Bab 57: Wicklen Green
Editor: Exodus Tales
Chapter 57 - Wicklen Green
"The lord hasn't been feeling well, so he can't personally receive you," the goateed magician said as he guided Zwei's party into the castle. Occasionally, he would also send a complicated gaze in Tio's direction. "So, please wait a while. The madam should come to meet you in a moment."
While talking, the goateed man quickly led the party to a reception room.
Maybe because it wasn't an official reception room for receiving VIPs, the room wasn't particularly large. It looked more like a side hall than an actual reception room. Even so, the decoration inside was still magnificent. Even a layman like Zwei could tell that some of the sculptures and paintings decorating the room were produced by famous artists. However, out of courtesy, he didn't look around like Alyssa.
"Speaking of which, I haven't introduced myself yet." After taking a seat on a leather sofa, the goateed magician said leisurely to Zwei, "My name is Wicklen Green."
"Green?" When the other party revealed his family name, Zwei immediately thought of the Green magic family in the Hammurabi Kingdom.
A person's talent for magic was partly related to their bloodline. If both husband and wife were magicians, then there was a high probability that their child would also have magic talent.
For this reason, many magic families prohibited their members from marrying ordinary people. Some would even prohibit relationships with commoner magicians. They did it to maintain the so-called "pure bloodline," as well as to have descendants with magic talent.
Facts had proven that the actions of these magic families were effective to a certain extent, as most of the children born in these magic families possessed a good talent for magic.
Meanwhile, of the magic families in the Southeastern Plains, four stood out from the rest. And one of these four exceptional families was the Green family, which specialized in wind elemental magic.
"That's right. That Green family," the goateed magician…rather, Wicklen said as he triumphantly twisted the tip of his goatee. He then extended a handshake to Zwei and asked, "What about you? Won't you introduce yourself?"
So, his peacock-like confidence actually originates from this.
Zwei suddenly felt a subtle sense of futility. However, it wasn't because he felt powerless in the face of a behemoth like the Green family. Instead, it was because he felt dismayed by the fact that he had severely overestimated Wicklen. In the end, the other party was merely a paper tiger relying on his family to behave arrogantly. Zwei felt as if he had been winding up a punch with all his strength, only to have it land on thin air.
However, since the other party was sincerely trying to reconcile with him, it naturally wouldn't be good for Zwei to reject the overture. Hence, Zwei had no choice but to shake Wicklen's hand, answering, "My name is…Zwei Aldric."
Zwei had paused momentarily between his words. However, he didn't do so because he wanted to hint at something. It was because the moment his hand made contact with Wicklen's, the latter had actually injected a small amount of mana into his body!
What Wicklen was trying to do was explore Zwei's true strength using his mana. Even though he was certain that Zwei was, at best, only at the Basic Magician standard, the unknown was always much scarier than the known. Hence, he resorted to this method to make contact with Zwei's mana and verify the latter's strength.
Generally speaking, having foreign mana invade one's body was a tricky problem for most magicians. This was especially true when the invader was of a higher rank.
Unfortunately for Wicklen, Zwei couldn't be counted among "most" magicians.
After his initial surprise, Zwei immediately launched a counterattack.
Of course, he didn't plan to invade Wicklen's body with his own mana—in fact, he already had a clear understanding of Wicklen's strength from the strand of mana the latter sent into his body. Although the volume and quality of Zwei's mana far surpassed that of the strand of foreign mana, he did not attack or expel Wicklen's mana.
After all, his own body served as the battlefield. What would happen if their clash broke something? There was no insurance company he could claim compensation from in this world.
Hence, instead of attacking or expelling Wicklen's mana, Zwei shunted the foreign mana into the system's Mana Lake.
Although he couldn't use the foreign mana as fuel to generate more mana or to replenish his own mana, he could still use it to light up lamps and fires.
While Wicklen was feeling surprised by the disappearance of his mana, Zwei calmly broke off the handshake.
Afterward, the atmosphere between the two magicians became somewhat heavy.
Even if Wicklen were an arrogant young master, after suddenly turning hostile and probing Zwei, he couldn't simply continue talking to Zwei as if nothing had happened. Not to mention, when he still had a connection with the mana he sent into Zwei's body, he felt as if he was swimming in a vast ocean. At this discovery, the contempt he felt for this young magician turned into fear.
Although Alyssa was unaware of what was going on, she still noticed the strange atmosphere. Immediately, she quieted down and sat meekly beside Tio.
A short while later, a lady who was dressed even more lavishly than the reception room entered.
When this lady's gaze landed on Tio, a trace of disgust flashed across her heavily powdered face. Although she quickly concealed her disgust with a smile, Zwei saw it.
Nothing's changed with the Girl's Home quest. Sure enough, this matter really isn't simple, Zwei sighed inwardly.
He then stood up and executed a magician's bow to the lady.
According to Wicklen's previous words, this opulently dressed lady wearing golden-rimmed spectacles should be Lord Skange's wife and Tio's mother.
Currently, Zwei hadn't even passed the Magician Promotion Test and become an official magician. Etiquette demanded that before he reached the Advanced Magician rank, he should bow to someone of Madam Skange's status.
"Greetings, Madam Skange." After bowing, without waiting for the other party to respond, Zwei smiled and continued, "I'm sure you already know the purpose of my visit."
"Yes, Esteemed Magician. We will never forget the contribution you have made to Noeg," Madam Skange said as she stretched out her hand to touch Tio's head. However, the girl, who was generally well-behaved around Zwei, actually avoided Madam Skange's hand, which sported numerous gemstones. The girl showed her supposed mother no respect at all, forcing the latter to retract her hand awkwardly.
This brief contretemps further confirmed Zwei's conjecture.
"However, Miss Skange once saved my student's life, and as a result, the two of them became very close to each other."
Upon hearing Zwei mention herself, Alyssa hurriedly nodded her head, her bouncing pigtails giving her an extremely cute look.
"So, before we leave the city, I hope we can intrude on your home so that the two of them can continue getting along with each other for a while," Zwei said, using the lines he had previously thought up on their way here. Smiling, he asked, "May I know your opinion of this?"
-- Hadiah diterima