Expressionlessly, Wang Jiexi stared at the scattered soil across his garden. There were ugly shallow holes, which were obvious traces of digging and careless disposing, everywhere, and the remaining plants which had not been stolen were damaged as well. His carefully maintained garden had been destroyed in a single night.
Turning around and pushing his oak door with barely hidden agitation, the witch approached a wooden trunk in the corner of the room. The trunk was locked with iron chains and underneath these chains lied a layer of dust thick enough to signify that the lack of use had spanned across many years, perhaps even decades. After carefully opening it, he picked out a perfect round globe made of glass, which was crystal-clear with hints of ice blue veins at its core, from the bottom of the trunk.
"Warlock, warlock, I need help."
A thin wisp of smoke appeared within the spotless glass, swirling and growing larger and larger until a miniature storm of greyish clouds was circling at high speed, still trapped within the globe yet seeming to crackle with power. A blurry image of a white-haired, blue-eyed man wearing a velvety pointed hat appeared.
"Magician, what brings you to seek my help? If I recall correctly, the last time we have had contact with each other was quite a few years ago."
Ignoring the faintly condemnatory tone, Wang Jiexi summarized the story about his missing herbs and asked the warlock for a location spell.
A moment of silence passed before the warlock calmly answered. "You can bring some of the soil that has been touched by the thief to my place, and I'll see what I can do."
"Are you still living in that castle on top of Blue Brook Mountain?"
A slight hint of hesitation passed through the white-haired warlock's eyes, though it was unnoticed by the expectant-looking witch because of the curved surface of the globe distorting the image. "Yes, you can still find me in the Kingdom of Blue Rain."
There was a hint of relief on the witch's face. He thanked the warlock and promised to arrive in at most ten days. Little did he know that as soon as the connection elapsed, the warlock had immediately contacted another person, who was a friend of his and was currently on the roads escorting the prince of the Kingdom of Blue Rain. The knight who appeared in the globe had golden hair and blue eyes as well, though the blue was mixed with a bit of emerald and was more aquamarine than a pure blue. His smile when he saw the warlock was as blindingly bright as the sun.
"Hey Wenzhou, why didn't you answer my call yesterday? I only left for a few weeks, and yet you already forgot about your pitiful friend! But then you're contacting me now so that means you miss me as well right? You're still my good brother then! Haha, I know you won't ignore me forever! That brat Lu Hanwen kept telling me that you've finally grown tired of me and decided to severe our relationship, but I told him that our brotherly bond's not so easily broken! Glad to know I'm right – not that I ever doubted myself, but I'm still glad! Speaking about that brat, this morning…"
It should be His Highness, Lu Hanwen, not "that brat". Nonetheless, if Shaotian actually addressed the prince respectfully one day, I would probably think he was an imposter.
The warlock, whose name was Yu Wenzhou and one of the top sorcerers in the entire planet, was unable to help himself from interrupting the ongoing speech in fear of having a headache.
"Shaotian, did your group happen to stumble upon a herb garden yesterday?"
On the other side, the long-winded knight was suddenly quiet. Utterly, suspiciously quiet.
The guilty silence stretched for a long period of time as the two men stared at each other.
Huang Shaotian gave up in the end, facing the warlock's serious gaze. "Fine, fine, yesterday night we did see a herb garden in the forest we were travelling in. But I swear, we only picked a single herb! Like one herb, one tiny, insignificant herb. No big deals, right? It's not my idea, that brat of a prince kept going on and on about how they were magical herbs and we should pick one to bring it back to study, and that it's for the purpose of research, and how it could dramatically increase the production of medicine bla bla bla I didn't really catch the rest of his words. It's only one herb though. How did you even find out? Was it some kind of sorcery?"
Yu Wenzhou sighed, thinking for the thousandth time how someone could think of so many things at once, or rather, how someone could spew so many words without actually thinking about what they were saying…
"It was only a single herb? Did you guys mess up the garden afterwards?"
The knight looked indignant. "How could you, Yu Wenzhou? Do you not believe in me anymore? I admit that sometimes I can be very talkative," So you do know that, thought the warlock mentally. "But I've never lied to you, never ever!"
"Or at least never intentionally," added Huang Shaotian after some consideration. "But yeah, it was only one herb, and we didn't do anything to the garden. We're knights! Our righteousness is renowned throughout the world, and we abhorred such despicable actions of ruining someone else's hard work."
Technically, you did steal, even if it's only one plant.
However, Yu Wenzhou wisely chose not to continue debating the morality of knights with the man. He merely smiled and asked about the currently state of his friend's party, and while the knight was occupied with retelling the story of his adventure, the warlock started deliberating.
As much as he felt thankful that it had not been Huang Shaotian's company who destroyed the witch's garden, it remained a fact that they did disrupt the plants. What if the location spell pointed at them as the culprits? He had no wish for his old friend, Wang Jiexi, to be involved in an argument with the elite knights of Blue Rain and its prince, even though he had not met the witch for a long time already. Such a thing would spell only disaster to both sides, as the witch was titled the Magician for a reason – his potions and fighting skills were nothing to laugh at, and while the elite knights were extremely well-versed in the art of swordplay as well, there would still be heavy casualties facing such an unpredictable and powerful person.
With a sorrowful expression, Yu Wenzhou sighed repeatedly. How could Huang Shaotian be so skilled at attracting trouble wherever he went?
Regardless, this mess was his responsibility now.
"…In the end, the squirrel bit that brat and ran away. He has been furious for the entire day. I really feel satisfied looking at his gritted teeth! Wenzhou? Wenzhou, did you hear anything I said? Wenzhou, earth to Wenzhou…"
The warlock finally decided to wait for the witch's arrival before doing anything.
-0-0-
The moment he stepped onto the main road, Wang Jiexi knew something was wrong.
Even though this village was on the far side of the outskirts of the kingdom, there was a crowd of people travelling back and forth. Many were dressed in mottled brown and had a haggard look on their faces, various kinds of weapons strapped onto their bodies. The most common form was a long sword bound with leather ribbons, sometimes with unique words or markings engraved on the hilts. Archers and mages were present as well, though these professions seemed to be not as popular as that of a warrior.
The second unusual feature was that the stores in the marketplace were neatly arranged in rows and of great quantity. Again, weapons were prevalent in the majority of them, along with colourful flasks of potions and pieces of armours glittering under the sunlight. Despite the overwhelming number of goods, trade was going well from the sheer amount of interested buyers. If not for the hustling and bustling noises in the lively atmosphere, Wang Jiexi would have thought a war was going on.
As he passed through several beckoning sellers, his interest in the merchandise was gradually developed. Aside from knives, blades and crossbows, many stores displayed bits and pieces of sparkling jewels strung together in what was called "charms". There were even "talismans", which were strips of paper marked with words and self-declared spells on them. Apparently, these products offered protection to their owners and were hugely in demand, especially in the case of women.
However, even as he tried to blend in with the flowing stream of people, many kept staring at him, looking as if they found someone incredibly suspicious. It took only a short while for him to realize that his elaborate robe and the slightly curved hat that he was wearing were rather noticeable. When he asked a middle-aged seller stationed at a clothing store about this issue, the man gazed at him funnily and questioned seriously whether he was wearing his grandfather's old clothes.
Wang Jiexi tried to recall the last time he left the forest. Was it… fifteen or sixteen years ago?
Nonetheless, after he changed into a more modern set of olive tunic and black pants, he was still attracting a plethora of glances at his way. For example, the giggling group of female mage apprentices behind him. Or the young girl standing behind one of the stores who blushed when he walked across her father's store. Or the noble lady dressed in a peach silk gown looking through the glass window of her carriage.
In fact, his most attentive admirers, ehem, people wariest of his identity were a group of knights who were following him from behind a distance away.
One of the knights, a veteran with his hair speckled with white, was detailing exactly why he felt distrustful of Wang Jiexi.
"…what kind of man even grows his hair long like that? And then there's his eye patch, if you ask me there's something notorious about it, it's pure shady. I'm telling you, his eyes are just unholy, he looks like what I imagine a humanoid demon will be…"
Coughing, one of the younger ones chirped in nervously. "Actually, he's kind of cool with that eye patch covering his right eye…" his murmuring went down in volume until it was no longer within the human hearing range.
Surprisingly, the prince's ever-talking personal bodyguard was silent. In his mind, Huang Shaotian was thinking about how this green-eyed man strangely reminded him of his warlock friend. Was it because of the old-fashioned long hair that he had only ever seen on those senile mages? Though if he was being honest, the hairstyle did match that person's ageless appearance.
Blissfully unaware of their conversation, Wang Jiexi continued on, slightly on guard for any sign of trouble but having found nothing visibly wrong. His first day in town, the sixth one since he set out from his cottage, ended peacefully in an unremarkable inn – the embodiment of the calm before the storm. In a stroke of destiny, his targets, or at least those implicated in the thievery, were only a few tables away from his seat without him knowing.
Dinner, which consisted of pork stew and mushy potatoes and carrots, was better than expected, considering his survival on vegetables, berries and occasionally meat for the past decade or so. To be fair, it was not that he lacked the capability to assemble a proper meal for himself; concocting potions and writing new formulas always took a lot of efforts, and when the starry night finally descended, he would have collapsed onto his bed already.
As he slowly savoured the rich taste of actual food, Wang Jiexi tried his hardest to listen to the other guests' conversations.
"Business is prospering, ayy?" a rough-looking man slapped the shoulder of the inn keeper and laughed heartily.
Without any ill will, the inn keeper smiled back. "Never saw so many guests in my forty years of life before."
The first man's companions nodded in unison. "True, true," chimed in another with his mug raised. "With all this hype about the Demon King being born, people are stacking up sky-high piles of food and fur in the capital. The list of jobs for us adventurers is endless, and they pay us well too." He flipped a shiny gold coin into the air as evidence.
A booming cheer went around that table. "Ha, you lucky bastard, you've got a pretty fiancée waiting for you back home. Weddings sure cost a lot, do they? Do you really intend to renounce your bachelor status so soon?"
The boisterous sounds remained deafeningly loud, but Wang Jiexi was occupied with analysing the information he had heard. The last time the Demon King was born, he silently mused, was thirty-something years ago. If I remember correctly, the kingdoms decided to band together to crusade against him and launch an army into the demonic lands, but for some reason they stopped mid-way.
The official explanation given by the royalties had been that a hero had defeated the Demon King, of course, to soothe the masses. As if any mortal can kill "that person" – avoiding the fate of being thrown into the depths of hell was a magnificent accomplishment already.
And now the Demon King had risen after years of inactivity. The question is, is he the original Demon King or a successor?
The witch blinked in confusion. Why exactly did he need to think about this issue? His sole mission was to find the warlock and track down the thief, not to declare war against the Demon King or whoever he was. Sighing, he finished his bowl and stood up. Habits sure die hard.
The only thing I want right now is to return to the forest and continue racking up potions in peace.
Fate, however, was a fickle mistress with an ever-changing mood.