New Discoveries

An awkward atmosphere began to spread, and Aaron stared up at the sky speechlessly.

Another troublesome remnant of the original owner's history.

You're talking about Aaron again. What does any of this have to do with me, Qin Ming?

Although Alice had known about this for a long time, she still couldn't help glaring at Aaron.

When she had first arrived in Leyden City, she had assumed she would soon find Aaron and the Albert Family.

After all, no matter how badly a family had fallen, surely it would still have an estate, right?

Who could have guessed that Aaron would actually dare to sell his home?

To make matters worse, Tien, the only prophet in Leyden City, had died, cutting off the last way of locating him.

Without an address or a portrait, finding someone in the vast Leyden City meant doing nothing but leaving it to luck.

"But all that is in the past now." Degas patted Aaron on the shoulder. "At least the you of today is very different from the you back then."

"Have we met?"

"I've only seen you before. From a distance, just once. It seems the Goddess of Fate really is everywhere."

Degas glanced meaningfully at Bals, then casually took out a parchment scroll and handed it to Aaron.

Aaron accepted it instinctively and quickly skimmed through it by the light of the magic crystal overhead.

Magic runes flickered faintly across the parchment, forming an otherworldly supernatural version of a counterfeit-prevention mark.

It was the deed to the Albert Family's estate. It had now been returned to its rightful owner.

Alice discreetly pinched Aaron's arm. He understood at once and hurriedly said, "Thank you, Mr. Degas. Oh, no—Uncle Degas."

Degas nodded in satisfaction and patted his shoulder once more. "The doors of the Iris Merchant Guild will always be open to you. I still have some matters to discuss with you..."

He deliberately drawled out the last word, and the amusement in his eyes grew even stronger. "It's about your wedding with little Aili."

Aaron could clearly feel Alice's relaxed muscles stiffen again.

He turned his head toward Alice, only to find that she had, unusually, not contradicted Degas. Instead, she had lowered her head, making it impossible to see her expression.

"All right, all right, we'll discuss it in detail later. If we keep delaying, Lord Bals may blame me." Degas winked at Aaron, then continued, "I'll go downstairs and look around, and chat with some old friends. Oh, right—this is Garcia."

He pointed at the blue-haired young man leaning against the wall not far away. "He's from the Northern Kingdom. He's a fine young man. Perhaps you two can get acquainted."

Aaron instinctively looked over and saw the blue-haired young man swaying his wineglass before nodding to them in greeting.

"Uncle, I told you, I don't need protection." Alice frowned as she sized up Garcia.

"Little Aili, perhaps you don't need it, but Mr. Aaron will," Degas said with a dry cough before changing the subject. "Lord Bals, I heard something happened to little Aili in the sewers earlier?"

He continued smiling at Bals, his tone relaxed and casual, as if reminiscing about the past—yet also as if making an inquiry.

"This is the City Lord's residence, Guildmaster Degas."

After nodding to Alice and Aaron once more, Degas finally turned and left.

The blue-haired young man named Garcia continued standing silently in the distance, but his gaze had begun sizing up Aaron's group. The wineglass in his hand had already been casually set aside.

"I wonder why Lord Bals wanted to see us again?" As soon as Degas left, Alice's attitude turned cold.

It hadn't been long since that battle in the sewers, and she still remembered Tog's words clearly.

Regardless of whether he had been lying, Tien's death absolutely had something to do with Bals.

"First, I wanted to express my apologies." Bals seemed not to notice the coldness on Alice's face. "After all, I'm sorry about that incident."

Alice's tone softened slightly, and she was about to speak when Aaron suddenly said, "Perhaps it's because we're still alive that we're able to hear this apology from you?"

The remark struck far too hard. For a moment, even Bals could barely keep his expression composed. "Sir Aaron, what do you mean by that?"

"I happened to hear Sart mention later that you participated in designing Leyden City's sewers, Lord Bals. Is that true?"

"Of course. But that was a long time ago."

"I also heard that you didn't arrive at the scene until after Tog died?"

Aaron looked at Alice. She hesitated for a moment, then slowly nodded.

Bals's tone shifted subtly. "Sir Aaron, perhaps you've noticed that Tog and the Crawling Hand you fought were both ordinary Crawling Hands. The Crawling Hands with supernatural powers were all dealing with me."

As he spoke, he casually pulled out several Heretical Cult cards in different colors. There were black iron, bronze, and even silver cards, each depicting a severed hand of a different shape.

"The card Tien had hasn't been completely corrupted yet, but these Crawling Hands were quite troublesome."

Aaron froze. His eyes narrowed slightly as they swept back and forth over the scattered cards, but he couldn't help sighing inwardly.

The system had not displayed a prompt. That meant these cards couldn't be converted into Knowledge Points either.

Of course, that hadn't been his purpose.

"Then why don't we go back?"

Aaron looked at Bals with a half-smile. "What do you say, Lord Bals? Why don't we go back and take another look?"

Alice furrowed her brows slightly and glanced at Aaron in puzzlement, unable to understand what he and Lord Bals were talking about.

Bals coughed. "A Heretical Cult incident occurred there, so the area has been sealed off for now. I can't allow the Heretical Cult Aura to leak out."

"Exactly." Aaron nodded in agreement, a sharp light flickering in his eyes. He casually tossed out, "So why not have Sart and Siosand deal with it?"

The Gold Coin Path, Sword Affinity, Holy Grail Path, and even Scepter Affinity—all professions had ways to clear away Heretical Cult Aura. However, only the Gold Coin Path, or rather, Gold Coin Path supernatural beings from the Star Tower, could completely contain Heretical Cult Aura.

In Leyden City, there were no more suitable candidates than Sart and Siosand. Yet for the past few days, the two of them had practically stayed in their room without going out!

The arrogant Siosand had let this slip unintentionally, complaining that Lord Bals looked down on people from the Star Tower. He had also blamed Sart in passing, believing that Sart had absolutely lowered the City Lord's opinion of the Star Tower.

"I'll bet you came here on foot, Lord Bals, instead of taking the fastest and simplest route by blasting through the passage."

Aaron kept smiling as he spoke, but his nerves were taut. He was ready for Bals to erupt at any moment. Even Dream Speech: Linguistic Distortion was already on standby.

"So, Lord Bals, what could possibly be more important than rescuing the two apprentices of the direct heir of the Yagrant Kingdom and the master of the Star Tower?"

Also, I imagine everyone can probably feel that this stage of the story is nearing its end...

I have no idea how the story I've spent nearly a hundred thousand words laying out will ultimately come together.

Maybe it'll be amazing, or maybe it'll be complete crap...

But either way, thank you so much to everyone who has made it this far~

I also made some adjustments based on reader feedback in the review section. The pace afterward may speed up just a tiny bit...

(Don't expect me to speed it up by much...)