Chapter 96

Just as Bard had said, their review efficiency was quite high right now .

Roland showed them the derivative model of Hand of Magic, performed a few of the derivative effects of Hand of Magic on the spot, and after simultaneously explaining the principles, he passed the review .

It took less than an hour from beginning to end .

Bard then indicated for Roland to come talk to him alone .

Inside the study, Bard sat opposite Roland, upright, and even in a serious manner .

Roland now looked at Bard and saw that he looked a little dispirited and had dark circles under his eyes .

It may be assumed that he didn’t sleep well last night .

“The world is changing so much that it takes us by surprise . ” Bard looked into Roland’s eyes and said slowly, “There is no news of Golden Sons in the capital . But I suppose by now something similar has reached the ears of the noble families . ”

Roland raised his eyelids slightly . He didn’t know what Bard meant by saying this all of a sudden .

“If I wanted to recruit you to become the consecrated mage of my family, would you be willing?”

Roland was startled for a moment . “Your words are too sudden . I can’t help but doubt your intentions in recruiting me, when not so long ago our relationship was quite stiff . ”

Bud chuckled . “Yes, it’s too sudden . I have a question that I would like you to answer . ”

2“That’ll depend on the question!”

“How many Golden Sons are there exactly?”

“Five hundred thousand . ”

Roland answered readily . This wasn’t some important information, and even if Roland didn’t say it, they would be able to find out eventually .

However, when Bard heard the number, he gasped in astonishment and looked frightened .

His face turned pale from fright .

Roland wondered, was 500,000 a terrifying number? This wasn’t a lot of people . There were nearly a million people in Delpon, and it was said that there were nearly two million in Hollevin’s capital . Logically, Bard couldn’t have been frightened by this number .

Then, Roland saw the fruit wine cup in Bard’s hands trembling . Some of the wine even spilled out .

Now Bard looked like a patient with Parkinson’s disease .

1Bard then finished drinking the wine slowly, and as he did so, he slowly grew quiet, his complexion gradually returning to normal .

He put down the fruit wine, pretended that nothing had happened, and said, “I still want to extend my sincere invitation to your excellency . We, the Bard family, are much, much better than a Magic Tower, both in our magic book collection and in our resources . If you are willing to become our consecrated mage, you will have the same resources as a successor, and you won’t need to bear too many responsibilities and obligations . ”

1Bard’s expression was serious, and Roland could also feel that Bard was quite serious .

However, Roland was even more puzzled . “Why do you suddenly take me for a hotcake?”

“You have strength, great strength . ” Bard uttered the classic Hollevin proverb, “We nobles are willing to get down on one knee, even to serve, for those of mighty strength and power . ”

1Roland smiled inwardly at this .

This might sound elegant, but it was really in essence giving in to the strong .

“Give me some time to consider!” Roland tactfully replied to Bard in this way after a moment’s thought .

“The Bard family will always welcome you . ” Bard got up and said, “Then I’ll be returning to the capital . If you ever come to the capital or pass by, be sure to visit my house . ”

1The saying goes, do not argue further with one who seeks to make amends . Although Roland didn’t like Bard very much, the latter still gave in, and there was no antagonistism, so Roland naturally wouldn’t act unpleasantly .

2Between him and Bard, it was more a matter of disliking each other’s vibes than of actual conflicts of interest or a life-and-death feud .

2“If that day does come, I will go to your house and have a chat with you . ” Roland also stood up .

Bard smiled at Roland and suddenly said, “I hope you won’t become our gravediggers!”

1Roland pondered over this .

With these words, Bard left the Magic Tower, taking his friends and subordinates with him .

Roland stood at the window, watching Bard and the others leave in the night .

Vivian pushed the door open and entered . She placed pastries and some dried fruits on the table, then walked up to Roland and also watched Bard gradually disappear into the distance .

2After a while, she said, “Deputy Chairman, the reason you asked us to go out of town was so that we could avoid this man . He’s very dangerous, isn’t he?”

1“You saw through my intentions!” Roland chuckled .

“We’re not stupid . Actually, we all guessed that was the case . ” Vivian said with a slight sigh, “Even the Chairman avoided him, he must be a very troublesome person . You left us outside the city and asked your friends to protect us—it must’ve been dangerous for you to face them alone . We all feel a little apologetic and quite ashamed . ”

1“It actually has nothing to do with you guys, but it’s more suitable to say that the Chairman and I almost got you guys into trouble . ”

“Do you really think we’ll believe that?” The rims of Vivian’s eyes were slightly red . “Deputy Chairman, please remember, we are also members of the Magic Tower—if there are such matters in the future, please do not exclude us . ”

5No… It really had nothing to do with you guys .

1However, Vivian left the study before Roland could explain .

In the days that followed, Roland found the magic apprentices in unusually high spirits . They went out of town during the day to help build houses and returned to the tower at night to practice magic until the middle of the night .

They were already very diligent, and now they were even more diligent, almost to the point of desperation .

Diligence is a good thing, Roland thought, so he didn’t clarify anything with them .

Because Language Proficiency was at a bottleneck—stuck—Roland did not derive the spell again these past few days .

In the library of the Magic Tower, he found another spell that was quite interesting .

Spell Puppet .

1It was also a type of zero-level trick . Like Hand of Magic, it was known as a spell of little worth .

1However, Roland found it quite interesting .

Level zero spells were easy to learn . Roland looked at the spell model, and in less than ten minutes, he successfully cast a blue elemental puppet .

The puppet was about the same height as Roland . It had no eyes, no nose, no face or anything of the sort . It was simply a magic figure .

In addition, this thing had no soul, no consciousness . However, it inherited some of the summoner’s instinctive knowledge . It could distinguish between friend and foe and understand most of the language commands . Its strength was not considered great, so it could only assist mages with some delicate experiments or handiwork .

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Hand of Magic was used for heavy lifting, so it was not possible to use it for delicate work .

In contrast, Spell Puppets were created for this purpose, but many mages found them to be of little use .

1This thing only inherited some knowledge of its summoner, so it often made mistakes in experiments . Magical supplies were very expensive, and if it failed several times, a mage would become impecunious .

3In the end, the purpose that remained for this thing was cleaning up and staying on alert for foreign enemies .

However, it would simplify matters to just recruit a few more magic apprentices .

After all, maintaining a Spell Puppet required constant consumption of mana .

1After about an hour of looking at the spell model of Spell Puppet, a lot of bold and daring ideas emerged in Roland’s mind .

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