Chapter 325: Decision (Volume Five: Crimson Moon)
Translator: Kris_Liu Editor: Vermillion
The ocean wind from Storm Strait drove away the dryness and heat in Allyn. The fine drizzling rain was very refreshing.
Standing beside the window in his own study and looking at the bright flowers in the garden outside, Lucien was lost in his thoughts.
…
Because the power of his soul had been greatly developed, Lucien had to consolidate the remaining part of his foundation. Also, he was eager to know who was waiting for him in the Congress. Therefore, Lucien activated the precious magic scroll and returned to Allyn together with Leo.
Before he left, Lucien found Natasha and told her what had happened.
On the previous night, in a manor outside of Aalto, after carefully listening to Lucien’s narrative, Natasha smiled and nodded, “It makes sense. You’re talented and full of potential, so no matter how terrible the inner conflict in the Congress is, those sorcerers should never send you out for such a dangerous task. By the way, who’s gonna be your teacher?”
Natasha believed that Lucien would not say no to that mysterious legendary archmage. Since the archmage had been observing Lucien for a while, he must have already talked to and convinced those other important sorcerers who also intended to have Lucien to be their student. Also, his way of testing Lucien was not cruel or vicious, instead, it was rather proper and considerate, which meant that the archmage knew Lucien quite well. And becoming the student of a legendary archmage was definitely an honor.
Lucien put on a slightly awkward smile and said, “I don’t even know who he is. I hope that what he specializes in is also what I am interested in.”
Natasha was very happy for Lucien. She had a big smile on her face, “I can assure you that your teacher is not Hathaway. Her personality isn’t like this. Don’t worry, Lucien. Most legendary sorcerers in the Congress are not that horrible, as long as you don’t have major conflicts with them. As a student, as long as you study hard, you would not be given a hard time. I believe in you, Lucien.”
Natasha herself was also a student of a legendary knight—Bellia, known as God’s Glory, the leader of Sword Brothers. So she knew quite a lot about it.
Then Natasha looked more serious, “You’re going to be a legendary archmage’s student, and you’re also the winner of Holm Crown prize. I’m sure that you’ll gather quite a lot of attention from the Church, including the cardinals and grand cardinals from those parishes. So… I’m afraid that I have to rush John’s family to take actions now.”
“You always know what is on my mind, Natasha.” Lucien also looked more serious, “I didn’t expect that something important like this would come to me so fast. I thought we still had time. You know how important this thing is to me, Natasha. Please, I owe it to you.”
Natasha rubbed her chin slightly and smiled, “No worries. I’ll take care of it. But you cannot stay in Aalto any longer. The Church can be crazy.”
Then, they hugged each other to say goodbye. When she turned around and walked away, Lucien looked at her from behind with all kinds of emotions in his eyes. After finding Leo, who was waiting for him nearby, Lucien activated the precious magic scroll and went back to Allyn with Leo.
The hyperspace jump made Lucien’s soul and brain feel extremely dizzy. He was not sure whether he was traveling at a very high speed or the space structure was being reorganized. Without the protection of the scroll, Lucien would have already been lost.
After reaching a demiplane where lightning and thunder were flashing and roaring in the air, Lucien started to reflect on how the magic scroll worked. However, his thinking was then interrupted by the second round of fast movement. The power of the magic scroll dragged Lucien and Leo shifting and jumping between the different dimensions until they arrived at a small hill near Allyn.
From the position of the silver moon and the stars, minus the time difference Lucien assumed, the space jump took them about half an hour—which was only about the time that a high tea in Holm would cost.
…
The window started to become a bit foggy, which was usually very rare to see in June. However, because of the special location of Allyn, Lucien was quite used to it.
He released a sigh when thinking of John and his family.
A while later, when his feeling of guilt slowly quieted down, something new started to bother him.
Lucien had finally decided to stop denying his feeling and lying to himself—he had confessed to himself that he admired Natasha. He had no idea when this affection started to accumulate, but he could feel it grow stronger and stronger especially after he had gone through those great dangers.
He wanted to take actions. Being practical as he always was, he started to analyze the current situation calmly and work on making a whole set of plans to win Natasha’s heart.
Natasha was a knight believing in the God of Truth and Lucien was a sorcerer studying arcana, so there was the fundamental conflict between them. Fortunately, because of the love story between her mom and father, Lucien could still have a great chance to convince her if he was patient enough and could take it easy. However, the biggest problem was that Lucien could not give up studying arcana and move back to Aalto for Natasha, and it was also very unlikely to happen that Natasha would be willing to leave her father and give up the entire duchy for Lucien.
Also, Lucien was not sure whether Natasha only liked women. If she still liked maleness, Lucien also wondered what kind of man Natasha was fond of and what he should do…
…
Lucien had so many thoughts in his mind. Having zero experience in romantic relationships, he realized that, in his mind, he had already started to deal with the difficulties that he assumed Natasha and he would encounter after getting married. And he had to admit that this was not easy.
At this time, someone was knocking at the door and that brought Lucien back to the reality.
“Yes, Leo?” Lucien knew that it was his new butler outside.
Leo opened the door and said to Lucien respectfully, “My lord, the Will of Elements wants to see you.”
Lucien wondered if his teacher was going to finally show up. Calming himself down, he put on his black top hat and said, “Get me a coach, Leo.”
After Leo left, Lucien slightly clenched his fists and made a temporary plan for himself: he would write one more letter to Natasha every month! Although he knew that winning Natasha’s heart was rather hard, he would not easily give up. Right now, he should first work on improving his magic and arcana level.
…
Late at night, outside of the Inquisition of Violet, a fat figure approached the inquisition very carefully. However, the figure looked rather hesitant, as it tried to walk in the building but had failed a few times.
“Alisa, what are you doing here?!”
The cold voice startled the figure, Alisa, and she hurriedly turned around.
It was Joel, who languished in the past few days.
Alisa shivered, but she still disputed, “I’m… I’m doing what Evans told us to do.”
“But can you?!” Joel asked sternly in a low voice.
Alisa raised her voice pitch and answered in pain, “What else can I do? Waiting for the day to come when John and Iven are tied to the gallows?! There’s nothing much to regret if we die! But… but they’re still young… They should have a bright future!”
“It’s not gonna happen… Don’t scare yourself.” Joel felt Alisa’s pain, so he hugged her and gently patted on her back, “John’s a knight, serving the Violet Family. The punishment of being deceived by a sorcerer isn’t that horrible. The inquisition would carefully investigate it. They won’t be put onto the gallows…”
Alisa hurriedly shook her head, “It’s not true. I heard it from the several noble ladies earlier tonight that some knights ended up rather miserably because they failed to draw a clear line between themselves and the sorcerers, and then the inquisition found it out. Say… the family of Thistle in the War of Dawn. I know John can’t do it. So… as his mother, I will do this for him. I’m willing to bear all the pain and sufferings.”
Joel said to Alisa angrily but also helplessly, “Are you out of your mind, Alisa?”
“It’s enough, mom, dad.”
Joel and Alisa heard the familiar voice. It was John, followed by his younger brother, Iven.
He looked the same, but his blond hair looked a bit messy.
“Iven, you take care of mom and dad. I’ll do the rest of it, as a knight.” John slightly sighed and then walked toward the Inquisition in firm strides.
“John!” Alisa called his name from behind.
John did not stop. He slightly closed his eyes and murmured, “To make sure they are safe… To make sure you won’t be threatened…”
…
The Will of Elements, Allyn branch.
Lucien met Gaston again and was about to return the monocle to him.
“Just keep it, as your reward for the mission.” Gaston was being very generous. As long as Lucien could become the student of the legendary archmage, the archmage’s connection to the Will of Elements would definitely get reinforced.
Lucien nodded and put the monocle back. Then he asked out of curiosity, “Isn’t Mr. Raventi here today?”
“He isn’t in a very good mood recently,” answered Gaston, with a strange smile on his face. “Follow me. You know why you’re here today, right?”
Lucien nodded, and then he followed Gaston into a small meeting room behind his office.
In the meeting room, there were three men and two women. One of the female sorcerers looked a bit like Natasha, but she seemed rather cold. Next to her sat a short elder man with red eyes. And a little farther away from them sat Morris, Florencia, and Thompson.
Lucien guessed that the female sorcerer who looked rather cold should be Hathaway. As for the short elder man sitting beside her… Wait! Wasn’t he the creepy old guy in the library?
Lucien had a not very good foreboding.
The short elder man said to him with a meaningful smile on his face, “Lucien, I think you could have impressed me better.”
