Why Did You Summon Me?

Mia and Lulu raced down the pavement, their laughter ringing out loud in the street.

Baiyi stood stiffly by the door. He held the doorknob for a few seconds, looking hesitant, but his hand eventually dropped to his side. Although everything was peaceful at the moment, Baiyi could not afford to push his luck by attending any festivities.

Mia returned home at dusk, with her ponytails in a disheveled state. She was exhausted and happy at the same time. The grin on her face could divert attention from her disheveled state; this was a clear sign that she had enjoyed herself. Before Mia entered the cottage, she could be heard promising her new friend Lulu — in a voice as loud as Lulu’s — that their adventure would continue the next day.

“This town is the best! ” Mia announced as soon as she came in. “Everyone is so, so, so friendly! And kind! You wouldn’t believe how many treats they gave me! Everyone is just so warm and cozy with each other, and the neighborhood is bustling with activity. I almost thought I was back in my old place!”

“Honestly, why don’t you ever act your age? You’re not a kid anymore,” Baiyi muttered as he handed her a warm towel with which to wipe the sweat and grime off her face.

Mia playfully pulled away from him and placed her arms at her back as she beamed like a child about to ask their dad for a birthday present. “No, you help me do it, Daddy!”

Baiyi shook his head helplessly, but he obliged. As he used the towel to wipe her face gently, he asked with worry, “They didn’t know you’re a sorcerer, right?”

“Hee hee! That tickles. Nope; they have no idea,” Mia replied sweetly, squinting her eyes as she enjoyed Baiyi’s cleaning. “I didn’t show them that I could use magic, Dad; just as you asked of me.”

Baiyi felt a surge of warmth course through his body. ‘Is it just me or is Mia a lot cuter now?’ He wondered.

However, his thoughts quickly drifted in another direction, which was the norm for Baiyi. ‘Shouldn’t Mia’s age be dialed back thousands of years because, well, we traveled back in time? Wait… That would mean she’s negative six thousand years old!  That makes her a minor, right? Like the most extreme of minors, right?’

Baiyi shook his head sideways, discarding the silly train of thought.

That was how the reclusive father and his angel-like daughter — who, in reality, was actually his student — began their temporary stay in Aegir, a border town of the Ancient Rohlserlian Empire.

The gala went on for three more days. Baiyi waited anxiously for the disaster that was sure to ensue whenever he was in close proximity to a festival, but the days that passed were uneventful. It was as though the time travel had cured him of his curse, wherein near-apocalyptic events accompanied him to every festival he attended.

‘Could time-travel somehow make a person better? Is that why Mia is now ten times cuter and less wayward? Is it also why my unwanted passive skill, “Doomed to Doom”, has been deactivated?’ Baiyi wondered. ‘This has to be a silver lining, right? ‘

Despite the comforting thought in his mind, Baiyi was in no mood to go outside. Just because he had tried on a new armor piece, he and Mia were now stranded in the past, and he had no idea how to remedy the situation; this made him depressed. His inability to come up with any solution left him too dejected to consider experiencing Rohlserlian culture alongside Mia.

Mia did not mind Baiyi’s absence, though. She felt great that she got to adventure with Lulu every day. At first light each day, both ladies would leave their homes at the same time, only to return at dusk with mud-stained clothes and disheveled hair. Baiyi wondered if Mia’s child-like behavior was because she was now negative six thousand years old, or because she had contracted whatever made Lulu so hyperactive.

Meanwhile, the folks of Aegir were becoming more curious about the new girl’s father, who never left his house. From Nick’s farewell message, they knew that the stranger was a sorcerer’s apprentice. Although they had interacted with his angel of a daughter, they had never seen or spoken to the stranger. This caused the town’s folk to drop by often, hoping to interact with the mysterious man.

However, Baiyi strictly stuck to the persona he had invented and did not receive any visitors. He even went as far as to rudely keep his door shut at all times.

This kept everyone but Lulu out, as she never waited by his door. Whenever she came to visit, she would kick the door open and waltz in.

It had been a week since Mia and Baiyi were sent back in time.

No cataclysmic events had occurred at Aegir even though Baiyi had been near a festival. Everything was tranquil and peaceful. The Imperial Army did not pass by the town, as they had changed their route early on.

Mia, whose eyes now resembled that of a sad puppy, stood in front of Baiyi with her hands clasped together as she pleaded. In her laps were a pitifully small number of copper coins, which was not enough to buy a meal with. It seemed all their money had been spent.

In truth, they were only out of ancient Rohlserlians coins. In the past week, Mia spent all the coins that Nick, the former owner of the house, had stashed in his cottage. It was apparent that the stonemason’s modest earnings were not enough for a spendthrift.

Mia looked grim. ” Now what are we going to do?”

“Oh, please. Have I ever made you worry about money?” Baiyi replied nonchalantly as he fished out a small bag of gold coins used in modern-day Isythre.

With a flame spell, Baiyi melted the coins into liquid gold, and then he remolded them into the coins used in ancient Rohlserlia. Minutes later, a pile of new gold coins was in Mia’s possession. The coins were still very warm.

“Oh my gosh! Mr. Ho — I mean, Dad, you’re just awesome!” Mia grinned so hard that her eyes became fine lines. Suddenly, the smile disappeared from her face as a thought sprung up in her mind, prompting her to ask worriedly, “Isn’t this a crime? If anyone found out…”

Forging money was a crime that attracted capital punishment, even in the ancient Rohlserlian Empire.

“Excuse me; are you doubting my expertise?” Baiyi pinched Mia’s cheeks in feigned indignation, after which he produced a gold coin from his storage pouch. This gold coin was rusty and ancient. The coin was a much older version of the coins Baiyi had just made.

Baiyi had found this antique coin on his expedition to find the Archmage’s Book of Servitude. After careful scrubbing and cleaning, he had added the coin to his collection. It was a real Ancient Rohlserlian coin that had survived the test of time.

“Come. You compare them,” Baiyi said, handing the antique coin over to her.

“Wow! It’s an exact replica!” Mia exclaimed as she examined the new coins, which were in one hand, and the antique coin, which was in her other hand. “Has your skill with magic reached such a level already, Dad? You can even make replicas of coins without the use of a model!”

“What else did you expect?” Baiyi snorted as he stuffed the antique coin back into his pouch. “So really, go ahead and use them; I honestly doubt anyone will be able to tell the difference. Even if they did, I still don’t think we’ve done anything wrong; after all, the coins are made from real gold. I can remake them  into gold blocks, but that would be so inconvenient. This is why I opted to turn the gold into coins, instead.”

“Hee hee! You’re the world’s best dad ever! ” Mia chuckled sweetly.

She stood on her tiptoes and planted a light kiss on Baiyi’s mask, after which she stuffed the coins into her pouch. Afterward, Mia bolted out of the house, and Baiyi could hear her holler, “Lulu! Let’s go! Today, I’m gonna buy you the best food in town!”

Baiyi shook his head helplessly. If that was what his daughter wanted to do with her money, there was little he could do to stop her.

With her new best friend’s hand in hers, Mia raced towards the town center, and soon, they reached a confectionary stall up north. Mia wasted no time buying an expensive cake that Lulu had longed for, for a long time.

After the purchase, the girls found a wide, lush-green field outside of town. With their backs to each other, they divided the cake in half and ate, savoring the flavor of the most delicious cake in Aegir.

“Thank you, Mia,” Lulu said, breaking the serene silence. “I can’t believe you bought me something as expensive as this.”

“Hmm? It’s nothing at all. Besides, if you ask me, I don’t think it was expensive,” Mia giggled as she licked her cream-coated fingers.

“Nothing at all?!” Lulu exclaimed. “It costs a silver coin! That’s something — a lot of something! Unless… Is your father secretly wealthy?”

“I dunno. Maybe he counts, I guess?” Mia mumbled. In her head, however, she added, ‘You ain’t seen nothing yet. Just wait till you see how rich my Royal Gramps is…’

After washing down the cake with a glass of fresh orange juice, the girls plopped down onto the field beside each other, wearing identical expressions of content. With their shoulders touching, both girls watched the clouds traverse the tranquil blue sky.

After a while, Lulu shifted her attention to the girl beside her. She studied Mia’s perfectly chiseled face and sheepishly said, “Mia, I don’t know why, but I just feel…close to you. Whenever I see you, I feel like I’m looking at my long-lost twin sister.”

Mia was startled, and she turned her head to gaze into Lulu’s eyes. Her expression softened, and she softly replied, “I could say the same, Lulu…”

Lulu reached out and gently took Mia’s hand. “I’m so blessed to have met you.”

“Me too, Lulu. Me too. ”

Mia had completely forgotten about Baiyi’s warning of a butterfly effect. At that moment, all she could think of was how her feelings mirrored that of the kind and innocent girl beside her.

Baiyi had no idea that Mia was currently disobeying him. Even if he did, he would still be preoccupied with the troublesome situation that had occurred back home.

Kneeling in front of him was an elderly couple, who were crying their eyes out as they pleaded for his help. Their youngest son had not returned home from his hunting trip, and this made the elderly couple miserable. Their other sons had all died in service to the empire, and the youngest son was all they had left. The elderly couple had asked everyone else for help. A search-and-rescue team was even formed to find the youngest son, to no avail.

When the desperate couple spotted an excited Mia dragging Lulu across town, they remembered that a sorcerer’s apprentice had just moved to their town. Although Baiyi was supposed to be a lowly apprentice, he still wielded magic, which made him more powerful than commoners like themselves.

The elderly couple were not the only visitors that had come seeking Baiyi’s help. In fact, the cottage was surrounded by some people from town, and they all had expressions of desperation. They were so desperate that they were not scared of the strange-looking stranger, who was only a suit of armor — unsettling armor, to be precise.

A war had broken out in Baiyi’s mind. He knew that the best course of action was to ignore them all. Although rejecting them was cruel, he would not be dragged into troublesome situations and risk triggering the dreaded butterfly effect. If he did look for the missing son today, then tomorrow he may be asked to look for a daughter that eloped with a man. The day after tomorrow, he may be asked to look for someone’s lost kitten that was stuck in a tree!

However, Baiyi could not bring himself to reject the elderly couple, as they were sobbing and heaving in front of him. They were just so devastated.

Hence, through gritted teeth, he finally grunted, “Tell me where he was last seen, and describe his appearance.”

A few minutes later, Baiyi found himself alone in the woods north of Aegir.

The war in his mind had not ceased despite making his decision. Why had he accepted their request? He had been so close to rejecting them! He had wanted to reject them.

‘So why did I say yes?’