A few seconds later, the big-bellied guy went near a bald man, who sat lazily on a wooden chair, and gave the scroll to him. The bald man was around 35 years old and wore a regular black linen shirt and pants. He had black eyes, thick eyebrows, and multiple scars on his square face.
"From when did you start learning how to read, Rudie?" The bald man named Keith looked suspiciously at Rudie and asked coldly.
"Hehe, I just started to learn the common language from Miss Aliza, boss Keith." Rudie scratched his head awkwardly and responded with a stiff smile.
Other than the necromancer Murius, Aliza was the only person educated among this group of bandits.
After her arrival, Keith's reputation among his bandit group went downhill. Even his lackeys began to learn how to read and write from that girl and started looking down upon him.
He glared at Rudie for doing something unnecessary and snatched the scroll from him without minding others' gigglings.
Then, he stood up from the wooden chair, moved towards the nearby wall while replacing his angry face with a goofy smile, and asked politely.
"Can you give this scroll to Lord Murius, My Lady?"
Meanwhile, a young girl leaned against the back of the stone wall and appeared to be in deep thoughts. She was a good-looking girl with short blonde hair and wore a black leather jacket over her regular tunic shirt.
Her name was Aliza, and she was the mysterious guest of the Necromancer Murius.
Because of her unique position, even Keith had no choice but to show some respect to her.
Two years ago, Necromancer Murius returned to the Alastall woodland with this girl and asked the bandit group to follow her orders. Keith doesn't know much about her identity, but he had already guessed that she must be a wealthy merchant's daughter. But what puzzled him most was why a noble young lady like her would hide in this old tower?
'Well, I'll find out sooner.'
Even though Keith knew asking Aliza to do these types of works would make her angrier, he didn't have any other choice.
That Necromancer Murius was a hot-tempered guy; his only weakness was this twenty-year-old-looking girl. He never scolded this girl in the past two years and even spoke politely to her sometimes as if she was his owner.
If Keith or one of his lackeys went inside now, that necromancer might turn them into skeletons. So, to avoid getting his bandit group to disappear sooner, he mostly asked her to do the jobs related to the necromancer.
On the other hand, Aliza snorted at Keith and sighed deeply.
After that, she quickly took the scroll from his hand, stepped on the empty yard, and moved towards the three-layered cylindrical tower. Once she entered the first layer's main hall, she walked forth towards the room on her right side.
It was Murius's experiment room. Only she and Keith had the right to go near this place.
Once she arrived in front of a gloomy metal door, she raised her right hand and tapped it twice.
The next instant, unique dreadful energy came out from inside and caused Aliza to fall to her knees.
Click!
The door clicked open and soon revealed a black hooded man inscribing mysterious letters on a circle with his thin pale hand. She also noticed a small gray crystal at the center of the mysterious circle and confirmed the dreadful energy was coming out of the unique crystal.
"Why are you here? I'm doing important work right now." Without even stopping his work, Murius spoke in a husky voice.
Panting heavily, Aliza stood up unsteadily and replied with nervousness.
"A puppet raven came from the north, My Lord. It's a letter from Lord Rilos." She quickly took out the scroll from her waist, walked inside the room, and gave it to him.
Simultaneously, she glanced around and noticed many glass tubes, beakers, and funnels arranged on nearby tables.
'The room looks more like a laboratory.'
Her chocolate eyes wandered everywhere and soon returned to Murius.
Meanwhile, Murius also stopped his inscribing work and stood up before muttering.
"From master Rilos, huh?"
At that moment, he also lost his concentration a little.
Due to this, the magic circle under his feet made a strange screeching noise and broke into millions of pieces.
Although this action caused nether-elemental fluctuation all over the room, he wasn't affected much. With a wave of his hand, he sent his spiritual energy everywhere and erased all the nether elemental fluctuations.
Afterward, he turned his pale-looking face in her direction and shook his head.
Although Murius got upset a little when seeing the magic array circle destroyed, he could only swallow his anger and turn his attention toward the young girl. If some other guy came here instead of Aliza, he would have killed him already.
'I have no choice but to recreate it again.'
"Tsk, give me the scroll." Clicking his tongue, he grabbed the scroll from Azila's hand and opened it carefully.
It was written in an unknown language, causing Aliza to stare at it curiously.
Without minding Aliza's curious look, Murius turned his gaze toward the content and started to read what was written in the scroll.
[Goodday, Murius. I have both good news and bad news for you. The good news is that someone had already assassinated king Sewallus and even stole something from the royal treasury. So, we can confirm that entering and leaving the Royal Treasury is entirely possible. I also asked our spies working in the palace and confirmed this news was not a trap set by the Royal Family. From what we've learned, the whole assassination seemed to be planned by a snake demon'. Next, I will tell you the Order of the Dead members' next meeting date later.]
Murius's dark green eyes narrowed as he read the first paragraph.
'Hm, our plan to break the seal hidden inside the Royal Treasury will be much easier!' He curled his lips upward and continued to read the following paragraph.
[The next one is a piece of bad news. It's about the territory you are staying in right now. Before King Sewallus's death, he bestowed the Alastall woodland to an elf and even conferred him with the title of Baron. This Baron appeared to be Crown Prince Huggin's lackey and might become a future threat to our plan. He is also an official mage. So, I want you to kill him quietly in the Alastall Woodland itself. Once you complete this mission, come back to the Royal Capital and wait at our usual shelter.]
That curved up lips started to go down as Murius finished reading the letter.
'An anomaly?' He furrowed his brows.
After thinking for a while, he took out an empty scroll, quill pen, and ink bottle from his spatial ring, placed them on the nearby table, and thought of writing a letter.
But it wasn't a reply letter, though. In truth, Murius needed more information about this newly titled Baron and thought of whom to ask.
Unfortunately, he was in contact with only a few low-rank nobles.
'Hmm, I should discuss this matter with viscount Gauvain and seek his advice first.'
He muttered under his breath and began to write down after dipping the quill into the ink bottle.
After a few minutes, he stopped his quill pen, rolled the newly-written scroll, and tied it using a thread. After that, he covered the scroll using a metal-like cover and tossed it to Aliza.
"Put this scroll in the puppet raven's mouth and press 245. After that, the ravel will do the remaining work." He said in a solemn tone.
Meanwhile, Aliza caught the scroll, turned around, and started to walk out of the room.
But before she could walk out of the room, Murius thought of something and asked.
"Do you want to become a necromancer, girl?" Murius's words made Aliza stop her footsteps and widen her eyes a little.
With a brightened face, she turned around and looked at Murius with shining amber eyes.
"Yes, My Lord!" She said in an excited tone.
Upon seeing her reaction, Murius chuckled and touched his spatial ring again.
"Take this book and study the nether language first." Saying so, he took out a black-covered language from his space ring and tossed it in her direction.
Then, he turned around and shifted his dark green eyes towards the empty floor where the magic array circle was inscribed before.
Meanwhile, Aliza caught the book stiffly, bowed her head towards the black-robed necromancer, and silently walked out of the gloomy room.
But as soon as she stepped out of the dark tower, a smile crept on her face.
'Finally, I've gotten some recognition!'
After two years, this was the first time Murius had let her learn something about magic, which made her pleased inside.
She quickly returned to the fortified wall, climbed towards the left wooden outpost, and placed the scroll in the raven puppet's mouth.
After that, she moved her hand toward the puppet raven's back, found a unique number system, and pressed the numbers.
The next instant, the high-tier magic crystal embedded in that puppet raven's mantle started to flicker and shone in reddish color.
Before she could blink, the puppet raven blinked its red eyes and flapped its stiff wings.
After that, the red-eyed puppet raven rose from her hand and quickly flew towards the cloudy sky.