Throne of Magical Arcana - Chapter 256

Chapter 256: The East Haven

— Volume IV: The Dark Mountain Range —

In the Month of Hot Wind, the eighth of the year, the weather would be torturing hot in Allyn or Aalto, as if even the air was on fire. However, in this narrow and busy city across the continent, filled with buildings of mixed styles from different countries, the breeze was still cool and gentle like that of the Month of Life.

This was Segru, deep in the northwest of the far northland, the East Haven surrounded by countless giant, towering trees.

Because the Cabin of Palmeira of the Congress controlled the many busy cities along Storm Strait, and their control extended all the way up to the far northland, the Cabin of Palmeira had driven away lots of orcs, dwarf tribes and trolls and built up many cities. Therefore, in many people’s mind, all of the far northland was the Cabin of Palmeira’s territory, an area under the control of the Congress of Magic.

However, in fact, because of the vast territory of the far northland—Schachran Empire’s northwest province to the west, Mintuck, an ice-free port which was close to the marine outfall of Boundless Ocean to the east, the empire’s Flame Fortress and Storm Strait to the south, the polar region where the sun never set for the six months to the north, the congress and the Cabin of Palmeira could only control the southeast part of it, and deep into the land lived horrifying trolls, orcs, snowmen and ancient sorcerers who spent their life in solitude.

Because of the special location of Segru, sitting at the junction of the broad primeval forest in the northeast of the empire and the central part of the far northland’s coastal area, where the Church’s and the Congress of Magic’s power reached a stalemate, Segru became a place that was neither under the control of the former nor the latter. Lots of noble émigré from Schachran Empire and other convicts gradually gathered here and built up the city and the many manors around it. Thus, Segru was called by many people the East Haven.

Although the first people of this place had set up some rough rules and law here while they were fighting against monsters such as trolls and doing smuggling trades, power, which basically came from either magic or sword, was still the ultimate law in the far northland.

There was a saying here, “The law of magic and sword was the law of the far northland!”

Known for its smuggling trades, the city had been attracting countless money-longing merchants and adventures to come here in order to seek for great fortune, thus the city was busy and prosperous. Of course, most merchants here had their own experienced mercenaries, or they could be killed at any time and their bodies would be thrown into the forest to feed the beasts.

At that moment, Lucien was wondering at leisure on the major crossroads of Segru, and his destination was the wood cabin up ahead. According to the information given by the Congress, in the cabin Lucien could find the relatively good intelligence organization in this city.

Lucien was wearing white shirt, a black, double-breasted long suit, top hat and the monocle, which made him look elegant and handsome, but he did not look deterring enough here in this brutal East Haven. On the street, in many people’s eyes, Lucien was a perfect target, and they were trying to figure out what kind of perfect chance they could get to kidnap him.

“Look at the way he’s dressing… We probably can get a good fortune from him.” Two bulky guys were talking, “Even if he’s actually poor… Look at his face… We can still sell him to the nobles. They must love this perfect toy!”

“Don’t rush. Don’t do anything before you know more about the person.” The other guy responded, “He dare come here alone, and he must be more or less confident. Lots of idiots have died here because they judge other people only by their appearance.”

Those people who were still alive here in this place were not brainless. On the contrary, most of them were very cautious. However, as soon as they could make sure that the target was a really good one, they would show the darkest side of human nature.

Before Lucien left Allyn, he bought some magic potions, materials, gold and the spell, Sorcerer’s Cabin, and he also got a bottle of potion called Blood Cleanser, which helped him cure from the soul damage caused by Crying Soul. Now, Lucien was about a real knight’s level, so he could hear the conversation between the two guys without even using spiritual power. Lucien lightly shook his head with a smile, “What a place… the East Haven.”

However, this was as far as the potions from the Congress could go so far in improving one’s Blessing power, since after this level, one’s faith as a knight would play a more important role, and that was not Lucien’s direction.

Pretending that he did not hear anything, Lucien still walked on the street calmly. Soon, he came in front of the cabin drawn with camellias.

“No child here.” When Lucien was about to walk in, a strong and bulky man beside the door reached out his right hand and stopped him.

As he was saying, the man purposefully showed his tanned muscle to reveal his power.

Lucien did not get pissed off but asked, “What kind of people can be here, then?”

The man snorted and then pointed at the doorplate. Beside the camellia patterns, the doorplate read, both in Schachran characters and in common tongue, “Money, or power.”

Lucien smiled and nodded, “I see.”

All of a sudden, this husky guy bowed deeply towards Lucien and said to him, “Sir, please come in… please come in… I was being stupid just now. Please forgive me.”

At the same time, he kept slapping himself in his face.

Watching the guy reverently leading the young man into the cabin, the other guards around the cabin were more than shocked.

“Has… has Tony been possessed?” Another guy murmured, thinking that what he saw was very creepy. A few seconds later, he realized that the young man might be a real sorcerer, so he quickly turned around and ran into the cabin to report.

The two traffickers, who were following Lucien, also saw what happened. They swallowed with great difficulty, and felt lucky that they were not being stupidly reckless. They knew that a sorcerer who could cast spells without producing stirred magic waves was definitely not an ordinary sorcerer. Some ancient senior-rank sorcerers in the East Haven might not even be able to do this!

In fact, the spell, Charm Person, which was improved by Lucien, was known for producing only very limited amount of magic waves. As a third-circle sorcerer, Lucien could cast the spell perfectly, and those people whose power was not even close to that of a real knight had absolutely no way to sense the minor magic waves, not to mention that they did not even have any magic or divine items!

…

The cabin was actually of decent size, and it was divided into many small booths. There were different people selling information in those booths, and the overall environment was quiet and nice.

Tony led Lucien to the stairs in an absent-minded way, and in front of the stairs, there were two beefy guys with long sword.

“Tony, who’s this?” The guards stopped Tony with their swords.

Tony’s back was still bent. After taking a quick glance at Lucien respectfully, he said to the guards, “This is Mr. Guzon’s important guest. Don’t stand in his way.”

Lucien simply smiled, but did not say anything.

“I never heard of this before. I need to talk to Mr. Guzon first,” the guard said to them and was about to walk upstairs.

As soon as he turned around, Tony directly punched the other guard out with his right fist.

When the guard on the stairs was about to hack at Tony with his sword, suddenly he felt great dizziness, and then a big smile appeared on his face, “I’m so sorry sir. He’s an idiot. How dare he try to stop you. Please, please, sir, follow me this way. Let me guide you to Mr. Guzon.”

Lucien sightly pushed up his monocle and nodded. He knew that his current spiritual power could only control three people at the same time.

“Mr. Guzon, attack!” exclaimed another guard upstairs, who saw what was going on there.

Guzon walked out of his room with a thick cigar in his mouth. Wearing a black long jacket, he looked down with great sense of stateliness, followed by a guard covered in a complete set of black armour.

“Mr. Guzon, I’m here for the intelligence.” Lucien looked up and smiled.

“You’re not welcome here. You broke into this place.” Guzon looked pissed, “Take him!”

Although Guzon had Blessing from the magic potion and he also had a pretty useful magic item, he decided to use the two dark knights that he hired with good money.

Also, the young man downstairs looked skinny and not aggressive at all. He even thought that the young man was probably sent by his competitors to kill him, so he should not let the young man walk any closer to him.

In the corner, a shadow suddenly shot out from the corner and jumped on Lucien. At the same time, the body of the black-armored knight bulged fast, then the knight rushed downstairs toward Lucien with a flaming great hammer.

Other guards also quickly besieged Lucien.

Guzon watched what was going on downstairs with the big cigar in his mouth. However, after a surge of magic waves, his level two knight was now on the floor, trying his best to escape from the young man. The other knight was not doing any better. In fact, he directly ran into the wall to run away and left a big hole on it.

Those guards were all right now on the floor. Around their crotches, it was all suspiciously wet.

The big cigar in Guzon’s mouth fell on the ground, but he didn’t even notice. Staring at Lucien, he started to step backwards.

After casting the second-circle spell, Scare, Lucien slowly walked upstairs with his hands in the pockets, and he smiled, “Can we talk now, Mr. Guzon?”

“S… sure.” Guzon’s teeth were chattering.

In the East Haven, Lucien followed their rules—money, or power. It was the best solution.

Although Lucien’s magic power was nothing in Allyn, in fact, a middle-rank sorcerer could easily rule a whole small city. Even in a messy place like the East Haven, most of the scoundrels here were still ordinary people.

Lucien’s leather shoes were making crisp sounds on the stairs, and he said slowly, “Mr. Guzon, I need a guide. A guide who can lead me to travel through Schachran Empire.”

Although it was not hard to fly across the border, flying over the entire empire was of course time-consuming and tough, and if Lucien was not careful enough, the North Church would easily notice and chase after him. Therefore, Lucien needed a fake identity and a guide who played the role of his butler.