PS: Due to some well-known reasons, I can't post a chapter or book review these days. I'll be back in a few days. Please forgive me.
PS2: Happy 70th Birthday to Mother Motherland! 70th Birthday! Thumbs up for the motherland! I'm also the flag bearer of the Five-Starred Red Flag!
At the end of the Winter Veil, Laing and Suria worked together to do a few things.
The first thing was that Laing officially accepted Sylvia as his third female minister. This was facilitated by Suria, and the Duchess even held a small party to buy a wedding dress for Sylvia. Sylvia's father, Vincent, was invited to the party and went through the whole process. In this way, Sylvia received a protected identity and official status as a female minister.
The day after the party, Sylvia, who never rested, was forced to ask Suria for a few days off to rest before she could walk again.
The second thing was that the third Turkey Banquet was held in the Duke's castle. This time, Emilia and Veronica were absent. The Lady of the Lake gave a speech at the Turkey Banquet, emphasizing that in about nine months, Laing would be enthroned in Colona. Faced with new opportunities and challenges, everyone must seize the opportunity of the new era and achieve a "soft landing" in Laing's backyard. They must not allow anyone to sneak into their group, nor allow Laing to have any opportunities to go out. They must be strictly controlled, both physically and mentally.
This proposal was unanimously approved at the meeting.
The third thing was that after a discussion between Aurora and Teresa, they finally agreed to Laing's proposal to establish a new intelligence department. Laing named it "MI7" and set up branches in Bordero, Carcassonne, Musillon, Colona, Lyonasser, Winford, and Nur. Aurora would send some of her own witches to infiltrate these cities and conduct intelligence work.
After dealing with the three matters, Leon set off for Veronica's Dawn Sorcerer Tower. He wanted to see how Veronica was doing.
At this time, the Dawn Sorcerer Tower was already a little crowded. Obviously, Laing's territory's affluence and the degree of comfort far exceeded the harsh environment of Sky Vault Fortress. When building the Dawn Sorcerer Tower, Veronica had invested all her capital. Whether it was the living environment or the working environment, it was first-class. Therefore, many witch-apprentices tried to find ways to study under Veronica.
Laing's appearance caused the witch-apprentices to scream. A group of little lolis wearing fiery red robes and small leather boots, revealing their tender little faces that were red from the cold, surrounded Laing. It seemed that because of Veronica's absence, these witch-apprentices were especially bold. They squeezed into a group and competed to introduce themselves. They wanted to tell Laing their names, and they even secretly gave him a small piece of paper with their dorm room number. Laing could only shout and signal for everyone to move aside. He then found Veronica's direct apprentice, who was now an official Light Witch, Catherine.
"Catherine, where is Veronica?" Laing asked directly.
"Teacher is in seclusion on the top floor, trying to break through to the Holy Realm." When Catherine first came to Brittany, she was still a blond beauty who was often shy. Now, she was a mature official witch. Laing could even vaguely see the déjà vu he felt when he first met Veronica. "Can you bring me up?"
"… Please come with me." Catherine hesitated for a moment, but nodded in agreement. She turned around and motioned for Laing to follow her upstairs.
Laing did not say anything else. He followed closely behind Catherine. After entering the Dawn Sorcerer Tower, there were still groups of witch-apprentices following behind Laing. They pointed and looked at Laing with adoration and infatuation. That kind of gaze was like looking at a plate of delicious food or some kind of treasure, which made Laing feel uneasy.
If a wizard wanted to succeed, the most important thing was resources, and there were generally only two sources of resources.
The first was provided by a mentor. For example, although Veronica was poor before, she was valued by Chancellor Margarita and was allowed to borrow books from her private library. Therefore, at least her knowledge and spell storage was not a problem.
The second was provided by nobles. For example, Laing provided enough money and a lot of manpower and material resources for Veronica. He also personally invited Tegris to teach Veronica, and bought elven magic books from the Horus Tower in the Kingdom of Safray at a high price.
Having resources might not be enough to raise a Sanctuary Witch, but without resources, it was impossible to raise a Sanctuary Witch.
Since the mentor was successful in this way, the apprentices naturally wanted to follow their mentor's path. Unfortunately, there was only one Laing. When Laing himself followed Catherine to the sixth floor, the apprentices had to stop there. The seventh and eighth floors were Veronica's private areas, and the staircase from the sixth to the seventh floor was sealed with an iron door. Seeing this, Catherine said to Laing, "Duke, please wait here for a moment. I'll go get the key."
"I have the key." Laing took out a large magic key from his pocket.
Catherine was shocked when she saw this. She pursed her lips. Laing had the key, which made her a little shocked. Laing directly used the key to open the door. Catherine had no choice but to follow Laing upstairs. "Sir Laing, please don't be in such a hurry. My mentor is trying to break through to the Sanctuary. It's not suitable for you to go in at this time."
"Then when should I come in? Why didn't you tell me earlier?" Laing frowned slightly. He felt a little strange from Catherine's behavior.
"In about 20 minutes, the energy tide will pass, and you can go up and see how my mentor is doing." Catherine whispered, "Duke, please wait in my mentor's office for a moment. I'll go prepare."
"Okay." Laing didn't know much about magic. He also didn't know how a wizard broke through to the Sanctuary. A few days ago, when Teresa was talking about her situation, she mentioned that a sorcerer had to condense and strengthen their bloodline and then purify it. Now, Teresa was worried about not finding a way to condense her bloodline.
When Catherine went out, Laing carefully looked around the interior of Veronica's office.
There was a huge cherry wood desk full of documents and some exquisite props. There was a fountain pen imported from the High Elves. Unlike ordinary quills, this pen could produce ink for a long time. Many nobles of the Empire were proud to own it. There was nothing on the desk. Although Catherine was cleaning carefully, Veronica hadn't used the desk for a long time.
There were a lot of books on magic on the bookshelf. Laing took a look and found that the books Veronica read the most were Hessian's Light, written by the first Empire's Chief Wizard Volan, Tegris' Analysis of the Origin of Magic, and the golden book Origin of Chaos, written by the Lord of Men himself. Other than that, Akasha's Fire and Self-Cultivation of the White-Robed Wizard were books that Veronica liked to read. There were a lot of sticky notes in the books.
Other than that, Veronica also had a library that belonged solely to her. If the books were taken out of the library, they would definitely be fought over by wizards. In this world, printing was a technology that could be corrupted. If the books were not under the protection of the church or wizards, they would be corrupted by Tzeentch. Therefore, the production of magic books could only be done in the wizard workshop or the church. It also required a powerful wizard to personally write the books. Mass production of magic books was a very troublesome matter, and most wizards could only borrow them to read.
"Well, she still likes this kind of high-quality leather sofa and bearskin carpet." Laing took a closer look at the office, which was about 40 square meters in size. There were three bronze shelves on top of the high-quality bearskin carpet, and at the top of each shelf was a transparent glass ball placed on a crisscrossed gold base. The glass ball contained Veronica's magic power.
"This is a telescope. Apparently, Veronica ordered a new set." Leon bent down and examined Veronica's magical tool, "I remember that this is a communication tool used by the Garlan Witches. It is said that you can contact Skydome Castle directly from here. Let me see how this thing works."
Laing reached out his hand and held the transparent glass ball. He wanted to use the telescope, but he obviously did not know how to operate it. The magic tool also recognized that Laing was not its master. It angrily resisted Laing's operation, and used the sound of burning surface and metal friction to prevent Laing from using it.
The machine spirit was not happy.
"Okay, I won't touch you. I won't touch you." Laing had no choice but to withdraw his hand. The telescope seemed to know that Laing and its master had a close relationship. After Laing withdrew his hand, it calmed down.
"Then what's in this?" Laing opened another cabinet.
Inside was a cabinet full of high-heeled shoes and high-heeled boots of various colors. Almost all of them were at least five centimeters tall. It was a dazzling collection. Laing smiled and shook his head. "It's the same. She especially likes to wear high-heeled shoes like this. Besides me, she also thinks that it helps her to build her confidence and show her beauty."
In the corner of the office was a large husky doll. Laing walked over and picked up the furry husky doll made of real wolf skin. "Oh, it's my first gift. She still keeps it well. When I brought her back to Ortney Castle for the first time to celebrate the Winter Veil, we sat in front of the fireplace and ate the apple pie my mother made. When she saw this doll, she insisted that I give it to her."
"Your Grace?" Catherine's voice came from outside the door. Laing put down the doll, but when he saw the witch's outfit, Laing could feel the veins on his forehead throbbing.
In less than ten minutes, Catherine had taken off her original fiery red robe. She had also changed her witch dress into a red plaid pleated skirt that reached 20 centimeters above her knees. She matched it with thick black stockings and brown leather boots. She also wore a white blouse with a red bow tie. Catherine, who was already an official witch, could not help but look at him expectantly. "That, Your Grace, the teacher might not be able to get it done so quickly. Would you like to... take a rest in the office first?"
"…" Laing squinted his eyes. If Veronica found out about this, she would not even know how she died.
"Um … Your Grace?" Catherine saw Laing staring at her and could not help but feel happy. She tried to sound him out. "If you don't have any objections, I can sit with you for a while …"
"No, no need. Just tell me the specific method and time." Laing waved his hand. "Go about your business."
"… Yes." Catherine could not help but feel disappointed. She slowly explained the matter to Laing and then stepped back. Seeing that Laing did not say anything to keep her, she had no choice but to close the door and leave.
Laing sighed. He knew how popular he was, but he was very satisfied with the current situation.
Catherine told Laing how to go upstairs and how to open Veronica's room. Laing immediately went upstairs. The eighth floor of the wizard tower was Veronica's private magic workshop and the place where she practiced magic.
Now, the heavy metal door made of dwarven anti-magic runes was firmly shut. According to Catherine, after Veronica went into seclusion, the door could not be opened from the outside. It could only be opened from the inside.
Obviously, Veronica's plan was not to give up until she broke through to the holy realm.
Laing checked the door. There were no traces of damage. Due to the dwarven anti-magic runes, he could not sense how Veronica's magic was now. Was she close to success or was there a possibility of failure? Laing could not feel anything. Thinking that Veronica was inside, Laing could not help but feel anxious.
What happened? She had been in seclusion for almost a year, and there was no news at all.
After thinking for a while, Laing decided to reach out and gently knock on the door. "Veronica? Dear? "
"Dear? I'm here to see you. "Laing gently knocked on the door again.
There was no response from the room.
"Damn it, what the hell is going on?" Laing wanted to reach out and knock hard on the door, but he was afraid that he would interrupt Veronica while she was concentrating. The man paced back and forth in front of the door. An indescribable sense of irritation and powerlessness rose in Laing's heart. He looked at the tightly shut door and stomped his feet, feeling that the whole thing was strange.
After waiting for more than half an hour, Laing finally could not help but move his eyes to a position on the anti-magic rune door. There was a small window in this position. Catherine gave Laing the key. Only in the most urgent situation, Veronica allowed Catherine to open this small window.
Laing held the key and hesitated for a few minutes. In the end, he decided to use the key to open the small window. "Veronica?"
Looking into the room through the small window, it was like a purgatory of fire and light. Hundreds of magical energies were flying around in a disorderly manner, bouncing off the walls and bouncing around. The overly bright light and the scorching heat forced Leon to shrink back as soon as he got close. The champion of the Chosen of God, the Lady of the Lake, took a few seconds to adapt to the heat and light. He then looked into the room again.
Veronica's figure was faintly discernible in the flames and light.
"Veronica? Can you hear me? " Laing shouted into the room again, but Veronica seemed to be immersed in the path of arcane magic. She did not respond at all. Her eyes were closed as if she was meditating.
Laing shouted a few more times, but there was still no response. The Duke was a little disappointed. It seemed that he had returned empty-handed this time.
But just as Laing was about to reach out to close the small window and turn around to leave, something strange happened!
A hurricane-like airflow burst out from the small window, and the anti-magic rune door opened in an instant. The shockwave of the explosion blew Leon, who was caught off guard, into the wall of the Magus Tower. As if it had gone mad, it flew everywhere with the wind, devouring everything in its path. The entire environment outside the room was scorched black!
* Boom! * Laing's body smashed into the wall like a cannonball. He then fell to the ground. The burning pain and the dislocation of his internal organs made him cry out in pain. Fortunately, his body was amazing. After taking a deep breath, Laing immediately stood up and pulled out Nemesis. "Veronica! It's me! What's going on?! "
"Lai … En?" Veronica's exhausted voice came from the ruins of the training room. "Is it you … outside?"
"Yes, it's me!" Laing heard Veronica's voice and immediately put away Nemesis. He carefully approached the room that was emitting black smoke. "I'm here, dear. What's wrong?"
"I'm … lost …. I almost … couldn't come back." Veronica looked extremely weak. She lay on the ground, her hair was messy, and her clothes were torn and burnt. "It's the evil god, Tzeentch's Weave of Fate. It's disrupted my senses. My soul has been trapped in the void for months."
"Damn it! I knew it! "Laing quickly ran over and hugged Veronica." Damn that Tzeentch! I'll make him pay! "
"I did it, Laing. At the most critical moment, I heard … I heard your voice. I heard you calling my name." Veronica leaned on Ryan's body weakly. "I felt it. It was an array of light spots of order. I knew it was you. You're here. I found the direction to leave."
"I did it, Laing. I've become a saint!"
You've already exceeded your reading limit for today. If you want to read more, please log in.
Login
Select text and click 'Report' to let us know about any bad translation.
