Machinist of Mana Chapter 121 Aggravating Instructor

“I'd like to take you where we need you immediately kid, but there are some things you need to learn first,” the minister said as we met in the small home he'd been assigned.

“What kind of things?”

“Language for example, see there are a few different dialects of the elven language, and while most are... at least mostly comprehensible between one another you need to learn what we call the Southern dialect,” he explained.

“Never even heard of it, but I think the school offers Atali?”

“Not surprising, as Atali is most similar to the language used in the cores, and the southern dialect is a bit niche, but regardless that's fine. I'll teach you.”

“You?” I asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Nobody better, you're supposed to be going in as part of an exchange so that young men and women can see the 'greatness of elven culture' according to the pamphlets. You see while our enemy doesn't particularly like humans, rather hates them, they really want to show off. The fact that you're part elf makes it even better, and we'll play that up a bit, make you look more elven than you actually are.”

“You can, wait I have so many questions. First of all, you speak their language well enough to teach it?”

“I speak all of the elven languages kid, and no few that aren't even spoken anymore. I'm old, older than you would believe even if I told you, and you won't be the first person I taught something like this.”

“In that case isn't this a vast waste of your time?”

“Yes and no, yes in that I'm massively overqualified, but no in that I want to do it, so I'm doing it.”

The man before me was one of the several Councilors who ruled a city on Elazia. The irritating man had outright refused to tell me his name, simply asking me to refer to him by his title, or by Ambassador, as most of the people here did. I knew almost nothing about him, save that he was powerful, old, and really a giant pain in the neck.

My king, who was still rather displeased with me, had personally green-lit this operation after some discussion with the elf, and I suspected it was as much punishment as it was mission to aid a longtime ally. School for me would be canceled, though there wasn't much I was learning there anyway. Instead I would be joining a sort of diplomatic program for the next few months.

Of note, my school was taking an extended break anyway. It hadn't been attacked itself, but with the destruction in the city there was too much going on in the area for them to run properly. Instead they were rerouting students here and there, and I was being sent across the world.

“Why do you want to do it though?” I asked.

“I knew Alana, I've known several people with that same aura you share kid.”

“I'm not a kid.”

“You'll be a kid to me for another century and don't interrupt, it's childish.” I felt my eye twitch. “Right, anyway, you lot never fail to be interesting. Also the boss wants this done right.”

“Another question who is this boss of yours?”

“You'll meet him again soon enough.”

“Again?”

He just smiled in response and pulled out a large book. “Ready to learn kid?”

The next several hours were intense, but I had to admit he was good. There were no charts, but there were plenty of tricks here and there. I wouldn't be fluent in any near amount of time, but I was learning quickly, getting my head filled to the brim with important bits of grammar and words that I could use immediately.

“This is actually not as bad as I thought,” I said as we finished for the day.

“Look, our goal here is to get you through the basics, about a thousand words make up most of any given language, then you just need to fill in the gaps for context. The alphabet is easy, so we can just drill it, and you already know some of it from your studies on the core and whatnot.”

Whatnot was English, as there were several turns of phrase, and important words that were clearly loanwords. Did this man know about me being from another world, or the details? I didn't know, and it didn't matter much, as he was assigned as my instructor for the next week or so. My oddly good memory was helping too, making sure I learned faster and better than I felt like I ever had as a human.

As we went through I wondered how much he knew exactly, he knew about the auras, he knew about me knowing odd things, he'd even commented on it. Did this man, or elf, or whatever, I was calling him a man in my head, did he come from Earth too? There wasn't exactly a subtle way to ask, and if I was wrong who knew the consequences. Putting it aside for now I just worked.

“You'll need a few weeks at least to get conversational, but that's fine, we'll take a boat,” the Councilor declared after a time.

“To the other continent? Why?” I asked.

“Few reasons really, first you need the time.”

“Okay.”

“I also want to check out some things, got some rumors recently about some odd activities in the sea I want to check on myself.”

“Makes sense, but making this whole thing take longer than it should doesn't really help does it?” I asked.

“Well there's also the last bit, and one of the more important ones. I do not want you associated with me.”

“Rude.”

“You don't want it either kid, these people you're going to, they're enemies mine and others as well. If you get found to be too close to us it'll cause problems. Going the long way sort of shows that you're not associated. Make sense?”

“Why should I help you against your enemies though, I'm still unclear on that.”

“Your ruler trusts me, isn't that enough?” he asked.

“No,” I said, not even blinking.

“I think they killed your old auntie then, how's that?”

“That would be an act of war, and she died of old age.”

“Not old age alone kid, and it certainly would, but why? Also, my boss is none too pleased about little Alana dying, though he wants proof before he does anything about it.”

“Do I get to meet this boss of yours?” I asked.

“Maybe... maybe, maybe, maybe,” he chimed with a crooked smile.