Is he a burglar?

As he blurted those three words out loud, a pinkish-red shade appeared on her cheeks. Any young girl would blush when a boy called her a beauty. Thankfully, his voice was soft enough to be heard only by that girl.

She drew her hand from his shoulder and quickly wore the hood again. Then from the inside pocket of her coat, she took out a red scarf and gave it to him.

Aren understood what she meant and covered his face and whole head with the scarf. That way, those who were searching him wouldn't be able to find him. There were many junior apprentices here. Who knows, he might not be the person they were searching for.

"Quick, come with me." the girl said in a low voice, afraid to draw any attention. As she held his hands and took quick steps towards the direction of Henrietta's shop, Aren was remembering what Claude had said to him.

'Was she also looking for me?' Aren thought. He began to surmise that his fate might be tied to this girl's. Master Calude had taught him that if such encounter happens and it was not a coincidence, then there was a strong probability of them being destined.

Due to them walking apace, they quickly reached the entrance of the shop. Without informing the owner, the girl went in and climbed up the stairs to the second floor.

Aren, however was not in a hurry. He took his time to look around the shop. There were not many customers in this shop but Aren noticed that even a second grade was looking at the goods placed in the shop.

Wands, staffs, accessories enchanted by magic and many other magic items came into his view as he looked around the first floor of the shop. With this, he inferred that this was a high-end store for magical items and as expected, the prices for these items were sky high. Even a wand casually displayed here had a price of 5000 golds.

'Who is she? How did she get to even enter this place?' Aren thought. When he and that girl first entered the shop, there were some mages who looked over but turned their heads away just as fast. Aren definitely knew it was not because of him but because he came with the girl.

But if he knew an unspoken rule present in this shop, Aren would understand why those mages were afraid. They might not know the identity of that girl but they knew that in this shop, anyone who could climb up and down from the second floor was not simple. They either had shocking backings or were a fearsome mage themselves.

The girl stopped at the end of the stairway when she noticed that Aren was not following her. She gazed at him from high up, silently urging him to quickly come over.

Aren climbed up the staris to the second floor in his own pace and met up with the hooded girl.

"Come." she said in a low voice and opened the door to the room in the second floor.

The room was unlike the lower one as there was no sign of any mages apart from a lady who looked to be in her early thirties.

"Miss, where had you gone in such a hurry?" the lady asked as soon as she saw the girl enter from outside. This worrisome behaviour of miss had caused her great anxiety.

"I was just out for a while." the girl answered as she took off her capote and threw it to one of the tables.

Helpless at her miss's conduct, the lady just decided to drop the matter. However, she saw that someone else had entered the room with her miss. Judging by the height and figure, he seemed to be a young man same age as the miss.

'But...what's with that suspicious looking appearance? A red-scarf burglar?' The lady suddenly became very vigilant and asked her miss carefully. "This is...?"

The girl made herself comfortable on one of the chairs as she replied to the question with another question of hers.

"Do you Remember that enchanter I told you about? Thats him."

The lady's became vigilance lessened after she heard what her miss said. When she saw Aren unwrapping the red scarf off his head and giving it to her miss, a look of understanding appeared on her face. Her miss had been searching this apprentice for more than two months. It seemed that she just found him today.

On the other hand, Aren was very confused listening to the conversation between the two ladies. Perhaps sensing his confusion, the girl faced him and introduced herself.

"Nice to meet you. I'm Emelia and that lady there is Henrietta. Please sit on a chair."

She beckoned at a chair. It flew and landed exactly behind Aren.

A simple use of Mage hand.

It seemed that the girl was also an apprentice mage but with that degree of control, she would have to be a senior to achieve that.

Aren tersely acknowledged and sat. He also didn't forget to say after sitting.

"Nice to meet you, miss Emelia. My name is Aren, a grade 0 enchanter."

He already knew Emelia was interested in his enchanted items so he acquainted himself with her particularly mentioning that he was an enchanter.

"It seemed that you had been looking for someone when I met you." Emelia started the conversation. She needed to maintain a good relation with such a talented enchanter. She also needed his scrolls for her sister in the upcoming evaluation test. As apprentices could only equipy apprentice level scrolls and lower rank items in the test, the top quality scrolls made by Aren would be very helpful for her sister.

Aren realized that she must have seen him running around the streets. Well, yes he was also looking for her but why would he tell her? If he told her that he was searching for none other than her, it would surely mean that he needed something from her. That would put him at a disadvantage.

Aren's worry though were in vain as right after she said that, more words came out of her mouth.

"Actually, I...I was also looking for you." she said, trying her best to maintain a suitable smile. Aren noticed the lady who was watching from the sides, facepalm herself when Emelia said this.

"I want to buy all scrolls that you can make. The more the better." more words immediately followed after that.

'This girl... She speaks as if money isn't a problem for her' Aren was now sure that Emelia had a rich family behind her. If that was the case then she might be able to help him. Aren decided to put forward his request.

"I don't need money but something else in exchange."

"Ask away. I can help you with that as long as it doesnot exceed the rank of an apprentice." she replied, with the same smile on her face. What a joke! She could even get a mid-grade magical item if she asked her father, let alone something needed for an apprentice.

Looking at the girl whose demeanour said 'look at me! I'm very rich!', Aren decided to test her ability.

Lets see if you can get these for me... Aren took out a folded paper from his pocket and gave it to her.

"This..." Emelia's expression distorted for the first time when she read the names of various rune advancement formulae written on the paper.