The White Wizard

Chapter 3

The old man, who later introduced himself as Devic, took Arthur to his home that same night.

Arthur could still remember the total dread plastered across the old man’s face after witnessing the strange incident at the shore.

The man had been so shocked and thrilled that Arthur believed one more miracle would have made him collapse dead instantly.

The funniest part was how quickly Devic transformed into a deeply religious man overnight. Whenever Arthur remembered it, he almost laughed to himself.

Sysia itself was more than just a city. It felt like a living haven.

The people called it Sysia, a place where life never truly rested. Activities stretched from morning till deep into the night.

There was hardly ever silence. Gad had once told Arthur stories about this place and how many days one needed to feed a camel before traveling there from Atteus Kingdom.

Now Arthur finally understood why.

There were crystal-clear rivers flowing through certain areas of the city, enough for travelers and workers alike to drink from.

Horses moved through the roads alongside camels and carts carrying goods from place to place. Everything about the city screamed movement and survival.

But what fascinated Arthur the most were the stone walls surrounding different regions of Sysia.

The patterns looked irregular and imperfect, yet somehow they still carried a strange beauty that made the city feel ancient and alive at the same time.

Devic was a fisherman.

And like every other fisherman in Sysia, he owned a boat. Unfortunately, unlike the others, Devic rarely returned home with a full catch.

Arthur had suddenly become his apprentice, mostly because he believed he no longer had a purpose after losing the ancient books.

He had fumbled disastrously, and the reality of that failure kept haunting him every single day.

That evening, Arthur and Devic returned from another exhausting night hunt with barely any fish again.

Arthur could clearly see the frustration buried inside Devic’s eyes. The old man looked completely unsatisfied.

Arthur wished he knew a spell capable of summoning sea creatures because perhaps the sadness on Devic’s face would finally disappear.

When they finally reached Devic’s small home, the old fisherman dropped heavily onto a wooden chair with visible exhaustion.

He released a long tired puff.

Slowly, he rubbed his forehead while Arthur lit the oil lamp, filling the room with warm luminance.

“How many ounces do those catches weigh?” Devic asked tiredly.

Arthur glanced at the basket.

“A little. It should be worth around twenty coins,” Devic said.

“Go give them to the woman beside the city wall gate. Convince her to pay twenty-five,” he instructed.

Arthur immediately knew Devic was stretching the truth terribly there.

“What if she offers fifteen?” Arthur questioned carefully.

“Take it,” Devic replied, “but try convincing her to give us twenty coins worth of bread and jelly butter. That should keep us alive until we finally get a decent catch.”

Arthur nodded before walking out with the small basket of fish balanced carefully in his hands.

For almost three weeks now, Arthur had lived with Devic in Sysia. And within those three weeks, he had always tried avoiding their regular customer, the bread seller called Genevieve.

The woman was another species of human entirely.

At first, Arthur thought it was simply because he had spent most of his life isolated from society near the edges of Atteus Kingdom.

He had barely spoken with women before and had always found them strangely fascinating.

But Genevieve was slowly convincing Arthur that women could also become deeply frustrating creatures.

“How many pieces are inside there?” Genevieve growled irritably.

Her thick curly red hair flowed behind her shoulders while her plump physique rested comfortably inside the large chair within her store.

She wore a beautiful green designer gown that looked expensive enough to feed Arthur and Devic for weeks.

Around the store, several maids rearranged rows of freshly baked bread that almost made Arthur salivate shamelessly.

He had barely eaten properly for almost an entire day now, and seeing those soft warm loaves nearly broke his spirit.

Honestly, Arthur felt like he could kill for bread at that moment.

“About ten pieces minimum. And they are very big—”

“Hold it,” Genevieve interrupted immediately. “Bring it closer.”

Arthur slowly approached her and bent slightly so she could inspect the contents of the basket properly.

The blue fish were barely alive but still fresh enough for trade.

Genevieve stared for a moment before shaking her head dramatically.

“Hell no. I can’t give more than eight coins for this.”

“Eight coins?” Arthur frowned. “That’s too little. Sir Devic asked me to beg you so you can mercifully give us twenty coins worth of bread and jelly butter.”

Arthur only realized how pathetic and unprofessional that sounded after the words had already left his mouth.

That was definitely not how negotiations worked.

Genevieve suddenly burst into laughter.

“Oh really?” she mocked. “Then tell your master I’m not taking this tiny pile of nonsense for twenty coins. If I were paying in actual money, I wouldn’t even give half of that.”

She leaned back comfortably.

“But because I’m merciful, I’ll give you ten coins worth of bread and jelly butter.”

“But please, Madam Genevieve, that won’t last long—”

“Can you please shut the hell up?” Genevieve snapped instantly.

Her loud voice silenced the room briefly.

“Do you think money falls from the sky for me? I’ve been working myself to death here, sweating every day while people still try taking advantage of me. This is exactly what you and your master always do. Instead of finding something better to survive with in Sysia, you keep bringing miserable catches here.”

Her eyes narrowed sharply.

“And honestly, how did a man like Devic even hire someone like you? Well... maybe pathetic people naturally attract pathetic people.”

Arthur quietly absorbed every single word Genevieve just spoke. One after another. Could he stay quiet? Not really.

When hunger keeps clawing at a man’s stomach, even the brain itself begins losing patience.

And perhaps Genevieve was right in some twisted way. She had built her business through hard work. But that still did not justify how unnecessarily cruel she sounded whenever she spoke.

That was pride. Too much pride. And Arthur suddenly wanted to disgrace that pride terribly.

There are people in the world who preserve their pride carefully and disguise it under the common word ego.

But Arthur had his own philosophical hatred for people who weaponized arrogance against struggling humans.

Still, Arthur knew he would continue pestering Genevieve regardless.

She remained their regular customer. Besides, he had learned women seem to enjoy theatrics far too much.

And Sysia truly was a decent city for fishermen. The only problem was that Devic’s catches were rarely enough.

And concerning how Devic hired him? Genevieve was slightly wrong there. Arthur did have a purpose. That purpose simply wasn’t in her hands to decide.

Moreover, there was something suspiciously strange about Genevieve herself. The way she constantly insulted Devic almost felt personal.

Honestly, Arthur was beginning to suspect that this harsh woman secretly liked the old fisherman somehow.

Arthur attempted speaking again. “Can you please ma—”

Genevieve immediately silenced him by raising a finger.

Then she turned toward one of her maids. “Aria, give this fellow five loaves of bread and one jar of jelly butter.”

Aria, the golden-blonde-haired maid, turned around immediately.

“But Madam, we have no wrapping papers left in the store. Should I just drop them inside the cold basket he brought?” she asked casually.

Arthur immediately made eye contact with the cruel maid.

Really?

She actually wanted to throw fresh bread into a fish basket?

That was genuinely one of the most wicked suggestions Arthur had heard lately. And the disturbing part was that Aria showed absolutely no shame after saying it.

“Come on, girl. Don’t stress yourself over that,” Genevieve replied lazily while throwing Arthur a mocking side glance. “Just tear a few pages from the book on the counter there.”

The moment Arthur’s eyes landed on the old book Aria had already picked up, his heart nearly stopped.

No… No way.

That was one of the ancient texts his father had given him.