Seren was at the old grandmother's house, listening to Yolan's childbirth experience. During her pregnancy with twins, she endured a lot of suffering and spent a long time in the hospital.
The old grandmother said, "When Lino was born, I told her it was a healthy baby. She told me, 'This is mine!' At that time, Gino hadn't come out yet, and she said, 'It's all her fault. Why did she make me suffer twice as much? This child must be deliberately torturing me!' I got goosebumps listening to that."
She only cares about her eldest daughter; she always deliberately ignores her second daughter. When her eldest daughter cuts her hand on paper, she would scream in pain and scold the servants. But when her second daughter goes climbing with the neighboring kids and scrapes her elbows and knees, with wounds so severe they would scar, she doesn't even spare a glance. Maybe it's better this way. Unless the master speaks, her eldest daughter is practically kept locked up at home and can't go anywhere.
If her eldest daughter wants to attend a social gathering or go to classes farther away, she has to get permission from the master before she can go, or else Yolan will definitely block her.
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After taking a bath, Seake's bedtime routine involved dealing with the food the chef had given him, which consisted of various meats left over from the banquet. He dried the meat, packed it into bags, cast spells on these bags to prevent birds and rodents from approaching, as well as invisibility spells, then hung them outside the attic window. With the weather being so cold these days, the ice and snow served as a natural refrigerator. The reason for making sure no one could see was to avoid his actions giving off a smell of poverty, which would definitely ruin the impression among the wealthy.
Once everything was done, Seake cleaned up XiaoBa's barbecue utensils. Since many spell ingredients required fire treatment, barbecue utensils were also considered standard equipment for a mage.
Seake plunged the ritual knife into the brazier, lit the magical flame, and tossed it out the open window, watching it fall into the deep snow outside and extinguish.
XiaoBa still lay where he had been left, unmoving at the doorway. Seake really wanted to ask him how he died, but he couldn't.
Taking advantage of his remaining energy, he went through XiaoBa's belongings. XiaoBa had a lot of stuff; there was even a large box of pens of various materials. Seake sighed as he looked at them. In Seake's bag, there were only two crayons, one white and one black, and a brush pen.
Novice mages mostly used a white chalk or wax crayon to draw entire spell arrays. As mages became more skilled, they would start using various types of pens, such as insect powder pens, bone oil pens, and pens that changed color when heated. When they became very proficient, they typically used just one pen to draw entire spell arrays, although the choice of pen varied from mage to mage.
Seake also found normal pencils, ballpoint pens, and a packet of envelopes and letter paper. XiaoBa had someone to communicate with, but Seake didn't find any unsent letters or letters from others. XiaoBa had many books, too many for Seake to go through at the moment, so he set them aside for now.
After browsing through everything, Seake noticed two suspicious points. Firstly, XiaoBa was obviously not a mage specializing in potion-making, and he didn't have a herb pouch either. It's unlikely for a regular mage to carry sweetroot on their person. The bottle he held in his hand was the same as the one used in Hana's workshop, so it's possible he took it himself.
Secondly, Seake didn't find any talismans or a staff. These two items were the most commonly used mediums in modern magic. Seake didn't bring them because he had the ritual knife as a medium. XiaoBa shouldn't have learned magic from abnormal channels, so he should have used talismans and staff regularly. Although some mages prefer one over the other, not having both was very strange. Given XiaoBa's age, it was unlikely he was so skilled that he didn't need mediums to cast spells.
Late as it was, Seake gave up looking for clues and crawled into XiaoBa's blanket. The lightning of light on the floor kept flashing on and off. He was almost used to it by now. Suddenly, as soon as his head touched the pillow, the floor lit up brightly, and huge bolts of light shot upwards, with some almost hitting the ceiling. The lightning disappeared after a moment, and there were no more flashes, not even ones just a couple of centimeters high.
After a massive surge of magical energy flow, the abnormal flow stopped.
Seake looked out the window and judged from the angle of the moon that it was about midnight.
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Seren left Grandma's house around half-past eight. Instead of immediately heading back to the police station, he decided to walk around the streets in the snow. Naturally robust, he didn't feel cold even as the snowfall increased. He remembered he needed to send a letter to Shuilonu's father, so he sat down in a tea shop to write it.
On the stationery, he wrote: "To Lord Lant: I saw Seake. He's currently working as a mage's assistant, carrying trays, and cursing employers with his shining eyes. He still seems quite hungry, so it's advisable to feed him first to reduce the chances of him biting. It's not recommended to approach him recklessly for now, to avoid losing a chunk of flesh."
He had planned to stay a bit longer, but the staff informed him, "Sorry, we're closing now."
"The store hours on the door say open until two in the morning," Seren said.
"Recently, there haven't been many people out late at night, so we close early," they explained.
Seren sealed the envelope, affixed enough stamps, and dropped it into the mailbox before taking a midnight stroll through the streets.
Given the level of prosperity in this area, it was quite strange for the tea shop to close before midnight. Such places should have a lively nightlife. Occasionally, he saw people dressed warmly, looking for shops to visit, but most were already closed.
Seren passed by a magical hot spring fountain and saw a carriage stop across the street. It was an expensive private carriage with heating. The door opened, and a well-dressed young girl jumped out. Seren estimated she was underage, but her heavy makeup made her appear to be around twenty-five.
The girl yelled at the man in the carriage, "I've had enough! Apologies won't do, I won't forgive you, and I won't come back to you! Even if you kneel down or give me gifts, I won't pay any attention to you! Do you hear me? Go away, I don't want to see you again!"
After her tirade, the girl proudly lifted her head, expecting the man to kneel and apologize to her, presenting her with expensive gifts.
She didn't anticipate that the man was also fed up. He remained silent, closed the carriage door, and the carriage drove away.
Left alone, the girl, without a coat and leaving her bag in the carriage, stood astonished in the snow. Her eyes widened, her mouth agape, and her exaggerated expression threatened to crack the makeup on her face.
Suppressing the urge to laugh, Seren approached her with a sympathetic expression and asked, "Do you need help?"
The girl shouted at Seren, "Don't come near me, creep! Don't think that just because I'm alone and vulnerable, I'll go with you for a drink! I'm not some easy girl; just because you offer a little help doesn't mean I'll sleep with you!"
Seren had no choice but to retract his outstretched hand. The girl turned her head, stomped her feet in her high heels, and struggled through the snow.
Seren stood still, took off his coat, and draped it over his arm. He planned to wait a while, let the girl experience the bitterness of cold and difficult walking, and then approach her with his knight's badge. She should accept the help then.
As Seren watched the girl turn the corner and disappear from view, he counted the time, suddenly feeling a gust of wind sweep over his head. It was very light, as if something had jumped over him. As a knight, Seren was very sensitive to his surroundings, and he judged that whatever it was, it wasn't a bird or a cat. It went in the direction of the girl.
Seren jogged after it, only to see the girl's footprints extending forward. The last footprint was in front of her high heels lying in the snow, and then they disappeared. The surrounding buildings had high walls, and there was nowhere to climb. Seren also doubted the girl had the ability to walk in the snow without leaving any traces.
She just disappeared into thin air.
Seren returned to the police station with many questions, only to find them still staring at pictures of beautiful girls. The girls in the pictures were all very young and had some resemblance to each other, likely due to the popular makeup styles. They looked somewhat similar to the girl who had disappeared before Seren's eyes not long ago.
Seren realized that these were all victims of crime. He sat down and asked the police, "Do you need help?"
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As dawn approached, Seake left the house early. He couldn't find peace in that room. The snow had stopped, leaving icy patches on the roadsides, some of which squeaked underfoot.
Seake spotted a magical hot spring fountain. Typically, such facilities attracted vagrants, but he didn't see anyone around, nor did he notice any makeshift bedding on the roadside or anywhere else. As far as he knew, there were no shelters for vagrants in this area. This place didn't welcome unqualified individuals. There were no stray animals either; once they intruded, they would disappear forever within a few hours.
Walking along, Seake glanced at the shop windows and the items for sale inside. The prices for even the most basic items far exceeded the monthly food expenses of ordinary families. Yet, it seemed there was no concern about selling them.
Seake had little concept of wealth disparity. Although he had heard people talk about how the rich get richer and the poor get poorer, it hadn't affected him much. He simply couldn't feel at ease in such a place. He harbored a sense of being an outsider here. It was like a game he had never been part of from the beginning, so he didn't feel any emotional responsibility for winning or losing.
He vaguely knew that this might not be good, that it might lead him further away from something everyone considered important. But he didn't know if he belonged to this country or if he loved this land. He just tried to survive and didn't concern himself with anything else, just like before.
His presence on the streets was quite conspicuous, but he was accustomed to such differences. When passersby saw him, they would step aside, making way for him in the middle of the road, and Seake was quite satisfied with this.
Since he couldn't afford the minimum spending at any of the restaurants along the street, Seake sat by the hot spring fountain and ate the sandwiches he had brought with him. As the sky began to lighten, he saw a girl in a short skirt come out with a furry and petite magical pet. Given the weather, wearing a short skirt was very unwise, so she stuck to the main roads with heating. If it weren't for the heavy makeup on her face and legs, Seake would have surely seen her skin turning purple from the cold.
Magical pets, unlike the familiars typically kept by mages, were quite different. Familiars had practical uses, whereas magical pets had no function whatsoever, not even claws or sharp teeth, making it impossible for them to harm their owners. They lacked survival and reproductive abilities and would quickly perish if abandoned. It was advertised that abandoning them wouldn't lead to environmental pollution, which Seake couldn't comprehend. He couldn't understand why anyone would raise a living being under the assumption of abandonment.
Seake had no interest in spending money on feeding airheads. He preferred powerful familiars. As for his former roommates at the Dark Academy, they admired familiars that could satisfy desires.