I Reject Quests

Koyami, Asuka, and Sakai nodded, then walked towards the carriage. Imada's eyes turned to the magician. "You don't look like you are from here."

The magician packed his bag. "Neither do you."

"Yeah, we arrived just today." Imada honestly replied.

"Is that so? Where did you come from?"

"Have you heard of the recent sub-humans invasion of Sakura Garden Academy?"

"What? No, are you serious?" The magician genuinely looked confused by the sudden revelation. "How did that happen? Don't tell me… that you guys…"

Imada nodded. "We somehow managed to escape. I'm surprised the news didn't travel."

The magician didn't reply for a while, then he said. "Fill me in the matter." 

Imada took a total of fifteen minutes to explain his situation in detail.

"This is a crisis." The magician said with a grave face, then he looked at a random direction with a distant look. "I have a family in Central. Due to a confidential reason, I had to come here. But now that I'm feeling a large crisis heading towards the people of the world, I have to return to Central and protect my family."

Imada quietly listened to the man. As he expected, the magician was not a local.

After a moment of reminiscing, the magician turned to Imada. "We have to report this to the higher-ups as soon as possible but… I have heard that it would take six months for a cargo ship to arrive on this island."

"Have you heard of the witch?" Imada asked to see if he knew about the matter or not.

The magician was confused. "Witch? This island's witch. Of course, I have heard of her. She is a renowned Gold-ranked Gruer User who has mastered the illusionary branch of [Sealing]. But what has that got to do anything?"

"We have heard that she has a way to help us." 

"That's… unbelievable but I'll take your word for it. Are you going to the Witch's Castle?"

"Yes, do you want to come?"

"I'll go with you."

***

It was night.

The half-moon shone brightly amidst the dark clouds.

"Did we arrive yet? We should just take a rest for the day." Koshikawa muttered while looking at the moon. It had been twelve hours since the journey started and they had not yet reached their destination. Although they had not encountered a single beast, walking between the woods doesn't give a 'safe' feeling. Fortunately, they had a mysterious magician who was a self-proclaimed Bronze-ranked Gruer User.

"Hey, are you really a Gruer User?" Asuka doubtfully asked for the fifth time.

The magician showed an annoyed expression. "Despite how I look, I'm actually thirty-three years old. Is it that surprising that I'm an experienced Gruer User?"

"You are thirty-three!? I thought you were older!" Asuka had a shocked look.

The magician scoffed, then disinterestedly turned his face to Imada. "I'm saying this before going to the castle, the witch is not a polite person. If any of us cause ruckus out there, there would be severe consequences."

"We aren't elementary kids, Uncle." Sakai felt that the magician's words were condescending.

"I'm just saying."

Everyone nodded.

At this moment, Koshikawa opened his mouth while looking at the moon. "Say, you seem to know something about the witch. How about you give us a brief idea of who she is and how we can convince her?"

Aya nodded. "Yes, it would be easy for us to communicate and convince her to send us back."

The magician shrugged. "There seems to be this misunderstanding that it's 100% guaranteed that the witch can send you back. Not to be the devil's advocate but from my understanding of her, she can't. Plain and simple. That being said, I do know some things about her. Want to hear?"

The group eagerly nodded.

"The legend of the Witch starts from the Golden Laws Era during the time the industrial revolution had just started… wait, what's with all of your faces!? Do you guys not know basic history?"

Imada and the others looked at each other and shook their heads. It's not that they didn't have an interest in history but they were not allowed to. Each of them except for Koshikawa were from a prominent family who didn't want their successors to become anything other than Gruer Users. 

"Sh… these nobles… alright folks, listen carefully. I'll be as brief as possible. In the beginning, there was the [First Chaotic Age] which lasted for two hundred years. The entire era was about the emergence of ancient Gruer Users who we now call sub-humans. The next era that came after that was [Second Chaotic Age] which lasted for more than two hundred years… I think it's about two-hundred-and-forty years… anyways, I'm not a history teacher. If I'm wrong, you can check when you go back home. 

"Coming back to the point, [Second Chaotic Age], right? Just like the previous era where sub-humans dominated the world, in this era, we, normal humans, stood up against the oppression of the sub-humans. That's why this period is also called the [Dark Age].

"Next, as you have already guessed, it's the [Third Chaotic Age]. This era would be the war arc if I were to consider the world like a storybook. The main participants of the war were humans and sub-humans. Although there were other mutated species that took part in the war, most of them got extinct. The entire war lasted for almost six hundred years and finally, thanks to the brave war generals from back then, we came out on top. Onto the next…"

"Wait." Koshikawa raised his hand. "Please try not to use simplistic language. It ruins our perception of history."

"Agreed."

"+1."

"+1."

"+1."

The magician chuckled. "As I said, I'm not someone well-versed in history. If you want to hear a more solemn and accurate version, I can't do that. Alright, next is the [Golden Laws Era]. The six hundred years had an extremely severe impact on every possible field. Be it economy, livelihood, colonies… everything. The [Golden Laws Era] was all about the reconstruction of a fallen civilization and creating a society. It started in the year 1014 and lasted till the year 1532."

"The Year 1532? Isn't that five hundred years ago? What is the current era then?" Asuka interrupted the magician and asked with a curious expression.

The magician patiently explained. "Today's 13th June 2012. The current era is called the [Modern Era]."

"The [Modern Era]? After all the cool names of ages, can't they think of something cooler anymore?" Asuka seemed immensely disappointed.

Aya sighed. She never expected the world to have such a history. 'So the sub-humans are someone we had defeated way back…'

Sakai's expression was the same.

Koshikawa had the same carefree smile.

Imada was getting a bit interested in history. 'No, wait. We have strayed away from the main point…' He was about to raise his voice when another voice came from behind him.

"That looks like a castle." Koshikawa looked at a castle that was about seventy meters away from the carriage.

"Woohoo! We have arrived!" Sakai got overexcited and got up in the carriage.

Imada and the others also turned to look at the huge castle.