Machinist of Mana Chapter 123 Confrontation

“How old are you!” I asked my irksome teacher.

“Old enough,” he replied without even looking up.

“Like five or six thousand years?”

“Something like that. Honestly for some of it I didn't count.” The elf didn't even look up from the book he was pursuing as he spoke to me, seeming not in the slightest bit surprised that I'd come to see him, nor that worried that I was unhappy. Then again, did he need to be worried?

“Can you take this seriously?” I said, frustrated.

In a moment the world shifted, like someone had pulled the curtain. Outside nothing changed, but as he looked up, as our eyes met my whole body trembled, not because of some spell, or some magic he was forcing out, it just was. I felt like an ant standing before an elephant, the beast raising its foot to crush me.

“Are you entirely sure that's what you want?” he asked smoothly, eyes still on mine.

“What... what is?” I stumbled, and the pressure was gone.

“Those like you who use physical magic cannot see it like we can, but that is the power of my aura. Normally you wouldn't even feel it, but I was practicing magic before humans had the wheel. In other words, show some respect.”

“Is that your true face then? That of an old monster sitting atop his throne?”

“Haha, no. I dislike being like that, but disliking something and being good at it are different things, and I've had to crush more than my share of enemies.”

“Why me?”

“Didn't I already answer this? You're interesting.”

“Like him?” I asked, producing Rowenna's book for him, the page marked.

The ambassador flipped it open and smiled, but didn't answer, just laughed at me a bit.

“You aren't the boss kid. Now, are you ready for today's lesson?”

“I've got a lot more questions.”

“I'm sure.”

“I met him, in a park awhile back.”

“I know.”

“He didn't help stop that monster attacking those kids,” I grumbled.

“And you had it well in hand didn't you? Took care of the beast well enough.”

“He said something about his daughter...”

“Drop it.” Once more his voice got just a little cold.

“What?”

“Don't bring that up again. There are things that are frankly too prickly, and while I feel I've been very accommodating there are limits.”

We looked over the desk at one another, and I blinked. He could turn me to paste if he wanted, and we both knew it, but he didn't want to. Moreover I could tell that that at least hadn't been a joke or a lie. Something had happened, something that still bothered him, something that caused this man pain. Even more than that though it felt more like old personal matters, like prying into someone's family.

“Our lesson then? Don't suppose there's a word in the elven language family for 'goblin' or something.”

“Interestingly there is, though not much used. The same as in your own language.” The same as in English then, a loanword someone had given.

“Wait, how long have the elves known about them then?” I inquired.

“There are some stories, bedtime stories for children and the like really, which mention them. As for the current strain, they're fairly unknown, or were until recently.” What did 'recently' even mean to this man I wondered.

“So the island they came from?”

“There are a lot of islands in the ocean that aren't well mapped I'm sad to say. You see parts of the sea, particularly more southern ones, get really very nasty when you get out into them. Like monsters the size of palaces nasty.”

“Good to know.”

“It is, since we'll be taking a boat through some of those waters. Don't worry though, they don't really mess with boats often.”

His piece said he began to address me in the dialect I was going to need to learn, and our lesson began. It was slightly irking how good he was at teaching, particularly when he didn't want to teach me the things I wanted to know. Still though, we spent a better part of the day getting deeper and deeper into grammar and vocabulary. Personally even after so little learning I felt like I could probably stumble through surviving where he was sending me.

At the end of the day I was exhausted. I'd not even been scheduled for that long of a lesson today, but we'd gone on and on. As I left though I began thinking on all that I'd learned, for I'd gotten so many hints. This man's 'boss' who he'd brought up before the king was another king who everyone believed dead. He probably knew I was from another world, though if he did he was letting it rest. Honestly I doubted I could bring him much he couldn't do already though, so why would that matter to him?

In my previous life I'd been a fairly humble man, cleverer than many perhaps but no genius, no master inventor. My knowledge here was valuable, enough to propel me to making things nobody had seen or approaching them in ways they didn't understand. I'd done my reading though, and if even half of what they said about the old elven kingdom was true they'd had more than I could make in a lifetime. Suppose with immortality they could just build, up and up, their leader telling them where to go, the paradigms to follow.

Me though, I was just one man, one more piece on a board bigger than I'd ever known existed. My question was, who all was playing? And what were the stakes?