"...the Hermes Faction?"
Upon hearing this somewhat familiar name, Annan furrowed his brows slightly.
He remembered the name.
——"Philosopher’s Stone of the Hermes Faction."
That was indeed the full name of the Philosopher’s Stone that Annan had been injected with before.
So, Annan casually followed up, "What is that?
"Are they spreading some kind of forbidden knowledge?"
Hearing this, Salvatore, who was beside him, also pricked up his ears, listening intently.
Because he also remembered... the name was mentioned in the notes Benjamin left behind.
As a normal person, Albert did not have the ability to sense the tension between Annan and Salvatore, the two Transcendents.
"That’s not the case."
He just shrugged his shoulders and said casually, "It’s actually just a wanderer wizard and his followers. They have established an organization like an archaeological association, which is a bit like a philosophy school. However, there are not many Transcendents among them... so we didn’t pay much attention.
"But the first time that wizard saw Kafney, he praised her for her outstanding talent."
Prince Albert said this and glanced at Kafney.
Seeing that Kafney just silently turned her head away without saying anything, Prince Albert touched his nose and laughed a little awkwardly, "However, Kafney suddenly said after he left... that he was a demon."
"I just said that his soul was like a demon," Kafney corrected.
"At that time, I hadn’t realized Kafney’s talent, so I didn’t pay much attention to her words..."
Albert explained, "But just to be safe, I still gave the order to have the guards watch him and not to let him get close to Kafney again."
"He hasn’t come again since then,"
Kafney said softly, "But I’ve seen him in my dreams, where he taught me about the common sense of the Transcendent world... He is my mentor."
Albert was taken aback, "Why didn’t you tell me?"
Kafney glanced at him and said with certainty, "Without evidence, you wouldn’t believe it, Dad."
At this, Albert scratched his nose and looked a bit embarrassed.
He defended himself in a somewhat weak voice, "When I discovered that he was wearing gold jewelry, I took the precaution to send people to inquire at Heath Tower of Black, and that wizard is not some big shot.
"The news from Black Tower is very certain—among all the gold-rank wizards currently, no one goes by that name.
"This indicates that he is at least not a gold-rank wizard... A silver-rank Transcendent can’t really stir up much trouble in the Royal Capital."
Albert shrugged his shoulders, not concerned, "Just within the royal court alone, there are a number of gold-rank Transcendents. It’s the Royal Capital, after all, not some other city..."
Annan nodded in agreement.
As far as he could tell from the performance of the silver-rank Transcendents he had seen... the gap with gold-rank ones was indeed quite significant.
With gold-rank ones in guard, it was basically difficult for silver-rank Transcendents to cause any significant disturbances.
"So, what is the name of that wandering wizard?"
Salvatore asked curiously, "Your Highness, do you still remember?"
"Hmm, I do remember. Because Kafney said he was like a demon, I remembered his name."
Albert quickly answered, "If I’m not mistaken, his name should be..."
"...Nicholas Flamel?"
At that moment, the shadow that had been silent for a while suddenly started murmuring in surprise and doubt, "Wait, I remember this name—"
Seeing the shadow so astonished by the name, Salvatore suddenly felt a tightness in his chest.
Although he had no recollection of the name, Salvatore remembered his shadow’s personality and memory very well...
A name that made it involuntary speak out was definitely not an ordinary one.
"Something big has happened, Saul. You better ask this big fool if he has white curly hair and deep green eyes?"
After a very brief hesitation, the shadow quickly spoke in Salvatore’s mind.
Realizing the urgency of the matter, Salvatore did not doubt the shadow.
He immediately asked, "Your Highness, the person you mentioned... does he have white curly hair and green eyes?"
Upon hearing this, Albert froze for a moment.
Kafney also lifted her head and scrutinized Salvatore with some confusion in her eyes.
Seeing their sudden and intense reactions, the Old Bishop Baker, who had been keeping silent and listening intently from a distance, looked over with some confusion.
Prince Albert lowered his voice a bit and asked tentatively, "Do you know him?"
His question had already given Salvatore the answer.
His face quickly turned somewhat unsightly.
Salvatore spoke sentence by sentence, following the shadow’s words, "I have heard this name. He definitely is not any of the Gold-rank wizards ’currently’ in existence...
"What I mean is, by now he should... have already died."
Salvatore’s words were shocking.
Under the silent gaze of the others—including the players—Salvatore spoke somewhat haltingly, filtering out the swear words and echoing the shadow’s voice, "Nicholas Flamel, he... he was once an instructor of transmutation at Jade Tower of Dennisiowa Kingdom and served as the Tower Master for a short period.
"More than a hundred years ago, he ignited his soul to advance to Gold rank. But at that time, he didn’t inherit the position of Tower Master... It was more than a year later that he suddenly became the Tower’s Child and swiftly succeeded as the Tower Master.
"After that, he served as the Jade Tower Master for over thirty years. Soon after that, a new Tower’s Child was born—so naturally, Nicholas’s status as Tower Master was also stripped away.
"Some Tower Masters see this status as a burden, but others see it as essential to prolonging life... The souls of the Gold rank shine eternally and brilliantly, like gold, impervious to ordinary curses. But if they use the Elemental Power, they will gradually burn and drain their souls—until they approach death.
"Nicholas overused his Elemental Power, so not long after he lost the position of Tower Master... that is, about a hundred years ago, he already died and was buried."
Salvatore’s own face also turned quite unsightly.
As if frightened by his own words.
He murmured, "At that time... many people attended his funeral. Because he was the excavator and refiner of the ancient Philosopher’s Stone technology, he was referred to as ’the second Hermes,’ ’the modern Sage’—he was also one of the very few true Sages of this era who could actually produce a finished Philosopher’s Stone.
"But after his death, when Jade Tower searched his laboratory for the Philosopher’s Stone, they found nothing. At that time, it was suspected that a traitor had fled with the Philosopher’s Stone. They searched for several years and then gradually forgot about it.
"If you truly saw a man claiming to be Nicholas Flamel, with white hair and green eyes... I think, at that time, he might have not died at all—
"He escaped the fate of death with the Philosopher’s Stone he created!"