Empty-Handed

Three days after Fran's duel with the Church Warrior, at Bishop Gillian's temporary residence.

"What? The mage wasn't found?!"

Gillian's tone was tinged with surprise and a hint of annoyance, as if she couldn't believe it.

"Yes, actually, he didn't just disappear today. We couldn't find the mage the day before the plan was to be carried out, which was yesterday."

"Have you found any clues?" Gillian asked eagerly.

"No, we secretly searched their residence and the entire City Lord's Mansion, but found no trace of them. It's as if they suddenly vanished."

Gillian nervously tapped the armrest of her chair; something was happening now that was completely unexpected.

"How could he just disappear..." Gillian murmured to herself.

The Church Warrior, head bowed and kneeling on one knee, continued:

"We specifically sent the warrior who had dueled the mage to inquire with Lord Blake, and the reply was, 'The mage is currently researching magic and has instructed us not to disturb him. You can come back in a few days.'"

"Haven't they found it anywhere else in the city?"

"No, we didn't find a single trace."

Gillian sighed deeply, then said:

"In that case, let's just cancel the plan targeting that mage. It seems they were already aware of it..."

"From now on, we should focus all our manpower on defending against the orcs' attack..."

At this moment, the Church Warrior was kneeling with his head bowed suddenly raised his head and said:

"Your Excellency, there is something I must tell you..."

"Speak."

"Blake, the lord of Snow Bear Territory, seems unaware of the impending orc attack."

"Our scouts discovered that he was still organizing people to capture all sorts of Magic Creature throughout the Snow Bear Territory, showing absolutely no intention of defending against the orcs' attack."

Gillian frowned and said, as if talking to herself:

"Didn't the Alliance mage warn him? Why didn't he know the orcs were coming? Even some of the Mercenary knew."

At this moment, the Church Warrior suddenly interjected:

"It seems that the lord has redeployed all the soldiers, except for some key positions within Snow Bear City, to capture Magic Creature..."

Gillian was speechless and couldn't help but complain:

"These lords really know how to enjoy life; they even have the mood to capture those Magic Creature at a time like this."

If she were the lord of Snow Bear Town, with so many people from other forces coming to her territory, she probably wouldn't be able to sleep well at night, let alone be in the mood to capture these Magic Creature.

She pondered for a moment, then continued:

"We must inform this lord that his status as lord can provide us with considerable assistance in this territory..."

"Send some men to inform that lord, to tell him in detail about those orcs, and to give him a hint that we, the Mercenary, and even the orcs are all searching for something."

"Yes," the Church Warrior replied, then slowly rose and walked to the door.

Gillian, meanwhile, was deep in thought, her head bowed.

"Which mage sensed that we were about to attack her, causing her to realize something was wrong and run away..."

"Or perhaps that sorcerer originally planned to keep us here for a few days, and then run away as soon as the time came..."

If Fran hadn't agreed to help Blake intimidate the other factions, she would have already arrived at the Northern Lands Society Northern Lands Society by now.

At this time, the Northern Lands Society publishes its weekly selections, which are then adorned with numerous words of praise.

And this time, the featured section happens to recommend Fran's Paper.

Will the Alchemy School award the Silver Alchemy Award to the Northern Lands Society this year?

[A new method for obtaining second-tier alchemical materials, increasing yield by dozens of times!!]

[A groundbreaking work—starting with Fireball!!]

[Shocking! A mage actually did this to a Spell Apparatus?!]

The covers of these featured sections mostly feature alchemical symbols, signifying that the achievement belongs to the Alchemy School.

Furthermore, the Paper they recommended were remarkably consistent: all of them were Paper about a new method for Refining White Star Sand.

This allowed the passing mages to truly feel that our Northlands School had indeed produced a truly amazing alchemical achievement.

However, among these selections, one cover stands out as particularly out of place.

Inside a small shop that specializes in selling the finest selections from various brands.

"Boss, why isn't that article about the new extraction method for alchemical materials on the cover of this ' Fallen Leaf Selection '?"

Cole, from the Transmutation School and the Ocean Society, asked the owner here, pointing to the strikingly different cover.

"How would I know? I'm not a researcher, how would I know about your mages' stuff? I'm just helping out to sell them and earning a little money for my hard work."

The shop owner didn't look like a monk at all; he was wearing a coat made of some kind of animal's brown fur, which was very dirty and looked like it hadn't been washed in a long time.

The boss then changed the subject and continued:

"However, there are probably only a few possibilities for this."

"One possibility is that this Paper was not chosen by the other selected articles and was not published in the selected articles, but the person in charge of Fallen Leaf Selection happened to see this masterpiece, so they placed it before the other articles."

"Of course, that probability is relatively low. I think the most likely scenario is..."

"The person in charge of Fallen Leaf Selection probably took money to put this Paper at the top; those mages often do that..."

Cole scratched his head, hesitated for a moment, and then picked up the Fallen Leaf Selection and the other two selections.

"Boss, these are the only three."

After quickly paying, Cole carried the three selected books and, instead of returning to his residence to study them in detail, went straight to the Mage Tower.

He didn't go inside the Mage Tower, but walked along the edge of the Mage Tower's wall. When he reached an angle that no one else could see, he stopped.

He took out the three selected books he had just bought and memorized all the recommended Paper numbers in them.

Then a blue light flashed across his head, and in front of him appeared a transparent granule with a smoky texture.

This was a magic essence organ that he had specially modified before coming to the Northern Lands Society, and it has the function of directly connecting to the Mana Communication System.

He quickly typed in the Paper numbers he had memorized and then copied them into his personal mental storage.

After completing all of this, he turned around and headed straight for his residence without looking back.