Chương 3: Can I still clutch the golden thigh?

A velvet night sky sparkled over Rosenarte, the capital city of the Aedris Kingdom. Lanterns floated along the cobblestone streets, spilling warm light over the bustling populace. Despite the late hour, all the stores were open for business. A street vendor was pulling sugar into threads as thin as silk to the entertainment of the well-dressed crowd. A merchant in a fur-trimmed cloak argued over a bolt of fabric that shimmered between green and gold. Somewhere, a string quartet played.

It was like an enchanting dream come to life. Ophelia gazed up at the sky, some instinctual knowledge in the back of her mind certain the stars were not randomly placed, but formed a grand array she could only vaguely sense the shape of. The crowd parted around the master and apprentice duo like water parting around a boulder.

"Who is that woman? She's absolutely gorgeous. Wait… oh my gods, an archmage?"

"Is that Lady Vyx? I thought she was at Duke Gourman's ball?"

"Stop staring! Mages have terrible tempers, she might smite you on the spot!" The crowd whispered, unable to stop themselves from gossiping. Ophelia made sure to walk with impeccable posture, looking the part of an accomplished noblewoman. The black-lace hem of her plum dress swept gracefully over the ground. Good, all the attention was on her. No one even noticed Rin. Castle Nighthold really didn't have much. But, thankfully she had found a dusty cloak to cover the girl.

Rin's head was lowered, wholly unimpressed by the spectacle of the capital city. Right. She'd grown up as one of Rosenarte's many street urchins. She'd probably long since memorized every dark alleyway and patched-over pothole of this place. Luckily, Ophelia soon found a potions shop. She exhaled in relief. Getting Rin healed up was the most important thing. The lights were on, but a "Closed" sign hung inside the window. Ophelia shook her head. She twisted her fingers, and the sign flipped around to "Open".

A golden rune on the door flared to life and an unlocking click sounded. Too easy. Mages really are overpowered in this setting, why would anyone pick any other class? Magic is so cool! A silver bell above the threshold rang as Ophelia and Rin stepped inside. The place wasn't a shop so much an emporium. A giant, labyrinthine space, where the walls were towering shelves full of vials, bubbling cauldrons, and potion making equipment.

An acrid, burning smell hung in the air, and Ophelia tried to stop her nose from wrinkling unpleasantly. The shopowner - a gnome with a large, bushy gray beard - careened around the corner.

"Excuse me, miss! I must insist—" The small man froze to a stop, gaping. His gaze slid up to the level which was most assuredly floating above her head. [Archmage - Lvl 1000]! Ophelia smirked.

"You were saying?"

"I… I…" He bowed so deeply the ends of his mustache curled on the floor.

"Your Eminence, how can I assist you?"

"That's better." She strolled further into the shop, pretending to look around. While she might've inherited Lady Vyx's skills with magic, she hadn't gotten everything she knew. Ophelia couldn't name any of the potions, even the simple ones. Unless she used her [Observe] skill, at least. Maybe she could bribe the System into giving her a Potions. exe download later.

"Bring me your finest healing potion," demanded Ophelia.

"Something that counteracts poisons."

"Right away, Your Eminence!" She needed to be careful. A girl could get used to this kind of excessive deference. Ophelia looked back at Rin, only to find the girl with the faintest look of schadenfreude on her face. Her ruby eyes were glinting viciously in the direction of the retreating gnome, a trace of humor on her lips.

"Do you know him?" Ophelia raised an eyebrow. The girl's expression smoothed out in a flash, back to emptiness. She shrugged.

"Does he use orphans as test subjects for his potions? Because if so, we should report his abominable behavior to the Royal Court." Rin stared at her.

"What?" said Ophelia.

"I told you, I was training you. That's totally different." The storeowner returned with a bright blue potion. He uncapped it - mana curled out the top, forming a lotus flower which bloomed - before a refreshing wave of spirit energy spilled forth like crashing waves. There was the distant sound of mermaids singing, beautiful and bewitching. Impressive. However, looks could be deceiving, and she was mindful of the setting they were in. Slayer's Requiem was not a kind place.

And she could not afford to give the protagonist anything that could harm her. Not when Ophelia was one point away from being terminated by the System. [Observe]! [Elixir of Healing Song] Rare. A Level 500 healing potion (B-Grade), crafted from water-type ingredients. Will fully heal any injuries or afflictions below Level 250, with the exemption of some bloodline curses or dark magic. She pressed her skill a bit harder, and a long list of ingredients popped up. Useful.

"Perfect. I'll take it," said Ophelia. The storeowner re-capped the glass bottle and handed it to her.

"Your Eminence, as for payment, I'll take whatever you deem worthy of my skills." Ophelia opened her Status screen, half of which was blurry because of the on-going download. At the top showed her balance. Bank Balance: 0 bronze, 2 silver, 6 gold.

"..." There was no way Lady Vyx was this broke! Ophelia smiled, trying not to reveal the way her eye wanted to twitch. Didn't Lady Vyx just make a huge donation to the Royal Mage Academy? A ball had even been thrown in her honor. Don't tell me that woman donated basically every cent she had?! Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site. No. It was impossible. More likely, she had stowed her money in some ancient cave and hired a dragon to watch over it.

The more she thought about it, the more sure she was about her theory. Lady Vyx - lover of everything luxurious and decadent - broke? Living in a hovel was bad enough, but being broke on top of that… now that was "Out of Character". That couldn't be right. Maybe Nighthold Castle was just a property she'd bought for her experiments. Surely she had a real manor somewhere with vaults full of gold, servants, and a working bath. Still… right now, she had only six gold to her name.

A potion like this would cost at least a hundred thousand gold. She looked doubtfully at the blue potion in her hands. This was an elixir meant for a gold-rank individual. It was overkill for a Level 3 iron-rank like Rin. But Ophelia had no idea what poisons Lady Vyx had used on Rin. Considering the spells she knew, dark magic certainly wasn't out of the question. Better safe than sorry.

"Master Alchemist, most of my funds are tied up at the moment. How about you put this one on my tab, hm?" The shopkeeper grimaced, unable to hide the glumness that appeared on his face.

"O-of course." Ophelia smiled and gestured for Rin to follow her out of the shop.

"Here." She gave the potion to Rin.

"Drink up. Tell me if you feel any negative side effects. We'll go back and give that ugly gnome a hard time." Using her very own 'people skills', she had deduced that the protagonist had something against the shopowner. A good thing. A common enemy to bond over was like a gift falling into her lap. Rin stayed quiet, chugging the entire potion in one go without hesitation.

"Careful, don't choke," warned Ophelia gently.

"I'm not going to take it from you." Rin rubbed the sleeve of her cloak over her lips. She didn't speak, but closed her eyes, sighing in quiet relief as waves of blue mana coursed over her. It didn't take long for the potion to do its work. Gradually, the faint singing of mermaids vanished, and the healing effect settled into a soft humming beneath her skin. The girl exhaled loudly, as if this was the first time in a long time she'd been able to take a full breath. Ophelia felt a pang of guilt.

Though Rin's condition was the work of Lady Vyx, she couldn't help but feel like she shared some of the blame. Maybe it was the way Rin looked at her, so carefully blank. And Ophelia couldn't even defend herself without the System freaking out on her.

"Did the potion work? The quality seemed passable." Rin nodded slowly.

"Th…Thank you… Mistress Ophelia." A spark of joy swept through her. Ophelia couldn't help her gold-colored irises from warming with happiness. The student had finally acknowledged the master. Now her status as the protagonist's eccentric teacher had been confirmed!

"I don't want you to get used to indulgence, but I suppose I can reward you for passing my trials," Ophelia said gleefully.

"Which of these mundane peasant places would you like to dine at tonight?"

"I'm not…" Rin paused, then placed a hand over her stomach.

"... A-Anywhere is okay."

"Fine." Ophelia looked around, spotting a place she recalled from the webtoon. Dampierre's Diner. It was a modest, hole-in-the-wall restaurant. Timothy had taken Rin here after she had saved him from the fire at the wand shop, claiming it was the best food in the city. Rin had taken one bite and nearly broken character, mentally fawning over how amazing the food was. The gods really do want me to succeed!

"Let's go here. It's the best food in the city," Ophelia shamelessly parrotted. She dragged Rin inside. It looked just like the scene in the webtoon. The tavern mimicked the feeling of being inside the water-worn hull of a ship. Small wooden tables with a single, flickering glass candle sitting on each one. Paintings framed in beaten bronze, illustrating the great shipwrecks of history. A dark and intimate atmosphere. She paused. This was absolutely a date spot…

The waiter led them to a table in the corner, red-faced and blustering as he tried not to stare at Ophelia's chest. His eyes remained low, completely missing the [Archmage - Level 1000] in blue over her head. Ophelia thought it was hilarious.

"Menus, please," she called out to the retreating waiter. He startled, realizing he had forgotten such an important thing, running to fetch them from the host stand.

"System how long will it take for Points to hit my account?" she asked mentally. [Immediately.] Ophelia frowned at her menu. She had given Rin an extremely expensive healing potion, yet she was still at -10, 000 Points. Why? Soon, their plates arrived, delicious scents wafting over the table. She had ordered the house special - a boeuf bourguignon pasta - with a glass of the recommended wine pairing. A dark red medium-bodied vintage with earthy notes. Ophelia took one bite, the tastes exploding in her mouth.

Rin had ordered what she'd ordered in the webtoon. A simple steak, cooked extra rare.

"How is it?" asked Ophelia. The girl was poking at the steak despondently. She'd only eaten a corner of it.

"It's okay."

"Do you want to order something else?"

"No." Ophelia dabbed the corner of her mouth with the cloth napkin. This wasn't the reaction she'd been expecting. It had been several years between the start of the webtoon and Timothy taking her to this diner. Had the chefs and recipes changed during that time? [Ping!] [Your Leveling System has finished downloading!] Finally.

"[Status]," said Ophelia, opening her character page. Ophelia Vyx [Archmage - Level 1000] HP: 800, 000 Mana: 100, 000, 000 Strength: 210, 736 Dexterity: 400, 729 Constitution: 510, 830 Wisdom: 6, 700, 100 Intellect: 30, 873, 000 She couldn't stop a small laugh from escaping her. Lady Vyx was a true glass cannon mage. Did she pour all of her points into mana and intellect? Even in the webtoon, Rin hadn't encountered anyone with 100, 000, 000 mana until she started fist-fighting divines. That reminded her.

Her Spellbook should be fully downloaded too now.

"[Spellbook]," she intoned. A thick tome settled into her hand, her palm stretching from the sheer width of the spine. The cover was made of pure black leather, with curling designs etched into it. A large purple eye with a vertical pupil was embedded in the center. With a feather-light touch, Ophelia caressed the leather near the eye, and it squinted, shivering in delight.

"Cute," she whispered, opening the book. Most of the information she knew about Lady Vyx were clever fan theories extrapolated from her few scenes in the first chapter. Her spellbook couldn't hide the truth. These were the skills she had painstakingly chose to learn to the exclusion of other skills. There was a lot of Dark Magic. Rituals, curses, wards meant to hurt instead of protect. But those weren't the majority of her spells. Especially not the ones she'd learned at the beginning of her career.

No, most of her magic focused on utility. [Observe] was a utility spell, after all. [Warp] was too. Ophelia flipped through page after page of niche spatial spells, spells to create portals and gates, and storage spells. Tracking spells, shielding spells, negation spells… Now that she was looking carefully, it seemed like a lot the Dark Magic she knew was also utility magic Lady Vyx had been a Support Archmage. No wonder the heroes had gone berserk after she was killed. Forget the excuse of "fond memories"...

support mages were extremely rare and highly valued. They took a long time to nurture, and couldn't adventure by themselves. Not to mention, support spells were the hardest to learn. A Support Archmage? Rin didn't even encounter another one during her entire story. No wonder everyone turned a blind eye to Lady Vyx's indiscretions… Ophelia flicked her wrist and her Spellbook vanished into thin air. She would have to find some time to practice a few of these spells in private.

Ophelia knew a number of spells that existed in the webtoon, but they might not overlap with the spells that Lady Vyx had access to. She should find one offensive spell she could use if a fight broke out…

"Rin, do you—" She stood up in a hurry, looking around the diner.

"Rin?" The seat across from her was empty. Shit. Ophelia gathered her dress and sprinted for the door. The girl must have escaped while she'd been staring at her Spellbook. Damn it. She hadn't even managed to earn a single Point yet!

"My lady, do you need the check?" someone called.

"Just put it on my tab!"