Chapter 305: Return |
Before Lokai and the others even showed up, Saul had already appeared at another entrance of the Wizard Tower.
This passageway wasn’t fit for carriages, but it led directly to the fifth floor of the East Tower.
Back in the day, Mentor Kaz had personally taken him through it once.
Completely wrapped in a wide cloak, Saul moved slowly, carefully watching every turn in the ramp.
He didn’t run into anyone along the way and made it to the fifth floor of the East Tower without issue. Once there, he glanced at the passages leading upward and downward, paused for a moment in thought, then chose to go down.
For the sake of the Grinding Sound Fruit and the mark inside him, he wanted the first person he encountered upon returning to the Wizard Tower to be the Tower Master.
Anyone else who approached him could potentially be the one maintaining the mark of the Soul Devouring Flower.
To meet the Tower Master, Saul had two options: go up to the nineteenth floor—he had access to the Master’s private library there—or head to the second storage room and request the Master to come down.
Weighing the distance and safety of both options, Saul decided it was better to trouble the Master a little.
It was nearing six in the evening, when most apprentices were wandering the sixth floor’s library, registry room, or various laboratories. As Saul went further down, he encountered fewer and fewer people.
But when he reached the second floor of the East Tower, he unexpectedly ran into Kurum, who had just stepped out of the second morgue.
This First Rank apprentice had taken over Saul’s previous position in the morgue and had even once used his companion fairy to provoke Saul when they first met.
Yet today, he had just come out of Hayden’s second morgue…
Saul instinctively glanced inside the morgue but didn’t see anyone else. Only a few corpses, suspended midair by ropes, swayed as if moved by wind that wasn’t there.
Although Kurum was a little curious about someone suddenly appearing on the second floor, he didn’t try to peek beneath the cloak.
The longer he’d stayed in the Wizard Tower, the more thoroughly his previous impulsiveness and arrogance had been washed away. He’d learned what it meant to speak cautiously and to restrain his curiosity.
To his surprise, the cloaked figure stopped in front of him. Though the man didn’t turn his body, his voice floated out:
“Where’s Hayden?”
“Senior Hayden?” Kurum finally lifted his head slightly and gave Saul a glance. “He applied to leave the Tower early a month ago and is no longer here. I’m currently in charge of the second morgue.”
He actually left already?
Saul gave a stiff nod and didn’t respond further. He simply walked straight into the dark corridor.
Kurum remained standing in place, only lifting his head to peer down the second floor hallway once Saul’s figure had vanished from sight.
“That looked like Senior Saul,” Kurum muttered. Atop his head, his companion fairy, which looked like a mud creature, shared his wide-eyed, open-mouthed expression.
“Whoa, he’s changed so much—feels like his aura’s way stronger now. Could he have already advanced to Third Rank?”
He shook his head repeatedly right after saying it. “No way, no way. He only just became Second Rank not that long ago.”
But even as he denied it aloud, he was already convinced in his heart that Saul had advanced.
“Ah, I wanna be that kind of powerful apprentice too, and then get accepted as a disciple by the Tower Master. Guagua, you think I’ve got a chance?”
The companion fairy on his head gave a little jump, snapping Kurum out of his daydream.
“Ack! I’ve gotta go exchange materials—if I’m late, my sister will rot!”
Saul, for his part, had no idea that a mere First Rank apprentice like Kurum would be so shocked. He was still reeling from Hayden’s abrupt departure.
“When other people take in underlings, the newbies kneel and worship them. Why is it that when I want a follower, the guy packs his bags and leaves ahead of time?”
He shook his head and pushed open the door to the second storage room, emotions tangled.
It had been nearly a month, but he was finally back here. He wondered how the apprentice who’d taken over his duties was doing?
Inside, the apprentice now working in the storeroom was going around with a lighting tool, maintaining the number of candles.
When Saul got a look at the person’s face, he was a little surprised.
“Kujin?”
Kujin glanced sideways and, upon seeing Saul, merely gave a slight nod before turning back to lighting the candelabras.
“Wait a second. These candles are acting up today—need Mental Energy to keep them from going out again.”
Having worked in the second storeroom for many years before, Kujin was highly experienced.
Today, some of the candelabras had flames that kept flickering out. The number of burning candles had dropped dangerously close to below ninety.
Kujin carefully lit each candle and shielded the flame from going out again. It was thanks to his experience that he wasn’t flustered and sweating like another apprentice might be.
And as the previous storeroom manager who’d been replaced by Saul, Kujin clearly wanted to show off a bit in front of him.
But while he was busy maintaining the flames, he didn’t notice Saul sweeping a glance at the perfectly arranged corpses once he realized the number of lit candles was getting too low.
Then, quite suddenly, Kujin found his job becoming absurdly easy.
Each candle now lit up instantly, with no need to stand watch for minutes afterward to see if it would go out again.
He lit twenty candles in a row, then put down his lighting tool and looked around the now much-brighter hall, utterly dazed. The whole experience felt like a dream.
“Looks like the crisis has passed. As expected of you, Senior Kujin,” Saul said with a genuine smile, praising him as he walked with steady steps through the ranks of corpses toward his workbench.
His eyes scanned over the cabinets and tables, confirming that the seals he’d left before leaving were all intact. His Mental Energy marks on them hadn’t been changed either.
“Need me to go over anything? I can do the handover anytime.” Kujin followed with the lighting tool in hand, a faintly proud smile still on his face. Clearly, his success lighting over twenty candles in a row had him feeling pleased.
“It’s fine,” Saul said, turning to him and tugging off his cloak. “But if I remember right, you weren’t the one I handed things over to when I left, were you?”
Kujin didn’t look flustered at all. He smoothly set the lighting tool aside and pulled out the storeroom’s registration book. “The apprentice who took over from you went to see Mentor Kaz after three days and voluntarily gave up the position.”
Saul frowned. “Why?”
Kujin paused for a second before handing him the book. “Not everyone has the nerve to deal with the mentors. And he was unlucky—three days in, and he was sent to deliver materials to Mentor Rum and Mentor Anze. Ended up being forced to help out in Anze’s lab for a whole afternoon. Word is, he came back barely alive.”
Back when Saul was on this job, that kind of thing rarely happened. Sometimes he’d go an entire month without a single assignment and almost forget he even had a job here.
He thought to himself, So the newbie who replaced me got scared off right away… Were the mentors doing it on purpose, trying to switch out the person in charge of the storeroom? Could Kujin… be the one maintaining the mark?
(End of Chapter)