Under the Oak Tree

Max ran to her at once. Annette glared at the cat with narrowed eyes and raised her dark brown eyebrow towards Max.

“Is this one of the ingredients for an experiment?”

“N-No! That’s my cat.”

Max scurried and took Roy, securing the cat in her arms. The expression on Annete’s round face furrowed.

“Look here, Max. Just because the senior wizards come less often to supervise the common lab because of the upcoming promotional exams, it’s still not a good idea to bring pets in here.”

“It’s just for t-today, please let it slide. The window latch broke… so there’s no other choice, I can’t leave him in the room by himself. Just this morning, he sneaked out of the room and caused a mess in Miriam’s lab…”

“Miriam’s lab?”

Annete interrupted her words and looked down at Max’s cat again. An expression of satisfaction spread across Annette’s round face. Annette chuckled loudly as her chubby, calloused-covered hands roughly stroked the cat’s head.

“You’re quite smart huh, Max? Using a familiar to derange a competitor—that’s very cunning and clever.”

*Familiar is like magical creatures that wizards can keep around, kind of like pets but they can be manipulated by magic to do things.

“He-he’s not my familiar! Roy is just an ordinary cat and I-I never intentionally tried to disrupt Miriam…!”

“Fine, Alright, if you say so.”

She winked at Max as if indicating that she was overlooking some kind of a secret conspiracy and quickly got going with her strong muscular legs. Max stared at Annete’s back in bewilderment. Most wizards didn’t really tend to not try coloring other people’s stories, but the three Godrick siblings were an exception. Max sighed and followed the siblings into the common laboratory that was mainly used by wizards in training. As she entered, the first thing that caught her eyes was the huge flame emitting from the furnace.

The twins were placing firewood and coals into the furnace and underneath, manning the bellows, was the other man, much taller for people who come from the Umli tribe. Next to them were around three to four trainee wizards, tapping iron with a hammer, seemingly making magic tools. Max drew her robe’s hood to her face and walked to the relatively quiet corner of the room to avoid the heat. As she tossed her bag over an old desk by the window, she carefully lowered Roy and the cat quickly crawled under the desk and curled up into a corner. The cat seemed to be terrified of the unfamiliar environment around him. After caressing Roy’s back to comfort him, Max pulled out the magic spells and formulas she had organized all night. The older Godrick twins who had been pouring charcoal into the furnace, sprinted to Max and gazed at the parchment curiously.

“Is that the magic spell that you’ll show for the presentation?”

“Show me, I’ll go over it for you.”

Alec reached out his chubby, charcoal-black fingers and Max quickly pulled the parchment away.

“Wash your h-hands first!”

“You’re too meticulous even for a noble woman.”

Alec frowned and rubbed his dirt-covered hands across his greasy apron and snatched the parchment away from Max, who let out a small squeak. There was a black smudge on the edge of the parchment but the older Godrick twin did not seem to care and flipped over it.

“The Gnome Hall’s honor is at stake in this competition. If you’re planning to show just some silly magic, I will instantly challenge your eligibility to compete. This time around, we really have to defeat and hit the pride of the Kabbalah wizards.”

“It seems everyone keeps forgetting… I haven’t decided to become a wizard of Gnome Hall just yet. I am still learning my affinity for fire magic.”

The Godrick brothers who were going over the magic spell she had designed raised their heads in a flash and looked at her in bewilderment. Not only them, but the other wizards who were hammering steel by the anvil, casting fiery sparks, casted sharp gazes at her. Max hunched her shoulders, she felt like she was being treated like a traitor. Alec clicked his tongue and spoke as if he pitied her.

“You still haven’t given up? Maximillian, you don’t have an ounce of talent for fire magic.”

“He’s right. Your affinity to fire magic isn’t going anywhere. It’s better for you to rather try becoming a water wizard. At least you have an affinity for water magic. Although it is very miniscule.”

“My water magic affinity… is better than that!”

“Then why didn’t you take up classes at Undaim this semester?”

Max kept her mouth shut at Dean’s sarcastic question. Truthfully, her magic affinity was clearly inclined towards earth no matter what angle it was viewed from. She also had some affinity to water magic, but as Annette said, it was little. To add to that, water and earth properties were usually unrelated to each other and because of that, she was nicknamed “Muddy” throughout her basic lessons that she took at the water tower. Annette, who was well aware of that, took off her leather gloves and smirked at Max.

“Just stop it and give up, Max. You don’t have an ounce of talent for fire magic, and you don’t really get along well with the water wizards. The senior wizards naturally assume that you will get the Mark of the Earth’’

“That’s right. It’s better to be called a ‘titan’ here than ‘muddy’ in the water tower.”

Alex said with a mischievous smile as he looked up at her. Max looked around the thirteen trainee wizards of the Gnome Hall with melancholic eyes. All of them were short, had round faces, and thick wool-like hair. Most of the wizards with earth affinity in the world tower were from the Umli tribe. The Umlis were descendants of ancient dwarves and had an inherently strong earth and fire affinity. They also showed excellent talent in smelting steel and crafting magic tools. Max was able to quickly learn various types of magic training with them. However, the more time she spent training in Gnome Hall, the more she felt like she was straying away from the image of the wizard she dreamed she would be. Strictly speaking, wizards with earth affinity were closer to magic tools craftsmen rather than wizards.

She let out a sad sigh as Agnes, who had fire affinity, appeared in her mind. When she first entered Nornui, she was inflated with the dream of becoming a fire wizard like Princess Agnes. She wanted to be a powerful wizard that Riftan could somehow rely on. However, as soon as her mana affinity test results came out, her expectations became fleeting and shattered. Her mana’s fire affinity had the worst results.

“Usually, those with earth affinity also have a certain affinity to fire. Yet of all things, you have an affinity to water… It’s a very unique case.”

Dean shook his head and Alex added to his statement. “But still, you show excellent talent for magic on the earth element. If you give up on your lingering for fire magic affinity, your future will be much more solid.”

Max refuted their statements with a dissatisfied expression. “But… I want to learn how to attack with magic. Wizards with earth affinity… no matter how excellent they are, they can only support from the rear during battles.”

“Yeah, there’s nothing so special about defensive magic.” Annette, who was examining a Wyvern statue made out of steel, replied sarcastically. “If you want to learn attack magic using earth elements, you should go to a higher level. If you become a high-ranking wizard, then you’ll get to learn a lot of taboo magic.”

“I d-don’t want that! What I want is to leave the island as soon as possible. If I become a high-ranking wizard… I won’t be able to leave Nornui at my own will.”

“What’s wrong with that?” Dean shrugged as if he didn’t understand Max’s defiance to leave. “I’m not sure what in the hell is good about the outside world where demons roam. I would rather live in Nornui and study magic for the rest of my life. That would be much easier than face heretic interrogators.”

“Nowadays… that rarely happens. The persecution of wizards ended a long time ago.”

“That only applies to ordinary humans like you. Wizards of different races like us will become prey for hunter-like heretics once we leave this island.”

Max sighed, exhausted from the conversation that they already had dozens of times.“When in the world did you hear such a story? Nowadays even the Holy Father, the Pope, could not easily interrogate and judge a wizard that’s a member of the world tower. Even the royal families are very conscious of Nornui.”

Annette snorted loudly as if her words were absurd. However, Alex appeared temperamental and continued to prod. He looked up at Max and asked with curiosity in his eyes.

“Are there not enough wizards from where you come from?”

“Of course. There is no place in Whedon that has enough wizards.” Max replied to his question enthusiastically. “The lords of each country are so desperate for gaining even just one wizard. Compared to before, the treatment of wizards has excessively improved.”

Alec stroked his round chin in thought then opened his mouth again. “Max, you’re from the southern part of Whedon right? Do you know anything about the lord of Anatol?”