Chapter 33: Is She Acting Strange?

Amos hadn’t been on duty with the team; he was currently absent from the legion. During the legion’s initial busy period, Amos, who was supposed to lead a squadron of knights to capture monsters in the wild with others, opted to stay back in the legion. He had planned to stay with the Gryphon egg and was in the process of hatching it.

Consequently, he requested to remain within the legion and handed the task over to someone else. At this juncture, participation in the monster-capturing mission allowed them priority in selecting creatures. Amos, due to his circumstances, was delayed, making him one of the allocated members.

Given the critical shortage of monsters, though the targets were specific, capturing and detaining them depended heavily on luck and strength.

The knights and soldiers tasked with capturing the monsters, especially those instructed to capture them alive, didn’t quite understand the underlying reasons. They were merely following orders from their superiors. Regardless, they didn’t attach much importance to this issue. As Amos was absent, they set out early with a team of soldiers for nearby patrols.

Aresia’s arrival wasn’t quite timely; Amos hadn’t returned from patrol yet. It wasn’t suitable to call him back at this point, risking the interruption of his work. Aresia was escorted to Amos’s residence to wait for him.

While waiting, Aresia suspected that the damage to her soul was more severe than she originally thought. While Amos has not returned, Aresia conducted a detailed examination in his private quarters.

The door was securely locked, the windows closed and draped with curtains to ensure privacy. Aresia began by casting a water mirror to reflect her figure and then proceeded to use various detection spells on her, totaling nearly twenty.

For a great sorceress accustomed to studying explosive magic, multiple detection spells were relatively easy. These were crucial in assessing her mental state that was damaged due to her research-related incidents.

The colors of magical light intertwined and shimmered on her body, forming intermittent and vivid magical arrays. She focused on the water mirror, relying on it to assess her condition.

Compared to her first awakening to this world, her condition had significantly improved. her strength had increased, almost reaching the level of two or three ordinary mage, which was comparable to a common dragon from the powerful dragon clan in this world.

Despite the evident lack of significant soul fractures, the residual pain persisted, although it had lessened considerably. Perhaps due to the depth of this soul-inflicted pain, it required a substantial suppression of her mental state. This caused Aresia to overlook some of the residual effects of the soul’s damage.

For a mage who often secluded herself in the laboratory, Aresia was generally cautious at handling magical research-related matters. Despite her insistence and attempts to avoid such situations, the 200-year-old Aresia still meets it ends due to research failure.

Aresia, the 200-year-old great sorceress, was proud, aloof, and even reclusive, indifferent to everything except the magic she cherished, having almost lived in the Mage Tower for nearly a decade.

Although she herself is a hundreds old great sorceress, but due to the evident impact of soul damage on her, but also because, in this damaged state, memories and traits of the fifteen-year-old Duke’s daughter had merged to her 200 years of memory in her previous world to some extent. This to some degree weakened the dominant factors of her personality, allowing her soul to radiate a renewed brightness.

She was now a combination of a 200-year-old great sorceress and a fifteen-year-old Duke’s daughter. Although the memories predominantly belonged to the great sorceress, their personalities were evenly split.

This wasn’t necessarily bad news; the rekindled light in her soul allowed her to perceive more of the world’s love and warmth.

However, there seemed to be an worsened tendency to exhibit a slightly rough manner when thinking outside the realm of research, perhaps due to the soul’s restoration. Aresia believed that once the soul fully recovered, this ‘issue’ should be resolved… she thinks.

Aresia wasn’t entirely sure if this situation had truly improved. Matters involving the soul couldn’t be judged by common sense. She was cautioning herself to be vigilant about this particular aspect.

“Knock, knock, knock.”

A sudden, rhythmic three knocks echoed, accompanied by Amos’s energetic voice, “Aresia, are you in? Can I come in.”

Aresia, having completed her examination, ensures there is no lingering magic, was calmly seated in the room, flipping through her magical notebook, cross-referencing and checking for any missing or new entries. At this point, she regretted her initial choice of the handwriting of an older teacher; it had proven to be quite a painful and difficult task.

“I’m here.”

Upon hearing his voice, Aresia kept her magical notebook and unlocked the previously secured door.

Clad in silver-white armor and carrying a bulging round backpack, Amos entered with slightly tousled hair, wearing a broad smile. “So, they aren’t joking. You’re really here. Isn’t it class time today? How come you have time to visit me?”

Aresia stepped aside to let him in, explaining, “I had a slight issue, so I took a day off. I also came to bring you a gift.”

Originally, she had taken the day off to bring Amos a gift. The situation had turned complicated.

“A gift? Didn’t you already give me one?” Amos placed his bag on the table and carefully took out a box containing the gryphon egg. “Look, my Andalucy seems to be in better shape now. Lately, it’s been absorbing nutrients faster and becoming more energetic. It’s almost cracking the eggshell from the inside.”

Indeed, the gryphon egg had noticeably changed. The sheen and hardness of the eggshell had increased, prompting Aresia to avert her eyes from his overly proud expression.

“So, Andalucy is its name?”

Regardless of whatever name it was given, it was ultimately Amos’s pet. He had the liberty to call it whatever he pleased.

“Did you finally name it? What if it turns out to be a boy?”

“It’s still called Andalucy!” It took him quite some time to settle on that name, suitable for a boy or a girl.

“Sure.” The pet’s name was entirely up to him. Aresia found the name quite agreeable.

Before listening to any more of his chatter, Aresia fetched a magical hoverboard. “Here, happy 22nd birthday.”

“Oh, thank you. What is this?”

A metal board?

Amos accepted the magical hoverboard and examined it closely. Apart from the ornate patterns on the surface, he couldn’t find anything particularly special about it. Nevertheless, he appreciated Aresia’s gesture in giving him this metal board.

Aresia began explaining the functions of the magical hoverboard and proceeded to demonstrate it to him. Amos’s hoverboard had a higher speed limit. Despite the higher speed limitation, additional safety measures had been added to the board, making it even safer than Aresia’s board.

While Amos was reluctant to try it out, as soon as he heard about the hoverboard’s capabilities, his eyes lit up, and he couldn’t wait. He immediately engaged the handlebar mode—something Aresia strongly advocated. Thus, inside the room, he began his test flight.

Amos’s living quarters weren’t expansive. In the legion, accommodation was based on ranks, with higher-ranking officers having better living conditions. As the captain of the knight squadron, Amos had a relatively more spacious dorm compared to regular soldiers or knights. However, the space was limited, and hovering in an area of about two to three meters was already pushing the limits.

In this constrained environment, Amos felt he had mastered the hoverboard and no longer required the handlebars to fly freely, making the space feel even smaller.

He informed Aresia, “The room is too small; it can’t really fly here. I’ll try it outside and test the gift you gave me. It should fly higher and faster.”:

Amos, already a third-level knight, was not only daring but also exceptionally quick in his movements.

Despite his bravery, he wasn’t reckless. His readiness to try out the hoverboard outside was because he wasn’t afraid of falling off it.

Amos had prepared for its flight. He heeded Aresia’s warning and collected a stash of magical scrolls, enough to ensure his safety should he accidentally fall while flying.

Amos received a magical accessory fashioned like a ring from Aresia, excitedly grabbed the backpack containing the gryphon egg, and hugged the magical hoverboard as he left his quarter.

However, before continuing, Aresia intercepted him. Even though her father allowed the hoverboard for Amos, he had strictly forbidden Amos from using it. This was a decision Aresia made for Amos’s own good.