Chapter 227 : Chapter 227
Chapter 227. Coming Up Empty
On the third day after Fulan’s duel with that Church Knight, inside Bishop Gillian’s temporary residence—
“What? You still haven’t found that mage?!”
Gillian’s voice carried both shock and a trace of irritation, as though she could not believe it.
“Yes. Actually, she didn’t just vanish today. The day before the plan was to be carried out—that is, yesterday—we were already unable to find that mage.”
“Did you find any clues?” Gillian asked urgently.
“No. We secretly searched her residence, as well as the entire lord’s manor, but found no trace of anything. It was as though she had suddenly disappeared.”
Uneasily, Gillian tapped the armrest of her chair. Once again, events had gone beyond her expectations.
“How could she just disappear...” Gillian muttered softly to herself.
The Church Knight, who was kneeling on one knee with his head lowered, continued, “We specifically had the knight who dueled that mage go and question Lord Blake. The reply we received was: ‘Her Excellency the mage is researching spells and has instructed us not to disturb her. You may come again in a few days.’”
“You didn’t find her anywhere else in the city?”
“No. We found no trace whatsoever.”
Gillian let out a long sigh, then said, “In that case, cancel the plan against that mage. It seems she had already sensed something...”
“From here on, concentrate all our manpower on resisting the Beastmen’s attack...”
At that moment, the Church Knight kneeling on one knee with his head lowered suddenly raised his head and said, “My Lord Bishop, there is something I must tell you...”
“Speak.”
“Lord Blake of Snow Bear Territory seems not to know that the Beastmen are about to attack.”
“Our scouts discovered that he is actually still organizing manpower to capture various magical creatures all across Snow Bear Territory. He shows no intention at all of preparing to resist a Beastman assault.”
Gillian frowned and murmured, almost as if speaking to herself, “That Alliance mage didn’t warn him? Why doesn’t he know the Beastmen are about to attack, when even some of the mercenaries already know?”
At that moment, the Church Knight suddenly cut in, “It seems that lord has withdrawn all the soldiers from every position except a few key posts within Snow Bear City, and redeployed the rest to capture magical creatures...”
Dark lines practically appeared across Gillian’s face, and she could not help but complain, “These lords really do know how to enjoy themselves. Even at a time like this, he still has the mood to go hunting magical creatures.”
If she were the lord of Snow Bear Town, with so many outside forces gathered in her territory, she probably would not even be able to sleep at night. How could she possibly still be in the mood to capture magical creatures?
She pondered for a moment before continuing, “We must inform this lord. Here in this territory, his status as lord can offer us a great deal of support...”
“Arrange some people to notify that lord. Explain the Beastmen to him in detail. You may reveal a little—that we, the mercenaries, and even the Beastmen are all searching for the same thing.”
“Yes,” the Church Knight responded. Then he slowly rose and walked toward the door.
Meanwhile, Gillian remained in the room, lowering her head in thought.
“Was it that mage who sensed that we were going to make a move against her, realized the situation had turned bad, and fled...”
“Or had that mage intended from the start to keep our attention pinned here for a few days, and then leave the moment the time came...”
At this moment, within the Northern Society, if Fulan had not agreed to help Blake intimidate those people from the other factions, then she would already have been on the verge of arriving at the Northern Society by now.
And this moment just so happened to be the Society’s once-a-week release day for its various featured publications. Across the major featured sections, all sorts of glowing praise had been engraved.
And this time, it just so happened that every one of those featured sections was recommending Fulan’s paper.
【This Year’s Most Promising Result for the Silver Alchemy Award—Will the Alchemy School Present It to the Northern Society?】
【A New Method for Second-Tier Alchemy Materials—Yield Increased by Several Dozen Times!!】
【A Work That Opens Up a New Field—Starting with Fireball!!】
【Shocking! A Certain Mage Actually Did Such a Thing to a Spell Device?!!】
...
Most of the covers of these featured publications bore the emblem of alchemy, signifying that this achievement belonged to the Alchemy School.
And the papers they recommended were astonishingly consistent. Every one of them was recommending the same paper—a study on a new method for refining White Star Sand.
This allowed the mages passing through to genuinely feel it—our Northern Society really does seem to have produced an alchemical achievement dazzling enough to shake people.
However, among these featured publications, one cover looked completely out of place.
Inside a small shop that specialized in selling the various featured publications—
“Boss, why didn’t Fallen Leaf Selections put that paper on the new extraction method for alchemy materials on the cover?”
Cole of the Modification School and the Ocean Society asked the shop owner, pointing at that completely different cover.
“How would I know? I’m not a researcher. How would I know anything about you mages’ business? I’m just helping sell these things to make a bit of hard-earned money.”
The shop owner clearly did not look like a mage. He was wearing a coat made from the brown hide of some kind of animal. It was already filthy, as though it had not been washed in a very long time.
Then the owner changed the subject and continued, “Still, there are probably only a few possibilities.”
“First, it could be that the people in charge of the other featured publications just didn’t take a liking to that paper, so none of them put it in their issue, while the person in charge of Fallen Leaf Selections just happened to come across that masterpiece, and so placed it ahead of that other one.”
“Of course, that’s not very likely. I think the most likely possibility is...”
“The person in charge of Fallen Leaf Selections probably took money and pushed that paper to the front. Those mages do that sort of thing all the time...”
Cole scratched his head. After hesitating for a moment, he still picked up Fallen Leaf Selections and two other featured publications.
“Boss, I’ll take these three.”
After paying swiftly, Cole carried the three publications away. Instead of returning to his residence to study them in detail, he went directly to the Mage Tower.
He did not enter the Mage Tower itself. Instead, he walked along the outer wall, and when he reached an angle hidden from everyone else’s sight, he stopped.
He took out the three featured publications he had just bought and memorized all the recommended paper numbers printed on them.
Then a flash of blue light passed through his head, and before him appeared a mass of transparent particles with a dusty texture.
This was a mana organ he had specially modified before coming to the Northern Society, one that possessed the function of directly connecting to the Mana Communication System.
He quickly entered the paper numbers he had memorized, then copied them into the personal storage organ inside his mind.
After finishing all this, he turned and headed straight back to his residence without looking back.