"After that, he learned his lesson and resolved to seek power to protect himself and the city he lived in from suffering the same fate again. Thanks to the support and help of the city lord, coupled with his own efforts and talent, he quickly stood out in general education and even showed remarkable magical abilities. After several years of advanced studies at the academy, he successfully became a bright future star, and countless people offered him opportunities."
"As a result, his choice was to return to the Sacred Tree Stronghold." I picked up where Yao left off.
The elegantly dressed lady nodded slightly, solemnly reciting the words on the paper, as if one could glimpse a memory hidden in the past through the gaps between the words: "Yes, although this possibility is not surprising, after all, it is his hometown, his choice still made those cities that offered higher prices feel somewhat unbalanced. After several protests were ignored, they fell silent and instead extended olive branches to several other talented rising stars."
"What's even more surprising is that after returning to the Sacred Tree Stronghold, he didn't apply for the position of Intercity Special Mage or Forbidden Zone Patrol Special Mage. Instead, he opened a small woodworking workshop and started tinkering with wood carving on his own. It was only afterward that the city lord's steward noticed and invited him into the city lord's mansion several times. After a long talk, he finally agreed to take on the responsibility of maintaining the security of the World Tree."
That's really strange.
He initially sought power to protect himself and others, but ultimately chose to live a life of mediocrity. Yet, after giving up, he turned around and accepted an invitation to a position that might be more troublesome in comparison. To me, the actions of this old mage named Mor always seemed to reveal a sense of indecisiveness, but from a certain logical point of view, there was nothing too wrong with it.
Perhaps it's my current habit of wanting to find a target that's causing this problem.
I tried to convince myself with this reasoning, to suppress my restless mind, and to listen carefully to the rest of the story.
Yao flipped through two or three more pages of the document in his hand: "As I just said, during his tenure, Mor was diligent and conscientious, and he repeatedly uncovered the evil schemes of others. He was deeply loved by the city lord and the residents of the city, and he was begged to stay even after several requests to resign. Of course, although Mor no longer improved his spell counting, he did study the content related to formations and barriers in order to update the protective system around the World Tree."
"But everything ultimately ended with a list of applications for pure magic stones twelve years ago. I haven't found the exact reason, perhaps because it's not recorded in the books I've found so far, so I can't be sure what exactly happened back then. And six months later, the World Tree suddenly disappeared without a trace."
"You're making it sound like he did something behind the scenes," I laughed.
Yao, expressionless, rearranged the documents, turned them around, and put them back in their original place: "I never said that."
"Without a solid chain of evidence, no amount of speculation can lead to a real result."
“Okay,” I shrugged, “what about the next one?”
"The results of a comparison between the list of mages who registered when entering and leaving the city and the list of mages recorded in the library who recently had activities near the Sacred Tree Fortress."
As she spoke, she took the two-page document from the middle: "As expected, many mages who adhere to ancient mysticism choose to conceal their identity or the upper limit and scope of their abilities. And even among the new generation of mages who are not bound by relevant rules of secrecy, some still choose not to reveal their abilities to the outside world."
"We can't see too many problems from here. Although the movements of the few individuals are rather strange, upon closer inspection, they are nothing more than junior mages under the [Arcane Research Center] playing house in their own name, thinking they are being discreet. There's no need to be wary of them..."
"Are there any traces of mage activity under Mor's name or around him?" I interrupted her, recalling the young man I met at the woodworking workshop who claimed to be an apprentice, and asked directly, "Do you specifically mean someone from the city lord's side?"
Yao silently flipped through the books for a while, then pulled out a few books from the wall of books and quickly searched for them. After a moment, he nodded and replied, "Excluding those who are specifically responsible for guarding the city's security, he is responsible for communicating and cooperating with those registered junior mages, so it is not surprising that there are traces of such activities around him."
"However, there is a record of a mage who comes to see him for a period of time every few months, seemingly to help people purchase wooden crafts or something. Most of the time he comes and goes in a hurry, but this time he seems to stay for a bit longer."
"That sounds strange."
Yao responded to my remarks with a sarcastic remark in a flat tone, and then moved on to the last document.
"This is the relevant information about the chimera you encountered this time."
Upon hearing this, I straightened my posture.
Yao meticulously spread the information out on the wall of books, pointing and saying, "Just as you guessed, Master of the Little Garden, there is indeed a very high probability that the laboratory that creates chimeras is located nearby. But please note that this is only a deduction, not a definitive conclusion."
My judgment is based on this:
"At the outpost near the east gate of the Sacred Tree Fortress, soldiers stationed there have been frequent complaints in recent months about hearing strange and eerie roars, as well as unusually violent tremors and sounds at night. However, after several investigations following these reports, no one was found; at most, they discovered a few mangled monster corpses. Therefore, they ultimately dismissed the matter as a result of mercenaries accidentally encountering monsters at night and engaging in a fierce battle, ignoring any subsequent occurrences of the same thing."
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