Free Web NovelChapter 37: Chapter 37: The Return Journey
"So you just agreed to take all of them?"
As Lavinia left town with the townsfolk, who were dressed as construction workers and laden with their belongings, she was utterly dumbfounded by their number.
"This is almost fifty or sixty people! Can your place really hold this many?"
If this were his past life, Ron would have scoffed at Lavinia’s doubts, but this wasn’t his past life. ’Truth be told, he wasn’t confident either.’
Fortunately, the young farmer seemed to have a lot of pull and influence among the group.
"You don’t need to worry, miss," Andre—the young farmer—said, giving Lavinia a friendly smile. "We’d be suffering no matter where we go. At least in Delusional Land, we won’t be short on food and water."
"We might even be able to build a new village."
"It doesn’t matter to me. Just listen to the leader’s instructions." Lavinia glanced at Ron. Seeing no reaction from him, she decided not to press the issue.
"But let’s be clear, I’m not asking for special privileges: my Alchemy materials and equipment must be stored properly. No matter how many empty rooms you have when we get there, I need at least two—you can’t sleep in a workshop."
"I-I can share a room with Lavinia," Buni quickly offered. She had just returned to town with Lavinia, but in contrast to the alchemist, she had pitifully little luggage.
A bag with a change of clothes and a statue of Taimola that was about half her height. That was all.
"Lady Luck doesn’t insist on a sacred space, so you just need to clear a small spot for me to place a shrine. That will be enough."
These were minor issues, and Ron agreed to them all. Having these two join would be a significant improvement for both daily life and future explorations. Compared to that, a few special accommodations were nothing.
"By the way, Lavinia, I have a few things I need to ask your expert opinion on. We can talk about them on the way."
...
"An amethyst slate. Where did you get this?" Lavinia asked on the road, repeatedly examining the slate in Ron’s hands (it was awkward for her to hold it herself).
"From a tomb. The sarcophagus seemed to have the crest of the Elven Hailan Empire."
"Just as I thought," Lavinia grew serious. "Did that Half-Elf Maiden ever tell you that during its final death throes, the Hailan Empire forged a number of powerful Magic Items? This amethyst slate is one of them."
"How would I know?" Aive pouted. "I wasn’t even born then. Everything I know about the empire are stories my mom told me. She was a longbowman in the Rebel Army."
"That’s not surprising, then. This information is highly classified. I only heard about it from one of my elders—he served as a field Sorcerer in the army back then and heard some colleagues mention it."
"According to the story, the Hailan Empire forged a total of seven extremely rare, even legendary, Magic Items. Each one was incredibly powerful, but for some unknown reason, they weren’t used in the final battle. It was as if they vanished into thin air. Some people speculated this might have been a Mirror Flower Water Moon rumor from the very beginning."
"But this slate..."
"Is it one of the seven items?" Ron asked.
"No, this is supposedly the lock that seals those Magic Items. See these seven grooves? If you can find the corresponding keys and place them inside, you can obtain the respective items. But..."
"It definitely won’t be that simple. Still, since this slate is real, the items probably aren’t just baseless rumors—some of them have to be real, right?"
Victoria, who was walking alongside them, watched the slate thoughtfully. "But if those things were really so miraculous, why didn’t the Hailan Empire ever use them in the end? And why was their lock used as a burial object for a member of the royal family?"
"Besides, if it was really their ultimate trump card for a last-ditch battle, why add a lock to it? That just seems unnecessarily complicated."
Victoria’s questions were logical and reasonable. Logically, the activation method for such a trump card shouldn’t be so convoluted.
Ron remembered a classic film he’d seen in his past life. In it, if the empire’s prime minister wanted to launch nuclear weapons, he just had to press a button and then confirm a password with the other side.
Conventional weapons were even less hassle. Those cowboys from the West, in their pursuit of a quick draw, might even risk a misfire by forgoing a holster.
The Hailan Empire’s methods were truly baffling.
"Well, this certainly makes things convenient for their old guard," Lavinia said with a pout. "Otherwise, all these things should have been destroyed by the Alliance Army back then, and Ming Datiss wouldn’t have to go to such great lengths." fɾēewebnσveℓ.com
But that surely wasn’t the "short-lived" empire’s original intention. ’Who plots a comeback when they could rule forever?!’
"You’ll probably only find answers to that if you keep following Ming Datiss," Lavinia said, averting her gaze. "I’m not good at fighting, so I can’t go with you. But if you find any of these relics, you can bring them back for me to look at. I might be able to offer you some clues."
"Anything else?"
"There’s this," Ron said, taking out the scroll he’d looted from the Dwarf. "Could you please take a look at this for me? Can you read Dwarvish?"
"Spider Walking Magic," Lavinia answered concisely. "After using it, you can move up, down, or sideways on vertical surfaces, and even move upside down on ceilings without using your hands."
"That’s it?" Ron asked, his eyes filled with anticipation.
"You don’t actually think I can decipher this, do you?" Lavinia sighed. "My main profession is Alchemy, not studying Magic. Don’t overestimate me."
"I know a little Dwarvish, so I can understand the general meaning, but that’s not enough for me to decipher the principles behind it."
"If you want to decipher it, I suggest you learn how yourself. When I left, I told Victor about the progress at Delusional Land. He said he’d mention it to passing merchant caravans and suggest they stop by. Maybe you’ll run into a bookseller and can get your hands on some language books."
However, even though Lavinia couldn’t help him with this, she was willing to teach what she knew to the human who had just stepped through the gateway of being a Mage. This made the two-day journey exceptionally fulfilling for Ron. The contents of his Spellbook had also expanded by two new spells: Magic Missile and Language Proficiency.
The former supplemented Ron’s offensive capabilities in combat, while the latter allowed him to know the literal meaning of any language he heard, or to understand the literal meaning of written text by touching it.
Unfortunately, Magic Scrolls are usually written in special coded language for Mages, so Language Proficiency was mostly useless for them.
