Aqua tried to peel herself away from Azure with no avail, giving her a reassuring smile. "I promise I will be back as soon as I can."
She rubbed her face against Aqua's for a solid minute before letting go. "I had to get that last hug before you head out."
"I am glad you enjoyed it. I will miss you," Aqua said, her ears twitching.
"Same, but I know you will return, so no point in worrying!" Azure shouted, holding her fist in the air.
Aqua smiled. I love this woman so much.
They exchanged one last hug before Aqua teleported away, appearing in the middle of Mia's lab.
Her sudden appearance made Mia drop from her chair and scream.
"Aqua?!" The elven professor shouted, quickly hiding an empty potion bottle inside her robes. "What brings you here so early?" She chuckled nervously.
Aqua raised her brow and slowly approached. "You don't need to hide that bottle from me."
She quickly grabbed Mia's hand and pulled her back onto her feet. Aqua looked Mia up and down, her eyes had eye bags under them and her robes were messy. "You need to rest sometimes. I assume you got hold of my potion that I gave to Azure and then spent all night trying to reverse engineer it?"
Mia nodded. "How in the world did you figure that out?"
"I used to be the same, there is no shame in it."
The professor chuckled and pulled out a seat. "Come, take a seat."
"I am not gonna stay for long, I just wanted to say bye."
"Huh?" Mia questioned, pulling out the mostly empty bottle from her robes and placing it on the table.
Aqua sat next to Mia and looked at the bottle. "I have business to attend to in the Lux domain, so I will be forced to leave the academy temporarily."
Mia grumbled. "So I am about to lose a source of limitless knowledge? Come on!" She shouted.
Aqua couldn't help but laugh at the scene. "I will be back, but I won't leave my new student without some material."
The bottle disappeared, leaving Mia pouting at its disappearance. "Don't be like that. I will give you more. You could have just asked."
"Well, in my defense. I did not know you had these miracle potions."
Miracle? Aqua giggled. They were rather basic alchemical products.
The void tore open above the empty space next to the duo, and from it fell a large crate.
On top of the crate was a large book, which was decorated in gold and red. And it was thick enough to be used as a deadly weapon.
"Teacher…" Mia whimpered, staring at Aqua with teary eyes.
"I couldn't just leave you without material."
She leaned forward and grabbed the large tome. "This here is a grimoire I had written a long time ago. I think someone inclined to studying will find a lot of value in it."
Mia ravenously snatched the heavy book from Aqua and gazed at it. Her eyes wandered toward the crate. "And what is that?"
"This…" Aqua slapped the top of the crate. "Is a crate of two hundred healing potions."
"Two… hundred?!"
"The book contains knowledge on how to create these potions, use them as you see fit, to cure wounds or just to experiment," Aqua said, smiling.
"Aqua…" Mia grumbled.
"What is it?"
"Are you sure you will be back?"
"If everything goes to plan, I promise."
"I don't like the way you said it."
Aqua remained silent for a moment. "I have to be ready for things to go wrong."
Mia jumped from her seat and opened up the crate, revealing a shipment of an alchemical miracle. "Well, you gave me plenty to do. But what do I do if I don't understand something in the grimoire?"
Aqua chuckled and crossed her arms. "You are a scientist, are you not?"
The question made Mia pout. "I guess so, but sometimes I do like things to come by easily occasionally."
She closed the crate and took a seat again. Her fingers ran over the edges of the grimoire and soon opened it. The arcane knowledge inconceivable to the current world presented itself before her.
Mia flipped through the pages, a mad glint in her eyes. She soon shut the grimoire and placed it back at the table.
Her gaze then met Aqua. "I will do my best, teacher."
"I believe in you, Mia." She said, slowly getting up. Aqua turned toward Mia and curtsied. "I hope we meet again soon."
"Likewise, I will try to forge a valid excuse of absence for you."
It's not necessary. However, it was still something nice to do.
"Thank you."
"Don't even mention it, teacher. You have enrolled here to study and ended up teaching me so much. I will be taking good care of your students, I promise it to you." Mia said, grinning. She jumped out of her seat and stretched her hand out.
"Thank you, professor," Aqua said, grabbing Mia's hand and giving her a firm shake.
Then she turned, and the illusion covering her clothing dissolved, revealing her usual attire. "Goodbye, teacher~" Aqua said, waving before disappearing in a blue puff.
Mia waved, suppressing her surprise at Aqua's yet another miracle of illusion. "I hope to see you again, too, Teacher."
***
Aqua found herself high in the air, and the winds blew past her. She inhaled deeply and moaned softly. "Alright, let's see…"
She pulled the letter out of her void storage. While the top half of the parchment contained the instructions, the bottom half was inscribed with instructions to reach the territory.
Her blazing wings sprouted forth, and her gaze was glued to the direction.
Should be able to get there in a minute if I follow the road. The entire instruction contained the route to take by the ground, which would inevitably cause her to make several turns. "I should have asked about a flight path."
However, it was a well-known fact that Elves could not fly, thus she would have assumed it was not something he would know other than the general direction.
She chuckled. She wasn't in such a hurry to not be able to afford a couple of minutes of travel. With a flap, a trail of flame was left behind her, and Aqua headed toward the Lux territory.