Kaka Bard was quite uneasy, but Roland felt that it might be a great opportunity for him.
“Actually, I don’t think it’s a bad idea for you to develop your own fief.” Roland thought for a moment and said, “In the tales among the Golden Sons, many unappreciated descendants of nobles were exiled to desolate places, but instead of giving in to their fate, they tried to develop their territory and even gained control over their family in the end.”
Kaka was apparently not convinced. He said with a vague smile, “If I hadn’t known you for a long time, I would’ve thought that you were instigating me to kill myself.”
Roland chuckled. “You need more sense of humor.”
“I’m about to be kicked out of my family. Humor can’t help me.” Kaka heaved a long sigh.
Roland looked around. Butlers or servants should have served them beverages, but nobody was here although they had been in the study for a while.
It seemed that Kaka Bard was really in trouble. Even the servants were losing respect for him.
He took out the fruit wine and cake that Vivian prepared for him from his Backpack, which could prevent the food it stored from turning bad.
Then, he took out two cups, one for each person.
Roland filled bright green fruit wine in both cups. He had a mouthful of the wine first and said, “Why are you being kicked out of your family all of a sudden?”
“The queen was kidnapped.” Kaka seemed rather angry. “I was defending the perimeter of the royal palace that night. Right, I was also a junior royal Mage. So, the fault was almost exclusively mine. My father pulled some strings so I didn’t have to go to prison, but my father said that he would banish me to Sisilia as a punishment for my failure.”
“So, you want to restore your position in your family through the Association of Mages?”
“Yes. My father will reconsider his decision if my magic abilities are acknowledged,” said Kaka affirmatively.
Roland enjoyed the wine unhurriedly. From what Kaka described, it was indeed a sound plan.
Spellcasters were prestigious in this world. If Kaka showed enough talent in magic, it would prove his value. In such a case, the patriarch of his family had to consider if it was the best decision to cast out a genius.
“Not a problem. I can teach you a derivative spell of Spell Puppet.” Roland put the empty cup on the table and said, “I’ll also ensure that you can totally understand it and won’t expose yourself.”
Kaka was ecstatic. “Fantastic. You’re truly a great friend. Since you’re so loyal, I’ll certainly return the favor. After the derivative spell is approved, all the rewards that the headquarters give me will be transferred to you with sixty additional gold coins and a batch of magic resources. That’s all that I have.”
Sixty gold coins… It was impressive enough that the son of a noble could save so much money.
Roland said, “I don’t want any of those; I only want to read the long-distance teleportation spell model for ten minutes.”
Kaka lowered his head in silence. A moment later, he gritted his teeth and said, “Okay. After the derivative spell of Spell Puppet is submitted, my position in the Association of Mages will be improved, and it shouldn’t be too hard to borrow the spell model for long-distance teleportation.”
“Then you’ve got yourself a deal.” Roland didn’t reveal his feelings, but he was secretly relieved.
He was fully aware of the value of advanced spells now. Though such spells had a price, whoever owned them would never show them to outsiders as long as those people were not idiots. Sixty gold coins and some magic resources for an advanced spell was a bargain.
Kaka smiled. “The deal is greatly in my favor. I’ll repay you if I get the chance.”
“That’s unnecessary.” Roland thought for a moment and asked, “Why don’t you try to find the queen to make up for your mistake?”
Kaka’s expression turned weird. “It was an Archmage who took the queen away. I don’t know who he was, but the waves of his magic power were daunting. The king knows it too. He’s only venting his fury on us. He can get a beautiful woman anytime he wants, it’s not worth it to piss off an Archmage for a woman.”
“How pathetic.” Roland sighed.
Kaka thought that Roland was talking about the king, who had to hold such humiliation back even though he was the monarch of a country. He was indeed rather pathetic.
However, Roland was actually talking about the queen.
After she was taken away, nobody wanted to get her back, not even her king husband.
Roland felt sorry for her just thinking about it.
Considering for a moment, he asked, “Can you show me where the queen was captured?”
“Yes…” Kaka was puzzled. “What’s your plan?”
“I want to see if I can find any leads on the missing queen.” Roland stood up.
Kaka raised his eyes and said angrily, “Is our Golden Son going to play hero again?”
Having investigated the Golden Sons for a long time, he knew that most of the Golden Sons were very kind. They were willing to help the weak and the poor. When they happened upon robbers on the street, they would fight the robbers excitedly even if the enemy was much stronger.
“What do you mean?” Roland snorted and said, “I’m only fulfilling my duty.”
Roland wondered if he could trigger another quest while he searched for the queen. He refused to believe that he wanted to trigger a quest because the queen was pitiful.
Kaka shook his head. “You can go to Antis. He’s in charge of the search now.”Oh… No wonder that pretty swordsman stopped him at the gate.
Roland drew the spell model of Guardian Puppet, a derivative spell, and explained the designing principles of the spell as well as the effect of each node.
Then, he asked Kaka to consider it on his own, and he went to the city gate.
Antis, the pretty swordsman, was still on duty at the city gate. Roland got his attention upon arrival.
He asked his soldiers to keep on alert while he walked to Roland.
He took off his heavy helmet again, revealing his fair and feminine face. He asked in confusion, “Are you here for me?”
“You have a great sixth sense.” Roland nodded. “I’m hoping that you could tell me the details of when the queen was captured and the progress of your investigation.”
Antis immediately narrowed his eyes, like a leopard that was observing its prey. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
