“I guess that works,” Aaron smiled and said. “Sicily is such a nice city, after all.”

  Leonardo smiled and cleared his throat.

  “Alright. Once you’re done with your lunch, ah, sorry, I mean breakfast, I’ll take you to the Sicily Office of Security. You’ll be meeting the person who’s going to train you.”

  “And who’s that?” Aaron asked.

  “Cindara Ashveil, Chief of Civic Security here in Sicily. She’s the fire elf who was standing beside me yesterday. I’m sure you’ll learn a lot from her,” Leonardo replied.

  With a casual flick of his hand, he dismissed the ivy barrier shielding them. At that exact moment, the elven waitress was already waiting nearby, standing beside a trolley piled high with the dishes Aaron had ordered.

  Pancakes were stacked in neat layers, draped in thick streams of golden-white honey, sprinkled with roasted almond slices, and topped with a single cloudberry, pale and fluffy like a tuft of cotton.

  “Squeak!!”

  “This looks amazing! Want to try some, Mr. Leonardo?” Aaron offered.

  “Thank you, but I’ve already had breakfast.”

  They polished off everything in less than fifteen minutes, licking their lips in satisfaction.

  “Let us cover your tea as well,” Aaron said generously, waving a hand.

  “Are you sure about that?” Leonardo asked, a sly smile tugging at his lips.

  “Of course!”

  But when the bill arrived, and the total came to one hundred and twenty Aurions, while their entire meal had only cost twenty, Aaron and Luther’s jaws dropped.

  “The tea Mayor Leonardo ordered is Haerbosis tea, brewed carefully by elder treefolks,” the waitress explained. “It’s made from the young leaves of rainchant tea trees that must be at least three hundred years old, and each cup costs twenty Aurions.”

  “You really know how to treat yourself, huh?” Aaron muttered as he pulled out his card.

  “Well, I am old,” Leonardo laughed. “I’ve learned to treat myself once in a while.”

  After leaving the Sylvan Haven Hotel, Leonardo took them to Plutus Bank first.

  “You should deposit that check,” he advised. “Carrying that much money around isn’t exactly safe.”

  Under the stunned, almost frozen, gaze of the bank clerk, Aaron and Luther deposited five hundred Purewhite Etherstones into their accounts. They exchanged two more crystals for a mix of Dollars, Aurions, and Rhoos, keeping some cash on hand.

  “Damn. We’re seriously rich now,” Aaron said, grinning from ear to ear.

  “Yeah. Super rich,” Luther agreed.

  Five hundred Purewhite Etherstones was no small sum. On top of that, they also had saved more than a hundred Ether Crystals from their missions.

  “Congratulations, young millionaires,” Leonardo said. “Just a little advice, spend wisely. No amount of money survives reckless spending. When I was your age, my mother gave me only five Socos coins a week for pocket money.”

  One Aurion could be exchanged for twenty Socos coins. And if Leonardo had known how much the boys earned after each mission, he probably wouldn’t have been able to keep that composed smile on his face.

  After they stepped out of Plutus Bank, Leonardo turned to the driver.

  “Charles, take us to the Office of Security.”

  The sleek black, magic-powered car, spotless and without a single scratch, glided smoothly along Sicily’s fruit-laden streets. Leonardo then turned to the boys in the backseat.

  This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

  “To be honest, I’m quite curious. When did you two start practicing magic? And how did you even learn how to cultivate? Would you mind telling me?”

  Of course, he was going to ask that. Aaron cleared his throat.

  “It’s a long story. Five years ago, Luther and I found an old wooden book in… the basement of my house. And in that book…”

  And just like that, another story began.

  “The ancient magic book hidden in the basement? hahaha.” Leonardo let out a quiet chuckle, shaking his head.

  “Huh? What’s so funny about that?” Aaron asked, confused.

  Wait… did I say something wrong? he asked Luther through the covenant.

  No idea…

  “It’s a very entertaining story,” Leonardo said. “But I’ve heard it hundreds of times. And in all kinds of versions, too. Double-layered handkerchiefs, secret symbols carved under tables, talking ancestral rings… Mortals really do have impressive imaginations.”

  He leaned back slightly.

  “Self-taught? If the path to enlightenment were that simple, people wouldn’t fight and kill for the chance to study under a true master. And if becoming extraordinary were that easy, most creatures wouldn’t end up dying stuck at each rank, with only a few ever managing to break through to the next.”

  “Uh… well… I… um…” Aaron stammered, his brain scrambling for a backup story.

  “Aaron,” Acher guided, “tell him you only started less than three years ago, and that Luther began a little earlier than you. That’s vague enough without being a lie. A Grand Being who’s lived for centuries can’t be easily fooled by kids. Just don’t mention the Heart of Everlasting Light or the Ascended Moon. Then tell him we can’t share any more than that. You’ve helped this place before, and with his personality, he won’t push you too hard.”

  Aaron nodded. “To be honest, I only started learning magic less than two years ago. Luther began a bit earlier than me. As for the rest… I’m afraid we can’t share those details.”

  He let out a quiet breath, relief seeping into him. He was getting tired of constantly patching up lies and worrying about being exposed.

  “Just less than three years?! Are you serious???” Leonardo asked.

  “You heard right. Within two years.”

  “HONK! HONK! HONK!”

  A sharp horn blasted beside them.

  “You idiot! Don’t you know how to drive?!”

  A middle-aged woman on a small scooter shouted angrily, shaking her large fist in their direction. Charles raised his hand apologetically. He had just run a red light.

  Meanwhile, Leonardo’s eyes stayed fixed on Luther and Aaron. The boys didn’t show the slightest hint of panic. Their gazes never avoided his, their heartbeats remained steady, and their pupils showed no sign of sudden dilation.

  Still hiding something… but that part was real.

  Leonardo swallowed, his throat tightening a little bit.

  “Charles, we’re not going to the Office of Security anymore. Head to Nightcall Temple instead.”

  “Understood, sir.”

  “You two really enjoy playing with this old man’s heart,” Leonardo complained, though he couldn’t suppress his smile.

  “You were the one pressing us.” Aaron shrugged. “It’s not like we were eager to spill everything.”

  “If you’ve reached high knight level in just under three years,” Leonardo continued thoughtfully, “Then my guess is you probably are a Solarbone, a Radiant Herald, or maybe a Lightbearer. Or perhaps even something rarer. You could be a Noonchaser, or a Duskborn.”

  “Huh? What’s that supposed to mean?”

  “Solarbone, Radiant Herald, and Lightbearer are some common grand-rank solar-type physical constitutions,” Leonardo explained. “Noonchaser and Duskborn are even rarer; they are epic-rank.”

  “I hope you’re a Noonchaser or a Duskborn. More than seven years ago, Gnomon found a child with grand-rank lightning affinity. Those arrogant fellows at Sacred Fire just couldn’t stop bragging about it ever since.”

  He gave them a meaningful look. “If you have an epic-rank constitution, Sicily actually has a real shot at taking first place in this year’s Flame of Youth. Though the timing’s a bit tight. You don’t have much time left to train”

  Aaron blinked.

  “?”

  When did he ever agree to represent Sicily in the Flame of Youth???

  Leonardo’s left index finger tapped lightly against his thigh as he fell into thought.

  The car continued northwest, leaving the lush city center behind. The busy streets gradually gave way to open land. Soon, fields of golden wheat stretched out under the sun, shimmering in waves.

  “Whoa, those wheat plants are huge!” Aaron exclaimed.

  They were even taller than he was, their thick stalks heavy with grain clusters, each grain the size of an adult’s fist.

  “They’re beautiful,” Luther said, unable to look away from the golden fields.

  “Squeak squeak, are they yummy?” Jack-O asked.

  “That’s Chrymal wheat,” Leonardo explained. “It’s a famous magical grain, one of the specialties of Golden Wheat Valley. It takes five whole years to grow before it can be harvested, but when it does, it has exceptional flavor and strong magical benefits.”

  He gestured toward the fields. “And that’s exactly why this place earned its name.”

  Just from the look on Luther’s face, Aaron knew what he was thinking right away.

  “I wonder if we could get some seeds to take back home. We’d like to try growing them,” Aaron said aloud.

  “No need to buy anything,” Leonardo replied. “I’ll have two hundred pounds sent to you. Eat it, plant it, use it however you like. And when you run out, just tell me.”

  “Thank you so much, Mr. Leonardo,” Aaron said, winking at Luther, which brought a smile to the corner of his lips.

  Before long, the view on both sides of the road opened into endless golden wheat fields stretching all the way to the horizon. In the distance, farmers were hard at work, most of them were plant elves, hovering above the fields as they used magic to water the crops, enrich the soil, and keep pests away from one plot after another.

  Charles turned the car onto a dirt road to the left, and after another twenty minutes of driving, they reached the foot of a mountain covered in lush greenery.