Chapter 257: A “Good” Introduction
Translator: Kris_Liu Editor: Vermillion
Guzon repeated in a confused way, “Through Schachran Empire?”
Lucien stopped walking closer to Guzon but just stood on the stairs, where those guards were still lying on the floor, with his hands in his pockets. Those guests who came here to buy information were all hiding in the booths, feeling terrified.
“Yes, I want to take the way through the empire and get to the countries following other gods northeast of the Dark Mountain Range.” Lucien nodded, “I’m sure that you can tell I’m a sorcerer, Mr. Guzon. I need a guide who really knows well about the country’s geography, custom, and powers to help me get to my final destination without being chased after by the North Church.”
From Gaston, Lucien knew that the church was tightening their control over Storm Strait, so he decided to take the magic train and to later get to the famous city in the north called Deep Sea Port through the Kingdoms of Holm and Colette. Then Lucien spent another two months traveling through the forests where lived trolls and orcs and finally got to the East Haven, whose primeval forest was right beside the empire’s Flame Fortress in its northeast.
During that time, Lucien had constructed another very important third-circle spell, Dispel Magic.
The reason why Lucien wanted to take this way was that the empire bordered the Duchy of Violet in southwest.
After Lucien’s half-true explanation, Guzon got a rough idea of Lucien’s request. He took a couple of deep breaths and tried to gain his leader’s manner back, “Sir, because of the Church, you don’t want to fly across the empire, but want to take the land route with the help of a local guide, is that right?”
“Exactly, Mr. Guzon.” Although Lucien was smiling, he really wished that he could just fly to the duchy, which would only cost him three to four days, and that was way faster than taking the land route.
Guzon saw that Lucien was not that kind of vicious sorcerer, and after a short pause, he said, “Sir, I’d recommend you Leo, who was the assistant of the biggest smuggler in Schachran Empire, and their business once extended all the way to those countries northeast of the mountains and even Violet, but later he pissed off the smuggler, and the smuggler killed Leo’s family. Leo was the only one who survived and escaped here to Segru with a precious magic scroll of his. His strong will of taking revenge and his power that’s close to that of a real knight made him survive until here, although in a hard way. Now he’s accepting any tasks he can take to save money to buy magic potions in order to be stronger for his revenge. Also, Leo was very good at changing one’s appearance using non-magic methods, and he knows the empire very well.”
Lucien responded, with the smile still on his face, “He might not be the one I’m looking for. After we get to the empire, if he encounters the smuggler, he might get too emotional.”
“No worries, sir. Leo has his knight belief. As long as you two have signed the contract, I’m sure he would not break his words and he would do his best to complete the task,” insisted Guzon. “Maybe this was why he pissed of the guy. Sir, Leo is your best choice.”
Lucien thought about it for a while and nodded, “Then I should see him first.”
“You won’t be disappointed,” said Guzon. “The only thing is that he’s not showing up regularly as usual for some reason. What we know is that, most recently, someone saw him in a bar called Taran.”
At this time, Guzon noticed that both of the young man’s eyes, the one with the monocle and the bare one, had fast spinning swirls in them, and then his mind got lost.
Lucien cast Charm Person on Guzon and verified all the information he provided. Then, he also cast Hypnotism on Guzon to remove the key parts of his memory about himself. Although Lucien was not able to rewrite his target’s memory, and neither completely remove all the person’s memory, removing part of the key information was not that difficult, so Guzon would not be able to provide any useful information about Lucien if someone was going to chase after him.
Also, even his memory about Lucien’s appearance was not accurate, because Lucien carefully disguised himself before setting off.
As the winner of Holm Crown prize, Lucien was not sure whether the Church, either in the north or south, knew what he looked like. Because cardinals and night watchers could easily tell the first circle spell, Disguise, and also because Lucien was not good at Transformation, he used some physical ways to change his appearance: insoles for increasing height, brown eye contacts made of the pupils of a magic creature to change his eye colour, and even a decent, well-trimmed moustache, together with the monocle. With those gears, Lucien looked quite elegant.
After a long time, Guzon finally slowly came back to his senses, like just waking up from a nightmare.
“Where are the knights?” Guzon tried to recall what happened, but as soon as he tried, his head hurt badly. As the leader of an intelligence organization, he immediately realized what just happened—a powerful man was here, and the man must altered his memory, so he directly gave up thinking about it.
Looking at his men lying on the floor higgledy-piggledy, Guzon was pissed, “Damn, you useless jerks! Get up and change your fu*king pants! And get the stupid knights back!”
…
The board outside of the bar wrote, “Taran, the East Haven’s Taran”.
Lucien pushed the bar gate open and entered the place. As soon as he stepped into it, he attracted all the people’s eyes in the bar, but very quickly, in the next second, all the eyes drew back and the laughing, talking and shouting continued as if they had never stopped.
When Lucien mentally controlled the cabin guard, Tony, right in public, he did it on purpose to show those East Haven people his power. Some guys in the bar knew what kind of power Lucien had, so they tried to stay away from him. Seeing that, the other people who did not know Lucien’s power also wanted to be cautious first.
This was how they survived here in the East Haven! Outcomers who came here without power or relationship could only expect one ending: death.
Most people here did not want to spend their whole life here at all. They wanted to make a fortune here and move out. Of course, some of them did enjoy this place. They enjoyed the excitement and freedom here very much.
Obviously, Lucien’s calm and elegant manner revealed the fact that he did not belong here. Walking through the chairs, Lucien came to the bar counter, “Hello, I’m looking for someone.”
Wiping the cups, the blonde bartender responded without even lifting his head, “You need to buy something first.”
“A glass of Lesse, please.” This was the first kind of alcoholic drink that Lucien knew in this world.
The blonde young man finally looked up. He was a good-looking young guy, and he had this kind of unruly manner gained from this wild place.
After pulling Lucien a cup of golden drink, he asked, “Looking for who?”
“Leo.” Lucien stared at the golden liquor like he was appreciating a piece of artwork, “I’m looking for Leo.”
“You’re not alone there.” The bartender gave Lucien an ambiguous answer.
“I’m here to hire him.” Lucien looked at the bartender.
“So were they,” said the bartender a bit sarcastically.
Hearing their conversation, several strong, armored men sprang up from the chairs. Their armors were making clacking noises.
Their leader was a man in his thirties. His left eyeball was missing.
Dragging a great sword on the floor, his armoured shoes clacking, the tall and bulky man came in front of Lucien. He slightly bent forward and asked Lucien in a threatening way, “How did you know Leo? When was the last time you saw him? I’m asking you this for a big man here in the East Haven. You’d better not bullshit, or you won’t see tomorrow’s sunrise.”
“I don’t know Leo. I just want to hire him to protect me here,” Lucien answered calmly. In his mind, he started to feel that looking for Leo might not have been a good idea, since clearly right now he was in some kind of trouble.
The man missing his left eye did not leave Lucien alone, but continued to push him, “Who introduced Leo to you! Protect you for what?”
As soon as he finished his last word, Lucien’s left, glove-wearing hand quickly left the cup and grabbed the man’s throat.
It was fast, very fast. The man only saw shadows.
Lucien smiled, “Did your mother ever tell you curiosity kills the cat?”
“You… you’d better let go of me, if you want to leave the East Haven alive!! The big man behind me…” The man was still threatening Lucien, however, in the next second, he was chocked because Lucien tightened his grabbing on his neck.
“You know what? I’m not sure if I can leave the East Haven alive, but if you continue being stupid, I’m sure you cannot leave the bar alive. And to tell you a secret—I’m a big man, too.”
The man’s face flushed bright red out of anger, but he could not say a single word. When his people finally realized what was happening here and were about to pull out their swords to save him, a man wearing black armor in the same style as the others yelled at them from the bar’s back door,
“Leo’s here! In the bar’s chamber!”
The bartender’s face suddenly turned white. As soon as he was about to rush out from behind the counter, he was stopped by a swordman. Other guys all rushed towards the back of the bar, as if they had all forgotten the existence of their leader.
On the other side of the hall, two guys whose power was close to that of a real knight also jumped up from their chairs and ran toward the back door.
Lucien was a bit amused. Releasing the hand grabbing the man’s throat, Lucien slightly shook his head out of sympathy, “Too bad… The big man you were talking about doesn’t seem to care about you a lot. Even if I kill you, he would not care. Which suzerain sent you here?”
“How do you know he’s a suzerain?” asked the man out of great surprise.
Lucien slightly patted his clothes and stood up from his chair.
