A minute ago,
Second Floor, Northern Tower, White Street, Nobles' Borough, Dewsummit City.
At that moment, Zivior was seated in his room and was in the middle of skimming through the leather-covered brown book.
Currently, he was sitting in the safest place in the whole city. But this Northern Tower wasn't a magic tower, though.
It was created just for teleportation and acted as a temporary residence for the Royal Mages. The same goes for the other five towers.
If not for today's incident at the auction house, Zivior would have long left this city and returned to the White Tower by now.
Unfortunately, the Necromancers' arrival foiled his academic works.
After he left the auction house, he reported everything that happened inside the auction to his teacher. But to his surprise, his teacher seemed to have long been aware of their movements and even gave him this book, which contains more information about the mysterious organization.
As he continued to read the book, he understood that these necromancers were up to no good.
'Ha! I never thought that so many necromancers would be lurking in our kingdom.'
Zivior flipped the next page to learn more about their motives but suddenly froze. At that moment, he sensed a magic fluctuation from the Merchants' Borough and furrowed his brows.
He sensed an anomaly from the southern direction and got puzzled inside.
"Who? Is it another necromancer? No. I sense a unique fire-elemental fluctuation from the auction house area." He muttered solemnly and then spoke.
"Shadow eye."
A second later, his shadow started to twist at a weird angle, rose like a living being and soon split into multiple black eyes!
After that, those black eyes let out shrill cries one after another and transformed into some eye-type creatures with black wings.
A second later, those black eyes flapped those eerie black wings, flew out through the window, and soon disappeared.
Two seconds later, those shadow eyes appeared above the sky of the Orchid Auction House and started gazing at the entrance.
Meanwhile, Zivior's eyes darkened, and soon he saw what was happening outside the auction house.
"What are these nobles up to now?" He couldn't help but frown. In truth, he never liked the nobles of the Peral Kingdom and always thought of them as greedy thieves.
'These morons always act like they own the kingdom itself. If not for our teacher's presence, these guys would likely have sided with Light Church and betrayed the kingdom.' He snorted coldly.
Suddenly, he noticed a unique person among the group and got startled. That person wore a simple cloth, appeared around 15 to 18 years old, and looked calm and composed. He had wavy blonde hair, an oval face and amber eyes, stood around 178 cm tall, and had a slim body.
But what caught Zivior's attention was his unique pointy ears. They weren't too long like all the elves but weren't too short either.
'Elf? No, a half-elf? He looks so young, but his Spirit Power has already reached the level of an Official Mage.' At that moment, he watched Abium displaying extraordinary sword skills and was stunned inside.
'His sword proficiency is on par with Master Level Swordsman. Interesting.' He slowly blinked, turned his gaze towards the room's entrance door, and ordered.
"Berold, come here."
A few seconds later, a hooded humanoid figure opened the wooden door from outside and entered. That person seemed unattractive, had multiple black lines on his chin and forehead, and appeared eerier. He looked around 170 cm tall, with an average body, curly brown hair, and a strange snake-like right eye. As for the other one, he wore an eyepatch on it and looked more like a humanoid monster than a human.
Upon entering the room, he moved towards Zivior's table, bowed his head at him and asked politely.
"What happened, Teacher?"
Instead of responding, Zivior raised his right hand, conjured a strange black smoke, and created a rectangular structure.
A second later, the black smoke started to distort and then revealed a visual picture of what was happening at the Auction House's entrance.
"Do you know who this half-elf is?"
Zivior asked as he raised his hand and pointed his finger toward the screen, which looked like a magical visual screen.
Meanwhile, Berold stared at the screen with one eye and blinked before speaking.
"No, Teacher. There is no half-elf in our institute. Although we did enroll a few elves a decade ago, they all finished their beginner study and returned to the elven kingdom. He must have come here for sightseeing."
'Did he come here just to look around?'
Zivior raised his eyebrows in confusion and shook his head. He knew that the Elven kingdom wouldn't allow their mage to tour other kingdoms and felt something was wrong.
'Is he a roaming mage?' Another thought appeared in his mind.
He soon shifted his gaze towards the fairy and pondered.
'Now that I think about it, isn't he the one who bid for this fairy? I didn't take a clear look at his appearance and thought of him as a human. Did he come here for that fairy?' He quietly turned his gaze towards Baron Auguinare and furrowed.
'This half-elf appears to be an acquaintance of Baron Auguinare.' In truth, the presence of an anomaly Apprentice Mage wasn't a rare thing in this city.
But as he continued to watch the battle, something else caught his interest.
'His defensive spell managed to withstand an Advanced Sword Aura?' A flash of surprise appeared on his face.
As he studied the [Blazing Shield] spell, he couldn't help but get astounded inside.
Even though it is a Tier-0 spell, it is rare for a roaming mage to possess such treasure." Moreover, he saw great potential in this half-elf mage and decided to meet him.
"Well, let's pay a visit then."
Soon he cast another spell and disappeared from there.
Little did he know that Abium planned this all along!
...
Now,
Zivior walked towards the Royal Guard Captain with quiet footsteps and arrived in front of him in a few seconds.
Then, he sized him up and down and asked.
"What are you doing here, soldier?" His tone was cold as ice.
Meanwhile, the Guard Captain remained composed and spoke.
"We suspect Baron Auguinare is colluding with the Light Church, My Lord. That's why we came here in a hurry to arrest him." He paused for a moment, shifted his gaze towards Abium, and added.
"We also suspect that half-elf might be colluding with the Necromancers and might be planning some conspiracy-"
At that moment, Zivior gave an annoyed look and asked coldly.
"Fool, do you know what you are saying? If I hear any kind of nonsense like this, I will not show you any mercy. Now scram." He gave him a death glare and then shifted his gaze towards Abium.
"Kid, do you want to join our magic academy?" He asked with the same cold attitude.
Before Abium could respond, Azolla spoke in his mind.
'Agree to him. Mages aren't like the Nobles. They prefer a straightforward answer, not a political or pleasing talk.'
'Oh! I almost messed up.'
Abium quickly showed a nervous expression and nodded his head before responding.
It's my dream to become an Academic Mage, My Lord. I will gladly accept your offer." His words were neither too respectful nor arrogant to flatter someone.
"Don't call me Lord. Just call me teacher from now on."
Saying so, Zivior took out a red-bird symbol engraved ring from his space ring and tossed it towards Abium.
"Take this ring and go to the northern magic tower tomorrow. One of my disciples will be waiting for you at the entrance."
Without waiting for any response from Abium, he shifted his gaze towards the northern tower and disappeared from there.
"What the hell happened?" Helena was the first to wake up from the shock and slowly turned her gaze towards Abium.
She didn't know why, but she felt something was wrong with the situation and felt puzzled inside.
Meanwhile, baron Auguinare also stood up from the ground, wiped the blood from the corner of his lips, and started walking towards Abium and asked.
"You expected the Mage's intervention, didn't you?" Although he didn't know who that mage was, he vaguely sensed that mage was a powerful man.
Indeed, even though Baron Auguinare was a noble lord and ruled a large territory, he was as clueless as a commoner regarding mages and magic.
'But it's understandable, though. Even I had heard of Second-Tier Mages only after the arrival of Chaos Era.'
Abium smiled instead of responding and shifted his gaze towards Count Tibal.
In the meantime, Count Tibal glared at them hatefully and started walking toward the sleeping Silver Knight.
On the other hand, the Royal Guard Captain also gritted his teeth in anger and frustration and ordered his soldiers to back away.
Before long, the Royal Guards, onlookers like Nobles, Merchants, Apprentice Mages, and even the commoners started to disperse and scatter in different directions.
Only Count Tibal and Abium's group remained at the entrance, causing the surrounding atmosphere to be gloomier.
Thankfully, a wooden carriage came out of the Auction House through the left side gate and soon arrived near Abium and others. It was a four-wheeled cart with two horses pulling it. On top, there was a black canopy, giving it the impression of a carriage.
As soon as the carriage stopped in front of Abium and others, Richard jumped down from the driver's seat and looked at the surroundings in confusion.
Baron's other disciple also walked out of the carriage, looked at the tens of dead bodies at the entrance, and looked shocked.
Richard hurriedly ran towards Baron and asked,
"What happened here, Teacher?"
Meanwhile, Baron Auguinare shook his head and walked towards the black-coated wooden carriage.
"Nothing happened. Let's go."
While speaking, he arrived near the carriage door and stepped in. Abium, Helena, and Kuran also followed after Baron and entered the carriage one by one.
Although Baron's disciples were confused by his words, they didn't ask anything and hurriedly moved.
Richard moved towards the driver's seat while the other guy entered the carriage.
Before long, the four-wheeled carriage started moving on the paved road and soon disappeared from Count Tibal's sight.