“So, this place is the Wishing Well?!” Mine couldn’t help but still doubt it.
It was the so-called Wishing Well he heard from the rumors!
This place was a legend among the students, and a few were lost in this incident. Soleil's silence and Abannak's odd behavior... Blanche's missing case and how Mine found her but still had no answers... Belial's affair with Blanche and Ajal taking Blanche's classes without questioning her integrity... everything was messed up, and Mine thought it had no solution.
He even tried to connect and investigate the place and set a route... but the Satan Flower and Tieran's incident made it impossible to progress. Also, many things happened from that day on, like Addai being injured, the Alley incident, and the Masquerade Ball itself.
Everything was a mess! Mine barely had time to focus on himself, so he had to put the Well aside.
In the end, all he had in his hands was a piece of paper with hints and his curiosity, but nothing more than that. Also, he was deliberately put aside from the investigations, which left him with almost nothing to look after.
“Ah, this shit wasn’t a fairy tale after all," Addai pondered out loud, looking at the environment they were in. “The students weren’t wrong, but… isn’t it too ugly to be that magical thing they believed?”
“The disappointment is real, and I feel it too, but... here we are," Mephistopheles darkly grinned, patting the humid stone wall. "I've been looking for this place for a long while… well, let's move, or else the illusions will turn worse."
As they walked along the dark corridors, Mine wondered why Soleil hadn't assigned him or Addai to investigate the Wishing Well.
First, Mine had a thought, but it implied that Soleil knew everything from everyone involved. But this hypothesis was kindly put aside once he couldn't know Agarath so closely nor his intentions towards Mine and Addai. It would be a coincidence, or Soleil was God, and they didn't comprehend his omnipresence.
The second hypothesis was that, somehow, it was all a very confusing coincidence.
Also, it was impossible.
Third hypothesis… could it be that Mine had really nothing? If so, why were they gatekeeping the truth from him that stubbornly?
“What are you pondering so fiercely?” Addai whispered to Mine. “If you frown that much, you’ll be old soon,” he touched Mine’s forehead, right on the frowning.
Mine bit his bottom lip and frowned again, not looking at Addai. “Why would Soleil hide this from us?”
"Maybe we aren't suitable?" Addai shrugged, tied to his philosophy of 'minimum wage, so, minimum effort.'
“This isn’t right,” Mine shook his head lightly. "I'm a 'universal equalization tool,' so I could be used for it, and the problem wouldn't have turned into this mess! You are good with miasma too, so he could have sorted you to deal with the energies!” He voiced, frustrated. "Someone is hiding something from us and knows everything about us, or else this isn't possible!"
Addai sighed and patted Mine’s head. “It’s okay to not know everything.”
"…" Mine fell silent, and his eyes drooped.
“Yeah, all this stuff, but I want to know something,” Mephistopheles voiced in front of them. “How in Hell aren't you accustomed to miasma, little Duke?”
Well, there was a perceptive difference between the fake and the real Mephistopheles when it came to how they treated Addai. Seeing that now made Mine realize the fake Mephistopheles from earlier was way different from the original one, who now was freely teasing Addai without fear or respect.
Yeah, this behavior fits him way better.
“You are the Great teacher of Dark Mana, and you cannot handle miasma? Ha! Ha ha aha!” Mephistopheles cackled a sincere laugher while Addai’s cheeks turned red.
“I-It’s not that simple!” Addai protested and sought help from Mine.
Mine was looking at him with a raised eyebrow and a curious look. He didn't seem to want to make fun of Addai, but he also gave the slight impression that he was judging him in some way about something. Well, it's a good thing the hallways were dark enough, so Mine wouldn't see how red with embarrassment Addai was.
“Don’t look at me this way!” Addai protested again, and Mine chuckled.
“See? Even the kiddo is curious. Enlighten us, Your Grace,” Mephistopheles teased joyfully.
Addai grumbled a little more and took a deep breath. There was no use hiding the flaws, especially when you're in a dangerous place and need to work together.
“… sometimes my body can't handle miasma without side effects,” Addai explained, his cheeks still blushing even in the dark. “That’s one of the reasons why I wear my necklace so often. It’s a stabilizer gem, but…”
“Where’s it?” Mine asked, looking at Addai.
“…” Addai fell silent for a few seconds and his whole body trembled as if he had just committed a sinful sin. "… It broke,” he muttered, defeated.
“What?!” Mine gasped.
It was, indeed, a sin!
Stabilizing gems was rare, and acquiring one required a lot of effort. You couldn’t simply buy a gem and say it was a “stabilizing gem.” Those kinds of accessories were made with mana and condensed energies, so the user could use the opposite essence to stabilize their own whenever they needed.
In other words, if Addai had a stabilizing gem that dealt with his essence – mostly miasma – it meant the gem was made from Light or Heavenly mana, which was the rarest type of artifact to be crafted. Angelic and Light Mana items were fragile, so crafting a gem was as impossible as mixing oil and water without a third mixing element… or it could be as dangerous as dealing with Uranium. Really? Dangerous? Precisely! When it comes to Heavenly energies, most of them could be intoxicating to the user – no, it couldn't be. It is intoxicating! – so, there’s the exact amount of energy to be put in one gem so it wouldn’t harm the user.
So, there were two things to worry about: first, how to mix the ingredients; second, how to measure the exact amount that varies from user to user.
Again, it was, indeed, a sin!
“So, we’re fucked,” Mephistopheles hummed, nodding. "Nice, very nice, Your Grace. Let's give you a round of applause for breaking such a pain-in-the-ass artifact.”
Mine chuckled faintly and took Addai’s hand cheerfully before he did reckless things – like punching Mephistopheles’s back. “We’ll find another suitable one for you, okay?”
“…” Addai fell silent, looking at Mine.
He knew it was nearly impossible, but Mine's smile was so cheerful he didn't want to spoil it. So, he only nodded and smiled back.
Mephistopheles slowed his pace and waved for the boys. "We arrived at the meeting point. We need to wait for Younri," he explained, and several mana candles were lit in the room.
The place was almost the same as earlier, but there were no shelves or corpses. It was a wide and empty gallery with three hallways connected, all of them dark and mysterious. The only path that had light was the one they came from, which Mine left some mana candles behind so they wouldn't be too lost.
The miasma smell was also very prominent, and mixed with the walls' humidity. It wasn't bad, but it could be better.
Mephistopheles chose a place to sit and grunted. "Let's sit and rest while we can."
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