The Sixth School Ch. 025

The reason Greg brought out Olivia, wasn't because she was trying to intimidate the healer in any way. Rather, it was because he was left with no choice. No one stupid would make it to the levels of power that the healer had. Greg knew that if he offered some half-baked excuse for why he'd had all the items that he did, he would lose the healer's trust, and any chance to learn from her along with it. So, instead, he chose to approach this dilemma from a different angle. Rather than reveal the system, he'd reveal Olivia's presence and blame everything on her. Although it may sound a bit too convenient, claiming that his familiar gave him the items held enough plausibility that the healer wouldn't be able to call him a liar. Besides, it was a lot more believable than saying that he had a store inside of himself where he could buy everything he needed just by spending mana in the form of magic points. Furthermore, if one really thought about it, it wasn't a lie to claim that Olivia was responsible for everything seeing as she was the creator of the system.

"A few nights before I was discharged from the infirmary, for reasons I am yet to puzzle out, I woke up to find that I had gained a familiar," He straightforwardly revealed. Just a day prior, this would have been a false statement. A day before, Greg would have believed that Olivia was here because he bought her from the magic shop. After learning about the familiar's true origins, however, the statement morphed into a true one. Greg truly had no idea why the primordial had chosen to act as a familiar that one can buy in the magic shop. Greg's guess, so far, was that when one became powerful enough to access the highest tiers of the shop then they probably would have become powerful enough to be useful to her. By buying the familiar, they would be unwittingly alerting the primordial to this fact.

"I named her Olivia," Greg continued to explain. "She's the one that introduced me to a whole new world that I was so far ignorant of," he stated. "The world of mages and magic," he relayed. "She's also the one that alerted me to the danger that my uncle posed and granted me the tools I needed to eliminate this threat once and for all," He declared, choosing to keep his explanation brief.

Greg knew that the easiest way to get caught in a lie was by giving overly-detailed explanations. Although Greg hadn't told any outright lies thus far, he knew that each of his statements was only true based on how one interpreted them. From the time his mother came to visit him in the infirmary, Greg had already been wary of his uncle and the danger he posed. This, however, didn't change the fact that Olivia had alerted him to the threat posed by his uncle when she had revealed the fact that he was a tier-zero mage and what that entailed. Again, Greg had bought the magical items from the system by spending the magic points he already had. By creating the system in the first place, however, the familiar was responsible for giving him the main tool he employed in defeating his uncle.

Greg didn't like having to play such word games. Whatever her motivations, however, Greg knew that Olivia had been right when she said that he couldn't afford to reveal the system and its abilities to anyone. Familiars, while rare, were not entirely unheard of in this world. This was as close as he could come to revealing that dangerous truth without compromising himself.

The healer was quiet for a while as she contemplated his words. "I doubt that someone that can help you deal with a tier zero mage, can't help you recover from your disfigurement," The healer, in one statement, cut right to the heart of the lie that Greg had told.

Greg didn't try to hide his shame at this. This was one part where he planned to tell the truth and hopefully, start to build trust with the healer. "When my familiar told me about the world of magic, I immediately wanted to learn all I could about it," He revealed. "I was willing to take her on as my teacher in magic right there and then," He stated. "She, however, told me that I would be losing out by taking her as my teacher. After all, she's only equal to a second-tier mage in terms of power, whereas, there was a seventh-tier mage close by," Greg stated. "With the new understanding I had of the world of magic, I can't tell you how shocked I was to learn that you are a seventh-tier mage," He relayed.

"However, once the shock subsided, it slowly dawned on me that something was wrong. Firstly, there was no reason a seventh-tier mage would be in this godforsaken little town. Secondly, while you hide it very well, after almost two weeks of being healed three times a day by you, I did pick up on the fact that using your magic becomes a struggle for you after a while," he said. "I'm still not sure what's going on with you, however, I suspected that if I came right out and asked to be your student of magic, you would turn me down," he confessed. "I chose to learn potion making from you with the excuse of seeking a cure for my disfigurement. My plan, however, was to show you how diligent I am in the pursuit of magic. I hoped to slowly win your trust as time went on. That way, you'd at least give me a chance to learn from you," He confessed.

There was a long silence between the two as the healer quietly assessed his words. At last, she spoke. "The answer is no," Came the succinct reply from the healer...

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