Why did they want to cooperate with Roland? Roland knew their plan very well. A mage devoted to magic wouldn’t be interested in matters beyond magic, which meant that the nobles, as his allies and partners, could wield his power in his place.
Though the mage might seem to be the man in charge, the actual power would be held by his allies and his partners because of his inaction.
In the meantime, the nobles would have a “shield” on the surface. While splitting up their earnings in private, they could shift the blame on their “boss” when bad things happened.
Underneath their beautiful promise was a venomous trap.
A less thoughtful man might have fallen for the trap, but Roland wouldn’t lose control of himself just for some insignificant flattery.
He simply shook his head and said, “Not interested.”
“Even the position of shadow mayor can’t interest you?” The old woman looked at him with more confusion than anger. “Then what are you interested in?”
“Magic.” Roland stood up and smiled. “I’m a mage. Isn’t it only natural that I’m interested in magic?”
Then Roland turned and left. He would rather not stay here after the conversation fell out.
The old woman in the room had a pale and awful face.
Roland went downstairs and asked Vivian to go with him.
On their way back to the Magic Tower, Vivian asked, “What did they give you?”
“Huh?” Roland turned around and asked, “How did they convince you to forward the request to meet?”
Vivian said with a sweet smile, “They said that they were going to give you a big gift and you would love it. That’s why I agreed to help them.”
Roland frowned.
“Did they not give you anything?” Vivian’s smile was gone. She became nervous and slightly angry.
“They dug a trap for me and wanted me to jump in.” Roland explained what happened just now.
“I didn’t know that…” Vivian clenched her fists coldly and was about to return to the manor.
But Roland grabbed her hand and said, “Forget it. I didn’t suffer any losses anyway. Besides, it’s just my personal speculation.”
Vivian grew happy when Roland held her hand. “Okay, I’ll listen to you.”
At this moment, White Amber, who had been squatting on Vivian’s shoulder, suddenly hooted.
But Vivian simply ignored the pet.
When they were back at the Magic Tower, Bard came to them.
“I’m planning to return to the capital.” He spoke to Roland casually.
Roland was surprised. “Really? It’s not been half a month yet, has it?”
Bard shook his head and said, “I would love to stay longer. The atmosphere here is great. Everybody is diligent, nobody is lazy. It’s probably because their chairman has set an example for them. I’m told that you spend your whole day perfecting spell models without sleeping.”
“You should know that Golden Sons don’t need to sleep.”
“I know. In fact, the young nobles like me don’t sleep much either, but they waste most of their energy on parties and women. In comparison, you’re more like an orthodox mage.” Roland was surprised. “If you like it here, why are you going back so early?”.
“For some important personal business.”
Although Bard could be arrogant and condescending, he had much more common knowledge on magic than anybody else in the Magic Tower did.
In the past few days, the man had unintentionally revealed a lot of anecdotes about mages.
If possible, Roland wished that Bard could stay longer until he offered all of his knowledge.
But now that Bard was determined to leave, Roland couldn’t ask him to stay.
So, Roland could only say, “Have a safe journey.”
“Are you trying to kick me away?” Bard put on a teasing smile. “Right, I’m told that you’re busy with the Spell Puppet. How’s it going?”
“Not bad, but still far from perfection.”
Bard said enviously, “You’re truly a genius to tweak spells. If only I were as capable as you.”
Roland smiled and accepted his compliment.
“I hope that I will be the one who delivers your rewards next time.”
Bard left with his men after saying that. For some reason, Roland found him lonely when he stared at the man’s back as he walked away.
Then, he devoted himself to magic experiments until a new day started.
Roland got up from the game cabin. After washing his face and brushing his teeth, he went to the panda booth in the cold drink bar.
He came rather early, and only Schuck and Betta were there.
About half an hour later, the rest of the gang all arrived.
While having the breakfast that Schuck asked the waitress to prepare earlier, they talked.
Husseret slurred while he ate a banana, “According to my investigation, the chairman of Moon Shadow is named Cedarnik. He’s a Warrior with reasonably good equipment and is about level six. He’s said to be good at PK and knows very much about about Warriors. He has posted two articles on the skill and equipment build of Warriors on the forum.”
Schuck chuckled. “Why have I never heard of his name before? He can’t be too good.”
Husseret explained, “It’s because Moon Shadow was mostly devoted to another old turn-based game. You know, the game is already obsolete, so Moon Shadow was never famous, but they’re actually quite united and powerful. I’m told that Cedarnik is a magnate in that game.”
“No wonder he’s willing to pay more than ten million for your dragon,” said Li Lin angrily, before he winked at Schuck. “Have you tasted the girl dragon yet?”
Schuck glared at him. “You’re too filthy. You need to purge yourself.”
“Coward.” Li Lin shook his hand proudly. “You need to learn after me in that aspect.”
Schuck sneered. “Hey, the love god is about to teach me how to hit on girls!”
It was a critical strike. Remembering that he was cheated on a couple of times every year while Schuck had girls begging to date him, Li Lin almost lost his cool.
Everybody chuckled, and Husseret went on, “This Cedarnik is quite proud, but he keeps a low profile and has never done anything monstrous. If we attack them without a reason, it will probably affect the reputation of F6.”
Schuck waved his hand. “That’s not a problem! That guy sent me a lot of texts on the forum recently, mostly threats, claiming that he would ask a hacker to identify and locate me. I took a snap of the texts. After we beat them up, we’ll release the snaps, and people will stand on our side.” Everybody was delighted to hear that. Li Lin, in particular, threw his bowl on the table. “That guy is only bold on the Internet. If he comes here in person, we’ll teach him a good lesson as the offspring of corrupt officials and tough bandits.”
Ever since the Tang Dynasty, this place had been one of the destinations where outlaws were exiled to. Even Du Fu had briefly stayed here. The house he once stayed in was now cherished as historical, although Roland felt that the house had been renovated too many times because it looked too new to be authentic.
Most of the locals had read the list of their ancestors and knew their identity, which made them even tougher.
It was for that reason that people here were unusually aggressive. A decade ago, a fight between two youngsters was likely to escalate into a battle between two families with hoes and sickles.
In recent years, most young people were drawn to the Internet and had little interest in fighting one another, so the area became much more peaceful than before.
From that point of view, the Internet had truly changed the habits of the people without them realizing it. Although it was much more peaceful than before, the locals were not scared of outsiders who asked for trouble. How could the outsiders beat a family or a whole village?
“They’re based in Isnas, which is said to be the place where princesses live before they’re married. Now, a princess is living there.” Husseret chuckled. “Cedarnik set up his base there probably because he wanted to hit on a princess. If that works, he would become one of the nobles of Hollevin.”
Husseret was a short and slender guy who was interested in gossip, which was why he was perfect as a Rogue.
He had gathered a lot of intelligence in the past few days.
Schuck unfolded a map of Hollevin on the table and soon found Isnas on it.
He prodded at the map. “How far away are you from this place?”Everybody looked at it and said, “Not far away.”
“I can arrive in no more than fifteen days.”
Schuck smiled. “I’m in the Holy Realm of Fareins, which is four thousand kilometers from there. But it’s fine. I can fly there on dragonback.”
Everybody glared at him angrily. Schuck gloated, “You’ve either contracted a pet or an animal partner. Useless. It’s not half as good as contracting a dragon. Hahahaha!”
Everybody raised their middle fingers at him to show their disdain.
Li Lin gloomily drank a mouthful of the wine before he suddenly smiled and said, “Right, there’s a secret that I would like to tell you. Roland has been dating a girl, but he intentionally kept it from us. Do you think we should beat him up for that?”
In a moment, everybody looked at Roland with accusation in their eyes.
Roland was stunned. “I’ve been dating a girl? Since when? Why do I not know this?”
