Chapter 220: Different Ideas
Translator: Kris_Liu Editor: Vermillion
Before entering the inn, Lucien took off his magic badge and only kept his four-star arcana badge on his chest. Then he put on a pair of wire-rimmed glasses that he bought in Allyn for disguise. He felt concerned that Patrick Hoffenberg might have already recognized him, so he wanted to be more careful now. Better late than never.
The fine metal chain of the glasses was now hanging beside Lucien’s somewhat angular face.
Adjusting his bow tie slightly, Lucien went into Dragon Root Inn confidently, in a steady pace.
…
Sunlight came into the inn through the windows. Everything looked quiet and radiant.
Two blond, beautiful elven druids, one male and one female, were right now sitting on the couch in the corner, waiting for the sorcerer from the Congress of Magic, and they were surrounded by several pretty elven guards and maids.
There were no other guests there, just the owner of the inn and servants.
“Brother, Lucien Evans, Elemental Order, is the youngest winner of Holm Crown prize, and also a level four arcanist. Then his magic power must be close to senior-rank. What shall we do?” asked the extremely beautiful female elf out of concern.
She did not expect that they would be separated from their teachers, and their whole plan of damaging the project was thus disturbed. Now they were allocated in a small group with a young and talented sorcerer, Lucien Evans, the winner of Holm Crown prize. Anything wrong that they wanted to do to the pilot land would be so clear and obvious under this arcanist’s eyes.
In order to make sure that Lucien’s fame was in its best use, Affairs Committee purposefully omitted Lucien’s magic circle level when they provided the druids with Lucien’s information. And they also gave Lucien a quite cool title, which came from several rounds of discussion: Elemental Order.
While Felipe did not need to hide his magic circle level, he also had a new title: Hand of Rehabilitation.
“Iristine, we’ll be fine. First, we can be incooperative by offering him divine spell imprints with missing parts. Second, now that we’re gonna be involved in the experiments, when we need to take down important data, we can just make ‘mistakes’ all the time. I mean, what do we know about arcana?” responded Arcelion, with a disgusted facial expression that showed his repulsion toward human beings, “Our main job is to waste time here, since other elders in the royal palace are still working on stopping the grand elder. Soon, we’ll be going back into our clean and beautiful forests.”
Iristine nodded and smiled, “Hope we can do something here for our nature. By the way, some of the inventions from human beings are actually not that bad. This couch feels pretty nice…”
Arcelion quickly got very serious, “Iristine, keep in mind that those couches are made from logs, from people cutting down trees which were still alive. I can almost hear those trees crying! Do not indulge yourself in degeneration! Nothing’s better than sitting on real trees which are filled with vitality!”
Hearing her elder brother’s scold, Iristine felt a bit upset. However, she still nodded seriously, “I won’t forget all the gifts from mother nature.”
Being resolute, she secretly clenched her fists. She would definitely stop human beings from destroying mother nature.
At this time, they noticed that a young man of medium height came in, wearing white shirt, dark waistcoat, a double-breasted suit and a black top hat. The wire-rimmed glasses made him look quite profound and elegant.
As a human being, this young man didn’t look bad, and he actually appeared to be quite well-mannered. This was Iristine’s and Arcelion’s first impression about Lucien. Since they left the forest and came to human society, they were used to judging people’s appearance first.
Soon, they noticed the light-purple ring on Lucien’s right hand. They recognized that it was Holm Crown ring, as told by the congress.
Knowing that this young man was Lucien Evans, Arcelion and Iristine stood up together. As members from the elf royal family, they needed to keep their good manners. Besides, deep in their mind, Lucien’s deterrent title and his reputation was also affecting them.
“Good morning. Princess Iristine and Prince Arcelion?” Lucien took off his top hat in a well-mannered way. He secretly felt grateful that the committee assigned him to this group, as the prince was of level four and the princess level three, and Lucien could easily handle them with his ring, Element.
As for their noble status, Lucien did not care at all. After all, he was not an elf.
Of course, the princess’ and prince’s guards were more powerful. According to the information provided by the committee, Anguster was a level seven magic archer, and Tirill was a level six elven knight.
In front of this arcanist, Princess Iristine and Prince Arcelion also greeted him using royal manner, “Yes, we’re members of the royal palace of Trumanner. May I ask if you are Mr. Lucien Evans, Elemental Order?”
Hearing his own title, Lucien himself was quite surprised. Half a second later, he nodded and calmly sat down with the prince and princess, “We still need to wait for another two members to start our experiments and research. The land in southeast part of the town belongs to us. Part of it is fertile, and part is poor. Thus, we can conduct contrast experiments.”
Arcelion and Iristine were not interested in Lucien’s terminology at all. Instead, they started talking about arts with Lucien.
Lucien was of course not afraid of this topic. In general, they had a pretty good conversation, because Lucien purposefully guided their topic to music. Lucien actually learned quite a bit and was inspired from the the prince and princess talking about elven music. At the same time, Lucien’s carefully structured understanding of music and profound feelings and emotions also touched Arcelion and Iristine.
“Among all you human beings, artists such as musicians, sculptor, playwrights… they’re of the greatest value to the world. Arts is the best return to the generosity of mother nature.” Arcelion was in a pretty good mood, as if he was talking to an artist, instead of the winner of Holm Crown prize and an authority in the school of Element.
Lucien slightly looked down at the arcana badge on his chest. He sighed with emotion in his mind, since the two noble elves really had some prejudice. For human beings, unlike elves who were born with magic tattoos, they needed to survive first, and thus human society needed so many different occupations to function properly.
When Lucien started getting a bit bored, two sorcerers came in. One was an elderly sorcerer wearing a black robe with a five-star arcana badge and a four-circle magic badge, and the other was of middle age, blond hair, whose arcana level was four, magic circle level three. They were the other two members of Lucien’s experiment group, Mr. Tyrel and Mr. Urine.
After introducing themselves, Tyrel said loudly, “I was rushing earlier, and I haven’t had breakfast yet. Can I have something to eat first? Honestly I cannot work with an empty stomach.”
Arcelion was more than happy with anything that could waste their time, “Of course. Iristine and I also did not eat earlier. Why don’t we have something to eat together? What do you think, Mr. Evans?”
Lucien nodded. Knowing that they were trying to waste time, he also wanted to keep the prince and princess occupied to prevent them from disturbing other groups’ research.
…
In the dining room of the inn, Lucien was cutting his sausage, while Tyrel and Urine were working on their medium-rare steaks, which were quite bloody.
Iristine could not stand this anymore. She put down her knife and fork and said in an offended way, “Why you human beings need to harm lives to meet your own desire? Cattle, goats, chicken… They shall be our friends! Mother nature has been enough tolerant with you human beings!”
Arcelion also looked pretty annoyed.
Although Tyrel and Urine felt that the two elves were being quite rude, they still put down their knife and fork.
Lucien slowly swallowed down a piece of sausage and took a glance at the fruits in Iristine’s and Arcelion’s plates. Then he said slowly, “Why you elves need to harm lives to meet your own desire? Did the plants do anything wrong? Why you pick off their fruits, their offsprings? According to the school of Necromancy and the Church, plants are lives as well. Don’t you think so?”
“You…! Mr. Evans, I thought you were different. I thought you were an artist whose heart was filled with love. However, I’m wrong. You are still a vicious sorcerer! Enjoy your bloody breakfast! Don’t talk to us about the project until all of you are done with your bloody breakfast!” Iristine angrily left the table with Arcelion.
“Good for you, Mr. Evans.” Tyrel grinned, “Although you look rather gentle, you are good at satire. And I cannot believe how hypocritical they are.”
“We do need to protect nature, but we also need to survive,” said Lucien seriously, and then he smiled. “Anything that prevents me from eating meat is heresy.”
To be honest, Lucien did fantasy before that he might have a beautiful relationship with an elf lady here in this world, but now it looked way less likely to happen.
“I like what you said. Anything that prevents me from eating meat is heresy!” Tyrel put a big chuck of meat in his mouth and chewed it hard.
Lucien wiped the corner of his mouth gently. He knew clear that both Tyrel and Urine could not really be called arcanists, and their badges were all fake. Tyrel was, in fact, a level three arcanist, sixth-circle sorcerer, while Urine was a level two arcanist, fifth circle sorcerer. They were sorcerers who specialized more in fighting. And their true task here was to deal with the prince and princess’ guards.
Lucien took a sip of water and thought to himself, “Two elven druids who do not want to work with us, plus two sorcerers who like fighting, plus me, a level four arcanist who’s actually unworthy of the title… What a group…”
