When she woke up again, it was already evening.
Lind's personal maid, who brought her dinner, discovered the unconscious Alice, a sight that greatly frightened the two maids.
One person was shaking Alice to try and bring her back to her senses, while another knelt on the ground beside her, praying frantically.
"Miss Alice, please don't abandon us!"
"Please, please don't let anything happen to you! Holy God... please protect you..."
Perhaps the shaking had worked, for Alice slowly awoke from her unconsciousness. Seeing the scene before her, she rubbed her forehead and said:
"Okay, okay, stop shouting, I'm fine."
"Help me up first."
"That's...that's great! Miss Alice, are you alright?"
The two maids, who were crying their eyes out, were overjoyed to see Alice awake.
They quickly helped Alice to the bed, while another person hurriedly poured her a cup of hot water.
Alice took a sip of water, sat for a while, regained some strength, and realized what she had seen before she fainted.
It was an incredibly huge node in the magic network, and there were signs that it had been used.
"No, I have to go find Linde right away and discuss a plan with him."
She immediately got up, lifted the tent flap, and walked toward Linde's tent.
She thought a lot along the way.
She knew that there was a reason her mother had sent her here, not only because of factional struggles, but also for her own future.
In order to build his own mage tower.
The Mage Tower is a relatively new product developed in the last two years. It is said to be able to stabilize the magic network, amplify the mage's mental power, and increase the mage's advancement speed.
At the academy, everyone enjoys the academy's public resources, because the academy is built on a magic network node, and the magic network resources are very abundant.
Outside of the academy, where magic networks are less abundant, mages would build mage towers for themselves through the help of nobles, provided, of course, that they were willing to pledge allegiance to the local lord.
Such opportunities are rare, because not all places are suitable for building mage towers; in most places, the magic network is not dense enough, so building one would be useless.
Generally speaking, places with magic network nodes are the most suitable places to build mage towers.
However, this time her discovery was not as simple as finding a magic network node.
That magic network node has been used by someone!
This made her a little undecided.
As she pondered this, she arrived at Linde's tent, only to find the tent door open, but Linde was not inside.
She grabbed a soldier on guard and asked:
"Where is the lord? Where did he go?"
The soldier who was being pulled back was taken aback and said:
"It seems to be over in the open area in front of the camp..."
Thanks.
The girl left the spot like the wind, leaving only a gentle breeze behind.
...
Meanwhile, Lind was practicing swordsmanship with Astaire in the open space in front of the camp.
Linde, who had slept until the afternoon, was now full of energy and had nothing better to do than spar with Astaire to warm up.
After all, we're going out to patrol the territory tomorrow, so it's good to warm up beforehand.
Across from him, Astaire, holding his training sword, twirled it and said:
"Today we're practicing thrusting variations."
As Astaire spoke, Lind gripped his brass-plated training wooden sword.
Here it comes, Astaire's signature sword move, which Lind has witnessed in previous battles.
Astaire practiced a sword technique called the Silverlight Sword, which the old count himself selected for him from his family's collection of books.
The old count is indeed a man of great stature; his judgment is truly astute. Astaire is indeed suited to the Silverlight Blade, and he even created several variations of his own moves, making them impossible to defend against.
Today's sudden thrusting maneuver is one of them.
"Don't get distracted."
Astaire raised his sword with both hands, assumed a thrusting stance, and charged straight at Lind.
Linde spotted the direction of Astaire's thrust and aimed it at his own sword-wielding hand, then used his longsword to parry Astaire's attack.
Just as he was about to block, Astaire turned around and used a backhand flick that hit Lind's forearm.
After realizing he had been hit, Lind said:
"Again!"
The two then started fighting again.
Just as the two were having a great time fighting, a girl's urgent voice rang out from the side.
"Lord Astaire, please wait a moment... I have something important to discuss with Lind," Alice said breathlessly as she ran over.
Upon seeing this, the two stopped fighting simultaneously. Linde, recognizing Alice as the newcomer, assumed she must have made some remarkable discovery in the field of magic.
"Linde! Stop practicing, come here!"
"I've made a major discovery!" Alice turned around, grabbed Lind, and dragged him into the military tent.
"Okay, okay, slow down."
What could possibly make you so anxious?
"You'll see soon enough, it's a truly momentous discovery!"
Linde took the handkerchief handed to him by a servant, wiped his face, and said:
"Alright, let's talk inside my tent."
"Aster, you come too."
"yes."
With that, he followed Alice into the military camp's main tent.
Before Linde could even sit down, Alice, who was standing next to him, said impatiently:
“Linde, I’ve discovered something strange through meditation these past two days. It might be related to some secret of this place’s past.”
Linde glanced at Astaire behind him, who immediately understood what Linde meant.
Astaire strode to the tent door and lowered the door.
After Astaire finished his work, Alice continued:
"Do you know what a mage tower is? It's a building that mages use to train and create magical items. I may have found one in my territory."
"What did you say? Why is there a mage tower on my territory?"
Linde was completely baffled; the news was so strange that he began to doubt his own ears.
“I also find it strange. According to the map of mage towers registered in the academy, there shouldn’t be any mage towers built here, but I found a magic source that looks like a mage tower. It’s very strange.”
Upon hearing this, Linde fell into deep thought. His territory was a very underdeveloped area. The viscount before him had only just built a castle, let alone a mage tower that required a lot of money and resources.
Could it be an ancient relic?
Lind only knew about the history of this continent after the founding of the Cree Empire, which was only a few hundred years old. Before that, there were only some myths and legends told by the church.
But those histories are too distant, and the church is vague about them.
Perhaps sensing Lind's confusion, Alice said:
"When I was in the academy, I learned some things about ancient legends, but I didn't know much. I only knew that there were constant wars between various races until a war called the 'War of the Rift' was fought. Only then did the various races reach a delicate balance, each claiming their own territory and recuperating."
"A war to split the land..."
This was the first time Linde had heard of this term; it seemed that the world held many more secrets than he had imagined.
"So, you think this mage tower, which has never been recorded in any records, is an ancient creation?"
"It's just a possibility; we can't rule out that it could be something else entirely. All we can be sure of is that this thing is from a very early era."
Alice added, "From my senses, this thing is in the north of the territory, quite far away."
Linde pondered this. The territory had only just begun, and he hadn't even figured out what was around him yet, and so many things had suddenly appeared.
First there were the barbarians whose whereabouts were unknown, then a special group of magical beasts, and now a mage tower of unknown origin has appeared.
Linde was having a headache. The lack of manpower was one thing, but the key issue was that these things were all a bit troublesome for him.
Let's do it one at a time.
Linde said to the two of them:
"Don't spread this around yet, Alice. You'll come with us tomorrow to see if we can pinpoint the approximate location of the mage tower. We'll search the entire territory first before discussing how to deal with this relic."
"yes."
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