Solar Mage

Chapter 6: The Letter

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"Arthur, I'm here to check up on your condition for the day, and I have a letter from your father!"

***

"Is that you William? Come in!"

"Creaaaak"

Wait, how was the door fixed?

As William walks through the door, he doesn't make eye contact with me in the beginning as he reads his checklist, acting like a real physician for once.

"So, how are you feeling, any other weird symptoms-"

He says as he looks up from his checklist and sees my face and clothes covered in vomit and his facial expression turns to panic.

"Ack! I knew that the concoction you made didn't work, this is all my fault I should have known better than to let you eat poison! Quick, hop on my back I'm taking you to the head physician! I won't let you die today!"

This despicable, sorry excuse for a physician actually care about me, maybe I've been too hard on him-

"At least not until you pay me for my services, getting you those ingredients yesterday. Quickly get on my back!"

At the same time that he gets into position to carry me.

Nevermind, I take back what I said he's just as money crazed as ever.

"I'm fine, don't worry about it."

"What do you mean you're fine?!?! You have vomit all over your clothes-"

He pauses and looks at the rest of my body, looking me up and down. And gives me a look of disbelief

"Wait, how did your body change so much? Your skin is completely back to normal, your eye bags are gone, and your muscles, they are the same..."

Then he gets closer to my bed and starts examining my arm, feels my muscles and my bones.

"I don't believe it, the antidote you created only got rid of the poison, but didn't have any healing properties. It should've taken at least a year to see signs of recovery but... your muscles and bones are even stronger and tougher than before! Did you eat a fruit from the World Tree or something? I've never seen a recovery as quick as this, this is unheard of!"

I stayed silent for a moment while William began to stagger.

"W-wait did you really eat a fruit from the World Tree?"

I pause for a little longer and burst out laughing.

"Haha, you should've seen the look on your face! I didn't eat that but I did eat some elixirs that my master bought me last night."

Then as if he's uninterested in the conversation as I bring up my master, he makes small talk with me as he checks out the boxes on his checklist.

"Oh? Who's your master?"

"Thorne Bladesong"

"Oh, Thorne? Sounds strong, I think I've heard of him before, you got a good master-"

The moment of realization:

"WAIT WHAT?!?! THORNE BLADESONG, THE GUARDIAN OF THE IRON GATE AND ONE OF THE ONLY FOUR GRANDMASTERS TO EVER EXIST, IS YOUR MASTER?!?!?!"

I give him a look of discomfort and nod as he composes himself.

"Ahem, I apologize for showing you this unsightly side of myself."

You've already shown me your unsightly sides with your greedy mindset.

The he begins to hand me letters, with my face showing more alarm with each letter he hands me

"Here's the letter from your father."

He hands me a black envelope with the royal lion seal on it.

"Here is the letter from your fiance, Isabella."

He hands me a white envelope with the Manavane phoenix seal on it.

"W-what? She's not my fiance!"

We look each other in the eyes in silence.

"Moving on, here are the letters from the imperial court."

He pulls out a stack of letters wrapped in string and drops it on the floor.

"And finally, here are the letters from the Church of Pyro."

He says while he pulls out another huge stack of letters and drops it on the floor.

"I'm not reading all this, how is there so much mail sent to me at the same time?

"That's all the mail you built up in the past month."

"Well, why didn't you give it to me then, and not all of it now?"

He paused and gave me a look of, does he really not know why?

"... Because you were in a depressed state for the last month and wouldn't talk to anyone."

"Ah, that's right. Thank you for bringing this to me, I'll just get to reading these then..."

"Yeah, good luck with that"

He says as he chuckles and starts leaving before he stops at the door.

"There's one more thing we haven't discussed"

Then he makes a OK symbol with his hands and looks back at me

"When are you going to pay up?"

I stare at him intensely with a stack of letters in my hands and a face full of anger.

"Can't you see I'm busy right now?!?!?! Get the hell out!!!"

He then runs out with the door slamming behind him.

Finally he's done annoying me, let's read the letter that father sent me first. Hopefully it wasn't sent to me too long ago.

Dear Arthur,

I hope you're starting to feel a little better. I am regretful that I couldn't protect you, and it's even harder not being there to help you through this.

Right now, I'm caught up in a trial at the Imperial Court. The Empire is just as outraged as I am that someone would poison and cripple you—the most gifted swordsman in the kingdom. They've been supportive of my actions. But the Church of Pyro sees things differently. Even though they admit it's tragic what happened to you, they've condemned me for seeking justice and killing the one responsible. It's no secret that the person I dealt with was one of their major sponsors, and it seems that their stance has more to do with protecting their own interests than upholding any sense of justice.

I don't know how this trial will end, but please stay safe. You're always on my mind.

With love, Father

As Arthur finishes reading the letter, his hand tightens around the paper, crumpling the edges. A wave of emotions washes over him—anger, frustration, and a deep sense of helplessness. He feels a surge of resentfulness toward the Church of Pyro, his thoughts racing as he processes the injustice of it all.

How dare they! The Church of Pyro, I swear if my father is harmed in any way, I will decimate all of you! But to do that, I must quickly get stronger.

"Sage System, is it possible for you to quickly scan the rest of the letters and tell me only the most important parts?"

"ANSWER: YES"

"TIME NEEDED: ONE HOUR"

Time to advance to the second circle.