Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
Lucien’s mind became blank for a second, and then he finally figured out what Fernando was indicating.
“Sir… are you saying that Vincente sensed what I was plotting? Even it was just a thought?!”
That was too much for Lucien.
So far, Lucien had gained access to most materials under legendary level in the Advanced Arcana Library, but his knowledge of the legendary was still limited to what was in the book Astrology and Elements — the promotion of two legendary classes and the construction of the corresponding legendary magic spells. Lucien did hear more from Fernando, however, they were just pieces of information. He had no concrete knowledge that could form a complete picture of the legendaries at all.
Therefore, Lucien was very surprised with Vincente’s god-like omniscience. Although he did realize Baron Habearo’s conspiracy using Horoscope before, at that time, Baron Habearo had already started taking actions and they were in the same castle. This time, Lucien had just used ten minutes on conceiving the plan and hadn’t even had the chance to discuss with Fernando. However, Thanatos had sensed the upcoming danger and made the faster move.
Fernando said with a serious face, “reaching the legendary level brings qualitative change to life. When the War of Dawn just began, in the Church’s description, a legendary was equal to a demigod. If your plan would really work and threaten Vicente’s life, the tiny deviation in his track of destiny would be amplified in his cognitive world into a very strong warning.”
Fernando paused a bit here, thinking of some possible examples to make Lucien treat this more seriously.
“When you were trying to save the Observer, when you were planning on distracting Dracula, did you ever think about killing him? Did you ever had a plan that could result in his death?” Asked Fernando.
“No,” Lucien answered. From the beginning, his very and only aim was to save Rhine, which had nothing to do with Dracula the Vampire Prince. If Dracula had not gotten in his way, Lucien would have stayed away from him as far as he could, and Natasha would not have had to take such a great risk.
Lucien could never kill a legendary like Dracula on his own, unless he had more legendaries on his side. He even rejected Natasha’s proposal for using Sard to kill the vampire prince.
Thinking of this, Lucien finally realized why Rhine made the entire plan like this way — It was not until the God of Silver Moon and the mysterious existence from the World of Souls started fighting did Lucien realize what he was truly facing.
From the Sphinx Mausoleum to the underground palace of the Sun King to the altar of the Kuo-toans, Lucien only knew that he had to help Rhine break free from the trap so the World of Souls could become less of a threat. Rhine never told him the entire story. Obviously, Rhine was trying to keep Lucien safe from activating the mysterious existence in the World of Souls’ sense of danger. Fortunately, since Its power had not fully recovered yet, they managed to get by.
Lucien then recalled more: The King of Nightmare found the complicated math problem deep in Lucien’s brain due to his own actions; The King of Sphinx, when Lucien faced It, had not fully wakened up from Its thousands of years of sleep; For Sard, Lucien was just using his hands to kill Clown, but never thought of harming him; And for the other legendaries, including his teacher and the president, Lucien was always being very careful and constantly foreshadowing when he put forward those subversive papers.
Seeing the thoughtful look on Lucien’s face, Fernando knew that his purpose had been achieved. “So, if there’s a next time, do not draw any plan on your own. Come to me directly.”
As if he were not fully assured, Fernando added. “But submitting a subversive paper is different. It has to be reviewed first, and sufficient cushioning is always necessary.”
In Fernando’s eyes, his student, Lucien Evans, was someone who could throw at people head-exploding papers at any time.
“Legendaries can’t sense the danger brought by subversive papers?” Lucien was confused again. This was different from what he thought.
Fernando’s red eyes gazed at Lucien. “A half-solidified cognitive world, its fusion with the soul between the unreal and real, and its interaction with the reality and the star sky of destiny… These are what will happen to a sorcerer when reaching the legendary level. These, together with the inverted image of Host Star of Destiny and the legendary level Astrology knowledge, are the sources of a legendary’s ability of knowing approaching dangers. If a subversive paper could cause danger to a legendary, the paper must be in conflict with his cognitive world. In other words, his cognitive world does not accept this result, and will thus not regard it as a threat. Therefore, it can not be sensed.”
“I see…” Lucien finally understood it to some degree, and then he asked worriedly, “then… will Thanatos know that it was me? What about Felipe?”
Being the enemy of a grand arcanist was even worse than turning against a legendary, because a grand arcanist had countless secret ways to take away one’s life, not to mention that Thanatos was a grand arcanist specializing in Necromancy, cursing, and life conversion.
Fernando grinned. “Idiot. You forgot you are ‘the Secretive’? Very possibly, the result of Vicente’s Horoscope fell on me. This actually makes more sense, as in consideration of the close relationship between you and me, your plan will most likely be carried out by me. So, no worries, if Vicente can’t trace to you, he can’t trace to Felipe.”
That diverged quite a lot from the truth … Lucien nodded, but in the next second, he started worrying again, “But Sir… Thanatos will resent you for this.”
“So? Do I look afraid?” Fernando’s eyes opened big. “… Alright, you may go now. I need to attend the Highest Council Meeting discussing this, and then investigate the spectres from the world of black and white.”
“I wonder what’s their plot…” said Lucien curiously, wishing to know if he had become one of their targets, as he had killed one dumb senior-rank spectre in the cave of the dwarf relic.
Fernando’s scowled. “If you should know, you will know. But I don’t think we’ll be able to get anything valuable — The spectres were sent by Vicente, and the memory left in the him mind must have been modified by him. What we could see will be what he wants us to see.”
Lucien suddenly recalled that Vicente Miranda was also the top expert in brain and soul memory. Only those mind-playing-fancying octopuses living in the Dark Mountain Range could be a possible match to him. Thanatos was especially good at intruding the mind and browsing memories, and even modifying and deleting them.
Fernando and Douglas could tell which part of memory was fake, but they would not know which part was missing.
……
Sitting in his office, Lucien was reading the selected investigation result sent to him by Fernando.
The spectres were trying to cause an internal conflict in the Congress using Lucien. If Felipe had not sent the message, it would have turned into big trouble.
Without Felipe’s betrayal, Lucien would not have had the plan; without his plan, Thanatos would not have sensed the danger, and then the Hand of Paleness’s plan might have worked. In this case, Lucien would become the one in the biggest trouble.
However, Lucien was also much safer now because of what happened. Anyone who dared to use Lucien’s hypothesis as the excuse to trigger any controversy would be regarded as a suspect or even a spy by the Congress.
“They knew more about the World of Souls than I do, and they are well aware of the great danger in the deep. The scenes retrieved from the memory of the spectre named Adol about the deepest place of that world shocked all the members from the Highest Council…”
Lucien could not access the information about what they saw, but Fernando made it clear what actions the Congress was going to take: They had decided to develop new magic spells for detecting the gap entrances of the World of Souls by tracing the memories and features of senior-rank spectres that they collected from the investigation. They would build stations close to those entrances and then take their time to explore further. Only until they located the new world which the God of Silver Moon and the mysterious existence from the World of Souls fell in, found the power pieces of the Gods, and gained results from researching them would they go deeper into the World of Souls.
It seemed that Thanatos was not yet completely on the World of Souls’s side as he was not planning on luring the legendary sorcerers into the deepest. However, nothing about Mr. Maskelyne and Mr. Rhine being trapped in the deep part of the World of Souls was mentioned, which made Lucien wonder if it was because Adol did not have the access right to knowing it.
Lucien had been about to, when the Congress found out that Rhine was trapped by Dracula in the World of Souls, play innocent in front of Fernando. Now, there was no need for this.
The rest of the investigation result amused Lucien: Several conflicts within the Hand of Paleness were purposefully caused by the spectres from the World of Souls.
Lucien could imagine how furious Thanatos was after knowing this, but the good thing was that Thanatos would now be aware that the spectres also had some evil intents towards the Hand of Paleness.
Lucien was more assured now, knowing that the Congress had known what they were facing.
After Lucien finished reading the report, a small cluster of fire lit up above his fingertips. The parchment was burnt into ashes and then flushed down the pipes.
Standing up, Lucien was about to leave Atom Institution when Lazar also walked out.
“You stay here late, Lucien.” Lazar took a curious glance at Lucien from head to toe. “… Can’t relate you to a great musician. Totally can’t. I thought you only know magic and arcana! I know several music pieces of yours are quite romantic… say, To Silvia, and Moonlight! Why are you still here? Some of your music lovers must be waiting to visit you at your home. I’m sure some noble ladies from Rentato are looking forward to meeting you in person!”
“This’s why I’m still here.” Lucien rubbed his forehead.
Lazar made an exaggerated sigh. “What a waste!”
Then he put on a funny look and asked, “so what about the rumors… You and the princess of Violet are in love? Is that why you’re not interested in those beautiful ladies?”
Lucien never expected that Lazar could be this gossipy. But facing the question, Lucien also did not want to deny, so he chose to remain silent.
Lazar understood, and made a prolonged “Ohh”.
“One in the east, and one in the west. One in the Congress, and one in the City of Psalm… Difficult, I must say, brother. You keep the hard work and become a legendary as soon as possible. Then you can lead the Congress to defeat the Church and go all the way to the City of Psalm. Then you have the Princess!” Lazar kept talking as they walked out together.
When they walked into the elevator, Lucien saw Felipe standing in front of them, wearing a black long coat.
“For the new arcana badge. That’s why I’m here.” Felipe’s adjusted the level-six arcana badge in front of his chest a bit. His face was cold without the slightest hint of smile.
Since the Influence Factor was applied, Felipe had gained much more credits.
Lucien suspected that Felipe was waiting here specially for him. Obviously, Felipe had not fully calmed down from what happened a few days ago.
Lucien laughed knowingly. “It’s a bit disappointing seeing you’re still alive.”
Felipe snorted, although in his mind he was now much more relieved. Soon after he sent the message, Thanatos suddenly took a series of actions. It posed beyond great pressure on his nerves and made him feel like that he was a cornered beast. Luckily, he always had a strong mindset so he stopped himself from jumping out in front of Thanatos.
“I’m working on developing a new magic spell for amplification. If things work well, maybe three or four years later, we’ll have a much better version of it. A senior-rank version,” said Lucien, looking straight ahead.
Felipe’s eyes slightly looked aside, and his hands in the pockets clenched tightly. “What are you trying to imply?”
“I’m preparing a programme. I hope you can come to be my guest host.” Lucien had a mischievous smile on his face. Lucien did not want to owe Felipe anything and he did not wish to make friend with Felipe at all. Lucien hoped that he could pay Felipe back as soon as possible, so he could call it even.
Felipe did not quite understand. “Programme? Guest host?”
“You’ll see,” Lucien answered mysteriously.
Then he walked out of the elevator with Lazar and stepped into the main hall.
