Half an hour later, another figure appeared in the pipes, close to the broken iron net.
It was a decently dressed man in his thirties — black shirt, black suit, black shoes, almost everything black. His moustache was carefully trimmed, and his hair was of Pompadour style.
Graceful as the man might look, he had a dark aura of ferocity and brutality, and he was not a nobleman.
He was Rosan Aaron.
All his men knew that Rosan Aaron was a knight who had already awakened the Blessing in his blood. When he was about to become a grand knight, unfortunately, his power went awry and turned out to be vicious and dark. The power not only destroyed his noble title, but also caused Aaron’s endless hiding from the church.
Aaron hated the God for treating him so cruelly. Losing all of his possessions, for a long time he lived like a rat, hiding all the time. While he was trying to at least dress like a nobleman, bitter hatred was still burning his guts day and night.
The grading of knight and pastor was similar to the different levels of sorcerer.
The ability to use the third circle spell Fly, the sixth circle spell Magic Trigger, or many other ninth circle spells symbolized different levels of sorcerer. When a sorcerer or sorceress could start using one of these spells, it meant he or she had made a new breakthrough. Their spiritual power would grow by a large extent, and their souls would transform into a higher-level form. Even their lives would be extended.
In the ancient magic empire, people regarded the first and second circle sorcerers as junior-rank mages, while third to fifth circle were middle-rank mages, and sixth to eight circle, senior-rank mages. Above them, a ninth circle sorcerer or sorceress would be respected as an Archmage.
Similarly, the levels three, six and nine were the key promoting points for a knight. If a person successfully awakened the Blessing in their blood, they would first become a level one or level two knight. From level three to five, they would be regarded as a grand knight; then six to eight, a radiant knight; in level nine the title was gold knight; and after that was the highest level of all, a legendary knight.
For pastors, it went from junior-rank to middle-rank pastor. Then a middle-rank pastor could be promoted to bishop. For the senior-rank pastors, most of them would become cardinals. There was no special title for a level nine pastor, but if one could successfully join the conclave, he or she would be respected as a grand cardinal.
There were more than four hundred registered official knights in the Duchy of Orvarit. Among them, there were only around fifty grand knights and less than ten radiant knights.
Most of them were members of the Violet Knights, garrisoning different key fortresses.
Back then, Aaron, who was a level two knight, was very close to becoming a grand knight, and thus ranking among the top fifty knights in the Duchy. Now, he has been working for a big man for a long time, doing all the evil and bloody things for him to maintain his fake honor.
Jackson and his men did not come back to the hideout in time. Aaron felt something went wrong, so he came down here himself.
“Sulphur, blood… and something else.” Sniffing the air, Aaron’s eyebrows frowned together. With the Blessing power, Aaron was more sensitive to environment in general than common people.
Aaron could tell that someone had cleaned this place up before. But there were still slight traces of blood, brain tissue, acid and sulphur on the ground, showing that a fierce struggle just happened here.
“Acid… sulphur…” Aaron was thinking out loud, “Acid Splash? It was a typical apprentice spell. An apprentice sorcerer did all this?!” Aaron could not believe his guess, but the reasoning did make sense.
The person who did this had left quite a while before he arrived. It was too late for Aaron to track the responsible. Aaron was also concerned that what they were doing would be reported to the church or nobles.
It was still possible to track him if he turned to the priests of Silver Horn for help, but Aaron would not. He knew their magic could not guarantee finding the person, and more importantly, if the person had already reported what they did to the church, what he should do immediately was escape.
Then Aaron quickly turned around and disappeared in the darkness. Only his footsteps were still echoing there in the sewers.
…………
Lying in the bed, Lucien was too nervous to fall asleep. Any little noise could scare Lucien out of the bed. Since there was no chance for him to have a good rest for now, he decided to take a look at the ring again. Doing research could calm Lucien down, and also if his enemies did find him, the ring might help.
Inside the ring there was a solid geometric model, of which the structure was not very complicated. With his high school mathematics and physics knowledge, it only took Lucien an hour to finish the analysis. But when Lucien was trying to imprint his spiritual mark on the magic structure, he almost failed during the process. His soul was damaged and Lucien felt his power totally unstable.
With great effort, the magic structure was finally imprinted with Lucien’s mark. The information of the ring came to his mind:
“The original owner of the ring, Ice Revenger, was a sorcerer apprentice who was betrayed by his best friend. In order to take his revenge, the apprentice turned to a great alchemist for help and spent all his money on that. The ring felt ice-cold, so he could bear the bitterness of being betrayed in his mind. A second circle spell, Palmeira’s Frost Blades, was sealed in the ring. The spell could torture people with bitter cold and pain.”
The ring could help promoting the spiritual power of its owner to match a level one knight’s strength. Furthermore, its owner could also use Palmeira’s Frost Blades once a day. Therefore, it was a middle-rank level two magic item.
Lucien was not going to wear the ring for now, since it would definitely draw some attention and bring him unnecessary trouble, but he decided to carry the ring in his pocket, just in case.
…………
Lucien woke up early at dawn with a bad headache. He felt dizzy and also had a fever. His physical weakness was caused by his internal injury from the magic backfire.
There was no time for breakfast. Lucien wanted to report the heretics to Lord Venn as soon as possible. After changing to new linen clothes, he pushed the door open and headed towards Lord Venn’s manor.
The cool air outside was refreshing. He took a deep breath and felt his headache lessened. After forty minutes walking, Lucien finally saw the magnificent manor.
Lord Venn was a level two knight who used to pledge his allegiance to the Violet Knights. The grand duke of Orvarit and him became good friends when the grand duke was still the Violet Count and the commander of the Violet Knights. When Lord Venn became older, he left the fortress in the Dark Mountain Range and started having a more peaceful lifestyle here. But from time to time, he was summoned to the palace to be the grand duke’s military consultant.
The manor was surrounded by a high wall and several watchtowers, demonstrating the owner’s military background.
Outside of the manor, a number of farmers had already started working. Two young men in their grey knight squire uniforms were patrolling, followed by some guards.
“Who are you? What are you doing here?” Noticing Lucien was walking towards them, a dark blond knight asked sternly.
Facing the knight squire, Lucien replied politely.
“I’m a friend of John’s. I’m looking for John to tell him something important”
The dark blonde man, Ian, made a snort in contempt. “Why should I trust you? Just because you claim to be John’s friend? John and other knight squires are in training. I can’t let you in, unless you have proof of your identity.”
Quite obviously, Ian did not get along well with John. Lord Venn always had John in high esteem, which made Ian feel more than jealous. In his eyes, John was just a stupid pauper who somehow got a chance to become a knight squire and was always using the knight rules to please Lord Venn, while he was definitely better-educated and more talented.
Another knight squire, Durago, felt the same way. Thus he just stood there, watching while Ian gave the newcomer a hard time.
Ian thought that a poor youngster like the one who was standing in front of him would be frightened by the posture of a knight squire. Were it the case, the youngster might just give up or start begging them on his knees.
After going through so many difficulties and challenges, Lucien understood clearly what he was facing. In his eyes, it was ridiculous to see the two squires trying to pick on him, a nobody.
Lucien answered seriously, “John’s friend is in great danger. If John can’t make it back in time to avoid it, both of you will be responsible for the consequences. I’m pretty sure that Lord Venn would definitely not be happy with what you guys are doing here.”
He knew that Lord Venn was a nobleman who strictly sticked to knight rules all the way in his life. If Lord Venn knew his men violated the rules, he would punish them severely and drive them away from his land with no hesitation.
“How dare you threaten me, you little bastard!” Stepping forward, Ian was so furious that he almost pulled out his knight sword.
Lucien could feel the pressure coming from the high level knight squire. Even the guards standing behind him felt frightened.
What was out of their expectation was that Lucien was still the same, calm and serious. He asked sternly, “Are you gonna kill me, an innocent and unarmed boy, right now?”
It seemed like he was not affected by Ian’s posture at all. His willpower was stronger than the threat.
“Did you hear what I said?” Now it was Lucien’s turn to take a step forward, “Do you still want to be a knight?”
Ian’s anger was burning his guts, but he knew if he really killed this bastard, his future title, rank, land and manor would all be gone. He was not stupid.
Durago tried to make the situation easier for Ian. After giving Lucien a distasteful glance, Durago hauled Ian back. “Don’t waste our time on this.”
“Don't let me see you again,” said Ian viciously. Then he turned directly toward the manor.
Durago’s face looked grim. He just stood there, waiting for Ian.
It didn’t bother Lucien at all. As soon as he realized Ian and Durago were trying to cause him trouble, Lucien reached his hand into the pocket carrying the ring. The power of the ring helped increase his willpower to a higher level that could compete with a level one knight. Thus, of course the pressure from Ian, a knight squire, could not affect him.
Less than five minutes later, Lucien saw John running out from the gate in a hurry, followed by Ian, who was walking slowly behind him. John was very surprised when he recognized that it was Lucien.
“You’re here, Lucien! I thought you were the one who was in danger.”
“Follow me. I’ll explain it to you.”
Lucien stopped when he was sure that Ian and Durago couldn’t hear their conversation. Then he turned to John, and started telling his well-prepared story.
“I met a weird old beggar a few days ago,” Lucien put a worried look on his face, “At first, he was just complaining about the nobles and knights, but later, yesterday, when no one was around, he started accusing God. And I realized he was a believer of the devil, who was doing his vicious missionary work in Aalto.
“I was about to report to the church, but I saw he was secretly meeting Jackson. I’m afraid that the gangsters are involved with the heretic, and they may seize the chance and take revenge on us, or what’s worse, on your parents. If you can report to Lord Venn directly about what’s going on here, I believe the nobles and the church would pay more attention to it.” Lucien looked into John’s eyes.
“These damned scum… Now they’re involved with the devil. Yes, you’re right. I should report it to Lord Venn immediately.” John took Lucien’s words directly without any doubt.
“And John, I’m afraid the situation is even more severe than you thought. I counted… there are just about ten beggars now in Aalto. Many of them… disappeared.” Lucien continued warning him. But he could not tell John what happened in the sewers.
Frowning his eyebrows, John could guess what happened to these poor homeless guys, “Blood sacrifice…” he murmured.
Lucien nodded seriously. “Yes, that’s what I’m guessing. But John, remember, don’t tell Lord Venn that I was the one who found this out. I’m afraid some heretics would seek revenge on me. I have no power to protect myself.”
“But you’ll be awarded for reporting this,” said John.
Clapping on John’s shoulder, Lucien’s face softened a bit. “I’m more concerned with my life, John. Remember to ask Lord Venn not to divulge your information as well. You have a family to take care. They don’t know how to fight as well.”
“I will. You’re always this careful, Lucien.” John nodded. There was nothing more important than his family. “But if there’s any award, part of it is still yours.” John promised.
Lucien smiled, “Thanks John.”
John stayed a bit longer with Lucien. Since Lucien told Ian and Durago that John’s friend was in danger, it would be quite suspicious if John went back to the manor straight away.
After John left, Lucien decided to wait for a few more minutes to make sure that everything was going as expected. A while later, Lucien was relieved when he saw a line of knights galloping across the field. Besides John, there were six squires and a young pastor led by a serious-looking elder knight.
When Lucien went back to Aalto, he felt some vibration under the ground from the sewers. Lord Venn’s men were there already.
To be prudent, Lucien decided he would not go back into the sewers for a while. Recently he was focusing on analyzing magic.
Some time before the clock showed eight thirty, Lucien finally arrived at his workplace, the Musicians’ Association, in time for his shift.
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