CH504

“Ahem, I believe Nare mentioned why I’m here,” He continued, trying to ignore the weird atmosphere. “I’ve been asked to help you with raising connect, learn the fundamentals of ritual magic and how it can be applied to enchanting, along with a few other unique ways to enchant. If you all aren’t too busy right now I’m happy to start right away or if it works better for you guys we can instead begin tomorrow?”

His question was met with silence as the three looked to each other, having a conversation with their eyes he could take no part in while Thera leaned up to his ear.

“Did you already do something to offend them?” She muttered, picking up on the atmosphere as much as he was.

“No. I mean, probably not? That guy did call me the mad apostle but that’s probably fine, right? And what do you mean already? Why is it a given that I’m going to offend someone?”

Her eyes were full of doubt at his response but she said no more, not having the chance as Nare’s granddaughter spoke up.

“We were told to expect you today so we’ll begin now.”

“Great.”

He put on a bright smile, trying to ignore whatever was going on and stepped forward to reach out a hand, only to be stopped.

“Wait,” The summoned girl told him, pulling the other close. “You’re a mind reader, right? I don’t want you in our heads so stay over there.”

“…I’m supposed to be helping you train connect among everything else, are you asking me to do that without even using it on you?”

“Yeah, I don’t want a human looking in my mind.”

Hey, what the fuck? The hell is that supposed to mean?

He felt himself give her a look at hearing that but made himself stop. It wasn’t unreasonable to not want a stranger to read your thoughts, even if he did it to people all of the time he couldn’t deny that it was about as big of an invasion of privacy as anyone could deal with. Even if he thought the comment on his species was unnecessary, he was going to do his best to be accommodating.

“Alright then, that’s fine. Do you feel the same?”

“I do,” Nare’s granddaughter said, giving him a firm look. “I prefer keeping my thoughts to myself.”

Okay, I was hoping I’d be able to try and forcefully raise them a level or two by making them deal with different configurations of my mind but if they don’t want to then whatever. This is Nare’s relative and another summoned, I can respect their boundaries if they ask me to.

“In that case, where would you like to start on? Connect, enchanting, or ritual magic? And while I’m at it, any chance I can get your names too?”

Again they looked amongst each other, but at least on that front, they were quicker to answer.

“Nati.”

“Xilly.”

“And I am the high priest of Nare, Zallith.”

And that answers why he called me the mad apostle, the guy must have seen me spit on Eneth. Not cool Nare, tell your priest that I’m really a sweet little guy and that I’ve been being bullied by that big mean god. Still, that might explain the attitude I’m feeling from them all.

He wasn’t sure about the culture Xilly grew up in before she was summoned but the other two were certain to have grown up in a society that showed gods a deep level of respect. Hell, it was possible Nati was even on the receiving end of plenty of that respect. He may not have known how the grandchildren of gods were usually treated, but he’d seen some of how the demigod Ather lived and given the accommodations he was in, he couldn’t help but think Nati’s treatment was comparable, maybe even better.

“Alright then, Nati and Xilly, shall we start? And Zallith, will you be joining us? Nare only mentioned the other two but I have no problem teaching one more.”

“Ah, I’m no enchanter so I won’t be able to participate, however, I’ll be working in here while you’re giving your lessons.”

The way he said it gave less of a feeling that he would just happen to be there to work so much as it gave the impression he was there to watch, but Ben ignored it and moved on.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

“Sounds good, so once again, where do you two want to start?”

Again there was a look between the two before Nati answered for them both.