the possession of an artificer stationed at Bastion City."

She beckoned towards the key and it teleported in her hand instantly. After carefully examining it, she threw it back to me and said: "That device is useless by itself. It only contains mana circuits that connect in a specific pattern. It just connects incomplete mana circuits inside a device and activates it. Do you know where these ruins are located?"

"In a cave on top of the tallest mountain in the northern continent. I already know it's coordinates and can teleport there at any time."

She nodded and asked: "Oliver said that you can create more of these books. Is that true?"

"Yes. As I already told you, I come form another world and these books are just knowledge from that world that I memorized. I can use magic to inscribe that knowledge into books any time I want."

She nodded and extended five fingers: "Give me five more book about space and I'll agree to your request. That seems like a fair deal."

I was startled, not expecting her to agree before even consulting with the Emperor, and asked Ai: 'Do you have enough information to write five more books about space?'

[Yes. It's no problem writing even more.]

Hearing her answer, I said: "Deal. If we ask the Emperor to bring us some wood and coal I can write them right now."

"That can wait. Teleport us to that cave. I already released the anchor that tied us to the void and you can use your magic at will."

"Right now? But the Emperor…"

"He already plans to decline your offer since times are a little troubled now with the rebellion and everything. He's afraid that they will attack the moment I leave his side. That's why we must be quick about it, before he figures out we teleported away completely."

This was a lot more than I expected, but I didn't want to miss this chance. Channeling my mana, I connected the void to the tallest mountain using the same coordinates Ai used to teleport me to this world. As we appeared in the snow covered fields, the imperial wizard looked around and said: "I don't see any cave around."

"Wait a moment." I replied as I asked Ai: 'Can you approximate the location of the cave from here and give me it's coordinates?'

[Give me ten seconds.]

As Ai was calculating the cave's coordinates, I slowly lifted myself from the snow and started looking in the direction of the village. It was still there and I could see people walking back and forth, but there was nothing of interest for me back there anymore. With Anna gone and old man Cunt dead, all the other people in there were basically strangers to me. My thoughts were interrupted by a set of coordinates that appeared in my vision.

Letting out a sigh, I bent space around us again and we appeared in the throne room inside the cave ruins. The same golem from before was still sitting on the throne with his eyes closed, but there were now two skeletons in the room. One was Anna's father and the other old man Cunt.

I approached old man Cunt's body and a sad smile appeared on my face as I mumbled: "Don't worry friend, it won't be long before I take you back home."

The imperial wizard looked at me strangely and said: "Can you stop talking with the dead and hurry? We don't have much time and I don't want to get into trouble."

Nodding, I started walking towards the throne in the room. The golem was just about to activate but I sent a water blade and cut it in half before it could even move. The golem that caused us so much trouble back then looked more like a joke right now.

As I reached the base of the throne, I said: "The entire throne must be the device. See that indentation there? That's where I placed the key before to activate it."

She nodded and crouched down before placing her hand on the key indentation. After sending her mana inside the device for a while, she lifted her hand and said: "It's done. The device is fixed now. There were only some mana circuits that ended up getting blocked when the golem hit it. Send those books to me through Oliver and don't mention anything about any of this to the Emperor. Let's go back."

Without waiting for a reply from he, she teleported us both back inside the garden. As soon as we appeared, the emperor immediately said: "Isabelle, where did you go?"

She shrugged and said: "I just wanted to check his skills in spatial magic so I teleported us both to the void. Don't worry, we technically never left the garden, it's just that you were unable to see us since we were in the void just outside this dimension."

The Emperor let out an exasperated sigh as he said: "I apologize by my wizard's rude behavior. So, what did you want to speak to me about?"

Hearing his question, I started explaining to him what I wanted as well. After listening to my story, he declined just like Isabelle told me and said that as soon as the situation stabilizes a bit more he'll be more than happy to allow Isabelle to follow me. I nodded and told him I understood and we spend around one more hour casually chatting. One hour later, the Emperor excused himself and left together with Isabelle and Lysa. Oliver looked at me apologetically and said: "I'm sorry it didn't work out."

I smiled and said: "Follow me to the inn. I need to give you something.". He looked confused but followed me to the inn nonetheless. Once there, I made five more book and gave them to the confused Oliver while saying: "Give these to Isabella. Make sure the Emperor doesn't notice."

"You made a deal with her?" asked Oliver with wide eyes, finally understanding what was going on.

I nodded and replied: "Yes, she already helped me. Now go and give her these books."

Oliver nodded and left the room with an absentminded look. Seeing him leave, Anise chuckled and asked: "How did it go?"

I nodded towards her and said: "It went well. The Imperial Wizard came with me and fixed the device right away. Now I can go and teleport to the same place Anna did. I only hope she's fine."

"When are you going?"

"Teleporting to the northern continent drained quite a bit of my mana. I was thinking of sleeping to recover my lost mana and go there straight after. Want to come with me?"

She nodded and said: "I do. I've also been waiting to meet her."

Excited to finally have a lead on Anna, I immediately went to sleep to recover my mana. As soon as that was over, I was going to return to the cave and activate the teleportation device.