Chapter 7

"You are a hard woman to find, Rin Tohsaka, Vale's Underworld Queen. It's a pleasure to meet you."

Rin calmly stared at the black haired woman with long black hair and amber eyes, wearing a red dress.

"Cinder Fall, you're the owner of that dog Roman and that cat Neo." Rin calmly took a sip of her tea, "I thought you as nothing more than a rogue huntress, I didn't think that you are far more special."

Rin installed a "jewel" in the door to her office that would automatically use "structural grasping" on anyone that entered.

Knowing that this woman has magic power, but lacking any magic circuit, surprised her a little.

"Thank you." Cinder smiled before motioning at the chair in front of Rin, "May I take a seat?"

Rin shrugs. "Go ahead."

Cinder sat down as Rin pushed a plate of cookies towards her. Cinder took one and took a bite, her eyes widened in surprise, "This is very good. I wonder where you bought this?"

"Would you believe me if I said that I baked this myself?"

"No. Only a fool would take your words at face value."

Rin smirks, "I like you already. Now tell me, what is Magus like you doing in my territory."

She enjoyed the shocked looks of her visitor.

Cinder stared at Rin, eyes widened in surprise. Her right eye seems to glow as she prepared to attack, but held herself back.

How did Rin know about magic? Was she also like her, a maiden? If so, why is she settling down to be just an underworld queen and mingling with rats?

"You better thank yourself for being smart enough to not attack me. If you did, you would've already been incinerated." Said Rin with a grin, as dozens of glowing white crystals suddenly materialized from the wall and floated around the wall.

Each of these jewels can generate a heated laser of magical energy capable of vaporizing a hole through a mountain. It's power can match Medea's Rain of Light.

Cinder doesn't know what they are, but she can feel her survival instincts screaming at how dangerous those little things are.

"I'll ask again, what is a Magus like you doing in our territory? The Mage's Association has given us Vale to set up our workshop and became its Second Owner, other magus are not allowed to enter without permission."

Mage's Association? Second Owner? Cinder has no idea what she was talking about...but from her words, there seems to be a group of people out there that can use magic?

But how's that possible? Only six people should have the power of magic! Seven if you count her power's other half which still remains to that person she stole it from.

Rin gave a 'confused' look, "Wait, could it be you didn't know? You should be part of Mage's Association right? They should've sent you the notice."

"I'm not part of the association, in fact I didn't even know there's an organization for mages." Admitted Cinder, "I apologize for intruding your...territory, but I'm actually here to ask for cooperation."

Rin hummed. 'So there's no Mage's Association or its equivalent here. Figures. Now I'm curious about this world's mystical side of things.'

"A rogue then. Since you know magecraft, then someone must've taught you. Who're they?"

Cinder did not answer, but asked a question, "What's magecraft? Don't you mean magic?"

Rin sighed, "Right, a rogue magus. Listen here, magecraft and magic is different. Magecraft is the reenactment of miracles, while magic is considered as true miracle."

"...huh?" Cinder feels a little dumb. There's so many things to learn about magic? She thought you'd just flicked your wrist and bam, magic.

"Basically, magecraft is something that can be done through mundane means using mystical means. Like materializing a fire using magic power - while the process is considered a miracle, the result is not. A lighter can also materialize a fire, which makes fire creation just another mundane thing."

"I...see." Then what she's using is just magecraft, and not true magic, "How about true magic then? I get it that magecraft is something that can be replicated through science, but I can't really think of what true magic is like."

Rin shrugs, "Meh, we'll talk about that after I know who you are, where you came from, and who your teacher is. Like I said before, it's forbidden for other magus to enter someone else's territory. I could report you to the association and they'd hunt you down."

Cinder flinched at that. No way. Her maiden power is only half of what it should be, there's no way she can escape if a group of magic users chase after her.

"Before I answer that, may I ask what is the goal of your organization?"

"It's simple really. Due to the advancement of science, magecraft is getting weaker and weaker. Our organization aims to reach the "Root" the origin of all creation, by any means necessary. It isn't rare for some of our members to resort to human experimentation to progress their research. I, myself, have dissected and studied some human bodies I found special."

"So...you don't care about what happened to the world as long as you guys can do your research....am I right?"

"Indeed."

"I can get behind that. Well, my teacher is...have you heard about Salem?"

Rin's eyes narrowed, "Salem huh? I feel like I've heard that name before...hmm, our professor probably mentioned that name once or twice, but I couldn't really remember."

So they heard of Salem. Cinder sighed in relief. "She's also a magus who created the Grimms."

Rin 'oohed' in recognition, "Ah, I remember now. My friend mentioned her to me. She said that she wanted to meet this Salem because the creation of Grimm is similar to a spell of hers."

"Truly?" Cinder raised a brow. Someone else can created Grimms aside from Salem? Isn't this organization a bit scary?

"Yes, the spell can summon Dragon Tooth Warriors, a skeleton-like creatures strong enough to match an average junior-class hunter trainee."

"Impressive." Cinder's eyes glowed a certain glint.

Junior class trainee refers to students who haven't gotten to a combat school like Beacon yet. Students from Signal or Sanctum Academy which is like Junior Highschool are at this level.

"Indeed. Now, I think I heard about a cooperation earlier..."

"Ah, yes." Truthfully, Cinder wanted to just threaten Rin and use force to subdue her, but upon knowing that Rin is a magus and that there is an association for people that can use magic, she decided to go for cooperation.

"I need more dusts. Roman's thievery is not meeting the demand and SDC now barely ship a cargo of Dusts to Vale due to Edelya taking over the market, and their storage is heavily guarded so we can only go for some small shops."

"Hah!" Rin laughed, "You better not let Luvia know that it was you behind the robberies. She would seal you inside a crystal before throwing you in the depths of the sea if she did."

Cinder didn't care. Not the first one someone is after her life, though she was curious, "Luvia?"

Rin nodded, "Luviagelita Edelfelt. Founder and CEO of Edelya Enterprise. Her company has taken a hit with all the robberies going around and she couldn't be more pissed."

"She's a magus also?" Cinder asked.

"Yes. I'm surprise you haven't heard of her. Edelfelt is very well known family in the moonlit world?"

"Moonlit world?"

"You don't even know that? It refers to the mystical side of the world."

"I see." For the first time since meeting Salem, Cinder feels so ignorant. She thought that she already know about all the secrets of the world, who knew that she was still scratching the surface.

'Still, antagonizing the CEO of Edelya who happens to be magus is not good for my plans.'

"Putting aside the cooperation for now, can you tell me about some of basic knowledge of the moonlit world? My teacher kept me in her castle most of my life so I don't really know much."

"Ah, so that's why. Well, let me teach you about the basic of Magecraft first. Seems to me your teacher didn't bother teaching you that much."

"Thank you."

"Don't worry about it. In exchange though, you can...."