Chapter 39: \Academy of Silence
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Soon, Benjamin left their hideout.
Before leaving, he learned from the two young mages about information regarding the "Academy of Silence".
During the establishment of the Kingdom of Helius, the Church asserted their position and began hunting mages. The mages were forced to bring their activity underground. The surviving mage clans banded together and exchanged spells and experiences. They helped each other escape from the Church, and this was the beginning of the Academy of Silence.
After that, the Church started to strengthen its position and had its hold over the royal family, thus increasing their manpower to hunt mages. At that time, the most powerful mages founded the Academy of Silence for the sake of survival and to pass down magic. It was their dream to build a kingdom that was for mages.
The Academy of Silence was situated at the west side of the kingdom, surrounded by mountains. The terrain there was treacherous, and had few people living there. In addition, with the amount of magical beasts roaming there, it was hard for the Church to conduct searches. But the mages were able to use their magic to excavate and develop a kingdom there.
This continued on, and after a few years, the Church came to realize that there was a mage organization within the kingdom, but they were unable to find the source of it. Instead, the mages have found ways to create riots within the kingdom. At the same time, the threats from neighboring kingdoms has cost much of the Church’s manpower. Under these circumstances, the Academy of Silence strengthened its roots and continued to expand.
After understanding this part, Benjamin suddenly thought of what the elder mage said: "We can’t let these two stand in our way!" These three probably have some ulterior motive in infiltrating the kingdom. Were they planning to incite another riot?
He asked these two about this question, but the two only answered:
"Our teacher said, this is a secret, we can’t tell anyone. Even if our teacher couldn’t remember it properly, we still couldn’t tell him!"
Benjamin thought for a while then said: "You’ve forgotten, haven’t you?"
The two nodded honestly, but then shook their head in guilt.
"...."
Thus, Benjamin left without hesitation.
Of course, before leaving, he did not forget to collect "medical fees" from these two. These two were easy to trick, Benjamin did not have to say much, and they already took out all the things they had. But Benjamin did not take everything they had, and only took two items based on their usability:
A book called Getting Started with Magic, and a piece of rock that they called "Water Element Crystal".
Other than that, there was nothing much useful, or it was what Benjamin could not make use of at the moment, plus, seeing how dumb these two were, he had to leave something for them out of respect for the elder mage.
Benjamin was satisfied.
It has been said that good deeds would be repaid, he had to put up with these two idiots for so long, for sure he would have to get something in return.
Because he was still in what was considered the downtown area of Havenwright, he did not have the time to examine these two items. After putting them away properly, he bid farewell to the two, then followed the instructions of the System and headed towards the alley.
After some proper thought, it seemed that he has always been relying on the System for directions, so much so that the System began complaining that it has become a GPS. But Benjamin was already used to its bickering, with just a few words, he managed to shut the System up.
Very quickly, he returned to his "Original point."
Based on the time given by the System, this was forty-five minutes after the tsunami spell was cast. The alley seemed as if it experienced some sort of typhoon, there were a few potholes on the ground, the surface was covered in mud, and the walls on both ends seemed as if they were hammered by something, showing tons of cracks.
The scene was already frightening enough. You have to know, if Benjamin conjured a water ball and left it there, it would probably disappear after a minute. It has already been almost an hour, but the air here was still humid to the point where moss can thrive, you can see how powerful the magic was.
Even so, after such a battle happening in this alley, the main road in the outer part of the city which was only a few streets away was still the same. People passed to and fro, and no one seemed to have noticed. After so long, there were no reinforcements from the Church either.
The two paladins laid on the surface which was full of mud and puddles, Benjamin did not if they were still alive.
Benjamin did not have time to be surprised by the chaos in the outer layer of the city or the Church’s helplessness, he ran over to make sure if they were still breathing.
They were still alive.
After making sure of this, Benjamin felt that something was out of place. The paladins had such strong physique, yet the wave came down with such ferocity that they are still unconscious. But why did he regain consciousness within ten minutes?
What it because of the defensive water ball he used?
It cannot be, was he really so powerful? Was it that he did not realize his power had grown over time?
Benjamin hadn’t had time to be happy about the thought before he realized the answer.
He took out the cross that was hanging in front of his chest, and properly examined it. The holy light that the cross emitted seemed to have dimmed, and it made Benjamin feel some pain.
He was not hurt by the huge wave not because of his water ball, but because of the activation of this tool.
According to the bishop, this item could block three magical attacks.
In other words, the protection of this cross and his water ball was not able to fully block the impact of the wave, it still knocked him unconscious.
If it was not for this protective amulet, he would probably be dead now.
After thinking of this, Benjamin did not feel that the amulet’s powers were not wasted.
He glanced over to where the child fell over. Judging from his experience, the child, who was wounded as well, would never survive such a magic spell.
But there was no one there.
Benjamin was stunned.
What in the world, where did he go?
Even if he was killed by the wave, his corpse would remain, it was impossible that the wave would crush him into nothing ----- this was not flame magic. Could it be that the kid ran away? How could this be?
He questioned the System, and the System replied without hesitation: "No idea."
....Okay.
If he did not die, it can be considered that he was lucky, Benjamin could not be bothered about him any further. After all, there were still two alive and well humans waiting for him to take care of ---- he could not just dump the both of them here and run away.
After thinking a while, Benjamin knelt over at the paladins’ side, and started shaking their shoulders, trying to wake them up.
This was the scenario he thought up to tell them: Benjamin just regained consciousness, and tried to wake them up. He did not know what has happened because during this period, he was unconscious the whole time.
It could not be helped, if the people from the Church knew he performed surgery on a mage, he was done for.
He definitely did not want the Church to start suspecting him.
"Wake up, are you okay, please wake up!"
After five minutes of continued shaking when Benjamin’s hands started to feel sore, the two paladins only then starting waking up.
"I...what…...those few fallen ones…...what happened?"
"I do not know either." Benjamin continued on with his act, with a face of confusion, "All I saw was a huge wave coming, then…...then the rest I have no idea. After I woke up, we were all lying here."
His act seemed to be rather convincing and the scenario believable, because the opposition did not suspect anything.
The paladins and Benjamin helped each other get up. In this time, the three did not say a word, the two paladins were silent, as if they were thinking about the current situation. Benjamin who saw this, could only put on a face of confusion and kept his mouth shut.
Finally, after a while, the female paladin opened her mouth:
"I had no idea there were such powerful fallen ones hidden in the capital, we have to report this to the bishop at once. Sir Lithur, we’ll send you home first, please don’t tell anyone about this, we do not wish to cause panic amongst the nobles."