"They really are Gold Keys of the Zodiac!!"
"And there are two of them!!"
"I must be dreaming..."
Inside the Vice-Principal's office, Layla stared at the two golden keys resting on the desk. Her face was flushed with excitement, and her heart pounded against her ribs. For a Celestial Wizard like her, a Gold Key was something one usually sought for a lifetime but rarely found.
Now, she had simply followed the main group out for a "newbie mission" and ended up with such a massive reward. This kind of thing... even in a fantasy novel, no author would dare write it like this!
The Heartfilia family had been connected to Celestial Spirits for centuries, so Layla came from a long line of practitioners. From a young age, under the tutelage of her elders, she had committed every stellar chart rune to memory. The moment Chris brought out the two golden keys, she recognized the constellations they represented.
"The keys for Aquarius and Libra..."
Opposite Layla, Chris sat on the sofa, sipping black tea with a beaming smile. "Those two keys were obtained back when I was in my final year at Fairy Academy, during a field study with my brother and my current sister-in-law."
"Thinking back, we had quite a few interesting adventures..." As she spoke, Chris's face took on a nostalgic glow.
Hearing that the old lady seemed ready to tell a tale from the "Great Old Ones," Layla tightened her resolve. She immediately snapped out of her trance and forced herself to look like a diligent student paying close attention to a lecture.
"When the Vice-Principal was still a student... isn't that decades ago?"
"Indeed! Let me think... it's been nearly 50 years!" Chris set down her teacup. "I'm quite ashamed to admit it, but when we took those keys, we vowed to deliver them into the hands of a trustworthy wizard who could use them properly. As it turns out, we simply forgot."
"Sometimes I'd remember them with great difficulty, but then there were no suitable candidates around, so I kept putting it off. In the blink of an eye, all those years passed."
"50 years..." Layla listened intently, subconsciously repeating the number before suddenly snapping awake. "Eh? Wait! If that's the case, doesn't that mean these keys have been sitting unused for 50 years?!"
"You're right!" Chris nodded and added, "However, I have another seven or eight gold keys at home, all collected by my father when he was young."
"Aside from two of those keys that were loaned out for a decade at one point, the rest have been sitting there unused since then. The oldest one has probably been shelved for over 60 years."
"That's older than me!"
Hiss—
Layla sucked in a breath of cold air. What a waste! A total waste! Fifty or sixty years, that's time enough for two generations to pass!
As a Celestial Wizard, she knew very well that a key wasn't just a magical tool; it was a vital bridge between the Celestial Spirit World and the Human World. Once a key loses its contractor and no one summons the spirit, they can never visit the human realm.
Knowing so many spirits of the Zodiac had been trapped in their world for nearly 60 years... how lonely they must be!
Chris set down her cup and chuckled softly. "You're thinking that those spirits must be very lonely without a contractor, aren't you?"
"Eh?! N-No... how could I think something so rude? Hahaha..." Layla's face turned bright red, her toes curling inside her boots with embarrassment.
How did this old lady know what I was thinking? Does she have Mind-Reading Magic?
"I can't read minds!" Chris said with a hint of teasing. "It's just that most girls your age find it very hard to hide their thoughts!"
Layla realized her mistake, her face showing more sheepishness. "I see. Was it that obvious? How rude of me..."
Chris shook her head. "It wasn't that obvious, actually. It's just that I happened to be a young girl once, too, so I understand a bit about a girl's mindset."
"I... I see..." Layla forced a smile and took a sip of tea to steady her nerves.
I give up! I'm completely outmatched! No wonder she's the Vice-Principal. With that kind of insight, I could train for twenty years and not learn ten percent of it!
"In truth, you don't need to feel lonely for those spirits. The flow of time in the Spirit World is different from the Human World. The ratio is roughly 90 to 1."
"In other words, while 60 years pass for us, only about 8 months have passed in the Spirit World. They rarely get such long vacations; they're probably quite happy about the leisure time!"
Huh? Is that so? Layla knew there was a time difference, but she had never sat down to calculate what it actually meant for the spirits.
"If that's the case, when I used to make a contract to summon a spirit once a week on a specific day, for them it was..."
"It's roughly equivalent to being summoned by you once every two hours."
Layla: "!!!"
I'm so sorry, my Celestial Spirit partners! I used to think you were lazy or putting on airs because of your status and experience... turns out you're all model workers!! I totally misunderstood you!!
Watching the girl's expression shift between regret and shame, Chris found it immensely entertaining.
"As I said, most of the keys at home were passed down by my father, so I don't want to move them without reason. But as for these two keys, I played a part in obtaining them, so I have some control over them."
"However, they still belong to the 'shares' of two other people. Until I get their formal consent, I can't give them to you permanently. Consider it a loan for now."
"Of course, it's the kind of loan that has no expiration date."
A loan with no expiration date was essentially the same as a gift. Layla was overjoyed, but she didn't rush to tuck the keys away. Instead, she kept the conversation going. "The other two people... are they the brother and sister-in-law you mentioned? What kind of legendary figures are they?"
Unless you were directly involved, the younger generation generally didn't know much about the social circles of the older generation. Since Chris said the three of them obtained the keys during their training, Layla guessed they were exceptionally powerful wizards.
"You might not know their names, but you have definitely heard of their titles," Chris said with a chuckle. "My brother is the current guild master of the Magic Council, and my sister-in-law is the Principal of our Academy!"
"!!!"
Layla's pupils shrank instantly, and she nearly choked on her tea.
As expected, the relatives of big shots are also big shots!