A secret Purpose

Inside the Edwards family mansion.

In a quiet chamber. A man who looked to be in his forties, sitting on an armchair, was holding an old large book on his hand and reading it carefully.

He was a brunette of short stature, with an oriental, spirited type of face; which could distinctly be perceived by the spark in his beige-coloured eyes.

At this moment, a thin white spellbook appeared in front of him and landed on his other hand. The man frowned at being disturbed and gazed at the spellbook that landed on his palms.

Suddenly, seeing that spellbook which appeared to be like that of any ordinary apprentice, the expression of annoyance on his face turned to that of being taken aback.

The man abruptly stood up, throwing the large book on the floor and held the spellbook tightly with his two hands, again looking at it, now with bewildered eyes.

"Ha...how could it be? Stephen is dead?" The man couldn't help but mutter.

Derrick Edwards was truly shocked. His son, deemed as the heir of the Edwards family, had died in the test. This unforeseen incident was not supposed to happen as Stephen, having greater spirit than almost all of the apprentices and even armed with top quality magical items, couldn't possibly be killed.

If it was by a magical beast then he was a diviner, how could the boy not have seen his death coming.

As for the other two boys, who were on par with his son in terms of spirit, they were not stupid enough to provoke their family. It was an unspoken rule not to kill the heirs of large families even if they fought. Otherwise, the ''peace'' between the families that had formed since the last hundreds of years would crack.

"Who is it?" Derrick poured his vast spiritual into the spellbook and immediately he saw the blurry figure of a small girl in grey robes. Although he could discern she was a girl of about 13 to 14 years old, her face was too blurred for him to distinguish her from others.

It was a precautionary measure added on Stephen's spellbook, to find out the killer, should the enemies of Edwards family kill Stephen someday. However, this girl seemed to have something on her which could interfere with the magical scan of the spellbook, due to which her image appeared to be blurred.

Nevertheless, that was enough for him to find out who she was. In the test held for apprentices, about 80-90 of them were girls. He could ''interrogate'' them one by one and with his ''interrogation'' there was no apprentice who could hold the truth in their throat.

'Even so, this matter must be reported to the family head.' Retracting his spirit, he thought as he went towards the door.

Just as he had taken a step forward, a figure of a tall old man appreared in front of him. The old man was in white robes with a dominating aura around him, which commanded deference and veneration from anyone who saw him.

Seeing the old man, Derrick, without any delay, lowered his head and bowed down as he said respectfully. "Derrick greets the family head."

"Hmm." the old man nooded.

This was the branch Association Leader of Mages' Association and head of the Edwards family, Cresmir Edwards.

"This may be abrupt but my son wa-" as Derrick started saying in an anxious manner, Cresmir stopped him.

"I know, I have sensed it. Stephen is dead." Cresmir turned his gaze towards a mirror hanging on the wall and said as he put his hands behind his back.

"Yes." Derrick, with his head lowered, said in a soft voice as he backed off a few steps.

Still looking at his reflection, Cresmir then added more. "This was not the case with your son only."

"What do mean, my lord?" Derrick carefully inquired.

"I have already received a news. The top divination apprentices of various families and academies of this batch are all getting assasinated. This has happened in the kingdoms, Emipres and other free states that surround the Wembtion Empire. Even those of the Prophetic Clans were not spared."

"If its so then..." as Derrick was about to voice out what was in his mind, Cresmir finished his sentence.

"Yes, there is someone behind all of this and whoever it is has a much more bigger purpose to do this."

Derrick felt silent hearing what the family head said.

After a while, Cresmir's voice again resounded inside the chamber.

"Find out who killed Stephen. I need to know what this matter is about..."

...

"Hey, did you take a bath today?" Katty's sweet... well somewhat- no, extremely pestering voice rang out as she asked the nine-hundredth or maybe even thousandth question ever since she met him.

Chauv's weary and harried face, which now didn't have any shred of that evilness and craftiness he had, turned to the anticipant little girl behind him, who was still maintaining some 10 meters of distance from him. Looking helpless, he replied. "Why do you even ask this? Just stop for once, will you?"

But, instead of shutting up for good, which Chauv exactly wanted her to do, the girl just pouted in displeasure as she said. "As I thought, you didn't answer my question because you didn't take a bath."

Then, she also added another sentence, which she believed was in an extremely low voice but was precisely heard by the boy walking ahead of her.

"That's why you smell bad."

Chauv's throat moved as if he was about to retort to what she said but in the end, he didn't say anything.

When he met her yesterday, he had thought it would be an easy job to guide her till the periphery of the Ogre settlement but now his thinking had changed.

If this was easy then learning ten spells was a breeze for him.

Since yesterday, the distance they had crossed was only a little more than 8 kilometres. There were two reasons for this slow speed which were Katty's ''running speed'' which couldn't even be compared to his strolling and the ''rest'' she frequently needed when they had walked for mere fourty minutes.

Oh, there was another reason too. Her never-ceasing questions, which even included but were not limited to ''Why is your face so ugly?'', ''Why do I feel discomfort when you look at me?'' or ''How many girls do you have in your room?'' and many more.

Chauv's face spasmed remembering what she had said last night which he didn't want to think about again.

At this moment, the usually silent forest except for the sounds insects and birds made, was filled with a rumbling sounds of trees snapping. It seemed as if a large beast was heading their way.

Chauv and Katty stopped when they heard the sounds and took a vigilant posture. Instead of taking out his spellbook Chauv took out a black curved dagger. It was a unique magical weapon he had.

Katty also stopped her twaddle and opened her spellbook. Although, she would love to ask other questions too, she knew that a bad monster was coming their way so she had to get ready for battle.

Just as she was about to finish infusing her spiritual power in her staff, she saw that a pair of vicious greenish-yellow eyes were looking at them from the woods.