Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
Just as Bard had said, their review efficiency was quite high right now.
Roland showed them the derivative model of Hand of Magic, performed a few of the derivative effects of Hand of Magic on the spot, and after simultaneously explaining the principles, he passed the review.
It took less than an hour from beginning to end.
Bard then indicated for Roland to come talk to him alone.
Inside the study, Bard sat opposite Roland, upright, and even in a serious manner.
Roland now looked at Bard and saw that he looked a little dispirited and had dark circles under his eyes.
It may be assumed that he didn’t sleep well last night.
“The world is changing so much that it takes us by surprise.” Bard looked into Roland’s eyes and said slowly, “There is no news of Golden Sons in the capital. But I suppose by now something similar has reached the ears of the noble families.”
Roland raised his eyelids slightly. He didn’t know what Bard meant by saying this all of a sudden.
“If I wanted to recruit you to become the consecrated mage of my family, would you be willing?”
Roland was startled for a moment. “Your words are too sudden. I can’t help but doubt your intentions in recruiting me, when not so long ago our relationship was quite stiff.”
Bud chuckled. “Yes, it’s too sudden. I have a question that I would like you to answer.”
2“That’ll depend on the question!”
“How many Golden Sons are there exactly?”
“Five hundred thousand.”
Roland answered readily. This wasn’t some important information, and even if Roland didn’t say it, they would be able to find out eventually.
However, when Bard heard the number, he gasped in astonishment and looked frightened.
His face turned pale from fright.
Roland wondered, was 500,000 a terrifying number? This wasn’t a lot of people. There were nearly a million people in Delpon, and it was said that there were nearly two million in Hollevin’s capital. Logically, Bard couldn’t have been frightened by this number.
Then, Roland saw the fruit wine cup in Bard’s hands trembling. Some of the wine even spilled out.
Now Bard looked like a patient with Parkinson’s disease.
1Bard then finished drinking the wine slowly, and as he did so, he slowly grew quiet, his complexion gradually returning to normal.
He put down the fruit wine, pretended that nothing had happened, and said, “I still want to extend my sincere invitation to your excellency. We, the Bard family, are much, much better than a Magic Tower, both in our magic book collection and in our resources. If you are willing to become our consecrated mage, you will have the same resources as a successor, and you won’t need to bear too many responsibilities and obligations.”
1Bard’s expression was serious, and Roland could also feel that Bard was quite serious.
However, Roland was even more puzzled. “Why do you suddenly take me for a hotcake?”
“You have strength, great strength.” Bard uttered the classic Hollevin proverb, “We nobles are willing to get down on one knee, even to serve, for those of mighty strength and power.”
1Roland smiled inwardly at this.
This might sound elegant, but it was really in essence giving in to the strong.
“Give me some time to consider!” Roland tactfully replied to Bard in this way after a moment’s thought.
“The Bard family will always welcome you.” Bard got up and said, “Then I’ll be returning to the capital. If you ever come to the capital or pass by, be sure to visit my house.”
1The saying goes, do not argue further with one who seeks to make amends. Although Roland didn’t like Bard very much, the latter still gave in, and there was no antagonistism, so Roland naturally wouldn’t act unpleasantly.
2Between him and Bard, it was more a matter of disliking each other’s vibes than of actual conflicts of interest or a life-and-death feud.
2“If that day does come, I will go to your house and have a chat with you.” Roland also stood up.
Bard smiled at Roland and suddenly said, “I hope you won’t become our gravediggers!”
1Roland pondered over this.
With these words, Bard left the Magic Tower, taking his friends and subordinates with him.
Roland stood at the window, watching Bard and the others leave in the night.
Vivian pushed the door open and entered. She placed pastries and some dried fruits on the table, then walked up to Roland and also watched Bard gradually disappear into the distance.
2After a while, she said, “Deputy Chairman, the reason you asked us to go out of town was so that we could avoid this man. He’s very dangerous, isn’t he?”
1“You saw through my intentions!” Roland chuckled.
“We’re not stupid. Actually, we all guessed that was the case.” Vivian said with a slight sigh, “Even the Chairman avoided him, he must be a very troublesome person. You left us outside the city and asked your friends to protect us—it must’ve been dangerous for you to face them alone. We all feel a little apologetic and quite ashamed.”
1“It actually has nothing to do with you guys, but it’s more suitable to say that the Chairman and I almost got you guys into trouble.”
“Do you really think we’ll believe that?” The rims of Vivian’s eyes were slightly red. “Deputy Chairman, please remember, we are also members of the Magic Tower—if there are such matters in the future, please do not exclude us.”
5No... It really had nothing to do with you guys.
1However, Vivian left the study before Roland could explain.
In the days that followed, Roland found the magic apprentices in unusually high spirits. They went out of town during the day to help build houses and returned to the tower at night to practice magic until the middle of the night.
They were already very diligent, and now they were even more diligent, almost to the point of desperation.
Diligence is a good thing, Roland thought, so he didn’t clarify anything with them.
Because Language Proficiency was at a bottleneck—stuck—Roland did not derive the spell again these past few days.
In the library of the Magic Tower, he found another spell that was quite interesting.
Spell Puppet.
1It was also a type of zero-level trick. Like Hand of Magic, it was known as a spell of little worth.
1However, Roland found it quite interesting.
Level zero spells were easy to learn. Roland looked at the spell model, and in less than ten minutes, he successfully cast a blue elemental puppet.
The puppet was about the same height as Roland. It had no eyes, no nose, no face or anything of the sort. It was simply a magic figure.
In addition, this thing had no soul, no consciousness. However, it inherited some of the summoner’s instinctive knowledge. It could distinguish between friend and foe and understand most of the language commands. Its strength was not considered great, so it could only assist mages with some delicate experiments or handiwork.
1Hand of Magic was used for heavy lifting, so it was not possible to use it for delicate work.
In contrast, Spell Puppets were created for this purpose, but many mages found them to be of little use.
1This thing only inherited some knowledge of its summoner, so it often made mistakes in experiments. Magical supplies were very expensive, and if it failed several times, a mage would become impecunious.
3In the end, the purpose that remained for this thing was cleaning up and staying on alert for foreign enemies.
However, it would simplify matters to just recruit a few more magic apprentices.
After all, maintaining a Spell Puppet required constant consumption of mana.
1After about an hour of looking at the spell model of Spell Puppet, a lot of bold and daring ideas emerged in Roland’s mind.