Chapter 181 Searching for Lord Neil Castle: The Hidden Secret, Where is He...?

In the distant city of Spes, His Highness Willard, the castle lord who possesses the third largest territory, is still awake.

Aside from his parents, no one knew his given name, only his surname. For a dragon, a name is as important as a body part; it cannot be known to insignificant people.

Because he is a hybrid of human and dragon, this prince's blood is extremely unstable.

Since birth, he has suffered daily from the mismatch between his extraordinary magical talent and his physical condition, which has resulted in his current unpredictable personality.

Throughout the castle, everyone, from ministers to servants, served him with utmost care, fearing that one day they might inadvertently offend Prince Willard and lose their heads.

This situation worsened after that incident, as everyone knew that the dragon prince's only lover had disappeared more than a year ago.

Along with his rare good temper, which also disappeared—in the past few years, they had only seen this prince smile when that person was still alive.

Despite being merely a pet presented by a lowly subject, and not being the most outstanding in appearance—merely described as pretty—it won the dragon's sole favor.

It's worth noting that besides his strength, Prince Willard's appearance is also unparalleled. To have such a perfect lover and still sneak away is truly regrettable; one can't help but sigh, wondering what that person was thinking.

Without the familiar presence of others, Willard fell back into a cycle of insomnia, which made him increasingly irritable.

As his first heat cycle passed, his magic was growing at an unimaginable speed, and correspondingly, the pain it brought was unimaginable.

He never indiscriminately killed any good people, but the people around him were still deeply afraid of him, including that person, Sethia.

Willard had already decided how to punish the disobedient fellow after he caught him.

He thought he should lock Sethia away forever in the deepest part of the castle, so that the little rascal could learn a good lesson and not leave him so easily again.

"Your Highness, Lord Marlowe has sent important news."

The butler's voice came from outside the study door. Willard propped his head up and rubbed his throbbing temples with one hand.

"Come in."

The butler entered the study quietly, without making any inappropriate noise. After placing the scroll on the tray to Willard's left, he bowed and backed away, closing the door silently as well.

Willard flicked his finger, and the scroll, which had been tightly sealed with wax, floated into the air, unsealed, and stopped at the perfect height for reading.

It contains little information, yet it carries information that could shake the entire continent.

The current king was assassinated by the demons, and the "key" has disappeared.

After reading, the scroll spontaneously combusted without any fire.

Willard's eyes held a hint of amusement.

This land has been quiet for too long; it seems some people are starting to get restless.

Neil is lost.

Ray learned about the incident from Lamb the day after it happened.

He was repairing a broken hoe handle inside the house when Lamb rushed to the hill and told him about it.

"In the morning, the teachers and the headmaster of the Knight Academy took Danny home, saying they needed to see him urgently. So I took them to my house. Saiya said you were at the orchard, and the headmaster then told us the news."

Danny knows something. Let's hurry back; they're still waiting for you at home.

"Let's go back."

Lai extinguished the stove with water, quickly locked the door, and rushed back to the small mountain village.

He couldn't understand why a child as old as Neil would suddenly disappear, especially in such a safe place as the Knight Academy.

The mule cart moved swiftly, covering a journey that should have taken half a day in just a few hours. At Hagrid's house, Ray met the headmaster and the teacher, and learned everything that had happened.

The senior named Neil who went out wasn't a real student. The real senior had been knocked unconscious and locked in the storage room at some point, and they didn't find him until the next morning.

But he had no recollection of who knocked him unconscious.

Based on Neil's roommate's description, Neil should have disappeared near the library. But there was no one there last night, meaning that no one has seen Neil since he left the dormitory building!

The Knight Academy has reported the matter to the town's security team, who have launched a thorough search centered on the academy, but no good news has come back.

The teacher also told Ray what she knew about Neil's sudden acquisition of magic a few days ago.

Aside from offering comfort and apologies, all she and the dean could do was try their best to help find Neil, whose whereabouts were unknown.

"We really didn't expect this to happen. Someone actually took advantage of the chaos to kidnap people. What are their motives?!"

The dean felt quite guilty.

"If apologies were enough, the people would have been found long ago! My brother and his wife died at the hands of monsters while trying to save everyone's lives, and these two children are the only ones left in the entire Viktor family!"

We entrusted our children to you for their studies out of trust, yet you adults couldn't even protect a single child!

Hagrid rebuked the dean mercilessly, his anger capable of lifting the roof off.

Brian, Reese, and Lamb were all there, glaring fiercely at the headmaster and the teacher. Faced with Hagrid's fury and the family's disdainful looks, the two of them didn't dare utter a single word.

This is indeed their responsibility; the child was lost on campus, and they are to blame.

"The most important thing now is to bring Neil back."

Ray rubbed his face with both hands, barely managing to suppress a curse. Given the current situation, even killing those two wouldn't necessarily bring Neil back.

The person has been missing for nearly thirteen hours. The best time to search for someone is within twenty-four hours; there's still a chance. It's just unclear whether this applies to this magical continent.

Lei tried his best to remain calm.

"I'm going to town to take a look."

"I'm going too!"

"I'm going too!"

Lamb was the first to jump out. Then came Danny and Reese.

"Go, everyone."

Hagrid made the final decision and was the first to put on his coat.

"Let's go, don't delay the search."

"good."

Everyone in the room left in no time, leaving only Kelly, Farah who needed to take care of the baby, and Luna who might get lost if they all came along.

"Mom, was Uncle Neil taken away by bad guys?"

"Um."

Farah tucked the stray hairs from Luna's forehead behind her ear.

"There have been a lot of troubles lately, so stay home and don't go out."

"Okay, I'll be good and not go out!"

Kelly tried to stop Danny from going to town, but Danny ignored her and got angry, locking himself in his room and refusing to come out.

"elder brother."

Danny called out to Ray and took him to a corner to whisper something.

“Brother, Neil became very strange after black flames appeared on his hands that day. I wanted to go to him, but he refused to see me.”

The next day, Neil's hair color changed. Others said it was because he used a magical item, and Neil didn't deny it in front of them, but I felt it was his natural hair color.

Danny was a little uneasy. He didn't dare tell anyone else about it first. He felt he should tell Ray in person so that Ray wouldn't miss any details that might lead to finding Neil.

"Thank you, Danny, I understand."

"We will definitely find Neil!"

"Um."

The group quickly arrived at the Knight Academy, which was already empty except for the academy's teachers and the investigators.

Because of the strange phenomena in the Eton Forest and the disappearance of Neil, the headmaster decided to send the children home. No one knows what will happen next, and it's safest to keep the children with their families.

"Dean, we have searched the entire academy twice, but we still can't find it."

The teacher temporarily in charge of the school looked worried. After such an incident, who would dare send their child to the Knight Academy in the future? The tuition fee of several gold coins per year is not something that ordinary families can easily afford.

The Neil family is relatively good; at least they haven't started causing trouble yet...

He looked nervously at the tall, burly group of people behind the dean. He wasn't a teacher who taught weapons and combat; if the Neil family got too angry and started hitting people, his small frame couldn't withstand it.

"Call everyone out, and we'll split up to search other parts of town. We must find him!"

"good!"

Upon hearing this, the teacher hurriedly called for help.

Regardless, the dean made his stance clear from the start, taking immediate action after discovering Neil's disappearance, without delaying the search by notifying his family.

Hagrid and his group also split into four groups to search for Neil, following the main force.

Ray had a feeling that Neil's abduction was likely due to the black flames and his lighter hair color.

Who kidnapped Neil? And what caused these anomalies to suddenly appear?

Ray remembered that he had discussed the existence of magic with Dr. Black, and he had made it clear that magic could not be acquired; it either existed or it didn't.

Ray had taken Neil to the Mage's Guild for a magic test, but no talent was detected. If there was no talent, then where did the black flames come from?

All the facts point to the same reason: Neil wasn't lacking in talent, but rather his talent was somehow hidden.

Why would the deceased Victor and his wife do this? Ray searched through all his memories but found no information about Neil.

In those fragmented memories that were awakened, Neil had always been an ordinary person since he was an infant, except for his unusual sensitivity to smell.

As far as I can remember, Neil has never left his family. So who hid his magic and when?

As Lai thought about it more and more, something vaguely began to connect into a line.

like......

Young Ray never knew that his beloved mother, Jennifer, was pregnant.

When was that?

After his grandmother passed away, his father and mother had to go back to their hometown. As a child, Rae was fostered by Hagrid's family for a period of time due to health reasons.

Then, when they returned, they brought back a tiny swaddled baby and told him that this was his younger brother, Neil.

Neil had the same hair color as his mother and the same eye color as his father, so he never questioned his identity; he was his own younger brother.

The answer is obvious.

Ray was unwilling to believe this somewhat absurd guess.

But once the seed of doubt is planted, it can never be easily eradicated.

If this conjecture is wrong, then why hide Neil's magic? In the values ​​of the entire continent's inhabitants, possessing magic, a gift from the supreme god, is clearly a good thing.

They searched all day, turning almost the entire town of Rosen upside down, but still couldn't find Neil.

Lay had no choice but to pin his hopes on the black market, but he didn't get the information he wanted. He only knew that there had been a lot of strangers in town recently.

Perhaps the person who took Neil away was one of these people, or perhaps someone from the town.

In short, Ray will absolutely not give up on continuing to search for Neil.

He used every means he could think of, issuing bounties and enlisting the help of goblins, and so on.

Tata used her keen sense of smell, lying down on the ground where Neil disappeared and sniffing around like a puppy, which was unsettling to watch.

What a proud little monster it was!

Ray also sought help from Ryan, but Ryan said he could sense traces of the magic circle, but they had almost completely dissipated, and he had no way to trace its origin.

Just when things reached a stalemate, an unexpected person extended an olive branch to Ray.

He told Ray that he knew who had taken Neil.