Exile to Odyssey

Medivh took the curriculum and read through it. The old man really had not slacked off; this was all there was to teach a Necromancer Apprentice.

It was already good enough that anyone still taught this mage class, which was on the verge of being struck from the rolls.

After the Necrotic Scourge, the persecuted Necromancers had lost nearly all of their inheritance over the past thousand years.

"Remember what you sensed when you cast your spell just now. Even a pure corpse will be affected by the light in places covered by it."

"Necromancy is a dead end. You're still young; you can switch to the path of a knight."

Perhaps because he had made an unexpected profit, the old man was in a good mood and offered Medivh a kind reminder.

Even this old mage who taught necromancy was preparing to resign and seek another way out. That showed just how undesirable the profession of Necromancer had become.

After offering his kind advice, the old man took Medivh to complete his graduation procedures and submitted his own resignation letter as well.

With things having come to this, Medivh had nothing to say. He packed up and left without delay.

"Well, if it isn't our mage prodigy! Guess what? Medivh is a Necromancer!"

The moment Medivh entered Hobarton Manor, a group of young men and women blocked his path and mocked him.

They had thought Medivh was finally rising again, only for him to become a Necromancer Apprentice. It had all been a false alarm. What a joke!

Medivh looked coldly at those cousins. He had never felt much attachment to the Hobarton Family. After his parents died, all he wanted was to leave the family as soon as possible.

"Young Master Medivh, Lord Wester wishes to see you!"

Before the young men and women could mock him any further, a guard stepped forward to deliver the message.

Wester had once been a rival suppressed by Medivh's father. After his father died in battle, Wester had become a strong contender for the title of Earl Hobarton.

"Medivh, now that you are a noble mage, you should have a surname of your own."

"Thanks to our efforts, the Noble Council of Loran City has approved it. You are now an honored Pioneer of Odyssey!"

Wester was a well-known smiling tiger. He made expelling Medivh from the family and exiling him to the Odyssey Region sound downright refined.

"You may return and pack up. The letter of appointment will be delivered shortly."

Wester maintained his smile. That thorn in his side would soon be pulled out.

Medivh said nothing. Any words would only make him look like a clown and delight his enemies even more.

He held no affection for the Hobarton Family. Leaving the family now suited him perfectly.

The Odyssey Region was extremely dangerous, but Medivh was not without trump cards. He was confident he could overcome the difficulties ahead.

Watching Medivh leave without a word, Wester's gaze darkened. Who knew what else he was plotting?

"Medivh, I know you're home. Open the door!"

While Medivh was in the courtyard checking for anything that had not yet been loaded onto the carriage, the gate was pounded on violently.

From the noisy voices outside, he could tell there were quite a few people gathered beyond the courtyard.

He opened the gate with a cold expression. The moment he saw members of the Newint Family and their sneering faces, he knew why they had come.

Not long after Medivh was born, his father had arranged a childhood betrothal with the Newint Family, which had close ties with the Hobarton Family.

After his father died in battle, the Newint Family had not called off the engagement.

Medivh possessed mage talent. As long as his talent was not too poor, the engagement could be honored.

Once Medivh became a Necromancer Apprentice, everything was settled. He no longer had any value.

With the Hobarton Family effectively exiling him, the Newint Family had come to break off the engagement.

"I agree."

Before anyone from the Newint Family could speak, Medivh took the engagement contract and tore it apart in front of them.

He did not care about this engagement at all. He had long wanted to end this childhood betrothal that had been arranged without his consent.

"This guy's got some backbone!"

Medivh's decisive dissolution of the engagement surprised those who had wanted to see him make a miserable spectacle of himself after being cast aside.

"He's just putting on a brave face!"

Surprised or not, they still had to laugh at him.

A child raised with a golden spoon falling this low was exactly the sort of thing onlookers loved to see.

"Medivh, the road ahead isn't exactly peaceful. Aren't you taking a guard or something?"

Amid the commotion, Wester arrived at Medivh's courtyard with a clerk from the Noble Council of Loran City to issue his letter of appointment.

As Medivh accepted the appointment letter, Wester lifted the carriage curtain and glanced inside.

Seeing that Medivh had brought only daily necessities, Wester wore a concerned smile, like a kind uncle worried about his nephew's long journey.

"No need."

Medivh ignored Wester's false smile and replied coolly.

He would not dare accept any guards arranged by Wester.

He had no interest in exchanging empty pleasantries with the old fox. Once he had received the appointment letter and confirmed that he had packed everything he needed, he cracked the whip and left Hobarton Manor.

"That boy, is he really so eager to strike out on his own? I hope this trial will help him pull himself together..."

"And that girl actually followed him..."

As the carriage left Hobarton Manor, an armored, burly man muttered to himself in a loft somewhere.

"That brat is still the same. He wants nothing, only to run away from home!"

Another burly man blew out his beard and glared, deeply dissatisfied with Medivh's distant attitude toward the family.

"Ah, let him make his own way..."

The muttering man sighed.

The Odyssey Region lay beyond the borders of the Gewalt Federation, and the journey was a long one.

However, as a Pioneer, he did not need to travel there on foot. He could use a spatial gate to reach Zaun, a border city of the Federation.

After the routine inspection, Medivh drove his carriage through the spatial gate with the main group.

"Move it! Everyone, get out of there!"

After a wave of dizziness, loud shouts rang out.

The soldiers responsible for maintaining the spatial gate urged the people on the transfer platform to leave so they would not obstruct traffic.

After following the crowd off the transfer platform, Medivh did not linger in Zaun City. Once he obtained his travel documents, he left the city.

Heading west from the city, it would take roughly five days by carriage to reach Winter Fortress, the last fortress in the borderlands.

Beyond Winter Fortress lay the Odyssey Region.

It had once been Federation territory, but a brutal war three hundred years ago had turned it into scorched earth, and the Gewalt Federation had abandoned the Odyssey Region.

After driving hard for a day and a half, Medivh stopped on a grassy patch by the road to rest the horses and eat as usual.

"Coo, coo, coo!"

As he sat on the carriage shaft eating dried provisions, he suddenly heard a strange cooing sound coming from the carriage compartment.

Medivh's gaze turned icy. Gripping his short sword in his right hand, he silently approached the source of the sound.

"Miss Audrey, why are you in my carriage?"

Lifting the lid of the storage chest, Medivh discovered that the sound had come from someone who greatly surprised him.

Audrey was the young lady of the Newint Family to whom he had been betrothed as a child.

"Hey, kid, you've got a nice carriage. If you know what's good for you, get lost. I don't feel like shedding blood today!"

Before Audrey could answer, a group of thugs sprang out of the woods, intending to rob them.

"Damned little thieves! How dare you act wild in front of me!"

Audrey shouted as she charged out of the carriage.

The thugs had come at just the right time. She had been feeling awkward, unsure how to answer him.

Audrey was quite skilled. In no time at all, she beat the thugs away and returned triumphantly.

"So why did you appear here?"

Staring at Audrey as she wolfed down the dried provisions, Medivh continued pressing her for the reason she was here.

A roadside robbery was not enough to let her change the subject.

"Cough, cough, cough!"

Whether from embarrassment or because the dried provisions had gone down the wrong way, Audrey began coughing.