Chapter 295: Old Affairs

“So… even Little Algae was planted by Lady Yura?”

Little Algae seemed to hear Saul calling for it. It slowly poked its head out from behind Saul’s neck, looked left and right, and, upon realizing Saul was simply standing there in a daze, floated around to face him and stuck out its tongue with a “plurrrr” sound.

Saul swiftly raised his hand and pinched Little Algae’s upper and lower jaw together, accurately making it bite down on its own tongue. He watched its black tongue twitching violently before letting go with a light chuckle.

Little Algae’s grotesque face was forcibly interrupted and even turned into a toy by Saul. Furious, it shrank back down. But before retreating fully, it made sure to put some distance between them and stuck out its tongue at Saul again.

While playing around with Little Algae, An explained to Saul: “the Soul-Devouring Mire was, in essence, an earth-elemental demonic creature. Calling it “planted” might not be entirely accurate, but it was indeed part of Lady Yura’s “dowry” when she came.”

Agu, the former librarian, came out to confirm this.

[Agu: That’s right, Master. Not long after Lady Yura arrived at the Wizard Tower, she opened up an underground lab and began cultivating many demonic creatures. But most of them failed to thrive. After Lady Yura’s death, the underground lab was abandoned as well.]

An, unwilling to be outdone, flipped to another page in Agu’s book.

[An: Master, I was still a living apprentice at the time. I happened to live through the dark days following Lady Yura’s death. That day, the Tower Master flew into an enormous rage… hiss…]

Saul could tell that An still felt fear when recalling that time.

[An: Many people died that day. Some were wizards from the Kema Duchy, others were wizard apprentices… We had never seen the Tower Master so enraged. Not until evening did we hear whispers that someone had seen the Tower Master carrying Lady Yura out of the underground lab.]

[An: But Lady Yura’s head was already gone. What he was holding was only a headless corpse. After that day, the underground lab was abandoned.]

Saul rubbed his chin and suddenly said, “Little Algae had been staying in that lab all along, and even after it was abandoned, it didn’t leave. Do you think it might know how Lady Yura died?”

The topic had shifted from whether Lady Yura had deliberately set Saul up to the cause of her death.

But it wasn’t off-topic.

If he could figure out how Lady Yura died, maybe he could understand what she wanted now.

And maybe even figure out—what Gorsa wanted.

Saul knew the last bit of his “History Watcher” ability wouldn’t last many more days.

He had originally planned to use that last bit on the diary. Then he considered using it on the close companion, Little Algae.

Now, suspecting that Little Algae might know the cause of Yura’s death, Saul made up his mind—after dealing with Black Castle, he would observe Little Algae’s past!

In any case, using that bit of “History Watcher” on the diary again probably wouldn’t reveal much.

Saul had already given up on a third observation of the diary’s history.

Still, aside from observing Little Algae’s past, there was another way to uncover the reason behind tonight’s ambush.

“Tonight we’ve already welcomed the first guest and caught the second guest—then I wonder, will there be a third?”

Dragging the corpse of the Land Drifters’ assailant, Saul stepped down into the underground wine cellar, then entered the tunnel leading toward the Devil Vine’s root system.

[We meet again, Lord Saul.]

The moment the Devil Vine sensed Saul’s presence, it quickly sent a greeting.

At the same time, thick black tendrils, each as wide as a thigh, sprouted from the damp, muddy ground. They swayed gently, as if greeting Saul.

“Devil Vine, how many years have you been under Black Castle?”

[I don’t have a clear sense of time.]

“Then do you know how Black Castle communicates with the Wizard Tower?”

[I’m sorry, I don’t know.]

Saul wasn’t exactly disappointed. He tossed the attacker’s corpse to the ground and leaned casually against the wall.

In his mind, he commanded, “Diary, bring out that attacker’s black page.”

The diary unfurled within his spiritual form and flipped to the fifth black page.

“What’s your name?”

[My name is Cadis. I’m a Third Rank wizard apprentice of the Land Drifters. Where… is this place? Strange, I don’t remember how I got here.]

“Your purpose in coming here.” Saul had no intention of keeping Cadis.

Maintaining these soul fragments required Saul to expend mental energy.

If he didn’t question them, the fragments could linger longer. But what would be the point of keeping a fragment that held no valuable information?

Besides, Cadis’s role overlapped with Herman’s. But Herman, now promoted to frigate captain, held far more value and knew much more.

[I was following orders from my mentor, sent to mark someone named Saul, a prospective Third Rank apprentice. But I guess I failed. How am I supposed to explain this to my mentor?]

“Prospective… Third Rank apprentice?” Saul flexed his wrist. “Not many people know that. Lady Yura is one, and Grand Duke Kira probably figured it out. Some of the Third Rank apprentices from the Kema Duchy might’ve noticed too.”

After all, unlike Second Rank apprentices, Third Ranks not only had locators, but could perfectly integrate them with their soul forms.

Their soul stability was leagues beyond that of regular Second Ranks.

After some thought, Saul continued, “Do you know why your mentor wanted to mark Saul?”

[My mentor said I didn’t need to know.]

“So you really were just a pawn. Didn’t even know the goal of the mission. Then how were you supposed to mark him?”

[Just let the seed of the Soul Devouring Flower come into contact with his soul form. That would do it.]

“And after the mark was planted, did your mentor give you any further instructions?”

[If the task succeeded, I was to leave a mark at the entrance of the Black Castle Forest. Then, someone else would naturally come to take over the mark. But… I definitely planted the mark—why did it fail? Could it be that the seed’s energy ran out?]

So there was a third person?

But the diary hadn’t issued any warning this time.

Saul quickly figured it out.

To lure out the third person, the mark needed to succeed. But with the diary around, that mark couldn’t stick. Which meant the mark would always fail, and the third person would never show up.

Still, since Saul was able to extract the full story from Cadis, the absence of the third person wouldn’t lead to anything disastrous.

With that thought, Saul finally felt more at ease.

He hadn’t yet cataloged or experimented with the diary’s new alert system, so he wasn’t sure what kind of negative consequences would trigger it.

It might be something with a longer time delay, like eventual death. But even “longer” likely just meant a few hours instead of a few minutes.

Based on the diary’s previous behavior, Saul estimated that danger had only shifted from “within minutes” to “within hours.”

“If someone does take over the mark, what might they do?” Saul suppressed his urge to begin experiments and continued the interrogation.

[…I don’t know. This was my first time handling a Soul Devouring Flower seed. Before this, I was just a bottom-tier Third Rank apprentice. My mentor only recently promoted me.]

Saul rubbed his temples.

“This Cadis really doesn’t know anything, huh? What did his mentor ‘promote’ him to? A disposable pawn?”

(End of Chapter)

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