With a cold glance cast her way and hearing her full name, the girl immediately sensed her mentor's mood. It wasn't just bad; it was like a volcano on the verge of eruption.
She quickly ducked her head like a timid quail and instinctively stepped aside to make way. But then, recalling her promise to a certain boy, her retreating steps hesitated.
Internally sighing, "I'm doomed, Allen's going to get me killed," she forced a stiff smile.
"Ms. Vera...would you like a cup of warm water to warm up?"
"Speak your mind!" Vera waved impatiently. "What trouble have you caused this time?"
The inherent pressure from a high-ranking sorceress and mentor cut off the girl's well-meaning words as soon as they began.
"I...I haven't caused trouble, it's just...just..."
The girl's hesitation and indecision made the already impatient sorceress more irritable.
Her gaze swept across the room. The alchemy table was a cluttered mess, the floor littered with bent book pages, and even the door to the inner chamber was left half-open...
Had she been too lenient with her apprentice lately, making her forget her place?
"Silence!" The sorceress snorted coldly. "I'll see for myself…"
Her overwhelming mental force surged through Mary's mental defenses like a river merging into the sea, unstoppable. Yet in the next moment, that fierce mental force suddenly halted, the river reversing instantly and withdrawing from the girl's mind without a trace.
"You...are worried about me." The emotions conveyed through the mental link made the sorceress's tone strange. "Why?"
Tears welled up in the girl's eyes due to the harsh invasion but, at this point, she no longer dared to beat around the bush.
"A-Allen said you seemed upset lately and asked me to try comforting you if I got the chance."
"Allen said that? When?"
"This evening…"
The answer no longer mattered at this point. Before Mary even spoke, the sorceress already knew.
Of course. Who else but her Allen could have given usually fearful Mary the courage to stop her at such a moment?
"Whew~"
The evening breeze swept through the mountains, carrying a refreshing scent of grass that washed away her annoying worries.
The sorceress's gaze softened. Even the clutter on the alchemy table seemed to have gained a certain charm.
Mary, meanwhile, hadn't fully recovered from the shock of her mental defenses being broken. She clutched the alchemy table, her eyes still teary. The sorceress pursed her lips, bent down, and picked up the book lying on the floor.
"Clap, clap~"
She brushed off the dust from the chiffon pages and closed the book.
"Don't look!"
The girl's teary eyes widened in horror at the sight, instinctively stretching out her hands in a clumsy attempt to cover the book's spine and cover.
But it was too late.
"How a Magical Lady Should Cleverly "Charm" a Handsome Gentleman." Vera read the title aloud, her gaze turning complex as she looked at the girl.
The girl was frozen in place, her hands awkwardly clawed in the air.
"Squeak~"
The sound of a creaky door opening drew their attention.
A small head with long black hair poked out from the inner room, violet eyes shimmering in the candlelight, blinking nervously.
Seeing both Vera and Mary look her way, the little head quickly ducked back into hiding.
At this moment, even the wind whistling through the mountains seemed to hold its breath. The mind-reading spell wasn't over, and Mary, still like a marble statue, had her intense emotions spill over into the little head.
The sorceress silently handed the book back.
The girl took it back, hugging it to her chest to cover the title and the name on the spine.
"Is this book...helpful?" the sorceress broke the silence.
The girl didn't respond. But her intense emotional waves, like a storm on the sea, surged up the moment she heard this question.
Even though the sorceress had already withdrawn her mental force, she was still forced to take in fragments of vague, emotionally charged and chaotic thoughts.
She understood...
The sorceress sighed. "It seems that tonight, we're both failures."
The girl paused, looking up from the suffocating embarrassment to her mentor.
Both of them...failures?
Could it be that Master Sol also…
This...this couldn't be right!
Of course, though she was full of questions, the girl clearly didn't dare to ask. Instead, realizing where her thoughts had wandered, she swiftly emptied her mind and restrained her emotions. Her mental defenses had just been broken; to Vera, her mind was like an open book.
But the next second…
"I'm sorry, Mary." The cold voice cut through.
All of her attempts at emotional control failed.
She had...she had never heard Vera apologize to anyone…
"For what?" She asked without thinking, immediately regretting it and bracing for a scolding.
To her surprise, the sorceress was silent for a moment, then raised her gaze toward the lonely moon in the sky and replied: "For the abyss…"
The girl was stunned. "Huh?"
-----------------------
Night.
Capital of Kaedwen — Ard Carraigh.
"Knock, knock, knock~"
Inside the study of Duke Donato's mansion, rare incense was burning.
A richly dressed old man sat lazily in a high-backed chair carved with intricate designs. His right elbow rested on the arm carved with a dragon's head as he leaned his head on his hand, as if waiting for someone.
His finely detailed black cane lay by his left hand, pointing directly toward the long table in front of him like a sword.
Seated at the table were three other well-dressed nobles, with carefully groomed mustaches and oiled beards.
Like the old man, they seemed to be waiting for someone.
They passed the time idly chatting.
"I heard Phyllis died?" The young noble with a short beard fiddled with his white silk pocket square and asked casually.
"Hanged this afternoon," nodded a middle-aged noble with a goatee. "Not only was his tongue cut out, but his mouth was also gagged with cloth during the execution…"
"So cruel?"
The young noble paused his actions, distastefully tucking the white silk back into his chest pocket, as if afraid it might be stained by some unsightly blood.
The goateed noble chuckled at the younger man's reaction and then added, "He was convicted of treason, accused of leaking royal secrets."
"Phyllis? Treason?" The young noble was incredulous, completely still now.
Wasn't Phyllis known as the most loyal dog of the royal family and King Henselt?
If he committed treason, it was certainly at the new king's behest, and as for leaking secrets…
That...that seemed impossible?
"Hahaha!" The goateed noble stroked his beard and laughed. "You've been away in Redania, so you wouldn't know. These past few months have been lively in Ard Carraigh under the rule of the new King Lado…"
Though he called him the "new king," the middle-aged noble's tone showed no respect whatsoever for Kaedwen's new ruler. However, the young noble seemed unfazed by this, feeling a growing curiosity sparked by the middle-aged man's words, and quickly asked,"Tell me, Uncle Raphael, what's all the excitement about?"
"I only heard that Lado was…" he glanced at the elder man seated with eyes closed at the head of the table and instinctively lowered his voice, "…was rejected by Duke Donato, so he found a knight from Toussaint to be his Hand of the King."
"That's another matter entirely…" The middle-aged noble, Raphael, slightly changed his expression and interrupted, no longer toying with the young noble as he replied directly:
"They say it's for colluding with enemy nations and leaking royal secrets, but in truth, our new king executed Phyllis and humiliated him in such a way for only one reason…"
"And what reason is that?" asked the young noble, pressing him for details.
"For defecting to Duke Donato!"
"What?" The young noble's mouth fell open in astonishment. "Duke Donato? That old dog Phyllis would join us?"
"Of course not," Raphael smoothed his goatee, a hint of a smirk on his lips, "so…"
"He died."
"And he died horribly."
"His tongue was ripped out in a rage because he refused to admit to defecting to Duke Donato."
"And it didn't stop there; Phyllis's wife and daughter were also forcibly sent to the Pink Alley…"
Raphael paused, closing his eyes in apparent enjoyment.
"Tsk tsk, though Phyllis himself wasn't much to look at, his wife and daughter were truly…"
"Their skin was as smooth as the finest alabaster, and their cries…"
The middle-aged noble licked his lips as if savoring the memory.
"That's enough!"
At this point, the older nobleman sitting in the first seat beside Duke Donato, with his graying beard, sharply interrupted, silencing Raphael.
The young noble immediately fell quiet and sat upright.
The middle-aged noble shrugged, but perhaps because of Duke Donato's presence, he didn't talk back.
"Phyllis was loyal to his liege, preserving his honor and that of his family," said the older nobleman with a resolute tone, "He was merely unlucky, choosing the wrong lord."
"So don't belittle a nobleman deserving of respect. To do so is to insult yourselves as well."
After he spoke, the room fell into silence for a while.
"It's as if you weren't the one who did most of the work…" Raphael muttered, though not quietly.
"Raphael, you!" The older nobleman shot to his feet.
Suddenly, the tension in the study reached a breaking point.
"All right, all right, Raphael, Gil, we're all on the same side. Must we argue every time we meet?" The elderly Duke Donato, sitting at the head of the table, half-opened his eyes and spoke calmly, "Sit down."
"Yes, Your Grace." Both nobles rose to salute him and only sat after he waved a hand dismissively.
Once seated, the older nobleman, Gil, looked at the young noble with seriousness:"Count Nassi!"
"Phyllis was loyal to his liege, and I have my own lord to be loyal to, so my conscience is clear."
The young noble called Count Nassi gave him an awkward smile and nodded.
Then, after another long silence, as if they were waiting for someone who still hadn't arrived, no one—not even Duke Donato nor the seemingly hot-tempered Raphael—showed any impatience.
After a while, the young noble, Nassi, fiddled with the silk scarf on his chest and whispered to the middle-aged noble,"Why was Lado so cruel to Phyllis?"
"I mean, last year at the Royal Harvest Festival banquet, he was still extolling that set of virtues from Toussaint—honor, wisdom, generosity, bravery, and compassion. I remember them because he repeated them so often! It hasn't even been a year; however much he might despise Phyllis, this must go against the knightly virtue of compassion, right?"
"And isn't that Toussaint knight still his Hand? Why didn't he intervene?"
"People change, Nassi," said Raphael with a note of cynicism, "especially those who sit in that position…"
"If it were me, I'd definitely never change!" The young noble glanced nervously at Duke Donato, who still had his eyes closed, cutting Raphael off, nearly swearing an oath.
But the elder at the head of the table didn't open his eyes.
Instead, Raphael patted his shoulder, signaling for calm.
"I believe you, Nassi, we all believe in you… Otherwise, we wouldn't have chosen you."
"What I'm talking about is our new king—the usurper, Lado—who you will one day replace."
"He is unworthy, and that's why you will take his place."
Seeing that Nassi had calmed down, once again playing with his white silk scarf, Raphael continued, "Three months after the king's death, much has changed—especially for Lado, who has just ascended to the throne, slowly abandoning those who support this kingdom, and finding himself surrounded by enemies."
"So just stay hidden here. Don't let him find you. He's no longer the man you once knew."
"As for that tutor from Toussaint…"
Raphael paused, glancing at the elder nobleman, Gil, whose eyes remained closed.
"For what he's been given, he's done quite well."
"Only…"
"He was unlucky and chose the wrong liege?" Nassi interjected.
"Haha…" Raphael froze, then slapped his thigh in exaggerated laughter.
"That's right, that's right. Dyson's luck really is terrible! He chose to side with the one who despises half of Kaedwen's nobility, Ban Ard—the one who can't recognize his own position, who doesn't know how to hide his true intentions, and who only seeks revenge for his father's death as Lado's loyal follower…"
"Nassi, you're brilliant. No wonder you're fit to replace Lado and take Kaedwen's highest position!"
Nassi, startled by Raphael's sudden exuberance, grabbed his white scarf, followed with an awkward chuckle, folded it neatly, and discreetly placed it back. But even after he had put the scarf away, Raphael was still laughing.
Neither Duke Donato nor Gil, who seemed to have some animosity toward Raphael, showed any reaction.
Until…
"Boom!"
An orange portal suddenly appeared.
A fierce wind swept through the room, lifting the luxurious golden silk curtains high into the air.
The sudden gust caused Raphael to choke, and everyone's hair and beards were blown into disarray. However, it seemed they had prepared for this.
In the study, books, paper, pens, and cups had all been put away and weren't affected.
Once someone stepped out of the portal, the wind subsided.
All four nobles, including Duke Donato, immediately stood up to greet the newcomer.
But the figure simply waved them off, his expression serious:"The situation has changed!"
"The School of the Wolf is moving to Ellander!"
.....
📢20 advanced chapters on p@treaon📢
For advance chapters: p@treon.com/Uchiha_Itachi007 (replace @ with a)
315. The Wolf School is Done!
316. The Witcher Corps's First Group Hunt.
317. Stone Wants to Stay.
318. A Tribute to the Mother of All Things.
319. The Giant Troll Wraith!