"Here," Anfey said, tossing the scroll to Hagan.
Hagan reached over and snatched it out of the air. He looked at the scroll, then jumped up and dashed towards his room with a wide grin.
"Wait!" Anfey called. "Come back!"
"What is it?" Hagan turned and asked.
"Master Saul said you should go check out the magic lab. He was considering making an alchemy lab in there and needs your opinions. You can tell the butler about anything you need and he will fetch it for you."
"Really?" Hagan asked, stunned. He was already happy enough to receive the manuscript of the famous alchemist Jacob, now he was overjoyed. He had always wanted an alchemy lab, but he never had the chance to get one. Now this was a dream come true.
"Really," Anfey said, smiling.
"I see," Hagan said. He took a deep breath then hurried out of the dining room.
Anfey looked around and asked, "Where’s Suzanna?"
"She’s with Ernest," Christian replied. "It should be her honor to receive instructions from Ernest."
"Not for Anfey, though," Blavi said with a grin.
"What do you mean?"
"Suzanna is already a senior swordsmaster," Blavi said. "If she ever became more powerful, then Anfey…"
"You’re right," Sante said, smirking. "Anfey should be under pressure."
Anfey smiled and shook his head. His friends were right. He did felt pressured when facing Suzanna. He always thought he should be the one protecting Suzanna, but time after time he was proven wrong. He disliked being protected by others, since it made him feel weak and useless.
Riska suddenly stood up and hurried toward the door.
His sudden movements spooked Blavi, who turned and asked, "Where are you going?"
"Meditating," Riska said without turning back. "Not only Anfey. Think about it. We were all hiding behind Suzanna."
Blavi frowned, then smiled and shook his head. Riska was right. Whenever they were in danger, it was always Suzanna who put herself between them and danger. The only thing they did was hide in a safe place and assist her when she needed it.
"Let’s go," Zubin said, standing up. "We’re home now, but that doesn’t mean we should relax. We are lucky this time, we have Suzanna, but we won’t always be lucky. We should start preparing for the next time we are in danger."
"Zubin’s right," Sante nodded in agreement.
Soon there were only a few people left in the dining hall. Shally didn’t care about being protected by her sister, and Doris stayed because she did not have a room.
"What have you been doing lately?" Anfey asked. "Haven’t seen you in forever."
"You’ll find out in a few days," Christian replied.
"Fine," Anfey said with a sigh. He sat down next to the table and released the unicorn. The unicorn was clearly more relaxed now that both Saul and Ernest were out of the room. The unicorn jumped onto the table. It stomped on the table a few times then dashed towards the other end. It wanted to stop at the end, but the table was waxed and its momentum was too great. It couldn’t stop in time and slipped off the table, bringing a dozen plates with it, and crashed into the wall.
Anfey frowned. He couldn’t grasp just how playful the unicorn was getting, but now he knew it was true that the unicorn was getting harder to handle. He had only let it go for a few seconds and it was already in trouble. At least it was only in the dining room. What if it got into the magic lab one day?
"Come here!" Anfey bellowed and slammed the table.
The unicorn stood up, shook its head, and looked at Anfey, confused.
"Come here, now!" Anfey ordered again. He wanted to go and grab the unicorn, but he remembered how fast it was and gave up on his unrealistic hope.
The unicorn whinnied excitedly but did not move any closer to Anfey.
"That’s useless," Doris said, giggling. "The louder you are the more excited it is. It probably thinks that you’re playing with it
."
"Should I let run wild, then?" Anfey asked with a frown. "I’m going to fetch Suzanna." He had just been thinking about getting stronger seconds ago, and he was already looking for Suzanna’s help.
"Don’t worry," Doris said, raising her hand. "I have a solution." She retrieved something from her dimensional ring and smiled. "This is Shally’s idea," she said with a wink. Shally giggled, proud of herself.
Doris held two crystal balls in her hand. She clinked the two crystal balls together and made a crisp, high-pitched sound.
After hearing the sound, the unicorn suddenly dashed towards the table and leapt onto it. It looked at the crystal balls curiously.
"Get ready," Doris said. She suddenly tossed the ball in her left hand into the air and rolled the other one down the table towards Anfey.
The unicorn jumped into the air and snatched the crystal ball out of the air with its mouth. When it landed on the table again, it turned to chase after the other ball.
Anfey realized the plan and was already ready. When the unicorn tried to clink the ball in its mouth with the ball on the table, Anfey jumped over and grabbed the unicorn. He wrapped his arms around the unicorn tightly. "Stop, stop!" he called.
The unicorn whinnied and kicked around, but it was too small and too weak compared to a grown man.
Hui Wei coughed. "This is not a permanent solution, either," he said. "It is growing too fast and a magic beast like this one should be smarter than normal ones. You can fool it once, twice, but not more than that. It will learn that this is a trap sooner or later."
"We will have to settle for this plan for now," Anfey said. He grabbed the unicorn’s mane and lifted it into the air. The unicorn stopped struggling and stared at Anfey with bright blue eyes. It snickered as if it was trying to please Anfey and convince him to lessen its punishment. Anfey felt bad and only smacked its head softly once.
"Not for long," Hui Wei said, shaking his head. "Christian said its mother was a top tier unicorn, which means this thing may become one, as well."
"Who knows," Anfey said with a sigh. "None of us knew how to raise an unicorn. We don’t know what this thing needs. It’s good enough that it hasn’t gotten sick yet. I’m not that hopeful." Anfey was worried that the unicorn would not get enough nutrition to grow up healthily.
"Just because you don’t have the experience, doesn’t mean no one has it," Hui Wei said.
"Who are you thinking?"
"Bruzuryano, of course. He is the obvious choice. The unicorn is a holy animal in his religion. We have libraries, so do elves and druids. If anyone knows anything, it would be him."
Anfey nodded. "You’re right," he said. "By the way, what do you want to do now?"
"Me?" Hui Wei asked. "I don’t know. What can I do? I’ll just relax and enjoy myself, I guess."
"You have to do something," Anfey said. "Why don’t you come study with me at the academy?"
"Have you forgotten? I’m a two-discipliner. I don’t even know if I will pass the test. Plus, I have no interest in that library."
"You don’t need any tests," Anfey said. "I have connections."
"Fine," Hui Wei said with a chuckle. "I guess I’ll try it."
"Let’s go, then," Anfey said, pushing himself up. Then he stopped and frowned. "What should we do with the unicorn? We can’t take it to the academy. Should I make a leash for it?"
"No!" Hui Wei said, shaking his head. "Unicorns are very loyal, but you can’t restrain it. It will die of unhappiness if it loses its freedom."
"I’ll talk to Master Saul, I suppose," Anfey said, shaking his head. "Hopefully he is still here."