The guard at the drawbridge scrambled to lower it immediately.
Uncertain of the visitors’ true identities, he nonetheless knew that a mage was someone even the City Lord would be terrified to cross.
He ordered the gates opened and his men to stand at full alert.
Kent had only been testing his luck, but he soon realized that the title of “mage” carried immense weight—far more effective than the “do you know who my father is?” tactics of his past life.
Tori, a veteran of war, took it all in stride.
As they entered Harry City with their horses, Little Qing, the five-rank wind wolf, had to be left outside.
Kent remained utterly perplexed as to how Niu Niu, a sprite, could command a mid-rank magical beast.
Even though the wolf showed no outward hostility, comparing its size, fur quality, and surprisingly human-like expressions to his Magical Beast Compendium, Kent was stumped.
He couldn’t have imagined Niu Niu’s true lineage, nor the fact that she was already a seventh-rank entity.
The captain of the guard watched the bizarre makeshift sleds and the group of women with suspicion.
His mind raced—magical masters acting this strangely, arriving at night?
He smelled a conspiracy.
Afraid of losing his life in his sleep, he ordered his men to stay silent.
Little did he know, his unfounded suspicion would soon cost the City Lord a fortune.
Tori led the group to Alice’s residence in the city—a sprawling mansion staffed only by two maids.
After a flurry of activity getting everyone settled, Kent, Chuck, Tori, Alice, and Delis held a strategy meeting.
“Lord Kent,” Tori said, his veteran instincts sharp.
“I don’t think we can just walk into the Mage Guild like this.
Niu Niu shouldn’t show herself, and we need a consistent cover story.”
“Hmm,” Kent mused, eyeing Alice.
“Do you know who your instructor’s instructor is?” He was testing the waters, trying to gauge the political influence of the local Mage Guild chapter.
In any world, connections were everything.
“No idea,” Alice replied with a huff of annoyance.
Kent rubbed his temples in frustration.
Dealing with women is exhausting, he thought to himself, a twenty-something virgin’s natural impatience boiling beneath the surface.
“I’ve got it.
We’ll say this,” Kent suggested, his eyes flashing as he laid out a plan that the group refined together.
Toya Stephen had just finished his meditation and a hot bath when the commotion began.
He emerged to find the lobby of the Mage Guild buzzing.
As he entered the hall, he was hit by a sudden, distinct pulse of fire-attribute magic.
“Alice?
Who is this?” Toya asked, stopping dead.
Two apprentices were blocking Alice’s path, but Toya’s eyes were fixed on the young man standing behind her.
The kid looked barely out of his teens, yet his mana fluctuations were nearing the second-rank level—a prodigy!
He looked like he belonged to some hidden noble bloodline, though his attire—half-body leather armor—was bizarre, to say the least.
“Respected Master Toya, may we speak in private?” Alice asked, playing her part perfectly.
Toya nodded and ushered them into his warm, cozy study.
“Sit down and tell me everything,” Toya said, settling into his chair.
“Thank you, Master,” Alice replied, taking her seat alongside Kent as she prepared to begin their story.
The more Toya listened, the harder his heart pounded.
Alice recounted Kent’s fabricated backstory: how he had possessed an innate sensitivity to fire elements since childhood but hadn’t known how to harness them, absorbing them passively over time.
Half a year ago, while cleaning the study, he was drawn to a Scroll of Enlightenment Alice had stored away.
He accidentally tore it, miraculously learning to read.
Soon after, a traveling circus visited the town, and Kent bought a stack of books for a single silver coin, including a low-tier spellbook.
Out of curiosity, he read the incantations aloud and inadvertently cast magic.
Ignorant of the lofty status mages held, Kent had simply been sent to the back mountain to tend the horses.
Alice then detailed the bandit pursuit, deliberately emphasizing that even after the bandits realized Kent was a mage, they still intended to slaughter them to eliminate witnesses.
This wasn’t just murder—it was a blatant desecration of a mage’s dignity and a direct provocation against the continent’s most powerful organization, the Mage Guild.
“Kent, show me a spell,” Toya said, trying to steady his racing heart as he offered a gentle, grandfatherly smile to the quiet boy.
“M-my lord…
where should I aim?” Kent asked, his posture shrinking timidly, his voice stuttering.
“Heh, anywhere you like,” Toya replied breezily.
He wasn’t the least bit worried; his Earth Shield could easily absorb whatever minor spell the boy threw.
Kent laughed inwardly.
Let’s see you act tough.
He raised a hand, and without a single word, a fireball rocketed toward the massive crystal window.
Bang!
The projectile punched a gaping hole straight through the thick glass.
Clatter!
Toya’s face twitched violently as his elegant wine glass slipped from his grasp and shattered on the floor.
Instant casting!
It was the ultimate dream of countless mages, manifesting right before his eyes in a naturally awakened novice.
To cast a fireball instantly normally required the prowess of at least a fifth-rank mage.
“Actually…
I-I know another kind of magic.
Would you like to see it, my lord?” Kent decided to double down, stammering flawlessly.
Seeing Toya nod in a dumbfounded daze, Kent had to fight the agonizing urge to burst out laughing.
Whoosh!
Whoosh!
Whoosh!
Three pale-green wind blades instantly burst from Kent’s hand, completely obliterating what was left of the shattered crystal window.
Kent looked back at Toya and Alice with wide, innocent eyes, then lowered his head weakly.
“When I get nervous, I can’t hold back…
I accidentally cast a few extra.
Earlier in the town, when that mob of bandits charged at us, I panicked and unleashed wind blades for three straight seconds.
By the time I could stop…
it was too late.”
“Right…
right…
right,” Toya murmured, his heart convulsing.
Instant-casting wind blades in a blind panic?
Toya almost felt a twinge of pity for those doomed bandits.
But the sheer magnitude of the situation quickly snapped him back to reality.
Leaving the two youths behind, he rushed over to the magical communication array.
Using a vial of magical ink, he frantically scribbled a dense report onto a large sheet of parchment, activated the array, and tossed the scroll inside.
It vanished in a flash of light.
Toya had no idea that this single piece of parchment would completely upend the Loya City Mage Guild, escalating to alarm the Resh Duchy branch, and, within half an hour, send shockwaves all the way to the Alliance Empire’s Grand Mage Guild.
Meanwhile, the instigator of this continental uproar, Kent, was busy stuffing his face with mouthwatering roast lamb, glazed with wild honey and exotic spices unique to the Magical Beast Forest.
He washed it down with a rich red wine—far superior to anything he’d ever tasted on Earth—while shooting venomous glares at Alice.
While Toya had been busy sending the message, she had brutally “interrogated” him.
Kent’s sides still throbbed from where her nails had dug into his soft flesh.
He was so irritated he felt like eating her alive, but he settled for channeling his grief and indignation into devouring the feast to replenish his strength.
“Why are you kicking me, Milady?” Kent asked with a look of pure innocence, holding a roasted lamb leg as he weakly questioned Alice.
Seeing that Kent was eating with abandon, Alice had given him a sharp kick under the table, prompting Kent to retaliate in kind.
Gazing at Kent’s seemingly innocent demeanor, Toya Stephen found himself growing even more fond of the boy.
He turned to Alice and said, “Let our little Kent eat his fill, Alice.
The poor child has been through a lot.”
“Thank you for your hospitality, Lord Toya.
We must take our leave,” Kent and Alice said after finishing their meal, bidding farewell to Toya.
Though Toya would have loved to persuade the two youngsters to stay, he could find no proper excuse and ultimately had to let them go.
“You stinky jerk, bad guy, all you ever think about is eating!” Alice grumbled angrily, scolding Kent all the way down the street.
Kent quickened his pace to pull ahead, only to find that Alice was just as swift on her feet.
Fortunately, Alice’s residence was located on the very same street as the Mage Guild, and they reached the house in just a few minutes.
Back in his room, Kent treated himself to a long, hot bath before slipping into the luxurious rabbit-fur bedding with a profound sense of satisfaction.
In his mind, this was hands down the most blissful day of his life—he had finally found a soft, warm bed and could say goodbye to sleeping on rough straw for good.
Just as Kent was preparing to practice his inner breath cultivation, he suddenly heard someone sneaking into his room.
He hurriedly feigned sleep, his heart pounding with anxiety.
He suspected an assassin; after all, whoever had the deep pockets to shell out two thousand gold coins could easily hire a professional killer equipped with daggers and hand crossbows.
As he heard the slow, measured footsteps approach his bed and felt the heavy covers being lifted, Kent tensed to strike back—only for a soft, feminine body to slide right into bed and wrap itself around him.
“Delis?” Kent inhaled a familiar, intoxicating fragrance and asked in bewilderment.
“Kent, I want to be your woman,” Delis whispered.
With those words, she fell silent, her trembling body giving away just how nervous she truly was.
A surge of excitement rushed through Kent.
A beauty was literally throwing herself into his arms, and while he did have a soft spot for Delis, he wasn’t one to casually surrender his heart.
Summoning a tiny flame at his fingertips, he lit a bedside candle, gently lifted Delis’s chin, and asked with utmost seriousness, “Delis, being my woman isn’t just a casual fling.
But I have a peculiar quirk: I expect complete loyalty.
My woman is forbidden from playing around like other noble ladies.
Can you promise me that?”
“Yes.
I will only ever be yours,” Delis answered without a moment’s hesitation.
A warm smile spread across Kent’s face.
“Delis, I promise I’ll treat you right.
Rich or poor, I’ll stand by you and love you for the rest of my life.” With that, he captured her soft, flushed lips in a deep kiss, his hand slowly sliding down to slip her nightgown off, tossing the garment aside.
“The candle…” Delis murmured breathlessly, her eyes hazy with desire.
Having already blossomed into a mature, passionate woman, she caught fire at his lightest touch—and at that moment, Kent had completely forgotten the candle existed.
While Kent was blissfully lost in romance with the beauty, the high elders and executives of the Grand Mage Guild were jolted awake in the dead of night to attend an emergency secret session.
Immediately following the meeting, the Mage Guild issued a stern, terrifying ultimatum to the Thieves’ Guild.
The warning strictly commanded the Thieves’ Guild never to cross or provoke the Mage Guild, emphasizing that they could never withstand the full fury of mages.
Furthermore, it demanded an immediate account regarding who had commissioned the hit and hunted down a mage, warning that failure to comply would mean facing the wrath of the entire Mage Guild.
In an instant, the imperial capital of the Alliance Empire was thrown into a turbulent political storm.
“Damn it!
Send a message to our branch head in the Resh Duchy right now.
Tell them that if they don’t hunt down the real culprit behind this, I’ll wipe out their entire bloodline before the Mage Guild has a chance to come after me!”
The leader of the Thieves’ Guild—a formidable ninth-rank powerhouse—was utterly panicked by the Mage Guild’s public warning.
While assassinations and contract hits against mages happened in the shadows, bringing it out into the open was a line you simply didn’t cross.
In the eyes of other factions, the Thieves’ Guild held considerable weight, but to the Mage Guild, they were absolute insects.
The moment he learned what had triggered the crisis, the guild master practically flew out of his chair, cursing a blue streak.
“Tricker, the Grand Duke wants to see you.”
Tricker was Alice’s father, currently serving in the Resh Duchy’s Royal Knights under Grand Duke Resh himself.
A third-rank knight, Tricker occupied the lowest tier of the knightly order; once warriors awakened their battle aura, they typically transitioned into swordsmen or knights.
Third-rank knights essentially functioned as foot soldiers.
While the duchy maintained around a thousand knights spanning various ranks up to the seventh rank, those who reached the eighth rank attained the prestigious title of Silver Knight and could only be summoned by the empire—with the absolute right to refuse.
Looking bewildered, Tricker hurried off to answer the summons.
Once his meeting with the Grand Duke concluded, he packed in a rush, riding hard for Harry City.
An hour prior to his departure, the teleportation array at the Resh Duchy’s Mage Guild flared to life.
Three figures in white robes emerged: two sported silver staff emblems, while the third bore a golden staff.
Joining the local duchy director who had been waiting anxiously, they boarded the back of a seventh-rank flying beast, a Wind Heron, and vanished into the distance.
Scarcely had Tricker set out when a cyan first-rank magical beast, a Wind Sparrow, shot out from an ordinary residence, heading straight for Harry City.
Moments later, a four-wheeled carriage burst from the same neighborhood, hurtling toward the destination at breakneck speed.
Back in Harry City, Kent slowly opened his eyes and looked out the window.
It was nearly noon.
A warm, soft weight rested against his chest; Delis was curled up like a kitten, faint purple love bites still visible along her smooth neck.
Last night had been an absolute whirlwind of passion—an intense release for both of them to purge the lingering tension and trauma of the past few days.
Far from feeling exhausted, Kent felt remarkably refreshed and invigorated.
He didn’t mind that Delis was older than him; after all, his psychological age far outstripped hers.
Gently pressing a soft kiss to Delis’s forehead, Kent slipped out of bed.
He knew that if he lingered any longer, his self-control would completely shatter.
Besides, he suspected Delis had a hidden past of her own—otherwise, how could a tavern owner still be a virgin?
If he hadn’t secretly used a few healing spells on her overnight to ease the strain, she probably wouldn’t even be able to stand this morning.
Stepping out into the courtyard, Kent took a deep breath of the fresh air and looked around.
Alice was still asleep.
The second floor housed only Alice, Kent, and Delis, while everyone else stayed downstairs.
After a hearty breakfast, Kent instructed Tori to ensure no one disturbed him, wondering idly where Niu Niu had wandered off to.
Returning to Delis’s room, Kent unzipped his leather pack, pulling out a section of the demon ape’s bone along with various basic alchemy tools.
Feeling unusually focused and energized, he decided to try his hand at engraving an earth-attribute magic array onto the demon ape hide—his very first true alchemical creation.
Carefully grinding the demon ape bone into a fine powder, Kent mixed it with bile before slowly blending it into a refined batch of monster blood.
He held the mixture over a controlled flame he conjured in his palm, gently swirling the crystal vial as the liquid shifted from a muddy yellow to a crystal-clear hue.
After about an hour, sensing the solution had reached the optimal consistency, he set it aside to cool and reached for a peculiar tool.
“Well, well.
Look at this interesting little fellow,” a voice murmured softly from the hallway.
Outside Kent’s door, an elderly man adorned with a golden staff emblem on his chest detected Kent’s alchemical manipulation through his spiritual sense and raised a hand to halt the group behind him.
“Let’s not barge in just yet.
Tell everyone to keep their voices down.”
A small entourage of elite mages quietly crowded the second-floor corridor, with Toya Stephen standing quietly at the very back.