283 Welcome Back (2/2)

At this time, Natasha put on a strange look and asked, ”Haven't you been in any romantic relationships? Come on, Lucien… In Allyn, you don't have to hide anymore. What a pity!”

”Um… When I first arrived in Allyn, I had no idea what arcana was and I was… busy. Yup… Very busy… so no time for pursuing ladies…” said Lucien a bit embarrassedly. ”Maybe… in the future…”

Natasha reached out her right hand and rubbed her chin. The strange look remained on her face, ”That's not right… Girls in Allyn… They're even more beautiful than the girls here. You're the winner of Holm Crown prize, and you're good-looking, and powerful… So there's only one answer to this — you like men!?”

Natasha just let her imagination fly.

”That's impossible! I'm really, really busy! Like… super busy!” Lucien immediately denied, ”I mean… I do have a few ladies trying to be close to me in Allyn, but I had no feeling toward them. I'm not that kind of person following every single lady he meets! I put quality before quantity!”

Natasha patted on Lucien's shoulder and said, ”It's okay. I understand…”

”I'm not…” Lucien tried to clarify this, but he knew that probably Natasha had already had a whole touching love story developed in her mind.

Natasha laughed in a cunning way like a fox which successfully got a chick. Then, she quickly changed the topic, ”Why some important sorcerer would ask you to send the letter to the Dark Mountain Range… It's such a waste of time, and, of course, it's dangerous. A legendary archmage could easily use stars as pedals doing space leaps, and get to the Dark Mountain Range from Allyn using a very short period of time…”

Natasha had a very close relationship with the grand arcanist Hathaway. Sometimes, she even knew more than Lucien.

”I'm not sure either. Maybe there are reasons… Say, Nightmare King refuses to see sorcerers above middle rank in order to avoid modern arcana theory impact…” Lucien guessed.

Natasha frowned, then she said, ”It's hard to say. But don't worry, Lucien. I'm sure the Congress wouldn't send you, a promising young sorcerer, to die in the Dark Mountain Range. Also, no legendary archmage would go to this much trouble just to kill you… There's no reason.”

Then she looked up at the clock and smiled, ”It's almost five now! I forgot to welcome you officially, Lucien!”

So Natasha stood up and grinned, ”Welcome back, my knight!”

Lucien also smiled and held Natasha's right hand. He gently left a kiss on Natasha's hand and said, ”It's great to see you again, Your Majesty.”

After becoming a radiant knight, her power became more internal, and her hands became softer.

Then, Natasha said to Lucien, ”Did you forget to ask me anything, my knight?”

”Oh, right…” Lucien rubbed his forehead, ”I was about to ask at the very beginning… Did the Church learned my identity as a sorcerer? How's John, Joel, Iven and Elena doing?”

Natasha made a surprised look and said, ”Wow, that's a lot of information required… Where shall I start… Well, according to what I know, after you won the prize, your appearance, age and your power level have been recorded by the Church. However, the series of following experiments brought the Church to great impact and put them under a lot of pressure, so you haven't been put on the Cleansing List. Violet Duchy, for now, hasn't got any information about you.”

She got to know Miller experiment from Lucien's letter. Natasha also felt very confused for a long time, but before the Church revised the theory, Natasha had calmed herself down and it seemed that she kept being the same devout.

Then, Natasha said to Lucien seriously, ”I'm sorry, Lucien. I made a mistake.”

”What?” Lucien was confused.

”The reason I suggested you to keep the identity as a musician was that I hoped you could have a proper excuse for traveling through the continent. I did not expect you to win such a prize this soon. Now, the identity as a musician has become your burden. So, find a chance, say, after a splendid concert… to let your musician identity die. It's better than telling people who care about you that you ended up missing during your trips…”

”I understand, Natasha. I'm okay with letting this identity die personally, but if I do so, uncle Joe, aunt Alisa, and John and Iven… They'd be very sad,” said Lucien. ”Also, in the future when I am included in the Cleansing List, the Church will still be able to link the sorcerer to the musician, which's still not a good thing to the family…”

”I did not say you must lie to your relatives, Lucien.” Natasha smiled, ”As you said, yes, sooner or later, the Church will find this out, and indeed the people you care would be brought into big trouble. I'd suggest that you directly tell your families the fact that you're a sorcerer and ask them to move to Holm with you. If they could accept both the fact and your invitation, that's the best result, but if they did not want to leave, I can watch them until you leave Aalto again. Later, I'll ask them to report this to the Church and make it look like they are cutting off with you. Under my help, I can assure you that they won't be affected that much because of you in the future if they decide to stay in Aalto.”

When Natasha was talking, she was so calm that she looked just like a grand duchess.

”That's quite cruel…” sighed Lucien.

”You know… Sometimes cruelty can also be a kind of mercy,” replied Natasha.

”You sound like a philosopher.” Lucien tried to play a joke.

Natasha also slightly sighed and put on a bitter smile, ”Every person who's lost their love is a philosopher.”