A Core Ship From The Start

Chapter 137: Chapter 119: Return to Aldorf_1

When Duanmu Huai returned to General Pastte, the general looked as though he had aged several years.

“Oh, you’re finally back!!”

Seeing Duanmu Huai appear, General Pastte seemed as though he’d seen his savior.

“If you hadn’t returned, I wouldn’t have known what to do!”

“Is it that serious?”

Seeing the worn-out and weary General Pastte, Duanmu Huai was taken aback. He had only been gone for a while, but the general looked like he was on the brink of death.

“Yes, it’s that serious. If you hadn’t come back, I was planning to flee!!”

Upon seeing Duanmu Huai, General Pastte, like seeing a life-saver, began pouring out his grievances with tears and snot.

During this time, life has been indubitably rough for Pastte. He might not be in the higher ranks and didn’t have to engage in the intrigues among the nobles and officials in feasts, but as the saying goes, bosses talk and the workers run.

What could Pastte do? Could he reject this task?

So he had no choice but to carry it out, right?

But doing this, would the people of Aldorf not complain? Of course, they would!

As the royal city was ablaze with strife, the people of Aldorf were no fools. They knew that when the three princes gathered together, trouble was sure to brew. Most people didn’t want to get involved in this messy situation. Besides, most of them were simple civilians uninvolved in imperial affairs, weren’t they?

The city was now sealed; who could escape?

Those with some connections started to get busy.

They dared not seek out the Great Crown Prince, at a time like this, expressing their intention to leave explicitly meant escaping. The imperial nobles and merchants were not that foolish!

So General Pastte, the commander of the security corps, was dealt the rotten hand.

During this time, people continuously came in and out, either bribing him or threatening him, but in the end, what they asked was nothing more than for General Pastte to turn a blind eye and allow them to evacuate a few people from Aldorf.

Of course, General Pastte could not agree to any of this!

He might be incompetent, but he was not a fool!

Once these hypocrites fled, they would vanish without a trace. If problems were caused, who would bear the resultant troubles, if not himself?

Therefore, Pastte’s position was rather similar to the Governor of Shuntian Prefecture in ancient times, solely responsible for the governance of the royal city. If he did well, it was supposed to be so; if he did not, he would be demoted and exiled to Ningguta to serve as a slave to armored people.

He would have to be thankful if they didn’t behead him.

Indeed, it was tragically miserable.

If it weren’t for his firm belief that Duanmu Huai was the chosen one of Sigma and his steadfast worship of Sigma, he would have packed his things and ran off by now.

“Don’t worry.”

Seeing Pastte so distressed, Duanmu Huai patted him on his shoulder, laughing.

“Everything is going smoothly, there will be no problems, just wait and watch.”

“Phew… That’s good.”

Upon hearing this, General Pastte finally breathed a sigh of relief, collapsing into his chair and wiping the sweat off his brow.

“What’s the situation on your end?”

“Vulture sent me a message earlier, noting that the pile of Dimension Stones was moved out from the Magic Academy, with an unknown destination. He’s on the hunt.”

Vulture was the codename of the Witch Hunter, Duanmu Huai assumed he was dead in some corner, but it appears he’s still alive and kicking.

The dimensional stones have been relocated, huh…

Duanmu Huai closed his eyes, and connected with the Slaughter Puppets. Fortunately, he had suspected something was amiss before and had sent some of the puppets to track them. It appeared that they too, had been moved…underneath the royal city?

Oh? You guys sure know how to pick a spot, planning to blow up the whole royal city, perhaps?

“Okay, I know how to handle this.”

Duanmu Huai made a decision quickly, and then looked at Pastte.

“General Pastte, I have only one thing for you to do next. On the day of the banquet, there will certainly be some troublemakers on the streets. I hope you can lead your men and maintain order in Aldorf! Don’t let anything happen to the Royal City, that’s all!”

In truth, the emperor’s demands of Pastte were not high, only asking him to do his job – if demands were set higher, he wouldn’t be able to fulfill them, right?

“This…”

Hearing Duanmu Huai’s request, Pastte hesitated a moment, then decisively nodded.

“Alright, on the day of the banquet, I will issue a citywide curfew from the afternoon, not allowing anyone to go out. I will send all the soldiers to patrol the city. But… can you tell me, what exactly are you planning to do? This won’t affect the citizens in the city right…”

“If everything goes smoothly, it shouldn’t. So don’t worry.”

Again, Duanmu Huai gave a smile and stood up.

“You just put your mind at ease, do what you’re supposed to do, then have a good sleep. When you wake up the next morning, everything will be over.”

Hearing what Duanmu Huai had said, General Pastte stayed silent for a moment, then sighed deeply.

“Let’s hope… let’s hope it will be so.”

After saying goodbye to General Pastte, Duanmu Huai returned to his home, only to see Ann and the Elf Princess, looking at each other.

“Alright, how are your searches coming along?”

Duanmu Huai ignored the subtle tension between the two and asked a question. Upon hearing Duanmu Huai’s inquiry, Ann frowned, revealing a bitter expression.

“It’s really hard to track, and my knowledge of the magic here is limited, so I can’t even make a guess…”

“The aura of the Chaos Evil God has contaminated this city.”

The Elf Princess added softly, without elaborating further.

Duanmu Huai was not surprised by their reactions. In fact, ever since the two girls entered the city of Aldorf, they had immediately felt a strong sense of unease and danger. After all, both Ann and the Elf Princess were powerful mages, so their sensitivity to spiritual energy would naturally be exceptionally acute. Their current sensations were probably similar to transitioning from a refreshing forest to a heavily polluted city.

“Anyway, it must not be anything good. What did your analysis find?”

“The core of the magic circle should be here.”

Ann stretched out her hand and pointed to the royal city in the center of the map. At the same time, she held a mechanical pendant in her left hand. According to Ann, this was a “Mechanical Divination” technique popular in the Manaria Magic Academy. It could assist in finding the desired object to some extent.

Of course, how effective it could be in this world was another matter entirely.

The Elf Princess simply nodded in agreement.

“All the spiritual energy is concentrating here, there must be a node or something. Normally, the royal city does not allow such a high concentration of spiritual energy…”

Places with too much concentration of spiritual energy often lead to anomalies, may even cause children to become deformed or spawn Psychics. For a place like the royal city, similar barriers should have been there for isolation. But now it seemed that their plan had already been half successful.

“So you’re saying that they are planning to use the Dimension Stone to attract spiritual energy and then cause chaos in the royal city? They sure know how to make trouble.”

After pondering for a moment, Duanmu Huai looked at the two of them.

“Do you have a solution?”

“Just absorb it, right?”

“Destroying the flow of nodes should stop the absorption of spiritual energy.”

However, Ann and the Elf Princess gave completely different suggestions. Then, the Elf Princess stared at Ann with a puzzled look.

“Are you dreaming? With such a massive amount of spiritual energy, how can it be absorbed?”

“It’s simple.”

Unfazed by the Elf Princess’ skepticism, Ann took out her sorcerer’s book that she always carried with her from her waist.

“Just absorb the magic power into my sorcerer’s book.”

“Oh? Is that possible?”

Seeing the sorcerer’s book in Ann’s hand, Duanmu Huai asked curiously. He had traveled with Ann for a while and knew that she never parted with this book. She always used it whenever she cast spells. Duanmu Huai had no idea what the book was for, but he was sure—— it wouldn’t be used to hit people like Lorena’s Holy Canon.

“Of course!”

At this, Ann became excited.

“Moreover, I was inspired by your spellcasting techniques, Mr. Knight. If I can absorb a large amount of magic power and condense it onto the pages, I can use the magic power to activate the magic at any time without chanting! I want to try it!”

“Oh, I see …”

Hearing Ann’s words, Duanmu Huai finally nodded. It seemed Ann was inspired by his previous use of soul cards and misunderstood it as a kind of instant magic technique, so she wanted to try it herself.

“Stop kidding!”

However, the Elf Princess directly interrupted Ann’s words.

“You’re just a human, you can’t handle so much spiritual energy! Doing that will only bring disaster!”

“What, are you looking down on humans?”

Ann also raised her eyebrows, glaring at the Elf Princess.

“I am the top student of the Magic Academy, and my technique in magic manipulation is not inferior to yours at all!”

“Humans are so arrogant, no matter how talented you are in spiritual energy, as long as you’re a human, it’s impossible……”

“Alright, alright, alright…”

Seeing the two about to quarrel, Duanmu Huai quickly interrupted the argument. Ann was thinking based on the common sense of Manaria, and the Elf Princess was thinking based on this world’s common sense on magic. Their standards were completely different.

Just as the Elf Princess said, it was no easy feat to be a mage in this world, especially for humans. They didn’t have the spiritual energy affinity like the elves or the resistance of the dwarves. Therefore, constant use of magic would cause humans to mutate – similar to the effect of long-term radiation exposure. This was also one of the reasons why the commoners of this world resented mages.

“Anyway, I plan to try Ann’s method first. Princess, I understand your concerns, but we must prepare.”

As Duanmu Huai spoke, he looked at the Elf Princess.

“You can rest now, thank you for your help.”

“………”

Upon hearing Duanmu Huai’s words, the Elf Princess paused for a moment and then lowered her head, obediently returning to her room.

Seeing this scene, Ann chuckled lightly.

“I told you, she must have fallen for you because you saved her.”

“Haha”

For Ann’s words, Duanmu Huai tossed an exasperated look.

He didn’t want to say anything at the moment.