Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
“Mr. Edward? Mr. Edward? What happened? Please wake up! Oh my god! What should I do?”
A worried voice awakened Edward from his dreams. Edward was staying in the house that he had rented.
The one who woke him up was his temporary maid, Hathaway, who came every day to cook for him and to clean the room. After entering the yard, she had seen the door ajar, with Edward laying on the ground in a pool of blood. She was scared witless!
Edward’s room was a ransacked mess. The bookshelves and desks had been knocked over, their contents scattered all over the place. The witchcraft tome that Lu Zhiyu had gifted him had fallen as well and was currently flipped open.
Before he lost consciousness, Edward had been using his knowledge from the dream witchcraft techniques that were written within Lu Zhiyu’s notes to conduct a targeted lifting of the curse witchcraft, which had been leeching on his awareness. It was trying to consume his mind power and constantly attacking him.
The sinister power was difficult to dispel, even for a trained wizard. Edward had been attempting to use a crude understanding of dream witchcraft to enter his own dream space and cleanse the curse witchcraft.
Now that he had been awoken, Edward sat up immediately, scaring the little maid. She was a girl with freckles on her nose, who greatly admired the tall and handsome Edward.
As she was at an age that was quite susceptible to lovesickness, the mysterious and confident Edward, who exuded a scholarly charm and possessed an elegance far beyond ordinary people, was naturally someone that Hathaway could only fantasize about. Now that Edward was suddenly this close to her, her face flushed crimson red.
“Mr. Edward!” She was so flustered that her voice trembled.
“It’s okay. I’m fine. Don’t say anything about this matter.” Edward was still dazed and his awareness hadn’t fully returned yet.
This was the initial cultivation method for dream witchcraft, or dreamcraft. He was trying to create his own dreamspace. It was said that this space was a simplified version of the mind dimensions that level four wizards used.
According to Lu Zhiyu, constructing a dream space was basically the same thing as building an information space. As such, as long as one’s mind power, will, and computing ability was sufficient, anyone could construct a complete dream space. Other than the fact that it was immaterial, it would be exactly the same as reality.
After building the dream space, he would then gain the ability to directly interfere with reality via his mind power. Of course, for wizards below level four, their mind powers were too weak, as their unactivated mind power couldn’t change the rules of physics and matter. Yet, it was enough to use dream witchcraft as a conduit to develop curses that could be carried out through the dream space in order to attack a target’s awareness and mind power.
As long as the target’s awareness was not strong enough to withstand the initial wave, the curse power would immediately use the strength of target to interfere with reality. For example, if the curse was made to hex someone to death by freezing them, a special type of mind power would invade their awareness and hypnotize them, causing them to believe that their own imminent death was approaching.
The curse would then actualize that belief and actually be able to freeze the individual solid, as if the corpse had died from extreme cold in the depths of winter, even if it was in the middle of the summer! Although it wasn’t superior to a special ability, it was far more sinister and difficult to defend against.
In fact, if Edward had not received the notes from Lu Zhiyu, he probably would have succumbed to its power already! At this thought, Edward felt a shudder run through his whole body.
When he was constructing his dream space, he constantly recalled his past memories. As such, the dream castle he had built was based on the tower, but it was completely empty. Its architecture felt as if it would collapse from the slightest breeze. Even so, it was at least a very good first attempt, especially based on the current extent of his mind power.
The memories he shared with Adonis were the highest in number. Yet, he also remembered the ghouls that were hidden underground. Each ghoul had once been a living person…
How many families were destroyed by the tragedies caused by Adonis’ actions?
Edward wasn’t sure, but the number was considerable. For example, his current maid, Hathaway, was only fourteen years old. Because her father went missing, she had been forced to come to work for Edward to earn money. It was likely that her father was one of the ghouls…
Now that the ghoul army was this large and even had ghouls that were armed with special abilities, if Edward did not take action, he was afraid that even more tragedies would strike the land.
“No matter what, I have to find this culprit right away and stop him!” Edward stood and declared.
However, he had stood up too quickly and pulled open the wound on his chest. His face turned ashen white, as he spasmed in pain. Although some healing had already taken effect, he had lost too much blood from the gaping wound. A complete recovery wouldn’t be so simple.
The little maid Hathaway said in distress, “Mr. Edward, you have lost so much blood! You can’t go out right now! You need to rest. I will go find you a doctor.”
“No, it’s alright, I am the best doctor here,” he said, declining her offer.
Edward took off his outer jacket and began to clean the wound. He redressed the bandage and put on another coat, then walked towards the exit by sheer force of will. He was almost at the door, when he suddenly thought of something and turned back towards Hathaway, saying, “Oh right, Hathaway, if possible, it is best not to go out right now. If you want, you can stay and live here with me.”
Hathaway was stunned, then suddenly thought of something. Her face flushed crimson and she wanted to reply, but Edward had already disappeared.
———–
“You’re saying that there are a lot of monsters lurking in the city, and that there are even stronger ones out there? Also, that there is a mysterious culprit behind these monsters, who controls them? And, they are preparing to attack Babus and turn it into a city of the dead?” The Head of the City Defense Force, Hans, stared at Edward with skepticism.
In his opinion, Edward, who was to him an unknown, mysterious and strange nobody, was not worthy of his trust. Yet his words concerned the safety of Babus, so Hans could not afford to dismiss them entirely.
Hans was a bald man with a built physique. He was a powerful Blood Knight, who had started his career in the King’s Guards. After he had aged out of the guards, he took over as the Head of the City Defense Force.
He was an important figure, who had won the trust of the king. Though he was not of high status, he had immense power. Hence, Edward believed that it was very important to get Hans to stand on his side.
Edward nodded. “The sewers of the city have been completely occupied by these monsters. They are waiting for an opportunity to rush out and infect all of Babus. If that should happen, all of Babus’ people will become part of their forces, as ghouls. Babus will then become a true purgatory!”
Hans looked at the wound on Edward’s body, as well as the evidence he had brought from the underground site. He analyzed the strange event that had been happening in the city and the odd atmosphere inside the palace, even the sudden death of the old king. As he had been suspecting that some sort of conspiracy was behind all of this, he was now convinced by Edward’s sincerity.
“Wait for an opportunity? Since the old king has died and several of the other heirs have given up their inheritance rights, the throne will be succeeded by the Third Prince, Adonis. A grand coronation ceremony will be held by the Church of Light’s Cardinal Peter to crown the new king. All the lords of the kingdom will come to pay their respects. Is this the aim of the culprit, to seize control over all the nobles of the Kingdom of Mara at once?” Hans asked.
After he laid out his hypothesis, he suddenly felt faint and broke into a cold sweat. But, Edward was not paying attention to this, as he was focusing on the strange name that he has just heard.
“What did you just say? What is the name of the next King of the Mara Kingdom?” he asked, refusing to believe his ears.
“Prince Adonis. Adonis Monar.”