Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
Klein’s brain started buzzing… Pieces of memory flashed back, and they started joining together to form a whole picture:
Professor’s arrival when Lucien Evans was being questioned… It was Professor who launched the attack in the Melzer Black Forest incident, but it was Lucien Evans who benefited from it the most… Professor’s unexpected visit during midnight… The trap they set together for Clown… And, the death of the great musician, Lucien Evans!
Everything started making a lot of sense when they saw Lucien Evans, who had already become a member of the Arcana Review Board, standing in the middle of the headquarter hall of the Congress of Magic!
Klein was almost certain that Lucien Evans was the very profound Mr. Professor!
“Prof… Evans…” Klein shut his mouth up before more words came out. Fear seized him: Klein had no idea if Lucien Evans wanted to have anyone knowing who he truly was.
As a consul who had worked in Aalto for more than a decade, he knew how to be very careful, especially when facing someone powerful and of high status.
Hearing Louise’s murmurs, Pan asked her quite surprisedly, “you know Mr. Evans?”
“Isn’t he… dead?” Hanger Ricardo and Flame Zapataro exclaimed at the same time in a low voice.
Dead? They witnessed Mr. Evans’s death? Pan knew that they came from Aalto, and he knew that in Aalto a famous musician named Lucien Evans passed away and a grand funeral was held for him. Pan started getting some clues…
Recalling their chat on the train, Pan also felt very shocked.
He knew Lucien Evans, the great musician, whose music pieces were extensively popular even in Holm and Allyn. Although Ode To Joy was a half-religious music piece, and it thus did not become as popular as Lucien Evans’s other works in Allyn, Pan knew that many sorcerers in actually loved Ode To Joy very much personally, including himself. They would often sing it in private, more often than any other songs from operas.
Although the two Evans were close in age, Pan still could not relate the genius sorcerer who was obsessed with studying magic and making money by inventing new alchemical items to the elegant and talented musician whose piano performances could be called art themselves. Pan wondered if the newcomers had made a mistake.
Louise quickly shut her mouth as well, just like Klein. Any sorcerer that could survive in Aalto for these many years without converting to the Church as a spy would form the habit of being extremely careful.
At this time, Louise saw that the young genius’ head tilted imperceptibly, then turned to face them completely. Lucien put on a tender smile and, after he said something to the young students around him, started walking towards them at a leisurely pace.
“Mr… Mr. Evans.” Klein was the first one to respond. He bowed to Lucien Evans politely.
Before he bowed, Klein’s eyes stopped on the three badges that Lucien was wearing on his left chest: The black one with six silver stars, the silver one with five black circles, and the one which was a hand holding a quill-pen. Klein had known what they meant from Pan.
Lucien smiled. “Finally, you are all here. It must have been a long journey.”
They were all very surprised, as they never expected that he would just directly admit who he was!
“Thanks a lot for guiding us, Mr. Pro… Mr. Evans.” Klein was the first to recover from the shock.
Lucien looked around and asked, “only the four of you?”
Louise finally calmed down a bit and said with a hint of fear, “we ran into great troubles several times on our way. The closer we got to Stuart, the more dangerous it became. I saw several apprentices killed by the night watchers and pastors.”
“There are still people on their way. They have many concerns and couldn’t set off as soon as we could.” Klein added.
Unlike Louise, who knew the great magician, and Klein, who collaborated with the Professor, Hanger and Flame were not that familiar with Lucien. So they chose to remain silent and listen carefully.
“Mr. Evans, who is this?” Heidi took Annick and the rest of the apprentices to them out of curiosity.
Lucien pointed at Klein and Louise. “They are my friends from Aalto, and they are here to join the Congress.”
Then Lucien introduced his apprentices to Lousie and Klein. “They are my students Annick, Heidi, Layria, Sprint, and Katrina. They are currently working for me in the Atom Institution, and are also temporarily living at my place.”
Hearing Lucien calling all of them his students in front of his acquaintances, Heidi put on a big smile.
After greeting each other, Heidi asked curiously, “Louise, what did Mr. Evans do in Aalto? Every time I asked him, he would just smile but never reply.”
Louise did not know what to do. She looked at Lucien awkwardly, her mouth slightly opened, and her hobby as a lady made her notice that Lucien was wearing three finely-designed rings.
“Mr- Mr. Evans, are you that great musician of Aalto?” Pan finally asked, as he could not resist the curiosity anymore. When he knew Lucien Evans passed away at such a young age, he also felt very sorry with deep sorrow that Lucien wouldn’t be able to compose any more classic pieces of music which would be passed down through ages.
What? Deeply shocked, the apprentices wondered if there was something wrong with their ears! Annick was from Violet, and Heidi was from Syracuse. They both heard of the name before, but never thought that the two Evans was the same person!
“The great musician already died. I am now Lucien Evans, the Demon of Origin, as people call me,” said Lucien half jokingly. Professor ranked the last one on the Cleansing List, and it was nothing comparable to the rank of his true identity. Also, it had been years since the experiment for synthesizing carbamide came out; revealing it right now would not do any harm to Lucien.
Pan took Lucien’s words as confirmation. He glanced at Louise, and saw her nod slightly.
Pan exclaimed in great surprise, “it’s really you, sir! I’m a big fan of your music! It’s great knowing you’re still alive! Are you by any means planning on holding a music concert in Allyn?”
Pan temporarily forgot that Lucien was a annoying supporter of the particle theory and the one put forward the hypothesis of light quantum.
“We’ll see…” said Lucien.
Currently, Lucien had no plan on doing this at all. Right now he was not that eagerly pursuing money or wealth like he was in Aalto, and there was no lady in Allyn whose attention he wished to attract. So there was no point for him to do a concert.
“I’ll be waiting for it!” Pan said excitedly, as Lucien Evans did not reject directly.
“Me too!” For the first time ever, Annick spoke out this loud.
When he was studying hard all alone in Violet, and when he was about to give up facing against the difficulties, it was the Symphony of Fate that gave him the power to proceed!
Layria, Heidi, and Katrina’s face flushed lightly. When they were younger, the great musician Lucien Evans was the prince charming in their dreams. Although they had only seen him on the newspapers’ blurry pictures, the beautiful music triggered endless fantasies. Yet the fact that the person they were dreaming about turned out to be their most respected teacher made them feel a bit strange and embarrassed. Fortunately, they never talked about the great musician in front of Lucien Evans.
“The Demon of Origin? Is that your new title?” Asked Louise, who relaxed a bit seeing Lucien was being very friendly and kind.
Heidi answered proudly, “although the title from the Church doesn’t sound nice, it matches Mr. Evans’ rank on the Cleansing List — No. 53!”
Fifty-third?! Klein, Louise, and the rest two felt that what they just heard was a myth. In the past half year, they had stopped keeping track of the Cleansing List as they had to run for their lives on their way to Allyn. They had no idea since when the Demon of Origin appeared on the list. Lucien Evans must have done something that could threaten the entire Church to get to this rank. If they remembered correctly, such a high rank was supposed to be only for the legendaries!
They thought Lucien Evans had revealed to them his biggest secret when they found out his true identity, but now they realized that this young man who was always wearing a tender smile was much more powerful and mysterious than they thought!
Lucien noticed that more and more sorcerer were slowing down their pace and started to gather around, so he said, “I’ll let you guys go for registration right now. We can talk later.”
Then an idea came up to Lucien, and he quickly asked, “Klein, Louise… I wonder if you’re interested in doing a part-time job for me.”
“Part time job?” Louise had no idea how she could be of help for the powerful Lucien Evans.
Lucien said briefly, “I’m preparing a program called Arcana Voice, for the purpose of creating some short music pieces for the farmers, the townspeople, and the general public. I hope you can help me here, Louise. It’s hard to find sorcerers like you in Allyn who is both talented in music and currently has some free time.”
Lucien would prefer classical music to heavy metal in his program.
Louise was a bit lost, as she did not understand what Arcana Voice was and what a program was. However, working with such an influential sorcerer and musician sounded not bad at all to her, as she could still stick to her hobby of music while studying magic.
So she nodded. “Sure.”
“Mr. Klein, I know you were the consul of Aalto, so I suppose that you know some of the secrets of the Church and how their followers are living their life. I hope that you can run a program on this,” said Lucien. “… The congress will pay, and the pay will be good.”
Klein also nodded without hesitation. “My pleasure.”
“Good. After registration, you two can wait for me in my office of the Arcana Review Board,” said Lucien.
Then he walked to the elevator together with his apprentices and headed for the Atom Institution.
…
In a desolated graveyard in Heidler, the gray fog was rather condensed.
Adol, the spectre, stared at the magic towers at distance and said gloomily, “actions have to be taken to prevent the Congress of Magic from investigating further, or it would be just a matter of time for the gaps to be exposed.”
The new spectre beside looked at him. “You seem to have a plan, Adol.”
Adol nodded. “Did you read the latest Arcana? Lucien Evans has joined the war, and now he’s under the attack from the supporters of the wave theory.”
“So?” asked the new senior-rank spectre.
Adol’s voice was dry and coarse. “I know it from Rogerio that Lucien Evans killed a Electromagnetics sorcerer who supported the wave theory after receiving a threatening letter from him. This is our chance. Those wave theory supporters must be furious if they know about this. If we fuel their anger properly, some of them will do things that can greatly infuriate Lucien Evans again. According to his temperament, Lucien Evans will again seek revenge for sure.
“… Then, those who support Lucien — say, Fernando, Hathaway, and Douglas — and those who are on the other side — Brook, Oliver, Hellen, Miranda, and most of the remaining arcanists — will fight against each other. The Congress of Magic will be caught in an unprecedented mess, and at that time, Heidler will be forgotten.”
The new spectre’s bones clapped. “Great idea.”
Then the two spectres secretly returned to the magic tower.
At this time, in the desolated graveyard, several pieces of rotten flesh suddenly started wriggling on the ground like worms and disappeared in situ.
In a newly-built magic tower in Heidler, Felipe opened his hand and stared at the flesh worms on his palm. Very rarely, he looked a bit bewildered.
Although his study of arcana had come to a pause recently because of the limitation on the observation methods, Felipe had progressed some further in magic.
The World of Souls was not a peaceful place. Recalling the scarlet moon incident, Felipe stared at the entrance of the two demiplanes and wondered why Adol still wanted to trust and work with those from the World of Souls.
However, Felipe soon made his decision. He could not see any benefits but only promised danger in betraying the Congress for their suspicious partner, the World of Souls, especially since he was only a new senior-rank.
He quickly found some letter paper and murmured to himself,
“Lucien Evans is out of his mind! This is such a ridiculous hypothesis. I must write to him and teach him a lesson!”
