Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
“Four people passed by here recently. One of them was a human, and the other two were half-elves. What’s even stranger is that they all seem to be heading north,” said a human male with a full mat of fiery red hair. He was standing in front of a pile of ashes that had once been a campfire in the Black Forest. His red glowing eyes were narrowed as he observed his surroundings.
Beside him stood someone else. The person was also human. The only difference was that it was a woman.
Her eyes also shone with the same red light. Like the man beside her, the woman was wearing an elegant set of magical armor. A pair of scimitars hung from her waist. Her hair was also a brilliant red and even more luxuriant than the man’s hair. At a glance, it looked like the woman’s head had been set ablaze.
She squatted down and wiped a hand that was wearing a dark red leather glove across a tree stump. She then raised a finger to her eyes, closely observing whatever she had wiped off from the stump. She even took a whiff from it. Five seconds later, she whispered, “Hamilton, I sense a familiar hint of coldness in the aura of one of them. There’s also a slight warmth in it… Do you think it’s her?”
“It is possible. The saint told us that she was the Lord of Ferde’s magic puppet. She has crossed realms to return to Firuman. The first thing she’d probably do would be to go back to the Lord of Ferde. Noa, we’ll need to tread carefully from now on.”
Noa grinned. “She’s the only one who poses a threat to us. Everyone else isn’t even worth our time. The saint was right. This realm’s power level is just too weak.”
“Don’t underestimate them,” said Hamilton. He then began walking northward as he continued, “Forget what the saint said about keeping them alive. Kill them on sight with all your might. We’ll just have to see if they’re lucky enough to survive our attacks.”
Noa caught up to him, giggling. “Of course I won’t show them mercy. But I would rather we not come across them too soon. It’s probably better to let them find the Book of Creation first. Saves us a lot of time finding it ourselves.”
Hamilton shrugged. “That certainly would be convenient.”
After taking a few steps, Noa suddenly said, “But really, those High Elves are a bunch of idiots, especially their queen. She thinks she can boss us around and even belittle our bloodline just because she’s the saint’s mother. I just really want to chop her head off with my sword!”
“Alright now, you’ve been saying that ever since we got here. Let her have her way for now. She’ll get what she deserves later.”
“I just can’t stand her!”
“But you can’t deny that her World Tree holds considerable power.”
The two of them were now heading north. They strolled through the Black Forest without an air of concern as if they were simply taking a walk in their own backyard.
After walking for two hours, another group of four arrived at the remnants of the campfire. This time, it was the Red Dragon Queen’s party. When they got there, the Light Magician Halino pointed at the pile of ashes with his wand and cast a high-level detection spell: Time Reverse. A gold shower of light fell from his wand, forming a couple of vague silhouettes around the pile of ashes. The silhouettes then began to move.
There were four silhouettes sitting around the campfire. A huge tent had been set up in a corner. A freshly skinned wild boar was roasting above the campfire. Through the silhouettes, they could see drops of oil dripping from the wild boar.
Halino’s spell had vividly conjured three of the silhouettes. Two of them looked like half-elves. Their features were handsome. They were sitting around the fire, discussing something. From their get-up and mannerisms, they were probably Magicians.
The third silhouette belonged to a girl who was wearing a full set of armor. She seemed to be around sixteen to seventeen years old. She was sitting near the fire as well, enthusiastically turning the skewer that was holding the wild boar above the fire.
However, the fourth silhouette stood out from the rest. Its entire form was a blur. The figure was basically a condensed ball of light sitting quietly near the fire. It was easy to miss if one was not looking properly at it.
No one could see what the figure looked like or even what it was doing at the time.
Just then, the four of them saw that the human blur waved a hand. An instant later, the figures conjured by Halino’s Time Reverse spell shook violently. Tried as he might, Halino could not maintain the integrity of the silhouettes any longer. In the end, they all faded back into a shower of light.
Seeing this, the Dark Magician Eugene let out a humph. “That’s definitely the lord of Ferde. No one else could pull off such a trick.”
The other party must have disrupted the flow of Time power. In Firuman, aside from a couple of the High Elves who had spent a long time studying Time Magic, only the lord of Ferde could do such a thing.
The Mountain Sage Heroto sighed, stroking his white beard. “I had seen the lord of Ferde back in Dragon Valley. He was still such an innocent little thing back then, like a sprout that had just poked its head out from the soil. Who would have thought that he would become so powerful in less than a year? It’s incredible.”
Gretel did not say a word. She was still gazing absently at where Link’s silhouette had been.
Noticing Gretel’s current state, Eugene said, “Your Highness, Link’s most likely heading north to search for the Book of Creation’s fragment there. Try not to let your heartstrings be pulled by a few words from Link when we catch up to him. If you can’t even do this, I suggest that you go back to Dragon Valley right now.”
Gretel let out a long sigh and looked sideways at Eugene, smiling bitterly. “I’m fine, thanks. Just worry about yourself. I’m not the one making life difficult for everyone in Firuman, anyway.”
“Alright, alright, point made.” Eugene raised his hands in defeat. He then turned to Halino. “Link’s a handful by himself. Now that he’s involved in this, what should we do now?”
Halino thought for a moment, then said, “I don’t think we need to worry about him too much. The lord of Ferde is a reasonable man. We’ll try to come to an agreement with him if we see him. He’ll probably accept our terms as long as Ferde stands to profit from them.”
Just then, Heroto burst out angrily, “Well sure, he’s a bloody businessman who only thinks about profiting off everyone he meets. Heck, he’s probably hoarded all the gold in Firuman for himself in Ferde by now.”
“That’s enough! Let’s continue our journey, shall we?” said Gretel.
The four of them fell silent. They then activated their spells and continued their journey towards the far North.
Ten minutes later, Halino suddenly said, “Stop, something’s not right. There are two people up ahead. I can sense that they’re extremely powerful!”
Eugene had sensed them too. He emerged from a black ball of mist. “Strange, I’ve never felt such powerful Warriors in Firuman before. They also seem to be no more than 30 years old. Has something changed in the world?”
He was shaken by this. All this time, Halino was the only person who had stood on equal footing with him in terms of power. Now came along these two youngsters whose power surpassed even his. This was just not possible.
Gretel stopped. She pricked her ears and then closely felt the two youngsters’ power levels. Ten seconds later, she spoke, “These two are not from Firuman. I heard them mentioning something about a saint, the Aragu Kingdom, and a Black Blood Rose. They probably came from the Aragu realm. Link once told me about that place. The Mana there is extremely saturated. It’s probably five times that of Firuman.”
Eugene was stunned upon hearing this. He was now even more curious. “So that’s why those two possess such power. They’ve been living in a Mana haven. From the looks of things, those two don’t seem to be up to anything good. Why don’t we take them on now?”
“Why would you want to pick a fight with them right now?” The Mountain Sage Heroto did not agree with Eugene’s suggestion.
Eugene immediately replied, “I highly doubt those two come all the way here from their native realm with good intentions. Heroto, would you have minded if I barged into the dwarves’ underground capital one day without even saying hi to you?”
Heroto glared at him. “I would have you escorted out of the city in a coffin if you so much as came near the place!”
“Hahaha, that’s my point. Those two fellows didn’t even bother introducing themselves to us, the rightful inhabitants of this realm. Halino, you up to it or what?”
After thinking for a bit, Halino said, “You do have a point. We’ll need to at least ask what they had come here for. It’s just two Warriors anyway. Though they may be more powerful than us individually, we could set up a trap for them. Subduing them shouldn’t be a problem.”
“Hehe, it’s not every day you would agree with one of my ideas. Then let’s do it.”
