Unsealing Emptiness

Ozul didn’t stop to elaborate since it would only be a bother. He ignored Hana and her mumblings as he walked out of the room.

“I have seen that ring somewhere before... wait...”

Only now did Hana remember the one thing that everyone under the Ashin family knew about. It was the silver ring in Ozul’s hand! It meant absolute authority over whoever or whatever belonged to the Ashin family!

Hana kept looking at the door through which Ozul had walked out with wide eyes as she gulped before muttering, “Is he the heir or something...” She could only relate to someone young looking with that ring to be the heir of the Ashin family. Who else would have that ring?!

Previously she couldn’t recognize the ring because her mind didn’t register that someone she had never seen before would have it.

“Wait a minute! Couldn’t he get the books himself then?! Damn him-” Hana was about to curse Ozul but remembered that he was the ‘Ashin family’s heir’. She could only do it in her head.

.....

Meanwhile, Rina was looking at her sister with wary eyes, ‘Sister is acting crazy again...’

——

Uncaring of whatever was going on inside Hana’s head, Ozul went back to the town.

The place was a whole lot different than what he had left it to be. The people working on it weren’t some laborers. They were high ranked Mages. Creating tens of meters tall wall could be done by them in a matter of minutes.

They hadn’t yet started to build any structures, but Ozul did notice that many of the already built structures at that place were erased from their base. If he hadn’t seen the spot before, he would never think that there were some buildings there before.

For now, he knew that the men were still at work. But they were most likely setting up things that he didn’t bother to ask Irvin.

It had almost gotten dark, but Irvin noticed his arrival as if he had been particularly waiting for him. He arrived before Ozul and bowed his head a little before looking at him with an almost questioning face.

“Young Master...”

“Hm?” Ozul didn’t understand why Irvin was hesitating.

“Are you... miss Sylvia’s son?” Irvin gathered his confidence before asking.

Ozul was surprised what this brought on, but he remembered that Irvin was also a part of the Ashin family before. He simply nodded his head, before asking, “You knew my mom?”

Saying that Ozul realized that it was not at all difficult to call her mom as he thought it might be, ‘Well she did give me birth...’

“Yes! I did indeed knew Miss Sylvia, Young Master. I was her one and only butler...” Irvin answered in a regret-filled tone.

Ozul only replied with an, “Oh.” Irvin, on the other hand, continued, “That is why I was going to ask you, will you make me your butler?”

Irvin got on his one knee as he asked this question. Ozul raised a brow as he looked at him, thinking if it meant anything special or something.

However, he was too lazy to ask and only nodded his head and said, “Alright.”

Irvin stood up with newfound energy, completely different from his previous self. It felt like he was working previously for the sake of working. But now he wanted to work as if it would bring him joy.

“What do I have to do now?” Irvin asked, expecting many personal things to be handed to him.

“Just do whatever you were doing before,” Ozul answered before he dismissed him. He didn’t care what Irvin wanted to be called; his work would be the same.

Irvin had a wry smile on his face as he walked away. It was as if he just received a title with no special privileges. Although he understood that nothing basically changed for Ozul, he was still content being known as his butler from now on. He wasn’t able to finish his duty for Sylvia, so he had decided that it will be her son who he will serve as a butler now.

After this little interaction, Ozul decided to rest for the day.

. . .

He spent the next few days actually watching the people do their stuff from a distance. It hadn’t been long since they arrived here. He would be fine, but the same could not be said for the people. That’s why he had decided to stay here in case something happened.

His ‘tutoring’ with Rina could wait.

He didn’t know it before, but Irvin had casually explained to him that the men were firstly adding hidden traps and even devices that could detect Mana signatures at a very long distance from the town.

The traps wouldn’t be automatically triggered by the intruders. They would have to manually activate them in case of any emergency. There would be other people as well, so the traps would harm everyone if they hadn’t set it up like this.

After these traps were set up, Ozul concluded that he had already taken enough caution. There weren’t many under Rank-9 who could match Irvin either. He was a peak Rank-8 Mage after all.

. . .

Ozul arrived in the Littlewood Auction House. He had previously forgotten to ask where they would begin, so he could only come back here.

This time, a few people recognized him. One of them went to inform Hana, but it turned out that she had recently left to deal with some things related to the shipping of their goods.

Ozul did not mind her absence, instead, he was happy that she wasn’t here. He thought that if she had given it some thought, the girl most probably would have realized what the ring was. Meeting her now could mean a lot of annoying questions being thrown at him.

He also didn’t have the ring in his hand right now. He had to put it in the Spatial Pouch so that not everyone who recognizes it starts to bombard him with questions that he was too lazy to answer.

Ozul was delighted not just because Hana wasn’t here, but also because he felt the same curious but bashful eyes looking at him from the terrace above like previously. It meant that Rina was still here. Now he could consult her without having to deal with any of Hana’s nonsense.

He made his way to the 2nd floor again and went to the same room. Rina hadn’t expected his visit, so she was yet again flustered when he entered the room.

“Y-you are here... mister...” Rina stuttered.

“Ozul,” he didn’t mind stating his name as he continued, “Let’s do it then.”

Rina remembered his name before asking, “H-here?” She hadn’t taught anyone before, but this room didn’t seem like a suitable place to learn.

“Wherever is fine,” Ozul dismissed the idea of moving to a different place.

“Okay...” Rina quickly accepted the idea and they began their session.

Rina at first was stuttering in each sentence, but she quickly got over it in the heat of discussion. She first asked Ozul what he knew about formations, and then added more explanation to whatever he already knew, solidifying his base.

“The formations aren’t just some complex artifacts, consider them more like magical spells. Basically, they help us do anything that one can do with their Spell, but more.” After all that talk about her being a beginner herself, Rina was pretty good at teaching. She seemed like a completely different person only after a few minutes.

“My question is how?” Ozul asked. He didn’t want to know each and every application of it. What mattered to him right now was the method.

“Hmm... Okay. Think of your own body as a formation. We can create spells when we have the intent and use our Mana. Formations work the same way, they are instructions that tell the Mana what to do. So when we finally channel Mana through it, there is no need for us to build an intent in our mind each time because it is already predefined. And that is the hardest part because...”

Rina kept explaining in detail, but Ozul’s mind was stuck on her first sentence; ‘Think of your own body as a formation.’

“Were those symbols also some sort of formation?” Ozul could not help but mutter in confusion. If only he could read those symbols. In the end, all of his guesses would meet a dead end at those symbols. Most of his questions would probably be answered if only he knew what they meant.

“Eh? Did you say something?” Rina asked since she thought that she might have heard something.

“No. Continue,” Ozul responded before focusing his attention on her again.

“Okay. So where was I? Oh yes, you might know that we need to weave the Mana in our body in some way or another to cast the spells, the same principles apply to formations. The only...”

Ozul attentively listened to everything she said and compared it to what he had already learned from the book. Even with his impressive memory, he learned that Rina’s explanations were more thorough and in-detail since she was also adding her own examples to make it more understandable.

A few hours passed with Ozul only listening to her lecture. He did not interrupt her again. Fortunately for him, Hana hadn’t come back all this while.

He knew that she would come back any minute now, so as to avoid her, Ozul was occasionally checking if her Mana signature was anywhere nearby.

It was only when he really did sense the similar Mana signature entering the Auction House did he suddenly stand up, interrupting Rina’s ongoing explanation.

“Before I go, tell me, is it possible to use formations without the use of Mana?”