In the Shadow Realm, where black and white intertwined, Gwen, Amber, Betty, and a nameless rogue mage sat in a simple wooden hut. In front of them was the lunch that Betty had just made — simple slices of bread, fried sausages, and some vegetable soup.
Everything was colorless, like an old black-and-white photo.
Gwen had no intention of touching the food in front of him. Although it was indeed possible to cook in the Shadow Realm, he was not sure what would happen to a living human like him if he ate the food in the Shadow Realm.
Amber and Betty did not touch their cutlery either.
The rogue mage across the table did not urge them. He just ate the food in front of him quietly.
A strange tacit understanding lingered in the wooden hut.
Gwen was the first to break the silence. "How long have you been here?"
"A long time." The rogue mage put down his cutlery, appearing very polite. "I've been here since the second year after I left the Secret Spell Assembly."
"You used to be a member of the Secret Spell Assembly?" Gwen asked in surprise. "I thought you were a rogue mage."
"I was a second-level member of the Secret Spell Assembly," the rogue mage said quietly. "According to the standards of the Secret Spell Assembly, I'm a lousy spellcaster. I'm good at calculation and reasoning, but I lack the ability to transform them into spell models. In other words, my spellcasting level is always at the beginner level. Such a mage is not welcome in the Secret Spell Assembly."
"So they drove you away?" Amber found it hard to believe. She knew that a true mage was very precious, even if his spellcasting level was lousy. Lousy was only in the eyes of the masters of the Secret Spell Assembly. In the eyes of ordinary people, even a mage who could only cast a small fireball was a very important person. Even if these low-level spellcasters were not valued in the Secret Spell Assembly, they would not be driven away.
"I left on my own accord." The rogue mage shook his head and turned to Betty. "For my daughter, to cure her, I had to leave."
Betty looked at the wild sorcerer in a daze and then nodded her head in confusion.
Gawain did not dwell on the topic. Instead, he stared into the mage's eyes, his right hand resting on the hilt of his sword as he slowly said, "You should know what we're here for. We don't have much time to waste."
The wild sorcerer's stiff expression finally changed slightly. His body trembled slightly, and then he lowered his head. "… Customer, I don't really understand what you mean."
Betty looked at Gwen nervously. "Master?"
Gwen frowned. After a while, he moved his hand away from the hilt of the Pathfinder's Sword and said slowly, "Then let's wait for a while."
The wild sorcerer lowered his head and continued to eat his meal in silence. During the meal, the only extra movement he made was to raise his head from time to time and look at Betty.
The food had to be finished eventually, and Gwen couldn't wait forever.
The wild sorcerer ate the last bite of the sausage and then carefully wiped the soup on the soup plate with a piece of bread. After finishing his meal, he raised his head and looked in the direction of Betty. However, his eyes were not focused on Betty at all. Instead, they were focused on a distant place. His body swayed as if he wanted to stand up, but he failed several times.
In the end, it was Betty who helped him up.
"Dad, I have to go." The little girl held the wild sorcerer's arm and made sure that he could stand properly before letting go. She walked to Gwen in small steps. "Miss Rebecca and Mrs. Heti are still waiting for me. Master is here too."
The wild sorcerer's lips quivered and finally nodded gently. His expression had calmed down, and he carefully instructed, "Don't eat the food given by strangers." "Go to bed on time." "Remember to listen to your teacher." "Don't fight with other children."
The light of reason was gradually fading from the poor man's eyes. Gwen knew that what he was saying now was all nonsense.
Although he was barely awake during the whole process.
The wild sorcerer's figure gradually faded, but suddenly, a flame-like thing started to burn in the dimming shadow. Gwen had been waiting for this moment. He quickly drew out the Pathfinder's Sword, and a layer of faint light surged on the blade.
Amber quickly pulled Betty into her arms and covered the little girl's eyes in time.
Gwen stabbed the sword into the flame on the wild sorcerer's chest. The flame shook violently, and the sorcerer, who had been transforming into an evil spirit, suddenly stopped transforming. The illusory figure quickly solidified into a solid body, and then the raging flame engulfed him and burned him into a hideous charred corpse.
After burning for half a minute, the corpse was completely reduced to ashes.
Kacha kacha sounds came from all directions. After losing its owner, the wooden hut quickly disintegrated. Dense cracks covered the walls and the roof in the blink of an eye. The pale light of the outside world shone into the hut through the cracks in the wooden hut.
Gwen pulled Amber and Betty out of the cabin. The moment they ran out, the cabin completely collapsed.
The collapsed cabin burned in front of them. The fire lasted for a short time, as if it was not a cabin that was burned, but a paper house.
As the wooden hut gradually turned into ashes and drifted away with the wind, Amber suddenly tugged at Gawain's arm and pointed at the wooden hut's foundation and exclaimed, "Hey, hey! Look at that! "
Gawain focused his gaze and saw that under the ashes of the wooden hut, a flickering line was shining brightly. The light penetrated the drifting ashes and gradually formed a complex and massive structure — it was the appearance of a large-scale magic array.
"This is probably the highest achievement of the wild sorcerer in his life." Gwen nodded slightly. "It's probably because of this magic circle that he fell into this situation."
While talking, Betty's figure began to gradually turn into floating light spots. These light spots flew twice in the same place, and then quickly flew in the direction where Gwen and Amber came from.
Amber lowered her head to look at her hands. Her hands, which had turned ashen, were now glowing with the color of blood. As the color returned to her and Gawain, the Shadow World's rejection of them became even more obvious.
Some shadowy things condensed from the thin fog around them. They were completely formless, but obviously, they were up to no good. The natives of the Umbra Realm finally smelled the scent of outsiders. Some of the things in the shallowest layer emerged and gradually gathered like hyenas that smelled blood.
"We have to leave!" Amber said to Gwen. "This place doesn't welcome us anymore!"
Gwen took a last deep look at the ruins of the cabin, trying to remember the glowing lines and symbols in his mind. He then pulled Amber's arm and said, "Let's go!"
After a brief moment of dizziness, the real world once again appeared before his eyes.
The mist of vengeful spirits had dissipated, and the jungle had returned to its original state. The exhausted Rebecca and Heti were leaning against a tree, supporting each other. Byron and Knight were using their swords to support their bodies. The two surviving soldiers had already collapsed to the ground.
Betty was in the best condition of all of them. She was standing beside Rebecca in a daze, holding a frying pan, as if the dazed expression had been fixed on her face.
When Heidi saw Gawain, she immediately propped herself up and said, "Ancestor, I'm so glad you're safe!"
Then she saw Amber behind Gwen. Her expression suddenly changed. "So this rogue didn't run away?"
"Hey! What do you mean by differential treatment! " Hu Po immediately jumped up like a cat whose tail had been stepped on. "Your family's Old Ancestor and I went to the Shadow Realm just now and narrowly escaped death to save you all, okay?! You big-breasted, brainless old woman … "
Heti never thought that the rogue lady would dare to curse at her. Her expression immediately turned ugly. "Shut up! That's rude! Do you know what it means to offend a noble like this … "
Gwen quickly interjected to smooth things over. "Don't quarrel, Amber didn't lie. We did solve the crisis together. Of course, she was wrong to call you big-breasted …"
The scene was quiet for a moment. Rebecca raised her hand cautiously. "Ancestor, Amber only said one word of praise, and you rejected it …"
Heidi had a look of despair on her face.
Gwen was speechless.
Fortunately, Heti was also a person who understood the big picture. She didn't dwell on these small issues for too long. After Gwen explained what had happened, all the misunderstandings disappeared.
And what Gwen and Amber saw and heard in the Shadow Realm surprised everyone. Even Byron and Knight, who knew nothing about magic, couldn't help but listen for a long time.
After all, this was an experience that ordinary people couldn't imagine.
"You can enter the Shadow Realm?" Heti's first concern was Amber's special ability. She looked at Amber suspiciously several times, as if to find the answer from the half-elf lady's face. "Only a few high-level shadow mages or the 'Chosen One' of the Shadow Gods have this ability. How did you do it?"
Amber turned her face away. "I'm the Chosen One of the Night Goddess, okay?"
Heti stared at her. "Don't be ridiculous. How can a Chosen One be slapped to the ground by Byron with an ordinary steel sword?"
"Forget it, don't ask." In the end, Gwen stopped Heti from getting to the bottom of it. "I've promised her not to pursue this. When she wants to talk about it, she will."
The ancestor was the most important. Since Gwen said so, Heti could only choose to give up.
"Bury the dead first." The fog dissipated and warmth returned to everyone. Seeing that everyone had recovered a little, Gwen got up and went to the soldier who died because his soul was shattered. "He also fought bravely. He should be buried like a warrior."
The two surviving soldiers looked at Gwen with some surprise.
Gwen was a little puzzled. "What? Did I say something wrong?"
"He is a descendant of a serf." Knight Byron walked over from the side. "It was the Lord Viscount who issued a decree that a child of a serf like him had the opportunity to enter the territory's army and redeem himself by serving in the army. However, he has only served for half a year, so he is still a serf. With such status, he cannot be buried as a soldier."
Gwen frowned and looked at Rebecca. "Is that so?"
Rebecca immediately became nervous as if she had done something wrong. "I'm … I'm sorry! But I think the serf system is really … not very reasonable, so they can redeem themselves by serving. I know it's against the rules, but … "
Gwen's eyebrows slightly relaxed. "No, I don't blame you."
Then he bent down, fumbled for a coin from his pocket, and stuffed the coin into the dead soldier's chest pocket, next to his heart.
The coin was placed by Charles the First when Gwen Cecil was buried 700 years ago.
Amber knew what the coin was the moment she saw it. She covered her eyes. "Oh my god … at least half of the manor …"
But Gawain did not notice it at all. He just did everything according to the rules in his memory. He then clapped his hands and stood up. "Now, someone has redeemed the debt of his soul. Bury him."
Byron was a little hesitant. "But the rules …"
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