A letter exchange

When the apprentice said that, everyone's attention was placed on him. Lucifier frowned when he saw Aren, however, he became gleeful when saw that Aren was only a junior.

"Don't you get involved in this, junior." the blond girl warned. This junior was such an idiot, coming here; what if he drew the ire of boss Lucifier?

However, the junior didn't listen to her words but instead said.

"Bullying within the Academy compounds is against the rules. I will report this to the teachers if you don't leave senior Terry alone."

'What the...?' Lucifier was stunned for a while as he didn't expect Aren to say that. He had believed that it was just some random junior who accidentally arrived here. He thought Aren would scurry away when he saw several seniors here but it turned out he was wrong.

"Good, Good...I'll remember this." he said gnashing his teeth. It was just as Aren said. It was prohibited to bully fellow apprentices within the academy. He had neglected this rule because there was no one who would report him. However, if he was found bullying someone, he would not escape punishment even if he was from a major family.

"Lets go." He shouted and left with his lackeys. So what if there was a rule in the academy? He could always find these two in the district market. As long as you were not a senior or had excellent talent, even a death of junior was a small matter. If there was an evidence, then he could just pay some fine.

"Stupid. Now they will come after you too." Terry said after they left.

Aren just smiled in response which only got a long stare from her.

She turned around and entered her room. Before closing the door, a barely audible voice came from inside.

"Thank you."

Aren would not have been able to hear what it was if he didn't have his enhanced hearing. He sighed and went to his room, his smile already vanished.

There was a reason why he did that. Although he was a little afraid of the power behind Lucifer, he was not without a backing either. He knew that even if Cowen and he had not met after meeting with the headmaster, he was secretly monitoring him.

As Aren closed the door and was ready to read some books, he noticed a bird having red and green feathers was sitting in the window pane.

Aren was overjoyed, seeing it there. He quickly went to the windows and took the letter tied to the bird's leg.

Aren sat on his bed and impatiently opened the letter. It was from Tina. Ever since he first came to the Academy, he and Tina had been exchanging letters. As Tina hadn't written one in months, he was very happy when the letter finally came.

When the words written there were presented before his eyes, Aren slowly started to read.

"Dear brother, it has been a while since I wrote a letter to you. How are your studies in the capital going? Are you taking baths regularly? Do you miss big sister? Or maybe...you were crying because I didn't send a letter last month?..." When he read until this, Aren's mouth involuntarily spasmed.

'This girl...did she had to ask like this?'

But Aren was glad that she was just as playful as always. He then read the following lines, having a foolish smile plastered on his face.

"...Don't worry, I'll always write to you~. Its just that these days, the situation here at village is very tense. We have been attacked by Orcs many times. At one time other monsters like forest wolves and ogres are also attacked the village. However, two months ago, a rank 3 druid has been dispatched to our village from the Goddess' Shrine. He is a very kind old man and due to him, monsters are now afraid to attack our village...."

"...But those ugly Orcs are very presistent. So even if after durid uncle is here, battles and skirmishes happen near the village every now and then..."

"...These days I have been very busy managing the archers in the watch towers and doing assignments given by lady Lupia. Since yesterday, the skirmishes are not happening so I got time to write this letter. What is happening to the academy there? If there are some interesting stories, then share it to your big sister, okay? I hope you can write me soon...

-with love, Tina"

Aren folded the paper in his hands after reading it and kept it safely in his drawer. There were already about 25 letters from Tina in that drawer.

He then took a new paper and placed it on his desk, grabbed a quill pen and started writing a reply to Tina, sitting on his chair.

"Dear sister, I'm very glad that you sent me the letter. I've been very worried about you when you didn't... "

When Aren finished writing his letter, he placed it on the sunlight for sometime to dry the ink. In about four minutes, the ink dried up then he picked up the letter and folded it up.

Placing it on an envelope, he tied it to the leg of the waiting messenger bird. Aren took out some small grains of rice he always kept for these occasions and fed it to the bird.

After having its fill, the bird gave a crisp cry and flew out of the window, to deliver the letter.

After the bird left, Aren again sat down on the bed and started pondering about the rune advancement formulae. He was at a loss as to where to get other formulae. He took out the formula for divination rune as the problem in his mind remained unsolved.

'Divination huh, sigh. Wait a moment... I can do a divination to guide me towards finding other formulas.'

It then dawned on him that he'd neglected the uses of divination. Divination wasn't always about past, present and future. It can also be used to find objects and ideas. Yes, anything can be divined.

With that thought in mind, Aren immediately prepared to perform a lesser divination ritual. Although doing divination during at night time was better, there was no need to wait until night if he only needed clues.

Putting his two hands just over the orb of vaticination, he slowly chanted the spell while doing the correct hand signs. As this was the second time he was doing this, he was not as nervous as before.

In about two minutes, the orb started glowing with white light. There was nothing shown for the first 20 seconds but slowly a scene of a girl giving sweets to some childrens came into view.

She was wearing a white hat with a goose feather embedded on its side, on her head. A tight white embroidered robe on her upper body and long boots made up of skin of some unknown magical beast on her legs. At a glance the girl looked bright and cheerful. It was the same beauty he had seen in the market.