Episode 14

Days passed. Tamie enjoyed her time in the Order. She became friends with Tiger and her ‘sisters’ and joined their sisterhood group. So, now they referred to her as a ‘sister’ too, just as she referred to them. Tamie had finally found a good company of true friends.

She got especially close with Tiger and Riza, whom now she counted as not just her ‘sisters’, but closest, dearest friends. She told everything to them and listened to their tales in return. She finally felt free. Before, she was fearful to reveal too much about herself, so people would describe her as a ‘cold and reserved individual’. But now, acquiring so many friends and these two wonderful companions, Tamie instead became a ‘noisy, funny, crazy writer’ in their eyes. She, in return, perceived Tiger as an ‘awesome little autistic pet-lover’ and Riza as an ‘amazing and charming siren maiden’. They often laughed together and had a lot of fun. Nick couldn’t miss how close Tamie had gotten to the five girls, and it made him joyful – he was happy to see his sister in such a good mood.

Tamie continued working on her Writer Crafts and soon managed to raise five levels. She hadn’t talked with Erik after their last call back in her room, but she still took his advice on one thing – she didn’t go on jobs before she would raise more levels. Her brother Nick and her friends too had advised her to take jobs when she was at least on Rank Two. So it had become her new goal – to raise five more levels and achieve Rank Two on level ten as was the rule. On Rank One Scribbler, level five, she could already summon big items as well as little ones. The limit of the amount of items she could summon was five (generally, it increased by one item at each level, but Tamie had achieved level one by summoning three items the other day, so now she had been able to summon five items until she reached level five, and hadn’t progressed further since then).

One day, Tamie, Tiger, and Riza were sitting in the hall as usual, talking, and drinking tea and coffee.

“Back from another job, huh, Riza?” Tamie smiled at her newly-returned friend.

“It was a pain. I had to wipe out a whole base of enemies. And, as it was a Grandmaster job, I had to do it all alone”.

“Well, nearly alone,” Tiger winked, drinking tea and caressing Astra sitting on her lap. Christo was napping under her chair while Blizzard crazily ran around the hall. “Didn’t you say Magister had come too? He said it was an Infiltration Mission to gather information on the enemies”.

“Ugh, he was only a problem,” Riza frowned, her cheeks flushing as she looked away. “He is quite clumsy. He fell on the floor when we were sneaking through corridors. He pushed a table, causing such noise that he woke the entire enemy base. Then, as he is only a Keeper – one of the weakest Classes in battles – he left me to the whole dirty work. We barely made it out alive!”

“But you rose to level sixty-four, didn’t you?” Tamie smiled, “because of such a tense fight. And the Keeper Class isn’t weak at all. Nick is the Keeper Class and he’s one of the best fighters – the Moon Lord”.

“Ugh, Lord Nick is a whole another level! Edmund can’t even see straight. I bet that is why he tripped onto that table. Haven’t you noticed how he wears glasses all the time?”

“But I’ve heard he’s actually quite a good fighter…”

Tamie was confused – Nick always said Edmund’s powers were really high, and Erik too had told her not to underestimate him.

“Ugh, whatever… I’m glad I’m back from that job. Well, at least I got enough money from it,” Riza sipped her coffee.

One of the Builder Class boys approached them and asked:

“Hey, Riza, won’t you perform on the stage? We’ve long been waiting for when our siren came back!”

“Of course, Matthew. I’d gladly do it”.

“Go Riza!” Tiger clapped.

“Yeah! I love your songs!” Tamie got excited too.

Riza smiled at them and followed Matthew. She went up on the stage and took the microphone. All the people hushed and lent an ear to her.

“Woohoo, it is Riza! Go, girl!” some boys cheered for her, glad to finally hear their ‘siren’ sing.

“I will sing one of the newest songs I wrote – ‘Spy’!”

She gave a sign to Matthew and his group of musicians. They started playing a wonderful upbeat tune. Riza began singing with her melodic, siren-like voice:

“Here we are, not even a month has passed

Hurt by a fight even worse than the last

How has this all come about?

We both firmly stand our ground.

We have had enough time to adjust

To me, love should always be built on trust

I fear for you it’s not the same

Must you always have someone to blame?[1]”

She was going to start the tag lyrics when a sweet manly voice accompanied her from the spectators’ seats. Riza didn’t get confused and continued singing. However, she did notice the singer – it was Edmund, the Overlord himself. He approached the stage, walked upstairs, and began to sing alongside her. The crowd was astounded – the Magister could sing?!

When the song finished, all the people whooped and applauded – such a wonderful duet! Riza was dumbfounded – who would’ve thought? A Keeper Class guy, an Overlord of a powerful order, a clumsy boy with glasses, and he could sing in such a melodious voice even the Siren rank Singer Class masters didn’t have!

“Um, Magister_”

She wanted to ask how he could sing so well, but Edmund cut her speech:

“Wonderful voice as always, Riza Wagner. Thanks for the show. Oh, and one thing – I tripped on that table on purpose. I needed this item from their base,” he showed her a special Star-gadget that could send information to many people’s gadgets at once. “There’s some good information stored here, and Lord Nick and I needed to steal all of it. You, my dear, were just a part of our plan. While you were singing in the base and hypnotizing the guards, they couldn’t notice how I stole their Radio-gadget info for myself. So, thank you for being my pawn! Also, I’ve enjoyed singing with you,” he smirked and walked off, waving a hand from behind. “Nothing is said in this mansion without my knowledge, so please don’t get freaked out I heard your whole conversation. I am the Overlord, after all. I cannot let you members loosen your tongues as you please”.

He ascended the second floor. Riza grew red from embarrassment and rage:

“Ugh, that filthy nerd!”

---

[1] The song is ‘SPY’, written and performed by a French singer-songwriter Lisa Schettner. Lisa’s website: www.lisaschettner.com

***Download NovelToon to enjoy a better reading experience!***