866 Old Fox (1/2)

After he stepped out of the inn, Sharp broke like a bubble and disappeared into the dark night. Not moving his eyes back, Old Green asked coarsely, ”Are you going to accept his contract?”

”Whether we accept it or not, the most important issue right now is that this place is no longer safe. We have to transfer immediately.” Douglas looked rather solemn.

Fernando was also back to himself. He mumbled, ”It's up to those old men whether or not to accept the contract. What we need to do is to get out of here and set up another relay station.”

It was obvious that, even if the Union was to accept the mission to assassinate Alfonsol and build up a good relationship with the nobles such as Sharp, they wouldn't want to expose the relay station that was very important for the organization to any strangers. If they wanted to communicate with the nobles, a smaller, one-way channel would be better, say, through Old Green.

Carelessness in such matters would mean the doom of an organization!

Then, fearing that somebody might be eavesdropping, Fernando said to Douglas and Old Green in the telepathic bond, ”I'll see you in the underwater relic of Lake Ramrouge.”

”Alright, you go first. I have to leave certain marks to warn the sorcerers to come.” Old Green looked around at the lobby with obvious regrets.

Fernando mocked, ”You should be happy to get rid of this eyesore. What's to be sorry about?”

”As a matter of fact, this is my family business that my great grandfather started,” Old Green said peacefully without the slightest anger, as if he were talking about somebody else.

Fernando was briefly stunned. Looking at his feet and raising his head, he looked at the wine cabinet behind Old Green with his red, vigorous eyes and said, ”Maybe this hotel will be preserved. You are a radiant knight, and you are close to many nobles. It may be put into good use, except that not many sorcerers would frequent this place anymore…”

He rambled on without a theme.

”Get lost already, boy! I do not need your sympathy!” Old Green suddenly lashed out and interrupted Fernando.

Fernando blushed and snorted, ”I'll sympathize with the black-clawed dogs before I sympathize with a half-dead old man like you!”

He left immediately after that.

Old Green raised his jaw, hinting Douglas to follow him. He then chuckled. ”Don't the necromancers always say that your life begins when you are dead?”

”What do those smelly, rotten bodies know about life?” Fernando said without looking back.

”Even my hair is older than you, boy. What do you know about life?” Old Green did not give in at all.

Helpless, Douglas watched the two of them fight until Fernando was out of the gate and into the darkness of the night.

...

Under the starlight, the lakes were glimmering peacefully. Since there were many such lakes, they were scattered on the ground like pearls and connected into dreamy necklaces.

”This place deserves to be called 'Land of Thousand Lakes'…” Douglas complimented while he floated above the lake and took a deep breath of the fresh air.

Fernando asked in surprise, ”You know 'Land of Thousand Lakes'?”

”Of course, its fame has been brought to Antiffler by the traveling sorcerers,” Douglas replied.

”Is it beautiful at all?” Fernando murmured in a low voice. Then, he said, ”This is Lake Ramrouge. Follow me.”

Douglas looked at the lake, only to discover that it wasn't huge. One might have thought that it was just a swamp. Could there be any underwater relic in it?

The two of them cast spells and jump into the water, sinking to the bottom of the lake quickly.

Noticing Douglas' surprise, Fernando explained in a telepathic bond, ”Some idiotic sorcerer built this. Perhaps he intended to connect all the Land of Thousand Lakes. However, it is thanks to his idiocy that this relic hasn't been discovered. The Church would never imagine that such a small and unresourceful lake has a relic.”

A cave was hidden below the cave. It did not seem to be established for human beings but was more like the nest of certain aquatic creatures.

Fernando vaporized his body and crawled in. Douglas followed him without any hesitation.

After passing through a zigzagging ”tunnel”, Douglas found himself in the middle of a palace that was crowded with sorcerers. They were quite alarmed about the newcomers, but after they saw Fernando's familiar face, they turned around and focused on their own business again.

One of the senior-rank sorcerers performed magic to examine whether or not Fernando was authentic. In that aspect, sorcerers, known as ”rats in the gutter”, were much more vigilant than the Inquisition, because those who were not vigilant enough were already dead.

”Now, this is more like a place where sorcerers gather…” Douglas said in both relief and comfort.

”Douglas, Fernando, you've come at the perfect moment. The president has learned what happened just now and wants you to meet him.” Lauren, who escaped early under Fernando's cover, came to them.

”Is this the headquarters of the Union?” Douglas found it odd. Fernando did not mention it before.