Chapter 2764 Secret of Possession <TOC> Chapter 2766 Handling Approach
Translator: SumTLMan
「So, in that case, did you actually turn misfortune into a blessing?」 Daus looked at Vai with a face full of disbelief.
Vai nodded, a flush appearing on his face.
Daus wore a speechless face: 「I just thought you were about to die, it really wasted my tears.」
Pausing, Daus suddenly patted his head and, with a look of sudden enlightenment, said: 「Ah, I almost forgot, the one who shed tears wasn’t me, I didn’t shed tears at all. After all, if you died it would be a relief for me, at least, from now on no one would come to my tavern to mooch drinks.」
Vai looked at Daus suspiciously: 「That’s not what you said just now, you even talked about the path of truth……」
Daus stroked his chin and said with a very serious face: 「Those words are indeed true. After all, this path is long and endless, traveling alone is indeed very boring, with a companion who can provide amusement, it can relieve the gloom.」
Vai: 「……」
Daus: 「Of course, the premise of all this is that you’re alive, if you die, then……」
Vai: 「Then what?」
Daus’ gaze slid to Angel at the side, he leaned in and, putting an arm over his shoulder, said: 「Then I could only seek amusement from your idol.」
Facing the shameless Daus, Vai forced himself not to roll his eyes: 「You can only say that now, it won’t take long, maybe within ten years, you won’t even be able to catch up to the lord’s very silhouette lost in the dust, and you still dare to imagine taking the lord for amusement, are you worthy?」
Daus wanted to refute, but after thinking it over he really couldn’t find suitable words to rebut.
Angel had been a wizard for fewer than several years, yet had already touched the threshold of true knowledge. What’s more, Angel had background, had resources, and lacked no connections; barring accidents, what Vai said would by and large come to pass.
While Daus was silent, Vai added: 「Also, earlier my ancestor said as much, he doesn’t think you have a chance to set foot on that path…… I, I trust ancestor’s judgment!」
When Vai finished speaking, he looked toward the Black Count floating midair and cautiously asked: 「Right, ancestor?」
The Black Count snorted coldly: 「You’re not trusting my judgment, you want to ask me why I judged so, don’t you?」
Vai and Daus may bicker, but when it truly touches on such core questions, the two of them actually care very much about each other.
Daus himself hadn’t paid attention to what the Black Count had just said, but Vai, on the contrary, not only kept it in mind, he even asked his ancestor for the reason by going the roundabout way. What is meant by loving and killing each other? This is loving and killing each other.
Daus looked deeply at Vai, while Vai’s eyes drifted here and there.
The Black Count sneered and said: 「Why do I think Daus has no chance to set foot upon the path of pursuing truth? The reason is simple…… doesn’t he pursue freedom?」
Vai frowned: 「Is there something wrong with pursuing freedom?」
The Black Count: 「There’s nothing wrong, but truth cannot be obtained by freedom alone.」
Daus said nothing and his expression showed no concern in the least, because earlier they already had a split on the question of 「freedom」. No matter what outsiders say, Daus will carry through the freedom he pursues himself.
The Black Count: 「The path of truth depends greatly on talent, but it also needs the support of foundation. Daus has no background, from where would he seek foundation? By relying only on his own research? Then the detours he’d take would suffice to exhaust his lifespan.」
「Rely on the Cross Headquarters? The Cross Headquarters does have a few things, but that place is actually also a big sieve; it’s called the headquarters of wandering wizards, but in reality it’s a proving ground infiltrated by all the major wizard organizations. The foundation there, it exists, yes, but compared to truly large organizations, it is still lacking. Even if the Cross Headquarters opened all of its foundation for him to read, he still might not thereby set foot on the path of truth.」
Vai: 「……So in the end it’s because he’s a wandering wizard?」
The Black Count: 「Yes, at least in the Southern Region it is.」
Pausing, the Black Count continued: 「If it were in the Source World, then perhaps there would still be some chance, but if you want to pursue so-called freedom in the Southern Region, forget it, simply give up the pursuit of truth.」
Having kept his peace ever since the topic turned to freedom, Daus finally could not help but speak: 「Why do you say there’s still a chance in the Source World?」
The Black Count: 「The Source World also has wandering wizards, but the Source World’s wandering wizards can join certain powers, or work for certain powers. And as payment for work, so long as your ability suffices, it’s not impossible to obtain inheritance of foundation. That is why I say the Source World’s wandering wizards still have a chance.」
Daus furrowed his brow tightly: 「Join a power? Sell your life for a power? Does that still count as a wandering wizard?」
The Black Count: 「Why wouldn’t it count? The practices of those powers are actually no different from the Cross Headquarters you extol: take missions, gain benefits. However, the powers in the Source World are far purer than the Cross Headquarters.」
As for why the powers of the Source World are purer than Cross Headquarters, the reason is actually very simple.
The essences of the two are different.
The kinds of powers in the Source World that can let wandering wizards join are mainly of two types: either 「leagues」 established under a shared concept, for example: the Orderly Guild, the Grinward Institute for Arcane Studies, the Trudy Bloodline Research Institute, the Dreist Alchemy Guild…… and so on.
These are powers united together because their concepts are similar; these powers by and large allow comings and goings freely, they won’t forbid you from joining other powers, and it’s even fine if you hold titles in several powers at the same time.
The other type is the 「central-city model」 powers established on the basis of their own formidable strength; like the City of Truth, they take a central city as the core, with satellite cities formed by followers as their domain. The most representative here are: the Tower of Illusions, Forest Night City, Cocoloya’s Milk Spring Village.
This latter type likewise lets wandering wizards take missions and grants rewards, but it will impose some hard requirements. For example, Milk Spring Village has one hard rule: all wandering wizards registered in Milk Spring Village must not give any direct or indirect aid to the Dark Gourmet; if there is a violation, they will surely suffer oath backlash.
Whether 「leagues」 or 「central cities」, they in fact have powerful wizards sitting in command, and there may even be miracle wizards standing behind them. Under such circumstances, they are responsible only to their own power and will absolutely not let other powers meddle; that is why they are purer.
The Cross Headquarters is a sieve riddled with holes; you and I meet and both call ourselves wandering wizards, but true wandering wizards perhaps make up only a small portion, while most are stationed there by various wizard organizations. Their infiltration of the Cross Headquarters is mainly to cut into the dividends of wandering wizards, that’s all. Can that be pure?
After finishing his explanation, the Black Count sneered coldly: 「There is no absolute freedom you pursue in the Source World either. I don’t know who set you on the pursuit of such absolute freedom, but whoever taught you certainly didn’t tell you that absolute freedom means absolute chaos. Is this the freedom you desire?」
「For a time, wandering wizards liked to speak of pursuing freedom, but in truth, this was nothing but a fig leaf for what they could not obtain.」
Pausing, the Black Count added: 「Vai is a descendant of Noah, so he’s not a fair comparison. You might as well ask the little fellow beside you what view he has of the freedom you pursue.」
The Black Count pointed at Kael.
Kael was also a wandering apprentice, how would he view Daus’ so-called freedom
Daus turned his head to look at Kael; Kael was silent for a moment, scratched his head, and said: 「I, I actually don’t have much of a view, just…… respect, I suppose.」
The Black Count did not assess Kael’s answer, but anyone could hear that Kael’s answer was already very tactful.
The saying that all wandering apprentices pursue freedom is, in itself, false.
Seeing that Daus’ expression didn’t look quite right, Vai hurriedly coughed twice, breaking the somewhat stiff mood: 「Weren’t we talking about truth, how did we end up on the topic of freedom.」
The Black Count gave a derisive snort: 「If you can’t even meet the basic conditions, how do you talk about truth?」
As for the so-called basic conditions, the Black Count had in fact already said it…… namely foundation.
Talent, foundation, opportunity, are all basic conditions. Perhaps Daus has opportunity and talent, but as for foundation, he truly lacks it.
As he is now, Daus is someone so poor he can only take freedom as a creed; in the Black Count’s eyes, let alone discussing truth, whether he can advance into true knowledge is still uncertain.
……
Angel witnessed what it means to be a Destroyer of Atmosphere.
At first Angel thought Daus already counted as one who derails the mood; even a richly sentimental atmosphere could be derailed by him if he wished. But Angel also understood Daus’ behavior: it was regret at having been too sentimental earlier, then finding that Vai hadn’t died at all, he couldn’t keep up the act any longer, and there was a hint of a cold face but warm heart to it.
Only later did he realize that Daus merely derails; the true destroyer of atmosphere is still the Black Count.
The Black Count directly wrecked the originally decent mood, letting the awkward air on site continue to spread.
If not for being 「bosom friends」, the bond of friendship between Daus and Vai would likely have snapped.
Angel sighed inwardly and took the initiative to break the silence: 「Matters of the future, it won’t be too late to talk about them in the future.」
After speaking, Angel turned his head to look at Vai: 「You just said your talent can be restored?」
Vai glanced at the Black Count, then nodded and replied in a low voice: 「Mm, sort of.」
Sort of? This was obviously a vague way of putting it. In this context, vagueness is almost equivalent to denial.
If Vai’s talent has not in fact been restored, then where did the previously mentioned talent come from? On this question, there is no need to think: there is only one answer; the source of the talent must be the Black Count’s nose.
That is to say, Vai sacrificed the talent of Death Scent, while the Black Count grafted his own talent onto Vai.
Yet Vai’s vague wording indicates that although he can use the talent, it is not his own.
Then is the Black Count doing this purely as a pointless move?
No; the Black Count would not do useless work, if he did this there must be another purpose.
Combined with what Vai mentioned earlier, that his elder sister, Aila, had the same situation, doesn’t that suggest that the reason the Black Count dispatches incarnations to his descendants’ sides is actually to graft his own talent onto his descendants?
Angel felt this possibility was high, but as to why the Black Count would do this, that he did not know; by conjecture alone it is very hard to deduce.
「Since it can be restored, and the duel was won, that counts as a happy outcome for all.」 Angel: 「Other matters can be set aside for now; what most deserves attention is the trial 『she』 will set next……」
Pausing, Angel’s gaze slid to the side: 「And, them.」
Everyone followed Angel’s line of sight and saw the Gray Merchant and the rest on the opposite side of the arena platform walking toward them.
Obviously, the Gray Merchant and company still had something to say.
Only halfway over, however, they heard a vast sound at their ears: 「The duel is over, return is imminent.」
The speaker was the Sovereign of Wisdom.
However, though he said 「imminent」 return, he gave them no time to react at all; he descended directly upon the arena platform and laid both hands upon its surface.
In an instant, the arena platform was like a twisting disk, rapidly rotating and shrinking in a counterclockwise direction.
As the platform shrank, everyone also 「shrank」 along with it.
But this shrinking was not a biological shrinking; it was a spatial transference, on the level of space they receded from the present void. If the current void were the reference frame, they were shrinking; but if the material world were the reference, they in fact hadn’t changed at all.
Only the outside world changed.
After a moment of blackness and a sense of weightlessness, when they opened their eyes again, they had already left the void full of monsters, and returned to the gate before the Hanging Prison Stairs.
Once everyone was steady, the Sovereign of Wisdom’s voice came again: 「Irrelevant persons may leave.」
So-called 「irrelevant persons」 referred to the losers of this duel: the Gray Merchant and the others.
Gray Merchant: 「Honored adjudicator, could you give us a little more time? I would like to speak further with Wizard Eremy across the way.」
The Sovereign of Wisdom did not speak but closed his eyes; that counted as tacit consent.
Seeing this, the Gray Merchant gave the Sovereign of Wisdom a slight bow, then hurried toward Angel and the others.
As the Gray Merchant drew near, before he could speak, a cold snort sounded.
The one who snorted was Daus; he was not in a good mood now, and seeing the Gray Merchant and company come over put him in an even worse mood.
The Gray Merchant glanced at Daus, then at the others; nearly everyone’s attitude toward them had made a one-hundred-eighty-degree turn.
Even the previously most mild-seeming Wizard Eremy looked at them with obvious detachment.
The reason hardly needed stating: Shrew handed the Eye of Arcana to Mammoth, what her intent was they were too lazy to guess. All they needed to know was that, had Vai not sacrificed his talent to save his life, he would certainly already be dead.
Even if there was no intent to kill, a killing device whose power is so immense and uncontrollable, at such a time, does intent still matter?
Let alone the question of whether there truly was no intent to kill.
Angel, for one, did not believe it.
Angel had also given Kael exceptional measures, but one was for preserving life and had no offensive capability, and the other, Speedling, was powerful but its abilities were controllable. Unlike the Eye of Arcana, which is a single-use consumption with tremendous power and, once released, is already uncontrollable.
The only reason they were still restraining themselves now was purely out of consideration for the Gray Merchant’s earlier act of saving someone.
Chapter 2764 Secret of Possession <TOC> Chapter 2766 Handling Approach