The following day Nolin was woken up by the doorbell. He leaned on his exercise book and fell asleep while he was working. Nolin rubbed his eyes and stood up.
“Who could it be?!”
Mumbled Nolin and looked at his phone.
“Half past four? F*** off!”
Said Nolin angrily, left his room and walked over to the door. Before he opened it, Kaisa also walked over to him and then Nolin opened the door. Behind the door, Nolin could see a man wearing a formal outfit, and he was holding a box in his hand.
“Good morning, sir. We hope that you will find it in your heart to forgive our transgression, and you will accept this as a token of compensation. One of our bosses will find you later during the day; I hope you will have time to negotiate.”
Said the well-dressed man while looking at Nolin.
“It’s way too f****** early.”
Said Nolin, grabbed the box the man was holding and closed the door. Kaisa was surprised, but Nolin calmly walked over to the table in the kitchen and sat down. Kaisa followed him after a few seconds and sat down on the other side of the table.
“Now let’s see what it is… although I have a few guesses.”
Said Nolin, and he quickly opened the box.
“Hm… interesting… It seems they have prepared a wand for me. Let’s see.”
Mumbled Bolin, and he pulled a wand out of the box. The wand was white, and at the end of it was a tiny green sphere.
“Not the best, but it is at least better than my previous one… Not that I really need one.”
Thought Nolin as he took a deep breath. Nolin took a brief moment to look at the wand, and then he placed it on the table and looked back into the box.
“Let’s see… How much did they give me for ruining my cloth, mood and my day? Hm… 5000 Dain… If I remember correctly, roughly 10 Dain should be roughly the bare minimum one would be paid for an hour of work… At least they didn’t look twice at every penny…”
Muttered Nolin, and after about a minute of staring at the money, he grabbed it. He placed 250 Dain on the table and pushed it closer to the girl in front of him.
“This is for food… Since walking is getting harder, I want you to do the shopping… Previously, mother would always do it, but she can only come home once a week if she is lucky.”
“S-sir… I have done what you said… I feel like I am able to move forward…”
“Not yet. After you have done the shopping, you will have to resume your training.”
“B-but, won’t I be found out? I-I don’t want to die…”
“You said you feel that you are ready. If you really are ready, just try to grasp what you have learned and use it while you are outside. Humans and non-humans use different sorts of magic. If you learn how to do both, you can easily deceive others into believing that you are human. Of course, weak people are very easy to trick. But if you encounter someone powerful… then you probably have to be very, very cautious and try your very best to hide your non-human side.”
Nolin ended the conversation, and he instantly stood up and walked into his room. He closed his exercise book, put it into his bag, and put the money into his wardrobe, then got dressed and grabbed his bag. At that moment, Kaisa walked in with Nolin’s new wand in her hand.
“S-sir, I wasn’t even able to prepare your launch… Please wait!”
“I am not in the mood right now; also, I am used to not eating during the day… Unfortunately. Also, I still have to prepare my legs for today… And I still have to go through a boring day.”
“O-oh… I-I understand… here’s your wand, sir!”
Uttered the girl, and she gave Nolin’s wand back to him, who instantly put it into his bag. The girl slightly lowered her head, and as Nolin walked past her, he gently put his hand on top of her head for a brief moment and then left the house.
“It’s still dark; at least it is quite nice. The light morning breeze feels great.”
Said Nolin with a visible smile on his face, and he slowly started walking on the street with the help of his cane. He walked back to the park and sat down on the same bench he used two days ago, and sighted.
“It is getting worse… Previously I could easily walk this much, but now it is already getting hard…I could speed up the process, but I’d rather do a good job and progress steadily instead of rushing things… that way, I will have a higher chance at defeating that self-proclaimed god!”
Thought Nolin as he slowly closed his eyes. For ordinary people, it seemed like he was only idly sitting there, but in reality, he was surrounded by a thin but strong green aura. The aura was stagnating and circling around him.
“Fancy meeting you here, Nolin! Especially this early in the morning.”
“Finits, it is most surprising that you always find me… it’s almost as if you sent someone after me to monitor me and report my position… strange. As for your question, I had a rough morning, so yeah, I decided to come to the park; it has a great atmosphere!”
“He-he, what makes you say that? Also, I agree with you. I love this park. I could just sit idly for hours here and enjoy the view. Can I sit, by the way?”
“If I was a teacher, I would say “I don’t know. Can you?” But yeah, sure.”
Said Nolin without once opening his eyes. The girl, on the other hand, instantly sat down.
“I hope you don’t mind me asking, but why are you attending such a low-class school? Of course, it has an acceptable level of teaching, but with your capabilities, I am sure you could easily get accepted into a much better and prestigious!”
“Finishing school is just a paper. Most of the things you learn there will most likely never come up in your life. Secondly, we are not very well off; my mother works a lot, and she is barely at home. I am happy she is able to pay my tuition fees; if I were to go to a “better” than, I would have to cough up quite a hefty fee as well. Thirdly… It is due to my leg… I wouldn’t be able to get there in time, or I would need to wake up so early that it would be unhealthy. But then again, I do have some other reasons as well, but I am not going to share them.”
“Oh…I understand… I am sorry, Nolin…A-are you free tonight?”
“Where did that come from? Well… After school, I will go to work and then home as soon as possible because my leg is getting worse. Also, I was informed about the fact that today I will have to meet with someone… although I am not happy about it. If you really want to meet up, you could come to where I work. You already know where that is.”
“Yeah… I guess I will do that!”
Finished the conversation the girl. She was looking at Nolin, and she seemed slightly sad, but moments later, she shook her head and laid back on the bench and just relaxed. However, after a few minutes, Nolin jumped up.
“I gotta go…”
Said Nolin, and he walked away as fast as he could. Finits lowered her just stared at her feet.
“Does he really hate me this much? I might have left him with a bad first impression… I should try to work on my approach… maybe I should be a bit pushier… but what if he misunderstands… and what if he finds that annoying and then he would avoid me more…”
Thought the girl, and she started fidgeting with her hands. She was only blankly staring ahead of herself for minutes, but then she stood up.
“I have decided; I will change my approach! This will be my only chance!”
Declared the girl with a confident smile on her face, and she called someone on her phone.
