#020. Veronica's Bookstore (1)
Two pairs of footsteps echoed.
They advanced through the bookstore, toppling the accumulated silence.
"You changed clothes? Yesterday you wore a raincoat."
Ray answered Veronica's question without hesitation.
"I discarded it."
To be precise, burned it.
In case he might encounter the basement man while wandering the streets.
The inner layers had also been replaced with relatively clean clothes through Philip's help.
That alone created a starkly different impression.
Perhaps intrigued, Veronica kept glancing back at Ray as they walked.
"I told them about you. That you used magic, helped drive off the other kids, and are seeking a rainbow—"
"Did you say anything else about me?"
"No. Just those three points. To be fair, you didn't share more about yourself either."
Ray nodded.
When mentioning her grandfather, Veronica's emotional vessel brimmed with thick trust.
Still, it was too early to lower his guard.
The one-eyed spectacled mage.
The basement mage.
Every wizard he'd encountered so far carried dangerous levels of negative emotions.
They climbed to the second floor.
While following Veronica down the creaking wooden corridor—
"......"
—they spotted two small faces peeking from the far end.
Boys of seven or eight.
The wariness radiating from their eyes felt remarkably genuine.
The moment their gazes met Ray's, both boys ducked their heads away.
Veronica gazed at the vacant space with bittersweet expression.
"My younger brothers from the orphanage. Grandfather personally selected us—me, Malta, and Yulphin."
"To teach magic?"
Veronica's eyes rounded as she gasped:
"How did you know?"
...Because you said you learned magic from him.
"Otherwise there'd be no reason to take in orphans. You also mentioned learning magic yourself."
Sector 50 had orphanages too.
Though with their abusive conditions, they differed little from prisons.
Veronica nodded in reluctant understanding.
"Right. My orphanage never had real adoptions either. Everyone came wanting kids for... other purposes."
They reached the corridor's end.
"Here. Grandfather's inside."
Veronica knocked.
Knock knock.
"Grandfather Graham? Ray's here. The child I mentioned yesterday."
A faint voice bid them enter.
Click.
The door revealed a moderately sized room.
Sparse furniture by the window, yet somehow not feeling empty.
So this is him.
The old man rising from his bedside exuded presence that filled the chamber.
He settled against the headboard.
"Sit."
His tone suggested prior acquaintance.
"Veronica, wait outside."
She flinched mid-step toward the bedside chair.
Twirling reluctantly, she exited with lingering glances until the door closed.
Ray sat.
Old eyes met young.
......
The elder's gaze burned brighter than his frail body suggested.
Yet deep within seeped inescapable fatigue—likely illness-derived.
"First, my thanks." The old man broke the silence. "For aiding Veronica. My duty, had this body permitted."
"It required little effort."
Ray's rote reply accompanied scrutiny of the man's chest.
Three rings.
Fewer than the one-eyed mage's, yet leagues beyond Ray's current reach.
Shifting focus to the emotional vessel:
Red anger. Orange calm.
Yellow excitement. Green confusion.
Blue apathy. Indigo melancholy.
A dazzling spectrum of incompatible hues.
Not pooled mana, but colors etched into the vessel itself—
A palimpsest of lifetime emotions.
Common among the aged or intensely lived.
Hard for Ray to parse accurately.
"You have questions, I hear." The dry voice continued.
"I've sought wizards."
"Aren't you one? Veronica praised your skilled magic."
"My knowledge is limited."
The old man clucked a laugh.
"Answers I can provide—if magic-related. But shouldn't introductions come first?"
Fair point. Ray would demand the same.
"...Ray."
Only the name.
Watching reactions.
"Ray, then. Your origins?"
......
The hoped-for leniency didn't come.
As Ray hesitated, the elder proposed:
"Unwilling to share? Let's settle it through magic."
"Magic?"
"A simple game. Each round's winner asks one question. My interest is piqued regardless."
A finger flick conjured swirling mana—
Multicolored yet refusing to blend.
Normally such mixed mana repels...
Ray marveled at the control.
"Remarkable," the elder noted. "Your mana sensitivity shines through."
"What game?"
"Veronica and I practice with this."
Most mana dispersed, leaving a dense gray orb between them.
"Feel this Sustaining Element? Stabilizes magic against interference."
The explanation flowed like long-planned instruction.
"Hardest to manipulate due to its stabilizing nature—"
"What's the element beside it?"
The abrupt question froze the room.
"...What did you say?"
Astonishment blazed in the elder's vessel.
"The adjacent element. You didn't name it."
"You perceive... two elements?"
The gray mass held twin shades—indistinct to most, clear to Ray's eyes.
"Yes. Two."
"HAHAHA—! Cough—Hah...!"
The elder's laughter shook his frail frame, tears gleaming.
"All those orphanages... and the gemstone was here! Oh cruel fate—to grant this meeting as my time dwindles!"
Wheezing subsided, he regarded Ray anew.
"Untrained, yet... What exactly are you?"
"The element's name?"
"Patience." The elder smiled. "First, our game—we tug this orb. First to palm it wins. Agreed?"
Ray focused on the gray mass.
Stiffer than normal mana, yet...
Manageable.
He recalled controlling Veronica's escaped mana—
Farther and more stubborn than this.
"Let's begin."
