Restless Hearts

"Xu Yi, you really didn't have to step in for me. I'm fine." Stille gave Xu Yi, who was walking beside her, an easy smile.

They had finished lunch at the Magic Research Institute. Stille was heading back to the Magic Tower, and Xu Yi happened to have business with Great Mage Camilla, so they walked toward Camilla's Magic Tower together.

"Are you sure?" Xu Yi frowned at Stille, plainly skeptical. "You didn't look fine back there."

"That was just..." Stille thought for a moment, then waved a hand irritably. "The whole thing was unpleasant. Just thinking about it makes me sick."

"As long as you don't still have feelings for that guy." Xu Yi shrugged.

"Who would still have feelings for a bastard like him!" Stille glared at Xu Yi. "Do you think I'm an idiot? I liked him before because I hadn't seen his true colors. I let his looks fool me. Looking back, I was so childish to fall for someone just because he was handsome. That... fine, I really was an idiot back then."

Xu Yi laughed. "Being an idiot once isn't necessarily a bad thing. At least it taught you not to judge people by appearances. What's inside matters more. After all, men like me, who are outstanding inside and out, are incredibly rare."

Stille looked ready to throw up. "Could you do me a favor? I just ate lunch, and I'd rather not bring it back up."

Xu Yi snorted and put on a disdainful look. "I tell you the truth and you refuse to believe me. Some people just can't be taught. Never mind. A man as remarkable as me is like the moon shining overhead. I couldn't hide my brilliance if I tried, and I don't need someone with bad eyesight like you to notice it."

"You're the one with bad eyesight." Stille glared at him, then suddenly burst out laughing.

Once she started, her laughter poured out like water through an open floodgate. At first, Stille covered her mouth. Then she laughed louder and louder until she was clutching her stomach, unable to straighten up.

Xu Yi tried to keep a straight face, but soon he was laughing along with her.

Two people suddenly roaring with laughter in the street at noon on a summer day naturally drew puzzled looks from passersby.

And since both of them had become minor celebrities in Bunta City, people began pointing and whispering as soon as they recognized them.

Xu Yi noticed and hurriedly grabbed Stille's arm, fleeing with her.

Only after they had run all the way to Camilla's Magic Tower did Xu Yi let go of her arm. Breathing hard, he pointed at the tower. "All right, go see your grandfather first. I need to stop by the research room. Oh, and please tell Great Mage Camilla I have something to discuss with him later. I hope he can spare me a little time."

"Why are you suddenly so polite?" Stille glanced at him. "Didn't Grandpa tell you ages ago that you could see him whenever you wanted?"

Xu Yi shook his head with a wry smile. "That was before he chewed me out last time. I'm not sure I'm still in his good graces."

Stille gave a cold snort. "You had that coming."

As she spoke, Stille suddenly frowned and sighed. She turned toward the towering Magic Tower, regret creeping into her expression.

"Xu Yi, actually... I've been wanting to talk Grandpa around too. If he keeps being so stubborn, I'm afraid this Magic Tower..."

"What about the Magic Tower?" Xu Yi caught the sadness in her voice and looked at her in surprise. "Could something happen to it? Surely not. Lord Camilla is a great mage, after all. He has standing throughout the kingdom."

Stille shook her head. "That's not the issue. But it's hard to explain right now. Let me have a proper talk with Grandpa, and I'll find a chance to tell you more. I might... need your help when the time comes."

Her serious tone made Xu Yi frown.

From the sound of it, Great Mage Camilla was in serious trouble.

"Don't talk about needing my help. If there's anything I can do, just tell me. Stille, if you hadn't made an exception and brought me into this Magic Tower, I might have been forced to take some other job just to support myself. I might never have had anything more to do with magic, let alone founded a merchant guild. You played a decisive part in everything I have now. So why stand on ceremony with me?"

Stille smiled faintly. "Do you know why I made that exception and brought you in?"

"Oh? Why?"

"Because... you held the door for me when you came in." Stille winked, then turned and walked away.

"Just because of that?" Xu Yi rubbed his nose and shook his head with a wry smile.

The moment Xu Yi entered the research room, he caused a stir.

As the Xinfei Merchant Guild's business grew, Xu Yi took leave more and more often. Eventually, days would pass before he appeared, and even then he would stay only a short while.

His colleagues in the research room had nearly forgotten that he was a member of it at all.

Stranger still, Great Mage Camilla would probably have thrown anyone else out of the Magic Tower by now. Yet she had said nothing about Xu Yi, as if she had no idea what he was doing.

Over time, his colleagues came to understand that Xu Yi truly held a special place in Great Mage Camilla's eyes.

And as the Xinfei Merchant Guild released more products and grew stronger, Xu Yi's standing among them rose as well.

Now that Xu Yi had appeared in the research room, no one ignored him as they had at first, nor did some colleagues treat him with hostility as they had later. Almost everyone welcomed him warmly.

"Hey, Xu Yi! What brought you back today?" Luti was the first to jump up, greeting him with a broad smile. "If you'd stayed away any longer, we'd have forgotten you worked here."

"What nonsense are you talking, Luti? We might forget anyone else, but not Xu Yi. We worked together on that Magic Fan for so long, didn't we, Xu Yi?" The speaker was one of the ten colleagues who had helped Xu Yi draw the Magic Fan's Magic Array.

"Right, nobody's forgetting that." Another colleague came over laughing and patted Xu Yi on the shoulder. Then he lowered his voice. "Hey, Xu Yi, does your guild have any more work like that? If it does, could you send some my way?"

At that question, the entire research room fell silent.

Xu Yi looked around. Aside from a few people, every colleague in the room was watching him expectantly.

Even those few who weren't looking his way were clearly listening, nowhere near as indifferent as they pretended.

Xu Yi was startled.

These colleagues had looked down on the work of drawing Magic Arrays before. Why were they suddenly so eager?

The only explanation was that something had changed without his knowing.

"We do have work like that, but wouldn't it be beneath mages of your caliber?" Xu Yi replied with a smile, carefully watching everyone's reactions.

As he looked more closely, though, he noticed something even more surprising.

"Huh? Where are Camiro, Reno, and Vena? Don't tell me all three took leave at the same time I did."

"You don't know?" Luti looked at Xu Yi in surprise, then understood. "Oh, right. You haven't been here in days. The three of them don't work here anymore. I heard they went to work for a merchant guild in Sartan City."

"For a merchant guild?" Xu Yi was stunned. "With their abilities, surely they didn't go there as guards? Camiro aside, Reno and Vena are far too proud. Why would those two agree to that?"

"No, of course they're not guards. They'd never be willing to do that." Luti shook her head. "I heard they went to do some sort of research... Oh, right, Xu Yi, I think it has something to do with the Xinfei Merchant Guild."

"What does it have to do with our guild?" Xu Yi was even more baffled.

"I don't know the details. I only know that guild offered them pretty high salaries. Before Camiro left, he said he'd be earning much more than he did here."

"Is that so?" Xu Yi frowned and fell into thought.

Camiro ranked second in magical ability in this research room, so his salary was naturally among the highest. He even earned more than Reno: forty gold coins a month.

If that merchant guild had offered him substantially more, it was no small sum.

And if Reno and Vena had been offered salaries on the same scale, it was hardly surprising that they had accepted.

"By the way, if that guild recruited those three, what about the rest of you? Didn't they try to recruit you too?" Xu Yi asked.

To his surprise, everyone in the research room wore the same peculiar expression.

Xu Yi immediately understood. Every last one of them had been approached.

The only reason they were still here was that they hadn't yet agreed on terms.