Chapter 52: Baron Lauren

The night was hot and suffocating. A storm was coming.

Lucien purposely chose a different way, approaching the abandoned house from beside the tall willow, which took him more than ten minutes. Standing in the shadow, he did not approach the building immediately. Instead, he stayed there for a while and noticed there were three people dressed in black robes standing in front of the abandoned house.

From their figures, Lucien could tell one was Smile and another one was Philosopher. However, Lucien could not recognize the third person. Thus, he did not lower his guard. Grabbing a black, weird-shaped magic reagent in his hand, he silently cast a spell.

The thing in his hand started trembling faster and faster, and ultrasonic waves began to expand outwards in all directions.

That was Bat Screaming, the first spell created by Lucien on his own.

Lucien was inspired by bats using ultrasonic waves to detect objects, like a radar. By reading the witch's notes Lucien became aware that many sorcerers and sorceresses would hide their magic aura, which was brought by their spiritual power, on purpose to avoid being found by their enemies. When Lucien was learning the apprentice spell called Magic Aura Detection, he realized that the apprentice-level detection spell would be ineffective when facing corresponding defensive spells of higher levels.

Thus, Lucien combined Magic Aura Detection with his knowledge of ultrasonic wave and created Bat Screaming, which could even detect objects with no spiritual power or that released no magic Aura.

Of course, Bat Screaming could also fail if a sorcerer or sorceress knew the spell in advance. They would still have other ways to avoid being found. Therefore, choosing proper spells was of great significance in a magic battle.

The ultrasonic waves were like invisible water waves spreading around Lucien. When the waves hit something, they would reflect back to the black reagent in his hand. Lucien kept focusing on the spell and gradually pictured the surroundings, as if he was observing all around him carefully in broad daylight.

"The detection range has a radius of about 100 meters. And it is a three-dimensional detection." Lucien thought to himself, "There's an owl on the tree... yes, it's Doro. Well... there's a raven... the raven."

Lucien recognized the raven that he encountered the other night. This time, Lucien felt the magic power in this pet, but he could tell the raven's master was very cautious as nothing weird happened since he met it the first time. Its master was only watching and waiting for something.

"I should come up with an infrared spell, then I would be able to see the inside of the buildings." A new idea hit Lucien's mind. The black thing Lucien was grabbing was a dried bat pituitary, and after some time it turned into a small pile of ashes and slipped through his fingers. For now, his spiritual power was not enough to cast the spell without using the additional component.

Lucien was still hesitant since he could not make sure who the third person was. At this time, the person started talking in a relatively loud voice, "Mr. Professor, I think you're here but you're still watching. I'm White Honey, Mr. Professor. It was my mentor who found the trace of the evil creature. He respects your profound knowledge and he hopes to meet you."

A moment later, Lucien walked out of the shadow and approached the willow slowly. "Nice to see you again, White Honey, " Lucien nodded to her, "It's my honor winning your mentor's respect, but at the same time, it seems like your mentor doesn't trust me very much."

"Mr. Professor...?" White Honey looked very surprised.

"The raven. You know what I'm talking about." Lucien looked into the darkness.

"You... you found Ashley?!" White Honey looked in the same direction.

"It's impossible..." White Honey wondered, "It's nighttime, and the magic light of the raven has been hidden on purpose. How did he notice Ashley?"

She now felt that the mysterious Mr. Professor was even stranger.

When Lucien looked in that direction, the raven on the branch started to fall to the ground as if it was suddenly struck by lightning. Fortunately, the raven spread its wings in time and swiftly flew away, disappearing in the dark sky.

"You'd better explain this, White Honey." Smile and Philosopher asked in great anger.

White Honey lowered her head and apologized sincerely, "I'm sorry that I didn't tell you about this. And I also brought some gifts to show my sincerity. My mentor... he just wanted to see Mr. Professor. If anything unexpected happened when Mr. Professor was hunting the evil creature, my mentor might be able to help as well through the raven, Ashley. Now Ashley just left."

Smile and Philosopher were aware that in fact there was nothing they could do about what White Honey had done, since they did not know how powerful her mentor was.

"Well... hopefully it will be a lesson to you, White Honey." Smile cleared his throat a bit, "In Aalto, what your mentor just did can easily put him in trouble. Many of us will take your mentor as a spy from the church. I hope he isn't, though."

"I'm terribly sorry, but I assure you he is not, Owl." White Honey apologized again.

Lucien walked in front of them and asked in his pretended harsh voice, "White Honey, now, can I know where the evil creature is?"

"In the old house of Baron Laurent, in the Noble District." White Honey replied, "No one in the last three generations of the house has successfully awaken the Blessing, and thus the status of the house has been declining. Furthermore, there are just few servants still serving the family. The other day, when my mentor's raven flew over the old house, Ashley found it was a bit noisy down there. Out of curiosity, it flew down and found the people in the house were having... a sex party."

"What?" Owl sounded very surprised.

"In fact it was more than just a sex party. My mentor believed that it was an evil ritual. When the people were crazily having sex in the chamber, Baron Laurent was standing in an altar at the center of the place and seemed to be gathering some kind of unknown power. At that time, Ashley noticed the demon's smell in him."

Philosopher was more sophisticated than Smile. He nodded with thoughts, "I'm quite sure Baron Laurent is not the only one. Many nobles who failed to awake the Blessing or to get the Holy Water from the church turned to demons and other evil beings to seek power. Their titles are worth the risk."

Unless a noble house violated one of the first ten articles of the Holy Law, the hereditary land and title of the house could forever be passed on to the next generations. However, if no one of the house could awaken the Blessing in a few generations, the house would start to decline. Other houses would gradually devour its land and leave the house with only an useless noble title. In the end, the house would disappear on its own and the nobles would become common folks. No one would remember the family's past glory.

Lucien had his own guess about the party. He believed it was the heretical ritual of Argent Horn. After two months, Lucien believed that they started taking action again.

"Do you know how powerful the creature is? How can I get to the Noble District?" Lucien asked.

The area the nobles lived was enclosed by the inner city wall. At this time, the city gates were already closed. City guards would only open the gates for the nobles who lived there.

"From the scale of the altar, my mentor speculated that it should be a low-rank demon of an ordinary knight level. But before the ritual is finished, the cast shadow of the demon should be only of a high-rank knight squire level." White Honey explained. She did not think a powerful sorcerer with such profound knowledge like Mr. Professor would be in any danger when facing a cast shadow of a low rank demon.

"White Honey didn't know how to find Owl, so she found me first. I happened to know a secret passage to the Noble District, and so I came with them here tonight, hoping that I could be of some help. After all, Mr. Professor, your explanation and guidance helped me a lot." Philosopher lowered his head to show his respect, "If you don't mind, Mr. Professor, I am more than willing to kill it for you. It's just a low rank demon. There's no need for you to do this personally."

Lucien was feeling concerned that the heresy might bring some unexpected trouble into the action, and having more helpers on his side was definitely a good thing. After thinking for a moment, Lucien nodded, "Thank you, Philosopher. After this, you may ask me a question."

"Can I go with you, Professor?" White Honey wanted to join them as well. Ashley was gone, and so she had to watch the mysterious sorcerer for her mentor instead.

At the same time, Lucien viewed her as a hostage. Thus, he instantly said "yes".

Smile also asked to join. He had his own thoughts as well―he wanted to stay as close as possible to Professor. Then, he was also accepted.

Guided by Philosopher, Lucien, White Honey and Smile headed toward the Nobel District.