Chapter 151: The Prelude to the Feas

On the main street of Korsor, Lucien, together with Joanna, Betty and Simon, walked slowly toward the city gate. In the sky, an eagle flew high above them with a parcel on its back and a large basket of fresh meat hanging in front of its chest.

"Mr. Evans, are you really going to leave Korsor today?" Betty looked quite sad. When she listened to the musicians of the association trying to play the two movements composed by Mr. Evans after the music had been registered, she was completely convinced that this handsome and elegant young man was her favorite musician, Lucien Evans, who she had been dating with in her dreams.

The great variety of complex piano playing skills, the unpredictably wonderful melody, the thrilling passion, as well as the high-spirited will were all major representatives of Mr. Lucien Evans' unique style. Moonlight Sonata was undoubtedly another outstanding and impressive masterpiece from Lucien Evans.

Earlier, when Lucien was wandering the streets in Korsor, he paid great attention to the possible secret messages left by the organizer of the gathering, and within Lucien's expectation, the gathering was delayed: due to Hunt's death, the gathering was postponed to three days later but still at the same place. However, Lucien still did not plan to stay in Korsor any longer, in order to avoid any unnecessary trouble.

So, he smiled to Betty and said, "Sorry, I still have some other important things to do. If you stick to your knight training, maybe we'll meet again in Aalto when you become a real knight. If that happens, I will compose a song and play it especially for you."

"Really?" Betty was very surprised that her idol actually promised her that. Full of motivation, Betty nodded with great determination, "I will become a real knight."

"Thank you, Mr. Evans, for encouraging Betty. That's very important to her." Joanna and Simon really appreciated Lucien's kindness.

"It's just a little gift." Lucien turned around, "And also because our journey is memorable. Well... I have to go now."

"Wait... Mr. Evans. You don't need guards anymore? It's already late afternoon now..." Betty still did not want to let him go.

Lucien titled his head slightly and smiled, "You really think I need bodyguards, Betty?"

"Humm... Then why did you hire us, may I ask?" asked Joanna curiously.

"It's nice having my guards to take care of all the trifles for me during the trip. But now, because of what happened to the baron, I got some emergent stuff here and need to hurry to deal with them. I'm way faster cutting corners by myself than sitting in a coach." Lucien's answer was blurry but also reasonable, which did not make his guards feel suspicious at all.

"I see..." Betty muttered, "Then you take care, Mr. Evans."

"I will." Lucien waved his hand, "You three, too. Hope we can see each other again."

Watching Lucien's figure gradually disappear under the afternoon sunshine, Betty, Joanna and Simon almost felt that the journey was like a dream.

After checking their purses again, which were full of Thales, they knew that the great experience was not a dream. What they should do now was to pay a noble to receive formal knight training.

...

The Musicians' Association, Korsor.

Standing beside the counter in the hall, Caspar stared at the place where Lucien had been writing his letter, "Christie, how about we build an iron and steel statue of Mr. Lucien Evans, you know... a statue like he was writing down his music here. And we tell other people that the young genius musician Lucien Evans once produced one of his famous piano sonatas here. I mean, right here!" Caspar pointed at the counter, "I bet lots of big nobles would like to visit the association because of the statue."

After Lucien refused his proposal for hosting a concert, Caspar was now working on some new ideas.

"Yes... I guess..." Christie murmured as if she was still in a dream. She actually did not pay any attention to Caspar's words.

Caspar touched his chin thoughtfully, frowning and talking to Christie randomly. Both of them were right now immersed in their own world related to the famous musician, Lucien Evans.

At this time, an employee of the association returned, "Mr. Caspar, I have led Mr. Wise to the villa to have a rest first. Any other orders?"

"Nothing, but just do not bother me." Caspar waved his hand impatiently, "What do you think of putting Mr. Evans' portrayal in the hall?"

...

IN the third week of July, there was a shining silver moon hanging high in the night sky, pouring its bright and clear light from above.

Bathed in the moonlight, Lucien swiftly cross the mountains and forests. Soon, he was already able to see the beautiful, mirror-like lake close to the castle.

The castle was still the same as what Lucien saw the last time. The pointy, tall and thin towers surrounding the main building looked like horrible demon paws in the night sky, stretching and scratching the sky. However, this time, there were already many in black hooded robes waiting outside the castle. Lucien took a quick glance and found that there were at least three or four hundred of them.

Among the crowd, there were a few people, some male and some female, who looked very special. Their robes were of different colors and there was no hood covering their faces, as if they were not afraid of being recognized at all. These people shaped a loose small circle with some other ones wearing hoods and were chatting casually together, while the rest of the invitees stayed away from them as if they were afraid of those who were not wearing a hood.

Lucien quickly thought to himself that those people should be real sorcerers instead of apprentices and their true appearances were changed by the first circle magic, Disguise Self. Because the spell would not work when someone was facing another person whose spiritual power or willpower was more than two levels higher than himself or herself, Lucien's guessing was that those people who were not wearing hoods should be middle-ranked mages.

After a quick counting, Lucien surprisingly found out that there were only twenty three real sorcerers in Djibouti, and he wondered if there were only twenty three across the whole territory. After all, this piece of land, which originally belonged to the great necromancer, Wilfred, consisted of two duchies and one independent county, and the area it covered was way broader than the Duchy of Orvarit.

Lucien slowly walked out from the shadow and headed toward the gate. Some of the black-robed people turned around and took a glance at him, but after that, no one took the initiative to talk to him. So, he stopped beside the four sorcerer apprentices and quietly listened to their conversation which was full of words such as "body", "eyeball", "hatred" and "revenant".

"H... Hey... I'm from the south mountain range of Djibouti. Where are you from?" A round-figured apprentice greeted Lucien. His black robe bulged from his obvious beer belly.

"I'm from Kazan. Nice to meet you. And you can call me by my pseudonym, Professor." Lucien answered politely.

Kazan was a small independent county close beside Dragon Tooth town.

"I see... Kazan. Welcome to Djibouti. Just call me Fatty." Apparently, Fatty had never heard of the name Professor before. "This are Garrupa, Bread and Wine."

Lucien took a glance at Fatty's belly, feeling a bit suspicious whether his big belly was real, "It's my first time joining a gathering like this. Never expected that there would be so many people here. Are there more coming?"

"Almost all of the sorcerers and apprentices from the nearby three nations are here, except those people who only work on their own." Bread, a stout apprentice answered in a low voice, "I heard that from the distinguished sorcerer who led us here."

"Distinguished sorcerer..." Lucien murmured.

"There they are." Fatty carefully pointed at the twenty three sorcerers gathering on the other side and introduced with a mixed feeling of respect, fear and admiration.

Even in today's Aalto, a sorcerer apprentice hardly received any recognition, not to mention respect within the circle of magic. Although there they were called as "sorcerer apprentice", there was a huge gap between an apprentice and a real sorcerer, and often the gap was insurmountable for many people, even though they spent their whole life working on it. Furthermore, for some lunatic ancient sorcerers, apprentices often stood for experimental materials.

In this gathering, there was only one sorcerer for each twenty apprentices.

At that time, all of a sudden, Fatty got scared and his voice trembled, "What... what's going on here?"

The sorcerers just secretly surrounded Lucien and the other four apprentices.

"Who're you?" The leading old man, who was almost as skinny as a mummy, asked Lucien harshly, "You'd better confess. None of us know you."

The questioning was totally out of Lucien's expectation. How did the sorcerers differentiate him from the other people?

However, soon Lucien realized that it was because of the organization form of the Feast of Death: After the viscount found the several sorcerers who he felt were trustworthy, these sorcerers produced their own lists for inviting the other sorcerers and the apprentices. Therefore, since there was nobody knowing Lucien here, he became rather suspicious in the eyes of the sorcerers.