Moonlight Ball

Chapter 2

Most magic apprentices came from nobles or royalty. When twenty-one sacred blood clans settled on this continent, they all held the same position. But, gradually they bred with the natives of the continent, created a country, and scattered all over. Magic came only from those sacred blood clans and most of them became royalty, but the bloodline gradually thinned out. However, it did not reach the common people somehow and generally stopped at the aristocracy.

Iris was doing the laundry in the laundromat when she heard the Count shouting. She was washing her half-sister’s clothing with a bruised and painful face. Her half-sister always made sure Iris did the laundry. Then, she liked to hit Iris, and nitpick at her. Every time Iris fell to her knees and was beaten, she apologized saying “I’m sorry, miss. I’m sorry, miss.”

Iris did the laundry expressionlessly because she knew she’d be beaten no matter what she did. She just did as much as she could but regardless of her efforts, the beating inevitably happened. It had become a routine. Iris thumped her temple with her small fists because her head was throbbing from the painful knocks to her head. Then, out of the blue, someone grabbed her wrist.

“It hurts more if you hit yourself like that,” said an unfamiliar voice.

Iris raised her head and looked up at her wrist as she opened her eyes widely. The man was standing on the side of a laundry stream. In other words, he was floating above the water! The man smiled softly as Iris blinked morbidly.

“Hello, my student.” He jovially said. “I’m Elaine and I’m going to be your teacher.”

Elaine was over forty at the time. With the face of a generous gentleman, he smiled kindly at little Iris. Iris’s headache stopped at once when he hummed an unknown word to a tune. Iris shook her eyes and she burst into laughter.

“What’s your name?” He gently asked.

“I’m Iris, Sir.” She replied hesitantly, confused by this sudden turn of events.

“You can call me ‘teacher’. You will be my disciple.”

Not sure what a disciple was, Iris, didn’t reply. Elaine took the laundry from her other hand and threw the basket across the room and then picked her up; her small body was easily lifted by an adult’s arms.

“Ouch!” Iris screamed! And Elaine comforted her by saying she would be fine.

“Stop doing these chores. It’s no longer your job.”

“But my step-sister!” she protested.

“What are you doing?!” demanded the Count as he suddenly appeared out of nowhere.  He was enraged, his face blood-red and Iris shivered, anticipating a whipping. As she flinched, Elaine patted her skinny back and stared at the Count.

“And who might you be?” Elaine asked sternly.

“I am the owner of this estate!” He yelled, spittle flying out of his mouth.

Iris couldn’t even look at the Count because his tone was so brutal. She wriggled about, desperately wanting Elaine to let go of her. She felt like she had to kneel on the floor and beg forgiveness from the Count. But Elaine would not release her and kept a firm grip on her as he approached the Count.

“My name is Elaine,” he responded, calmly.

The Count’s eyes widened in shock. Elaine was rumored to be the next owner of the Magic Tower. He was even more stunned when Elaine said, without hesitating, “I am here to find the apprentice. Under the law of magic protection, Iris now enters under the protection of the Magic Tower. I am Elaine, the great wizard. From now on, the name of Iris will legally be Iris Elaine. Do you understand?” He bellowed in a loud authoritative voice.

The great wizards of the Magic Tower studied and created a vast amount of magic. It was the presence of disciples that was essential in the process of creating large-scale magic. The creatures assisted the hemp wizards to create magic, by pouring some of their magic into the various processes. When a potentially good apprentice appeared, the wizards scrambled to recruit them. And now that the next owner of the Magic Tower had visited, he could only guess how great the enchantment of the manifestations would be. But, it was not one of his children, it was the half-wit maid?!

It was difficult to understand. The Count himself had the blood of a royal, but the girl’s mother was just a maid! He didn’t know how having a child led to stupidity, but the Count always called Iris’s mother stupid. The reason being, she’d had a child overnight! The Count had postponed his personal affairs after being blamed for that.

The Count shook his head. “She can’t be the apprentice. She’s a maid, no, she’s just a girl!”

“So, the Count is insulting me then. Are you saying that I’m such an ignorant wizard that I can’t read the power of divine blood?” Elaine asked in an ice-cold voice.

The Count shook his head again, “That’s not what I meant at all.” He hurried to change his words to ones of honor, and continued, “It’s just that the girl’s blood is so thin that it’s hard to believe she can have magic and I’m just worried that she could damage the Magic Tower.”

“She has good magic and it is powerful! She has a quality of blood that I haven’t seen in twenty years, so therefore you need not concern yourself. The Magic Tower is never wrong!”