861 League, the Deputy Presiden
Fernando waved his hands and snorted, “We do, but it’s useless. It falls, so it’s a sheer failure. A failure which will only lead us to the wrong path!”
He obviously wasn’t a big fan of the legendary sorcerer who first built the floating city, as Fernando believed that the sorcerer was just bragging.
A floating city was the shared research object among the three Magic Empires. They tried to put themselves in a city flying in the air and looked down upon ordinary people like gods. However, creating such a city was extremely difficult, especially when it came to how to maintain the floating status. Countless sorcerers had tried.
In the past years, a few legendary sorcerers had claimed that they had successfully built a floating city, but so far, none of them survived. One was involved in the War of Dawn and was shot down by the Church and nobles, while others were quite problematic. The best one floated for more than a decade but finally still crashed.
Douglas had shown his power, so Lauren smiled and said, “We found its wreck. It’s called Allyn, you know, the pretty famous ‘City in the Sky’. But we don’t have the core magic circle structure, so we can’t fix it. It’s just our secret base right now.”
Douglas didn’t care, and he smiled mildly. “We learn things from failures, for they remind us of the mistakes and errors that could’ve been avoided. I’ve always been interested in floating and flying magic and trying to figure the principles out. I hope the Union can give me a chance to take a look.”
“No problem! We’ll talk to the deputy president!” Lauren was very confident.
Lauren knew that the Union only had one archmage who knew Time Stop so far, and so, having an extra powerful archmage meant a lot to the Union. Also, proud as Fernando was, even he respected Douglas’ talent in mathematics, so Lauren also believed that Douglas would become a leader of the Union in the future.
Douglas nodded. “Thanks. So where should we go now?”
“To go to the headquarters, we go to Rentato first.” Lauren had a meaningful smile on his face.
Douglas was surprised. “Rentato? The city where Holm Parish is located?”
“Yes, also the capital of the kingdom.” Lauren nodded and grinned.
……
The evening glow of the setting sun was as red as blood. A coach arrived in Rentato before the city gate closed.
Driving through the streets smelling like fish, the coach stopped in front of an ordinary-looking hotel.
“Roasted Fish Hotel…” Douglas got off the coach and read the strange name, feeling a bit amused.
Fernando’s voice sounded a bit sharp as he said, “He’s good at making roasted fish and only knows how to roast a fish. I’d recommend you to have one, or he’d be pissed. He’ll say you don’t understand what good food is.”
While speaking, Fernando directly jumped off the coach and stepped in a puddle.
After the rain, there were puddles everywhere in Rentato. But different from a small city, streets in Rentato were paved with rocks, so they still looked quite clean.
Seeing this, Douglas was a bit emotional. “Rentato was an important city across the strait to the empire, and the empire indeed had a good job here, but it’s now taken by the Church…”
He was born in Antiffler, and he believed that he was from Sylvanas Magic Empire.
“We’ll be back one day!” said Fernando in a low but confident voice.
Lauren, who was the coachman, looked back and said, “Don’t just stand here like statues. Go in there first.”
On their way, he found that Douglas was in fact quite easygoing, for he wasn’t as proud as an archmage usually could be. The only thing was that Douglas kept asking questions, but this was not a big deal.
The hotel was rather small and old. Few tables and few guests were in the lobby.
Behind the counter stood a gray-haired man, who was wiping cups attentively.
“You can’t even see your own fingers! Light the candles!” Fernando said to the hotel owner loudly, “Among all your shortcomings, being cheap is the nastiest one!”
It was already evening. The windows of the hotel were rather narrow. Darkness had seized this place.
The hotel owner looked up. He had a square face, and his dull-green left eye looked completely dead and creepy.
“Being cheap is an attitude toward life that you’ll never understand, you are such a little puppy made of Flame Gel,” the hotel owner, whose right eye was in the color of jade-green and looked very mysterious, said in return.
Fernando didn’t care. He turned around and said to Douglas, “Old Green, the owner of the place, an old knight. His left eye is the result of a failure to melt bloodline.”
In this hotel, there was no taboo on talking about magic or bloodline. The few guests in the lobby completely ignored Fernando’s voice and enjoyed their liquor and fish as if nothing happened.
Fernando pointed at Douglas. “You can call him Douglas. He’s a guest from the other side of the strait. He hopes to join us, and he has passed my test. This is the detailed information for League.”
He threw a piece of dark-yellow parchment at Old Green.
Old Green was still wiping the cups and mugs, but the speed at which the piece of parchment flying toward him became lower and lower as if it had fallen into a marsh.
Old Green put down a mug on the parchment on the counter and said without any facial expressions, “Young lad, you want honey-roasted fish? This is the best cuisine in the entire Rentato, Great Holm, and even along the strait! You’ll regret it if you say no!”
He was pretty eager.
Douglas was warned earlier by Fernando, so he smiled and said, “I’d love to.”
“Good, lad. Not many young men know how to appreciate good food now,” said Old Green meaningfully before he walked to the kitchen.
“He’s a knight from an experiment previously conducted by Fernando’s teacher. He has a close relationship with the Hoffenberg family. After the fall of his teacher, Old Green didn’t want to surrender to the Church, so he opened this hotel in Rentato as a secret station for the Union.” Lauren hurriedly came and added the information for Douglas after he pulled the horses into the stable. “Old Green is gonna report the mission to League, our deputy president. They have to discuss it before you enter the headquarters. But don’t worry. There’s no way that they will reject you. You’ll hear the good news tomorrow.”
“Thanks.” Douglas smiled and nodded. “I’m actually not in a hurry. Although I’m very interested in floating and flying, I’m still trying to figure out many things.”
Fernando looked at Douglas with his scarlet eyes and asked hurriedly, “What else are you working on?”
On their way, Fernando had been discussing with Douglas mainly about mathematics. Although he seemed to despise Douglas’ study, he valued Douglas’ talent a lot. Fernando wished to know more about Douglas’ research interest and hear more inspiring and profound insights.
“Something trivial,” said Douglas, who had no intention to keep these as secrets. He pulled out a chair and sat down with Fernando. They started to have a long conversation on various research topics.
The conversation went on for hours. When it was already completely dark outside, Fernando still felt reluctant to leave. They didn’t eat the honey-roasted fish, which made Old Green quite unhappy.
When it was midnight, Fernando finally went back to his room to get some sleep, but his mind was full of questions. Douglas entered his room and saw a few stars among the clouds. He suddenly felt a strange but familiar peace.
He should be able to settle down for a while and concentrate on his studies.
He thought so to himself.
……
When the sky was barely bright, Douglas heard the familiar footsteps that came from Lauren. Lauren knocked on his door.
“Douglas, the deputy president is here. He’s an archmage.” Lauren was excited about how much Douglas was valued by the Union.
Douglas felt a bit excited as well. “Lauren, please lead me to see the deputy president.”
Lauren led Douglas to the secret chamber on the first floor of the hotel’s basement. Douglas then saw an old man wearing a black, soft hat. He had black hair and blue eyes. The old man’s facial features were sharp, and his nose was slightly hooked. The blue eyes were calm but deep, for lots of secrets were hiding in them.
“Welcome, Douglas,” said League, who was wearing a high-collar coat that was popular in Rentato. He looked like an old and decent noble.
Douglas greeted, “My pleasure, Mr. League.”
Lauren looked around and said, “Fernando’s not here? I’ll go and find him.”
“Don’t bother. I’m here to see Douglas.” League shook his head slowly. “Douglas, you’ve proved yourself by what you did to the Inquisition with Fernando. But your action has brought us huge trouble. Led by Heart of Time, the clerics, night watchers, and nobles have killed more than thirty sorcerers in the Union.”
“The action was to prove to the nobles our true value! I think the killed sorcerers were spotted by the Church a long time ago, but the Church just didn’t take any actions earlier!” Lauren defended loudly.
League took a gloomy glance at Lauren and cut him off, “This isn’t your business.”
Then he turned back to Douglas. “So, although the Union has granted your application for joining, we have decided to give you some punishment. You’ll be sent to Allyn for three years to study the wreck. If you make no mistakes there, three years later, you’ll become the deputy president of the Union!”
Douglas was a bit amused. The deputy president first suppressed him and then threw some hope at him. But Douglas didn’t care. The most important thing was that he could go and study Allyn, the wreck of the floating city.
“I’m okay with it.” Douglas nodded slightly.
Lauren tried to say something, but he failed. His face flushed a bit.
League finally smiled. “Hope you can figure out how to make it fly again.”
Douglas and Lauren left the basement. On their way back, they saw Fernando walking to them furiously.
