Chapter 33: The Masqueraded Steed

Chapter 33

The Masqueraded Steed

"Don’t pretend you don’t know! After you decide to send a love letter to someone else’s partner, you must also take responsibility for the consequences!" Hearing this from Aria, Ellie suddenly remembered.

Aria Femon, besides being a follower of the villainess Vida, was also the fiancée of "Ryker," the second son of the "Recres" family.

This man’s role could be said to be prominent but also inconspicuous. He was a follower of the prince, who was engaged to Lady Vida, which was why Aria and Vida were close. Ryker’s closeness with Nara started from them working together. Nara was instructed by Lucien to assist other elemental magicians to work smoothly together, making the heroine popular and easily bonding with others, which in turn made Aria jealous.

The conflict between Aria and the heroine might have started from this, and coupled with Vida’s hatred, their group conspired against the heroine several times, almost disastrously. If not for the heroine’s male-patronized fate, she might not have survived.

Ellie thought about the relationship between the two but ultimately couldn’t recall ever interfering with Aria’s man. Moreover, the idea of writing a love letter, akin to declaring love in an old-fashioned way, would be too embarrassing for a woman from the future to perform without shame.

"Lady Aria, I think there’s been a misunderstanding. Yesterday, after I was in the acting director’s office, I went straight to my room. I worked so hard in the planting plot that I was utterly exhausted when I returned to my room. Lady Aria should understand what the situation is like for a botanic magician," Ellie explained immediately, unwilling to argue further with the other party.

"Isn’t it because you wanted my fiancé to accept your love and then use him to participate in other missions? That’s why you quickly sent him a love letter."

"I don’t intend to become enemies with you, Lady Aria. If I want to stay here comfortably, I certainly wouldn’t choose to send a letter to someone who is already engaged," Ellie responded honestly. If the other party believed she wanted to survive in this institution, they should understand that she wouldn’t create trouble for herself.

"..................." Aria paused upon hearing this answer. Although her temperament was fierce and she preferred not to deal too much with the lower classes, she wasn’t someone who would suddenly harass others without good reason.

"Besides, even if anyone else were in love with your fiancé, they wouldn’t dare compete with you, Lady Aria. Those people must know themselves well enough that they can’t compete with you at all."

Seeing that Aria was listening to her, Ellie immediately employed her skills in compromising with her bosses. Whenever her boss was in a bad mood, if an employee like her resisted, it would only spell disaster. After all, the other party was the boss, and she was a subordinate. Her performance reviews and points always depended on her boss’s pen. To survive, she needed to develop skills in various areas, not just work.

Aria’s face clearly showed her disbelief; suddenly being praised like this, how could she not be embarrassed? The woman almost smiled when she heard that she was someone no one dared to compete with. The level of flattery from Ellie was indeed very high, even Lady Vida, who was behind her, raised her eyebrows with interest.

"If you didn’t do it, then who did?" Vida stood with her arms crossed, watching Ellie perform in front of her.

After hearing that she was not being attacked, Ellie turned her attention to the situation at hand instead. Vida held up a love letter in her hand and handed it directly to Ellie. She examined the handwriting, which was too beautiful for the original owner of the body to have written. She laughed as if finding it so amused.

"Lady Vida, this handwriting is far too beautiful to be mine, truly."

"Beautiful?" Vida looked scornfully, knowing it to be the crude handwriting of an untrained student, clearly indicating it should belong to a scholarship student.

Thinking of this, Vida’s eyes drifted to something else...Wasn’t there a rumor yesterday that two scholarship students were having problems? Then...

"I think I know who did this. Although this is a conflict among you that doesn’t involve us, I still have to teach a lesson that...one should not deceitfully make us act on their behalf!" Vida stated, but Aria still didn’t understand. Fortunately, Ellie was allowed to leave, and she chose not to involve herself further in the matter.

Certainly, if "someone" intended to cause her trouble with high-class ladies like this, that person would have to face their fate instead.

Today’s lessons were the same as yesterday. Nara did not attend, but Professor Regan did not mention that unreliable student anymore. He acted as if Nara didn’t exist in the classroom. Moreover, the way he looked at scholarship student Ellie had improved. Initially, he didn’t care about which family the student he was teaching came from. Regan was only interested in individuals who possessed intriguing powers, and now Ellie had the kind of interesting power he sought.

The first subject was an explanation of the general characteristics of every type of magic power. He pointed out what students of each element could potentially do, and time flew by quickly. Ellie paid close attention to this fundamental knowledge, perhaps because she was unlike the other students who had already learned the basics. Thus, in the classroom, she was the only one who paid attention.

After the first subject ended, other students left, more interested in missions because accumulating as many points as possible was their goal. Otherwise, they might not manage to gather enough points if they only rushed when it’s nearly the end of semester.

Ellie had nothing else to do currently, so she busied herself with enhancing her own magic powers and accelerating the growth of the Tezetrons plant. Certainly, with her increased power training and magic restorative potions, the Tezetrons plant had begun to bloom. As Ellie was confident, within 3 days, she should be able to make the Tezetrons plant flower. But of course, she wasn’t in a rush to present it to the Setters family.

Time passed slowly, but Ellie noticed that Nara did not attend classes at all. She lived peacefully for over 1 month. During this time, she heard rumors about how Nara was being treated by other students. Without Professor Lucien to protect her, the life of a scholarship student with issues with others was quite challenging. Luckily, Nara had "Wint Femon," the capable hero, who would become a powerful knight in the future, to help her occasionally.

The rumor that they were lovers only fueled Aria’s anger further, leading to a misunderstanding that they had conspired to harass her previously. The level of their dispute had clearly escalated.

After not hearing Nara return to her room for several days, Ellie heard that she had left the institution and headed to the city of Erel, although she did not know why. Nonetheless, it had nothing to do with her.

After 1 month had passed, the institution was about to have a 3-day long holiday, which was considered a rest period for the students. Students could choose to take on missions or relax. Many chose to travel to Erel City to buy supplies or visit their families, but Ellie had no one like that.

She had already informed the Setter family, who were waiting for her arrival. After making them wait for 1 month, Ellie finally decided it was time they received the Tezetrons flower. Moreover, visiting the Setter family also meant a mission for her.

Her bonded plant’s power involved tracking targets. Initially, the Setters had specifically requested her to help handle the beast carcasses, but the mission could be adjusted as needed.

Coincidentally, the Setters needed a tracker just as they had encountered creatures called "Masqueraded Steeds," a type of strong horse many families liked to tame and use as their mounts.

It was difficult to find them, and since the Setters had recently discovered traces of them, they wanted to hire a tracker to follow them to their actual den. They were cautious during this period, spending 2-3 months observing before meeting with Ellie. If they alerted the creatures to the presence of other beings around, the Masqueraded Steeds might change their habitat for sure.

These Masqueraded Steeds usually lived in herds, typically numbering over 20 in 1 herd. If converted to money, the amount would be considerable. After the Setters had initiated the mission, the institution saw no reason to cancel such a challenging but beneficial assignment.

The contract given to the institution stated that if they successfully captured these creatures, the institution would gain 1 “Masqueraded Steed.” Given Ellie’s necessary skills, the institution would award her 1,500 points for this single mission, a considerable reward for someone with the support abilities like her.

The Setters had informed her they would pick her up to go to the cemetery, and Ellie would have to stay with them for 3 days and 3 nights to successfully capture the fine horses. While waiting for the Setters to pick her up, Ellie was fully prepared, including food and rest supplies.

Ellie even brought her own mattress from her room along with blankets and pillows, stowed away in a dimension. If the secret dimension given by the Setters were to disappear, Ellie would have nothing to sleep on for a year.

The night before the holiday, after her morning class, the Setters’ people were already waiting for her outside the classroom. While this garnered the interest of all the students, many already knew that the Setters and Ellie had a good relationship. The events between Ellie and Nara were spread in detail, which might explain why Nara was not very active in the institution anymore, possibly due to feeling ashamed.

"Please, Lady Ellie," said the person from the Setter family, with a politeness that seemed excessive given that Ellie was not of high social status. Feeling somewhat awkward due to this special treatment, she walked past many onlookers to the front of the institution where a vicious gentleman was already waiting.

"It’s good to see you again," said a sly smile on the face of the imposing lord before her, which Ellie found rather displeasing.

He was a member of the Setter family, so it was not surprising that he would accompany her. Moreover, in the novel, this Lord Aman was fond of battling. He undertook many missions and had almost lost his life in the Tower of Eternity. If the Setters were going on a hunt for fine horses like this, how could he not participate?

Nevertheless, Ellie felt that his presence only added to her headache.

"Uh, Lord Aman..." The person sent to pick up Ellie was slightly uneasy upon encountering the second young lord.

It must be said that the family head had made a promise to Mage Ellie not to reveal her secrets to the second young lord. But who would have thought that while they were operating separately, Lord Aman would be waiting for Mage Ellie in front of the institution like this!

"Don’t worry, the Second Young Lord is already aware and has even spoken with Lady Ellie himself," Koross, who had just arrived, reassured the Setter’s person, relieving him of the need to find any excuses to cover up.

"Hah! Did you think I wouldn’t be aware after the Setters have made such a grand gesture?" Aman narrowed his eyes dangerously upon hearing this.

"This is an order from the lord, sir," Koross explained, but Aman looked at him with increased displeasure.

"You too...If it weren’t for my brother worrying that I would be disturbed during my training, he wouldn’t employ you."

"Yes, sir, I am well aware of this," Koross responded calmly, making Aman feel as if he was being underestimated.

Ever since he realized he might be the only one kept in the dark, Aman had been resentful. He spent the entire month training to become even stronger, yet this did not diminish his feeling of being slighted at all!While his brother should have employed him, he instead used this insignificant person.... Hmph!