Chương 130: Elicia

When Elicia felt the weight of Damion's adventurer backpack lift off her back she started to panic, but then she heard his voice.

"I'll carry it from here. The others left the courtyard, so you don't have to put on a show for them anymore." After freeing her arms from the straps and the weight of Damion's bag she spun around to look at him. In her eyes he could still see the resentment, but it had softened slightly, replaced with traces of confusion. Damion figured there were likely some circumstances to her being assigned to him as an attendant and he vowed to himself to make sure he did not treat her badly.

He thought it was a possibility she was used to poor treatment from entitled young mages that had above average talent.

"Do you mind if I ask you some questions?" Damion asked as he walked beside Elicia.

"I am here to serve," Elicia answered back in a bland tone.

"What is an attendant? I mean, what are you supposed to do for me?" Elicia turned her head to look at Damion almost as if she could not believe what he asked or perhaps she was trying to tell if he was serious in his question. Either way, after a moment of hesitation, she answered.

"An attendant does whatever is asked of their charge."

"I take it I am your charge," Damion surmised.

"Yes."

"Can you tell me about yourself?" Damion asked after feeling the young woman was keeping her answers short to avoid any familiarity between them.

"That would not be proper."

"Oh," Damion said at a loss. Since she would not talk about herself, Damion figured he would make some guesses.

"Well, I don't know your circumstances, but I'm guessing this is not exactly your dream job." The only response Elicia made as subtle snort of contempt towards Damion's statement.

"I can tell you are an E Rank. Nineteen, maybe twenty, years old. I'm guessing your family made you take this job since you only have a low or medium Rank magic talent, or perhaps an affinity that isn't terribly useful. I hope you don't think…"

"Just stop!" Elicia snapped at him, coming to a stop on the path. They were almost to the dorm building now, but Damion had no idea which was his.

"Don't try to get all buddy-buddy with me. You are right. I'm working here so I don't have to scrape a living as a knight. But don't think you know me. And don't think you are better than me just because you are a D Rank!"

"It isn't hard to make a living as a knight," Damion said absent mindedly.

"I trained and worked as a knight for several years before people realized I was a mage. Even almost reached C Rank just as a knight. If you work hard and dedicate yourself…"

"That doesn't matter in a White Zone. The only thing people here care about are mages."

"Why not go to a Green Zone or a Yellow Zone? Many guilds out there can use the extra help and I'm sure as a knight you could reach C Rank or maybe even B Rank. I know a B Rank knight in Saung." If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

"I don't… I mean… at least here I don't have to worry about beast waves," Elicia stumbled out a reason to Damion that sounded a bit hollow.

"Beast waves aren't that common in Green Zones. There was a small one when I was six in Saung. And then the recent one, which was pretty bad, but less than a thousand people died."

"Two in twelve years huh," Elicia mumbled.

"Some people make it sound like there are beast waves everyday out there. I heard about you losing your family in the last beast wave in Saung. Sorry."

"Um, thanks. I didn't realize everyone knew."

"Expect all the staff and most of the returning students to know everything about you. You are a hot topic. The new students won't know as much, but I'm sure they'll get filled in by upperclassmen pretty quickly."

"Well, they don't know everything about me," Damion mumbled to himself as he thought about the Magic System.

"Oh, what did they miss?" Elicia asked suddenly interested.

"What? Oh, I'm C Rank now," Damion hastily answered. Elicia just stared at Damion for a moment as what he said registered to her. An eighteen-year-old D Rank was not too unusual. Plenty of people had achieved that in the past. But an eighteen-year-old C Rank was unheard of. C Rank was the stopping point for most knights and many mages, and this young man had managed to reach that point already.

"Freak." Elicia muttered as she quickly turned away from Damion hoping he did not hear her.

"Your dormitory is just up here." Elicia led Damion the rest of the way to his dorm which was situated on the top floor of the four-story building. When she opened the door for him, he had been expecting something resembling a motel room or a college dorm from Earth, but Damion was pleasantly surprised by what he saw. The dormitory was more of a luxury furnished apartment.

The further Damion walked inside the more he felt that the entire dormitory had a space stretching enchantment like his adventurer backpack and waist pouches, making it bigger on the inside. The door opened into an entry way, that had hangers and racks for shoes and coats, which then connected to a living room. Damion also spotted a formal dining room, as well as a full kitchen.

On the other side of the living room Damion saw three closed doors and he guessed that at least one was going to be his bedroom, but he wondered if the others were a guestroom or bathroom. After setting his bag down, Damion walked over and began checking the doors. The first door was, as he guessed, his bedroom. The second was actually a study while the third was a much smaller bedroom.

"Please don't peek into my room in the future," Elicia said after Damion stuck his head into the third room.

"Your room?"

"I'm your attendant, remember."

"I didn't know that meant you would be living with me," Damion said suddenly nervous as he found his eyes wandering over Elicia's body.

"I can't very well attend to your every need if I'm somewhere else."

"Then what do you do when I'm in class?"

"Wait outside for you to finish." Elicia's answer made Damion pause for a moment while he considered her words. It was turning out that being an attendant was much more than just being a maid or an errand runner.

"Here, let me unpack for you," Elicia said reaching for Damion's adventurer bag.

"No, that's alright. I'll do it," Damion said quickly snatching his bag up. He only had about a quarter of his personal belongings in his adventurer backpack. The rest he had stored in the Magic System Inventory. If Elicia unpacked everything, and then more suddenly appeared, it was bound to raise questions. Damion took his bag into his bedroom to unpack while a confused Elicia tried to figure out what she had done wrong.

In his bedroom Damion quickly emptied his adventurer backpack onto his bed and then took out his box of personal items from the Magic System Inventory. Once they were all on his bed he began to organize and place things about the room. In the closet he found five identical sets of school uniforms that True Sight informed him were C Rank artifacts. Since none of the students were likely to reach C Rank, aside from Damion, then the students would most likely not be able to do any serious harm to one another.

Unless of course it was a sneak attack, or the student did not channel any mana into their uniform to activate whatever protections it had. Still, the expense of providing such uniforms to each student had to be quite astounding.