Author: 年终 / Nian Zhong
Translator: Kinky || https://kinkytranslations.com/
Chapter 150: A Vast Fog
While the other mansions were all surrounded by beautiful flowerbeds, and some even had swings and fountains, Marcela’s mansion had nothing but a few vines that looked vaguely malnourished, as thin and withered as Marcela herself.
The moment they stepped inside, Myss was nearly knocked over by the smell of potions filling the entire house.
Worse still, beneath the choking bitterness of medicinal herbs, the air also carried the sickly sweetness of decay and the scorched smell of damp leaves that had been burned. The room before them was actually fairly neat and clean, but under the assault of those smells, it seemed as though everything was covered in an invisible layer of dust.
Myss grimaced, his throat tightening. He instinctively held his breath and reluctantly walked forward.
The priest, Kai, and Earl walked ahead of him, while Salaar stayed right beside him without taking a single step away. Lawler was the last to enter the house. Honestly, Myss was somewhat surprised that this guy had actually followed them inside.
Still, the sky outside had already turned violet. There wasn’t much time left before Marcela’s “before sunset” deadline.
Marcela only led them as far as the living room.
It was a spacious room, but every door leading deeper into the house was shut. All the furniture was made of rough wood and pushed against the walls. Marcela herself stopped beside a narrow cabinet against one wall. She simply stopped there, facing the wall directly without even looking at the people behind her.
Earl looked somewhat nervous. He clearly didn’t like the gloomy atmosphere inside the house either and his face grew increasingly pale.
“Um, Lady Marcela, regarding the funds I mentioned in my letter…”
“First level of the storage cabinet. First compartment from the left. Take it yourself.”
Marcela cut off his greeting immediately without even lifting her head. No matter how one looked at it, this wasn’t the attitude of someone interested in conversation.
Earl forced out a laugh but didn’t move. “And my friends…”
“Dragon Fae.” Marcela finally turned around to face her guests. “Let me see.”
This woman really had a strange way of speaking, Myss thought. It was as though she had barely spoken to a living person in her entire life. In his memories, even dim-witted slaves spoke more fluently than she did.
Complaints aside, Myss sensed a peculiar aura from Marcela of someone who simply couldn’t be bothered with the hassle.
No wonder Big Nose had dared to boast that Marcela would help. Compared with getting tangled up with them, Marcela was clearly the type who preferred to resolve things as quickly as possible.
Myss pulled the barely conscious Dragon Fae out of his pocket and held him up in front of Marcela.
The instant she saw Tass, Marcela’s expression shifted.
Myss couldn’t quite tell what expression it was. The muscles of her face seemed to be acting independently, unable to assemble themselves into a single coherent emotion.
“Black. Black,” she murmured repeatedly. “Interesting.”
After saying that, she stared fixedly at Tass. Her eyes were terribly cloudy, veiled in mist, rather like the eyes of a corpse. Under that gaze, Tass curled in on himself until he was almost as round as a ball.
Salaar got straight to the point. “Can you treat him?”
Marcela let out a long hum, then mumbled several indistinct words. Myss used every bit of his hearing and only managed to make out the word “interesting.”
“Fork is ‘interesting,’ and Tass is ‘interesting’ too.” He couldn’t resist leaning sideways and whispering into Salaar’s ear. “I’ve decided to call her ‘Interesting.’”
Salaar gave him a helpless glance, then turned back. “Sorry, I didn’t hear you clearly. Can you treat him or not? Please tell us directly, ‘yes’ or ‘no.’”
“Time is valuable. If you’re uncertain, we need to find another solution.”
Earl looked at Salaar in surprise. He couldn’t believe this man dared speak to a Kingdom Archmage that way. Kendrick certainly was arrogant, but his rudeness tended to come from cold-blooded indifference. The rudeness of this “Kendrick,” however, carried a faint pressure of authority.
It was as though the person opposite him weren’t a dangerous powerhouse, but merely an elderly woman wasting his time.
Marcela seemed to notice something as well. For once, she shifted her gaze and looked at Salaar. She once again displayed that awkward smile, one that never reached her eyes, and gave no answer at all.
Salaar made the decision immediately. “Sorry for disturbing you. We’ll be leaving.”
“Earl Nebula, thank you for the introduction.”
Myss looked at Marcela, then at Salaar, and stuffed the muttering Tass back into his pocket. Seeing this, Kai stood up as well.
“Mr. Nebula, while there’s still daylight, let’s head back.”
Earl looked somewhat deflated. In his imagination, meeting a Kingdom Archmage shouldn’t have been this awkward. He knew Marcela was eccentric, but he hadn’t expected this kind of antisocial inability to speak normally.
Still, even though communicating with Marcela was exceptionally difficult, she had at least clearly told him where the money was. He could simply repay the priest and Kai, set aside enough travel expenses to reach Evening Star City, and leave the rest to his family elders to discuss with Archmage Marcela.
“Then that’s settled.” He nodded ruefully. “Lady Marcela, we…”
Halfway through his sentence, Earl suddenly closed his mouth.
From where he stood, he could see the window on the opposite wall. At some point, the clear, beautiful forest scenery outside had disappeared, replaced by iron-gray fog.
As the light dimmed, a trace of murky blue appeared within the fog. It pressed tightly against the window, swallowing even the branches brushing against the glass. Visibility had dropped to less than a single step.
The fog had descended without warning, darkening the room with it. Marcela stood by the wall in her black dress, her silhouette seeming to melt into the shadows.
“After the fog clears,” she said again, her eyes fixed directly on Myss’s bulging pocket.
Salaar’s brows furrowed almost imperceptibly, but his voice remained calm. “You don’t need to trouble yourself. I remember the way we came.”
Marcela grinned without speaking. She stood perfectly still, like a statue.
Salaar gave Kalen a look, then directly grabbed Myss’s hand and pulled him toward the door. Myss hurriedly twisted his head around. Since they were leaving anyway, he might as well take a look at Marcela’s Magibase so the trip wouldn’t be a complete waste.
The hole-digging professor’s Magibase had been a giant elephant. They were both Kingdom Archmages, so what kind of Magibase did “Lady Interesting” have…?
But the instant Myss diffused his pupils and looked at Marcela, the familiar stabbing pain struck again. It was extremely similar to the force that shielded Tass and blocked his view of magic bases.
…It really was “interesting.”
Myss abruptly stopped. Almost by reflex, he ended his observation. At the same time, he had a vague feeling that they probably wouldn’t be leaving this place so easily.
Marcela’s gaze was still glued to his back, stitching into his pocket like a needle. Even without turning around, Myss could feel that pull.
Salaar had already reached the living room door and was about to pull it open. Whether for information or safety, they couldn’t let Salaar leave now. And Myss couldn’t allow Lady “Interesting” to notice anything unusual.
Myss gritted his teeth, stepped forward, and wrapped both arms around Salaar’s waist from behind. “I’m tired. I don’t want to travel through the fog, de-, cough, my dear.”
The final word nearly choked him to death, but Myss still managed to force it out.
It worked extraordinarily well. Salaar’s entire body stiffened, and he looked at Myss at the same time as Kalen. Even the Dragon Fae inside Myss’s pocket suddenly found enough strength to wiggle a few times.
Fortunately, Salaar reacted quickly. “You’re really tired?”
“We walked that far, of course I’m tired. And the fog is this thick. What if we get lost?” Myss tried hard to straighten out his tongue so his tone wouldn’t sound too much like he was picking a fight. “The Dragon Fae’s condition is still stable. We might as well rest here and wait for the fog to clear.”
Salaar exhaled softly and pretended to be stubborn. “No. I need to go take a look.”
As he spoke, he gently squeezed the back of Myss’s hand and opened the door. The doorway looked like an upright tank of water. The fog rolled only outside the doorframe, without a trace spilling inside.
Salaar shifted slightly, completely blocking Myss behind him, then stepped outside.
The fog swallowed Salaar almost instantly. There was less than half a step between them, yet Myss could no longer see Salaar at all.
Almost instinctively, Myss lunged forward and grabbed the back of Salaar’s clothes with all his strength. He raised his eyes, his diffused pupils examining the night fog with displeasure.
The fog itself didn’t seem unusual. What felt wrong was the aura outside the room. It was a little like the long-forgotten Divine Realm, yet without the same dense torrents of magical energy.
Myss had no idea what it was. He only knew that it deeply unsettled him.
Myss had used his full strength in that grab. Salaar was yanked backward so hard that he stumbled and fell back into the room. Perhaps because the night fog was so dense, Salaar’s clothes felt damp to the touch.
“What did I tell you? There’s no way to travel through that.” Myss bared his teeth.
“Oh… right.” For once, Salaar was half a beat slow.
“After the fog clears,” Marcela repeated with satisfaction.
Then she opened a door leading into the inner rooms, turned sideways, slipped through the narrow gap, and shut it with a bang.
Everyone else was left behind in the living room, exchanging awkward glances.
Things had developed completely beyond expectation, leaving Earl somewhat embarrassed. Without saying anything, he opened the cabinet Marcela had pointed out and found a drawer packed full of gold rings and gemstones.
Well, that solved that. Earl immediately lowered his head and began counting money, putting on the appearance of someone extremely busy.
Kai politely waved to the others. “Looks like everyone’s plans have changed. I’m going to contact my people.”
Only Lawler remained leaning beside the window, staring blankly into the thick fog outside, lost in thought.
“What’s going on out there?” Myss lowered his voice. “The fog itself seems fine. At least I can’t see anything wrong with it.”
Salaar took a deep breath. “The fog itself really isn’t abnormal. But it feels a little… strange to me.”
“Strange?” Myss blinked. Salaar rarely used such emotional descriptions.
“…”
Salaar remained silent for a few seconds, then lowered his voice even further.
“The aura is very faint, but it reminds me of you,” he said.
……
Somewhere inside a cavern among ancient ruins.
“Contact from Kai? Give it to me. Oh, thank you, Beverly.”
One of the Kingdom Archmages, Gentry the “Colossal Elephant,” dusted off his hands and took the magical communication device.
Even so, he still smeared plenty of dust onto the clean device, making Asp beside him look like he wanted to say something but held himself back.
“…You’re with Salaar and Myss?”
After listening for only a few sentences, Gentry coughed twice, though the gentle smile remained on his face.
“Oh, oh, it’s nothing. You know I’ve dealt with them before… What? You’re at Marcela’s research residence?”
The end of his sentence had only just relaxed when it suddenly tightened again. Hearing the professor’s voice change, his two students perked up their ears with interest.
Gentry shook his head and walked alone toward the depths of the cave. With his left hand, he activated a soundproofing magical device and idly played with it between his fingers.
Under the cover of darkness, his gentle expression abruptly turned serious.
“By my calculations, you should be in Evening Star City. How did you end up at Marcela’s place… I remember warning you to avoid dealing with her whenever possible.”
The depths of the cave were completely silent. Kai’s whispering voice came through the communication device.
“You said she was eccentric. I thought you only meant…”
“Only ordinarily ‘eccentric’.”
Professor Gentry sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. “If it was more than twenty years ago, that description would still have been accurate.”
Marcela Memi.
She had been born into the Memi family, a minor noble house dependent on the Nebula family.
Marcela was a rare magical prodigy. But even setting aside her magical talent, her intelligence absolutely qualified as genius-level. In exchange, she was extremely bad at interacting with other people, to the point where even basic communication was difficult for her.
Fortunately, the Memi family devoted themselves to her and guided her toward researching magical theory from an early age. Marcela was perfectly happy to surround herself with drafts, experiments, and books.
Her research career progressed smoothly and even attracted the attention of the legendary mage Langhesia.
During that period, Gentry had met Marcela before. Gentry had still been young then, while Marcela was already middle-aged.
Still, despite the considerable age gap, Gentry’s impression of Marcela hadn’t been bad. She stammered as she explained his questions, her eyes as clear as quicksilver.
Whenever she couldn’t explain something properly, Marcela would become so anxious that she cried, sometimes even banging her forehead against the table over and over, startling Gentry badly.
Yet although she was poor at speaking and not particularly good at controlling her emotions, when faced with a young man less intelligent than herself and less magically gifted, Marcela had genuinely shown enough kindness… In a sense, she was a bit guileless.
But because of those fatal personality traits, Marcela did nothing except bury herself in research.
She was incapable of building or managing her own faction and had absolutely no interest in anything happening outside her window. Aside from Gentry, who traveled constantly around the world, the other Archmages had little interest in befriending her.
Gentry didn’t mind.
Marcela’s research ability could absolutely be called the best in the world. He was more than happy to help her with field investigations in exchange for opportunities to ask her questions.
He had even once jokingly considered asking Marcela to accept him as an unusually old student.
…Until over twenty years ago.
Remembering what had happened back then, Gentry shuddered.
“I happen to be in Atla right now. Kai, listen to me. I’m going to Emerald Cliff immediately. The teleportation magic there should operate around the clock.”
Gentry decided to keep it brief.
“You absolutely must keep a low profile. Do not let Marcela notice you. Do not treat her as a human being. She is more dangerous than the most unstable Night Scourge ruin.”
“If something happens… something you cannot understand, remember this above all else: stay beside Salaar and Myss at all times.”
<<< || Table of Contents || >>>
