Heaven's Greatest Professor

Warden's days didn't get any easier after he moved into the Artificer department. Actually, it got even more hectic. Thankfully, it wasn't boring anymore, where he would have to repair subpar tools for a pittance of contribution points.

The winners of his little contest showed up the very next day with their various desires for weapons. Ignoring a couple of captains and the runesmiths, most demanded to finalise what kind of grand work Warden could do for them.

He told them straight he couldn't be their blacksmith, nor provide material for their weapon. He'd only carve the runes. Warden thought he was pretty clear when he announced the competition, but he didn't know how they got it into their heads that he was distributing free runic equipment.

Ultimately, they had to comply and come back together with a master blacksmith to plan out their weapon.

Warden gave them a full hour of his time to finalise everything. He made sure to tell them they shouldn't expect their equipment the next day, or next week. He promised they would get them before he left the front line, however.

Most of them were happy to comply, even if they grumbled a little. Like the officers, the adept runesmiths had come in a group as well, led by Aki. The only winner missing among them was Jenni. Their request was even more interesting. Unlike the captains, they didn't need him to make any tools for them.

All they wanted from him was some mentorship when he was free. Actually, they didn't think Warden would agree to their request, considering most runesmiths took their secrets to the grave. So, Warden spent his afternoon getting bowed to by half of the competent adepts of the artificer department.

"I don't know if you're aware," Warden told them. "I'm very strict with my work. While you might think this is the best outcome for you, it can become your worst nightmare. Ask Aki if you have any confusion, because I'll put all your ability to the test and wrench out all the potential you lots have wasted. And I'm going to love every moment of it."

Warden let a little of his energy shimmer his eyes in malevolent purple light, causing many of the adepts to shudder. After dismissing them, Warden went to meet with Elder Ming, who had a small quarter, though the place was far more desirable than anywhere else in the rift. The master runesmith definitely used his expertise to carve every part of the building and garden for it to have such a look.

Warden hoped some servant would welcome him in to meet with the elder. But that didn't happen. Other than a person in the small but beautiful garden protected by isolation runes, there was no one else present in the vicinity.

Thankfully, he knew the person in the garden.

"Jenni?" Warden had to call half a dozen times before she finally lifted her head from the scrape of script paper.

She glared up at him. "Why are you here?"

"I had asked for an audience with Elder Ming."

She raised her eyebrow. "Are you sure? Because he clearly seemed to forget about it."

Warden invited himself in, dismantling the protective runes around the house. Thankfully, he used runes to do it, as the formation repaired itself after he entered. Jenni watched him dismantling. At first, she seemed like she'd complain, but kept her silence, watching him with narrowed eyes.

"What are you doing here?" Warden asked, his eyes peering at the script paper she was scribbling with. However, unlike any runes, she was actually drawing an image with the stylus.

"Are you blind?" She shot him a look as if she were questioning his intelligence.

"Well, I can see you're scribbling a scene with runes," Warden said. "And you don't seem to be any good at it."

She scowled at him. Warden shrugged. If she was going to talk to him like that, he would hurt her with blunt honesty. But in truth, Jenni wasn't really hurt by his comment. She was only playing a role; his aura reading gave evidence of that.

"Thankfully, this will be enough to quell Father's anger," she said, showing him the obnoxious painting of one or dozen chimeric creatures she had drawn on the script paper. There were hundreds of Tier-1 and Tier-2 runes in the drawing making the obnoxious thing deadlier to look at.

"You're degrading your mastery of runes to draw it?" Warden arched an eyebrow. "Why?"

Jenni frowned, meeting his gaze. "What gave that feeling? This is drawn with my best effort. It is only bad because I hate doing it so much."

"You' can be many things, Jenni. But a good liar is not one of them." Warden snorted. "You were fully enamoured when I came. I literally had to call you half a dozen times before you heard my voice."

"That doesn't say anything," she said, bringing a new script paper to draw on them. "I'm only doing this because it is my punishment. I have to draw every day for the whole month for misbehaving in public."

Warden blinked, and then realisation dawned on him. "So you somehow managed to give the idea that you hate drawing with runes. And your father bought it. So whenever he thinks he's punishing you, he's giving the incentive to do something you love... this is brilliant."

Jenni lifted her head and scowled at him. This time not playing around. "You know it will be so easy if I can just blindly hate you."

Warden didn't know how to answer that.

She sighed. "You're right. I do not hate rune painting. I loved it from the day Father handed me his old stylus... hmm, that was like fifteen years ago. He didn't hit me or berate me for any mistakes I made, but instead asked me to draw with runes, which is actually harder than usual rune work."

"How did you give him the idea that you hate it?"

"I didn't," she said, curving a line on the paper. "I think he got the idea from himself. Because he hates doing it, he thinks I hate it too."