Chapter 223 - She Wants to Build A....

"Currently, they've barricaded themselves in their city. No humans are allowed inside." Marin shrugged. "That's their rule, so, unless you can convince them from the outside, or have someone they know negotiate for you, then you probably won't be able to get in."

"Huh...an entire city of enchanters, hmmm..." Robin pondered.

"Ah, no. Only the gnomes are enchanters. There's two other factions which are a part of the city. Don't get me wrong." Marin corrected.

"Is that so?" Robin scratched her head. "Well, we've got Chelsea, Liam, and Quinn, so it isn't like we don't have any negotiators."

"Wait, they're not human?" Marin asked, mildly surprised. "Huh. Usually I can tell them apart, but I guess their technique is near perfect."

"Well, I guess we know where we need to go next, then~!" Robin decided. "Do you, by any chance, have a general map of the area?"

"The city isn't on any official maps as they don't like bothersome fools fumbling about in their area. As for a more detailed map, they're all local and confidential, so I can't help you there." Marin shook his head.

"So we're out of options now?" Robin looked at Jasmine, hopefully. Perhaps she might know something about enchanting? Jasmine shook her head imperceptibly.

Enchanting required extensive knowledge of the runic language. Gnomes kept their runic tomes, jealously. Moreover, all enchanted items had a failsafe in place to prevent observation of the original runes.

"Not quite..." Marin thought of something. "You're staying at Lave Mercantiles, right? They sometimes have dealings with the gnomes, so they might have a more detailed map of the route with them."

"Bastian does?" Robin asked, surprised.

"If it's young master Sebastian Lave, then he is indeed the person I am referring to." Marin agreed.

"Ho. Looks like we need to have a chat with Young Master Sebastian, then." Keith noted. Robin blinked. She didn't like the idea of talking to Bastian again so soon. But she didn't let it show on her face.

"Haha. Looks like we're heading back now~" She joked, before ruffling Felix's hair. "You be good and learn from Marin, okay? I look forward to the time when you're a full fledged wizard."

"Mmn! I will!" Felix was still beaming with happiness at being accepted as Marin's student.

Robin nodded a farewell and turned to leave.

"Ah! Use the front door, this time, Hero Robin!" Marin cautioned.

"Eh? Oh! Ahahaha~" Robin was startled by the request. But then she recalled the last time she left was via the window. She could only laugh sheepishly.

"It couldn't be helped last time, I didn't have time to use the door." She tried to explain. "Normally, I always use the door, okay?"

"Riiiight." Marin looked at her with a neutral expression, unconvinced. Christian and Keith smirked. The rest could only chuckle at Robin's antics.

Robin sighed.

It seemed she had to resign herself to being the comic relief for a time.

"In any case, farewell!" Robin waved a goodbye, before walking down the stairs probably. A group of snickering companions followed along behind her.

___

However, his mindscape's library of books was already very big. And he was destined not to finish for a long time...

"Master Lave? Are you awake?" Fest knocked on the door to the study, causing Bastian to open his eyes out of reflex. The librarian mindscape vanished away, replaced by the study.

"Yes, I'm awake. What is it, Fest?" Bastian asked.

"Robin and the others have returned, and would like to discuss something with you." Fest announced.

"Oh?" Bastian felt surprised, but after a moment he answered. "All right. Where are they? I'll go see them."

It was a rare moment for Bastian. After all, as the owner of Lave Mercantiles, usually it was people who came to see him in his study. It was once in a blue moon that he would be the one receiving others by going to them.

But, this was one of those times.

"Good Morning to you all." Bastian greeted the group, a pleasant expression on his face as he was curious what they had come to see him for. "It's not every day that I see you all together... and awake. What can I help you with?"

Robin's hand shivered before she consciously willed it to stop. 'It wasn't his fault. Just think of him as another travelling soul like...like Quinn.' Surprisingly, that method actually worked.

"Yes, the thing is," Robin began. "We need to commission an enchantment on an item. And we heard you had some contact with the gnomes who were best at that sort of thing."

"I do. But unfortunately, the contract I have with the gnomes is a magic one. I am bound by that contract not to reveal their location to anyone." Bastian replied, with a sigh.

"So, no maps, huh?" Christian inferred.

"None aside from memory." Bastian replied. "However, if you're willing to entrust the item to me, I can send it to them for an enchantment through my own channels."

Robin paused. "Can you assure that it won't be seen by anyone?" She asked.

"I can only do so while it remains in my hands." He replied. "After that, it's merely conjecture."

"The thing we've been volunteer-obligated to do is to make and deliver an enchanted golden thing of beauty that no one has ever seen before to a dragon we've never met." Robin explained.

"The ramifications should you fail?" Bastian asked.

"Said Dragon possibly breaking the Geneva convention and sparking yet another war between mankind and demonkind, making this place a war zone on the front lines." Robin explained.

"Geneva convention? what- I don't understand..." Christian suddenly felt confused.

"It's a famous treaty back in the hero's world." Bastian explained. "Used probably due to not knowing what the name of our current treaty is."

"..Ah." Christian nodded.

"And as for breaking the treaty....That will not do. That will not do at all! Fest!" He called.

"Yes, young master?" Fest replied.

"Can you check with our contact if anyone's willing to take up the task?" Bastian asked.

"I will send the message out immediately, sir." Fest bowed, heading out of the room. Bastian nodded.

"We'll see what we can do. What did ya have in mind?"

Robin considered things. "I was considering a Rubik's cube of magic, but I'd need to consult if putting fragmented runes together would be a good idea."

"Rubik's cube of magic? How come I've never come up with these things?" Bastian smirked. "If you can actually create one, I'd love to see it...of course, not before that dragon does, obviously."

"I was thinking about making a special one for him, then creating a lesser cube that has runic parlor tricks for others." Robin nodded.

"Bahahahah!" Bastian burst out into laughter. "I can just imagine it now! Oh this is just too good not to invest in. May I have the honor of being the main merchant for that lesser cube?"

"Sure. It was mainly an afterthought, so feel free." Robin shrugged.

"Pardon my asking, but what is a Rubik's cube?" Jasmine interjected, curious.

"Ah. It's a bit difficult to explain, so let me draw a normal one for you." Robin replied. She turned to Bastian.

"May I?" She gestured towards some blank paper and a quill.

"By all means, go ahead." Bastian waved her over.

Robin drew a cube, and divided each side into thirds from left to right, then again from up to down.

"This is a Rubik's cube. At least the most common one. Each of these smaller cubes is attached to a round base at the center, and each side on the cube has an attributed color. It's a small tinker toy. so the cubes can only move up and down, or left and right, spinning on that spheric base. The objective is to match up all the smaller cubes so that each side only has one color on it."

"Which is an interesting thing in itself, but we're we to be able to, say, place a rune on one of those sides, and assembling it would set off a spell, then that would probably be one of the most interesting tinker toys imaginable." Bastian added.

"But, now that we've seen it, won't that mean that you can't make it anymore?" Jasmine asked.

"No. After all, this is only in theory. Have any of you ever seen a magic Rubik's cube?" Robin asked. The rest shook their heads.