207 Another Invitation (1/2)
Chapter 207: Another Invitation
Translator: Kris_LiuEditor: Vermillion
At the beginning of the first month of the year, the Month of Beginning, while the cold weather was still dominating Allyn, the trees around Douglas still looked dark green.
In front of the black iron gate of ancient style, Woods asked the gatekeeper eagerly, ”I’m Woods, from Common Arcana, and I am a friend of the headmaster. I’m looking for Mr. Lucien Evans.”
”We have two Mr. Lucien Evans here, but neither of them is in the school right now,” answered the gatekeeper, an iron golem, in a mechanical manner, ”They left for Rentato together.”
”Then when did they leave and when they’ll be coming back? I mean… I’m looking for Lucien Evans X, when will he be coming back?” Woods hurriedly explained, ”Why they’re headed for Rentato?”
”They left about an hour ago,” said the iron golem. ”No idea when they’ll be back.”
Hearing the gatekeeper’s answer, Woods pressed his black top hat a bit annoyedly, as he knew that Lucien would be already in Rentato by now. As the capital of Holm, Rentato was a big and a very busy city, which meant that his magic could not really help him find Lucien with limited information.
”If Mr. Evans X is back, please tell him that Common Arcana wishes to publish his paper on this month’s issue, and we’re eagerly looking forward to his reply. If he doesn’t mind, we want to invite him to visit our headquarter again.” In the cold wind, as Woods was speaking, his breaths produced white gas in the air.
Then, he went back to his coach and left.
...
Rentato, on the second floor of the restaurant called Oak.
In the vip room, Lucian looked through the window at the beautiful night with countless snowflakes falling down from the sky, and watched the people walking by in the snow. Some of them were in a hurry, some were walking slowly side by side, some were trying to catch some snowflakes, and others bent over to make some snowballs...
Igna, a tall and thin level four arcanist, fifth circle elemental sorcerer, was sitting opposite to him. He had defined facial features and some white hair above both sides of his ears.
If K had not told Lucien first, Lucien would think Igna was fifty something, however, in fact, Igna was well over a hundred years old.
When Igna was seventy, he spent all his savings on some very expensive magic rite and expanded his life. It looked like now he was doing pretty good, despite the fact that he had already been staying at middle-rank stage for sixty years.
”Cheers, for our wonderful dinner.” Igna raised his glass, as his light brown eyes first looked at Lucien, and then K.
After finishing his drink, K excused himself and went to the restroom. Apparently, he did not do well with alcohol.
After K left, Igna looked at Lucien and said, ”Evans, I’ve read your paper before dinner, and I gotta say that this paper has both advantages and disadvantages, and it’s definitely insightful. Unfortunately, Element this month cannot accept any more papers except those ones from the conference.”
Before Lucien opened his mouth, Igna gently shook his glass and added, ”However, as K is gonna be Mr. Larry’s student soon, and because Mr. Larry and I are good friends, I have to do something for you, young man. So I’m planning on suggesting to Mr. Rava, the chief-editor of Element, to make this month’s issue a special edition, so we can still accept papers from elsewhere. I’m not sure whether he will listen to me though. Obviously, it’s not easy.”
Hearing that, Lucien found his hope again, but he felt that Igna was implying something to him.
As he expected, Igna looked outside of the window and sighed, ”Being young is surely nice, especially in an old man’s eyes. Now I have very slight hope in further upgrading myself with coming up with some groundbreaking papers, but some powerful ancient rites might still be able to help me. However, the materials required by these rites are very, very expensive.”
Then he stopped but started sipping the wine with a smile on his face.
Lucien understood that he needed to pay for what he was asking for, so he said carefully, ”Sometimes getting some arcana points isn’t very difficult, and sometimes we just need some good luck… Say, I earned quite a few points with my last paper.”
Igna took a glance at Lucien satisfactorily, ”Such a good young man, and I’m falling behind now… I’m still struggling with the last three hundred arcana points to buy Crown Stone.”
”I venture to ask…” said Lucien, trying not to feel disgusted with himself, ”if you’re willing to accept my points, Mr. Igna? I don’t want to see a great sorcerer be bothered by money and thus not be able to go further.”
Lucien knew that publishing his paper on Element could bring him a way better chance than on Common Arcana.
”Then wish both of us success.” Igna elegantly raised his glass again and smiled.
K was happy to see that Igna and Lucien had a great conversation when he came back.
...
Maybe it was because Igna was really doing his job, or maybe it was because Element was already preparing a special edition, when Lucien and K were about to leave the hotel on the next day, Lucien received the letter from Element, informing that his paper had been chosen.
”Thank you, K. Without your help, there’s no way that I could publish my paper.” Lucien thanked K sincerely on the platform.