Chapter 306: Apologies
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Anfey retrieved all the magic books from his dimensional ring and placed them neatly on the shelves in the library. This would be the last time he was in that library for a long time. Niya had told him earlier in the day that his appointment to be a count had already been finalized. That meant that he should head to Violet City in a few days. He did not feel sad about leaving the academy. Even though Steger had purposely placed Anfey in an elite cla.s.s with all the best students, Anfey had not made any friends due to his introverted nature. If Anfey was more like Christian, he would make a lot more friends. Developing a network might sound easy, but it was much harder in reality.
After he returned all the books to the shelves, Anfey left the library. He looked around and saw Doris walking down the hall with another girl. Doris saw Anfey and waved at him. "Hey," she said, "how are you? This is Jenova. Remember her?"
"Of course," Anfey said, holding out his hand. Jenova was Doris’s best friend, if his memory served him well. He had met her once before.
"Really?" Jenova asked dryly. "You remember me."
"Of course…"
"I’ve seen you in school before," Jenova said, shaking her head. "I know you don’t remember me. You don’t have to lie."
Doris smiled and tugged on Jenova’s s.h.i.+rt.
Anfey turned to Doris and asked, "Doris, how are things going for you?"
"It’s all done," Doris said. She retrieved something from her dimensional ring and handed it to Anfey.
It was a senior mage’s badge. Anfey accepted the badge gingerly and clipped it onto his s.h.i.+rt. Of course, he needed his graduation diploma. He didn’t know the school well enough and the only places he knew the location of were the library and his cla.s.ses. He didn’t know the teachers either and he didn’t want to trouble Steger for such a minor thing. The only person he could turn to was Doris, who had already studied at the school for three years.
"And this is the doc.u.ment from the guild," Doris said, handing a piece of clear crystal to him.
"You got the doc.u.ment?" Anfey asked, surprised. "Thanks," he said. "I know it’s a lot of trouble for you."
"Don’t worry about it," Doris said. "The guild is right across the street."
"That building?" Anfey asked. "Really? I never noticed."
"You’re the count of Violet City now," Doris said. "You have to help us when we go out and practice. Consider it repayment for me helping you get your badge and the doc.u.ments."
"No problem."
"For real?"
"Of course. Not just Violet City. If you want to go to Country of Mercenaries, I have connections there as well. Just write me a letter and I’ll talk to my people there. They will look out for you two."
"You’re not bluffing, aren’t you?" Jenova suddenly asked.
"I promise you," Anfey said sincerely.
"Don’t you remember?" Doris said to Jenova. "Entos is the deputy leader of Brother mercenary group. Lord Marino is here as well. I’m sure they can help us."
"You seem to know Lord Saul’s place very well," Jenova commented.
Doris blushed and lowered the head. There were people who wanted to stand out and be leaders, but there were also people who wanted to blend in and be followers. Doris was one of the latter. She wasn’t very powerful and she was not as talented as Saul’s students, but she wanted to stay with them even if it meant that she would become unnoticeable. She realized that leaving home and traveling was not the only way to learn new things. Plus, she felt very safe spending time with students of one of the greatest mages alive. Since it may appear that she was just staying at Saul’s for no reason, she had tried very hard to help around the house. If the servants were too busy to take care of certain areas of the house, she would take it upon herself to do those ch.o.r.es. She would volunteer for other minor ch.o.r.es as well. It was difficult to juggle studying magic and taking care of Shally and her ch.o.r.es, but she managed. Luckily, no one had said anything about her presence in the house yet.
"You’re going to leave the city again?" Anfey asked. "You just came back."
"Yeah," Jenova said, nodding. "After we take the test…" She suddenly paused after spotting something behind Anfey.
Anfey turned around. He frowned after seeing who it was and sighed. Then he walked over and bowed to the man. "Prince Grandon," he said.
Grandon reached over and helped Anfey up, but did not say anything. He looked at Doris and Jenova, who quickly walked away.
After the girls were out of earshot, Grandon turned to Anfey and said, "You don’t have to be so rigid. I’ve been too busy lately, or else I would have already visited you. Hopefully you’re not mad at me for that."
What Grandon said was cliche, but he couldn’t have said anything else. After all, he had only met Anfey once, in Niya’s carriage. If Grandon did not pick his words carefully, he would appear too friendly.
"Of course not," Anfey said with a smile. "I’m grateful that Your Highness can find time to visit me. It really should have been the other way around. I apologize for my inappropriate behavior."
"I know, I know," Grandon waved his hand and said. "You’re busy too." He paused for a second, then asked, "How’s Niya?"
"She’s good," Anfey said. It was very awkward to talk about Niya with Grandon, and Anfey quickly changed the topic. "It seems like you’re familiar with the academy."
"I graduated from this school," Grandon said. "I know most of the people here. If I had a better teacher… Of course, that’s a story for another day." Grandon glanced at the badge on Anfey’s s.h.i.+rt and sighed, "Is Niya angry at me?"
"Why would she be?" Anfey replied. He did not like the direction of this conversation. It was too hard to figure out what Grandon was implying. After all, Grandon was much better at masking his true intentions than Anfey. "Are you here alone, Your Highness? Isn’t it dangerous?"
"My guards are all outside. I’m not worried about people in this school," Grandon said with a smile. "Anfey, don’t lie to me. Is Niya really…" Grandon suddenly paused. Both he and Anfey suddenly realized that they were just replying to each other’s questions. Even though they were not arguing, they were not having a friendly conversation, either.
Grandon sighed and opened his mouth again. "I know that you guys are angry," he said, shaking his head. "I am at fault. I am not going to deny that. Father had complimented me in front of the entire court that day, you see, and I was very happy and wanted to share my happiness. I forgot it was Christian’s birthday. I apologize for making things awkward."
"You’re overthinking, Your Highness," Anfey said. "But I’ll tell them about this." He did not know why Grandon would keep making such elementary mistakes even though he was supposed to be the smarter one. First he held a feast on Christian’s birthday, then he made such a half-hearted apology to an irrelevant person. Maybe how he apologized did not matter to Grandon. It was the fact that he did apologize.
"Don’t worry about that," Grandon said. "I’ll do it myself. Aren’t you leaving the city soon? I’ll hold a farewell dinner for you. I ordered a room at Night Elf Hotel, and I only invited a few people. Hopefully they will accept my apologies."
Anfey frowned and hesitated. "As you know, Your Highness, I cannot accept anything on behalf of Christian and Niya. I’ll talk to them about it and get back to you."
"Of course, of course," Grandon said, smiling.
"If Your Highness doesn’t mind, I have to go now. I still have another cla.s.s."
"Alright," Grandon said. "Hopefully I’ll see you tonight."
Grandon sighed as he watched Anfey and the two girls leave. As long as Anfey, Christian, and Niya agreed to have dinner with him, his plan was already half successful.
"You’re too impatient, Your Highness," an old mage in a black robe appeared behind Grandon and said.
"You’ve already told me," Grandon said, shaking his head. "Lord Saul was my greatest supporter. Do you know how anxious I am now that Christian’s real ident.i.ty is revealed?"
"I’m not talking about that time," the old mage said. "I’m talking about this time."
"This time?"
"None of those three you’ve invited are people who can be easily convinced," the old mage reminded Grandon.