After breakfast, Abel followed Bartoli to the Wizard Union branch in Liante City. It wasn’t a long walk. After ten minutes, they arrived at a giant building that was made with white granite. Half of it was inside the gigantic magic circle created by the magic towers. The other half was exposed to the outside world.
After putting Black WInd and the chocobo somewhere safe, Abel paid one intermediate gemstone for them to be taken care of. After that, he went inside the Wizard Union building.
As soon as he stepped in, a strange power scanned across his body. It was a security measure done by the Wizard Union. To prevent non-wizards from making a false entrance and getting hurt, they decided that anyone who walked in should have their mana-tolerance checked.
Once he was inside, Abel took a look at his surroundings. There were a lot of wizards here. So many, actually. There were more than any of the Wizard Union branches that he had ever been to.
There were more than a dozen official wizards in one, quick glance. Two of them were intermediate wizards. There wasn’t any special event going on, and it wasn’t even the peak hour. This was about as many wizards as it would get on any normal day.
Abel started to notice a special spot. It was the guest room. Right now, there was a rank four novice wizard that was talking to someone else. Judging from Abel’s previous experience, the guest room could only be used once an application has been approved. Something important was probably being handled over there.
Just as he was about to go and have a look, a wizard in light-golden robe flashed before his eyes.
“Welcome to the Liante Wizard Union, Grandmaster Abel. It’s a pleasure to see you here. I’m Wizard Lorenzo.”
“Oh, hello there!” Abel greeted with a bow, “I didn’t expect you to recognize me so quickly, Wizard Lorenzo.”
While Abel had just become an official wizard, he could already sense how powerful Wizard Lorenzo was. In fact, the presence that he felt was stronger than even that of Wizard Cliff. Wizard Lorenzo was an advanced wizard. There was no doubt about it. In fact, his rank was definitely higher than 16.
Abel stated his business, “Thank you for welcoming me like this, Wizard Lorenzo, but I’m not here for anything particularly important. I’ve only come to replace my badge.”
Wizard Lorenzo was shocked, “What? Oh, oh! How impressive! Grandmaster Abel, you mean you’ve already….Did you just become an official wizard?”
Wizard Lorenzo knew how old Abel was. He also knew when Abel started training as a wizard. So, by calculating the amount of time Abel had spent on his training, he could tell that it had only been two years since he was promoted to become an official wizard.
“Yeah, I suppose,” Abel smiled as he shrugged his shoulders, “Getting hunted by the St. Ellis Wizard Union has, uh, how do I say it? It made me grow a lot faster than I would have.”
“Hush! Don’t you see that the others are watching?” Wizard Lorenzo quickly went closer to Abel, “Come with me, Grandmaster Abel. This is not the place to talk!”
“After you,” Abel bowed to Wizard Lorenzo. It was at this time that Wizard Lorenzo finally noticed Bartoli.
“And she is?” Wizard Lorenzo asked.
“Greetings, Master Lorenzo,” Bartoli introduced herself, “My name is Bartoli. I’m Grandmaster Abel’s butler.”
When Bartoli greeted Wizard Lorenzo, she didn’t use a wizard’s bow. She was using a nobleman’s bow, but that didn’t stop him from noticing the wizard badge she was wearing. That made his eyes twitch a little. He’s never heard of the name “Bartoli” before, but he could definitely tell that she was an intermediate wizard.
That was very odd. A wizard was supposed to have a record. There should be some sort of information or background on the magic that he or she was taught. Yet, Wizard Lorenzo couldn’t think of any related to Bartoli. Out of respect for her privacy, he didn’t bother to ask too much about it.
In Bartoli’s perspective, she knew how bizarre her existence was to the others. She couldn’t help it, though. Despite her continuous training to assimilate in the Holy Continent, the skills that she possessed belonged in the dark world. It was the reason that she tried so hard to qualify as an official wizard here.
In fact, she already tried that when Abel told her to come to Liante City alone. When she did her test, however, the only spell she could cast was “fire wall.” That didn’t stop her, though. At the end of the day, since she could cast the spell much faster than normal wizards, she was granted immediate permission to get her own intermediate wizard’s “double magic staff badge.”
Overall, it was a strange story, but what’s stranger for Wizard Lorenzo was how she was Abel’s so-called “butler.” That meant that Abel had a fire-conjuring wizard that could do any one of his biddings. She could kill for him, burn things down for him, and it’s not like she was an assassin for hire. As long as she received the order, she would do all that her master told her to.
After throwing all that scary thoughts away, Wizard Lorenzo brought Abel and Bartoli to the inner part of the Wizard Union building.
After walking inside the defensive circle, Abel sensed mana flowing through the air. While it wasn’t as concentrated as inside a magic tower, it was still good enough for a novice wizard’s meditation session.Wizard Lorenzo smiled as he saw Abel’s reaction, “So, you must’ve noticed how only half of the building was inside the magic circle. It’s something that we designed ourselves. The outer half is for the wizards who are guests. The inside is for wizards that are working in the more technical field.”
“There are a lot of wizards here, huh,” Abel pointed out. He thought that a dozen were a lot already, but there seemed to be many more wizards in this building.
“You know, we don’t call ourselves the “wizard’s main headquarter” for nothing,” Wizard Lorenzo responded, then said in a lighthearted tone, “We’re not interested in powers or politics. Those who are are just sent to either of the three branches we have in the different kingdoms.”
“And that,” Abel persisted, “is what I’ve been meaning to ask, Wizard Lorenzo. Why? Why are you and your fellow colleagues not interested? Forgive me for being imprudent, but don’t you need a lot of, say, “resources,” to continue on with your training?”
Wizard Lorenzo smiled in response, “I can understand your confusion, Grandmaster Abel. To answer your question, allow me to pull out the statistics that we’ve looked into before.”
To clarify the differences between themselves and the other wizards, Wizard Lorenzo raised one finger in each of his hands.
“As you know, there are advanced wizards in all three of the existing empires. Don’t get me wrong, there definitely are some powerful ones in those areas, but have you noticed how hard it was for them to improve their ranks? And if you compare the rate in which wizards in different regions were ranking up…”
Wizard Lorenzo continued with a big grin on his face, “Liante City not only has the fastest rate, but it also has the highest proportion of promoted Wizards. Do you understand now?”
