Chapter 281: The Missed Music Festival
Translator: Kris_Liu Editor: Vermillion
Although the heavy sword in Lucien’s hands did not look fancy, the design of it was solemn and sacred. However, the look and the value was not the reason that made Leo’s body slightly shake and his voice tremble.
“That’s right. The sword’s called Cleanser, and its last owner was Ivanovszki. I killed him.” Lucien nodded. When he said this, there was a calm smile on his face.
Lucien was not worried about the possibility of someone figuring out that he also knew about the existence of the World of Souls, after all, no one could tell that, instead of chasing after Lucien to kill him, Ivanovszki was actually running for his own life toward the mine pit.
Sneaky as a sorcerer could be, there was still chance that Lucien could end Ivanovszki’s life using some kind of strange magic items or traps. Also, Nikonov did not find any evidence at the bottom of the mine pit, and neither did he find Ivanovszki in the World of Souls. Therefore, Lucien should be safe.
In addition, it was not easy for a middle-rank sorcerer to control a grand knight’s will using spells, not to mention that Ivanovszki had the Blessing called Interference, who was very resistant to mental control. At least a ninth circle spell, such as Invade Brain, should be used if a senior rank mage wanted to get the information about the World of Souls from Ivanovszki, which was definitely the most significant piece of information, well protected by Ivanovszki’s subconscious, or the target would soon wake up from the great sense of revolting.
From another perspective, those reasons above were also why the important people behind Ivanovszki would feel secure to tell him how to enter the World of Souls.
From comparing and contrasting the list of the saints who were against the pope over the Highest Theology Conference and the list of the grand cardinals who jointly killed Wilfred, the Great Master of Paleness, Lucien felt that he was already right in front of the great, shocking secret, and thus he had a better understanding of the great value of the World of Souls. Once the fact that he was also aware of the existence of the World of Souls was revealed, regardless of what others would do to him, Lucien was certain that the saints and the pontiff from the North Church would definitely kill him in person.
But why didn’t the North Church hide the list, but made them available to almost everyone? Because they knew it well that there was a premise if one could really see the great secret existing between the two lists—one must be aware that, although Wilfred, the Master of Paleness, did not end up missing, he had a very close connection to the several missing legendary archmages. They did some secret experiment together, and he also knew the secret of immortality hidden in the World of Souls. However, those people who knew this much did not need the list to figure out what happened.
This was why the Congress of Magic, although having all the records from both the South and North Church, still got findings at all.
Although Lucien’s answer was quite plain, Leo’s eyes in his wrinkled face suddenly lost their focus. At this second, the purpose of his life had ended.
His hands were shaking fiercely. His lips slightly opened but his throat could not make a sound.
After more than five minutes, Leo forced a smile on his face and said, “Thanks, my lord… for taking the revenge… for me.”
Lucien could tell the mixed emotions in Leo’s voice. There was joy, regret, depression and confusion. And Lucien totally understood.
“The dead belongs to the past…” Lucien tried to comfort Leo, but was interrupted by him.
“Sorry, my lord. Please give me a few minutes.”
Lucien nodded. Then Leo walked toward a huge rock on the side. Although he looked relatively calm, he almost fell over because of the tree root. He kept stumbling forward.
In front of the rock, Leo’s knee suddenly dropped to the ground. Crossing in front of his chest, he kissed the dried moss on the rock, and murmured some names…
Lucien walked to the side to show his respect. Knights who grew up under the influence of the church always drew the cross in front of their chest when they felt emotional, no matter whether they believed in the God of Truth or not, and no matter whether they had any impious behavior. They drew the cross and pray, and it was a stamped habit left by their parents or families, not necessarily piety.
Lucien’s mind wandered a bit. He was thinking of a new arcana research topic—the influence of one’s early childhood experiences on one’s behavior pattern.
After a few minutes, Leo slowly walked back. Feeling a bit tired, he said to Lucien, “My lord, let’s set off right now. We gotta leave Ural as soon as possible. The night watchers and knights have been searching for us like crazy. Fortunately, I am quite familiar with this area, or I would not be able to meet you here, my lord…”
Although his heart was still filled with all mixed feelings, Leo reminded himself of his own duty.
Then, he took out a pair of boots embroidered with dark gold patterns, “My lord, these are the boots I found… from the sorcerer’s body.”
Sidestep, level three middle rank magic item. The boots could improve a sorcerer’s agility to the level of a level three knight, and also provided the sorcerer two uses of third-circle spell Short Distance Teleportation a day.
After checking the boots carefully, then smiled, “Ok, we can go through the Ural mountains directly. I can handle the beasts and creatures in the mountains, and I also have Sorcerer’s Cabin.”
Pausing a bit, Lucien comforted Leo, “When we arrive in Aalto, Leo, try to stay there and do not come back again. You should think about your future life and probably have your offspring again. Take the sword, Leo. You’ll need it in the mountains.”
Hearing the word “offspring”, Leo’s face dimmed a bit. In this world, where Blessing, title, treasure and glory played the most important roles, one’s offspring mattered a lot.
Leo took over Cleanser silently, as if he was lost in his own thoughts. After checking the sword carefully, Leo started walking in front of Lucien, with the heavy sword in his hand.
…
In the early evening of the Month of the End of Spring (April), 20th.
A coach from Tiran Province in the north arrived at Massawa town, which was only less-than-a day’s travel away from Aalto.
Lucien, whose hair was blond and eyes were green, stepped out of the coach, followed by his butler, Leo. He walked into the familiar hotel and looked around.
Lucien left Aalto on April 9th in the year 816 of Saint Calendar and arrived in this small town. Now, after a whole three years, Lucien finally came back. He was a bit emotional, as everything in this place was triggering his memory. He was excited about going back “home”.
After leaving Ural, Lucien and Leo travelled through the deep mountain range. Although they encountered beasts and other creatures many times, they handled them very well with Lucien’s further-grown power as a fourth-circle sorcerer, so they arrived at the fortress in the north as planned.
However, because the north fortress had God’s Glory and Snake the Chaos guarding the gate, Lucien and Leo had to climb over the great snow mountains to enter the Duchy of Violet, thus their trip had been delayed for almost a month.
Massawa was just a common town, so the hotel was not nearly as fancy. The hotel hall was its dining hall. People wearing different styles of clothes with different accents were eating and chatting in the heated atmosphere. Here, no noble manner was required.
“Compared to the music festival held three years ago, this year’s Aalto music festival is… Umm… just so so, but… I mean, it’s still a great feast of music. I’ve stayed here a week longer than I planned,” said a wealthy middle-aged man wearing a silk shirt to the other guests sharing the table with him.
Hearing the man’s words, Lucien suddenly realized that April was the month of Aalto Music Festival. Unfortunately, he had missed it. However, Lucien was also glad that Natasha should be free now. He wanted to reach her as soon as possible, or coming back to Aalto as the famous musician could bring him a lot of trouble from the Church.
As the winner of Holm Crown prize, Lucien was quite famous in the Congress of Magic. Lucien was very careful with disguising himself, as the Church might have found some clues connecting the great musician Lucien Evans to the genius sorcerer Lucien Evans X.
Lucien signalled to Leo with a glance. Leo nodded and walked to the middle-aged man and asked politely, “Excuse me sir, do you mind if we take these seats?”
Lucien hoped to get more information about his friends and what recently happened in Aalto. After he finished building in his soul his fifth fourth-circle spell, Professor’s Infrasound Resonance, he would directly head for Aalto on the following day.
“No problem at all.” The middle-aged man found Lucien young and elegant, so he nodded immediately. The other three guests also agreed.
Lucien sat down in front of the dining table and smiled, “Good to meet you all. I’m Michel, from Syracuse.”
“I’m Glinton, a businessman traveling between the fortress of the Dark Mountain Range, Aalto and Tria.” The middle-aged man made a brief self-introduction, followed by the two men and the lady.
Lucien put on a regretful look and sighed, “I tried my best to attend the music festival in Aalto, but still missed it… A lot of things happened during my trip. What a pity… Mr. Glinton, from what I heard from your words, it seems that you just came back from Aalto. Do you mind sharing with me some of what you’ve seen over the festival?”
“That’s indeed a pity.” Glinton nodded in an understanding way, “This year’s music festival was not bad… Actually, I should say it was pretty good. However, you know… The festival held three years ago was too impressive to be compared… And this year’s festival, without the presence of Mr. Christopher and Mr. Evans, appeared to be a bit plain and disappointing… But, of course, this year, Mr. Victor’s playing in the Psalm Hall was still very stunning…”
