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Chapter 136: Dragon Tooth Tavern

Translator: Kris_Liu Editor: Vermillion

The Second Volume: The Feast of Death

"Bang!" The heavy door of the tavern named Dragon Tooth hit the wall as it was suddenly opened by someone with brute force. The grumbling drunkards, bragging adventures and shouting mercenaries who were enjoying the well-known roasted beef of the tavern suddenly quieted down.

A black-haired young man walked in, dressing in light blue, with a fancy sword at his side. The midday sunlight came in behind him and outlined the young man's silhouette.

"Wow… wow! A young lord! Is your fancy sword able to kill a wild dog?" A drunkard shouted and whistled.

"Another young man got deceived by those bestselling knight novels," an adventurer whispered in the ear of his buddy, "…seeking those exciting stories with a ritual sword."

However, he dared not speak too loud. What if this young man was someone important? After all, he dressed very decently.

Lucien did not care. With a stable pace, he walked directly to the tavern counter.

After two-months of traveling, Lucien arrived at this small border town named Dragon Tooth in the duchy of Djibouti, located in the middle south of the continent.

"Look at his arm! No big muscles!" A robust adventurer lifted and bent his right arm. Under the skin there were lean and big chunks of muscles, "Look at his build! I bet he's not even a of a knight squire level! Young and stupid lad!"

"You think everyone can awaken the Blessing? You have to be kidding me…" A stout man, probably with the blood of dwarf, said in an arrogant way, "I've been traveling across the continent for more than ten years, and I'm still only about… high-level knight squire level. But, but… if this young guy can have a chance to receive my instruction, maybe he can still awaken his Blessing. After all, it was because of my training that lord Newville in Eero finally awakened his Blessing…"

Some guys sitting around him gave him an admiring look, although Chris had boasted about that many times in the past, which made him even happier.

Lucien just ignored them, came to the counter and sat down on a stool.

The owner of the tavern did not look young. Seeing this decently dressed young man in this small tavern, the owner did not behave any different.

"My friend, what do you want today? Wine or meat? Or both?" friendly asked the owner.

"Water, roast beef, and a salad." Lucien slightly nodded to greet him back. "And I want to ask some questions."

The middle south of the continent was surrounded by mountains and canyons. The isolated land produced no resource except wood, and it was the poorest and the least developed area across the continent. Often, there wouldn't be even a single person who was literate in a village.

For the people who were striving to awaken their Blessings there, the effort they had to make was way higher than people in Aalto. It had been a lot of years since the last war broke out here, and therefore, even if one manage to awaken his or her Blessing, the person still couldn't obtain a title and would not be given land and field, unless they could save enough money to buy the land on their own.

"Hahaha! Water… You heard that? Water!" A drunkard nearby laughed aloud, "Innocent, naive young boy!"

And all the people in the tavern started to laugh.

Lucien remained very calm as if nothing was going on there. He was just looking at the owner.

"No problem, my friend. Information is not free, though." The owner poured a cup of water for Lucien, and asked the kitchen to prepare the food.

"I know. It's fine." Lucien took a sip of the water.

Before he entered here, Lucien had found out that the town's Adventurers' Association was just in this very tavern, and the owner was also the person in charge of it.

"Then, go ahead." The owner nodded.

"I want to know where is Mr. Taylor Hunt living right now. He was an official in Bonn from the Duchy of Orvarit, and nine years ago, he was invited by Baron Eric to come to Djibouti to be the civil servant here."

Taylor Hunt was the father of the little revenant girl that Lucien encountered in the World of Souls. Lucien rerouted his trip in order to fulfill his words, and also, since he was not in a rush, he also appreciated the unique and exotic cities he visited on his new route.

"We don't charge for something like this. It's not called intelligence…" The owner waved his hand a bit, "I'll just tell you for free. The civil servant on Baron Eric's land is not Mr. Hunt. I'm guessing the person you're looking for might have accepted another offer. If you want, you can go to the nearby city, Korsor, to see if there is any record in the town hall, since Korsor belongs to Baron Eric's lord, Viscount Stanley. And if you can't find it there, you might need to go to Baron Eric's land and ask for local information."

"Thanks. Any news across the continent recently?" It took Lucien ten days sitting in a coach and going through mountains and hills to arrive here, and he felt he was as isolated as this place right now, maybe even more.

"One news for one Nar. Is it okay?" The owner smiled.

"Ten, please." Lucien directly took out a Thale and placed it on the counter.

The adventurers and mercenaries were very surprised, and their eyes were staring at the shining coin. After all, they had to spend two to three months to make one single Thale, and this young noble man was just using it for buying some random news!

A few of them were even considering if they should just rob this young man.

The beef was ready. Lucien picked up the fork and took a bite. The meat was juicy and tender, which was surprisingly as good as the dishes produced in those fancy restaurants in Aalto.

The tavern owner pulled out a piece of crumpled paper and read it slowly to Lucien, "Two months ago, Aalto…" The owner paused a bit and looked at Lucien, "a small town in Aalto, Bonn, was attacked by a necromancer. The famous musician, known as the Most Beautiful Musician, Silvia, as well as her father, died in the battle in which the princess of the duchy, Natasha, finally beat the evil necromancer with all her effort. Unfortunately, the princess was severely injured from the fight and now she is recuperating in an abbey. It is said that Natasha also made a breakthrough in this fight and has become a radiant knight."

Lucien did not show any difference after hearing the news, although his heart was cheering for Natasha's achievement. No wonder the side effect of the vampire's blood did not affect her immediately in the forest.

If moving from a squire level to a level one knight was challenging, upgrading from a grand knight to a radiant knight was even more difficult. The great power of a grand knight came from the person's physical strength, in other words, a grand knight would need to boost or overly stimulate his or her body to get the power, and that was why some of the grand knights lived even shorter than the knights of lower ranks. Even with the help of some precious herbs and potions, most of them could only make it to around a hundred years old, while becoming a radiant knight meant that the person already broke the limit of human body, and he or she could at least live for more than two hundred years.

The rest of the intelligence was of nothing really special. Generally speaking, the north and the heresy again had some new conflicts; several major lords in Gusta down in the south were raising mercenaries for the possible coming civil war; and some adventurers found some ruins in the southern margin of the Dark Mountain Range, where they obtained a great amount of fortune…

After hearing the news and finishing his meal, Lucien wiped his mouth with a white handkerchief and said to the owner, "Sir, can you find me some guards and a coach? I need to go to Korsor."

Although Lucien was already strong enough to travel along the east side of the continent, he did not want to bother dealing with those minions, goblins, and other beasts, which were not even of knight squire level. Lucien would rather spend his time in his coach studying the first circle magic spells.

Within his two-month traveling, Lucien constructed another five first circle spells in his soul, and right now his soul had reached the current limit for that level. For the rest of the first circle spells, if Lucien wished to use them, he needed to rely on some magic reagents and materials, or their special runes.

The five first circle spells were: Magic Missile, Sleep, Grease, Feather Fall and Color Spray.

Because most of the adventurers and mercenaries were not willing to leave their own base of operations for too long, they would only escort their client within a certain range, what also applied to the coachmen. Thus, Lucien had to hire new people every now and again.

"Smart choice. We have lots of dark tales about vampires and black sorcerers." The owner put several glass cups back onto the counter, "I can take care of your coach and coachman, my friend. It will take you 11 days to get to Korsor. As for your guards, I recommend those three adventurers sitting on the other side. Two of them are warriors of the same level as high level knight squires, and the archer is also around knight squire level. All of them have a pretty good reputation. You can talk to them."

Following the direction of the tavern owner, Lucien looked toward the other side. There were two women and one man sitting over there. The short-haired man's arms were masculine. And the two females looked a bit alike, although one was mature and glamorous, and the other was young and pretty. From their appearance, especially their pointy long ears, Lucien guessed that they might be sisters from the half-elf race.

All of the three adventurers were listening carefully to the bard playing in the corner, and from time to time, they were beating out the tune.

Translator's Thoughts

Kris_Liu Kris_Liu

Hello guys! This is WMX, the editor of Throne of Magical Arcana! I'd like to thank you for supporting us up to this point, and that we love the theories you've been coming up with! We're doing our best so you can enjoy this masterpiece, but if there is any suggestion you'd like to make, feel free to talk to me in the Discord. Now, let's start volume two, and may it be as astonishing as the first one!

Chapter 137: Strangers as Companions

Translator: Kris_Liu Editor: Vermillion

"The nightingale is singing. In the air, her voice was floating…"

The bard's singing, although in that small border town, was actually pretty beautiful and alluring. Thus, when Lucien came to sit down on the other side of their table, the half-elf girl with light brown hair was a bit surprised and her back straightened up immediately.

When Lucien explained his intention, the elder elf-looking lady was amused, "You want to hire us?"

Her fair hand was gently knocking on the wooden table in a fixed rhythm.

Looking at Lucien sitting in front of her, the sophisticated lady also took him as a young noble lord who had read too many adventure novels and was acting on the impulse to explore the continent.

"Yes," Lucien nodded calmly, "I want to go to Korsor. I wonder if you three are willing to be my guards."

The lady did not answer Lucien directly, instead, she started her introduction, "I'm Joanna, Greatsword Warrior. This is my husband Simon, Sword and shield Warrior. Both of us have the same power of a high level knight squire. This is my younger sister Betty, a well-trained archer. Her rank's a bit lower than ours, but not by much. So, as you can see, my distinguished client, we're a bit pricy, but our reputation is pretty good."

"I heard that from the owner already," said Lucien. "That's why I came to you directly."

"Haha, Hansen really promotes us very well." Joanna laughed aloud.

Lucien could tell that a bunch of the adventurers and mercenaries sitting nearby looked a bit irritated when Joanna was talking. However, they could not deny that they were very good guards and the arrangement of their team was very reasonable — two for the melee, and one for the ranged attacks.

"Joanna… Let's take the job! I'm planning on going to Korsor myself anyway." Betty looked pretty excited, "I heard that the talented musician named Burt from the duchy is gonna host a concert in Korsor these days!"

Joanna rolled her eyes toward her younger sister. Betty simply could never tell when she was supposed to talk, and when she must not. Betty stuck out her tongue toward Joanna for a second and then shut her mouth up tightly. However, her eyes were looking at Lucien, and her pointy ears slightly trembled.

"How much do you want, Joanna?" asked Lucien directly. He did not really care about the price since he still had eight-five Thales with him after the two-month travel.

"Umm…" Joanna squinted her eyes a bit when she was considering the price.

"One Nar for each of us a day." Smiling, Simon represented his wife and stated the price to Lucien.

Staring at her husband, Joanna was a bit choked.

"Simon!" she complained. This price was way lower than what she had thought.

"We shouldn't charge our client more just because the client's wealthy." Simon grinned to Joanna, "It's about our reputation."

"Also, my client," Simon turned to Lucien, "I have a couple of requests."

"Yes?" Lucien nodded.

"You need to pay us on a daily basis." Simon paused a bit, glanced at Betty, and continued, "And give Betty's pay to me. She has no idea how to save, and we're saving for her future knight training in her name."

In some of the countries in the south-central part of the continent, knight training was not free, as it was in Aalto. Many nobles struggling with their financial problems actually were making money out of it, giving knight training, which was not necessarily a bad thing altogether, since more commoners could get a chance at being a knight squire or even reaching a higher social status.

Betty pouted out of dissatisfaction, but she could not deny what Simon just said.

"No problem," agreed Lucien., "Let's get the contract done then."

All the adventurers and mercenaries registered with the Adventurers' Association needed to sign a contract with their clients.

Handing Hansen his own identification and documents, Lucien took a glance at the content and then signed the contract provided by the tavern owner.

"Thank you, sir." Lucien politely nodded toward Hansen.

The moment Hansen looked at Lucien's identification, he became very surprised, but he instantly hid the different look on his face.

"My pleasure, Mr. Evans." Hansen then carefully checked Lucien's documents. The fact that he had a great musician here visiting his tavern was definitely something he could brag in the future in front of his guests and offsprings.

Joanna accepted the three Nar paid in advance and then left her fingerprint on the paper.

"You're very generous, sir." Joanna smiled sweetly, "Can I call you Mr. Evans?"

In contrast, Lucien's three guards weren't really hyped up due to Lucien's identity, since all of them were illiterate.

"Sure." Lucien nodded slightly.

"Another Mr. Evans!" Betty grinned, "You know there's a talented, young and handsome musician in Aalto whose surname is Evans as well! I heard that he's traveling across the continent for his music right now. I wonder if he would come here to Djibouti!"

"Dream on! A great musician visiting this remote and poor country?" Joanna said directly to her, "Just get your feet on the ground and awaken your Blessing. When you join the Violet Knights, we can all move to Aalto."

Lucien laughed, "How do you know this Mr. Evans is good looking, Miss Betty?"

"All the bards say that!" answered Betty cheerfully.

…

Outside the tavern, when Lucien was about to get on the coach, a young man quickly walked toward him.

"Wait! Please wait!" The young man was waving his hand.

The man in a white robe was in his twenties. He had blond hair, and on his angular face there was a pair of blue eyes.

"Hi, Mr. Evans! Can I join you folks?" He grinned, "I'm also heading for Korsor, and I'm willing to afford one third of the guards' pay."

It was not the first time someone else wanted to join Lucien, and he was always very cautious about this.

"You don't look short of money. Why you want to join me?" asked Lucien directly.

Joanna, Simon and Betty did not care. They would not make any extra either way.

"Hansen told me that you just got the best guards in the tavern." The young man shrugged, "As for the rest of the adventurers and mercenaries… They looked more like robbers to me."

"That's really true." Betty laughed.

The young man took out his identification and documents and handed them to Lucien.

"The Musicians' Association… Burt Wise…" reading the document silently, Lucien learned that the young man was also a musician, and thus he lowered his guard a bit.

"Why are you heading for Korsor, then?" Lucien, however, knew that one could never be too cautious on this continent.

"I'm visiting the Musicians' Association there," Burt answered, "to, um, to study."

"All right." Lucien gave the documents back to him, "Mr. Wise. Welcome. We're companions now. One thing I need to remind you is that I'm sort of bothered by psychasthenia, so please be as quiet as possible. I need sleep."

"For sure." Wise nodded.

"Are you a musician, Mr. Wise?" Betty, on the other side, got excited.

"I'm still learning." Wise remained rather polite.

"That's great! Do you know For Silvia? How do you feel about it?" Betty's eyes were shining with excitement. She kept talking and talking until the coach started to leave.

Wise got on the coach and smiled to Lucien, "Very passionate girl. I actually don't really know much about music, though."

"Me neither." Lucien also smiled, and then he closed his eyes, ready to start to analyze his magic structures.

However, at this time, another traveler asked to join them. This was an ordinary lady holding a baby in her arms.

"Nice to meet you, Mr. Evans. My name's Lena, and I'm heading for the town named Fog, located between Dragon Tooth and Korsor," the lady said to Lucien gently. "Can I join you? I can afford my own expense."

Seeing that the lady was with a baby, Lucien agreed. The coach was quite spacious anyway.

Then, the coach finally started moving. Simon was in the front, and the coach was followed by Joanna and Betty on each side.

As soon as they left the town, a short but stout man caught up with them.

"Chris, why are you here?" asked Joanna, completely alert.

"I'm also going back to Korsor! That's it!" answered Chris aloud, "When you guys save enough money, you can send Betty to me for knight training. You know, I've trained a knight before!"

As Chris was bragging, his eyes were peeking at the coach. However, the people in the coach remained very silent.

In the hot sunlight, the coach was smoothly heading for Korsor, raising a trail of dust after it.

Chapter 138: A Farce at Night

Translator: Kris_Liu Editor: Vermillion

The weather in the second half of the Month of Passion (June) was already very hot. Beads of sweat kept rolling down Joanna's and Betty's faces while they were safeguarding each side of the coach. Not to mention Simon, whose shirt inside the armor was completely wet.

Nevertheless, no one ever made a single complaint. Simon, walking ahead of the coach, had already driven away several beasts rushing down from the mountains. This was obviously his responsibility as a guard, but the fact that he beat off the vicious beasts without startling the horses definitely impressed Lucien.

In contrast, Chris, who was bragging about being a "real man" all the time, was now dragging his feet on the ground with his body slouching from the heat.

Inside of the coach, since Lucien kept his eyes closed all the time, and Lena was not talkative at all, so Mr. Wise had no one to talk to. Finally, he took out a pile of music sheets from his suitcase to kill his time.

The only sounds were made by the baby, who cried from time to time, and then Lena would apologize and try to pacify the baby.

At around seven in the evening, it was getting darker. After talking to Lucien, Simon started to look for a camping site where they could spend the night. Experienced as Simon was, he soon settled on a spot on the lee side of a small hill.

Surrounding the coach, Lucien's three guards quickly build up three tents. One for the three ladies, one for Simon and the coachman, and one for Mr. Wise. The coach, of course, was saved for Lucien.

Watching the busy guards walking around and carrying things, Lucien deeply felt the importance of money. If, in the future, he planned to travel on his own, Lucien had better become a middle-rank mage and learn the third circle spell Sorcerer's Cabin first.

The campfire was lit up, and the smell of food was wafting in the air. While Joanna and Betty were heading for the nearby brook to take a bath, Simon and Mr. Wise sat down around the campfire and started to chat casually.

"It is said that, early in the Dark Era, the land here once belonged to a black sorcerer." After hearing the talk between Simon and Wise about the tale of vampire and black sorcerer in this country, Lucien joined them to listen, "And then he was killed by the Church."

Lucien still remembered what he read in Natasha's study.

Simon, surprisingly, was actually pretty talkative, "People just love exchanging mysterious and scary things. You know, they're always ear-catching and they can be used for frightening kids who're not willing to go to bed at night."

Mr. Wise did not really believe the rumors, "Every town and village has a chapel, but people just like the feeling of thrilling."

While they were talking, Joanna and Betty were coming back. Their wet hair still dripped a little and was a bit messy. The two ladies, while walking back to the campsite, immediately caught the eyes of the two bards who were camping nearby, and Chris was with them as well.

The guys started to heckle Joanna and Betty with loud whistles, and one of them even took out his lap harp and started to play a romantic and flirting folk song, as they were eyeing the two ladies up and down.

It was definitely not the first time that something like that happened to Joanna, and she remained quite calm. However, in contrast, Betty was pissed off.

"Betty, just ignore them. Come here." Joanna sat down beside Simon and lightly stirred the soup in the pot hanging over the campfire.

"But they're not stopping!" Betty's face flushed, and she glared at the bards with anger, which led to another round of guffaw.

"I'll go." Simon stood up and walked toward the other campsite.

When Simon came in front of the two bards, Chris said to him, "Simon, what's wrong with my friends singing and playing music here?" Casting a side glance at Simon, Chris said to him, "They're my friends. You'd better leave us alone."

As he was talking, Chris was wiping his great sword in a pretended casual way.

Simon was a good guard. Knowing that he was still with a commission, Simon knew he should avoid extra trouble at that moment.

"Chris, you'd better watch out next time," Simon said to him in his low voice.

On the other side, Joanna was trying to comfort her younger sister, "Betty, they're just the same as the bastards we met in the tavern before."

Betty, however, rose her pitch high and shouted at the bards, "Awful music! They call themselves a bard, but I don't know how they can make a living with this awful playing!" Betty's voice was crispy.

Then she paused a bit, as if she was trying to figure out a way to make her point more persuasive, "Mr. Wise, the gentleman with us… He can play way better than them!"

When she realized that she was not supposed to involve her employer in it, Betty looked at Wise with an apologetic face.

Mr. Wise, however, did not really mind. He nodded gently to show his understanding.

"Oh, really? A random guy can play music better than me?" The two bards stood up and walked closer to them.

One of them said, "If what you said is true, I'll apologize to you. But if it's not, you have to give me some of your personal… goods… for example…" He looked straight at her body and laughed.

Betty's face flushed again. She looked at Wise again for help. However, he was still sitting there, showing no intention to "fight" for her at all.

Betty felt rather regretful for her own words. Wise might have no idea how to actually play. After all, he mentioned that he was just heading for Korsor to study music.

Then, Betty almost burst into tears.

Lucien looked at Simon on the other side and nodded, giving him a hint with his eyes. Then, Simon's right hand slowly reached to his sword at his hips.

At this time, Wise stood up and smiled, "Although I'm still learning music and learning how to play, I would like to do Miss Betty this favor."

"I'm not gonna lend you my musical instrument," one of the bards said to him coldly.

Wise walked directly back to his tent and took out his own lap-harp from this suitcase.

When he started to play, the beautiful melody instantly caught everyone's ear and heart. Wise's song was full of feelings and every single detail was handled very well.

When his playing ended, Betty was the first one who started to applause. As she was clapping her hands joyfully, her eyes first worshipped Mr. Wise and then shifted to the two bards.

The face of the bard who made the bet with Betty turned grim. He wished he had picked on the black-haired young man who remained silent over the other side, instead of the one known as Wise.

"I apologize, then." After a short while, the bard kept his words and returned to his own campsite with his companion, where Chris was still sitting, looking rather upset.

After seeing Mr. Wise's talent, both Joanna and Simon became more enthusiastic about talking to the young man, not to mention Betty.

"Mr. Wise, can you play Mr. Evans's Canon in D major with your harp?" Betty's face was glowing with anticipation.

Wise gently nodded and started to play the music piece recomposed by Lucien, which reminded Lucien of his friends in Aalto. He decided to send them a letter through the Musicians' Association when he arrived in Korsor.

In those two months, Lucien only sent them one letter.

When Wise's playing ended, dinner was ready. Betty said to Wise directly, "Mr. Wise, if I had not fallen in love with Lucien Evans' music, I would become your music follower!"

"I think you're even better than some of the musicians in Korsor," Joanna agreed.

There was an even bigger smile on Wise's face. After all, Wise regarded the comparison between him and that talented and famous musician as a great honor.

When Wise went past Lucien, he still showed a humble smile.

"You were being really modest, Mr. Wise," Lucien said to him, also with a smile, "You played very well."

…

Deep into the night, almost all of them were sound asleep, except for two people.

The campfire stretched the shadow of a short sneaky figure that approached, making the cast darkness tremble on the background, in the rhythm of the flickering flame in the middle of the camp. Suddenly, the shadow stopped, as if it was waiting for something.

The very moment Betty yawned, the shadowy figure immediately jumped to the back side of the coach. It secretly opened the window and swiftly sneaked into it.

It was Chris, who always bragged about being a real man.

He carefully closed the coach window and stood up. A complacent smile appeared on his face. Everyone thought he was a Greatsword Warrior, whereas in fact Chris was an experienced thief, and his short figure helped him a lot at that matter.

"…Simon, Joanna, and Betty, what will happen if your employer's fancy sword is missing?" thought Chris silently in his mind. "I bet he's gonna be really, really upset."

As he turned around and looked for Lucien's sword, Chris was also excited. He knew that the fancy sword was definitely worth a lot. After selling it, he maybe would have enough money to buy a lord title.

That was what people called 'kill two birds with one stone'.

However, within the next second, Chris found out that both Lucien and his sword were missing.

"What happened?!" He had no idea.

When Chris was about to leave the coach, the fancy sword that he was looking for was pressed against his throat.

Chris shuddered and immediately kneeled down.

"My lord! Please forgive me!" Chris realized that Lucien actually had the level of a real knight, or he would not be able to discover his plot.

"Right or left?" asked Lucien calmly.

"Wh… what?" Chris was sweating.

"Right hand or left hand? Which one do you want me to chop off?" Lucien repeated.

"My… my lord, please forgive me!" Chris burst out a cry, "I have information… information to tell you!!"

Chapter 139: The Invitation

Translator: Kris_Liu Editor: Vermillion

"What do you have that could interest me?" said Lucien gently with a smile.

"My lord… If you're interested in my information, I beg you pardon me, please." Chris almost burst into tears.

"That depends on how valuable your information is." Lucien held his sword firmly.

"I… I got an invitation the other day," stammered Chris.

"You got?" Lucien tilted his head a bit.

"I stole… I stole the invitation," Chris corrected himself awkwardly, but he then explained hurriedly, "It looks like an invitation for a gathering of black sorcerers."

"…" Lucien did not respond, although his heart suddenly missed a beat.

"My lord… It is a gathering of black sorcerers of low rank, and it's a great chance for any knight to establish a great, heroic feat."

"Show me the invitation." Lucien hid his excitement and commanded sternly.

Under Lucien's watch, Chris took out a small piece of neatly folded paper from his pocket.

"Here it is, my lord. Several days ago, a mysterious traveler came to the town and the way he spent money was pretty indulgent. So I followed him when he left the town and I witnessed that he killed a bunch of beats which were trying to attack him, using vicious, frightful black magic!"

Lucien took the piece of paper and unfolded it with his left hand. Only with a short glance, he registered the invitation in his spiritual library:

"The second Friday in the Month of Fire, when the silver moon is in the sky, we invite you, sorcerers and sorcerer apprentices, to come to the land previously owned by Wilfred, to attend a feast of death that will be held in Carendia Castle to welcome a mister from the headquarter of the Congress of Magic."

No salutation, no signature. It was a strange invitation. However, it sparked off Lucien's great interest as a sorcerer himself.

Seeing that Lucien did not cut him off immediately, Chris resumed talking to provide more information to please him, "When I was following him, I didn't realize that he was also the target of another group of adventurers. After several rounds of fighting against the beasts, they attacked the traveler. The traveler was not at a disadvantage at the beginning, since his black magic was even more powerful than they thought, until all of them got besieged by a group of robbers when they were exhausted, and both the traveler and the adventures were killed."

Listening to Chris's words, Lucien was quite certain that the traveler was a sorcerer apprentice.

"So you took an advantage of it and got this invitation?" asked Lucien.

"Yes… that's right, my lord," answered Chris obediently.

"Why you did not report to the Church, then?" The name, Wilfred, was not strange to Lucien. Wilfred was one of the several legendary-level necromancers in history, however, he was killed in the siege of the Church performed by the major cardinals, and even his Magic Tower built in a demiplane was destroyed. "And do you know anything about Carendia Castle?"

"I'm a rogue walking in darkness and shadow. If the Church found out, I would be sentenced to death on the gallows," Chris honestly answered. "And I know nothing about this castle. In fact, I mentioned the name of the castle to people a couple of times in Korsor in the Adventurers' Association and the Rogue Guild, but no one ever heard of this place before. I guess… My guess is that it's a code among the black sorcerers. Well… that's how we rogues do it."

Lucien was a bit disappointed, since there was just too few clues for him to locate a place in a country which was totally strange to him.

"I see. Did you ever tell this to anyone else?" A gentle smile appeared on Lucien's face.

"Never. I was still looking for a buyer." Chris gave a sigh of relief. It seemed his hands were safe now. "Serving you is my pleasure, my lord."

Lucien nodded, "Good job."

Then, Lucien directly stabbed the sword at Chris's throat without any hesitance. Chris's eyes opened wide, but he could not make a sound. His blood bubbled from his mouth and throat. Lucien calmly pulled the sword back, "You know too much."

Although Lucien did not think he would be able to find the so-called Carendia Castle, he did not want to leave any risk here for himself, just in case, especially because he did not trust Chris at all. Who knew whether this rogue would sell this information to someone else afterwards.

Although in the beginning he felt bad, Lucien had to admit that now he felt way less guilty about killing someone who could be a great danger to himself, as long as the person was not his friend or not innocent.

Chris's body hit the wood floor of the coach and made a thud.

A small cluster of flame appeared on Lucien's finger tip and quickly burned the piece of paper completely down. Then, without hesitation, Lucien opened the window of the coach and called Betty's name gently, "Betty, can you come over here?"

Although his voice was low, Betty was still taken aback.

"Mr. Evans! You scared me a bit!" Although she was complaining, there was a sweet smile on her face.

Then Betty stood up and walked toward the coach, and at this time, what was mentioned once by Joanna and Simon suddenly occurred to her: it was not uncommon to have some clients who would ask for some "extra" services if his female guard was good-looking or had a nice figure. If the client was generous enough and was not annoying to the guard, some of them, who were quite open-minded about sex, would be willing to have an intimate relationship with their clients. After all, they also had physiological needs, and there would be a decent amount of money for them.

However, Betty regarded herself as quite conservative, and although Mr. Evans was quite handsome and generous, she was still not going to agree.

When Betty was considering how to refuse Mr. Evans, the young lord said to her calmly, "A thief sneaked into the coach."

"What?!" Betty raised her tone and immediately covered her mouth. Luckily, none of the others were woken up because of her shout. She quickly got on the coach and saw a body lying on the floor. "Chris…?! He's a rogue?" Betty's eyes opened wide, "Is he… dead?"

"I think so," Lucien answered in a plain tone.

"Mr. Evans…" Betty turned around and looked at him, "You killed him?"

"Yes." Lucien smiled, "He was trying to steal my sword, and he failed. I woke up during the process and killed him."

Since Betty had always regarded Lucien as just a young noble who wouldn't even dare to kill a chicken, Lucien's reaction after killing a person and the smile on his face sort of scared her, but soon she calmed down.

"Mr. Evans, you're stronger than I thought," said Betty. She now believed that this young noble man sitting in front of her should be about the level of a high level knight squire.

"Can you deal with the body, Betty?" Lucien did not respond to Betty's comment but pointed at the body on the floor.

"Of course, this is my fault… I should apologize for letting a thief sneak into your coach." Betty lowered her head, and then looked at Lucien again with her big eyes, "…Mr. Evans, can you keep this as a secret from my sister and Simon? She would be quite disappointed and mad if she got to know that I was not doing a good job at protecting our client."

Lucien titled his head and smiled, "I won't tell your sister. Just be careful. Don't wake her up when you're dealing with the body."

"Thank you so much, Mr. Evans!" Betty was very grateful, since this kind of fault could be very bad for their safeguarding record in the Adventurers' Association if the client decided to complain to the organization.

"I promise it won't happen again!" Betty started to pull the body out of the coach. She had disliked Chris for a long time, and no guard would hold sympathy to a thief who was trying to attack his or her client.

"Wait a second, Betty." Lucien asked, "Did you ever hear about a castle named Carendia?"

"Umm…" Betty frowned her eyebrows a bit as she was thinking, but then shook her head, "No, never."

"I see." Lucien nodded with a bit disappointment.

Although Betty was still a young girl, she was relatively experienced as an adventurer in her age. With great caution, she did a great job with the task given by Lucien.

In the following morning, although the other people, including the two bards, were quite surprised that Chris left the campsite without telling anyone, no one really cared. On the other hand, Betty, who felt rather grateful to Lucien for keeping her secret, was now showing more respect and enthusiasm toward him.

In the evening of the third day, the coach came arrived at a fork on the road, whose northward road led deep into the woods to Fogtown, known by people in this area for its lumbering, and the northeastward one to a mining town named Neese.

Both roads could lead them to Korsor, although the northward one was way less busy, but also more bumpy.

Because Lena needed to go to Fogtown, they chose the northward road.

Chapter 140: Fogtown

Translator: Kris_Liu Editor: Vermillion

Although Fogtown was not very far away from that fork in the road, the bumpiness of the road made Lucien feel very nauseous. When he was just about to get off the coach to walk on his own, they could see the small town in the distance, where there were only two main streets intersecting with each other.

The guards sensed a bit of creepiness when they went deep into the woods heading for Fogtown, not to mention the people in the coach. Even Lucien, a sorcerer who was used to dealing with so many kinds of creepy experiments, could easily notice the changes happening around them. The common oaks and birches were gradually replaced by dark gray cedars, and the cedars were so tall and thick that Lucien almost felt that he was now back in Melzer Black Forest.

Even though they were not far away from the town now, the guards didn't dare to lower their alertness, especially because the trees around them were thick and tall, which were perfect for an ambush.

The roots and the knots of the big trees looked almost like ghost faces. Betty subconsciously grabbed her bow and arrow tighter, and stayed a bit closer to Lucien's coach.

"Wilfred tree…"

Through the window of the coach, Lucien recognized this tree. In fact, nothing else was really special about it except its shape, which was often creepy. It was not named Wilfred at the very beginning, but since the famous necromancer with that name had a special affection for them and planted the trees widely in the Demiplane where his Magic Tower existed, the tree was later directly named Wilfred, after the necromancer, and turned into a symbol of viciousness.

Furthermore, it was precisely because of these dark gray trees that the town looked as if it was covered with a layer of fog, and that was how the small town gained its name.

When the coach entered the town, Lucien saw a bunch of lumbermen heading home after work. Their faces were expressionless and their eyes were dim and glazed, as if all of their passion was erased by their repeated labor day after day.

"I'd rather die if my future was like that." Betty looked back at the lumbermen and murmured to herself in an alert way.

As soon as the coach stopped in front of the only inn of Fogtown, Wise, who had been silent for quite a while, hurriedly jumped out of the coach and started to vomit.

"Are you alright, Mr. Wise?" asked Betty concernedly, "Maybe you can walk with us tomorrow. The coach must be very bumpy."

"I'm okay." Wise straightened his back a bit, "Thanks for asking, Betty."

On the other side, Joanna was helping Lena and her baby get off the coach. She turned to Lucien and said, "You look fine, Mr. Evans." Joanna smiled, "You're actually stronger than I thought."

"I was trying to sleep." Lucien was not feeling really good as well. He was trying to analyze some magic structures to distract himself.

And when Joanna went past Lucien, she said to him in a low voice sweetly, "I'm not only talking about the trip. Thank you, Mr. Evans, for forgiving Betty's negligence."

Lucien was quite surprised, but then he nodded, "I know Betty tried her best."

Simon, who was standing on the other side, also came over and said to Lucien in a low voice, "We wouldn't even be able to know that you killed Chris if Betty did not cry out."

Lucien shrugged casually and thought that Betty would definitely learn her lesson after they fulfilled the commission.

Lena, carrying the sleeping baby, walked to Lucien and handed him a Nar, "Thank you, Mr. Evans, for sharing the coach with me."

"You're welcome." Lucien took the coin.

Lena smiled, "I'll remember your kindness, Mr. Evans. I'm leaving to visit my cousin Kaelyn now."

"May god be with you." Lucien was now used to the phrases used in that world.

Lena slightly bent her knees and turned around. Lucien did not see that, when she turned her back to him, her face suddenly became a bit gloomy.

The direction which Lena was heading for with the baby led to a stone bridge, and behind the bridge there was a tall and big black castle. Its cross vault, pinnacle, and its solemn architectural style instantly revealed itself as a castle built in the later period of the War of Dawn.

"That is the castle of Baron Habearo. He's the lord of Fogtown and the other villages and towns in this area." Simon pointed at the castle and explained to Lucien, having no idea that Lucien might know more than him about the background of the place, "He was an outstanding knight when he was young, and he was known for his heroic deeds of wiping out some notorious robbers and joining the civil war among the lords in Gusta Empire. Lots of stories narrated by bards are based on his true stories, stories of a true hero.

"Unfortunately, Baron Habearo failed to make the breakthrough to become a grand knight, and his health condition declined in his early sixties. After his son left the town to travel, Baron Habearo now rarely leaves his castle. Sometimes he invites some musicians to visit the castle since I heard that he has quite an affection for music."

"Well, heroes also get old." Wise released a sigh, "Except for God, nothing can last forever in this world."

"Maybe music can last long as well," Lucien commented. In his mind, while Betty was a bit upset with Wise's words, Lucien was not affected by the true fact much, after all, if he could become a senior rank mage, Lucien could live way longer than common people.

"Well… does anyone else knows that Mrs. Kaelyn, Lena's cousin, is actually the wife of Baron Habearo's steward? Wow…" Joanna switched the topic.

In Joanna and the other adventurers' eyes, even the steward of a baron was still someone important.

…

Entering the inn, the woman standing behind the counter looked rather cold, and her eyes were also glazed, "Please register your name and date of birth if you want to stay here for the night."

"Mrs. Branka, what happened? We've stayed here before, a couple of months ago. You don't remember us?" asked Joanna, "You don't look good."

The last time when Joanna and Simon were here, Betty was not present, since she hid herself and squandered her commission in Korsor.

"Roy's dead, because of illness," Branka murmured. "He was only ten. He was summoned by God."

"It's just been few months since we saw Roy last time…" Joanna lowered her head, and then explained to Lucien in a low voice, "Roy is Mrs. Branka's youngest son."

Wise crossed himself on the chest, "May he live an eternal life in heaven."

After mourning the deceased boy, Joanna asked the woman carefully, "Mrs. Branka, I don't remember being asked to register our date of birth last time we were here."

Lucien had never heard of such a requirement in any of the countries and cities he had been to.

"This is the command of the baron. I don't know the reason…" Branka answered slowly.

While Lucien felt that this was pretty suspicious, the adventurers and Wise did not really care. All they wanted now was to have a good rest.

"You're only twenty-nine, Simon," Lucien joked. "I thought you were thirty-four or thirty-five…"

Simon indeed looked elder than his age. He scratched his head and looked at Joanna, "I know… When I got married with Joanna when I was twenty, some guests thought I was her father…"

Joanna was twenty-seven, Betty sixteen, and Wise was twenty-two.

Lucien was amused. Then, following Wise, he only left his surname on the booklet, "Evans… June 26th, 798 of the Saint Calendar." For a moment Lucien paused a bit. He was not sure if he should leave his true birthday, the one in his original world.

"Oh my…! Mr. Evans, you're not even eighteen!" Betty was very surprised.

Both Simon and Joanna felt the same way as well.

"I'm almost there, two days to go," Lucien answered casually.

"You're my idol, Mr. Evans! I hope I can become as powerful as a high level knight squire like you before I turn eighteen!" Betty's eyes were shining with excitement.

She just revealed Lucien's strength carelessly in front of other people.

"So, you shall receive formal knight training." Seizing the chance, Joanna educated Betty. Since their parents died, Joanna played a role both as elder sister and mom to Betty.

…

When it was dinner time, a blond lady entered the inn with two guards following behind her. She looked around, and soon noticed Lucien and other people in the not very busy lobby.

"Excuse me, may I ask if you are Mr. Evans?" She walked to Lucien and asked with a polite smile.

"Yes, I am. What can I do for you, madam?" Lucien could sort of guess who was this lady.

"Nice to meet you, Mr. Evans." The lady nodded, "I'm Lena's cousin, Kaelyn. I'm here to thank you for taking Lena back."

"You're welcome, madam. It wasn't a big deal," Lucien answered politely, although he felt suspicious again–shouldn't Lena be there as well? Lena's cousin coming here on her own with her guards to thank him was sort of weird to Lucien.

Kaelyn looked at Lucien, then Betty, and then took a step closer to Wise, "Baron Habearo asked Lena about her trip, and my cousin mentioned to the lord that there was a very talented young man who could play harp very well. I think it's you, right? Mr. Wise?"

"I'm more than flattered, madam." Wise slightly bowed to Kaelyn.

"Baron Habearo loves music very much, thus, he wanted to invite Mr. Wise to his castle to exchange ideas regarding music. And, of course, Lord Habearo is very interested in your traveling experience as well, Mr. Evans. I wonder if you two would like to visit the castle and be Baron Habearo's guests?"

Before Lucien said anything, Wise smiled, "Yes, for sure. Lord Habearo is my idol… He's a hero."

Kaelyn nodded and turned to Lucien, "What about you, sir?"

"I just worry about my guards…" Lucien pointed at his three guards.

Since it seemed the baron was more interested in Wise's music, Lucien felt he should be fine if he decided to go, and another important reason was that he might be able to get some information from the baron about the castle named Carendia.

"They can come with you. It's not a problem at all." Kaelyn's smile was polite and sweet, "The baron was an adventurer before, and he would like to listen to some amazing adventure stories from you."

"We can go as well?" Both Betty and Joanna were very excited, and even Simon showed some emotion.

…

"Mrs. Kaelyn, will Lena be here tonight as well?" Betty asked when they were approaching the castle passing the stone bridge.

"She won't. She needs rest," answered Kaelyn shortly.

Betty was a bit disappointed, "I'm kind of missing Lena's cute baby."

Kaelyn did not respond, leading Lucien and other people into the castle after crossing the suspension bridge.

Chapter 141: Baron Habearo

Translator: Kris_Liu Editor: Vermillion

The baron's castle was a typical representative of the architectural style in the later period of the War of Dawn. The lobby on the first floor was spacious and magnificent, and in contrast, the windows high above were narrow. In general, Lucien felt this place was dark and mysterious.

"Lord Habearo's waiting in the dining room on the second floor." Kaelyn raised her right hand and pointed at the stairs to the upper floor, "The first floor is mostly for parties and sometimes used for court."

While Lucien and Wise were behaving themselves decently, Joanna and Simon were looking around out of curiosity, not to mention Betty. They had never entered a castle before, and this one was even bigger than what castles looked like in their imagination.

After the set of stairs, they came into a long and narrow corridor. Along either side of the corridor, a line of candles partially lit up the space, and beside the candles, there were several portrayals of Lord Habearo.

"This is Lord Habearo I," explained Kaelyn. "Habearo family was first granted fief for the contribution on the War of Dawn. I heard that the Blessing of the family is powerful… something like turning themselves and their enemies into stone. I never witnessed the lord's power, though."

"Is this Blessing for close or ranged combat?" Lucien murmured subconsciously.

Hearing Mr. Evans's question, Simon became more certain that Lucien was a noble young man who received formal knight training before.

"Sorry, I'm not sure, Mr. Evans." Kaelyn smiled, "I don't know how to fight."

Lucien nodded and kept walking toward the dining room following Kaelyn.

Although no one ever mentioned, all of them, including Lucien, felt that those vivid portrayals were staring at them from both sides of the wall.

Kaelyn pushed the door of the dining room open. The door was made of redwood, behind which the dining room was decorated in a very luxury way.

At the center of the dining room, there was a long dining table, on which lay several sets of fine porcelain tablewares. Several servants were lined up beside the table, waiting for order. On the other side of the dining room, a chamber band was playing decent music.

They were asked to hand their weapons to the guards standing beside the door. Lucien untied his sword and left Alert outside of the dining room. He did not feel concerned, since he still had a dagger with him.

The elder noble man sitting at the far end of the table stood up from the chair to welcome them. Although there were some wrinkles on his ruddy face, his hair was still black. If Lucien had not known that baron Habearo was already in his seventies, he would definitely be unable to tell this man's true age.

"Welcome, welcome!" Lord Habearo was wearing a brown robe of old style. "My guests! Your arrival has brought me, an old man, a lot of new energy!" His voice was resonant and his eyes were bright. The big, green jade ring on his right hand was quite eye-catching.

"Baron Habearo." Lucien took the lead and bowed to him.

"You must be Mr. Evans." Habearo's eyes scanned Lucien, "Um… young and elegant. Arms and legs look pretty strong." As he was talking to Lucien, Habearo was glancing at Lucien's face, chest, arms and legs.

"…" Lucien felt very uncomfortable with Habearo's comment, and he wondered if this old lord actually liked men.

Lucien was just about to directly tell the baron to stop looking at him, but Habearo turned around and started to greet other people.

When he was greeting Betty, he started to stare at her in a lascivious manner. Betty almost rolled her eyes. As if he had realized his gaffe, Habearo apologized with an awkward smile, "Sorry for my misbehavior. I'm an old man, weak both physically and mentally. Every time I see young people, I often appreciate their youthfulness. I miss my early years very much, and I wish I could regain the fine skin, strong hands and legs again. We shall toast for youthfulness later."

"You still look very young in your age." Lucien responded, although he still had the impression the baron was very suspicious. After sitting down beside the table, Lucien laid the napkin on his legs and asked, "Lord Habearo, is your steward not around tonight?"

Lucien could not help but ask the question, since he had felt that there was something wrong there, and he was trying to figure out what it was. Without a doubt, if the master was entertaining the guests, the absence of the steward was not normal.

"Yes, Mr. Cork is out for some other business tonight." Habearo's face was partly hidden by the shadows, "If you'd like to stay here tonight, Mr. Evans, you should be able to see him tomorrow morning."

Then the baron introduced the elder man who was playing piano on the other side, "This is my music consultant, Mr. Mars, a famous musician in Korsor."

Although Mars was just in his early sixties, he looked obviously much elder than the baron.

After getting each other, Mars complained to the baron, "My lord, the musical instrument that you just bought… piano, yes, piano… is not even close to harpsichord. The sound quality is not very good."

After being invented about a year ago, now piano was gaining more popularity. Even the baron, a noble in this remote place, started to pursue the trend as well.

"It's the pedals… you did not use the pedals properly." Betty murmured.

She disliked the fact that someone was criticizing the music instrument which her favorite musician, Lucien Evans, was best at.

"Such a young lady, I think you're simply not a professional." Mars frowned, "I did use the pedals."

"I'm not professional, but Mr. Wise is!" Betty disputed, "He's a musician!"

Wise looked rather embarrassed when Mars turned to look at him.

"Well… actually, I don't understand music completely. It just so happens that I've been studying piano recently." Wise waved his hands a bit, then he started to introduce some really professional theories about this new music instrument, which confused all the people present, except Mars and Lucien.

Holding a glass of water, Lucien listened to Wise's thoughts with interest. Some of his concerns were raised by some musicians and critics over the newspapers before, but finally these concerns were all proved unnecessary by Lucien's successful playing.

"Now, the era of traditional symphony has ended. The splendid era has ended." Habearo sighed, "I still remember the thunder-like applause over that Aalto music festival many years ago, when traditional symphony established its supreme status. Mr. Christopher, Mr. Leandrinho, Ms. Rania, Mr. Ionescu and all those other great musicians created a great era, and now, that era has ended, sharing the fate of every human being, who will eventually die."

"I don't think that the passing of this era is something that we shall feel regretful. Now we have brand new music styles, themes, ways of presenting, and countless possibilities lying in the potential of music. Right now music is bursting out more of its energy than ever before! What is passed is passed. We shall look to the future!" As Betty was expressing her idea about music, she totally forgot that the person sitting in front of her was a baron.

Later, all of them joined the music discussion, except Lucien. Finally, someone turned to Lucien and asked, "What's your opinion, Mr. Evans?"

He considered for a bit and said carefully, "I understand both sides. Lord Habearo missed the passing era because he was part of it, and he experienced the glory himself. Likewise, it is also reasonable that Mr. Wise and Betty, as the younger generation, would like to pursue the new trend of music."

Both Habearo and Wise nodded.

"So, I think that, although revolution and change is always unavoidable in any era, as people witnessing the changes right now in the trend, we can hardly comment whether the changes are good or not. Maybe… maybe people who live a few hundreds of years later can have a better perspective talking about the features of different music eras."

Lucien's comment summarized their discussion well. The baron sighed, "Mr. Evans' point of view is really persuasive."

However, Mars still did not want to let the topic go.

"Mr. Wise, can you play the piano for us to show me how am I supposed to utilize the pedals?"

"Yes, please, Mr. Wise!" Betty agreed with excitement.

"I also want to have a chance to appreciate Mr. Wise's playing." Habearo also nodded.

Wise had no choice but to nod, "All right. I'll try."

Lucien recognized the melody immediatly when Wise started to play. It was Pathetique. Wise's performance was unexpectedly good, and everyone present was listening to it very carefully.

Lucien took a glance at the baron when Wise was playing, and he noticed that the baron's face was twitching a bit, as if he was suffering from some painful emotion, which made Lucien feel suspicious again.

As if the baron had noticed Lucien's gaze, he forced a smiled on his face and leaned forward to talk to him, "Mr. Evans, do you know Mr. Wise's full name?"

"Burt Wise." Lucien disguised his suspicion.

"No wonder… Burt Wise! The talented musician who's gonna hold the concert in Korsor!"

Mars, who was standing beside them, was very surprised as well, "I thought he was just a common young man who was a music fan. It turned out that he's the most professional one among us all!"

"Really!? I… I never thought about asking Mr. Wise's full name!" Betty's eyes were shining with great excitement, "He always said that he did not really understand music, and thus I never expected that he was the famous musician, Burt Wise!"

Lucien was surprised as well.

Wise came back to his seat under warm applause. He shrugged a bit when he sat down beside Lucien.

"I mean, really, I don't really understand music." Wise smiled a little awkwardly.

Lucien was amused. He raised his glass of water to Wise, "Me neither."

…

When the dinner was about to start, the uneasy sense of foreboding in Lucien's mind started to become more and more torturing to him. Thus, Lucien found the excuse to use the bathroom and left the dining room following a servant.

Chapter 142: Lucien's Decisiveness

Translator: Kris_Liu Editor: Vermillion

The finely decorated bathroom was in the corner of the dining room. Locking the wooden door from inside, Lucien did a careful check around and then took out his Morning Light crystal ball and the Grimsteel Dagger.

Lucien cut his finger with the dagger, making a drop of his blood splash onto the surface of the wash basin.

Dipping the blood with his right index finger, Lucien started to write in the air, leaving scarlet symbols floating in front of him in the shape of a relatively simple magic structure. This structure was meant to hide the magic waves that the crystal ball would cause.

The crystal ball named Morning Light slowly rose, and the strange symbols soon covered it. Lucien reached his hands out close to the crystal ball and started to murmur a mantra.

The center of the crystal ball became darker, and stars showed up all over it, as if there was a starry sky within.

This was one of the most unique spells in the school of Astrology, Horoscope.

After finding the crystal ball, based on the astrology knowledge he had as an apprentice, and also due to his previous understanding of astrophysics, Lucien soon learned Primary Horoscope. That made Lucien feel even more curious about destiny.

Staring at a shooting star in the crystal ball, Lucien frowned, "My Host Star of Destiny is… dimmer than before, which means that I'm still in potential danger. And… and the great danger is coming… it's threatening my star."

That was all the information that Lucien could collect from the crystal ball with his horoscope level. For more specific information Lucien needed a higher level of knowledge, as well as the power to cast it.

Even with a higher level of horoscope, the result wouldn't always be accurate and could still be changed.

Putting the crystal ball back, Lucien took out Fire Weaver's Bracelet and wore it on his wrist, as well as his Ice Revenger. Lucien took them off earlier before he met the baron, just in case Habearo could tell his identity.

The uneasy sense of foreboding was becoming more and more intense, which was burning Lucien's guts.

Although he was still not sure if the danger was actually from the baron, Lucien decided to take the initiative and to be decisive. He could not just wait for the danger to come at him. By then, any action would be too late to be taken.

Opening the wooden door, Lucien walked out of the bathroom as if everything was just fine.

When he came back to the dining table, both Habearo and Kaelyn were not there.

"Where did the baron and Mrs. Kaelyn go?" Lucien tried to ask in a casual tone.

"The baron was not feeling very good, and Mrs. Kaelyn just accompanied him to go back to his bedroom to take some medicine. They'll be back soon," Betty answered.

"Then I shall take a look at the baron to make sure he's fine," Lucien nodded and said coldly.

"But Mr. Evans… the baron will be back soon." Betty and the other guests were a bit surprised.

Without any further explanation, Lucien turned around and walked toward the door of the dining room.

"Mr. Evans… the baron wants us to stay here," Joanna said behind him.

"You shall stay in the dining room, like the lady said." The two guards beside the door crossed their spears in front of Lucien and said in a polite but cold manner.

Lucien slightly nodded and smiled.

However, in the next second, Lucien suddenly pushed one of the guards away, drew his dagger and stabbed it right into the other guard's arm.

"Mr. Evans!!" Betty screamed, "What're you doing!?"

As soon as the dagger was stabbed into the guard's arm, a putrid liquid burst out instead of the expected blood, spreading a horrible smell through the room.

Lucien's movement was very swift. He pulled the dagger out and cut the guard's throat open while he rolled forward on the floor to avoid the spear of the other guard.

Evans… Mr. Evans… killed the baron's guard.

All of the guests were startled.

But soon they found that Mr.Evans was covered with a layer of white light. After Lucien managed to kill the other guard, the two bodies started to rot in a visible speed as if they were dead since long ago.

"This is…" Simon murmured subconsciously.

Lucien took back his Alert and answered calmly, "This is a husk."

And then he turned to Mars, "Mr. Mars, do you know where the baron's bedroom is?"

Mars was already shaking all over from what he just witnessed. He was not able to respond to Lucien properly until Joanna suddenly patted him on his back.

As soon as Mars uttered where the baron's bedroom was, Lucien quickly made the arrangement, "Simon, you deal with the guards from the upper floor. Make sure you take care of Mr. Wise and Mr. Mars. Betty and Joanna, you watch the stair on the other side."

After seeing that they nodded subconsciously, Lucien quickly rushed out of the door and disappeared into the shadows.

"Mr. Evans… He has the power of a knight?" Betty cried out.

"Betty, get your bow and come here!" Simon commanded.

…

Lucien was running at full speed in the dark corridor. After killing several husks, Lucien stopped a few steps away from the baron's bedroom.

Staring at the door, Lucien activated Sun's Corona and released the magic waves which were extremely detrimental to undead creatures. The four husks guarding the bedroom were instantly purified and fell to the ground.

At the same time, Lucien banged the door open with all his strength, tightly holding Alert and the Grimsteel Dagger.

A couple of black magic circles showed up in front of the door but immediately broke into shining pieces.

When the door was knocked open, Lucien quickly stopped the momentum to prevent himself from running into anything by accident, and simultaneously activated a magic structure in his soul and summoned two black magic missiles.

In the bedroom, Baron Harbearo, whose face was covered with deep and horrible wrinkles, was sitting in the center of a black magic triangle. His appearance indicated his condition was worsening and he was about to die at any moment.

On the tips of the triangle, three figures were tied up by black, half-transparent tentacles. A baby, a seven or eight-years-old kid, and a teenager of thirteen or fourteen.

There was white light coming out of their bodies, as if the tentacles were sucking up their vital energy. The light was being infused into a white eyeball that had no pupil. Kaelyn stood beside the baron, enchanting some kind of weird spell. Being driven by her spell, there were two lines of tears of blood coming out of the eyeball and falling into the silver cup in Habearo's hand.

However, to the baron's great surprise, the two magic missiles flew right toward his silver cup.

Chapter 143: The Hunts

Translator: Kris_Liu Editor: Vermillion

Completely out of the baron's expectation, the silver cup in his hand was shattered by the magic missiles, and the broken pieces fell onto the thick carpet.

The baron and Kaelyn were totally startled. They did not understand what was going on there.

Seizing the chance, Lucien cast Palmeira's Frost Blades, and three icy blades were shot straight at the baron.

When the blades were about to hit the baron, Habearo released an angry roar and fiercely reached out his fossilized right fist to punch one of the blades, while at the same time he put his left hand on his neck to protect himself, since it had turned into stone as well.

One of the blades was smashed by the baron's stone fist, but by then the other two blades hit him — one in his left arm and one in his leg. Although they did not cause much damage, the ice temporarily froze him on the spot.

When Lucien was about to cast another spell, a black magic ray directly hit the invisible Star Shield covering him. As soon as the shield was hit, the previously invisible shield radiated star light and protected the person within it.

Lucien did not expect that Kaelyn was actually a sorcerer apprentice!

Although Kaelyn's spell was not powerful enough to hurt Lucien, a real sorcerer, it bought time for the baron to get rid of the ice.

In the next moment, the layer of ice covering Habearo collapsed, and then the stone-man rushed straight at Lucien. Although Habearo wanted to get his sword on the desk to the side, he decided to launch the attack immediately, in order to leave the sorcerer no time to cast any spell.

Habearo's dusty and fossilized fist hit Lucien's Star Shield bitterly, and the shield cracked. Being experienced in fighting with sorcerers, Habearo changed the angle of his attack.

Lucien did not panic. Making the best use of the time the shield granted him before shattering to pieces, Lucien cast the first circle spell, Sleep.

Surrounding Lucien, green light waves expanded outward in circles.

As soon as the light waves touched Kaelyn, her eyes became languid, and then, right in the middle of the fighting, she yawned and fell on the floor to start sleeping.

Even strong as Habearo's stone body was, he was heavily struck by a sense of tiredness, as if he was experiencing a sudden process of aging, and his movement also paused a bit.

Within this pause, a bright light showed up above Lucien's left hand, and he threw a head-sized fireball at the baron.

Although Habearo's instinctive reaction freed him from the tiredness instantly, it was still too late for him to fully avoid the fire ball.

Together with the explosion of the fire ball, Habearo's right arm was devoured by the fire. The blast fiercely threw the three dead bodies, the baby, the young boy and the teenager, away to the other side of the room.

Some kind of mix of festered and stinky blood came out of the baron's stone body, and what was even more shocking was that Habearo's face started to age very fast.

Completely mad, Habearo screamed and rushed at Lucien again, with his remaining limbs.

Using Alert to block the baron's attack, Lucien could see that even his sword was surrounded by stone dust as if the sword would turn into stone soon.

Before Habearo's power did any real damage to the sword, Lucien activated Sun's Corona.

A beam of holy light was summoned and directly struck the baron.

"Holy light?!" Habearo cried out.

The light was burning the baron's skin and finally peeled off the stone covering his body. Seeing that his own body was rotting in a visible speed, the baron looked very scared, but then, became calm and relieved.

Bathing in the holy light, aging and dying in the holy light, he murmured as if he was dreaming, "My skin was losing its glory, like dried fruit…

"My face was fully covered with wrinkles, and so did my body…

"My strength and agility were fast declining and could never come back again…

"I couldn't see beautiful sceneries, couldn't taste cuisines…

"My passion was fading… even having a young beautiful woman in my arms was…"

Hearing his words, Lucien frowned, but the baron continued, "Why people age?

"Why when people age, all the happiness is gone?

"Where's God's heaven?"

Although Lucien couldn't really understand the pain of aging, he was still sort of shocked. And he was sort of grateful that he chose the sorcerer path, so he could still have a chance to live longer than common people.

After someone became a senior-rank mage, he or she could make it over two hundred years old, and a sorcerer or sorceress could still turn to magic rituals and potions to further prolong their lifespan, such as Lich Conversion, although many of them died during the process.

Even middle or junior mage could also find assorted ways to live longer.

The baron's eyes slowly closed. His sinful life finally ended.

Lucien felt rather lucky that he decisively made up his mind and took action in time, since if the baron had completed his ritual and recovered his power of a level two knight, that would probably be the end of Lucien.

However, after killing the baron, the uneasy sense of foreboding was still lingering above Lucien's mind. What he felt mostly suspicious was the reason why, even toward the end of the fight, Habearo never cast any necromantic spell.

Lucien's brows frowned, since he knew that there was only one possible explanation for this: The baron himself was not a necromancer, and it was someone else who was instigating and enticing Habearo to use young lives to keep his own youthfulness using black magic.

So, after binding Kaelyn's arms, Lucien woke her up.

As soon as Kaelyn opened her eyes, she saw a pair of black pupils in which there was a starry sky. Lucien used his hypnosis on her.

"Mr. Evans, what do you want me to do?" asked Kaelyn, like a little girl speaking to someone she admired. She just completely ignored the loud fighting sound on the other side of the castle.

To be more specific, what Lucien was using right now was the first circle spell called Charm Person, which could control a person's mind whose spiritual power was less strong than the spellcaster's. Unless the given order conflicted greatly with the will of the person being controlled, in most cases, the person who got controlled would just follow the spell caster's orders.

"Tell me, who taught you magic, and who taught the baron the black ritual?" asked Lucien directly.

"My husband, Hunt, or say, the baron's steward, Mr. Cork." Kaelyn smiled, as if she was very glad that she could provide any useful information to Lucien, "Several years ago, when he was invited to be the baron's civil official, Hunt started to teach Habearo to use the power of the death of young lives to extend his own life, and at the same time, he could use the dead bodies for his experiments afterwards. In order to better disguise what they were doing, Hunt became the baron's steward."

"Cork… Hunt… Kaelyn Hunt…?!" Lucien was quite shocked, "Are you the Hunts from Bonn?"

Kaelyn Cork was actually Mrs. Hunt, who Lucien was looking for to fulfill his promise to the revenant girl.

What happened to them, Lucien wondered.

As soon as Lucien mentioned Bonn, Kaelyn's mood started to become very unstable, and her great emotional pain freed her from Lucien's spell, "How do you know we were from Bonn?! Who are you!"

"People in Bonn told me that Mrs. Hunt was a nice and beautiful lady, who was always willing to offer help, especially taking care of kids. Why have you become like this? Why are you helping your husband to kill other kids?" Lucien did not answer her questions directly.

Kaelyn was shocked, as if Lucien's words stabbed her in the heart, and a few seconds later she started to laugh like she was crazy, "I… I was nice and beautiful? I was willing to help people? Hahahaha… You see what I got from my kindness? My daughter got kidnapped and she's been missing for ten years, and my husband turned into a monster. Now, when I see how heartbroken these parents become when they lose their kids, I feel I have companions who can understand my pain!"

"Where is Hunt, then…" Lucien remained calm.

"He's doing an experiment in the cemetery," Kaelyn sneered. "Hunt was too busy, and your sword made the baron decide to be more careful with you, or we'd just have killed you, instead of preparing some stupid dinner."

"Experiment…" Hearing that, Lucien had a really bad feeling about it.

"Hunt's a monster now. He is still as mysterious and powerful as he was, but he's no longer a considerate man, as he once was in Bonn." Kaelyn murmured, as if she was talking to herself.

"Mysterious and powerful…" Lucien suddenly realized that he made a wrong assumption before. He had thought that Hunt turned into a necromancer when he arrived in this land, which was known for the past prevalence of necromancers, however, it seemed like Hunt was already a necromancer when he was in Bonn!

"Knock, knock, knock…" Something was gently knocking at the window.

When Lucien looked back, what he saw shocked him. There was a gray owl standing outside of the bedroom window, or, to be more specific, it was a dead owl, since its whole body was basically rotten and its white bones were exposed to the air.

As Lucien was staring at it, the owl also looked at Lucien and Kaelyn with its cold eyes, but kept knocking at the window with its beak.

Chapter 144: The Burning Cemetery

Translator: Kris_Liu Editor: Vermillion

Two magic missiles broke the window and flew directly toward that creepy-looking owl.

The gray owl did not move, but some kind of black gas instantly covered it. The magic missiles strongly disturbed the gas surrounding it.

As if the owl just realized that the person who was talking to Kaelyn was an enemy instead of a friend, the owl opened its beak and started to scream, although no sound was produced.

All of a sudden, lots of black tentacles crawled out from the carpet. As soon as they touched Lucien's body, Lucien felt a mix of numbness, weakness and pain.

Lucien had never experienced that before. Among all the apprentice spells and first circle spells, he never found anything that had this mixed effects. Even the second circle spell, Ghoul Touch, could only numb and hurt people at the same time to some extent.

So Lucien guessed that it was a special necromantic magic.

Remaining calm, Lucien activated the bracelet and easily got rid of the tentacles with the spell enchanted within, Flame Shield.

Being surrounded by the flame to defend himself from the countless black tentacles, Lucien saw that they were accumulating by the door, making it impossible for him to escape. Changing his mind, he turned himself into a streak of moonlight and rushed at the gray owl with his sword.

The owl flew up as Lucien directly broke through the window and started to rapidly fall from that floor. However, instead of heavily hitting the ground, Lucien's fall slowed down, like that of a feather.

First circle magic, Feather Fall.

When Lucien was close to land, he heard a crazy laughter coming from the cemetery close by, "Hahaha! I'm almost there! Just one more step! Kaelyn, Kaelyn… where are you?!"

As the laughter was getting closer and closer, Lucien saw the creepiest thing that he had ever encountered: Lucien could barely tell from the creature's face that it had been a human in the past, however, the other parts of its body were just rotten flesh, from which disgusting eyeballs, lips and pale arms were growing out of its body. Furthermore the thing was surrounded by some kind of gray gas that was blighting and killing the plants that it passed by.

As soon as the monster noticed Lucien, it released a bitter scream. Those black tentacles grew out again on the ground and crazily reached toward Lucien.

Seeing this monster, Lucien almost threw up. He immediately activated Death Resistance, a level two divine spell within Sun's Corona, and was quickly surrounded by a layer of white light, which could protect him greatly from necromantic power.

The black tentacles were frightened, as if they were facing their biggest bane, which bought Lucien some time to safely land and adjust his position to hack at the monster. Lucien was pretty much certain that it was Hunt.

What Lucien did not expect was that, as Hunt pointed at his sword Alert, the sword hacked backwards at Lucien and left a deep wound on his shoulder.

It was the first circle necromantic spell, Back Bite.

Taking a deep breath from the pain, Lucien grabbed the sword again and activated the magic structure in his soul. Instantly, a layer of oil covered Hunt and extended to the ground.

First circle spell, Oil.

Taking a step ahead, Hunt almost fell over. So he stopped and started to use some ranged spells to attack Lucien.

Negative Energy Ray, Shriveling, Chill Touch, Enfeeblement Ray… All these spells were attacking Lucien crazily as if there was no buffering time at all. However, Lucien had learned quite a lot from the tactics that Aaron and Habearo used to fight against a sorcerer. He kept moving around, leaving no chance for Hunt to target him. Although a few times he failed to fully avoid them, the level two spell Death Resistance could still protect him to some degree.

Hunt had completely turned into a monster, a monster that did not reason much during a fight. As he was casting the spells one by one without much interval, the eyeballs, lips and arms started to fall from his rotten flesh.

The monster got furious. As Hunt released a deafening scream, black waves burst out surrounding him. Third circle necromantic spell, and also an area spell, Negative Energy Explosion.

Lucien had nowhere to hide from the black waves. So he had no choice but to use the last chance of activating Flame Shield in Fire Weaver's Bracelet to resist.

Although the flame was as bright as the sun, it was soon eliminated by the black waves. Thanks to Lucien's another layer of protection, Death Resistance, inside of the shield of flame, Lucien barely survived that ranged attack.

After casting this powerful spell, Hunt was temporarily still from the overconsumption of his power. He needed some time to recover.

At this time, Lucien cast Oil again, covering Hunt and the place he stood with a second layer of oil.

However, when Lucien was about to attack Hunt again, three magic missiles flew directly at him.

It was the gray owl. While its owner could not cast any spell, Hunt's summoned familiar distracted Lucien.

Dodging aside swiftly, Lucien avoided the missiles, however, he didn't dare to stop moving. Lucien had no idea what spell was useful right now to kill this filthy thing up in the sky except Magic Missile, but as the owl was flying around, it was also not easy for Lucien to target it. Besides, the owl was protected by Death Shield, and Lucien would have to hit it several times with his missiles to break it down.

"I should've learned how to summon a flying familiar as well…" Lucien thought to himself when he was moving around, trying to break the owl's magic shield with magic missiles.

When Lucien was about to throw his dagger toward this filthy evil bird when its shield was almost gone, Hunt started to move again.

"Damn it!" Lucien burst out a swear when he saw that, as the rotten chunks of flesh started to fall from Hunt's body again, on the other side, there were bodies climbing out of the graves. Some of them were skeletons, while others were partially rotten… All of them were waking up and dragging themselves out of the black soil. Furthermore, there were even several revenants floating in the air.

Lucien was their target. Like a tsunami, they were coming at him.

Lucien's heart was beating fiercely. He did not know what to do for a second — should he kill the owl first, or deal with the army of bodies and revenants?

Suddenly, an arrow shining green light shot fiercely out of the castle and directly punched a hole through the owl's eye.

It was Betty, followed by Joanna and Simon. After beating all the husks, they found two precious standard bows in the castle. When they rushed to come to help Lucien, they saw the big crowd of walking corpses surrounding Lucien, and a creepy dead owl flying around and attacking him.

The owl started to scream, and it switched its target to Betty. At the same time, Joanna shot another arrow that went directly through the owl's other eye.

With the owl no longer interrupting him, Lucien cast Oil for the third time and activated Sun's Corona to face the approaching corpses.

White holy light burst out from Lucien's body and extended in all directions. The light was so bright that half of the night sky was lit up.

Like mighty surging waves, the holy light overwhelmed the skeletons, the rotten bodies, and the revenants. Being washed out by the white light, they started to collapse, turning into piles of bones and flesh. The scene was literally shocking.

"Mr. Evans… Mr. Evans is a Saint Knight!" Betty cried out, "That's his power!"

There were only a few zombies and skeletons still struggling and screaming on the ground, but Hunt had already recovered some of his power. The monster opened his mouth again and was ready to cast another Negative Energy Explosion. However, that was too late for Hunt.

"Hunt!!" It was Kaelyn's voice. She was screaming at the top of her lungs.

Simon got her, pretending that he was about to throw her out of the window.

Hearing the familiar voice, Hunt slightly turned his head to the side and stared at Kaelyn, although most of his consciousness was already gone.

Seizing the chance, Lucien threw the big fireball summoned directly toward the monster.

"Bang!!!" The sound of explosion was deafening. Being covered with oil, Hunt instantly blew apart and his rotten flesh, eyeballs, and arms fell all over, making disgusting, sticky, jelly-like sound.

The remaining major part of Hunt was still writhing on the ground like a moving torch. The burning parts that flew out of his body ignited the other bodies and bones on the ground. The whole cemetery ended up in a horrible fire.

Betty, Simon and Joanna were totally shocked.

Turning around, Lucien directly threw his dagger at the owl and the weapon pierced through its head.

The owl fell to the ground and could not move anymore.

"Hunt!!!" Kaelyn screamed her husband's name and struggled to free herself from Simon's control. She jumped right through the window and fell hard on the ground.

Dragging her legs, Kaelyn slowly crawled toward the fire with all her effort.

Chapter 145: Hunt's experiment

Translator: Kris_Liu Editor: Vermillion

When the chunks of rotten flesh and limbs covering Hunt on the outside were burned down to ashes, the original look of the man was revealed. Both of his legs and one arm were missing, but his eyes once again looked like that of a human being.

Moaning, Hunt was crawling toward Kaelyn, dragging his remaining body with parts of it still being burned by the fire.

Lucien took out a glass tube filled with white ashes and handed it to Kaelyn, and then he carried Kaelyn closer to her husband.

"This is…" Kaelyn's heart missed a beat. Surprisingly, the ashes in the small glass tube felt familiar to her, and tears rolled down her cheeks.

"Is that… Mary?" Hunt's voice trembled from both pain and shock, "Kaelyn… It's Mary… our daughter…"

"Mary was trapped in a magic lock. Before she died, she asked me to take her home." Lucien explained shortly. He did not mention how Mary spent the last days of her life in the World of Souls, where there was no food, no color and no life at all. That was too much for the parents.

Hunt's lips moved a bit, but made no sound. Then, he burst into tears.

"The magic… lock…" Hunt cried with pain, not from his body, but his heart, "I knew it was the magic lock…it consumed more than twenty years of my life, and also took Mary away from me."

Lucien remained silent. He had the feeling that Hunt knew something about Mary's disappearance, and his guess turned out to be correct.

Kaelyn choked with sobs. Pulling the cork out of the tube, she scattered Mary's ashes on her chest and pulled the rest of it in her mouth. Then she hugged her husband tightly. The fire on Hunt's body was now burning her as well.

"Mr. Evans, thank you. At least we can reunite before we die," said Kaelyn. Then she hugged Hunt's head in her arms and kissed his forehead with her lips covered with Mary's ashes.

Looking at the couple in the fire, Lucien's mood was heavy. He did not know what to say.

"We… we should've taken Mary with us… we shouldn't have stayed in Bonn… We should… should have come back to Djibouti… my hometown." Hunt hugged Kaelyn, clearly dying.

"I've always loved you, all the time," Kaelyn said to him. "I love you and our daughter, no matter where we are," she added in a low voice.

"Me… too." Hunt's consciousness was fading, "I wish… I've never… learned… ma…"

He did not manage to finish his sentence expressing his regret. Kaelyn closed her eyes and hugged him tight, and then ended her own life with a small dagger in her dress.

…

When the two bodies were almost burned into ashes by the fire, a cold wind blew away the smoke. Gleams of white light appeared in the sky, and the light joined together.

The figure of the little girl, Mary, appeared in the night sky, and she was still sweet and cute. Hunt and Kaelyn were standing behind her, although their figures were quite blurry.

Mary's lips were moving silently, and only Lucien could hear her voice, "Thank you. Thank you for taking me home. Finally, I found my mom and dad."

Then, their figures turned into gleams of light again and disappeared in the wind. At the same time, some light lingered around Lucien's left hand and a white tear-shaped mark on it was left on his skin.

Lucien still had the protection from Death Resistance, but he was still surrounded by the rotten gas left by the countless bodies in the area that were affecting him. However, when the mark appeared on Lucien's hand, he immediately felt refreshed.

It was a gift from the family, a constant protection for Lucien to stay away from the detrimental effects brought by the undead, to some extent.

In order to find some more information about necromantic spells, Lucien decided to find Hunt's necromantic lab, which, according to Kaelyn's words, should be right in the cemetery.

"You deal with the rest of the husks in the castle!" Lucien turned around and said to Betty, Joanna and Simon upstairs loudly, "I need to make sure there's nothing evil left in the necromancer's lab!"

"Yes, Mr. Evans!" The three of them answered together, as they all regarded Lucien as a powerful Saint Knight who was responsible for eliminating evil sorcerers across the continent.

Although Lucien was quite sure that none of them could tell the difference between sorcerer spells and divine power, he decided to make sure of it by checking his three guards' mind later using Charm Person.

He could never be too careful when hiding his identity.

…

In the burning cemetery, the door of the lab was open. It seemed that, when his experiment succeeded, Hunt immediately ran outside of the lab to inform Kaelyn of this good news.

Although Lucien was relatively prepared to what he may see inside, when he actually entered the lab, he was still on the verge of throwing up, since the whole lab was like a small slaughterhouse: many human bodies lay around the place, while most of them were babies, young kids and teenagers. The bodies were cut into chunks and the organs were placed in categories on the lab operation table.

Hunt's desk was beside the operation table, on which an upside down tree was carved, and that was one of the most well-known symbols of the school of Necromancy—Reversed Tree of Life. There were ten circles on the top of the ten branches of the tree, but there was nothing in the circles.

Something that Lucien thought was a rectangular box at his first glance turned out to be a small coffin.

After a careful check, Lucien opened the coffin. To his great surprise, it was Mary who was in it. The Mary inside of the coffin looked around seven or eight years old, and her checks slightly flushed as if she was just sleeping. Lucien gently touched her face, it was soft and supple.

Being certain that Mary's real body had been burned to ashes by him, Lucien realized what Hunt's experiment was. The purpose of Hunt collecting the bodies of babies and young kids was for making a human body, but clearly he failed.

Rummaging around, Lucien found two books in the corner. One looked like a notes, and the other was pretty thick, on which there were words: Book of Necromancy.

Quickly leafing through both the book and the notes, Lucien first made a copy of them in his spiritual library, and then started to read Hunt's notes carefully,

"According to the info on the magic tower, Bonn, this small town in Orvarit, is part of a mysterious magic ruin which is protected by a magic lock, and it is possibly related to the whereabouts of the several legendary archmages. One of them was the well-known necromancer Wilfred's close friend—the Prophet, Waldo · K · Maskelyne. And I bet there're lots of magic items and treasures!"

…

"Bonn is even more beautiful than I thought. Residents here are friendly and traditional. And the girl named Kaelyn… she is gorgeous."

…

"Why I just can't find the magic lock? What kind of magic lock is it? I wonder if it is one that was designed by Maskelyne in person."

…

"I can't find any clue, even from the background of the missing town residents. Maybe it's time for me to give up, but I also don't want to tear her away from Bonn. Maybe… maybe I shall tell her my true identity."

…

"I have a baby girl now, and I'm a dad now! Kaelyn and I want to name her Mary. I don't really care about necromantic spells, the experiment jointly conducted by Maskelyne and Wilfred, or the magic lock and all those kinds of things anymore. Nothing's more important than my wife and my little girl!"

…

"Mary's been missing for three days. I'm sure that I've killed all the wild beasts in this area. I have no idea where my girl could have gone… I don't know… whether it was because of the magic lock? Impossible… After so many years… That's ridiculous!"

…

"My dear Mary, where are you? We miss you so much. Please… please come back, dad is begging you…"

…

"Kaelyn is crying everyday. I think we need a new environment to live. And I need a better environment for studying necromantic power again to see if we can find Mary. If anything bad really happened to her… I shall try to bring her back to life."

…

"The baron in Fogtown finally killed his own son to prolong his own life! Now both of us get what we want. He can keep his youthfulness for another several years, and I can start my experiment now!"

…

"Why my body start to smell like a corpse? Is this the revenge from the dead? I can hear that bitter crying all the time… I need to hurry… When I become a middle-rank necromancer, the pain in the body will never bother me anymore!"

…

"I can't make it… Third circle necromancer is a target that I can never reach. I can't let my body rot away like this. Maybe I shall try the ritual written in the book named 'Body Sewing', and I shall start to make Mary's body as well."

…

"Making Mary's body is really costly, and I've spent all my money. Although I don't want to, I have to pledge my only magic item to continue the experiment. Anyway… if I can successfully turn myself into a 'Sewed Body', I will be able to use the third circle magic spells directly. I won't need the item anymore."

…

"He sent me an invitation, talking about some Feast of Death… the Congress of Magic. Maybe I should go if my ritual turns out to be successful. But where's Carendia Castle? I need to write a letter to ask."

…

"The baron is getting greedier and greedier. Now he's not only targeting at the kids on his territory, but also seeking for a fresh body of an underage knight to replace his own body. What he's thinking? He thinks it's that easy to find an underage knight? Nonsense… When my experiment is complete, I'll take Kaelyn and Mary away from Fogtown, before what the baron's doing attracts the attention of the Church."

…

"Carendia Castle… I never expected it would be there. Deep in the mountain named Aronne next to Korsor. Interesting. I wonder why they picked such a place."

This information really surprised Lucien. He never expected that he would find the location of the castle in Hunt's notes, and the invitation was also in between the two pages.

The rest of the note was mostly about the Body Sewing ritual and the record of the process of making Mary's body. The statistics and the records were precious to Lucien.

Picking up the other book, Book of Necromancy, Lucien roughly browsed through it. The book was left by one of Wilfred's students, the legendary necromancer, and it recorded most of the necromantic spells and rituals taught by Wilfred, but there was nothing related to how Wilfred made the breakthrough and became the legendary archmage, being respected as the Great Master of Paleness, which was quite unfortunate for Lucien.

Finding no other valuable items in the lab, Lucien took the invitation with him and left the place, and then set the lab on fire, burn it to the ground.

Staring at the great flame burning all the dead bodies, including the Mary's, into ashes, Lucien slowly turned around, and different thoughts filled his mind, "Ancient necromancers believed that the body of a human being who died before coming of age is the best and the purest material for conducting necromantic rituals and spells, that's why the baron was so obsessed with young human bodies.

"But why Maskelyne, the great legendary Astrology sorcerer, would conduct an experiment with Wilfred, the Great Master of Paleness, from the school of Necromancy? And it seems to be a mysterious and significant one…"