When A Mage Revolts

by Stayrr

Kubei was just an ordinary pencil and button pusher working a day job, hating his boss and making horrible speeches when one day he fell asleep after pushing an all-nighter. When he woke up, he was bound to a chair, facing three creepy robed women and in a body way too young and way too weak to be his own. As he slowly came to, he realized that he was no longer in the same universe

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When A Mage Revolts

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Kubei was just an ordinary pencil and button pusher working a day job, hating his boss and making horrible speeches when one day he fell asleep after pushing an all-nighter. When he woke up, he was bound to a chair, facing three creepy robed women and in a body way too young and way too weak to be his own. As he slowly came to, he realized that he was no longer in the same universe as he was before. He had teleported to the Kingdom of Helius, where an all-powerful church rules its lands and wages war against the elusive group known only as Mages. Armed with an incredibly cocky neural interface that just won't shut up and his own sheer wit, our MC will find himself not just fighting to survive, but maybe even something bigger than himself.

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Read When A Mage Revolts - Chapter 1: The Most Unfortunate Teleportation online free - Light Novel Full

Chapter 1: The Most Unfortunate Teleportation

Translator: J_Squared Editor: J_Squared

Safe teleportations are similar, but those unfortunate ones are unfortunate in their own way.

-Jensen Tolstoy White

Kubei felt as if something was not right.

He felt an extreme headache as he woke up in a state of confusion. It was if his brain was pierced by a needle as he could not think at all. He did not know what had happened and did not know where he was, but he felt very uncomfortable.

But he figured that he was not lying in the small bed he was used to sleeping in.

What was going on?

The four corners made him feel uneasy as the space was smaller than the room he rented. A streak of yellow light shone on his eyelids. There was a faint sound of water dripping behind his back, making him feel uneasy...

Low-pitched voices could also be heard.

"Looks like he died. Annie, your methods were too brutal!"

This was a female voice that had a blaming tone.

"It wasn't on purpose. I didn't know that his body was so weak? And, and, I didn't do much at all."

The one called Annie sounded panicky as she spoke.

"That's enough, we should think about what to tell Michelle."

"Michelle…...No! What should we do? Michelle will definitely kill us!"

"Don't drag me into this, it's all your fault, you're the one who killed him, and this has nothing to do with me..."

The conversation continued on, the noise and the headache made Kubei's head spin. But after a short while, he gradually got used to the pain, and regained his consciousness and ability to judge.

He opened his eyes with a struggle.

This was a small house, like those basements in a thriller film. It was pitch black, and the only source of light came from a torch on the wall. The moss had overtaken the corners of the wall and the ceiling, exuding considerable humidity and making it uncomfortable.

Kubei attempted to move around.

He immediately realized that he was tied to a chair, with his hands cuffed in thick hemp rope that was hurting his wrists.

He also realized that he felt extremely weak.

It was a weakness he had never felt before.

"What should we do…...Michelle…...Oh God, She, She's here!"

The slow clanking of heels interrupted their conversation and Kubei's weak struggle.

Under the dim light, a blurry figure appeared.

As the figure was dressed in a huge robe with a hood concealing her face, there was no way to see the face clearly. The viridian robe wrapped her tightly, not leaving a single patch of skin exposed. No one could tell if perhaps there was a mannequin inside instead of a human.

Kubei knew it was a woman, solely because of the sound of heels and her name "Michelle".

Even though he was still in a state of confusion, his instincts told him that now would be a good time to feign death.

And so, he relaxed his body and lied in the chair motionless hoping no one would notice him.

He closed his eyes tightly and contracted his ears, closely paying attention as the situation unfolded.

"Michelle, you're here..."

Annie sounded like she was stuttering.

"Wake him up." A low and commanding voice came from within the robes.

"Michelle, I..."

Annie was hesitant to speak, as she was finding difficulty to piece a sentence, she was interrupted.

"It's all Annie's fault!" The other woman cried out, with a high pitched voice, making Kubei's head go numb, "Michelle, it's all Annie's fault, she ended up killing him, it has nothing to do with me!"

There was an awkward silence.

"Michelle, I..." Annie tried explaining.

"He's not dead." Michelle interrupted her once again.

Kubei could not help but draw his breath.

"What?"

"He's not dead." Michelle seemed to be losing her patience, "Wake him up."

"Ah, Yes, Yes..."

Kubei had his eyes shut while he was seated suddenly a chill hit him, and he started shivering uncontrollably. The clothing he was wearing became wet all of a sudden, clinging tightly to his skin, making it really uncomfortable. Kubei wanted to puke.

The one called Annie poured cold water on him.

He knew he could not continue pretending so he opened his eyes.

"He's not dead!"

As one of the girls exclaimed in shocked, Kubei finally fully regained his vision.

There were three people in the room. The other two were dressed the same as Michelle in viridian hooded robes and hiding their faces. Their outfit was as creepy as something in a horror film set.

The three hooded figures surrounded Kubei like they were about to perform an evil sacrificial ritual.

Kubei felt a chill on his spine.

"The two of you can go rest," Michelle said.

The two nodded and left, probably going to start an argument about what happened just now.

Kubei felt Michelle's heavy gaze return to him, like a venomous snake staring at its prey. He felt extremely uncomfortable. But in a situation like this, there was nothing that could be done. He just looked down and pretended he did not see anything at all.

Michelle did not speak either, and this went on for awhile.

The short period of time felt really long.

Finally, Michelle started speaking.

"What's the secret to opening the treasury?"

Kubei lifted his head, "I don't know."

"Sir Lithur." Michelle did not feel surprised at all from what she heard, "Resistance is futile. You can return to your kingdom and be a noble genius, or you can rot in the belly of mice. The choice is yours, and I hope you make the right one."

"I'm not Sir Lithur. You've got the wrong person."

"Sir Lithur, my patience is limited." Michelle spoke politely, but her words were intimidating.

"Otherwise, you weren't satisfied with the treatment just now, should I bring Annie over again?"

"..."

Kubei felt like crying but could not. "Lady, I really don't know anything!"

After regaining consciousness for so long, he could understand what was going on.

Before this, it was midnight, he was on a table, preparing a script for his boss' speech for the following day.

That time he had already worked overtime for nearly half a month, he was tired mentally and physically. Due to the exhaustion, he fell asleep in front of the computer. In his dream, Kubei saw a man in his forties with a pair of briefs on his head, pointing at his nose, shouting, "Balala energy, transform!"

Then there was a buzzing noise in his head.

After that, all he could remember was waking up here.

He was not ruling out the fact that these bunch of women were crazy for kidnapping him to this place and treating him as some Sir Lithur. He also suspected that the nightmare was so terrifying it damaged his mental health and caused him to hallucinate.

But...

From the moment he opened his mouth, he realized that he was no longer speaking Mandarin, but some language that sounded like English.

He realized he had not spoken English in years.

Kubei was not a fool. He was just an ordinary person, living a normal live, but as one with wild dreams - he had read countless novels online. When he noticed that everything did not seem right, he quickly used his knowledge from the novels to draw a conclusion:

He had teleported.

Because of some unknown reason, he had been teleported into someone called Sir Lithur's body, switching bodies with Sir Lithur. How coincidental that this Sir Lithur was not quite lucky for he was kidnapped by a bunch of mentally unstable women, even to the point where he was tortured in a formidable way.

Now, it was his turn to be tortured.

Kubei drew his breath, as if he was mourning for the time he lost half of his month's salary because of a skiing accident that tore his anus, making him unable to go to work.

He must be the unluckiest teleporter, ever.

"To the Lithur family, that treasury is only like a grain of rice in a huge stockpile of wheat. The treasures within are what your family would have in thousands more in amount, why would you lose your precious life over this thing?"

Michelle probably thought that Kubei was ready to give up, and was ready to comply with her demands.

Kubei raised his head, facing the darkness in the hood, uttering clearly:

"I. Do. Not. Know!"

In that moment, he believed, that his eyes were as fawningly sincere as that of a young deer.

But Michelle wouldn't believe him.

"I'm very sorry, Sir Lithur. You've made the wrong decision." Michelle's voice was cold from the beginning till the end of her speech, but this time he could hear a murderous intent, "I think, you're probably missing Annie."

Kubei shuddered.

He did not know what these few mad women had done to the real Sir Lithur, and he had no intention of knowing. Why? Because the real Sir Lithur had been beaten to death!

The truth was right before his eyes. He did not doubt their cruel methods at all.

Right when Michelle turned around, Kubei called her:

"I…...I cannot tell you yet."

Kubei did not have a choice. Even if this was a bad trick he had to continue playing it.

Whether it was teleportation or not, he did not want to die.

"Why?"

Michelle did not turn around, but paused her footsteps with her back facing Kubei as she coldly spoke.

"If you don't keep your promise, even if I told you, you wouldn't let me go." Kubei tried hard to remember the scenes of the web novels he had read, boldly pretending and calmly saying, "I can tell you the way to open the treasury, but you have to guarantee my safety."

A slight chuckle came from within the hood.

As the atmosphere became less tensed, Kubei managed to catch a breath.

"You're smart." Michelle turned around, "I never intended to let you go. To prevent being hunted by the Lithur family. After I get what I want, I would kill you immediately, dice you up, and feed you to the sewer rats, not leaving a single trace.

Kubei wished he could take back what he said.

"...I'm not going to tell you then."

"If you don't talk, we'll torture you, till you break." The way she said it sounded psychotic, "You can choose to die without pain, which is much better than the other option."

"..."

"I must be seriously unlucky," Kubei thought to himself.

Kubei could only think of returning the real Sir Lithur's soul to his body right now, and choke him by the neck, so that he could leave this strange world.

'Damn, I am only a bystander!,' Kubei thought.

"Foolish."

Seeing that he had no intention to speak, Michelle shook her head, getting ready to find the other person.

Under the dire situation, Kubei suddenly came up with an idea.

"Wait!"

Michelle seemed as if she did not hear Kubei as her footsteps did not seem to slow down.

Kubei could only scream at the top of his lungs:

"The Lithur family's treasury, only those with the Lithur family blood can open it. If you kill me, you'll never get to open it!"

Michelle finally stopped her footsteps, and turned and clanked her heels over.

Kubei was finally relieved.

Kubei came up with a generic plot that would be often used in novels and this could somehow end up being the only way to saving his life.

After some silence, Michelle said:

"You're not of the Lithur family bloodline."

"What?!"

Kubei was caught off guard, and his already-bound hands froze.

"You're only a distant relative to the Lithur Family." Michelle's tone had some disdain in it, "Your aunt married a Lithur, you only followed her and managed to acquire the Lithur surname. You don't have a single drop of Lithur blood in you, your so called using your bloodline to open the seal to the treasury, even you couldn't do it."

"..."

This "Sir Lithur" was actually just a small fry in such a huge family?

The headache worsened.

Kubei was left in despair. It felt like he had just carried a stone and to smash his own feet, then digging a pit and jumping into it himself.

He would have other ways of saving himself, but he ended up killing off his own chances with the generic plot.

What can be done now?

He was only teleported for almost half an hour. Do not tell him he would meet the end of his life so soon.

Michelle laughed, and said, "You actually thought, before we kidnapped you, I wouldn't do any research..."

"Your investigations are meaningless!" Suddenly, Kubei was like a different person, sharply interrupting her, "I am part of the Lithur family, I have the purest blood in the family. You are making up this story to test me, what are you even suspicious of?"

"You..."

Kubei forcefully said, "If you're afraid that I'm just buying time, it means you're probably just bluffing. Aren't you nervous about kidnapping a noble? The people sent by my family should arrive any moment, if you drag on, you'll pay with your life."

Michelle was left speechless, once again it was as if the person in the robes was a mannequin.

Kubei let out a few laughs.

'I have gambled correctly.' He thought.

If he was a distant relative, why would he even know of the family treasury? If he was a insignificant relative, why would Michelle kidnap him in the first place?

Kubei thought carefully and his instinct saw through her deception.

Michelle probably noticed that he was acting suspiciously, thus, creating some false information to test him. If he took the bait, he would probably be a dead man now. She would find out that he was not the real Sir Lithur, and he was worthless to her.

But luckily, Kubei was calm enough to see through the lie Michelle had so slyly spun for him.

The person that he had teleported into, was of legitimate Lithur family blood!

His manipulation trick turned out perfectly, stunning the mysterious woman.

"Lady Michelle, if you really want to open the treasury, I think you should hurry." Kubei used this opportunity to make fun of the opposition, "The people from the Lithur family shouldn't be meddled with."

Silence ensued, a great long silence.

"...You win."

Kubei narrowed his eyebrows playfully.

Michelle's words were as if they were coming out from the gaps between clenched teeth: "I'll bring you to the treasury, you open the door for me, we'll keep a distance from you when you're opening the treasury. Once the door is open, we'll leave you to your own devices, you can escape if you want to."

After hearing this, Kubei could not help but smile and say:

"Deal!"

Phew...

The stone that was crushing his heart has finally been lifted, Kubei could see the thread of hope once more.

While he rejoiced upon surviving the torture, he felt that he really was the unluckiest teleporter.

Other people would save their own lives with a certain set cheat codes, all he could rely on was him own mischievous tricks.

But, it was not time to be relaxed yet.

Now that he managed to lie his way through, thus he had to continue lying to survive. This mad woman intended to take him to the treasury, so he had to find a way to escape, or else they would eventually find out about his lie and he would have to face death

The game had just begun.

Kubei reapplied his attention onto Michelle.

As if to show dissatisfaction, Michelle walked away, but the clanking of her heels were louder than before. As she faced the dark corridor, she shouted for her followers:

"Sally, Annie, it's time to go!"

She was probably planning to take Kubei and her followers away from this place, to head to the treasury.

But...

The corridor was silent. There was no reply.

Eh?

It seemed like something had happened. Kubei tried to hide his joy.

"Sally? Annie?"

Michelle raised her voice, her calm voice seemed to start cracking.

Finally, a voice returned,

"Michelle, something's happened!"

Despite the alarming reply, Michelle seemed unmoved by it.

One of the hooded figures came out from the shadows quickly.

"The Lithur family troops are about to arrive! Michelle, this is terrible!"

Kubei immediately became overjoyed upon hearing this, but quickly felt anxious.

How was he going to face the Lithurs whom he had never met before?

On the other hand, if they were to come, Kubei did not think Michelle would let him live either.

Headache.

Michelle calmly asked: "Annie, where did Sally go?

"I, I don't know..."

"Annie, tell me, where did Sally go?"

Annie started stuttering again, as she was in a state a panic:

"Sally disappeared…...I, I'm not that sure. She said she was going to check the surroundings, then she disappeared. I…...I think she probably spotted the people from the Lithur family, and ran away on her own! Or…...she's probably been captured by them!"

Michelle remained silent.

Annie stood in front of her, but the hooded robes were unable to hide her panic,

"Michelle, we need to go, if we continue delaying we'll be captured!"

But Michelle still remained silent.

Silent to the point where Annie felt awkward. She looked as if she was telling a joke, a joke so bad that no one would respond to. One minute, two minutes went away, the whole atmosphere was ice cold, and she could not hold her expression any longer.

Kubei broke the awkward silence.

He dragged his voice, with a sarcastic sort of surprise that was taunting.

"Annie, did you kill Sally?"

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Chapter 2: The Most Unreliable Cheat Code

Translator: J_Squared Editor: J_Squared

"Michelle, you have to believe me!"

If it were not for his bound hands, Kubei would not have hesitated to choke Annie right there and then.

Kubei's ears were about to grow boils from hearing this.

From the moment Kubei guessed that Annie killed Sally, Annie had been defending herself and repeating the same words. Michelle silently pulled Kubei away from his chair, and dragged him out of the underground basement, as if Sally never existed.

They then began their journey to the Lithur family treasury.

It was the dead of the night, and they silently trekked across a dark forest.

Michelle walked in front, and was in charge of leading the way. Kubei's hands were bound and he walked in the middle. Annie was guarding Kubei, and walked behind the other two, while making sure that no troops were chasing behind.

Consequently, they advanced really slowly.

Not because the two women were physically unfit, but because of Kubei.

He intended to buy himself more time.

On the other hand, His body could not bear the walking anymore.

It was not Kubei's actual body, but the body he was teleported into, this Sir Lithur's body, that was just physically too weak.

Kubei would not usually exercise but his body would be nowhere as fragile as the body he was occupying. It was like the body of a ten year old, like a diseased person. His throat would turn dry from walking a little faster, making it hard for him to breathe. This sort of weakness felt like it came from the bones within, and it would spread to every cell of the body. He felt as if he would pass out anytime.

Sometimes, he would even experience random migraines.

Kubei suspected, even if he managed to escape from Michelle's grasp, this body would probably faint in the middle of the jungle and end up feeding the beasts in the jungle anyway.

The chances to escape diminished by half.

He could not rely on himself at all...

"Guess I can only rely on the Lithur family troops," Kubei murmured to himself.

"Based on the torture this body has endured, you've been kidnapped for three days. Three days and they've not tracked you down. It seems that the Lithur family are terrible at tracking. I can already come to a conclusion, if you rely on the troops to escape, the success rate is only ten percent."

A cold robotic voice came from within his mind.

Kubei was not at all surprised.

He wished he could choke this voice to death just as much as he would choke Annie. From the moment he left the underground basement, he had been tormented by this voice.

It appeared around three hours ago.

When Kubei left the underground basement, a sharp pain followed, and this voice started ringing:

"The System is returning to its factory settings, please wait…...Hello, how can I be of service to you?"

The moment the voice first surfaced, Kubei thought he teleported again.

He quickly noticed that Michelle and Annie could not hear this voice so he suspected that he might've been experiencing a mental breakdown.

"You can choose to believe that you've gone mad, and commit suicide. Or you can choose to believe that a sophisticated piece of artificial intelligence has emerged inside your brain to help you overcome all difficulties, in hopes of achieving great success," said the voice in response to Kubei's doubts.

He felt like it made a lot of sense, and there was no way to retort it.

He has his own System. This kind of scenario was common in many teleportation related novels. Nothing could be any stranger to him ever since he found himself teleported to this place.

If there were cheat codes, this would be it.

"Well, tell me, almighty artificial intelligence, how do I escape from the grasp of these two women while relying on my own capabilities to survive in this jungle?"

Kubei asked this expecting an answer.

"If you require human assistance, please press zero."

A digital screen appeared in front of Kubei.

Kubei was shocked.

He looked around, and was relieved to notice that Michelle and Annie did not react.

As his hands were bound, Kubei had to make use of his body movements when he walked, to press the zero button with his nose.

He did this sneakily without anything noticing.

"Teet…...teet…...teet…...Hello, how can I be of service?

Kubei asked once more: "How can I survive after running from these two mad women?"

"If you require human assistance, please press zero."

The digital screen appeared again.

"..."

Kubei decided to believe that he had gone berserk. This ridiculous robot voice and those familiar digits probably were illusions.

Under the stress of teleportation and death threat, his mental health probably had gone out of shape.

Yeah, that must be it!

Kubei ignored the illusion.

But this illusion refused to leave him alone.

"Teet…...teet…...teet…...Please be notified that you have a new mail."

"Recently, I've been playing a game called 'Legendary Dominance'..."

"Please turn right in front in twenty meters."

"...Recalculating."

He felt as if he had heard more nonsense in this journey than the rest of his previous life before this teleportation occurred.

But if the digital screen could broadcast all these information, it was probably not an illusion.

If he took a more optimistic view, Kubei could tell the source the robotic voice. From these spam mail, it was probably from the real world, and it was accidentally inserted into his brain during teleportation.

This did not make much scientific sense at all, but since he already teleported, could he still rely on science?

He could now only regret why did he not appreciate iQiYi's ninety minute ads. The thing playing in his mind right now was that ninety minute ad, and even if he wanted to continue his membership it was far too late.

Kubei never felt so hopeless before.

If this was what he received as a cheat code, he would rather choose death instead.

"Can you stop? Or shut down, just keep quiet for a moment, thanks." Kubei said this in his head.

"Hello, I do not possess this function."

Kubei could not be bothered about getting angry.

"Well, could you tell me then, what the hell are you capable of doing?"

The System replied: "I have the largest databank ever."

After hearing this, it piqued Kubei's interest a little.

A databank, even if it did not sound like an impressive function, but he had yet to understand this world at all and so perhaps the databank could be of good use?

What if possession of huge amounts of data was tantamount to possessing great power?

His teleportation journey did not seem to be as bad now.

After giving some thought, he asked the System: "Well, what kind of data do you have right now?"

"Checking hard drive…... A file detected. Opening the files. Please hold on. "The robotic voice did not sound as annoying as before.

"The file was successfully opened…...Under the flow of time, we've ridden the wind and waves, gone into the concrete jungle, we've given our all. In these happy days, we're extremely grateful and welcome that everyone could make it here today..."

"..."

Kubei thought it sounded familiar and did not sound right.

Was this not the speech he was preparing for his boss before he got teleported?

"You can shut up now."

Finally, he understood: this System was his five year old laptop, and it had somehow merged with his handphone's system.

Before teleporting, he was burning the midnight oil and using his computer. Due to exhaustion, he fell asleep on the computer. Because of this, when teleporting, the computer system somehow merged into his consciousness.

His cell phone was placed on the table, and it could have been teleported along as well. His GPS was installed in his phone.

This hypothesis seemed illogical, but how else could he explain this situation? He had teleported. These items that emerged with his mind, seemed to have also evolved. It could not even be turned off and it continuously played spam messages.

He had accepted his fate.

Why are the Systems in the novels all so powerful? Even if the main characters were useless, they would be carried to their way to success. After so much effort, he had finally gotten his own System, but it was as useless as the main characters in the novel.

He felt really bad.

Maybe it was time he removed the viruses in the computer.

"Your script has grammatical errors, the System recommends amending it to..."

"Shut up."

The System kept quiet for a while, then said: "Your writing is horrible."

"Shut up!"

"The System recommends..."

After some thought, he asked the System once more: "Have you thought of a method to let me escape successfully?"

"..."

The world was finally quiet.

Kubei finally felt relieved. The surroundings he was in right now was already dangerous enough, he did not have time to be bothered by a useless System.

Michelle might find out the truth eventually, then kill him right away.

He was like a fugitive stuck in an escaping game with a difficulty level equivalent to hell. The enemies would watch him closely, and he had barely any weapons. What was the worst of all was that this game even had a time limit!

Once the allotted time had lapsed, the game would end in a bloody and brutal way.

It was not easy getting the System to stay silent, in this rare moment of peace and quiet, Kubei should think of ways to escape!

But, one's needs are never met...

"Michelle, you have to trust me!"

The System's voice only stopped for half a minute, Annie's poor voice followed.

Kubei could not take this anymore.

"Michelle, I..."

Kubei interrupted her:

"It was only murder. Could you please stop?"

Annie was behind him, therefore he did not know how she was going to react. Right when he was done talking, a strong force hit onto his back. Kubei's body was weak and was not able to stand still. He collapsed and took in a mouthful of mud.

Annie kicked him to the ground with just one kick.

From the corners of his eyes, Kubei could tell that Annie was furious. In comparison to the way she treated Michelle it was like she was a different person.

Two lashes of a whip followed.

The fiery and painful sensation travelled up his back, it made Kubei clench his teeth while having cold sweat.

Kubei understood, how Sir Lithur died previously. Even if this body was healthy, it would not be able to handle such fierce beatings. Pity that Sir Lithur was far weaker than a normal person.

Anger rose from inside him.

He should have known, Annie might look weak, but was actually a cruel person. He never thought she could get so furious with Michelle's presence and show such a scary side of her!

Michelle did not appear surprised at all.

"Stop hitting him, Annie, he'll die."

She half-heartedly persuaded her.

"Michelle, he was accusing me. This cunning noble is trying to tear us apart! Please don't believe in anything that he said! "Annie raised her head, facing Michelle with sincerity. "I swear, Sally's death has nothing to do with me."

Kubei tried to suppress his rage, and struggle to stand up.

Right now, he could only endure the pain.

But it did not stop him from feeling disgusted at Annie.

"She said Sally went missing, why now is she saying Sally is dead?"

The robotic voice resurfaced and gave Kubei a shock.

"That's why she's stupid." Kubei shook his head, speaking to the System, "Oh yeah, could you not appear so suddenly..."

"If you require human assistance, please press zero."

"..."

Kubei was tired of this malfunctioning System. He returned his attention to Michelle. He wanted to know how Michelle was going to handle this situation.

If they were to argue, this would probably be the best time for him to escape.

But, Kubei was left disappointed once more.

Michelle turned out to be just as stupid as Annie.

"It's okay, Annie. I believe you." Michelle walked in front of her, then held her hands.

The atmosphere became warm immediately.

"We both managed to climb out of the darkest corners from Havenwright together, we struggled to survive under the rule of the Church together. " Michelle grasped Annie's hands tightly while saying this, "All these years, all that we've been through, what reason do I have to not believe you?"

Kubei could not believe what he was witnessing.

"Michelle, I..."

Annie looked at Michelle, her tears started flowing.

"Annie, do you still remember our dream?" Michelle voice became so tender suddenly.

"Yeah!" Annie suddenly jumped into Michelle's embrace, and said: " One day, we'll build a kingdom. Every inch of soil would have nothing to do with the Church, every mage would be free to walk under the sunlight, and not have any fear of being burnt on a stake."

She cried loudly in Michelle's embrace.

Kubei was stunned.

Actually, this conversation was helpful to Kubei. After hearing of all the church and mage kind of stuff, he already has an idea of what this world's setting was.

This piece of information was useful, he should be happy.

But in his heart, he could not resist saying "What.the.hell".

These two mad women with weird tempers, were a moment ago awkwardly silent, and Annie was careful when talking to Michelle. Shortly thereafter, the two were embracing each other in an intimate moment. How did it end up like this?

The absurdness of this situation was as frustrating as the possibility of watching Obama being ripped apart by Bear Grylls and eaten alive.

The mood of the atmosphere changed way too quickly, and Kubei was unable to react accordingly.

The two seemed to have a really intimate relationship.

Kubei shook his head. Michelle and Annie were hugging and did not notice him shaking his head.

Even the System commented with its cold robotic voice saying:

"What a touching pair of lilies!"

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Chapter 3: The Waterball Spell

Translator: J_Squared Editor: J_Squared

"Michelle, when we're done with this, let's leave this place and go to Ferelden."

After having a moment of intimacy, they continued their journey.

But the atmosphere became entirely different. There was a lot of interaction between them, just like those between biological sisters, and no longer repressing any warmth for each other.

"Sure, I've been thinking of leaving here for a while." Michelle answered softly.

Of course the warmth was not applied to Kubei.

He was treated the same as before -- ropes tied tightly to the point where his hands were numb, his legs were shivering from all the walking, and he had no right to talk. If he opened his mouth, the ever smiling Annie would probably whip him a couple of times.

The saddest thing was, he could only interact with the System.

"Here, try my homemade carrot shred fried noodles."

"This noodle, it's so sweet it's giving me a toothache..."

Kubei interrupted it: "Have you thought of a way for us to escape?

The System became quiet as a hen.

Kubei knew, he could not rely on this unreliable System. He asked the System the question just to silence it.

He continued talking to himself:

"We have to come up with a way, to direct the troops to us without letting Michelle noticing. I need to make sure she won't be able to kill me in time..."

The System interrupted: "The success rates are too low. Why don't you try seducing Michelle instead, the rates are at least twenty-five percent."

"..."

Kubei thought of this suggestion for a while, then finally said to the System: "Get lost."

The three continued to advance. Kubei followed Michelle, all the while acting as if he was about to die, which made Annie worry, but he was actually conscious of what he was doing and secretly plotting on how to escape.

Suddenly, he raised his head and looked at Michelle, then he came up with an idea.

"This will do for now, there's no other way."

Annie was hurrying him to continue moving, and he seemed obedient as he stumbled his way through. Out of the blue, he stopped moving, and pretended to have passed out and fell to the ground.

He closed his eyes and did not move at all.

Michelle stopped walking and turned around. Annie went closer to inspect Kubei for a while, and shook her head:

"He fainted."

Michelle did not say anything at all, but lowered her head in deep thought. There was no way to tell what she was thinking.

"These nobles are all useless."

Annie was unsatisfied, so she gave Kubei a kick.

Kubei managed to resist the pain and tried not to flinch.

At the same time, he wrote the words --"Treasury" with the back of his hand that was behind his back on the ground.

This was what Kubei thought of: He pretended to faint to leave a mark, so the troops would know what Michelle's objective was. With this, they can probably wait in ambush at the treasury.

Due to his subtle movements, Annie and Michelle did not notice that he had left a mark on the ground.

"You really think this would be of help? Even if the troops noticed this marking and managed to catch up, Michelle would still have the time to kill you."

The System said this in his mind.

"It's better than doing nothing at all," Kubei thought to himself.

In fact, if the troops managed to ambush them and kill Michelle in time, his chances of surviving were huge. The System's attempt to discourage him was useless, seeing that Michelle was taking this rather seriously, the Lithur family probably were capable people.

He had high hopes for his plan.

Right when Kubei was done leaving the mark on the ground, suddenly he heard a strange, unknown speech.

It was Annie, she was reading an incantation. Her voice was different from her normal talking voice. These low pitched yet mysterious voices echoed through the jungle, and they seemed to contain magical power, it made Kubei panic.

He could feel that even his soul trembled.

Before he had time to respond, suddenly, a waterball appeared out of thin air, soaking him straight away. The sudden force made him unable to continue pretending.

Following the shivering of his body, he "woke" up.

"How troublesome, wasting my magical force." Annie said, her voice now returned to normal.

Kubei was left in a state of shock.

What was that? A curse? Magic?

Even though from the previous conversations, Kubei had already learnt of the setting of this world, and understood that Michelle and Annie were both mages, but he had yet to witness a mage's magical force himself.

The moment the spell was casted, it felt like his world went upside down.

Time seemed to have stopped. The surrounding muddy ground and trees appeared to fade away. The fear and excitement in his soul interweaved, everything around and within him seemed to be…...to be...

Kubei could not describe the sensation.

"To be more natural." The system suddenly said.

Right, to be more natural!

Kubei seemed to be abuzz. The moment the spell appeared, he felt that he just had a conversation with his true self.

The kind of feeling that felt like it was his first time, but it was even more memorable than his first time. It was like he was in a state of trance, but it was like pain from the endless abyss as well, making him unable to shake the feeling.

His body could not stop shivering.

"This…...is magic?"

Kubei could not resist from speaking out.

He wanted more.

In that moment, he was remembering the lingering sounds from the spell.

"Yes, magic."

What was more surprising was that Annie answered him.

As if she was deeply hurt, she raised her eyes and spoke with a voice filled with hatred:

"What's so unusual? You and your kind don't even understand magic and would rather bury it in a coffin deep in the soil. How could you ever comprehend it?

Kubei regained his consciousness, then looked at Annie with curiosity.

It was as if something got Annie emotional as her speech filled hatred came out one after another:

"You are all weak, you are all scared of what's different from you. Your kind will only rest when everyone becomes as useless as the rest of you. You're all shameless, and wear evil as a hat, making it seem as if you were geniuses. Being normal is just an excuse for you to commit sins."

Annie became agitated even further.

"Annie, that's enough!"

Michelle interrupted her: "What's the use of you saying all these to him?"

Annie stopped for a while, and stopped her harsh words. She was aware the she had lost control of herself, then looked at Michelle:

"Sorry, I became too emotional."

Michelle nodded and did not seem to mind.

"We've wasted enough time. Don't forget, we're wanted criminals by the Church now." She stared at Kubei then said hurriedly: "Let's move."

Annie nodded in agreement. She turned around, gave Kubei a kick, then made him stand up quickly.

"Useless thing, keep up!"

Kubei was not angry at all. He did not react to her rambling at all. He only seemed to be a bit weaker than before, and followed Michelle obediently.

No one knew how happy he was.

"One more time! One more time!"

He screamed at the System in his mind.

Half an hour ago, he did not know that such a cold robotic voice could get him so excited. He did not expect that he would be eager to hear the System's voice and not to stay quiet.

The usually talkative System seemed to shy away instead, after seemingly half a day, it only said a single sentence.

A single sentence, that Kubei could not understand a word of.

But that did not matter, because this was Annie's Waterball spell.

The System recorded every word of it as it was uttered by Annie.

This also meant that he could listen to this spell anytime he wanted now!

When this spell was broadcasted by the System, it sounded like a madman rambling, it did not have the mysterious and magical sensation it had before. But Kubei did not mind, he knew he needed something else to turn this into an actual spell, giving him extraordinary power.

He was determined to find that catalyst.

That's right, from the moment he heard the spell, Kubei decided that he wanted to become a mage.

Not only because he wanted power, he wanted to become a legendary figure.

From the moment he was teleported up till now, he had been thinking why had he teleported? Why was he brought here? Maybe this was a coincidence, but coincidences always have a purpose.

Right now, he felt like he had found the answer.

Magic was calling to him.

He had not escaped from the ordinary life he had, travelling through time and space in order to get here, only to once more become an insignificant gear amongst thousands and million others toiling along in the factory of life.

Like a butterfly fluttering its wings for the first time, Kubei felt like he had just left his cocoon and found purpose.

Right now, all he could do was focus on this spell.

"You can repeat this spell the whole day. I won't ask you to keep quiet anymore."

Kubei was filled with excitement as he said this.

"...Sir, I believe you've contracted Stockholm Syndrome."

The robotic voice seemed to contain some sort of helplessness.

Right when Kubei was trying to figure out the spell, something else was broiling in another part of the world.

Havenwright, under the evening sky, was quiet and solemn.

Saint Peter's cathedral.

Hurried footsteps could be heard between the white marble pillars, and these footsteps stopped in the corridors of the sanctuary. The sanctuary at night was empty, but it gave off the wrong impression that it was full with people.

"Bishop, there seems to be some change happening with 'it'!"

A young priest stopped in his tracks and said anxiously.

"It's been so many years already, every year 'it' will cause some sort of trouble, you don't have to panic,"

The bishop replied nonchalantly.

His stood at the podium with his back facing the main entrance and his head lowered and flipped through a collection of books. His huge red robe was neatly ironed.

On both of his left and right sides, there were pure black chairs and white walls that seemed to match to a tee, with the crimson red in the middle, when merged together, it looked like a lively piece of art.

The moonlight shone through the stained glass, outlining every carving there was on the glass.

"Bishop, it's not the same this time!" The young priest could not calm his nerves down, and continued: "Not only 'it', the sacred items are behaving unusually . Also, we received a holy revelation!"

Drips of sweat flow through his forehead.

The bishop finally turned around. He had an aquiline nose and a sharp stare that came from his deep eye sockets.

"Has the revelation been translated?"

The young priest nodded, his eyes revealed not just anxiety but also fear,

"Translations have been completed."

The bishop did not sound angry at all, "Tell me, what is it?"

The priest swallowed some saliva, his Adam's apple moved up and downwards again.

He opened his mouth, and tried to calm himself down, but got scared by his own terrifying voice. His voice was frighteningly hoarse as if he was as dehydrated as the pagans that were not allowed to drink water in the rehabilitation centre.

These were the words he repeated,

"God said, on the seventh day, the bells stopped ringing."

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Chapter 4: Excavating A New Dimension of Consciousness

Translator: J_Squared Editor: J_Squared

Deep at night in the dense jungle, Michelle and Annie's formation remained the same with one in front and one behind Kubei.

But in Kubei's mind, the robotic voice kept repeating the same words.

Those words were from the spell that Annie used.

"If you really want to learn magic, you might as well ask them both to teach you rather than asking me to repeat this." The System complained to Kubei with frustration after repeating the incantation for countless times.

"That can only happen if they're willing to teach me and not beat me to a point where I lose too much blood."

Kubei was not giving up even though he has not mastered the incantation,

"Don't stop, continue on."

After discovering the utility of the System, he has been researching this incantation for half an hour.

At the same time, Michelle has also led them forward for half an hour. According to her, the location of the treasure chest was already close by. They should be able to arrive after another hour of walking.

Kubei was happy. In fact, he was really happy.

The journey from the underground base to the treasure chest was like hell. He has had to drag his weak body while being chased – and occasionally whipped – by Annie from the back. If this journey were any longer, he might end up dying half way!

At the same time, he has to bear the stress of death, because if Michelle were to find out anything, he might be killed.

Under these twin pressures, he would rather they arrive at the destination earlier.

"Seeing that you're this weak, I don't think you're capable of learning magic, so please spare me this time!" The System was beginning to collapse after repeating the incantation for a few hundred times.

"No, I'm treating it as a song left on loop."

Kubei wasn't planning on sparing it.

Before this, the System was so quick to broadcast useless information – how could Kubei spare it this time? This is what you call karma.

Regarding the spell, he could not seem to find any way to learn it currently. But the only clue he has is this incantation, so of course he will not treat it lightly. The Chinese proverbs are right: When a book is read a hundred times over, the meaning will come to you naturally, and incantations are probably the same.

If once or twice would not work, then he will listen to it up to thousands and millions of times!

He knows that oftentimes the dumbest method might be the most efficient.

"Truthfully, rather than relying on spells, you should just think of a way to escape instead." The System began advising him, "Magic can be learnt slowly later on, if you die now, even if you learn the spell, it'll be useless."

Kubei thought for a while and nodded,"Yeah…...you're right."

After hearing this, the System felt like it was going to cry. Its robotic voice quivered like that of a stranded traveller who found an oasis in a desert.

Finally, it can stop repeating the incantation!

After that, Kubei said,

"Well, do you have other means of escaping?"

The System crumbled once more.

Kubei heard what seemed to be like circuits breaking apart.

Even if it was unwilling, the System started the loop again.

Once, twice, thrice…...Kubei got rid of all his other thoughts, and fully focused on the incantations. In this process, the world became blurry and distant. In his world, the only thing left seemed to be the incantation.

That majestic, incomprehensible and mysterious incantation.

Slowly, he gathered all his senses and felt like he was out of his body and entered a mystical state.

His pupils stopped moving and the color faded like that of a blind person. His breathing and blood circulation also gradually slowed down. The sharp stones penetrated the skin of his feet but he felt nothing.

Annie didn't observe his strange state. In her view, Kubei's body was only becoming weaker than it already was.

Kubei's body continued to advance and he still felt nothing.

But he was aware in his mind.

Kubei suddenly realized that he was in an odd dimension.

"Where…...is this?"

It was an endless void with absolute silence.

It was pitch black.

This place was like ice that froze his soul, making it hard to think. He could not feel any vibrations, warmth, or even his heartbeat and blood flow...

He even could not feel the passage of time.

A sense of danger came over him. It was like he fell into a sinking swamp, and some sort of sticky black substance was slowly drowning him.

It would not be good if this continues.

He started struggling, but his body was like a mouse pulled from the USB port, and there was no response however he moved. He tried calling the system, but there was no reply. In a short while following the endless chill, his brain, like a fan with the electricity cut off, stopped spinning and started collecting dust and spider webs.

The swamp swallowed even the fingernails of remaining finger he raised on the surface.

His thinking stopped, and he lost all consciousness.

...

It continued for a long time, or maybe it was a while.

Then it was like a river that defrosted at spring's arrival, like something slowly seeped into this space. Kubei started gaining consciousness.

What…...came in?

He started thinking.

He was curious about what came in, but he realized that his five senses were gone and he was unable to feel anything. He was like a dot on an endless surface, and there was nothing he could do.

But he didn't give up and he continued struggling against the laws that bound him in place.

In the dark, he started feeling the thing that seeped in come closer and closer. The fiercer he struggled, the clearer the thing became.

After it came even closer, Kubei felt something familiar.

Its name was just a thought away, its sound was circling his ears…...Kubei struggled to remember, but it was like he was one screen away from that thing, and the screen wouldn't break...

What was it...

He was like a spring that was stretched and compressed by some unknown force. As time went by, that force became bigger and stronger.

He was about to crumble.

He felt as if he was going to die any moment.

He was still thinking of that thing's name. He had a feeling, if he said it out, all the troubles he was facing now would be resolved. Its name was like phlegm stuck to Kubei's throat, he opened his mouth and used all his might just to try to spit it out.

The veins on his neck popped out and his skin became red.

The screen was slowly shattering.

He felt like he was closer to the answer, and also closer to death.

But death felt closer.

Suddenly, he was like a balloon that had a hole, as his life drained away quickly. A chill slowly emanated from his soul, blocked his heart, and gradually froze his will to fight.

Am I going to die?

But he was just an inch away from the answer, just an inch...

He couldn't say it out.

He wasn't willing to die.

He was like a rocket that burned up all its fuel right when it was about to penetrate the atmosphere, but instead spiraled downwards pulled by gravity.

How could he be willing?

He couldn't say it out...

Since he couldn't say it, might as well not say it!

He felt like a ball of flame gathered in his throat. He was like an active volcano that saved up its energy in a split second of calm and then exploded at once!

"Fuck…...Fuck you!"

It was like a dot that extended into an endless straight line.

A blinding light suddenly appeared and split the world of darkness into half!

Kubei's stress vanished right away.

He could feel himself breathe once again. His heartbeat started beating, the frozen blood began flowing again. He could feel the elements from all over surging into his body, filling his soul, helping him feel strong as he had never felt before!

"Hahahahaha!"

The space echoed with his laughter.

In this moment, he could finally remember what the familiar thing was!

It was that incantation.

After he sunk into the deep corners of his consciousness, the System didn't stop repeating the incantation: Once, twice, a hundred times, a million times. It has been over half an hour since Annie first used that incantation until now. The sheer number of times the incantation has been repeated over that time added strength to its effectiveness.

It was the incantation that broke the darkness, seeped in, approached him as he lost his way, and finally called him up.

At this point, Kubei lifted his head and faced that ball of light.

He opened his mouth and uttered the incantation.

Mutant!

Like a stone thrown onto a calm surface, the light began violently vibrating. Under Kubei's supervision, the light compressed and condensed, grew in intensity, and condensed into a flowing solid!

After some rumbling, the light shrank into a light ball the size of a fist.

Finally, the light changed, and it became a light blue, triangular-shaped word. It looked like a triangle music instrument, with the thin blue lights folded into an equilateral triangle.

It was a perfect geometrical drawing, but on one of the edges, there was a narrow slit, which means the image has a gap.

As the triangle appeared, a ripple swept over the silent space, and it swarmed over Kubei, making his very soul quiver a little. After that, he felt some sort of humidity spread.

He could not tell why, but he knew that the whole space was different now.

Not just the whole space, but Kubei could clearly feel like he was like a new man. It was like the locks on his body were opened, and he stepped into a whole new world, every cell on his body felt free and easy.

In this moment, the sparkling light blue triangular alphabet emitted something.

"Unbelievable."

At this moment, a robotic voice came from nowhere.

Kubei was shocked, "You're still here?"

The System sounded as if it was unhappy,

"Of course I'm here. How did you think you woke up? If it weren't for me repeating the incantation, you would've lost yourself in your consciousness and became a walking corpse.

Kubei was surprised, "Ah, thank you very much then."

He didn't mind that the System was unhappy, but instead he focused on the triangular alphabet.

A triangle is the most basic shape in geometry, and this alphabet wasn't that complicated, the only special part was that it wasn't joined at one edge. It looked like a simple shape, but Kubei felt that it contained unbelievable power.

If he wasn't wrong, this alphabet came from Annie's incantation. That magic could summon a waterball, so this alphabet must be related to water.

Water...

Kubei was slightly confused. After all that happened, now he has this glowing alphabet, but he wasn't sure what was going on now.

Where was it? How did I come here? What purpose did this alphabet serve? He had so many questions that needed answers.

"Where is this?"

He asked this question first.

"This is a space within your consciousness." The space knew what Kubei was thinking and explained, "A normal person would have his consciousness shut away from them, and they wouldn't be aware of it, and if they enter it, they probably won't be able to escape.

Kubei thought of what happened, and could not help but feel afraid.

He was almost trapped inside, unable to escape.

"But, probably because of that incantation, you're not longer an ordinary human." The System continued, "After what happened, you opened up your consciousness, so there are more possibilities. In simple terms, you've managed to pass the first trial to become a mage.

I see.

He didn't feel excited or touched as he imagined but he only felt calmness. He became more curious than before after fumbling around and managing to become a mage.

This was what a mage was like?

From a certain point of view, he was self-taught. No one told him how a mage came to be, and he didn't know the significance of opening up his consciousness. He was curious and filled with expectations: What have I achieved? And what kind of powers do I have?

And that alphabet, what meaning did it hold?

The questions kept coming, and he wanted answers.

Regarding mages, he knew too little.

"You shouldn't be too happy." The System reminded him, "Becoming a mage can't change the situation you're in now, you're still a hostage."

Hearing this, Kubei was jolted back to awareness.

He stopped rejoicing, and immediately thought of Michelle and Annie, his kidnap and threat of death. He wanted to continue exploring his consciousness and the mystery of the triangle, but at this moment, he had to know what had happened in the world outside.

He has been here for so long, what happened in the world outside?

He had to leave magic aside for now.

Following his thoughts, he came back to reality.

The dark night, the mysterious jungle, a slight pain came various parts of his body. Michelle was in front of him, and Annie was behind, nothing seemed to have changed.

Kubei was surprised.

He felt like he spent a long time in his consciousness, but in reality, not much time has passed.

Unbelievable.

"There were still changes. When you opened up your consciousness, some things have happened."

The System reminded him.

"What happened?

Kubei observed his surroundings, and he realized they have come to a halt. Michelle was facing Annie, the atmosphere was serious and they seemed to be discussing something.

"No, he's making us fall behind too much, we have to abandon him."

Annie was panicking.

"We can't give up! The treasure chest has something very important that I must have."

Michelle couldn't be shaken.

"But we don't have enough time..."

The argument continued. But Kubei didn't understand what was going on, so he asked the System,

"What actually happened?"

The System replied, "It's obvious, the troops are near. Your presence has slowed them by a lot, and because of this they couldn't lose the troops, therefore, they're discussing on whether to give up."

Hearing this, Kubei panicked.

Are the Lithur family troops finally going to catch up?

This was a defining moment.

In this few minutes, his life was at stake.

"You should take this opportunity." The System said, "As the troops come nearer, they probably have no time to care about other things. When they're arguing, their attention is diverted, and the probability of you escaping is high."

It was the truth.

Kubei nodded, and asked the System again, "Well, do you have any idea on where to start?"

Based on previous experiences, he was just asking for fun, and didn't hope to get anything useful out of it.

But, the System was different this time,

"Please wait."

The sound of files transferring in the System rang through Kubei's mind, and it seemed to have the sound of a fan spinning, with a chain of robotic sounds. The System seemed to be downloading some huge file, and every part of it was working on it.

Found something?

Kubei awaited with anticipation.

Could it be…...that the System has found a solution?

Right at this moment, a huge screen appeared in front of his eyes. The blue borders, the white panel, the whole thing was afloat and translucent, and it seemed really sophisticated, giving off a sci-fi feel.

On the board, three digits could be clearly seen:

404

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Chapter 5: Binding Spell

Translator: J_Squared Editor: J_Squared

"Annie, we can't give up this opportunity."

The sisters continued to argue, although it seemed that Michelle had gained the upper hand in the situation.

"But…...we no longer have a choice." Annie said as she shook her head.

After a moment of silence, Michelle suddenly walked closer to Annie and said slowly:

"No, we do have a choice. The only choice is to rely on you."

Hearing this, Kubei began paying more attention.

He also wanted to know what methods are left to escape from the Lithur family troops.

"The Lithur family do not understand what our objectives are, and do not know how many people we have." Michelle said persuasively. "Therefore, it should be easy for you to divert their attention. They will probably think the hostage is in your hands. All you have to do is run south, and they won't be able to catch up."

Annie was hesitant:

"Me…...divert their attention?"

Michelle nodded her head, then pointed at Kubei, saying:

"I will make him hide here with me. Once you lead the troops away, I'll bring him to open the treasure chest. Once I get what we want, we'll meet up at the same old place."

She said this with confidence: "Don't worry, I'll wait there for you!"

"..."

After hearing Michelle, Annie was silent.

Annie and even Kubei, who was beside them, could see that Michelle's plan was to sacrifice Annie and protect herself.

It could be said that this strategy is to divert the enemy from the main target. In less optimistic terms, it was asking Annie to sacrifice herself. To grab the attention of the pursuing troops, she will have to get close to them. But once she gains proximity, it's hard to say whether or not she can escape them again.

"This plan is cruel," the System's robotic voice suddenly piped up. "Torturing and escorting – all the tedious tasks are given to the younger sister. With this plan, you'll exhaust her energy and then send her out to be a bait. Even if Annie can use magic, it would be hard for her to get rid of the troops chasing her again."

Kubei suddenly felt a chill run through his spine:

"You're saying, she already planned to get rid of Annie all along?"

The System sounded really sure: "It's obvious that she doesn't want to split the treasure with another person. Think about it: When Annie killed Sally, she knew clearly what she was doing. Why else would she pretend to be oblivious if not for this plan?"

Kubei sunk into deep thought.

Before that, he only saw through one of Michelle's plot, but he didn't think too much of her then. With the latest insight, it seemed that the victory then may have been motivated by other factors:

He needed to buy time to allow himself to escape. But Michelle, she needed to make a deal. As there were soldiers chasing her, she couldn't sit around questioning him. What seemed to be a victory for Kubei was probably deliberately given to him by Michelle.

After thinking about it, Kubei felt as if he had fallen for her tricks.

He shouldn't have spoken in the first place.

If he kept his mouth shut, he would probably have to endure a lot of physical pain, but Michelle wouldn't kill him because she really wanted the treasure.

To avoid the Lithur family troops, Michelle would keep changing the base of operations, and continue questioning him. During this tug-of-war between her and the troops, he can buy more time, and she'll lose her cool even further. In the end, he could probably put her into a state of panic.

The one who should be panicking is Michelle, and not I, Kubei thought.

Regarding the physical torture he'd have to go through, Kubei felt that he has already endured quite a lot along the way.

"I'm at a total loss here!" He couldn't bear but say that to himself.

"But it's not really a total loss. Didn't Annie accidentally killed someone? If you can't put up with her torture, she'll probably kill you by accident as well, and that would be a shame." The System spoke in a friendly manner to comfort Kubei. "Whichever the situation, you'll experience a little less torture.'

Kubei sighed again, but accepted his fate. He has already fallen for someone else's tricks, and that's the past. Rather than regretting it now, he should think of what to do next.

He should know, he doesn't have much time left.

"Annie wouldn't be willing to become cannon fodder. What if I escape when they argue -- what are the chances of that?"

Kubei and the System discussed for a while, but it seemed like he was talking to himself.

"Very low." The System's reply was harsh as usual. "Even if they started arguing, they wouldn't be totally blind. If a huge living person were to slip away under their eyes, who wouldn't notice?"

Hearing this, Kubei couldn't retort because it was a fact.

He nodded, saying:

"What you say is right, do you have a better idea then?"

"...No."

"Then we'll do what I say." Kubei said this with absolution.

The System had nothing to say.

After making a plan, Kubei's attention returned to reality. He quietly observed Michelle and Annie, waiting for the right moment.

But his plan is bound for failure.

Annie didn't speak and looked as if she couldn't make up her mind. Michelle, seeing this, knew that they didn't have much time. She walked forward and held Annie's hands, launching her "affectionate Sister" mode once more.

"Annie, I have believed in you up till now. Can you believe in me this time?"

Just with this sentence, a few sounds of sobbing came from within Annie's hood.

After that, Annie said:

"Yeah, I believe in you!"

Kubei started panicking once more.

They…...actually…...didn't argue...

"Michelle, under the third tree at the old place, I've kept all my treasured belongings under there, remember to go dig them up." Annie said as she sobbed, as if she was giving her testament and will. "You have to continue living on, and accomplish our dreams, I'll be there by your side..."

Saying this, the two hugged, and started crying.

Kubei was speechless.

"She's not dumb, after all, she knew that Michelle was sending her to be cannon fodder. She knows that she'll die for sure. Why doesn't she fight back?

Kubei couldn't believe what he was seeing.

The System behaved as it usually does, and in a tone similar to an old lady watching a Qiung Yao drama while wiping her tears, it said:

Due to the lack of time, this display of "Sisterly Affection" was cut short. Annie only cried for a few seconds, and they parted. After the few seconds of gazing deeply into each other's eyes and holding hands, Annie nodded, and turned her back.

The vision of her robes blurred as she ran towards the road where they came from.

She was ready to divert the troops away.

Seeing Annie's disappearing figure, Kubei still couldn't react.

His plan was to run away when they argued, but his plans couldn't keep up with change. What he never expected was that they wouldn't even argue, and Annie would be so subservient to go to her death.

How is her brain even wired?

Looks like he has a lot more to learn about this new world that he has been teleported into.

Right as Kubei was trying to figure out the next step, Michelle moved. She reached out her hand, and pointed it at Kubei, the night breeze blowing her long robes.

A complicated and obscure incantation suddenly passed into Kubei's ears.

Before Kubei could react, he felt a strong force surrounding him. This force bounded him in a flash, and he was unable to move a muscle.

Michelle walked over, dragged him by his collar, and pulled him up the nearest tree.

Kubei was stunned. What did she plan to do?

Because of the magical bind, Kubei couldn't retaliate, and could only watch as he was dragged up the tree. Then, he was tied to the highest branch on the tree.

After making sure Kubei was secure, Michelle sat beside him and used the tree leaves to create a perfect camouflage.

She hid on top of the tree and waited for the Lithur troops to be diverted away.

Kubei was bounded tightly in place and closely watched by Michelle. He was not even able to make any small movements.

"This woman has extraordinary strength!"

In the midst of the silence, the System suddenly exclaimed, startling Kubei: "She's probably not male right? I was wrong, I shouldn't have asked you to seduce her."

...

The System wasn't at fault, Michelle did just display tremendous strength.

Kubei's body was frail, but he was still a human, and should weigh at least forty-five kilograms. But Michelle just dragged him like she was holding a bag, and singlehandedly climbed up the tree. Such agility was spectacular to watch.

Kubei could only continue to be in shock.

"In this new world, there are a lot of things I have to learn!" he thought.

"Don't panic, the magic should go away on its own. " Michelle looked at Kubei, then said: "Sir Lithur, I'm only hoping that we can cooperate better, please don't bring me anymore trouble.

"..."

Kubei wanted to speak up, but found that the magic bound every part of him, even his mouth.

He could only stare at her angrily.

"You're done for."

The System voiced out again, taunting in its cold, robotic voice: "Being bounded so tightly to this tree, there's no chance to escape at all. The troops would probably be diverted by Annie, and the hope that they will come to the rescue is no longer possible. You're absolutely done for this time."

It was the truth.

Kubei sighed. What Michelle did was cruel. Not only did she send Annie to become cannon fodder, but she managed to seal off all of his escape routes. Whether it was to escape or be rescued, both outcomes were out of Kubei's reach.

"Pity that I, such a magnificent piece of artificial intelligence who has so much potential, has to die here with you in this god forsaken place."

The System started to ramble on how unlucky it was, giving Kubei goosebumps.

"That's enough, there's no point in saying all these. "Kubei interrupted it, "Who says that you and I are about to die here?"

The System stopped its rambling. Even though Kubei couldn't see it, he could feel it looking down on him: "Poor child, you're about to die, having some hope is probably for the better."

Kubei didn't take what it said to heart.

"Even a saint would make a mistake eventually. Michelle sealed off all of my escape routes, but, unknowingly, she may have opened a window for me."

The System was the same as usual: "Really? Where's the window, why can't I see it?

Kubei didn't explain, but laughed in his heart. His attention came back to reality, and he looked at Michelle who was unaware of what was going on. He said in his mind to the System:

"Her incantation just now, you've recorded it, right?"

"..."

The System was left speechless.

"The Waterball spell is probably useless, but a binding spell? She probably doesn't know that we still have a trump card. "Saying this, Kubei looked at the sky with satisfaction. The night had descended, and the clouds covered the sky. It was a good time to hunt.

Who would be the prey, and who would be the hunter?

It is probably time got the roles to be swapped.

Together with the night breeze, the sentence that broke the System's heart was uttered:

"Binding spell incantation, leave it on loop."

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Chapter 6: The Cleaner

Translator: J_Squared Editor: J_Squared

There are three major misconceptions in life: the vibrations of a cell phone, if a girl likes me, and whether I could retaliate.

Kubei realised he was trapped deep in the third misconception.

Based on the trust he had towards the System's loop reading function, he focused his attention onto the spell, and intended to use the binding spell to retaliate against Michelle. The System did not disappoint, as it repeated the spell without complaints.

The one that disappointed him was himself.

Regardless of how many times the System repeated the spell, how hard Kubei focused, he could not learn the spell.

By focusing his attention, Kubei returned to the space within his consciousness. Everything was constant within it, with the blue triangular symbol shining in the darkness beyond. The voice of the System repeating the spell echoed in the space as well, just like the waterball spell, reverberating repetitively in the space.

Nothing happened.

Kubei felt as if he threw a pebble into a lake, wishing for ripples. Instead, the lake was already frozen, and the effort he gave was for naught.

"This metaphor is not very suitable," the System interrupted as it stopped the loop, "A lack of ripples does not necessarily equate to a frozen lake. Your situation is better illustrated with the lake that has totally dried out."

Kubei did not want to play word games with the System, but after some pondering, he felt that the System's words had hidden meanings.

"What do you mean?"

Triumphantly, the System pretended to clear its throat, and spoke slowly , "The surface of the lake is the space in your consciousness and the spell is the pebble. The act of throwing a pebble and breaking the frozen surface is like unlocking the dimension of your consciousness. However, unlocking your consciousness can only be used once, it is impossible to use the same method to learn a second spell."

"How could I learn it then?"

"When it comes to this…." The System halted for a few seconds, and said unabashedly, "To whom should I forward your question to?"

"…..."

He should not have had expectations towards this fellow.

Kubei shook his head.

Although the System blabbered like an old shaman, Kubei must admit that its inference towards the unlocking of the consciousness was quite reasonable. It would be unrealistic of him to learn the spell using the same method.

If he could not use this method, what could he do then?

The cons of self-teaching were eminent now. He became a mage without any theoretical basics. Grandfather Mao once said, "Theory guides practice." Presently, he did not have any guidance in the road to becoming a mage, and it was as if he was walking blind. He could only learn from Grandfather Deng, and explore his way out of the problem.

Kubei's frustration was insurmountable. He wished he could run to Michelle and tell her in her face, "Sister, teach me magic, pretty please?"

"You cannot learn this spell anymore. What a shame."

The System said happily, as it no longer needed to put the spell on loop.

"If I cannot master the spell, I will be killed by Michelle, and you will die with me," Kubei reminded the System, and it became silent.

Kubei stopped paying attention to the System after the looping plan failed. Instead, he focused on the space of his consciousness.

The unlocked space of his consciousness was the source of his magical powers. If there was anything that could change Kubei's predicament, anything that could answer his questions on magic, it must be within this darkness.

It was useless to stare into the space, Kubei thought, so he walked towards the triangular symbol.

He reached out and aimed at the symbol, then uttered the Waterball Spell.

It was as if the symbol became an actual triangular instrument. It was hit by an invisible force, vibrated, and emitted a "ding" sound. The clear voice was like a moist wave, spreading itself throughout the space within seconds.

A peculiar feeling rose within him. Kubei shuddered after the sound, and a numbing sensation spread throughout his body. When he snapped back into reality, a ball of water floated above his palm.

"Wow, how amazing! You can now make a water ball!" the monotonous, mechanical voice appeared and said cornily, "Quick, tell me, how do you plan to defend justice with a water ball and defeat the evil Michelle?"

Kubei ignored the System's taunt. At the moment when the water ball was formed, the space became clearer in his eyes, as if he was the blind that could finally see, he was amazed and ecstatic when he experienced a sensory event that he never had before.

Although it was just for a second, he still managed to observe quite a few things.

There was an enchanting force filling this space.

Usually, this force could only float around like air. However, when he chanted the spell, the triangular symbol emitted a wave, and this wave influenced the dormant forces to assemble like tadpoles hunting for food.

Thus, the water ball in his hand was formed.

Use the symbol as a medium to attract the scattered forces and utilise them! Kubei felt that he found the nature of magic.

However, he quickly became let down again, because his newfound knowledge did not help him in any way. It even destroyed the last hope he had.

He could feel that this energy had its attributes.

The moist energy that was filled with life, was 'water'.

When he chanted the Waterball Spell again, he could feel a repelling force from it.

It seemed obvious now that the energy that the Waterball Spell required was not 'water'.

Kubei tried to feel the energy from other attributes, but unfortunately, the force within the space of his consciousness happened to be 'water', and only 'water'. Once he left the space of his conscious to sense the energy from the real world, he could only feel water as well.

Just like how you could only pick up your child from a kindergarten after school. There was no use to try and collect another child as they would not follow you regardless of how loud you called for them.

Furthermore, Kubei's 'child' was a mischievous one. No matter how hard Kubei attempted, 'water' only slightly responded to him within a limited radius. He still needed to work on the craft much longer in order to freely command 'water'.

"I never knew that I, a wise being for all my life, will be attached to a watered down, half-wit like you," the System moaned in anguish after it found out about this, "Tell me, why could you only control this 'water'? What use could this possibly be? It wouldn't be enough to wash your feet!"

Kubei could only begrudgingly agree with the System.

This Waterball Spell really had no fucking use whatsoever!

The plan on using magic to retaliate failed before it was even brought into action. The imagined plot point hunting back his hunter lasted for only ten minutes. The identity change imagination came back to slap Kubei in the face so fast, he felt the collective hate from this world he travelled into.

He was at wits ends now!

Kubei opened his eyes, left the space of his consciousness to return to the real world.

The evening breeze was still blowing, the tip of the trees making soft, rustling noises under the wind. Michelle crouched at the branches at the side, unmoved like a statue. Her hood covered her face. Kubei could not make out her present facial expression.

In hindsight, Kubei never did see Michelle's face since the start. She was like the most evil and mysterious witch in a movie, with wicked ideas boiling within her, as if she was always planning another more villainous plan.

Kubei stared at her, wanting to find some flaws from the eerie cloak.

"Oh, you finally decided to exploit your body?" the System piped as it emerged with impeccable timing, "You finally talked yourself through, I'm relieved. Here, look at this Weibo article that was shared over a million times, , you will get her as easy as ABC…."

Kubei ignored it.

He prepared to find a way to escape from Michelle, but it would not be the idiotic plan suggested by the System. Even if he did plan to use his physique to charm his way out of this, there was no guarantee that Michelle would even look at him seriously. From the first minute he came into this universe, it was painfully clear that he did not have the blessings of a main character in a harem, where females would come running into his arms.

Instead, he planned to talk with Michelle.

Another way of phrasing it would be him trying to negotiate with Michelle. Just like when he just arrived here, he wanted to use whatever chips he still had in his grasp to convince Michelle into a deal. Then, he could survive.

It sounded absurd, but he was willing to take whatever chances under these circumstances. Although this was a bad idea, but could it be worse than the predicament he was in?

He would not give up this easily.

Thus, he adjusted his stature and said, "Lady Michelle, you are in grave danger."

The first fundamental point in negotiation is to boost your stance, make an empty show of strength, and to raise alarm with threatening speech. This had the same reasoning as fortune tellers going about telling people that their ophryon looked black, and that they would experience bloody tragedies in the future. In short, it had to do with just creating fear.

Of course, he knew that this sentence alone was not enough to scare Michelle. That was why he had a backup. Below are the conversations Kubei constructed in his mind:

"Lady Michelle, you are in grave danger."

Michelle scoffed, "What rubbish are you saying?"

Kubei chuckled without warmth, "You thought you could delay the progress of the troops behind us by sacrificing Annie. However, unfortunately, the family knew your end goal will be the treasure vault. They are there waiting for you to fall right into their ambush!"

Shocked, the blood drained from Michelle's face, "Impossible! How could they know?"

Kubei arched his face towards the sky and laughed, "Hahaha, I left secret signals on the way, and left messages to the troops. You never expected that, did you? Hahaha! Give up and admit defeat, Michelle, your wits are miles away from mine!"

Michelle's lost her cool and turned pale, as if she was struck by lightning, "Oh no, what should I do? Am I going to die soon? You must know the way to save me, please tell me, quick, I'll do whatever you want."

Then, Kubei could make a deal with Michelle for her to release him, and in exchange, he would try and give her the treasure once he arrived safely to the family. Michelle would cry in appreciation, and escort him back to the family. Whether he would want to help Michelle would be another matter entirely, it would be unnecessary to fulfil the empty promise once he was safe and sound!

With that, he could escape safely, and Michelle would lose her hostage and her treasure.

Perfect!

Kubei caressed his chin as he admired himself.

However, just like how every sane person would think, the reality would rarely follow the wishes of a man.

Michelle ignored him.

Kubei did not lose his cool. He knew that it would not be as smooth as he imagined, but despite the windy road, the future would remain bright. There was no way this small mishap could stop him.

Thus, he continued, "I am not bluffing you, you are indeed in imminent danger. Michelle, do you not believe me?"

Finally, Michelle answered him, "You are right, I believe in you."

Kubei was speechless. Something must have gone wrong somewhere.

Michelle was as calm as a eunuch in a whorehouse, "You left secret signals on your way here, and thus left a message to the troops behind us. It is unfortunate to say that they would already know that my final goal is the treasury, thus they will be there in ambush, waiting for me to fall."

"…."

Kubei was lost.

The System spoke in his mind, its voice full of hatred, "I hate these people the most! They never follow the script, and they even stole lines from others. How do they expect the people acting alongside them to respond?"

Although this metaphor would be considered bad, but Kubei still felt like digging a hole and hiding underneath it.

Even though he could not see Michelle's face under the cape, he could still feel the ridicule and overwhelming intelligence. Originally, he was grateful that the signals went unnoticed by Michelle, but….

There was no turning back now. He said it, and now he could only grit his teeth and continued, "Uh, although you saw my signal, but you might not have cleared all of them."

Michelle said, "No, I did not clean them, all of them are still there."

Hearing this, Kubei was shocked.

If there was no clean up, that meant the troops from the Lithur family would see them. Thus, Kubei would have the leverage he wanted in the negotiation. This was exactly the same as what he planned!

Why then? Why did Michelle trip herself over with the stones she laid down?

Kubei was curious now, "Why? You knew that this would only harm you, right?"

A cold chuckle arose from the cloak.

However, just when Kubei thought she would explain, everything changed. Michelle grabbed a dagger out of nowhere and pushed it towards Kubei's throat.

"Keep quiet if you still value your life!"

The blade lied closely on Kubei's skin, the chill sending shivers down his spine.

What the fuck was this woman doing?

If the dagger was closer by even a millimeter, there would be a bloodbath within this forest.

Kubei felt that he broke into a cold sweat in these few seconds. Although he was startled and death's cloak was near him, he forced himself to calm down.

No matter how crazy Michelle was, she would still need him. Thus, she would never kill him off without reason. Since she told him to be quiet, something must have happened. He should stay silent and observe for now….

Suddenly, at the forest far away, there was a commotion.

Kubei instinctively withheld his breath.

A troop of strict-looking knights walked towards them slowly from the dark.

The troop consisted of approximately more than ten people, and although they were all riding horses, their formation was as neat as geometrical shapes from a mathematical equation. Every single one of them was covered with armor, their breastplate engraved with intricate designs. They looked magnificent, but also dignified.

The most amazing part was that even though the forest was dark, the armor was emitting a muted gold light. Under the holy light, these knights look like gods that descended from the heavens, compelling people to worship them.

They marched with the momentum of a thousand troops with only around 10 people.

Kubei felt Michelle's obvious tension when these knights appeared.

He could not help but be interested.

Who were these knights? Did their appearance have anything to do with Michelle? Why was Michelle so nervous? Unless…. they were the troops from the Lithur family?

Of course, Kubei was not stupid enough to call for help. The dagger was still under his throat, and calling for help would only hasten his death.

The knights did not notice Kubei and Michelle, who were hiding on a tree. They looked like they were just passing by, and as their march was quite fast, they disappeared from Kubei's view moments later. Once the knights left the vicinity, Kubei felt that Michelle very obviously became relaxed.

After a few more minutes, Michelle kept her dagger away.

Kubei touched his throat. The chill of the steel still lingered, and he was shaken from the encounter.

What exactly was Michelle trying to do? Who were the knights? Also…. the question from before, why did Michelle not erase the signals he left behind?

He had too many questions.

Before he managed to ask, Michelle spoke, "Sir Lithur, please forgive the disrespect I've shown. I was only acting for our safety. Please relax, and I could answer your questions now."

Michelle wiped the dagger with her sleeve and kept it safely. Then, she gazed at the direction the knight left and continued, "About your signals, it was unfortunate to say that I have no need to clean them up."

Kubei was surprised and baffled, "What do you mean?"

Michelle was momentarily silent, and as if she remembered something, she sarcastically said, "You really thought there would be troops wanting to save you? Shame, you and Annie were cheated. There were no troops from the Lithur family. The only ones that were after us were the troop that just left."

No troops?

Kubei was stunned.

How could it be? Did the family give up on him? It was Michelle who said again and again that there were troops from the Lithur family. Even Annie believed in her without doubt! Was everything a lie?

Fuck this shit!

This woman planned to cheat everyone from the start. She did not even spare her accomplices! Kubei, a teleportation newbie, would of course be cheated. He wasted a whole night pondering on escape plans on these 'troops' that never existed! Uttering 'fuck' would not be sufficient to express his feelings.

Without the troops, he would be left with no choice but death!

"Wait, who are they?"

Kubei asked, as he forced himself to remain level-headed despite being in shock and fear for his life. He thought and pointed towards the direction where the knights left. The knights had left quite an impression on him.

His instincts told him that they would be his last hope.

However, Michelle's tone of answer was strange, "They…. They are the 'Cleaners' from the church."

Kubei asked again, "Cleaners? What do they clean?"

Michelle heard him and was silent. She then laughed shortly without reason, her voice scratchy like rusted blades rubbing against each other. She stared at the direction where the knights came, and spoke with disdain and self-deprecation.

This was her answer, "Today, they are here to cleanse Annie."

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Chapter 7: Annie's Death

Translator: J_Squared Editor: J_Squared

Annie used to think about how she would die on a regular basis.

It was quite strange to say that she would not prefer to die in a clean way. She dreamt of being torn into pieces, her death extremely disturbing, but she would not feel even a slight sense of terror or unease. Once, she dreamt of herself, dead peacefully on a sickbed. People hosted her a beautiful funeral, and Michelle stood quietly in front of her tombstone. Michelle gave her a lily.

She jumped awake from her dream, damp from cold sweat. She tossed and turned in bed, but could not sleep anymore.

Since she met Michelle, almost all of Annie's dream have been related to Michelle. Chopped to pieces by Michelle, burnt to death by the church with Michelle, strangled Michelle to death with a rope…. There was even once where she and Michelle were at a dirty little motel, getting frisky with each other. But once she was awake, she never had any similar thoughts.

Until she decided to betray Michelle.

The thought to betray Michelle emerged once Michelle stopped trusting her. However, that was not the initial conflict. Before Sally appeared, Michelle was Annie's belief, her mental support – Michelle was her God.

Michelle could kill anyone, Michelle could get anything she wanted.

It was like the first time she met Michelle. It was in a motel late at night, and Michelle arrived like a messenger from God. She descended from the sky, and beheaded Annie's client with a swing of her sword.

The scene from that moment was fresh as if it happened only yesterday: The client's headless body was still lying on top of her, and it shuddered and twitched like a cock plucked clean of its feathers. The head had a slightly amusing expression as it rolled on the floor. Blood was everywhere, painting the yellowish mattress and blankets. Even the stubborn, moldy smell on the blanket was washed away.

God knows how much she hated that moldy stench.

Every time she took in a client, she could only focus on the ceiling of the motel to distract herself from the awful smell. No matter how terrible the client was, she could always zone herself out to ignore the quavering flesh and oily noses. The only thing she could never put up with was the distasteful smell of the mold.

That smell was alike the childhood bedsheet that she had. It was humid and sticky, and it reminded her constantly how lowly she became.

In order to avoid the smell, she would open her mouth to breathe. Sometimes, some clients would take that as a compliment and perform more vigorously, but she never paid much attention.

Looking back, the only thing she remembered clearly throughout the five years of her work was the ceiling that she spaced out on, and the gruesome odor of the blanket.

Thus, when Michelle killed the client, Annie was not afraid. Instead, she felt a slight sense of ease and elation as the scent of blood flushed away the moldy stench.

After that, Michelle kept her sword and looked at an expressionless Annie.

"Follow me, and you will be a mage," she said.

At that time, Annie had no idea what was a mage. But she nodded, and she etched that sentence into her heart. Until now, she could still utter the sentence without missing any words. The moment was as if it was paused into an oil painting, the details on Michelle's clothes, the angle of the opened door, the position where the head rolled away, the shape of the stains on the wall…. It was like it happened just moments before, and the scene was as fresh as fishes that just got caught from the sea.

That was how unbelievable Michelle's existence was.

Maybe that was why Annie was enraged when she found out Michelle no longer believed in her.

The pivoting point happened three months after she learnt magic under Michelle.

That day, Michelle led a woman who looked like a bamboo back to her. It was dinner time, and the stranger followed Michelle through the door, and sat smiling without waiting for people to speak. She acted like she was the owner of the place, and she took the only sausage on the plate.

That was the dinner Annie left for Michelle.

Annie dumbly looked at the woman, staring at her high cheekbones and her cruel brows. Annie was appalled, she did not know who this woman was, and she did not know whether she should be angry.

She shared a look with the woman, and the woman smiled, "Hello, I'm Sally."

Sally, what a stupid name. Only the dimmest of the peasants, who drank three buckets of beer and fell into a cesspit, could come up with this name for her daughter. She must have also been barely conscious at that time.

However, Annie did not throw a temper and give the shameless woman a slap on the face. She did, however, look at Michelle carefully. Michelle did nothing but said, or command, her.

"From today onwards, she will be our partner."

Annie felt like she fell into the Pearl Lake in the winter. Cold, agonized, numb in her bones.

This feeling was overly familiar.

It was as if she was sent back to her childhood, and was once again that clueless young girl.

When she was five, her mother did the same thing. She carried a wrinkly baby boy in her arms and came before her to say, "From today onwards, he will be your baby brother."

How similar.

Her mother was the infamous deserted wife of the village, her father left the day she was born. In order to find her husband, her mother sold her fields and milk cows. As she started her journey in search for her husband, sometimes she would leave for three days, sometimes it took five days. Annie could only rely on the help from neighbors, and sat at her old home to wait for her mother, who came back disappointed, every single time.

When she was five, her mother left for ten days, and she came back with a baby boy, her brother. Rumors had it that he was the child of her father with another woman. Annie never knew where her father was, and her mother refused to say anything about her father after her mother's return.

After that, it seemed like her mother gave up, and she stopped going out to find her father. Instead, she got addicted to beer. Annie was afraid of her drunk mother. Sometimes she would jump awake at night, and realize that her mother was staring at her, but instead of a loving gaze of a mother towards her child, it was a hateful gaze towards an enemy.

The gaze her mother had for her brother was different.

Even when she was drunk, her mother would caress her brother with the softest touch, sing lullabies to him, tuck him under the blanket, or steal milk from the neighboring village for him. Sometimes, even Annie felt that her mother's gaze towards her brother was not a mother to son, but from a woman to a lover.

Not to mention, he was not even her own son.

Annie hated her brother, but she had no choice. She went to the mountains to dig up wild vegetables, did all the household chores, helped the neighbors to farm. The money she got, aside from the ones her mother took for the alcohol, she gave it all to her brother. The best clothes, the best food…. Everything for the satisfaction of her mother. Every time she sewed and patched up the clothes for her brother, she could feel her mother's gaze on her soften, just a little bit.

Mother still loved me, she felt.

As time went by, mother became increasingly decadent, and treated her worse than before. Annie treated her mother and brother as best as she could, and finally, all of it reached the peak.

The turning point happened, just like a corpse that decomposed until finally, maggots broke out of it.

When she was twelve, she wanted to earn money, and was brought to a motel by a bald, middle-aged man. That was her first time. The first time, and she fell in love with the molded ceiling of the motel. She looked at the motel as she counted the money she could get, and the food she could buy for her brother, and how delighted her mother would be. This made her happy too.

However, once she took the money back home, her neighbor told her that her brother drowned in the Pearl Lake.

She could never forget how her mother looked at her when she arrived home that day.

Mother never did say anything about her brother's death. She just sat on the bed how she usually did, half-covered under the old, worn blanket, a half-empty beer bottle in hand. She stared at Annie, coldly.

Annie understood what she meant under her gaze, "I hope it was you who died."

Hence, Annie did not say anything. She walked towards the bed in silence, took out the money she earned just now, and placed it beside her mother's hand.

Mother glanced at her again, and finally she said:

"Slut."

The next day, Annie found her mother's corpse in Pearl Lake. Just like her brother, mother's features changed, and her face was swollen like a fermenting bread. 'Mother would be happy,' Annie thought when she saw the body, 'Brother and mother look alike now. No one will ever say that they are not blood-related anymore.'

At her mother and brother's funeral, Annie cried a lot. That was the first time she cried, and she felt relieved.

After the funeral, she left the village.

Before she met Sally, she did not understand her feelings towards her mother and brother. She thought she loved them, as she sacrificed so much for them. Their death devastated her, which caused her to leave her home and wander around.

But once she saw Sally, she realized. She hated her brother, just like how she hated Sally, who was right in front of her.

She hoped to slap Sally, just like she hoped to strangle her baby brother right from the start.

Despite that, she did not. She maintained indifference as she watched Sally finish the sausage, and spoke cowardly, "Hello, I'm Annie."

She walked into a new cycle.

Sally was smarter than she was, Sally was more talented in magic than she was, Sally was more eloquent than she was…. Everything happened just like what Annie expected. Michelle's scale slanted slowly but steadily towards Sally. No matter how hard she tried, how obedient she was, Michelle always gave more attention to Sally than her.

Every single night, she craved to get out of bed discreetly, and slit that woman's throat using a dagger. She would let the blood cover the fake smile she hated so much. However, she did not dare to do so.

Just like how she could not muster up the courage to kill her brother, she could not touch even a single strand of hair of Sally's.

This made her hate herself, more and more.

She also found out that she was that kind of person that treated people better when they treated her worse. This somehow became a motivation for her to run away from her lowliness. She wanted to change herself from the inside out.

Thus, she became even more extreme. She tortured all of Michelle's hostages, and used the cruelest methods to slaughter enemies. This delighted her. She felt like she changed, she became greater, and no longer was the weak, stupid little girl. People would be afraid of her now.

However, she still would not reveal her true colors to Michelle and Sally.

She did not kill Sally.

Annie was stunned when Michelle did not believe her. How could she kill Sally? How would she dare to kill Sally? Her dead mother and brother from long ago became thick, heavy chains that locked her down. She could never take that step.

After Sally's complaint, Annie did not even argue with her. She knew that Sally was a person with no restraints, and it was not even the first-time Sally spoke badly about her. It happened right in front of her several times, she could not even imagine the times Sally talked about her behind her back. Though, she never protested, she did not even grumble.

It was Sally who approached her.

"Annie, don't be angry at me, I didn't want to frame you like that intentionally just now," Sally explained.

"Annie, don't you think Michelle is acting strangely? She knew so much but she doesn't tell us anything. We don't even know what is in the treasury! Say, why does she have to have more power over us. I really don't think she as much stronger than us anyway…." Sally fretted.

"Annie, I heard Michelle has a treasure on her that could double the magical powers of the holder. Let's go and snatch it from her! Don't be afraid, Michelle isn't as strong as she looks. As long as we take the opportunity when she is resting..."

Sally instigated.

"Annie, please, don't do this! Please don't tell Michelle, please, no! Michelle would kill me! Please, I beg of you, don't tell Michelle I wanted to betray her, please?"

Sally begged.

When Annie defeated Sally and bound her with magic, she realised how much stronger she was as compared to Sally. Sally's usual arrogant demeanour, however, was one that she faked.

Still, she did not intend to kill Sally. She wanted to inform Michelle, and let Michelle decide on what was supposed to be done. Michelle hated betrayers the most, and once she saw who Sally really was, she would kill her. That would be amazing, watching the thing that she dreamt to do but never had the courage to do be fulfilled.

As long as Sally died, Michelle would focus on her again, she thought.

However, she underestimated Sally's conviction.

Sally, backed into a corner, made a tragic decision. Although she was bound by Annie and could never escape, but she could still have control over her own life. Hence, before Annie could react, she imploded her magical power from within and committed suicide.

"Annie, she would never trust you anymore." That was Sally's last words.

Annie was pushed into a canyon of despair.

Sally used her suicide to frame Annie. Annie had no idea how to explain this to Michelle. Annie killing Sally was more believable than Sally committing suicide over some extremely complicated circumstances. Besides, from Michelle's standpoint, she and Sally already had old hate brewing between them.

Not to mention the traces of a fight on the ground.

"Sally, Annie, let's go!" Michelle called for them even before Sally's corpse became cold. Annie realised that she did another idiotic act whilst being in a hurry – she hid the body in a rush and made a lie to try and convince Michelle that Sally went missing.

However….

"Annie, did you kill Sally?"

This was the words of the noble. It was like a thunderbolt out of the blue, and it exploded in her mind.

Sally predicted everything. Michelle was willing to believe the useless noble, than to trust her.

She found out that she was this weak, useless little girl once again, unable to do anything but to repeat meaningless defenses. Michelle's attitude pushed her into the ice. Although Michelle said she trusted Annie, but Michelle's eyes, they were the same as Annie's mother's when her brother died.

So many years passed, and once again Annie understood that gaze.

Michelle wanted to kill her.

After being repeatedly showered with hopelessness, a powerful desire rose from her heart.

She intended to change. She refused to become her old self. She refused to make the same mistakes.

She decided to betray Michelle.

She intended to go to the troops of the Lithur family, surrender, and tell them Michelle's plan. Although the church had strict rules against mages, but nobles still secretly maintained ties with the mages, hungry for their magic. She was willing to work for the Lithur, and the Lithur would let her live, and kill Michelle.

Kill Michelle…

Annie shuddered with the thought. She convinced herself it was excitement, nothing else.

She ran for a while in the forest, and she finally saw the knight. They must be the troops from Lithur! She thought as she sprinted towards them while she waved.

"I bear no ill will, your family…." She shouted.

What welcomed her was holy light.

Within the church, there were several types of holy lights. There were those that were used to bless and baptize the knights, and they were warm and holy; there were those that were used to torture the heathens, and they burnt but would not kill; there were those that were used to annihilate enemies, and they were so powerful that they could cleanse a person in a blink of an eye, without leaving a trace.

The holy light that Annie got was the third type.

The terrifying temperature evaporated her cloak and her skin with a blink of an eye, and the strong burn prohibited her from releasing even a basic protection magic. She could not see anything, holy light was everywhere, and it was so bright it was impossible to look at.

She was cleansed by the Cleaners before she could betray Michelle.

Tiny specks of dust floated around the midnight forest like butterflies, and like butterflies, they were stepped on by the Cleaners' hooves and turned into mud.

Annie died.

Before she died, she suddenly thought….

No, she had no time to think. She had no time to review this method of dying, it was unknown if she thought evaporation by holy light to be tragic enough for her. She also had no time to regret betraying Michelle, or anything else. Her life did not flash before her eyes, there was no childhood happiness nor sadness.

She was just dead.

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Chapter 8: The Cat is Out of the Bag?

Translator: J_Squared Editor: J_Squared

Half an hour after Annie was turned into dust.

On the other side of the night sky, Kubei's situation was not any better than Annie's.

"You were willing to harm your partners just to lie to me?"

It wasn't that Kubei's sense of justice flared up all in a sudden and that felt sorry for Annie. It was just the fact that aside from criticising Michelle from a moral high ground, he really had no idea what he could say.

However, he must continue talking. To shut up now will have no difference from sitting around and waiting for death to arrive. After all, he was still in a 'negotiation' with Michelle, although the direction of the negotiation was opposite of what was originally planned by Kubei.

Still, this was his last shot for survival.

"Why is that a problem?" Michelle's attitude also began to become aggressive. "Sir Lithur, I seemed to have treated you too well for our continued partnership. However, you seemed to have taken it as an invitation to converse with me at your whim."

Well my ass.

Kubei felt immense pressure. It was obvious that Michelle was ready to stop the goody-two-shoes act and end the negotiations soon. This was not good news for Kubei.

Whether it was for his survival or just to delay his death, Michelle must continue talking.

Thus, he tried to be stern: "Lady Michelle, you depend wholly on me to open the treasury. I can also change my mind at any minute. Do not forget, I wield the power to stop you from getting whatever you want forever."

However, Michelle's answer came faster than he expected, "Oh, do not rush, my good sir. I will treat you well with my leather whip, and I believe in no time you will know what decision you will make by the door."

"…."

Kubei must admit that these softly-spoken threats sounded much scarier than the ones that were made in a frightening manner.

The message behind the tone was: 'I can see through whatever you're planning, and no matter how hard you try, you will never escape my grasp.'

Belittlement! This was a complete belittlement!

Michelle took a black whip out of her sleeve when Kubei gave no response. She dangled the whip in front of Kubei, and it shone like oil under the gaze of the moonlight.

"Like what you see?" She asked.

'F@$@ you', Kubei cursed in his head.

Michelle tugged the whip, and Kubei put a smile on his face immediately.

"I hope we work well together!"

"I hope we work well together," Michelle nodded as she slowly tucked the whip away.

Kubei felt very frustrated.

In hindsight, he would fall for Michelle's lies because he had just teleported into this world, and had no prior knowledge about anything. He was like a farmer who just arrived in a city, and even a 3-year-old child would be able to trick him.

Fuck this teleportation. The main characters from other novels all have the memories of their predecessors, so why did he not get anything?

If he knew there were no troops in the beginning, if he knew more things...

Everything would be different.

"Cleaners, a special troop of holy knights from the church to take care of the heathens," the System popped up and explained, "the selection for Cleaners are very strict. Only 2 out of 2000 holy knights who participate would be selected to be a Cleaner. Apparently, every cleaner will be baptised by the Pope and they possess unusual strength. Once they gather, they would become even more terrifying."

"What the hell? Can you not appear out of the blue at this crucial moment and frighten me?" Kubei said angrily in his mind.

"This is the description for the Cleaners." The System did not detect Kubei's anger and it still spoke with an annoying tone.

"You…" Kubei wanted to say something, but was cut off by a thought, "Wait, where did the information come from?"

"I don't know, it suddenly appeared in the database," the System replied.

"Is there anything else? Give me something useful, something about mages! How do the mages in this world learn magic?"

Kubei's heart was once again set aflame with hope. Description! Information! Although he had no idea if the System had an upgrade or if there was a bug that caused it to obtain these information, but that was exactly what he lacked the most. Due to this damned teleportation, he knew close to nothing about the world he was currently in.

He needed information about mages.

He needed to master the Binding Spell, as it was the only way that he could get out of this alive.

"There was nothing else, aside from the really terrible speech you wrote, the only thing in the database was this."

Kubei was very irritated, "I have no time and heart to joke around with you now. Give me something useful! We are on the same boat here, you could only exist if I didn't die. If I can't master the Binding Spell, we will all be fucked."

"Nothing is nothing, the System never jokes around."

"…." Kubei was unsure whether he should continue asking about the first part of the sentence, or spite the second half of the sentence.

Still, he refused to give up, "For real, you have nothing else?"

"I really have nothing else."

"Really? You really have nothing else?"

A burst of static came from the System, and a half transparent numerical platform appeared in front of Kubei, "If you need human assistance, please press 0."

"…"

Kubei finally dropped the idea. He should rely on himself now.

That's right, Kubei was nowhere near giving up on hope. The situation was stagnant, and if he was in another novel, there would already be a miracle or a saviour from the heavens who would save him. However, life is never a novel, and most of the time, being backed to a corner does not lead to a huge leap in the future, but a queue to the heavens and a farewell to your life.

Furthermore, if he was really in a novel, the author must have hated his guts to give him these experiences.

But….

From the moment Michelle's attitude got a turn to the worse, Kubei felt that something was off. He had no idea where this feeling came from, but his instincts screamed at him that something was wrong, and Michelle was hiding things from him.

"What would it be?"

Under the immense pressure of death, Kubei felt the hope of survival again, just like the feeling of a breeze in a sealed cave.

He will follow the breeze and grab it.

He focused his attention on reality. They were still on the tree, and Michelle showed no sign of moving. It seemed like she was afraid of getting caught by the Cleaners, and was waiting for them to move further away from their vicinity.

The Cleaners….

Michelle seemed to dread their presence, and since the system gave him quite a lot of information about them, he might as well just try to use that as a breakthrough. Even though he could not get updates from the system, the least he could do was to test it out on Michelle.

He considered and then said, "They didn't come for Annie. They came for you."

Michelle remained cold towards him, "Nobles who talk too much usually do not live long."

He didn't know if he could survive after talking too much, but he knew if he talked too little, he definitely could not live.

Kubei never wanted to be a chatty person, but God left him no choice.

"Cleaners, they are the holy knights whom the church utilizes to deal with people like you. Presently, there are only a few Cleaners of the church, and all of them are holy knights with loads of battle experiences. You've had more than 10 cleaners come after you, which means you must have gotten the church's attention."

Kubei deliberately spoke slowly, hoping to elicit some response from Michelle using the information he got from the System.

Michelle did not react.

Kubei was not discouraged by the lack of response as he continued, "Do you really think you could open the treasury with the church watching? The treasury of every family will be guarded by many, even if you could eliminate them without causing any commotion, it will still be near impossible to not alert the Cleaners. They are still around the area, and they will find out about this."

His tone was calm, but in his heart, he was as anxious as if he was on fire.

Please…. Please…. Give me some reaction!

He felt like he was taking a Politics examination, when he blabbered things that he did not even understand, but he hoped that maybe one of his sentences would hit the nail on its head, and break open this corner that he was backed to. He was making things up until his brain juices were almost dry.

Luckily, Michelle finally moved.

She turned around and looked at Kubei. That was the first time Kubei saw Michelle's face. Under the faint moonlight, the cape had a wide coverage, and her face was still enveloped in shadows. However, her pale golden eyes were as bright as an owl's, and it was piercing beyond belief.

It was an animal's gaze, sharp without warmth, and Kubei had goosebumps from just looking at it.

"Who are you?"

"What?" Kubei could not react in time.

"You are not Grant Lithur. Who are you? When did you switch him away? Where is he?" In a flash, Michelle took out the dagger and placed it on Kubei's throat, her tone of voice demanding.

"I don't understand what you're saying," Kubei's heart skipped a beat, and he had a bad premonition.

Michelle's eyes were merciless and cold like a leopard's. "Stop acting dumb. The Cleaners move in groups of 14, and you act like you don't know it. That was fine, but when you said there will be guards by the treasury, that was too much. The Lithur family pride themselves on the secrecy of the location of the treasury and the complicated method of opening it, so they will never set guards outside the treasury. If you are from the Lithur family, it is impossible for you to not know that."

She paused, then said with emphasis, "Who are you?"

Kubei's palm was full of cold sweat.

He went too far now, he went way off track. Politics examinations were way better than this, at least there was no penalty for saying the wrong things.

He never was Grant Lithur, he was Kubei, a teleporter with a terrible luck. He had no idea what the heck was the Lithur family, much less the way to open the treasury. He knew nothing.

Once Michelle found out about this, he would be of no use to her. She would kill him.

"The ultimate-unrivalled artificial intelligence System, save me!" Kubei shouted internally.

"Shutting down, dun-dun-dun-dun."

"Fuck you!"

In the real world, Kubei's thoughts were not exposed because he had no expressions or actions since he was stunned by Michelle's sudden movement. Kubei went along with his poker face, feigning calmness as he said, "I am Grant Lithur."

Michelle's eyes were like scalpels, waiting to dissect Kubei and take out his organs to inspect them down to his cells.

His life was on the line now. He forced himself to remain composed as he held eye contact with Michelle.

It was like he was back to grade school when his grade teacher would question him, "Did you finish your homework?" He would answer, "Yes, I did, but I forgot to bring it to school," and she would ask him again, "Are you lying?" in which he would reply, "No, I'm not lying!"

Luckily, he did not do his homework very often. That training allowed him to hold up under such an intimidating gaze.

It was as if a lifetime has passed, even Kubei felt slightly hungry.

Suddenly, Michelle retracted her dagger, and stopped her intimidation tactics. Once again, she perched on the branch and became as still as a statue.

What the hell is going on? Kubei was still immersed in his perfect "I forgot to bring my homework" face, and he could not react.

He felt dull.

"Give up already, I will not fall for your tricks," Michelle told him.

What the hell…. For a moment, Kubei felt like he skipped a chapter when he was reading a novel and could not catch up with the plot. Give up? Fall for my tricks? What did he do that he did not even realize he did?

He had no idea what reaction he should give.

Of course, he would never show his confusion. After a good pondering, he thought of a way that he could try things out without showing his hand, which was to repeat the last thing he said, and wait for Michelle's reaction.

"I am Grant Lithur."

Michelle seemed to be annoyed, "Shut up with your nonsense!"

Kubei stared at the unmoving shadow of Michelle, and replayed the previous encounter. Michelle's weird demeanor, his unreasonable sense of hope amidst the despair…. That peculiar feeling of something being off was as prominent as a strand of white hair among black hairs, taunting him to pluck it out.

Abruptly, an idea appeared in his mind.

"I am not Grant Lithur."

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Chapter 9: The Retaliation of the Waterball

Translator: J_Squared Editor: J_Squared

"Hey hey hey, what are you saying? Are you out of your mind?" the System resurfaced

swiftly and shrieked at Kubei in terror.

"Didn't you shut down already?" Kubei said, calmly.

"The start-up time of your computer is 0.1 seconds, which defeats 99.9% of the computers in

the country," the System was as proud as a child who got a stamp from a teacher, but its tone switched just as fast, "this is not the time to discuss about start-up times. Do you want to die? Why are you admitting that you aren't Grant Lithur?"

"This is not important," he said.

"What then is important?" the System asked.

"Michelle's response." Kubei told the System while he continued observing Michelle.

Everything was just as Kubei expected. Michelle did not give much response, she did not

even move, as if she was lazy to do so. Instead she only scoffed like she was

not surprised with Kubei's confession.

The System went quiet, and only mumbled after some time, "I'm hallucinating now, you must've forgot to run my virus check."

"….."

Kubei felt slight exasperation. Of course, he could not blame the System for not reacting properly. Michelle's thought process was too sophisticated, and it was not a simple task to catch up with her. Even Kubei spent nearly half a day to get it.

In actuality, Kubei did make a number of mistakes in his speech, and the two paragraphs of lies he made up to try and test Michelle had so many contradictions. His trip ups also caused Michelle to suspect his identity, she even speculated that somehow switched her 'hostage' away.

Ironically, it was the loopholes that saved Kubei's life.

As the loopholes were too noticeable, Michelle had another doubt right after she suspected Kubei's identity: Is this a trap? Did Kubei purposefully lie so she would think he is a fake?

She fell into a loop.

Below was what Kubei inferenced to be Michelle's thoughts: "If you are not Grant Lithur, then who are you?"

Kubei's eyes changed as he suddenly laughed, "Correct! I am not Grant Lithur, and I switched the real noble long ago!"

Michelle was angry and spoke between gritted teeth, "Where did you hide him? Tell me or I'll kill you!"

Kubei looked sly, "Of course I could tell you that. However, you'll need to agree to some of my requests. Firstly, you'll do this; secondly, you'll do that; thirdly, you'll do that too. There will be no use in killing me, as once the noble young master returns to his home, news about you will be spread. Once that happens, hehehehehe…."

Michelle detested him, "You are wicked!" and Kubei laughed villainously to the sky.

Suddenly, Michelle inhaled deeply as she comprehended something, "No, you're lying! You are Grant Lithur, and you're trying to lie to me for me to set you free! Quit dreaming!"

Kubei's body tremored once as his laughter was cut short, "How do you know?"

Michelle snickered deeply, "Don't even think that you could lie to me! Just give up!"

Thus, no matter what Kubei does, Michelle decided on one truth: This is Grant Lithur, even if he shat through his mouth or peed through his nose, he is still Grant fucking Lithur!

"…. That's about it, she would assume I'm lying to her regardless of what I said," Kubei explained his reasoning to the System and concluded.

The System remained silent for a few moments.

"…. That was a shit deduction."

"Thanks for the compliment," Kubei felt at peace with himself.

Although it was widely exaggerated, he still believed that he nailed Michelle's thoughts almost perfectly. He could not find any other logical explanation to interpret Michelle's eerie behavior.

As he understood what was happening, he had the urge to tell Michelle, "Thinking too much into things is a disease, you need to get that cured."

Every dog has its day, and Kubei really had the dumb luck that saved his life. All thanks

to the "I forgot to bring my homework" expression that he mastered.

However, once he got into the details, the rationale behind this was complicated too. Michelle sacrificed so much for the treasury, and was willing to give up on her companions and be on her own. The fact that "Kubei is a fake" will be a huge blow to her now, as it meant that all her efforts were a waste.

Thus, she was more willing to believe that Kubei was Grant Lithur, as that gave her the

hope to get the treasure.

One will only believe what she intends to believe.

Once he thought about it this way, Michelle did not look as intimidating anymore. The church was closely following them and she actually faced the same pressure as him in walking at the brink of death. She was just more used to it, and hence behaved calmer than he did.

Kubei was not Grant Lithur anyway, and her effort was fated to be for naught.

Tragic.

Of course, Kubei did not have the capability to feel sorry for Michelle if he was tortured to death by an enraged Michelle. No matter how pitiable Michelle was, she still held his life in her hands.

Unless….

Kubei grabbed onto the breeze.

"Michelle, what exactly is in the treasury that could make you sacrifice everything for

it?" Kubei asked abruptly.

"None of your business," Michelle spat, and Kubei felt that she was under immense pressure that she lost her patience so quickly.

"Don't be so bitter, I was just curious. You killed your companions for it. There are only few things in the world that could let mages go mad for, hence my curiosity." Kubei was disgusted by his own mischievous tone. He had no choice but to go as low as possible just to protect his own life.

If he did not do this, he could not confirm his other 'deduction'.

"There is nothing to be curious about," Michelle looked as if she could not hold herself

back anymore.

"Why could it be nothing? There is so much to be asked, you see," Kubei added fuel to the flame.

"Shut up!" Michelle could not take it anymore.

Ah, finally.

Kubei felt that he successfully trailed the breeze to chip open the sealed cave. He felt

the rays of hope on his face.

"You want me to shut up?" The mischievous demeanor was no more, and Kubei sounded serious.

"Yes, you blabber too much," Michelle has yet to realise what happened.

"If so, why did you not shut me up yourself? Just use the magic you deployed just now, and let me be quiet. 'I hope you do not make trouble for me,' was that not what you said before?" Kubei slowed down in his speech. What accompanied his next words was also his heartbeat, "Or, you do not dare to use your magic anymore?"

Michelle froze.

Although Kubei could not see her expression, he knew that she lost her composure. He felt strange once Michelle started treating him atrociously. He did not know what was weird, but when he had the epiphany, he understood. He was chatty because he wanted to test out his theory: Since Michelle wanted him to shut up, why did she not use the Binding Spell again to stun him?

When he was under the Binding Spell, he could not speak. The spell came with a gagging

effect.

Through trial and error, the answer was out. She could not use the spell. Combine that with the existence of the Cleaners, it was obvious that Michelle dare not use the spell to avoid alerting the church of her presence.

Thus, it can be concluded that the Cleaners could sense magic within a certain radius.

When she previously used the Binding Spell, Annie just left, and had yet to be killed by the Cleaners. Thus, when the Cleaners sensed magic and saw a person dressed like a witch who wanted to 'surrender to the Lithur family's troops', they assumed she was Michelle, the mage who used the Binding Spell.

Hence, they cleansed Annie without any hesitation.

Then, they would also assume that the mage was neutralized, and would leave the area after some patrolling. Michelle would then escape successfully under the eyes of the Cleaners, and the evil deeds she did before will all fall on the deceased Annie.

This was a good plan, as it killed three birds with one stone. She got rid of Annie, escaped the chase from the church, and got rid of the only chance Kubei could escape. The only flaw in the plan was that she could not use any magic when the Cleaner was still around.

Which was why she would irritably tell Kubei to shut up instead of using another Binding Spell.

"You're right, I am unable to use magic because they could detect it. Honestly, if I did not use a special way to mask our tracks, the dogs from the church could still smell our presence in the absence of magic. They have sensitive noses," Michelle spoke with care that she never had, "Even though you were right, what use could it be? Without magic, do you think you can run away from me?"

Kubei smiled and shook his head, "I do not plan to escape from you, but rather it is you who would run away from me."

"What do you mean?" Michelle was perplexed.

Kubei did not reply. He shut his eyes, took a deep breath. Together with a unique wave, an incantation flowed out of his mouth.

It was the Waterball Spell.

Within Kubei's space of consciousness, the light blue triangular symbol pulsed slightly. A soundless note spread from his soul, and echoed within the earth for the first time. At a corner in an unknown space, the 'water' element moved around like tides, as if they were listening to the will of another. They appeared out of thin air and gathered in his palm.

With a blink of an eye, a water ball floated before Kubei.

It was the size of a baby's fist. It was just a weak water ball that looked like it would break under a slight touch, but it seemed to freeze time, and everything shuddered before it.

Kubei's victorious smile was reflected on the water ball.

"No one can be your scapegoat now," he looked at the direction where the Cleaners left, and

said in a joking manner, "the Cleaners are coming, it's time for you to run."

Michelle watched the tiny water ball, dumbfounded.

She manipulated Kubei by using his lack of knowledge on the Cleaners, but Kubei also retaliated using the fact that Michelle had no idea that he could use magic.

The Cleaners will start their chase once again after they sense the Waterball Spell, and it was impossible for Michelle to escape with Kubei trailing after her, slowing her down. The only way she could escape was to leave Kubei behind. Then, Kubei would behave like an innocent hostage, and the Cleaners would escort him back to the Lithur family.

Of course, it was possible for Michelle to kill Kubei as she was infuriated, but he felt the possibility was slim. If she had to take on the blame of killing a noble, the pressure on her would increase disproportionately. The Cleaners are not ones that are easy to deal with, Michelle could only have the chance to escape if she left Kubei here to delay their chase.

Just like that, Kubei could successfully escape, and Michelle would get nothing.

Perfect.

When there was an imbalance of power, Kubei gave the impression that he was weak in order to switch the battlefield from a physical one to one of wits. Finally, he used a tiny factor as a huge leverage to change the scales of victory.

What could he say?

Knowledge is power!

"Hahahaha! Did you see that? Who did you call useless? I retaliated using only a Waterball Spell! I'm so fucking smart!" He yelled at the System in his heart.

"…." The System was quiet, and suddenly an emoji of a person wiping off his sweat was in

front of his eyes.

"Wait, you can use emojis? This is unfair!" Kubei whined after he was taken aback by surprise.

The System lagged for a while before saying, "I hope you don't count your chickens before your eggs are hatched. I presume that she would not give up that easily."

Just as it said, Michelle finally awoke from her shock, glared at Kubei and spoke slowly with a clenched jaw, "Who said I ran out of scapegoats? The Cleaners will not bother if you are a young master from the nobles if I wrapped the cloak around you. They would cleanse you to ashes!"

Kubei was not surprised either, "Of course, you could do that."

The System also said that Michelle would not give up easily. She will not give up the treasury, and his identity of Grant Lithur was the best bet she had on getting to the treasury.

She cannot kill Kubei if she wanted that, or she would have to plan another kidnapping act. With the first attempt being so worrisome, would she go for another shot? Where can she find another two people to be her cannon fodder?

It would also be impossible for her to bring Kubei along and escape the Cleaners. Kubei would slow down her progress like he previously did, and with the quick Cleaners nipping at their heels, it would take no time for the Cleaners to catch up to them.

She could only let Kubei go and hope for him to cooperate with her. Although the thought seemed a tad unrealistic, but that was her only choice.

Regardless, it was Kubei who has the power now.

"Lady Michelle, why don't we discuss a new way for us to work together," he imitated the composed manner Michelle used just now and said, "You will let me go, and in exchange, I will get whatever you need from the treasury. Think about that, it will be much more effective than you dragging me around, trying to escape the Cleaners' radar."

Michelle went silent, and finally sighed, "You won."

Kubei heard this once again after 5 hours, but this time, he will not get slapped in the face by his own plan.

F#@%! I lived!

It was as if he climbed in the darkness for half of his life and experienced numerous hardship and despair. He swallowed every urge to suffocate, until every limb of his was numb, every muscle trembled and tore. Now, he finally saw the first rays of the dawn.

This feeling was very alike to one of a student who submitted the last paper in his finals.

He was the young master of a noble family. As long as he gets past this, he would enjoy the riches and gold of the future! This was the best reincarnation he could wish for when he took his previous life as a broke peasant as a comparison, he thought.

"Look out!" The System suddenly notified him.

Before Kubei could react, a fist was thrown to him like a thunderbolt. With a bang, it hit

him square on his left cheek.

Fuck! What the hell?

Unexpectedly, Michelle used her unimaginable strength to punch Kubei. It is worth noting that Michelle could carry Kubei like a bag and get him up a tree with one hand. Her strength could not be underestimated.

Besides, this punch included Michelle's anger of being deceived. It was a full punch.

Kubei could only see black as he lost his consciousness. When he was nearly out of it, he

could hear the voice of the System.

"Ah, this is the literal meaning of getting a punch in the face by your own actions!"

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Chapter 10: The Sleepwalking Dirty Thing

Translator: J_Squared Editor: J_Squared

Kubei dreamt when he was dazed and groggy.

He went back in time to when he was in Junior High. It was a woozy afternoon, and the English teacher still had a bob cut. He was standing on the podium, writing on the blackboard with her back against the students. The chalk repeatedly hit the blackboard, making thick, heavy noises in the room.

He felt dizzy.

Kubei couldn't see what was written on the blackboard. Everything was out of focus. He could only stare at the folds of the teacher's shirt that was on his back. Everything else was getting further and further, but only the raised line of the buckle underneath the pink sweater was clear even to the smallest detail.

Kubei felt his neck and face itch after looking at it for too long.

Suddenly, the English teacher turned around, and Kubei saw the face of a man over 40, with spectacles and donned with lipstick. It was his boss.

The boss then pointed at Kubei and yelled, "Balala Energy, transform!"

"…."

Once again, Kubei jumped awake in shock.

This was the second time he woke up from a bizarre dream. He felt nauseated, like he was cramped in an overcrowded train for 2 hours. Fortunately, he no longer was tied at a strange place. He did not have an ache all over his body. He felt only a dull pain on his left cheek. Seemed like it was swollen, too.

Left cheek….

Kubei slowly regained his consciousness, and he remembered everything. He was punched solidly on his left cheek by Michelle, and then… He knew nothing about what happened next. He most probably passed out from the impact, had a strange dream, and woke up here.

What happened?

He opened his eyes to find that it was dark. He could see nothing, and for a moment he thought he was blind. He tried moving his limbs, and he faced no problem in that. He was lying on something that was soft.

It was similar to his small bed.

Did he teleport back? Or was everything just a dream?

He sensed his surroundings more attentively and realised that no, this was not his home. He could hear the faint tick-tock from far away, but his house never had an old mechanical clock like that. Furthermore, this quality of this bed felt more like those that were sold for more than RMB 1000 in Ikea. He touched them too many times in the malls, but he could never afford them. Hence, this must be some other place than his house.

"Hey, is anybody there?" After some consideration, Kubei decided to be more careful and asked.

There was no reply.

Kubei called again in his brain, hoping that the System would know something he did not. However, the System seemed to have vanished. If it was not for the blue triangular symbol that still shined in the space of his consciousness, he would have thought that he met with a supernatural event.

The symbol also clarified that he did not dream everything up, and had yet to travel back to his initial world.

Since he was still in this world, there was only one question left. What did Michelle do after he fainted from her punch?

He pondered on it for 5 minutes and concluded that lying around doing nothing was not going to solve anything. Regardless, Michelle did not kill him nor let the Cleaners terminate him. He survived, and that was good news. Although Kubei knew Michelle still needed him, he still felt unsure when he used the Waterball Spell.

What if, what if Michelle really did kill him?

However, he was alive now, and that was all that matters.

Kubei felt relieved after he reached this conclusion. At this point, he barely picked up his own life, why should he be worried about everything now? Since Michelle still required him, she would not be able to do anything even if he did do something improper.

Hence, Kubei got out of bed.

A pair of shoes was placed by the bed, and he felt them around to put them on. At the same time, he found a steel product by the bed. He felt it with his hands, and it was hard and heavy, shaped somewhat like a can.

Kubei followed his heart and took it with him as a defensive weapon.

He took two steps ahead and touched a door. There was a handle on the door, which felt quite modern. He tried twisting the door knob and it opened, letting some light into the room. Kubei felt more relaxed now. Anyone who could not see for such a long time would be afraid too.

However, the light was too sheer to be called light, really.

Kubei studied his surroundings using the weak lighting he got. This looked like a mansion, and outside the door was a long hallway. There was a soft scent in the air, and the window at the end of the hallway allowed some moonlight into the house. That made the house feel less spooky.

Again, it was at night. It was incredibly quiet, it seemed like everyone was asleep.

Where was this? It was very similar to the manors that were inhabited by the nobles from the 16th or 17th century. Kubei remembered he had seen them before on the television.

Thinking, Kubei took two steps forward. Suddenly, a low sound was heard from his back.

It was a low whine, and Kubei was so frightened that all of his goose bumps appeared. He quickly turned towards the noise.

At the end of the hallway, a thing that looked like a human walked slowly towards him. Why did he say it was a thing? It was because he could not see anything from the poor lighting, and the thing moved in a peculiar way. It swayed from left to right, and moved more like a zombie than a human.

Also, that whine would not feel out of place if you inserted it into Plants vs Zombies.

"Fuck, is that a ghost?" Kubei felt quite terrified.

He felt that something was wrong with the setting of this world. He previously saw mages and the church, so what was a zombie doing here? Unless, the name of this novel was somewhere along the lines of ?

He felt as if he was struck by thunder.

The silhouette that resembled a human approached him gradually, and Kubei still could not see anything in the dark. He could not check if the face was as horrendous as the ones with special effects that were drawn onto the actors. However, once he got out from shock and recalled the zombie movies he watched, he realised that this thing before him was not very threatening after all.

Look at the speed it had. It was moving like a sloth; how dangerous could it be?

Hence, Kubei calmed himself down and raised the heavy item he had in his hand. He waited quietly for it to come over. Around 30 seconds later, when he judged that the distance was appropriate, he threw the can directly at the thing's head.

Clang!

A loud sound was heard, and Kubei felt a headache vicariously from the thing.

It halted it movements. Kubei nervously glanced at the silhouette, afraid that the impact did not affect it. The can was not very heavy at all. Based on this body that he teleported into, there was only a few heavy things that he could carry.

If it was not afraid of the can, what should he do?

Not the Waterball Spell, right? He never heard of zombies that are terrified of water.

Just when Kubei was anxiously staring at the thing, a horrifying scream started from the silhouette.

"Ahhhhhhh!"

That was such a devastating cry, it resembled an old cat with its tail stepped by a 200-pound person. It echoed throughout the mansion, and the lights in every single room lit up simultaneously, the doors opened one by one, footsteps were heard from every direction.

The once silent night suddenly became rowdy.

"Why? What happened?"

"Who was making so much noise in the middle of the night?"

"That voice, it was quite familiar."

"…."

The darkness was chased away, and Kubei was finally able to clearly see his surroundings.

The strange silhouette a few steps away from him was a man with golden hair. He wore silk pyjamas, his face was one of utter shock, an unknown brown liquid dripping from his beautiful curled hair. His pearly white pyjamas was also stained with lines of the liquid.

"Ah, oh…."

Kubei's expression turned bad once he saw what happened.

So, the setting of this world was not weird. That was a human, not a zombie.

So, the can he used as a defensive weapon was…. Not an ordinary can.

Let us just say that it was the 'toilet' of this world.

The people of the house slowly gathered around them, most of them clad in rough sackcloth, and a few of them in silk pyjamas. Most of them were sleepy, but once they arrived, their eyes widened in disbelief.

As more and more people gathered around them, the rowdiness settled into silence.

Everyone was staring at the gold-haired man, and they dare not breathe. Not a sound was made.

"Pfft..."

Kubei could not help but laugh at the situation, but he quickly stopped himself as he knew that it was inappropriate.

"I am incredibly sorry, I did not intend to do so," it was so painfully hard for him to stifle his laugh.

The gold-haired man snapped back into reality and touched the unknown liquid on his face. He glared at Kubei, and his voice trembled like a cock with its throat slit, blood gurgling down its throat, "You… you… I… I… I… Fuck… Fuck…."

Kubei tried hard to supress his laughter, his face twisted in agony.

The golden-haired man's face was scarlet, his chest heaved continuously, and his eyes were bloodshot. He looked like he wanted to finish his sentence, but his anger and despair choked his words in his throat.

"Do you want to say something?" Kubei asked with a friendly tone.

The golden-haired man seemed to be more agitated after that. He started twitching, and he pointed at Kubei with a trembling hand like a conductor for a long time. The unknown matter on his body went everywhere due to his trembling.

"Oh, don't be too excited. Take a deep breath, and slow down." Kubei felt like he was the most considerate person in the world.

It seemed like the golden-haired man was comforted, as he inhaled deeply after Kubei's words. Before he could exhale, his eyes rolled upwards, and he fainted with a thump onto the floor.

"…."

Dead silence.

Pin drop silence.

The people glanced at Kubei and the man fainted in the puddle of faeces, and occasionally shared eye contact among themselves, as if all this was outside of their comprehension. They were like a bunch of people under the Binding Spell, unmoving, and muted.

Awkward silence.

Awkward stench, too.

At this moment with the worst timing ever, a mechanical voice said in Kubei's mind, "Wow, this dude is eating shit though."

The System's attack was too sudden, Kubei could not help but lose his control. He laughed.

Every pair of eyes in the room focused on him. It was exactly how visitors would study a rare animal in a zoo. Kubei felt like he was under 10 spotlights, and he was very stressed about that.

He would be okay if they were just staring, but they were extremely quiet too. Kubei was very tense under the scrutiny.

He needed to say something.

"Um, it's late, shouldn't everyone be asleep?"

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Chapter 11: The Long Long Night, Which Sleep Evaded

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

"Master, you can go back to rest, leave Mr. Fulner to us."

Finally, after a long silence, a butler-like figure appeared and spoke, dissipating the awkward atmosphere.

"Master?"

Kubei was moved.

"Okay, I'll leave it to you."

It would surely be amusing to meet a strange man who swam in an ocean of waste. An ordinary person would give him a few more glances and upload pictures of him onto the trending section of Weibo. But being the person responsible for the tragedy, he was not able to find joy out of the disaster, and it was better to leave the scene as fast as possible. In all honesty, Kubei did not care one bit about this man. It was his own fault for trying something funny in the dead of the night and subsequently end up being covered in excrement.

This was not the main point, rather, it was Kubei's current whereabouts.

By looking at the people around and the decorations in this household, he was already quite sure of the location.

He had returned to the Lithur family house.

Even though he still wasn't sure how he returned here, he was more worried that he would blow his disguise as the fake "Master", but regardless, he was at least temporarily safe. This made him feel much more relieved.

Under the command of the butler, a few women who looked like maids emerged from the crowd carrying buckets and cloths, and started to clean the blonde bloke and the mess he was covered in. The surrounding spectators left slowly, all returning to their respective homes, but based on their expressions, it would seem that what had happened tonight would become the talk of the town for some time.

Kubei returned to his room as well.

He laid back onto the bed he first woke up from.

There were too many things that he had to digest.

"Highly sophisticated artificial intelligence, could you please explain to me what just happened?" he asked the System in his mind, "And, when I called for you just now, where on Earth did you disappear to?"

The System did not talk.

"Don't try to act like you're dead, I know you're listening to every word."

"Dundendunden, switching on." A familiar voice spoke with a tone so innocent to the point that it was taunting, "Hello, this is our first time meeting, how can I be of service?"

The veins on Kubei's forehead popped: "Are you trying to act stupid?"

He felt like he was a character inside an anime, his veins were like a cross, displaying all of its glory on his forehead.

"...I was wrong." It was shocking to witness how quickly the system changed its mood, "The messages in the databank have over flooded, I was busy managing the database, so I didn't have the time to give you any response, my apologies."

Kubei's rage only diminished a little after this. After some thought, he asked again:

"What happened to the database? What kind of messages popped out?"

The System replied: "It is the memory of this body's previous owner, before when the cleaner acquired your memories, those memories popped out all of a sudden. The information was too much for the database to handle, so it crashed, and it took me three days to finish the repairs."

Kubei felt that this sentence had a lot of information in it as well.

A cleaner took away my memories? What the hell?

And three days had passed already?

Looks like a lot has happened when he was unconscious.

"How did the cleaners take away my memory, was it them who sent me back here?" Kubei asked," And, how about Michelle? Is she just going to let me go?"

The System sounded shy: "You have too many questions, looked like I'm about to crash again."

Kubei's veins popped out once again.

"After knocking you out, Michelle escaped." The System's voice returned to normal, "The cleaners came by really quickly and took you away afterwards. They performed experiments on you for two days, then used various methods to try to gain access to your memory."

Kubei felt scared: "Gain access to my memory? Did they find out that I've learned magic?"

If the Church people were to find out, he would be done for.

"No, you're rather lucky." Not knowing why, the system sounded rather disgusted, "The moment they gained access to my memory, the original owner of this body's memories emerged all at once, and were all seen by them. They seem to not know anything about the memories of you in this world at all. They thought that you were kidnapped by witches, and was tortured to the point where you lost consciousness by Annie, and then they stumbled upon you. In the end, they delivered you safely back to the Lithur family."

After hearing this, Kubei was instantly relieved.

It is good that they did not find out.

Honestly, the plan to use the waterball to lure the cleaners to come and save him was rather flawed. If the cleaners had some sort of special technique and found out that he used magic, he would end up dead as well.

He did not have any other way, and only used this as a last resort, most of it was because he didn't want to see Michelle succeed. When he conjured the waterball, he was not mentally prepared, and feared that he was throwing away his life.

Luckily, everything went more smoothly than he expected.

He was still suspicious on why Michelle let him go so easily. But Michelle has already done it, so what can he do? He just had to pretend that it was his lucky day.

Thank the heavens, after so much misfortune, he finally managed to catch a break.

"Don't be so happy yet, you've actually caused quite a commotion today." The System seemed to have a habit of bursting his bubble, which was very unwelcoming. "The person that you threw excretion on today seemed to be a rather renowned person."

"...Who is he?"

"Dick Fulner, the eldest son of the Fulner family." The System replied, "The Fulner family are rather famous nobles in the kingdom, their ancestors were famous court jesters, during their fire breathing performance, they accidentally set the assassin attempting to murder the king on fire, which caused him to burn to death. The king was overjoyed and granted them the position of nobility. Till today, the Fulner family has dominated the whole entertainment industry of the kingdom, they are really powerful."

Kubei thought for awhile then asked: "If compared to the Lithur family?"

"Probably trailing a little behind."

"Why the f$%@ do I have to be afraid of then?"

"..." The System was left speechless.

Kubei's current situation was excellent to him, he did not have time to care whether he offended someone from another family. At this moment, his greatest problem was to figure out how to take over Grant Lithur's place without anyone noticing.

He was not this original "Master", if he was found out, it would definitely spell trouble.

How would the people in this world treat a teleporter? The Church was already scary enough, would I be treated as a cultist of some sort, and end up being burnt on the stake?

He was unlucky for having not inherited the body's previous memories, which gave him so much frustration. He has also lost confidence in his acting skills after being suspected by Michelle once.

Because of this, he wanted to assimilate into the Lithur family as quickly as possible.

This was the most important thing he had to do right now.

"Didn't you say that the original owner's memories appeared in the database?" After some thought, Kubei said this to the System, "Tell me everything I need to know about 'Me'."

The System wondered for awhile and said : "That's too much, I won't even be able to tell you everything even within a month."

Kubei was impatient: "Can't you simplify it? Start by telling me the important things first, so that I wouldn't end up blowing my cover, the intricate details can wait."

"Very well, please wait, arranging the database..."

Following a strange electronic voice, the system was silent again. Kubei called out to it twice but it had no response, thus he knew that the System was not that efficient. Therefore, he patiently waited for the System to come out with the "Simplified Memory".

After remembering how laggy his computer was, and how his CPU was like an old buffalo dragging a cart, he could not help but feel despair.

He should have changed his computer before teleporting.

Everything was silent once again, and Kubei felt awkward during this moment. It was not long but it was not short either, he had no idea on what to do. At last, he decided to go back to sleep, skipping the time that he had to wait for the System to arrange the database.

It was midnight already and it was not a wise idea to wander off. What if he runs into another madman that was sleepwalking again? He could not pull off the same thing.

In this situation, the later he met the Lithur family people, the more time he had to prepare, and that would not a bad thing. He planned to stay in bed the next morning.

"Time to sleep..."

It felt as if he had just slept for three days and three nights.

Damn, he was so bored but unable to fall asleep...

He suddenly missed his handphone very much. Before he slept, he would always read novels on Weibo using his phone, then slowly fall asleep in the process. He instinctively reached for the edge of his bed, but then he realized that he could no longer return to those days.

He was long gone from that world.

Under the pressure of the witches, he did not have any time to think of these. But now that stress was far from his shoulders, indescribable feelings all suddenly emerged from his mind.

He teleported.

He left the world that he was lived in for twenty plus years behind, and ended up in this place that was strange to him.

He was tired of the previous life he had, he thought that maybe one day he could go to another place to live a more meaningful life. Right now everything he has wished for has come true, but he could not help but only feel like he was stuck, like a pebble that entered a shoe.

It cannot be helped, everything happened too fast. Before this he was still sitting in a small room that he rented, but in a blink of an eye, his world was turned upside down.

In the end, he was but an ordinary person.

A few helpless sighs came from his bedside. He flipped his body, but his eyes remained wide open, and he stared at the pitch black ceiling.

"I really…...can't return anymore."

Right when he was lying on his bed, trying to fall asleep despite not feeling sleepy at all, a soft sound of a doorknob turning came to his ear--when you are experiencing insomnia, even the slightest sound would be as loud as thunder.

What the...

Kubei was confused for awhile, but then became alert.

Someone was trying to pick his door's lock.

A thief?

What is going on?

After recovering from his sadness then seeing the situation he is in right now, Kubei did not have anything to say. He has not even been here for half a day, how could there be even more stuff going on? Can't a man have some peace?

Feeling hopeless about the situation, he decided to just wait and observe what the person was trying to do. He closed his eyes tightly and adjusted his breathing, pretending to have fallen into a deep sleep.

He put all his focus onto his ears, and in a short time, he heard the door open and the sound of careful steps. He started panicking a little. It was obvious that the person was up to no good because of the way the person walked. If it was a good person, they would probably knock on the door first right?

If the person really had evil intent, what would he do?

Kubei was not quick to scream for help, he felt that this was suspicious.

His instincts made him remain patient.

The sneaky footsteps made its way to the bedside quickly.

Because he was unable to open his eyes, he could only try to rely on his "senses", trying to feel the person's aura. Was the person good or evil? Was he or she strong or weak?

Time seemed to come to a standstill.

There was a mysterious feeling.

As he was trying his best to focus, suddenly, like a needle popping a bubble, the blue triangle let out a "Ding" sound in the deep corner of his consciousness.

A wave swept over the whole world, and everything seemed to be renewed.

He suddenly realized, he could feel the surrounding water vapor. The "water" that felt distant from him suddenly became much closer, he could talk to them and receive a response. It was like every small water droplet was bouncing in his brain.

This feeling was marvelous, Kubei felt as if he had gained a new pair of eyes. Not opening his eyes, he could "see" everything around him through the elements of water. Right now, this method of "seeing" was still blurry, like having a shortsightedness with a power level of eight hundred without wearing any spectacles, but this feeling was still wonderful.

He was like a newborn baby who just opened his eyes, excited to feel the world around.

He could feel the person standing beside him.

After having familiarized himself with this feeling, the details of the person slowly became known to him: He was probably an adult male, about 180 centimeters tall, but was really skinny, like a bamboo. But this was all he could make out, it was his first time sensing through this method, the facial details were still hard for him to see.

That person just stood there, as if waiting for something.

As the feeling of euphoria slowly faded, Kubei started to suspect something: He did not know what the person wanted. He could feel some sort of danger coming from the person--there was a faint detection of an intent to kill coming from him.

He did not want to arouse the person's suspicions. He could feel that this person was not that strong, and the water element sensing spell made him feel much safer. So, he decide to continue waiting.

This was Lithur family territory, how did the person get in? And why would he make his way to me?

Kubei could smell a conspiracy.

The person appeared too suddenly, he had to see what this man was up to.

"Waaaaaaaaaaa! Stop sleeping! This person wants to kill you!"

A high-decibel voice, like the power of a 6am alarm clock, suddenly shocked Kubei to the core.

It was the System that was busy arranging the data, who suddenly appeared out of nowhere.

The System popping out was not the main point.

The main point was, because of this, Kubei opened his eyes.

He was completely stunned.

Because he opened his eyes out of shock, Kubei could see two eyes staring back at him in the darkness. At the same time, the person had a dagger that reflected light, which pointed at him as well.

The pair of eyes looked at him, and blinked a few times.

He looked at the pair of eyes as well, and blinked a few times.

"..."

Fuck, I messed up.

This damn system who eats instant noodles without seasoning and gives birth to a son without a belly button.

Kubei stared at those eyes, then breathed in deeply, with a friendly tone, he said:

"The long long night, which sleep evaded, this friend, perhaps you've come out to take a walk as well?"

After saying this, he glanced at the dagger with fear, then hastily said:

"Bro, your fruit knife is really something else!"

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Chapter 12: Benjamin and Grant

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

In this short moment, Kubei envisioned of all the things that could happen next.

It could be that the stranger runs away after being frightened, or it could also be that he would lunge at him with the dagger, then Kubei would proceed to wrestle him; if he was lucky maybe the family members would rush in to his help, restraining the stranger ...

Looking at the bright blade, Kubei was sure of the motive of this person already.

It can't only be evil intent.

It was more like straight up murder!

After having frozen there for a while, Kubei's mind suddenly started processing at an inhuman speed. What should I do? Fight him? Forget about that, with this frail body I have right now it would be equivalent to suicide.

Call for help loudly? It seemed like a possible solution, at least it was better than blasting the person to death with a waterball, but he did not know how efficient the guards were and whether they would make it in time...

Right when he was about to call for help, the stranger wielding the dagger did something completely unexpected by him.

The person replied to Kubei.

"Nope, I slept pretty well, and I don't like taking walks. This isn't a fruit knife, this is a dagger. I've never cut any fruit with it, it probably isn't convenient to use to cut fruit."

"..."

What, what is he trying to do?

Was this person here for chit-chat? Should I have discussion on which fruit knife was better?

Kubei was stuck, he had no idea on what to say.

"Then why did you come here in the dead of the night?

It was the System, asking in Kubei's place, Kubei could not react in time, thus saying the thought out loud to the strange.

The stranger's reply was direct,

"I'm an assassin, assassins mostly come out at night to kill people."

"..."

Kubei was once again left speechless.

Yes, assassins were meant to kill people at night. You make a lot of sense, I choose death.

"Ah, he's awesome, I like frank people!" The system appeared again, which made Kubei feel like spitting out blood. He wished that he could force the system to shut down.

Kubei felt that the situation was suspicious. The dagger was still pointed at him, but the opponent did not seem to want to make a move anytime soon, but what would follow, no one had any idea. The opponent's mentality was something a normal person could never understand.

What should be done now? Seeing this person's eyes, it looked like…...he wanted the conversation to go on.

To prevent some awkward situation that would make the opponent do his thing, he could only try his best to continue on:

"Well…...who are you trying to kill?"

After saying this, he really wanted to beat himself to death instead.

His way of making small talk was horrible.

If the opponent were to reply: "I'm here to kill you." He could only say: "Then why are you standing still there?" Then the person would say: "Oh, i'll make my move now." Then a sword flash would follow, defeat is common, please start over from the beginning.

He realized he really had a knack of making a situation worse than it already was.

He was prepared to call for help again.

But what he should have expected was that this Mr.Assassin's replies were something that you could never predict.

"I'm here to kill Benjamin Lithur."

Kubei was stunned, his "Help" that already travelled halfway up his windpipe was pushed back down.

Benjamin Lithur...

Who?

At this moment, the situation made a sharp turn and went in a direction which he had no idea of once more.

"I'm not Benjamin Lithur, I'm Grant Lithur." Kubei couldn't think of anything better to reply, so he cautiously said this.

After hearing this, the assassin seemed to be confused. He put down his hand that was wielding the dagger, frowned, then scratched his head with his other hand, then looked at the ceiling, with a face like he was stuck trying to read the "Chu Shi Biao".

Kubei felt creeped out, so he did not say anything but just stared at him.

The opponent though for awhile, then put down his other hand and said:

"Oh, sorry, I think I walked into the wrong place."

"..."

What the hell?

In that moment, Kubei was starting to suspect that he was not experiencing insomnia, but that he was fast asleep, and everything in front of him was a dream? If this was a dream, it had to be the most random dream that he's ever had, even more outrageous than his boss' "Balala Energy" dream!

Dear Lord, or whatever other god there was, why are you fooling me like this?

"Do you know where Benjamin Lithur's room is then?"

The assassin asked earnestly.

"...No idea."

"I see, we'll, I'm off. My apologies, see you again."

"...Safe travels."

He put away his dagger, waved at Kubei, turned away, then left the room.

He's gone.

He came sneakily, and left sneakily.

Kubei could tell from the way his eyes looked, the moment he said goodbye, underneath that mask was a honest smile. He even closed the door properly...

Kubei felt like it was too bizarre, he did not know how to start to analyze the situation.

"Ah, he's a really kind person. The system said.

"...You can go be his system instead." Kubei said.

Really, if the system and the assassin were have a conversation, they would probably find a lot to talk about.

"Nope, this person's IQ is really unacceptable, he didn't even know who he was trying to kill. If I were to become his system, it would be a waste of my talents."

Kubei didn't wanted to pay any heed to the System.

After escaping from the absurd situation, he had more to worry now. Even though he somehow managed to escape from the danger, but an assassin managed to slip in. Even if this assassin was not even capable, was he to pretend that nothing happened? Did this so-called big family not even have proper security?

And, that person called 'Benjamin Lithur', what should I do about him? Based on the surname, this person probably was not another insignificant person. What if the assassin found his way to him, what can be done then?

"We have to stop him."

After thinking about this, Kubei suddenly said this to the system.

"He has already left, you don't have to get involved, it will only bring you more trouble." The system advised.

"I'm not trying to find more trouble, but what if he really kills that 'Benjamin Lithur'? I can't pretend that I didn't know anything about it." Kubei explained," If someone in the family died, they'll definitely investigate it properly. If they were to find out the assassin came to find me first, they'll never let me go."

Even though he just came to the Lithur family and did not want to care too much, he had no choice but to intervene.

Even so, under normal circumstances, if someone saw an assassin, they would probably wake everyone up right? He could not act oddly just because the assassin was weird and that he forced himself to strike up a conversation with him!

"You don't have to worry, no one would die by his hand." The System sounded really sure.

"Why, how can you be so sure?"Kubei frowned.

"Because you are Benjamin Lithur, the person he was supposed to kill was you, how would he end up killing someone else."

"Well you're not wrong..."

But he realized something was wrong.

"Where did you get your facts? When did I become Benjamin Lithur, is everything in your hard drive just trash?" Kubei said.

The System stopped for awhile, then said, its tone full of intellect:

"Trust me, you ARE Benjamin Lithur."

Even though Kubei did not really want to care, but he could not just ignore it, so he asked: "If what you said was true, then why did Michelle say I was Grant Lithur?"

The System replied: "She's got it wrong."

"And how are you so sure?"

"Based on the memories of the body's original owner."

The System seemed to gloat for a while, then used a tone that sounded really sure: "Based on the memories, you're the eldest son of the family, your parents named you 'Benjamin' when you were born, and you were the most spoiled child. All these sixteen years, everyone has called you by that, you have never changed your name, and never used any fake name or nickname. In conclusion, you are Benjamin Lithur, and the assassin was supposed to kill you."

"...You sure?"

"Yes, very sure."

"..."

Kubei was shocked.

What's going on? He thought this body's original owner's name was Grant Lithur, but now someone was telling him he was actually Benjamin Lithur? These confusing western names were already hard to remember, this made him even more frustrated.

He did not suspect what the system said though. The system was already concise, and had access to the owner's memories. Even if it was unreliable, it would not end up making any mistake on matters like these.

He really was Benjamin Lithur.

He had more questions now: Why did Michelle think I was Grant? She was so cunning, how could she get the wrong person?

It was really strange.

"Who's Grant Lithur then?" Kubei asked.

"He's your biological brother." The System replied.

Hearing this, Kubei raised his eyebrows, and could not help but feel a little shocked.

The System continued to explain: "A year after you were born, your younger brother was born as well, your parents named him Grant Lithur. You and your brother grew up together here, and your relationship with him wasn't bad."

Younger brother...

Kubei suddenly had a bad feeling about this.

"Please don't tell me that this is one of those dramas where the younger brother is a genius and the older brother is useless, and I was chosen to teleport into the older brother." Kubei was unsettled, he has read countless of novels with this kind of setting, and he could only pray that he was not so unlucky.

"You're not as dumb as I thought." The System sounded really happy to the point where it was taunting, "You didn't guess wrongly, The day your brother was born, a holy light rose from the Lithur family household roof, it travelled through half of the kingdom, then landed on the sculpture of God's fingertips which was in the church courtyard. Then came seven sounds of the bell at dawn from the cathedral, which marked the beginning of a new era. In the hundred days of baptism, your brother was deemed to have an extraordinary talent for godly spells, and was deemed to be the future bishop, and the successor to the pope."

"...What about me?" Kubei asked with the little hope he had left.

"In the hundred days of baptism, you were deemed worthless, the whole family was disappointed. After that, you started growing weaker, becoming more susceptible to diseases, to the point where you were frailer than your younger brother, crushing your dreams of becoming a knight. You are considered the most laughable person amongst all the nobles in the kingdom."

The system sounded really rigorous in its explanations.

"..."

Kubei felt like banging his head on a wall.

Even though he was prepared, after hearing the answer, he still felt helpless. After hearing what Michelle said at first, he thought he had been teleported into a gifted body, but who knew, this world still was unfair to him.

As an older brother who lived in the shadow of his genius younger brother, he probably did not have a good life in this family. Especially after hearing this system's explanation of him being the laughing stock of the family, he probably also did not have a high position of power.

Michelle probably messed up and thought he was the younger brother and kidnapped him, causing all this unnecessary trouble. This Benjamin Lithur person was really unlucky. But of course, he was beaten to death by Annie, thus passing his misfortune on to Kubei.

Even after everything I have been through? This is really unfair!

But Kubei was not in a disappointed state for long.

"Well, who cares."

He wanted to become a great mage, holy arts or innate talent can go to hell. Even though his body was weak, after discovering that triangle rune, he felt as if an aura was slowly rejuvenating his body, and he did not get exhausted as easily as before. Because of this, he was not so worried. Even if other people looked down on him, he did not care at all.

Useless means useless, which novel did not have a useless main character?

He was rather optimistic.

Kubei realized he was too optimistic. Maybe he was affected by that assassin, and his brain was wired into a different circuitry, he managed to throw all these bad news into the deep recesses of his mind in just a short while.

It felt like he banged his head on something.

…...Am I high?

"Don't be too optimistic, what are you going to do about the assassin?" The system popped his bubble once again.

Oh...

That assassin came to kill him, and was not his happy little pal.

After calming down, Kubei could feel the danger looming over him. Even though the opponent was not a reliable person, but this person's existence has proved something: Someone wanted him dead.

Who could it be? He was a useless nobleman, he had no position or power, other people even looked down on him, and no one would specially hire someone to get rid of him. But his younger brother who was a genius seemed more like a likely target.

It was strange.

Who could it be, who would have such an evil intent towards the family's laughing stock? He had to find this person. He did not want to live the rest of his days in fear, fearing someone would stab him in the back someday.

"That simplified version of the memories, it should be done by now." After thinking of this, Kubei asked.

He wanted to find out who was pulling the strings, and the best way was to figure it out from the memories of the body's original owner.

Who has this Sir Benjamin offended? Did he have any enemies? If he died, who would gain the most out of it? If he could find the answers to these few questions, the person who hired the assassin would be immediately revealed.

"It has already been arranged." The System replied.

Hearing this, Kubei nodded satisfyingly, and said:

"Let's begin then."

It was time he became Benjamin Lithur.

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Chapter 13: Becoming Benjamin Lithur

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

The night passed.

"Master Benjamin, it's time to wake up, the madam wants you to go down to have breakfast."

The voice of the butler and a knocking sound dragged Kubei, who was still lying on the bed, back to reality.

It is already morning?

He laughed bitterly in his heart. He did not think that absorbing Benjamin Lithur's memories would have taken him from midnight until dawn, leaving him with no time to rest.

But it was not the system's fault, the System did simplify the memory to a point where he could fully understand the situation in half an hour. But the problem was that it was too simplified. Kubei searched it a few times but still found no clue about who could have hired the assassin.

He had to narrow down his search, so he began asking the System all the small details within the memories.

This method of searching was like trying to find a needle in a haystack, and the system's tendency to go haywire didn't help. The process ended up going all the way to dawn when the butler came to call him to breakfast, but he still did not have any results. In other words: he still did not know who wanted him dead.

Kubei felt defeated, it was like he wasted his whole night for nothing.

Nothing could be done, time was up, he could no longer continue looking through the details of the memories. The butler was waiting for him, and he had to go meet the Lithur family members --It was more important than what he was doing right now.

Would he be able to manage to deceive his "own" relatives?

But from this point of view, he was not actually wasting his time. He remembered the simplified memories, and even revised many of the details, which would a big help in trying to pretend to be "him".

Relying on these memories, dealing with the butler was no problem.

"Alright, I'll be right over."

He said this to the butler.

"Jeremy isn't feeling too well, so I'm here to replace him." Surprisingly, the butler opened the door and walked in while saying this.

"It…...it's fine, I'll get ready on my own." Kubei hurriedly replied.

To let a middle-aged man wash him and change his clothes was rather weird. No, to be exact, as a teenager of the new generation, he was no longer a three year old, and was no mommy's boy, letting other people help him put on clothes is never a normal thing.

After hearing this, the butler seemed to make a weird expression.

Kubei realized something was off.

"Hey, you didn't tell me last night that all the nobles are used to their servants helping them put clothes on, and to wear it yourself is odd." He asked the system.

"It's not really, even though it is a habit, recently there has been a trend that one would do their own washing up and clothes wearing, it's not strange at all." The system explained.

"I see..."

After hearing this, Kubei was rather relieved.

The system had already said so, he should not be acting out of place. Maybe Benjamin decided to change in habit one day, it probably was not much of a problem.

He was just feeling guilty from what he was doing.

Kubei acted as if it was supposed to be this way, and told the butler: "It's fine, go about your business, I'll head downstairs in a short while."

The butler did not suspect anything and bowed, leaving behind all the things he was carrying and went away.

Kubei was relieved.

Every move after returning here is like a war without smoke!

He crawled up from the bed, then looked around. He wanted to see his surroundings as he was not able to see properly last night due to the absence of light.

His room was rather huge, it could match the living room of a family that was well off. The furniture was elaborate, the window was rather wide, but it was covered by gracefully designed curtains, and a European style clock hung on the wall. Everything in the room made it look like a western noble's room, there was even an oil painting hanging on the wall on top of the bed.

And that pot that was the highlight of the night that day was probably left by the butler by the door.

Kubei walked to the dressing table, and used the water left by the butler to wash up, then tidied up his hair. He followed the System's instructions to put on a shirt and pants taken from the closet.

In the mirror, he saw himself for the first time.

A blonde young white man with light blue eyes, a thin-looking body, pale skin with faint freckles and a light blush. He looked like someone with jaundice.

He was not disappointed. He did not ask for much, as long as he did not look that ugly. He believed his weakened state right now would not last.

He tried his best to remember this face, to remember how "he" looked like.

A voice came from the depths of his heart: From this moment, he was not Kubei anymore, he was Benjamin Lithur.

He ended his previous life on the twenty-five year mark, from this day onwards, he was no longer "Kubei". He had to completely become Benjamin Lithur.

He looked at the completely unfamiliar face in the mirror, then made a decision.

And then, Kubei pushed open the door…...No, it should be said: Benjamin pushed open the door, then walked out.

Benjamin referred to the map given by the system and went downstairs, arriving at the living room where the Lithur family was used to dining at. Two servants stood at the entrance of the living room and bowed. he nodded back at them.

Everything was as "usual", nothing seemed out of place, and Benjamin walked into the living room.

If his sleeping quarters was almost the size of the living room of a middle class family, then this living room was a millionaire's. A brown colored table ten meters long that was surrounded by chairs neatly separated the room into half. The two cabinets filled with dining utensils were backed up by the peach colored walls, and it was really tidy. Four religious paintings hung on all four walls, giving a baroque feel to the room that made it sullen and mysterious.

The living room was rather quiet, as there were only two people.

A well-dressed old lady around eighty dined at the table, and a servant around fifty stood by herself, a face full of respect, not moving at all.

Based on the memories, Benjamin knew that the old lady was his grandmother, the 'Matriarch' figure in the Lithur family.

There was only one person dining, so he was naturally shocked, but was rather relieved.

In his imagination, this meal consisted of everyone in the Lithur family, his parents, his brother and his grandmother. He did not know what happened, right now there was only the old lady on her own, and it made Benjamin feel much more at ease.

He walked over and sat at the table side, then greeted the old lady.

"Good morning, grandmother."

The old lady looked at him, then raised her eyebrows: "Good morning, my child. Young people are always full of energy, always trying to cause a commotion, not like us old people, right?"

What was to be noted was that her tone was strange, it was not like an elder talking to a younger person, but sounded like she was mocking Benjamin, like he was her rival.

What did she mean? What is she trying to say?

Benjamin had a huge question mark in his heart.

Not waiting for a reply, the old lady put down her cutlery, then wiped her mouth with a napkin, and looked at him in an indifferent way, saying:

"Are you hungry? The chef did not prepare your breakfast, but since you're a strong young man, you probably wouldn't pay heed to such a matter."

"..."

Are we really biologically related?

It was you who call me down to breakfast, but there is no breakfast? Why did you call me down in the first place? To devour air?!

Benjamin was put into a state of shock.

The System appeared at the right time, and told Benjamin: "I forgot to tell you last night. This old lady has gotten rather eccentric after your grandfather passed on, becoming really hard to deal with, even your genius younger brother had a hard time to make her smile. I think she's probably mad from all the noise you made last night."

"Why can't you say so earlier?" He did not know how to deal with the elderly person, thus releasing all his anger onto the System.

"Aren't all these part of the fine details? When we talked about this yesterday, you didn't really ask in detail at all." The System replied in a triumphant manner.

"..." Facing the shameless System, Benjamin was once again defeated.

The old lady saw that Benjamin did not reply, then continued saying: "A young person should learn more about manners, that Fulner family boy has been sleepwalking for some time. Even though I don't really like him, but he's still a guest at our house, basic manners should always be displayed, otherwise how would the other noble families in the kingdom view us? Don't you think so?"

After hearing this, Benjamin finally knew what she was trying to say.

The System was right, it was solely because of what happened last night.

But Benjamin was helpless. If this old lady used the tone of an elder person lecturing a younger person, he would not have any complaints. But this way of beating around the bush left Benjamin speechless.

Can't we have a proper conversation?

No matter how one saw it, he had survived a kidnapping after so much effort, being a relative, shouldn't she at least try to care a little? How is she able to act as if nothing happened?

It was still the same, what on Earth was going on here?

"Young people nowadays don't have any actual talent, but are somehow skilled in pretending to be deaf and dumb instead, not hearing a single word an elderly person is saying. Don't you think so?" The old lady followed.

This made Benjamin angry.

"Since there's no breakfast, me being the grandson should go back and rest, please enjoy yourself, grandmother."

He immediately regretted it after saying it, this was not something the previous Benjamin would say. But he was really pissed off inside. He has had enough of this indifferent attitude.

The old lady's reaction pleased Benjamin. She opened her eyes wide, looked at Benjamin with shock, then frowned, not continuing her sarcastic mockery.

Seeing this, Benjamin did not say much. He stood up, then sarcastically bowed to the old lady, turned around, and left the living room with an attitude.

The old lady opened her eyes wide and looked around, suddenly displaying great innocence, then asked the servant: "What is the matter with this child? What did I say, why did he leave halfway through a meal? How strange, don't you all think so?"

The servants looked at each other, not daring to say a word.

On the other side, Benjamin has already returned to his room.

After shutting the door, the system's voice appeared again:

"That was such a magnificent display! Everyone would definitely think 'This is our Master Benjamin, Master Benjamin was like this in the past, he is the same as before!' No one would suspect you anymore, I'm so proud of you."

Benjamin's veins on his forehead popped out: "Shut up, my tolerance for sarcasm for today has run out."

"What are you going to do now? The Benjamin in the past was a poor worm, but seeing you now, everyone would think something is off." The system questioned back.

"No, no one would suspect a thing."

Benjamin slowly calmed down, not showing any sign of panic.

"How would you know?" The System did not seem to believe him.

"The reason is simple, the Benjamin in the past was a poor worm." Benjamin was suddenly stunned as he just realized what he said, "Because of this, no one actually paid attention to Benjamin Lithur, they wouldn't have known what Benjamin Lithur thought of. In this situation, even based on today's display, other people would think that I'm just the poor worm that has been forced to its limit, thinking that this poor worm would eventually blow up someday. They would only be shocked, but no one would suspect anything."

"How do you know?"

"Because I am smart, and you are stupid."

"..." It was the System's turn to be speechless.

Before he left the living room, Benjamin noticed the way the servants looked at him. Those eyes revealed surprise, but he had thought of this properly, and he was sure those were due to revelations of "Oh my God our master has finally blown up after resisting for so long", and not "Oh my God our master is a totally different person now could he have been replaced by someone from another dimension."

This made Benjamin stop worrying.

Even if he were to act even more outrageous in the future, other people would think that he was under pressure for too long, after being kidnapped, his personality changed, and no one would relate it to a person that teleported from another dimension or his soul being possessed.

Why? To be frank, no one paid attention to Benjamin Lithur, he was useless. If a useless person were to change his personality, no matter by how much, no one would pay any heed.

Benjamin could not help but feel happy rather than being depressed because of this.

No one paying any attention-- this was a position that a mage needed to be in.

"If I were to go out now, no one would notice." Benjamin thought of it and said it immediately.

"Go out? Where are you going?" The System questioned.

"To the Church."

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Chapter 14: Initial Contact with the Church

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

The holy light shrouded the world.

According to the legend, this was how the Church came to be when the almighty God issued the first oracle. In the era marked by endless wars, the first Pope uttered these words while wielding a weak holy light, and raised this light into the night sky during mankind's darkest age.

Since the church's thousands of years of existence, its image has turned from one of a charitable organization into one that dominates this piece of land. Three hundred years ago, the Helius Kingdom was built around the church grounds, and it became the strongest kingdom in this land. A royal family was present in the kingdom, but everyone knew, the royal family members were mere puppets under the Church, forever kneeling in front of feet of God's statue.

It can be said that everyone born in this kingdom is a citizen of God's kingdom, from their hundred days of baptism, till their marriage oath, to their funeral, there would always be an element of religion involved. The Church used this kind of method to control everyone's lives.

Everyone believed in the will of God, and no one dared to oppose the Church.

The first oracle "The holy light shrouded the world," was etched into every corner of every church.

Saint Peter's cathedral naturally became the center of the church as it was the only church in Havenwright, the capital of the kingdom of Helius.

At this moment, Benjamin sat inside one of the confession rooms within Saint Peter's cathedral, looking at that sentence etched on the wall.

"The holy light shrouded the world."

Of course, he was not here to confess. As a rookie mage, as the Church would say, he was already a fallen one that has given into the temptations of the demons, and was rejected by God. Confessing to him did not have any meaning.

He was here to see the bishop.

To the normal citizens, the bishop of Saint Peter's cathedral was in charge of daily matters in the church. But in reality, he was also in charge of hunting and purging cultists, wielding one of the greatest powers in the Church--"The Cleaner".

Benjamin wanted to discuss with him about Michelle.

He did not plan to give the Church any information, and he did not wish to help the Church capture Michelle, honestly speaking, Benjamin could not care whether Michelle lived or died right now. As a mage who just entered the halls of magic, he had something important to do, and that was to increase his capabilities.

How did all the mages become stronger?

Benjamin and the System did not know how to answer this question. To unlock everything he needed to know about mages, the only solution was to look for Michelle or the Church.

He could not hurl himself into Michelle's embrace, therefore, the Church was the only choice he had.

The Church must have a lot of information regarding mages, of course, they would definitely not give this information to him. His purpose here was to ask the bishop for traces of Michelle, and all the places that she has been before.

He still remembered what Annie said before she died: "Michelle, under the third tree at the usual place, I've buried all my precious belongings underneath there, remember to dig them up." Even though the relationship between these two women seemed to be fake, but he felt that Annie said this with all honesty.

He wanted to find the places that Michelle has been, and that "usual place" mentioned.

Annie's "Precious Belongings" probably more or less had something to do with magic. He wanted to find the places that they have been by, and find that "third tree" while Michelle is busy hiding, then dig up Annie's belongings before Michelle could.

This was the reason Benjamin came to the church. Even though Annie could have been lying, and even though finding traces of Michelle by asking the bishop may not be a good idea, he still had to try. If this method did not work out, he could think of another way then.

He was the kind of person who had to try something out if he saw even a glimmer of hope in it. Otherwise, that hope would haunt his mind, making it hard for him to eat and sleep.

He did not fear that he would be suspected by the Church. His memories had already been acquired by the "Cleaner", so the people of the Church probably did not suspect him one bit. Could they even think of the possibility of a person having two separate memories from interdimensional travel?

"Sir Lithur."

Suddenly, a low voice interrupted his thoughts.

Benjamin recovered from his deep thoughts and turned around. From the veil of the confession room, he could make up from the blur that a middle aged man with an aquiline nose sat at the other side.

"Lord Bishop." He replied with respect.

He wanted to use the water element sensing method he used on the assassin previously to sense the bishop. But after thinking that this was a church, some of them probably knew some divine arts, so for safety reasons, he did not.

"I'm not a bishop, I'm only a priest who is willing to hear the confessions of a citizen, granting the forgiveness of God to every guilty youth." The other party had an inhumanly calm voice, like it was devoid of humanity,"Are you saying you have information on the servant of the Devil, and wish to alert God?"

These religious people mentioned God in almost everything they spoke about. Benjamin could not help but feel revolted.

He did not express these feelings, but still maintained his respect: "Yes."

The bishop was silent for a while, then asked: "So you are saying, the servant of the Devil that cursed you has started to communicate with you?

Hearing this, Benjamin frowned.

Planted a curse?

The bishop's words created turmoil in his heart, and diverted his focus from Annie's treasure. Even though the statement was rhetorical, he still understood what he meant: He has been cursed? What happened? What did I miss?

Benjamin suddenly had a bad feeling.

"Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you." The System came out of nowhere and explained: "Before Michelle escaped, she chanted some sort of complicated incantation at you, then a dark red light flew into your chest. I didn't know what that was at the time, but right now, I think it's probably the curse he mentioned."

"..."

He felt cheated by the system once more, and was speechless.

He wanted to shout at the system saying "Why didn't you say so earlier?", but this sentence has been said too many times, and did not seem to be of use, the system still continued to repeat its mistakes. Benjamin could not be bothered to get angry.

It was not the time to argue with the System.

A curse…..

He knew Michelle would not let him go so easily. Before this he was surprised by Michelle's generosity, but right now, everything made sense. Michelle had not given up, she was like a venomous snake, only temporarily retreating back to its hole, waiting for the chance to strike again.

Her plan was obvious. She wanted to use this curse to threaten him, force him to obey her, and help her get access to the Lithur family treasury. Benjamin, who has been cursed, would do whatever she said in fear for his own life.

This damned luck won't go away!

But Benjamin quickly came back to reality. Finding this out from the bishop it was already an unexpected blessing --if he knew a bit later, the situation would be worse.

Looking at the blurry contours of the bishop, he came up with an idea.

He prepared himself, summoned a panicked composure, and put up an act in front of the bishop: "Yes, Lord…...Lord Bishop, you have to save me, please! This morning, when I…...I was in my bedroom, I noticed a letter from the witch, it said…..it said…..my God! Bishop, she said this curse would take my life, you have to save me, please!"

Benjamin felt like the act he put up was not half bad because the bishop did not suspect anything.

"Do not fear, God will protect you." The bishop repeated in the same tone," Take a deep breath, then slowly tell me, everything that was written on the letter, God will hear you out."

Benjamin did as he was told, then continued the act: "That letter…..that letter only said, once I was cursed by her, I had to follow her every order, or else I would die a horrible death. And then…...and then she had me wait for her first order, nothing else was mentioned. Lord Bishop, I do not wish to die by her hands, you have to save me, please!

The bishop did not react to the "panicking" Benjamin. After some thought, he asked: "Where is the letter? Did you bring it?"

Benjamin was prepared for this: "No. The letter burnt away on its own after I was done reading it, not a trace of it was left, it almost burnt my fingertips, and it was too scary."

The bishop remained sullen, as if he thought this was a difficult problem too.

Benjamin observed the bishop awhile. He felt like he has the bishop fooled, so he threw in the final act:

"Lord Bishop, God is omnipotent. Could I please ask God to release this evil curse from me?"

Even though a small curse was enough to make him worry, but he knew, the Church had ways to release this curse. Not only that, as the protector of all the citizens, it was the Church's duty to help him break this curse, otherwise their reputation would be tarnished.

Once the Church releases this curse from him, all his other problems would disappear accordingly.

Making someone heed your every order just by a simple curse? Michelle, you underestimate me!

But, the bishop's reply was disappointing:

"This is not an ordinary curse, it has concentrated demonic energy within. You have to know, on this huge land, there are countless of people suffering under the guise of the Devil, and God is battling him relentlessly, so he is not able to provide the power to help you break this curse. Slaves like me are even more powerless to save you from such an evil curse."

"..."

It sounded really convincing...

Benjamin did not give up, then asked again: "But, is there really no way? I only answer to God, I do not wish to become that evil witch's puppet!"

The bishop said: "You do not have to worry, God will watch over you. If the witch continues to communicate with you, one day she would end up making a mistake. At the time, we will appear to purge that evil witch, and you no longer will have anything to be afraid of."

Benjamin suddenly had a revelation.

It was not that they could not break it, but rather they were not willing. The Church wanted to leave this curse and use him as a bait and lure Michelle, so they are pretending to be powerless.

This bunch of brainwashing faux noblemen, they are not that different from Michelle.

This was probably Michelle's agenda. She knew the Church can break his curse, but she also knew that because the Church is hunting for her, they will not break his curse. It was because of these circumstances that she could let Benjamin go without any worry.

She knew that everything was within her control.

These bunch of old churros! One more cunning after another!

At this point, Benjamin has totally given up. The Church would never help him remove his curse, so he had to think of his own way.

"Lord Bishop, I want to ask, do you know of any traces of the witch's whereabouts? My family is furious, and they wish to participate in the hunting and give their power to serve God."

The curse put aside for now, Benjamin returned to his original purpose-- to find Michelle's "Usual place", then dig up Annie's "Precious treasure to further his studies in magic.

If this trip to the church was only to learn of the bad news that he has been cursed, he would probably end up crying in the toilet.

"It is related to the energy of the Fallen One, so your family is incapable of joining in. For your family's safety, please leave everything to God's slaves. " Even with rejection, the bishop could make it sound really convincing. This must be a talent.

After hearing this, Benjamin did not feel disappointed.

He already expected the bishop to reject him. And he has yet to give up, but he has another way to make his reason sound more persuasive:

"Even though there is no one in my family that could match the paladins of the Church, but as citizens we also have our own methods, if we were to know some top secret information, we could still help. That witch is alert against the Church, but she would probably be less alert if we ordinary people were to hunt for her. Don't worry, Lord Bishop, I would inform you immediately if there is any news."

Benjamin's determination seemed to surprise the bishop. After some thought, the bishop nodded.

"Since you are so devoted to the Lord, I would have to accept it on his behalf."

It was as if he needed Benjamin's help to lure Michelle out, so he was pretending to be compliant. Benjamin guessed maybe from the bishop's point of view, if he were to give him unimportant information, it would comfort Benjamin and make him a good bait to lure Michelle.

Of course, the bishop definitely would not give him important information, so he could only rely on himself and on some obsolete information, mostly non-related, which would not let an ordinary person be able to get any information on magic.

But if they were to be in Benjamin's position...

"Magic, here I come!"

He kept his great joy in check, and laughed loudly in his heart.

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Chapter 15: How To Dig Up Treasures

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

Very quickly, Benjamin left the confession room.

He blended into the crowds that came to and fro, and left Saint Peter's cathedral without attracting any attention.

His conversation with the bishop proved fruitful. First off, he found out that he had been cursed. Even though it was bad news, it could be said that it was better than him only finding out when something bad happened as a result of it. Other than that, today's main harvest was information about Michelle.

After the bishop assented, he told Benjamin about news related to Michelle. Only from this did Benjamin know that Michelle was already known. Five years ago, she had already began activity in the kingdom: Ambushing noblemen, stealing treasures, spreading rumors, and encouraging heretical thoughts…...not only that, despite the Church's hunt for her, she managed to live safely for five years, and did not have long periods of inactivity.

It can be said that the Church was being played by her like a toy, they could not even get a hold of a strand of her hair.

Until now, the Church has yet to determine her level of magic prowess. The Church thinks that she has reached the level of an archmage, if it was not a bishop or a grand paladin that faced her, they would not be able to handle her. As a result, the Church feared her very much.

To this, Benjamin only wanted to say: You guys are overthinking.

He was not sure of Michelle's power, but if she was that afraid of just a squad of "Cleaners", how powerful could she be?

This Empty Fort Strategy had been laid out very well.

Out of all the information he received from the bishop, other than them having battled Michelle over this long period of time, the one that caught Benjamin's attention the most was that they found all the base of operations that Michelle had been by before.

The Church has found around twenty or more abandoned bases during their hunt for her.

Benjamin has already remembered all the locations of these bases.

Right now, he was walking on the street outside Saint Peter's cathedral, thinking of what to do next: He had to search all the twenty plus bases, this was unavoidable. But he had to be careful not to draw the attention of the Church. If his real purpose was found out by the Church, he would end up the same situation Michelle was in now.

He did not want to end up on the Church's 'To Purge List' so quickly.

Because of the curse, the Church had set him up as a bait, and would naturally observe him. Trying to thoroughly search all twenty plus bases under the watchful eye of the Church was like a daydream.

He had to find someone to do it on his behalf...

"Oh yeah, didn't you mention I had a squire, called Jeremy or something like that. How come I've yet to meet him yet?"

After thinking of this, Benjamin asked the system.

"Jeremy isn't feeling well, didn't the butler mention it this morning? Don't you have any memory at all?" The System used this as a chance to look down on Benjamin.

"Really? A passerby that had no name, I would not normally remember what they have to say." Benjamin imitated the System's shamelessness.

The System had no way to retort him.

But, speaking of the squire...

Benjamin suddenly realized he was not as low ranked as he thought he was in the family,since he had his own personal servant. Even though his grandmother was mean to him that was because of her personality and it had nothing to do with Benjamin. The other servants did not look down on him either just because he was born useless. Just like that random butler, he cleaned the floor and even prepared for him equipment for him to wash up. He did what he was supposed to do and his attitude was full of respect too.

This was the professional attitude that a servant was supposed to have.

As useless as he was, he was still a nobleman, and could not be compared to a servant. The scenario where a servant complains about their master's attitude would probably only appear in novels.

"Even though Benjamin was a loser, but his life didn't seem so bad." Benjamin exclaimed.

"A rich person and a poor person having it bad are two different things." The System had to add salt to his injury, "But I have to remind you, you only have one Jeremy, your brother has two male servants and one female servant. Your servant's yearly income is thirty pounds, yet all three of his servants have fifty pounds. Can you still say you're living the good life now?"

"..."

Benjamin felt like he was convinced by the system.

At that moment, he felt like his coming days will be unbearable. A life where he only had a servant whose wages were only a hundred and fifty pounds is terrible, one that commands no honor.

That his opinion of himself was damaged so quickly is a proof that the corruption of a feudal society was unable to be withstood.

Envy is definitely one of the original sins.

"Why did you suddenly mention your squire, are you planning to have him help you dig up Annie's treasures?" The System asked, dragging the out-of-topic conversation back to the real world.

"You guessed right." Hearing this, Benjamin nodded.

Hiring another person would be troublesome, why not just find someone he trusted instead?

Even though his own squire would rouse the suspicions of the Church, but he himself was under surveillance for protection, and not under surveillance out of suspicion. The Church would put most of their attention to him, and probably would not care much about the people around him.

After leaving the Church, his also noticed there were people watching him already. Using the

water element sensing technique, he found out that one of them was a patrolling knight, accompanied by a priest in plain clothes.

These two people were what the bishop meant when he said "God will watch over you." To avoid alerting Michelle, the Church's "surveillance" was rather lax. Benjamin could not help but feel revolted, but from another point of view it was beneficial for him as it enabled him to move freely around.

What could these two people observe? If he hid in the Lithur family house, they would not dare to get too close out of respect for the family, and they would end up not having done anything in the end.

Of course, he was not planning on taking big risks. When it was really time to move, he would play some tricks to make the Church less cautious.

"Based on what you mentioned, this Jeremy probably can be trusted?" Benjamin asked the System.

"Trustworthy indeed, but I still think he is unable to carry out this task successfully on his own."

Benjamin questioned: "Why?"

The System was hesitant, but finally, it gave an answer: "Because...he is too cowardly."

After hearing this, Benjamin was stunned.

At this moment, there was a frantic call, pulling him back to reality.

He could only see that from afar, a silhouette was rushing towards him, and in a short time, he made his way here.

"Master Benjamin, I've finally found you."

Looking at this person, Benjamin felt like laughing. He had a short and thin body, sharp chin and small eyes, and he wore a black vest and white shirt that most male servants would wear. But the dirty clothes gave him away, he did not look like a servant for a noble family at all, both in appearance and in spirit.

He looked like a rat, but didn't have the wit of a rat, but only the undesirable aspects of a rat.

But Benjamin did not laugh and did not show any weird expressions.

Because the System has told him: This was his squire--Jeremy.

"What is it, Jeremy, did anything happen?" He asked with a serious tone.

Jeremy held his knees, then breathed out and said: "I'm sorry master, I was absent today because of an upset stomach, that's why I didn't wash my clothes, thus embarrassing you, I..."

"..."

Benjamin did not want to ask about this, he only wanted to know why he hurried his way over.

But…..oh well...

"Why did you run to me?" Benjamin asked again.

Jeremy shook his hands, then said: "Ah, it's not me, it's your father. Your mother and Master Grant has returned, and your father wishes to see you!"

Oh?

After hearing this news, Benjamin felt a chill in his heart. But, for this scenario, he has repeated it many times in his heart. Because of this he did not panic at all, but he was a bit nervous, just a little.

What was meant to come would come eventually.

Biological parents are probably much closer than a grandmother, but speaking of relational gaps, it was probably the biggest between parents and their children. A child would never let their parents know their true self, and parents would never reveal their many sides to their children as well.

Especially as he was the least important child in the family; and especially as it was during the most rebellious teenage years.

Based on the parts of life that the System played for him, he was like a total stranger to his father, every time they had a conversation, the atmosphere would be dull and awkward. The Benjamin previously would remained tight-lipped around his parents. This kind of act was easy to put up even if he did not have a 'cheat code' to help him.

After all, he has impenetrable confidence in himself now.

"Very well, I'll go right now."

After finishing, he looked at Jeremy carefully, then suddenly said: "Oh yeah, I need you to do me a favor."

"Master, what is it?"

Benjamin thought for a while then said: "At the east of the city there is a carpenter right, I need you to go there and buy me a cross from there, be careful. Right, no sitting on a carriage, I don't have that much pocket money for you to use."

Jeremy's face seemed to droop down: "Ah…...Master, it's really far from here, if I were to walk there I would only return by midnight."

Benjamin gave a kind smile and said: " No matter, walk slowly, I'm not in a hurry of wanting it."

If it was not far I would not have sent you in the first place.

These was one of Benjamin's strategies: Have Jeremy run errands for him and do some unrelated things or things to show his devotion. If he were to do this every day, up to twenty or more times, if the Church still paid any attention to Jeremy, then they are really capable men.

Once he has diverted the Church's attention fully, he can have Jeremy dig up Annie's treasure.

No matter how picky the system was, it had to admit that this was not a bad plan at all.

And thus, Jeremy began his first step on his long journey with a bitter face. Benjamin did not think of anything further, but hastened his footsteps towards home.

His father wanted to see him, he could not walk leisurely all the way back.

The Lithur family house was around the uptown area, not far from Saint Peter's cathedral. After a while, Benjamin arrived. The servant at the entrance did not say much and only bowed at him, and opened the door to let him in.

"Your father and the rest are in the living room."

The servant at the entrance reminded him.

He nodded at the servant, then walked into the living room.

The moment he his right foot entered the living room, he felt that something was off.

This atmosphere, it was rather scary.

And…...why…...were there so many people in the living room?

The table that looked long from before did not look that long anymore. An imposing middle aged man with a sullen face sat at the chairman's seat, it was Benjamin's father. On his left hand, a row of people were seated: A well-dressed lady with a face of uneasiness, that was Benjamin's mother, a fifteen or sixteen year old blonde who stared blankly at the table, that was his younger brother, an old lady who was rolling he eyes, that was his grandmother, then there was a middle aged man who wore silver and gold, Benjamin did not know him, then there was another blonde that Benjamin did not know either...

There were a total of around ten people, half of them, Benjamin did not recognize, and they were not from the Lithur family.

These people sat there not saying a word. The atmosphere was really tense.

Especially during the moment he entered, all their gazes came onto him, every one of them were like torchlights in the hands of a policeman, it felt like the following second they would all say "Hands in the air", then bullets would come flying.

It was obvious, all of them were here for him.

"What's going on?"

Benjamin was rather afraid, and asked the System.

"Why are you panicking, I've seen this kind of scenario far too many times." The System was rather calm. After saying this, it kept silent for a while, then slowly said something that poisoned Benjamin till he was half dead.

It said: "All of them are here to break off an engagement."

"..."

Benjamin was frustrated. Why did he keep so many web novels in his computer, poisoning the mind of a smart and happy artificial intelligence, making it turn into so serious.

Even so, he could not resist, and said this to the system:

"Life has its ups and downs; don't look down on this poor young man."

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Chapter 16: The Revenge of the Shitman

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

Although Benjamin grumbled in his heart, he walked into the living room and looked at his father.

"Father, I have returned."

The middle-aged man who sat in the main seat scowled quietly at Benjamin. However, his eyes did not have even a hint of happiness. Instead, they were eyes of accusation, and Benjamin felt distressed by that look.

What even happened here?

Claude Lithur was Benjamin's biological father. Benjamin had detailed memories of Claude. Claude was the head of the household, the Duke of the Kingdom. He had a very high status within the noble hierarchy in the Kingdom of Helius, and was typically a conservative noble.

Conservative nobles would pledge loyalty to the king, where they would in turn pledge loyalty towards the church alongside the king. The matters of social class were of absolute importance to them, and they put much emphasis on the segregation of the peasants from the nobles. This also meant that they were very prideful, and they followed what was called the 'honor of the nobles'. In other words, this individual was very archaic and feudal.

From a personal perspective, Benjamin's father was also a strict man, and it was a rare occurrence to catch him smiling. This illustrated his sternness as a father, as he had high expectations of his eldest son Benjamin, but Benjamin embarrassed him. Evidently, Benjamin was not going to get a good look from him.

He usually would tell Benjamin…. Oh, no, he typically would be too lazy to even talk to Benjamin. He probably got tired of scolding Benjamin when he was still a child, so when his reprimands had no effect on Benjamin, he gave up.

Even though Duke Claude was extremely disappointed at Benjamin to a point where he would feel anger when he saw Benjamin, he was still a reasonable person. The furious expression he had right now would only surface when Benjamin misbehaved.

Misbehaviour? What did he do? Benjamin thought in bewilderment.

Suddenly, the unfamiliar boy with golden hair pointed at Benjamin's nose and exclaimed in fury, breaking the tension in the air, "It's him! Last night, he was the person who assaulted me using that…. thing!"

Benjamin became increasingly confused after he heard this.

"Who is this?"

Just to be cautious, Benjamin did not give any reaction in real life. Instead, he consulted the System by telepathy.

"Hmm, he probably would be Dick Fulner. Remember? He was the person who sleepwalked last night, and the one who you splashed him in the face with bodily excretions," the System answered.

Upon hearing the System, Benjamin paused and studied the person, and could finally feel some familiarity from his face.

The nose that pointed towards the sky and looked eerily similar with the nose of a pig was the exact replica of the poor sod last night. It was just that this person had feces all over his face last night, and Benjamin could not recognize him without them now.

At this point, Benjamin really had the urge to tell him, "My apologies, I couldn't recognize you without the shit on your face today." However, he knew that it was not the time to be sarcastic, and if he really did say that, he would lose control over the situation. Thus, he swallowed his words with difficulty.

He finally understood the situation before him. The flow of the process was that this Mister Dick was a guest at his house last night, but he started sleepwalking and met Benjamin, who just woke up. Benjamin then used the chamber pot to hit him square in the face. Mister Duke could not hold his anger, which was why he got his father over to the Lithur manor in order for him to salvage whatever dignity he could. This war was brewed just like that.

They came to find blame! Dread filled Benjamin.

He realized the difficult grounds he was on.

After much contemplation, Benjamin did not rush to explain when Dick pointed at him. Instead, he learned from the original Benjamin and behaved like a teenager being reprimanded after a mistake, with his head drooped low and his face stubborn.

Explanations would only make matters worse. He should first observe his father, Duke Claude's stance, before anything else.

However, Duke Claude's attitude was not favorable.

"Benjamin, was this the way we educated you on the manners of hospitality?" he said with disappointment. It seemed like he would be standing on the side of principle instead of his son.

Benjamin sighed inwardly.

He already knew from the System that Claude was not the kind of person that would protect the flaws of the family. Still, Benjamin understood how low his image was in the mind of his father when he saw how his father was willing to side the outsiders instead of himself.

Upon reflection from the information he got from the System, none of the people here had the tendency to cover up the failings of their own. There were no rivalry between families that was often depicted in the novels, nor the custom to avoid criticizing their family members when outsiders were present. Akin to the Western aristocrats, they interacted in harmony under the illumination of the church, without any conflicts.

The western ideology on families is so feeble.

Without the support of the family, Benjamin's circumstances were not only difficult - it was more like a struggle session, where everyone was against him.

It look liked he would have to go through some hardship.

When he thought of this, he immediately caved.

"Oh, my good sir, everything I did was unintentional! I'm so sorry, please forgive me!"

Even he could feel how genuine his act was.

His nobility was already well trained at this point.

He considered this carefully. It was better for him to apologize first before Claude could force him to do so. This would improve Claude's impression on him, but could also avoid the Fuller family from taking advantage of the situation. He believed that if his attitude was portrayed perfectly, the Fulners could not find another reason to pick at him anymore.

As Benjamin expected, after hearing Benjamin's 'sincere' apology, Claude's expression was coloured with a hint of surprise. His fury was slightly soothed after that.

After all, Benjamin's behavior now was more mature than he ever was. Of course, no one suspected a thing nor imagined anything ridiculous like teleportation. From the perspective of the Lithur family members, Benjamin should have behaved like this, and his change for the better could have come sooner!

Claude's toughness could be temporarily mellowed with merely an apology, but as the victim of the 'toilet incident', Dick Fulner's anger was not tamed.

"Just because you asked for forgiveness does not mean I would forgive you! Dream on! I will not accept your apology!" Dick Fulner's attitude was still harsh.

Even the System popped up spookily and agreed, "Exactly, what use would the police be if apologies were that effective?"

"..."

Benjamin ignored the anarchic System, and gazed at Claude. Claude looked like he wanted to stay quiet and let the younger generation resolve the dispute.

Benjamin could only ask, "What then do you want me to do?"

Dick glared and looked down at him contemptuously. He snorted cockily and said through gritted teeth, "I want to return to you the exact shame you gave me!"

While uttering his words, he magically took out a chamber pot from under the table.

"..."

Benjamin's expression went dark right away.

It was one matter to pretend to be a coward and apologize. He would not lose anything, and at the same time he could internally be looking down on the people, secretly shouting at them, "You peasants!" However, he would never accept the notion of having those things poured on his face. Never.

"...You must be dreaming." His patience finally hit its limits.

Dick became agitated in a flash and shouted, "I knew it! You were faking your apologies all along, you were never sincere when you apologized to me! Half-wit! You shameless liar!"

Benjamin could not hold back anymore. He spent half of his life on the internet, and all of his experience exploded at that instant, as if he had the power of a thousand keyboard warriors and he was not alone in this war.

"You are the one who is trash! Coming out in the middle of the night and scaring the living lights out of people, shrieking like a pig on slaughter, which dame did you dream of to excite you like this? How dare you criticize me? Did you eat so much shit you start to spew shit everywhere now? Beware that maybe one day you will die from getting hit by the bird's shit!"

"F%#$, you dare shout at me?"

"You swam in shit and you're afraid of people shouting at you?"

"I'll kill you!"

"Come then! Whoever backs off will have to castrate himself!"

"..."

According to an anonymous Mr Green, he recalled that the situation spiraled out of control at that time.

"I was very surprised to know that the life of a noble had no difference with us peasants. When they are angry, they could spew out words that were as filthy and rude as ours," the anonymous Mr Green gasped when he remembered the scene.

As Mr Green accurately described, along with the gaping audience, Dick and Benjamin's heated argument became more and more dramatic. There were expletives in between the shouting with descriptions that people could not bear to listen, and the situation was out of control like how a wild horse would be without its lead.

Claude finally stood and shouted.

"Shut up!"

His roar that was like a lion's, it finally stopped the heated argument. Both sides held their horses and troops, and only their outraged eyes were still battling in the air, spiking metaphorical sparks in the process.

Benjamin felt some regret, but also felt ecstatic.

But before long, the regret piled up.

"Have you had enough? Benjamin, what happened to the education you received? Have all of them gone to a dog's stomach? Look at yourself, shouting in front of guests. Do you have no dignity? Are you thinking of leaving this household? If so, go!"

A rush of words smacked at Benjamin, causing him to feel slightly dizzy. At that moment, he felt that he was a child once again, as if he was pointed with a feather brush while being scolded by his parents after committing a mistake.

This was like a flashback of his childhood terrors!

"I…" he instinctively wanted to argue, but his words were interrupted without any warning.

"What, are you trying to twist your words again? The honor of the Lithur family was all gone because of you! Say, how do you plan to let us face the other nobles in the kingdom? How do you reckon the way the church will judge us now?" Claude's rage was not subsiding anytime soon.

Immediately, Benjamin shut his mouth tightly, and could not make up the courage to speak anymore.

Anything that could be said at this point would only add fuel to the fire, and would only show Claude how childish and immature he was. It was better for him to face the music with his head hung low.

At least, he did feel some satisfaction after the outburst. An outdated aristocrat stood no chance against him.

It was another middle-aged man who piped up and advised Claude.

"Contain your anger, Duke Claude, as I could see that he knows his mistakes. Just let my son have his revenge, and from today onwards, we will forget what happened. This way, we could prevent the rumors from spreading, too."

The System appeared at the right moment to introduce him. He was Accius Fulner, the head of the Fulner household, father of Dick Fulner.

As a Duke of the Kingdom, he was well-known to be a smooth person. He had much relations in the business world, and was favoured by the present King. When he smiled, his eyes would be hidden behind layers of fat.

Only he could have a say at this time.

Although he seemed to be standing at Benjamin's side, Benjamin had no plans to be grateful to him. "Let my son have his revenge," would equate that he intended to let Dick pour the chamber pot in his face.

No good person could come from this family.

However, Claude's attention again had Benjamin in shock.

"If that could solve this matter, that is all that can be done," Claude said after taking a short while to regain his composure.

Dick's eyes went bright once Claude uttered these words. He held the chamber pot excitedly, as if it was Leonardo holding his Oscars.

"Oh no, you're going to be a 'shitman' now," the System said, its voice so serene it was hard to tell if that was said with chaotic joy or pity.

Benjamin's face went blue.

He would never ever accept this! No!

He would rather Mister Fulner put down the chamber pot, and have a civil discussion….

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Chapter 17: The Troublemaking Old Lady

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

"Well, it seems like I have no business here anymore. I'm exhausted, do excuse me as I go and get some rest," said the old lady who was sitting quietly by the side while Dick Fulner was getting himself ready with the chamber pot. She was Benjamin's grandmother.

Her sudden speech took Benjamin by surprise, and the crowd's attention diverted away.

"Madame, do feel free to rest if you're tired. No one would condemn your absence for such a trivial matter."

Accius Fulner replied immediately without waiting for Claude's response.

"I am an elderly now, I need to be here whenever things happen so people would remember that I still exist. Am I right?" The madame spoke nonchalantly. She also sounded like she was mocking someone while she was yawning.

Accius shook his head, "Ah, you must be joking, madame."

Benjamin stood at the sideline, taking in the conversation. His conflict with Dick was immediately set aside once the madame expressed herself. Thus, it can be concluded that his grandmother with her peculiar personality had a great status within the household.

However, Benjamin had a premonition that the madame's actual intention was not to retire for the night. If she did, why would she express these insinuating remarks?

Was she trying to stir up trouble?

If it is, she should do so as soon, and as big of a trouble as possible. This could provide him some time to come up with a plan for him to get through this mess.

"I'll let Anna attend to you as you rest."

Claude told the madame as he rose and turned to make eye contact with the servants by the door.

"There will be no need for that. What, do you think I'm too old to do anything? I could walk by my own," the madame waved dismissively, and stood with her cane.

"But..." Claude was hesitant.

"What 'but'? Mary hasn't said anything, so why are you so distressed? Am I right, Mary?" Impatiently, the madame interrupted Claude and instead looked at Benjamin's mother, who was standing beside Claude.

Mary - Benjamin's mother, Claude's wife. Obviously, she would be shocked, as would never have expected the madame to pass the conversation to her. Her eyes widened, and her hands covered her gaping mouth.

After some consideration, Mary answered, "It depends entirely on you, mother, for I have no opinions on this matter."

The madame let out a 'hmph' after she heard her words. No one could interpret her emotions.

In his heart, Benjamin was busy criticizing the situation. An in-law conflict, and one that failed to even build into a proper fight. This would not be of much help to him, and it would not be able to drag much time as well. Once the madame left the hall, Dick Fulner would again hold his chamber pot high, aimed towards him.

There was no time for him to stay put being an audience. There was nothing to watch anyway, as unlike the drama all over the television channels.

He should hurry up and think of what to do!

If Dick insisted to hit him with the chamber pot, could he be hard-headed and disagree anyways? Claude would not disown him from the Lithur family, would he?

What if he was actually disowned?

Benjamin's heart went cold. If he was disowned, he would have no choice but to seek refuge with the church. The church would not treat him badly as they would still need him for Michelle's capture. However, if he wanted to learn magic under the eyes of the church, it would literally feel like going into the Nightmare Level right after the Tutorial - the game was rigged and anti-human.

He would be more pathetic if he ended up on the streets. The church would never allow him to be homeless though, and they would probably put him under their control. To some degree, staying in the Lithur family would be the best choice he could make to guarantee his freedom of movement.

What a headache...

Just as Benjamin was plotting his escape route, the madame who was preparing her departure did something very strange. As if she was suddenly weakened. her cane slipped, she swung and fell to her side.

Her fall was not a big problem. However, her cane that was flung to the opposite side of the room went towards exactly where Dick was standing with the chamber pot.

While everyone was still stunned, the cane hit Dick's ankles hard. Dick's legs buckled and fell backwards, and he collapsed to the ground.

The chamber pot in his hands was thrown from his hand as he fell. It flew high and drew a beautiful parabola in the air. Then, it struck accurately on the fallen Dick's face.

Bang!

A dark liquid splattered everywhere, and like a gigantic flower, it bloomed on his face in an abstract fashion.

The crowd gasped and backed away from Dick. They avoided the flabbergasted Dick like how they would avoid an epidemic.

Dick was still on the floor, his face bewildered. He touched his face with his hands, and slowly moved them before his eyes. When he saw the brown matter that stained his hands, his whole face trembled, and his irises emitted a deep anguish.

"Ahhhhhhhhhh!"

Accompanied with his agonized cry, Dick fainted once again in a pool of shit.

As the series of events unfolded like a flash, the people had no time to give any reaction other than avoiding the filth by running away from him.

Benjamin's grandmother, who was the cause of the entire incident, reacted even before the chamber pot fell onto the floor. She hid at the side of the living room door, as she pressed her hand onto her chest. Her expression was one of innocence and alarm.

The living room was silent.

Benjamin snapped back into reality, and he stared at the wide-eyed old lady who was hiding by the door. He was deeply astonished.

Nowadays, not only the young wanted to be troublemakers. Even the elders wanted to make the news!

He glanced at the surrounding crowd who were so stunned that they looked dumb. Benjamin learnt from his mistake. The first person who caught attention would always bear the brunt of the blame, and he should now stay invisible before someone else broke the silence. He refused to talk before that.

No matter what, this was the second time he was in a situation like this. He had experience now.

However, the people around him seemed to have had much more experience in this than the next person.

No one even squeaked as they sank themselves in their disbelief. No one changed their expressions as they stared at Dick who was in a puddle of feces. They were so deep in shock that they did not even move to cover their noses from the stench.

It was as if someone froze time, and the only indication that time still moved were the crows continuing to crow outside.

The situation was like a battle of patience, and Dick's cry was a call of 'Red Light!'

Benjamin felt confused.

What were they doing?

"All of them are nobles, they have more experience in this than you," the System chided in his heart, "Of course, it is also possible that the people in this world generally have a much slower response rate. Regardless of what happened, they are just slow."

"..."

Benjamin was speechless.

A weird sound finally ended the endless and eerie silence of 'shock'. Benjamin was taken aback, but he suddenly realized that his stomach was the source of the noise.

At this environment, the croak was exceptionally loud and clear.

...He was hungry.

Once again, all eyes focused on Benjamin.

It was too late for Benjamin to regret his actions. Just now, he remembered that he had not eaten anything since he was teleported into this world. At least, he did not ingest anything when he was conscious and awake. He had no idea if anyone fed him when he was in the comatose state during the three days.

That breakfast he was supposed to have? His grandmother managed to stop him from having it. He was famished, but as the events piled up in front of him, he momentarily forgot his need for food.

Now, the hunger must have reached a state where the ticking time bomb finally exploded.

He was brought into the limelight once again.

As if she was awakened, the madame suddenly said just as Benjamin was screaming in panic in his heart, "Ah…. Much apologies. It probably was due to the worn out base of my cane. I didn't manage to grip it properly, and it hurt the child. Oh, Duke Fulner, I surely hope you won't take offence?"

The words of the old lady was similar to a chanting of a spell to break a curse, as everyone was taken back to reality. They looked at each other in confusion as if they just woke up from a huge shock, exchanging looks of disbelief. There were no clues of mischief in their expressions.

"This…." Accius Fulner looked at his child on the ground, and the plump flesh on his face throbbed. He still looked dumbfounded and dazed.

"Mother, are you alright?" Claude asked the madame. At his command, a few servants approached her, trying to aid the lady.

"No need. I'm a pile of old bones now, what could happen to me?" She refused their assistance.

Claude glanced at the fallen Dick once again, and his face gradually turned sour. A few people who Benjamin was yet to know exchanged glances, and became embarrassed. They looked like members of the Fulner family. One of them patted Accius on the shoulder and whispered in his ear.

Accius crumpled his brows deeply. He gave the shocked madame a glance, and said reluctantly, "Madame, you're making things difficult for us."

The old lady tidied her hair and said seriously, "Oh, do not worry. I am old now, how could I put you in a difficult situation? I will give you a satisfying answer for everything that has transpired today. Your child wanted justice, right? How about this, we prepare another one of these things, and let your child hit me with it. Then, we will be equal. There is no need to let the church be aware of this, and we should also never become the joke of the other nobles. Don't you agree?"

Before Accius could reply, the blood already drained out of Claude's face, "Mother?"

"This is my business, and I will settle it. Do not interrupt this," the madame dismissed Claude with a wave of her hand, and once again spoke deliberately to Accius, "Do you have any comments for my proposed solution?"

Accius was baffled as he obviously could not understand the lady's notion.

"This… How could we ever do this to you, madame? Stop joking around, my lady."

The lady remained stoic, "No, this cannot be. Your child wanted revenge, and for the honor of the nobles, we must do what we speak. Benjamin's mistake was dealt with that way, thus my mistake should also be dealt with similarly. Come, hit me with that thing. I will not go back on my words in order to beg for your forgiveness."

Accius was surprised by the serious tone of the madame. He felt that something was off, but he was forced to answer intuitively by the intimidating aura of the old lady.

"No, how could we do something like that? That was an honest mistake, and we will forgive you."

After hearing this, the madame's face was colored with surprise. She took a glimpse at the unconscious Dick, and raised her eyebrows thoughtfully. She turned her eyes for a moment, and steeled her gaze on Accius.

"The Duke's generosity is indeed impressive. Then, I will represent my grandson Benjamin to also thank you for your kind forgiveness." Before anyone could respond, she turned to the servants at the door and said, "Alright, the matter is finally done. The guests from the Fulners will be leaving now, quick, escort them."

After she directed them, she turned back again, her movements so swift they did not resemble those of a 70-year-old woman. Before Accius could object, she continued speaking to the Fulners. Her friendly spirit stopped Accius from tumbling words that almost came out of his mouth.

"I really wanted to make you stay as guests, but the Duke is too busy to do so. Since we solved this issue perfectly today, you should've felt no anger anymore. Everyone is happy, and I will not force you to stay."

As she spoke, she paused momentarily, then gave a wrinkled and loving smile.

"Duke Accius, safe travels and may you lead a happy life."

Duke Accius was flabbergasted.

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Chapter 18: Sorry, Your Grandmother is Godlike

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

Not only Accius, even Benjamin had his mouth wide opened in shock.

With the unfolding of events, he did not require much intelligence to comprehend the madame's intentions.

The madame tripped Dick on purpose because she wanted to save Benjamin.

Just look at the motion of the swinging cane. Accius was standing in between the madame and Dick Fulner. It was not an easy feat for the cane to bypass Accius and hit Dick. If the madame had not done that intentionally, the swinging of the cane was truly an artistic form of coincidence.

The madame must have done that on purpose. She deliberately tripped Dick to let the chamber pot fall on him again. That would make her as guilty as Benjamin, and if the Fulners wanted to punish Benjamin, they would also need to punish her. Or else, they would be acting against the famed 'honour of the nobles'.

These people would never hit the old lady with a chamber pot. If she was hurt somehow by the chamber pot, it would escalate and alert the church. They could not afford to joke around with this. Even if Accius was willing to take the risk with throwing the chamber pot at the madame, Claude would never in allow that to happen.

Thus, the Fulners had no means to penalize the madame, and naturally they could not find any reason to incarcerate Benjamin too.

All in all, the madame flaunted her seniority perfectly to rescue Benjamin.

Benjamin was relieved as he thought about this.

Fortunately, although his grandmother had a unique temper, she was more dependable than his worthless father. Without her, he would have no idea on how to get himself out of this predicament. Evidently, there were still people in this world that knew the importance of shielding the shortcomings of a family. Not all of them were turncoats.

He was thankful, very thankful….

If Benjamin was aware of the truth, there was no doubt that the others could, too.

Based on the chagrined faces of the Fulners who were headed by Accius, it was obvious that they would not let this down without a fight.

"Duke Claude, the madame is elderly, senile, and didn't know what she was saying. We wouldn't mind these words of the madame. Certainly the Duke will know how to resolve this appropriately."

Accius's speech was aimed directly at the conservative Duke Claude. He must have known how difficult it would be if he dealt with the madame, thus he decided it was best to ignore her and talk to Benjamin's father.

"Hmm…."

Claude's face was somber. He did not respond with an immediate answer.

Upon seeing this, his relieved heart felt tensed again.

This family was so haunting. They refused to compromise despite the madame's actions. Accius's actions could be sabotaging the familial relations within the Lithurs.

Hopefully Benjamin's father would not agree with them….

"What's the matter? My mind is still working well and don't underestimate me based on my old age and clumsiness. I know clearly how to solve this matter, and I definitely would not leave this hanging without a proper explanation."

While Claude hesitated, the old lady blinked and interrupted. She held herself in a respectable manner, and spoke with righteousness.

Although Claude was once again interrupted by the madame, he did not lose his cool. Instead, he remained his silence, as if he did not plan to express any further opinions regarding this matter. He seemed to allow the madame to do whatever she willed.

Accius frowned.

"Would you please stop messing around, madame."

"Messing around?" As if the madame had heard of strange news, she seemed shocked and made an innocent expression, "Duke Accius, what do you mean? You were the one who came to our family and started a mess, why would I be the one who is messing around? Now, Duke Accius, be reasonable."

Accius retorted in annoyance, "We were not the ones who were messing around!"

He realised his inappropriate manners after that. He took a deep breath, controlled his emotions and, then displayed his smoothness as a noble. He continued.

"Madame, my child was humiliated by the child of your family when he was a guest in your manor. As his father, I have the obligation to seek justice for him. Moreover, we are teaching your child a lesson for making a mistake so he would not repeat the same mistake in the future. Never mind that you were not appreciative of our actions, instead you're falsifying the facts. Madame, who is being unreasonable here?"

"Oh, is that true?" She looked bewildered now, with a hint of confusion colouring her cheeks. It was as if she heard this statement for the first time, and she said "I thought it was us who invited Dick over as a guest out of goodwill, but unfortunately his sleepwalking habits recurred in the dead of the night, which caused him to kick the thing like how he would kick a ball? He injured himself and dirtied the hallway because of that. As it was an unintentional mistake, we did not take it up to you. How could you behave so irrationally still?"

Wham!

Once she said this, Accius slammed his palm on the table and jumped up, furious.

"You…."

His eyes were as wide opened as he pointed at the old lady, but he did not speak a word. The flesh on his face twitched, and his expression was very much alike the one of his son's last night, when the latter was hit by the chamber pot at night and became speechless.

Everyone was exchanging looks, and the atmosphere was strained. Even Claude looked wary as if he wanted to say something, but the madame turned and shot him a look. It looked like a meaningless glance, but Claude retreated once again, with no intention to speak anymore.

She turned to the crowd, standing in the limelight. However, her face was still one of naivete, as if what she said was just common everyday conversations.

Benjamin's jaw gaped wider.

Apparently, his grandmother had a much higher status in the Lithur family than he imagined. It was so high, he lost sight of it.

Also…. His conservative, ancient father. He was actually a mama's boy?

"Your grandfather passed away early in his age, and she was the one who raised your father. The early Lithur family was solely led by her, and according to the rumors you knew previously, she has a special status within the kingdom, but you have no idea exactly what it is."

The System reappeared and explained, just like it was in an anime.

"You didn't mention this before," Benjamin grumbled secretly.

"Ah, these are mere details. How could I include everything in the summarized version of your memory? Ugh, you're so troublesome," the System offhandedly commented.

"..."

Benjamin felt empty, and he could not even muster the desire to complain.

When he snapped back into reality, Accius was still choked by the madame's words. Thus, she showed her 'reasonable side' and once again hit back at Accius while she had her chance by adding further comments to put the final hand.

"Come here quickly, Benjamin, and tell Duke Accius what you saw last night. We should not leave him in the dark."

Benjamin was taken aback for a second, but snapped into acting mode immediately after.

He plastered on a sullen face and acted as if he was wronged, and spoke with innocence, weakness, but also some determination, "I….I woke up yesterday night and was hungry, so I got up to find some food. I saw Sir Dick, and he didn't look normal, so probably he was already sleepwalking. He held that thing in his hands, and before I could wake him up, he fell down by himself, and…. Everyone saw what happened after that."

He thought to himself as he was talking, 'Ah, my acting skills are improving steadily. Even I will be afraid of someone this shameless!'

After Accius heard what Benjamin said, he immediately regained his ability to articulate and scolded Benjamin sternly, "You're lying!"

Benjamin promptly looked frail and powerless, as if he was going to burst into tears.

"I…. I'm not, it really happened like that."

The madame also joined in to send help and hammer the last nails, "How could you not believe this, Duke? Was there another side of the story to this incident? Ah, where is Dick? We should ask him what happened last night, he was the only one left who knew the whole truth!"

Where was Dick, oh, where was Dick?

Dick was lying in the fragrant pile of feces.

Accius glared at the unconscious Dick, his fat cheeks trembling, his eyes spouting fire.

"Ah, how could I only remember this now?" The madame also glanced at Dick, and she suddenly looked enlightened, "I remember hearing from someone that a sleepwalking person will not remember what they did during that time. Oh, what should we do! There's no use in asking Dick now. Duke Accius, I'm sorry, but I think this unsolvable case will not have any resolution. I feel bad for this."

Ultra kill.

Benjamin nearly applauded. If the madame was making up nonsense before, these last few sentences were the ones that hit the nail directly on the right spot. A sleepwalking person is unconscious, and Dick actually had no idea who was the one who hit him with the chamber pot. All he did was wake up and see Benjamin, and assumed that he did it.

Actually, no one saw the moment when Benjamin threw the chamber pot at Dick. In other words, the only one who could explain what happened last night was Benjamin, and even if somebody else suspected him, no one could prove him wrong.

If he said Dick spilled the chamber pot himself, then Dick spilled the chamber pot himself.

Poor Dick….

What the madame concluded made Accius appear like he was dumped with a pail of cold water. He gradually realized this. He looked at the unconscious Dick, and the sympathetic madame. His desire to be defensive died down like deflating balloon.

The Fulner family members shared a look, and they looked furious but also helpless.

Finally, Accius admitted defeat.

"Madame, Sir Duke, we will meet at the ball next month. I hope on that day, you would be as energetic as you were today," he growled out like a cage lion, "Let's go."

At his command, the Fulners looked dejected and prepared to leave. They started cleaning up Dick, who was still unconscious.

"Wait, how could you leave like this? This is not appropriate," Surprisingly, the madame called them to stay.

Accius, who was close to the door, turned and looked confused. He remained silent.

"You came here without a valid reason, brought that thing into our living room, and even spilled filth all over the place. As a noble family, shouldn't you give us a proper apology? I am reasoning with you. Don't you agree with me?" The madame spoke slowly. There was no accusing tone in her voice, only such impression that she was convincing through reason.

Accius was triggered once again, and the other Fulners were red with fury.

"Madame, do you think we're easily bullied?"

The madame covered her mouth in surprise and said innocently, "How could I? I think this is a reasonable request. Just apologize, and we could resolve this privately without involving the church. Just think about the consequences if the Pope gets to know about this. How would he see the Fulners? I'm thinking for your own good, so you wouldn't be humiliated outside these walls. Do you agree?"

Every member of the Fulner family including Accius showed a look of terror when they heard the words 'the Pope'.

The madam's spoken words caused the anger on their faces to dissipate immediately.

If this incident got to the church…. Benjamin thought about it. The church would stand on his side because they still needed him for Michelle's capture. In actual fact, the Fulners already had no valid reason to blame Benjamin, as no one could prove it was him who threw the chamber pot. The Fulners came here to make a mess, and it was the Lithurs who were generous enough to resolve this matter privately. If this goes to the church, the Lithurs would have a huge advantage.

Benjamin understood this, and Accius did too. He looked at the madame, his expression shifted from one to another, but it stopped at a bitter one.

"Madame, aren't you slightly unreasonable with this now?"

The madame turned her eyes after he spoke. Suddenly, she smiled confidently, as if she was as harmless as a grandmother who was cheated by a salesperson in her past life.

She said, "I'm an old woman who will be turning 70 soon, I don't reason."

"..."

When you talked to her about age, she would reason with you; when you spoke reason with her, she would talk about her age.

Accius's face was bleak.

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Chapter 19: The Cellar and the Potatoes

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

The progression of the events from Accius's apology till him and his followers' departure took less than fifteen minutes.

At the 'friendly' advice of the madame, Accius finally gave in. He unwillingly apologized and ordered his followers clear the filth on Dick. At last, they carried Dick away and left the doors of the Lithur manor.

Judging from how hurried and silent their departure was, it was evident how embarrassed they were about the incident. The madame, who was the cause of everything, seemed to be indifferent to their emotions. Instead, she sent them off with jovial smiles.

"Safe travels, and the Lithurs will always welcome your presence here."

Accius glared at the madame and walked out of the manor without a word.

The Fulners left just like that.

Benjamin was rejoicing internally. Of course, he held down his expression and did not show his happiness.

This was probably the first time since he teleported to this world someone stood up and saved him when he was hopeless. As a responsible adult, he was aware that he had to be independent, but it still felt great to tide things over without putting in any effort.

Would this mean that he did not have as much of a bad luck as he did before?

Regardless, he would never be willing to be hit by a chamber pot. At least he escaped that now, and that in itself was worthy of a celebration.

However, it did not take him long to realize it was way too early for him to be happy.

"Benjamin, what actually happened last night? Are you the one behind all this?"

After the Fulners left, the madame became silent again, and Claude regained his stature as the man of the house. Suddenly Claude began to speak and question Benjamin in a stern tone.

Benjamin's heart dropped, and he quickly sent a SOS look towards the madame.

The madame yawned and ignored him.

"..."

Game over.

If she wanted to help, she should have helped him through the whole way! Why would she give up halfway!

What was that!

Clearly, Claude saw through Benjamin's guilty conscience. Claude emitted an unsatisfied "hmph". His facial expression morphed into something scary. After a brief glance at the madame, he continued to berate Benjamin.

"Don't think that this is over. What have I taught you all this while? What happened to your pride as a noble? I'll ignore the fact that you ran away from home, but you made a mess within the first day you returned! Can't you let us stop worrying about you?"

Benjamin was listening closely until he heard a particular sentence. He had a question mark in his heart after that.

Running away from home?

What was the situation here? Why did he feel like he missed a chapter and a plot point?

"Hey, what's with the running away from home? Did Benjamin run away from home?" Benjamin was perplexed, so he asked the System with telepathy.

"Nope," the System was certain.

"If so, what's the matter now?" Benjamin continued.

"I have no idea," said the System.

"You..." Benjamin choked on his words, but this was not the first time he did that. Thus, he recovered swiftly and chided.

"Why do I need you?"

The System's tone of voice was flat, "Nothing much, which is why you can refrain from finding me in the future. Let's breakup."

"..."

There must be a virus in the System.

He regained his sense of reality and had a brainstorm of the chronology of events. He quickly realized that the only possible reason for Claude's accusation of him "running away from home".

Could it be that... no one knew that he was kidnapped, and they assumed he just ran away?

Watson, I found the blind spot!

Shit, no wonder no one in the house came to comfort him after he returned. Didn't they know that he was teetering at the edge of death? What was wrong with this family? How could they not know that their son was kidnapped? How could they assume he just ran away from home? The church probably contributed to this confusion, as they most likely hid the truth from the Lithurs in order to cover Michelle's tracks.

No wonder! No wonder he had never gotten a friendly face around the house! No wonder everyone was hostile to him!

No matter what, he did wander around the valley of death just recently. How would they treat him if they knew about this?

Once he thought about this, he started to explain.

"I didn't run away from home! I was..."

"Shut up! Since when you learnt how to lie, you brat? Huh, do you think I'm stupid?" Claude cut him off mercilessly. His tone revealed that he would not allow any explanations, "You thought of lying to me? 'Did not run away from home'... If you didn't, where were you for the past few days? Don't tell me you got yourself kidnapped!"

"..."

That was correct, I really was kidnapped!

Benjamin wanted to exclaim, but if he did, he would be beaten to death.

Fuck, another line stealer.

Claude's anger was way more dramatic than what it was before. His emotions were probably effected by the humiliation of being one-upped by the madame when outsiders were present. As Claude could not throw a fit to the madame, the only unfortunate person to take the toll was Benjamin.

There was no use for Benjamin to clarify anything when his father was this furious.

He could only face the music with his face hung low.

As expected, Lady Luck was only with him for a short period of time. His lifelong partner was Misfortune after all.

Thus, Benjamin determinedly stood in front of everyone and was shouted at by Claude for fifteen minutes. No need to go through what exactly Claude yelled about. When Benjamin was scolded, everyone in the living room was frozen. They did not move nor speak, their head bowed low, and only the servants were nervously cleaning up the filth.

After the bombardment of screams and shouts, Claude finally seemed to slowly calm down. He looked at the quiet Benjamin and said after a brief pause.

"Go to the cellar and think of what you've done. You will not be fed until you've admitted to your wrongdoings!"

Hence, Benjamin clambered his way down to the cellar and was locked in.

That was the end of the struggle session, everyone in the living room left to their own home and families. At the same time, Claude, with his face pulled in a displeasing manner and his enraged gaze, assigned a maid to confine Benjamin. She then escorted him to the cellar of Lithur manor.

The cellar was not like those in fantasy novels, with secrets of the family hidden deep within, demons summoned with a flip of a book; the cellar of the Lithur family really was just a small, plain cellar.

Approximately eight square metres, the room had layered black bricks as walls. Moss crept up the cracks between the bricks, and the only thing inhabiting the cellar was none other than bags of potatoes.

Right when he entered the cellar, Benjamin stepped on a potato, lost his balance, and fell into an ocean of potatoes.

Just as he was about to seek help for his fall, the door banged as the maid disappeared from the cellar. In a flash, the door was shut tight, with the lock securely in place.

Benjamin gazed emptily at the key hole. It shone some light into the darkness. Moments later, he sighed.

He slowly got up from the pile of potatoes.

"Ah, detention..." He looked around to check the environment.

He patted the dust off himself, and sat at a spot where there was no potatoes around. Using the bag of potatoes behind him as support, he reclined and finally could relax himself.

"Huh... Although this was a detention, I could finally have the time to rest and take a deep breath," he mumbled to himself.

Despite being punished, it was way better than getting hit by a chamber pot of filth. It was just detention, and he would not be confined for a year or two, no? He would probably be out after a day or two, and he would not suffer much.

This was not a problem for him, and he could even utilize the time to recuperate.

In hindsight, it had been five days since he teleported into this world. Except for the three-days when he was unconscious, he was constantly in a high-pressure situation in the other two days. He had a battle of wits with Michelle, threw a chamber pot at a sleepwalking Dick Fulner, nearly got killed by an assassin, went to the church to prod for information, survived a struggle session with the Fulners... Man, he did so much within two days!

Everything felt... just like a dream.

His life was not peaceful either, it was as chaotic as a designer in a design company. The problems were each more complicated as the last.

He felt as if nothing was left in his body.

At this moment, he even thought that getting detention from Claude in this cellar was the best thing that happened to him since his teleportation.

Although the cellar was small and stuffy, it was not uncomfortable. The dim lighting and the peaceful quiet also calmed his anxious heart, not to mention the slight fragrance of potatoes wafting in the air.

The scent of potatoes... they were good.

Probably because he was hungry.

When his thoughts came to this point, Benjamin realized an imminent problem. This issue was prominent before, and it displayed its disastrous streak. If Benjamin did not take measures against it, it would then create an unimaginable catastrophe.

This problem was... he was starving.

Starving, and famished.

He went without food for one day and one night now, and the hunger tore through his esophagus to his intestines, and echoed back from his intestines to his esophagus. This heart-tearing agony was basically telling him that he was ravenous.

Then, he remembered Claude's words, " You will not be fed until you've admitted to your wrongdoings." These words reverberated in his ears just like an alarm clock in the crack of dawn. It rang until he was traumatized by it.

You will not be fed...

Be fed...

Fed...

Food…

He was stunned for a moment, and as if he had a revelation, he sprang up from the floor like an arrow released from a bow. He rushed to the closed metal door, and glued himself to the rusted key hole.

"Let me out! I want to admit it was my fault! You shall not stop me from seeking forgiveness! Open the door so I can confess my wrongdoings! I love admitting my mistakes! Admitting my mistakes make me feel happy!"

His anguished howl echoed in the cellar.

It echoed until Benjamin was so hungry he could not hold on to the door, his voice hoarse and dry until he coughed. The world outside the door never gave any answer. He slid down the door like a lizard, and collapsed onto the floor. He felt vulnerable.

He finally realized how scary of a punishment detention was.

After he sprawled on the floor for some time, his sight shifted towards the potatoes scattered around him. Although they were raw and probably would not taste any good, but... he could probably still eat it.

"Can potatoes be eaten raw?" he asked the System.

The System answered, "Never tried, you can go ahead though."

"..."

Benjamin would totally scream abuse at the System if he was not weak due to hunger.

Ah, who would care! He was too hungry to care about trivial things! People always talked about how those in famine would eat tree barks and leather, of course he could eat raw potatoes, right? The mashed potatoes in KFC were quite alike with raw potatoes, and he was still alive after eating them.

He would rather die from food poisoning than starvation.

Dying from starvation would be miserable and would make a good joke to laugh about at lunch. It would be so embarrassing!

However, cause of death by consuming raw poisonous potato would be quite embarrassing too...

Ah, fuck it! What use would it be to worry! He wanted to be the first warrior who ate a raw potato!

Under the urge of hunger, Benjamin grabbed a potato close to his hand, opened his mouth and was prepared to take a bite.

Suddenly, a clatter was heard in the cellar.

Benjamin was startled, but he had already taken a bite off the potato and could no longer hold back. His teeth firmly chomped down on the potato, and immediately a soreness rose from his mouth, and he felt his jaw slackened, as if it nearly dislocated.

Shit, that was so fucking hard! He could not even bite into it!

The sore Benjamin quickly threw the potato away, and he turned to look at the source of the strange noise.

The door of the metal door now was slightly ajar, and a pair of sky blue eyes appeared. The pair of eyes were wide, and they stared straight at Benjamin. Benjamin was very surprised.

Fuck, now what?

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Chapter 20: It's Your Mom

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

Just as Benjamin started getting creeped out under scrutiny, the owner of the pair of blue eyes spoke behind the steel door.

"Keep quiet! I managed to send Jessica away temporarily but she would be back any second now. I wouldn't be here for long."

It was the gentle voice of a woman, that sounded rather familiar, but Benjamin could not recall who it belonged to.

"Who is this person?"

He asked the System by telepathy.

"Your mom." The System deadpanned.

"..."

At the 'friendly' reminder of the System, Benjamin finally remembered whose voice was that. It was the voice of Mary, the one who spoke once in the living room - wife of Claude, daughter-in-law of the madame, mother of Benjamin. His mother sent the guarding maid away on some errands, and sneaked in to visit him.

According to the summarized memories given by the System, Mary was a good wife and a loving mother. Her pleasant personality was well-known in the kingdom. Since young, Benjamin never saw her lose her temper at anyone, and she always had a good relationship with everyone - excluding the madame, of course.

Even though the madame never liked Mary and always picked on her, she never actually retaliated. Instead, she quietly accepted the madame's harsh treatment. Mary could be considered a role model for daughter-in-laws for the century, really.

When she was with Benjamin, she did not treat him coldly or disappointingly despite the fact that he was a hopeless case. She treated Benjamin how she treated Grant, and both of them were well taken care of. This was almost unheard of, as it was normal for people to favor one child over another even though there was not much difference between them, what more in Benjamin's family, where the children differed vastly in their achievements.

Benjamin considered all this and stopped hesitating. Immediately, he pleaded pitifully.

"Mother, you're finally here."

Although he did not complain, but his woeful and feeble voice alone could convey how absolutely miserable he was feeling.

He hoped he could trigger his mother's unending sympathy.

"Yes. I could only visit you after your father left the manor. Here, you must be starving now, I got the chambermaid to make some extra bread so I could bring them to you. Have some to lace your stomach so you could get through this," Mary did not disappoint Benjamin's expectations as she passed him a small paper package through the opening of the door while she talked.

Benjamin felt a sudden rush of excitement. He took the package and opened it with trembling fingers. There were two pieces of warm, soft bread, and they lied quietly in the package. The scent of wheat and milk wafted through the air.

Ah, this…. Food!

Benjamin nearly broke into tears.

The best person in the world is a mother. Every child with a mother is treated like treasure.

Although he had the urge to chow down on the bread immediately, he endured his starvation and gazed thankfully at the blue eyes by the door, "Thank you, I nearly starved to death here."

Mary stood by the door, chuckled and said, "Don't worry, I will try and talk to your father tomorrow once his temper is gone. He would let you out by then. Be calm, as your father would never hold you here for long."

Benjamin was relieved like he just ate an anti-stress pill upon hearing that. If he was locked here for too long, it would disrupt his plans of learning magic. He could only let Jeremy dig out Annie's effects if he got out of here soon.

Also, he had no intentions to stay in the cellar for too long. It was great to have some rest, but once it became too long, it would be extremely boring. Now, he was already fed up with potatoes even though he was only here for less than 2 hours.

If he was here for a few more days, he would probably start sprouting on the top of his head.

"Right, Jessica is coming back soon, I need to go now. You be careful, don't let them know that someone was here." The eyes at the opening of the door averted for a moment, as if they were observing the surroundings. Mary's eyes were quickly back on him, as she spoke to Benjamin.

"Okay, goodbye mother," Benjamin replied with utmost sincerity.

"Goodbye, darling."

Accompanied with the quiet shuffling of her steps, Mary closed the steel door and left the cellar. After watching Mary left, Benjamin started to eat the bread that he was holding.

The portion of bread was not small, but he was so hungry he could even take a bigger portion. In a blink of the eye, there was only an empty paper package and some bread crumbs on his palms. Benjamin rubbed his tummy in a gratifying manner, and burped in content.

He rolled the paper into a ball and hid it in the sea of potatoes in order to avoid detection.

Then, he sprawled lazily on the floor among the potatoes, closed his eyes, and dived into the depth of his consciousness.

He never planned to waste his time sitting around in the cellar. Since he had nothing to do, he might as well investigate the space of his consciousness and the blue triangular symbol in it. It was not impossible for him to self-learn magic without guidance.

In fact, his way of learning magic so far has been by way of self-taught, wasn't it?

Of course, he also considered practicing the only spell he knew - the Waterball Spell. In the common novels, the way to train your special abilities was to use them repeatedly. However, his present location was too close to the chapel, and if Michelle was telling the truth, the Cleaners could detect magic from a certain radius. If the church was alerted, his death would be imminent.

Thus, even if he wanted to practice magic, he could only do it within the space of his consciousness.

When he previously used the Waterball Spell there, Michelle was unable to detect that despite standing right next to him. Thus, the chapel that was situated a few streets away probably would not feel this.

The space of his consciousness…..It was really a mysterious existence.

Although he had no idea how Michelle and the others learnt their magic, his instinct told him that they did not possess a space of their own consciousness. They did not have this magical space, and also never had such a literal magical emblem like the blue symbol. Their road to becoming a mage was most probably different from Benjamin's.

It is as if he had stumbled upon an extraordinary route by mistake.

This made him even more curious towards the space of his consciousness. Hence, Benjamin, who was confined within the cellar with nothing to do, went back into the space of his consciousness.

In the boundless space, everything was unchanged. The infinite darkness, the pale blue triangular symbol…. Everything seemed to be set in stone the moment it was formed, and would not change with time.

The changed person was Benjamin.

When he met the assassin, he learnt Water Detection, and he could feel that he was more sensitive towards the water element than ever before. Thus, he could see the floating water particles in this space clearer than he could previously. After some contemplation, he left the space and returned to the real world. He started to observe the water particles in real life.

Based on his observation, the water particles in the space of his consciousness was more concentrated than it was in real life.

He then returned to his space. He paused momentarily, and suddenly took off towards the opposite direction of the blue symbol. He sprinted towards the endless darkness in the space of his consciousness, and as the blue light became further, he was certain that the water particles around him decreased sharply. The contrast was just like a blue tie-dye shirt, it went from dark blue to a very light blue.

Soon, there was nothing around him but total darkness. He could not even see his own fingers.

This darkness did not scare Benjamin, though. Instead, he was weirdly comfortable with it.

He did not stop running either. Although his theory about the water element was confirmed, a new thought emerged: Was there a boundary for this space? What would happen if he continued running? What was behind this deep darkness?

To investigate the unknown is the nature of mankind. No matter if it is exploring the world beyond or delving into the profound heart, people always want to know what lays beyond.

Hence, Benjamin ran towards the darkest part of his space.

Then, he ran until he became an idiot.

"Where the hell is this god-forsaken place?"

After experiencing an extremely long marathon, Benjamin had to stop and pant while supporting himself with his knees. He stared aimlessly at the boundless darkness beyond.

He thought there was no physical exertion in the space of his consciousness. It was reasonable to assume that, as stamina was an actual thing. In the spiritual world, how could stamina manifest itself? Unfortunately, he was wrong.

He should have listened to Karl Marx. Matter is prime, mind is secondary; and when the mind was drained to its limits, it would also affect matter and drain it too.

He ran for God knows how long in this endless space, conquered a few thousand meters, but he still could not see a boundary. There was no change in his surroundings, and what was left was an eyeful of darkness, and more darkness….

He ran until his limbs was numb, but he still could not see any signs of his destination.

Thus, he halted his steps, exhausting himself until he almost collapsed after that.

"The mind of man has no boundaries. If you aim to find an end here, you're basically wasting your energy," the System appeared, its monotonous voice echoing in the darkness.

"I was curious," Benjamin answered.

"You're just too free after being fed," the System retorted with a tone that it was not supposed to have.

"..." Benjamin had no idea how to retort.

He did finish eating, and he did have nothing else to do.

Benjamin finally gave up on the idea to explore the space of his consciousness. He returned briefly to the real world before diving back into his space, and his location was once again near the blue symbol. The blue light shone brightly, and the water particles around him became concentrated again.

His effort on running for such a long time went to the drain with a snap of the fingers. He still felt some remorse for it.

His attention diverted quickly afterwards.

He was still an optimist, and if an experiment failed, he would just move on to another.

He reached out with his arm, and chanted the Waterball Spell with his arm aimed at the blue symbol. As the symbol vibrated and the water particles gathered, a water ball formed above his palm. Without hesitation, he diverted his attention and dispersed the water ball. Then, he once again chanted the Waterball Spell….

Again and again, he used the Waterball Spell in the space of his consciousness. The light blue waves spread just like ripples on a lake, causing the water particles to gather and disperse like tidal waves.

Soon, he felt that the water concentration in his space dropped drastically. However, he did not stop chanting the Waterball Spell; instead, he became faster in his actions.

At the 45th attempt in chanting the Waterball Spell, he realised that no water ball was forming in his palm anymore. Aside from that, he was assaulted with a sudden headache, and was then promptly ejected from the space of his consciousness.

This was the first time he involuntarily returned to the real world.

Although his head was pulsing with pain, Benjamin could not hide his excitement from his voice.

"I get it now!"

"... What did you understand?" The System unwillingly spoke after a long silence, "Although I didn't want to continue this conversation, but I'll still play along."

Benjamin ignored the sarcasm from the System. He was deep in the happiness of a revelation, as delighted as a toddler taking his first steps, and as ecstatic as a student seeing a 61 on his paper after failing the same test 3 times in a row.

He exclaimed loudly in his heart, "I finally understood the way to train myself to be a mage!"

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Chapter 21: The Training of a Mage

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

"...You're going to continue indulging in joy on your own, or are you going to explain the situation so I could join in the fun?" the System said impassively after Benjamin did not speak after a momentary silence.

"Thank you, but I would rather not share the joy," Benjamin would never let any opportunity to mock the System slip out of his hands.

"..." If the System had a face, he would be so furious to the point that steam would probably rise from his orifices.

It was not like Benjamin really wanted to piss the System off, but the training method he came up with was just a beta version, and the System would laugh at him so badly if his plan failed. Moreover, he had enough of the antics of the System, and if he could whip the System into shape now, it would help him a long way in the future.

Back to the main topic. After the little experiment he did just now, he had a more systematic understanding of magic.

The 'Water' element was the basis of all his magic. To him, the element could be categorized into two groups: the water particles in the space of his consciousness, or the water particles that floated around in the real world. He could sense and communicate with the water particles in the real world, but they were difficult to command. When he recalled the only time he used the Waterball Spell in real life, the water particles he utilized were all from his space.

The water particles in the space of his consciousness gathered themselves around the magical emblem. Through the emblem, Benjamin could control the water particles for magic. Every time he used his magic, he would use up some of the water particles. So, in other words, the water particles he stored in his space would be his source of 'magical powers'.

The more water particles he stored, the stronger the magical powers he could release.

Aside from learning new spells, this was the only way to become stronger that Benjamin could think of. If he could learn new spells, he would choose that without hesitation, but all he had now was himself. From where could he learn them from? He was not confident and did not think that he could invent new spells. Now, he could only wait for Annie's hidden treasures.

Thus, after he simplified his thoughts, the only thing he could do right now was to increase the concentration of water particles stored in the space of his consciousness.

The problem now was, how could he do so?

Well, of course he was going to get them from the real world.

This was probably what the common fantasy novels called as 'the mage's meditation': to collect magical elements from the environment and store them, thus increasing their abilities in the process.

As a matter of fact, any special powers ranging from magic to Qi battles all had the same process: storage, accumulation, transformation. If everything goes as he expected, the world he was in was no different from that. As long as he would persistently accumulate his magical element, he could be stronger.

And that, was the training method of a mage that he comprehended by himself.

"Ah, I'm such a genius!"

He felt pompous as this was the second time he understood something without the guidance of someone else.

"So, you really don't intend to explain anything to me?" the System grumbled.

"Yup," Benjamin answered crisply.

"..."

Without further ado, Benjamin started his trials. He closed his eyes and amplified his senses towards the water particles around him. Although the cellar did not have a good air circulation, it was still a humid place, and it had quite a number of water particles. Benjamin tried hard to feel the wandering water particles, and attempted to absorb them into the space of his consciousness through communicating with them.

In the beginning of the process, Benjamin felt lost. He did not know how he could absorb the water particles. All he could do was act based on his instinct by attempting to command the movement of the water particles. However, nothing happened.

He never gave up hope, and quickly realized the crux of the problem.

He should not be communicating with the water particles, instead he should be interacting with his space of consciousness.

The space of his consciousness was a unique existence, and he should utilize it to absorb the water particles. Without it, even after communicating with the water particles, he could only absorb them into his body. That would be of no use, as he was not even thirsty.

Benjamin started to sense his consciousness space. He did not go into the space; instead he maintained the state of half-entering the space, where he felt the deep abyss of his space while also keeping his consciousness tethered to the real world.

That was a miraculous state, as he was stepping into the space of consciousness but also withholding himself with willpower to keep his sight in the real world. He experienced how his breath and blood flow slowed down as if his soul left his body, and he was staring at himself from the perspective of an outsider.

An uncanny feeling grew in him.

His instincts told him that this was the state he wanted.

Thus, he maintained and waited in that condition. As he felt stabilized, he again tried to sense the water particles that were floating around in the environment like lost beings without their souls.

The change was imminent.

Every time Benjamin's sensations touched a small patch of water particles, they would suddenly disappear. Then, in the space of his consciousness, a small patch of water particles would pop up. The process was like tearing through space and time, and the absorption of the water particles was done within a blink of an eye. There was no chronological progression for the process, and it felt unimaginable.

Benjamin could not contain his elation.

He successfully found a way to absorb the water particles!

With every attempt of taking in the water particles, a slight chill would run down his body, as if it was congratulating his success. It was so thrilling that Benjamin could not help but shudder.

At the urging of this feeling, and without putting in too much thought, Benjamin allowed his senses to sweep the cellar again and again like an addict. He absorbed every single drop of water particle into the space of his consciousness.

As he retreated from his half-mind-half-reality state, he took a deep breath and was filled with a comforting feeling.

"Ah, this was better than a happy ending!" He sighed, sated.

"...You came up with this training method by yourself?"

The System appeared as Benjamin was in joy. It witnessed everything and also understood his theory, thus it talked to Benjamin with a slight complaint in its voice.

"Yes, and say no more, I know I am a genius. No need for your compliments," Benjamin flipped his hair narcissistically.

"...No one wanted to praise you."

The flat mechanical voice conveyed the System's displeasure.

"Well, if you insist, I wouldn't stop you. Here, don't be frugal with your words, praise me the best you can!" Apparently, Benjamin did not listen to what the System said, as he was still deep in his admiration towards his own mental prowess.

The System was quiet for a while, and as if it was finally enraged, it raised its volume three times higher than before and bellowed in Benjamin's ear like a heavy metal concert.

"NO ONE WANTED TO PRAISE YOU! YOUR METHOD FAILED!"

Benjamin was stunned by the voice, but he steadily regained his awareness as he frowned and asked, "What did you just say?"

The System calmed down and spoke in a normal volume, "No one wanted to praise you, your method failed."

Benjamin did not take it seriously, and assumed that the System was misbehaving as usual.

He asked again, "Where did it go wrong?"

The System answered, "You will know why I'm telling you this once you return and observe the space of your consciousness."

Benjamin considered the staid tone of the System and realised that it was not pulling his leg. He recovered from his pompousness and went back into his space of consciousness with doubt. In the space, everything was just as it was before: the dark surroundings, the light blue symbol, the floating water particles….

Nothing seemed wrong.

Wait…. Everything was just as it was before?

Benjamin immediately grasped the problem.

The water particles in the space were just as they were before, but they were not supposed to be the same. Benjamin was diligently absorbing water particles for such a long time before, thus the stored amount of water particles should be much more than it was before!

Where did all the water particles go?

"They leaked away when you were busy being pleased at yourself," the System provided him an answer.

"Leaked away? Why would they leak away?" Benjamin was disillusioned. His efforts were wasted, and he felt the pain of the loss.

"Aren't you a genius? Why are you asking me now?" The System seemed to have learnt a thing or two from the madame. Its ability in mocking people improved fiercely.

Benjamin did not care about the criticism. Instead, he furrowed his brows and mumbled to himself, "Something must be wrong. What was the reason behind the leak? Hmm…"

Once again, he buried himself in his thoughts.

He had a feeling that the real answer was just right there in his head. He must have left out an important component of it, which caused his theory to be faulty. It was just like a racing car without an essential gear.

What did he miss out from the near perfect 'storage, accumulation, transformation' setup?

"Why would they leak out? The water particles were having a good time in the air, so what do you have to make them stay in your space? Why would they stay?"

As Benjamin was pondering, the System grabbed the opportunity to ruthlessly retaliate.

At this point, Benjamin could not pay attention to the words of the System as he was deep in his thoughts. He was replaying the whole training method and the space of his consciousness in his mind. He felt that his reasoning was right, and theoretically, it was highly possible for him to execute a workable method out of it.

However, the method had a fatal flaw.

Where was the problem?

"Why…." He instinctively mumbled.

"Why, why, why oh why, why wouldn't they leak out, why wouldn't they?" The System imitated Benjamin's tone and made up rhymes to pester him.

Probably because the System's chants had a rhythm to it, it was good enough to make Benjamin to absentmindedly echo, "Why…. why…. Why wouldn't they leak out…"

Why… Wouldn't they leak out?

Benjamin experienced a Eureka Moment.

Right, the excess water particles did leak out and dissipate, but what about the remaining water particles? Why would they not leak out? What did he do that made them stay in his space, and did not leak alongside the other water particles?

As he changed his way of thinking, Benjamin realized that the answer he was pursuing was just right before his eyes.

He raised his eyes to gaze at the blue light before him. The pale blue hue reflected on his face as a smile of realization filled his face.

How could he forget this blue symbol?

The triangular magical emblem was the source of everything. It was it that unlocked the space of his consciousness, that gathered the active water particles, that gave Benjamin the power to sense the 'water' element, that allowed Benjamin to be able to summon a water ball.

It was the reason that the water particle stayed. When the space was overloaded by water particles that was out of the capacity of the symbol, it could not keep the water particles in the space. The excess water particles thus dissipated right after that.

As he understood all this, Benjamin immediately altered the method of training he had: the accumulation of water particles was not the key to become stronger, instead it was to strengthen the powers of the blue symbol, so that it could control a larger amount of water particles.

The way to strengthen the symbol, however….

Benjamin thought for a moment and came up with an idea. He suddenly controlled a patch of water particle in the space and moved them towards the symbol. Controlling them without a medium was still quite difficult, which caused the travelling speed to be slow. After immense effort from Benjamin, they were finally near the symbol.

Under his command, the water particles touched the symbol.

A loud ring rose emitted from the symbol! The sound was different from anything it ever made.

Benjamin felt his eyesight blurred, and suddenly it was as if he was sent to a world of pure blue. A variety of blue symbol orbited around him like satellites, and this mesmerizing feeling took his breath away.

In a blink of an eye, he returned to the dark space of his consciousness. What happened just now seemed to be his hallucination.

What was that?

Benjamin squinted his eyes and went into deep thought as he studied the blue symbol. However, he was quick to stop frowning, and again aimed at the water particles gathered in his surrounding. He commanded them again to levitate towards the blue symbol.

This time, the water particles came in contact with the symbol, but nothing happened. Benjamin only saw the water particles bleed into the symbol like rivers merging into the sea.

The symbol glowed momentarily, and returned to normal.

Benjamin did not let disappointment cloud him. He repeated this action, and felt that he already solved the mystery between the space and the blue symbol. All that was left to do was to use practical methods to prove his hypothesis.

Again and again, he commanded the water particles to go near the symbol and be absorbed by it. This process was quite sluggish due to his flimsy control over the water particles. Hence, this exercise did take up a lot of Benjamin's time even if it was done in the space, where time passed slower than the real world.

It took him around twelve real world hours to combine all the water particles in his space into the symbol.

A whole 12 hours! If he was not under detention in this cellar, it would be extremely difficult for him to not get disturbed for this long period of time.

Benjamin was surprised when the System told him that twelve hours had passed. Although this process was extremely repetitive, he delved his mind and soul into it. He could not feel the passage of time.

This enchanting feeling deepened his confidence in his hypothesis. This feeling was very similar to the time when he first witnessed magic. It was as if something was calling out to him in the universe. If he was not on the right track, he would never feel this.

Once again, he raised his head and gazed at the glittering blue symbol in the space of his consciousness.

The symbol finally had some changes. It became shinier, the blue light like a sky full of stars, silently proving Benjamin's theories.

However, that was not enough. He looked at the symbol as he prepared to start his final test.

As he waited for the water particles to form in the space, he took a brief rest. It was approximately 30 minutes for the water particles in the surroundings to recover. It even looked much concentrated than before.

He reached out his hand, aimed towards the symbol, and chanted the Waterball Spell.

Accompanied by a 'ding' noise and the movements of the water particles, a water ball floated above his palm, and it was at least double the size of the previous water balls.

Benjamin glanced at the big water ball in his hand, and finally showed a satisfied smile.

"See, you slapped yourself in the face. Now, I am a bloody genius."

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Chapter 22: The Letter from the Devil

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

Although he managed to summon a bigger water ball, it did not seem that much of a big deal. He could neither use it to attack enemies, nor to protect himself. Much less to break the spell Michelle casted on him.

However, the meaning behind the water ball was much more important than the water ball itself.

It pointed a clear route for Benjamin, a route to become stronger.

He still had no idea on how to learn new spells and sense other types of elements, though. However at this moment, he concluded that he had a talent in learning magic, and that built his confidence.

He was finally not blind when it came to magic!

"What are you so excited about? That was just letting the magical emblem absorb the elements to grow. Was that so difficult to come up with?" The System was not amazed, as it diligently popped up to throw a wet blanket on him.

"You're getting more aggravating recently," Benjamin could not help but complain.

"Oh, sorry, I was wrong. You're such a genius!" the System immediately behaved itself.

"..." Benjamin was too lazy to even bother the System.

With that being said, he finally got his mind back from the thrill of magical training to consider matters realistically. With a lift of his chin, he glimpsed the steel door that was shut tightly.

He was here for quite a long time: the initial rest, Mary's visit, then the 10 hours in magic studies…. If his calculations were correct, it would be the dawn of another day now. He could not confirm his guess, though. The cellar he was in had no access to see the day and night of the outside world.

When would Claude be willing to release him?

His servant Jeremy should have already returned with his mission completed. Although Benjamin had forgotten what work did he assign for Jeremy, he still needed to let Jeremy continue to run trivial errands like this in order to divert the attention of the Church. Then, he would finally be able to obtain Annie's effects.

Time was not running out, but it was not too comfortable either. Michelle's curse was like a ticking time bomb, and no one knew when it would explode. Benjamin was afraid that he would not have enough power to battle Michelle when the time came.

But…. there was no use in getting anxious over something that has yet to happen.

He could not guess his father's decision, and he would not know how persuasive Mary could be; anything could happen in the world outside of these doors. He exhaled dejectedly after realizing this, and could only try to maintain his composure and stop himself from fussing.

No matter how much he fussed, he would not be able to walk through walls and doors to escape the cellar?

Thus, he relaxed his vigilance.

He stared at the ceiling and daydreamed as a method to recover the energy he spent during his 'meditation'. Oh, Benjamin also just decided to name the training method of combining water particles into the symbol as 'meditation'.

Albeit rather old-fashioned, names would only have to be memorable. Benjamin thought to himself, and further defended his choice. There was no use for imagination to come up with an extra stylish and cool name. He was no author to a novel, a cool name would not increase his 'meditation' efficiency by the slightest.

After a few minutes of spacing out, he found himself bored again. He was slightly peckish, but not starving; he was drowsy, but not exhausted.

After some consideration, he decided to continue 'meditate'.

Just in case someone would barge into the cellar feeling suspicious, he laid horizontal on the floor and closed his eyes, pretending to be asleep. In his heart, he was already in the depth of the space of his consciousness, and started to repeatedly move the water particles to strengthen the blue triangular symbol….

The process of 'meditation' was slow-moving, and although he was unhappy with it, he could not find a way to improve his techniques.

This time around, the mediation did not take that long of a time, and he did not manage to blend all of the water particles in his space into the blue symbol.

That was because he was interrupted halfway through his exercise.

That was the first time he was called out of the space of his consciousness by someone else.

The feeling was unpleasant, like he was rudely awakened just as he was falling asleep, and he was drowsy and sluggish. He was annoyed, too, but a voice was studiously assaulting his eardrums, forcing him to shake himself awake from his stupor.

"Young master! Young master, it's time to wake up! Young master!"

Benjamin opened his eyes and was shocked by a face positioned extremely close to his.

He instinctively distanced himself away from it, and could finally recognize the face.

It was Jeremy, his servant.

Jeremy was not alone. The cellar also had another presence, and it was Mary, Benjamin's mother. She was standing by the door, looking at Benjamin with a gentle smile. Behind her, the steel door opened wide, and light poured into the dim cellar.

Benjamin was stunned, but he quickly caught on.

He could finally leave.

Yet, Benjamin did not rush things. He regarded the space outside the door, and asked when he did not see anyone there, "Where's father? Did he not come? Did he forgive me?"

He deliberately used a regretful tone, and showed an expression of fear when he talked about Claude.

"Some problems arose in the appendage down South, and your father left to attend to that. He would probably be back after a week," Mary chuckled, "Before he left, he told us to let you out. So, don't worry, my child, your father is no longer angry with you."

Benjamin was relieved after hearing that from Mary.

Aside from escaping the cellar, his father's trip was also a good news for him. Although the fear on his face was all an act, deep down he felt that Claude was a tough case, and he would prefer to avoid facing him.

"Thank you, mother, I wouldn't be able to stay here any longer," Benjamin stood and maintained a pitiful demeanor for Mary.

"Everything is okay now. We can leave," Mary smiled, then turned to order Jeremy, "Escort the young master to his room. It's late now, bring some food from the kitchen for the young master, then get him ready for bed."

Jeremy hurriedly replied, "Yes, madam."

Benjamin left the cellar accompanied by them. As he gazed at the night sky, he realized that it was already nightfall of the second day.

He spent a day and a night in the tiny cellar. It was obvious that his sense of time was still sluggish when he was in the space of his consciousness.

He walked past the stairs and the long corridor of the Lithur family, and finally Jeremy led him back to his room. Mary bade farewell and goodnight to Benjamin before retiring to her room.

"Young master, please bear with me while I get the cook to prepare some food."

Jeremy said to Benjamin as they entered his room. Then, he left to the kitchen.

Initially, Benjamin wanted to stop Jeremy to check on the task he assigned to him. However, he refrained from doing so as he thought that Jeremy would return to him soon.

After his second meditation, he seemed to be unable to be anxious anymore. Exhaustion came to him like waves, and the only thing he wanted now was to lie on his soft and cozy bed and hibernate until the end of time.

Thus, he walked towards his bed and collapsed into it, then proceeded to stretch and toss himself around in his bed.

"Ah, I'll never leave this bed ever again!" Benjamin groaned lazily.

"Oh, really?" the System questioned.

"...Not really. I hoped to, but life happens, and life is hard. The revolution hasn't succeeded, and we shall push on," Benjamin sighed.

The System was speechless for a moment, but suddenly it whispered with a grave voice, "Ah, I thought you found the thing hidden under your pillow?"

Benjamin stopped rolling.

"What thing?"

He acknowledged the underlying seriousness in the System's voice, and he too became serious.

"You're asking me? Just flip your pillow over and have a look!" If the System had a face, it would have been rolling his eyes as he answered Benjamin.

Benjamin did not dawdle and promptly flipped his pillow. On the white bedsheet was a white envelope, and it was sealed perfectly, with no traces of being opened previously.

When Benjamin saw this, his heart dropped as he remembered something.

"Dear God, please don't let me be a jinx."

Benjamin nervously inhaled and lifted the envelope to study it. Despite his best hopes, the worst had happened. At the back of the white envelope, a nightmarish name was etched on it with a black ball pen.

Michelle.

Benjamin's eyesight went dark for a second. With a hopeful heart, he scrutinized the envelope for another 2 times to ensure that he did not mistake the name due to the bad handwriting. The result was still disappointing, as the words was indeed 'Michelle', no doubts.

Was this karma?

To be able to place this envelope under Benjamin's pillow despite being watched by the church, he must admit that Michelle's tactics were surprisingly good. However, this was not good news for Benjamin.

After he confirmed with the System that he did not know anyone else named 'Michelle', he started regretting making up the story to bluff the Pope.

"The bill always comes due," the System's tone became warm and welcoming, "No matter if it was a letter, a postcard, or a message, the sound of the dreamchasers will never stop. It will deliver your yesterdays, record your todays, and succeed your tomorrows, and will never let your dreams waver even if it seemed distant."

"..."

Although it was weird, but the System's nonsense did manage to calm Benjamin down.

After he contained himself, he understood that he was no longer a hostage of Michelle's, and Michelle had lost her grasp over his life. As long as he had the support of the church, he would have the ability to make the first move.

When he was kidnapped, Michelle lost. Now, he was free, and he should not be afraid anymore.

Regardless of what Michelle wrote in the letter, regardless of what traps awaited, he should face them calmly. No matter what, the church would always be behind him, and he could always pass this letter to the church and let them deal with it. The church was the strongest power on the land, and now it was basically his shield.

Not that he believed in the church. What he believed was that the church would never allow a noble get into trouble under their watch.

He might as well pass this letter to the church!

As Benjamin thought of that, he no longer hesitated and tore the letter open.

However, the first line on the first page of the letter shockingly ruined Benjamin's initial plan.

It wrote, 'You are very talented in magic. Ten days after this, I will come and teach you magic."

Benjamin was dumbfounded momentarily, and he realized that he just lost his choice to pass the letter to the church.

He saw the meaning behind this sentence. Michelle used one short sentence to cut off Benjamin's possibility to seek help from the church. It would be impossible for him to pass this to the Pope now, as if the Pope saw this line, he would immediately know about Benjamin's magic. His death will be swifter than light itself, and he would suffer from the evil witch's intention alone.

It was as if Michelle could read his mind, and that stressed him out.

At that moment, Benjamin realized that he was still in hot soup. No, it actually worsened. At least before this, Michelle had no idea that he could use magic, and he utilized that to thwart Michelle and successfully returned to the Lithurs. Now, Michelle already started to use this against him.

Would Michelle really teach him magic?

Maybe she would, maybe she would not. Regardless of her choice, she still had Benjamin's life grasped firmly within her palms. The only way for him to escape her command was for her to break the curse she buried within him. Or else, he could only follow her every whim.

Within this short period of time, Benjamin's shirt was soaked in cold sweat.

The game of death had started once again.

No, the game of death never stopped.

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Chapter 23: The Choices of the Chess Piece

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

"Young master, there was nothing else but these two pieces of bread in the kitchen!"

Just as Benjamin sat frozen in bed with a myriad of thoughts going through his head, Jeremy returned from the kitchen. Benjamin could already hear Jeremy's shouting even before the latter entered the room.

Benjamin's heart jumped, and quickly stuffed the envelope and letter under his pillow to prevent people from noticing that something was wrong. He covered up the abnormal traces, turned around and waited for Jeremy to come in.

Jeremy held the bread in his hand and stood at the door. Both of them shared eye contact, and they did not say anything momentarily.

"Is there something wrong, young master?" Jeremy seemed to have felt the weird atmosphere and asked suspiciously.

"Nothing much, just pass the bread to me, they are sufficient. It's difficult to get anything else at this hour, right?" Benjamin promptly answered and switched the topic.

"Oh, yes," Jeremy dumbly replied, and absentmindedly passed the bread in his hand to Benjamin.

In fear of Jeremy overthinking and asking more questions, Benjamin took the bread and continued speaking.

"What happened to the matter that I sent you to complete? How did you do?"

After he was enquired, Jeremy's attention was completely diverted. Nervousness crept up his expression, and he rummaged his pockets for a while before withdrawing a wooden cross from the pocket of his shirt.

He handed the cross to Benjamin, "Here, I bought this for you, young master."

Benjamin's emotions finally stabilized. He glanced at the cross in Jeremy's hand, then plastered a poker face of a supervisor scrutinising the work of an underling. He snorted, his happiness and anger could not be inferenced from his actions.

"Young master?" Jeremy became agitated by Benjamin's attitude and asked warily.

Benjamin took a glimpse at Jeremy and suddenly said, "This is not the right thing."

Jeremy looked more anxious now. He most probably forgot whatever happened previously.

Benjamin paused and ordered, "Go back, find a carpenter from the east side of the city, and tell him that this is not what I wanted. He will understand what I mean."

Jeremy's eyebrows were twisted together once again, "Wait, now?"

Benjamin nodded, "Yes, start your journey now."

Jeremy's face fell once again.

If he sent his servant out in the middle of the night, he would probably immediately catch the attention of the church. Once the church got nothing out of this investigation, their supervision on Jeremy would probably drop drastically. Thus, although it was already late in the night, Benjamin had no choice but to trouble Jeremy.

Everything he did was just for Annie's hidden treasure.

Although Michelle's letter disrupted all of his plans, he did not plan to give up that part of his plans. He never expected Michelle to sincerely mentor him in magic, he also never planned to willingly follow her whims. Who knew what evil plans the woman could come up with?

He would rather believe in himself.

"I'm leaving now, young master. If the butler asked of my whereabouts, please remember to explain to him, or else my allowances would be reduced."

At this point, Jeremy had accumulated much experience in running long distance errands. He did not complain much anymore. He held the cross in his hand and left the room with an anguished expression. Benjamin only nodded and smiled encouragingly as his eyes farewelled his courier delivery man.

He built quite an amount of trust in Jeremy, but he would still keep some things hidden from him. No matter what, magic was too scary of an issue for this cowardly and naive servant of his.

The church's effort in brainwashing the citizens was admittedly exceptional. In the eyes of the common folk, mages were the reincarnation of devils, the unforgivable villains. Regardless of how loyal Jeremy was to Benjamin, it would be very difficult for Jeremy to understand Benjamin's actions. It would be a win-win situation for both of them to hide the truth from Jeremy.

After Jeremy left Benjamin's vicinity, Benjamin stepped forward and shut the door.

He exhaled in relief.

He was grateful that Jeremy was just his servant. He was not too bright too, and thus was easier to manipulate. If it was someone else who barged in, he would have no idea how to deal with them. Even if it was the butler, he would probably be suspicious, thus that might start the rumor mill.

Although he was dissatisfied that he only had one servant (an unintelligent one), from the bright side, it was actually a positive factor.

After he closed the windows and pulled the blinds, and was sure that he would not be interrupted anymore, Benjamin reached under his pillow and once again took out Michelle's letter.

To him, the importance of this letter could not be expressed in words. He was already soaked in cold sweat after reading only the first sentence.

He needed to finish the rest of the letter.

In actuality, there were two letters in the envelope. At first, Benjamin thought Michelle had too much to tell him that she had to use two papers, but he quickly found out how wrong he was.

Aside from the sentence 'You're very talented in magic. After 10 days, I will come and teach you magic', the first letter only had another paragraph written on it.

'After you finished reading this, burn this paper, and give the second letter to the priest in St Peter's Cathedral. You must convince him to believe the contents in that paper. There are so many ways available for you to contact the priest, I believe there is no need for me to teach you that.'

When he saw Michelle's plan to hand the letter to the church, Benjamin felt a sense of doom. And when he finally read the contents on the second paper, he could not help but sigh helplessly.

The contents of the second paper was, '5 days later, meet me at the prison ruins downtown. Do not play any tricks, the first attack of the curse is right around the corner. That would be a living hell to you."

Benjamin was so scared all of his hairs stood on their ends.

Once again, he underestimated Michelle.

This witch's desire was immense. She not only wanted Benjamin to get her the treasures of the Lithur family, she also wanted to ambush the church. She wanted to use Benjamin as bait, and set up a trap for the people of the church. Then, she would take revenge, 5 days later, at downtown prison ruins.

This was no longer a battle between him and Michelle. This was also a battlefield for Michelle and the church. He was just a chess piece of Michelle's.

What should he do? What could he do?

Michelle really did see through all of his thoughts. If he really did what Michelle dictated and passed the second letter to the church, the church would very likely walk right into her trap and march towards the prison ruins five days later. Then, the church would suffer from a big blow, and Michelle's would become unstoppable.

On the other hand, if he did not hand the second letter to the church, he would suffer from the curse, and also lose the support from the church. He would then be forced to face Michelle alone, and the situation would be more dangerous for him.

If Benjamin used reverse psychology and handed both letters to the church, the church would then find out about Benjamin's magic and 'cleanse' him on the spot.

There was no need to even consider burning both of the letters and then lie to the church that they burst into flames by themselves. The priest was also a cunning character, would he believe his words without actual clues of Michelle's whereabouts? He would probably pretend to trust Benjamin and bring Benjamin for a walk in the park with pretty words, but offer no actual help. The priest did not have a treasure to find, thus the news Benjamin had this time was really useless to him.

Every path would lead to death, and no matter how he chose to move his chess piece, he would be checkmated 90% of the time.

Benjamin found himself deep in the pool of despair again.

"Ahhhhhhh! What should I do now?" He covered his face frantically, and had no mood to even eat the bread in his hand.

"Uh, you should probably listen to Michelle since she was going to teach you magic, right?" The System suggested after much consideration.

"After I learnt her magic, I would then become the next Sally and Annie, or worse! My life was already in her hands, do you think she would view me as an actual partner? Or she would maybe break the curse she placed on me willingly? You must be dreaming," Benjamin shook his head and said.

"True," Although its normalcy could offer no help to the present situation, the System's ordinary reply was still a rare occurrence that should be acknowledged.

Benjamin went into deep thoughts. He felt ideas rushing through his brain while he pondered, and stress was looming right above him, forcing him to make a decision as soon as possible.

He needed to make a quick decision.

If he decides to pass the letter to the priest, he must start moving tonight. After tonight, the '5 days later' in the letter would become '4 days later', and it would be increasingly difficult for Benjamin to explain everything to the priest, as no matter what he said, the priest would also be suspicious of him.

It would only be worse if he wanted to instigate something out of the '5 days later' and '4 days later'. The priest would get nothing out of this, and thus would further distrust Benjamin; Michelle would know of Benjamin's disobedience, and the curse would torture the living lights out of him.

Benjamin was caught in between two evils.

The church wanted to use him to capture Michelle, while Michelle wanted to use him to defeat the church. If he was not careful, he would end up in a lose-lose situation on both sides. It would also be too difficult to handle a butcher's cleaver skilfully. No matter how difficult it was, he would still need to achieve that, or else he would not have a chance to get back up.

All in all, he must make a decision that maximised his gains.

All of that must be achieved in such a short period of time.

The wall clock at the corner chimed at nine, as if it also joined the rank in urging the frantic Benjamin.

Gong... Gong...

At the last chime of the clock, he finally sprang up on his feet.

The curfew in the kingdom started at ten at night, no one could wander around in the streets after ten. If he intended to return to the Lithur Manor before that, he must move now.

Right, move. He decided. He would follow Michelle's orders and hand the second letter to the priest, thus leading the church folks downtown.

He walked towards the table and held the first letter towards the flickering fire of the oil lamp. Then, he poured the ashes of the letter into the chamber pot.

As he did that, he realized how fated he was with chamber pots.

"You really plan to play along with Michelle's plan? If the church suffered a huge blow, who knows if they would take it out on you? Don't be impulsive!" the System kindheartedly reminded Benjamin.

However, Benjamin was not surprised by that notion. As he was preparing for his outing to the church, he answered the System in his heart, "Indeed, there is a possibility that the church would take everything out on me. However, if I was also trapped and was injured because of it, or if I nearly died in the process, would the church still suspect me?"

"You plan to inflict injury on yourself to win the confidence of the church!" Benjamin's plan finally dawned on the System.

Benjamin sighed as he nodded, and he spoke helplessly, "You must lose some to gain some. If my injuries are severe enough, I might win the church's trust. Then, everything would be worth it."

The System became silent after his words, as if it was contemplating Benjamin's choice, or maybe it was just putting the advertisement for Extra's chewing gum on loop.

Benjamin paused briefly before he continued, and it sounded like a reply to the System, but also like a whisper to himself.

"As an insignificant chess piece, how could I not play some tricks to make myself an asset for the chess player?"

When everything was all set and ready, he left the Lithur Manor under the guise of the darkness, and rushed towards St. Peter's Cathedral.

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Chapter 24: The Other Side of The Letter

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

The cathedral at night was different then it was during the day without the constant flow of believers. Occasionally a few priests or knights would hurry through the corridor, but that made the whole atmosphere even more solemn and tense.

Benjamin sat in the confession room, his hand holding onto Michelle's letter, waiting for the bishop to arrive.

The work of the Church that day did not seem to be that hectic, as the bishop arrived really quickly. Of course, it could also be that they prioritized Benjamin -- no, it should that they had an eye on Michelle, which was why they came so quickly.

"Sir Lithur, the night is not a good time for confessions."

Separated by a veil, he could only hear the bishop talk slowly. His tone did not purvey any blame, but rather he was hinting at Benjamin to be straightforward and not waste any time.

Benjamin did not beat around the bush and immediately began speaking, putting on a panicked expression:

"Lord Bishop, her letter arrived again."

Saying this, he handed over the letter.

The bishop received it, opened the envelope and began reading the letter. The swift movement was a huge contrast from the way the bishop spoke previously.

The letter did not contain much, so it did not take him much time to finish reading it. The bishop remained silent after reading through the letter. It was hard for Benjamin to guess his expression because only the outline of the bishop's face, which was casted on the veil by a light, was visible.

Benjamin waited for a while, but did not have the patience to wait for the bishop to speak, so he spoke first:

"Lord Bishop, what should I do? The dungeon is a chaotic place, I'm afraid if I go I would be captured again. Lord Bishop…..."

Benjamin's act was interrupted midway by the bishop, who waved his hand.

After a few moments of silence, the bishop finally opened his mouth: "Where did this letter come from?"

Benjamin immediately replied: "Lord Bishop, I found it underneath my pillow in my sleeping quarters. This is really terrible, I did not notice her at all when she snuck inside my room. Lord Bishop, you have to protect us."

He wanted some assurance of protection from the Church. He wasn't asking for them to remove the curse, but at least, with their protection he wouldn't be helpless if Michelle were to reappear.

"God will watch over you."

With a word, the bishop left Benjamin speechless. He followed through with the question: "Did anything weird happen when this letter appeared, and why didn't it immolate now like the first one did?"

Benjamin was caught off guard.

Oops, he seemed to have forgot.

In order to gain the bishop's trust, when he fabricated Michelle's "first letter" he said that the letter burnt away on its own after he read it. However, this letter now did not burn away immediately after it was done being read, which cast some suspicion on his story.

Why did the first letter spontaneously combust and not this one?

This was not a tiny problem. Benjamin felt regret for not having thought of this before.

Although the bishop's questioning didn't sound very serious, Benjamin was sure if he didn't deal with this problem, it will definitely cause the bishop to doubt him. No one believes in a person who contradicts himself.

At this moment, countless thoughts raced through Benjamin's head over and over again. He had to answer this question and not show any hesitation while doing it. If the bishop saw him hesitate, it is was worse than giving an terrible answer.

It was too late to think now, so he made an ignorant expression, and replied:

"Uh ... this, I do not know why, why did it not burn up like the one previously?"

This was not even a justified answer. Benjamin knew fully that this was not even a proper answer, but just an excuse to make him seem as if he did not know what was going on. Right after saying this, he started regretting his words. He regretted that he was not smart enough to deal with this scenario properly...

However, the wood has already been sculpted into a boat, it was useless regretting.

He has tried his hardest to make it sound convincing, but whether the bishop was about to believe him, that could only depend on heaven.

However, on the other side of the confession room, the bishop, who was holding the letter, did not speak.

Benjamin could not help but feel nervous, almost as if his soul was going to pop out. He felt the in the next second the bishop might tear open the veil and shout at him: "You deceived God, you liar! Go to hell!" Then he would be burnt to ashes with the holy light.

How the bishop would think in the end, Benjamin had little clue. Will he doubt him? Will he be angry? Does he already know everything? Was the area already surrounded with paladins, waiting to take his own life?

It was like waiting at the end of a trial for the judge to come to a verdict.

The bishop's silence was no more than twenty seconds, but for Benjamin it felt as if it was as long as twenty years.

Finally, he opened his mouth, and Benjamin had never been so excited by this dull voice:

"It was because she knew that you are faithful servant of God, and she gave you this letter, knowing that you would give me the letter, and she wanted to use this as a trap to enact a shameless revenge against the church."

Benjamin was relieved.

He was nearly scared to death.

Fortunately, he thought so. The worst did not happen, the bishop guessed Michelle's intention, but did not suspect Benjamin - at least from his words, it sounded like this.

He did not know whether that the bishop was not vigilant enough or that he was too lucky.

Of course, perhaps the bishop had never from the beginning suspected Benjamin, so he never thought of that possibility and Benjamin's fears were unfounded.

Or perhaps the bishop's eyes are only on Michelle. Whether Benjamin had ill intentions, it did not matter to him. He only needed to figure out Michelle's intentions and focus on battling her. Benjamin was not important to him.

I wish I would never be a target in the bishop's eyes. Benjamin thought.

"Lord Bishop, five days later, should I still go to the city district ..." He did not stop his panicked performance, and continued to test the bishop.

"That would be unnecessary. This is just a trap, where we would not find her at all," The bishop replied calmly.

Hearing this, he felt even more frustrated.

Michelle wrote in his previous letter: "Give the second letter to the bishop of St. Peter's cathedral and convince him of the contents above." Now the bishop did not suspect him but instead doubted the letter. Benjamin did not know if the current situation would satisfy Michelle.

It could not be said that he did not know, but he knew very well that if the bishop saw through Michelle's plans, it would definitely make Michelle angry. If Michelle was angry, he had to suffer.

Moreover, it was also contrary to his own "helpless" plan.

He had to persuade the bishop ... or at least Benjamin had to persuade him to send someone to the prison that day. Even if it might cause a paladin and Benjamin to be beaten, it should be enough to let Michelle think that he was still obedient.

After thinking it through again and again, Benjamin decided to bite the bullet and become Michelle's "persuader":

"But Lord Bishop, is it okay to just let her go? She wants to retaliate against the church and will leave traces there, we cannot just let her go. Lord Bishop, God's servants, should never be afraid of facing those tempted by those tempted by the demons!"

Michelle's persuader was not a fun thing to be, Benjamin could barely force through those words. It was necessary to be persuasive, to not let the bishop feel suspicious, but still not seem too smart. Benjamin had to use a "theological" point of view to try to persuade the bishop.

"You are right, the servants of God never fear the Devil's lackeys." However, in the discussion of "theology" the bishop was more skilled after all. "But the Devil has always been cunning, we cannot fall for their trap for nothing. God is omniscient, and views all his servants as important, and would not be willing to sacrifice any of us. Therefore, we should not risk our own lives."

Benjamin was speechless. Obviously, the bishop was still afraid of Michelle's exaggerated strength.

He really wanted to tell the bishop that a team of "cleaners" would be able to defeat Michelle. But he held back. He could not forget that when the church took his memory, his memory of him and Michelle hiding from the "Cleaners" was not extracted.

He could only watch Michelle wielding the chips that did not exist at all, and do battle with the church under the limelight.

To tell the truth, if Benjamin just helped the Church to get rid of Michelle, the Church would naturally help him lift the curse. But the Church's actions were so questionable, Benjamin did not have confidence that they were able to completely get rid of Michelle.

If Michelle was not gone completely, he would suffer. Therefore, he could only swing between the two sides, tangled.

"In this case, Lord Bishop, please give me some protection .This witch so unscrupulous, I am very worried about my family and their safety, if she could put the letter under my bedroom pillow today, tomorrow she may kidnap me away again, and I can no longer provide information for God." After a brief hesitation, he changed his goal and said.

Swaying has its own disadvantages, but also had advantages. This was the best he could do for now.

As for the failure of Michelle's plan and whether she will dissatisfied, at the moment, it was not what he could think of. He could not persuade the bishop, and if this continues, the bishop would probably doubt his purpose and loyalty.

Really, he felt that the church trip this time was a failure compared to the last time. If he still could not get any benefits from the Church now, his days would be unbearable, it would probably be better for him to ram his head on a pillar.

"God naturally will not ignore any of his faithful believers." The bishop seemed to realize that he had to give something to Benjamin, so after a brief silence he handed Benjamin a cross necklace. "This is a holy item, which will protect you from any demonic force, but you should pay attention to the fact that the divine power can only be used three times, and after three times it will lose the ability to get rid of witchcraft."

Ha! This was what I needed!

Benjamin lifted the veil, and happily took the cross.

With this, Michelle was still able to use a curse to threaten him, but at least, she could not kidnap him with the binding spell to bring him to God knows where, that would be impossible, he had a mouth, and had the ability to use it.

Moreover, Michelle did not know about this cross. Therefore, it can become his trump card, like the last time, at the crucial moment, Benjamin could even the odds.

A cunning person like Michelle was not afraid of what was stronger than her, but was only afraid of what she did not know.

"If you hold the cross in your hands, and say a prayer, it can also help you alert the nearest knight patrol, and they will rush to help you." The bishop added, "But this item can only be used three times, so if it is not life threatening, do not use it."

Hearing this, Benjamin became more excited, and regarded the cross in his hands as a treasure.

In online games, this would be a godly item! Not only did it provide spell immunity, it could also provide reinforcement. Even if there was no attributable bonus, it was no trash item!

This thing will become his death-free gold medal!

"Thank you for the gift of God." Benjamin said with gratitude and excitement.

"As long as you pray devoutly, God will bless you." the bishop sounded more sincere than before, "Well, you have confessed enough, I will let the knight escort you back. Today's repentance exists only in God and you must make sure that no one else will know. "

"Yes, Lord Bishop." Benjamin did not say anything more, and nodded. He had already done what he could, and the bishop trying to make him leave was fitting to his desires

After getting a good item, he had no other requests.

Benjamin stood up and walked out of the confession room. The bishop in the confession room did not do anything. A knight came in and very respectfully sent Benjamin out of the church.

Although things did not go as planned, Benjamin still left the church with satisfaction.

Meanwhile, the bishop sat in the confession room until Benjamin left, without a word or movement.

Another knight came and stood by the side of the confession room, whispering: "Lord Bishop.."

The bishop waved his hands, hinting him not to speak.

So the knight had no choice but to keep silent beside the bishop who was behaving oddly without a word.

"What is she even thinking?"

Suddenly, the bishop looked at the letter in his hand, and the sound echoed from the confession room to the dome of the synagogue.

The knight was stunned. He wanted to answer, but soon realized that the bishop was not talking to him. He chose to remain silent.

The bishop continued talking to himself, while raising the palm of his hand. Out of thin air, a group of gold flames was conjured in his palm, the fire swaying, brilliant and holy.

He used his other hand, and put the letter on top of the flame. It quietly baked.

The knight stared curiously at the letter, but did not dare to question. After a while, the fire reflected the surprise on his face.

"This is ..." In the end, he was so shocked that he could not stay silent.

The bishop's voice was still calm like a dead man, and he said:

"This is a message from the Fallen One."

Where there were no words previously on the back of the letter, lines of words began emerging.

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Chapter 25: The War Begins

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

Although it was past curfew, Benjamin successfully returned to the Lithur family with the escort of the knights.

Avoiding the servants on duty, he quietly returned to his bedroom. No one noticed him. He closed the door, laid on the bed, took out the cross, and happily toyed with it.

It was a silver cross that boasts of exquisite workmanship. When Benjamin put it between his eyebrows, he could feel a holy atmosphere emanating from the insides of the cross.

This is the power of the divine arts.

Compared to magic, the general people of the Kingdom of Helius are much more familiar with the divine arts. Every town has a church and a priest, and almost everyone has seen a priest use divine arts.

According to the church, divine arts is the power God gave man to fight against the Devil.

The legends say that a long time ago, demons were rampant in this world. Famine, plague, war and suffering under the Devil's temptation was a common occurrence. People lived in tumultuous times, and a peaceful existence was seen as a luxurious wish.

But then appeared a pair of brothers, the older brother was called Cain, the younger brother was called Abel. No one knows where they are from, but they were determined to save mankind and end the era dominated by demons. After failing again and again, Cain made sacrifices to the Devil, thus acquiring great power. But at the end, he used this power in turn to drive the demons away, restoring peace and harmony to the world.

However, it did not last long. Under the influence of the Devil's power, Cain's temperament became brutal and cunning, just as the demons were. He began to enslave the people, wage wars and kill innocent people, causing the world to once again plunge into chaos.

Abel saw all these changes in his eyes. After one particular war, he stood in one of his brother's luxurious palaces and began to pray in front of Cain's face. Cain was furious. He put Abel into prison and had him crucified on a cross. Seven days later, Abel vanished, and when he appeared again in front of Cain, he had the power of the divine.

Nobody knows what Abel went through. The only thing everyone knew was that the newly empowered Abel started a war with Cain.

In the end, Abel defeated Cain.

When he was ready to use the power of the light to purify Cain, Cain suddenly shed tears. He seemed to have changed back to the former Cain, and ran toward Abel in tears, reminiscing the story of their past. Abel was touched, and his back was exposed to Cain. Cain took the opportunity to attack him and the demonic flames burnt Abel to ashes.

While Cain was triumphant, a holy light came from the sky and enveloped Cain. The voice of God came from the sky, and asked Cain of Abel's whereabouts. Cain denied knowing anything. God knew of Cain's lies, and brought down punishment. He deprived Cain of his power and gave him a lifelong exile. Cain was furious and did not accept God's punishment. He used his own blood to curse the world, sealing it up. Since then, no gods or demons have ever appeared here, which became the "God-forsaken place."

Cain died after releasing the curse due to physical weakness. But his blood was diffused across the world, passing down the power of the Devil. The contaminated human world once again fell into war, and those with demonic powers killed one another, while the ordinary people could only live between the cracks.

Until one day, a young man stood in the place where Abel was burned into ashes and put his hands together to pray. A light rose from his palm into the night sky, exploded like fireworks and fell into the eyes of millions of onlookers. Since then, mankind possessed the power of the divine, and the young man who prayed became the Church's first pope.

He found a sword stuck in the ground at the site of Abel's death. When his hand first came into contact with the blade, a word in his heart echoed:

"The Holy Light shrouded the world."

The sword became a holy artifact of the Church, and was consecrated to the depths of St. Peter's Basilica, while that sentence became the first oracle.

The story is what the Church has promoted as the origin of the divine arts and magic.

When the system first repeated this story to Benjamin, Benjamin had to admit that the myth of this world and his original world had a lot of similarities. Like Cain and Abel, these two very similar people were far beyond the "If similar, it is purely coincidence" category.

He could not help but think: What was the relation between the two worlds?

But at the moment he could not think of an answer.

The world was different from his original world. There was magic, there were divine arts, the power of people here had no limits, the so-called God was likely only a powerful human who reached the peak of his power.

Therefore, the myths of this world had a higher probability of being true compared to his world before, although it might not be the Church's version. Benjamin believed that if he were to let a mage tell the story, it may come up differently.

He suddenly burst out laughing when he thought of this.

If this myth is based on real occurrences, then it could be regarded as the origins of this world. But with his current ability, investigating this might be too early – he has only been in this world for less than seven days. Doing it now would probably send him to heaven.

He might as well go wash up and sleep first.

Benjamin felt sleepy. So he put the cross away safely, hastily washed, put out the flame of the oil lamp and climbed into bed. Not long after that, he fell asleep.

Perhaps because he had not slept well for a long time, this time he slept like a log. When he finally woke up, it was already noon the next day.

He was awakened by a person.

"Benjamin! Wake up now, we have to go!"

Benjamin opened his sleepy eyes, he was still in a confused state.

"Get up, don't sleep anymore, we're going to be late!" The noisy voice still echoed in his ear, but the word "late" made him think of his life before he teleported, so he woke up.

Late? What am I late for?

Darn, I thought I was late for morning classes.

Benjamin rubbed his eyes and looked around. He saw a young man of similar age and looks standing next to the bed, forcefully shaking his shoulder.

It was his brother - Grant Lithur.

"What…...What are you doing?"

Benjamin was confused.

According to the System, Grant had a good relationship with him. Grant did not look down on him just because he was a loser. But because Benjamin had not communicated with Grant before, the situation now was completely out of his expectations.

In addition to what he was clamoring about being "late", what did the "leaving"...mean?

"Have you forgotten? We're going to war with them today, please don't delay anymore, we're going to be late!" Grant continued urging without hesitation.

Going, going to war?

Benjamin's eyes flew wide open while he stared blankly at Grant. But Grant's face looked serious and solemn. He even looked slightly fanatic. It did not look like he was joking around.

"..."

Benjamin felt sluggish, so he fell back asleep.

I must be dreaming.

Dream, do not interrupt my beauty sleep, this bed is very expensive.

"Hey! Don't go back to sleep, hurry up!" Grant did not disappear like a dream would, but he shook the shoulders of Benjamin even harder, to the point Benjamin almost puked out his stomach acid.

Benjamin sat up again from the bed and opened his eyes.

"I'm not dreaming?" he asked.

"No." Grant replied.

"..."

Benjamin did not know what to say, he was not feeling very well.

He felt like after he came to this world, the situation to which he has woken up to has not been proper. It was first a kidnapping by a witch, followed by the encounter with a somnambulist in the middle of the night. It was even worse this time – he has to go war after waking up. How long has he been asleep?

Was he really going to war?

"Don't dawdle anymore, hurry and get up! Get up get up get up ... ..."

"I'm up! Don't shake me anymore, I'm about to puke!"

Under Grant's crazy urging, Benjamin did not know what was happening, but he still got out of bed and was rushed like a duck to wash and put on his clothes. His head was still dizzy but before he had time to even say a word, he was dragged by Grant out of the door.

On the way out, he saw that the servants they passed by did not seem surprised at all, and they were all wearing a blank expression.

Benjamin felt helpless as he gradually recovered from his condition. The only thing he could do was to ask the system: "What exactly is it all about?"

The system slowly emerged and answered: "No big deal, it's just a small activity by the aristocratic children."

Obviously, Benjamin was not satisfied with this answer.

He asked: "Can you explain, what is the "activity of the aristocratic children?" Also, what is this war thing, are we to fight with other aristocratic children?"

"Well ..." The system seemed to be think for a moment, "You can see it as this way."

"Might as well not explain." Benjamin's dissatisfaction continue to escalate.

"Don't think too much of it, it's not a big deal, believe me," the System said wisely. "What are you being impatient for? To explain it would be a very troublesome process. Anyway, once you reach the place, you'll naturally understand the situation. "

Was the System really to be trusted?

Benjamin could not help but feel revolted.

The System was already unreliable, but now it had another problem: Laziness.

He did not have to think of getting anything out of the system anymore. He looked at the Grant, who was sprinting away and obviously not in a state to communicate. So Benjamin had no choice but to obey and see where Grant was bringing him to.

On the streets of Havenwright, two young men hurriedly ran past, with faces as if there was no one left to love alive.

The place they had to go was not far away, and it was not long before they stopped.

They were still in the city, but the place was relatively remote, there were no people passing through. It was in front of an abandoned castle that looked a bit old. Although it was not big, Benjamin was still in awe of the castle located in the city.

He saw that at entrance of the castle stood about a dozen people. With a closer look, he saw that most of them were teenagers dressed like aristocrats – this confirms the System's explanation that they were "aristocratic children."

But Benjamin was still puzzled and clueless about the situation.

"What were you guys doing, why are you guys so slow?" A person out of the group walked forward and said after seeing the two of them.

"We're not even late, what are you concerned about?" Grant immediately retorted.

The man did not care. He turned around and said: "OK, then let's start, follow the old rules, we will disperse first, then we can start moving about after ten minutes." With his words, a row of people began heading inside the castle.

Start moving? What were they intending to do…...

Although he was still confused, Benjamin noticed that Dick Fulner happened to be among these people.

Just when he saw Dick, Dick also turned his head and stared back at him. When their eyes met, Dick gave Benjamin a fierce glare and made a threatening gesture, warning Benjamin that he will lose.

Benjamin was speechless.

Why was it him again?

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Chapter 26: The War Simulation

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

A confused Benjamin followed Grant into the castle. Along the way, the lazy system finally spoke and explained the situation.

"Seven or eight years ago, the situation on the continent was still quite tense, as there was another country constantly competing with the kingdom of Helius, and war was imminent. Therefore, these aristocrat children had to be educated about the ins and outs of warfare. Unfortunately, not long soon after, the opposing country split up because of civil strife, so there was no war and their war education ended."

The system paused, and then said:

"But all these restless children, they felt like their talent in war was wasted after having learned a belly-full of things and they were full of willingness to fight, but had no avenue to express it. Someone then proposed to have this regular activity, to gather a group of people in the castle and engage in a simulated war game. Of course, they don't think it is just a game, they treat it like a real war. Every one of them is dead serious."

After listening to the system, Benjamin felt a bit speechless.

"These people are really naive."

He was not interested in this boring war game, was it not like children playing gangsters? Instead of wasting time here, he would rather go back to sleep for a while, or rather "meditate" for a while.

"You speak as if as if you were mature enough already, you dare say that you did not play a similar game when you were in primary school?" The system began its habitual bickering.

"I played it before."

Benjamin choked, but immediately confidently said: "But that was during primary school, these people can already attend the high school, if not childish, what is it?"

"That's because you got yourself a computer." The system went on, "I have a record here, even after adulthood, you spent most of your time on 'online war games' more than these people in the 'offline war game,' which cost more time and even more gold.

"..."

Benjamin was speechless.

At the moment in reality, he followed Grant into a dilapidated little room. There was nothing in the room. Grant and Benjamin hid behind the door, covered it and held their breath, as if waiting in ambush.

Benjamin obediently followed, but in reality he really did not want to participate in this game.

"Hey, can I ..."

"Hush, don't talk." Grant immediately interrupted him and whispered to him, "Follow me closely, rest assured, we'll win this.

"..."

It seems that his application to leave early was not never possible.

Well, might as well just tag along and treat it as a childhood dream. He observed that the castle terrain was not very complicated, so this game cannot be played in a spectator mode.

Sure enough, in no more than two minutes, there were two fools who came to the entrance of the room and tried to open the door. Suddenly, Grant dashed out from behind the door, held two balls that came out of nowhere, shouted:"Holy Bolt" and threw the balls at the two.

The two were obviously very shocked. When they came to their senses, they looked at Grant and touched the part of their bodies where they were hit. Suddenly, they fell onto the ground in a very flamboyant manner, becoming a glorious "sacrifice."

"...these stupid teens." Although he was psychologically prepared for this, Benjamin still could not help but quietly insult them in his heart.

Using a ball to replace the holy bolt, pretending to be sacrificed -- these are still forgivable acts. But throwing a ball and yelling "Holy Bolt?" Would it be surprising if the highest concept of the church became guarding Athena?

"In fact, this is justified." The system came out to explain, the "Holy Bolt is a very captivating divine art. In order to simulate this effect, the war game uses a small ball to replace the light. When playing, you must shout out loud to expose your position and let others hear it.

"..." Benjamin was again speechless.

The system said with patience: "Do not underestimate these people, they were subject to formal training and view this game as an important activity."

As the system said, after he "killed" the two enemies, Grant pulled Benjamin along and began to move around. His actions – ducking every five steps and looking back every three steps -- were as professional as that of the Special Forces.

But other people were not as well-trained as Grant. When they raised their hands and feet, they still could not get rid of pampered aristocratic aura they gave off. Grant finished off even more enemies on the way. The "corpses" in the castle began to pile up.

Benjamin followed behind and felt restless despite the victories.

But through all this performance, he had a different view on his talented brother now.

"Are you sure that is the genius that you said, who was born to bells and lights?" He asked wistfully in his heart.

"Do you think that every genius is like those written in books, arrogant, those who use their nostrils to look at people?" The system reminded, "You shouldn't underestimate him, if he used the real Holy Bolt, he could wipe out everyone in the castle, but on the other hand, your water ball probably couldn't conjure enough water to let everyone wash their hands once."

"..."

Ignoring the ridicule, Benjamin still could not suspend his belief: "Is he really that powerful? Why did Michelle even dare to kidnap him?"

The system also explained: "Michelle has dealt with the Church for so long, she certainly has her own way to deal with the divine arts. She probably could not take Grant one-on-one, but her experience is probably ten times more than Grant, who is just a mere child.

Benjamin heard this thought, and finally accepted the explanation:

"That's true."

That he would suddenly take note of this was not because he cared about his cheap brother, but he suddenly thought: If Grant's divine arts was so strong, why can't he find Grant for help to remove the curse?

After all, Grant is just a teenager, if Benjamin created some foolish reason, he should be able to deceive Grant and get his help. It might be a little evil to deceive such an innocent teenager, but his own life, of course, was still more important.

Moreover, once the curse was lifted, Benjamin would be as free as a bird in the sky or a fish in the ocean. As for Michelle and the Church, he could not care less about how they fought.

Wonderful! This was wonderful!

Benjamin suddenly felt his future brighten up.

Michelle may be smart, but she might have made a mistake. Even in her dreams, how could she have left out this crucial point? She must have never thought that Benjamin would think of using his genius brother at such a crucial moment.

Eh...

Wait!

Did Michelle ... really not think of this?

Benjamin's mood was like a roller coaster, all of a sudden he was relieved of his excitement. It may be that Michelle caused him too much emotional trauma, he always felt that Michelle is not the kind of person who would miss this point.

Sure enough, after asking the system, he got the answer:

"Maybe her curse is not that well known, and Grant has no way to lift it, but it's more likely that she's making use of the church's regulations on divine arts.

Benjamin felt hope his hope fade away, but he still asked: "What regulations?

"A trainee priest is not free to use the divine arts." The system replied, "Although Grant is more powerful than many formal priests, he has not yet officially graduated from the Church, so he does not have the rights to use divine arts freely, and in the eyes of the Church ... ... the Church would not let him help you, as you have personally experienced. Michelle must have known of this, that's why she has no fear.'

Damn...

Benjamin felt that he was being toyed around once more.

But fortunately, his mind can be considered conditioned through the wits and experience he developed after dealing with Michelle. He had no expectation for others. Seeking Grant's help was just an idea out of the blue, it would be a surprise if it could work. If it did not work then it would be normal, it was not the first time he had felt the cruel fate that he received from God.

He had a headache thinking of how to fool Grant, so it was probably better to rely on himself instead.

Benjamin continued making calculations in his heart while following Grant, who was in an aggressive state where "If God blocked the way, he would kill God, if Buddha blocked the way, he would kill the Buddha." He witnessed the way Grant ambushed, sneak attacked and handled direct combat. Under the attack of this series of professional military action, all the opponents he handled could not hold for more than a minute.

Benjamin was still a bit surprised - though he still did not take this game seriously.

However, he could also see that those defeated aristocratic children were not as serious as Grant. Grant really took this game as a war, but the others saw it more as a game.

Benjamin could not help but suspect that Grant was the person who proposed the simulation.

If he was in the modern world, he would be one of the most fanatical game fans, and would probably take up cosplay.

Under the leadership of the "veteran", Benjamin, who was a newbie, managed to successfully pass through every challenge he faced. After almost around an hour of gameplay, the "corpses" continued to pile up and were close to the end of the game.

After checking the number of players left with the system, Benjamin determined that the castle still had two enemies that Grant did not "kill".

"Finally, it's going to end." He could not help but heave a sigh of relief in his heart.

"You have to enjoy the game, look at Grant, how focused he is and how much fun he is getting out of the game while practicing his skills. This is a great experience, even a Yang Yongxin wouldn't have the heart to cure a player like this," The system said this, full of emotion and admiration.

"You can't say it this way, I would like to take advantage of this opportunity to relax, but I can;t find a way." Benjamin quietly said, "If you were to make a person that is used to playing 3D games with time limits to play a 2D turn-based game, that person would probably not be able to continue playing for long."

The system was silent for a while, then suddenly said: "Do you know that if 2D turn-based strategy fans were to hear this, they would all attack you? You really shouldn't have said it this way."

Benjamin, hearing this, also remained silent for a moment, and then replied: "I know, but this is not like writing a novel, where you can delete something if it is not written right. Once words are said, it would make no difference even if I regret it."

The system stopped speaking, Benjamin did not speak either. The two experienced a long duration of silence. Suddenly, Benjamin felt like his body was bounded, and he let out a hiccup.

He asked the system, "Did we talk about anything strange?"

"We did not say anything at all."

Benjamin nodded and said:

"I think so too."

Soon, their attention came back to reality again. The game was at its end stages. Grant was still looking for the remaining two people. Benjamin, who was watching, could only let out a yawn and patiently wait for the end of the game.

However, he suddenly had a revelation, and realized that something was not right.

"Hey, was that Fulner family kid taken out just now?" After thinking deeply, he asked the system.

The system replied, "No."

Benjamin: "Are you sure?"

The System: "Are you questioning my ability? No means no, one hundred percent sure."

Hearing this, Benjamin could not help but take a deep breath.

He looked at the end of the front corridor, the final room that has yet to be explored. In his heart, a bad premonition arose.

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Chapter 27: Put Down Your Weapon!

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

They came to the door.

Grant pushed the door open, and remained focused and cautious, like an FBI agent with a mission to accomplish. As he pushed open the door, he purportedly rolled over to the right to avoid an anticipated attack.

Out of consideration of various factors, Benjamin also backed off a little.

However, the door was pushed open and nothing happened.

Benjamin was puzzled, carefully walked forward a few steps to the door and peeked inside. He saw that in the room, Dick Fulner and a huge man stood together. The moment Benjamin looked at them, they had their eyes locked on Benjamin.

It appeared that they had been waiting for a long time.

... There was a murderous aura.

Benjamin felt trouble coming, so he turned away impulsively.

He was very clear, after the last Fulner family fiasco, Dick's hatred of him would not have reduced by half. To Benjamin's understanding of Dick Fulner, he would try at all costs to seek revenge.

Look at the situation now, was there anything that needed further explanation?

Dick was not here to participate in some war game, he was here for Benjamin!

Tricky.

The moment that Benjamin and Dick's eyes met, the atmosphere became tensed, like a raging storm was about to hit. Suddenly, a very loud cry, that could shatter glass windows, broke the stormy atmosphere.

"Holy Bolt!"

Grant suddenly dashed into the room, and it was the same old trick, two balls were thrown from his hands, accurately hitting Dick and the huge man's chest.

"..."

The big man looked at the ball on the ground, and turned to Dick who was next to him. He hesitated, but did not make the exaggerated look as if he was about to die. Dick, needless to say, was not moved at all, his eyes continued to stare down Benjamin.

Grant was stunned.

"Hey, you cheaters!" He angrily shouted at Dick and his companion.

"Oh."

Dick used "meh".

Grant suddenly looked as if he was hit hard, he could not speak, and fell, defeated.

Upon seeing this, Benjamin sighed in his heart.

Looks like he had to rely on himself

So he turned to Grant, pretending to be relaxed and said, "No way, looks like only I can deal with these two enemies." Then, he looked again at Dick, and took a few steps forward.

These two steps he took, made him feel like it was "Out of the way! It's my turn to act stupid!" kind of feeling.

"What do you want?" He asked Dick.

At the same time, when he was pretending, he asked the system: "Who's that gigantic person next to Dick?

Master yourself, master the enemy. Ever since he successfully escaped from the hands of Michelle, with these quotes from his ancestors which he viewed as a motto for life, he could not help but feel that he wanted to tattoo them on his arm.

System answered, "That is his brother, called Conte Fulner, he was a talented child, gifted with divine power but unfortunately at the age of three he had a serious illness, and his brain was burnt out. He is a bit stupid, but he is obedient to his family members. Because of his strength, no one dares to cross him."

Benjamin who was listening was stunned for awhile, and had a feeling something bad was about to happen.

He was not afraid of Dick, this was not the Lithur family home, and had no elders to support him. What could he do with his thin arms and legs in a commotion like this?

But he had a strong opponent now, this would prove troublesome to handle.

Let us see what he would do.

"What do I want to do, you should know really well don't you?" In this strange atmosphere, Dick spoke like the evil villain in a movie, "I want to repay you with the humiliation you made me go through! "

Saying this, he took out a chamber pot from nowhere.

"..."

So, ever since the "chamber pot door" incident, had he been carrying this thing with him?

This was about the chamber pot.

Benjamin could not help but feel admiration for Dick's perseverance to avenge himself.

"This person is incredible," The System could not help but wondered. "You have to be careful. This person is not simple. According to my analysis, he seems to have a portable space. He might have teleported here as well."

"...Why?"

The system shouted like an idiot: "Must you ask, if not from a portable space, where would he keep the night pot in, his anus?"

"... Maybe it is so."

The tense atmosphere disappeared the moment Dick took out the chamber pot, but Dick tried his hardest to make himself look like a villain. Benjamin could only feel that it was funny, he could not help but pity Dick.

"Well, since he doesn't want to play properly, that's the end of today's battle, Grant, let's go home," he said, turning to Grant.

Grant was stunned.

Benjamin had to continue on and say, "Why are we still staying here? They do not want to play with us, let's go home."

Grant responded, although a bit reluctantly, but still nodded his head and said: "Well, let's go back." He ended his speech and also glared at Dick, seemingly hating Dick who destroyed his perfect gaming experience.

Benjamin did not want to deal with all this, and turned away.

He just wanted to leave this place before the smell of the chamber pot started dispersing.

"Stop! Don't go!" Dick was so angry that he was missing such a good opportunity for revenge, so he shouted at once, and said, "Conte, hurry, don't let them leave!"

He continued standing next to Dick and staring at Dick, but did not move. Dick furiously shouted a few words, pointing at Benjamin. Conte's reacted immediately, and sped towards Benjamin.

Benjamin was shocked by Conte's speed.

Woah, how could this big guy be so fast?

When he hesitated to escape, Grant suddenly jumped out. Only to hear him shouting: "Leave this guy to me!" Then he turned and rushed towards Conte. Conte used his hands to try to catch him. Grant leaped thoughtlessly and managed to use his legs as scissors, firmly locking Conte's neck in place.

Conte lost balance and the two fell together to the ground, ending in a stalemate. Conte made efforts to break free, but Grant held him tight, and the both of them could not move at all.

Benjamin was dumbfounded for a while. He did not know whether to admire Grant's skill, or make fun of him for his reckless behavior.

Dick was also stunned, he did not expect Grant to be strong enough to subdue Conte. But the power of hatred was obviously very strong as he quickly recovered from the surprise, and stared at Benjamin.

Benjamin also looked at Dick, and he felt that this was not going to turn out well.

Grant was entangled with Conte, which forced him to stay here - he could not just abandon Grant right?

Trouble.

He saw Dick staring at him, the chamber pot in his hand was slowly lifted up, a Dong Cunrui raising explosives bag posture was coming in shape.

"Oh no!"

Benjamin felt some goosebumps.

He squatted down, wanting to dodge.

"Don't try to dodge!" Dick said. Upon seeing this, he became anxious, and shouted, "If you dare to dodge, I ... I will use this to smash them!"

Saying this, he took the chamber pot and took aim at Grant and Conte who were tangled together..

Grant was also shocked to hear this, and forgot to continue applying force. Conte used this opportunity to break free. However, Conte did not seem to understand Dick's words just now, or maybe he understood but did not care. After breaking free, he went straight to Benjamin and continued to carry out his unfinished task.

Dick was pleased at Conte charging toward Benjamin. "Hurry, Conte, seize the bastard!"

Benjamin looked at the big man from above, and had no time to dodge.

"Oh no oh no oh no!"

The situation worsened. He did not have time to think. Conte instantly rushed towards Benjamin. A pair of big hands were less than ten centimeters away from Benjamin, seemingly about to seize him.

Benjamin could only lift his legs impulsively and gave him a kick!

Time seemed to have been paused, just in a few seconds, the whole corridor became quiet.

"Turns out he walks so quickly because he was used to opening his legs wide." Suddenly the System came out of his mind and thoughtfully informed.

Open...open wide?

Benjamin was still immersed in a state where he had yet to react.

Slowly, he also began to feel something was out of place. Conte's hand was obviously in sight, soon to meet his face, but it no longer moved forward anymore, why was it so?

So Benjamin looked down curiously.

He saw his left leg slightly raised, and it was between the legs of Conte, like a swing with a beautiful curvature. His feet pad felt slightly numb, as if just kicked something hard.

"Mom ... mother ..."

Conte who seemed to have been stunned, started sobbing, bean sized tear drops rolled down his cheeks.

Benjamin was stunned. He pulled back his legs, then took back a few steps, watching the big man in front of him weep. He felt a sense of guilt he had never felt before.

"I'm sorry. It was not intentional." He was very sincere. He felt it was the most fervent apology he had ever made.

Fortunately, perhaps Benjamin's apology was sincere enough, Conte did not cry as much as he did before. He was still sobbing a little, using his pair of slightly trembling hands slowly covering the injury.

Conte cried his way out of the castle. His pace was very slow, but not knowing why, no one reacted or tried to stop him.

Before he left the castle, no one spoke, and no one moved. The whole corridor was filled with his sobbing, followed by a repetitive low pitched, coarse calling out for "Mama".

He's gone.

After Conte left, Dick suddenly reacted, and began to shout at the end of the corridor: "Conte, come back!" However, no one responded to him - it seemed that no one would respond to him again.

Benjamin turned to look at Dick again. Grant recovered from the shock and looked at Dick too.

Dick instantly realized that it was not good.

"You ... what are you doing, Benjamin, don't take joy in this, I won't forgive you!"

He ended his speech and raised the chamber pot again.

Benjamin exchanged looks with Grant. The two ducked down, and approached Dick from two separate directions.

"Don't act rashly, put down the weapon you're holding, you have been surrounded. I repeat, put down the weapon, you have been surrounded. You have the right to remain silent, but what you say will be ..."

Benjamin's words were not finished, and he was suddenly interrupted.

"Don't move! You come any closer ... you come any closer, I'll kill you!"

Under all this emotional stress, Dick suddenly pulled out a gun from his pocket. He held a chamber pot in one hand, and a gun in another, the gun muzzle pointing at Benjamin's forehead.

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Chapter 28: Shot Fired

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

Yes, a gun.

The shape of the gun body was different from the ones in gangster films, but instead it looked like those from an old Western film, the kind of a gun a cowboy would have. The workmanship of the iron-colored gun seemed coarse, but it still gave of the feel only a gun could give, the feeling of impending death.

Benjamin had not even see a real gun before, let alone be pointed at with a gun.

Prior to this, his only encounter with guns was during primary school when he threw a tantrum, his parents bought him a toy pistol, when triggered it would make a "pewpewpew" sound, and had no use at all. When he was in for national service, they said there would be gun practice, but it turned out that the event was removed somehow.

After crossing over, he had thought that this life would have nothing to do with guns anymore, the System when introducing the background of this world did not mention anything about firearms. He thought that under the influence of the divine arts and magic, this world's technology would not be so developed.

However, at this moment, an emotional, out of control, minor, was pointing a gun at his forehead.

Was he tricked by the System again?

Benjamin did not think that a so-called war game could escalate into such a situation. He did not expect that after escaping from Michelle for even less than ten days, he once again faced the threat of death.

And it was for such a ridiculous reason.

"Don't get worked up, we won't come any closer. Put the gun away, we don't intend to do anything to you." Benjamin stopped his pace, spread out his hands, showing that he had no malicious intent.

What could he do? If he had the skills of Grant, he would have ambushed Dick, like the detective in a crime film, taking hold of the gun before Dick could react. Unfortunately he did not, and Grant?

Grant looked surprised and flustered, and did not move.

Too weak of him…..

Therefore, in order to prevent the situation from further deteriorating, and also because it was his first time facing a death threat from firearm, Benjamin chose to show weakness against Dick. He made the above series of actions in order to appease Dick, so that he made no impulsive moves.

"You are a liar! I, I will not believe you!" Dick did not intend to move the gun away.

"You do not need to believe me, but you have to think about yourself." Benjamin did not seem to be discouraged, he seemed to have turned into a negotiator, trying to stabilize the emotions of a criminal at a crime scene. "Do you really want to shoot? Give some thought about the consequences once this trigger is pulled. Will the people of the church turn a blind eye to you? What about your future in the aristocratic circle and your family? What would they do? You will ruin the whole Fulner family."

While he was persuading Dick, he thought that he managed to make the situation better, thinking that maybe watching TV dramas were actually beneficial. If there were sudden emergencies, he could imitate those scenes in the television.

However, the dialogues that he learnt from TVB about bargaining seemed to not be very useful.

"No, no, as long as you obediently let me smash this pot on to you, that will not happen! You can't dodge! If you dare dodge, I ... I will shoot." Then, saying this, he raised his hand which held the chamber pot.

Oh darn...

How obsessed was he?

At the moment, Benjamin, did not have any sympathy for Dick anymore. He felt that Dick was a psychopath, only obsessed about smashing people with chamber pots

How could he deal with a psychopath?

In the stalemate, the atmosphere became more and more tensed. Suddenly, Benjamin felt a strong burst of magic fluctuations. The wave of fluctuations around them were so strong and intense, even ordinary people like Dick could feel it.

Therefore, in such a situation, they could not help but look to the source of the fluctuations.

They saw a holy light glowing within Grant's palms.

"Grant! You dare to disobey the rules of the Church?" Dick seeing this, shouted, "If you use divine arts, you will be imprisoned for life!

Grant heard this and was surprised. What was he thinking of, his face was full of hesitation.

Dick was overjoyed, and he seemed to figure out something, and then said, "What are you trying to do for him? He is a loser! You do not have to help him build his own future. Moreover, I do not actually intend to kill him. I just need to humiliate him, returning him the favor! This has nothing to do with you!"

The power of hatred was far stronger than imagined, and could drive an emotionally out of control young man to utter such speech with clarity.

Grant was clearly convinced, the so-called bond of blood among relatives could not win over the harshness of reality. He seemed to also began to think that it was not a big deal if Benjamin was to be smashed with the chamber pot once. After all, Benjamin was still a child, and he did not have that much determination.

In the process of repeated hesitation, ultimately, he gradually lowered his head and disperse the bright light from his hands.

He backed off.

Yes, if in the face of death, being hit by a chamber pot seemed to be not really a big deal.

However...

At this time!

Benjamin who was quiet all this while suddenly charged at Dick, who was unprepared for ambush. Benjamin gave his flying feet a kick to the hand which Dick was holding the chamber pot with. The chamber pot was not light, and Dick had troubled balancing himself while holding the pot. So, the chamber pot flew away after getting kicked, hit the walls behind them, and spilling all over the place.

Benjamin who made a jumping kick also lost his balance, and was about to fall. However, he used the inertia of his body, very decisively sprang towards Dick, his hands grasping the hands of Dick holding the gun.

"Hand over the gun!" He cried fiercely.

Benjamin did not want to become a 'shitman', nor did he want to be shot in the head.

So he chose to gamble!

Dick could not react in time, and wanted to dodge. Panicking, the two fell to the ground, he and Benjamin wrestled. Benjamin desperately wanted to snatch Dick's gun, Dick was half angry and half instinctively trying to fight back. Unfortunately, Benjamin's physical capacity was not great. Despite his hard effort, he did not succeed.

The two refused to give in. The scene was extremely confusing.

"You two ... I …..." Grant had dispersed the divine arts that gathered in his hands, looking at the two tangled together, he wanted to stop them, but did not know how to start, so he hesitated, and could only let them continue.

Suddenly there was a gunshot.

Bang!

Their actions stopped at the same time.

Benjamin's face, suddenly showing pain. He pushed Dick away and stood up, and then clutching his stomach, he collapsed.

Dick also stood up in horror, watching Benjamin with a painful expression rolling on the ground. He froze, like handling a red hot iron, he threw the gun far away, helplessly watching beside Grant.

"I, I did not intend to shoot ... it was not, he rushed at me, I, I ...…

Grant was also frightened by the sudden turn of events, he looked at the Benjamin who was rolling in pain, but did not know what to do.

It was not long before the other "corpses" in the castle were alerted by the gunshot. They looked at the absurd and horrifying scene here, and could not help but be scared soulless.

Only a few aristocratic children were smart enough to shout, "Go get the patrol!" They ran out of the castle, to seek for help. Dick saw these people, exposing his will to want to stop them, but hesitated, and eventually did nothing.

He looked at Benjamin on the ground and looked at the gun that he threw away, revealing the expression of despair and regret.

The church patrols rushed to the scene, they took off their helmets, looked at everything here, and frowned.

"What happened?" Asked the knight, who was the leader.

"I, I really did not mean, he ... ... he himself charged at me, I had no other way ... ..." Dick hurriedly rushed to the foot of the patrol and explained nervously.

The leading knight frowned, and said: "You can talk later, Master Grant, can you explain what actually happened?

Dick was surprised for a moment, and turned around and looked at Grant who was behind, his eyes suddenly had more intense despair. He stood up, took a few steps back, and fell to the ground, as if he had his soul taken away, as if the whole life became only gray.

Grant also began to stumble and explain. He described everything. His explanation naturally sided with Benjamin and the liability was on Dick. Dick who was in despair, forgot to defend himself by exposing Grant's intention of using divine arts.

"Master Grant, please be rest assured that we will handle this matter." After listening to the words of Grant, the leading knight said so.

"Benjamin ... will he die?" Grant hesitated, then asked.

His expression was with filled with guilt. In the eyes of the knights, he was unable to prevent all this and felt guilty. The three people that were involved in the commotion were well aware that, he felt guilty, because he was timid, and chose not to intervene.

Perhaps in the adult world, this was nothing, and could even be the rational and correct to do. But for the hot-blood and naive juveniles, this was a betrayal.

Grant betrayed his own conviction.

"Do not worry, we'll heal him." The knight, who looked at Grant and smiled, promised so.

"May God bless you." Grant was silent for a moment, and said so.

He seemed to be relieved.

The whole thing was quickly settled. After listening to Grant's narrative, the patrol took Benjamin, Dick, and the gun in the distance away.

Nobody knew what consequences Dick would have to bear.

However, at this moment, Benjamin being the center of the whole commotion, was about to lose consciousness due to the pain. He could not worry about the commotion anymore. Dick, gunshot, patrol knights …

In his mind, there was only one name:

Michelle.

Screw you Michelle!

If Dick and Grant were vigilant enough, they would realize that Benjamin was not actually shot. Although he was clutching his stomach, but not a slight droplet of blood came out. Benjamin's appearance did not seem like he was shot, but more like he was suffering from an acute sickness, or demonic possession.

In a more proper explanation, Benjamin was actually bewitched.

The curse that Michelle planted in his body, finally ushered in its first attack.

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Chapter 29: An Encounter with An Old Friend

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

Once again, Benjamin dreamt.

Finally, this dream did not involve his boss. He dreamt of himself drowning in the deep blue sea, surrounded by a group of mermaids. The faces of the mermaids were the faces of the people he knew after he arrived in this world.

Their expressions were cold and a tad bit scary.

In a flash, these swimming mermaids all transformed into blue symbols, and they flew faster and faster around him. The vast sea also disappeared around him, and what surrounded him was darkness without end.

Benjamin tried hard to identify the symbols, but for some reason, he could never see the symbols clearly.

By his ears, a buzzing sound was heard.

He studied his surroundings. He suddenly had an epiphany: Was this not the space of his consciousness? He recalled the time when he unlocked the space, and a thought came to him as the slightly eerie sound continued buzzing by his ears.

He started chanting the Waterball Spell in the direction of the sound.

Nothing happened.

Benjamin found it odd. He pricked up his ears, and began swimming towards the buzzing sound.

The close he got, the louder the sound. He suddenly had a hunch that this noise might be able to tell him the secrets of the space, and let him possess a power without limits. He began swimming harder, and listened a 100 times more attentively than when he was at an English Listening Test.

The noise gradually became distinct. It sounded like a sentence.

Benjamin was thrilled. He was one step away from the answer!

Finally, like a sea creature that finally evolved to be able to inhale for the first time on land, or like the moment of contact between a bubble and the tip of a needle, the noise escaped from ambiguity and became coherent:

"Don't die, young master!"

Benjamin froze in his dreams.

Wait, what?

Suddenly, he inhaled abruptly and his eyes snapped open, as if he was hit by an immense force. He was awake.

"Young master…. Young master! You're…. You're finally awake?" Overjoyed shouts filled his ears.

"Just…. Just be quiet for a minute."

Benjamin was drowsy, and he felt a splitting headache when he sat upright. He stabilized himself by holding his forehead, and could only regain full consciousness after a few moments. He could finally muster up some energy to study his surroundings.

The surroundings…. The surroundings told him that he was back in his room in the Lithur Manor.

He was lying on his bed. When he saw this, he exhaled in relief and sprawled backwards in with a wham.

He was brought back by someone else.

Michelle's curse…. It was really fucking torturous. Thank God he fainted in pain at the last part, or else he would have experienced the agony of both childbirth and his nuts splitting.

From another perspective, he needed to be appreciative towards the spell, as its attack was right on time.

Remembering the farce happened in the castle, Benjamin was still traumatized - the feeling of having a gun pointed at him was not a pleasant feeling. If the spell did not attack when he was struggling with Dick, if Dick did not assume that his shot hit Benjamin, if that shot actually did hit Benjamin….

What happened would be even more unforeseeable.

This was just a teleportation, why was this so worrying?

"Young master, are you okay?"

Benjamin lifted his eyes as he heard that, and he saw Jeremy standing by the bed, cautiously studying him.

"...Alright now, stop fussing, I'm fine," Although he knew Jeremy was just doing his job, but he was still touched.

"I'll go and tell the madam and the others now," Jeremy smiled shyly before he turned and ran away. He was gone in a blink of an eye, Benjamin did not even had the chance to stop him.

He wanted to send Jeremy off to do an errand, though….

Forget it, he could not rush this matter anyways, he still had a headache to deal with! For now, he would put these problems at the back of his mind and get some well-needed rest.

Benjamin closed his eyes, relaxed his whole being and buried himself underneath the soft covers of his blanket.

However, he was unable to lie down for long.

"Long time no see, Sir Lithur. Are you satisfied with the tiny gift I sent you?"

A voice abruptly rung in his room.

Benjamin was jolted awake and snapped his eyes open. He sat upright on his bed and turned to look at the source of the voice.

"...Michelle."

A silhouette, clad in a cloak of Brunswick green, stood in the shadows in the corner of the room. Michelle's appearance was the same as before. She looked like a killer on stealth, and no one could see what was hidden under her cloak.

Benjamin inhaled.

His emotions was calmer than he imagined. He probably should be shocked at the ghostly behavior, but he was not. He just stared at Michelle like how a long lost friend would, unfamiliar to the point where they regard each other with hatred, but also familiar until the point of yearning.

Why did he not think of this? The spell just had an outbreak, it's after effects were still lingering in Benjamin. To Michelle, this was the perfect timing for her to show up, as the advantage in momentum would greatly increase her stakes in the negotiation.

On the matter of how she sneaked into his room, if she could place a letter under his pillow without detection, what else could she not do?

Benjamin felt his blanket turning cold.

He has a plan to immediately call for help. The Lithur family was around, and the knights from the church would not be far too. As soon as he opened his mouth, Michelle would most probably be forced to leave.

However, Benjamin was also aware that if Michelle dared to show up in this manner in his room, she probably would have the confidence to safely leave the room. If he could not succeed in one hit, a temporary retreat would have no meaning, and would maybe even anger Michelle.

Thus, he decided to see what Michelle was up to.

Benjamin felt safer when he felt the cross hanging from his neck. At least he still had a playing chip, no?

"Time is of essence, and I will cut to the chase," After a tense exchange of looks between them, Michelle finally broke the silence, "I do not have time to teach you magic. I will leave this Holy Bible to you, and you would find the answer you seek in it."

Then, she took out a booklet and threw it onto Benjamin's bed.

"Holy Bible?" Confused, Benjamin gawked at the book on his blanket, but did not touch it. He could not see what Michelle got up her sleeves.

"I know what you're thinking," Michelle replied, "It is different to the blasphemy that was distributed by the church. This is our Holy Bible, and inside it is true magic. If I'm not wrong, you learnt your magic by accident. I believe you'll need this."

Benjamin looked at the booklet once again. He contained his curiosity towards magic and said instead, "You wouldn't give me something without wanting anything in return, so what do you want?"

A fox paying a visit to the chicken will always have an ulterior motive. He wanted to know what hidden agenda Michelle has.

She took quite an effort to leave him a letter, telling him that she will be here in 10 days; she also wanted him to hand the letter to the church to lead them down the garden path. She would not come all the way to him just to give him a book, right?

"My goal is simple, you should've known since the start," Michelle did not waste her time talking much, "You can view this as an equal exchange, an exchange with the treasury for your life."

After he heard this, Benjamin was silent before he softly spoke, "Regardless if you believe me or not, I really don't know the way to open the treasury."

He confirmed this with the System long ago. There was no 'Method to Open the Treasury' in Benjamin's memories. Maybe Michelle's original target for the kidnapping, Grant, knew how to open the treasury, but unfortunately she got Benjamin, and Benjamin had no idea how to do it.

He had no intentions to continue the nonsense about opening the treasury with the bloodline of a Lithur. The situation now was different from before, and he was not afraid to be truthful with Michelle anymore. What could she do, kill him? Furthermore, he had a feeling that Michelle was already aware about this.

Naturally, Michelle was not surprised. .

"I know that, Sir Benjamin Lithur," Although she sounded calm, Benjamin could sense the displeasure in her voice. She was probably embarrassed to the point of anger at the fact that she kidnapped the wrong person. She continued, "But, you're still the young master of the Lithur family. Even if you don't know how to open the treasury now, you would already know that by the time I pay you a visit next time."

"How would I know it by then?"

"That is none of my concern," Michelle was obviously furious, and she decided to express that onto Benjamin, "I believe in your intellect, so please don't disappoint me."

Shit.

Benjamin could not help but lose his cool, too.

From the second he knew about the curse, he already expected something like this to happen. He had no choice as he has a weakness in someone else's hands. Michelle was also a hardheaded character, and she once again wanted others to be her slave.

Still, he wanted to try and get something more. Even information would be sufficient for him, as he would understand more about the situation.

"What's up with this Holy Bible? What exactly is it? Do you have anything similar…." Benjamin cut himself off, as if he has seen a ghost.

Michelle was gone.

There was a cupboard at the corner of the room, which blocked the light and casted a shadow. Within that shadow, Michelle, who was standing there with her cloak just seconds ago, disappeared without a trace. It was as if she was never here in the first place.

Fuck, she left?

Benjamin felt a chill down his spine. He suddenly felt that he might really have underestimated Michelle's abilities.

From matter to nothingness, he was unable to see the process, he did not even feel a slight ripple of magic. If she could only play tricks, she would never be able to do that. So that was why she could toy around with the church for such a long time even if they were much powerful than she was.

He felt a headache, literally and figuratively. Although he never wanted to admit this, but he really needed to ask about the treasury now.

Although Michelle's actions infuriated him, but when he saw the booklet that was thrown on his bed, his managed to contain his emotions.

….The Holy Bible - Mage Version?

He cradled it carefully in his hands. For a religious text, it looked too thin. It was pitifully thin no matter what edition of the Bible it was compared with. It looked more like a health and hygiene campaign brochure, if he was honest.

However, Benjamin felt that it was still a book worthy of high expectations. Michelle said so, no? In fact, Benjamin was already excited for it, and he could not contain his urge to read it.

Just as he wanted to flip it open….

"Young master, the madam and the others are fast asleep. I'll request their presence tomorrow."

Jeremy's voice rang at the door, and it startled Benjamin so much that he stuffed the book hastily under his blanket. He finally understood why Michelle said there was not enough time, and why she disappeared without a warning.

Jeremy, oh Jeremy…. Benjamin could not blame him either, Jeremy was just fulfilling his occupational obligations.

"Do you have any other orders, young master?" Devoted, Jeremy walked towards the bed as he asked.

"No. Go and rest, as I will also be resting now. Everything else could wait until tomorrow," Benjamin felt like a child watching the television without permission when his parents were away. His parents returned suddenly, and he could only turn off the television in a hurry while nervously prompting his parents to leave without being obvious that he was still preoccupied with the plot in the show.

He was going to learn new magic! Can't everyone just leave him alone?

"Alright, good night young master," Jeremy nodded and turned to leave.

"...Wait," Benjamin called out. Jeremy turned back to Benjamin and looked at him, puzzled.

"Uh, the matter that I sent you to do before, what became of it?" Benjamin remembered that moments ago, and could only suppress his agitated heart about the recovery of Annie's effects. It was also possible that nothing in Annie's effects was more valuable than this Holy Bible.

"Ah, right," Jeremy said when he was reminded about that incident, "I just remembered. You said that the carpenter would understand what you meant, but when I asked him, he said he had no idea."

"No, he would understand," Benjamin answered, a stoic expression on his face.

"He said he didn't know, though."

"No, you don't understand. Just go and tell him that he would understand."

"...Really? I still don't understand."

"Really, it's fine if you don't understand. Just go and find him, then tell him that he would know."

It would be a miracle if the carpenter understood, as Benjamin had no idea what he was saying either. He was this close to not knowing the word 'understand'.

Jeremy was clearly confused as he stood staring at the ceiling for a long moment. Then, he snapped back into reality and asked Benjamin in a slightly mortified tone, "Now?"

Benjamin nodded and looked at Jeremy affectionately, "Now."

Jeremy was stunned, but he did not complain about how late it was, or how far the route was. He just nodded dumbly and walked out of the room, dragging his heavy steps behind him. He felt empty.

Rumor has it that after that night, the carpenter at the East of the kingdom suddenly fell ill and closed his shop. He did not leave his room for a month, and everyone who saw him said that he suffered from a high fever and was mumbling in his sleep, "I don't understand…. I don't understand…."

Of course, that happened much later. At this moment, Benjamin sent Jeremy away in the night, made sure the doors and windows were locked properly, and no one would interrupt him again.

He withdrew the book from under the covers, held it the way an avid believer would with the actual Holy Bible, and took a deep breath.

At last.

He could finally learn magic outside of the Waterball Spell. What else could he say?

It's mealtime, let us pray.

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Chapter 30: Magic and the Divine Arts

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

"When this book has lost its value for you, please give it to someone in need of it. The truth must be preserved."

That was the first sentence Benjamin saw after he flipped open the cover page. As expected, the content after that was the mages' version on how the magic and the divine arts originated. It was another version of Cain and Abel's story.

In this story, there was no devil. There was only the God of Magic and the God of Light. They blessed two mortals each with the power of magic and divine arts. The antagonist in this story was the perilous environment and the mighty magical beasts. Cain and Abel cleared the wastelands and led the human race to build a place that they could call their home.

However, as stories go, good times will never be long. The brothers had a conflict over the sacrificial ceremony, where the God of Magic favored grains and vegetables, so Cain insisted that all sacrifices should be grains and vegetables. On the other hand, the God of Light preferred cows and lambs, so Abel wanted all sacrifices to be likewise. The followers of both parties had increasing clashes too. One day, the brothers finally broke apart, and they had a battle in a valley.

When the battle reached its climax, two beams of holy light descended from the sky. The God of Light and God of Magic made themselves known. They were saddened by the fratricidal behaviors of the humans, and thus killed Cain and Abel with the divine punishment. They declared that they would never step foot on this land ever again, which was why the land was called 'the Abandoned Land of Gods', the battlefield named 'The Abandoned Valley of Gods'.

Lost without their leader, Cain and Abel's followers fought with each other, fueled by their long-constrained resentment. Since then, the two factions went into a great war. Abel's followers were more skilled in winning over the support of the people. They built the church and expanded on the land; Cain's followers gradually became isolated, and was dismissive towards the practice of banding together. Hence, the church took the advantage and started a massacre of the mages. Finally, the land became what it is today.

After he finished the mages' story, Benjamin felt that this version was more objective than the church's version. It did not contain any discredits to the opposing faction too. However, the Rashomon effect dictated that as long as someone was involved in the story, his narrative will never be totally objective. Therefore, he finished the story with the spirit of investigation and query.

At this moment, his mind was no longer wandering in this mayhem of a legend.

This Bible was not thick, and it used up half of its pages to illustrate the story. Benjamin was slightly bothered by how little the sections on magic would be. Thankfully, Benjamin came across a multitude of spells as he read through the pages: Fireball Spell, the Water of Life, the Land Subsidence Spell…. Among them were the familiar Waterball Spell and the frustrating Binding Spell.

These spells were written phonetically using similar sounding words, and it was as easy as translating "good morning" into mandarin literally according to the pronunciations. If it was not for the detailed analysis of the pronunciations of the spell under the transcriptions, Benjamin would be very suspicious of the accuracy of the spells. Additionally, as Benjamin knew the incantations of the Waterball Spell and the Binding Spell, he inferred that he would be able to grasp the pronunciations of the other spells without making any mistakes.

The rest of the book was all used to introduce these spells one by one. There were more than 50 spells introduced, and the mess was apparent. Besides, according to the explanation of magic given by the book, these were all Beginner Level magic, easy to master but has no actual threat. Some could even be symbolized with chicken ribs - tasteless but a waste to throw away. Facewashing Spell? Face Moisturizing Spell? Did the person who invented these spells work for Watsons in their past lives?

Benjamin was quite disappointed.

He had hoped that the book would explain some magic theories to him, or maybe tell him the purpose of the space of his consciousness, or detail the elements, energy and the others. The result? This book only knew how to stuff spells down his throat.

He did not mean to say that spells are bad, but he had higher expectations.

He was slightly worried too. What if under the long period of suppression by the church, the standard of magic on all lands was only empirical? What if the mages only knew how to memorize and regurgitate spells, but did not manage to innovate an advanced methodology? What can he do then?

If that was really the case, he would be the bellwether in the field of magical theory...

After a brief period of disappointment, Mr. Bellwether decided to retain his spirit of academic pursuit. He went into the space of his consciousness, and started experimenting the 50 spells he just learnt.

He started with the spells that had no relations with 'water'. One by one he chanted: Fireball Spell, Numbing Spell, Latent Image Spell…. The results were the same. A repelling force was felt from the space, and sometimes even the wandering particles started to protest, as if they were saying, "The one you're chanting is my enemy! Shut up, or else I'll choke you to death!"

He was left with no choice but to pick a Water Barrier Spell, and chanted after confirming the pronunciations and focused all of his attention. A wave propagated from his body.

The surrounding water particles stirred and slowly had a tendency to gather. However, when the particles were halfway through the gathering process, Benjamin suddenly felt an immense pain in his brain as the energy wave dissipated and the water particles stopped gathering.

The spell failed.

Benjamin did not give up. He had a hunch that there was something going on with this spell. Therefore, he repeatedly summoned the water barrier, and he finally succeeded after more than 10 failures.

It was a steaming thin membrane that enveloped him like a bubble. He felt a refreshing feeling as if his heart and mind connected. He gazed at this barrier that looked so fragile, and could not help but poke at it with his finger.

The bubble popped as it burst.

Damn, it was really fragile….

That could not be helped either. This was the first time he had casted the spell, and it was very tiring due to its unfamiliarity. Benjamin could only comfort himself using this line of reason. Then, with the determination he had when he looped the spells before, he started practicing this spell again and again.

It was very exhausting for him to repeat an unfamiliar spell, especially after numerous failures. After another round of failures, he was once again ejected from the space of his consciousness.

The success rate for this spell was 5 out of uncountable trials. It was obvious that it would be impossible for him to deploy this spell in actual combat when the success rate was so low.

At first, Benjamin was dismayed. Despite all that, he managed to calm himself down thanks to his thirst for knowledge, which was instilled in him by modern education. He thought about the cause for the failures. The Waterball Spell was deployed for an infinite amount of times in his space, and the success rate was 100% with minimal drainage of energy. Although the Water Barrier Spell was slightly complicated than the Waterball Spell, it was impossible for it to be so arduous!

What was the problem?

When he compared the incantations for the Waterball Spell and the Water Barrier Spell, Benjamin finally found his answer.

Everything was due to the glittering blue symbol in the space of his consciousness.

When he was chanting the Waterball Spell, the symbol would vibrate and emit waves to guide these water particles. And when he was casting the Water Barrier Spell, the symbol was not involved in the process, and he could only rely on himself to give out a wave. Thus, his control over the water particles dropped drastically too.

Once he understood this, another bigger problem surfaced. Why did the symbol not react when he chanted the symbol? In other words, what should he do to let the symbol help him in casting spells aside from the Waterball Spell?

As he returned to the space, he tried the other spells that were related to water: the Water of Life, the Freezing Spell, Ice-Breaking Spell, the Misting Spell …. All of them had similar results with the Water Barrier. The triangular symbol was just like the door in the story of Alibaba, the Waterball Spell its 'Open Sesame'. Other than that, it would not bother reacting.

Now, he was at a loss on what he should do.

If he was honest, how could it be possible for him to understand the mechanisms of the symbol when he had no idea what the symbol even was? As the bellwether of the field in magical theory, his research was all on the process of magic. He still needed to investigate more in order to know how everything works.

Basically, he was a mere common folk. He knew that the hands of the clock relied on electric power to move, and that if the clock ran out of electric power, he would know how to change the batteries. However, if a gear broke within the clock, only a clockmaker would know the more detailed parts of a clock and thus be able to fix it.

Where could he find the 'clockmaker' for magic?

Benjamin sighed, feeling slightly dejected. He switched back to reality and flipped the Holy Bible in his hand to the last page. Aside from the story and the 50 spells, the last page on the book also had a sentence written on it.

''You are the 56th person to finish this book. Please pass this book to the next person who needs it, and pass the magic forwards.'

Not long after he flipped to this page, the numbers in the sentence shifted in a spooky way. It changed from '56' to '57'.

Benjamin was amazed for a moment, but once he confirmed that that was just a tiny magic trick that would not even have a magic ripple, he was composed again.

This line, however, did touch him a little.

Under the draconian raid and arrests done by the church, these mages took shelter in the darkness and strove for survival. However, never did they forget to pass the magic on to the next generation of mages. Because of that, they wrote and edited this simplistic Holy Bible to pass the message on, one mage at a time.

It finally landed in his hands.

No wonder Michelle did not mention about this book when she spoke about equal exchange. This book was not a gift she gave to Benjamin. Michelle was only fulfilling a promise, a promise that all 56 people already fulfilled.

Woot! Benjamin shrugged helplessly. What was with all this sense of purpose for one book? Were they really planning for a revolution? He could not even fend for himself!

He set his emotions aside and returned his attention onto the triangular symbol again. Or else, despite learning all these spells, he could only hug the Waterball Spell and tremble in the corner when he was under attack.

How did Michelle and the others learn magic? Was it as strenuous as he experienced?

Could he only wait for Michelle to appear again and ask her about this? That was too passive for his taste. No matter if he asked or not, the power would still lie in Michelle's hands, and he also had no patience to wait for that time.

Think! Do he have anything else that he did not use?

"I found it! I'm a genius! I'm the most genius and unrivalled super artificial intelligence system!"

Suddenly, the System that was silent for a long time jumped up and screamed madly in Benjamin's brain, and it shocked him so much he nearly threw the book in his hand.

"... Before you launch a sudden attack like this next time, could you please turn down the volume first?" Benjamin deadpanned before he continued, "Wait, just put yourself to mute, and I'll deliver a letter of appreciation to your supplier."

The tone of the System was proud, "Really now? I just had a groundbreaking research, though, are you sure that you don't want to know about it?"

"..."

Benjamin was too tired to make up a retort. In this day and age, even a System started doing its own research?

"Don't want to know it? Alright then, I won't say anything." The System was trying to be cool.

"Oh, please don't say anything. I'll thank your ancestors for that." Benjamin nearly cheered and applauded the System's decision.

The System was furious, "What the hell is wrong with you? Stick to the script! Nope, you'll still need to listen even if you don't want to! I spent so much time on this. Now, listen carefully," after it said that, he feigned coughing a few times to clear his throat.

What business a System has clearing its throat….

Benjamin wanted to spite the System, but before he could get the words out, the System continued saying, "Do you still remember the time Grant nearly used divine arts in the castle to save you?"

Benjamin could not do anything but nod and followed, "Yes I do. He did not use it, though. I wanted to see how divine arts looked like, to be honest, its posture looked strong."

The System then said, "Oh, there's no need for you to be curious. You've seen it before."

Benjamin's eyebrows raised to his hairline, "Did I? I never witnessed the divine arts after I teleported here. Anything before the teleportation cannot be taken into account."

The System did not answer immediately. Instead, he was happy being a tease, and only answered boastfully when Benjamin was seconds away from scolding it.

"Not only did you see it, you even used it yourself," the System dragged on, "According to my analysis, magic and divine arts are basically the same thing. Magic is divine arts, divine arts is magic, you don't even need to separate the two."

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Chapter 31: The Zone of Prayers and the Crest of Holy Light

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

Benjamin was stunned after he heard what the System said.

It was not that he was so shocked, but it was that the System's words stirred up a specific detail in his memory.

When Grant was preparing to use the divine arts to converge the holy light, Benjamin was distracted by the magical disturbance around him. The situation was too hectic for Benjamin to notice it then, but now that he thought about it...

That disturbance was too similar to the ripple he feels when magic is casted.

"According to the data I've collected and analysed, Grant's ripples from the divine arts are basically the same with your ripples when you casted the Waterball Spell. Both aim to move the scattered elements for manipulation," the System said. It did not forget to pick on Benjamin as it continued, "Of course, his ripples were at least 100 times stronger than yours, that's for sure."

Benjamin was already immune to the ridicule from the System. After all, if this discovery was true, it would mean the world to him. Thus, he asked the System again, "Are you sure?"

Annoyed, the System spat, "Of course! When have my research results been wrong?"

"…."

When he heard this answer, he felt less convinced.

After some thought, he decided it would be better if he tested this theory.

If the divine arts and magic are fundamentally the same, it would mean that he could learn both. On top of that, all the theories in divine arts could also be replicated and used in magic.

Undoubtedly, the divine arts were much more advanced than magic. He could borrow the theories of the divine arts and apply them on his magical training! That would be much better than him wallowing in frustration trying to learn it by himself.

At last, he saw a path before him again.

Of course, all of this could only be true if magic and divine arts were indeed the same. If the System's hypothesis was faulty, then all these thoughts would still be wasted.

After coming to this conclusion, Benjamin got out of bed and walked towards the door.

"Where are you going?" The System asked.

"To see Grant. He has learned divine arts for so long, surely he would have a lot of materials about the divine arts, I should get some to read," Benjamin replied.

Of course, he was not stupid enough to go and learn about the divine arts through the church, as that would be an unnecessary move that would bear no results. Grant was his brother by blood, and they even stayed under one roof, which made it very convenient.

He refused to delay this matter anymore. Anyway, he could not afford to do so. Since he already has a plan, he might as well just act on it now.

Under the guidance of the System, Benjamin arrived at the door of Grant's room.

On second thought, he decided that he should knock. If he sneaked into the room, what would happen if he was caught? He might as well just take them from Grant properly! Besides, Grant was a naive person, Benjamin would be able to get the items by giving some lame excuse, right?

Grant probably still felt guilty towards him after the castle incident.

No one opened the door.

Benjamin hesitated, but knocked again. Still, no one answered.

Benjamin raised his eyebrows. If that's the case, then no one can blame him for entering.

He held the doorknob and gently turned it. He felt a rush of delight when he found out that the door was unlocked, and he carefully twisted the knob and tried to open the door without making a sound.

Snores were heard from the room.

When Benjamin walked into the room, he saw Grant lying under thick covers on the bed. He was fast asleep like a dead pig. Benjamin wished that he could laugh out loud at the sight. God was indeed by his side!

He crept to the bedside and whispered, "Grant, Grant, are you asleep?"

A loud snore answered the question.

Benjamin immediately felt relaxed. He walked to Grant's table and flipped the stacks of books on top of it.

? Nah. ? That was too thick! ? God, get away from me! , what even is this? ? That's idiotic!

…. Wait, this is it!

Just as Benjamin joyfully took the book in his arms, a soft coughing sound came from behind.

Benjamin froze and his blood ran cold.

He turned around immediately, but there was no one there. Grant was still sound asleep on the bed, his face buried between his covers and pillows. His snores were continuous and he showed no signs of waking.

When Benjamin saw this, he did not feel relieved. Instead, he became more afraid.

Fuck, there was something supernatural going on here, where did the cough come from when there was no one here?

Grant obviously did not cough in his dreams, because when Benjamin heard the cough, Grant's snores were not interrupted - it was impossible for Grant to snore and cough simultaneously, right?

Shit, someone else was in this room!

Was it Michelle? Maybe she hid in the manor, and used some skills to hide her tracks? Or…. was it the church?

Each guess he made was more terrifying than the last.

Just as Benjamin was tortured with confusion and fear, he heard another cough - a soft, clearly repressed cough, from underneath Grant's blanket.

"..."

In a second, Benjamin finally understood. He was relieved. Here he was, wondering what it was! It scared the living lights out of him, when it was just…. Just….

Well, he really did underestimate his little brother.

Benjamin tried to reel in the despicable smile he had on his face as he walked over to the bed and whispered to Grant, "Grant, I couldn't sleep, so I'll borrow this book from you, alright?"

Grant's snores paused for a second before it returned to normal, as if he really was asleep and dead to the world.

Benjamin smirked and strolled out of Grant's bedroom. He was even considerate enough to close the door behind him.

"What happened? Why did you do that? Why did I not understand anything I just saw?" The System jumped out and asked dumbly.

"Ah, stop pretending. I saved almost 1TB of action movies in your hard drive, stop trying to look pure and innocent," Speechless, Benjamin retorted.

The System was quiet, then it emitted a mechanical sound that resembled a creepy and filthy snicker.

So, although there was a 'hiccup', Benjamin still got the things he wanted and went safely back into his room. He crawled back to his bed and tucked the Holy Bible - Mage Version away, then flipped open Divine Arts 101.

In contrast to the mages' brochure for revolution, the DIvine Arts 101 was meticulously edited. It was more systematic, and had an abundance of content. The introduction cut straight into the nature of the divine arts. Divine arts utilizes spiritual energy to communicate with the holy light scattered in the environment, and used god's power as a medium to cast unimaginable divine spells.

This was similar with Benjamin's understanding of magic - substitute 'holy light' with 'water particles', and 'god's power' to 'nature's power', and it would be exactly the same. This basically proved the System's reasoning of 'Divine Arts is Magic'.

Benjamin continued reading. The book listed out the qualities for a person to be able to learn divine arts. Benjamin could not help but recall that the System once told him that he was found through tests to have zero talents in the divine arts.

If divine arts was magic, why then would he have the talent to learn magic?

In the book, it was written that in order for a person to learn divine arts, the individual must possess these 2 qualities: strong spiritual energy and high affinity to the holy light. If the spiritual energy was weak, the divine arts will fail easily; if the affinity to the holy light was low, then it would be difficult for the individual to gather the holy light. Neither of the elements can be absent.

If he were to translate that to magic, it would probably mean the need for spiritual energy and affinity to the water element.

After he questioned the System, Benjamin found out that he was extremely weak in both qualities during the initial test. That was why he was judged to have no talent in the divine arts. However, magic needed spiritual energy too, and if he had low spiritual energy, how did he manage to learn magic in the first place?

"Hmm…. that was probably why you could not seem to learn these spells no matter how hard you try," the System suddenly said.

It did not take long for it to dawn on Benjamin. No wonder he could not seem to succeed in summoning the water barrier. His spiritual energy was weak! When it came to the affinity to water, if he compared himself to what was described in the book, he probably did not do good in that department too.

This result did not delight Benjamin whatsoever. This meant that Benjamin would never be able to learn magic like those who were gifted.

He glanced at the space of his consciousness and the symbol within. He understood now that it was useless for him to ask Michelle about magic. He could only make his own path, and fully explore this dark technology.

Thankfully, as Benjamin read on, Divine Arts 101 introduced a special scenario. In this case, even if the individual did not have a good spiritual energy and affinity, he/she could still learn the divine arts and could even achieve a very high standard.

In the book, this was called 'Unlocking the Zone of Prayer and Condensing the Crest of Holy Light'.

Benjamin's eyes widened. At last.

After he scanned the next few lines of the introduction, he was sure that the 'Zone of Prayer' was the space of his consciousness, and the 'Crest of Holy Light' was the magical emblem.

The book did not give much explanation about this. It only said that this method was extremely risky as it was easy to be attacked by evil forces and become paralysed when one was unlocking the Zone of Prayer. Besides, not many people actually knew how to unlock the Zone, and the ones who actually did it came to it by coincidence. Historically, only a few people were successful in this endeavour.

Benjamin recalled his experience, and had an urge to clarify that losing one's mind is not related to evil forces at all. It only meant that one was lost in some space in the consciousness and unable to escape.

However, after it talked about the cons of this method, it followed with the pros. The Zone of Prayer could store the floating holy lights. The release of the divine arts takes an extremely short time, some can even cast spells using only their minds. With the Crest of the Holy Light, the divine arts will be much stronger and easier to control than usual. Furthermore, if you have the Zone of Prayer, you do not need to train your spiritual energy the hard way. You would not even face a limit, you just need to strengthen the Crest within.

After all this, the book also stated that the 4th Pope used this method to train himself. He was also the Pope who completed the unification of the Kingdom of Helius, the 'Son of God' who truly led the church to its peak.

Benjamin would be lying if he were to say that he was not excited. This paragraph basically told him that the path he was on would lead him somewhere good. As long as he put in effort, he would be a great person in this generation.

Not only was he excited, he was grateful too.

After all, according to the book, only 1 in a million people was able to unlock the Space.

He really needed to thank the System. If it did not put the spell on loop, he would not be able to get into the space of his consciousness completely by accident, and he would also not be able to get out of the Space.

Benjamin had a lot of hope for his future now. He held the book and continued reading.

However, when he came to the training part of the chapter, his elated heart plummeted to the floor. It was as if a bucket of cold water was poured down his face.

On the book, it was written: A person can only condense a maximum of 3 Crests of Holy Lights. Each Crest represents a type of divine spell, which means that the people who use this method to train could only learn a maximum of 3 spells throughout their life. The failure rate would increase drastically if they casted other divine spells.

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Chapter 32: Skill Choices

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

Benjamin must admit that he was a fan of the skills faction.

Back in the original world when he played computer games, the most important factor to him was not the graphics nor the plotline but the skills. As long as there was a myriad of strange and imaginative skills, he would love that game. He was also not too interested in advancing to higher levels in the game. Everything he did was for the purpose of learning a new skill, and every time he succeeded in doing so, his sense of accomplishment would be off the charts.

Now….

How could it be that after finally teleporting into a world of magic, he was told that he could only have 3 skills? And one of it was wasted on the goddamned Waterball Spell?

"Clear this account, I want to delete it," he looked forlornly at the sky as if he was speaking to someone.

"You should also know that no one would reply you, and this would only show how immature you are," the System chided him.

Benjamin was quiet for a moment before he laughed at himself, "Who said no one was going to reply me, didn't you just do exactly that?"

The System seemed to not get the joke, "I'm not even a human."

Benjamin sighed. He stretched, cheered himself up, and once again picked up Divine Arts 101.

If it was really 3 skills, then so be it! He could not really delete this account and start over, right?

No matter how displeased he was, he needed to continue reading so he could learn how to master the two remaining skills. In this world, not everything can be as he wished, but he would never waste this great chance to test his abilities.

After all, the 4th Pope only used 3 skills to change the face of the church, right?

Benjamin believed that as long as it was used properly, water could also be a strong weapon.

Just like that, Benjamin accepted the fact that he could only learn 3 spells in his life. He used his optimism to once again lead himself into the calm state of learning, and he continued reading Divine Arts 101.

In the book, the last part of this paragraph revealed details on the method to enhance the Crest of Holy Light and condense new Crests. The enhancing procedures were similar to Benjamin's 'meditation', so he merely scanned through those pages. His priority laid with the sections on the method to condense new Crests.

The book mentioned that in order to condense the Crests of Holy Light, the individual will need to continuously accumulate and compress the stored Holy Lights in the Zone of Prayer. This process should be repeated until the light materializes, then the person would just need to chant the divine spell of his/her choosing at the materialized light. The second new Crest would then be formed.

If he changed this narrative to the perspective of magic, this was basically the accumulation and compression of water particles, right?

Hmm, it did not sound too difficult to execute.

After he read this part, he put down the book and started practicing without any delay.

He went into his Space, focused his attention to command the floating water particles to gather. This process was very similar with meditation, and the water particles in the Space did start moving under his command, albeit rather slowly.

Everything seemed to be proceeding smoothly without any hiccups.

However, Benjamin soon found a new problem: It was too slow!

Due to his low affinity with the water particles, the process was moving at the pace of a snail. For him to reach the level of materialization as described by the book, he did a calculation and estimated that he would need another year of ceaseless work.

Fuck, a year?

Although the year would only be approximately half a month in real life terms, it was still unacceptable.

Benjamin tried to stop directing the water particles. Immediately, the particles dispersed.

This thing does not function like the Xunlei Thunder Download Manager, where a few KB/s of download speed was acceptable because it would accumulate as long as you put it in the background. The download would probably take ten to fifteen days, but it would finish regardless. However, this requires Benjamin's full attention, as once he lost his focus, he could only start over.

How could he possibly be able to do this?

If he stayed in the Space for that long of a time, he would probably become a dry corpse in real life!

No, there must be another way to this.

After some contemplation, he suddenly had an idea. First, he casted a Waterball Spell in the space of his consciousness, and once the water ball was formed, he did not let it dissipate. Instead, he used it as a centre and guided the water particles to go towards the water ball.

This was his idea. If he could not keep the gathered water particles together, he could just produce something akin to a nucleus to reel the water particles in.

As the first water particle came into contact with the water ball, a soft 'ding' was heard somewhere within the space.

Benjamin once again found himself in the blue world, with countless symbols orbiting around him like a lively universe. This time, he stayed much longer in this world than he did last time, but it was still not long enough for him to take a clear look before he was once again back in the dark space of his consciousness.

He was stunned for a moment before he recovered.

"Did I succeed?"

He asked as he looked at the levitating water ball, his face brightened in surprise and delight as he realized what he was looking at.

The water ball was functioning like a magnet, slowly but steadily attracting the water particles around it. He did not deliberately guide the water particles when he was stunned, and yet the water particles still voluntarily gathered towards the water ball like ants going back to their nests.

The problem that haunted him just moments before was solved.

This was not a water ball, this was literally the floating window for Xunlei Thunder Download Manager!

Benjamin was as delighted as a man who found a treasure.

Now, he only needed to wait for the signal to notify him that the download was complete, which

coincidentally sounded almost similar to Xunlei's notification - a 'ding'.

The process of condensing a magical emblem was way simpler than he ever expected, as if Fate empathised with his 3-spell-limit and decided to compensate in other aspects.

To be honest, he preferred to have more skills than receiving compensations like this.

Speaking of skills, it was time for him to seriously choose the 2 remaining spells that he wanted to learn.

According to the book, the divine art that was solidified by the Crest of Holy Light could be bolstered without limits in terms of power and controllability. In other words, there was not much difference in learning beginner-level spells or master-level spells. The worst was just that it sounded uncool.

Additionally, Benjamin had to learn new spells as fast as possible as he was in a hurry to improve his abilities. Thus, he could only choose from the existing beginner-level spells he had around him.

Initially, he wanted to learn the Water Barrier Spell to possess some level of defense, since he could increase his attack powers by strengthening the Waterball Spell. He would leave the last skill for a suitable spell that he may encounter in the future.

However, he changed his mind when he saw the water ball that was gathering the water particles around it.

This water ball was not an average water ball.

Benjamin realised the 'no limits' that was written in the book had a deeper meaning. It was not only about enhancing the spell to the point where one water ball could flood the city; instead, it was to give the water ball unlimited possibilities.

The water ball could do whatever the water barrier could do. After all, a hollowed water ball would become a bubble, and if there was enough compressed water particles in the bubble, its defense powers can't be too bad.

The same applies to the Water of Life. As long as he formed the water ball with a specific molecular structure, it could become a water ball with healing effects.

All in all, not only could he increase damage and decrease cooling time for the spell, he could also attribute qualities of defense, healing, and control that are effective in combat to the water ball as long as he strengthened the symbols and improved his Waterball skills.

If he were to think strategically, having 3 spells would be excessive now as the Waterball Spell could cover almost all of the different scenarios in battle. The Waterball is great, the Waterball is almighty; what use would a Water Barrier Spell be?

Suddenly, he felt that the 3 spells may be a hint for him.

He needed to do another experiment.

He summoned another water ball by chanting the spell, but this time he attempted to control the water ball to change its state. The water ball compressed, expanded, and became a bubble like a barrier, turned into a bird and a fish…. The water ball transformed in his hand, and Benjamin enjoyed playing with it.

He realised how amazing of a spell Waterball Spell was.

However, he did not do this just for games.

He was trying to find the limits of the water ball, and find out what the water ball could not do. Then, he would use the other 2 spells to compensate the flaws.

After messing with the water ball for approximately 30 minutes, Benjamin finally halted and dispersed the water ball.

Through this experiment, he could finally confirm his hypothesis: The Waterball was all-powerful. He could change anything - shapes, durability, volume, density, or even its properties as long as Benjamin has a strong enough magical symbol to back him up.

He could transform the water ball into all that, aside from one thing - to change the water ball to become not a water ball.

Essentially, it could not turn into ice or steam.

This finding sent Benjamin back in time to his Physics classes during Junior High. The teacher gave him a quiz with a question: What are the 3 states of water? When the other kids were scratching their heads, Benjamin wrote down confidently, 'Solid, Liquid, Gas'.

Fate works in mysterious ways, and he found it hard to believe that this memory would come back to him in this way.

How should he choose his 3 spells?

He did this question before. This was a bonus question for him.

He quickly found 2 suitable spells among the 50 in the Holy Bible: the Ice-breaking Spell and the Pillar of Steam. According to the introduction, the Ice-breaking Spell attacks via shards of ice, while the Pillar of Steam would injure the enemies by summoning hot steam.

The Holy Bible defined them as attack spells, which is in the same category with the Waterball Spell. However, in Benjamin's eyes, they were given unlimited possibilities.

Benjamin also had a gut feeling that once these 3 magical emblems were successfully materialized, they would result in new combinations due to interactions with each other.

The 3 states of 'water' combined sounded very impressive.

Benjamin's confidence rose after he decided on the spells he wanted. He felt that he made the correct choices, and that something has secretly changed after he made this decision.

If there was really a wheel of fortune, it must have had a new parameter just minutes ago.

This world will change, and that would be all due to him.

Benjamin suddenly shook his head and chuckled at himself, emerging from the cloud of optimism and purpose.

He really had an active imagination. What he should do now was to focus on solving the problems laid in front of him.

He looked at the 'floating window of Xunlei', and decided that the 'download speed' was still too slow. Thus, he joined in the ranks of gathering water particles, and used his probably very low affinity to water to quicken the process of condensing the magical emblem.

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