Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
Lucien narrowed his eyes, his monocle reflecting the cold light of spring.
The message on the letter was composed of words cut down from newspapers, and the paper had been processed by tracing-proof divination spells. However, the person who sent this letter had obviously underestimated how well Lucien had mastered senior-rank Astrology.
Lucien pulled out the anonymous letter and laid it under his Morning Light crystal ball. There was a forbidding look on his face. He put both hands on the crystal ball and stroked it in a specific rhythm.
The crystal ball dimmed and turned black quickly. Shiny stars emerged inside. Meanwhile, the Arcana Scepter watch that Lucien was wearing also started to be covered by a vague layer of starlight. The miniature sun and constellations inlaid in the plate began to revolve silently.
In the starlight, Lucien saw blurry pictures, which depicted the many steps of how the letter was delivered.
Owl… Allyn Animal Post Office… the Magic Steam Train Company belonging to the Affair Committee… The train… Tracks… Forests, fields, and hills… Cocus, the capital city of Calais… An apprentice that Lucien did not know… A request from a friend…
All the major steps were reflected one by one. Then the letter finally returned, unexpectedly, back to Allyn, back to the Animal Post Office, and to the hands of a restaurant waiter.
At this time, Lucien had used up most of his spiritual power. The pictures became vaguer and vaguer and were soon about to disappear.
Then a next picture came. Lucien could only faintly see a man wearing a black hooded robe handing the letter and some gold Thales to the waiter.
The ring on his left hand, the Origin, lit up in time. A cool refreshing feeling came from it and restored some of his spiritual power. Removing his right hand from the crystal ball, Lucien quickly lifted his Sun Staff.
The Sun Staff could enhance the power of Astrology spells under the ninth circle by one level!
The light from the staff lit up the picture in front of Lucien’s eyes. Behind the sorcerer whose face was hidden under the black hood, a misty, distorted star rose. The fine, nebula-like, shimmering lines linking to his Host Star of Destiny were now visible to bare eyes.
“Got you,” Lucien whispered in a low voice.
He recorded the features of the Host Star of Destiny and its track. When his spiritual power recovered partly, he figured out who this man was using the help of Sun Staff and Arcana Scepter.
“Peavy Belges, a member of Moonsong League, specializes in Electromagnetics… Egocentric and prone to go extreme…”
Lucien found the name somehow quite familiar. After a while, he recalled that this name was on the paper that he rejected a few days ago.
The man named Peavy definitely hated Lucien for turning down his paper; then his hatred was further stimulated by Lucien’s hypothesis about light quantum, so he wrote this letter to threaten Lucien.
When not used for predicting the obscure future, and when an important item that had gone through the processes was at hand, the power of senior-rank Astrology was beyond the imagination of low or middle-rank sorcerers. With the assistance of Sun Staff and Arcana Scepter, Lucien could divine many things in great detail like an archmage. Also, since the Congress of Magic had Peavy’s personal information, the features of his Host Star of Destiny was not at all a secret. After careful comparison, Lucien could find him relatively easily.
Every person had his or her own Host Star of Destiny. However, if the person never studied Astrology, they would not have the host star reflection in their soul.
Therefore, Lucien had been very careful with erasing important traces left after anything he did. If it was not possible, at least he would use some senior-rank spells to cover his Host Star, or turn the black hole side to the front, which was only known by Fernando and Thompson.
Lucien thought about it for a second whether he should report this to the Affair Committee. However, the punishment for menacing, presumably fifteen days of detention, would be too weak to prevent this lunatic from hurting Lucien’s friends and students, and it might even further infuriate him. So Lucien shut down this option.
Although most people see Lucien as a young, talented arcanist who was usually very polite and gentle, Lucien never showed any mercy to those intended to hurt his friends and students.
Facing this vicious, overreacting letter, Lucien was determined to overreact to it.
Lucien weighed the cost seriously — With this letter and the information he just collected as evidence, unjustifiable self-defense, in the worst case to him, would put him into prison for six months and cost him a good sum of arcana points as a penalty.
And he made the decision.
Finding the materials he needed, Lucien started to make a puppet, which was essential to his plan. After several hours, Lucien was holding a brownish, creepy puppet. The puppet had long narrow eyes and a tightly-shut mouth. Its arms were so long that they dropped down under its knees. The entire puppet was also covered with unique patterns and symbols which was very similar to the trace of Peavy’s Host Star of Destiny.
“You better not try, otherwise…” Lucien said coldly while putting the anonymous letter on the puppet and activating his Arcana Scepter watch.
The constellation symbols on the watch suddenly started glowing together! Some were radiant and enchanting, some were bright and clear, some were broad and cold, some were eternally unchanging…
The seventh-circle Astrology spell, Destiny Interference!
Wriggling, a thin layer of human skin quickly grew out of the lifeless puppet and covered its face. The layer of skin became the face of Peavy, but its eyes were closed as if it was unaware to what was now happening.
Lucien then started casting on the Peavy Puppet.
…
In a garden villa.
Peavy was humming a new piece of music from the most recent play in the town in a very good mood. His high spirit was not because of the melody, but from the pleasure imagining the great panic that Lucien Evans was now suffering knowing that his friends and students were in danger, imagining him running back and forth making sure no one had been hurt.
Lucien Evans would submit the letter to the Affair Committee, but so what?
In Peavy’s eyes, this arrogant so-called genius deserved this, for rejecting his paper out of jealousy and attacking Mr. Brook’s theoretical system.
He had done some research and knew that only legendary archmages could locate the sender of an anonymous letter. He also had done everything he could to avoid the tracing of most Astrology spells. He chose not to directly attach a self-destroying spell to the letter, since Lucien Evans would definitely notice the magic waves coming out from it and wouldn’t even bother to open it, then sending the letter would pointless.
Not to mention that whether Lucien Evans would ask an archmage to cast spells just because of a threatening letter, even if Evans found out that if was him somehow, he would only be fined a few arcana points and be confined for a few days. The minor punishment would be nothing to him.
Furthermore, Peavy believed that all sorcerers who supported the wave theory of light would be on his side. Maybe Lucien Evans could protect his friends and students right now, he could not do this forever. Lucien Evans had to pay blood for what he had done! Only blood could make him realize his huge mistake!
The look on his face was completely distorted and vicious, as if Lucien had killed his father or cut off his path leading to becoming a grand arcanist. As an experienced fourth-level sorcerer who was experienced in fighting, Peavy was confident with his ability of killing. He knew well that if killing sites were well-chosen, even a legendary archmage would not be able to get any results with Horoscope.
In such a good mood, Peavy suddenly got inspired. He believed that he had come up with an experiment on testing the photoelectric effect accurate enough for exploding Lucien Evans’s brain!
Unable to hold back his excitement, Peavy believed that he would become the new genius after Lucien Evans’s head exploded. And by that time, his theory would be long remembered by the entire Congress just like that of Mr. Brook. Needless to say, he would become an almighty grand arcanist respected by everyone!
Walking into his lab, Peavy found his brain extremely clear. The procedures of the experiment emerged readily in his brain. Then Peavy started to reconstruct the magic circles.
The equipment for carrying out the experiment would cost a senior-rank sorcerer months to finish setting up, but he finished it within just ten minutes! Peavy wondered if his long-suppressed talent finally burst out.
With the equipment all set, Peavy started to conduct the experiment and collect data.
A few minutes later, beads of sweat dropped down from his forehead. He could not believe what he saw.
“Impossible… Impossible! Something’s wrong!”
The experiment showed clear quanta features!
He hurriedly restarted the experiment all over again, but the result remained unchanged.
“No… No…” Peavy shook his head helplessly.
Bang!
His head exploded. Small pieces of red and white were everywhere on the floor and the walls of the lab.
“Ahhh!!!”
Peavy released a bitter scream and sprang up from the couch. Lips trembling, Peavy murmured to himself,
“Ha..Haha, that felt so real…”
His laughter sounded dry and embarrassed.
Wiping off the sweat from his head, Peavy walked to his lab. The horrible dream he just had reminded him that he had still got an experiment on lightning to do today.
As he walked into the lab, Peavy’s heart was still beating fast, and his mind was still a bit confused. He turned on the magic circles while he tried to calm down.
In the magic circle, bolts of lightning grew and began to bounce around within the lab. Peavy, as usual, was about to turn on the most powerful defensive magic circle to shield himself from the lightning.
However, his face immediately paled.
“Why… Why can’t it be turned on? Right, it broke yesterday…”
Peavy finally recalled blankly that the defensive magic circle probably had been out of order since yesterday, and he was planning to pay a senior-rank sorcerer from the Magic Engineering Department to come and repair it.
But he just forgot it! He forgot it!
“No!!!”
Layers of defensive spells were activated; pieces of magic items glowed. However, the power of the horrible lightning arc was unstoppable, and it penetrated the spells and items promptly.
Only the bitter scream of Peavy was left echoing in the room.
…
A few seconds after Lucien confirmed Peavy’s death, Thompson of the Affair Committee showed up in Lucien’s study with a flash of light.
“Who did you just attack?”
In Allyn, a spell used for attacking would be detected by the mythal enveloping the city from above. The Affair Committee would then be noticed to interfere.
“Someone who deserved it,” said Lucien gloomily.
Lucien threw the threatening letter and his prophecy result to Thompson. It looked like that Thompson was the designated person in the Affair Committee for handling the affairs that involved Lucien.
When he finishing reading the letter and the result, Thompson figured out what happened. He looked angry as well, and even said,
“Good job.”
Then Thompson restrained his personal emotion and asked, “With these as evidence, we could charge you as unjustifiable self-defense without doubt. You wanna pay ten thousand arcana points, or go stay in the magic-forbidden prison for a year?”
“Arcana points,” said Lucien word by word, his heart aching. All his income from inventing magic crystal light and promoting charcoal would go into this, but it was still worthwhile as he got rid of a lunatic.
Thompson nodded. He wrote down the punishment decision and was about to leave. Lucien could not help asking.
“Those sorcerers that have gone extreme, I don’t think you guys should leave them there in the public. They need a psychotherapy center, Thompson.”
Thompson shrugged. “You have to know, Lucien. With years of dangerous and lonely exploration, many sorcerers have, more or less, turned into psychos. No one will agree with this proposal.”
Lucien wondered if he should propose that the Congress start giving lectures on mental health.
…
“The latest one on Allyn’s Dumbest Ways to Die – No. 17: Peavy used his death to tell us that we should never forget the first and foremost rule in the laboratory manual – ‘Carefully check your equipment and magic circles before starting your experiment,’” said a man with cheerful smile on his face, who was introducing Allyn to the new sorcerers and apprentices on the magic steam train.
In front of him was a beautiful girl who had a white wolf lying beside as her companion.
