top of magic

"It doesn't matter, anyway, I didn't plan to take another apprentice." Tina shrugged.

"However, before I complete the assessment of the great magician, I still have to ask you to take care of him for a while." Amir smiled and bowed slightly to Tina.

"It's nothing, there's Avella here!" Tina raised her finger to Avella next to Kiki, "Come on, let's introduce each other. The sister next to you is named Avella, she is my The only apprentice, responsible for all the sundries in this mage tower - from now on, you are also one of the sundries in her hands."

Hearing what Tina said, Avella smiled kindly at Kiki, but still didn't speak.

"Avella's throat was injured and she couldn't speak." Tina explained for her, "But she can hear you clearly and can communicate with you in words."

While Tina was explaining, Avella also took out a palm-sized cardboard and a charcoal pencil, and gestured to Kiki with a smile.

Kitsch looked at her, hesitating to speak.

"Speak up, Baby Kiki." Amir saw his hesitation, coughed lightly, and gently reminded: "You have to learn to express your intentions, just like when you rejected the beautiful Tina Ma'am."

——I didn't reject her, I just want to know why you brought me here and dumped me to someone else.

Kitsch bit his lip and finally said, "I can't read."

Everyone present was taken aback for a moment, looking at Kiki as if they couldn't believe their ears.

Kitsch lowered his eyelids, turning a blind eye to everyone's surprised gazes.

Learning, for the civilians in the countryside, is really a very expensive thing.Serious colleges can only be found in big cities, and the tuition fees are very high, not everyone can get in and afford it.Ordinary people, at most, send their children to church schools run by the Holy See, where they learn some simple characters and mathematics from the monks or nuns there.But even a church school is not free to attend. Enough "donations" must be made before the school will admit children to school.

Although Keech's father was a farmer, the family was not very rich because of poor management.Therefore, the stingy parents only sent the eldest son Xiuqi to a church school, and let him learn it before going home to teach the rest of his younger siblings.

The parents' thinking is very simple, and they can't find any faults, but Xiu Qi is not a good teacher, and the relationship between the children is far from being as harmonious as the parents thought.

Rocky is the smartest and can learn everything quickly, so after he learned it, he began to mock Keech, either because his pronunciation was not standard, or he thought his handwriting was ugly.In fact, Keech may not be duller than Rocky, but his mouth is far less dexterous than Rocky, and he has never won a quarrel.So, he fought with Rocky, which aroused Xiu Qi's fury, and beat up the two younger brothers respectively.

What Kiki resents the most is the seemingly fair injustice of his parents and elder brother. Since then, he has never participated in the small class taught by Xiuqi, and Xiuqi also put on an attitude that love is not coming. care about him.

"This is a bit troublesome." Amir raised his fingers and rubbed his temples.

"If you don't know how to read, it will be very troublesome to go to the academy to attend classes, right? Besides, since the association stopped recruiting apprentices under the age of eight, the association has not offered basic courses starting from literacy." Tina also frowned. , "Well...you can't let Elvira teach him, can you? It seems difficult to teach him!"

"Your Excellencies." The young man who had been standing behind Tina and Amir suddenly interjected, "I wonder if I have the honor to relieve the two of you?"

"By the way, Hill is here!" Tina clapped her hands suddenly, but then said worriedly, "But there is only one week before the school starts, is it too late?"

"The first month is just the theoretical basis, so it doesn't matter if you don't listen to it." Amir said, "Just find a book like "Basis of Magic Power" or "Introduction to Elements" and read it once."

"Then it's decided like this? Let him stay in my mage's tower to learn how to read with Hill this month, and not go to the academy to attend classes?" Tina asked with her head tilted.

"Well, there's no need to go there." Amir nodded, then turned to Kiki and said, "Come on, Kiki baby, introduce each other to Young Master Hill. You are about the same age, so you should be able to get along very happily."

"Your Excellency Amir, you are making fun of me again." The young man whom Amir jokingly called Master smiled and walked up to Kiki, stretched out his right hand, and offered to introduce, "I am Hill Balotelli, Nice to meet you Keech, hope you don't mind me calling you by your first name."

Kitsch stared blankly at this flaxen-haired strange boy, only thought that his voice was pleasant and his appearance was better than any of his peers he had ever seen. Even his smile was as warm and warm as the summer sun. , so...exquisite from head to toe, more dazzling than the richest lady he had ever seen in the town.

—he must be more likable than Rocky.

Keech thought.

Hill, too, is eyeing Keech, from the moment he walked through the door.At first, he was just curious about why Amir cared so much about this unassuming black-haired boy, and even entrusted him to the care of Tina, whom he was passionately pursuing.Next, he became interested in the boy's appearance—a face that looked extremely plain at first glance, but upon closer inspection, he couldn't pick out any flaws. The lengths are amazingly perfect.

—Academic painters would love his face.

thought Hill.

The two watched each other, and for a moment, they forgot to continue.

"You two, please don't tell me that you fell in love at first sight." Amir coughed lightly and reminded jokingly.

"Your Excellency Amir, you're joking again." Hill came to his senses first, and immediately stretched his hand forward with a chuckle.

But Keech didn't understand what he meant, and still just stared blankly, confused.

"This kid doesn't even know how to shake hands?" Tina looked at Kiki suspiciously.

"Hold...hand?" Kiki was stunned for a moment, and looked down at Hill's right hand, where even the nails were so delicately processed.

"It seems that I really can't." Tina couldn't help rubbing her forehead.

"Teach him slowly." Amir shrugged nonchalantly, "Young Master Hill, you will work harder this month. In addition to teaching him how to read, you should also give some advice on daily etiquette, but enough is enough. Come back a month later and see another noble young master."

"Are you 'can' come back next month?" Before Hill could respond, Tina raised her eyebrows and asked.

"Whether I can or I can't, I will try my best to come back and take a look." Amir said, "If I can see him cast a small magic like fireball or water arrow, I will definitely be grateful to you Yes, my dear Tina."

"As long as he is not an element isolation body, this wish is not difficult to achieve." Tina promised confidently.

"Then I'll wait and see." Amir said with a smile.

In a few words, Amir and Tina decided his fate without Kiki's consent at all.

At this time, Keech couldn't understand at all what he had gained and what he had missed.

"Since it's decided—Avella, take him down to rest, prepare a room for him by the way, and...you can figure out what else you can do." Tina waved her hand at Avella, clearly Start kicking people out.

"Young Master Hill, let's go together, save the lovely Avella some effort, and by the way, leave the space here for me to be alone with the beautiful Magician Tina." Amir added with a smile.

"As you wish." Hill withdrew his right hand, which Kiki had not accepted so far, turned around and bowed to Tina and Amir, then took the initiative to wrap Kiki's shoulders, and led him out of the living room on the fourth floor.

Avella followed them out of the living room, then wrote something in her little notebook and handed it to Hill.

Hill glanced at it, and quickly smiled, "Please go get ready, I'll take Keech to sit on the first floor for a while."

Avella smiled gratefully at Hill, then made a gesture to Kiki that he couldn't understand, and then went downstairs first, kicked the ground for a while and disappeared.

"Avella is going to help you clean up the room. Let's go to the first floor first, and wait for her to clean up before taking you there." Hill explained to Kitsch.

"Oh." Keech responded casually.

Seeing his ignorant look of not knowing anything and being indifferent to everything, Hill couldn't help laughing, let go of his shoulder, took his left hand, and walked towards the stairs.

But at the moment when he held Kiki's left hand, Hill was taken aback by the slenderness and smoothness of that hand.

--how come?

Hill thought suspiciously.

From the way Keech dresses and talks, it's clear that his origins are decidedly ordinary.Moreover, this kind of national selection was originally held for civilian families who had no money or access to support their children to learn magic, so that those children with magical talents would not miss the opportunity to learn magic due to their background.As for the nobles, they would have used various channels to identify their children's talents as early as when they were sensible, so there was no need to wait for the Magic Association to come to their door.

But how can a child from a commoner family have such delicate fingers?Don't they have to work since they were young and help their parents?It was not the first time Hill had seen the children of commoners, some of them looked even more "noble" than nobles, but without exception, their rough hands revealed their true origins.After all, even a boy from a family of knights who held a sword from an early age would not have stiff fingers and well-defined joints like theirs.

Hill couldn't help but grabbed Keech's hand and watched it carefully.

It really is a hand as beautiful as the touch, slender, slender, and smooth, usually only the noble ladies who have been pampered and cared for since childhood can have it.

Hill couldn't help but stop, grabbed Kidge's other hand, and put them together for comparison and appreciation.

"What's wrong?" Kiki was taken aback by his strange behavior.

"You have a pair of beautiful hands." Hill raised his head and smiled brightly at Kiki.

Keech suddenly blushed in embarrassment at this unheard of praise, subconsciously withdrew his hand from Hill's, and put it behind his back.

Hill didn't care, smiled, turned around and continued downstairs.

When they got downstairs, Hill didn't take the initiative to bring up the topic. He just pulled out a chair and motioned for Keech to sit down. Then he sat opposite him and continued to look at him intently.

Keech was stunned by Hill's stare very quickly, but he didn't panic or even be at a loss because of it. Instead, he raised his head and looked at Hill stubbornly.

Hill couldn't help laughing, looked away, and said, "You really don't know a single word?"

"...very little." Keech hesitated for a moment, but didn't lie.

"Then I'll pretend you don't know anything, and teach you from the first letters and phonetic symbols, okay?" Hill tentatively asked.

"Anything." Keech responded casually.

"I understand." Hill nodded with a smile, "But I'm really not prepared today, and you have come from a long way, so you must not be in the mood to listen to my ramblings, why not take a good rest as Magician Tina suggested How about starting class tomorrow when everything is ready?"

"I don't care." Keech replied indifferently.

"Then I'll take it as if you agreed." Hill emphasized with a smile, and immediately chatted with Kidge, first introducing him to the general situation of the Magic Association, and then casually asked about his hometown and family.

Keech just dealt with it without saying a word, but even so, Hill quickly discovered many things from his few words, for example, his family was not rich, for example, he had an older brother and an older sister. And a younger brother who is also enrolled this year, for example, he is not favored at home, and his relationship with his younger brother is not harmonious...

While Hill was still cautiously probing, Avella had already walked down the stairs.

Hill immediately stood up and greeted him, "Are you ready?"

Avella nodded with a smile, raised her hand and beckoned to Kiki, beckoning him to come up together.

Kiki stood up hesitantly, walked up the stairs, and followed Avella and Hill to the second floor.

There are four rooms on the second floor of the stone tower, and each room is exactly a quarter of a circular arc, which is combined into a circular section that happens to be the stone tower.

Avella pushed open a door on the left side of the stairs and led Kiki inside.

There are not many furnishings in the room, only beds, tables and chairs, empty bookshelves, and a rather large wardrobe.There were clean pillows and bedding on the bed, and light blue curtains were hung on the window opposite the door.

—Is this his room?

Looking at this simple and not spacious room that only "belongs" to him, Kitsch finally realizes that he is about to start a new life.

— No more huddling with Rocky and sharing everything.

Keech thought happily.When they were at home, Xiu Qi and Li Qi had their own rooms, and only he and Rocky had to live together.Rocky always wanted to drive him out of the room, and he didn't like to be with Rocky day and night, but there was really no room in the house for them to separate, and the parents were unwilling to expand the house for their two young children.

——Leaving home was indeed the right thing to do.

Kitsch silently bit his lips, clenched his fists, and suppressed the boiling joy in his heart.