Chapter 21: Is it funny that the master was being manipulated?

Chloe’s arrogance soon met its retribution.

Just as Chloe had used a cunning trick to place a Suggestion spell on Rhynes’s maid, Rhynes had preemptively placed a Binding spell on Chloe’s neck.

Now that Rhynes had discovered her beloved daughter was lured away by her apprentice—who specialized in fouling her own nest—she naturally showed no mercy. She activated the Binding spell, which instantly made Chloe, who was hundreds of miles away, squeal in agony.

What a harmonious master-disciple pair.

“Are all the master-disciple relationships in your other world this full of intrigue?” Even Yukina, who was binge-watching the story, couldn’t help but complain.

“Master… I was wrong… I won’t ever dare to do it again…” Chloe, her neck tightly constricted by the collar, writhed on the ground, begging for mercy with a hoarse voice.

However, she was too far away from her master. No matter how loud she screamed for mercy, Rhynes wouldn’t hear a thing.

With no other choice, she placed her hope of rescue on little Charlotte, who was nearby.

“Little Charlotte… please help me dispel this magic… your mother is going to strangle your Master to death…”

“I’m still tightly bound by you. How am I supposed to help you?” little Charlotte said, still tied securely to the tree.

Realizing this, Chloe endured the intense pain, raised her right hand, and pointed it in little Charlotte’s direction. After chanting a few silent incantations, the ropes around little Charlotte’s body instantly fell off.

“Now you can help me…”

“I can… I can help…”

Freed from the ropes, little Charlotte unhurriedly stood up and stretched her limbs.

Looking at Chloe writhing in pain on the ground, little Charlotte felt that this was her just desserts.

She talked about respecting her Master, but she herself had no respect for Mom Rhynes. It was only natural that Mom Rhynes would inflict such divine punishment upon her.

However, it would be troublesome if Master Chloe were to die here.

She still wanted to continue learning magic. If Master Chloe was defeated by Mom Rhynes, she wouldn’t have any chance to learn magic when she got home. She would have to wait until the year of the monkey to learn magic again.

She wanted to learn magic, and Master Chloe wanted to teach her magic. That made them two ants tied to the same rope, a shared community of fate.

Although she really wanted Master Chloe to suffer a little more, for now, she needed to quickly help her dispel the magic.

At this thought, little Charlotte sighed lightly, deciding to help Master Chloe through this predicament.

“So, what do I need to do?”

It seemed the collar had tightened its grip again. Chloe, choked and crying, couldn’t make any sound.

She laboriously raised her right hand, pulled a thick magic book out of her dimensional space, and wrote the number “35” on the ground.

After writing the number, she rolled her eyes and fainted.

“…” Little Charlotte was completely speechless.

Should she say that Mom Rhynes’s Binding magic was too powerful, or that Chloe’s resistance was too pathetic?

In any case, time was running out. She had to save Master Chloe before she completely kicked the bucket.

“Thirty-five, does that mean the method to dispel it is on page thirty-five of this book?”

Little Charlotte picked up the magic book and flipped to page thirty-five, finding that it contained a powerful Explosion magic spell.

If she successfully cast it, the entire forest would be engulfed in flames.

“So that’s it. Master Chloe wants me to cremate her? She’s really considerate!” little Charlotte mumbled to herself in a half-joking manner. “Of course, that’s impossible!”

Little Charlotte changed her approach and reconsidered.

“Perhaps, Master Chloe didn’t mean page thirty-five, but page three hundred and fifty-something? She fainted before she could write the last digit.”

Thinking this, little Charlotte flipped the magic book to page three hundred and fifty.

But then she reconsidered.

“If that’s the case, why couldn’t it be page three thousand five hundred something? This magic book is so thick, it’s possible.”

Little Charlotte tried to flip the magic book to page three thousand five hundred but found that the book ended at page two thousand eight hundred.

Clearly, the page number Chloe wanted her to find couldn’t be the non-existent three thousand five hundred.

So, little Charlotte flipped the magic book back to page three hundred and fifty, checking page by page for a spell that looked like it could dispel magic.

Finally, her gaze fell upon the Reversal Magic on page 357.

It seemed like a spell that could restore a constricting collar to its original state.

There was no time to research its specific effects now. After memorizing the incantation for the Reversal Magic, little Charlotte placed her hand gently on the collar around Chloe’s neck.

With the aid of her chantless casting, she cast the Reversal Magic instantly.

“Release!” With little Charlotte’s soft command, the collar constricting Chloe’s neck split in two on the spot.

Chloe was finally able to breathe the fresh air.

As if suddenly waking from a nightmare, Chloe sat up immediately, panting uncontrollably in shock.

“Hah… Hah… I can finally breathe…”

She immediately pulled little Charlotte into a hug!

“As expected of my disciple! If it weren’t for you, Master might have actually died here!”

“Master! You’re hugging me too tightly! I can’t breathe!”

“This is your reward! Don’t you like hugging your Master?”

“I think you’re the one who wants a hug!”

After resolving the collar crisis, Chloe re-examined her belongings and the surrounding environment, not even sparing a check under little Charlotte’s skirt. Only after confirming that there were no lingering traps left by Rhynes did she finally relax. She then enjoyed the delicious roasted fish with little Charlotte while discussing their plans for the future.

“We are currently in the Truth Forest on the border of the Kingdom of York. If we pass through this forest, we will reach the Kingdom of the Red Rose. There’s a bustling city there called Nigamara, and we’ll stay there for two or three days.”

Chloe spread out a map for little Charlotte, briefly introducing their upcoming itinerary.

However, little Charlotte was not interested in that. She was more concerned about how she was going to learn magic.

No matter what magic she learned, the magic circuits in her body would be activated, and the unbearable pain at night would be unavoidable.

With Mom Rhynes and little sister Shaula not around, even if Master Chloe took out that mysterious little pill, there would be no one to give it to.

“So, Master, how are you going to counteract the side effects of my activated magic circuits? Am I going to have to endure the severe pain and continue learning magic as usual? I’m not some Jonin. I can’t handle that kind of suffering!”

“Of course Master has a way! This is all you need!”

Saying this, Chloe pulled out a palm-sized straw doll from her dimensional space.