Chapter 22
Thinking of Yannis reminded me of the hero team that had already set off for Mercury City. Although Veris used some magic to monitor Keith's mansion, it was limited to that mansion. Monitoring the entire Mercury City would be too much of a challenge for the older generation of magicians.
After all, receiving information about an entire city at once is quite difficult.
He did want to cast the minor spell directly on Arnold, but he always felt that that old codger Yannis would be delusional.
and.
Arnold is noisy.
Veris shook his head, suppressing the jumbled thoughts, picked up his suitcase, and tapped the air with his other hand, causing a magic circle to appear.
The magic circle, which was originally only half an arm's length long, quickly expanded. Veris retreated to the doorway and watched as the magic circle completely covered the storeroom before injecting the last bit of magic power.
A flash of golden light, and the storage room was instantly empty.
Spatial magic has extremely demanding learning requirements and tests a mage's comprehension to an extreme degree. All the spatial magic scrolls in the entire Papacy were created by Veris, and this was one of the scrolls that other bishops urged Veris to draw.
Even the teleportation array that Sylvain used relied on the spatial teleportation point that Veris had previously left at the Papacy in order to perfectly teleport to the Papacy.
After closing and locking the storage room door, Veris hummed a little tune as he walked downstairs. When he got to the second floor, he found that Sylvain had already taken away his messy luggage.
Although angry, he didn't forget to get down to business.
With the books piled up on the first floor, Veris used the same trick again, teleporting them all back to the High Church using spatial magic, landing precisely in his bedroom.
The Pope's bedroom is naturally kept closed year-round; even if it were a complete mess, no one would notice.
Veris felt that he still cared about his image.
The entire attic was tidied up. He stood at the door, carrying a backpack and holding a straw hat in his hand. The sunlight outside was just right, and the light outlined his shadow falling into the attic. Veris pressed the straw hat down on his head.
The shadow moved along with it, and the head transformed into the shape of a person wearing a straw hat.
Without turning his head, Veris closed the door, and a magic circle appeared on the wooden door before disappearing without a trace.
He walked around the attic to the back, where he had bought a horse at the market yesterday and tied it to a small tree behind the attic.
The poet stood beside the sapling, untied the rope, patted the horse's body, and laughed, "Since we haven't been on the road for so long, we should treat ourselves better."
The horse neighed a few times in response, and Veris gripped the reins and mounted. He didn't intend to leave through the main gate of Albion; he could reach the main road by going around the outskirts of the town.
As they approached the main road in front of Albion's gate, Veris dismounted and led his new mount out.
With the recent events over and done, Albion has returned to its former bustling state. Caravans and travelers can be seen everywhere on the main road, along with adventurers heading to the Amberi Mountains in small groups. Veris, wearing a straw hat, goes unnoticed.
Even in autumn, the vegetation in Mercury is still lush and green, with low hills stretching out in all directions, wheat fields and marshes dotting the area around Albion, and a flat road slowly unfolding behind the high slopes.
After passing a few intersections, there were fewer people on the road.
Veris pulled on the reins, quickening his pace and heading towards the main city of Mercury.
At his pace, he would arrive in the capital city of Mercury by the evening of the next day. Veris sat steadily on his horse. Under the sky, several white doves spread their wings, their shadows falling on the road. Veris noticed them and looked up.
The white dove landed, and the poet stretched out his arm, letting the dove perch on it.
Veris frowned slightly, untied the paper roll from the pigeon's leg, and caught four pigeons in one go. He realized that things might be going in the wrong direction.
Could it be that the old duke has plotted a rebellion beforehand?
Or was the Papacy's envoy discovered and intercepted?
He opened the first roll of paper, glanced at the contents, and was initially taken aback. After reading it three times, he was certain that the statement was not a joke.
[Mercury the magician Keith publicly opposes the Church]
Is this person crazy?
Veris found it fascinating. Instead of looking at the next three slips of paper, he activated the magic he had previously imprinted at Keith's mansion. Soon, images from the past three days flooded his mind.
Keith was probably around twenty-seven years old. He had medium-length gray hair that lay flat on his forehead, brown eyes, and a scar on his face, though it wasn't very noticeable and instead added a touch of gloom to his appearance.
Wearing a black hooded robe favored by magicians, he often spent his time in his study, engaging in lively discussions with his magicians or apprentices. The books spread out on his desk were all his handwritten magical theories.
The magicians who were fortunate enough to enter Keith's magic salon all looked at Keith with fanatical admiration.
He was calling out, "Great Lord Keith."
On the walls of the study were many papers covered with dense writing. Keith proudly explained that they were his sharp questions about the theories in the church's magic books. He argued that the magic spells provided by the church were cumbersome and complicated, and were entirely designed to hinder the growth of magicians.
The magicians looked indignant and joined Keith in denouncing the church.
They claimed that the Church was nothing but a poisonous insect colluding with the royal family, and that only the Church's lackeys could obtain magical theory books as correct as the magic created by Keith.
Veris watched this scene with great interest. He noticed some metal badges hanging in Keith's study, with small symbols on them. If he wasn't mistaken, those were symbols of the believers of the gods.
Memories from hundreds of years ago may be somewhat hazy, but the number of believers in the Celestial God on the continent of Icarus back then far exceeded the number of believers in other gods. Many people worshipped the Celestial God Yannis because Yannis would occasionally perform a miracle in front of people.
During the later period of the Seven Great Gods, the Celestial Gods Sect was virtually unrivaled.
"He's almost the only one left of the Seven Great Gods. How can he not strive to grow stronger?" Veris muttered to himself with sarcasm. He stopped looking at the scene in Keith's mansion and instead looked down to examine the remaining three slips of paper.
Keith openly recruited any anti-church magicians and is suspected of imprisoning magicians who opposed him.
The sorcerer from Nottinghill was intercepted and killed two days ago at the gates of Mercury.
[Mercury publicly declared independence yesterday]
Veris: ...
While he was packing his things in the attic, did so many things happen outside?
The sun overhead scorched the earth, and Veris was the only one on the road leading to the capital city of Mercury.
The horse slowed its pace as its master checked the information. Veris looked at the four slips of paper again, hissed, and flicked his hand. The slips of paper scattered in the air and then spontaneously combusted, turning to ashes before hitting the ground.
The poet, wearing a straw hat, gripped the reins. Sensing his master's intention, the horse began to move, its hooves kicking up dust and its shadow flashing across the watery ground.
Veris's straw hat remained firmly on his head, unaffected by the strong wind.
Instead, the strands of hair that were pressed down by the straw hat flew around in the strong wind.
In the shadow cast by the brim of his hat, the young man's pupils, one black and one red, shone with a slightly cold light.
If Keith is related to Yannis, then Arnold, who has already arrived in Mercury City, will surely come into Keith's sight, not to mention that Arnold appears as a future sixth-order mage.
Father Webster and his entourage entered Mercury City with Arnold. Now that Mercury City has declared independence, it is estimated that most of the church's personnel have also been brought under control.
The entire Mercury was under the control of that duke; apart from remote towns like Albion, the other towns were not safe.
Leaving Albion and heading towards Mercury, the journey would pass through three small towns. Veris pulled on the reins, urging his horse to gallop along a narrow road. The tall grass on both sides reached his calves, and his clothes fluttered in the wind.
The lords of the three small towns all had intricate connections with Duke Mercury.
As the sun set, golden light bathed the earth, and Veris arrived at the first small town.
The poet led his horse, his satchel hanging beside it. He looked up at the town gate, above which hung the town's name. He glanced at it only once before continuing on his way.
The guards at the city gate stopped him: "Who are you? Show me your identification."
Veris took out his credentials from his backpack and said with a smile, "I am but a bard, just coming from Amberley."
The guards stood on either side of him, one looking at his credentials and the other at his attire, asking, "You, a bard, can afford a horse?"
“Don’t say that,” Veris said with a smile. “I just wrote a poem for a kind country gentleman, and he gave me a horse and insisted that I spread his story throughout Mercury.”
Although bards are usually poor and destitute, they can become rich overnight or rise to prominence if they seize an opportunity.
They themselves have also created many legendary stories.
The guard didn't give Veris any trouble. His identification was flawless, and with another group of vendors following behind him, they quickly waved him off.
As the setting sun cast its last rays, Veris led his horse into the small town. The streets were somewhat deserted, with only the faint scent of cooking smoke wafting through the air. He took off his straw hat, his handsome face outlined in the dark golden light, the setting sun casting long, slanted shadows of himself and his horse.
The road was flat and wide, with shops crammed on both sides. Although there were few people on the road at the moment, families of vendors could be seen sitting together eating in the shops, all of which proclaimed the bustling atmosphere of the city.
Veris found a hotel and checked into a regular room. After instructing the owner to feed his horse, he followed the waiter to his room.
Dinner was eaten at the hotel.
As night fell, the poet left the inn, turned into the tavern across the street, and asked the owner if he needed a bard to perform.
The owner was quite pleased with this, since the bards in the city had all disappeared for the past few days, perhaps continuing their wanderings elsewhere. In any case, there hadn't been any performances by bards in the tavern for several days, and the number of customers had visibly decreased.
The poet is performing a piece he recently composed in a tavern.
Inside the city lord's mansion, Duke Mercury's second son, who was also the city lord, was drinking and reveling with his men.
The young men below the hall played their flutes in sync with the women's dance steps.
As the woman's dance steps gradually quickened, the young man lowered his eyes, and the syllables he played also became more rapid.
A sharp flute note rang out, and the city lord, who was holding a wine cup high in the hall, suddenly froze.
The others were stunned, not knowing what had happened.
The city lord's body fell straight down, and to the horror of the crowd, his head rolled off, the cut at his neck clean and blood splattering.
A note from the author:
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I'd like to change the update time [let me see], it might be moved to around 1 PM.
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