That is one of the most powerful spellcasters in the Typhon Empire, the supreme ruler of the Royal Mages Association, the chief magic advisor of His Majesty the Emperor, Ms. Windsor Mapel, the Duke of Bibi.
She is much more ordinary than Mary imagined.
Mary carefully looked at the big man standing in front of the desk with an almost awe-inspiring mood. She thought that the legendary powerful mage would be a more distinctive lady, perhaps wearing a starry robe and full of majesty. The old lady may have changed her body age with magic, a glamorous beauty, but neither, Windsor Maple looks like an ordinary middle-aged woman, thirty to forty Although she still has a charming beauty between her eyebrows and eyes, the traces of time have already appeared on her face. She is wearing an ordinary purple robe, and her long lavender hair is casually tied behind her head. Just standing there quietly like that, without even showing any momentum.
Then Mary saw her mentor move, and the old mage walked up to Windsor Mapel in such a leisurely manner, and looked at him with a disrespectful, even disrespectful gaze. Under the stunned stares of the apprentices, the old mage nodded: "You have finally reached this position."
"You are still my mentor," Windsor Mapel said with a complicated look. Under Mary's astonished gaze, she bent down to the old mage, "You will always be."
The old mage waved his hand: "But you are not my apprentice anymore."
Mary suddenly took a deep breath. For a short while, she even forgot to breathe because of the shock, and the sound of her breathing caught Daniel's attention. The old mage beckoned to her: "Come here, talk to Windsor!" Greetings from Mapel, she is the president of the Royal Society of Mages."
Mary stepped forward dazedly, and before she could speak, the formidable lady glanced at her as if the lady hadn't noticed the stranger in the room until now: "She's who?"
"My apprentice," Daniel said with a chuckle, "is less talented than you, but smarter than you."
It was the first time in Mary's life that she heard a compliment from Daniel even though it wasn't addressed to her specifically.
"Your... apprentice?" Windsor Mapel said incredulously, but she quickly recovered and nodded to Mary, "Hello, I'm Windsor Mapel, the first teacher of Daniel's mentor. Apprentice. Since you are also the mentor's apprentice, you don't have to care about my status as the president."
"I... my name is Mary," Mary said with trepidation, "it's... an honor to meet you."
Windsor Mapel frowned, and asked subconsciously: "No surname? Ah, I don't mean to offend."
"I picked her up in the countryside, where did she get her surname," Daniel said casually, and gave Mary a slightly dissatisfied look, and waved his hands impatiently, "Stand by the side if she didn't grow in, don't interrupt."
Mary backed away obediently immediately, and although she was full of questions, she closed her mouth tightly and dared not say a word.
And Windsor Mapel took a deep look at Mary, who is not an excellent mage in all aspects, and the magic power reaction in her body is weak, and then turned to Daniel solemnly: "Teacher, I have been working hard all these years." Looking for you... ”
"As the president of the Royal Mages Association, if you really wanted to find it, you would have found it long ago," Daniel let out a hoarse low laugh, "and why are you looking for me? Let me continue to accept those mentally retarded ridicules? Or invite people from the association to come To visit a famous freak?"
Windsor Mapel's face changed slightly, and she immediately shook her head: "Teacher, you know what I mean, no one underestimates your attainments in the field of magic, it's just your neural interaction magic..."
The chairman of the association stopped suddenly in the middle of his words.
She widened her eyes, staring fixedly at something in her sight. Behind Daniel's black robe, restless artificial nerve cords were wriggling, and several slender, shimmering electric lights seemed to be fused with flesh and metal. The resulting distorted thing extended from the hem of the robe, and slowly swayed in Windsor Mapel's sight, like a blind digger, with a certain blasphemous aura.
The powerful spellcaster exclaimed in a low voice: "You... you... did you succeed?!"
"I failed, but I also succeeded. Those idiots who stick to the rules will probably not admit my success, but I don't care that the theory of neural interaction magic is meaningful after all. I can break through the limitations of my talents and do what I couldn't do before. thing," Daniel said in a low voice, "Windsor Maple, we're not here to talk about that today."
"... Yes, we didn't talk about this," Windsor Mapel was silent for a moment, and sighed slightly, "Master, I couldn't believe it when I received your letter, but you really came! Are you willing to return to the Mage Association and serve Typhon again?"
Daniel snorted: "Hmph, I will work for Typhon, but I'm not interested in this association anymore, as far as I know, our emperor didn't require mages who responded to the recruitment to join the association, did he? "
"... That's true," Windsor Mapel frowned, then adjusted his posture, and looked at Daniel solemnly, "Your attainments in the fields of mathematics and ancient Gondor magic are unmatched, even without me Recommended, His Majesty the Emperor has also heard of your reputation, he must be very happy that a wise man like you is willing to serve the empire again. I will immediately order someone to prepare your laboratory and mage tower again. with them."
"No need, I'm not used to working in places with too many people. I'm afraid people in the Royal Mage District don't want to live on the same block as a transformed freak," Daniel sneered, shaking his head, "I've already I have found a place to stay, and I plan to rebuild a laboratory myself, you know my habits, I only trust the experimental environment I created, and I don't want anyone to intervene and disturb."
Windsor Mapel looked into Daniel's eyes. Although the latter was much older than she remembered, even a little abnormally old, and his temper and personality seemed to have changed a lot, but the persistence in the eyes was different from that of Daniel. The stubbornness was still exactly the same as in her memory, she gave up her plan to continue persuading, but nodded slightly: "I understand, I will arrange it according to your intention."
After saying this, Windsor Mapel paused for a moment. With a slight hesitation, she looked at Daniel and said, "Teacher, where have you lived in the past few years?"
"Is this part of the investigation?"
Windsor Mapel did not hesitate this time: "This is my duty."
"That's a good answer. I've been in Typhon these years. In the southwest, the Royal Mages Association can investigate at will, including anyone I have contacted. You can investigate. Any questions?"
Windsor shook her head: "Not anymore."
"Okay, then I'm out of this place and it's not comfortable being here."
Daniel called Mary who was still in a daze beside him, turned around and walked towards the gate, but at this moment, the president of the association suddenly spoke again: "Teacher, you really don't have to leave back then. The people who passed you were just mediocre people, and they are all now... "
Daniel stopped and looked back at Windsor: "Because I'm jealous of you."
Windsor Mapel's voice stopped abruptly. She stood there with a complex expression on her face. After a few seconds, she broke the silence: "Teacher, you know that I don't believe it."
"But this is the truth. Maybe many magicians with mediocre qualifications will think that it is something worthy of glory for their apprentices to be promoted to legend, but I have never been proud of it, because I know that you are promoted to legend just because you have This kind of talent is nothing more than my credit, it cannot be compensated by hard work, cannot be changed by any acquired means, and even has nothing to do with the personal ability of the mentor, any mediocre mage can be your mentor It can make you a legend, and even if the goddess of magic descends, it can't let me break through to a high level."
After Daniel finished speaking quietly, he turned around and left the association president's room without a pause.
Windsor Mapel quietly watched the stooped back of the old mage disappear behind the door, without saying a word.
She knew that her former teacher was not jealous of herself, what he really resented was the iron rule of "talent determines everything".
He doesn't mind that his apprentice can be promoted to legend early, and he doesn't mind that the apprentice can far surpass himself in magic attainments, but he can't accept that all of this is determined by talent, and he can't accept that there is a boundary between them, and this This boundary line cannot be shaken in any case through acquired efforts.
Windsor Maple sighed softly. Maybe long before she reached a high level, long before the mentor encountered her own talent bottleneck, the latter had already foreseen what was going to happen, so he opened the one that was regarded as Unconventional, whimsical research.
Neural Interaction Magic Theory.
Technology to modify the human body through implants, neurosurgery, lifelong boosters, and more.
The mentor who never believed in fate chose to fight against fate more than 20 years ago. At that time, everyone thought he had failed, but fortunately, he is back now.
Although he has changed a lot, although he said that he has surgically turned himself into a "monster", everything will be fine.
…
Along the way, Daniel was silent, and Mary could only carefully keep her mouth shut and quietly followed behind the old mage. She really wanted to ask a lot of questions, because what happened today really challenged her cognition and even challenged her understanding. The president of the Sanguan Royal Mage Association that she had established so far turned out to be the mentor's apprentice back then? The youngest female mage in Typhon's history who broke through to the legendary rank turned out to be his "senior sister"? The mentor was once such a big shot
All this is something Mary never dared to think about!
However, she didn't dare to ask a word until the instructor allowed it.
This depressed state lasted for a long time, and it was not until he walked out of the gate of the Royal Wizards Association that Daniel finally broke the silence: "There are a lot of questions, right?"
"Ah... yes," Mary was taken aback, and then quickly nodded, "I... I didn't expect you to be so... the president of the Royal Wizards Association was your apprentice?!"
"Stupid question, I still need to ask it again." Daniel glanced at Mary, "She is indeed my apprentice, but she became the president of the association after I left, including her promotion after that It happened. When I left, she, like me, was just an ordinary high-ranking mage."
"Then did you really leave the association because of your research on neural modification? Now that you have succeeded, those who mocked you will feel ashamed..."
Mary spoke quickly, but after she said it, she suddenly realized that she had said something too bold: Daniel never liked any mention of his relationship with the Royal Society of Mages. If you come out, you will be punished!
The poor girl immediately became tense, and all the muscles in her body were tense in tension.
Daniel sneered: "Success? If you think these nerve cords are success, I will put them on you today."
Mary trembled all over, but just when she thought that she would really meet such a terrible fate, she discovered that it was just a joke made by the old mage
"Look at your appearance, do you think I will have the extra patience to do this kind of modification for you?" Daniel waved his hand, "Your talent is like a monkey, any modification is a waste of materials."
Mary didn't care about her mentor's evaluation of her talent at all. She just felt greatly relieved, and then said with a sigh: "Others will definitely not believe that Ms. Windsor Maple is our senior..."
"You don't have to be so in awe of Windsor."
Daniel suddenly interrupted Mary's exclamation, and then under the latter's slightly dazed gaze, he raised his head and looked at the foggy streets in Aldernan.
"If you knew the power of ?, you wouldn't be in awe of anyone."
The old mage took a step forward and led Mary to continue walking towards Aldernan's fog.
"Don't waste Master's time, we still have a lot to do."