Chapter 21: Secrets from Beyond the Sea
Hearing Aurus's words, William's face froze. A cold sweat ran down his back as his mind plunged into a storm of possibilities. Had he been discovered? Was he in danger? Was this a trap? His brain worked at full speed, evaluating escape routes, plausible lies—any way to distance himself from the threat.
But then the professor's voice spoke again, calm and without a trace of menace.
"Relax. I have no intention of harming you. But we must be honest with each other."
The tension in William's body didn't vanish, but it changed. Still wary, he watched him in silence, waiting.
Aurus sighed and took another sip of tea before speaking.
"I come from the Magical Continent," he said casually, as if recounting a simple anecdote. "Many years ago, during a dispute over an extremely rare plant—the Crimson Midnight Flower—I was gravely wounded. That injury stalled my advancement, and I was demoted from Level 2 Mage to Level 1."
His gaze drifted for a moment into the steam rising from his cup.
"Since then, my progress has been stagnant. No technique, no meditation, no catalyst worked. I tried everything... until eventually, I was expelled from the elite circle of my hometown. Later, I got into another conflict with a powerful organization. I won't go into details now, but... it was serious enough that I had to flee again."
He fell silent for a few seconds. William didn't interrupt.
"I wandered for years across the Magical Continent," he continued, "until I found refuge as a teacher in a minor academy. That was my salvation, for a time. But sooner or later, everything shifts, even alliances.
There's a network of magical academies that governs this region of the world—a coalition that maintains a certain control over magical education. Every hundred years, one of us must be sent to oversee this remote area, crossing the Sea of Death. Right now, that supervisor is me."