Land of Wizards-Greenriel

Lynn was taken aback by the sudden question.

As several figures gradually approached, Lynn recognized the leader at a glance. It was Joanne, the person he had been searching for.

The young woman wrapped in a black robe looked to be around twenty. She had a distinctive head of silver-gray hair, and her eyes were a bright, vivid sapphire blue.

Perhaps because she had spent all her time fleeing and hiding, Joanne was far thinner than when they had last met, her face carrying a sickly pallor.

"I don't understand what you mean, Joanne!" Lynn's tone was utterly firm, without the slightest wavering. With all of Carl's memories, he was certain Carl had never committed any act of betrayal.

At most, Carl had only thought about it. Otherwise, there would have been no need for him to hide in the Slums in constant fear.

"Where is your sword?" the gray-haired Witch continued to demand.

Only then did Lynn notice that Joanne's gaze had been fixed on the longsword in his hand. After a moment's thought, he instantly understood where the problem lay.

"That's the weapon commonly used by Witch Hunters!" Buck, the tall and burly Wizard Apprentice beside her, said excitedly.

"Of course. It's my trophy. Is there a problem with that, Buck?" Lynn replied calmly, though cold sweat streamed down his back.

He had been carrying a ticking bomb around all this time!

Of course, it was not entirely his fault for being insufficiently cautious. His personal shortsword had been left behind in the house in the Slums, and with a ready weapon right in front of him, he could hardly just throw it away.

More importantly, Carl's memories contained no information that Witch Hunters were equipped with standardized weapons.

Since he had encountered no trouble over the past few days, very few people likely knew this fact. But it clearly could not be hidden from Old Hawke at the Drunkard tavern.

No wonder the man had kept making excuses and probing him when he bought Guro Wine. Old Hawke must have passed on the information that he possessed a Witch Hunter's longsword to Joanne and the others.

"A trophy?! You mean you killed a Witch Hunter and took his sword?" Buck sneered. "Carl, if I remember correctly, you can't even master the most basic first-circle spell, Blade of Ice... You might as well come up with a more convincing excuse."

As the Church's hounds, those chosen as Witch Hunters were all elite among elites. Their combat ability far surpassed that of ordinary people, and they usually operated in small groups. Even Official Wizards found them extremely troublesome.

For apprentices like them, escaping with their lives was already a blessing.

"Sometimes strength doesn't represent everything, Buck!" Lynn shook his head. "Besides, our last meeting was four months ago, wasn't it?"

As he spoke, Lynn extended a hand. Hydrogen and oxygen were stripped from the surrounding air, then rapidly cooled and condensed into form.

Almost instantly, a diamond-shaped ice blade appeared before everyone's eyes. Its shape was strange, yet it possessed an unusual beauty.

The Wizard Apprentices present could not help but freeze. It was not the unprecedented shape of the ice blade that surprised them, but Lynn's casting speed!

Before becoming an Official Wizard, one could not inscribe the corresponding Spell Slots into one's mind. Thus, quickly completing the complex casting process and increasing casting speed became a major challenge.

After all, in an actual battle, enemies would not foolishly wait for one to finish casting. An ordinary Wizard Apprentice who could complete the preparations in two seconds was already considered competent.

Yet Lynn had compressed the entire process to about one second. Perhaps in pursuit of pure speed, the ice blade was not a perfect Coru Configuration, but it was already enough to make everyone present look at him differently.

"Besides, I don't believe the Church would allow a wizard to become a Witch Hunter and issue him the corresponding weapon..." Lynn refuted them again before they could recover.

Buck was completely speechless. The Church had always adopted a policy of killing rather than sparing wizards. Allowing a wizard "corrupted by demons" to become a Witch Hunter was simply blasphemy against God...

The other Wizard Apprentices clearly understood this as well, and their hostility toward Lynn lessened somewhat.

Joanne did not lower her guard. Instead, she looked toward one of them and asked, "Have you checked the surrounding area, White Dove?"

"No one has surrounded this place..." The person speaking shrank deeper into her black robe and answered timidly.

Only after receiving a definite answer did Joanne turn around and apologize to Lynn. "I'm sorry, Carl. The situation is urgent, so we had to be cautious."

"So you merely suspected me, and without any concrete proof, you were prepared to kill me?" Lynn demanded.

"I assure you, that spell just now was only a test. No one wants to hurt one of their own companions!" Joanne explained solemnly.

Lynn stared into the girl's blue eyes and saw no evasion or lies within them. Yet when he had been attacked earlier, he had truly felt danger.

However, considering that he had not entirely cleared himself of suspicion and that his senses were not completely reliable, Lynn did not reveal this information in public.

Compared to the other apprentices, he had followed Coru for the shortest time and was also the least trustworthy.

After a pause, Lynn temporarily suppressed his displeasure and asked again, "Did something happen? I need an explanation..."

"Come with me first. This isn't a place to talk. The fight just now may have exposed our trail!" Joanne gave Lynn an apologetic look, then called everyone to return to their base under the cover of night.

When the full moon hung high overhead, a desolate and ruined village appeared before Lynn.

"This village was slaughtered and destroyed by a group of mercenaries who infiltrated during Duke Nordland's last war of conquest. Apart from us, only wild animals remain here now." Joanne sighed, then muttered softly, "Damn nobles, damn Church, damn war!"

Lynn looked at Joanne with slight surprise. He was not surprised by her words, but everyone present was probably of noble birth. Was it really appropriate for her to say that?

Though she held an inexplicable resentment toward nobles, Joanne had still chosen a noble estate as their temporary base.

After being ravaged by war, the vast estate had long lost its former splendor. The entire manor house looked as though it might collapse at any moment, with ruins and broken walls everywhere.

The interior was no better. Cobwebs covered the crumbling walls, overturned chairs were thick with dust, and the air was filled with the smell of decay.

Still, this had once been a noble residence. To withstand war, the enormous manor was practically a small castle, with several guard posts and even an independent drainage channel. At the very least, they would not need to worry about drinking water here.

After entering the estate, Lynn quickly spotted Barton, the Wizard Apprentice left behind in the castle.

Compared to his muscular older brother Buck, Barton was almost the complete opposite. He could only be described as skin and bones, as if a gust of wind could knock him over.

Joanne and the others carried debris to the entrance and sealed the main doors again. Then, before Lynn could ask anything, she took the initiative to speak.

"Kent is dead!"

Who was Kent?

Lynn paused, then searched through his memories before recalling that Kent was Coru's third disciple and the only Wizard Apprentice absent from the group. He had not expected the man to already be dead.

"On the same day our teacher was captured by the Church, Nordland Territory's guards raided Kent's hiding place. After that, Buck, Barton, and Will were also hunted down. Only White Dove escaped the attack beforehand because her ability is special," Joanne explained.

A special ability?

Lynn instinctively looked at the Wizard Apprentice called White Dove.

She looked almost too young, perhaps only thirteen or fourteen. She was not even as tall as his shoulder, with sparse freckles dotting her sallow face and messy hair. She was crouched alone in the corner, feeding several gray crows.

After a moment's thought, Lynn quickly connected her to the cawing he had heard in the tavern and guessed that she possessed some sort of magic capable of controlling animals.

"I suspect someone betrayed our information. That's the only reason the Church could locate our hiding places so precisely," Joanne said worriedly.

"Then exactly how many people knew where our hiding places were?" Lynn asked the most crucial question.

As wizards hunted and suppressed by the Church, they would never casually reveal their whereabouts. In other words, there had to be very few people who knew. All they had to do was eliminate possibilities.

Joanne fell silent for a moment, then shook her head. "Normally, only the few of us should know."

"Could it have been our teacher..." Buck asked hesitantly.

"Absolutely impossible!" Joanne's gaze sharpened as she rebuked him decisively.

Buck immediately shut his mouth.

Lynn did not dwell too much on that question. Instead, he asked the second thing he cared about most.

"What is our plan from here?"

Lynn was beginning to regret seeking out these Wizard Apprentices. He had assumed that although Joanne and the others were being pursued, they at least had internal stability. Even if they could not help him find another Official Wizard, they could still be useful allies.

But now, that did not seem to be the case.

If Joanne did not have a sufficiently reliable plan to escape the Church's pursuit, he would only look for an opportunity to leave this group.

For Lynn, acting alone was far safer than following a pack of incompetent teammates.

Buck and Will both turned to look at Joanne. Even White Dove stopped feeding the gray crows.

During the period when they had faced the Church's pursuit, they had asked the same question more than once. Yet Joanne had always brushed them off, insisting that she would only reveal the plan once everyone had gathered.

This time, Joanne did not hide anything and answered naturally, "We will cross the Sea of Mists by ship and head to the Land of Wizards—Greenriel!"

"Does the Land of Wizards really exist?" Will, who had remained silent until now, suddenly asked. "But I heard that beyond the Sea of Mists lies a land of death. Those who sail out there never return."

"It does. I once went there with my mentor. It is a place that belongs solely to wizards. There is no Church influence, no Witch Hunters, and everyone can freely study magic there!" Joanne said firmly.

"That sounds as wonderful as Ella's Holy Land," Barton murmured. He simply could not imagine a world where wizards were not hunted and could cast spells freely. It could only be described as dreamlike.

It was like the Holy Land of Ella described in the Bible, a place only the most devout believers could reach after death.

There was no illness or aging there. Everyone lived in spacious estates and enjoyed the meticulous care of Dream Spirits.

In the Holy Land, rich wine flowed in the rivers, wheat fields produced full ears of grain without needing to be cultivated, and every branch on every tree hung with plump, juicy steaks...

"Ella doesn't like wizards..."

White Dove, crouched in the corner, said weakly, interrupting Barton's fantasy.

"Then how do we get there?" Will pressed eagerly.

Joanne hesitated, but ultimately answered truthfully. "Ur Town is close to the harbor of Nordland Territory. We can board a ship there. I think... Lame Laud should help us."

Laud?

Lynn could not help being surprised. Old Hawke, the owner of the Drunkard tavern, had mentioned that name to him before.

Rumor had it that Lame Laud had been a pirate for several years in his youth and had made quite a name for himself. Then, during one raid on a merchant ship, someone broke his leg, and he only escaped by playing dead.

Yet that very experience changed Laud's fortunes. After that great battle, nearly all the pirate gang's leaders had died. Laud, who survived by luck, became the pirate chief without much difficulty.

However, he had gone against expectations. Rather than continue raiding, he had turned to legitimate business. Now, he controlled the liquor trade in Ur Town and its harbor, making him the largest local power west of Nordland Territory.

Thinking of the various rumors circulating among the common folk, Lynn immediately realized that the so-called liquor trade was merely a disguise. Laud's real business was likely maintaining contact between the Land of Wizards and the outside world.

"In any case, we must hurry. Only on Moon Day will the route to the Land of Wizards briefly open." Joanne briskly drew the longsword at her waist, roughly marked the locations of Ur Town and the harbor on the ground, and used sword marks to trace their route.

"We leave at dawn tomorrow. We'll detour around Mount Kordso, which shouldn't attract attention. According to the stars, this year's Moon Day will last five days. We have plenty of time!"

Joanne explained the broad plan. Once she saw that Lynn and the others had memorized it, she cast a fireball and destroyed the map completely.

"That's enough for tonight!" In the rising firelight, Joanne looked around at everyone before adding, "White Dove, you'll take the night watch. Tomorrow, Carl will carry you on the road."

Why me?

Lynn, whose name had been called, rubbed his nose in deep frustration. So they really were picking on the newcomer, huh?

(PS: I really couldn't find a suitable place to end the chapter, so I released two chapters together today.)

Thanks to readers 20180222162706940, Miaoshi Huiyi, dsf23dd, and You Zhen Jimo for the 100 Qidian Coin rewards.