Ye Zi didn't know what happened with Xiao Chen and the others. There were few people in the reading room where she was, only two or three magic apprentices were looking up information for their mentor. She put a copy of "Secrets of the Ancient Times" back on the bookshelf, rubbed her sore eyes, and then walked out of the information reading room.
Perhaps because of the Temple of Nature, there was little information about the ancient gods. Ye Zi guessed that even if there were such books, they would probably be in the private libraries of those great magicians. Seeing that there was no movement from Xiao Chen, she went downstairs to the garden on the ground floor, ready to stretch her hands and feet and get some fresh air.
The garden on the first floor is actually quite large. Apart from the paths leading to the five magic towers, the rest of the garden is divided into more than a dozen spaces of varying sizes by columns, shrubs and stone walls, giving it a feeling of winding paths leading to secluded areas.
There were also few people in the garden. The Magic Association was not a place for leisure. Most of the mages and followers were busy scrambling to occupy rooms, and very few people spent time here.
Walking along a stone-paved corridor, Ye Zi suddenly heard faint crying. The crying was very soft, intermittent, and if it wasn't so quiet around her, she would definitely ignore it.
Ye Zi walked in the direction of the sound, holding her breath and listening carefully, and found that it was the voice of a child. She walked around a stone wall, passed through a wooden arch, and saw a little boy sitting on a wooden bench behind the bushes, sobbing.
The little boy looked to be about seven or eight years old, with rare purple hair. He was wearing a magic apprentice robe and looked pitiful as he huddled there.
"Hey, kid, are you okay?" Ye Zi looked at him for a while and couldn't help asking.
The boy suddenly stopped crying, turned around with tears on his face, and looked at Ye Zi in shock, "Ghost! Who are you? How could you get in here?"
In order not to attract attention, Ye Zi wore the uniform of a warrior, a long-sleeved top with a left lapel, and tight pants, which showed off her slender and fit figure. She was a pretty girl, but she was instantly angry when a little kid called her a ghost. "What are you talking about, kid? Who are you calling a ghost? But why are you hiding here crying alone?"
"Who said I was crying?" The boy wiped his face with his sleeves and said angrily, "Woman, you have entered my forbidden area. I, I want..."
Ye Zi walked over, stood in front of him with his hands behind his back, and looked down at him condescendingly: "Kid, what do you want?"
The boy lowered his head under Ye Zi's gaze and said with a curled lip, "Nothing."
"Tell me, what's your name?"
"Javier."
"Ha, this name is the same as the king's sissy son." Ye Zi laughed, but she soon found that the little boy's face turned into a liver-like color.
Shame, anger and embarrassment were mixed on his face at the same time.
"I'm not a sissy." The little boy didn't dare to shout, he just whispered in a low voice.
"What? Are you..."
The little boy nodded aggrievedly.
It was a bit embarrassing. Ye Zi scratched his head awkwardly, sat on the stone bench next to him, and apologized: "I'm sorry, I just heard it from others. I didn't expect to meet a little prince here."
Prince Javier saw that Ye Zi looked very sincere when he spoke, and he lowered his head and shook his head and said, "Adults say this to me, and children also bully me. And my sister, she also thinks I am not a man. Anyway, so many people look at me that way, and it doesn't matter if you are one more person."
Hearing the little boy say this, Ye Zi felt a little sympathetic towards him. She approached him and asked, "It's my fault. I shouldn't have made a random judgment about someone I don't know. Hey, tell me, why do you think it's weird that I walked in? Isn't this the garden of the Magic Association? Although there aren't many people here, I still saw several people walking around in the garden."
Javier was really attracted by her question and stopped dwelling on the sissy thing. He raised his hand with some pride and pointed at a white bracelet on his left hand. The bracelet was simply decorated and plain, all white, with a circle of black gems inlaid on it. "Because of this, it can form a barrier. People outside can't hear or see here. If they want to come over, they will be driven out. Anyway, they can't get in."
"Really? But I heard you crying from far away. Otherwise I wouldn't come here." Ye Zi said.
"Is there something wrong with the Ares bracelet?" Javier looked at the bracelet again and shook it.
"Is this bracelet related to the God of War?" Ye Zi looked at the tattoo of the Shadow Spear on his hand and suddenly understood something.
"Well, it's a gift from my mother. I heard it was a divine weapon made by the God of War in the past. It has some other uses. Anyway, it can protect me, so I always carry it with me. However, I have used it several times when I came here, and no one has ever discovered it."
"You've cried more than once." Ye Zi said.
"No! I..." Javier raised his head.
"Okay. Talk to your sister. Why are you crying?" For this fourth or fifth grade kid, Ye Zi naturally ignored his identity and habitually rubbed his head with her hand.
Javier glanced at her secretly, his face flushed a little, "I can't learn the magic that the teacher taught me. Everyone else who studied with me has learned it, but I just can't. I took advantage of the break time to come downstairs to practice secretly, but it still didn't work."
"What kind of magic did you learn?"
"Ignition." Javier said shyly, "My teacher is Master Gabriel of the Tower of Shining Wings. He is good at light and fire magic. So the first two spells we learned were Light and Ignition. I, I have already learned Light, you see."
A ball of light lit up in Javier's hand, the brightness was very high and stable. "Although I learned the light technique last, it is the most powerful when it is released. But I can't learn the fire technique no matter how hard I try."
This spell... is the same as the Light Spell. Ye Zi knows that almost everyone who has studied magic can do it. If someone as smart as Xiao Chen were to learn it, he might learn it in a few minutes. Even Nina can use this spell to light a fire and cook.
"How long have you been studying?" Ye Zi asked.
"Three days."
"Where are the other apprentices?"
"The fastest one took half a day, and the slowest one took two days to learn it." Javier said frustratedly, "I still don't feel anything at all."
"I heard that your mother, the queen, is also a magician. Haven't you asked her?"
"My mother tried to help me, but it was no use. She said Master Gabriel was much better than her in this area."
"Sister...Sister, are you a magician too? Can you help me?"