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Chapter 44: Knowledge is Money

Translator: winniethepooh, Kris_Liu Editor: Vermillion

Mercury took out a small box, in which there were three Corpse Mushrooms. One was darker than the other two. She asked politely, "You can take them all if you're willing to answer my question, sir."

Corpse Mushroom was required in many magic potions. The average price was about ten Nars. And the darker ones were even more expensive. If they were badly in need, the price could be doubled or even more.

Lucien couldn't resist the offer. He nodded, "All right."

Mercury found the article in the journal titled "A New Element Detected by A New Method" and asked, "My question is about the basic elements… The author defines 'Tai' which is extracted from sunstones as an element in this article, but I thought only earth, fire, wind and water were basic elements…"

Her voice was slightly trembling, as if she knew that the answer to her question would overthrow all of her previous knowledge about Element magic. In fact, the question was related to the important difference between the ancient and the contemporary magic system.

"Well…" After a while, Lucien finally responded, "Honestly speaking, I'm not sure neither. I studied the ancient magic system like all of you. In the past, I often found conflicts between some theories and my own experiment practices, and thus I started putting more thoughts on it. The reason that I'm able to explain those formula is not because I already have a deep understanding of them, but because many of the corresponding questions have been existing in my mind for a long time, and the article just solved them."

It was very suspicious that a sorcerer who claimed himself to have nothing to do with the Continental Congress of Magic could understand all of the formula in the article, but Lucien was too excited to realize the fact when he first read the journal. Now he had to restrain himself a bit.

"That's why I was only explaining the application of the formulas. As for the principles lying behind them, they're also strange to me." Lucien continued. He did not want to take even a slight risk of being suspected, "This article showed the process and the result of an experiment, with only a few formulas. I can only share some of my thoughts roughly toward the theories mentioned in it, but I can be wrong."

"No problem, sir." Mercury answered firmly, and turned to the other apprentices, "And I want to invite all of you here to join our discussion."

This kind of instruction could be very expensive. Without the questioner's permission, others were usually not allowed to listen to it. Important information sometimes would be protected by a special magic called "secret communication" in order to avoid eavesdropping.

"I heard that there has been a longtime discussion between sorcerers and sorceresses on whether the belief of four basic elements of the world is just a myth." Lucien started analyzing, "Many believe that the real elements should be more abstract, and should be more than just four kinds."

The other apprentices nodded thoughtfully. Many of them had the same doubt as well when they were conducting magic experiments.

"I'm not sure what are the real elements instead. But from this article, it seems like they have redefined element and found many new ones through different experiments."

The experiment in this article was an example. The author showed his way to find the new element — By using the 9th circle magic Fire Storm to bombard Sunstone in an enclosed magic circle, the author obtained a beautiful and pure crystal called Tai, which was both more flexible and lighter than Mythril.

Lucien speculated that there was no periodic table of the elements in this world yet. But in this magic world, elements here were probably totally unpredictable.

In order to show the conflict between the ancient element theory and real-life practice, Lucien took a few apprentice element magics for example. After hearing his idea, the rest of the apprentices present were very excited.

"Mr. Professor… I, I believe you're right! Being explained in this way, many of my experiment questions can be easily solved!" Mercury was very grateful, "Thank you so much, Mr. Professor!"

Hanger, who was standing in the corner all the time, also could hardly conceal his excitement, "Mr. Professor, what about spirit? Is it also composed of certain elements? I don't have the materials you need, but you can choose anything you want in my bag."

The other apprentices now held no suspicion of Lucien's identity. They all firmly believed that Lucien was the most knowledgeable sorcerer they had ever met, and were all eagerly hoping that the great sorcerer could share more of his ideas with them.

Disappointingly, Lucien shook his head, "Sorry, I haven't dipped into Necromancy, so I cannot answer your question."

After putting the three Corpse Mushrooms into his pocket and taking Philosopher's suitcase, Lucien asked, "Do you have extra Corpse Mushroom or Revenant Dust? I want to buy more, or you can ask more questions."

The brain tissue of the aquatic zombie was enough for about seven to eight experiments, and each of them would consume one Corpse Mushroom. Lucien hoped that he could collect the materials as much as possible.

"Since the church has been keeping an eye on us for a long time and it's too risky to cultivate the mushroom by ourselves, Corpse Mushroom is very rare these days. Except Mercury, I don't think other apprentices here would be able to offer you more, Mr. Professor." Philosopher answered respectfully. He seemed like the leader of the group.

Like White Honey, Philosopher was a member of another two sorcerer groups. But the other sorcerers and sorceresses he had met were all very arrogant. They would only help the other group members who could offer something they really want, or give instructions to their own apprentices. Therefore, he was very grateful for Lucien's help.

"Compared with Corpse Mushroom, Revenant Dust is even harder to find." White Honey added, "The formation of revenant requires strong grievance and resentment gathering in a certain way. Although using the blood of some evil creatures can summon revenants, the blood is even more precious than the dust itself; after all, this is Aalto."

Lucien was kind of disappointed, but he quickly moved on. Later he answered more questions raised by the other group members and got more materials and magic reagents in return. Lucien's knowledge earned great respect for him among the apprentices.

Besides respect, Lucien also earned a whole set of magic labware, three Corpse Mushroom, many other magic materials and reagents. Just like the saying goes, "Knowledge is Money".

Chapter 45: Lucien's Magic Lab

Translator: winniethepooh, Kris_Liu Editor: Vermillion

When Lucien had found most of the materials that he needed, it was time for him to call it a day. "I gotta go now," said Lucien in his pretended harsh voice, "We can continue over the next meeting." He also had to go back and review his physics and chemistry knowledge in order to explain more questions in better ways for the group members.

To show their thankfulness, all of the apprentices stood up, laying their right hands on their foreheads, and bowed low to Lucien.

"Mr. Professor, can we have the honor to keep you staying a bit longer? Each of us is going to share our recent thoughts by presenting them to the others later. It would be our great pleasure to have you here." Philosopher hopefully asked.

The discussion part was open to anyone. All of the apprentices present were hoping Lucien would possible make comments on their ideas. Even some random words from such a knowledgeable sorcerer could benefit them a great deal.

For Lucien, the invitation was an extra surprise tonight. Although Lucien could understand many advanced formula based on his previous knowledge, he, on the contrary, was having a hard time analyzing some of the apprentice spells. Concealing his excitement, Lucien was trying to make himself sound as calm as possible, "All right."

"Thank you, Professor." White Honey first showed her appreciation.

It was a productive discussion, from which Lucien also gained a lot from the other group members. Many of his questions related to apprentice magics were solved and his knowledge gap was filled. At the same time, the other apprentices were also every encouraged to see that Mr. Professor was actually paying attention to their discussion.

In the early morning, after exchanging some more information, the meeting was drawing to a close. Lucien was stopped by Philosopher when he was about to leave.

"Mr. Professor," asked Philosopher hopefully, "do you mind leaving your contact information to me? So if we can find any Revenant Dust, we can contact you immediately."

However, Lucien shook his head, "Sorry, I'd rather not. Owl knows how to contact me." Cautious as Lucien was, he would never trust anyone easily.

"Well…" Philosopher nodded disappointingly, "Will you attend our next meeting two weeks from now?" The other apprentices present were also waiting for Lucien's answer eagerly.

"I don't know yet," Lucien's attitude was ambiguous, since he did not want his attendance to be regular, "I might be in Melzer Black Forest at that time, preparing some experiments. Anyway, I'll let Owl know in advance." But Lucien's vague answer was good enough for the members. At least this great sorcerer didn't refuse them directly.

After Smile made sure that it was safe outside, Lucien and other apprentices left the basement in succession. Having the suitcase in his hand, and some new magic materials in his pockets, Lucien walked home with no companion. On his way home, Lucien spread his spiritual power which covered a certain range to detect if there was anyone following him. And all he found was a raven.

He didn't feel even slightly relieved until he was finally back in his shack.

......

One week later, using the magic which could turn stone into soil and mud, Lucien successfully dug a pit very close to his place. The three meters long, two-and-a-half meters wide pit connected to his shack with a small stone stairway was Lucien's new and also his first magic lab. Standing on a small stool, Lucien was carving lines on the wall with a silver dagger which came from the labware set. He was creating a magic circle in order to block energy waves caused by spell casting or magic experiments.

In addition to that, Lucien cast some more magic circles to protect the lab. Using "Echo Elimination", no one would notice that there was a basement under there by simply stamping on the floor. Other magic circles were used for placing magic traps which could be triggered when necessary.

After the carving work was done, Lucien pulled out a small bag of black powder. The powder was made from Black Curving Vine and it could quickly stick to almost everything. Carefully picking it out with the dagger, Lucien colored these lines with the black powder, and then he poured mercury on them little by little. Amazingly, the mercury did not drip at all, instead, it was instantly absorbed by the power. Now the outline of the magic circle was very distinct.

Pressing his palm in the centre of the pattern, Lucien spread out his spiritual power and activated the magic circle. The silver lines were lit bit by bit. After a burst of silver light, the magic circle completely disappeared in the wall as if nothing ever existed there at all.

Lucien stepped down from the stool, feeling exhausted. Building a magic circle could be very tiring. The more troublesome part was that, ten days later, it had to be replaced with a new one when the power of the circle was gone. For real sorcerers or sorceresses, they could maintain their magic circle using their own spiritual power, or building much more complicated ones which could recover the power automatically by themselves. Some parts of magic creatures, like their fur, horn or blood, could also do the job.

Then it was the last step. Casting the spell in an opposite way, Lucien built a long stone table from the soil. Placing all the glasswares and small stoves on the table, Lucien was more than happy and satisfied.

The lab was ready. From now on, Lucien finally had his own place to practice spells and conduct experiments. Obviously, this basement, although not very spacious, was much better than the cold, stinky sewers.

Standing on the stairs, Lucien nodded with great satisfaction. Then Lucien went back to his place upstairs and locked the entrance with magic after making sure the magic trap circle was also in position.

It was already in the early morning. As soon as Lucien's head hit the pillow, he fell asleep. He had to go to work in the library a few hours later.

......

"Like I said…" Pierre stared at Lucien with concern, "You gotta control yourself a bit."

"I just didn't sleep well last night." Lucien shook his head slowly.

"By the way, what musical instrument are you learning, Lucien?" Pierre suddenly switched the topic.

Chapter 46: Silvia

Translator: winniethepooh, Kris_Liu Editor: Vermillion

"Piano," Lucien answered, "Mr. Victor has improved his harpsichord and renamed it 'piano'. Soon he will register the new musical instrument in the association."

While Lucien had made some progress in learning magic, he never slacked off in studying music. After all, he needed a decent job to make a living, and more importantly, to disguise his identity. Being a musician would be ideal enough. After all, no one would easily suspect an elegant and young musician to be an evil and notorious sorcerer.

"Harpsichord… Piano…" Pierre repeated thoughtfully. Suddenly he became excited and dashed into the bookshelves. A moment later, Pierre came back with a book in his hand, "You're gonna need the book! I gained a lot from it! By the way, did I ever tell you that in four months I'll take the qualification test of the association? If I can pass it, I'll finally be a qualified musician!"

Like other associations, the Musicians' Association also practised monopoly. The evaluation of musician was completely controlled by it.

"No, you never mentioned it," Lucien took over the book titled The Art of Harpsichord Performance, "but I believe you can do it, Pierre," said Lucien sincerely.

In the next hour, Pierre did not give Lucien any time to study the book. Since he knew that Lucien was also a music student, Pierre tried to seize every chance to share his thought on music with his buddy.

However, today was definitely not a good time for discussion since Lucien was too sleepy to follow Pierre. His eyelids were so heavy that he could barely keep his eyes open. Lucien did try to stop Pierre many times, but Pierre never let him have a chance to cut in.

Fortunately, at this time, a lady wearing a long white dress and a black pillbox hat walked into the library. She was a very elegant lady, her waist was slender and her legs rangy, as if she just walked out of a fine picture.

Lucien also noticed her long white stockings, which made the lady's legs looked even sexier. However, that was not Lucien's focus. Instead, he was thinking about where that rayon-like material came from. Probably it was a byproduct of alchemy?

"Good morning, Ms. Silvia," suddenly switching his attitude, Pierre greeted the lady politely and slightly nudged Lucien, "Anything I can do for you today?"

Lucien then realized she was the Silvia that Pierre was talking about all the time. Her long black hair was like silk, shiny and soft. Under her small lovely nose, there were cherry-like lips. For sure, she was very beautiful and graceful.

"Morning Pierre, I need to borrow several books. They are…" said Silvia with a sweet smile on her face. She had got used to people's special attention, so Lucien's long stare didn't bother her.

Pierre's face instantly flushed with excitement, since he never expected that Silvia would remember his name. He nodded several times and dashed into the shelves again to get the books for his goddess.

Lucien stayed behind the counter. A sweet and familiar fragrance slipped into his nose. Not until a few seconds later did Lucien realize that the smell was very similar to that of the black veil he found in the dump site, the expensive cloth called Black Nightingale.

But Lucien couldn't make sure, and there was also no need for him to figure out whether Ms. Silvia was the veil's owner or not. After all, the smell was still slightly different.

Out of nervousness and excitement, the more Pierre wanted to impress Ms. Silvia, the more clumsy he was. After a few minutes, he started feeling embarrassed.

"You need my help there?" Lucien turned around and asked. Then Lucien walked directly toward a bookshelf and pulled out one of the books Ms. Silvia was looking for in front of Pierre's face. Of course, it was not because of Lucien's good memory, but his amazing spirit library, which could even store the arrangement of the whole library.

"Lucien!" Pierre's mouth dropped open, "When did you become so familiar with the place?!"

With a pile of books in his arms, Lucien came to Silvia and asked politely, "Ma'am, do you want me to take these books to the reading room?"

Of course, Lucien couldn't claim that he had no man's thoughts when he was looking at such a beautiful woman like Silvia. But Lucien knew that a romantic relationship was too luxury and impractical to be put in his future plans for now. Therefore, Lucien's indifferent attitude contrasted sharply with Pierre's nervousness.

"Just leave them on the table, please. Someone else will get them later." Silvia's voice was husky and sexy, "What's your name? I never saw you before."

"My name's Lucien Evans. I'm new here." answered Lucien slowly. Then he added, "I'm Mr. Victor's student."

"I see." Silvia smiled sweetly, "No wonder… I heard that Mr. Victor had successfully improved harpsichord and named it 'piano'. Please tell him that I'm really looking forward to his concert, Lucien."

The quick change of Lucien's attitude was a bit strange for Silvia. When she just walked in the library, Lucien was staring at her legs like a pervert, while now it seemed that Lucien was not interested in women at all.

After Lucien finished registering the borrowed books, Silvia thanked them and left the library. Lucien noticed that there was a lady wearing a black pillbox hat waiting for Ms. Silvia. Standing there straightly like a spear, the slim lady was taller than Lucien by about half a head. Behind the lady stood a beautiful young maid and an elegant middle-aged woman.

Noticing that someone was looking at them, the poker-faced, middle-aged woman instantly threw Lucien a cold eye. At that moment, Lucien felt he was suddenly thrown off a cliff and all the colors of the world faded. As if the woman had a rough ocean in her eyes, Lucien couldn't stop trembling in front of the huge waves of the ocean.

Lucien lost his ability of thinking. He didn't fully recover until he could only see the woman's back. The woman and the slim lady changed a few words and the latter looked back at Lucien with some amusement in her eyes. But Lucien could also feel the great pressure in it and her authoritative aura.

"Who are they…?" Lucien was astonished. He had never met someone like them before in this world, especially the middle-aged woman. It felt like her gaze could easily disarm Lucien completely.

Pierre came close to Lucien and made a long sigh, "Silvia, she's my goddess. I know… I was not very impressive though." Then he nudged Lucien, "But buddy, you can't just stare at Ms. Silvia's legs like that. That's… too much."

But Lucien paid no attention to what Pierre just said.

"…Wait, why do you look even paler now, Lucien?" Pierre asked, surprised.

Chapter 47: Victor's Trouble

Translator: winniethepooh, Kris_Liu Editor: Vermillion

Weakly, Lucien asked in a trembling voice, "Pi… Pierre… Do you know who the other three madams are?" Lucien found himself only being able to recall the eyes of the last young lady, of her dangerous, blue eyes.

"Nop, but I could imagine what happened." Pierre shrugged his shoulders, "Ms. Silvia has many noble lady friends, and some of them are knights who have awakened the Blessing. Well… you were staring at her legs so impolitely, so one of her friends probably just gave you a lesson using her knight power."

"I see… I wonder if the younger lady was Princess Natasha. Her power was so overwhelming. Except Princess Natasha, I don't think there's another female knight in Aalto who has such power. And the middle-aged woman standing beside her might be her guard…" Lucien said to Pierre thoughtfully.

"No matter who they are, my friend, the noble ladies have nothing to do with you, and never will." Pierre patted Lucien on his shoulder, "Noble ladies would never waste a second on common folks like us."

Although everyone was endowed with the Blessing, offsprings of nobles always had a better chance of awakening the power. Therefore, nobles would never marry common people but only nobles in order to keep their blood pure.

"Ms. Silvia is my goddess but is too far away from me. All we can rely on is music, buddy," said Pierre earnestly, although he was the one who flushed his face just now.

In the following several hours, Lucien was being tortured by his sleepiness. At noon, Lucien refused Pierre's invitation of having lunch together and was going back home to get some rest.

When Lucien was walking downstairs, he saw Elena was talking joyfully with a tall and young man who had shining blonde hair and a very well-featured, pretty face. From his fancy clothes, Lucien could tell the man was a noble.

Soon the man bid farewell to Elena and walked upstairs, passing by Lucien. He was really a very good-looking man.

Lucien came downstairs and talked to Elena half jokingly, "You have feelings for him?"

"Come on, Lucien… You're my friend, and you can't tell that was fake smile on my face?" Gently rubbing her face, Elena answered in a low voice, "He's Mekanzi Griffith, the second-in-line of the Griffith Family, Director Othello's student, and also, the no.1 playboy in our association."

"The Griffith Family?" Lucien heard the name before.

"Yes, Griffith." Elena nodded, "If I'm not mistaken, you know Lott, right? Mekanzi is his elder cousin. He's very good at playing harpsichord and violin."

"I see… but why you don't like him? And why were you still pretending?" asked Lucien.

"Well… I know I shouldn't talk like this about a noble, but he's a bastard. As a notorious playboy, Mekanzi is known for his misbehavior. He especially enjoys conquering women who do not have interest in him, who treat him coldly. It is said that once there was a girl from a common family who refused Mekanzi a few times, in the end he, he…" Elena pursed her lips with strong disgust.

"Be careful, Elena." He said with concern, "But in a couple of years, you'll be married, I guess."

"Get married…" Elena slightly sighed and her eyes looked sad, "After seeing so many elegant musicians and gentlemen in the association, now it's impossible for me to marry an ordinary guy."

What Elena said was true. Once a person had enjoyed many delicacies, plain bread and water became hard to swallow.

"Then what's your plan, Elena?" As a friend, Lucien did care about her.

"Well… probably to be a mistress of a noble or famous musician…" Elena laughed when she saw Lucien's astonished face, "I'm just joking! I've saved some money and I'm gonna learn music like you, Lucien!"

"Wow, that's really cool, Elena." Lucien was impressed. An independent and hard-working girl was always impressive.

"I know! Ms. Silvia is my idol. I wish someday I could also be an elegant and beautiful female music master like her. For such a music goddess, nobody would say that staying single in her age is a big deal, because she doesn't need a man at all — she has the world of music! Although I know many musicians in our association have a crush on her… well, Mr. Victor is not included."

Mr. Victor's wife had passed away almost ten years ago. Since then Victor remained single and put all his passion into music. Everyone in the association knew that, including Lucien.

"So are you gonna be Ms. Silvia's student?" asked Lucien.

"I'll try, but Ms. Silvia rarely looks for new students." Elena nodded. Her green eyes were filled with happiness and excitement, "Or I can be your student, Lucien, when you become a good musician!" she smiled.

"It will be my pleasure." Lucien also laughed.

......

With plenty of magic materials, Lucien didn't attend the apprentice meeting for the following several times. He had copied the journal Arcana in his spirit library before he buried it at the foot of the wall to let Smile take it back.

From the marks left by Smile, Lucien could tell they were pretty disappointed and were still looking forward to his presence. But Lucien did not want to rush — he still needed a few more weeks to fully absorb the knowledge that he gained from both the journal and the last meeting.

...

Time went by. When Lucien was able to cast nine apprentice-level spells consecutively at a time and was very close to moving to the next level, intermediate apprentice, there was only one month left before Mr. Victor's concert was held in the Psalm Hall.

Being uninspired, this musician again became anxious and fretful. The tune of the fourth and also the last symphony just wouldn't come in Victor's mind. Soon he got too stressed to teach so many students, so he had no choice but to suspend the class for those non-music students for a whole month.

But his unusual testiness was still very obvious in the music students' eyes.

"Bang!"

Something that sounded like an ink bottle fell on the floor and all of the students downstairs raised their heads. It was not the first time that day.

"Well… we gotta do something. Breaking stuff definitely can't help with getting inspiration." Lott shrugged his shoulders.

Chapter 48: In the Hall

Translator: winniethepooh, Kris_Liu Editor: Vermillion

Since the success and reputation of a teacher was also directly related to the students, Lott and Felicia were also quite worried.

"Do something?" Felicia rolled her eyes, "Do what?"

Frowning his eyebrows, Lott answered thoughtfully, "A symphony is a quite long piece of music and usually consists of four parts. For a concert, four symphonies are enough. I don't understand why Mr. Victor insists on creating new symphonies, after all, he got so many good ones he wrote before to choose from."

"Mr. Victor did pick out the best one, and it will be one of the four symphonies." Standing beside, Athy joined their conversation, "But it is also the only ready-made one from the four symphonies. Mr. Victor felt all the others are nowhere close to the best one. In order to present an excellent concert, Mr. Victor has to make sure all the pieces of music are equally impressive."

Rubbing his eyes, Herodotus sighed, "Mr. Victor always want to be perfect. His previous works were actually very popular among many musicians and nobles, or he would never be qualified to give a concert in the Psalm Hall. If we try, probably we can persuade him." He looked at Lott and Felicia, while Lucien, a poor student who could only play the simplest music for now, was subconsciously ignored by him.

"What do you think, Mr. Athy?" asked Felicia. She knew that, among all the people in the sitting room, Athy was the one who knew Mr. Victor the best. After all, Athy had been taking care of Victor for almost thirty years.

"Unfortunately, I don't think so." Slowly, Athy shook his head, "The concert is of great significance for Victor. He wants to fulfill the wish of his late wife, which is to have a perfect performance in the Psalm Hall, thus he won't make any compromise."

"Probably… we can look for some potions that are helpful for him to relax." As an apprentice, Lucien's first idea was seeking the help of potions and drugs.

"No we can't. Those drugs will slow down one's mind and cause the inhibition of inspiration." Athy denied Lucien's proposal seriously.

"But we can't just let Mr. Victor torture himself like this," said Lucien with concern.

"Then what can you do, Lucien? Come up with a new masterpiece for Mr. Victor?" said Herodotus with clear sarcasm. He never liked Lucien, "If you cannot, please shut up."

Lucien didn't feel really offended, instead, what Herodotus just said gave him some new thoughts. Mr. Victor needed his help, Lucien knew.

When they were talking, Victor opened the door and walked downstairs, looking very tired. The students stopped their conversation instantly and looked at him.

Victor's hair was messy, and his eyes red. "I'm going to the association to practice the first three symphonies. All of you come with me to see how the different parts of the orchestra cooperates. "

Although all of them were a bit relieved to see that Victor's mood had returned to normal, they knew the trouble still remained unsolved.

......

On the fifth floor of the association, the orchestra was playing a magnificent symphony. The four parts of the symphony were integrated perfectly and together provided the audiences with a grand acoustic feast.

As soon as the orchestra finished playing the last part, a cold applause came from behind. All the students looked backwards.

It was Wolf.

"Good, very good. It looks like you're ready for the concert, Victor." Holding his chin high, Wolf still looked the same, arrogant and mean. Victor enjoyed a period of peaceful time when Wolf was out of town, and now apparently the happy time was over.

Victor's face instantly darkened since he knew Wolf must have heard something. Before Victor said anything, Wolf asked with a fake smile on his face, "I remember you asked for my advice before I left. Now I'm back, so let me see your work."

"You just heard it." Victor just wanted to cut the conversation short as much as he could.

"No, I mean… all the four symphonies." Wolf lifted his eyebrows.

"Wolf, you…!" Victor was very pissed off. Before his rage took over, two men walked into the hall. One of them was a white-haired old man, wearing a decent black suit and with a black cane in his hand; The other was the good-looking blond that Lucien met a few weeks ago, Mekanzi, who was Lott's elder cousin.

"Director." Putting their argument aside temporarily, both Victor and Wolf slightly bowed to the old man.

Victor's students also bowed following their teacher. It was Lucien's first time meeting Baron Othello, director of the association, who was also Mekanzi's mentor.

In the law among nobles which was constructed over a long time, those noble offsprings who managed to awaken their Blessing in their blood and thus became royal knights were more qualified to inherit their titles, but it was not to say that the rest of them who failed to awaken the blood power could not be the next head of their houses. As a gifted musician, Othello was also the only son of his house, thus he rightly inherited the title of his family and became the Baron.

"Victor, I heard that you're having a hard time with the fourth symphony?" Othello walked to Victor and asked him seriously.

Victor nodded his head, his eyes lowered, "Yes, sir…"

Othello slightly raised the cane in his hand along with his voice, "You must know how important this concert is. You're representing our association to play in front of Grand Duke and the princess, and you gotta make sure nothing will go wrong. Do you understand?"

"I do, sir. I will make sure every piece of work will be really impressive…" answered Victor in a low voice, "…at least I'm trying my best."

Wolf gave Victor a loud snort on the side.

"No, I'm not asking for everything to be that impressive, Victor," nodded Othello, "I'm asking for a safe and smooth performance. I understand your pressure, but you cannot keep delaying like this. You have to hand in all of your music as soon as possible to give the orchestra enough time to practice." Then Othello paused a bit, "Well… let me give you a deadline. By the last week before the concert, I want to see all of your work laying on my office desk. Any problem, Victor?"

Victor shook his head with great effort, "No… sir." He knew that if he still could not come up with the last symphony, someone else in the association would replace him very soon.

"I hope you understand why I'm pushing you." Othello looked less serious now, "I believe you can do it, Victor." The director nodded to show his encouragement and then walked out of the hall.

At this time, Mekanzi approached Lott with a smile on face, "My dear little cousin, I hope you won't have any trouble with the musician qualification test like your teacher is having here. Although I'll be one of the examiners in the next three years and I'm very looking forward to your violin performance, my integrity will never allow me to lower my standard."

"I don't need you to lower your standard." answered Lott, clenching his teeth.

Then Mekanzi turned to Lucien, "You know what? As a pauper, how lucky you are that you may have the chance to be a musician. It's not really wise wasting your time on fooling around with girls instead of practicing your skills."

Lucien was very confused when he just heard Mekanzi's comment, but soon he realized he was talking about Elena. Recently, Elena spent some time with Lucien in order to learn more about music.

Then Mekanzi left and caught up with Othello with a lovely smile on his face. In the family of Griffith, as the second-in-line to inherit the title, Mekanzi always spared no effort to please the house master.

"Oh my… Victor, you're still racking your wits about your last masterpiece?" Pretending that he didn't know the fact before, there was a smile of triumph on Wolf's face, "Enjoy, Victor. Enjoy your first play in the Psalm Hall, cause it may as well be the last."

Before Wolf left, he glanced at Lucien, "Is this your talented pauper student, Victor? Well… wish him good luck with his qualification test in the future. After all, your reputation is directly related to his. What a poor young lad!"

Wolf was amused by his own words. Laughing, he went out of the hall. While Lucien noticed that Victor's face was flushed and the blue veins on his hands stood out.

Chapter 49: Symphony of Destiny

Translator: winniethepooh, Kris_Liu Editor: Vermillion

Victor didn't loosen his fist until the gate of the hall slowly closed. With a long sigh, he turned around and said to Rhine and the rest of the orchestra, "I'm going back to my office to finish my work. Everyone, keep practicing please."

"Mr. Victor, please don't push yourself too much." Rhine put down his violin and walked to Victor. His face looked serious, "I don't think you can come up with a good melody with your current mood."

Victor's mind was being bothered by fatigue, depression and anger at the same time. He nodded, "Thank you, Rhine. I just… need some rest."

"Lucien, Lott, you two accompany Mr. Victor to his office. Felicia and Herodotus, you two keep practicing." Rhine said to the students.

On the way to the third floor, Victor didn't say anything. Neither Lucien nor Lott knew what to do, so they just followed him silently.

Before leaving the office, Lucien noticed that Victor was looking at a lifelike portrait hanging on the wall. On the portrait there was a beautiful young woman with a smile on her face. She had black hair and black eyes.

When Lucien closed the door, Victor was still staring at the portrait like a statue.

......

When Lucien and Lott came back to the practice room on the fourth floor, they saw Felicia and Herodotus were lost in thought.

"Well…" Lott tried to break the silence, "All director Othello asked was to give a smooth concert, Mr. Victor might feel less stressed now." Apparently, his words didn't help.

"Come on… I care about Mr. Victor's performance very much, okay?" Lott hurriedly added, "You all saw my cousin Mekanzi. If Mr. Victor's concert can be a huge success, I can call myself the student of a top musician, which will help me with my qualification test."

Felicia puckered her mouth a bit, "Yes, we are all linked to Mr. Victor. I'm worried about him. If the concert goes wrong, I can't imagine what is waiting for him."

On the other side, Herodotus leaned his forehead against his violin, murmuring.

Lucien got ignored again, but he didn't care at all. He was also busy with thinking. In order to repay Victor's kindness, Lucien was looking for a musical masterpiece from his world as a plan B. Before that, he had gone through all the songs in his spirit library to make sure there was nothing similar to what he was going to choose. The work was actually easier than Lucien thought, since all the songs were stored in Lucien's spirit library and he could easily search them in his storage. Then Lucien had to find a proper way to give the music to Mr. Victor.

Fortunately, Lucien had finished the difficult part – translation. When Lucien was practicing reading music here, he marked many masterpieces from his world with the notes he had learned here.

During this period of time, Lucien had a better understanding toward the music trend in this world. Being affected by the church, music in Aalto featured traditional structure and religious style. Lucien wanted to choose one that fitted the trend. Therefore, Bach came first to his mind since his music also had some religious taste.

However, after comparing Bach's work with many musical masterpieces in this world, Lucien found they were somehow too similar to each other! He was glad that he was cautious enough.

Then Lucien turned to Beethoven. Fortunately, none of Beethoven's work overlapped the music from this world. Lucien didn't want to waste much time on selecting, and thus he soon decided to use one of Beethoven's most well known masterpieces—Symphony No. 5. Lucien still remembered when he first heard it, he was shocked by the great momentum of the symphony.

The most difficult part that Lucien had to think about was how to "give" it to Victor. Lucien couldn't just directly hand Victor a piece of paper with such an excellent music masterpiece on it, telling Victor that he found it in a book in the library. On the other hand, it would be even more suspicious if he claimed that he came up with the melody by himself, since a beginner like him writing a piece of symphony like this would obviously make no sense.

Lucien wished he knew how to do hypnosis, but his current spiritual power was not enough to infuse a whole piece of symphony into Victor's mind.

Finally, he decided to rewrite Symphony No. 5, but instead of revitalizing it, Lucien was going to "degrade" it. Lucien needed to destroy the whole structure of the masterpiece but leave some fragments for Victor. Lucien was hoping that his teacher could get inspired from these fragments.

After writing a small piece of melody down on the paper, Lucien sat down in front of the piano and heavily pressed the keyboard with his hands.

"Dang dang dang dang!"

It was so loud that Herodotus almost fell off his chair. Following the magnificent beginning, the rest part of the melody was like a disaster.

"What the heck are you doing?" Lott asked while frowning his eyebrows.

"I want to help Mr. Victor. What I saw today made me feel depressed but also angry, and this combined emotion just gave me some inspiration. I'm going to write it down." Lucien explained.

"What?" Lott almost laughed, "Are you saying you are writing a symphony?"

"How long have you been learning music? You don't really understand how to play piano yet!" Felicia's voice became higher.

Spreading his hands, Lott replied directly. "No, you're not able to help Mr. Victor, Lucien. I understand your will but you are just a beginner."

"You think everyone can write a symphony just because they have so-called 'inspiration'?!" Herodotus sneered, "What you just played was rubbish. Stop showing off in front of Mr. Victor to please him, you jester!"

"Lucien, please stop." Felicia shook her head with depression, "Can you just stop? Don't make the situation harder."

But Lucien also shook his head firmly, "No. I'm inspired. I can write a good one."

Lott, Felicia and Herodotus were staring at Lucien as if he was a madman.

Chapter 50: Composing

Translator: winniethepooh, Kris_Liu Editor: Vermillion

Lucien kept playing. He could only press the keys one by one since the skills required in this symphony were far beyond his beginner level. Lott, Felicia and Herodotus felt there was a heavy hammer knocking on their heads. Their anxiety and anger were accumulating.

"Enough!" Herodotus and Lott cried out at the same time.

"What?" Lucien turned his head and looked at them innocently, "Mr. Victor asked us to practice. And I am practicing. Then what are you two doing here?"

"Lucien!" Gripping his fists, Herodotus's face flushed with anger. However, he was too short and thin for a fight. Lucien had been practicing fighting for a while and was half a head taller than him. A few seconds later, Herodotus shook his fist in the air, "I don't want to be punished by Mr. Victor for beating you up." Then he turned around and burst out of the practice room.

"Sorry about the noise." Lucien shrugged his shoulder but had no plan to stop. He grabbed his quill again and wrote more music notes down. The melody now only contained small pieces of the masterpiece but most of it were Lucien's stupid creation.

"Are you serious, Lucien?" Lott was looking at the ceiling of the room, rubbing his forehead.

"You wanna have a look?" Lucien was about to shove his piece of paper into Lott's hand but the latter directly rejected.

Lott looked at Felicia, "Let's go. Staying here for one more second will drive me crazy."

She nodded, "You're right. I need some fresh air…"

Finally, as he wished, Lucien was left alone in the practice room. After locking the door, Lucien went back to work. He started adding more pieces from Symphony No. 5 into the melody, hoping that he could come up with a degraded version of Symphony No. 5 with lots of imperfection, and thus Victor could improve it to restore it to a real symphony masterpiece.

In order to show the progress, Lucien had to provide many drafts. Also, Lucien needed to practice lots of times to make sure his poor playing wouldn't completely ruined the music, at least he had to show some of the value of the music in front of his teacher.

In the following several hours, the drafts of many versions piled up on the desk and the pile was growing taller and taller. Playing many parts of the music over and over again, Lucien was sweating all over.

......

When the sky became darker, Lucien stretched himself a bit and then left the practice room with a thick stack of paper in his hand.

Lott, Felicia and Herodotus were sitting in the hall, watching Mr. Victor conducting the orchestra. When Lucien came in, they rolled their eyes simultaneously with antipathy. However, Lucien in turn gave them a big smile. Felicia shook her head with a long sigh.

Sitting in the soft audience seat, Lucien closed his eyes and continued thinking about his work. Half an hour later, the rehearsal finished. Victor and Rhine came down from the stage and walked in front of them. Mr. Victor now looked much better.

"How was the practice this afternoon, everyone? Any problems?" asked Victor.

"Lucien is the biggest problem, Mr. Victor!" Herodotus answered instantly, "He… he was writing a symphony! A beginner! The noise was so horrible that all of us left the practice room in the end!"

Rejoicing in secret, Lucien almost couldn't hold his smile back anymore. He had to thank Herodotus for letting Mr. Victor know what he was doing.

"Is that true, Lucien?" Victor looked at Lucien with great surprise, "You're composing a symphony?"

Slightly raising one of his silver eyebrows, Rhine was looking at Lucien with great interest.

Lucien nodded seriously, "What I saw today and what I've experienced before brought me some inspiration, so I wanted to write it down."

Gentle and kind as Victor, he didn't immediately scold Lucien for being to arrogant. Instead, he asked his student, "Can I have a look at it?"

"Me, too." Rhine cut in with great curiosity, "If you don't mind, Lucien."

"No problem." Lucien handed Victor the whole stack of paper.

When Rhine was reading Lucien's work, his thin lips closed tightly as if he was going to burst into laughter at any time. While Victor looked pretty serious.

"Lucien," Victor gave the drafts back to him, "I know you're doing this for me and I appreciate your effort. But Lucien, writing a symphony requires much more solid knowledge foundation than you thought. As a beginner, I suggest you start from the most basic theories for at least a few years before you actually write anything."

Victor was gratified to see his student was trying to help him, at least the intention was good. Furthermore, the rest of the students just realized why Lucien did all of these. They suddenly felt Lucien was even more crafty and sophisticated than they thought.

"Well… although your work is still very… say, immature, there are a few highlights in it." Rhine was trying to comfort Lucien, "For example, this part." The exactly few bars that Rhine was pointing at came from Symphony No. 5.

"Thank you, Mr. Rhine." Lucien nodded to him with appreciation, then he turned to Victor, "Mr. Victor, I know you do not agree with what I'm doing, but I still want to finish it. No matter if it turns out to be good or bad, or even horrible, it is the first piece of music work in my life."

Similar situations had happened more than once before. Victor knew how stubborn Lucien could be, and at the same time, Victor was very tired with his own concert stuff. Finally, he made a compromise, "Don't let it affect your daily practice."

......

After having Victor's permission, Lucien started working on his composing task almost every day. Adding more and more parts of Symphony No. 5 into his work, Lucien's gradual progress was hidden in the disturbing noise.

In these days, Lott, Felicia and Herodotus were avoiding him as much as possible, while Mr. Victor was trapped in his office working on his last symphony. No one paid attention to Lucien.

By the last week before the concert, after countless times of practice, Lucien was able to completely play his version of Symphony No. 5, although it was not exactly the same as and was much easier than the original masterpiece.

Chapter 51: The New Message

Translator: winniethepooh, Kris_Liu Editor: Vermillion

After pressing the last key, Lucien slowly removed his hands from the keyboard. A feeling of accomplishment rose in his mind. Through the three weeks of diligent practice, now Lucien could play the masterpiece relatively fluently with some simple skills. Of course, it was not perfect, but Lucien believed that Mr. Victor could easily tell its value.

"Lucien… you…" Felicia was standing beside the door with her hand on the doorknob, looking very confused but also surprised.

"Felicia, sorry, I didn't notice you were here." Lucien stood up and pushed the piano stool under the keyboard, "What did you say?"

"The song you played… was quite impressive. You've… made great progress." Felicia looked away. She was not used to making compliments, especially to Lucien.

"Thank you, Felicia." Grabbing his music sheets, Lucien walked to Felicia, "I gotta go now. It looks like a storm is coming."

In the Month of Harvest (September), there was always a downpour every few days. The weather today was very muggy, and the sky was much darker than usual.

"Yes… Sure. See you tomorrow, Lucien." Felicia was kind of distracted.

When Lucien came downstairs, he saw Athy asking the servants to do cleaning there. Lucien walked toward him asked, "Mr. Athy, did you see Mr. Victor? I have something to tell him."

"Mr. Victor just left for the cemetery. I'm afraid he might not be able to come back until late." Athy was always polite and serious, "Would you like to leave a message?"

"It's alright. I'm not in a hurry. Thank you, Athy." Lucien waved his hands. He could talk to Victor in person the next day. Tonight he had some magic experiments to carry out, which were his priority.

In the last few weeks, Lucien managed to read the journal, Arcana, many times. With the help of the literature stored in his spirit library, his basic knowledge foundation grew more solid. Combining that with what he had learned about vibrational frequency, Lucien improved the spell "Homan Oscillation" and created two new apprentice-level spells.

For most apprentices, the development of their spiritual power often was much faster than the accumulation of their knowledge. Lucien, on the other hand, was facing a totally opposite situation due to his background. His spiritual power was still insufficient for casting ten apprentice spells consecutively at a time.

......

In the early evening, on his way to auntie Alisa's place, Lucien noticed that there was a new secret message on the wall.

"We have news about the evil creatures. Tonight. Ten o'clock. The same place," said the secret message.

Lucien kept walking as though he saw nothing. In his mind, he was guessing the intention of this message. He never attended the meeting after his first appearance, so it seemed they were using the information to lure him.

Another reason that Lucien was this cautious was the raven he saw last time on his way back home from the apprentice meeting. When Lucien first encountered the raven, he didn't put any thought into it, since there were countless ravens in Aalto. However, afterwards he recalled what he had read in the notes – raven was the most common summoned pet. The more he thought about it, the more concerned he felt. Now Lucien couldn't help worrying that the message might be a trap, in case it would probably have been set by the raven's master.

However, the attraction exerted by the information was irresistible. Lucien always yearned for the Crying Soul potion, which could reveal the power hidden in a developed body. He had been looking for the ingredients for quite a long time. Now, he already had the Corpse Mushroom and the brain tissue of the Aquatic Zombie, so Lucien wanted to get Revenant Dust and Moonlight Rose as soon as possible. Except for using the blood of a revenant to summon another, Lucien couldn't come up with a second way to get any revenant dust in Aalto, especially under the watch of the church.

Chewing his bread, Lucien was thinking carefully, struggling between his feeling of insecurity and his desire. Finally, Lucien decided to accept the invitation. However, before going there, he needed to be prepared.

......

Nighttime, in Lucien's lab.

On the magic circle carved on the stone table, a cup-sized black container was being heated over the blue fire, in which a certain kind of thick red liquid was boiling.

Lucien's face looked very serious. He was stirring the liquid in the container with a long ceramic stick. In his right hand, there was a test tube with some black liquid in it. Pouring it into the container, Lucien slowly mixed them up.

Every drop of the black liquid brought a gauze of white mist. As if it was alive, the red liquid kept shrinking fiercely and became thicker and thicker, like gel. Lucien knew that a tiny mistake would cause a devastating explosion. He must keep concentrating.

Mixing all the black liquid with the red one, Lucien pressed his right hand on the circle and use his spiritual power to change the way the circle worked. Many red thin lines emerged and covered the container. Meanwhile, Lucien started casting. A white beam of cold light showed up between his fingers and flashed into the container.

Heat met cold, but the magic red lines prevented the gel from exploding, and it slowly became more stable.

When the white mist around it slowly disappeared, only a small amount of flame-colored gel was left in the black container. Lucien carefully put the very thick gel into a glass tube and sealed it, which was the last step required to make the Flame Gel.

Lucien found the making process in the witch's notes. According to her description, he guessed the Flame Gel should be as powerful as napalm.

In order to improve its power, Lucien was about to add some nitroglycerin into the formula, but in the end he decided not to, because he didn't want to turn his new lab into a heap of ruins for being too hasty.

In a box in the corner of his lab, there were seven tubes, each of them containing different potions. Two of them were Flame Gel, two other were Storm, which was used for fast healing and boosting energy, and the last three were Brown Owl, which could accelerate the speed of spiritual power recovery.

Lucien put all seven glass tubes, along with the Flame Gel he had just made, into the small pockets of his black robe. They were made specially for safely carrying different potions and magic reagents.

Then, he opened his own notes lying on the table, in which he wrote down the structures and the principles of the two new apprentice spells that he had created. Based on his knowledge of vibration and frequency and after hundreds of tests, Lucien improved the spell Homan Oscillation, and thus he had his own new spells: one called Bat Screaming and the other The Professor's Oscillating Hand.

After closing the notebook, Lucien climbed back to the room and lay down on his bed to have a bit of rest.

Lucien left his shack that night at nine forty.

Chapter 52: Baron Laurent

Translator: winniethepooh, Kris_Liu Editor: Vermillion

The night was hot and suffocating. A storm was coming.

Lucien purposely chose a different way, approaching the abandoned house from beside the tall willow, which took him more than ten minutes. Standing in the shadow, he did not approach the building immediately. Instead, he stayed there for a while and noticed there were three people dressed in black robes standing in front of the abandoned house.

From their figures, Lucien could tell one was Smile and another one was Philosopher. However, Lucien could not recognize the third person. Thus, he did not lower his guard. Grabbing a black, weird-shaped magic reagent in his hand, he silently cast a spell.

The thing in his hand started trembling faster and faster, and ultrasonic waves began to expand outwards in all directions.

That was Bat Screaming, the first spell created by Lucien on his own.

Lucien was inspired by bats using ultrasonic waves to detect objects, like a radar. By reading the witch's notes Lucien became aware that many sorcerers and sorceresses would hide their magic aura, which was brought by their spiritual power, on purpose to avoid being found by their enemies. When Lucien was learning the apprentice spell called Magic Aura Detection, he realized that the apprentice-level detection spell would be ineffective when facing corresponding defensive spells of higher levels.

Thus, Lucien combined Magic Aura Detection with his knowledge of ultrasonic wave and created Bat Screaming, which could even detect objects with no spiritual power or that released no magic Aura.

Of course, Bat Screaming could also fail if a sorcerer or sorceress knew the spell in advance. They would still have other ways to avoid being found. Therefore, choosing proper spells was of great significance in a magic battle.

The ultrasonic waves were like invisible water waves spreading around Lucien. When the waves hit something, they would reflect back to the black reagent in his hand. Lucien kept focusing on the spell and gradually pictured the surroundings, as if he was observing all around him carefully in broad daylight.

"The detection range has a radius of about 100 meters. And it is a three-dimensional detection." Lucien thought to himself, "There's an owl on the tree… yes, it's Doro. Well… there's a raven… the raven."

Lucien recognized the raven that he encountered the other night. This time, Lucien felt the magic power in this pet, but he could tell the raven's master was very cautious as nothing weird happened since he met it the first time. Its master was only watching and waiting for something.

"I should come up with an infrared spell, then I would be able to see the inside of the buildings." A new idea hit Lucien's mind. The black thing Lucien was grabbing was a dried bat pituitary, and after some time it turned into a small pile of ashes and slipped through his fingers. For now, his spiritual power was not enough to cast the spell without using the additional component.

Lucien was still hesitant since he could not make sure who the third person was. At this time, the person started talking in a relatively loud voice, "Mr. Professor, I think you're here but you're still watching. I'm White Honey, Mr. Professor. It was my mentor who found the trace of the evil creature. He respects your profound knowledge and he hopes to meet you."

A moment later, Lucien walked out of the shadow and approached the willow slowly. "Nice to see you again, White Honey, " Lucien nodded to her, "It's my honor winning your mentor's respect, but at the same time, it seems like your mentor doesn't trust me very much."

"Mr. Professor…?" White Honey looked very surprised.

"The raven. You know what I'm talking about." Lucien looked into the darkness.

"You… you found Ashley?!" White Honey looked in the same direction.

"It's impossible…" White Honey wondered, "It's nighttime, and the magic light of the raven has been hidden on purpose. How did he notice Ashley?"

She now felt that the mysterious Mr. Professor was even stranger.

When Lucien looked in that direction, the raven on the branch started to fall to the ground as if it was suddenly struck by lightning. Fortunately, the raven spread its wings in time and swiftly flew away, disappearing in the dark sky.

"You'd better explain this, White Honey." Smile and Philosopher asked in great anger.

White Honey lowered her head and apologized sincerely, "I'm sorry that I didn't tell you about this. And I also brought some gifts to show my sincerity. My mentor… he just wanted to see Mr. Professor. If anything unexpected happened when Mr. Professor was hunting the evil creature, my mentor might be able to help as well through the raven, Ashley. Now Ashley just left."

Smile and Philosopher were aware that in fact there was nothing they could do about what White Honey had done, since they did not know how powerful her mentor was.

"Well… hopefully it will be a lesson to you, White Honey." Smile cleared his throat a bit, "In Aalto, what your mentor just did can easily put him in trouble. Many of us will take your mentor as a spy from the church. I hope he isn't, though."

"I'm terribly sorry, but I assure you he is not, Owl." White Honey apologized again.

Lucien walked in front of them and asked in his pretended harsh voice, "White Honey, now, can I know where the evil creature is?"

"In the old house of Baron Laurent, in the Noble District." White Honey replied, "No one in the last three generations of the house has successfully awaken the Blessing, and thus the status of the house has been declining. Furthermore, there are just few servants still serving the family. The other day, when my mentor's raven flew over the old house, Ashley found it was a bit noisy down there. Out of curiosity, it flew down and found the people in the house were having… a sex party."

"What?" Owl sounded very surprised.

"In fact it was more than just a sex party. My mentor believed that it was an evil ritual. When the people were crazily having sex in the chamber, Baron Laurent was standing in an altar at the center of the place and seemed to be gathering some kind of unknown power. At that time, Ashley noticed the demon's smell in him."

Philosopher was more sophisticated than Smile. He nodded with thoughts, "I'm quite sure Baron Laurent is not the only one. Many nobles who failed to awake the Blessing or to get the Holy Water from the church turned to demons and other evil beings to seek power. Their titles are worth the risk."

Unless a noble house violated one of the first ten articles of the Holy Law, the hereditary land and title of the house could forever be passed on to the next generations. However, if no one of the house could awaken the Blessing in a few generations, the house would start to decline. Other houses would gradually devour its land and leave the house with only an useless noble title. In the end, the house would disappear on its own and the nobles would become common folks. No one would remember the family's past glory.

Lucien had his own guess about the party. He believed it was the heretical ritual of Argent Horn. After two months, Lucien believed that they started taking action again.

"Do you know how powerful the creature is? How can I get to the Noble District?" Lucien asked.

The area the nobles lived was enclosed by the inner city wall. At this time, the city gates were already closed. City guards would only open the gates for the nobles who lived there.

"From the scale of the altar, my mentor speculated that it should be a low-rank demon of an ordinary knight level. But before the ritual is finished, the cast shadow of the demon should be only of a high-rank knight squire level." White Honey explained. She did not think a powerful sorcerer with such profound knowledge like Mr. Professor would be in any danger when facing a cast shadow of a low rank demon.

"White Honey didn't know how to find Owl, so she found me first. I happened to know a secret passage to the Noble District, and so I came with them here tonight, hoping that I could be of some help. After all, Mr. Professor, your explanation and guidance helped me a lot." Philosopher lowered his head to show his respect, "If you don't mind, Mr. Professor, I am more than willing to kill it for you. It's just a low rank demon. There's no need for you to do this personally."

Lucien was feeling concerned that the heresy might bring some unexpected trouble into the action, and having more helpers on his side was definitely a good thing. After thinking for a moment, Lucien nodded, "Thank you, Philosopher. After this, you may ask me a question."

"Can I go with you, Professor?" White Honey wanted to join them as well. Ashley was gone, and so she had to watch the mysterious sorcerer for her mentor instead.

At the same time, Lucien viewed her as a hostage. Thus, he instantly said "yes".

Smile also asked to join. He had his own thoughts as well―he wanted to stay as close as possible to Professor. Then, he was also accepted.

Guided by Philosopher, Lucien, White Honey and Smile headed toward the Nobel District.

Chapter 53: The Professor's Oscillation Hand

Translator: winniethepooh, Kris_Liu Editor: Vermillion

It was very late in the hot and suffocating night, but even then there were several people wearing black robes quietly walking on the streets. Aside from them, only a few drunkards were loafing around aimlessly. However, Lucien and his companions did not lower their guard at all. They had to be very careful to avoid the night watchers of the church. Those church watchers were like hounds wandering at night, chasing after the scent of evil. The black gloves those watchers always wore were the shared nightmare of every sorcerer in Aalto.

After ten minutes, Philosopher stopped and said to Lucien in a low voice, "Mr. Professor, we're here. The passage is in the house." The house was sitting on the boundary of the Noble and Aderon Districts, looking pretty plain, even old, and was enclosed by a few dilapidated buildings.

Each of them examined the house separately to make sure there was no magic trap in the building, while Lucien used Bat Screaming and secured the surroundings. Then they followed Philosopher and entered the house.

From the thick spider web hanging down from the girder and brushing his forehead, Lucien could tell this place had been abandoned for a long time. "Some beggars used to stay here overnight. But recently, all the beggars in Aalto went missing." Philosopher said casually when he was walking.

Neither Lucien nor White Honey replied. Only Smile asked out of surprise, "All missing? What's possible for the beggars to do? Where could they have gone?"

"I have no idea as well, Owl," answered Philosopher, "Some said this had something to do with the evil creature." While Lucien and White Honey remained silent.

When they came to one of the bedrooms, Philosopher started removing some old crates which were hiding a secret entrance behind them. Cold wind came from the passage, but the air smelled fresh. That meant it was being used pretty frequently.

"How does Philosopher know the secret passage? Is he one of the nobles?" Lucien felt a bit confused. However, obviously, he could not ask that directly.

When they all came into the secret passage, Philosopher prudently closed the entrance behind them. Lucien noticed many magic circles on the ceiling.

"Philosopher," Smile noticed them as well, "What are these for?"

"Don't worry about it. In case of emergency, the magic traps will be activated to destroy the passage." Philosopher answered with a smile.

"I like your prudence." Lucien commended in his pretended harsh voice.

"I agree. I'm feeling more assured now." White Honey smiled.

......

Another ten minutes later, Philosopher, Lucien, Owl and White Honey climbed out of the secret passage from a dark corner. Under the cover of the shadow of the tall trees, soon they came in front of Baron Laurent's old three-floor house.

Beside the iron gate of the house stood a guard wearing a set of plain leather armor. Compared with the many guards on the other nobles' properties who were wearing silver chainmail, the single guard here was clearly showing the family's decline.

"Only one guard is here. We can go in there directly." Smile proposed.

"Leave this to me." Philosopher took a step forward, "Leave this to an apprentice from the School of Astrology."

"I agree. Philosopher can handle this." Lucien nodded under his hood.

"Then let me help you, Philosopher." Smile came closer to Philosopher.

...

Luke was yawning in front of the big iron gate, complaining about the Baron in his mind.

"Party, party and party. Baron Laurent doesn't even have enough money to pay us guards. Ten Nars every month for standing here the whole night? Come on… The old Baron was paying my grandpa and dad twenty Nars a month!"

A sudden owl hoot interrupted Luke's thought, since it sounded a bit weird. "Go and catch your mice! You nasty thing!" Luke swore.

Luke couldn't see anything in the darkness. However, when he turned around, he suddenly saw a ghost in a black robe standing a few steps away from him.

Before Luke opened his mouth to scream, he saw the ghost's face under the hood: except for the two eye holes, its nose, mouth and ears were blurred together.

The ghost slowly raised its head. It was looking at Luke through the two dark holes, in which there were countless stars. The stars were shining like a dream.

"Stars…" Luke murmured. All of a sudden, he felt completely relaxed, as if he was facing the person who he trusted the most in the world.

Philosopher clearly knew that Luke had been hypnotized. Walking closer to Luke, Philosopher whispered in his ear, "We are Baron Laurent's guests. Open the gate and let us in. Be quiet. Don't let other people know."

"Yes, sir." Luke slightly opened the gate following Philosopher's command, "Please, sir."

Carefully, Philosopher, Lucien, Smile and White Honey went through the gate and headed toward the house.

After they went in there, Luke did not close the gate. Instead, he turned around and started guarding the gate with great passion as if his chest was on fire! He did not know why, but he wanted to do more for the mister.

......

The house's wooden door of the house was tightly locked, and the heavy curtains were also tightly drawn. In the big hall, a number of naked or half-naked men and women were having intercourse. Men's gasps, women's groans, a sweet aroma and the smell of certain fluids were mixing together. The hall was warm, even hot.

On the couches, carpets, and even on the long table, pairs of man and woman, man and man, woman and woman, were moaning during coitus. They were having sex as if they were totally crazy. Some women's dresses were rolled up around their waists, while some other women were completely naked, and men were humping them like beasts.

Only one person in the licentious sex party was totally different. It was a middle-aged man in a silver robe. He did not join these people. Instead, he raised his hands up and closed his eyes, as if he was enjoying the moans and was listening to someone talking to him. His face looked extremely excited, lightened with ecstasy.

Black mist gradually rose up from the crazy people and slowly gathered behind the middle-aged man. The man was standing in the center of the pattern of an argent horn drawn on the altar, from which many silver lines stretched out and enclosed the shadow. Then the shadow became darker and darker, mixing with the colors of pink and black. Gradually, it turned into a tall and big shadow with two horns on its head.

"Are you ready for my power?" The shadow suddenly spoke.

The middle-aged man, Baron Laurent, answered in his lunatic tone, "The Great Master of Argent, the forever lasting silence, I've given my soul to you. Please, please endow me with your power!"

Slowly the shadow approached him and started entering his body, bit by bit.

Laurent's face contorted. Obviously, merging was not a very pleasant process. However, the pain was suppressed by the ecstasy shining in his eyes.

"No one can stop me now. No one can stop me from regaining the glory of my family anymore." Apart from the ecstasy, there were also tears in his eyes.

......

Outside the house, Lucien and the other three apprentices did not intrude obtrusively. They first had to make sure there were no magic circles or traps around.

"Mr. Professor, it will take at least half an hour to eliminate all the magic traps here." Philosopher said to Lucien.

"No, we can't." White Honey sounded nervous, "We're relatively late, and I can feel the demon already. We only have up to ten minutes. Ten minutes later, the demon will arrive in its complete form. Then we will be too late."

"Going into the hall directly will also cost us lots of spiritual power as well to deal with the traps." Smile turned to Lucien, "Professor, you must have some more powerful spells that can eliminate all the magic traps at once."

All the three apprentices were looking at the mysterious sorcerer. Similar thoughts came in their mind. Although they all knew that the sorcerer was very profound, none of them ever saw in person how powerful the mysterious Professor was.

"Is Mr. Professor a real powerful sorcerer?"

"How powerful can he be?"

"Is he even stronger than White Honey's mentor?"

Lucien knew clearly what they were thinking. He was prepared. Under their gaze, he answered with confidence, "No problem, Smile. I'll handle this."

Lucien came close to the wall of the house and pressed both of his hands on it. Moving his lips silently, Lucien started casting the spell.

Invisible waves spread out of Lucien's hand. The waves hit the wall instantly and were reflected back. The following waves thus became different.

In Philosopher, Owl and White Honey's eyes, nothing happened. They exchanged worried glances with confusion but did not say anything.

Suddenly, White Honey felt the earth was shaking.

"Are you trembling?" Philosopher asked her at the same time.

"Not me." She answered with surprise.

"Look!" Smile was pointing at the building, "Look! The whole house's shaking!"

White Honey and Philosopher immediately looked in the direction of the house. The old three-story house was shaking forward and backward, and the movement was becoming fiercer and fiercer. They could hear the glasses were shattering.

"Earthquake?!" White Honey wondered.

"No, it's the house itself!" answered Owl.

"Mr. Professor?" Philosopher looked at Lucien and was shocked.

Lucien's hands were still pressed against the house's wall. His whole body was shaking along with the building. His lips were still moving.

"The house's gonna collapse!" White Honey took a step back.

Philosopher could not believe his eyes, "Even a third circle spell Fireball could not completely destroy a whole building at once! What is this spell?!"

"What… is… this…!" Doro, the owl, was standing on Smile's shoulder, yelling.

No one noticed when the raven caught up with them again. It almost fell down from the tree once more, because of the sudden shaking.

"What's the circle of this spell!" The raven cried as well.

Only Lucien knew it was just an apprentice spell, the Professor's Oscillation Hand. The spell could detect the frequency of vibration of a building and created a resonance to destroy the construction. It worked the best with bridges!

Chapter 54: Calm Hunters

Translator: winniethepooh, Kris_Liu Editor: Vermillion

Inside of the hall, Laurent, wearing a silver robe, was standing in the center of the altar. His distorted face was full of excitement and ecstasy.

He could feel it. He could feel the shadow entering his body. His blood was running and crying, gradually changing his body.

Forty years, forty years of waiting and dreaming. Today he could finally start regaining the glory of his family.

The mixed moans in his ears changed into the applauses and cheers on his knight title conferring ceremony. However, at this time, the whole house started shaking all of a sudden.

"Earthquake?! It this a punishment?!" Although Laurent had changed his belief in order to chase the dark power, in his mind, he still respected and feared the God of Truth. However, now he was just one step away from the great success. He could not give up at this point.

The ceiling of the hall started falling. Chunks of stone and wood fell on the ground, and some of them fell on Laurent's head. Of course, he was afraid. The only hope he had was the dark power he was going to be endowed with soon.

"Do not panic, Laurent." The shadow spoke to him as if it could read his mind, "It will take another six to seven minutes for you to fully merge with me. If the house collapses, you will die. Stop the ritual at once. You've got a small part of my power, which already rivals the top senior-rank knight squire. We can complete it next time."

The shadow spoke very fast. Within ten seconds, the shadow's thought had all passed to Laurent.

Laurent was very angry. He could not stand watching his great plan being interrupted in the final stage. "No, I'm not leaving!" Laurent shouted, "The house won't collapse! The earthquake won't last!"

The windows broke in the violate shake. The strong wind of the upcoming storm blew in the hall and instantly drove the sweet and dreamy fragrance away. The people who were crazy with their desire suddenly sobered up.

"My god, earthquake!"

"Run, run!"

People were yelling. Some were wearing clothes in a hurry, some were running towards the gate naked, while some were even trying to escape through the windows.

The evil ritual took away their strength. They stumbled in panic and fear. One of the women slumped to the ground and was crawling towards the gate. The man who was having a pleasant time with her ran directly past the woman without a glance.

Watching these people leaving, Laurent knew his ritual had ended. The silver lines on the pattern disappeared with the shadow. With an angry shout, he stepped out of the altar and joined the panicky crowd. On his way running towards the exit, he hurriedly destroyed the magic traps one by one.

Behind Laurent, a man in black suit who was seemingly enjoying the sex party just now looked out of the window, with his face looking serious.

…

In the shadow of the house, Philosopher, White Honey and Smile were standing there, looking at Professor with their mouths and eyes widely open. Taking back his hands, the mysterious Professor said to the apprentices in a very calm tone, "They're leaving the house. Be prepared. Hunt the evil creature."

"Why not just make the house collapse, Professor?" White Honey asked.

"I prefer not to," Lucien stretched his hands a bit, "If the creature dies in the ruins, it'll be quite inconvenient for me to collect the blood. On the other hand, the sound of collapsing will alert the church. We don't want this big trouble."

However, it was not the most important reason. Actually, Lucien did not have enough power to make the house collapse completely. Compared with a bridge of simpler structure, the structure of a house was more complicated, and its vibration frequency also varied. Lucien could only follow one of them. Therefore, destroying a bridge might be within Lucien's ability, but definitely not a house.

The power stunned Philosopher, Smile and White Honey. They never saw a sorcerer who could cast such a powerful spell without using any reagent. Now they had no doubt toward the mysterious and profound sorcerer, Mr. Professor.

White Honey was the first one who calmed down among the three. With the help of a magic item, she started tracking the crowd,

"Evil light detected. Fifteen meters away from the nearest window. We move one meter to the left to better release the spells," she calmly said.

Philosopher quickly moved to the left and said to Smile, "Owl, cast Homan's Oscillation."

Homan Oscillation was also a sonic attack magic, which used high decibel to hurt people. In the most serious case, it could even take a person's life. Other people nearby would get hurt in their eardrums and might black out.

"Then you use Silence Wall, Philosopher," Smile also answered calmly, "To prevent the night watchers from noticing us."

"Merged with a low-rank demon shadow. Senior-rank knight squire level. Five meters away. " White Honey reported, "No acid and fire magic. I'll use Arrow."

"One meter. Get ready." she said.

Within just a few seconds, the first round of the attack plan had been made. That was the first time Lucien saw how the well-trained apprentices fought.

In order to get out of the house as soon as possible, Laurent roughly pushed the guests in front of him away. In just a few seconds, Laurent came to the window, hit the glass with his body and jumped out of the house.

At this time, a loud blast struck his head, as if he was hit by a thunder. All of a sudden, his head started buzzing and he felt bad nausea and dizziness. Losing his balance, he almost fell on the ground with his head.

Before Laurent could see anything in the darkness clearly, a metal arrow directly shot in his right eye. His blood was darker than common people, with a special smell of sulphur. The great pain made him break out in a frightful yell but his voice was blocked by Silence Wall. Laurent finally realized the fact that he got attacked.

However, it was too late. The second metal arrow flew directly into his throat. Laurent struggled a bit and soon his body stopped moving.

Lucien couldn't believe that killing this evil baron who had just merged with a demon was this easy. He was also very glad, since casting a spell silently cost him more power than usual, and his remaining spiritual power was only enough for using about two apprentice spells.

Beside the Baron Laurent lied several naked and half-naked women and men, all unconscious. The panicked crowd running toward other directions paid no attention to what just happened here.

Using Mage Hand, Lucien and the other three apprentices started collecting the baron's blood. After putting three glass tubes of blood into his pockets, Lucien stood up and said to them,

"Time to go."

"Yes, sir." Philosopher, White Honey and Smile answered.

When they were about to leave, all of a sudden a man jumped out of the house from the nearest window like a ghost and dashed toward Lucien with a sharp dagger in his hand, aiming at Lucien's heart!

He was waiting in the house. Now he knew it was the best chance to kill this powerful sorcerer! And he only got this single chance!

Chapter 55: Midnight Bang

Translator: winniethepooh, Kris_Liu Editor: Vermillion

The black shadow was even faster than Baron Laurent, faster than what most people could see. If the men and women who were screaming and escaping had stopped at this time, the only thing they would see was a blurry shadow.

Only a person who had awakened Blessing in their blood could be this fast. The person was a genuine knight!

Within two seconds, the dagger already came close to Lucien's back.

None of them realized what was going on behind them but Lucien. He suddenly sensed the great danger when the dagger was only a few centimeters away from him.

However, Lucien knew he was no rival to the attacker. Also, it was too late for him to cast any protection spell, thus the only choice Lucien had was to fiercely leap forward as fast as he could.

Although Lucien was smart enough to create his own spells, he was still of apprentice level, and a magic apprentice was not able to construct a spell structure using his or her spiritual power in one's soul, which was the premise of casting a spell instantly.

Lucien was clearly aware that very likely he would still be badly injured, but as long as the attacker could not kill him in a single strike, Lucien would seize the chance to fight back with his Ice Revenger Ring.

Suddenly, when the dagger was almost at him, with a loud caw from above a light appeared and instantly covered Lucien's whole body, protecting him like a chain mail.

It was the 1st circle spell, Mage Armor.

The spell was cast by the raven, Ashley, which was standing on the branch. Ashley was the pet of the genuine sorcerer. It could not only see clearly during night time but also borrow its owner's power and cast some of the spells.

The armor was totally beyond the black shadow's expectation. But the momentum of the dagger was so fierce that even the magic armor cannot fully stop it. In the blink of an eye, the transparent armor broke into many pieces, shinning in the darkness. However, the shadow did hesitate for several seconds.

It was already enough time for Lucien, and he knew it was his only chance. Lucien swiftly turned around and activated his ring. Three rays of cold light were shining in his left hand.

Lucien activated the 2nd circle spell in the ring, Palmeira's Frost Blades!

At this key moment, Lucien knew that the attack was the best form of defense.

The ring also strengthened Lucien's willpower, or he would be totally stunned and lose the ability to fight back by the knight power of the attacker.

The three rays of white light were shining, and they targeted directly the attacker's throat, chest and the lower part of the body.

Facing the frost blades, the attacker quickly covered his body with dark flames, which were full of the evil power of tyranny and destruction. Although he could have used the protecting power "shadow" coming from Blessing, he decided to be more careful. The guy in front of him just ruined his whole plan. Of course he wanted to kill him right on the spot, but he had to guarantee his own safety first.

Wielding the dagger, he precisely shattered the two blades targeting his throat and chest. At the same time, he brought up his right leg and melt the blade with the dark fire. The pieces of the blades scattered and were shining like falling snow.

After solving all the troubles, the knight turned the dagger in his hand around and continued chasing Lucien. He also noticed two black balls shooting out of the raven's beak. It was another 1st circle spell, Magic Missile.

This time the 1st circle spell would not be a problem for him, since his whole body was still covered by the sinister fire. Now the only thing he wanted to do was to kill this sorcerer in front of him who just destroyed his plan.

All of a sudden, the tiny pieces of ice from the frost blades turned the air around the knight freezing cold. For a couple of seconds, he was frozen still and the two magic bullets shot him directly in the body.

That was the power of Palmeira's Frost Blades — not only blades, but also the coldness of ice and snow.

"A level two knight!" Ashley screamed.

Philosopher, White Honey and Smile finally found out something was going on behind them, and then they saw the attacker.

Without too much thought, both Philosopher and White Honey activated their magic items immediately.

Waves of light spread out around Philosopher. Within the radius of ten meters, all the ordinary people quickly collapsed and fell asleep.

1st circle spell, Sleep.

A strong onset of tiredness hit the attacker's brain, but as a level two knight, the 1st circle spell was still not powerful enough to drag him into his dreamland. He shook his head and drove the drowsiness away with his willpower.

But a powerful air blast followed and hit the knight right into his chest. With a big bang, the power threw him directly back into the house through the window behind him, with lots of broken glass scattering on the ground.

1st circle spell, Force Wave, carried by White Honey's magic robe.

"He's a level two knight. He won't die this easily." Ashley flew closer to Lucien, "Mr. Professor, keep attacking please."

When Lucien was about to take out his Flame Gel, the old house suddenly started shaking fiercely. The ceiling was dropping and walls collapsing. Within only a few seconds, the whole house finally came down and buried the knight under the ruins.

Lucien's spell already damaged the structure of the old house before, and with the heavy hit of the knight, now the place was totally destroyed.

Boom…Boom! The collapse of the house was extremely loud like an earthquake. And it was too late for Philosopher to block the huge noise.

Instantly, all of them realized that they were in trouble — the Night Watchers would come soon.

Now they did not have time to find and kill the knight attacker. Without any hesitation, Ashley, the crow, turned into a cloud of shadow and enveloped White Honey.

"See you next time, Mr. Professor." said the crow.

And then it flew away quickly and disappeared in the sky.

"We gotta go now as well, Mr. Professor." Philosopher and Smile made a slight bow and also ran into the darkness.

In their mind, Mr. Professor was so powerful that there was no need for them to give him a hand in this case. It was taken for granted that Mr. Professor would have assorted ways to get out of here easily.

However, actually, Lucien did not.

There was no time for being hesitant now, Lucien knew. He quickly turned around to find the entrance of the secret passage through which they just came here.

A burst of thunder just arrived. Rain drops fell from the sky in a crazy way. The long-awaited storm finally started.

Under the ruins, small clusters of dark flame were raised one by one. Quickly they burned down the pieces of the broken ceiling and stones, then a black figure scrambled to his feet in the rain.

In the lightning, the man's face was revealed.

He was Rosan Aaron, the head of Aaron's Gang.

Aaron stared at the direction where Lucien disappeared and thought to himself, "He could not cast a spell instantly, which means currently he's still an apprentice… He is much weaker than I thought…"

For a few second, Aaron's mind was dominated by his anger, which almost made him try to catch up with Lucien and kill the guy.

But soon Aaron calmed down. For now his priority was escaping from the coming night watchers. He needed to leave now as well.

......

Lucien was running in the cold rain, feeling pain from the falling rain drops. Luckily the glass tubes and waterproof cloth worked pretty well. His magic reagents and potions were still fine in his robe.

Lucien did not have any companion nor support. He was alone, running towards the secret passage.

Luckily, Lucien saw the entrance was just over there, hidden by the trees, bushes and grass.

However, what Lucien saw was not only the secret passage, but also a man in white suit, his wet red hair sticking to his forehead.

And he was wearing a pair of black gloves.

The man was a night watcher.

In the lightning, they saw each other.

Chapter 56: The Night Watcher

Translator: Kris_Liu Editor: Vermillion

The moment when Lucien saw the night watcher, he threw the tube of Flame Gel in his hand toward the guy without hesitation, then continued running toward the entrance of the secret passage.

He had cast the spell in the Ice Revenger Ring, so the Flame Gel was now his most powerful weapon. He was aware that Bat Screaming couldn't work well in such a stormy night. The only thing Lucien could blame now was his bad luck.

The night watcher, wearing a pair of black gloves, was also very experienced in fighting with magic apprentices, sorcerers, as well as evil creatures at night. And the gloves he was wearing were also a decent magic item, enchanted with different demon-constraining spells. That was why there were not many night watchers from the church. Besides, every night watcher was by no means being unskilled. Some of them were high level squires, some of them pastors, and some were even knights.

The night watcher firmly caught the first tube of Flame Gel flying towards his face. Being controlled by the maker's spiritual power, the gel was supposed to explode instantly, however, grabbed by his hand in the black glove, the momentum of explosion was suddenly stopped, like a fuse on fire suddenly being extinguished by a bucket of water.

In few seconds, the second tube of Flame Gel followed. Unexpectedly, this time, the tube did not target the night watcher directly, but hit the ground and exploded fiercely before the night watcher could react. The fire of the explosion also set fire to the tube of gel he was grabbing. Immediately, the night watcher's body was covered with raging flame. Since the comburent was gel, even the pouring rain couldn't put out the fire easily.

Lucien had no time to check if his enemy was down. He quickly ran to the entrance.

Before he entered the passage, a great pressure suddenly struck his mind. He couldn't help shaking. Thanks to the ring he was wearing, at least he could still stand.

Lucien subconsciously looked back and instantly realized what was going on there.

In the bright lightning, the night watcher was still chasing him, with the upper part of his body covered with fire, but it seemed the pain was not bothering him at all. However, his skin had turned into pieces of scarlet scales, protecting him from further burning.

The night watcher was a dark knight with an awakened Blessing, and his Blessing was called "red dragon"!

With the help of Ice Revenger, Lucien did not panic under the pressure from the night watcher. He was calculating the distance between them.

"Twenty meters…ten…"

Then he threw his last tube of Flame Gel at the night watcher, who was only around five meters away from him. The great power of the blast spread fiercely and the wave separated them apart.

While the night watcher took a step back, Lucien was directly thrown into the secret passage. Since there was a slope near the entrance, he kept rolling for quite a few meters in there.

Lucien felt like he was struck by a huge hammer in his stomach and great dizziness took over his mind. A mouthful of blood just burst out.

Lucien had to hurry, knowing that the night watcher would catch up with him in few seconds. However, he was also very confident, since he had a plan.

When the night watcher was about to enter the passage, Lucien activated the magic traps set by Philosopher, which could instantly turn stones into piles of mud.

In only a second, the entrance was blocked by the mix of stones and mud. The night watcher couldn't stop himself in time and ran directly into them. The last thing he saw was the sorcerer slightly making a bow, mocking him.

"We'll wait and see, you wretch." The night watcher punched the mound of dirt with all the strength.

…

While he was running, Lucien took out a tube of Storm and unplugged it. He needed the potion for fast healing and energy boosting. At the same time, he triggered the magic traps one by one to destroy the tunnel. However, he did not trigger all of the traps to prevent the night watcher from tracking him by following the sound.

With the potion's help, Lucien managed to get out of the passage way faster. Then he removed all the remaining potions and reagents from the pocket of his linen shirt, and burnt down his robe, since his robe had a special herbal scent which was used for hiding Lucien's own smell. Lucien did not want to leave the night watcher any chance to somehow find him.

When he finished doing all of these, Lucien went back to his shack and stored safely all the tubes and reagents. After drying his shirt and pants, he finally collapsed into bed, exhausted at the end of the day.

He did not realize how weak he was until his head hit the pillow. Storm boosted the energy for some time but also drained him completely. He was not very worried about the church, partly because of the bad weather, and more importantly, Lucien was pretty sure that the church would focus on investigating the dead baron, Laurent, since obviously, he was more related to the heresy, Argent Horn.

Soon Lucien fell into sleep.

The rain was still pelting down outside.

…

In the early morning, the rain did not stop.

Lucien was awakened by the different sounds coming from the people's work in the neighborhood.

He felt sick, and his body was very heavy, so Lucien decided to skip his shift this morning. The library was never busy, and Pierre was there all the time.

Later, Iven was sent by his mom to see why Lucien did not show up for breakfast. Lucien made Iven go to the library to ask for a sick leave.

Then Lucien went back to sleep and did not wake up again until noon. He felt much better, but still a bit sick. He had lunch with auntie Alisa's family and left for Victor's place.

There were just three days left before the due time for Victor to submit his last piece of work for the concert.

…

Ten in the morning. Victor's practice room.

Victor was very distressed, feeling desperate with the new melody. Then he heard a knock at the door. It was Lott, Felicia and Herodotus, who were supposed to come in the afternoon.

"Why so early?" Victor was surprised.

"Well… Mr. Victor…" Lott was a bit hesitant, "Mekanzi asked me to tell you that… um… Baron Othello wants you to go to the association as soon as possible. The princess is there today. Her Highness wants to see your work, Mr. Victor."

"…?!" Victor's face suddenly turned pale, but he could not speak a word.

Then with a long sigh, he nodded, "I will be there in half an hour."

…

When Lucien arrived, Victor had already left his place.

"Mr. Athy, where did Mr. Victor go?" Lucien asked.

"Mr. Victors was summoned by the Princess in the morning," answered Athy, looking rather worried, "Her Highness wants to know about Mr. Victor's three pieces of work for the concert today."

"What?!" Lucien felt very regretful for being absent from work today.

"Mr. Victor left around ten forty. If you want to wait, Mr. Victor should be back soon." said Athy.

Now it was twelve thirty-five in the afternoon.

"No, I need to find him now. Thank you, Mr. Athy." Lucien grabbed his umbrella and dashed into the rain toward the association.