This is not where I'm supposed to be, Seake thought. The glances from all over the house conveyed to him a message: the guards, servants, and occasionally visible guests all told him how incompatible he and this place are.
Seake had only seen mansions in photos and had little experience to compare. He knew this was a mansion, but with his limited social knowledge, he felt that something was off.
The floor was covered with soft carpets with complex exotic patterns. There were oil paintings on the wall, and although Seake knew nothing about art, those paintings gave him different emotions and brought him happiness, tranquility, and other feelings through inanimate objects or scenery. Every detail in the house was arranged perfectly. Flower vases with carefully matched flowers could be seen everywhere in the house, and they were all coordinated well in terms of colors and shapes. Soft music spread throughout the house, and it was impossible to tell where the source of the sound was.
All these things were obviously expensive, but after spending so much money, the lighting in the room came from countless candles. There was a delicate silver candlestick every fifty centimeters along the wall. The candle flames flickered, casting a pile of blurry shadows on the walls and floor. It was quite romantic, but not quite right.
Seake had a messy black hair that lacked luster, resembling a clump of withered grass. Two sharp black pupils were revealed in the grass, making people feel uncomfortable. His long hair with a long fringe appeared quite vulgar. His pale skin revealed blue blood vessels underneath it clearly. His thin and distinct joints made him look like a skull with only a thin layer of skin, and that little flesh seemed to disappear completely after a few more days.
He stood with a slightly hunched posture, presenting a vigilant posture to protect himself. He was wearing a plain dark gray wizard robe with no decorations and made of the cheapest material, with many stains hidden by the color. He carried a large red leather suitcase with severe scratches and peeling paint, as well as deep dark stains that could not be brushed off, which he found in a garbage dump.
Aside from this outfit of tattered clothes, there was a leather rope hanging around his neck with a small silver rectangular box hanging underneath it, exquisitely crafted with floral reliefs. There was also a professional potion kit around his waist, which although a bit old, was still in good condition.
Seake·Cruick, nineteen years old, though the name was not given to him when he was born, was his only name now. He looked older than his actual age due to his life on the road. People staying in a mansion should have an appearance that doesn't know poverty and hardship, but he looked like the embodiment of poverty.
He was a wizard, holding a wizard's license issued by the Light Staff, the country's wizard regulatory unit.
In front of Seake, there was a woman. Although he knew that it was polite to look into the other's eyes when listening, Seake could not help but let his eyes wander to the woman's head. The woman's name was Hana, his immediate supervisor for the upcoming period of time. Hana was wearing a fancy wizard robe with many decorative, non-functional magic circle patterns. She wore peach-colored plastic-framed glasses on her face. What caught Seake's eye was on the top of her head - her hair was coiled in circles, forming a cone-shaped spire on top of her head, with a large peach hair clip on top. The plastic peach had a big blue eye on top. Seake didn't remember any demons or magical plants on Earth with such appearance.
Seake tried to turn his eyes back to her face. Miss Hana was glaring at him fiercely.
Listen careful, you dirty guy! You should be grateful that you have a job! You should do what I tell you to do and not use excuses to delay! And don't talk behind our backs, we nobles don't allow our servants to speak out of turn!
Hana's profession was a family wizard, a wizard who always resides in wealthy homes and provides magical services to the household, such as making spells to cure bedwetting or acne, fortunetelling whether a boyfriend is cheating, or cursing a third party's teeth to fall off. Even trying to make political enemies die from a rotting intestine or other illegal activities falls within the service range of a family wizard.
Family wizards have a high status, comparable to that of a host's secretary, and their status is close to that of senior advisers. Seake is not that noble, he is Hana's assistant wizard, her assistant.
Seake nodded continuously. Today was the first time he had met Hana, and she began speaking this way, and he did not know if this was a normal phenomenon in the workplace, so he just nodded.
Come on! I'll take you to the dormitory! Hana said. Seake obediently followed her.
Passing through the brightly decorated first floor, Seake dared not hope for much; after passing through the simple second floor, Seake was harboring some expectation. As a result, Hana led him all the way to the stairs leading to the attic. The wooden ladder in front of him seemed to be made from the worst scraps, and Seake was quite doubtful whether it could support an adult's weight.
"XiaoBa! XiaoBa!" Hana yelled upstairs with disgust. After a few seconds with no response, Hana snorted and said: There should be a bell installed here. No, why bother putting so much effort into these inferior creatures... Hana climbed to the top of the ladder, knocked on the door to the attic, and there was still no response from inside. So she took out the key to unlock the door and said: Go in by yourself. Xiaoba is in there. If you have any questions, just ask him! This dirty place, I don't want to get too close! After Hana finished speaking, she turned around and went down the stairs.
Seake carefully stepped up the creaky stairs until he reached the top. The wooden door at the end of the stairs was about to fall off its hinges, and Seake could feel the cold wind seeping through it. He had hoped for a better living environment, but at this point, his expectations were completely destroyed.
He steeled himself to face whatever was behind the door and opened it.
Even though he had mentally prepared himself for the worst, the room in front of him was still cold and gloomy. It was an unadorned storage room on the attic, with bare grey wooden floors and a ceiling beam slanted to the right. The bed was made of a pile of wooden crates, and there was no desk. There were also many old clothes and brooms without bristles piled up in one corner. The window frame was deformed, and the cold wind was blowing in from the wide-open window.
He didn't see anyone who looked like XiaoBa. Seake took a step forward and accidentally kicked something soft.
He looked down and saw a corpse lying on the floor.
It was a male corpse in a wizard's robe, lying on the floor with his arms spread open.
Seake took a deep breath and shouted downstairs: "Miss Hana, XiaoBa is dead!"
"That lazy bum sleeps all day! That's his problem, don't you worry about it! Don't you dare follow in his footsteps, or I'll dock your pay! Put away your luggage and come to the studio!" Hana's voice shouted back. Seake waited for a moment, but there was no response from Hana. She was already long gone.
Seake had no idea how to handle a dead body in this situation, so he stepped over the corpse, closed the door, and did his best to resist talking to the corpse. Then, he crouched down next to the corpse and touched the hand to confirm his initial judgment that the person had died. The livor mortis had surfaced, and the skin was bluish-purple, cold and hard to the touch, and did not regain its shape when pressed.
After ensuring that there was nothing he could do for his roommate anymore, Seake put down his luggage and followed Hana's instructions to go downstairs to work.
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Miss Hana's studio is divided into three areas. The first is the office where she meets clients, complete with glass cabinets, dark furniture, and shelves filled with complicated magical theory books that look brand new. On her desk, there are small sculptures of famous ancient wizards. Every effort is made to make visitors feel that the owner of this place is a wizard.
The second area is Miss Hana's private lounge, which is decorated to a blinding shine. Everything is gold-trimmed, including the bookshelves and chairs. The floor is covered in a long-haired red carpet that is so red it disguises even bloodstains. The walls are covered with posters of male idols who are in their twenties, and the shelves are full of perfume (not a single magical book in sight), proving that the owner is not particularly interested in professional magic.
Miss Hana lies on a lounge chair, eating a supposedly zero-calorie and satisfying slenderizing biscuit, while reading a novel called "Love in the Spiral Tower". The cover depicts a handsome male wizard standing with a young female wizard, both gazing into each other's eyes beneath a cluster of stars, creating a romantic atmosphere that can't be ignored.
The story follows an incompetent virgin female wizard who explodes every time she casts a spell. One day, she accidentally creates poisonous smoke and passes out in her lab. At the same time, the CEO of a very flirtatious rolling bar development company happened to be outside the lab and rushed in to save her. This pure and innocent female wizard who is willing to sacrifice herself for any rescuer then slept with the CEO. The CEO, who has hooked up with his personal secretary and key female clients (all sexy and revealing, with strong possessiveness, despite denying their love), discovered later that he had lost all sexual interest in anyone but the female wizard (strangely, he didn't suspect that he had been cursed, despite being a wizard himself). He then begins to pursue the pure female wizard, but she decides not to see him anymore after learning about his womanizing ways.
Miss Hana sighs, wondering why the world always tortures lovers.
Meanwhile, Seake is in Hana's studio doing all the odd jobs that Hana doesn't want to do, possibly unrelated to spells, like cleaning.
Seake is surprised that Hana's studio does not resemble the tidy studios that he saw in textbooks at the magic academy, with neatly arranged bookshelves and pharmaceutical cabinets, perfectly polished stone worktables, and large pans placed safely on the stove.
However, there are no bookshelves or papers containing relevant information. Seake picked up a few popular product catalogs scattered about. Although there are rows of glass jars on the medicine cabinet, Seake discovered that these jars are just plain cookie jars. He also saw that the materials inside were in a terrible state. If compared to biscuits, they would have been left in damp air for several months and are now inedible.
The condition of the work desk is particularly worrisome. The material is flawed, and the surface is full of scars. Some grooves are as deep as one centimeter and are filled with dirt such as grass stems, blood clots, and mud. These hard lumps have formed after not being cleaned with a brush every time they were used. It's hard to imagine what kind of finished product contaminated materials could produce.
Seake saw coffee-colored stains on the red brick wall and began to doubt Hana's professional ability.
He walked to the large pot against the wall, hoping that at least it would look normal. Inside was something that he could recognize. But after opening the lid, he stared at it for two seconds before carrying the pot to the sink and emptying it.
It was covered in fuzzy molds of red, yellow, and green colors. How long had it been since Hana had checked the large pot?
After disposing of the large pot, Seake wore gloves and began to clean the desk. As he tried to reduce contamination, he picked up a coarse needle to remove the dirt from the scratches. When he reached the fifth groove, he picked up a piece of thin, gray material about half an inch in size, with a black, hard lump on top. It was a human fingernail. Seake recognized it at a glance. It was unlikely to have fallen off during a nail trim because it was so intact.
Due to his experience, Seake was very familiar with human materials. He assured himself that he wouldn't be mistaken and that someone probably accidentally dropped their fingernail on the desk.
He threw it in the trash then continued cleaning the table. After working for a while, he heard footsteps and five seconds later, Hana flung open the door, staring at Seake with a fierce glare.
"What are you doing?" she asked.
"Cleaning," Seake replied honestly. It was Hana's command.
Hana walked over, picked up the rag Seake left aside, wrinkled her nose because of the dirty water, and threw the rag away. "You're not doing some strange ritual, are you?" she asked.
"What strange ritual?" Seake asked.
"Like human sacrifice, bloodletting spell casting, things that you people from the Sotoli language family do!" Hana's expression indicated that she was angry about not catching Seake doing those things.
Seake began to suspect that Hana employed him to see strange things.
Until two years ago, Seake belonged to a cult organization called the Night Church, which shocked the entire nation, as all the spells he learned there were forbidden Sothelli spells. However, the organization was destroyed, and Seake received amnesty and became a law-abiding citizen.
"Anyway, don't do those things secretly!" Hana said, slamming the door shut.
Can he do these things openly then? Seake couldn't help but wonder.
Sothelli spells have now been unblocked, though most people still regard them as a symbol of evil, as they were associated with cult organizations.
Seake reached for his herbal bag around his waist. He hung two water pot bags, one large and one small, beside it. In the big bag was a long object wrapped in a towel, which he recognized as his sacrificial sword. One of the characteristics of Sothelli spells is using a sacrificial sword as a medium for spellcasting, and in Sothelli spells, sacrifice plays a major role.
Seake recalled that in the place where he once lived, it was also challenging to get a clean working studio, often leading to bloody battles. Therefore, Seake was used to converting ruins into a studio, and he could use a spell he used frequently.
Seake moved the ineffective coarse needle and brush to the side, dug out a frog's skull and a broken stem from the trash can.
Because he was afraid that he would be overheard, he used the stem to spell out a basic magic circle and supplemented it with sound amplification to compensate for the lack of volume loss. He then pronounced the magic softly: "Great Epaedas, herald of resurrection. The clean path. Turn rocks into sludge, break down solid walls. Scatter." He used an ancient Sothelli language, which is no longer being used, with a high level of difficulty, many vowels, complicated combinations, various arrangement variations, as well as rhythm, and whistle sounds. It sounds like the sound of rocks rolling. It's a spell he learned in the Night Church.
After chanting the spell, Seake poked the frog's skull in the middle of the weed stem with his sacrificial sword.
The stubborn pollutants slowly turned darker until they turned black, and Seake broke all the black lumps with the tip of his sword. The table-top was so clean that not even a speck of dirt remained. The frog's skull disappeared too.
Now the work desk is clean and shiny, except for being overly scratched. But at least it is not a source of pollution anymore, which can be used again with a cutting board on top.
Seake put the sacrificial sword back in his herbal bag as it was and sprinkled some water on the table, pretending to have just wiped it clean, concealing the fact that he used spells to clean it.