novelOld Fox
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866 Old Fox
After he stepped out of the inn, Sharp broke like a bubble and disappeared into the dark night. Not moving his eyes back, Old Green asked coarsely, "Are you going to accept his contract?"
"Whether we accept it or not, the most important issue right now is that this place is no longer safe. We have to transfer immediately." Douglas looked rather solemn.
Fernando was also back to himself. He mumbled, "It's up to those old men whether or not to accept the contract. What we need to do is to get out of here and set up another relay station."
It was obvious that, even if the Union was to accept the mission to assassinate Alfonsol and build up a good relationship with the nobles such as Sharp, they wouldn't want to expose the relay station that was very important for the organization to any strangers. If they wanted to communicate with the nobles, a smaller, one-way channel would be better, say, through Old Green.
Carelessness in such matters would mean the doom of an organization!
Then, fearing that somebody might be eavesdropping, Fernando said to Douglas and Old Green in the telepathic bond, "I'll see you in the underwater relic of Lake Ramrouge."
"Alright, you go first. I have to leave certain marks to warn the sorcerers to come." Old Green looked around at the lobby with obvious regrets.
Fernando mocked, "You should be happy to get rid of this eyesore. What's to be sorry about?"
"As a matter of fact, this is my family business that my great grandfather started, " Old Green said peacefully without the slightest anger, as if he were talking about somebody else.
Fernando was briefly stunned. Looking at his feet and raising his head, he looked at the wine cabinet behind Old Green with his red, vigorous eyes and said, "Maybe this hotel will be preserved. You are a radiant knight, and you are close to many nobles. It may be put into good use, except that not many sorcerers would frequent this place anymore..."
He rambled on without a theme.
"Get lost already, boy! I do not need your sympathy!" Old Green suddenly lashed out and interrupted Fernando.
Fernando blushed and snorted, "I'll sympathize with the black-clawed dogs before I sympathize with a half-dead old man like you!"
He left immediately after that.
Old Green raised his jaw, hinting Douglas to follow him. He then chuckled."Don't the necromancers always say that your life begins when you are dead?"
"What do those smelly, rotten bodies know about life?" Fernando said without looking back.
"Even my hair is older than you, boy. What do you know about life?" Old Green did not give in at all.
Helpless, Douglas watched the two of them fight until Fernando was out of the gate and into the darkness of the night.
...
Under the starlight, the lakes were glimmering peacefully. Since there were many such lakes, they were scattered on the ground like pearls and connected into dreamy necklaces.
"This place deserves to be called 'Land of Thousand Lakes'..." Douglas complimented while he floated above the lake and took a deep breath of the fresh air.
Fernando asked in surprise, "You know 'Land of Thousand Lakes'?"
"Of course, its fame has been brought to Antiffler by the traveling sorcerers, " Douglas replied.
"Is it beautiful at all?" Fernando murmured in a low voice. Then, he said, "This is Lake Ramrouge. Follow me."
Douglas looked at the lake, only to discover that it wasn't huge. One might have thought that it was just a swamp. Could there be any underwater relic in it?
The two of them cast spells and jump into the water, sinking to the bottom of the lake quickly.
Noticing Douglas' surprise, Fernando explained in a telepathic bond, "Some idiotic sorcerer built this. Perhaps he intended to connect all the Land of Thousand Lakes. However, it is thanks to his idiocy that this relic hasn't been discovered. The Church would never imagine that such a small and unresourceful lake has a relic."
A cave was hidden below the cave. It did not seem to be established for human beings but was more like the nest of certain aquatic creatures.
Fernando vaporized his body and crawled in. Douglas followed him without any hesitation.
After passing through a zigzagging "tunnel", Douglas found himself in the middle of a palace that was crowded with sorcerers. They were quite alarmed about the newcomers, but after they saw Fernando's familiar face, they turned around and focused on their own business again.
One of the senior-rank sorcerers performed magic to examine whether or not Fernando was authentic. In that aspect, sorcerers, known as "rats in the gutter", were much more vigilant than the Inquisition, because those who were not vigilant enough were already dead.
"Now, this is more like a place where sorcerers gather..." Douglas said in both relief and comfort.
"Douglas, Fernando, you've come at the perfect moment. The president has learned what happened just now and wants you to meet him." Lauren, who escaped early under Fernando's cover, came to them.
"Is this the headquarters of the Union?" Douglas found it odd. Fernando did not mention it before.
Fernando also found it odd."Is the president here?"
"Yes." Lauren nodded and observed Fernando up and down."It's good that you are fine. Mr. President planned to meet Douglas here and hold a meeting if it weren't for the accident in the Roasted Fish Hotel..."
It seems that they are still wary of me and were reluctant to let me know their headquarters so soon... Douglas thought. However, he was not bothered and simply nodded his head."Lauren, please lead us to Mr. President..."
"It's only because the mission they gave was too dumb..." Following Douglas, Fernando cursed.
After they passed a channel made of stone bricks, they reached a palace that was decorated with weird patterns. An old man whose hair was all white but whose spirits were high strode out and greeted them, "Welcome to the Union of Sorcerers, Douglas. You are a distinguished sorcerer, and your studies on curves and irregular shapes are better than ours. I hope I can learn from you sometime."
Douglas was slightly stunned. Did Arnold, the president of the Union of Sorcerers, also know that he was studying fluxion?
Fluxion was the name that he gave to the mathematical problems he worked on, although he was thinking to change the name at some point.
Douglas was soon back to himself from his surprise. Arnold must have been paying attention to his communication with Fernando. The guy postponed the meeting perhaps to give himself enough time for observation.
As a leader of a fairly-large magic organization, he was certainly not a simple person!
"The research of many great sorcerers in the past inspired me, " Douglas said modestly.
Arnold had a few wrinkles, and his face was still red. He pointed at Douglas and smiled as he said, "Don't be modest. If your research works out, it will be easier to learn and construct all spells! What a bright future it will be! Alright, let's focus on the contract of the Blue Demon first. Right, this is League. You've met before. This is Ramon, this is Veronica. They are both the deputy presidents of the Union."
He introduced the few people who came with him. League had plenty of wrinkles and a hawk nose, Ramon was tall and slender with a long face, and Veronica had green eyes that looked like emeralds. They were all in the classic robes of the Magic Empire.
Douglas greeted them and smiled at a brown-haired young man next to Arnold."Gallos, it's been a long time."
With a playful smile, the young man replied, "I did not expect you to do something like attacking the Inquisition. It's more like Fernando's style."
Gallos was the person who introduced Douglas to the Union of Sorcerers. He was Fernando and Lauren's friend, Arnold's student, and a sixth-circle senior-rank sorcerer.
"Hehe. Do you envy me?" Fernando certainly would not give in.
Gallos chuckled and looked at his feet without continuing the conversation, but President Arnold asked a question, "What's your opinion on the Blue Demon's contract?"
Lauren, who led them here, quietly exited the palace and closed the gate.
League said gloomily, "He's only warning us with the mission. There's no need to take it seriously."
"What if we accomplish it for real? Will he see our value and decide to work with us?" Ramon pulled a long face and objected to League.
"First of all, we need to be capable of accomplishing it!" League and Veronica said at the same time.
The meeting immediately fell silent. Even Fernando did not dare to brag that Alfonsol was not difficult to kill. After all, Kritonia had his eyes on the Union.
Arnold seemed satisfied with the situation. With his smile unchanged, he coughed for a moment and said, "It's not entirely impossible for us to accomplish the mission."
"President, you must be kidding!" League said seriously.
"It's indeed impossible if we count on only our own strength, but what if the other magic organizations cooperate with us? They do not have the attention of the Heart of Time." Arnold smiled; he was in a good temper. Then, before anyone opened their mouth, he went on and said, "I've been busy contacting the other magic associations. As it happens, I've invited many magic organizations to visit Arnold and discuss cooperation. That's why I set the meeting in this place instead of our headquarters, because 'Allyn' is also near Rentato."
He sort of explained why they did not bring Douglas to the headquarters.
"President, are you confident to convince those organizations to cooperate with us?" Veronica brought up the key issue.
Arnold smiled as cunningly as an old fox."If they know that we are working with the Blue Demon, deputy captain of the Sword of Truth's Knights, they will be glad to cooperate with us in the mission. It's not just our strategy to attract the nobles to resist the Church."
"Since when have we been working with the Blue Demon?" Even Ramon was confused.
Arnold chuckled."Since after we accomplish the mission to assassinate Arnold with other groups, when he attaches more importance to our strength."
Fernando's lips twitched. The president was too sleazy!
"Which organizations will come to Allyn?" League thought for a moment and asked cautiously.
Arnold nodded his head."Rest assured. The organizations I've invited are all slightly weaker than us. They are not the legendary associations such as 'Cabin of Palmeira', 'Scythe of Death', or 'Hysterical Dance'. What deserves our attention are 'Red Eye', 'Supreme Soul', 'Shadow Singers', and 'Tower of Destroyers', which have one or two ninth-circle archmages. There are also a dozen common organizations that do not have ninth-circle sorcerers.
"Douglas, Fernando, and I will attend the meeting later."
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